HN user
Here are some other throwaway email address providers that might work as alternatives to mailinator.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
If anyone has any experience with any of these and could comment on how they compare to mailinator, that would be very useful.
[1] http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html
[3] http://anonymouse.org/anonemail.html
To me, much more interesting than "a language targeting the Erlang VM.. [that] mostly imports Erlang's syntax" is:
Lisp Flavoured Erlang:
"How can we build the next Microsoft without true ownership?"
The next Microsoft? That sounds like a nightmare.
No, thanks!
"The trials are public."
Actually, there mostly are no trials at all.
As the article states, "most drug-trafficking defendants plead guilty before trial"
One has to wonder if a "justice system" in which the majority of convicts have never even had a trial is worthy of the name.
"Unfortunately that's about the only resource I can think of when it comes to drug legalization/decriminalization in an actual real world environment."
Marijuana is effectively legal in the Netherlands. (Technically illegal, but "tolerated")
"The parallel construction wouldn't work if the suspects were not actually committing crimes."
See "Three Felonies a Day"[1]
Also, note the following quote from the original article:
"most drug-trafficking defendants plead guilty before trial"
In fact, something like 90% or more of people accused of crimes in the US never get a trial, because they plead guilty. They plead guilty because prosecutors pile on so many charges that the defendants are afraid to risk life in jail if they happen to lose (in a judicial system that's usually stacked against them). Defending a case in Federal court is also incredibly expensive and traumatic. See the Aaron Swartz case for good examples of all of the above.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/...
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.
"Information wants to be free. Information also wants to be expensive. Information wants to be free because it has become so cheap to distribute, copy, and recombine – too cheap to meter. It wants to be expensive because it can be immeasurably valuable to the recipient. That tension will not go away. It leads to endless wrenching debate about price, copyright, 'intellectual property', the moral rightness of casual distribution, because each round of new devices makes the tension worse, not better."
-- Stewart Brand [1] - spoken at the first Hackers' Conference, and reprinted in the May 1985 Whole Earth Review. The quotation is an elaboration from his book, The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT, published in 1987.
Unfortunately, it's a much more systemic problem than can be solved by ousting a politician here or there.
I encourage everyone who cares about this to get politically involved at a level beyond merely voting for congress critters now and then.
There's a lot that you can do, from joining and supporting organizations like the EFF and the ACLU to getting involved in local politics, which is usually the level that can be most affected by relatively small numbers of individuals.
"So many people who claim, or seem to have taken inspiration from Rand would, in fact, be "bad guys" in Atlas Shrugged."
Case in point: Rand hated Libertarians.[1]
Some typical examples from the article:
- She called Libertarianism "a mockery of philosophy and ideology"
- She accused Libertarians of "slinging slogans and trying to ride on two bandwagons"
Later, she accuses them of entertaining "amateur political notions" and "rushing into politics in order to get publicity".
She says that Libertarians
- are based on "half-baked ideas, and in part on borrowed ideas".
- "spend their time denouncing me, while plagiarizing my ideas".
- "are perhaps the worst political group today, because they can do the most harm to capitalism, by making it disreputable."
- would "like to have an amoral political program"
It is hoped that this rally will inspire others, and make more people aware of the issue and the opposition the people have to living in a surveillance state.
The effects of protests might not be immediately obvious, and perhaps might never be publicly acknowledged. However, they can have a serious impact.
Here's one important example:
"Many people don't know it, but Nixon was considering using nuclear weapons in Vietnam. At that time, Nixon was also repeatedly saying that he didn't care what the American people thought about Vietnam, and that he was going to escalate the war anyway. However, according to a biography by a well-known historian, when Nixon saw hundreds of thousands of protesters on TV, he dropped his secret plan of nuking Vietnam."[1]
[1] http://www.opednews.com/Diary/Why-Nixon-Didn-t-Nuke-Viet-by-...
Does anyone have a link to a plain-text version of this that doesn't require access to the Google spyware site?
While we're on the subject of related tools for other languages and utilities:
Emacs has M-x regexp-builder
The most frightening and realistic depiction of a nuclear holocaust that I've seen is a 1984 BBC film called Threads.[1][2]
You can watch it for free on youtube.[3]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads
"Waiters get paid an atrociously low salary because it is anticipated that their real pay will come from tips."
I think it's rather that employers aren't willing to pay more, and waiters usually can't afford to turn down work that pays them these salaries, and there usually isn't another alternative that pays any better.
Regardless of the reasons for this state of affairs, the fact is that watiers in the US do get paid atrocious salaries and can't afford to look down their noses at "an extra few dollars" in tips.
I'm sure plenty of waiters would trade in the tip system for a guaranteed higher salary, but it's usually not up to them to decide.
"Does your boss pay you a few extra dollars if you were extra productive and cheerful today? No? Would that be kind of demeaning, actually?"
It may be demeaning to you, as you probably make far more money than a waiter. But waiters in the US typically get paid an atrociously low salary, and make most of their income from tips.
"Do you do a good job because it it's what you want to do?"
Few people consider waiting tables their dream job. They usually do it because they consider it a temporary job, not a career. Some may take pride in doing an exceptional job, but they're probably the exception rather than the rule.
