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Also, change in technology may find itself outstripping society's ability (or willingness) to integrate it. In fact, I'd say it already is, and has been for quite some time. We hav…

Everything microsoft attempts is so desperately uncool that the very concept of Microsoft doing social is futile. There is literally no way they could make this work. It's another …

The author's based his career around the ability to pervert search results - and apparently he's frustrated because this fucks up the results for everybody so badly that Google hav…

I'd guess they've outgrown the capacity (or desire) to keep answering support emails themselves, for one thing.

Say I create a follow-protected twitter account, which only I follow, write a couple lines of ruby to retweet stuff randomly to myself and a crontab entry for it ... did I miss any…

As a motorcyclist, the sound of traffic is almost entirely a non-issue; I can wear canalphones with music at a volume where I can't hear any traffic noise, and still negotiate peak…

Sadly, the article completely fails to mention the amazingly useful innovations made by tiling window managers like wmii, ion3 and xmonad. Granted, they're not as new as Unity et a…

And thirdly, and probably most importantly, because piracy is so convenient it's usually my first port of call when I'm wondering what an artist sounds like. I can spend less than …

> I have taken it in the middle of the day, in the sun. I have taken it at night, in a dark room. I have taken it at a party (despite people saying its not a party drug). I was kin…

If he's not a Mormon anymore, I'd call it a net win. The real question is: is he happier now?

I should point out: when artists do sell their music as direct downloads, I buy them. Perhaps the simplest restatement of this idea is simply a directory / store which sells DRM un…

A couple of reasons. Firstly, because in a traditional record label deal, not much of the money actually finds its way into the artists' pockets. "In a typical deal, the band gets …

Ok, since it seems there's remarkably little interest in this idea as it stands: why not try it out as a Bitcoin startup?

Synopsis: people steal music. Stealing music is good for the listener but bad for the artist. Can we build a system to help mitigate the bad effects of this theft while benefiting …

I'd be surprised if PayPal didn't see Bitcoin as some form of competition - so, this is fairly unsurprising. Most companies prefer not to facilitate their competitors.

And may even reduce you to ranting and muttering to yourself ...

The term "rite of passage" is very fitting. I've been thinking about this stuff all day, and trying to figure out how to reconcile the potential rewards with the dire risks involve…

I'm very suspicious of the use of the word "quantum" as a crowbar to pry open respectable science and fill it with new age bullshit. I can definitely sympathise with the flavour of…

Having read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism_(psychology) , a few thoughts ... Classical psychedelics like LSD tend to impart hallucinations which are reinterpretations of…

Interesting idea. As I understand it, most of these drugs take the place of existing neurotransmitters like seratonin, or modify their action on receptor sites. Let me put forward …

Me too, though I prefer dexamphetamine. I've given dex to other programmers on occasion; they're often amazed at how much it helps them concentrate and get things done. It's kind o…

While I'm ranting: if your interest lies in becoming more productive as a programmer, these are not the droids you're looking for. Some people have put forward anecdotal evidence t…

I've played chess under the influence of psilocybin with a sober friend. I was massacred. There are creative aspects to programming, and you might gain some insights that are appli…

There are probably some people reading these discussions and considering taking an "hallucinogen" for the first time. If you're thinking about it, please, do your homework. Thoroug…

It's worth noting that Timothy Leary espouses some silly shit, and I'm not sure he improves the perceived legitimacy of psychotropics, despite his intentions.