pbourke

44 ms·

451.
by pbourke 6y ago
It’s not that much, actually. The average English word is 4.7 letters long. Let’s round up to 5 and add 1 for a space to make 6 characters. Novels are around 90,000 words long. So 800G of pure text represents 800G / 6 char per word &#x
452.
by pbourke 6y ago
That wasn’t the point. The point is people’s illegal enjoyment of the park is actually impeding the legal enjoyment of the park by others. Some sense of duty along the lines of “I’ll follow the rules in the park even if it inconveniences me
453.
by pbourke 6y ago
We take our dog to a park where dogs are permitted but must be leashed. Signs are posted that the “leash law is strictly enforced” but it’s not, and in fact has never been. Most dog owners follow the rules but there is a small cadre of regu
454.
by pbourke 6y ago
You have precisely nailed it. Following the rules (when there is no hard penalty for breaking them) and being community-oriented (beyond your own family/church/social circle) are a necessary but not sufficient part of duty. As ano
455.
by pbourke 6y ago
> No-one today knows what their duty is, and would be confused if asked. I think you’d be more likely to get an answer from those in the military, police, firefighters, paramedics, ER docs/nurses, etc.
456.
by pbourke 6y ago
Nearly anything that costs under $100, is not a consumable/personal care item/detergent/etc, and is above the fold on Amazon search results will have been made in China.
457.
by pbourke 6y ago
I’m not sure what you’re talking about. China did this in a few weeks. I’m not even talking about automated tracing of cell phone signals - just databases and people making phone calls.
458.
by pbourke 6y ago
> t isn’t just illegal, the US infrastructure is intentionally designed to make it extremely difficult to do at a technical implementation level, with the idea that it would hinder potential abuses You think that the country which went f
459.
by pbourke 6y ago
> 2020 has pretty much robbed me of what empathy I had left. It's insane how selfish we have become. When I start thinking along these lines, I consider the doctors and nurses, firefighters/EMS, vaccine researchers, food bank v
460.
by pbourke 6y ago
> incredibly more safe This was your takeaway from the article?
461.
by pbourke 6y ago
> In the realm of software engineering I don't know that we've had a catastrophic failure where the infrastructure costs of repair were in the billions or there was tangible loss of life. The multi-day 2003 blackout in the Nort
462.
by pbourke 6y ago
> I have no idea how anyone lives with it for anything except writing extremely repetitive, formulaic, and superficial code, because having to dig into its guts feels like a nightmare. It’s interesting that Python powers an outsized chun
463.
by pbourke 6y ago
> Newmarket, North of Cambridge; which was at least wrong with reference to the same Cambridge UK and not Cambridge Mass. USA You’re lucky you didn’t get Newmarket or Cambridge ... Ontario!
464.
by pbourke 6y ago
This what happens when your legislative process is basically a game of Katamari Damacy.
465.
by pbourke 6y ago
That seems like a thing that will be litigated. Who knows what it will mean after it’s been through the ringer of the US court system.
466.
by pbourke 6y ago
> In a free market you would be able to buy a coronavirus vaccine right now, instead of waiting months to get it for free. Give it a few weeks ...
467.
by pbourke 6y ago
It sounds like the administration wanted a scapegoat on which to hang any blame around vaccine allocation. Surely whichever allocation they came up with would have axes along which it could be criticized. Enter some poor analyst working wit
468.
by pbourke 6y ago
How many public appearances has Dr. Fauci made since January? So much shade being thrown in this thread for a few missteps during a complicated situation. Meanwhile the President of the United States, with access to the world’s best intelli
469.
by pbourke 6y ago
The real solution would have been to tell people to wear masks and invoke the Defense Production Act with 3M and other manufacturers so that medical-grade masks were directed to the right place. People were screaming at the administration t
470.
by pbourke 6y ago
If he hasn’t published any peer-reviewed material describing "The Pais Effect" then I default to kook. +1 kook points for declaring a new fundamental property of nature and naming it after oneself.
471.
by pbourke 6y ago
Yeah my first thought as well :/
472.
by pbourke 6y ago
Isn’t gaming a larger industry than the movies, driven largely by consoles? Seems like gaming had its iPhone moment a generation ago. Edit: gaming is larger than the movie and music industries combined
473.
by pbourke 6y ago
Is every dollar that Google earns a dollar of harm to the public?
474.
by pbourke 6y ago
> Google was taking 80% of money that should have gone to them This seems to presuppose an alternate universe in which Google doesn’t exist but ad revenue is the same?
475.
by pbourke 6y ago
Can you explain how the public is harmed? I (think) I get the affect on various players in the ad ecosystem. Can anyone quantify the harm to the public?
476.
by pbourke 6y ago
I played the pen and paper way back in the day, and I agree. They have absolutely nailed the aesthetic: a dusting of kitsch and campiness that isn’t over the top. I’m also enjoying the story and game mechanics. It’s my first open world AAA
477.
by pbourke 6y ago
And you’re holding up the US public sector as your shining city on a hill? Canada is leading the world in procuring the vaccine, and has had a very well-considered response to the pandemic. How long did it take for CERB cheques to arrive? D
478.
by pbourke 6y ago
You may not be aware, but Canada does have a sophisticated organization dedicated to electronic security: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Security_Esta...
479.
by pbourke 6y ago
This is an insightful comment that clarifies and distills some of my own thinking on the subject. The blind pursuit of efficiency optimizes for the macro numbers at the expense of gutting the structure of the labor market and lived experien
480.
by pbourke 6y ago
I am surprised that no one has mentioned punitive taxation of companies that engage in offshoring/higher taxes on foreign direct investment as an alternative to tariffs.

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