wam

5 ms·

1.
by wam 13y ago
Very interesting background in the last link, thank you. Informative comments in a discussion, in response to a question, are also often my friends.
2.
by wam 13y ago
This is what's interesting to me about one argument in favor of GM. On the one hand, the author seems to argue (here and in her books) that GM is merely an extension of what farmers have been doing for ages, and that the type tools and
3.
by wam 13y ago
I've been seeing this book pop up all over the place for the past year or so. It seems to be the go-to recommendation from friends to other friends who are frustrated at not finding relief from chronic pain after trying many other trea
4.
by wam 13y ago
It looks like the document is included in the article in a PDF viewer. Sometimes those don't show up because of ad-blockers. The Examiner does tend to cherry-pick, and it's definitely worth reviewing the document. I searched the d
5.
by wam 13y ago
Hey, likewise! Unfortunately there's no kickstarter for better bullying utilities. At least this does things that they might also want to do? Calculating: still for nerds. But imagine being able to check your notifications while holdin
6.
by wam 13y ago
Well, true, that's what we've grown up with: handles that are clever and reflect something about us (or deflect everything about us). But who wants to use john.basketball.expert@gmail.com as a professional contact address? Unless
7.
by wam 13y ago
The namespace market is growing all the time. Something to consider when naming your kids.
8.
by wam 13y ago
Brooks's entire business model is getting people to respond to what he writes, however stupid it is. "Trolling for money" (a trite observation, but there it is). It's unfortunate that even sound rebuttals like this one f
9.
by wam 13y ago
That's a good soundbite (honestly), but it doesn't jibe with my experience.
10.
by wam 13y ago
I think this campaign largely misses the more interesting problem, which is that we got to this point despite the fact that 1984 is a bestselling cornerstone of literature. It's been required reading in high schools for years and years
11.
by wam 13y ago
Whenever something happens that people want to explain away, some new technical term pops out into the public discourse. It's impossible to predict what the next phrase will be, but the pattern is consistent and it's always interesting. You
12.
by wam 13y ago
Audio of Stewart Brand's recent Long Now Foundation talk about reviving extinct species: http://longnow.org/seminars/02013/may/21/reviving-extinct-sp...
13.
by wam 13y ago
A subject near and dear to my heart. In college I was briefly obsessed with cross-linguistic adverb ordering. I wish middle school science included some linguistics. The empirical data are already in our heads, so it's a great vehicle for t
14.
by wam 13y ago
That's true, but the comparison I'm getting at is the learning curve. The process of consuming an algorithm or procedure is more of a tabs-vs-semicolons thing, a language war. I mention editors because the arguments about learning one often
15.
by wam 13y ago
The discussion here reminds me of the longstanding debate over editors like vim/emacs vs (whatever you want to call the other editors). Or semicolons vs indentation, to make a slightly more "reading" oriented comparison. There's obviously a
16.
by wam 14y ago
That is fantastic.
17.
by wam 14y ago
That was on The West Wing.
18.
by wam 14y ago
This has nothing to do with parodies or hacker news threads. What's the point?
19.
by wam 14y ago
Is that the inverse? Would all programmers with side projects necessarily be worse than the programmers rdouble knows who don't have side projects?
20.
by wam 14y ago
Why does that matter?
21.
by wam 14y ago
What's the right thing? http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/19892/opening-website-...
22.
by wam 14y ago
No, problem exacerbated. You have 3 camps of people here. One camp expects to only open new tabs when they choose to. Another wants (and sometimes expects) links to open new tabs always. The third camp prefers to open new tabs for "external
23.
by wam 14y ago
"Well HackerNews, what say you? I dare you to increase your traffic and engagement." HackerNews [sic], I dare you to allow your users to choose how they want to open new links, even if the mouse/keyboard mechanism for opening them in new ta
24.
by wam 14y ago
Maybe the top prize could be that everyone has to read Difference and Dominance.
25.
by wam 14y ago
Learning about Arrow's theorem definitely changed the way I think about elections in the US. It also changed the way I think about election news coverage. I used to be an ardent "horse race news" hater. I still am, in terms of how utterly i
26.
by wam 14y ago
Well, to be fair, the load rating on this metaphor is only 10 comments +/- 2.
27.
by wam 14y ago
I used to love the quiet car. I appreciated the serenity and the opportunity to listen to just the noise of the train. But the hostile shushing (2-3 times near me per trip, usually) started to bother me more than the transgressions. I began
28.
by wam 14y ago
Hmm. Stay away from words that carry connotations? That's what words do . Narrative journalism exists because we are storytellers, culturally if not innately. Producing tools that help analyze and interpret media narratives is a good idea,
29.
by wam 14y ago
Can you be more specific about which case you're referring to?
30.
by wam 14y ago
They're relevant because security is social as well as technical. If you want the systems that your friends or relatives use to be more secure, then you can't just dismiss someone who may be implementing those systems. Okay, fine, if they'r

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