ttraub

Raising budgets don't intrinsically guarantee better results. Would a larger staff of physicists etc. lead to more breakthroughs or quicker results? Or would it just be piddled away in frivolous experiments, nicer Aeron chairs and the like?

A physicist friend from NSF told me once that $50 billion would be about right.

What happens if the expansion port itself becomes damaged? Would you need to change out the motherboard?

Yes, and weirdly, hyenas didn't get the sharp, retractable claws that all true cats possess. I wonder what advantage this adaptation gave them.

Eat well, sleep well, stay or become physically active, and try something new every day.

Don't compare yourself to others. Rather, set goals for yourself that work best for you.

But do keep learning and drawing inspiration from others. We are not meant to be islands unto ourselves.

Challenge your mind with books and articles that may run counter to your ingrained beliefs. Sit down and have a game of chess with someone who is the opposite of you on issues of the day.

Get out in nature, take regular walks through the local park, cemetery, etc. There's evidence that this has therapeutic effects on the brain and body.

Grow a garden, get your fingers in the dirt, eat your own homegrown produce.

Shake it up and do something totally new and different: African drumming, Asian cooking, 3D printing (my new hobby).

Aliexpress is a terrible outlet for consumers. The buyer pays the return shipping which is often too expensive to be worth the trouble. At least Amazon/Ebay respect the consumer protection laws and make returns pretty easy.

I'm dealing with an Aliexpress seller that sent me the wrong thing and it's basically not worth shipping back to China. I'm trying to get a few dollars from the seller but they're slippery as hell, want to privately paypal me the money etc. Never again!

Is 150,000 downloads enough to attain "hit" status in the iOS world? On Android, anything less than half a million or so is somewhat niche. 150K is a respectable number, but just saying.

Also, was the takedown initiated by the Clubhouse owner? Seems like the ill will they have created is not worth whatever imagined advantage.

So, create your own platform, like Parler tried to do?

Their algorithms seem to be looking for the words "black" and "white". I posted a comment to a YT video just today describing my daughter's experiences in high school, the school's recent heavy emphasis on black lives matter (the topic has crept into History, Cooking, Math, and even Chemistry) and the kids, including the few black kids at the school, think it's excessive. The comment disappeared when I refreshed. I reposted (have learned to always cmd-C), and it was taken down again. So I substituted "bite" for white, "back" for black, and this time it stayed up. Ridiculous and counter-productive, in my opinion.

If network latency is a significant factor, and server storage and processing resources are sufficient, then the author's example of an 800 column table needs redesign.

Break that monster into smaller, more manageable tables and architect your database such that you can obtain exactly the data you need with well indexed joins, cached lookups, etc.

I don't see the privacy issue here. They're just measuring physical activity per quadrant. They can use it to study which products and product areas seem to be attracting the most interest. They specifically don't use photography or wifi that follows people around.

Although the vibration/light sensors are a somewhat novel idea, in the end a retailer already knows exactly what products are sold, in what quantities, which ones are returned, and (anecdotally at least) which ones spark the most questions from shoppers. It's not long in coming before UHF RFID chips will show the products being carried around the store (or out the back door, etc.).

Probably this system would be most useful for determining which products are "hot" and should be moved to an end cap or special display near the entrance. Or they might choose to "bury" the products to force shoppers to walk past tempting tangential items.

Retailing is a science, perfected over many decades. The lights, the music, even the aromas, all conspire to influence shoppers in ways that online can't compete with. I wonder if retail in fact will eventually find a formula to outcompete the online folks. (I'm still kicking myself for ordering a Pi Zero W online when I could have driven the same day to the Microcenter and picked one up.)

According to the article, this particular system doesn't monitor the shopper, but rather the movements of products as they are picked up and examined. They specifically say they don't use cameras.

As I understand it, our immune systems are pretty busy even under today's sanitary conditions. We're constantly fighting off bacterial and viral invaders, 24x7. But, I guess we're just not as busy as we could be.

There are numerous accounts on the internet of medical tourists trekking to Southeast Asia or Mexico to acquire helminths or similar parasitical organisms reputed to calm down the body's immune response. Specifically, sufferers of Crohn's Disease have reported relief from symptoms after taking in (via a cut in the skin, or walking barefoot in feces, or drinking contaminated water) a few helminths.[1]

Too many helminths seems to have deleterious effects, however, so there seems to be a balance that must be struck.

