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thehm

This is a very rosey interpretation of Al-Fayed and glosses over vast swathes of fraud and misrepresentation. A more balanced view can be gained from the Guardian, itself no fan of the British establishment: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/02/mohamed-al-fay...
Where I live, they can only legally be sold to people ≥ 18 years old. Maybe that should be more commonplace?
Where can one buy an internet connection without being at least 18 years old?

To use your analogy, it is parents who are paying for the alcohol and then leaving it in a place where it is easy for their children to access. Responsible parents either teach their children about appropriate alcohol use or make it difficult to access, or both.

Re:Liu Cixin's Technologies of the Future on Friday January 13, 2023 @07:49AM (#34366984)
Nice graphics, but the article misses what was the most interesting new (to me) idea in the books: the Droplets, which are made of "strong interaction" material so dense that miniscule amounts can destroy planets. I'd love to read more about this idea.
Re:Liu Cixin's Technologies of the Future on Friday January 13, 2023 @07:45AM (#34366958)
The Dark Forest problem posits that in the time required to send a message to a distant civilisation, the sender could just as easily send something that would destroy the distant civilisation. Further, that it is not possible to know without communication whether a distant civilisation would have peaceful or belligerant intent. Therefore, any civilisation that knows the existence of another should pre-emptively destroy the other rather than risk waiting to find out if it is peaceful

If FTL communication is possible, it could be possible to establish the other civilisations intent before they could send anything destructive.

As for the Sophon's it might be that they require a compatible recipient to work and so first require matter to be sent to the distant location. It's a long time since I read the Three Body books, but I seem to remember them being based on quantum-entangled particles, which would fit with this.

Re:Improving code review time at Meta on Friday November 18, 2022 @04:10AM (#33652204)
Those architectural decisions should be reviewed during the design and planning phase so mid/low-level devs don't waste time building the wrong thing in the first place.
Re:How the light moves on Thursday August 18, 2022 @08:54AM (#32508925)
See also Subtract by Leidy Klotz, which examines how problems can often be more easily solved by removing rather than adding, contrary to our natural bias.
Re:Ditch your version manager on Monday September 20, 2021 @01:55AM (#28590714)
Looks interesting, but I don't see any benefits over using conda. And given the network effect benefit, conda seems like it will remain the more useful tool.
Re:First E-Ink like color tablet with Tcl NXTPAPER technology on Thursday January 14, 2021 @06:51AM (#25775290)
That's the exact purpose I got a reMarkable 2 for, and have been so glad that I did. It's not perfect, but it's a far better experience than using a tablet, laptop or print-out.
Re:Flour Fixated on Tuesday September 22, 2020 @07:10AM (#24553123)
As it mentions, there are many uses of plain white flour other than bread.

> Flour can be engineered into a series of deeply likeable textures, from the softness of sponge cake to the crispness of a cracker to the custardy satisfaction of a Yorkshire pudding.

Re:Apple’s dongle problem isn’t getting any better on Monday September 21, 2020 @09:23AM (#24543050)
Docks are just for transitioning.

If/when all devices use USB-C you just plug your first monitor in and then use it's USB-C hub to connect all other devices.

Re:Seven Sets Venn Diagram on Friday July 31, 2020 @06:53AM (#24007427)
Just use an Upset plot already.
Link for convenience: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/cont...

The package name is 'com.google.android.apps.podcasts'

Re:How Big Technical Changes Happen at Slack on Thursday February 13, 2020 @05:46PM (#22322171)
One example of Slack's decision making process is discussed in Jake Knapp's Sprint book. Essentially, create rapid disposable prototypes and test on real people to address specific problems.