johngalt

64 ms·

601.
by johngalt 13y ago
See the problems aren't systemic. It's just this one no-name person who was going to retire anyway. We must have just forgotten that he was back there spending billions spying on everyone. No worries he's retired now, so we're all good now.
602.
by johngalt 13y ago
There's a discussion to be had here. If you're a foreign intelligence agency looking to commit espionage, how hard would it be to get someone inside a Verizon or AT&T? Imagine what type of pervasive data a potential adversary could gath
603.
by johngalt 13y ago
AKA, jack of all trades master of none. Start-ups want people like this because they can't afford the management overhead of making people with various skills work together.
604.
by johngalt 13y ago
Tech Cycle: 1. Small groups of dedicated technologists create a large step forward in technology. Generally becoming wealthy. 2. People following money all pile in. Pretenders abound; both founders and investors. 3. It becomes impossible to
605.
by johngalt 13y ago
Thousands of drones flown by enthusiasts to learn about robotics > one idiot who doesn't know how to be a good neighbor. I'd hate to see a burgeoning field shut down because of a paranoid response. If someone were flying a drone uncomfo
606.
by johngalt 13y ago
I'm surprised they started with a masters, but I guess it makes sense. They are only targeting people who've already gone through an accredited degree program. Makes the program more likely to be taken seriously. Udacity already issues cred
607.
by johngalt 13y ago
Yet another article exhorting everyone to 'learn to code'. Which misses the mark. It's true that there are a large amount of tech jobs. It's also rare that people, who would otherwise be uninterested in technology, become useful programmers
608.
by johngalt 13y ago
Second the Udacity courses. A lot more meat than the normal beginner stuff. If you're feeling ambitious the Norvig course is good. https://www.udacity.com/course/cs212 The programming languages (cs262) or web development (cs253) courses w
609.
by johngalt 13y ago
Technically the definition of a turbine means something powered by a working fluid or gas. So it's akin to asking 'could we have a human powered windmill?' By definition you can't. Assuming you mean something along the lines of a small shro
610.
by johngalt 13y ago
I think you'll find that humans are fueled by what you'd call 'bullshit'. What is the reason behind making works of art? What is the utility of music? Alcohol is a waste of resources. Climbing mountains is a needless risk. I don't consider
611.
by johngalt 13y ago
Economics is really what will drive space travel. Consider that launch costs are going down steadily, and worldwide GDP is going up considerably. Knowledge of the solar system is going up at the same rate. Eventually a line will get crossed
612.
by johngalt 13y ago
The common criticism is: Why buy space exploration when we have problems here on earth? People who make this claim, may not realize that space exploration could be a net win on some of these problems quite easily. Education for instance. Ta
613.
by johngalt 13y ago
They are more commonly called rouge planets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_planet
614.
by johngalt 13y ago
My instincts say that this whole narrative is fabricated.
615.
by johngalt 13y ago
This is the common response. What chance would civilians have against a tank or a modern attack aircraft? What isn't mentioned is the fuel truck supplying that tank. How easily one bad bearing can cause a jet to crash. There are 1.5million
616.
by johngalt 13y ago
You preclude the two most common reasons as if they are irrelevant. It's like asking 'Why not ban cars in principle? What's the motive behind owning a car, besides transportation, and status?' I'll answer your question anyway. Besides conce
617.
by johngalt 14y ago
Came here to say the same thing. DotA 2 is one of the best experiences I've had in gaming ettiquette. Sure there are still the occasional trolls and flamewars. In general the games are handled with sportsmanship and teamwork. Contrast this
618.
by johngalt 14y ago
Exactly, other life would be a minimum of a million years ahead of us or a million years behind. Using earth as a reference. Life has been on earth for 4 billion years, and nothing remotely interesting until the last 0.5 billion years. All
619.
by johngalt 14y ago
Debt and growth are obviously separate entities that are hard to correlate. Intuitively it makes sense that debt doesn't inherently slow growth, and could even speed growth. Reducing the problem to a personal level, you borrow money to buy
620.
by johngalt 14y ago
When I'm being interviewed I ask everyone involved where they are coming from. It's de rigueur for a number of reasons. First, one of the best ways to understand someone is to listen to their perspective. Second, it's good etiquette and peo
621.
by johngalt 14y ago
This reminds me of a conversation I had about "Hunger Games". My friend mentioned how implausible it was that people in the future would want to watch people fight to the death for entertainment. To which I responded 'What do you think we a
622.
by johngalt 14y ago
Google Now has hot word detection. Saying 'Google' starts the voice app. Just have to prevent the device from sleeping.
623.
by johngalt 14y ago
Fundamentally credentials make sense to me. If we were designing an employment system from scratch, some form of independent standards and certification would be difficult to pass up. It would aid accurately sorting skilled/trained people i
624.
by johngalt 14y ago
The problem with email privacy: it's trivial to copy/forward email, but hard to ensure every endpoint is secure. Even if you are running your own MX in your basement, all of your email recipients use Gmail.
625.
by johngalt 14y ago
Seems like there are two architectures that are commonly adopted. One is to make the server ever larger and more modular. E.G. separating processors/memory and storage as separate entities that are individually configurable (like this artic
626.
by johngalt 14y ago
'Send me your data in PDF and ONLY PDF' said most courts in the US.
627.
by johngalt 14y ago
Panic can be dangerous as well. A halon dump can asphyxiate someone who doesn't reach the oxygen mask or an exit in time. Dropping a whole server room without seeing any smoke or fire is silly. Do you pull a fire alarm if someone smokes a c
628.
by johngalt 14y ago
'hmmm... probably UPS battery venting' click 'yup' When UPS batteries vent it has a distinctive odor. It's very pungent and sulfuric, but it doesn't smell like a fire or melting silicon. Any experienced operations guy has smelled it befor
629.
by johngalt 14y ago
One accurate measurement is worth a thousand expert opinions. You'd be surprised how many big strategic decisions are made on top of a mountain of opinions. Try to be guided by what is happening not what should happen.
630.
by johngalt 14y ago
For me the hardest one to give up was car maintenance. I grew up working on cars, and if I wasn't in IT I'd probably be a mechanic. Unfortunately keeping all the tools and supplies necessary was too much of a hassle for a single late model

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