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psbp

3,072 karma · joined June 14, 2009

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psbp··on Ask HN: What is the best podcast you listened to in 2021?
I don't have time to get into this, but I think it's pretty embarrassing that this podcast is still recommended. It's not "media deconstruction", it's two out-of-touch, low information conservatives repeatedly being incorrect and then changing their narrative to fit whatever is currently popular in conspiratorial conservative media.
psbp··on Pinky and the Brain
My headcanon is that the maneuver was just a lot harder to accomplish than it's depicted. Distance from other ships, residual shield levels, etc. allow it to be possible but unlikely. They threw in a line in episode 9 that it was 1/million (kind of like the Death Star kill shot). I think it makes the Holdo character more interesting if she has some sort of force intuition or just advanced analytical/risk-taking skills to actually pull it off.
psbp··on The Future of Computers: The Neighborhood and the Nursing Home
"To be clear, I acknowledge that Android can be just as stable and easy to use (especially now, with the Pixel devices). But I don’t miss Android flavors depending on manufacturers. And I don’t miss sideloading and rom flashing."

But you don't have to do those things. With all things being roughly equal, I think consumers are doing themselves a disservice by asking for less. Being able to install a different rom has no impact on the usability of the device for a majority of users, but it makes a huge difference for the small set of users that want to use that functionality.

psbp··on The Economics of Christmas Trees
This is because of the wildfires in the PNW, right? I remember hearing about this years ago.
psbp··on Shane Legg: DeepMind's third cofounder
Right, but there is a commonality in our ability to perceive those different contexts.

The example that I heard years ago (I think from Kurzweil?) was framing the difference of us versus future AIs as comparable to an ant's perception of its surroundings versus a human's. In his example, the human has no regard for an ant, we'd just as soon step on them ("evil" AI). To re-frame that, if you could magically turn an ant into a human, why would it even matter if it was once an ant? The transition would be a complete disconnect. Maybe if you told the person that they were once an ant they would have some sort of strange reverence for ants, but it wouldn't be very rational.

psbp··on Shane Legg: DeepMind's third cofounder
Even the most optimistic AI scenario seems pretty depressing to me. Ideally we would be able to merge or at least fully cooperate with a vastly more intelligent entity. At that point, its consciousness would dwarf our own and we would be pretty meaningless. Maybe our conscious experience would live on as some vestigial relic, but I doubt it (we?) would even bother. It would be like a droplet of water landing in the ocean.
psbp··on The new legend of Zelda is a toy box of delights
Some of my favorites (portal 2, mario galaxy, journey) are already mentioned. The most recent game I really enjoyed was Grow Home. It's not the most in depth game, but the mechanics and light, but wonderful, exploration make it one of my favorite games.
psbp··on The Uber Bombshell About to Drop
They probably mean network effects. Facebook is the prime example. For Uber, a critical mass in users and drivers makes it hard to unseat.
psbp··on Alphabet's Project Loon says it will run the program with fewer balloons
Inflate the stock price with "moonshots". Slowly kill off the moonshots and inflate the stock price with "fiscal responsibility".
psbp··on Brain impairments in premature infants may begin in the womb
Exact same situation. I never struggled academically, but to this day I'm still socially reserved.

Here's a great paper comparing lefties in terms of several long-term outcomes, none of them are good :( http://scholar.harvard.edu/files/joshuagoodman/files/rwp12-0...

The paper does include the potential link between left-handedness and pre-term birth.

psbp··on Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline
I'm not saying the argument is bad (I probably agree with it more than not), but from memory, it almost seems compulsive rather than an actual attempt to discuss Google's role. Many posters on G+ resorted to blocking him because it became insufferable.
psbp··on Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline
ocdtrekkie is infamous for having endless anti-Google arguments on Google+ for the past 5 years. Trust me, you're not going to have a fruitful discussion.
psbp··on Udacity the new ITT Tech?
The Udacity content is all free, or as free as it is on Coursera and edX. You pay for additional stuff like code reviews, but the lectures and quizzes are all free.

If anything it's more "free" than coursera.

psbp··on Show HN: Tomato – Pomodoro Timer
It usually helps me refocus. A quiet alarm isn't enough for me to lose track of what I'm doing, but working myself to exhaustion usually does.
psbp··on Ketamine lifts depression via a byproduct of its metabolism
"depression is often as influenced by external factors as internal ones. A spectacular drug trip won't change the reality of having a death in the family, not being able to find a job after being laid off at 45, or simply the stress of the modern, always-on world."

Have you ever taken hallucinogens? You don't experience a "spectacular drug trip" and suddenly feel better, you actively work on your problems and have a seemingly raw, uncompromising perspective on the external/internal factors that affect your life.

