ppezaris

now do battle chess

Tempest had the best implementation of this. Every 3-4 levels was a checkpoint and with 3 lives as long as you cleared at least one level, you can start at your last checkpoint. If you died 3 times without completing the level, you have to start at the checkpoint below.

sorry if i'm out of the loop, but i've heard what you describe as GNU/Linux, not Emacs/Linux. did emacs change to be the branding label of things like the compiler, the ----

just saw that you're probably making a joke, as i just found this :) https://www.gnu.org/gnu/linux-and-gnu.en.html

Our company had just transitioned from social networking to social commerce, and was starting to build out features like a shopping cart, product listings, etc. So the valuation was mostly hand-waiving based on the fact that we were the most recognized e-commerce brand in the region, despite not really being an e-commerce business yet.

We were doing about half a billion in annual GMV but none of it monetized yet.

I sold a company to Naspers once (the parent company of Prosus). Their philosophy is to let their portfolio companies continue to operate independently.

I continued to be the CEO of my company, and I reported to a regional CEO, who reported to the CEO of Naspers. I share this because I found it odd that "CEO" was basically a middle manager ;)

It was the child of a guest at a BBQ that I was hosting. The parents were socializing with other adults while some of the children were playing. They didn't see that the kids had gone into the gym.

Why do I feel like there is so much more attention paid to every Tesla accident? It's not news when a BMW or Mercedes has a fatal crash when their version of cruise control + lane keeping is active.

One of the 70 reported incidents happened at my house three days ago. A 4-year-old child got sucked under the treadmill and he got rather severe facial abrasions.

Before the accident, we were very happy with both the bike and the treadmill. Now it's scary to think how dangerous they are given what we witnessed first-hand.

The fix seems so simple: a guard at the end of the tread that prevents things from being sucked under it. Kind of mind-numbing that this simple feature isn't included in such a high-end product.

The problem with documentation is twofold: 1. it's broadcast-only. so you have to try to anticipate in advance what the questions might be. 2. it's disconnected from the source. so someone looking at the source code has no idea whether there is good, bad, or any documentation about it.

If a hypothetical vaccine could save a million lives, but kills 10 people who get vaccinated, are you arguing that it shouldn't be administered?

The latter is a much smaller version of the former. GEB's central theme has to do with levels of meaning, which is delivered not only in substance but also in form. One has to look no further than Contracrostipunctus, or the final dialogue to see it on full display.

https://godel-escher-bach.fandom.com/wiki/Contracrostipunctu...

hidden in the dialogue as the first letter of each phrase is the acrostic "Hofstadter's contracrostipunctus acrostically backwards spells 'J.S. Bach'" which, when read acrostically backwards does indeed spell J.S. Bach.

Measuring intellect is one thing, valuing it is another. Within my lifetime I've sadly seen intellectual excellence valued less and less by society with each passing decade.

We have a couple of black sapote trees in our yard; sounds similar.

It depends quite a bit on what type of product or service you are selling. For us, we expected to find customers in our batch, but when we did not we learned a valuable lesson: that it was larger companies that valued our offering more.

not intending to start an apple-vs-msft flamewar, but this has been a solved problem on the mac since forever. is the experience that bad on windows laptops that you don't want a big trackpad? genuine question.

I'm sorry who is using RJ45 ports on a laptop these days? Seems like that question was asked and answered years ago, and wifi has won.

Streak: You add points to your streak every time you post. Read and post at least once a week to continue your streak.

does this imply that the expectation is that you read a book a week? (just curious)

...or have even more PR functionality with https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=CodeStre...

Al-gore-ithms.

oh please no. imagine if each tweet consumed as much energy as a current bitcoin transaction. that'd be great. /s

There's a huge assumption in this assertion: that you catch the coin.

If you let it bounce on a table, it's much more likely to land heavy-side down. Just imagine a very thick coin one side lead the other side balsa wood. That would land lead-side down much more than 50/50 if allowed to bounce on the table.

plus vscode, apparently.

Cool concept. In a world that's getting increasingly connected what are the main use-cases?

I ask because the dev tool that our company creates occasionally (okay, very rarely) gets a question about offline mode, and when I prod, it's usually just out of curiosity, not because they actually need it in real life.

i talk to 10 dev teams a week. nobody seems to be using it, other than facebook of course.

nope, i used to own an m5. here's a letter i sent to BMW years ago.

To whom it may concern,

I purchased an E39 M5 in 2000, which at the time was the absolute pinnacle of automotive achievement. No other car came close to the blend of utility, luxury, performance and driving ex- perience. I was thrilled.

After a few years of ownership, I began to be troubled by the frequency with which I had to visit the repair shop. It seemed that every few months something else had gone wrong, and needed to be repaired, or more often, replaced. All of the repairs have been done at an authorized BMW repair center, with only one exception when my passenger seat broke; BMW wanted over six hundred dollars for a repair that someone else did for me for $50.

