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6,418karma·1,004submissions·November 20, 2012
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Darren Stone, Vancouver, BC, Canada
"Once men turned their thinking over to
machines in the hope that this would
set them free. But that only permitted
other men with machines to enslave
them." - Frank P. Herbert, Jr., 1965
"The programmer, like the poet, works
only slightly removed from pure
thought-stuff. He builds his castles
in the air, from air, creating by
exertion of the imagination."
- Fred P. Brooks, Jr., 1975recent activity (1,004 total)
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A contrasting point to the American trend: where I live (Vancouver, Canada) it is illegal to possess bulletproof or stab-proof clothing without a permit. (!) In fact, even DIY-ing your own protection …
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The article makes a much more limited claim than what the headline suggests: "the search for alien signals has so far found nothing in the 1.7 to 2.6GHz range" Scanning continues.
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An interstellar fungal communication/transportation network is also a ongoing plot element in the current season of "Star Trek: Discovery".
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You might know of (or else enjoy) Whittier, Alaska, a "city within a building" through each winter. https://www.npr.org/2015/01/18/378162264/welcome-to-wh…
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The round-trip request/response time for a command is 39 hours (!) ... I guess the team has normalized to that latency, but when asking a system to fire with paths of execution plus hardware plus…
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Observation: Coffee studies often report (in headlines and abstract and body) consumption in terms of cups . At best, this refers to a standardized 250 ml or 8 oz measuring cup (unfortunately, still …
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I wasn't familiar with that CPU so I just returned from an RCA 1802 rabbit hole.[1] Fascinating CPU with some neat 1970s applications (like spacecraft and the ELFs). Oh, and a member of the Radia…
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An unconscious impulse may be the product of evolution. The early air-breathers who didn't have that unconscious impulse would have died off. So given the opportunity for AI to evolve itself, i…
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If computers have a Maslowesque hierarchy of needs, I think the bottom tier (i.e. "physiological") may be the need for appropriate electrical power and a switch that remains "on". …
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For those intrigued by alternative music notation, I highly recommend the book "Notations 21" by Theresa Sauer. It's a gorgeous hardcover "art book" with full-page examples of…
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On second read, I get it. Thank you. That's big-thinking "marketing" to me, but it's there. :-) As long as a founder themselves owns that sort of marketing role then it gets the at…
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My intent wasn't to trivialize, only to prioritize. You're right; none of those alone are sufficient for success. But IMO the single most important priority for a founder of a software bu…
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Founder here. That list is a lot of cart before a horse. You could master all those points and still not have a company on your hands. #1: Solve an important enough pain point that companies or cons…
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Yes. Timeless wisdom, variations from many cultures: * The map is not the territory. * The finger points at the moon. One must not mistake the finger for the moon. etc.
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The article shares little-to-nothing about its headline claim.
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10.3.3? "This update requires a Wi-Fi network connection to download." Frustrating. I read this update may be 80-100 MB. Apple, please let me use my mobile data as I see fit. (And a security…
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It makes sense that during a lecture, simple transcription (associated with typing) yields worse results than cognition (associated with writing). So pardon my ignorance (long out of the formal st…
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I like this perspective. Eberhart takes it to an extreme but it seems worth reflecting on: "Shaving down one’s pack weight, he said, was a process of sloughing off one’s fears. Each object a pers…
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It's a good question because I understand Japan to be the region in the world where iOS dominates smartphones the most (over 50%?). I know RubyMotion has Android support and it continues to get b…
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> what they carry is much more like "organic junk-food" than actual food. There is truth to that. But the same guideline for healthy shopping applies as much to Whole Foods as any grocer:…
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I suspect a lot of HN probably listens to Sam Harris' podcast, but just in case ... there was a relevant episode last month where he and Gary Taubes discuss the whole "good calories vs bad c…
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And reasonably so. Partly, this is because the "best diet" at any given time depends on practical factors like availability and affordability. Both of those have been rapidly improving, I th…
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| "cheese is the most expensive ingredient in/on a pizza" I agree. Usually. ;-) Just for fun, I offer the menu for a nearby (Vancouver) pizza joint that includes several triple-digit-do…
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That a "toddler shuffle" requires not-yet-developed math techniques for analysis ... fascinating! > "The model does provide a framework for relating the size of the deck to the amoun…
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"We had also reported the benefit of using a copper-based device, contrived by us, which was as effective as the pot but at a fraction of the cost." [12] [12] https://www.ncbi.nlm…
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FWIW, on macOS, this places a phone call... $ open facetime-audio:6175007369 That URL scheme can also be used on iOS. [CLARIFICATION EDIT: this places a FaceTime Audio call. The number you're cal…
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A bomb hidden in the cargo hold is effective if the intent is to simply blow up the plane by timer/remote/altitude. But if the goal is to hijack the plane, then a bomb in hand could be a mor…
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Vancouver here. I'm curious ... What neighbourhoods did you spend your week in? Vancouver (and Toronto), when looking at the urban centres, boast lower-than-national rates of smoking. Source: ht…
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You're right. "I do not intend to publish or republish any work or text of which I am the author, ... Any edition or dissemination of such texts which have been made in the past without my c…