zizzles | 9 years ago | on: An Open Letter to the Uber Board and Investors
zizzles's comments
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: A Low-Cost Solution to Traffic
"Traffic is such a waste of life"
Fully-autonomous driving can mitigate this; you will still be commuting, but with an added benefit of being hands-free (to check your e-mails, to finish up your TPS reports, to nap) for much of society this can be highly efficient if utilized correctly.
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Mathematical genius is fragile
I got just a little further than you, until I reached "women make the best mathematicians" where I instantly ALT-F4'd Google Chrome and added 'medium.com' to a permanent blacklist. Truth of the matter is, math IS a high-IQ game, albeit average intelligence specimen can become semi-competent with time and practice (the payoffs of this pursuit are negligible)
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Computer Science Education
I glimpsed at the content for 30 seconds. This does not look anything like a computer science education: "Pencil Code", "Blockly", "Coding Adventures", "Craft Small Projects in HTML/CSS". These are just glorified baby-games for 5 year old's; or at the very most a stupefied introduction of basic development for girls and malnourished Indian children.
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: How Children Lost the Right to Roam in Just 4 Generations
Early-mid 2000's kid here. I roamed without second thoughts: Explored forests, cities, trespassed on forsaken enchanted lands and everything in between. I admit there has been stark differences in outdoor activities; but this isn't a "it's too dangerous for Johnny to go outside" scenario, it's a "Johnny is too glued to his iPad 8.0 to enjoy going outside" scenario.
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: A Month Without Sugar
I do not know what is so difficult about not eating sugar. If "without sugar" means no added artificial sweetener or added sugar (as according to this article) then I have not consumed sugar for many many years; the same goes for our ancestors, farmers, etc. I do not know if this is a case of crack-like addiction, or a case of "what is the point? you only live once, you should indulge in pleasures" either way it need not be difficult if you simply, as an example, substitute your candy for fruits (fruit cultivation is a far-cry from what it used to be, but I do not want to get into an argument about this)
Despite all of this, take it from me: The benefits are overrated
Ironically and amusingly enough, I was my happiest (and seemingly healthier) when I was a little boy running around all day outside eating candy or chocolate to my hearts content.
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: From Secretary to Software Developer: The Hard Way
Explain to me what you think the key differences are between a competent and incompetent programmer; specifically, in terms of particular skillsets.
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Scientists engineer mice genomes to lengthen their lifespans by 30 percent
Every life extension discussion derails into debates about foreverness; and therein lies the problem: humans of all backgrounds (even today) are dropping dead of health problems at 60 years of age. Thus, foreverness is science-fiction with our current understanding. Baby-steps first perhaps? Regardless, many agree foreverness is not possible - and if it was - I would not want it.
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Why 30 is the decade friends disappear
To sum up everything in this thread: Life becomes less appealing as you get older. You lose friends because "career" and "kids" and "my wife would not agree to this". The novelty and wonderment of being a child is LONG GONE, ie. your brain oxytocin, serotonin and β-endorphin receptors are all but ERADICATED from the grudges of the mundanity of your boring 9 to 5 suburban lifestyle. No time for friends and riding bikes and adventures in the forest and first-kisses under the tree and kickball, those TPS reports need to be finished as soon as possible. You are a walking zombie; living in a biological sense, but not really living. Do not fret because your life is nearing it's end surely but slowly; cell stress, telometre shortening and calcium disposition within collagen has you taking an aged "old-person" appearance as you are scientifically dying from the inside-out as the seconds on the clock tick and tock and by the way is Docker or Vagrant better for deploying a NodeJS + MongoDB app?
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: FBI operated 23 Tor-hidden child porn sites, deployed malware from them
How is this different than Whonix?
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Vancouver plans to tax empty properties 1% of their assessed value
Good nationalism would have been forbidding rich Chinese investors from pricing-out average everyday Canadians from their own housing market, in the very first place. Drastic, calculated measures; that "disgusting kind" of nationalism is what ends up making the real difference. The nationalism you are proposing is just spinning the wheels.
