Lots of small businesses here in Stockholm refuse to accept cards under 50 kr ($8-9) because of the high fees mentioned in the article. Also if you're out at club, you get faster service if you just use cash. At various semi-official student parties "Cash is king!" is often mentioned in the invitation.
Not to mention loyalty to small businesses (knowing how much it costs for them), privacy concerns and plain old style / swiftness.
This model doesn't take into account orthogonal interest, which is what a recommendation engine would be most useful for.
Say I like programming and knitting. Probably the similarity between knitting and programming isn't that big. A model which takes into account voting data means my random encounters with knitting-related news on the front page gets weighted in, which is exactly what one wants.
Obviously, how to handle that voting data in a useful manner is a problem, but it's definitely a factor.
I'd say it's to emphasis the actual output. Ideally, everything should be possible to do in the left window.
If you go see someone building a house, the main object of interest is the house. Sure, reality makes it necessary to step outside and focus on sketches and electric circuits and concrete mixers, but ideally the focus should be on the house itself.
Or, to use a closer analogy: If you're making a website, what do you care about the most - the code or the website itself? If you could change the colour and form of a div box from the browser, why would you even bother with the code?
I like that they include a cute cat as a point of reference, so I can tell how outdated IE9 is by comparing it to Peak Lolcat on Google Trends[0]. I realize this is a bit unfair to IE9, but it's not too far off.
Says who? The fact is that arguably the most hardcore googlers are here on HN, and I would imagine that most of us don't care for, and even dislike, social search.
That's not enough to prove that social isn't the future of search, but it's enough to think twice about it.
Pay for some private military contractors, doctors, and a standby helicopter. Split the cost.
EDIT: If PMC are too militant, just any lenient security company would do. I don't really see how this is a problem. Think of it as a big festival with less alcohol and run for a longer time period.
Isn't this common knowledge? I'm pretty sure this was something that was mention in a seminar on information asymmetry when I studied Microeconomics 101 a couple of years ago.
I don't see where he outright dismisses other people's opinions. In fact, he's repeatedly said to people who disagree with him to "point to a sentence which you think is false". You will have to be more specific than that.
It's impossible to speak for someone else, but I believe pg would very much welcome someone DH-sixing him.
Another thing to keep in mind that this is not some long lasting argument that pg has with the RIAA, it's an essay on property.
The "Responsible, Serious and Altruistic" bit was a bit of a straw man I must admit. My point was basically that:
1) if pg doesn't have some well thought out and articulated perspective on moral questions, that's OK - he's not a priest
2) Saying it's alarming is basically pushing him and people like him into taking a (probably artificial) position for the sake of taking one.
3) Just because one is powerful doesn't mean one has to be a role model in all areas of life. This is unnecessary pressure on an individual who hasn't asked for it - he's basically a sort of VC, he isn't running for president - and I don't see anything good coming out of it.
I chose a utilitarian belief system as an example because it felt like the most non-controversial one to make a point. Incidentally, I don't subscribe to it.
Agreed about humanities, but I don't really see the connection to your OP.
> it was alarming that pg didn't have a clear moral position when asked about his decision-making process.
I would prefer it if people didn't force pg to qualify his statements like a politician.
Obviously he could add "of course, this is just a good idea as long as the expected utility of the humanity at large is greater with it than without it on a reasonably long time line." but it would just be an empty phrase.
We need powerful people to be more open like pg, what we don't need is more people putting on a PR-mask just for the sake of seeming Responsible, Serious and Altruistic.
There is probably an essay there, too bad I don't write them anymore (43.30 in video, regarding "moral compass outsourcing")
Have you stopped writing essays? Does that mean you're shifting your focus to YC 100% or going back to work on arc again? Or are you talking about non-startup essays?
Lots of small businesses here in Stockholm refuse to accept cards under 50 kr ($8-9) because of the high fees mentioned in the article. Also if you're out at club, you get faster service if you just use cash. At various semi-official student parties "Cash is king!" is often mentioned in the invitation.
Not to mention loyalty to small businesses (knowing how much it costs for them), privacy concerns and plain old style / swiftness.