spiek

I quit Twitter when Elon took it over. It provided me with:

Easy access to information and articles about breaking news events.

Community.

A feed of interesting articles and discussions.

Enjoyment gained from following quickly evolving memes, discussions, and jokes.

A way to verbalize incidental thoughts, and the pleasure of crafting those thoughts into small nuggets to share with my friends.

Of course there are many negative aspects to Twitter, but those are the things I found value in.

That's fine, then reinforce it with a comment that is interesting, and not a useless cliche.

It's everybody's responsibility to ensure the quality of the discussion remains high.

This is such an annoying and useless comment. This same comment is parroted EVERY time there's an article about robots anywhere on the Internet. How are you adding anything to the discussion at all?

One unique advantage seems to be that it can jump over obstacles. Something that rotates/rolls (presumably) is more difficult to get over obstacles.

I always thought that Kim Stanley Robinson's "meta nationals" from the Red Mars series seemed too probable to really be science fiction.

I played WoW for a few years, from vanilla to the level 80 cap days (pugging Naxx was an interesting experience).

I used to love wandering around the world, finding hidden spots, and exploring the different pieces of Azeroth.

Now I'm older and feel way too guilty devoting that amount of time to a game.

Incidentally, one of the main pleasures of Minecraft (for me) was the same exploration.

They raised ~1 mil in 2 weeks. So they thought they could then raise 5x that amount in 2x the time? How is that a rational conclusion?

It's funny that you say that 2048 "gets really boring" after a while, but that it is "more fun to play than Threes".

It's interesting that the balance and effort that went into Threes resulted in a game that (to me) is more complex and possesses more staying power. However, it is still regarded as not as good as a game with more immediate gratification and significantly less staying power.

edit: for clarification.

Al Jazeera wants you to move to St. Louis.

As someone living in New York, my most common response to these sorts of article is:

1: Okay, but I can't just pick up and go to some artist's utopia. I have a job and (hopefully) a career to think about. I made the decision to move to New York years ago and now for better or worse I'm here, and working in a job that is not super common elsewhere.

2: Okay, New York Sucks (Big Cities Suck), so where should we go? Portland, OR where there are no jobs? Austin, same? St. Louis, apparently?

3 (Bonus/most confusing): If you work in tech, are just starting out in your career, where is the intersection of a city with robust tech scene to provide you jobs, and yet low rent and thriving art scene?

What is "hipsterism"?

You realize you can do all of those things and still make not very much money, right? You also realize that people in different economic situations aren't privileged to receive all of the institutional knowledge about the job market that you may have? That some people don't even think about becoming doctors or lawyers or programmers because they dont know anyone who became those things? There are a huge number of reasons why some people may not be able to make the same amount of money someone at google can make. Does that mean they shouldn't be allowed to live in SF?

Eh? Torrez says "@edcasey If last week taught us anything it is that everything on the internet is fake. So I am covering my bases." Doesn't seem like he is seriously alleging that this guy is a plant.

Which point is that?

Having a drone drop my package on my fire escape would be far better than dropping it on the street. Lots of New Yorkers have trouble getting packages (well, those not rich enough for doormen). Being able to specify a dropoff point would be fantastic. Shit, I'll build a little drone landing pad if I have to.

What do you mean? You're saying that because it was published by Bloomberg?

I'll add a +1 for HelpX. I worked for an English couple in Normandy, and an Irish woman in New Ross, Ireland in the summer of 2009. It was a fantastic way to see a different side of the country you're traveling to, as well as a great experience.

My hosts in Normandy told us stories about people who travel through Europe just bouncing from HelpX spot to HelpX spot, all they need is money to travel between spots. If you pick your destinations right, you get a built in tour guide.

It's not the same kind of relaxing as laying on a beach somewhere, but if you find a good helpx, it's rewarding, and can be a lot of fun.

Well yeah, but in places like SF and NYC, supply is limited by available space. We could house people in 6x6 cubes in giant rectangular buildings to be really efficient, but nobody wants that. So what do you do when your supply is limited, and the poor and middle class are being pushed out of your city?

Arguably, SomethingAwful (founded in 1999).

Are there any articles in the New York Post that aren't likely to be low quality?

He himself acknowledges that it has been done before, but he wanted to explore it further. I don't think claimed anywhere that this was somehow revolutionary or ground breaking. Why does it have to be so? Is there anything wrong with appreciating a well executed and beautiful project (with great documentation)?

This is basically link bait dressed up in medium clothes (spammy title and "in your face" bro attitude and all).

It presupposes that the end goal is MAKE AS MUCH MONEY AS POSSIBLE. It views school as an end to the goal, not as a worthwhile four years where you get to experiment and make mistakes, and grow, and try weird shit that would never fly in the business world and get way into some obscure random shit.

It seems to ignore any of the possible soul involved in artistic creation. I'm having trouble putting down why I disliked this article so much, but I can say that if I had enough karma to downvote it, I would have.

You can configure adblock to block it. It does leave a weird gap between the flickr nav and your bookmarks bar, but that weird gap is better than the god awful yahoo nav. On any flickr page with the nav open adblock and select "block an ad on this page". Follow the steps and adjust the slider until the ad is gone. No more ugly ass bar.

For context on this, Gothamist recently posted this article about a company that "pre-books" reservations at hard to get restaurants. Customers pay $1,000/year for the privilege and then $45/$90 on top for especially hard to get reservations.

Article: http://gothamist.com/2013/08/02/wealthy_foodies_can_buy_hard...

The Gothamist article came from this Food Republic article: http://www.foodrepublic.com/2013/07/30/man-gaming-new-york-c....

In other words, companies are starting to farm restaurant reservations to sell them, similar to the way that the market for event tickets has been corrupted.

Well, they smelled like something (the article references men thinking that their smell was "manly" - I admit I still secretly think that), it's just that whatever they smelled like didn't have a negative connotation. Marketing convinced them that it was a bad thing and that they needed to fix it.

Anecdotally, deodorant was a rite of passage for me as a teenage boy. As an adult with an office job, I find a lot of the time I don't need it (just like it turns out to be not a great idea to wash my hair every day). Additionally, I feel increasingly leery about rubbing aluminum under my arms every day. Do I smell? I don't think so. Am I headed for an office intervention? God I hope not.

Yeah there was no mention of any sort of search warrant.

Socrates drank the hemlock: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Socrates

Well, the main thing here is that this is happening in England...

FSOG (nice acronym, it's a pain in the ass to type out) demonstrates that there a wide segment of the population that is willing and interested in reading material which the government is attempting to criminalize. I misspoke when I said they "are now" criminals, I should have said they will be criminals.

Which is probably something that the UK government does not want happening again.

Also, this gets my hackles up. Why should they not want it to happen again, besides pointless and absurd moralizing? People have been writing smut for thousands of years. The first books printed with Gutenberg's printing press? Porn. What's different now?

I think you are missing the point. It seems that the author used 50 Shades of Grey to illustrate his "If everyone is a criminal, no one is" point. Literary merit aside, 50 Shades of Grey was a massive hit, and also pornographic, meaning that lots and lots of people read it, and lots and lots of people are now "criminals".

Also, in terms of freedom of expression how is 50 shades of grey any less significant than any of the other books he listed?

I'm confused by this reply: when was Manning locked away in a foreign country? Wasn't he in Fort Meade since his arrest in Iraq? Is there any indication that if convicted by the military tribunal he will be incarcerated in another country?