ksmiley

9 ms·

31.
by ksmiley 14y ago
Here's a criticism of the Singularity I've seen a couple times that originates from the web comic, Pictures For Sad Children. "There's a special kind of nerd though who thinks computers will overtake mankind in thirty years, changing humani
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by ksmiley 14y ago
That explains it. I was confused when I read "Destruction of the Ring" a third of the way through, and "Fellowship begins Quest" at the very end. I wonder whether the developers _could_ have put them in chronological order, ex. 12/13/3019 a
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by ksmiley 14y ago
How much you need to reduce costs, in order to double your profit, is dependent upon your current costs and revenue. So you don't necessarily need to eliminate all costs to double profit. Suppose you purchase widgets from a manufacturer for
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by ksmiley 14y ago
Nice insight on the sales approach. Is there any particular reason that this technique doesn't work outside of Japan? American construction companies might not care about a wreath, but surely drinking and promises of additional profits woul
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by ksmiley 14y ago
The simplest possible "mechanical cell" would be a self-contained machine that can reproduce itself given only raw materials and energy. This could theoretically take place on the molecular scale; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo
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by ksmiley 14y ago
I agree that both of the statements you gave are not productive. "Interstellar travel isn't possible" rejects all theories past and future without considering their individual merits, which is awfully arrogant. "We have enough problems down
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by ksmiley 14y ago
Perhaps they performed spectroscopy on the star, found a lot of carbon, and reasoned that the star's planet would also be carbon-heavy.
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by ksmiley 14y ago
Social - adj. 1. Of or relating to society. 2. (internet) Relating to social media or social networks. Hack - noun. 1. Use of a resource for something other than its intended purpose. 2. An appropriate application of ingenuity. Social hack
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by ksmiley 14y ago
I didn't read the article, but I imagine the parent poster's logic is like this: if your Paypal account is suspended, you must have done something to violate the terms of service. If you violate the terms of service, you must be a hacker. I
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by ksmiley 14y ago
You can eliminate some of the uncertainty by googling the product name and see if there are any complaints of the "Everyone has seen this issue" variety. Of course, even a product with 100% consumer satisfaction can have "No one has ever se
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by ksmiley 14y ago
Can you elaborate on which societal norms you feel have changed for the worse? And can you explain your criteria for eras of societal decline? Aside: speaking metaphorically for the moment, you could characterize the early history of the Un
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by ksmiley 14y ago
Couldn't it be that history books give a sanitized view of society, and gloss over relatively minor issues such as disobedient youths? The books might say, "young people were expected to be x, y, and z", and tactfully omit, "but they were f
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by ksmiley 14y ago
I can't replicate it, but I encountered a weird bug. I entered "Star Trek" and hit Enter. The suggested items list appeared and I clicked on "Star Trek". Page titles appeared as normal, but everything appeared twice, like so: Star Trek
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by ksmiley 14y ago
Pardon my ignorance, but why wouldn't this work? Suppose you were red-green colorblind, and there was an apple tree with green "Granny Smith" apples outside your window. You can't tell if the leaves on the tree are red or green, but using