Kenji

138 ms·

841.
by Kenji 10y ago
Okay, what happens if I try to sell you random substances and the authorities dispatch police officers to stop me and I do not comply because I want to exercise my right to trade with you? I can tell you. Violence. If you disagree with me a
842.
by Kenji 10y ago
I am certain that the FDA, with its ban on certain substances, has caused more deaths and misery than it has ever prevented. Not to mention financial losses. Before you ask accusory questions, why not refine your own position and brush off
843.
by Kenji 10y ago
What? That is an incredibly strange notion. So by default, everything should be banned, and it should only be legal if you can show it's safe? That is not how it works. A ban is an authoritarian action that has to be enforced at gunpoi
844.
by Kenji 10y ago
That there are worse offenders of the principle that you have to show something to be harmful before you ban it doesn't make the behaviour of the FDA better. It's hard to compare the EU to America just like that, especially since
845.
by Kenji 10y ago
You are not weird. The FDA holds enormous power, dictating what substances we may use and what we may not use. A desire for self-determination is only natural.
846.
by Kenji 10y ago
I love how the FDA shifts the burden of proof to the product makers. You now have to prove that your product works. It's not the state that has to prove that your product is harmful to ban it. I can't agree with this order, but it
847.
by Kenji 10y ago
Wow! We've been using this kind of brush for decades. I guess we're lucky that nothing happened. I think, though, with proper brushes, none of the bristles come off.
848.
by Kenji 10y ago
If you really want to fix humanity, I'd advise getting rid of men. Not sure if you're a disgusting sexist or just a troll. Maybe the male suicide rate is up because men have become self-hating and spread misandrist propaganda, i
849.
by Kenji 10y ago
I wonder if legalization would enable ivory farms, and if raising elephants could ever be paid for with ivory sales, considering they're such massive animals. Remember, an elephant pregnancy alone takes like 18 months! And the amount o
850.
by Kenji 10y ago
It’s really weird that the Church-Turing thesis, which is ridiculously robust at first order, falls apart so comprehensively at higher type. A statement like that makes me feel like Neel Krishnaswami does not understand the Church-Turing
851.
by Kenji 10y ago
If officials from the U.N. or from the WHO warn about something, I sleep particularly well at night, knowing that it's probably blown out of proportion by several orders or magnitude. Remember the bird flu? My employer at the time boug
852.
by Kenji 10y ago
I applaud your intellectual rigour. You are right, it is not confirmed if someone really got murdered over irrational numbers (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippasus ). That is why I changed my comment right after
853.
by Kenji 10y ago
Yes, you are correct, it addresses the well-known possibility for an active eavesdropper in the DH protocol. The interlock technique is very clever, I have never seen anything quite like it. However, at first glance, I do not know where the
854.
by Kenji 10y ago
Hey, look at the bright side. If you think in millenia, it wasn't too long ago that people had to fear that they were killed for outrageous ideas like that the planetary system could be heliocentric or that there are irrational numbers
855.
by Kenji 10y ago
Your Lemma doesn't hold if the time to execute one instruction is dependent on N - which is pretty much the entire point the blog post makes.
856.
by Kenji 10y ago
I followed the three steps below "To clarify" multiple times in different browsers and (3) did not work at all. I don't see the problem. This article has left me confused. EDIT: Oh, seems like Instagram has fixed this after a
857.
by Kenji 10y ago
I noticed that a lot of people (including myself) condition happiness on something. For example "when I get my degree, I'll be happy" or "if I get in a relationship with this person, I'll be happy" or whatever
858.
by Kenji 10y ago
Uh, stupid question but how do you cache a website like for example this comment thread on hackernews? Suppose a DDoSer calls this comment thread a lot of times. The request has to go through to the server because when I hit F5 or post a co
859.
by Kenji 10y ago
Are you really implying that someone would store a wallet key to a million bitcoins on one single hard disk? Hardly anyone could be this stupid, let alone the creator of Bitcoin. I think it is much more reasonable to assume that he fears fo
860.
by Kenji 10y ago
Not only that, but it's not uncommon for panels to crack. Kids throwing stones or balls, weather-related, etc. Replacing the glass is often difficult or expensive. Alternatively, you can fix it but that will often reduce the clarity an
861.
by Kenji 10y ago
I agree with that notion completely, but I think one can overdo it and get lost in pedantry and bureaucracy. Imagine you would program your software and do a benchmark test on every single line. That is what it feels like.
862.
by Kenji 10y ago
This might be somewhat off-topic but do we really always have to conduct a study first before we can acknowledge and solve a problem that is obvious if you have any common sense?
863.
by Kenji 10y ago
There are objectively better or worse solutions for this problem. Some lead to human flourishing, others prevent it. It is definitely possible to have more or less expertise in this topic.
864.
by Kenji 10y ago
I love Sudoku! The best way to pick up the essentials of a programming language is to write a Sudoku solver in it. So I've done that plenty :)
865.
by Kenji 10y ago
You are asking a good question. I love programming/solving maths problems more than any other work activity but I wonder if I have made a mistake with turning this hobby into my job or if the environment is the problem. I'm going
866.
by Kenji 10y ago
More often some problem takes hold of you, occupying some mental bandwidth even while you're away, at home trying to enjoy time with your family or whatever - technically you're still working, your mind is preoccupied, you might
867.
by Kenji 10y ago
As you may have noticed, I precisely did not go into any details about Chomsky's politics because I know how the large majority of HN thinks and it's pretty much useless to reason about this here. The fact that his political ideas
868.
by Kenji 10y ago
Chomsky is a wonderful proof of the fact that it does not matter who the idea comes from, what matters is the idea itself. I.e. you can be an expert on some things and err on others. Nobody is an intellectual authority on all things. Many s
869.
by Kenji 10y ago
Yeah. Or have a little metal case with you into which you put your device. Or buy a roll of aluminum foil and just wrap the phone inside it (just spelling this out makes me feel like a conspiracy theory nutter). So many cheap options...
870.
by Kenji 10y ago
The assumption of NOBUS is equivalent to security through obscurity.

More ›