Disqus - Latest Comments for coldweathervacation

Re: How Do You Come Up With Your Best Ideas? - Atlantic Mobile

coldweathervacation — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:17:16 -0000

Through work. While I get ideas frequently while not working – watching a movie, chatting with friends, etc – I've found that my best ideas are the ones that evolve out of process. An art professor once demanded eight hours a day of our time for a third-year sculpture/installation class, and her reasoning was that you need to be working in order to discover truly great ideas. I keep track of all my ideas, but the ones that occur while working often end up being the most valuable.

Re: Facebook's Suprisingly Humble, $1 Billion Acquisition of Instagram - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 16:05:10 -0000

Probably not – Imgur would be a censorship nightmare. My guess is that Instagram's policies were pretty similar to Facebook's to begin with. But, if you've ever spent time on Imgur it's clear that 'anything goes'.

Re: Facebook's Suprisingly Humble, $1 Billion Acquisition of Instagram - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 16:03:59 -0000

I used to find the myriad of social networks a little annoying to deal with, but this is one case where I liked having separate networks. I liked instagram being a separate thing for some of the same reasons the author points out. It's a great day for instagram for sure, and a win for Facebook, but for users of both I'm not convinced.

Maybe more simply put: the competition was good for the users. Facebook *was* the biggest photo sharing network around (at least on volume) but Instagram provided an alternative.

Re: 13 Final Thoughts About the Health Care Arguments - Andrew Cohen - National - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:14:39 -0000

There's a difference between trying to rule in a way that stands the test of time and employing logical fallacies to do so. Judges should ultimately be logical, no? A slippery slope is a fallacy because just because something can stem from a decision, doesn't mean it will. It's a fallacy, because applied to anything you will find reasons for not ruling in a particular direction. You can't guess at what might happen in the future, you have to be logical with the facts of this particular moment in time.

They've already limited the commerce clause in other rulings. The question on the table is whether it can be employed in the way that the health care law sets out.

But, that said – I agree with you that judges face an extremely difficult task and that differentiating between 'planning for the future' and a 'slippery slope' argument can mean treading a narrow path. From the sidelines, however, it seems like the case is pretty clearly defined: people's health care costs cross state lines, whether they choose to have coverage or not.

Re: The Advertising Industry's Definition of 'Do Not Track' Doesn't Make Sense - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 13:03:51 -0000

Ha. So, 'Do Not Track' simply means, '... Hear no evil, See no evil."

Re: 13 Final Thoughts About the Health Care Arguments - Andrew Cohen - National - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:07:41 -0000

This. Such good points made here. "Reason, Language and Argumentation: Intro to Logic" was my favorite class in college. Our homework assignments were to find argumentative fallacies in nightly news broadcasts. Whoever is taking that class today will have some prime examples of Slippery Slopes and Straw-men, as you point out. Or, as a friend of mine said the other day: "What the [censored] is the Supreme Court using analogies about broccoli for? What is this, high-school?"

Re: This Pinterest Scammer Is Making More Than $1,000 a Day - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 13:01:26 -0000

I hadn't thought of it that way. And if this story were true (and like the story I linked to above says, there are now some serious doubts) then it would kind of imply that pinterest is so effective that people will purchase tons of stuff even if the links are bot generated.

At first I thought it would be detrimental to pinterest, because they're building a brand based on the quality of the 'invite only' community. But, your comment kind of makes me think about it and if people are buying stuff regardless, that's probably not so bad at all for their image.

Re: This Pinterest Scammer Is Making More Than $1,000 a Day - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 19:59:55 -0000

News is that it's a hoax: http://www.dailydot.com/new...

Re: The Nanoscale Future of Pixels - Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg - Video - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:00:25 -0000

Great find. Really interesting to see all of the odd proportions and spacing at the microscopic scale.

Re: Why Apple Should Start Making A 3D Printer Right Now - Ross Andersen - Technology - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:08:48 -0000

This is definitely exciting. Also, reminds me of the Phlip K. Dick story "Pay for the Printer", which is about a future in which the Biltongs – an alien species that can print any object – are becoming sick, and mankind is left trying to remember how to make even the simplest objects.

Re: The Unimpressed Astronaut Meme - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:45:31 -0000

Relevant quote from the West Wing, episode"The Warfare of Genghis Khan"

Leo: My generation never got the future it was promised... Thirty-five years later, cars, air travel is exactly the same. We don't even have the Concorde anymore. Technology stopped.

Josh: The personal computer...

Leo: A more efficient delivery system for gossip and pornography? Where's my jet pack, my colonies on the Moon?

Re: If Multitasking Is Impossible, Why Are Some People So Good at It? - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:45:47 -0000

Sleep too. I can think of 10 different problems that were eating at me for days/weeks – each solved by putting it away, going to sleep, and waking up in the morning with the solution.

Re: If Multitasking Is Impossible, Why Are Some People So Good at It? - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:00:16 -0000

One more thing: The studies that show that a little bit of web browsing increases productivity, also stated that it only really works when the websites visited are 'fun' and don't require too much decision making (if I remember correctly, and we're talking about the same studies). In this case, it's less of an argument in favor of multitasking in the western sense of the word, and more of an argument for mental balance – taking breaks to allow the brain to process information and refresh itself for further mental effort.

