Viewing profile — patrickmay

> Just the date fields is a hilarious example of why I'm skeptical. Python (babel.date) and Javascript (the browser's locale) both have locale-aware date rendering. Using a library…

Flock cameras are typically mounted on aluminum alloy poles. Easier to cut than steel.

> how do we have law enforcement without hiring a literal army of police officers? Just like we did way back in 2023 before the massive nationwide rollout of Flock cameras. A surve…

"Writing is nature's way of showing you how sloppy your thinking is." -- Richard Guindon

I sincerely hope that Microsoft responds with "If the Indian government wants to block content hosted on U.S. servers, they are more than welcome to set up their own Great Firewall…

Scrolled for this answer.

> Economically if you are vastly outcompeted by other programmers on productivity That doesn't seem to be the case, at least currently. The credible numbers from from companies tha…

A "passing glance" is nowhere near good enough. Just as software developers must be held accountable for every line of code they check in, product managers must be held accountable…

Because increasing prices by that percentage is too hard?

It would become AutoCAD. That is pretty awesome.

I like your metaphor but I'd argue that trusting programmers with power is the Light Side. Relevant PG: https://paulgraham.com/langdes.html

"The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians." -- George Orwell

I find the Nolan Chart ( https://www.theadvocates.org/political-type-comparison/ ) to be a better version of the 2D compass. You're absolutely right that more dimensions would be b…

> If we are all subject to the same monitoring and there are no exceptions, that would be fair. It might be fair, by some definition, but it would still be wrong. The government sh…

Have you tried nailing 95 theses to their doors, by way of introduction?

Allman FTW! (With you on spaces, though.)

Many of these are beautiful, but it's missing one of the best ever written, by Olin Shivers in the Scsh Reference Manual: Who should I thank? My so-called ``colleagues,'' who laugh…

This is the answer. Stop operating in authoritarian states and ignore their laws. If those states want to censor what their population can see, it's on them to establish a firewall…

I was also expecting a story about a physical railway being shut down.

Stein's Law: "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."

Who doesn't love capybaras?

> Part of these "corporate" datasets include deep knowledge of the world's best literature and philosophy Part of those datasets also include 4chan.

Exactly, well said. "The purpose of abstraction is not to be vague, but to create a new semantic level in which one can be absolutely precise." -- Edsger Dijkstra

No major party. There are smaller parties who oppose mass surveillance.

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.” ― Alexis de Tocqueville