kiddo

You might want to read Jane Jacobs "The Death and Life of Great American Cities".

Maybe, but I doubt it. In fact, an outdoor ATM is probably an appealing location in which to rob someone. And now we have ipods, iphones, laptops, etc that almost everyone is carrying. Casual theft is still appealing and there's much to be stolen.

I don't think it's fair to compare her analysis with someone on HN who says it's becoming Reddit. The author is a Rhodes scholar herself, and she's been serving on the selection committee for 20 yrs. She's seeing a trend firsthand. Since you disagree, what evidence would you consider worthy of testing her claim?

Clever answers to broad questions? I don't think either adjective you're using is accurate. She asked thoughtful questions directly related to each student's area of study, and she found that the students hadn't spent much time thinking about the reasons for their own actions.

I knew the basic outline of this story beforehand and yet I read the article anyway.

A few new things that stood out:

- the description of Dagan's mgmt style and how it negatively affected the mission

- the way the author (a presumably non-techie) described the lock picking and practicing of lock picking (did the picker actually test the picking of the locks as the author suggests or did the team assume the locks would be electronic and simply bring a device that could pick any known lock?). the author glosses over this and makes a short inference, but it made me wonder.

- the Austrian private switchboard. i didn't know this kind of thing existed. can i get access to one?

So I agree with comments from many other people about it just being an interesting story, but those are 3 bits that made me think and made it worth my time.

Traveling through India I saw many people using what I think are called neem sticks. I don't know much about the science or efficacy, but if you're curious, explore away.

Regarding hiding handles, I understood him to mean hiding the handle from a user until that user votes on it.

Can you elaborate on Africa being free?

Why don't they collide at the source level? I'm assuming the db updates get checked into your central source code repo. Wouldn't the collision happen at that time?

What happens when developers create branches and use time stamps? Developer A working on trunk might check in db updates at 4pm and 5pm. Developer B working on a branch checks db updates into his branch at 4:30pm and 5:30pm. When working on the branch his db updates don't affect the "trunk" db. As soon as he merges does his 4:30pm update get run on the "trunk" db, or is it skipped over because the 5pm db update already ran, and only the 5:30pm change gets run?

Where I come from we use int values for our db update script names. When I merge from a branch I renumber my db update script file names starting at the tip int value +1 of the trunk db update.

fyi - I'm not coming from a Ruby/Rails perspective, if that matters.

Why does it make sense to have the client do as much as possible so the server does as little as possible?

How are sleeping accom different in Japan from the US? What do Japanese people usually eat for breakfast?

I imagined Prov to be somewhat different from SV. Isn't SV composed of some smallish towns (PA, etc) and then vast modern suburbs? Isn't Prov an oldish city by US stds? Multi-story buildings with shopfronts, apts above, more pedestrians, less cars, narrower streets, different building materials, a harbor, more mom & pop shops, than SV? Granted, it's not Japan, but what did you expect?

There are so many amazing places in the USA. I'm astounded that you're saying most places are unremarkable. I'm not sure where to begin with suggestions. Slot canyons of Utah? Rain forests of the Pac NW? Appalachians? Small old coal towns in the NE PA? Snowy peaks of CO? Thousand Islands? Lancaster County, PA? There are big and awe inspiring places that I love and there are small and curious places that I enjoy too. There is so much here. Such a big country! I live in NYC now, and almost every neighborhood is remarkable in some way. You just have to open your eyes.

I'm curious why you thought Japan was cool. Could you explain?

Where in Rhode Island were you? What did you do there? Who were you with? Did you meet anyone?

Traveling doesn't have to be a hassle. Maybe you should try doing it in a different way. It's hard for me to offer a specific suggestion without knowing where you're from, where you've traveled, and how you've traveled.

examples of #1 - craigslist and plentyoffish

...if you take the last phrase completely out of context.

I hope this attitude about not expecting to see any of the money you're paying into social security ends soon. You're paying money in and so you should get it back when you're older. If this young generation gives up on getting their money back then their fears will come true. It's politics. You get what you collectively ask for. Bottom line: don't lower your expectations. Demand, and you should get.

New York, NY

SpaFinder.com

We're hiring a software developer. We work mostly in Java. We're also looking for a QA Engineer.

Actually, a lot of people complain that non-local food doesn't taste good. Local food is usually picked closer to being ripe and usually arrives in the store or market sooner after being picked. For both of these reasons it should taste better.

Are you serious? Not much to be said about a play by Shakespeare? Maybe you should try re-reading one.

You're probably right, but that's not what I was referring to. I was referring to the US Navy that patrols international waters to ensure smooth flows of oil tanks, and I was referring to the money that goes to protect the Saudi government and their oil fields, etc.

It doesn't really matter where we import our oil from. The world market is interconnected. If supplies drop in Venezuela, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, then the demand for oil from Canada will go up worldwide. So it's in our interest to keep the oil flowing from countries other than Canada.

I consider the taxes I pay to fund the US military to be a gas subsidy. Without it we wouldn't have access to such cheap and plentiful oil.

This line caught my attn:

"Not including tuition, I lived (and lived comfortably) on $103 a week, which covered my necessities: food, gas, car insurance, a cellphone and visits to the laundromat."

To each his own, but if it was me and I wanted to live on $103 a week I would skip the van (-$1500), gas, car insurance, and probably cell phone too. I know you can find rooms in Durham for under $300 a month. Find a friend to share the room with and you're each paying $150 a month. You then have windows (fresh air), a kitchen, shower and toilet. Maybe buy a bicycle from the Salvation Army for $10 and you're more than set.

Yes, but the sport might become more exciting if the players are able to perform better, and the participants might enjoy it more. It might also make the sport accessible to more people if it makes skating easier.

Go further. Why not try living out of a backpack? Why not live in India for 6 months, then Peru for 6 months, then wherever you want. There are no limits.

There's a good book that covers this exact topic in much more depth. It's called "False Economy: A Surprising Economic History of the Word" by Alan Beattie. If I remember correctly, he focuses on how Argentinian land was owned by wealthy elites, satisfied with their wealth. In the US, small parcels of land were handed out to poorer individuals. Thus, the US held a greater attraction for immigrants. In the US immigrants also migrated inland quickly, leaving room in the cities for more immigrants to arrive.

Some of the book is available online through google books.

What if there was a thin wall that you leaned against during takeoff, with a half seat attached to it? Then on landings you turned and faced the back of the plane and leaned on the half-seat facing the back of the plane?

Havana, Cuba is another successful example: http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/273

Try craigslist. I live in a private bedroom in a 3 bdrm apartment in Park Slope, 2 subway stops from Manhattan. I pay $900/month. I have a friend in Sunset Park (brooklyn) that pays around $700/month for a private studio apartment. That's about 30-40 minutes by subway to manhattan.

I always find this peculiar when google says they found users were doing fewer searches when they increased the # of results on the serp to 20 or 30. Maybe when a user sees more results they find what they were looking for more quickly, and so don't have to do another search. Yet google always turns this around and says this is bad because users do fewer searches. I guess from google's perspective, revenue-wise, it's bad. But from a user's perspective, it's good. Do no evil?

I'm American. I spent a year and a half traveling through Asia, Australia and NZ. Then another 6 months in South America. There are tons of people, Americans included, doing the same. In general it's extremely safe.