simonblack

6 ms·

1.
by simonblack 2y ago
We are almost certainly not alone according to laws of probability. However .... The likelihood of ever meeting another set of intelligent creatures is highly unlikely, as the distances between the little islands of intelligence in the uni
2.
by simonblack 2y ago
Sour grapes, Paul. I didn't see the US's huge trade surpluses from 1940 to 1980 being a huge problem. Especially when one out of every two motor vehicles was being built in the US.
3.
by simonblack 2y ago
You have to hope your insurance claim is higher than (or at least as high as) your mortgage payout cost.
4.
by simonblack 2y ago
Samsung 43" 4K (Width:3840 Height:2160 Depth:24bpp) smart TV fed via HDMI "Works for Me".
5.
by simonblack 2y ago
Can you pay me what I want?
6.
by simonblack 2y ago
I think that "U.S. Technology Rules" is not correct. Taiwan's microchip technology is better than the US's. Several countries have hypersonic missile technology that's better. China's space technology is better
7.
by simonblack 2y ago
I got a new, better, improved wife out of mine. And I became a better person overall. Also 47 seems a bit high. Women go through a midlife crisis around 35-38 years old, men tend to have theirs in the early 40s.
8.
by simonblack 2y ago
Latest fad terminology. Up there with "User Friendly"* or "Fuzzy Logic" as meaningless waffle by Sales droids. * Somebody on the Net said of 'User Friendly' that it could be replaced by 'Lemon Scented&#x2
9.
by simonblack 2y ago
Operating systems didn't have the large memory space which is necessary to do that. The maximum RAM with 16 bits is only 64K. Bank switching chunks of RAM in and out of that 64K can give you a little more, but the compromise is that th
10.
by simonblack 2y ago
Stack Overflow has been bad for a decade or more. Of course it's dying. When people don't get answers they go elsewhere. When enough have gone elsewhere there is no one left to keep the website alive. I never go to Stack Overflow
11.
by simonblack 2y ago
NASA is broke. There is no funding. No way can NASA get to the Moon, much less Mars. The era when NASA could get guys to the Moon and back is gone. It will never come back. Sad but true.
12.
by simonblack 2y ago
It depends on the couple. My first marriage was not a happy one. My second marriage was a happy one.
13.
by simonblack 2y ago
Yes it would be. At first. Probably as good as it was for German armaments manufacturers pre-1945. That China war might have been winnable if it had been started by 2020. Now, probably not.
14.
by simonblack 2y ago
Very. Compare the height of Everest to the size of the Earth and it's an exceedingly small difference. Probably like the thickness of a film of paint on a baseball.
15.
by simonblack 2y ago
Which bit? The code without braces, or adding braces to debraced code? For me the debraced code is very ugly. And there is a reason why indented code went out of fashion in the 70s in favor of freeform. As years go by some new guy thinks he
16.
by simonblack 2y ago
Yes. Anything that's useful as a weapon, or as an adjunct to a weapon, can be targeted. That's why radar stations, or AWACS, can be targeted too. They are not offensive weapons in themselves, but they work as adjuncts to bombs, mi
17.
by simonblack 2y ago
Translation: I want paying customers before I have a working product. Definitely a very good business model. I hope it works out.
18.
by simonblack 2y ago
I answered this, the last time this article was submitted, yesterday. The Australian health care system which is a mix of government-funded care for everybody, including the rich. And privately-funded healthcare for those that can afford mo
19.
by simonblack 2y ago
Tariff wars never end well. Go at it!
20.
by simonblack 2y ago
That just signifies that HiLux trucks are very common, not how ISIS got lots of them. Those US Officials should be asking other US (Intel) Officials.
21.
by simonblack 2y ago
Non-mainstream OS is Linux. But Linux distro is very mainstream: Linux Mint MATE
22.
by simonblack 2y ago
It's all very well to shut the China R&D operations, but is the domestic R&D growing by an equivalent amount? Or is IBM's total R&D declining by the amount of that lost China R&D?
23.
by simonblack 2y ago
The single-payer health system. That covers everybody with a basic but high-quality level of health care. The rich can afford a (slightly) better health care using Private Health Insurance, but that generally only allows short-circuiting th
24.
by simonblack 2y ago
Some of us just can't return to the C programming language. We never left it. "If it works, don't fix it."
25.
by simonblack 2y ago
That's very true. But ... there has to be a change somewhere to get a different outcome. There has been no change, so there is no different outcome.
26.
by simonblack 2y ago
Faced with stagnating growth, Xi Jinping decided to go all in on manufacturing—and much of that production is destined for export So what has changed since the early 1990s? This is a 35-year-old policy. There's nothing 'New&#x27
27.
by simonblack 2y ago
Poor thinking. Better to reduce combat ships than support ships. Q: What do you call a destroyer that's out of ammo? A: A paperweight.
28.
by simonblack 2y ago
I've been a programmer since the 1970s. This bullshit theory gets trotted out every few years. 50 years in, and there are more and more programmers, not less and less.
29.
by simonblack 2y ago
Ho, hum. Linux has been on my desktop for 23 years.
30.
by simonblack 2y ago
IIRC 'blyat' means 'fuck' (or similar) in Russian. :)

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