Viewing profile — zenkat

Check out Paul Kennedy's "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers" for an interesting take on this dynamic for nation-states and political economies. His core thesis is that dominant…

I was fascinated by "At Home In The Universe" back in the 90s. But this seems like a rehashing of the same ideas, without new evidence or theory. Anything new here?

Yes, really wanted an "About" page. Cool viz, but what is it showing?

Housing is cheap in West Virginia because it's currently experiencing the largest population exodus in the US. https://apnews.com/article/al-state-wire-west-virginia-lifes...

Does anyone have a similar compendium specifically for software engineering disasters? Not of nasty bugs like the F-22 -- those are fun stories, but they don't really illustrate th…

"And yet, here we are in 2023 and self driving cars still don’t work." LOL. Someone should tell the California CPUC that: https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/10/23827790/waymo-cruise-c…

One of the safety training stories at the lab I used to work at was about a chemist who set his lunchtime hamburger on the shelf in the fume hood while running reactions with a pot…

Pop-culture tangent: Does anyone know if Slotin's story was the inspiration for Dr. Manhattan's orgin story in _The Watchmen_? Many resonances between the two.

Interesting perspective, considering ad revenue is down nearly 60% y/y. If they are "working hard at becoming profitable", it doesn't seem to be working.

LOL. Copernicus & Galileo didn't "doubt" the geocentric model, they provided scientific evidence that it was incorrect. You see how that's different, right? "I'm not trying to ques…

There's plenty of easy-to-find evidence out there that shows that the speed and magnitude of these changes are not only unprecedented in human history, but geologic time scales as …

The post goes into this in some detail. In human languages, the embeddings for specific concepts seem to follow very similar geometric relationships no matter what language. If tha…

So the Outer Richmond is a "wealthy hyper-gentrifed neighborhood" now? Or the Mission? The Sunset? SOMA? Dogpatch? Sure, I mean if you're able to afford to live in those neighborho…

Sorry if it came across that way, wasn't my intent. I live in the city, and travel through all parts -- including the less desirable parts. I ride down Market every day. I go to th…

I think that says more about Hacker News than SF. There's a level of hate for the city here that I don't understand. Feels a bit like a vendetta sometimes.

I've lived in SF for almost 30 years. I agree 100%. Sure, there's a lot more sad/ugly homelessness in the post-covid era. The shantytowns out by Candlestick are depressing. The Ten…

I love the concept! Modern interrupt-driven workflows are horrible if you want to get real work done, designing for focus time is a great idea. How is it with privacy, PII, and sen…

Radar data at 7:40pm shows flurries over the East Bay and Santa Cruz hills.

I would definitely ask ChatGPT what the best keyboards are, summarizing their strengths/weaknesses, and then use that as the starting point of my search. Comparison shopping is a m…

[flagged]

Projection. It's always projection.

What is the trick for making them work? I tried a few times and gave up -- just couldn't get even close enough to iterate & improve.

Honest-to-goodness, real, face-to-face, unmediated human connection. So much of social/media tech has become a poor substitute for this basic human need. Friends. Family. Community…

100% this. The former President was caught red-handed hiding top secret documents at his freakin' vacation home, with probable intent to commit espionage against the United States …

For me, the primary concern isn't about Art as an economic activity. It's about what happens to human society when communication becomes divorced from human meaning. The original p…