mikeash

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511.
by mikeash 7y ago
Do you have a link to Gates saying alarmism is the greater problem? I’m curious as to exactly what he said and I can’t find it.
512.
by mikeash 7y ago
Merely opening an account won’t. But if something goes wrong and they decide you owe money, that will. It’s not a certainty, but by just opening a checking account you are taking on an certain amount of risk that your info will be reported
513.
by mikeash 7y ago
How about we periodically publish a big book that lists all approved drugs, their uses and side effects, and send it to every residence in the country like we (used to?) do with phone books.
514.
by mikeash 7y ago
Seems simple: what are they willing to pay for a completely boring just-the-facts advertisement, the sort of thing you’d see in the classifieds? If the answer isn’t “pretty much the same” then they know the glitz and bullshit is critical.
515.
by mikeash 7y ago
Marketing comes down to educating consumers about your product? Have you ever seen marketing? Any education that occurs is either accidental or legally mandated. I do agree with you that pharmaceutical marketing isn’t fundamentally differ
516.
by mikeash 7y ago
Many do, many don’t. And they’d keep on hiring just fine if they couldn’t. As for getting a loan from a banker you’ve never met, my point exactly. They’re a convenient evil.
517.
by mikeash 7y ago
That part is indeed reasonable. What’s less reasonable is that you also have to participate in the system if you want a bank account or electricity or such. Or, heck, you don’t even need that; just have some fraudster open an account with y
518.
by mikeash 7y ago
It’s a convenient evil. Finance isn’t the only area that uses reputation judge people. I imagine we’ve all been asked for references when applying for a job or an apartment. Jobs and apartments manage to get by without a centralized score.
519.
by mikeash 7y ago
It’s opt in, in the sense that you can refrain from participating in the modern financial system if you want to avoid it.
520.
by mikeash 7y ago
I hate it. You drive a thousand miles and eat at the same friggin’ restaurant you have at home! I might not be so annoyed if I actually liked the common roadside places, but as it is, “McDonald’s next exit” is more of a threat than a promis
521.
by mikeash 7y ago
Better yet, give them the same benefits as other employees and pay them a reasonable amount instead of paying them more money in a year than most of their underlings will make in their lifetimes.
522.
by mikeash 7y ago
You didn’t address my second point: how does genetic testing give you an objective measure of lionness when it’s still ultimately based on observations and subjective assessments?
523.
by mikeash 7y ago
Maybe we should avoid sending passwords altogether. With some client-aide code, you could build a challenge-response system that eliminates this risk entirely.
524.
by mikeash 7y ago
I propose that police must always respond to an emergency call in a way that will not result in tragedy if it’s fake. Innocent until proven guilty, you know? The problem isn’t that the police respond to a false alarm. The problem is that th
525.
by mikeash 7y ago
Are you implying that nobody anywhere was ever objectively certain of the presence of a lion before the past few decades? And how does genetic testing objectively tell you that it’s a lion? Genetic testing tells you that its DNA is similar
526.
by mikeash 7y ago
If you’re not condoning swatting then what is even the point of these comments? Swatting is the topic at hand.
527.
by mikeash 7y ago
Sure it does. Imagine there’s a cave you can’t enter. You can send other people in, though. You send someone in and they tell you there’s a lion in there. You send someone else, they also say there’s a lion. You send a thousand people in an
528.
by mikeash 7y ago
Personal experience still counts as evidence. If you get a lot of different people reporting the same stuff then that’s a pretty solid indication that there’s some common basis for it. From this, we know that the physical world affects cons
529.
by mikeash 7y ago
I agree but it doesn’t matter. It’s about eighteen billion times easier to shame a shitty company into confirming to cultural norms than it is to get hundreds of millions of people to change those norms.
530.
by mikeash 7y ago
You can pretty easily observe that they aren't. Try to find a company where googling the company name shows you a top result that is actually another company with a storefront selling the same products. Now try to find an Amazon listin
531.
by mikeash 7y ago
I don't deserve to be in such esteemed company, but I'm glad you like it.
532.
by mikeash 7y ago
Maybe they’re just picking up a few bucks from people who aren’t this clever.
533.
by mikeash 7y ago
There’s a huge and fundamental difference between what you describe and what Amazon is doing. What you describe involves both A and B. A is figuratively putting their name on the product, and they have an incentive to make sure that everyth
534.
by mikeash 7y ago
Counterfeiting is going to happen. Typically you deter it by detecting it and punishing the counterfeiters. Commingling defeats this. I guess we can make Amazon inspect everything they receive from third party sellers thoroughly enough to r
535.
by mikeash 7y ago
If they’re at the top of the Google search results for “manufacturer” then you’re probably good. Cross check with Wikipedia if you want to be sure. If you find some random vendor with a cheaper price then you need to make a decision about h
536.
by mikeash 7y ago
I’d rather see a focus on projects that are doable with existing capabilities, and separately an effort to develop new capabilities. It seems like if you immediately aim for something you can’t do, then you develop a bunch of technology and
537.
by mikeash 7y ago
Amazon is also an extra layer of insecurity. Let’s say I buy a widget sold through Amazon by a trusted manufacturer. Some third party is also selling counterfeits. Amazon considers the two products to be the same, and sends me a counterfeit
538.
by mikeash 7y ago
On one hand, this got everyone to focus and things happened fast. On the other hand, the result was only what was asked for. We went half a dozen times and then that was it. You want bigger missions? A base? Mars? Nope, not what we’re going
539.
by mikeash 7y ago
It’s a weird situation: the article does indeed say it’s for commuter flights, but also immediately says it’s not. I guess you’re both right, or both wrong, depending on your preference.
540.
by mikeash 7y ago
A good demonstration of one of the major hazards of reinventing basic functionality like this: it’s really easy to end up with something that behaves differently on different browsers or just for different people.

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