quasque

25 ms·

121.
by quasque 13y ago
From a philosophical point of view you may well be correct. However, there is the option of using behavioural observations as a surrogate. For example, exposing living things to pain stimuli and analogising the response to what we humans kn
122.
by quasque 13y ago
That's an interesting scenario, and I don't know how much distinction is made between possession of illegal material and possession of a means of instantly retrieving it. Datacoin has the storage capacity to include the actual ima
123.
by quasque 13y ago
The most common argument against insects feeling pain used to be that they lacked the nociceptors (sensory neurons that respond to stimuli indicating damage) that provide pain perception in humans, and by analogy other vertebrates. However,
124.
by quasque 13y ago
I agree. It may have a solid use case in providing name services alongside existing anti-censorship, anonymised networks like Tor and I2P, but for mainstream use Namecoin provides no benefit. It's an interesting experiment though.
125.
by quasque 13y ago
Chrome does this already by sending a hidden request to http://www.gstatic.com/generate_204 and displaying the page in a new tab if the request is intercepted. (More detail at http://www.chromium.org/chromiu
126.
by quasque 13y ago
Participating in Datacoin sounds legally dangerous. All a miscreant needs to do is include into its blockchain some files that are illegal to possess, and everyone is potentially in trouble. It would be like this, but worse: http:/&#x
127.
by quasque 13y ago
As it stands now, a domain name owner in the current system probably has more risk from domain hijacking than authoritarian censorship. So the main feature of Namecoin - to provide a censorship-resistant, cryptographically untamperable set
128.
by quasque 13y ago
I expect it will obsolete ICANN as effectively as AlterNIC, New.net, OpenNIC, etc. The technical fact that it is blockchain-based really doesn't make much difference as it's incredibly unlikely to be adopted worldwide, due to the
129.
by quasque 13y ago
No-one is saying he did anything illegal, and this certainly isn't 'thoughtcrime' - he actively donated money to a bigoted cause, an action incompatible with the values of the organisation that he was the public face of. That
130.
by quasque 13y ago
The world is not fair, therefore we should collectively just shut up and put up with this enduring inequality? The majority of the world's population are living in poverty, and well over a billion people are entirely destitute. Lacking
131.
by quasque 13y ago
I guess you're thinking of an unlikely "Harrison Bergeron" type of scenario. But if such a world was instead achieved instead via highly advanced medicine and universal access to health care, then why not? I would consider th
132.
by quasque 13y ago
Thanks, I hadn't seen that. Looks like they've since updated their bountysource page with more information, including this link.
133.
by quasque 13y ago
That would be much better, although it does raise the question of who would arbitrate on such milestones being reached.
134.
by quasque 13y ago
I thought so too, and was most amused at everyone taking it seriously. Now I'm not so sure, but equally entertained.
135.
by quasque 13y ago
Yes but there's no guarantee of a complete implementation, and as far as I can tell from looking at the website, no way of getting one's money back if the work is not done. At least if there is already a working prototype, then th
136.
by quasque 13y ago
Would it not be more sensible for the authors to have a reasonably complete implementation for testing, and then request funding to polish it off with a nice UI and a security audit? As it is at the moment, it seems quite risky to fund this
137.
by quasque 13y ago
Dropbox does have full access to its users data, and uses this property to enable its deduplication and public sharing features.
138.
by quasque 13y ago
This is definitely an observed phenomenon, such illnesses are known as culture-bound syndromes. There is the sub-field of transcultural psychiatry which examines these and other cultural differences with respect to mental disorders. Out of
139.
by quasque 13y ago
You assume a false dichotomy, as there are infectious diseases that are linked to mental illness. For example, HIV can be causative of dementia.
140.
by quasque 13y ago
That's nice, but I found the story behind the leading image more interesting: http://www.robotlab.de/bios/bible.htm (robotic calligraphy)
141.
by quasque 13y ago
Out of interest, which disease is this?
142.
by quasque 13y ago
I suppose it depends on the idea of what consciousness (in terms of what constitutes the self, rather than state of alertness) is - if one considers it to be just an emergent effect of neuronal activity, then that would fit by definition.
143.
by quasque 13y ago
Apparently the new CEO actively opposes same-sex marriage: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7459529 EDIT: why the downvotes? This is exactly what lending financial support to the Californian Proposition 8 implies.
144.
by quasque 13y ago
The basic principle proven so far is that, with an invasive surgical procedure, retinal function can be permanently replaced with technology that electrically stimulates the retinal ganglion cells (i.e. the side of the optic nerve that term
145.
by quasque 13y ago
That was interesting to read, especially the insight into altered body language - thanks for the personal perspective.
146.
by quasque 13y ago
It seems a bit unhygienic having to strap one of these things to your face. Just imagine how filthy it would get after prolonged use. I hope if this stuff takes off then it's designed to be easily washable. The lingering scent of ingra
147.
by quasque 13y ago
> optical nerve transducers Apart from some limited, low-resolution medical trials for people who've lost their eyesight already, this is firmly in the arena of science fiction and not going to happen any time soon.
148.
by quasque 13y ago
The difference is that a phone has to be taken out of one's pocket or bag and quite visibly pointed at something, whereas Glass is always looking wherever the wearer is.
149.
by quasque 13y ago
It's interesting to see the real specification for this system call, as only the device availability subfunctions were widely known outside of Microsoft [1]. I wonder if many other hidden or deprecated functions are present in these re
150.
by quasque 13y ago
You can use the "inassignee" and "ininventor" operators to restrict the search, e.g. inassignee:microsoft.

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