bdunbar

74 ms·

631.
by bdunbar 15y ago
Kurzweil is a smart guy, but he's wrong on this point. Space is just a place. Taking a real long-term view, it's no more ridiculous to live in the Moon, or Mars, than it was for early man to move out of Africa and settle Europe, Australia,
632.
by bdunbar 15y ago
Figuring out ways to mine and extract the frozen water in such dark and cold conditions might be a lot more expensive and technically difficult than simply bringing along water from home. Best guess [1] for cost to lift a kilo/liter to or
633.
by bdunbar 15y ago
"I don't see our government - or any current government being able to do that." The Israeli's have a completely different approach to security - orientated around threat-intelligence and behavioral analysis. True. Israel might be the exc
634.
by bdunbar 15y ago
Of course, once you do that, you realize there are too many variables to account for and that it is an intractable problem that needs to be approached differently. I don't see our government - or any current government being able to do th
635.
by bdunbar 15y ago
It was inconsistent before, too. Anecdote. In 1998 I went through Gate 1 to catch a flight. Realized I left something in my car. Out to get the thing, back through Gate 2, which was closer to my gate. Where an alert-looking agent pulled
636.
by bdunbar 15y ago
I don't think a free market solution would work - airports will cut costs until there's a disaster. Except this is how airport security was ran before 9/11. 9/11 didn't happen because costs were cut. 9/11 happened because the attackers w
637.
by bdunbar 15y ago
I wonder if this could be a way for companies to figure out (surreptitiously) how managers are doing You can get a gut feeling by examining the coffee mess. If you find that people are leaving less than one cup or less in the bottom of th
638.
by bdunbar 15y ago
Unfortunately, it's entirely pointless. It's much the same in the states. I went through eleventy-dozen checkpoints on the Mall, and elsewhere. All the guards searched my backpack at every check point. On the way home I found I had left
639.
by bdunbar 15y ago
But the South was Digression. The South was as racist as the North, at the time. Y'all just got better press about it. Everyone knows about the sunset laws below the Mason-Dixon: hardly anyone knows that many small towns in Wisconsin had
640.
by bdunbar 15y ago
Plus, in the UK the cops aren't generally armed with anything more than a club. So they have to use their heads a bit more. I attended riot-control training in the Marines: from the way things look on teevee the cops are doing pretty much
641.
by bdunbar 15y ago
That would not work very well with fresh vegetables and fruits: what people like varies a great deal, as does the quality on the shelf. Case in point: my wife adores green bananas: can't abide them after they begin ripen. How do you tell a
642.
by bdunbar 15y ago
I was appalled when an application - one we paid a lot of money for - did just that by default. Which is funny because their app sits on top of WebLogic which provides an easy-peasy way of encrypting the passwords. The vendor either doesn'
643.
by bdunbar 15y ago
The best we can hope for is that high consumer adoption rates will force many more sites to drop IE6 support which might spur companies to finally test and upgrade. It won't, if my experience is anything to go by. I believe most of the 'I
644.
by bdunbar 15y ago
So I wonder...should I point and laugh or sit down and cry. It's not my country, and I would never want to live in the US. How a country treats it's least fortunate says a lot about the country in general. You did notice that this was bou
645.
by bdunbar 15y ago
Did you notice that in the article - There was 'a' person who self-reported he could not afford the water bill? - That there were no data at all about who could or could not afford the bill? - That the number of people now using outhouses i
646.
by bdunbar 15y ago
How a country treats it's least fortunate says a lot about the country in general. what a disgrace!!! the richest country in the world can't provide running water to its citizens... what a shame!!! Did anyone else notice that the linked a
647.
by bdunbar 15y ago
i don't think this is limited to a small portion of the populous. I do that. But it's not because I hate planes but I've got three kids. Airfare for five to visit grandma in Virginia is prohibitive compared to the cost of driving. I'm no
648.
by bdunbar 15y ago
Of course the welfare system is sustainable. Welfare is sustainable. Until you have more people on the roles than are working. Then .. not so much. I would say that welfare is sustainable at the time it was enacted, and for that time per
649.
by bdunbar 15y ago
A school that has only profitability as it's goal will be outed as such in a free market, A non-government school does not have to be for-profit, and can be very good. Example: the schools run by the Roman Catholic Church. Also: the small
650.
by bdunbar 15y ago
I have not read about Challenger in years, but I'll grant you the point. One thing stands out in my mind: the guys on the console for Apollo were not the same guys on the console in 1986. Was the problem the way the data was presented, the
651.
by bdunbar 15y ago
Typing in words and numbers transmits an enormous amount of information very quickly, This reminded me of NASA 'Mission Control' used for Apollo. To eyes used to the movies or video games the consoles look bizarre: there are no graphs, no
652.
by bdunbar 15y ago
I use VMs myself - invaluable for the stuff I've done with RoR. One problem with VMs is they would not work very well with the dev environments I support: JDE and ancillary applications.
653.
by bdunbar 15y ago
I think devs should have admin rights on their boxes I no longer support dev desktops, but I do admin the systems they use - servers, databases. I'm cool with what you say in principle. If we're talking your own desktop, sure, no problem
654.
by bdunbar 15y ago
Growing large and risk averse is what all bureaucratic organizations do. Using IE6 as an example, in my case at least, for that isn't accurate. In 2002 I installed a brand-new shiny system to replace our then paper-bound order system. Requ
655.
by bdunbar 15y ago
No one else has mentioned it, so I will: 'Decision at Doona' is my favorite.
656.
by bdunbar 15y ago
It's true now, it was true at the dawn of animal husbandry: it's more expensive to capture and domesticate wild animals than do the hunter-gatherer thing.
657.
by bdunbar 15y ago
the other one just hunted his food to extinction All of mine - and your - ancestors have done just that. They found new sources for food or they didn't become our ancestors. I get what you are saying about hunting one's food to extinction
658.
by bdunbar 15y ago
It's a lot easier to herd and harvest buffalo than to hunt them down. Also lets one see them for what they really are: just a big shaggy cow.
659.
by bdunbar 15y ago
Poachers are similarly mind boggling. Instead of leaving a viable population to harvest more animal parts ... they hunt down every last animal then move on to other animals. Poaching makes sense to the poacher. Take a guy I might or might
660.
by bdunbar 15y ago
That's clever, but Moscow subway is open between 4:45am and 1:00am Even back then? Even so, I bet the authorities could simply close the system down early, close off stations as needed. Still, I suspect the builders were not worried abou

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