Robot Explosion
18-Mar-08
Robots are finally sufficiently capable that they can be useful outside of specialized environments (such as auto plants). I expect to see an explosion of robots in the next 5 years.
Video via carrie.
If the first amendment had been expressed in the same way as the second:
“A well regulated Press, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to freedom of speech, and of the press, shall not be infringed.”
…would you now be claiming that the freedom of speech was a collective right, intended only to protect the speech of government run and regulated presses?
(The Supreme Court listens to oral arguments in the Heller case today, the most important gun rights case in decades. This post inspired by myrch’s recent post attacking an individual right to bear arms.)
Original: craschworks – comments
I *heart* Penn Jillette
16-Mar-08
“Zolten is a common Hungarian name, it’s my wife’s maiden name and most importantly, it’s the name of Dracula’s dog.” – on his newborn son’s name
For those who may have missed it, Jillette named his daughter Moxie CrimeFighter.
Suddenly I See
16-Mar-08
I remember hearing this song a while ago, but I didn’t know who the singer was and I couldn’t remember enough of the lyrics to find it again. But now I found it!
Anybody a GrandCentral user?
16-Mar-08
Anyone here a GrandCentral user? If so, I would be grateful for an invite to the public beta.
My First Toga Party
16-Mar-08
Being an introverted nerd in high school and college, I never attended any toga parties. Last night’s toga party, hosted by Iveta Brigis and John Smart, was my first. I had a great time–the crowd was packed with futurists, Googlers, engineers, and cryonicists of various stripes.
One question that generated a lot of discussion was the question: “If you only had 4 weeks to live, would you want to know?”
My answer was an immediate an emphatic “Yes!”. I do a lot of things in the present that decrease my current happiness, with the expectation that the sacrifice now will increase the happiness/satisfaction of my future selves. For example, among other things, I save money, I work on boring tasks, I don’t have sex indiscriminately, and I don’t take drugs.
If I knew with certainty that I only have 4 weeks to live, I would want to know so that I could cease the now pointless preparations for my happiness in later life, and redirect those energies to maximizing my happiness in my remaining time.
Val (sp?), a stats grad student, claimed that STD’s were rampant in some nursing homes due to promiscuity among the residents, suggesting that perhaps they made they same calculations.
There were several people, however, who did not want to know. Some believed that the increased anxiety would make it difficult to live happily in their remaining time. Others hypothesized that those who wanted to know were generally unhappy with their day to day lives, whereas those who didn’t want to know were generally happy with their day to day life.
How you would know if you were generally less happy with your day to day life than everyone else? What if you havejust as many “happy” feelings as the median person, but you have a higher standard before you would claim you were “happy” overall.
“Land of the Lost”
16-Mar-08
One of my favorite shows when I was a little kid (around age 6-7) was “Land of the Lost”. I watched it whenever I could. I remember asking my Mom what she thought of the show, expecting her to expound at length upon how awesome it was. I was a bit disappointed at her non-committal answer.
Inspired by , I found the intro for the show on Youtube:
My poor mother. She deserves a medal.
Source for pipe?
14-Mar-08
Anyone know of a good source of galvanized 1.5″ Schedule 40 Steel pipe in the S.F. Bay Area? I priced out a project at Simplified Building Concepts and it came to about $830 dollars. I need about 120 lineal feet.
Strong Men
13-Mar-08
GEEK: nationwide craiglist search
12-Mar-08
Suppose you want to find a listing of all Craigslist ads featuring a 2005 Chevy Astro Vans with AWD between $5000 and $15000 dollars. You could do this search.
Craizedlist.org might also be of interest to you.