bokonist

23 ms·

121.
by bokonist 14y ago
I am a U.S. citizen. But that does not mean I use the words "us" or "we" when discussing the actions of a government bureaucracy. I'm sure I have a few shares of Microsoft in some mutual fund, but that does not mean I use the word "we" wh
122.
by bokonist 14y ago
"Let [us] not use FDIC as a crowbar" Who's "us"? I don't work for or have any power over the government or FDIC.
123.
by bokonist 14y ago
Expensive real estate is a deliberate policy of the government. Local government zoning laws keep the supply tight. And low interest rates and easy credit enable people to take out huge loans to bid up the prices of real estate. To get ch
124.
by bokonist 14y ago
Outre Mer by Paul Bourget http://books.google.com/books?id=5lQTAAAAYAAJ It is the account of a French man traveling around the United States in the 1890's It's not about organizations so much, but is a wonderful book about the general li
125.
by bokonist 14y ago
Are you saying that history is in all cases harmful for practical purposes? Or are you saying that it is harmful for most people, who are dilettantes who read a few pop-histories and think they understand the time period? If you are argui
126.
by bokonist 14y ago
This strikes me as a very risky way to do a migration. If there are bugs in the new application code you basically cannot roll back, since the old version of the code ran against an old database schema. The slower approach of making the sc
127.
by bokonist 14y ago
In your analogy, what is the modern equivalent to slavery? What oppressive institution should Gates be trying to abolish?
128.
The Four Economic Classes and Their Respective Plights(intellectual-detox.com)
2 points by bokonist 14y ago|0 comments
129.
by bokonist 14y ago
Let's say a person takes the deal, goes before the judge, the judge sides with the prosecutor, and the judge gives the defendant six months in prison. At that point can the defendant say, "actually, thanks but no thanks, I want a jury tria
130.
by bokonist 14y ago
In the case of USA vs. A Swartz, there were already over a 100 filings and the case had not even gone to trial yet ( http://ia700504.us.archive.org/29/items/gov.uscourts.mad.137... ). All that back and forth requires billable hours from
131.
by bokonist 14y ago
The state could provide every defendant a line of credit with a limit roughly equivalent to the amount the state prosecution is spending. If the defendant wins, the balance is paid by the state. If the defendant loses, then the balance mu
132.
by bokonist 14y ago
That is appalling. Effectively, by simply charging someone with a crime, the government is actually immediately convicting them of a crime with a de facto punishment of a $1.5 million fine. Forcing someone to pay $1.5 million to defend
133.
by bokonist 14y ago
Where did you go to college?
134.
by bokonist 14y ago
Things could have happened differently, but the war was more or less unavoidable due to the Versaille treaty. Had the Versailles treaty actually been enforced, had the winning powers actually declared war on Germany early in the 1930's wh
135.
by bokonist 14y ago
That is true, but that type of tactic was rare and came much later on. The vast majority of the deaths came via disease that was introduced completely unwittingly by the settlers, and spread on its own far beyond the points of contact.
136.
by bokonist 14y ago
I agree that it is very important to understand the context and history behind awful events. But the concept of "evil" is still very useful. The point of defining evil is so that you can teach people not to be evil. Humans may not have a
137.
by bokonist 14y ago
Evil is a BS theological notion. The origin of the term evil is theological. But the word and concept of "evil" still is useful in a secular world. My definition of evil: "A person is evil if they repeatedly cause large amounts of unnece
138.
by bokonist 14y ago
Official inflation statistics have also badly overstated increases in "cost of living" throughout my adult life, failing to take into account changed consumption patterns and changing (improving) quality of many goods and services, thus ma
139.
by bokonist 14y ago
The problem as I understand it from people who have worked in the industry, is that if you have the money, you can keep adjusting the application and resubmitting, and eventually the probability of getting the bogus patent approved approach
140.
by bokonist 14y ago
UPDATE: as svachalek points out, the 4-4.5% is not even the right yield. That is 4.5% interest per year, but if you pay $110 for the bond, you will only get a principal returned of $100, so the effective yield-to-maturity is even lower.
141.
by bokonist 14y ago
Can you actually buy them at that price? Don't they get auctioned off, and so that the actual yield is lower? From reading that web page it looks like the effective yield was only 4-4.5%
142.
by bokonist 14y ago
I use South on a fairly substantial django project (35 models, 85+ migrations). After around a few dozen migrations we got really frustrated with south. We still use south, but now run all migrations via db.execute(""CREATE ... """) with
143.
by bokonist 14y ago
In my observation, a person with average native faculties in a given activity make themselves top 95th percentile of the general population in that activity, with dedicated and sustained practice. This applies to most specific skills - vio
144.
by bokonist 14y ago
Yes, housing construction did go up, but it was very uneven. Due to the craziness with the subprime lending there was a lot of housing built in the desserts of the southwest or the outer exurbs of Jacksonsville. If you want to move there
145.
by bokonist 14y ago
"Our parents could finance a home and family with one earner, now both parents have to work." The causality might go the other way. When feminism became popular and women entered the workforce, it's not as if more homes got built, more oil
146.
by bokonist 14y ago
Well, it's sort of a personal choice. I was born and raised in metro-Boston, my family is here, my dad was born and raised here, etc, So when I'm comparing standards of living I am comparing against that of my family before me.
147.
by bokonist 14y ago
One problem is that is not possible to cut costs and live 1970's style, at least not where I live (metro-Boston): - I do not have the option of paying much less for health insurance and still maintain access to emergency room care, while no
148.
Marissa Mayer's M&A Strategy, And The Two Companies She Is Closest To Acquiring(businessinsider.com)
2 points by bokonist 14y ago|1 comments
149.
by bokonist 14y ago
Have you tried the silicone earplugs ( http://www.amazon.com/Macks-Pillow-Silicone-Earplugs-Value/d... ). The squishy foam earplugs bother my ears after a while, but I can wear the silicone earplugs pretty much forever.
150.
by bokonist 14y ago
Software is generally a winner-take-all market. Software has zero marginal cost, so the company with the most revenue can invest the most upfront into making a better product, giving it even more revenue. Furthermore, in most cases there

More ›