Dino Belotti, my Service Representative, has been nothing short of fantastic. He made every visit as painless as possible. The problem is, there were far too many visits. I’m sure he’s got a special file in his drawer with my name on it that is significantly thicker than any other in his drawer. Or then again, maybe they are all that thick. One wonders.

As you can see, the list is quite extensive. Too extensive. In fact, despite only driving my M5 about once per month in the last year, the pace of repairs has not slowed down. The last straw was this past weekend, when I drove my M5 for the first time since getting it back from the repair shop the week prior, and it started to rain. Wouldn’t you know, but the wipers fail to function. So for that round trip to the shop I had exactly zero trouble-free drives in my car.

This is what I have had to replace on this car since I bought it new in 2000: * passenger-side mirror (twice) * interior rear-view mirror * clutch (erroneously blamed for noise when I had an engine problem) * flywheel (erroneously blamed for noise when I had an engine problem) * brake rotors * right rear taillight assembly (connectors had corroded/fused) * right rear taillight assembly again (connectors had corroded/fused) * navigation system including head unit * stereo amplifier * center console (twice -- once damaged during another service) * hazard lights switch * front cup holders (filmsy plastic that's a joke... I never use them and they still broke!) * passenger front seat (as noted, this lone repair was done at a non-authorized BMW service center) - the motor (yes, the entire motor. a $17,000 part) * the battery * front passenger-side blinker assembly * driver's side interior door trim * front spoiler * on-board computer * O2 sensor * parking brake * air-conditioning unit * air-conditioning unit again * central locking feature (keys needed to be replaced and reprogrammed) * two replacement windshields (one developed a crack randomly, the other due to impact) - transmission universal joint * gas tank cover actuator * passenger side rear-view mirror (third time) * front spoiler undercarriage panels * coin tray cover * shifter knob (just fell apart) * rubber moulding around the windshield * ABS brake pump (a $3,000 part) * brake bushings * final stage resistor (not sure what this is) * paint on the wheels peeled off, looking absolutely embarrassing. Had them repainted. That de- veloped spider cracks. Had them repainted again. I don’t know whose decision it was to paint wheels. Bad choice. * windshield wipers no longer work * BMW logo just peeled off the front of the car. The irony of this last defect is not lost on me.

With only a mid-level understanding of how cars work, I have to think long and hard about what parts of the car I bought that I haven’t had to pay to replace. The above list reflects only what I could remember at the time of writing this letter. I’m sure there are many more repairs not listed here, but on file at Vista BMW.

I am a huge fan of BMW, and when I bought the M5 for me and the X5 for my wife, I sincerely hoped that we would stay within the BMW family for a long time. I wanted my M5 to be a car that my son could drive some day. I love it that much. But given this track record, it is unfortunately a car I can no longer afford to keep, nor can I in good conscious recommend that anyone I care for buy a BMW.

My repair history has changed me from a fan of BMWs, to someone who cautions others about buying them. I do not know what, if anything, can bring me back into the BMW family, but I thought someone at the highest level of BMW should know of my experience.

not really. a big part of the experience is the 17" monitor

oops not that anyone cares but i realize my comment might be misleading. i owned the aston for years, and loved that car more than anything, but once i bought the tesla i owned both for a few weeks, then decided to sell the aston because the tesla was so superior (for me).

it'm not OP but i can tell you what i love about my model s. (coming from an aston martin db7 convertible).

it's the quickest car i've ever driven, by far. instant acceleration.

it's better than the day i bought it. my car has learned to do a lot of things through software updates. my aston had a nav system that was obsolete the day i bought it (new), and criminally dinosaur-land by the time i sold it.

hands-down best nav system of any car i've ever been in, and that's something you use with every drive.

hands-down best infotainment system. i have tunein, podcasts, radio, bluetooth, all on a giant screen that makes it super easy to pick entertainment while driving.

autopilot rocks, especially on highways. driving from florida to boston and back within a week was really no big deal. no way i could have done that in any of my previous cars without being exhausted.

it's surprisingly large for a car that's so stupidly quick. it fits five adults, plus a giant trunk in the back and a small trunk in the front. 0-60 faster than you want or need.

convenience is off the charts. you get to the destination and you just leave the car. it takes car of turning itself off, turning off the lights, and locking the doors. every time i rent a car now i am reminded just how many "things" you have to do each time you enter/exit. easier to not have to think about it.

it's got remote control. i can set the climate, make the car move, or trigger my garage door to open all from my phone. i can also track it when i park it via valet.

speaking of valet, it has valet mode, so when i drop it off the car's acceleration and top speed is limited, and the glovebox and frunk can't be opened.

i never have to stop at a gas station because it charges at home. so i always have a full "tank". it's surprising how awesome this is.

the list goes on... it's just a really phenomenal car.

modern performance bmws (which compete w/teslas) do not last 15 years. nothing even close. not even half that.

i don't pretend that the plural of anecdote is data, but i briefly owned an aston martin db9 convertible (my dream car), and a tesla model s p90dl. after a few weeks of every day waking up, looking at two sets of keys, and picking the tesla, i decided to sell the aston.