nihilocrat

It's nice that they did that, but it's kind of like breaking into your house and stealing everything except your Rolodex because, well, that would be a dick thing to do.

I would suppose that's a pretty herculean task unless you already know several fluently and spend a considerable amount of time daily studying and practicing.

It kind of worked, there were issues with stragglers and making it look organic that I couldn't fix in time. If ships got too far outside the formation sometimes they would only try aligning with the leader instead of catching up first. Also, when they did get in formation, they were eerily good at matching the leader's alignment: all ships would turn in unison and kind of ruin the organic feel of the pure flocking algorithm.

http://www.ohmibod.com/bodyheat/

I was at a presentation by the app's creator, apparently the hardware was already available through some company, so you could theoretically do it with any device that outputs to a headphone jack. The iPhone's touch interface simply provided a ... unique and apparently (don't ask me!) expressive method of control.

I'm not entirely convinced things will pan out like this, but the thought still occurred to me.

We don't actually have to tear down and start over, and I think you underestimate the North American will to destroy old buildings. We just need to use existing buildings more intelligently, turn asphalt seas into courtyards, allocate green spaces and keep residental and commercial buildings close together. I don't expect people to actually do any of this, particularly in the US where it would be seen as a communist plot, but I'm happy there are many places in the world where there is no need for urban replanning/reorganization on a grand scale.

7. Urbanization will reverse. Why pay $3,000/month for a flat in Manhattan when you can get from 100 miles upstate to work in 30 minutes?

This is bascially an apocalyptic scenario in my mind. I hate what the automobile has done to US cities, making everything the same vanilla spread and causing the car to become necessary to participate in modern life. I'm sad this blogger doesn't even think twice about the advantages of public transit (see: 6.) or more clever urban planning to reduce travel distances.

I like his basic thesis but I'm horrified by this example he puts forth. We should be moving away from the car, not towards it.

People should be thinking of governments/countries/cultures this way anyhow. Vote with your feet.

It is easy to get the hang of signage too; lots of French words are spelt almost identically in English, and the language is much easier to read than it is to listen to. You should get the hang of it quickly.

On the other hand, if you have to get any kind of job that involves speaking with customers ... you are shit out of luck.

As a teenager I was totally disillusioned with it, so I mistakenly thought winning of any form and encouraging others to try to win made you an intellectually bankrupt tool. Probably made me happier, but had the adverse effect that I feel a lot lazier than other people I know because I'm more prepared to do "good enough" rather than try to outperform my peers. Being American-born, I feel like I could be seen as a poor performer by my superiors simply because I'm not doing better than my peers.

However, I'm also cheesed at the misuse of the term MMO, Minecraft is pretty close but the lack of a centralized game world in any way makes it unlike most MMOs, and by extension doesn't really fit the term. It is merely a persistent multiplayer construction set. N8 (Neverdaunt) or Wurm Online (which notch had formerly worked on), for example, are similar construction-oriented games that definitely fit the MMO moniker because there /is/ a centralized persistent game world. Dealing with the side effects of such a architecture does make things an order of magnitude more complicated.

It really depends on the library/engine you are using (if you're using one!) OGRE3D integrates well with several packages, Unity has a builtin GUI system that is stupendously inefficient, and the list goes on...

In such an environment where people have little power but have the air and outward appearance of having a lot, I would suspect bizarre speeches aren't uncommon.

Ok! I moved to Canada (Quebec) from the US. The healthcare system is overloaded, there are weird things like a) it's extremely hard to get a family doctor, b) you have to go to a clinic early in the morning to get a number + time of day and then come back at that time to be seen, and c) you still need to pay your own way (or get insurance) for dental / vision. You have to wait weeks/months to have a surgery, but you have to do that in the US and then promptly file for personal bankruptcy.

That's still a whole hell of a lot better than a random unexpected illness or injury sending an employed, insured person into bankruptcy. Seeing a doctor is now a possibility instead of a dangerous worst-case scenario that could ruin my life. No more hoping the pain/infection/whatever just goes away on its own.

Thus, I still think moving towards a government program / single payer / whatever you want to call it system is the best idea. Now, I based this all on personal anecdotal experience and not statistics, so I wonder if anyone will actually agree with me. :)

Ideas (and in most cases even the code itself) is worth little. It’s marketing that makes the startup.

(Mind you, ideas are worth little, but the rest... yeah)