Hacker News: lisptw102019

New comment by lisptw102019 in "How Ambient Chill Became the New Silence"

lisptw102019 — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 13:01:31 +0000

(Yeah, I use them in my ears too).

Cotton swabs aren't as precise as a Q-Tip for some types of cleaning/detailing.

New comment by lisptw102019 in "Doom creator John Romero on what's wrong with modern shooter games"

lisptw102019 — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 12:59:12 +0000

Probably Tom Hall. The breaking point for him was Doom; When you look at the level of interactivity/story in Doom 3, consider that it was 'closer' to his vision for the original than what was released in 1993.

Anachronox is probably the best example of what he thought was a 'proper' game, and while I've never had the chance to play it, I understand it was a very underappreciated gem in it's day.

New comment by lisptw102019 in "A new type of genetic profiling"

lisptw102019 — Fri, 08 Nov 2019 13:29:58 +0000

Unfortunately, Ladder-kicking is a pretty common thing in modern society. So is seeking profit at all costs.

In medicine we already see this where companies continually make new drugs that aren't always much better than the old one, but is 'better enough' that their salespeople convince doctors to use that one instead of the old one that has a generic.

What could we do to ensure that from day 1 this is universally accessible? This is VERY dangerous territory, we are talking about potentially bifurcating the human race here.

New comment by lisptw102019 in "The IRS has granted nonprofit status to a daily newspaper"

lisptw102019 — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 13:13:06 +0000

Church-state is related, but different.

'Churches' (this is a short reply so I don't have the definition handy) actually get additional benefits on top of a 501(c)3.

Specifically, if they follow certain rules they don't even have to file a proper return. They still have to throw some numbers the way of the IRS, but in addition to not having to file, religious orgs do not have to publish their returns (normal 501s must do so, part of the 'transparency' of their tax break is they must show CEO salaries, salaries of certain top paid employees, and other expenditures).

New comment by lisptw102019 in "Alphabet in bid to buy Fitbit"

lisptw102019 — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 18:05:26 +0000

Not enough people wanted Microsoft's in-house product when it existed, and it was even back then better than the competition in many ways.

I'm guessing they've learned their lesson after buying nokia...

New comment by lisptw102019 in "Massachusetts Sues Exxon over Climate Change, Accusing the Oil Giant of Fraud"

lisptw102019 — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 11:48:59 +0000

My understanding is that this is also a big part of the difference in emission standards between the US and EU. i.e. In the past we have been a lot more strict about things like NOX and other countries have been stronger about things like CO2. At least as far as diesels went, anyway.

New comment by lisptw102019 in "MIT Media Lab Scientist Used Refugees to Tout Food Computers That Didn't Work"

lisptw102019 — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 11:57:43 +0000

people tend to forget that most plants are around because they've been able to survive for thousands of years with minimal/no human intervention.

Of course, there are the outliers (Corn is the big one I'm thinking of here) and the monocropping we tend to do is a whole different problem...

New comment by lisptw102019 in "By removing “extremist content,” platforms are purging human rights evidence"

lisptw102019 — Thu, 24 Oct 2019 11:55:38 +0000

Bigger problem with human moderators is that the companies often keep them at arms length.

i.e. they will typically use contractors or contract houses for moderation work. Why? Because it allows for opportunities to minimize the cost of counseling (If you're doing serious moderation, they must provide mental health support services. But fixed-term contracts make this easier to contain/control, at the cost of the employee.)

New comment by lisptw102019 in "Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor"

lisptw102019 — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 11:35:11 +0000

Both of you are slightly off.

Quantum Supremacy is more about where quantum computers are clearly superior to non-quantum computers to solve a problem.

New comment by lisptw102019 in "Why Fiber Is Vastly Superior to Cable and 5G"

lisptw102019 — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 17:27:37 +0000

My facepalm is that a group like the EFF would likely want to point out the vulnerabilities in RF and 5G from a snooping standpoint.

My experience with all three techs from an Outside Plant aspect, tells me that Fiber probably would be the toughest for an outside party to snoop on (i.e. biggest physical access to network requirements)

New comment by lisptw102019 in "Why Isn't Functional Programming the Norm? [video]"

lisptw102019 — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 12:01:30 +0000

If my guess is right, that's because your company's product had their own proprietary language (MDL).

But, that was OK too, because if my guess is right, your company's product also had FAR FAR FAR better COM bindings than Autocad did for 99% of what you'd want to automate.