There is evidence that these worms affect the microbial mixture in the gut.[2]

Generally speaking, modern humans live in sterile conditions whereas we have ferocious immune systems which evolved to handle filthy conditions. The theory is, given too little work to do, some people's immune systems start to attack the self.

Anecdotally, I have an incredibly healthy daughter; we never hesitated to expose her to as many strangers as possible. "Would you like to hold our baby?" She also got mother's milk for several years (advantage of being an only child). Almost never gets sick and when she does, it's for less than 24 hours. Hopefully it stays that way :)

1. https://www.healthline.com/health/crohns-disease/hook-worms#...

2. https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/parasitic-worms-may-...

Not mentioned in the article or in the comments thus far, is that massage therapy has an alleviative effect on clinical depression in some people.[1][2]

It's not fully understood why massage (in particular, deep massage) might relieve depression, but it does reduce cortisol and increase general relaxation, countering the stress caused by depression.

Another study suggested that massage therapy can be approximately as effective as pharmaceuticals, but I'm unable to find the reference at the moment.

There's no particular harm to muscular therapy a.k.a. massage, and if you have a good and well trained practitioner, it is very pleasant and relaxing regardless of mental state.

1. Meta study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20361919

2. Women's health (Mass General Hospital): https://womensmentalhealth.org/posts/massage-therapy-for-dep...

He shot at the police. They discovered narcotics needles in the house. This guy was likely on drugs, definitely armed and dangerous. How exactly were they supposed to de-escalate? If they backed off, he could have maybe slipped out the back door, stolen the Lechs' car, maybe went into a neighboring house and held someone hostage or shot them. He was at that point a public menace. Also he had multiple past felonies or felony charges (I don't remember which).

But we're kind of off the main topic which is Google tracking and geo-fencing :)

> I presume that an officer doing their job would have been able to let the shoplifter run off and, because they'd identified him and the stolen car, they could issue a warrant and pick him up later.

Let him run off? That's not really how policing works, at least not in the U.S. The police see someone commit a crime, they're obligated to pursue him, unless ordered to stand down or they're forced to triage because another's life is in danger etc.

It seems to me that there's one wrongdoer here and that's the shoplifter/home invader/gunman. That said, yeah, perhaps they shouldn't have called SWAT but on the other hand, according to the article they tried to negotiate for 5 hours, then he fired shots. Not sure what else they could do but fire back.

"It is always good to keep yourself up to date with the hottest tech stacks."

It’s good to be aware of new stuff, but it’s also a good practice to have a firm command of some well established technologies that have strong support and resources behind them.

It’s been my experience that I get more work done when I can easily find sample code and multiple explanations for API calls. Experimentation and R&D to figure out some bleeding edge stuff may be fun but it’s a lot slower and less stable than using tried and true methods.

You make a couple of good points such as Google's about-face with regard to China, and you bemoan doxxing.

Yet, you bitterly criticize Trump supporters. Trump supporters are the ones getting doxxed and cancelled on social media.

The most famous leaked TGIF was when Pichai announced his opposition to the 2016 election results, and promised to somehow oppose the new President. I have to say, I was appalled to hear such blatant partisanship from the chief executive of such a huge company. Of course, business types have always had political leanings one way or the other, but they were rarely so blatant. That TGIF did irreparable harm to Google's reputation. I've seen hundreds, perhaps thousands, of outraged comments on social media. Google lost a lot of good will that day.

Is political activism such a widespread phenomenon in S.I. companies? I work in a more traditional company and never see this kind of thing, so I'm curious what it's like, how the management handles it etc. The most "activism" we see is an occasional announcement about volunteers pitching in for some charitable cause around Christmas time.

20-25 years ago, politics was basically off limits in corporate America. Technology people (who were mostly guys) were pro-capitalist libertarians. It was a different time, I guess.

I'd be interested to hear what Googlers have to say about recent deals with the Chinese government. Any qualms about that, or is there more of a feeling of relief or "glad we're back in China"?

He's getting 80% of the gross = 48,000/month. That's impressive income, half a million a year for what amounts to a good idea implemented at the right time. I love reading stories like this, and it demonstrates that there are still many opportunities out there. I don't understand some of these comments which seem to resent his success or belittle his company as "not a unicorn". That's good money, he works for himself, not beholden to investors or creditors, and he's raising a young family in an affordable region. Congratulations to him for a job well done.

