api

377 ms·

1. 16291.▲
   by api 15y ago

   IV is known for its glowing puff pieces. I saw one once in the Harvard business review that stopped just short of actually giving fellatio.
2. 16292.▲
   by api 15y ago

   The existence of something like this is an admission of defeat.
3. 16293.▲
   by api 15y ago

   Generally speaking, the creative industries are full of people and businesses that operate by screwing over creative people. They view creative people the way a miner views a resource in the ground: as something to be strip mined and then d
4. 16294.▲
   by api 15y ago

   That's interesting, and is why I put YMMV. I sometimes wonder if there is some kind of random stochastic effect that's related to where on the social graph you connect initially in a city that determines this outcome. But I really, really
5. 16295.▲
   by api 15y ago

   I lived there for five years, and recently moved away. Plus: highest concentration of intelligence on the Eastern seaboard. It's pretty spectacular. Minus: Warning: what follows is my own opinion based on my own experience, and YMMV, but: C
6. 16296.▲
   by api 15y ago

   CANDU, one of the best uranium designs, has the same problem. It's sort of like inkjet printers. Either it's cheaper up front and more expensive in the long run, or it costs a fortune up front but the ink is cheap.
7. 16297.▲
   by api 15y ago

   I hear a lot about the LFTR, and I wonder what the problem is. Is there a major technical hurdle that prevents this from seeing widespread use? Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn't. Sometimes a really good idea never gets used because.
8. 16298.▲
   by api 15y ago

   If you use the command line tools like make, gcc, scripts, autoconf, etc., then it's almost exactly like developing on Linux/Unix. If you use Xcode, then not so much... though it's still more like Linux/Unix than Windows.
9. 16299.▲
   by api 15y ago

   http://www.opendedup.org/ Not a toy.
10. 16300.▲
    by api 15y ago

    That's a low probability event, and doesn't affect the thesis much. We're talking overall here.
11. 16301.▲
    by api 15y ago

    A solution might be forthcoming: peak oil. Put them to work making biofuels at a large scale.
12. 16302.▲
    by api 15y ago

    The latter. Useful means that it provides value that somehow improves the human condition. Everything from food to fuel to art to architecture is that. Random junk on the net is not. A central fallacy of present-day economics is the assumpt
13. 16303.▲
    by api 15y ago

    Ponzi scheme is wrong-- a Ponzi scheme is a specific thing. But it is true that the suburbs are unsustainable, barring the invention of Mr. Fusion or similar. When cheap oil is gone, the suburbs are gone. Oh there are replacements, but none
14. 16304.▲
    by api 15y ago

    This brings to mind a larger question: what percentage of the human race is presently being paid to do useless work?
15. 16305.▲
    by api 15y ago

    "The Unix Design is significantly less granular than Windows..." That's why it's more secure. Complexity means you don't know what's going on. Complexity means you will forget something. Complexity means there's more likely to be a way to s
16. 16306.▲
    by api 15y ago

    This is a perfect example of why we can't have nice things: better energy systems, better laws, better public services, better social policy, better schools, regulations that are both simpler and more effective... Everything has a vested in
17. 16307.▲
    by api 15y ago

    The human response to diversity seems to be "KILL KILL KILL" unless mental effort is employed to override this natural response. I've wondered for a long time if there are no other hominids, and so little diversity in our own species, becau
18. 16308.▲
    by api 15y ago

    I do, but I like to type sometimes. I type much faster than I write, much closer to the speed of thought. Whether I like to type or write is a total mood preference thing.
19. 16309.▲
    by api 15y ago

    Forget Africa... I do both creative writing and hiking, and like to combine the two. This would be great for that.
20. 16310.▲
    by api 15y ago

    I'm really worried about what happens when Jobs leaves or dies. My money is on one of: 1) Some MBA apparatchik takes over the company and does what all the Business 101 books say to do: puts marketing in charge of everything, including desi
21. 16311.▲
    by api 15y ago

    I'm starting to really dislike Apple for a number of reasons, but I can't switch. No, not can't, but it would be tough. Why? Because nobody else cares about design or user experience. Apple is the only company on Earth that can design a use
22. 16312.▲
    by api 15y ago

    It is not possible to write any software without infringing one or more software patents. This is getting truly absurd.
23. 16313.▲
    Ultra KSM: transparent full-system memory deduplication for Linux(code.google.com)

    42 points by api 15y ago|6 comments
24. 16314.▲
    by api 15y ago

    The thing we really have to come to terms with is that the future is unpredictable. Both the "doomers" and the pollyannas fall down here. Past performance says nothing whatsoever about future performance. Nice well-behaved Newtonian syste
25. 16315.▲
    by api 15y ago

    But the car you bought then every two years didn't last as long, wasn't as safe, wasn't as comfortable, got worse gas mileage, didn't accelerate as well, had no power steering, etc. But I do agree that the middle class is in trouble in Amer
26. 16316.▲
    by api 15y ago

    Because we're also a community of scientists. Entrepreneurship and trade can do a lot, but it cannot violate the laws of physics. Peak oil (and gas, and coal) is physics. The laws of physics are absolute. The lost energy from declining foss
27. 16317.▲
    by api 15y ago

    This guy is ignoring the twin elephants in the living room: the unbelievably massive amount of energy that we obtain from fossil fuels, and the reliance on the modern financial system on continuous growth simply to maintain the status quo.
28. 16318.▲
    by api 15y ago

    Bitcoin is not quantum-hard. When quantum computing reaches a certain threshold, bitcoin will lose its uniqueness and collapse. There are post-quantum algorithms that are computable on ordinary computers, but they're still under research an
29. 16319.▲
    by api 15y ago

    You are technically correct. There is no finite pie. But there is a finite pie in our minds. We behave instinctively as if there is a finite pie. We push our boots in others' faces instinctively, try to keep them down, shut them out, push t
30. 16320.▲
    by api 15y ago

    I've thought this for a long time. It's not the haves vs. the have-nots. It's the connecteds vs. the connected-nots.