Disqus - Latest Comments for GilM

Re: WHY HERSCHEL WALKER MAY WIN, ACCORDING TO THE NEW YORK TIMES: “Rather than Warnock trying to make W…

GilM — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 00:43:26 -0000

A lot of people voted against Trump, rather than for Biden.

Re: Losing My Religion

GilM — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 17:23:09 -0000

Relax. He was referencing the famous Hayek quote: "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design."

Re: Statistics on Ascending Columns

GilM — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 13:46:32 -0000

Hi. I know that this is a very old post, but I was curious about:

Can I use the trace flag 2390 alone?

You can, but it doesn’t make sense to do so because it will stop working when the column turns out to be ascending.

I thought 2390 affects both ascending and unknown leading columns. Why would it stop working when the column turned out to be ascending?

Re: SCAM ALERT: Web Site Owners, Do NOT Open These Messages

GilM — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 12:36:16 -0000

You can go to https://sites.google.com/vi... and click the information icon at the lower left and "Report Abuse" for the entire site.

Re: SCAM ALERT: Web Site Owners, Do NOT Open These Messages

GilM — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 20:40:53 -0000

Do you really expect us to believe that you haven't tried unprotected sex with 20 random people?

Or, did you mean the link-clicking part?

Re: SQL Server Graph Databases – Part 4: Working with Hierarchical Data in a Graph Database

GilM — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 20:16:58 -0000

It might be nice to update this implementing the recent SHORTEST_PATH function to handle recursion.

Re: SQL Server Graph Databases – Part 1: Introduction

GilM — Wed, 10 Mar 2021 12:28:24 -0000

It seems like the unique index is created on the graph_id column, not the $node_id column as stated in the article.

I guess the story is a bit more complicated. From the linked SQL Graph Architecture article:

It is recommended that users create a unique constraint or index on the $node_id column at the time of creation of node table, but if one is not created, a default unique, nonclustered index is automatically created. However, any index on a graph pseudo column is created on the underlying internal columns. That is, an index created on the $node_id column, will appear on the internal graph_id_<hex_string> column.

Re: The Libertarian Path to Democrat One-Party Rule

GilM — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 21:01:44 -0000

I guess Republicans fielding better candidates and shifting policies to become more attractive to Libertarians is out of the question.

I guess your "principles" don't succeed in the real world, either.

Re: The Grover Norquist Show: Obama’s Plan to Steal Your IRA

GilM — Sat, 26 Sep 2015 15:10:16 -0000

While I agree that these regulations would have the effect of inhibiting companies from offering, and individuals from contributing to, IRAs, I really don't like the overblown sensationalist title and characterization of this as "Steal[ing] your IRA", which brings to mind the confiscation of already contributed funds (which may come later; but, this isn't that).
The truth is bad enough. There's no need to reduce your credibility by misleading people.

Re: Rich Plutocrat Bernie Sanders Hates the Poor but Loves Power

GilM — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 20:24:09 -0000

Yes. I think B is what many Sanders supporters do regularly, and what Brennan did, I believe, mockingly.

Re: Rich Plutocrat Bernie Sanders Hates the Poor but Loves Power

GilM — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 16:14:15 -0000

King Goat. I agree that that's what the etymology implies, but I'm not sure how it's really commonly understood. It's not really a political science term at all. It's generally used as a pejorative, and Brennan was cleverly flipping it back on Sanders. Being rich isn't bad, and doesn't make one's policy prescriptions bad. Supporting policies that make the world worse is bad, and Sanders definitely qualifies for that.

Re: Rich Plutocrat Bernie Sanders Hates the Poor but Loves Power

GilM — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 11:13:03 -0000

I think he's more of a plutocrat than most who are tarred with that description (he actually has political power).

But, I think Brennan's point was to mock this kind of "argument"..while making important points about immigration, of course.

