markusbrutus

10 yıl öncediscuss

It's clear that Nadella is trying to pull some kind of embrace-extend-extinguish strategy. I would consider part of the same strategy the offering of TypeScript which could be the mother of all lock-in-embrace-extend-extinguish plays if Microsoft establishes a beachhead on the browser and starts 'extending' TypeScript / JavaScript (to 'enhance user experience' of course). Fortunately, the TypeScript (JavaScript for people who don't like JavaScript) abomination is dying alongside AngularJS since it became apparent how very much Microsoft-y the whole thing has become.

markusbrutus

11 yıl öncediscuss

As an EU citizen let me assure you that it is indeed a sales tax. The French guy who conceived it just thought to give it an innocuous name to better sell it to the public. Sure, if you are a company you may offset part of it but for private individuals that makes absolutely no difference whatsoever.

markusbrutus

11 yıl öncediscuss

We live in a big universe that's greatly unexplored both at the macro- and the micro- level, both in the physical and the spiritual realms (since you allude to less material motives in your reply). Anything we do (even large-scale, government-sponsored meditation) has the potential to "yield dividents in ways we probably can not even think of today". That's why you need economic calculation (and a firm grounding) to quantify that potential and decide which of the infinite projects that individuals, governments, or humanity can undertake makes the more sense. Colombus voyage actually made perfect sense from that perspective as it was all about economic calculation.

markusbrutus

11 yıl öncediscuss

Relying on analogies to guide one's thinking is so common and so wrong, I guess there must be some Latin phrase to describe it. Plus, as I am sure you are aware, the attempted analogy is broken on more points than I care to enumerate.

markusbrutus

11 yıl öncediscuss

Its high time that humanity moved past the notion that sending meatbags into space is a good idea. Pampering to Star Trek fans has squandered trillions of dollars pursuing the "meatbags in space" chimera and all they have to show for is a crammed toilet in LEO (soon to be decommissioned since all the "bubbles in space" experiments than 10 year-olds can conceive have been carried out) and the abominable space shuttle. Had robotic exploration being pursued instead we would have had thriving Lunar and perhaps asteroid belt mining by now. What's more, at this point it would have made economic sense and it would create wealth rather than destroy it. Some grandiose ideas are fun but they get you nowhere, and leave you worse off as they represent a gigantic misallocation of capital. The Pyramids for instance, did not propel humanity in an era of skyscraper building.

markusbrutus

11 yıl öncediscuss

How about it's tainted with the Microsoft association? Even the appearance of the string "Microsoft" is enough to produce a very visceral reaction to many people. They may suppress it alright and even try to convince themselves that maybe _this time_ Microsoft really has changed but the reaction is there and, like I said, very visceral. The attempts of TypeScript or F# to distance themselves as much as possible from Microsoft speak volumes. And BTW last time I checked Microsoft was still trying to push its MS Office abomination to schools and colleges as part of some "curriculum". That's equivalent to brain-raping kids in my book.

markusbrutus

11 yıl öncediscuss

Grants, careers and reputations aside there are fields like Mathematics where there can be no political agenda because the findings are not input to political decisions. Climate change is definitely not such a field and people are wary of agendas in either direction. Given the huge interests involved it is impossible for even the most well-intentioned layman to arrive at a safe conclusion without spending an unreasonable amount of energy (pun intended).

markusbrutus

11 yıl öncediscuss

What? 4 comments already and no ManBearPig joke? Al Gore has done climate science a HUGE disfavor. I am cereal.