surfmike

39 ms·

1. 421.▲
   by surfmike 11y ago

   Life expectancy has been increasing by ever smaller amounts in the past decades. I am hopefully that a lot of new technologies could help buck that trend, but so far the trends don't support the author's hypothesis.
2. 422.▲
   by surfmike 11y ago

   Here's an idea: auction off H1-B spots based on salary each month. And require the employers to pay that wage annually for at least 4 years. Would keep the H1-Bs for the most valuable candidates, and prevent its abuse as just a way to
3. 423.▲
   by surfmike 11y ago

   Sweden has more immigrants per capita than the US. It doesn't seem to be collapsing.
4. 424.▲
   by surfmike 11y ago

   Definitely Denmark stands out compared to their Scandinavian measures. But looking here ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_refugee... ) they still have 4x refugees per capita compared to the US, 2x mo
5. 425.▲
   by surfmike 11y ago

   Interesting, thanks for that. You guys should really consider making this a platform that anyone could use!
6. 426.▲
   by surfmike 11y ago

   How is this different from Akamai's IP Application Accelerator ( https://www.akamai.com/us/en/solutions/products/web-performa... )? Honestly curious. I would love to see a consumer videoconferencing s
7. 427.▲
   by surfmike 11y ago

   Let's worry about that when it happens. My point is that it's premature to talk about introducing a UBI when there's so many needs out there. Also, caring for children/elderly is not something that is necessarily desirab
8. 428.▲
   by surfmike 11y ago

   There is so much work out there to be done, it's laughable that we are talking about paying people for doing nothing. Think about all the elderly retiring people that will need to be cared for. All the working moms who struggle to find
9. 429.▲
   by surfmike 11y ago

   Yes, especially since it's not because of anything they've done. Being forced to leave where you've lived your life, where your friends and family is, because of money is definitely a hardship.
10. 430.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    An expensive house doesn't make you richer unless you're selling it and live somewhere cheaper. And in our society it's a given that predictability of costs is one of the benefits you get from buying a house.
11. 431.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    It would make the law more complicated, but I think the property tax should be recalculated annually based on your property value but it should also be capped to a percentage of income. You could set a floor of the existing prop-13 tax rate
12. 432.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    if you're running multiple rails processes on a server like this, couldn't you somehow do the initialization in one process, then fork off the new processes? wouldn't that prevent the base libraries from being copied in memor
13. 433.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    I use the mobile app all the time, and it seems good enough -- why do you think it sucks? What could be better about it?
14. 434.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    what is 2ch?
15. 435.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    Maybe. I'm not sure the analogy to companies holds, however. Small companies are innovative since they are growing, usually out of startups -- there really isn't an analogy of a "startup" for governments. At the very lea
16. 436.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    Completely agree that subsidizing university tuition is a regressive policy - taxing all of society to benefit the 33% of the population or so who go to college. However, upfront fees of course are a big deterrent to poorer students, and th
17. 437.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    I was curious, looked up the numbers for the US vs UK: UK annual tuition: $9,000 - $13,440 (the max for public) [1] US avg annual tuition, public: $9,410 [2] US avg annual tuition, private: $32,405 [2] It's possible fees might not matt
18. 438.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    You will always have a chicken and egg problem with jobs. Company towns are one solution and as people pointed out, they can be horrible. But I think a fantastic idea would be developing an empty area, say, 45 minutes from a job hub, and ru
19. 439.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    If everyone pours much of BI income into mortgages but the supply of housing stays limited, then the price of existing houses will just go up-- and much of the BI income will get eaten up by housing price inflation.
20. 440.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    I understand why a homogenous population helps - more social cohesion, etc. But why does a smaller population and land area make any difference?
21. 441.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    I'd say the bottom 50% live much more prosperously in Denmark than in the US.
22. 442.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    edit: The more I think about it, the more I think this is important regardless of the cost of land. If it became cheaper to "start over" and redevelop underused lots, you could scale up density a lot faster. In that vein, technolo
23. 443.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    Better remote work technologies would certainly help. For now, most tech companies have found that working face to face is really vital.
24. 444.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    Logistics will make a big difference. But distance will always matter for transportation. Also, walking on foot will always remain a core human experience of cities and buildings (I hope)-- and technology can't change walking speed muc
25. 445.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    I often think about big cities where people have reasonably priced housing options available. Two great examples for me are Tokyo and Berlin. I think a big factor in both is a combination of dense traditional city planning, and transportat
26. 446.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    Excavation is expensive and that's the main reason people don't use it. Trains are hard to build in established areas but self-driving cars, ride sharing, and hyper loop point to new ways enabled by technology. I agree that zoning
27. 447.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    Yup, it's expensive so generally only used in expensive projects. But it's a way of manufacturing land (or rather, saving land that would otherwise go for garages, storage, or other facilities that don't need windows). This m
28. 448.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    "What can startups do to increase prosperity for everyone?" I think cheap quality housing is a huge area that would help everyone. Taxes and housing together eat up the vast majority of the earnings most people make. What could ma
29. 449.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    Very valid comment. It is quite segregated (goo.gl/MbPC5N). After a bit of research, it seems that maybe Houston does have something like zoning after all. Apparently, there are lot size restrictions, density restrictions, buffering or
30. 450.▲
    by surfmike 11y ago

    CDG (Communications Design Group) at SAP is where Bret Victor and a lot of other people work on research. I think a big focus is changing how we program in the future.