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derrickdirge

584 karma · joined July 9, 2015

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derrickdirge··on Consciousness as a State of Matter (2014)
Can you think of something that's sufficiently 'disproven' so as to make those labels appropriate?
derrickdirge··on NASA's Peer-Reviewed EM Drive Paper Has Finally Been Published
So you know if it works in space.
derrickdirge··on Receding glacier causes Canadian river to vanish in four days
And here I thought this was a prime example of it 'happening'.
derrickdirge··on Arturo Di Modica has a point
In what sense is pink the worst color? I rather like it. I like purple better—more regal—but pink is a fine color.

And pink is only the color of breast cancer, not all cancer, since it's seen as a 'women's issue'.

derrickdirge··on Arturo Di Modica has a point
Do you have a problem with all privately funded art? Because every private entity that funds a work of art has an agenda.

It doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the artist's agenda. Should an artist be expected to turn down funding for their work just because they don't like the way the funder interprets their work?

derrickdirge··on Arturo Di Modica has a point
I wish this kind of stuff was being resurfaced more aggressively in the face of all of this absurd backlash about 'the meaning' of a piece of public art.
derrickdirge··on Arturo Di Modica has a point
The thing is, once you put a piece of art out there, you give up control over what that piece 'means'.

Di Modica's bull meant one thing to him when he made it. Now it means millions of different things to the people who consider it every day. If he wanted to maintain full control over the meaning of his work, he should have kept it in his private studio and not let anyone look at it without him standing by to explain the piece and answer any questions.

Similarly, Fearless Girl meant something specific to the asset management company that commissioned it, and something else to the artist who sculpted it. But now it takes on new meaning to everyone who encounters it. What it means to any given individual may or may not incorporate any of the intended meaning, and that doesn't make it any more or less valid.

If digging into the origins of the statues helps give them meaning to you, that's great. But most people who encounter them necessarily appreciate them at face value, and that's great too, because deriving meaning from art is intensely personal.

And beyond taking on different meaning to each individual, as time progresses and the world continues to evolve, so too will the symbolic value of any work of art placed into the world. God knows the Charging Bull has taken on a lot of additional meaning to a lot of people since '08. How did Di Modica feel about how that event 'changed the meaning' of his work?

If you don't like a work of art, that's fine. But no one has the authority to tell someone else what it should mean to them.

derrickdirge··on Apple receives permit in California to test self-driving cars
I have a hard time imagining how Apple Store level service wouldn't be a big improvement over what I currently receive.

Also there's nothing routine I do at the Apple Store that requires me to wait any significant amount of time. Anytime I have a question, or want to buy something, or pick up an online order the service could hardly be any more prompt.

The only thing I have to wait for is the Genius Bar, and if I schedule in advance I don't usually wait very long. And I only have to do that when something actually breaks.

When my car breaks I generally have to schedule something in advance as well.

derrickdirge··on Banks scramble to fix old systems as IT 'cowboys' ride into sunset
Boy this sounds familiar.

It's not just banks; many state (and presumably federal) angencies have this exact problem.

The agency I work for now has a large COBOL code base that's been in the process of being converted to Java for a very long time now with varying degrees of success. I frequently have to read through COBOL to figure out what a particular project was supposed to do in the first place. It's not hard to understand, but it's certainly not immediately intuitive for someone who came up on Java.

We have the privilege of still having a few of the authors of the original systems hanging around, but we won't for much longer.

derrickdirge··on The Gig Economy’s False Promise
Just the cost of a computer and internet access.

Which I pay for with money from...where, exactly?

derrickdirge··on How do you make programmers work 60-80 hours per week?
Seriously. Every day I go in I think about how much more productive I could be if I could literally shut out distractions with a real live door.
derrickdirge··on High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials
Honestly I don't see how it's any different than a prospective employer running a background check on me, which has been a relatively common practice since before google achieved ubiquity.

Do you find that gauche as well?

derrickdirge··on High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials
What an excuse.

He describes a very poor practice that they still failed to follow.

derrickdirge··on High school journalists investigated a new principal’s credentials
My experience with old people is they take a shocking amount of time to consider googling something or they have me google it for them.
derrickdirge··on A fully functional pixel-perfect Windows 95 application in Electron
Some people just don't take kindly to being tricked.
derrickdirge··on Smalltalk to get a second crack at the whip
So is Smalltalk a joke language now?
derrickdirge··on Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic
So who will survive? And what will death look like for those who don't?
derrickdirge··on Thousands of underground gas bubbles poised to 'explode' in Arctic
So is it time to kill myself yet?
derrickdirge··on iPad 9.7‑inch
Louis CK edits his show on a MacBook. I don't know if you consider that serious, but it's a pretty good show.
derrickdirge··on Most Electronics Being Banned on Certain US-Bound Flights
Just because it's always been irrational doesn't mean it isn't especially irrational now.
derrickdirge··on Virtual machine escape fetches $100k at Pwn2Own hacking contest
Best short term economic interests, maybe.

But building a reputation as brilliant whitehat surely confers significant economic benefits as well.

derrickdirge··on Wages rise on California farms, Americans still don’t want the job
To the parent's point, it's probably generally considered slightly 'cooler' to work at In-N-Out than at McDonald's. In-N-Out certainly seems to be trendier amongst young people than most other fast food restaurants.

Anecdotally, it seems that as general affluence within a community rises, so does the value placed on social standing. So your compensation package has to cover increased lifestyle expenses, adjusted for the position's impact on your status in the community.

If wages stagnated, but somehow McDonald's just kept getting trendier, I expect they would retain more of their original demographic than if McDonald's was increasingly seen as a place that only employs losers and morons.

derrickdirge··on Nintendo to Double Production of Switch Console
I'm still not convinced the Classic has ever actually been on a store shelf.
derrickdirge··on A Formal Spec for GitHub Flavored Markdown
TFA is literally all about how GFM is based on the CommonMark spec.
derrickdirge··on Teach Yourself Computer Science
Do you have any specific criticisms of this site?
derrickdirge··on Ask HN: What do you use to align your daily todos with your long term goals?
I figure prayer is essentially meditation. There are many distinctions to be made between them, but no difference that I can see.
derrickdirge··on Physical location of live stream found using flights patterns and astronomy
That's giving them the benefit of the doubt, to say the least.
derrickdirge··on World War Meme
Can you demonstrate that the 'disenfranchised voters' argument requires fewer assumptions than the 'meme' argument?
derrickdirge··on World War Meme
Except that there is a consensus on those things. It's just not unanimous.
derrickdirge··on When Factory Jobs Vanish, Men Become Less Desirable Partners
I just think that's a very reductionist outlook.

Humans are complicated. They have a lot of different needs that all have complex relationships with one another. Everyone experiences theses needs to varying degrees. If the needs that aren't adequately satisfied aren't outweighed by those that are, then it's reasonable for a person to start looking elsewhere to satisfy those needs.

If my wife became a huge economic burden and wasn't contributing anything else to the relationship, then after a year or two I'd definitely be thinking I could do better.

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