pradn

48 ms·

601.
by pradn 5y ago
Yes, this approach works best with the "premature optimization is the root of all evil" axiom. When I worked on high-performance servers in C#, we would occasionally find ways to 1) reduce allocations 2) make allocations either ve
602.
by pradn 5y ago
There's a complex game being played here by TSMC, the Taiwanese government, and the US. TSMC as a company probably wants to be resilient by having manufacturing in multiple locales. But it has a unique set of benefits provided by Taiwa
603.
by pradn 5y ago
The success of a military system comes from it being able to muster strength in numbers, train and equip them appropriately. And all this depends on the economic system underneath. A European feudal monarch might only have a few thousand me
604.
by pradn 5y ago
Yes, that's true. A war machine requires surplus value. One reason why feudalism developed in Europe was for mounted warriors to be able to supply their warhorses. Facing constant violence, only super-appropriation of peasant surplus c
605.
by pradn 5y ago
You are correct that these are all historically contingent.
606.
by pradn 5y ago
You are absolutely right, my mistake. None-the-less, professional standing armies didn't exist in most locales for most of history.
607.
by pradn 5y ago
Perhaps start with the RK Narayan version, which gives you the most important parts of the story? He's a lovely writer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mahabharata_(Narayan_book) I'm not quite sure which tr
608.
by pradn 5y ago
War rules are fascinating. They play a large role in the Mahabharata, which has an incredibly long battle sequence at the end, where the events of each day are detailed minutely. Part of the moral complexity of the epic comes from both side
609.
by pradn 5y ago
Exactly, this is my point. Napoleon's professional standing armies are a relatively recent (~200 years) and exceptional compared to the historical norm. Even Napoleon was able to take lots of territory by just negotiating with actors w
610.
by pradn 5y ago
Battles have rarely been massive charges from two sides of a flat battlefield, as we see in war movies. Historically, it's been really hard to get soldiers to charge to their deaths, which makes sense if you think for a second. Most ar
611.
by pradn 5y ago
This trope belies two thousand years of present-day Afghanistan being part of flourishing empires or being the seat of empires itself. Read this to learn more: https://twitter.com/Alex_Khaleeli/status/1425608335726
612.
by pradn 5y ago
It seems like practically anything car companies do that's not the actual car itself is usually bad unless you pay for the superpremium brands.
613.
by pradn 5y ago
There's an officially-supported skin with good sprite-based graphics. It's still a bit in progress however. https://www.kitfoxgames.com/press/sheet.php?p=dwarf_fortress
614.
by pradn 5y ago
They don't have sell.com, just sell.app - but that must have been expensive as well.
615.
by pradn 5y ago
The customers use the electricity they generate. Who else would pay for it?
616.
by pradn 5y ago
50 years!
617.
by pradn 5y ago
Throughout Buddhist history, the contemplative, meditative, "philosophical" Buddhism has always been practiced by a small minority of monks and nuns. Even at the height of Buddhist fervor in the middle of the first millennium, far
618.
by pradn 5y ago
But providing practically every service to a rural person is more expensive, but we do it anyway since we like to have a somewhat equal living standard for our rural citizens. Hell, the same goes for suburbs too. In many cities, poorer urba
619.
by pradn 5y ago
The reasons why we wont have a high-speed train network any time soon, in priority order (my opinion): 1. Eminent domain and generally-high construction costs make the initial time and money outlays exorbitantly high, resulting in projects
620.
by pradn 5y ago
Also notable is the Broad Museum in Los Angeles. Their guards are also docents, so you are encouraged to talk to them about the art and ask them questions. After experiencing this more human interaction, it was a bit of a shock for me to go
621.
by pradn 5y ago
I think their selection makes sense. The day-to-day experience of a guard at a museum is to tell people to stand a bit farther away and not take photos (in some galleries). What would be more interesting is if they channeled their long pres
622.
by pradn 5y ago
Andrei Rublev is one of the supreme achievements of cinema. Just so moving and beautiful, and hopeful, too.
623.
by pradn 5y ago
I have never been comfortable with supporting the ACLU because of their "money is speech" stance. The political system of the US has become increasingly plutocratic, making it hard for popular policies to be enacted and make progr
624.
by pradn 5y ago
7% is about a quarter or two of growth, but not a fundamental blow. The upper end of 13.6% is much more painful, but probably still only like a year of growth. Will this make Facebook change its business model and incentives completely - I
625.
by pradn 5y ago
I'd say the most important factors that recruiters look at are: 1) current company tier 2) roughly relevant experience (in broad strokes - frontend or backend) 3) university tier (less relevant as you gain work experience) 4) a distant
626.
by pradn 5y ago
It's not necessarily about training seminarians; it's a school for research into historical and contemporary religions, and not just Christianity.
627.
by pradn 5y ago
He means that his colleagues at the Divinity School don't seem to care enough about him to send him a condolence for his mother's death. It's about the apathetic work environment at the school. That would be a problem for me,
628.
by pradn 5y ago
I personally prefer a proactive doctor. Life gets busy and I don't always find time to get checkups and such. A small nudge from the doctor's office to get a checkup pays dividends. People with chronic conditions do need monitorin
629.
by pradn 5y ago
Is Markdown a viable format given its many many flavors and quirks? I suppose you can just stick to the common features, but then the feature-set is pretty basic.
630.
by pradn 5y ago
I can see that. It's still a far cry from a website with interstitials and auto-playing video, but perhaps I'm setting the bar too low by comparing to like CNN.

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