ridgeguy

55 ms·

631.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
I suggest you simultaneously pursue the buyout and continue trying to raise your funding. Neither event is 100% likely to succeed, hence do both. If it turns out you get to choose which one happens, that's a nice choice to have. And pl
632.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
Depending on the charge and the defendants' jobs at Equifax, a standard of conduct that could be applied is "knew, or should have known".
633.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
And modern dentistry...
634.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
I agree with the shortcomings of NYT comments you note. But they're at least an order of magnitude better than those at WaPo because they have humans curating them. I don't read WaPo comments anymore, the signal/noise ratio i
635.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
Perhaps Apple could add gestures to the facial unlock. Example: If I raise my left eyebrow twice in rapid succession, my iPhone would enter passcode-only unlock mode, or do a factory reset, etc.
636.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
Well, there is that. Maybe reality is that no set of security practices can ever secure PII. If so, that's an even bigger problem than lackadaisical firms like Equifax. But I think higher expectations, helped along with civil legal mac
637.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
I wonder if the legal concept res ipsa loquitur (the thing speaks for itself) could apply here? It's one foundation of tort law. The argument would be that the very fact that PII security was breached demonstrates defendant's negl
638.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
I don't understand your bitcoin example. If I understand bitcoin, the work of mining increases as more bitcoins (wealth) are produced. The rich can buy more mining hardware, start/hire mining services, etc. than the non-rich. Over
639.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
Today at lunch with a friend in Palo Alto, we measured 106°F at our table in the shade. We ate outdoors because the cafe had no A/C and was intolerable.
640.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
Books are like lovers. They change you, even if you don't recall the particulars.
641.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
I agree there's much more sea floor than land area to use, and that it gets 'renewed' faster than continental land masses. On the other hand, we know so little about submarine ecosystems - what might be important in sustainin
642.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
My automotive longevity anecdata: '99 Toyota 4Runner, 232K miles (currently own); '85 Honda Civic, 197K miles; '59 VW bus, ~490K miles (with a rebuild of the 40hp engine at ~240K miles and a transaxle from a junker at ~300K m
643.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
There appear to be rich seabed rare earth deposits that are feasible to mine. [1] [1] https://phys.org/news/2013-03-japan-rich-rare-earth-deposits...
644.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
The WP article says that "Most lab-grown stones are produced via a blasting process..." This is not true. Where "lab-grown stones" means gem quality diamonds, they're produced by microwave-activated plasma chemical
645.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
Maybe the diffractive elements the paper proposes could deflect wavelengths not used by plants. This would reduce total insolation on Earth but leave photosynthesis and CO2 absorption untouched.
646.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
The article says that diamond (the material used for simulation) is a nondispersive medium. Diamond is an optically dispersive material, with a dispersion constant of about 0.044 [1]. Does the article use dispersion to mean something differ
647.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
Although quick fueling is a selling point, I think the real advantage lies in use of an existing distribution system for energy in liquid form. This would facilitate widespread adoption of electric vehicles without requiring new purpose-bui
648.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
Yep. Supposedly, Heisenberg thought the explanation of turbulence worthy of putting the question to God. And didn't expect an answer to be forthcoming. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turbulence
649.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
I tried this decades back with a (then) expensive Hughes HeNe laser, a 20x microscope eyepiece for beam focusing and a phototransistor detector feeding a HeathKit audio amp. The laser spot size covered about three grooves. But for playing t
650.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
Really good point. I hadn't thought about what volcanic-sourced water vapor would do to just about everything a drone is made of. Not pretty, I'm sure.
651.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
The article suggests a considerable degree of physical danger in walking around to collect hot pool water samples. This would be a good use case for drone-based collection, at least for surface samples.
652.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
It might be reckless endangerment, which is a crime that does not require actual harm to have occurred. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endangerment
653.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
I'd like to question your view. First, you've omitted a major downside of digital vs. paper systems, scalability. Attacks on paper systems are much harder to scale, are more easily detected and more readily audited by staff who ne
654.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
In-ground gives additional protection, but things can still get away. Beacon Power is AFAICT the leader in deployed flywheel electrical energy storage. Their units are all underground. One of their failures dislodged a heavy concrete and st
655.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
I assume you mean flywheels. Flywheel energy storage seemed appealing until I worked on it in an energy storage startup. Flywheels require expensive protection against catastrophic failure. The costly part isn't fragment containment, t
656.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
One advantage of microwave sintering over older methods (like muffle furnaces) is more even heating because energy is deposited throughout the volume of the part, not just at the surface. Reduced thermal gradients -> more predictable pos
657.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
This a predictable consequence of heroin's illegal status. It's a shift by vendors to higher value density materials. During U.S. prohibition, vendors replaced illegal beer with gin, moonshine, etc. (higher alcohol/mass and
658.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
May I suggest Johann Hari's book "Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs"? It addresses (among other things) the personal responsibility component of American attitudes towards drug use. I found it in
659.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
But it seems that increased economic benefits aren't shared. Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century, average adjusted worker wages in the US from ~1975 to present, etc. I'm concerned that 'some short term d
660.
by ridgeguy 9y ago
Try substituting in "wealth accumulation regardless of adverse effects" for paperclips. Some humans have adopted that goal. If I understand your view, it should be a goal that an AGI could run with. I think 'killer robots&#x2

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