thehm's comments | WingNews

thehm | 2 years ago | on: Mohamed Al-Fayed began life as a porter in Alexandria and died as a billionaire

This is a very rosey interpretation of Al-Fayed and glosses over vast swathes of fraud and misrepresentation. A more balanced view can be gained from the Guardian, itself no fan of the British establishment: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/02/mohamed-al-fay...

thehm | 2 years ago | on: PornHub blocks users in Utah, cites state’s age verification law

Where I live, they can only legally be sold to people ≥ 18 years old. Maybe that should be more commonplace?

thehm | 2 years ago | on: PornHub blocks users in Utah, cites state’s age verification law

Where can one buy an internet connection without being at least 18 years old?

To use your analogy, it is parents who are paying for the alcohol and then leaving it in a place where it is easy for their children to access. Responsible parents either teach their children about appropriate alcohol use or make it difficult to access, or both.

thehm | 3 years ago | on: Liu Cixin's Technologies of the Future

Nice graphics, but the article misses what was the most interesting new (to me) idea in the books: the Droplets, which are made of "strong interaction" material so dense that miniscule amounts can destroy planets. I'd love to read more about this idea.

thehm | 3 years ago | on: Liu Cixin's Technologies of the Future

The Dark Forest problem posits that in the time required to send a message to a distant civilisation, the sender could just as easily send something that would destroy the distant civilisation. Further, that it is not possible to know without communication whether a distant civilisation would have peaceful or belligerant intent. Therefore, any civilisation that knows the existence of another should pre-emptively destroy the other rather than risk waiting to find out if it is peaceful

If FTL communication is possible, it could be possible to establish the other civilisations intent before they could send anything destructive.

As for the Sophon's it might be that they require a compatible recipient to work and so first require matter to be sent to the distant location. It's a long time since I read the Three Body books, but I seem to remember them being based on quantum-entangled particles, which would fit with this.

thehm | 3 years ago | on: Improving code review time

Those architectural decisions should be reviewed during the design and planning phase so mid/low-level devs don't waste time building the wrong thing in the first place.

thehm | 3 years ago | on: How the light moves

See also Subtract by Leidy Klotz, which examines how problems can often be more easily solved by removing rather than adding, contrary to our natural bias.

thehm | 4 years ago | on: Ditch your version manager

Looks interesting, but I don't see any benefits over using conda. And given the network effect benefit, conda seems like it will remain the more useful tool.

thehm | 5 years ago | on: First E-Ink like color tablet with Tcl NXTPAPER technology

That's the exact purpose I got a reMarkable 2 for, and have been so glad that I did. It's not perfect, but it's a far better experience than using a tablet, laptop or print-out.

thehm | 5 years ago | on: Flour Fixated

As it mentions, there are many uses of plain white flour other than bread.

> Flour can be engineered into a series of deeply likeable textures, from the softness of sponge cake to the crispness of a cracker to the custardy satisfaction of a Yorkshire pudding.

thehm | 5 years ago | on: Apple’s dongle problem isn’t getting any better

Docks are just for transitioning.

If/when all devices use USB-C you just plug your first monitor in and then use it's USB-C hub to connect all other devices.

thehm | 5 years ago | on: Seven Sets Venn Diagram

Just use an Upset plot already.

thehm | 5 years ago | on: Google bans Podcast Addict app over non-approved Covid-19 content

Link for convenience: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/cont...

The package name is 'com.google.android.apps.podcasts'

thehm | 6 years ago | on: How Big Technical Changes Happen at Slack

One example of Slack's decision making process is discussed in Jake Knapp's Sprint book. Essentially, create rapid disposable prototypes and test on real people to address specific problems.