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Comment Re:Shouldn't Apples count? (Score 1) 487

Thanks for the explanation about deduplication. Not as cool as I had hoped, but suppose real life is often that way

As for hardlinks, I was thinking specifically about backups, which are managed by a backup system. I never write to files in the backup (that would not make sense), so that is a non-issue, and that makes the system very, very simple and very effective. In the general case, deduplication is of course easier, but as I get from you, seldom worth the effort. With modern disk drives being so big, size tends to take 2nd place to speed or reliability in most cases.

Comment Re:Shouldn't Apples count? (Score 1) 487

Sure, but several file systems have drawbacks too. I'd prefer file systems that let me specify such features at the directory level instead.

Breaking chroot for non-root users are not exactly trivial, though I don't personally use chroot for that.. .I use it (as the GP suggested) for scratch areas, especially for building and testing applications under different environments.

Comment Re:Shouldn't Apples count? (Score 1) 487

I seem to have touched a nerve :)

You will always hear more complaints from Linux users. That is a price for having easy installers. But aside from unsupported hardware, I haven't had a problem with sound since the debacle around pulseaudio (which got enabled a bit prematurely imho. But works fine now.)

As for running root as chroot: That is not a usecase I saw, nor one I have ever missed. From wikipedia jails falls in somewhere between a virtualized server and a chroot. *shrug* Certainly not a game changer, and a short google search reveals some linux alternatives.

The reason I prefer to not have multiple filesystem is so that my backups can use hardlinks, I can move files between say /tmp and my /home without actually moving the data, and so that I don't have to bother thinking about it. I cannot get that today, because there is no way to encrypt part of a file system (or deduplicate etc, though I just use hardlinks for that. Easier to understand, less error-prone.) Creating a new filesystem takes me about a minute: I waste a lot more time (order of magnitudes) waiting for just moves between filessystems (even if I only use 2) than I ever did for creating filesystems. Sure, it is cool, and I think it is fun doing it with btrfs, but it's not really very useful.

As for btrfs... I use it for snapshots. Why? Because I can. LVM would likely serve me just as well, but I like to play with new things. The data being snapshots, I don't care how stable it is, but it seems to work :) The remaining feature ZFS has are not compelling enough for me to bother installing even a test of it (with fuser, I think it is on linux).

P.S: Why don't you deduplicate everything? That sounds like there is a significant downside?

Comment Re:Shouldn't Apples count? (Score 1) 487

A few points:

The locking of /dev/dsp is mostly ancient history at this point, even on Linux, where sound (finally) got the attention it needs. And now it actually handles multiple sounds cards (moving the sound around and stuff like that), which is nice if you are using an usb-headset and speakers, depending on the situation.

I use schroot for the usecase you use ezjail for, and from your short note it looks mostly equivalent. I tend to use either a btrfs or lvm backend.

As for creating new filesystems, I find that mostly a bother; what I want is just one filesystem to handle it all. Currently, I find I need 2 to handle my needs, which is annoying (one encrypted, one not). Snapshots are useful though (and supported by LVM and btrfs).

Comment Re:What I can't understand... (Score 1) 535

It's because we are measuring a very tiny part of a large system. E.g, we are not measuring the temperature of the oceans (a bit, but not a lot). The heat contents of the oceans are pretty massive, so there is some potential for heat to move around and mess with the data. That is why it is usually 30-year means that are used.

Also note that 12-years is cherry-picking: 1998 was an exceptionally hot year, and not a good basis to gauge other years against. Check out the graph, if you please --- no one could call 1998 a representative year.

Comment Re:Economic theory (Score 1) 904

Amazing how far selective quotations can get you, isn't it? You left out the sentence that immediately followed - that wasn't an accident.

I asked you to point out which of 1-7 was false, and you pointed to 4. I didn't leave off anything relevant on purpose, trust me, I read it several times not believe anyone could claim something that outrageous.

(4) is not false - and I have not claimed it is. It is simply too weak to support the claim that you wanted to support, which is that a certain event necessarily leads to inflation.

another straw man. I have only said it increased inflation (or decreased deflation). Why do you find it necessary to create these straw men?

I have tried to make it increasingly obvious in the last few posts that my position is that it may or may not lead to inflation, and can in fact also lead to better real economic outcomes (via growth and increased employment) - it depends on the circumstances.

Because the straw men annoy. The above is an empty statement... P=>(Q or not Q). If you mean that the set of condition where an increase of the supply of money increase the economy is non-empty, why don't you give an example?

Perhaps you're taking things too personal. Who knows. So I'm going to just disengage from the discussion now, no matter what you write next (if anything). That's probably better for both our sanity.

Try to leave off the straw men :)

Comment Re:Economic theory (Score 1) 904

You are continuing your straw man arguments, and I have had enough of that. Not once have you actually answered the point I made, (...)

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. Where the hell did you even get the idea that I claim that "increased demand does not increase prices, everything else being equal" (*)?

Well, let me quote then.

4. Increased demand tends to increase prices.

This is the weak link of your argument.

