iwr

15 ms·

91.
by iwr 16y ago
One day, Chinese central planners decided to do a city "right", from the ground up, complete with utilities, roads etc... all for 1 million people to live in it. Turns out, it's a ghost town: http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1
92.
by iwr 16y ago
A site with a sitemap, but nothing else (already ranked) linking to it would probably not get indexed.
93.
by iwr 16y ago
Since when has legality had to matter for hackers when hacking?
94.
by iwr 16y ago
You forget the full-screen flash ads, with music and no X in the corner.
95.
by iwr 16y ago
Even in such a case, breaking the contract would make you subject to tort, rather than criminal law. Meaning you'd have to pay some form of compensation (which would have to be expressly specified in the contract), but not go to prison.
96.
by iwr 16y ago
How do you get around the network-effect benefits of large cultures? While more vulnerable by being larger (and a more attractive target), these cultures also develop self-defense mechanisms and an ecosystem of support. While a custom cultu
97.
by iwr 16y ago
Since we're in the realm of speculation, perhaps NASA found working (alien) nanobots that are somehow programmed not to turn Earth into grey goo.
98.
by iwr 16y ago
Aside from propulsion, which is solved at least for space probes, the great problem of outer-planet exploration is bandwidth. Using a microwave high-gain antenna, the data rate at Saturn is on the order of 10kbits/s and New Horizons would h
99.
by iwr 16y ago
If they toned down the technobabble, Star Trek would be nearly watchable.
100.
by iwr 16y ago
Does Sweden have jury trials?
101.
by iwr 16y ago
Non-TC languages in current use are largely representational data formats (like HTML, CSS etc), or Excel spreadsheets (using only formulas, without macros) or languages with a closed topological memory space (like Befunge).
102.
by iwr 16y ago
A (Universal) Turing Machine is a computation machine that can simulate (virtualize) the operations of any other computation machine, including itself, given enough memory and time. A Turing-complete language is capable of functionally expr
103.
by iwr 16y ago
This is a more detailed account: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/11/security... In short, private Japanese individuals would no longer be allowed to send packages over 1 pound to the US.
104.
Japan to US shipping: illegal over 16 ounces, per new TSA guidelines(post.japanpost.jp)
10 points by iwr 16y ago|2 comments
105.
by iwr 16y ago
German is the mother tongue of beat.
106.
by iwr 16y ago
A civilization reaching the stage of the computational revolution stands on the event horizon of a Singularity; some cultures call it Ascendancy. What it matters is that once that stage is reached, they may disappear altogether, for reasons
107.
by iwr 16y ago
Is this correct: "under the Patriot Act, GoDaddy and Verisign would not be allowed to admit involvement if they were requested so by the agencies in charge of the supposed domain seizure"?
108.
by iwr 16y ago
Likely scenario: they found ancient life forms in lake Vostok, deep below the Antarctic ice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok
109.
Do we need Wikileaks?
11 points by iwr 16y ago|6 comments
110.
by iwr 16y ago
The simplest way is to just make the thing out of metal. Over 90% of metals (especially so if they're easy to extract) gets recycled. Metal recycling is economical and has been happening before the concept of "recycling" was invented. Aside
111.
by iwr 16y ago
The education problem is compounded by a lack of competition between schools themselves. Children are assigned to one public school, based on residence. In order to switch schools, you have to switch residence. This, along with unions, have
112.
by iwr 16y ago
Sadly, it's possible to patent an "idea" without ever having to produce a working prototype or demonstration. Also, a link to the particular strip: http://xkcd.com/827/
113.
by iwr 16y ago
Apparently, it's an application of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalman_filter
114.
by iwr 16y ago
Having your organization on that list means that any members of it, or associates become non-persons (people without rights). It is striking that this is happening in a Western country today.
115.
by iwr 16y ago
This is incorrect, as posted here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1946539
116.
by iwr 16y ago
There should be a distinction between books that can be read cover-to-cover and "reference bibles". Also, where is Snowcrash? It surely belongs in that list.
117.
by iwr 16y ago
Shouldn't they at least produce a working prototype before they can patent it? There's a long way from idea to actually putting it in practice.
118.
Programmer Competency Matrix: Do you use it when hiring?(starling-software.com)
156 points by iwr 16y ago|106 comments
119.
by iwr 16y ago
Who would want to pay to look at blokes wanking? It comes free with chatroulette. Maybe the blokes themselves are paying to have their privates shown?
120.
by iwr 16y ago
The salient point being: if your app relies on a subscription model, then pageviews/eyeballs are not very relevant.

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