ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: British Government loses Article 50 court fight
The same reason anybody stays with any archane system: entrenched interests.
ricksplat's comments
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: British Government loses Article 50 court fight
My take on this is that it was a "qualified" majority to "Leave" but no specific plan was outlined as to what "Leave" entailed. "Remain" is easy: Status quo. "Leave" means many different things to many people.
In a constitutional republic (such as Ireland for instance) a referendum clearly specifies the change to the constitution down to the wording and an open informed debate is had on what the consequences, and possibilities of those unforeseen etc.
There was nothing like this with "Leave". Article 50 as a the mechanism by which leave might be initiated was never even mentioned.
Even since the vote there has been all sorts of inferences based on opinion polls about what the "Leave" constituency desire and it has largely been interpreted as "keep the foreigners out" - and that is an interpretation that clearly has no constitutional footing.
Brexit was at best a plebiscite, dressed up as a referendum. There is a mandate for leaving the EU, but there is no prerogative at all for any of the specifics of how that happens nor has there been a robust discussion over what "Leave" even means.
It will be sad to see the UK go and it will be disruptive for many but if that is her will then so be it, but I wouldn't want it to happen before all that are involved get to have their say on what it means.
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Emacs standing alone on a Linux Kernel (2004)
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down
That's not my department," says Wernher von Braun
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Emacs standing alone on a Linux Kernel (2004)
>I'm struggling with defining the genuine distinctions between operating system, application server and applications.
Two important concepts are abstraction as you go up the stack (towards the application) and generalisation of functionality as you go down (towards the OS).
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Vote Leave’s ‘Voter Intention Collection System’ (VICS) Now Available for All
So much good stuff in here it's hard to know where to start. If it's not true it's simply great science fiction!
If you want to make big improvements in communication, my advice is – hire physicists, not communications people from normal companies and never believe what advertising companies tell you about ‘data’ unless you can independently verify it.
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: What the Heck Is Happening at Apple?
> iOS has a number of far more meaningful integration points with OS X, including iCloud and Messages.
both of which are atrocious.
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: What the Heck Is Happening at Apple?
In my recollection a micro-USB has never failed. If it has failed it wasn't an issue because I've a heap of them lying around and could just grab another one.
I have had a number of lightning connectors fail on me. They're designed to fail. Pressure-held copper edge-connectors for devices went out with the Commodore 64's user port.
The fact that it is reversible is convenient but hardly worthy of consideration as a feature alongside "ubiquity" "cost" and "durability".
The old iPhone connector had it's limitations but it was established and really quite solid in my experience. Micro USB perhaps has limited features technically, and is ugly, but I don't believe the advantages that Apple presents for lightning outweigh the drawbacks.
As an interface it has a couple of niche use-cases that it fulfils but it is a step backwards in terms of connector design and in fact has a "worse" connector than the two other interfaces it purports to improve upon.
Props to Apple for padding out their profit margin and all that but they can absolutely go and shite if they think I'm going to swallow their "better connector" bullshit.
And they expect me to use it instead of a headphones jack now as well!
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Poor kids who do things right don't do better than rich kids who do things wrong
heard that yeah! Kind of ironic in a way?
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Poor kids who do things right don't do better than rich kids who do things wrong
But I mean day to day how's is this reinforced. Is there some kind of subtle bullying or gaslighting going on?
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: The “432 Hz vs. 440 Hz” conspiracy theory
Coming from a more "bottom up" perspective it's likely that the derivation of these numbers are related to the implementation rather than anything to do with the musical theory. Digital technology makes working with arbitrary numbers quite straightforward but often times certain number patterns simply "emerge" as a result of characteristics of components, integration with other legacy technologies or even just ease of calculation. Then these numbers just become legacy themselves and you're stuck with them!
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Poor kids who do things right don't do better than rich kids who do things wrong
Reminds me of pulp's "common people" ... you could call your dad he could stop it all yeah
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Poor kids who do things right don't do better than rich kids who do things wrong
It sounds a little like learned helplessness ... having spent some time in the UK I have noticed this unquestioning deference to "ones betters" and I wonder how it comes about. How is this trait acquired?
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Twitter Plans Hundreds More Job Cuts as Soon as This Week
I'm just back from a holiday in south east Asia. All the time I was there I was getting ads on twitter targetted to the local market (in the local language) presumably based on my roaming IP.
Maybe my grasp is a bit simplistic but isn't this just intensely stupid? My twitter profile is explicitly Western European is twitter's location based advertising really just as dumb as matching IP addresses to regions?
If I were an advertiser I wouldn't be too happy about twitter claiming 'impressions' like this.
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent
Just speaking from my own personal experience ...
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent
That's all well and good as long as you're a student, or partying your twenties away and as long as everybody in the house gets on .... I've done this, and while it is good fun in parts the downsides become downright tiring.
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Apple to create new London HQ at Battersea Power Station
This is brilliant news! It's one of those iconic London buildings. You'll see it on approach to London to Victoria station, it's clearly visible from the London eye, and as the other commenter noted it's on the cover of that pink floyd album. It's use and renovation has been mooted for years but presumably it's always been held up because it's both a listed building and will be very expensive to renovate due to old hazardous materials and the like. It would take a company with Apple's cash to do this and I'm delighted to see it finally happening.
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Autism and Evolution
I'm not sure why you're anthropomorphising evolution. It's a process, not even a thing. It's a consequence of interacting environmental conditions, and it doesn't "care" at all in any sense of the word. No more than point-charges "care" about electromagnetism.
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Autism and Evolution
backward: these traits are a disadvantage to host organism.
forward: they are an advantage, and thus survive.
Are they aligned with natural selection processes in the environment.
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Autism and Evolution
It sounds as though you are speaking from the standpoint that genes mutate at random in all and any "directions" (net). However, non-successful genes are eliminated, so in the effective sense it is (gross). The direction of evolution is towards being "more suitable" for a particular environment.
ricksplat | 9 years ago | on: Autism and Evolution
Which of these categories does "epigenetic" factors fall into? It seems to straddle both ...