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yaix

1,959 karma · joined January 26, 2011

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yaix··on Teens can't tell the difference between Google ads and search results
In the 1980s and 90s, knowing about computers was also a way for kids to "rebel against old people". It was us who could teach our teachers how to use and program a computer, not the other way around.

That's gone now. Today, config.sys is something "old people" talk about, why would a kid learn /that/?

yaix··on Imagining the Post-Antibiotics Future
Not having useful drugs against bacterial infections has killed many more people in the past than all violent governments combinded. Because bacteria infections where the number one killer for centuries.
yaix··on Imagining the Post-Antibiotics Future
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism
yaix··on Web Fundamentals: A handbook for best practices
Its a giude about web UI best practices, and the icons symbolizing the different topics are not clickable?

Besides, I didn't even notice that some of the headlines/h2s in the subsequent pages are actually clickable.

Then, they actually enlosed their <video> elements inside a <a> tag. So now, when I click on the controls of a video, it will open the linked page. No way to use the video's controls without leaving the page I am reading.

Three basic errors found in under a minute on a simple text site. I don't think I want to take any UI design advice from that person.

yaix··on [dead]
This seems like some guy who's AdSense account got banned and now he's trying to take his revenge.

If there is any proof, just go to some good journalist, like Snowden did. The journalist will know how to proceed about publishing things for maximal media attention and impact on public opinion.

yaix··on Japan's Plan for Centimeter-Resolution GPS
So, table tennis table? Chess board?
yaix··on Exercise during pregnancy gives newborn brain development a head start
Yep. Problem is, there are no schools around.
yaix··on There is a pure HTML Gmail, and it still works
Just back from East Africa, and plain HTML is really useful there. Never was able to open G+ and always used the offline version of Gmail.
yaix··on WebP – A new image format for the Web
Very true.
yaix··on Attorneys for Barrett Brown want case on linking to hacked material dismissed
Don't judges feel somewhat stupid sentencing people to "100 years" of something?
yaix··on Why I stopped being a voluntourist
> THE PROBLEM WITH LITTLE WHITE GIRLS

After a year in East Africa, that was one of the things I noticed here: they always come in pairs of 20-year-old white girls. Except for South East Asia, many more young men there.

> $3000 bought us a week at an orphanage

That can actually cause children being obducted or "borrowed" to staff orphanages for white Voluntourists.

> Our mission while at the orphanage was to build a library.

And another 10 African carpenters who lost a job to those white Santa-Clauses.

> have a camp run and executed by Dominicans

Good luck. I have never seen any organization actually run locally. Sure, it often looks like it is, but if you digg a little deeper, you always find at least one Westener (or local who lived half their life in the West) making sure that people actually do things and not just spend the money and idle. But there maybe one such organization, somewhere, I just haven't found it yet.

yaix··on Flappy Bird is proof that no one knows what the audience wants
I thought Google+ was proof of that.
yaix··on FBI Checks Wrong Box, Places Student on No-Fly List
Comparing it to the GDR ("East Germany") would be more apropriate, I guess. And you'd avoid Godwin.
yaix··on Man Poses as Woman on Online Dating Site; Barely Lasts Two Hours
> but it will make men much more considerate

Yey, the sexism here.

yaix··on Man Poses as Woman on Online Dating Site; Barely Lasts Two Hours
Why didn't he just click "block" and wait for normal people to contact him? There are probably some idiots who jump onto every new profile that pops up. Once blocked, it will become much easier.
yaix··on Chinese troops to seize Zhongye Island back from the Philippines in 2014
> Chinese people

The only "proper" enemy would be Russia, and therefore China signed a border agreement with Russia, basically giving up their claims. Because Russia is stong enough to not play these silly games the CCP is playing with the weaker neighbors.

Like a common school bully, China is only bullying those that can't defend themselves. Doesn't give China much face, I'd say.

yaix··on Chinese troops to seize Zhongye Island back from the Philippines in 2014
Its China who is heating the issue time and time again. With Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam. They even sent troops into India last year.

Its only with Russia that they signed a peaceful border agreement two(?) years ago, because Russia would be too strong an enemy to play these kind of games with.

yaix··on Chinese troops to seize Zhongye Island back from the Philippines in 2014
They are called the Pagasa Island by everybody but the Chinese propaganda ministry.