Re: If Multitasking Is Impossible, Why Are Some People So Good at It? - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:56:23 -0000

I think it's important to make a distinction between multitasking of the walking-while-checking-email-and-talking-on-a-conference-call variety and the kind of mental multitasking that often leads to creative breakthroughs. The former has been shown time and again to be counterproductive, while the latter has (arguably) lead to a lot of great discoveries.

Thousand-tabbed, power browsing of the web is in some ways like multitasking, but in other ways it's really one activity. It's more akin (IMO) to studying with a table full of open books.

Re: Facebook Tells Salman Rushdie He Has to Go By His Given Name, Ahmed Rushdie - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:40:52 -0000

David Jones wrote a good song about this – but google's not returning results for any of his music for some reason.

Re: Why Is Everybody So Down on the iPhone 4s? - Daniel Indiviglio - Business - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:46:41 -0000

Speaking from personal experience, I got the 3gs when it came out -- upgrading from the original iPhone. It was the first iPhone to record video, which for me was incredible. It had the same form factor as the previous phone, and the 4 didn't come out for quite some time after that. So, I'm not really sure I get the disappointment. The 1080p video with stabilization will probably warrant an upgrade for me, as well as Siri (which, I think a lot of commenters here and elsewhere are mistaking for voice search). Anyway, that's my two cents. (FULL DISCLAIMER: I develop apps for the Apple platform)

Re: Video: Fast New Running Robot Is Terrifying - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:22:48 -0000

Also, check out the date on that video: 2008

Re: Video: Fast New Running Robot Is Terrifying - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:22:17 -0000

http://www.youtube.com/watc... << I thought this robot was a little scarier. Check out how it recovers from a destabilizing event.

Re: It's the Beginning of the End for the Apple App Store - The Atlantic Wire - Technology - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:18:07 -0000

HTML5 is great, and people are starting to do amazing things with it, but it's still going to be a while before HTML5 can compete with sophisticated native apps in terms of performance and features. People are making strides every day though, and in some areas, as you point out, HTML5 can already compete. However, the headline is 'Huffington Post'-level hyperbole. Totally hyped-up-link-bait.

Re: Why Facebook and Google's Concept of "Real Names" Is Revolutionary - Alexis Madrigal - Technology - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 22:52:57 -0000

At first the argument that anonymity encourages racism, bigotry, etc, on comment threads and the like was fairly convincing. I get heartburn reading comments. The Atlantic was once an oasis of intelligent conversation, but recently even these message boards are filled with trolls.

News this week that researches could somewhat accurately cull social security numbers from facebook pictures means that this is no longer a virtual/physical distinction, and that's one point that the author may want to consider. In other words, we're pretty close to augmented reality, real-time versions of Facebook's facial recognition. Point your camera at a crowd and see who's a democrat and whose a republican, etc.

You don't have to be far out on the fringe to see why this is an invasion of privacy, and the dangers it presents in societies where perhaps the government is not so benign. It's also dishonest on the part of corporations. As the Daily Show pointed out, Facebook has tried pretty hard to remain a private company.

Re: Bill Clinton Reflects on a Decade of Downturn - Ronald Brownstein - Politics - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 18:16:21 -0000

Okay, something really interesting here: "Our risk is that we'll be so averse to any changes in the entitlement programs that we'll continue to spend ... too much money on today, so we don't have enough money [to invest] for tomorrow," he said.

So far that's the only hint I've heard from a senior democrat of what might be behind Obama's willingness to put Social Security on the table in this week's debt ceiling talks. A lot of the commentary from the left has suggested that the answer is that Obama is a manchurian candidate of sorts. It would be interesting to hear someone at the Atlantic take a less conspiratorial jab at what is behind it. Is it akin to what Clinton is suggesting here? And, what would entitlement reform look like?

Re: You Are More Likely to Survive a Plane Crash than Click a Banner Ad - Business - The Atlantic Wire

coldweathervacation — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:23:39 -0000

I bet your chances of getting into Harvard go up if you've already climbed Everest :)

Re: Obama Takes Control of Budget Debate, But He's Already Lost - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:47:58 -0000

I'm not sure where I read it, but there was an article this week about how the republicans in the house felt burned over the debt negotiations a few months ago, when the government shutdown was looming.

They were upset because the white house's cuts in spending were smoke and mirrors.

$2 trillion is an enormous number, but isn't it likely that the Obama white house is smarter than you're giving them credit for and that they believe they can offer the perception of giving away the farm, while actually holding on to what is important to them?

Given the context of an election season, it seems too quick a judgment to say that Obama and his administration are poor negotiators.

Re: Serve and Volley: The Classic Tennis Strategy You Won't See at Wimbledon - Atlantic Mobile

coldweathervacation — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 14:12:56 -0000

So happy to read this article this morning -- I didn't think there was anyone left who appreciated the long lost net game. The players today are definitely incredible, but there's something missing -- I love the dynamic of those old games. It's the way I was taught to play.

Re: How I Failed, Failed, and Finally Succeeded at Learning How to Code - James Somers - Technology - The Atlantic

coldweathervacation — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:32:15 -0000

I had a very similar experience, and may have driven to the mall with Mom for the same C++ book. I actually had my parents by me the "Renderman Companion" when I was 13. That book turned out to be an amazing learning tool -- even if it would take years to comprehend the C examples -- because the book teemed with creative approaches to problems; and you didn't have to understand the code to understand the problems and their solutions.

Really great article, thank you.