rbecker

45 ms·

391.
by rbecker 6y ago
Most of your counterarguments either barely make sense, or don't even address the arguments I made. But I'll try to clarify and spell things out for you. > Once we reach that level of design, why would we not engineer all sorts
392.
by rbecker 6y ago
> We got a big LG 'smart' TV a year or so ago, and we use it for exactly four things: youtube, netflix, xbox and (primarily) to watch content I put on USB sticks. Are you okay with the content you watch, and the filenames on t
393.
by rbecker 6y ago
> the firmware encryption that was put in place to prevent tampering and static analysis Code signing is enough to prevent tampering, so D-Link obviously doesn't want their users to know how their own hardware works. Does D-Link vie
394.
by rbecker 6y ago
> Our decades of oil wars still don't seem to be common knowledge. Nor are common knowledge the names of the oil company executives and shareholders who benefited from these wars, while dumping the expense and blame on their host co
395.
by rbecker 6y ago
> This data doesn't seem that sensitive or difficult to obtain via other methods depending on the exact situation. A government should not be in the business of betraying its citizens to private parties, even if those parties have o
396.
by rbecker 6y ago
> many collapsing apiaries show no trace of neonicotinoids. And 'many' (notice the weasel word) car crashes are caused by drivers that show no trace of inebriation. More to the point: "Most academic and governmental bodies
397.
by rbecker 6y ago
Those positives turn to negatives if you care about privacy - they help Oculus muscle privacy-respecting alternatives out of the market.
398.
Suez Crisis(en.wikipedia.org)
2 points by rbecker 6y ago|0 comments
399.
by rbecker 6y ago
"Made in China" stickers themselves are only there due to state intervention.
400.
by rbecker 6y ago
One more tool for corporations to better manipulate consumers will surely improve the world, and not the opposite.
401.
by rbecker 6y ago
Land tax also does not allow you to simply exist - you have to make a profit to pay the tax. You can't just grow your own food and ignore the economy. It also comes with perverse incentives, like opposing anything that might raise pr
402.
by rbecker 6y ago
Facilitating transactions is a valuable service.
403.
by rbecker 6y ago
That's Roman Italy - but what about North Africa and the Middle East, which were large parts of the Roman Empire?
404.
by rbecker 6y ago
Those are some fine rhetorical questions, but they don't shed any light on whether "actively promote" is grossly misleading in this case.
405.
by rbecker 6y ago
Given the historical record, assuming the population remained the same is not even remotely warranted.
406.
by rbecker 6y ago
"Actively promote" meaning being treated no different than any other content, unless the article omitted some information about that study. Perhaps technically true, but still a highly misleading title.
407.
by rbecker 6y ago
The US makes up about 4% of the global population. So it would only makes sense to expect Yale to be close to global representation if only about 4% of its students were from the US. And I'm sure there are many world-class universities
408.
by rbecker 6y ago
> As a non-profit open-source operation, Mozilla spends as much as it receives; its 2018 staffing bill was $286m I'd sleep easier if Mozilla saved some cash for a rainy day. Is there really no way to maintain a browser with less tha
409.
by rbecker 6y ago
I'm sorry, are you saying that Jewish students are currently, in the US, in Yale, being discriminated against in college applications? Despite the current and previous Yale presidents both being Jewish [1,2]? And that without that disc
410.
by rbecker 6y ago
Yale is 20-27% Jewish [1,2], while the US is just 1.7-2.6% [3]. Few other groups would have the gall to call 10x over-representation as being discriminated against. [1] https://www.hillel.org/college-guide/list/rec
411.
by rbecker 6y ago
> iPhone, Switch, PS5, XBOX [..] I have plenty of choices thanks. I can hardly imagine anything more pathetic than listing 4 locked down, corporate controlled devices, and calling that "choice".
412.
by rbecker 6y ago
"Is it a monopoly?" is the wrong question. The right question is "Do they have market power that they abuse?"
413.
by rbecker 6y ago
The complaint was that Canonical was trying to make itself a gatekeeper, not some vague "innovate in their own way".
414.
by rbecker 6y ago
> They own the platform And the users who buy Apple's devices, what do they own? Clearly not the devices, if Apple still decides how they may be used.
415.
by rbecker 6y ago
'Monopoly' is just a poorly phrased way of saying abuse of market power. Edit as reply: I'm not accusing them of breaking a law, but of abusing their position. That there might not yet be a law against this specific kind of a
416.
by rbecker 6y ago
> I completely agree with it. Epic publicly and blatantly bypassed multiple App Store restrictions with their move today. App Store policy is not law - its terms are unilaterally set by Apple. Citing it as justification makes no sense.
417.
by rbecker 6y ago
Very true. But the only alternative to single examples are statistical studies and surveys. And hardly any news source limits themselves to that. So if we're going to accuse them of cherry-picking, we shouldn't stop with just this
418.
by rbecker 6y ago
On the other hand, it is folly to ignore what professors are teaching, and what universities will tolerate or promote. Even if you dislike the messenger.
419.
by rbecker 6y ago
Huh, you're right. And https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/cv12.pdf shows rate of serious violent crime victimization in 2012 was 9.4 men vs 6.6 women per 1000 persons (with the rates even closer in prev
420.
by rbecker 6y ago
An armed society is a polite society...

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