fluffster

Lip Balm.

I'm interested in operating systems research and I haven't seen this before (perhaps only because I'm just getting started). So, this is useful to me; it may not be for you.

Besides, the biggest value of HN is not the links or 'news' posted here but the discussions around them.

Surely, not everything on HN is always useful to everyone. But on days when the front page isn't that appealing to me, it reminds me to get back to my work and try and apply what I've learned so far.

Very good point.

Your total life expectancy went up by 18 years just by virtue of having made it through the first 10 years.

Aubrey de Grey makes the same point in talking about extending life further in this talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can...

The point is that using posterous removes the added effort that 'blogging' seems to be.

By redefining the problem as email, it's much easier to just sit down and write. For example, I had been thinking of tracking my moods for a very long time. Finally, what I did was sign up for posterous and set up a google calendar reminder. All I now have to do is hit reply and type a couple of lines. It's been working great for two months.

http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups

there's a meme in the USA that it's the "greatest country in the world"

There's the same meme in India, and perhaps in other countries too. It is a bit silly to think like that, especially when most people haven't really travelled to many countries. I used to think the same but once I started travelling my views changed. Definitely worth a try.

HT to Jacob Gabrielson -

http://a-nickels-worth.blogspot.com/2008/05/ulrich-dreppers-...

the stereotypical American with no accent

:D

>Most of his articles on it seem to be very tl;dr.

This is a good start: http://www.singinst.org/upload/artificial-intelligence-risk....

These videos are good intros to EY's work too:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=611451877200179691...

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-82119137046281951...

This TED talk about aging by Aubrey de Grey is very interesting: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can...

And please do think about cryonics once again: http://lesswrong.com/lw/wq/you_only_live_twice/

Reminds me of http://steve-yegge.blogspot.com/2009/04/have-you-ever-legali...

I might try that. Thanks.

This essay by Stove is a very interesting read too: http://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/wrongthoughts.html

Can I buy one?

You might find an answer in The Symbolic Species by Terrence Deacon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_Species

i like it.

This is nicer: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george/o79e/part42.ht...

And for Orwell's other essays: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/o/orwell/george/o79e/

>The other 99% of the populace...

It's more like the other 99.999%.

Obviously if you go to a party to relax, you are going to be disappointed.

Have you noticed the similarity with the magic business model?

1. Sit down and watch your thoughts 2. Magic! 3. "harvest your crops of faith, morality , mindfulness and wisdom"!!!!

When you are happy, you are not really happy. If you observe really closely (I mean like really closely), there you will spot it. The horrible horrible evil undercurrent of all-pervading universal sadness.

When the car is moving, it's not really moving. If you observe really closely, you will see that actually it's not moving at all!

>the essence of life is suffering, said the Buddha.

Well perhaps, he was wrong?

It's like saying the essence of the electromagnetic spectrum is red.

Even before we ask whether to bother with meditation or not, let's ask what is the probability that Buddha even formulated the problem correctly?

The first step to solving a problem is to state it correctly.

oops! sorry didn't know that.

If you don't have time, just watch from the 42 min mark.

whoa, COBOL programmers tweet?

very cool!

Thanks, that looks interesting.

This seems better: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22wish%22+AND+%22had%22+...

Thanks mahmud. I should probably look into one of these but I was hoping to work on small problems and for one person rather than a group.