pdonis

17 ms·

331.
by pdonis 7mo ago
> When I'm done writing this comment, I'll probably go back to doomscrolling on walled-garden social media for a while. I won't. I don't do social media. I have a Facebook account but I never use it. I don't ev
332.
by pdonis 7mo ago
The problem is that building technology that people can intuit how to use without a manual takes more time and effort than a person can afford to spend on a hobby project. It has to be a business. Which means it's not just a matter of
333.
by pdonis 7mo ago
> "it was the O-rings" explanation seems universally believed and sanctified by no lesser authority than the Nobel prize laureate Richard Feynman. If you read Feynman's account in the book What Do You Care What Other Pe
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by pdonis 7mo ago
> What would happen "normally" (i.e. the normalization of deviance) was that the rotation (from the SRB joints bowing--essentially "ballooning") would create a gap, and the O-rings would get blown into that gap and u
335.
by pdonis 7mo ago
> Pragmatism as a broad, basic, and reductive view of knowledge I have nowhere advocated any such thing. The fact that I used the word "pragmatic" does not mean I was adopting the view you describe here. Not everyone agrees w
336.
by pdonis 7mo ago
> you are confused No, I'm not. I'm just not drinking the "philosophical" Kool-Aid. > do particles exist or not? What difference does it make? What should I expect to see if particles "exist", that I
337.
by pdonis 7mo ago
> Is it rational or realistic to assume we don't have analogous perceptual and conceptual limitations I never claimed we don't have perceptual and conceptual limitations. Indeed, recognizing that we do should make us extremel
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by pdonis 7mo ago
> Examples include the reality of change, causality (especially per se vs. what science is generally concerned with, per accidens), or the existence of things. How do any of these things allow you to derive knowledge of God's exis
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by pdonis 7mo ago
> this article is about the philosophical meaning of the word "real". If the philosophical meaning of "real" admits that computers, the Internet, and the GPS system are real, then I don't see what grounds it ha
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by pdonis 7mo ago
> It can only predict experiments. Your "only" here makes it seem like predicting experiments is a narrow thing. It's not. All of the modern technologies we have--including the computers we're all using to post here
341.
by pdonis 7mo ago
I don't think it's that narrow. The article mentions the kinetic theory of gases, which explains the observed properties of gases in terms of statistics of the motions of the atoms or molecules that make up the gas. Chemistry also
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by pdonis 7mo ago
> he seems like a religionist trying to come to grips with the dominance of our world by science and the scientific epistemology. That's because he is. Take a look at the articles listed on his website.
343.
by pdonis 7mo ago
Yes, the expression "hoist by their own petard" occurred to me when I saw that.
344.
by pdonis 7mo ago
Maybe the wrong version of Godel's findings that the article states seemed obvious to the author. Lots of complex questions have simple, obvious wrong answers.
345.
by pdonis 7mo ago
This article would be better without the opening two paragraphs about Godel's Theorem. They're just fluff, and much of what they say is wrong.
346.
by pdonis 7mo ago
> A GUI lets you not even have to think about it, not have to memorise syntax or go out of your way to write a script to save it. Unless the GUI buries what you want to do in five or six levels of menus and options--and then changes wh
347.
by pdonis 7mo ago
I run Trinity Desktop [1] on Linux. It's basically KDE 3 kept up to date (and has been around as long as I've been running Linux), and has a more or less similar look and feel to Windows from the 98/XP days. I run it on Ubunt
348.
by pdonis 7mo ago
> anyone capable of using Linux is capable of hacking out that BS and getting a generally superior experience. MS has made hacking out the BS harder and harder with each new version of Windows. Back in the Windows XP days, yes, I could
349.
by pdonis 7mo ago
> I'm somewhat surprised that Windows is still most of personal computers. The reason is simple: Microsoft has a lock on PCs used by corporate and government employees, so the vast majority of people who use computers at work use
350.
by pdonis 7mo ago
Wish I could upvote this more.
351.
by pdonis 7mo ago
Fine. And whatever device you're using to post here just happened to emerge spontaneously from the dirt, instead of being built by the efforts of thousands of people spread all over the world as part of a modern technological society.
352.
by pdonis 7mo ago
How is someone living a hunter-gatherer subsistence life going to get Internet access? That requires a technological society, which requires a lot of wealth creation way above a subsistence level. If you're saying that someone might cl
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by pdonis 8mo ago
> even if you escape the sedentary village, the stable neighbouring village will happily return you to "your owner" so that he would hopefully return the favor if ever he catches one of "their slaves") Tell that to
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by pdonis 8mo ago
If you think a subsistence nomadic lifestyle is preferable to a modern "sedentary" one, then how are you able to post here? Subsistence nomads don't have Internet access (to name just one of umpteen things we "sedentary&
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by pdonis 8mo ago
> I also don't think poverty is a complex problem, but that's a minor point. I'm not sure it's a minor point. I don't think poverty is a "complex" problem either, as that term is used in the article,
356.
by pdonis 8mo ago
One thought that I have from my experience of going through a divorce: think of who else in your life is important to you, and reach out to them more. If you have someone you can talk to about what you're going through, even if they&#x
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by pdonis 8mo ago
> You will likely go through the stages of grief as you grieve this change. I think this is a very important observation. I've been through a divorce, and a friend made this observation to me, which I hadn't thought of, and i
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by pdonis 8mo ago
> Wrong. No, I'm not wrong. We're both right. Yes, the original decisions on the Shuttle design were braindead. But even given that, the decisions to ignore clear red flags from Shuttle missions were also braindead.
359.
by pdonis 8mo ago
See my response to Mauling Monkey upthread on why the cold temperature of the Challenger launch actually wasn't the major issue it was made out to be. Note also my comments there about other SRB designs that were known well before the
360.
by pdonis 8mo ago
> Record low launch temperatures Were not necessary to show problems with the SRB joint O-rings. There had been previous problems noted on flights at temperatures up to 75 degrees F. And the Thiokol engineers had test stand data showin

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