I.e, (4) is false.

Comment Re:Economic theory (Score 1) 904

The stuff you quote was irrelevant. You are continuing your straw man arguments, and I have had enough of that. Not once have you actually answered the point I made, but instead kept talking about your fantasy economy theory, arguing against or for various theories I did not state. This is exactly the same that happens if you try to debate climate denialists. or evolution denialists. And frankly, I don't care for that style.

Anyways, as I wrote, if you do not recognize basic economic theory (increased demand raises prices, e.g), then of course you will end up supporting some wacko fringe theory.

Comment Re:Economic theory (Score 1) 904

Of course the price as measured in goods doesn't change because you change the amount of money available: That is why it is inflation rather than an increase in the value of the goods.

I don't understand what you're trying to say there.

In the following, you butchered my reply in a way that allows you to miss the point, so I rearranged things a bit.

Let it, it is not important. And sorry for any butchering, I have tried to keep your quotes as intact, but this system isn't exactly conductive to this.

The "money supply" is a stock. It is something like the sum of all deposits, depending on the definition. How could that possibly affect inflation directly?

Who cares if it affected "directly", whatever that means. You are changing the question, which is : "Will increased money supply increase inflation (or decrease deflation, if you like)" Again, you are arguing a strawman.

Ah, argument from personal incredulity.. (...)

Perhaps my rearranging of the quotes and the added emphasis already helps you to see my point, but let me reiterate in a different way just to be sure.

Think of the price-setting process of an individual supermarket (or other firm) as an algorithm. It has inputs (such as the cost of production, the effective demand seen by the firm, profit motive, behavior of competition, whatever), and it has an output (the price that is ultimately set). My point was that the stock of money is not one of those inputs.

Says who? It is a pretty common practice to simply adjust all prices to account for inflation. Not a perfect method, to be sure, but easy and simple.

However, at least one of those inputs is a flow of money, i.e. the effective demand that has been seen previously.

Says who, and even if true, so what?

You have not argued against that, just continued to claim some causality from an increase of stocks to an increase of flows as I predicted.

Not only claim, but supported the claim; a support which you ignore. But since you are arguing a strawman (the "directly") part, it is hard to get to the truth of the matter. Let me put it in bullet form, then you can tell me where I am wrong. 1. If the sum of deposits (ie., the money supply) increases, there must be some entities who has more money than before. 2. Entities with more money tends to either use or invest money. Let's discount the investment, as that just moves the money to someone else. 3. When some entities use more money, demand increases. 4. Increased demand tends to increase prices. 5. Increased prices leads to increased profitability for the sellers of said goods. 6. Increased profitability leads to more entities with more money. Repeat from 2, and you can easily see how this leads to increased prices across the board, AKA increased inflation. Or tell me which of 1..7 (7 being the repeat) that you think is wrong.

I've cut out the majority of the rest, because I think the really important point is the following (and yes, I'm also a mathematician - but it's kind of lame of you to bring that up, considering that you really only need high-school arithmetic for these things; I on the other hand apologize for exaggerating about V, I got carried away).

I am shocked that you claim to be a mathematician and makes such a fatal, obvious error in a logical argument. Well, at least you are conceding (as you like to put it) that you were flat out wrong.

No it does not. For instance, assume that M=V=P=Q=1. That us assume that M is increased to 2, then the equation would still be satisfied by V=P=Q=2. Note how nothing is constant with that solution.

Hey! Seems like you're conceding that the economy can quantity-adjust. I think we're getting somewhere :)

No, I was correcting your grave error that satisfying that equation required some of the factors to be constant. That equation is not the real world.

Remember that this part of the discussion was started because of your claim that "$X will just devaluate the currency". Well, turns out that apparently you agree that "$X can also grow the real size of the economy"

I am tired of your straw men. I never wrote that. Please quote me correctly, or not at all.

(perhaps, I think we still haven't really settled on what you mean by X). Once you have realized that, one can obviously start discussions about whether the economy tends to adjust more by increasing production or whether it adjusts more by raising prices.

Again, you are putting up straw men. It is you who are in love with that equation, not I. I wish you would at least decide whether you think it holds or not. I have never claimed it tells everything about economics, the way you treat it... in fact, I never mentioned it. That equation seems to be a balance equation. What it tells you is that if one quantity in the equation is increased, some of the other quantities (and possibly all) must also change (eventually, eventually, I guess). It doesn't tell you anything about which quantities will change for certain actions. For that, you need another "law".

There are two problems with your argumentation here. First of all, you are making a logical mistake yourself by assuming that I meant "the government attempts to sell more bonds" when I really meant "the government sells more bonds".

You cannot be a mathematician. You don't even know what logic is, do you? Anyway, if you having governments doing impossible things, why not have them magic up some gold and sell that? It would be simpler. Or pixie dust, if you prefer. You cannot just define someone to be able to sell, you have to find a buyer.

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What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite. -- Bertrand Russell, "Skeptical Essays", 1928

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