dbatten

8 ms·

31.
by dbatten 6y ago
Yes, you're absolutely right. In our case, we were effectively doing one massive annual dump of this data into an online tool (vs. multiple releases of k-anonymous data), so we didn't have to worry about the more complicated cases
32.
by dbatten 6y ago
Sure. But to see it, we'll have to expand the example a little. Suppose you release the average salary for people that got an associates degree from the community college system - just a single number. Then you release that number brok
33.
by dbatten 6y ago
Back when I worked for the state (of North Carolina), I did a lot of public data reporting for state-run education programs (e.g., community colleges, public universities). Our system had access to enrollment and graduation data from those
34.
by dbatten 6y ago
Hold your hand up in front of your face, and try to stick each finger up, in turn, starting with the index finger. You'll find that you can easily extend or stick up each finger except for the ring finger, which will experience a lot o
35.
by dbatten 6y ago
Are we actually inherently drawn to analog artifacts including things like film grain? Or are we accustomed to seeing/hearing it? If you plucked a member of an un-contacted tribe out of the Amazon, would they prefer film grain and viny
36.
by dbatten 6y ago
I think the implication was that, once mp3 is no longer a household format, there will be a certain type of person who feels a nostalgia for the "sound" of mp3s, maybe even advocating that it was "better" in some way tha
37.
by dbatten 6y ago
Well, that's interesting. The person who originally wrote the Aviation SE question was claiming to be the original photographer and saying he couldn't remember if the plane was taking off or landing... But, if the internet had acc
38.
by dbatten 6y ago
I remember this showing up in the SO sidebar a long time ago (what a time-suck that thing is). At the time, I remember thinking that some of these people must be trolling - and I still do. For example, the people arguing that the wheels hav
39.
by dbatten 6y ago
Yes. Petrol is "gas" in the US. And Canada too maybe?
40.
by dbatten 6y ago
I don't have the math in front of me for the first question, but I've seen it worked out in the past. It's on the order of 1 in a billion. On the second question, considering "all the numbers in the Bible," an arbit
41.
by dbatten 6y ago
Yes, absolutely. Good point. Though one would still need to describe the pattern and how it was helpful as a memory aid... None of the proposals I've seen are simple enough that they seem useful for that purpose. But I'm admittedl
42.
by dbatten 6y ago
Related unsolved mystery in ancient mathematics - the Biblical genealogy from Adam to Noah in Genesis 5 contains 10 individuals. For each of the individuals, the genealogy reports the age at which their descendant was born, the remaining nu
43.
by dbatten 6y ago
Reminds me of the excellent post about the architecture of multi-player in the original Age of Empires game: https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131503/1500_archers_o... You had high-ping 28.8k internet, a
44.
by dbatten 6y ago
Unfortunately, this article leaves the exact nature of information she was relying on vague/confusing. > "she was able to receive relevant information beforehand that tells her if the flight was going to be delayed or cancelled
45.
by dbatten 6y ago
How did you discover it was actually a rebranded DeWalt (as opposed to a drill manufactured to less demanding specs by a company that also happens to own the DeWalt brand)? I own a good number of power tools, mostly DeWalt, though I usually
46.
by dbatten 7y ago
I know lots of people with home security or surveillance systems. I'm from a pretty conservative southern (US) subculture, so I also know a lot of people with guns that they own for home defense. And a lot of people who are really worr
47.
by dbatten 7y ago
I was wondering about this as well, but I'd suspect any signal would get lost in the noise. People getting sick and sleeping more, people working from home, people checking online for news about the virus, the government shutting down
48.
by dbatten 7y ago
Interesting! This seems to be the crux of the disagreement. What thinkers are you referencing? I'd love to read them. At first blush, my thought is that you could still create a secular argument for natural rights, but I'm open to
49.
by dbatten 7y ago
> but surely it’s worth considering what society should work collectively to provide Agreed! > the mere fact that abject suffering exists in the world should not mean we can’t decide that there are higher order human needs within the
50.
by dbatten 7y ago
Of course it's in the UN's declaration... I just disagree philosophically with the UN's declaration. Human rights, in my mind, are something that existed before the UN, and exist independent of the UN. And there's centur
51.
by dbatten 7y ago
Ensuring you have counsel is intended to make sure that the government can't unfairly imprison/punish a person who is ignorant of the legal system and incapable of defending themselves. The end goal is still to be a check on gover
52.
by dbatten 7y ago
Right... but that's still different from "the government has to pay for you to have a house."
53.
by dbatten 7y ago
I agree. I really wish people would tweak the rhetoric just slightly - "housing should be a right" is a perfectly logical humanitarian cause to rally behind. It doesn't assume the right is innate, doesn't call it a &quot
54.
by dbatten 7y ago
Yes, on a surface level, these are framed as "stuff the government has to do for the people," but the root issue is still making sure the government doesn't take away the rights and freedoms people naturally have. Written a d
55.
by dbatten 7y ago
Agreed on regression. You should probably be doing that level of analytical work in a stats package. Perhaps I should have chosen a better example to illustrate the "SQL doesn't facilitate creating abstract libraries that operate
56.
by dbatten 7y ago
> This implies that SQL is not reusable, causing similar code with slightly different logic to be repeated all over the place. For example, one cannot easily write a SQL ‘library’ for accounting purposes and distribute it to the rest of
57.
by dbatten 7y ago
I absolutely agree. Consumer Reports is indispensable. My only wish is that they'd focus more on reliability testing. I can evaluate for myself whether that new sedan handles nicely (or whatever). But it's wonderful to have somebo
58.
by dbatten 7y ago
We used to drive from North Carolina up to New Jersey for Thanksgiving every year. We'd take 301 out of Richmond up until we got into Delaware. Going over the more-than-4-mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge[1] was always a treat! 1: https:&#x2
59.
by dbatten 7y ago
I sympathize with this a lot. "A Severe Mercy" by Sheldon Vanauken is one of my favorite books, if not my favorite. A significant theme of that work is "moments made eternity," where eternity is used to connote both a se
60.
by dbatten 7y ago
This is a thing that happens, actually! Just not with naval vessels... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/14/max-hardberger...

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