Anyway, I think this is all more Chinese interior policy, to divert public attention in China from the many problems the CCP currently has to maintain itself in power. As any government, the need a "foreign enemy". Or, in China's case, a handfull of foreign enemies: Japan, Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, maybe Malaysia.

yaix··on Two million Facebook, Gmail and Twitter passwords stolen
> The massive data breach was a result of keylogging software maliciously installed on an untold number of computers around the world

Is that a Windows only issue or are other OSes affected?

yaix··on Two million Facebook, Gmail and Twitter passwords stolen
That would be much more useful. My password is strong enough, but I would never use an computer other than my own to log into Gmail or any other important account. One-time passwords would be a good thing to have.

Maybe possible with 2-factor-auth, but it would still require me to input my password on an untrusted device. No.

yaix··on Romance website Match.com sued for $1.5 billion over 'unauthorized' photos
> How can they 'scam' people on match.com by creating fake profiles?

Getting invited to some developed country by some lonely soul. Get that person to come to their country and then drain their money. There are really guillable and desperate people out there that just stop thinking as soon as somebody fakes interest in them.

But how would Match profit? They have millions of users. What changes if they have millions and a few thousand?

yaix··on How to Buy Bitcoin
The current price hike is made in China. Better to look there for hints as to when the bubble will burst.
yaix··on Someone Forced World Internet Traffic Through Belarus and Iceland
I appreciate it when the top-voted comment tells me the bullshit level of the linked article, so I can decide if it is worth to actually click through. In this care it seems that it is not.
yaix··on Why I Will Never Go Back to the United States
> In the Philippines I had to bribe someone in order to get my visa extended for a few days.

No you don't! I have been asked for "visa extention bribes" in many countries. Do not pay them. Cite the countries law and that you follow it. Bribes kill. "Every bribe you pay helps to kill a child." Just don't!

What I learned from the story: If I ever go on a US trip, I get a fresh passport first.

yaix··on How A Blog Post Got 10K Google +1′s And 60 Inbound Links In 48 hours
My guess is that a sufficient number of people found it sufficiently interesting.
yaix··on Research Finds Outright Grants of Cash are an Effective Form of Aid to the Poor
I know that argument, but it is incorrect.

Production needs to be efficient in order to compete. Efficiency needs knowledge. These "groups of poor" lack that knowledge. And the amount of free money is way to low to produce anything with enough surplus value. How many unskilled carpenters, metal workers, and hair stylists do they need? I am currently in Kenya, and the amount of barber shops is amazing.

Production of value is stuff that a country can export, to earn hard currency that can buy knowledge to increase the country's production efficiency. Like Taiwan did, and Korea, and Malaysia, and China, and any country that has ever successfully developed in the past 70 years.

But the aid curse will not allow it, unfortunately.

yaix··on Research Finds Outright Grants of Cash are an Effective Form of Aid to the Poor
My guess is that companies will offer to "write nice proposals" for groups of poor people to get free money and then charge 30% as a fee from them.
yaix··on Research Finds Outright Grants of Cash are an Effective Form of Aid to the Poor
The only way countries have /ever/ developed is by the production of value, products that a market wants to buy, usually an export market. Handing out free money doesn't help to achieve that goal. It just perpetualtes dependence.

It seems to be the "new hip thing" within the aid-industrial complex, though. I hope it will not do too much damage to these societies, like many of the previous "effective forms of aid" did.

yaix··on China's Empty Cities
Those will get filled with people within about two years. It works about thise way:

1. A road grid are build with 4 lane roads, redlights, etc. 2. Housing complexed are build on the resulting squares with the ground floor for business and shops. 3. Small businesses get the ground floor spaces for free for two years, to make them move in here despite not having any peolpe living there. 4. People start to move in, because there are shops around and the rents and still low. 5. After two years, the buildings are largely rented or sold out, the shops start to earn money and pay rent too. 6. After 4 years it looks like the center of a city.

I have lived in such places, both at the very begining when there was nothing around, and later when it seemed to be an overcrowded city center.

All these stories about "Chinas empty buildings" are largely bullshit. At least on the east coast.

yaix··on H2 {position: sticky} [video]
As always, its a good idea if used correctly. Often, sticky headers are used and cover half the screen on small devices. Use it only if it actually helps usability!
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