vannevar

67 ms·

811.
by vannevar 6y ago
But is 4chan an inevitable product of its structure, or of its originating culture? Back when it was the next big thing, I worked with a social bookmarking startup. Weirdly, our site was colonized by a sizable group of Harry Potter fan fict
812.
by vannevar 6y ago
It wasn't better because verified accounts were locked out; it was better because accounts with large amounts of social capital were locked out. It temporarily reset a social network to a more egalitarian state, before the winner-take-
813.
by vannevar 6y ago
It's worth noting that what the author describes as functional testing was, in fact, what unit testing was originally intended to be. "Unit" referred to a unit of functionality, not a unit of code. But that was an ambiguous c
814.
by vannevar 6y ago
It's an interesting article, but the essential information is buried in the middle: In my experience, it’s only when I get on an editorial playlist that my songs get heavily featured on algorithmic playlists like Discover Weekly. So h
815.
by vannevar 6y ago
The idea of collaborative annotation has been around since the beginning of the web. I tried to launch an annotation startup myself back in 2000, and there were several funded competitors back then. It never catches on. It would be interest
816.
by vannevar 6y ago
I agree with you that "manipulated" seems like an exaggeration, these notes all involve decisions that don't seem unreasonable. But however you slice it, it's hard to interpret that first point as a good sign for the fut
817.
by vannevar 6y ago
There's no fundamental reason we can't simply roll back the clock to Q4 2019. Well, other than the global pandemic that is still extant and killing nearly 1000 people a day in the US. And all of the bankruptcies and small busine
818.
by vannevar 6y ago
Yes. As long as the government continues to pour money into the top end of the wealth curve, those people will continue to put it in the market. Under the circumstances, there is certainly no rush to invest it into their businesses in the f
819.
by vannevar 6y ago
Both Packingham and Knight involve government action to deny others access to social media. They don't involve any obligations of social media sites themselves to provide access.
820.
by vannevar 6y ago
Like it or not, a couple tech platforms are the de facto new town squares. I'd agree, but de facto is not de jure. And if we're going to make them into public spaces legally, it's certainly not going to happen through an ex
821.
by vannevar 6y ago
The article also fails to mention concerns about the accuracy of antibody tests, which is odd, given how much press I've seen on those problems in the past few days. The author covers the science beat for NPR, so it seems unlikely he w
822.
by vannevar 6y ago
The only reason we had to resort to indiscriminate lockdowns here in the US was that we failed to prepare for the eventuality of an epidemic back in January. Had we deployed robust testing to our major urban areas in late February or early
823.
by vannevar 6y ago
"Everyone just wants to take something easy off the board that you can get done in a day so you have something to report in tomorrows daily scrum." Then you have nothing to worry about, you don't have any great developers.
824.
by vannevar 6y ago
Good point. I was assuming using the rate per capita would be best case, but you're right, you'd also need underlying illness rates. I think the point stands though, that hospitalization rates for otherwise healthy patients under
825.
by vannevar 6y ago
The mortality rate is not the only consideration. People don't want to die, sure, but they also don't want to spend a couple of weeks in the hospital. And that risk, even for those under 65, is much, much higher: at least 1 in 1
826.
by vannevar 6y ago
Yes, I would bet this accounts for the vast majority of the effect. Hard to test the theory, though. Maybe look at the driving records of the deceased, see whether the average number of past offenses was also higher.
827.
by vannevar 6y ago
If you take the low end of the prevailing IFR estimates (~0.5%), the 5700-odd deaths would mean an infection rate of ~12% in London (population ~9M). If you assume 40% of deaths are not properly reported as COVID-19, that gets you to around
828.
by vannevar 7y ago
You could just as easily say that you agree on the feature set beforehand, and you deliver that feature set, not more, not less (you deliver sooner if you finish the features early). "The quality level you agreed beforehand" is me
829.
by vannevar 7y ago
I think I have to agree. I understand the impulse to say that it's implicit, and certainly the desire to build a quality product usually is. But in reality, to actually verify quality before you ship often requires a lot of costly in
830.
by vannevar 7y ago
He may be in a financial bind. It's not inconceivable that he could be shorting Tesla through third parties. The other nonsensical tweets could be camouflage. Or, yeah, maybe he's just a little too high.
831.
by vannevar 7y ago
I did watch the video. At about the 5-minute mark, they make a huge error in extrapolating the percent positive of tests to the general population (in California, 12% positive test rate). As many others have pointed out, that is an inexcusa
832.
by vannevar 7y ago
Does Youtube also censor videos where plumbers present an incorrect way to install a toilet that can lead to backflow and flooding. 1) They probably would censor the plumber, if they received enough complaints about it, and 2) an incorrec
833.
by vannevar 7y ago
If you're saying that it's a problem that something that has become of great public utility is a de facto monopoly entirely in the hands of private interests, sure. But given that, the unfettered censorship is a feature, not a bug
834.
by vannevar 7y ago
However you choose to define the term "excess deaths", the fact remains that there are tens of thousands of people alive today who would be dead if we all took your advice and ignored the notion of social distancing. Does that mak
835.
by vannevar 7y ago
NYC did not particularly flatten their curve, and they did not see excess deaths due to lack of available care. I'm pretty sure all the family members of the people who died would regard their loved ones as "excess deaths".
836.
by vannevar 7y ago
This. Human success is much more attributable to our social instincts than it is to our capacity for reason. As an individual, your survival chances were much greater if you were part of a group than on your own, even if that group was high
837.
by vannevar 7y ago
"... it's not clear at all what our "drastic action" is achieving..." It's no coincidence that the city that shows a much higher prevalence also experienced a much more acute infection, straining their medical
838.
by vannevar 7y ago
According to the CDC web site, those numbers are 35.5M flu cases and 34,200 deaths ( https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2018-2019.html ), giving an IFR of more like 0.1%. Which would put COVID-19 at more like
839.
by vannevar 7y ago
A couple possibilities: - There's a lot more testing in Washington state, so there aren't as many undocumented cases as, say, Florida. - Sparse Kinsa device coverage in Washington, and since the infection rate is still low vs the
840.
by vannevar 7y ago
Can you test negative and still be contagious? That would obviously make the potential ratio much larger.

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