elblanco

61 ms·

1. 511.▲
   "Or so they say..." Javascript demo(xplsv.com)

   103 points by elblanco 16y ago|37 comments
2. 512.▲
   by elblanco 16y ago

   I remember seeing this in a computer store right after the Power PCs were released. My friend and I spent the next hour or so visualizing equations. It was immediately intuitive and powerful, like a TI calculator on steroids. It was everyth
3. 513.▲
   by elblanco 16y ago

   I guarantee that at some point in the future, if Blizzard doesn't get their heads out of the asses, somebody will crack some future rev of the software to allow LAN play and custom multiplayer maps and such, and that that will become the de
4. 514.▲
   by elblanco 16y ago

   Bizarre. It's like they took everything that made Starcraft a decade's long phenomenon, and decided to try and put a fence around it so they could control it. Mind bogglingly stupid and guaranteed to turn SC2 into just another RTS that disa
5. 515.▲
   by elblanco 16y ago

   I'm not sure how anything that you've just said has any relationship to what we're talking about. If you like I suppose we could have a sidebar communication on the influence of Buddhism in Afghanistan pre-Taliban and on the influence of th
6. 516.▲
   by elblanco 16y ago

   I certainly can't disagree with the factual points you make. And it is my dear hope that people who have done various improper things are dealt with someday in a swift and stern manner. The management of U.S. foreign policy over the last
7. 517.▲
   by elblanco 16y ago

   You know, we've certainly had our differences in the past, but I can't help but think that you've been one of the few voices of reason in this whole thread. The number of people here who's entire understanding of the world comes from spy no
8. 518.▲
   by elblanco 16y ago

   Since you've brought up handlers, I now know that you actually do not understand how informants work.
9. 519.▲
   by elblanco 16y ago

   I don't think you understand how intimidation tactics work.
10. 520.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    http://www.rawa.org/rules.htm http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2007238,00.htm... http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/abuse-of-afghan... http://www.dhushara.com/book/sakina/stoningetc/immol.htm
11. 521.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    I think that we probably do agree more than we disagree. Cheers.
12. 522.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    1) The United States (along with other European countries including Russia and other non Islamic countries like India) is a terror target irrespective of what it does in Afghanistan. If you are an American, you are (in the abstract) a terr
13. 523.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    > Realistically, the Taliban is only a threat to you and me if the US state apparatus allows it to be So wait, let me get this correct. Your world-view is that a decade of NATO actions in Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban, capture/ki
14. 524.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    1. Without going into particulars of military vs. softer responses, how then do you propose we conduct an investigative policy of counter-terror activities in a country hostile to our investigators without first establishing an environment
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    by elblanco 16y ago

    I guess we could just conduct WWII style carpet bombings against civilian population centers instead. Or do you not understand the purpose of using informants?
16. 526.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    So your counter response is that we should all have just sat back and been killed like sheep to the slaughter? I mean that as a serious question, because there's lots of "let's pull out!" going on here but no alternative courses of action b
17. 527.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    You're a genius, you should publish a strategy paper and send it to President Obama on a realistic strategy for counter-terror operations that don't involve killing people. Please put a link up on HN because I'm sure the community of experi
18. 528.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    Have you ever read anything about conditions inside Afghanistan under the Taliban? I mean this as a serious question because by your response you seem absolutely ignorant.
19. 529.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    Without going into a point-by-point agreement disagreement. I actually largely agree with your characterization of the situation. Which is the most powerful argument for why NATO must remain in Afghanistan for the time being. Until the situ
20. 530.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    I think what I'm most troubled by is two things, 1) The level of false amnesia regarding all things Taliban, Afghanistan and Al Qaeda. There are some very not nice people there that would kill rape and murder every single person on the plan
21. 531.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    This is really a key point. Outside of a few wave template buttons, has any of the core interface problems with the Wave client been addressed since the initial semi-private-invite-only release? Wave seems fundamentally the same to me as a
22. 532.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    Too bad they'll never let something last 2-years.
23. 533.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    Who exactly do you think the "informants" are? So say I'm a dirt poor farmer in Afghanistan. I spent most of my time being terrorized by the Taliban (say for example, they burned my sister alive after they found out I taught her how to read
24. 534.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    How many people would Assange have to put in harm's way before it stopped being ok?
25. 535.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    "Who is really culpable for the release of these names?" The person who released the information.
26. 536.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    > When you know the identity of your informants was compromised, you should remove them from the field immediately. I sure hope you have enough space for the huddled masses of Afghanistan in your house since an awful lot of them are "in
27. 537.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    It's didn't help that google's response to user feedback was "you just don't understand it" rather than improving the product. I mean, we still have to contend with a broken, nonstandard, useless scrollbar in the product.
28. 538.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    What I think everybody has lost site of is that Afghanistan, pre 9-11, was a country that facilitated an environment that allowed people who would normally be local village thugs to turn into James Bond villains that rammed airliners into b
29. 539.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    Similarly, there should have been a push to build more Wave clients. The google default one kinda sucked. I personally would have just like a Wave client built into Thunderbird that would keep me up-to-date on my half dozen mailboxes AND my
30. 540.▲
    by elblanco 16y ago

    I'd bet that lack of internal adoption is 50% of the equation here.