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Alan Brown

3 months ago

in Is California setup for a brain drain? on Scobleizer
I think there should be other theories taught besides evolution.

Personally, I favor the Leprechaun theory. Clearly, we were waved into existence by leprechauns and the sooner we recognize this, the sooner we'll find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

The expression "theory of evolution" refers to the notion that scientists don't know how we evolved and here is the current idea of how it happened. There is also a theory of gravity and other phenomena.

These theories will change as and when our understanding of the available evidence changes. But it does begin with evidence. And that is where the leprechaun theory fails.

6 months ago

in Pair Programming > Code Reviews on A Noted Path by Theodore Nguyen-Cao
I haven't done any formal pair programming, but I think everyone's done it ad hoc at some point, usually when things have gone wrong and a fix must be found asap. It is more effective and I'd love to work that way in my next endeavor.

6 months ago

in undefined local variable or method `remote_gemspecs’ on A Noted Path by Theodore Nguyen-Cao
Thanks, man. This was enuf info to get me around the problem.

8 months ago

in Apple Too Stupid to Understand Utility of Outside-The-Box Apps on britg
Apple is going to act in its own interests. And yes, that's just as evil as you acting in yours. Its a total outrage.

9 months ago

in The True North Strong and Freer Than Ever on Will Wilkinson
Isn't Canada a confederacy, with each province having the ability to secede?

Such a situation would make it possible for libertarians to congregate in one province and presumable break off into an independent country at some point.

Unless they've done the sensible thing and restricted naturalized citizens ability to vote on such an issue, this seems like one way to get a libertarian country.

Do you suppose it would have any trouble attracting jobs and industry from the US?
1 reply
Robert S. Porter No Canada isn't a confederacy. Canada is a federation. Though Canada's formation is called 1867 confederation, it's not a confederacy. Indeed, Canada adheres strongly to the principles of fusion of powers, as opposed to the US' separation of powers. That said there is certainly a distinct division between the provincial and federal powers and many battles have been fought over the language in the charter.

However, there is no formal right to secede in Canada. Indeed there basically nothing in Canadian law which describes the right to separate. Quebec's attempts to leave with referendum in 1980 and 1995 brought forth just this legal issue. In response, in 1998 the Supreme Court of Canada rule in Reference re Secession of Quebec, 2 S.C.R. 217 that unilateral secession was not legal. They also ruled that Quebec would have the right to a referendum about separation but that would not be enough in itself to ignore the Canadian federal structure.

Thus, a bunch of libertarians moving to Canada in an attempt to make it secede would probably be a waste of time.

9 months ago

in http://adam.blog.heroku.com/past/2008/7/14/owning_up/ on Adam @ Heroku
Totally agree. I think it makes sense to also make it predictable for doctors what the consequences are for their mistakes, instead of having a jury come up with something.

Even more important is accurate data regarding outcomes for certain procedures NOT reported by doctors themselves but gathered independently.

Also good would be to have some separation from assessment and delivery. Thee is a natural conflict of interest when the person who will be paid to deliver solutions is also decidng whether those solutions are needed. I guess that was the idea initially behind the primary care physician, but something got lost along the way.

Regarding software developers, there are no real liability concerns from admitting mistakes, so only the ego stands in the way.

Not comparable at all to the back surgeon acknowledging, "Oh yeah, looks like this surgery has left you with even more pain. Sorry about that. Have a nice life."

1 year ago

in Earthquake in Japan. Twitter Reports First - Again on Zoli's Blog
Have to agree with Steve on that. Reporting that takes no time or effort or responsibility will always be faster.

But I do think there is important data being created by twittering that could be aggregated into something with more meaning with enough speed to change what news organizations and governments pay attention to. A smarter Twitter could make that happen.
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