stefanix

12 ms·

91.
by stefanix 12y ago
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is a bit dated. Comparative linguistics has shown very convincingly that pretty much all languages have a similar set of complex features. Even languages without a heritage, which are invented within two generatio
92.
by stefanix 12y ago
Developer here. I simply prefer satisfying defaults over crazy customization possibilities. Also dash and being able to call any file menu item through it is super fast and mostly mouse-less.
93.
by stefanix 12y ago
As somebody who used a laptop with touch screen and extensively uses the Unity Dash, I am getting increasingly perplexed by all this complaining about Unity (and also gnome, and windows 8) usability.
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by stefanix 13y ago
All of the above is easy to understand when you think of creativity as unconscious problem solving. Also John Cleese has a great talk about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU5x1Ea7NjQ
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by stefanix 13y ago
Dev here. Moved from OSX to Ubuntu a year ago. Love not having to agree-click ULAs all the time. Setting up dev stacks is very often so much easier and better documented. Working with open source software to develop open source projects is
96.
by stefanix 13y ago
You are mixing up what people can afford to what people think they need. It's a style your are criticizing. If anything Zurich has the highest frugality to wealth ratio on the planet, quite possibly.
97.
by stefanix 13y ago
> Creating a fake print that can fool the scanner is so much harder than stealing someone's debit/credit card. No, it's not. Starbug used simple means starting from a photo of a fingerprint. The fact that fingerprints are
98.
by stefanix 13y ago
It appears you are implying that people in the US are well off because they have a lot of free time. Funny/sad thing is that this is far from reality. People in the US work more than almost any other nation in the world.
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by stefanix 13y ago
Funny, I just realized that I never think of the UK when reading about Europe. In a surveillance context it certainly feels closer to the US. And then I watched this far to often a couple of years ago ... in a desperate wish to find some hu
100.
by stefanix 13y ago
Amending contracts before signing is a perfectly fine practice and should be done more often. I routinely do this to some reasonable extend. I once singed up for a gym membership that had terrible stipulation to the point it was offending.
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by stefanix 13y ago
Moved from MacBook Air/OSX to Ubuntu and super happy about it. The touchpad was tricky though. I had to deactivate the lower 20% (for clicking) and untrain me resting my thumb on the pad.
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by stefanix 13y ago
I switched to Linux after using OSX for 7 years. You do save a lot of time though not having to agree to EULAs and iTunes updates :)
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by stefanix 13y ago
Correct, it's called stylometry and means, given enough data, your normal writing is identifiable on the basis of content. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylometry
104.
by stefanix 13y ago
The biggest threat to the gov is quite possibly that Snowden's courage is contagious and it opens the flood gates on the more secret sides of power, stating with the intelligence and war industry. It could potentially change how govern
105.
by stefanix 13y ago
It's possible companies run an NSA module on their servers and let backdoor hacks happen based on an understanding the NSA will get pissed if they investigate. This provides full PRISM access and allows for deniability of direct access
106.
by stefanix 13y ago
The possibility that Facebook actually deletes "all the data stored on you" is negligible! I give it 0.00000000000000000001% likelihood. This is against anything Facebook has ever done. Empty words!
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by stefanix 13y ago
For anybody who wants to read about this process in the form of a fascinating self-biography should read "Ghost in the Wire" by Kevin Mitnick.
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by stefanix 13y ago
Author complains "I learned that it means nothing when I hear it is open source and peer reviewed." Yet his article wonderfully illustrates the opposite.
109.
by stefanix 13y ago
I had the chance to meet Doug as a student a couple of times. He showed me and my friend the NLS system and thought us basic typing on the chord keyboard. He was the grandpa I never had who's wisdom extends to the technology of the fut
110.
by stefanix 13y ago
From the last slide it appears M$ pretty much volunteered first, ahead of everybody else.
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by stefanix 13y ago
Was it one of these polls where they only call landlines? Not sure this means anything without exactly specifying how the poll was conducted.
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by stefanix 13y ago
There is certainly more you can do, specifically non-violent ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk1XbyFv51k http://beautifultrouble.org/
113.
by stefanix 13y ago
Nice, the atlantic just wrote an article along the same line. Even if you fully trust the current administration, why make yourself vulnerable to future ones ... http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013&#x2
114.
by stefanix 13y ago
Cool, so you already had your your moment of outrage. It's ok to be outraged more than once ... https://www.eff.org/nsa-spying/timeline
115.
by stefanix 13y ago
I do agree that many of us knew about the privacy implications of software as a service already and the outrage is somewhat artificial and about reminding others. It's still a notable event when huge amounts of personal data leave the
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by stefanix 13y ago
Good start to think about "nothing to hide". In addition there is no way of saying what becomes sensitive in the future and who might have access to the data. When pre-nazi germany collected religious census data it wasn't wi
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by stefanix 13y ago
Google can't offer proper encryption because most of their business model is based on analyzing all the personal data they store. At least it's very unlikely and I wouldn't hold my breath.
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by stefanix 13y ago
not touching anything facebook even with a long stick ;)
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by stefanix 13y ago
Not opposed to Bret's ideas but also feel he has never looked into how artists use code and design interactions. Many like programming environments that are visual (like max/msp) with immediate feedback while other prefer the austerity of c
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by stefanix 13y ago
CISPA will come back under a different name. Here is some historic context: http://blog.ted.com/2012/01/18/defend-our-freedom-to-share-o... tl;dr "Time Warner called, they want you back on the couch!"

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