PhantomGremlin

253 ms·

1. 1951.▲
   by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

   Probably because they have hundreds (if not thousands) of people working on OS X, and they need to "do something" to justify their paychecks. It's the same reason that there's no longer a toggle for "Translucent men
2. 1952.▲
   by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

   Good one! I don't think ICANN would allow icann.sucks to exist. Even if that's not explicitly in writing, it would be foolish to bite the supreme leader's hand, wouldn't it? But FIFA better cough up $2,499 in "prote
3. 1953.▲
   by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

   I don't understand the nuances and fighting over what database is better. So the key takeaway for me is the reminder that persistent storage is generally no longer spinning rust. Programs and operating systems should evolve to take adv
4. 1954.▲
   by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

   Mark Twain allegedly quipped: OCTOBER: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The other are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February. Sti
5. 1955.▲
   by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

   > bundling software is exactly what got Microsoft into trouble Yes, if "bundling" is equivalent to threatening to "cut off Netscape's air supply", then, yes, "bundling" is exactly what got Microsoft int
6. 1956.▲
   by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

   > Why? Is Russia really a threat to us? Well, ask Ukraine how this agreement has been working out for them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_Ukraine#Bud... Something in there about "respect the
7. 1957.▲
   by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

   Maybe hire CmdrTaco to select stories for the front page? :)
8. 1958.▲
   by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

   Straight outta Compton, crazy motherfucker named Ice Cube From the gang called Niggas Wit Attitudes A number of years ago I purchased the music video to the above song from iTunes. I paid $2, because I enjoy the song and I th
9. 1959.▲
   by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

   You're misrepresenting the article. It gives multiple, clear, specific examples of the "trap". Buffett's mobile-home empire engages in typical predatory practices, taking advantage of ignorant poor people. For example:
10. 1960.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    I briefly met the Symbolics engineers and I didn't get the feeling that they were zealots like you suggest. This all happened over 30 years ago. Intel didn't have a hegemony in CPUs. There was funding available to try new things i
11. 1961.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    > This sets a precedent for people who may try to replicate his business model Yeah, it would be funny to read a business plan or YC application. How could anyone think this type of "business" was a good idea?
12. 1962.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    > I can think of numerous three-to-four character organizations which would benefit But this encryption is laughably simple. Those organizations would probably encourage at least somewhat better security. From their point of view the b
13. 1963.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    I agree. The words "confidential informant" are prominent in the FBI press release. Almost to the point of being silly, e.g. "yet another confidential informant". Historically that has already been abused by law enforcem
14. 1964.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    > given what we know about the liver toxicity of acetaminophen/paracetamol at this point, not sure this is the best example of a spurious alert Why is acetaminophen even in the picture? Isn't ibuprofen very similar in effect bu
15. 1965.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    > The software could have been designed to make the probability of requesting a 38.5x overdose from the robot pharmacist negligible, by reserving a special warning for extreme circumstances A special warning is good. But the software cou
16. 1966.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    > During the Vietnam war pilots turned off all the alarms in some of their planes There was Duke Cunningham[1], a fighter pilot ace that (IIRC from a documentary) also turned off the comm link from his RIO to avoid the potential distract
17. 1967.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    You made some very good points. Too bad that, realistically, "nobody cares" about good interface design.
18. 1968.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    When I play blackjack it's for a basic bet of $10 or $20. That way even after a few splits and double downs I'm not "betting the house". Couldn't you find a way to still enjoy gambling w/o betting thousands of
19. 1969.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    So is it the first "killer app"? I've previously heard something like: God made men Sam Colt made them equal But Colt itself says[1]: Abe Lincoln may have freed all men, but Sam Colt made them equal [1]
20. 1970.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    I see the point that you and 'parennoob' are making. The word "ignorant" was a poor choice on my part.
21. 1971.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    I see the point that you and 'uberbinator' were making; "ignorant" was a poor choice of words on my part. I intentionally used the words "black magic" because I was going to link to Johnson's books. Whil
22. 1972.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    I haven't seen any comments yet on the merits of a company having employees vs outsourcing: And just as a household needed slaves, so companies need staff. Permanent employees, like slaves, are far more desirable than out
23. 1973.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    Today's business lesson: But everyone was friends, right? Wrong! That's why you need lawyers and contracts and agreements about who owns what intellectual property. That's why you try to remove any and all ambiguity y
24. 1974.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    I never get tired of watching this video of a "vodka burner" using every inch of runway for takeoff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLxEHIbHUlY
25. 1975.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    > without looking at the actual effects it had on network performance, made the premature conclusion They didn't need to look at the "actual effects". The very smart engineers who created the high speed Ethernet standards
26. 1976.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    I hate downvotes. I usually upvote when I think someone has been unfairly downvoted. I very rarely downvote, and yet I was one of your downvoters. It's clear that you're "ignorant" of the black magic involved in high
27. 1977.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    Off topic, but I can't resist re-posting the following. It will bring tears of joy to anyone who hates patent trolls. Blue Jeans Cable was mentioned on HN a few months ago in the context of Monster Cable sending them a letter threateni
28. 1978.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    Yeah, the jury system is scary. It's also better than any other alternative that anyone else has come up with so far. Much the same criticism can be applied to representative democracy in general. It sucks but it beats, e.g., the pluto
29. 1979.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    The confusion of SSL gets worse by the day. I'm running Firefox 36.0.4 on OS X 10.8.5. I see a "grey warning triangle" using Mozilla parlance. Clicking on that says "the connection to this website is not fully secure ...
30. 1980.▲
    by PhantomGremlin 12y ago

    The problem is that a battery case may be too heavy for where I carry my phone (in front pants pocket). Here's the math: 4 oz "base" phone with bigger (by 1 or 2 oz) battery == happy 4 oz phone + 5.6 oz battery/case == t