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blackjack160

57 karma · joined July 2, 2012

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blackjack160··on Nurturing Genius
No shortage of challenging/stimulating environments out there for a variety of skills. Environments clearly matter too. It's more interesting to assess what conditions produce well-adjusted members of society who respond well to being pushed beyond their limits. Can we build uncommon resiliency in people without stunting other aspects?
blackjack160··on Tsar Bomba: Largest weapon ever used.
Largest is indeed a misnomer. It is the most powerful.
blackjack160··on It's not the $7, but the principle
It might be a bug, but the networksolutions.com checkout process also acts opportunistically when you add a domain to a new account. It will ask if you want to 'auto-renew the purchased domains AND all others you previously purchased'. If you change the setting to 'don't auto-renew' and then make a validation error (miss the terms of service checkbox), it will keep state for all other fields, but magically the auto-renew value switches back to the default.
blackjack160··on Lenticular Photo Used To Secretly Convey Hot Line Number To Abused Kids
Clever idea but I think the ad space is better utilized delivering the message as legibly as possible within that space. "Abused? Call NNN-NNN." This would increase effective range, making it harder for the abuser to evade. You can argue that it makes it easier to evade, but in a busy subway, or other closed environs, legibility is hard to suppress. They can also mix and match font and background colors to make it harder for the abuser to detect Banner patterns for avoidance. It would also be smart if the campaign could pseudo-randomize display spots, again making it harder to consciously evade the message.

If we had to go with the lenticular approach, they could also experiment with sound frequencies that kids are sensitive to, but adults would struggle with. That could be a cool hailing beacon to couple with the display.

blackjack160··on Boostrap retro theme Geo
Looks like the Huff Post Labs site:

http://labs.huffingtonpost.com/

But less atrocious.

blackjack160··on Stop Sharing Quotes. You're Not Better Than Anyone.
There is something therapeutic about this process, for the individual and the communities they influence. Sharing emotions and wisdom emphatically clearly resonates with the general populace.

Speaking from experience because we've launched an iPhone app called Quipio that lets people create and share such quotes in seconds (possibly this author's worst nightmare).

We've seen it grow pretty dramatically in the first three weeks: 42K quotes have been created, 115K+ shares. 70K+ downloads on the app store. There is no question that people reveal their emotional states through them. Makes for an interesting graph.

blackjack160··on Twitter is down
Majorly spotty. My own service is only sporadically able to share. First advertising.twitter.com went down, then API hooks seem to get shaky and looks like the site wobbled for a while and now might be down. Wasn't even able to retweet from status.twitter.com ...
blackjack160··on Designer News
Given that one badge is Show, my natural inclination was to think that T is tell. YMMV.
blackjack160··on Spotted: Sergey Brin wearing Google Glass specs as he blends in on NYC subway
While marketing/buzz might be one of the motivations, another factor could simply be Brin wanting a first-hand look at what every day, quick to quip, New Yorkers think of his new accoutrement. This research might be something he could delegate to others, but I respect that he doesn't.
blackjack160··on New iPhones this June: 4" & 4.8" Californian series (iPhone 5S, iPhone Math)
Maybe they are using a mattress designation, California King for the 4.8inch iPhab.
blackjack160··on Why the Fuck?
Maybe he admits that he isn't a great mind? He might mask this admission by being overtly aggressive and profane, but let's not lose sight of this possibility.
blackjack160··on Ben Horowitz: We Like Dropouts, Insane Ideas, Tiny Markets, No Way To Monetize
Pretty sure Twitter is profitable, just not saying if officially.
blackjack160··on Will the Internet Kill the Dreamliner?
Time did a review of the 747's debut in 1970:

https://twitter.com/QuipioApp/status/292098711121715201/phot...

New planes have issues. They'll figure it out. Grounding was the right call for now.

blackjack160··on If I get hit by a truck...
Days like these, I can't help but share some Pooh:

https://quip.io/q/awa

Disclaimer: I am a founder of the above entity, this is just my expression of solidarity for Aaron.

blackjack160··on Aaron Swartz commits suicide
/dying was very painful to read. Does Alex symbolize Reddit? Does the key lime cookie symbolize the money involved in the acquisition of the payment Reddit got? Is the "cafe trying hard to be international" the acquirer? Maybe I am reading into this too much, but the timing of that post seems too coincidental. It's almost like his will died with that whole process. RIP.
blackjack160··on Tactful Trademark Defense: An Example
curious: can entity B file an application after entity A for the same Standard Character Mark? Or does the USPTO only evaluate applications one at a time? Let's assume the time differential is a two weeks.
blackjack160··on Willpower is Not Enough
"I would train harder than he did... and I would be a better fighter."

Training like crazy - great. Physically gifted (fast-twitch muscles, size, reach etc.) - great. Those two factors build a great foundation.

But nothing replaces fight time. Until you've put yourself in competitive combat situations, there is no way for you to truly understand how to react naturally to a fight situation. Honing your fight craft and anticipation is the difference between victor and vanquished at the very top.

blackjack160··on 4,000 Foxconn workers on strike over iPhone 5 quality control measures
Up to a rumored 450K workers per factory zone... 1.2M employees in total at last count... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17429786
blackjack160··on Startup idea list
http://openrelief.org/ - is a project that's laying down some useful foundations for Drone delivery.
blackjack160··on Neil Armstrong has died at 82 Today
Excellent 4-part interview series with him, quite recent too:

http://thebottomline.cpaaustralia.com.au/

blackjack160··on How Instagram Could Have Cut a Better Deal
45 arranged marriage individuals in the study. 24 of them over the age of 45. Not sure how this satisfaction study can be considered conclusive in any context.
blackjack160··on Meteor – The next Ruby-on-Rails?
They are going after the enterprise market.

There are two solid tells:

1> Raising $11M+ led by AH has a lot to do with giving CTOs some assurance about Meteor's commitment level. One can draw a parallel with Cloudera and how it gave Hadoop legitimacy with Enterprise customers.

2> The same enterprise CTOs identify strongly with Rod Johnson (Spring founder) who is on the Meteor board. He's someone who understands the Java enterprise space intimately and knows how to disrupt it (given his SpringSource exploits).

I also don't think the Github / Asana / Meteor connections are incidental. It's being positioned as a whole new way to execute on tech projects within the Enterprise IMO.

blackjack160··on Singularity U, or Singularity Woo?
Disclosure: SU Alumnus here.

Being from India, it is not unusual for all natural remedies (Neem leaves to soothe burns) to be classified as "Homeopathic".

More Examples Here:

http://hpathy.com/materia-medica/indian-homeopathic-drugs/

Note: I am not saying everything in the URL is gospel, just that there are some natural remedies that work.

Hanhemann's description of Homeopathy is:

"based on the hypothesis that a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure that disease in sick people." (Wikipedia)

This theory is nonsense and proven to be quackery.

In summary: I suspect that Professor Wadhwa's interpretation of Homeopathy was culturally biased. There is nothing wrong or revolutionary with giving natural cures a closer look, just not under the Woo of Homeopathy. If Wadhwa was advocating Hanhemann's Homeopathy then that is indeed disappointing given prevalent evidence.

blackjack160··on Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is
Alexis Ohanian said it better and in a less incendiary way @ HN's event in NYC last year:

Being a middle-class white male with loving parents is like playing the game of life on easy mode. One has an obligation to do good things for the world - in acknowledgement that there is more to be done and that others deserve the same environment you were born into. (Paraphrasing)

That's a balanced viewpoint, one that's hard to resent.