nihilocrat

6 ms·

1.
by nihilocrat 13y ago
> I've worked in environments like that. Unfortunately, the open space looks like "not working" to people and is highly visible. Since no one wants to be publicly seen as not working, they just ended up being a very nicely
2.
by nihilocrat 14y ago
This one's particularly great: http://youtu.be/1-zhdU4GSBA You can tell there are pretty often some weird syncing errors, but hey, it's worth it for stuff like this.
3.
by nihilocrat 14y ago
Drone attack. Just to clarify, I'm not wearing a tinfoil hat, I just have seen the circumstances of some drone attacks: against US citizens in places where no war was declared and with collateral damage shrugged off. From the US perspective
4.
by nihilocrat 14y ago
If they did that here, we'd need to find a new CEO... but the programmers would be in good shape.
5.
by nihilocrat 14y ago
Am I the only one who can't read this graph? It looks like it's rotated 90 degrees and there's no time axis so I don't see what this is representing. I don't understand what the legend for the Y axis means.
6.
by nihilocrat 14y ago
I also think government dilutes the effectiveness of the experts it employs, but at the same time the private sector is amazingly, exceedingly incapable of seeing benefit from anything but immediate profits. Investing in highly risky pilot
7.
by nihilocrat 14y ago
This is not really possible if you are working on a mass-market product, like a videogame. Financial success is synonymous with publicity, so if you STFU you will almost certainly not succeed. Sure, you don't need to brag about it or post s
8.
by nihilocrat 14y ago
"If you destroy publicly funded research, you leave us in a situation where only the big corporations can afford the drastic security precautions needed to continue biotechnology research - and you therefore further promote a situation y
9.
by nihilocrat 14y ago
Why recharge when you can just replace the batteries in such a situation? It would make for a better show, anyways.
10.
by nihilocrat 14y ago
Crytek deserves all the praise they get for their hard work in rendering... ...but... Why are we conditioned to think that "the future of gaming" is solely a function of a game's audiovisual quality? I would like to see a "future of gaming"
11.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
I don't feel the analogy is entirely accurate. Imagine having to learn 5 "if" statements, or 10 ways to say "++". In a spoken conversation, you don't get to look up the API docs if you forgot something. However, most programmers are likely
12.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
What you are doing is called code-switching: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching
13.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
I use "exploiting" in a more technical sense here. An exploit is using a bug in the game for personal gain, in an always-on multiplayer game with an economy affecting all players, the permanent effects of an exploit can be much worse. That'
14.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
Actually, there's a major shift in the industry (to "free to play") that companies have been making. Basically, the company provides an in-game item shop where players can use real money to buy in-game items. These shops accomplish pretty m
15.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
I work at a company that makes MMOs. If this guy's statements are true, then he was making significantly more money exploiting an MMO than I do by programming one. The irony is staggering.
16.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
I believe NYC is implementing a bike-share program like the ones in Montreal, London, and other cities. Basically, you pay a subscription fee (or you can just pay as you go, of course) to get a bike from a docking station, ride it to anothe
17.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
Move to Canada? It's easier than moving to the US. :)
18.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
This sounds like the most common reaction to users accidentally causing errors in data: lock everything down and only allow a very specific operation, and complain loudly and specifically (i.e., incomprehensibly) if they get out of line, i
19.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
You can't compare seeing human beings interacting in a "true 3D", real-life setting to the same thing happening on a screen. You don't get depth perception, and there are artifacts of recording in video and audio (even in modern HD shows) t
20.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
There is a cool German word for companies like Facebook or Google, which collect mounds of information about their users: Datenkrake : http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datenkrake
21.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
Video games allow the user to interact with the media and cause reactions to input. It allows us to explore causality at a very personal level, even though the systems and entities invovled are entirely virtual. Live theater allows the user
22.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
I've always been curious, regarding "speaking with a Southern drawl, with a stuffed-up nose from a bad cold" ... are there non-native English speakers here who have had particular difficulty using speech-to-text because of an accent? Have t
23.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
Reminds me of Carl Sagan's musings on marijuana usage.
24.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
Insurance would not be quite as clear-cut, but I suppose it would be a sensible option. Companies would point to herd immunity (linked in the comments above) to avoid paying for vaccination for 30% or so of the population. I'm sure they hav
25.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
For the record, since Netflix Canada launched sometime last year, it has been a streaming-only service. We have a kind of sucky selection that is getting better as time passes, but I can understand why they went streaming-only. From this pe
26.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
Here in Montreal (perhaps also in other large cities) I can order groceries online from any of the major supermarkets and have them delivered to me (mind you, I don't have a car) for a reasonable minimum order value and a mere $2-3 extra. M
27.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
Because our main job skills do not revolve around self-promotion and manipulation of others.
28.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
The fact that human beings are capable of spending "an entire week devoted to thinking up ways of being cruel to another human being" when the other human being has been nothing but honest and welcoming is why I believe that we are an inher
29.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
Basically the biggest trouble I have had learning a spoken language is in getting over the awkwardness of never being able to understand the other person or come up with a quick reply. You probably need to get used to sounding like an idiot
30.
by nihilocrat 15y ago
That's a good point, but I think it's a similar issue to computer security. Yeah, changing your SSH port to a custom one isn't going to keep out someone who scans your ports, but it will keep out the millions of losers who are looking for e

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