"What incentive does a cook have to give you a good meal if she's making a standard wage and no tips? What incentive does a dishwasher have to do a proper job washing your dishes if she's making a standard wage and no tips? What incentive does a fast food employee have to good service if she's making a standard wage and no tips? What incentive does a barista have to good service if she's making a standard wage and no tips?"
From what I've heard, in the US it's standard practice to split the tip among the staff in a restaurant. The cook, host/hostess, even the other waiters get their share of a single waiter's tip.
I'm not sure about the dishwasher. But it's pretty obvious what incentive the dishwasher has in keeping the dishes clean: if they're not, he/she will get fired.
Minor nitpick: Lisp is not a purely functional language. It's a multi-paradigm language.
You could, of course, program in a more functional style in Lisp (and that style is encouraged more in some Lisps than others), but you're not forced to.
While your point about small-scale violence and theft of physical goods is well taken, the ultra rich have the opportunity to steal and commit violence on a scale undreamt of by the poor -- and these crimes are rarely the subjects of police statistics.
As the old saying goes, the best way to rob a bank is to own one. The elite and ultra-rich commit theft and fraud on a scale that would bankrupt entire countries, and start wars with hundreds of thousands if not millions of casualties.
They get laws written in their favor, buy off politicians and judges, hide their gains in off-shore tax havens, and hire armies of high-paid lawyers to protect them -- with the effect that few of them suffer any consequences (rarely anything like the SWAT-style raids and hard jail time routinely inflicted upon the poor for far smaller offenses).
When was the last time a corporation was "loyal" to its employees?
The rich tend to come from rich families, and it's likely that they model their ethics and behavior on their parents, who may have gotten to where they are through a disregard for ethics.
I also seem to recall reading that poor people tend to donate more money (as a percentage of their wealth) and do so more frequently than rich people.
Another prescient scifi story is E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops", written in 1909.[1][2]
"I also cover the cameras on my laptop, desktop, and cell phone with snippets of electrical tape, since savvy hackers can gain control of them remotely."
One thing he missed is the built-in microphone on his laptop and cell phone. That can also be controlled and listened-in to remotely, and it's usually harder to completely disable (unlike a webcam).
Yes, you could epoxy it shut, but even then it could still function (though with greatly reduced fidelity).
Disabling it completely would require opening up your laptop/cellphone case and unplugging the mic: something that would probably void your waranty and could be a nightmare to reassemble, depending on your hardware skills and the laptop/cellphone model you own.
You could try standing outside the store in the parking lot and asking other customers if they want to trade cards with you to avoid getting tracked.
Just remember not to use your credit card to make any purchases when using someone else's loyalty card, because then your identity will be linked to the loyalty card from then on.
A solution that's a bit more portable than a refrigerator: do a web search for "conductive fabric".
Buy some and use it (perhaps inside a lining of regular fabric) to create a pouch or a bag. Put your phone(s) in there.
"Most human beings spend >99% of the time in their normal state of consciousness rather than a mushroom state of consciousness. So from a practical perspective, the question whether the insights actually produced something tangible in the real world is perfectly legitimate."
But the very question of "whether the insights actually produced something tangible in the real world" can itself be evaluated from many different perspectives and states of consciousness.
Sure, the question itself is perfectly legitimate. I'm just not sure how to evaluate the answers.
"That which does not kill me makes me stronger."
It's possible to learn quite a lot from bad trips. Some would argue that they're more valuable than good trips, where you may not learn much at all. Bad trips can involve facing unpleasant but important aspects of yourself, your life, that of your friends or family, or the world around you. Try to learn from them and use the insight you get from them to grow and improve your life.
That said, I personally think that strong psychedelics are best used under the guidance of a good therapist, who can help you deal with the very powerful and sometimes unpleasant experiences that many people have trouble assimilating on their own.
Unfortunately, psychedelics are currently taboo and illegal in much of the world, and most therapists either don't want anything to do with them or are ignorant of their incredible therapeutic potential. However, there are still some theraphists out there who are knowedgeable and willing to work with these substances and with the right clients. It may take some work to find them, but could be very worthwhile to do so, if you are serious about self-discovery and constructive use of these substances.
"I can claim that our ordinary state of consciousness is the most legitimate one (the one that is closest to reality, if there is such thing as objective reality), or at the very least the most useful one - otherwise we would have evolved for the different state of consciousness."
Is your view that that we have evolved for the ordinary state of consciousness a view that was made and evaluated in an ordinary state of consciousness? Should its worth be evaluated in an ordinary state of consciousness? How should we decide if it's valid? Why should something that is considered "most useful" be more valid than something that is considered "less useful"?
An ant's view of the a human city may be very useful to it in terms of its own survival and that of its colony, but few would argue that it understands a human city on as profound and deep a level as a human would. Now, which of these views are "right" or "valid"?
As for what's "in line with reality", would you consider a Picasso painting to be worthless compared to a photograph because the former is not very realistic compared to the latter? What about a song? Is the "in line with reality" standard applicable to a joke? (Sure, there are some jokes with are "funny because they're true", but that standard does not really apply to puns or jokes that rely on surprise for their effect. Are they worthless?) What about poetry? What about the value of a kiss?
Finally, speaking of evolution, Terrence McKenna conjectured that human intelligence and evolution may have been influenced by an encouter with psychedelic mushrooms, whose spores were hardy enough to survive a long interstellar journey to earth, and whose consumption gave human ancestors an enormous amount of novel information.