brownbat

284 ms·

2101.
by brownbat 15y ago
I really wish people would stop citing the Paradox of Choice. The studies are not reproducible, and meta-analysis reveals extra choices have basically zero impact on consumers. We've apparently somehow learned to cope, which is probably why
2102.
by brownbat 15y ago
Agreed. Also, Java (or just the JRE?) is a security nightmare.
2103.
by brownbat 15y ago
> Linux support is "illogical and pretty much pointless." Excellent troll.
2104.
by brownbat 15y ago
Exactly. Anti-discrimination is why this shouldn't happen. Token vanity plug for when I said this (far less artfully) a few days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3747875
2105.
by brownbat 15y ago
It's not faith in some undiscovered technology, we already know how to quickly cool the planet for almost no money. The concerns you raise are addressed by the references provided in the original comment.
2106.
by brownbat 15y ago
Content aside, this commenter found the acrobatics to avoid first person painful to read.
2107.
by brownbat 15y ago
I learned BASIC on an Apple II when I was wee, little over 20 years ago. I wrote little choose your own adventure games filled with silly puns. I've flirted with programming ever since, but never programmed professionally, and most coders I
2108.
by brownbat 15y ago
There are lots of good further caveats in this thread. We should have a hangman AI tournament.
2109.
by brownbat 15y ago
Why Earth 2050 is going to be an awesome place: 1) Hot: shoot a tiny amount of sulfur dioxide into the arctic atmosphere, planet cools. See also #3. 2) Crowded: current upward global health trends will halt population growth naturally, and
2110.
by brownbat 15y ago
Much better than my ad for Google Driverless cars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC2SBX2nnUw (Warning: Link is to a near endless string of awful car crashes with sad music in the background. Cannot be unseen.)
2111.
by brownbat 15y ago
So... I want this for all of the world, extrapolated over the oceans.
2112.
by brownbat 15y ago
My favorite wind potential graph, NPR's "Visualizing the U.S. Electric Grid" http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1109973... Makes offshore look pretty good.
2113.
by brownbat 15y ago
I'm honestly a little disapointed in the ACLU on this issue. Facebook is doing a good thing taking it on, but the ACLU is bringing this up on behalf of Robert Collins. In the Robert Collins case,(1) the employer (the MD Dept of Corrections)
2114.
by brownbat 15y ago
I think lawyers should just fight this with current anti-discrimination law. Your Facebook profile potentially contains clues about your national origin, religion, family status, and age (relevant if you're near 40). Few employers are stupi
2115.
by brownbat 15y ago
The urgency is because Carpathia's lease has run out, they can't stay at the $9k/day facility. Carpathia has to pay $65k to move the servers, then $37k per month to keep them in a climate controlled facility while powered down. Lost profits
2116.
by brownbat 15y ago
True. I'm honestly surprised they didn't declare daily depreciation, for $1.25 million in assets that are obsoleted by new technology at Moore's pace, I'd expect that could arguably be quite high.
2117.
The Distributed Web
5 points by brownbat 15y ago|0 comments
2118.
by brownbat 15y ago
Agreed, this was exactly where I started to get suspicious. Author: "Gamification is bad when applied to eighth grade." I kept looking for the support for that claim, didn't really find any. The IPI study was tossed in, but it dealt with a
2119.
by brownbat 15y ago
He brushed against this, but we have more (nearly) free ways to instantly entertain ourselves than anyone else has had throughout history. Thank you, Internet. We have hit post-scarcity for fun.
2120.
by brownbat 16y ago
I like the inductive argument. How much do you hope to die in this coming year? (Definitely / A bit / Not at all?) Living this past year, did it make you less fond of life? Do you really expect people slightly older than you will not reply