Comment Re:Tricks with Slash and Backslash (Score 1) 438
v2 now loop free!
perl -e 'a: print rand() >
v2 now loop free!
perl -e 'a: print rand() >
Watching the video it occurs to me that the interesting part is that if you randomly print out slashes or backslashes endlessly, you create an endless "maze". It works particularly well on the c64 because the printable graphics set includes a slash and backslash that have no spacing around the character. But you can do the same thing in a terminal like this:
perl -e 'while (1) { print rand() >
Although depending on your font it won't look as compelling as the c64 version.
If the ability to use the Mediawiki syntax is the bar for being "elite", you may want to think about raising it a bit.
Maybe we should figure out a way for illiterate people to edit Wikipedia too.
Telling the average person that their display is 100 ppi or 300 ppi or 600 ppi is not useful unless they happen to know enough about human vision to interpret it. The term "retina display" is a marketing term that means "you won't see pixelation", and that's actually a useful thing to know. I hate when companies use meaningless numbers (i.e. no connection to purpose) to market things. You end up with idiots pushing and buying 600dpi displays because it's "more" even though it's pointless for human vision.
If you're a techie and you want those numbers for some reason, that's fine. Apple still publishes the resolution and screen size like they always have. But marketing to the common person in a way that is useful to them is not "bullshit".
Please tell me this is an example of Poe's law. Please.
I "invented" this years before they did. There are no technical details that are not obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art.
When I was working on internal sales tools for a company that sold shoes, I created a heat map of their sizing grid: I colored each data cell a lighter or darker shade depending on the sales number in that cell. It was so exciting and original that I think a couple people said "thanks, that's neat" before we moved on.
How the hell did this get patented, and how can I submit my prior art to invalidate it?
We've been experiencing this corruption of the patent system for over a decade now. It costs our nation millions and millions of dollars. Is there any serious effort to fix it?
It was pointed at the screens. You're watching a movie, and every once in a while some jerk in the back starts making squiggles all over the movie with a laser pointer. Then everyone turns around to see who it is but by then the jerk has stopped and you can't tell. A few minutes later he does it again.
I don't really know why it stopped, but I'm glad it did.
Is this the next phase of the stupid laser-pointer-in-the-movie-theater gag that was "becoming epidemic" in the late 90's? Why do some people become idiots when they get a laser in their hands?
I was always impressed how that died off without any serious crackdown. People just squawked about it until it was common social knowledge that nobody though you were cool and everyone thought you were a dick.
Hopefully this dies off too.
> There's a cool thing that happens when you know this life isn't the end: You suddenly stop caring about yourself and just live your life to help everyone else.
Funny, because I've been living my life to help others much more so since I started thinking this life was the end. And I really feel that it's almost the exact opposite from what you say: if I think this life is but a blip and we can all live forever afterwards, then it's hard to imagine this life matters very much. Really, what is 80 years in an eternal life situation? Who cares if someone starves or not if that's just them getting to the good stuff - the eternal life - afterwards. Isn't death a blessing in that worldview?
On the other hand, I see this life as everything we'll ever have. So if someone suffers and dies, all they will ever have was wasted, and I am to blame if I could have helped. Helping others seems much more imperative in a world without an afterlife.
And just as a side topic since you brought it up: giving money directly to the poor seems about the least effective way to make lasting progress. I've worked a fair amount in developing countries and I can say it really is all about improving education at the community level.
Cheers.
That was an interesting and insightful post on several levels - thanks!
However it doesn't change the fact that I like experiencing life as I do through this limited consciousness and I want to keep doing so over an infinitely large piece of spacetime. YMMV.
Whenever someone brings up the conservation of energy as it relates to death, I feel they're missing the point. It's not my matter or energy I'm attached to - it's the arrangement. My matter gets replaced regularly, and my energy comes and goes even though I do not. I am an arrangement of matter and energy. Mostly I am the arrangement of matter and energy that currently happens to be my brain.
If this sounds a little too new-age-y I assure you it's really rather plain. Imagine you've just spent a year writing a novel and have it saved on your hard drive. I come by with a demagnetizer and erase the drive. "Oh ho!" I say, "Don't worry - all the energy still exists!" Yet something has surely been lost.
So back to Jesus - his matter and energy may still exist, but he certainly does not. While energy is conserved, information about that energy doesn't seem to be. Even someone who's life was documented and widely read hasn't been conserved in any meaningful way: Jesus can no longer experience things, can no longer learn, contribute new insights, or surprise us. We have at best a lousy fossil of the people that have died. And at worst, nothing at all.
Cheers.
I've heard this worded a few ways - the idea that the sweetness of life is related to it's brevity. That doesn't hold up to scrutiny for me. Until I was in my teens I basically thought I would live forever - and life as as thrilling and sweet in those times as could be. And even today it is the moments that transcend time - the ones that remind me of the immortality of my youth - that thrill me the most.
I think this quote is just a good effort to console ourselves over the loss.
I am not afraid of death per se. I was exactly as dead for the eternity before my birth as I will be for the eternity after my death, and it wasn't bad.
However: the best part has certainly been the living part. By far. And I see no reason I shouldn't want to extend it as long as possible.
Maybe some are afraid of death. For me it's just that I love life. Not exactly the same thing.
Finally, a comment I can get behind.
As I always say: if you don't want to live forever you're not doing it right.
Where are the filibusters? They're right here you dishonest prick: http://politicalirony.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/senate-gridlock1.jpg
More than double than the democrats under Bush. Let me guess, now you're going to justify it by saying it was a good thing they stopped so many bills and they were within their rights to prevent tyranny of the majority. That's you being dishonest again because you're retreating from your first position without admitting anything.
You ever wonder why it's hard to get anything positive done? It's people like you.
Factorials were someone's attempt to make math LOOK exciting.