HalcyonMuse

I have discovered the same thing - giving my brain time in modes other than problem-solving, like wait-for-kettle mode, seems to augment my problem-solving mode endurance.

We'll throw this one in the "non-binary response" category then.

Well, depends where you live... I spent a summer in Santa Clara in a really crappy apartment and the water always developed this weird white film (or was it a precipitate? I forget) if you let it sit. I considered it very suspicious and did not drink water from the tap at home - I got my fill at work.

I see <p></p> in the source, not <br/>. I suspect your browser may be to blame.

I went last year, and I'll probably be there next year, but I won't be there this year, sadly.

Indeed. San Francisco is reporting they're unblocked already. Also, it appears that it was not someone doing something stupid... the most official-looking explanation I've found is here: http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg19609.html

Nutshell: the affected subdomains were getting DDoS'd, and the colo housing the relevant 4chan servers couldn't take it, so AT&T did the colo a favor and started dropping traffic upstream.

EDIT: Aaaand now everything is down.

CYBERPUNK: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier, ISBN-10: 0684818620, ISBN-13: 978-0684818627, had a very entertaining account of rtm's youth and the creation of the worm. I have no idea how accurate the book is, but it highlights the fact that not all "hackers" are similar. Some did it for the pride that came with it, others did it to sell secrets, and still others did it by accident. None of the caricatures resembled Zero Cool. (Well, maybe Mitnick and his gang... a little bit.)

Cat's Cradle, by Vonnegut.

So long as one has options, I think it's okay. A few years ago, I was at the point where I was going into this "deep down" mode daily because social interaction just wasn't very accessible to me, and I got pretty depressed.

I've read recently about extreme social deprivation (like solitary in prison) and I've begun to wonder a bit about similarities.

escapepod.org is another great "read-to-me" site. It's not full-length books; it's sci-fi short stories instead. In my opinion, it's much harder to write a good short story than a good novel.

EscapePod is also great for the commute to work, road trips across the country, and exercising (if you have a routine, anyway).

It rarely fails to keep my spirits up. (Even the sad stories are pretty cathartic.)

Wow, that typing break thing sounds really cool! Does anyone know if there's a similar application or system preference for OS X?

Go. There's great talks during the day - usually at least one of the talks per time slot will look interesting - and there's pretty wild parties at night. The first time I went, I didn't meet anyone - I went with a few friends and we kept to ourselves - but despite that it was still a blast.

You'll learn quite a bit one way or another.

Wouldn't this be better as a poll?

More like "ha ha only serious p.s. screw you." Check out the quiz. =(

Nonsense. There are people out there who have the goal "kill large numbers of people." Their motive is sometimes political, sometimes simply sociopathic... but the motive is irrelevant. If a fourteen year old boy can hack the train system and cause some minor damage (i.e. expensive train derailments) what could a motivated, fully grown adult do if they had that remote control instead? I suspect the answer is hundreds dead - maybe thousands with sufficient coordination and vulnerable systems.

A security hole like this is extremely dangerous due to the magnitude of its ignorance. Systems like mass transit should HAVE good engineers that spend time evaluating security risks and testing systems for robustness et cetera.

I doubt the hole would have been patched if someone called up their local Mass Transit Authority and said "Hey, uh, I've got this 0-day..." A 14 year old boy exploiting it, on the other hand, is probably going to draw some attention to it, and that attention will likely get the hole fixed, potentially saving hundreds of lives in the future.

If GM built a car that killed its inhabitants when a radio station played a certain song, GM would be to blame, not the radio station.

I agree. I didn't see Chrysalidocarpus lutescens (Areca Palm), Sansevieria trifasciata (Mother-in-law's Tongue), or Epipremnum aureum (Money Plant) but I'd love to be notified when I can buy them.

I agree - it would be very intuitive to go to a "growth rate" category by clicking on one of the little black icons.

Never mind that the side walk is not designated as a place to spray people with super soakers?

This analogy is flawed.

However, that doesn't undermine your later argument as far as I can tell.

I guess I just assumed that the title wasn't "How to Learn Useful Stuff While Procrastinating Online" due to negligence.

But no. If that was the title, it would be fraudulent advertising.

My only problem with Windows is that my fans go nuts when I'm using it rather than scaling properly like they're supposed to in OS X. However, my Macbook Pro is a version from back in 2007.

I can two-finger scroll and two-finger right click just fine in Windows... but I don't boot Windows often. Maybe it's in the bootcamp settings?

I guess provigil/modafinil is too new to be mentioned in this old article?

Something to note: Hacker News is probably not a reliable sample group if you expect the "people" in your question to == "general public" or "average users" unless HN is the target audience for your product.

I am of the opinion that this demographic enjoys poking at things for the sake of poking at things... but, as jp_sc, if it's totally orthogonal to our interests, our motivation drops dramatically.

Moreover, lsb makes an important point that bears repeating: no one* wants to debug someone else's broken crap. Someone released a beta link for a dating site within the last few days, and judging by the volume of criticism, it probably qualified as such. (No offense... it just wasn't ready. Some projects take time.)

*by and large

More like it's not what your neon sign says, but that the neon sign lights up the street, allowing people to see better, increasing foot traffic at night, reducing crime perhaps...

I think.

I don't like it. I can't do things like hide applications... which is a must. I hate those stupid quizzes.

Plus, it doesn't look significantly different. I guess this is a less-is-more approach?

Great set up interface, though; I really liked that part.

Why can't I upload pictures of myself from the web? I don't keep any pictures on my computer anymore... so this means I have to download the picture, and then upload it again.

Yet another usage barrier (but maybe it's not an issue for everyone).

Dude... you spelled Atheist wrong under Religious Views.

It's spelled Athiest right now.

EDIT:Your spell check has an ad in it to buy the spell check's licensed version. That's kind of tacky.

Also, you don't support the features in your rich text editing - my underlines and italics disappeared!

Is "Buy x a drink" a feature to be implemented in the future? Also, this /is/ real life. Your alert text is kind of lame.

Definitely consider what differentiates you.

What's the draw? Why use this instead of, say, OkCupid.com?

EDIT: You also claim to be the best free dating site on the web. This is arrogant and unfounded. It didn't do it for me.

I'm a really noob coder, and not a web developer, so I don't know what functions etc are responsible for this, but couldn't you use the code governing the common "More..." link often used to truncate reviews?

(e.g. Sesame Street is... (More...) - > Sesame Street is a children's show.)

Also, each sentence could be an object of sorts with one value for the simplified version and references to other objects that constitute the detail of the simple sentence. The referenced objects could be of the same class, and, in turn, resolve to even further detail by reference.

The pitfall is, of course, that it would require some extra thought while writing to keep everything cohesive and sensible with varying levels of complexity on the page at the same time.

Source? I feel poorly educated all of a sudden.

Interesting tie-in, but I don't know what you're referencing. Source?