Re: Rich Plutocrat Bernie Sanders Hates the Poor but Loves Power

GilM — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 02:23:20 -0000

He doesn't?

"[This describes Bernie Sanders. Sanders is of course in the global top 1%, just like I am. An American at the poverty line is, after adjusting for cost of living, in the top 15%.]"

And the global perspective is the appropriate one when we're discussing immigration.

Maybe you should get help with your reading *and* your math.

Re: Rich Plutocrat Bernie Sanders Hates the Poor but Loves Power

GilM — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 01:49:54 -0000

What percentile is he in, of the world's population?

Hmm... According to this site: http://www.globalrichlist.com/ it looks like 200K puts him in the top 0.04%.

Re: The Government Plot to Make You Happy

GilM — Mon, 01 Jun 2015 15:09:47 -0000

Yes, and the fact that feeding you falsehoods that confirm your biases would make you happier is another argument against trying to maximize happiness.

Re: Great Quote. A Little Too Great.

GilM — Mon, 18 May 2015 17:00:02 -0000

"I never said most of the things I said."
--Yogi Berra

Re: The Difference Between a Liberal and a Libertarian (From Jonathan Haidt’s Righteous Mind)

GilM — Tue, 12 May 2015 00:29:15 -0000

I think Haidt measures "Care" more by emotional reactions than by the considered judgments about consequences for others (the kind of care that actually results in helping people). You should choose your sides better.

Re: Libertarianism's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea - The Week

GilM — Sat, 27 Sep 2014 16:21:43 -0000

Hayek and others have been very clear about spontaneous order requiring a suitable environment (institutional, cultural, etc.). Linker is either incredibly ignorant or willfully misleading when attacking this straw man.

Re: Libertarianism of the Left

GilM — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 17:40:09 -0000

If you don't know what libertarianism is (and you clearly don't), you would be wise to refrain from misusing it in your posts (and headlines).

Re: No Engineer Would Have Designed the Human Brain the Way It Is

GilM — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 16:07:59 -0000

Kluge, by Gary Marcus has a lot of great examples of sub-optimal "design" in our evolved brains.

Re: Low Information Senator

GilM — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 10:12:54 -0000

What a weird defense. It seems to say that the words in the claim were the opposite of the truth. It's like: "Pass my anti-gun legislation. Don't worry, if you like your guns, you can keep them. Period. [up to the time the bill is enacted, and after that, it's a different story]". Who would say the [non bracketed] words without an intent to mislead?

Re: What Obama Meant When He Made His Health Insurance Promise

GilM — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 02:02:49 -0000

And, of course, it's not just individuals who can't keep their plans. And, it's not just cancelled plans that are the problem... My employer-subsidized plan has become too expensive for them to renew. I'm not sure what I'll end up with, but I'm sure it won't be as affordable. I suspect that when the numbers we're seeing starts to include lost employer plans as well, they will be much bigger.
Even if you agree with the intended benefits of the law, it requires tremendous willful blindness to evidence to think that it justifies the costs.

Re: If I Were a Billionaire: Coyote College

GilM — Sun, 20 Oct 2013 00:14:40 -0000

I never made the claims you imagine. I never wrote that future institutions will be 100% online. There are valuable things that require in-person interaction and expensive apparatus, etc.

I'm just very skeptical that they will resemble the current university setup with all of its expensive and irrelevant baggage. So, anybody dreaming of creating a new university, but with different acceptance criteria, would do better to imagine more radical deviations from the present ones that exploit new technology and future demands.

Re: If I Were a Billionaire: Coyote College

GilM — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 12:13:08 -0000

You're right. This type of competence is impossible to demonstrate without the current institutions, organized pretty much as they have been for hundreds of years.

Re: If I Were a Billionaire: Coyote College

GilM — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 15:12:53 -0000

Why? Is there a big problem that this would solve? It seems that universities (in their current form) are on the way out; not in need of more capacity. Maybe you'd like to open a buggy whip factory, too.