graycat

1284 ms·

3661.
by graycat 13y ago
In general, you put both the McDonald's and Wendy's close together in the best location on Main Street so that they can each get a good shot at half the business. Else one of those two is out at one end or the other of Main Street and get
3662.
by graycat 13y ago
'Government' is too respectful. 'Gumment' has the contempt of some barefoot guy in the hills of east Tennessee out in the woods with a home built still. I find that contempt very appropriate. Otherwise your point is well taken.
3663.
by graycat 13y ago
I don't want to oversimplify, but if the voters wise up, then we will get better candidates. Also, supposedly both Clinton and W saw the housing bubble blowing and the threat but believed that politically there was nothing they could have
3664.
by graycat 13y ago
Thanks! I think you got it!
3665.
by graycat 13y ago
Your 1. is not the only spark of the process you describe, with considerable accuracy. E.g., the US bent itself all out of shape in Viet Nam and did a lot in Korea, and oil or assets of big US companies were not saved or much at risk or i
3666.
by graycat 13y ago
I tried to make clear: Big gumment brings two problems. First, it wastes money. That's the smaller problem but still quite significant (we need to get our economy going, and wasting money hurts). Second, big gumment is a real threat to
3667.
by graycat 13y ago
Gee, let's see: All that NSA 'big data', every phone call, from, to, time, etc. Then we had the wacko Boston bombers. So, apparently the great, all powerful, all seeing, all knowing NSA didn't see those two wackos coming. But, but, but, h
3668.
by graycat 13y ago
One reaction: Routine Web site "plumbing" is not nearly all there is to the Web now or its potential in the future. If the OP wants work more advanced, significant, powerful, valuable, meaningful, etc., then he should try to think of a Web
3669.
by graycat 13y ago
Too much big gumment.
3670.
by graycat 13y ago
(1) The 'news' is bait for the ad hook. (2) Good bait needs to get attention. (3) The ancient Greeks discovered that a sure-fire way to get and hold the attention of an audience was to use the techniques we now call 'formula fiction'. (
3671.
by graycat 13y ago
Errata: Change Since in the i.i.d. case the variance of a sum is the sum of the variances, to Since in the independent case, and, hence, also the i.i.d., case, the variance of a sum is the sum of the variances,
3672.
by graycat 13y ago
Errata: Change P(X(i) = -1 = P(X(i) = 1 ) = 1/2 to P(X(i) = -1 ) = P(X(i) = 1 ) = 1/2 For more, let v(i) be the variance of X(i). Then since E[X(i)] = 0 v(i) = E[ (X(i) - E[X(i)])^2 ] = E[ (X(i))^2 ] = (1/2) 1 + (1/2)
3673.
by graycat 13y ago
Here's what's going on, what will illustrate the central limit theorem (CLT) and what will not: For positive integer n and for i = 1, 2, ..., n, let real valued random variable X(i) be so that P(X(i) = -1 = P(X(i) = 1 ) = 1/2 Assume that {
3674.
by graycat 13y ago
> In probability theory, the central limit theorem (CLT) states that, given certain conditions, the mean of a sufficiently large number of independent random variables, each with a well-defined mean and well-defined variance, will be ap
3675.
by graycat 13y ago
I took the silver bullets as mostly being just technical, e.g., for how to get the Web server software at least five times faster. But, yes, some of the 'options' considered did not want to attack the software performance so directly and w
3676.
by graycat 13y ago
Maybe. But an entrepreneur who has a history of being successful with silver bullets and wants their advantages in his start up and contacts A16Z needs to know if an A16Z guy on his Board will be able to work effectively with silver bull
3677.
by graycat 13y ago
Yes, the AVL trees are like you describe, but the caching may not be because it's not clear to me (and I'm writing for ASP.NET and IIS although have yet to look into caching) if knowing when could cache needs just a lead bullet or a silver
3678.
by graycat 13y ago
Typically when A16Z funds a company, the applied research and software development have already been done. And the evaluation of the company by a large venture firm is usually based on 'traction', not core, technical internals that might
3679.
by graycat 13y ago
I see some lessons in the OP, but not the ones Ben intended. Ben is saying that at times need to work very hard? Okay. Ben is saying that if a competitor has a much better product that is selling well and threatening own business, then like
3680.
by graycat 13y ago
Here is what 'constraint' programming is: First we start with what 'mathematical' programming (optimization) is. For a reasonably general definition, let R denote the set of real numbers and m and n be positive integers. Let R^n be real n
3681.
by graycat 13y ago
His restaurant problem is a special case of the knapsack problem where we have some items to carry, a value of each, and a weight of each, and a knapsack with a maximum weight we can carry, and we want to know what items to put in the knaps
3682.
by graycat 13y ago
I kept it simple. A longer description is that with modern technology we don't really have to occupy, run, or have a big presence in the place to know what's going on. And when we do see something that is a threat to the US, we can stop i
3683.
by graycat 13y ago
> No, I meant you can't spot small knives from the air so you have no way of really knowing who you're killing No, you still know whom you are killing, because of the human INTEL and not because they are carrying knives. Another point,
3684.
by graycat 13y ago
Yes, for a while, parts of Afghanistan started to look modern. But the point is, to have a good country, need a good culture. But about all Afghanistan has is Islamic culture, and it is more than just a religion -- it is also about food,
3685.
by graycat 13y ago
You miss the point: It's not that all the versions of Islam and Islamic governments are alike. Instead, it's that in the more backward Islamic countries, Islam is essentially all the culture there is. And Islam is not just a religion b
3686.
by graycat 13y ago
> Islam is not as powerful in the "Islamic world" as you portrayed. Taliban is the exception, not the rule. Sure. But I was talking mostly about Afghanistan. And the US got 'impatient' with the Shiite/Sunni fighting in Iraq. And the
3687.
by graycat 13y ago
I can't compete with you on details of Pakistan! But, somehow while supposedly trying to help the US bring peace to Afghanistan, Bin Laden lived in a relatively large and nice house for some years about a good golf shot from the Pakistan ar
3688.
by graycat 13y ago
"Net" is partly from accounting where we calculate, say, earnings, and have already subtracted off expenses, etc. More generally "net" means a summary or a very simple statement of the core point. In writing to be understood, often it is go
3689.
by graycat 13y ago
> You can't spot that from the air with drones The INTEL is not limited to, or even primarily from, just drones. Heavily the INTEL will have to be 'human INTEL'. Drones that hover for many hours can also be part of INTEL, but mostly t
3690.
by graycat 13y ago
> I am from Pakistan. Our culture is massive mix of Indian/sub-continental traditions, Islamic values and most recently westerns customs Apparently the main part of Pakistan relevant to Afghanistan is the 'tribal regions' mostly not gov

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