tc

31 ms·

241.
by tc 17y ago
This isn't about anarchy; it's about competition. The thing to keep in mind about governments is that people tolerate their abuses because they provide certain services (protection, property and contract enforcement, etc). The fundamental
242.
by tc 17y ago
You've been interviewed by a reporter, yes? His very next sentence could have been something like, "It's not going to be virus-proof, but I'm glad to see they're thinking about security early. There is still a lot that can be done at the
243.
by tc 17y ago
It's the same game of chess, but the pace seems to be picking up, and the strategic value of each piece placement is coming more clearly into focus. The players are locked into their strategic choices, and are now becoming more reactionary
244.
by tc 17y ago
Unwittingly perhaps (or necessarily), Microsoft has just done Google a huge favor. By virtue of Microsoft delivering a reasonably competitive search engine, Google is now in a much better position to show that they are not a monopoly. Bac
245.
by tc 17y ago
I don't want to continue this thread indefinitely, but you misunderstand the example. The redhead analogy is not demonstrating a result of lower social utility. It is demonstrating a clearly unjust and immoral result to the individua
246.
by tc 17y ago
I'm certainly aiming for a bit of comedic value, but my serious point is that if you have no real principles except the malleable 'highest social utility,' then a crafty politician or bureaucrat can basically justify anything.
247.
by tc 17y ago
The road to hell is paved with utilitarianism. That is to say, just because you can show that a policy produces gains on some statistical matrix does not mean that it is morally correct to coerce people into your scheme, particularly people
248.
by tc 17y ago
You must be talking about some other comment, because I don't mean to deny any of that. I was merely pointing out that on Google's largest (public) OS project to date (Android), Google evinced a strong desire for a copyleft-free userspace
249.
by tc 17y ago
Google did for Android so they could standardize around the Apache License for userspace. But who knows, they may not bother here. The netbook market is decidedly different than the mobile phone market, so they probably do not have the sa
250.
by tc 17y ago
Since they say they're implementing a new windowing environment for this project, there may not be a lot of porting overlap between Chrome for Chrome OS and Chrome for your normal Linux distribution.
251.
by tc 17y ago
If their approach to Android is any guide, much of the work will consist of eliminating any GNU or GPL components from the (userspace) runtime environment.
252.
by tc 17y ago
I know, I know; I've read bad code too. But I've also read plenty of bad code in languages that don't have goto. Copy-and-paste coding and reckless abuse of globals are worse and more prevalent than goto abuse in my experience. Besides, I
253.
by tc 17y ago
I like the joke, but I consider the reflexive anti-goto attitude harmful. Javascript would be a better language with a native goto statement. I think people forget the context of Dijkstra's paper. Scope-local gotos are qualitatively diff
254.
by tc 17y ago
When I saw this, I was hoping for the impossible, and was predictably disappointed. This is not the GOTO you know (at least, it will never match up to C or to CL's TAGBODY), as it cannot jump forward to labels declared textually later in t
255.
by tc 17y ago
[promote] the least competent individuals... and... promote individuals at random Many people engaged in large organizations might argue that this is already how things work.
256.
by tc 17y ago
Thanks Paul.
257.
by tc 17y ago
I believe the referenced story qualifies under that metric. In part, it's revisionist history -- and thereby anti-mainstream. And I very much doubt that the TMZ crowd would even be interested in parsing stories told from such a business/t
258.
by tc 17y ago
Could you elaborate on what is HN if not things that hackers find interesting (particularly " very interesting")? Not to be pedantic, but: "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and s
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Ask HN: Objecting to stories being killed
74 points by tc 17y ago|53 comments
260.
by tc 17y ago
My browser cookie settings are default-reject. Your site should allow me to at least take a look at your home page without needing a cookie.
261.
by tc 17y ago
I run FF on Debian (iceweasel), and it is acceptably snappy, but there is a bit of a trick to this: 1. Every extension you add seems to decrease performance by 30-50% (rough numbers) [1]. So live with a bare essential set of extensions. F
262.
by tc 17y ago
I agree with that. Anywhere the government coerces the market you're going to get distortions. Is playing favorites the worst type of market distortion? That's hard to judge, but it is probably the most egregious. I don't think that immi
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by tc 17y ago
I was with you until the last two paragraphs. After that point, you got it all backwards. Let's see: that's what free markets are - a chump's game You're blaming the wrong thing. I believe you mean to say, "pretending that the markets
264.
by tc 17y ago
...a modern rediscovery of the eastern idea of Yin and Yang.
265.
by tc 17y ago
Why not just open source your code (MIT-licensed perhaps), then give away the domain in one month to the person who takes it in the best direction? That would be easier than trying to evaluate people based on a HN comment and would almost
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by tc 17y ago
Many of those regimes are funded directly by US taxpayers in the form of foreign and military aid. It would seem more rational to stop that before using force to interfere in the choices of private individuals.
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by tc 17y ago
The first week of going polyphasic involves substantial sleep deprivation. You are basically worthless for 1-2 weeks, though you can catch up on some light reading (as I recall, I used the opportunity to dig back into PAIP...). After a cou
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by tc 17y ago
My time spent polyphasic was massively productive. The software and systems I developed during that time formed the foundation of my business. But then I acquired customers , resellers, contractors, and other business partnerships, whi
269.
by tc 17y ago
Having done the polyphasic experience some years back, and having a long-term girlfriend, I can confirm that it does not negatively impact the important things in life. In fact, because you have so many extra hours at your disposal, you can
270.
by tc 17y ago
there seems to be no scientific evidence that this works at all Do you know if there has been a serious scientific study of this technique? Otherwise, you're being a bit disingenuous in subtly applying the "unscientific" label. The set

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