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Angela Merkel: internet search engines are 'distorting perception'
If Angela Merkel had it her way with search engine algorithms, every news source within the first 50 pages of Google.com would paint Germany in a positive-light (especially her barbaric open-door immigration policy)
But we all know the actual reality:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/UoJIDgTKc6k/maxresdefault.jpg
This isn't about making informed decisions or having an "expanse of information", anybody who buys that for even a split-second is under an illusion.
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Cops Have a Database of 117M Faces
Good news for people like me.
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Hyperloop One Raises $50M, Hires Former Uber CFO
How resilient will the Hyperloop be against terrorist attacks?
It is situated above ground. This means the tubing is exposed to all and everyone. In other words, it is vulnerable to homemade explosives which can perhaps obstruct the path the vessel transverses. Sounds far-fetched, but the lengths extremists go to can not be undermined as we have learned time and time again throughout history.
I am interested in the security protocols more so than anything else.
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Constraints on the Universe as a Numerical Simulation (2012)
Should we perhaps hypothesize the motive of this simulation, if any? Death seems to be a very important focal point: All living organisms are condemned to their aging bodies, eventually begin decaying, then die. Death of the universe is also inevitable, "Heat Death". Then there are other existential issues our feeble brains have to deal with. Then of course, our Earth is replete with suffering around every corner. Perhaps other terrestrial planets operate differently, for better or worse. You would think our maker(s) should have known the possible outcomes and scenarios before hitting the "start existence now" button, or perhaps it is just part of the grand plan.
You have to wonder: Are these entity/entities sadistic pranksters of some sort?
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Common prostate cancer treatment linked to later dementia, researcher says
Further proves my point: Antibiotic resistance. 300 million projected to be dead by 2050.
Tit for tat.
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/antimicrobial-resistance...
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/11/antibiotics-...
Although, why is my above post getting downvoted? Too cynical? I'm sorry. Next time I'll lie and say pharmaceutical industry is doing a splendid job and mother nature has taken second place and nobody is getting dementia from prostate medication.
Clearly, life is just roses and daisies here on HN.
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Common prostate cancer treatment linked to later dementia, researcher says
Not surprising.
Trying to overcome faulty genetics with medication is a double edged sword. You are almost always trading one issue for another, tit for tat. Prostate cancer medication? Enjoy dementia. Chemotherapy treatment for cancer? Enjoy having healthy cells destroyed. SSRI for depression? Linked with autism in pregnancy, heart disease, numerous other issues. Steroids for improved performance? Gynecomastia. Ball shrinkage. Acne because of raised hormones. Accutane to fix acne? Liver problems. Crohns. Finasteride to retain your hair? Lowered DHT levels, diminished sexual drive.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. Mother nature seems to be an unstoppable force.
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Brain training exercises might just make you better at brain training exercises
Could this perhaps just be a rationalization for some to play video games under a doctrine of "I'm getting smarter" when in turn it's just mindless consumption of media? I am all for FPS games improving my cognitive performance, but we should not be delusional about this.
If I wanted to (at least try) improving cognition, I would spend hours reading math textbooks and doing exercises, learning languages, perhaps reading about philosophy in my off-time; not strafing left and right with my WASD keys and trashing on kids all day in Counter-Strike.
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Fat-fueled brain: unnatural or advantageous?
Nutritional information is laughably conflicting.
Example:
Eat meat, it's essential!
Don't eat meat, it will sky rocket your cholesterol!
Buy organic, it is much healthier!
Organic is over-priced and isn't proven to be healthier, don't buy into it!
Fruit is so healthy, you should eat plenty of it!
Fructose is bad for you, don't eat too much fruit!
Every piece of information you end up reading, there is another piece of information somewhere out there that completely conflicts it. What even is FACT anymore?
zizzles | 9 years ago | on: Employee #1: Coinbase
This is now a thread about lucid dreams and the galantamine/choline stack.
Galantamine is marketed as an Alzheimer treatment, and although me and others are weary of pharmaceuticals (side effects? cancer? higher-morality rates in clinical trials?) drug induced lucid dreams sound very interesting to me. Has anyone on HN experimented with this?
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You are completely right.
The problem of poor, dirty, violent, urban-youth infested communities is not fully solved.