codex

15 ms·

481.
by codex 13y ago
Your post is fascinating. Is it the case that the committee member must vote the party line on committee matters, or appease the donors? What happens when those are in conflict? Does the member get a pass to vote the donor line and rely
482.
by codex 13y ago
Not under current court precedent, which treats corporate money as free speech. As long as corporations are treated as people, restrictions on political spending by corporations would abridge free speech. In my personal view, if corporatio
483.
by codex 13y ago
Correlation does not imply causation. An alternative hypothesis is that legislators have fixed ideologies that are not influenced by who their donors are, but receive money from donors who have similar ideologies. After all, donors don&#x
484.
by codex 13y ago
The article quotes, "How can we trust legislators to vote in the public interest when they are dependent on industry campaign funding to get elected? Our broken money and politics system forces lawmakers into a conflict of interest bet
485.
by codex 13y ago
Oh, I don't think other forms of crime would be easier; just that other forms of crime may be the next easiest thing to try.
486.
by codex 13y ago
While I agree with your points, I wonder if legalization temporarily boosts other types of crime, as former "criminals" seek other forms of easy money to maintain their lifestyle and social status. Drug dealing is a form of gainf
487.
by codex 13y ago
Sorry, I should be clearer: I was calculating based on the general mortality rate. The accident rate is much lower (0.000391). I agree that either measure is skewed, though; this is just a rough calculation. The annual death rate for 35-
488.
by codex 13y ago
Worse, by working on a trivial startup that will eventually fail, they'll usually be changing the world for the worse, as the opportunity cost could be going into medical research, or fundamental science, or creating other great works
489.
by codex 13y ago
The U.S. mortality rate is 0.008 per year. That means that in any gathering of 100 people (roughly the number of speakers at Black Hat), there is a 55% chance that at least one will die in the year before the event and a 6.5% chance they w
490.
by codex 13y ago
This looks like a horrible business. It's old (one of the world's oldest professions) and it doesn't scale (huge marginal cost). It uses unskilled labor with repetitive motion--factory like conditions. Competition is fierc
491.
by codex 13y ago
How is this not just a clone of Dapper?
492.
by codex 13y ago
It's a shame the article doesn't go into why she worked to scuttle this amendment even though she can sometimes be a harsh critic of intelligence programs.
493.
by codex 13y ago
Are you suggesting that they use this data for personal gain? Who better to judge the tradeoffs than those who have seen the data? Someone who hasn't seen it, perhaps?
494.
by codex 13y ago
The most interesting takeaway from the data in this spreadsheet: every single member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence voted to reject these limits, regardless of party affiliation. This committee is responsible for
495.
by codex 13y ago
Pelosi also happened to serve as the ranking member the House Intelligence Committee. The Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980 explicitly requires that the president keep congressional intelligence committees fully and currently informed of
496.
by codex 13y ago
The Edge is trying to solve a problem in hardware which is best left to software. The problem: when you move between your devices, your apps look and act different, and they don't auto resume your state. But that's just because t
497.
by codex 13y ago
What's funny is that none of these people are actually working software engineers, at least anymore. Even Linus doesn't write much code. Perhaps that's a consequence of being famous, or necessary to be famous. But it also
498.
by codex 13y ago
I wonder if easier access to contraception, pornography and abortion have decreased the number of youth without access to opportunity and/or supervision.
499.
by codex 13y ago
It doesn't look as though the authors factored in any increased heating costs in wintertime. Is this effect negligible?
500.
Microsoft should hire Scott Forstall to run Windows(maxmicrosoft.com)
5 points by codex 13y ago|4 comments
501.
by codex 13y ago
Google's somewhat foolish acquisition of Motorola would begin to show some dividends if they could leverage Motorola's patents to force a cross licensing agreement which didn't involve paying these fees.
502.
by codex 13y ago
Microsoft is pumping cash into Nokia, not the other way around.
503.
by codex 13y ago
Why do you consider collecting 1,100 email addresses to be particularly noteworthy? I see inane YouTube videos of the worst possible quality getting orders of magnitude more views. And how many of these email addresses are bots?
504.
by codex 13y ago
Another point further complicating the analysis is that companies which start to do really well simply turn around and reduce the amount of subsequent grants. There is less risk of failure; the expected value of the grant has increased, so
505.
by codex 13y ago
The same issue already exists in more limited form with fingerprints. Often random prints are found near the scene of a crime. That's not proof, however--just cause for questioning. If the police didn't question potential suspe
506.
by codex 13y ago
I think he's commenting on Snowden's rather purple prose, which is a bit over the top, and distracting from his message.
507.
by codex 13y ago
Is the privacy boom a foregone conclusion? The Internet has a history of overreactive paranoia when it comes to change. Example #1: I remember a huge privacy backlash when the first social networking site opened. It was a combination of F
508.
by codex 13y ago
The iPhone 5 uses a lithium polymer battery, and has sold millions; are there reports of safety malfunctions with the batteries in that device? Or is they battery safer by virtue of design or lower power?
509.
by codex 13y ago
It's possible that ADHD drugs don't boost grades, on average, because grades are a strong function of the home environment. Thus, improving a child's focus without improving their home environment won't magically improv
510.
by codex 13y ago
Slowly, Google is transforming into Apple faster than Apple can transform into Google.

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