6,614 karma · joined May 14, 2013
> It's unlikely recreational marijuana would result in a different result.
I dunno, with originalists like Thomas & (hopefully) Gorsuch it's certainly possible. Bad precedent needn't necessarily stand, after all.
Was your experience with their paperbacks or hardbacks?
In my case, because I know that any contributions I make will become part of the software commons and won't be taken proprietary.
But which Facebook would that be? Would it be the personal-page Facebook or the News Feed Facebook or the Facebook of Tomorrow? It's obvious that a State could build a Facebook clone, but is there any evidence that it could innovate well?
Granted, Facebook itself is imperfect, but it at least has to provide someone some value: Statebook would only need to give some grandees a sense of self-importance.
In the context of the discussion about cost disease, this is quite remarkable for demonstrating how regulation and local differences have raised costs to the point that a large company is seriously considering building data centres beneath the waves.
It's been years since I was allowed to add a Linux box, and years since I switched to Linux full-time, and now I honestly think that I'd reject a job offer which required Windows (and maybe even one which required macOS) — but for all those years of Just Working™, thanks PuTTY!
I think in Mexico they call Americans norteamericanos — but of course both they & Canadians are North Americans.
I don't think there's any reason not to call Americans Americans.
Its funny that you bring up Slartibartfast's Campaign for Real Time, which was based on the real life Campaign for Real Ale. Sure, CAMRA didn't put an end to awful mass-market lagers: but they were able to keep real ale available, and continue to do so today.
Perhaps those of us who appreciate semantic markup can do the same.
Currently, yes. There's no reason why we couldn't have wealth taxes or land-value taxes rather than transaction taxes, of course.
It's also offensive that the estate tax is punitive: I believe that current tax is 40% on everything over a certain amount. That is, IMHO, insane: the State is declaring that it has a 40% stake in all of someone's financial success, despite having taxed every penny of that when it was earned in the first place.
Finally, you're missing the point: we tax money at transactions because it's at those transactions that value is created: I pay you $25 for dinner, and I get $25+x value from that meal, while you pay $25-y to create it, leaving the economy $x+y better. I think it's reasonable to attempt to capture some of the value of those transactions to fund the government whose security & stability make them possible (e.g. your restaurant need not hire guards, because we have police; I need not pay for a road from my house to your restaurant, because one has been provided, &c.). But there's no value created at death: it's just a transfer, and to tax it (particularly at punitive rates) just seems like grasping greed.
> I have no problem paying my share of the national bills; I'd be ashamed to try to shift my share onto others.
I really hate this tone from supporters of high taxation, for two reasons: first, at least this proponent of changing our tax system doesn't object to paying his share; second, I believe many tax supporters want to raise taxes on somebody else.
That's a principled stand: 'I want to do something, but I do not have legitimate authority to make sit so.' It's actually amazingly principled for someone in Washington.
And yet very few sane people wish to ban wood smoke. It smells good. There's nothing like the smell of fall and winter, with fragrant smoke blanketing the countryside.
I'm perfectly aware that wood smoke is bad for me, that it pollutes my lungs and makes my food poisonous. But it's delicious.
The CIA doesn't spy on Americans.
Welcome to Java …
I generally find that an ORM makes easy things easy and difficult things indescribably hard or impossible. Honestly, the relational model is great, and it's worth understanding well. Frankly, if you're a software developer and you can't learn SQL … you're not really a software developer.
That may be 'open source,' for some definition of the term, but it wouldn't be free software.
Nor would it be right: it is the right of any people to band together in their own self defence, and munitions are part of that. The rights to own a gun, encrypt a file and operate a computer are one and the same.
And how the heck can a scientist claim in good faith that there is knowledge people shouldn't be allowed to see?
As a compilation target from a better language, I suppose it's mostly acceptable. But on its own? Never again.
That used to be the case, but I find the Compose key in X is awesome: as others have noted, Compose / = → ≠ (and → is Compose - >)
I do that, because that way my colleague can address my query at his convenience, rather than at my own. If we need to, we can then hit a conference room (or go into one or the another's office, if our employer didn't have a godawful open plan office) to discuss.
The alternative is cleanly separating web browsing (a passive activity requiring no code execution) and using distributed apps.
I'm not at all against the idea of a common, cross-platform execution environment; I'm 100% against the idea of executing cross-platform code when all I want to do is read an article.
Do you realise that every item on your list wasn't just possible but flourished without JavaScript, and works fine without third-party cookies?
JavaScript is a cancer on the web, a metastasised extension language which is swallowing up what was a thriving hypertext infrastructure.
Using JavaScript to deploy content-focused websites is like a restaurant which uses its cookpots for urinals: sure, it can be done hygienically, but it's Just Wrong.
The web is an interlinked web of documents called pages. It's not a distributed application platform: although it can be twisted into that, it turns out that no-one actually carefully considered all the potential security, privacy & performance implications of doing that — and it's no surprise that the security, privacy & performance of the single-page app web is abominably atrocious.
I know that your heart is in the right place, but I believe that you're making the wrong decision. I suppose it's one thing if each image is also a link to the high-res source (although I wonder why suitably-scaled images can't be served to everyone), and if the images are irrelevant to your text. But particularly if there is no way for clients without JavaScript to see images, then I think you're breaking the web.
I think that JavaScript disabling will become more and more common as advertising and tracking becomes more and more intrusive. A client who enables JavaScript disables security, disables privacy and disables performance.
They're really not. Automatic weapons made after 1986 are banned; automatic weapons made before that date are extremely expensive and require permission of local law enforcement and revocation of one's Fourth Amendment rights. Firearms may no longer be sold by mail, as they were for most of our nation's history. Firearms may not be sold by private parties across state lines. All commercial sales require a background check. In many states it's illegal to sell a firearm privately; in some states you can't even legally give a weapon to a family member as a gift. Many states and some localities impose unreasonable restrictions on magazine size and cosmetic features. Some states impose registration requirements, which means that law enforcement has the ability to confiscate all legal weapons at will.
> This can be seen as really effective lobbying given how many times it has been argued that weapons shouldn't be so easily available anymore without any changes to existing laws.
I think the conditions above indicate how ineffective the pro-gun lobby has been, given that almost none of it is constitutional.
(although it's worth noting that for most of its history the NRA was a pro-gun-control organisation)
It's tough for anyone who's outside the norm (again, no fault attached). You might have some success looking for others who are similarly dissimilar. Perhaps there are meetups for expats from your region of the world in your city?
Good luck!