tempestn

Their point was that violence is sometimes justified, using the French Revolution as an example. I'm pointing out that the FR wasn't just a matter of "killing the rulers". Many, many people were killed. It wasn't such an unambiguous good as they seemed to be implying. Also, other countries have transitioned to democracy without such bloodshed.

Are you familiar with the details of the French Revolution? Some of the eventual outcomes were indeed positive, but a lot of what actually went on was pretty horrific.

That's actually a fun little puzzle.

It doesn't prevent it. It gives you a way to potentially recover after the disk fills. Many operations become impossible once the disk is full, so this buys you some temporary breathing room to solve the problem.

A + B would be best. Warn at 200, file to reserve the last 100 (or 50 or whatever). That way if the fill is too fast to react to in time, you still have a quick way to temporarily gain disk space, if needed to solve the problem.

I'm guessing it means that your use of the website is not contingent on you accepting (approving of) the terms presented. But there are plenty of other ways it could be reasonably interpreted. For instance, your access of the website is not contingent on the website operator approving said access.

You're saying offshore wind farms would prevent the US from detecting an intercontinental attack crossing the ocean?

Speaking of runway crossings specifically, you could have an automated backup, and require authorization from both ATC and the automated system to enter a runway.

Would you call a business to ask a question that's answered on their website?

I'd argue a well designed AI assistant would be considerably better than a decision tree for that use case. Decision trees are slow because you normally need to wait through several options before getting to the one you're interested in. (Though sure, perhaps not if your call is literally for the most common thing.) But with an AI you could jump straight to what you're interested in.

"Hi, I'm the LargeBank AI Assistant. How can I help you?" "I'd like to know the balance of my checking account."

And then authenticate and get the balance as usual. Simpler and faster. Agreed that it becomes a problem if it's seen as a replacement for human agents though. In an ideal world it would actually free up the human agents for when they're actually needed. In reality it'll probably be some of each.

Agreed; they're far better than the old style robots, which is what you'd have to deal with otherwise.

More generally, when done well, RAG is really great. I was recently trying out a new bookkeeping software (manager.io), and really appreciated the chatbot they've added to their website. Basically, instead of digging through the documentation and forums to try to find answers to questions, I can just ask. It's great.

Me too, but I wonder whether we're in the minority here. I'm sure there must be plenty of people who just call places to get information easily found via the web, or there wouldn't be so many automated phone systems that explain how to get information via their website.

I'm also wondering if "freezing" was meant to be "freeing".

I dispute the convenience, but I think the science has been tested. When you open a regular fridge, because cold air is denser than warm air, much of the cold air immediately falls out, so the fridge needs to work to re-chill the air once you close it. Even when it isn't opened, some amount of cold air leaks out the seals toward the bottom of the fridge (and warmer air leaks in through the top). Chest fridge (or freezer) solves these problems.

That said, most of the thermal mass in the fridge is the food, and after that probably the shelving, so as long as the seals aren't blown, the turnover of air on opening isn't a huge deal.

It's a cool idea, and might be great for a secondary fridge. For a primary fridge though, it's so much more convenient to have direct access to everything through a vertical door. I like energy efficiency, but I'm willing to pay 300kWh a year (around $40 here) for that convenience, let alone the space efficiency.

Unfortunately we don't have the luxury of voting for a political party that matches every one of our priorities. I don't support this bill; I do support some other aspects of the Liberal platform. Likewise with the other major parties. I vote for the one that best reflects my overall views.*

*Well, either that or I vote strategically for the candidate I can tolerate who I also think has a chance of winning my riding.

I'm not sure a billionaire building a bunker is much different from you or me buying fire insurance. It's not that I expect my house to burn down, and it certainly won't prevent me doing everything I can to prevent fires. Even with it, my house burning down would be really bad. But I can afford the insurance, so why not have what protection I can?

What about adding something like, "When asked a question, just answer it without assuming any implied criticism or instructions. Questions are just questions." to claude.md?

I, on the other hand, find incorrect grammar mildly annoying, especially when it's due to laziness. It distracts from the thoughts being conveyed. I appreciate when people take the time to format comments as correctly as they're able.

In fact, I'd argue that lazy commenting is the real problem, which has now been supercharged by LLMs.

There's a big difference between me running a filter on other people's words, and those people themselves choosing to run one and then approving the results.

I personally don't see a problem with someone using a grammar checker as long as they aren't just blindly accepting its suggestions. That said, if someone actually is using it in that way, it shouldn't be detectable anyway, so it probably doesn't matter all that much whether or not it's included in the letter of the rule.

Ah, I see. They're reclassifying it as standard time without changing the offset. Yeah, it was my misunderstanding.

The comment actually has it backwards. It says BC is moving from daylight to standard time, but should be the opposite. It's got the offset right though.

I like a lot of the points made here, and I think they likely hold truth in many scenarios.

That said, in the case of watches (no pun intended), Grand Seiko seems like a counterexample to a few of the points made. First, they are very much still sold on the basis of both brand/design and engineering. Spring drive is an engineering marvel, and a lot of people appreciate such works of human ingenuity even if they are not technically the optimal approach to solving the underlying problem. (Though it is nice never having to change batteries.) Even their notably high frequency mechanical movements are desirable on that basis.

More importantly, GS watches have very distinctive design elements that are easily recognized (ie. branding), and I would argue they sacrifice nothing in terms of usability to achieve that. Their dials in particular are works of art, but they make the watch no more difficult to read, just more enjoyable.

Fortunately there's significant correlation between quality of communication and quality of ideas, so your approach might just be optimal!

EST is Eastern Standard Time. Most of Europe is on CET or CEST depending on time of year. (Somewhat confusingly, the 'S' in that case refers to Summer rather than Standard!)

Accidentally discovered you can quantum tunnel blocks through the weak link to shore it up!

I appreciate the list of potential harms. I'm curious about your last point though. Isn't it trivially easy to wipe cookies from your browser?

Maybe people will finally learn the difference between PST and PDT.

If we assume that the ideal time for 8 months of the year is DST and for 4 months is standard, but we want to eliminate the switch, then permanent DST gives you only 4 months out of the ideal timezone rather than 8.

Permanent DST being the "wrong" choice is your opinion, and a minority one. Certainly doesn't make those who disagree "morons".