m_d

I'm sure I already posted this last time this subject came up, but the Soviets also prototyped a Moonraker-esque laser pistol for their cosmonauts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_laser_pistol

Here is another quote from Chomsky. It makes a lot of the same points, but it is much less hostile towards sports fans:

"Well, let me give an example. When I'm driving, I sometimes turn on the radio and I find very often that what I'm listening to is a discussion of sports. These are telephone conversations. People call in and have long and intricate discussions, and it's plain that quite a high degree of thought and analysis is going into that. People know a tremendous amount. They know all sorts of complicated details and enter into far-reaching discussion about whether the coach made the right decision yesterday and so on. These are ordinary people, not professionals, who are applying their intelligence and analytic skills in these areas and accumulating quite a lot of knowledge and, for all I know, understanding. On the other hand, when I hear people talk about, say, international affairs or domestic problems, it's at a level of superficiality that's beyond belief.

In part, this reaction may be due to my own areas of interest, but I think it's quite accurate, basically. And I think that this concentration on such topics as sports makes a certain degree of sense. The way the system is set up, there is virtually nothing people can do anyway, without a degree of organization that's far beyond anything that exists now, to influence the real world. They might as well live in a fantasy world, and that's in fact what they do. I'm sure they are using their common sense and intellectual skills, but in an area which has no meaning and probably thrives because it has no meaning, as a displacement from the serious problems which one cannot influence and affect because the power happens to lie elsewhere."

Basically, sports fans aren't stupid, they just don't think they can have any effect on anything more important (ex: politics).

http://www.alternet.org/noam-chomsky-why-americans-know-so-m...

Improving access to mental healthcare in the US would do a lot to reduce gun deaths.

For some perspective, check out the CDC's "Leading Causes of Death":

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm

I'm not familiar with the real estate situation there beyond "people are being priced out of Palo Alto". Is the city averse to all new construction or just lower-cost housing?

Does Palo Alto have regulations regarding minimum apartment size? If not, lower-cost microapartment complexes might make a good long-term investment.

I've enjoyed banking with Simple over the past couple years, but if they move my account to BBVA, I'll be leaving for a credit union.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBVA#Criminal_charges:_money_la... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBVA#Connection_to_drug_syndica...

I know most banks have some skeletons in their closets, but BBVA seems to be less ethical than average.

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Stephen Levy (http://amzn.com/1449388396)

A great look at the people involved in the early years of personal computing, including Stallman, Gates, Wozniak, etc. Apart from the technology, Levy discusses the basic philosophy and motivations of the personalities involved.

I haven't read it, so I can't vouch for it, but Snakes in Suits [1] is a frequently recommended book on this subject.

[1] http://amzn.com/0061147893

Was there any further evidence of this? I remember a lot of speculation at the time of Hasting's death, but I never saw anything conclusive.

The default design reminds me of Joy Division.

http://imgur.com/OaKCSUp

  Assuming that they have arrested the correct person

This is not something that you get to assume.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Due_Process_Clause

I don't see how opt-in messages from a paid service qualify as spam.

While you may never read them, a surprising number of people do. I had an internship where my primary responsibility was composing HTML emails that went out to users on a weekly basis. If I remember correctly, the majority of our users opened the emails, and roughly 5-10% clicked on a link to content on the site. I imagine these number vary quite a bit, but for a site with a paid membership we saw a lot of traffic from HTML newsletters.

Anyone else find it interesting that the author is from Liberty University?

I would definitely pay for something like this. The ability to approve installs remotely would be amazing.

I have a great deal of respect for self-experimenters, no matter how crazy they seem.

That said, I'd like to see him compare two months of Soylent to two months of eating solid meals with a similar nutritional profile. Most of the benefits he has experienced are probably just a result of extremely well-balanced diet, not anything specifically related to Soylent.

Twunt? Well, I guess you learn something new every day.

I had a similar experience while working at a big-box retailer in high school. You don't get to have many "feel-good" experiences in retail, but using MS Word to sell a deaf woman a computer was one of those rare occasions.

Pretty much.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/06/texas_gops...

Because humans have never killed each other for dubious reasons, right?

I'm not sure how this information is relevant.

How long do I have to wait for a John McAfee biopic starring Al Pacino?

Have you considered adding an Amazon affiliate link to the website for purchasing a Bluetooth heart rate monitor?

My favorite review of Primer:

"Anybody who claims they fully understand what’s going on in ‘Primer’ after seeing it just once is either a savant or a liar."

Vaguely reminds me of Snake Eyes, by Tom Maddox, though not quite as extreme.

http://www.dthomasmaddox.com/snakeeyes.htm

> I'm starting to think that for anyone to call themselves an industrial designer, they should be required to get an ME degree, and actually see how products work and are manufactured. Your design school degree means nothing to me.

There is a semi-controversial architect named Peter Eisenman who made a similar claim. His thought was that architecture should only be studied at the graduate level, leaving your undergraduate education for something more practical.

After getting a taste of undergraduate design education, I'm inclined to agree.

I'll try to keep it short, since my thoughts on this subject can easily turn into a long-winded rant. Also, this applies to both industrial design and architecture, as there is a lot of overlap between the two.

1) Practicality vs "creativity"

When you see design projects, such as the cardboard bike, that are clever but completely impractical, design schools and design contests are largely to blame. This is the kind of design that will win you prestigious awards and good grades, but will never actually see production. There is a huge disconnect between the kind of design that most designers want to do, and what they actually make a living doing. As a result, they fetishize these impractical concept pieces.

2) Design education vs professional practice

Most design schools are still teaching (and grading students on) their hand-drafting skills. The number of professional firms that produce finished work entirely by hand is getting smaller and smaller every day, and yet many schools do not teach their students digital design, or do so on a very superficial level. Note: This applies to hand-finished final designs. I believe that hand-sketching is still invaluable in the early stages.

3) Cost of education vs reward

The job market for designers is abysmal. And if you do manage to get a job, you will be paid much less than the rest of your college-educated peers, despite working longer hours and (in the case of architecture) spending longer in school. Design school itself is outrageously expensive, even at state institutions, due to the cost of class materials and the fact that most programs do not leave you with enough free time to hold down a job.

In short, I'm studying computer science now, and couldn't be happier.

Thank you. You've just described one of the top three reasons I left my industrial design program for computer science.