MasterPI

I would compare (most) modern development to repairing a car engine.

You don't need to know the concepts of material engineering or thermodynamics to be able to repair it. You just learn the functioning of an engine and the tools you need.

It's also difficult (impossible) to curb demand for housing if housing is far and away the best investment you can possibly make, both in the short, medium, and long-term.

With the population numbers in decline in the west (especially Europe), will there be enough demand in the medium and long-term for housing?

3Blue1Brown is among the supporters on Patreon which I think is another big recognition for the work of the creator(s).

https://github.com/explorableexplanations/explorableexplanat...

The use of formal methods in NASA proves that they are useful and that the software industry should give it much more importance in my opinion.

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?N=0&Ntk=All&Ntt=formal%20me...

I doubt the world would have been able to enjoy such a technological progress in general without oil to even have computers and be able to post comments on here for example.

Not denying that the oil industry hasn't got any sins.

I think this had more to do with the Iron Curtain than poverty.

I think it has to do with the humidity of the air.

Exaclty. I just made a similar comment down below saying that some people choose a car with their heart not their head.

It's not all just status. There are people that appreciate the handling and the performance they get driving a BMW. I bought a second hand BMW because I wanted a car that I'd enjoy driving, didn't care about the social status at all.

:) Please specify when you talk about small diesels. Non of that 0-40 acceleration is true for the 535 I mentioned in my previous comment.

pervasive pea soup of diesel smog

How do you know it's smog caused by diesel? LA has suffered (don't know how is it today) for years from smog and the majority of the vehicles there are petrol. I mean you can't blame it all on diesel.

they smell

And petrol cars don't smell?

slow to accelerate

I think you've never driven a big modern engine diesel car. I have driven this BMW 535d[0] and believe me this monster is not "slow" in any way (0-100km/h in 5.5 seconds). It accelerates faster than the petrol equivalent because of the more torque it produces.

[0]http://www.automobile-catalog.com/car/2011/1337945/bmw_535d....

Honest question: Wasn´t the original idea of cryptocurrencies to be able to do exactly that? Small transactions for the web.

Similar to this is the PlainTasks plug-in for Sublime.

A guy selling hardware firewall and security products describes how hostile the web is... I'm not saying this is not true but at the end this articles looks more like a product ad than something else.

I was referring to how the system works here in Europe. I suppose there is no much of a difference in the US.

On each step in the chain (credit card, POS, bank entity, etc.) you have lots of verification and error control each one adding more and more overheadeing.

And let's not forget times regarding the user - pin request, payment type which the user has to select if it is necessary.

It takes considerably more time than simply swiping because chip payment transactions ivolve much more communications between the card the POS terminal, the bank entity, payment provider, etc...

Encyption/Decription times are neglible.