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oldmanjoe's comments

oldmanjoe | 12 years ago | on: Show HN: Super Planet Crash

Nice. Unfortunately my solar system was stable for about 40 years and then descended into a nightmarish world of Earth bouncing around the solar system in what would have been a horrific experience for the citizens of the planet. On the plus side the visuals from the multiple planets veering close to destroying it would have been a sight to remember. Well, remember for the short while that remained before the atmosphere either froze, was burned away by the sun or stripped by the gravitational field of a giant planet.

oldmanjoe | 12 years ago | on: Amazon Prime Air

To deal with the issues of landing Amazon Prime Air would best be served by sending you a plastic "landing square" when you subscribe so that you designate the place in your garden so that the Drone knows where to land and you can keep an eye on it. With an iBeacon built into it it can guide the drone landing and even use IR to warn the drone of nearby movement/people. This would also serve as a signal to members of the public that it is a potential landing zone (perhaps with a red flashing light when a drone is making a land).

Amazon could even give you a discount if you allow the drone to recharge at your landing point.

oldmanjoe | 12 years ago | on: Why I'm Getting a PhD

I did a PhD for the fun of it. And the challenges were so special and different and the whole crazy un-inuitiveness of academia (as opposed to the corporate world I was used to) was a complete breath of fresh air. I completed my PhD and went on to become an academic and never looked back. Its not for everyone, but if you like uncertainty, left-field and often unpredictable ways of thinking combined with talking with smart people all the time then it is a great place.

oldmanjoe | 12 years ago | on: What if Google bought Detroit?

Wouldn't that essentially be the beginnings of Fascism with a completely corporation owned city? Next Google could presumably install its "manager", lets call it the "Director/Dictator", that has no worries about democratic niceties and can therefore pass any legislation Google wishes (goodbye social justice, hello minimum work standards, corporate friendly legal environment).

oldmanjoe | 12 years ago | on: Bill before Icelandic Parliament to grant Edward Snowden citizenship

It surely cannot be good legislative practice to make laws solely for one person, even if it seems to be the right thing at the time. In general it is thought to be good practice that a law should address a particular form of behavior rather than a specific individual or group.

Although Congress has in the past passed laws for individuals, such as when Congress passed a law in 1963 making Winston Churchill an honorary American citizen ( http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/biography/redux/church... ).

This use of legislation in the UK was also in effect from 1300-1800 and called a bill of attainder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_attainder

oldmanjoe | 12 years ago | on: How we perceive time: stop it slipping away by doing new things

<quote>

Dunbar, unlike Yossarian, accepts the fact that death comes for everyone, and has committed himself to a somewhat unorthodox theory and practice of life extension: the cultivation of boredom. The men Yossarian despises and heaps imaginary violence upon, such as Clevinger with his accusations of “antisocial aggressions” (19), are welcomed by his laconic friend. “Dunbar loved shooting skeet because he hated every minute of it” (38), Heller explains, and “Dunbar liked Clevinger because Clevinger annoyed him and made the time go slow” (19)—activities that he insist literally count eleven-times-seventeen years to the hour. </quote>

http://thescattering.wordpress.com/2010/03/17/boredom-makes-...

oldmanjoe | 13 years ago | on: Avoiding Burnout

Ensure you have (at least) monthly meetings with a supervisor. This provides good feedback and stops you getting lost in the weeds. It helps if you have small milestones attached to each meeting (reading a book/paper, editing a chapter, etc).

A sign the PhD is going awry is when they stop attending regular meetings and duck out of your way in the corridor. ;-) Then they start getting stressed

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