ajscherer

12 ms·

61.
by ajscherer 16y ago
The reason we don't allow soldiers to strike isn't because giving them better working conditions, benefits or compensation would threaten national security (it would merely be more expensive), but because not having soldiers available 100%
62.
by ajscherer 16y ago
I began to suspect the same after I read the article and it said that.
63.
by ajscherer 16y ago
...and if you have evidence that more people will quit your service because you allow swastikas than will quit your service because you don't allow swastikas, what would your duty be? I feel a lot of complainers about political correctness
64.
by ajscherer 16y ago
What right are you talking about here? There is no right to use a privately owned service in a way that scares off paying customers, much like you don't have the right to spray paint a swastika on your neighbor's house. The right to free
65.
by ajscherer 16y ago
I believe this principle is central to any successful attempt to lose weight. The physiologically optimal approach to losing weight will fail for most where a seemingly less effective approach might succeed.
66.
by ajscherer 16y ago
That isn't even an anecdote, so I would probably classify it as a "baseless assertion" rather than "anecdotal evidence."
67.
by ajscherer 16y ago
No, the underlying problem is that not enough people all care about cutting the same government spending. If I want to cut my personal spending by 20% next year I can't just wake up on January 1 and do it in one step. I need to figure o
68.
by ajscherer 16y ago
The word "distribution" has a meaning in statistics that is perfectly appropriate and correctly applied in this situation. To wit: "A set of numbers and their frequency of occurrence collected from measurements over a statistical populatio
69.
by ajscherer 16y ago
Three of your four points are ways that his idea wasn't good enough, yet you conclude that it's not about a great idea.
70.
by ajscherer 16y ago
I can think of a ton of ways to make money with a time machine that don't involve selling it.
71.
by ajscherer 16y ago
People complaining on the internet is probably the one problem least likely to be alleviated via complaints on the internet. Furthermore, any argument you can construct about why its okay to complain about people complaining would apply eq
72.
by ajscherer 16y ago
I would flip that around on you: I think it is time that companies reach a point in their understanding of users' reaction to the bait & switch. The value of your service to a user isn't going to increase simply due to the passage of ti
73.
by ajscherer 16y ago
Being unable to stop reading or commenting on hn can never possibly be the reason you've successfully stopped reading or commenting on hn can it? He wanted to spend his time reading and discussing articles on hn. His problem was that he wa
74.
by ajscherer 16y ago
My problem with this article is that he basically asks us to assume what he wants to demonstrate: "Anyone who believes that repealing the corporate income tax, the capital gains tax, and the death/gift tax would not increase economic growth
75.
by ajscherer 16y ago
I think you're correct, but the ends don't justify the means. If someone wants to avoid eating HFCS, even for the most ignorant and misguided reasons in the world, it is still unethical to change how HCFS is listed in the product ingredien
76.
by ajscherer 16y ago
While I agree with you about HFCS, it does strike me as slimy to rename a product in order to trick people specifically trying to avoid that product into continuing to consume it.
77.
by ajscherer 16y ago
"This is an interesting article" It is? I'm not a good hacker, but this one didn't gratify my intellectual curiosity at all.
78.
by ajscherer 16y ago
But curated directories didn't end up working for the Web and they won't end up working for mobile application discovery, either This sums up my thoughts on the issue. Does anyone have a good reason why curation works better than search
79.
by ajscherer 16y ago
Downvoting is often used to express extreme disagreement. Ideally it might not be, but there are no real guidelines on how to use downvoting, and no good mechanism to enforce them if they existed. It seems to me like the problem isn't that
80.
by ajscherer 16y ago
Do you have an example of someone's comment being deleted for this reason? Someone being banned from hn or experiencing any adverse effects other than being downvoted? If I came here and posted a comment to the effect of "Paul Graham is a
81.
by ajscherer 16y ago
You managed to avoid arguing with someone online by composing a lengthy blog post in response to their comment?
82.
by ajscherer 16y ago
Taking something that is visible and making it invisible makes a politician look good This pretty much sums it up, although I don't think its just about making politicians look good. Censoring craigslist will reduce the amount of prostit
83.
by ajscherer 16y ago
He does refer to other "research", but since it is a transcript of a talk they aren't really explicit citations. That aside, I observed a ton of hand waving in this talk, and I'm willing to bet it isn't backed up by the appropraite amount o
84.
by ajscherer 16y ago
The video is certainly suggestive, but I wouldn't call it sexy. To each his own I guess.
85.
by ajscherer 16y ago
or find ways to use rare materials more efficiently This won't necessarily have the effect of making the remaining Helium last longer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradox I do agree with you that worrying about the resource nee
86.
by ajscherer 16y ago
I have a problem with his conclusion after looking at the methodology slide: This study compared 26-Inch MultiSync widescreen (MS LCD2690 at 1920x1200 resolution), 24-inch MultiSync widescreen (MS LCD2470WNX at 1920x1200 resolution) and 20
87.
by ajscherer 16y ago
That is a false choice. You can complain while at the same time taking action.
88.
by ajscherer 16y ago
You got me there, but I am not sure it matters. Like hacker news, Google and craigslist (and to some extent the other two) make their money from having a large number of users who don't directly pay anything for the service. Are you argu
89.
by ajscherer 16y ago
You're using a site right now that wasn't established early in the web, doesn't have great aesthetics or marketing, and seems to be doing okay.
90.
by ajscherer 16y ago
Yes, but people buy nonfree cars, and carmakers stay in business, precisely because people like cars. In the same way I think that proprietary software will continue to be lucrative because in many cases people prefer it to free software,

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