flipper

9 ms·

31.
by flipper 17y ago
Yes, it's another 'victimless crime', so I'm pro, too. I've seen some relatives die slow, lingering deaths and others fairly quick ones. Neither is ideal though it's bloody obvious which way is less unpleasant. Enough time to tick off every
32.
by flipper 17y ago
In Freakonomics Steven D. Levitt argued that crime rates in a locality are linked to abortion laws in the same locality a generation earlier. Basically, in the US, states that legalized abortions after Roe v Wade 1973 noticed a drop-off in
33.
by flipper 17y ago
'dramatic saving rolls' - heh, I liked that. The problem with making those rolls, maybe, is that MS is now disinclined to strike out in a new direction? Protecting the fortress from the plunderers (Sun, Netscape, Novell, etc) has turned out
34.
by flipper 17y ago
I'm not a Microsoft apologist either, but they did plenty right to get where they are. Read Accidental Empires by (almost Dr.) Mark Stephens. Microsoft got to where they are because Bill Gates was one of the first people, perhaps the first,
35.
by flipper 17y ago
The article was possibly aimed at engineers or mathematicians so the author thought the benefits didn't need explaining. A soft maximum might be useful if you want a differentiable function that closely approximates the max() function. By d
36.
by flipper 17y ago
In the early '90s I wrote some software in Microsoft C++ that was distributed as an executable. An IBMer MBA friend of mine was horrified that anyone could distribute as many copies of my program as they liked without each user having to bu
37.
by flipper 17y ago
According to the article, they have 100 million users, most of them in Asia. Why is that not a success story? Sure, they knocked back GOOG's $30m offer in 2003. Perhaps they didn't sell as they didn't want to be holding stock they couldn't
38.
by flipper 17y ago
Yes, giant gsme of chicken. I don't think Murdoch has any intention of blocking Google, he's trying a North Korean-style gambit - "I am renowned for being difficult and dangerous, give me what I want or I'll do something nasty." Murdoch thr
39.
by flipper 17y ago
Yes, News needs Google, they just hate to admit it. Knowing that's true, Murdoch is trying to maneuver News into a better bargaining position with Google. There can be no better sign of who is most powerful in this struggle than the fact th
40.
by flipper 17y ago
Yes it was thin, but it was pitched at college kids who may not have heard it before. Many of us got way past college before we read any of this stuff, regrettably.
41.
by flipper 17y ago
This article reads like a case story out of 'Winning Through Intimidation' by Robert J. Ringer (a book anyone who is thinking about starting a startup should read). "Tanner" sounds like a Type Number 2 Master Intimidator. The author escaped
42.
by flipper 17y ago
Good in-store salespeople also master the art of looking slightly surprised and/or disappointed when you decline the extended warranty, the implication being "Oh dear, Sir cannot afford the extended warranty, Sir is not quite as magnificent
43.
by flipper 17y ago
The author of this article unwittingly makes the argument he was trying to oppose, which is that money drives your choice of location. He acknowledges that his startup was 100% bootstrapped and profitable. In those happy circumstances it do
44.
'Pointless' university studies to be weeded out(guardian.co.uk)
2 points by flipper 17y ago|0 comments
45.
by flipper 17y ago
Well, it is already happening. I am studying Law as an external student. All lectures are delivered using Powerpoint + MP3s. Tutorials via Wimba (both chat and audio). Study groups are actively encouraged (for some subjects they are require
46.
by flipper 17y ago
Maybe, but it could still be a pretty big number. And don't we owe it to our descendants to warn them?
47.
by flipper 17y ago
Kasparov lost the last and deciding game of the match with a horrible blunder playing the Caro-Kann, a defence he did not often play. Kasparov believed that the Deep Blue team had spent a lot of time analyzing his style and looking for weak
48.
by flipper 17y ago
An oblique link to HN - Kennedy was a senator for Massachusetts, the original home of YC.
49.
by flipper 17y ago
Exactly. The VCs would expect the startup to spend the capital on growing the business quickly, and if that means hiring consultants and paying them a top rate then so be it. In fact, the startup would get in trouble with their financiers i
50.
by flipper 17y ago
I've been to Poland twice (Lodz) and didn't see any asian or black people at all, so I can only speculate that the asian man survived the 'cut' but the African-American did not because he would place the ad as being American. Here in Austra
51.
by flipper 17y ago
It does seem arse-about that an angel would charge a fee to let a startup pitch to them. Surely, the angel is the one with the money, and the startup is the one that needs it, not the other way around. Charging does solve one problem for th
52.
by flipper 17y ago
I wouldn't say that most chess players are like Fischer personally, it's that chess has a tendency to consume players to some degree, the way it consumed him almost completely. That's what I meant by archetype. Personally, I found the rush
53.
by flipper 17y ago
In his prime, Fischer was the archetypal chess player. Just because he was an insane genius does not mean that all the things he said were wrong. Because he was so good, he could say things about the game that were controversial, but deep d
54.
by flipper 17y ago
Bobby Fischer was widely attributed as saying he played chess because he liked to crush the other guy's ego. That's really the attraction of it - beating someone up with your mind.
55.
by flipper 17y ago
It's fitting, not ironic.
56.
by flipper 17y ago
Yes, when viewed through the prism of our our national cricket team's 'play for keeps' approach, we can appear to be aggressive hot-heads. However, what is considered acceptable on the sports field is not generally approved of elsewhere! In
57.
by flipper 17y ago
I live in Australia too and don't deny that there are some racist people here, like other countries. But it's one thing to hold those views and another to attack someone because of their race. In the three incidents mentioned in the article
58.
by flipper 17y ago
I presume the $800 billion in new buildings was really $800 million. Still a mind-bogglingly large amount for a single university to spend.
59.
by flipper 17y ago
"Odds are, nothing your VC does, no matter how helpful or well-intentioned, is going to tip the balance between success and failure." The effect of VC advice is in principle measurable. That would suggest an empirical approach is possible t
60.
by flipper 17y ago
Rather than egocentricity, isn't it really measuring skepticism? I would expect rubing is a skeptic. I noticed on the only 'tabloid' news site I ever look at that swine flu stories are now 'below the masthead'. They've decided for the time

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