Viewing profile — PotatoEngineer

If the advertisers can see the MAID for each ad impression, then there's no need to be too specific about who you target - it'll just cost you more. On the other hand, if the adver…

If you like something, upvote it. If you're only saying the equivalent of "+1", please don't post - it's just (well-meaning) clutter. Also: check the guidelines link at the very bo…

Outcomes! Right, that's what they were called. Thanks for naming it.

This question of "what skills are students missing?" reminds me of the new teaching methods they were trying out as I started high school. The new teaching program centered around …

The Microsoft campus in Redmond would most likely not be knocked over by the tsunami: a rather hilly Seattle is in the way, then there's the large Lake Washington, and then Redmond…

No; I lost the starmap when I still had some 5 1/4" diskettes that said "Star Control II" on them.

Star Control II uses a starmap as copy protection ("tell me the constellation at these coordinates..."). I lost the starmap at one point, but if you can remember just one of the an…

Using a socket wrench rather than, say, a crescent wrench means there's more nut in contact with the wrench at any given moment. So the wrench doesn't have to be quite as strong, s…

The current knowledge of jellyfish intelligence is "we've figured out they have memories." Jellyfish are extremely simple creatures; the "brighter" ones are known for their ability…

You convince your loved ones to switch to something else. If they won't, then you must realize that, deep in your heart, you love freedom more than you love your loved ones, and mu…

Maybe the market is small enough, and the transactions small enough, that the competent hackers are attacking other systems.

Almost every single non-reply post on this article is criticizing how much the app isn't AirBnB. Maybe the new measure of success on HN is finding the excellent discussions under t…

It's not just jacking up prices; it's about keeping competition down to reasonable levels. If you have the world's best restaurant that everyone needs to eat at, then great; but mo…

I wouldn't expect most "handshake deals" with a friend/spouse to require that level of formality - unless money is changing hands.

That first one reduces your privacy even further: not only does Group A track you, but now everyone knows that Group A is tracking you, allowing Group B to ask Group A for data on …

That's the point - it's "kind of" true. But the takeaway from that NYT article is "you'll get stranded," which is much more painful than the truth: "be careful in the cold."

Probably because there's limited wireless bandwidth. It'll work, but it doesn't scale - doubly so for colocation, where other customers might eat your bandwidth. The "short distanc…

A note on how gerrymandering works: In a perfectly gerrymandered system, the party in power can win using only 25.1% of the vote - and that's if all districts have equal population…

"Sponsored" implies an advertising relationship, even if it avoids the dread word - sponsors pay you. "Inspired by your browsing history" is accurate, and is Amazon advertising Ama…

Can you live on 60%? That is, how hard is it if a large customer decides to ignore that last payment?

One additional thought: anyone who buys patent troll insurance instantly becomes a highly-cooperative target. Why fight it? Why ignore it? Just send the contact info for your insur…

It probably has to do with Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), which is calculated under different rules. It hit some of the Silicon Valley millionaires hard when they exercised their o…

Patent troll insurance skirts the line of being just as bad as patent trolls themselves: "Pay us some money and maybe you won't get hit by patent trolls." It's a great idea, but wh…

I do want to hear it, actually. Thorium looks especially good in the long term, though it's still in the research phase.

We're going to need something as fossil fuels run low and coal becomes increasingly stigmatized. Solar is an interesting field to explore, as is wind, hydro, tides, and other non-f…