billybob

75 ms·

721.
by billybob 17y ago
...and, I'd like to add, doing so makes you sound stupid. So I didn't read very far. People like Bruce Schneier argue eloquently about why privacy is a good thing without this sort of childish name-calling. http://www.schneier.com/blog/arc
722.
by billybob 17y ago
Headline: "Privileged straight white male technology executives are dead wrong (again)" Oh yes. Only working-class, black lesbians ever get anything right regarding technological social policy. Seriously, what's with the prejudiced headline
723.
by billybob 17y ago
The real point was "if you're generous, you'll win loyal customers."
724.
by billybob 17y ago
"It's easily mined from our rivers in winter," a party spokesperson said. Bah-dum-chah!
725.
by billybob 17y ago
Carbonated drinks are also safe - the acid kills pathogens. You can also easily carry water purification stuff - a bottle of polarpure lasts many many uses, and there are stirring wands that use UV light to kill germs. You may need to do a
726.
by billybob 17y ago
This seems really dysfunctional to me. "The ball is in your court, so I shouldn't have to do anything else..." and "right now, the person who follows up is the one who cares most about it." (not exact quotes) Well, imagine you're on the rec
727.
by billybob 17y ago
Boy, do I know some managers who need to read that...
728.
by billybob 17y ago
1) The founding fathers thought rights were recognized, not granted, by humans. They were granted by God. If you think humans grant them, you must think they can take them away, and it's just a matter of who is strongest. 2) State-recognize
729.
by billybob 17y ago
Yep. To put it another way, take the question "to whom should X be married?" If the answer is "it's 100% personal preference - no choice is better than another" - then the state shouldn't get involved. We don't pass laws encouraging you to
730.
by billybob 17y ago
So we start with "how to put gay marriage in a database" and end with "marriage is a union between any number of people, where people can come and go as they please." By that definition, I could be married to the company where I work. Truly
731.
by billybob 17y ago
Unless you like to ride it facing the wrong way. Then it's a backscalator. Or is that the one going the other way?
732.
by billybob 17y ago
"According to your DNA test, you need to eat less and exercise more. That'll be $5,000, please."
733.
by billybob 17y ago
Quote: "Moves to safeguard company trademarks and stamp out ambush marketing, to preserve the monopoly of official advertisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) logo, are raising concerns among civil liberty groups. Police will
734.
by billybob 17y ago
OH NO THEY DIDN'T. I already patented 'a method of subverting the patent system by patenting the process of patent trolling." I'm totally going to sue.
735.
by billybob 17y ago
If-by-whisky is the most entertaining fallacy. Amazing speech. :)
736.
by billybob 17y ago
Agreed. DRM in music becomes annoying eventually - when you want to copy your files or use them in a different player. But DRM that makes your game suck whenever your internet connection is flakey - that's going to make paying customers ver
737.
by billybob 17y ago
I thought it was interesting too. I would sum it up as "local culture and equality are important, and are being destroyed by an ideal of individual aspiration. Current policies push us toward the latter; they should be made neutral or to fa
738.
by billybob 17y ago
Yes. Let me make it personal. Why have I not invented cold fusion, written an operating system, or cured cancer? Answer: because I'm not smart enough. OK, I don't want to be too defeatist - I should try my best to do what I can. But I reali
739.
by billybob 17y ago
down (v): to drink rapidly; to quaff
740.
by billybob 17y ago
1) Buy a large corporation 2) Create lots of child companies 3) Run them for congress 4) Create lots more child companies 5) Use them to vote 6) Take over government 7) Profit!
741.
by billybob 17y ago
Think of it like this: Chomsky was testing the brain's language parser by handing it weird things and seeing how it reacts. Like you might do with a new programming language: what happens if I try to add strings, or divide them? Is zero tru
742.
by billybob 17y ago
I think that's the point, actually. The fact that a sentence can be grammatically correct but not logically correct, or be both, but still not "make sense," is interesting in itself. It shows how difficult it is to determine whether a sente
743.
by billybob 17y ago
Oooh! I want to play! Backer News Backers Back Backer News Backers' Backs Racker News Rackers Rack Racker News Rackers' Racks Stacker News Stackers Stack Stacker News Stackers' Stacks
744.
by billybob 17y ago
All kinds of questions. What if I have 20 people over? What about 100? What if I put the game on a projection screen in a field on my property and have 500 people there? What if you can see the screen from across the street? What if it's an
745.
by billybob 17y ago
I don't get it. You're spraying a surface with tiny particles of glass, right? So how would they form a cohesive layer, instead of sitting on top like loose sand, to be brushed off (or ground into the surface) by the first thing that touche
746.
by billybob 17y ago
Maybe so. I'd love to see a thoughtful article on what creates a great language or framework community. How clean and consistent the language is? Official documentation? Ease of transitioning from other languages? Charisma and marketing sav
747.
by billybob 17y ago
I find that a lot of what is seen as "professional" or "unprofessional" is dumb. I'd much rather do business with a human being who doesn't mind being a little silly sometimes than not. I do think it's unprofessional to say things that coul
748.
by billybob 17y ago
I think from a non-geek perspective, "I read a lot of books" might mean "I enjoy reading, perhaps we can talk about books we've read?" Whereas "I read about 5 books a week" sounds more like "I count how many books I read so that I can one-u
749.
by billybob 17y ago
Yeah - I have to resist this urge with my wife sometimes. Internally I'm saying "YES YOU CAN TOO MAKE A BATTERY OUT OF A POTATO! I'M GOING TO LOOK IT UP AND SHOW YOU!!" But really, it's way more important to get along and be happy than to p
750.
by billybob 17y ago
YES. Like XKCD said: "someone is wrong on the internet." ( http://xkcd.com/386/ ) Geeks are obsessed with correctness. Sometimes this is helpful, sometimes not. Witness Slashdot discussions.

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