It's a bit like expedited therapy. It's a trying, intentional experience that you have to put effort into in order to get any benefit.

psbp··on Inspired by Genius: How a Mathematician Found His Way
*Everybody potentially has a talent that they should attempt to find.

Is everyone happy now?

psbp··on Google I/O 2016
This happens every year. They don't announce a lot of sessions until the keynote.
psbp··on Chinese Researchers Invent New Police Car That Can Scan Faces
Sounds like my stupid (brilliant?) idea, an autonomous car lift. Travel under/around speeding or otherwise criminal drivers, travel at the same speed and pick the vehicle up (from the frame, not the wheels).
psbp··on Google Puts Boston Dynamics Up for Sale in Robotics Retreat
Depending on how much it sells for, this might be the first case of the Alphabet strategy actually working.

Otherwise, BD might have just embarrassingly died inside of Google.

psbp··on Alphabet Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2015 Results
Alphabet has a crazy P/E. I'm not really sure why either, I guess momentum?
psbp··on Trying to interview Larry Page
If only tech blogs had access to a dictionary.
psbp··on Google achieves AI 'breakthrough' by beating Go champion
What any individual, or even large group of human minds, can achieve is a very tiny fraction of what can be achieved given enough time and scale. And if that isn't nihilistic enough, it probably means absolutely nothing given even more time.

So, no, I think that fear is a silly byproduct of our own biases with or without the possibility of superior intelligence.

I'm sure when the AI overlords really take over, they'll give you a little box for you to excel in :)

psbp··on Larry Page, Google Founder, Is Still Innovator in Chief
I have no problem with the guy, but has anyone noticed that there's a fluff piece about Larry nearly every year around this time?
psbp··on Lenovo Is Making the First Google Project Tango Phone
Silver is dead.
psbp··on Lenovo Is Making the First Google Project Tango Phone
They were set to do a limited launch in Puerto Rico in late 2015, but they've delayed to 2016, possibly in other markets.
psbp··on Google Brings in Chief for Self-Driving Cars
A Google redirect also works: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c...
psbp··on Inside Spotify's Plan to Take on Apple Music
How is that possible? Are people volunteering to pay before the free trial is up?
psbp··on Google stock spikes after reporting better than expected Q2 earnings
There's precedent with Youtube Music Key. $10/month is a lot to pay for removing ads from music videos alone, but given that it's bundled with the overall streaming service, it's a pretty good deal.
psbp··on Google Says More Searches Now on Mobile Than on Desktop
Is this a recent experience? I've found the voice search to be incredibly proficient recently. It's slightly embarrassing, but I use it for search and text dictation almost constantly.
psbp··on Ellen Pao Loses Silicon Valley Bias Case Against Kleiner Perkins
I'm watching the recode live stream and a considerable portion of the jury are women, especially asian women. ---------------------------------------------

Liz Gannes 4 MINUTES AGO Mr. Barclay, juror 12, white man. No to first claim questions, no to second claim questions, no to fourth claim.

Liz Gannes 6 MINUTES AGO Ms. Chan, juror 11, Asian woman. No to first claim questions, no to second claim questions, yes to fourth claim.

Liz Gannes 7 MINUTES AGO Ms. Hiramoto, juror 10, Asian woman. No to first claim questions, no to second claim questions, no to fourth claim.

Liz Gannes 7 MINUTES AGO Juror 9, Mr. Chu, Asian man. No to first claim questions, no to second claim questions, no to fourth.

Liz Gannes 8 MINUTES AGO Ms. Lyon, juror 8, white woman. No to first claim questions, no to second claim questions, no to fourth claim.

Liz Gannes 9 MINUTES AGO Ms. Lowe, juror 7, Asian woman. No to first claim questions, no to second claim questions, no to fourth claim.

Liz Gannes 9 MINUTES AGO Mr Chan, juror 6, Asian man. No to all claims.

Liz Gannes 10 MINUTES AGO Mr. Mejillo, juror 5, Hispanic man. Yes to first claim questions, yes to second claim questions, yes to fourth claim questions.

Liz Gannes 11 MINUTES AGO Juror 4, Ms. Trujillo. She says no to all claims.

Liz Gannes 11 MINUTES AGO Juror 3, Mr. Jones, a white man. He says no to all claims except Pao being fired as retaliation for lawsuit.

Liz Gannes 12 MINUTES AGO Juror 1, Mr. Jones, is a white man. He says no on all claims. Juror 2, Ms. Ramsey, is a black woman. She says yes to all three questions on claim 1. She says yes to all questions on claim 2. She says yes to claim 4.

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