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6,408karma·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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I'm having difficulty reconciling this claim with how I see American society judging the worth of political candidates. (Also in the journalistic outlets American society values the most.)
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> Without having a source, I suspect a caveat wherein he will plug in to fully recharge the electric battery every X hours, which would be far less impressive. FTA, FWIW: "McDowell is usi…
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The fifth paragraph addresses the significance of your point. I'm skeptical, but I applaud him for making public a very specific and short-term goal that we can all watch: coast-to-coast USA on 4…
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Weasel story. At a small software company I worked for in the early 1990s, management included staff in a rebranding exercise. It was suggested (by management) that a majestic eagle could represent th…
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Referenced but not linked by the article: https://www.nationalityindex.com
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> All clock signals were derived from that single quartz. That meant that also the clocks driving the raster beam were derived from that single quartz. Yes, and that VIC clock also drives the SID …
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My prediction: At this level of AI-generated writing, keeping the works short will attract (allow?) small audiences ... but only to watch the human talent in the production struggle and improvise over…
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> Try putting a confirmation screen in your app that makes the user press "Renew" each month before the app charges them again. That would move you toward the moral end of the spectrum, b…
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> How does that prove milk is good for us? Or for them? Such proof was neither requested nor attempted. The challenge I responded to was, "Name one mammal besides humans who drink milk as adul…
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When presented with milk, many adult mammals (including some humans) will drink it. Humans are simply better than most at getting their way with other species -- this is the primary difference, is it…
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Sure, but putting aside pranks and vandals, the question remains what the AI does when there is a small (or large!) discrepancy between 1) physically-signed and 2) mapped/stored speed limits. I&#…
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Pebble CEO, Migicovsky, says about the Core, "Look, when you go for a run you can take this instead of taking your phone." I think the Core is really interesting but his hopeful "instea…
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Ray Kurzweil, perhaps.
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Why share that summary? It isn't just inadequate, it's actually wrong and misleading: "Likewise you almost certainly nix a garment purchase because the zipper YKK"
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Here is the patent for that product. Perhaps this will shed some light on how it works. I'll see myself out. http://www.google.com/patents/US5590093 …
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Off-street lots and garages in Vancouver and Seattle went PayByPhone gradually around the same time (early/mid 2000s). City streets didn't happen until much later.
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I can only comment on the "early years" of the company (2000-2011). It was a business decision -- we felt we created more company value by applying limited development budget and effort to w…
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Thank you for the kind words. Seattle was a good, early proving ground for us. (We were HQ'd in Vancouver, BC.)
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I sold my company (Verrus PayByPhone.com ) several years ago and so much of this resonates with me. Thanks to the author for his candid sharing. It was cathartic to read, even. > ... over 7 months…
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Thanks for the Thomas Silverstein fact. TIL. The "other side" does explain their rationale, valid or not: > "When an inmate kills a guard, he must be punished," a Bureau of Pris…
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> given the ingredients, it most likely tastes like glue The food reviewer did not taste the food reviewed. Sigh. I understand this is (I think?) a quantitative/nutritional food reviewer, but…
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As a western Canadian, it's fun (?) to joke about Quebec separation. (Indifference/irrelevance, right or wrong, is a common western view on it, I think.) I had to look this up but it seems …
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One could justify the sale of any unethical product or service to any despicable group this way, could they not? Is there ever a role for principled commerce?
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If things are catching fire "all the time", they need full-time firefighters. Get that frequency down to "once in a while" and an on-call role becomes reasonable, IMO.
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An observation ... Soundcloud's "samples-over-time thumbnail" actually serves a useful purpose in these side-by-side comparisons: You can see before listening that there is a differe…
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SAM (the Software Automatic Mouth) was available in 1982 for Apple, Commodore, & Atari 8-bit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_Automatic_Mouth …
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A quick search reveals two submissions here when Apple was granted that patent, three years ago. Zero comments. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4755374 https://news.y…
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I was with you until "so that IP addresses finally can represent identity". You don't mean actual (personal/account) identity, do you? IP addresses represent a location for deli…