The secret to a good social network is reputation. Upvoted content floats to the top, while downvoted content is pushed out of sight.

It's not always fair, and certainly does not always bring the best content to light, but it's a lot better than a purely level playing field of equals, where a fool's opinion is weighted exactly against that of a great philosopher.

Charging for access is problematic, however. People have been trained to expect free stuff, and unfortunately it's not clear the value proposition of Wales' offering. To avoid seeing ads? To have vastly better content? To be a superior UX? He has a pretty tough row to hoe.

Artificial voices must have improved a lot in the past 2-3 years. None of the ones I've ever heard would pass muster. Something weird in their intonation, a kind of sameness or monotony in their speech i.e. lack of excitability, a bit too perfect and precise.

I just went to cereproc, one of these companies advertising a very realistic synthetic voice, and none of their voices convinced me at all, though I have to admit it was pretty good.

When they get so good that they are indistinguishable except through Turing tests, and maybe not even then, we'll all be in trouble. I somehow expect that we haven't yet reached that point, though it can't be long in coming.

A reasonable compromise might be one of the high efficiency shower heads that have been around for decades, e.g. the Delta. These gadgets have been around since at least the 1980s, come with an on-off switch to shut off the H2O while you soap down, and cut the flow while increasing the intensity. It's almost ideal. In fact I need to make a trip to the hardware store and pick up a couple to replace the lame heads in our two bathrooms. These types of heads simulate the mister experience but also spray the water quite intensely, almost painfully, if that makes any sense :)

Regarding energy use, it seems to me that solar thermal is the way to go; you can keep your tank pretty hot during the day and if it's properly insulated, should minimize energy use at night. If you're showering early in the morning, though, you'll probably be burning some fossil fuel, but if you can time your showers to be mid-day or evening, would be optimal.

In Phoenix, probably every fifth house has solar hot water; it just makes economic sense. When we traveled in the Middle East (mainly Israel), every house and apartment building seemed to have solar hot water. If it makes economic sense (and the tax credit also helps), people will adopt it. I'd be reluctant to support some kind of mandated regulatory approach that forces a less pleasant shower experience on everyone; as others here have mentioned, the shower is one of life's great luxuries.

Smart speakers are superfluous? Only if you don't find them useful. My wife comes downstairs every morning and says "okay Google what's the weather?" My daughter says "Alexa, play [some pop singer]".

As a technology person, I tend to agree with you that these devices fall short of real life changing functionality, yet obviously many people out there love it.

Even in modern warfare, with its surgical accuracy to pinpoint and take out specific targets, hundreds if not thousands of troops will still die in the course of a major engagement, counting tactical errors, accidents, and friendly fire incidents.

It's a sobering thought and one that makes me glad we're disengaging from foreign conflicts. War is hell.

Eventually, the Navy will be doing more than "dazzling" and "blinding" enemy optics. The Tactical High Energy Laser project[1] demonstrated that incoming mortars and Katyushas could be shot down. It seems unlikely that this technology was abandoned, albeit it's probably much bulkier and more expensive than the RHEL.

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_High_Energy_Laser

Buses are a relatively decent solution for a city lacking in public transportation infrastructure. For example, Phoenix (where I live) has a network of north-south and east-west buses that can get you, eventually, to anywhere in the valley (Uber/Lyft can fill in the gaps). I normally drive, like 4 million others, but several times I've taken the light rail from Sky Harbor to midtown, then a couple of buses to my destination many miles north of the airport, and I was impressed by how easy it is--and how underutilized.

Perhaps we can mitigate many of our urban problems--pollution & greenhouse gases, road congestion & traffic accidents, and consumer debt--by investing in electric or NG buses.

Car loans are a relatively small component of overall consumer debt in the U.S.[1]

By far, the largest amount of money tied up in debt is in mortgages. The highest number of borrowers are credit card users.

Underwater car loans are a problem for some borrowers, maybe, and could portend a slowdown in car buying, but people have many options when it comes to cars. They'll buy used, if they hit a debt wall and simply can't afford new, then later trade up for a new vehicle.

It's unlikely that this is a sign of recession, in my opinion.

1. https://www.lendingtree.com/debt-consolidation/consumer-debt...

So, encourage lower consumption? Or just produce more goods domestically to reduce the need for international trade?

Neither proposal sounds very practical. Maybe it's more realistic to focus on cleaner propulsion systems like electric.