mattlanger
Joined 18 years ago
Karma
389
Submissions
88
Member since
Oct 3
I'm loosely affiliated with mattlanger.com
View on Hacker NewsRecent submissions
Comment · 15 years ago
For Dr. Everitt, who joined the Gravity Probe experiment in 1962 as a young postdoctoral fellow and has worked on nothing else since, the announcement on Wednesday capped a career-long journey.
There's something so profound about that.
To think of how many jobs I've held in my comparatively short life, how many minor career changes I've had here and there, how many massive shifts in interest and passion I've had over the years, and to hold these up beside someone who has been wholly dedicated to the same singular goal since before I was even born--that's just mind-boggling.
And it was selfless! This one singular goal to which he's dedicated himself, every one of the fifty years of work that went into it, ultimately ended up becoming--at least when boiled down to a headline--a footnote to someone else's greatness.
Five decades. I can't even begin to fathom what sort of drive and passion and commitment that must require.
Bravo.
Comment · 15 years ago
You're selling yourself short though--at the lowest it's actually free, just like, you know, every other freemium model on the web.
Comment · 15 years ago
Agreed, I was just trying to jocularly comment on the Things That Don't Exactly Belong On Hacker News aspect of it by pointing out that those conversations always end up in the same place.
Comment · 15 years ago
Godwin's Law, HackerNews edition: as a non-tech policy discussion grows longer, the probability of a comment thread devolving into an argument between competing ideas of libertarian vs. interventionist market theologies approaches 1.
Comment · 15 years ago
As Merlin Mann so brilliantly put it, "Yelp.com: Explore Where Local Illiterates Have Recently Stopped Eating.™"
Comment · 16 years ago
Amazing! I run a coworking space for entrepreneurs in Brooklyn, which means every month I'm running around gathering up a dozen or so checks from tenants--so this the most exciting tool I've seen in a long time.
Thanks, oojacoboo. You're a lifesaver!
Comment · 16 years ago
Comment · 16 years ago
The website is still intermittent, but as of now command line access seems to be fully operational.
Comment · 16 years ago
You're right, Paul, there's no evidence of any of this at all.
There's no evidence of pharma companies lobbying for more lax FDA regulations.
There's no evidence of the automative industry lobbying against higher CAFE standards.
There's no evidence of utilities companies lobbying against net neutrality.
There's no evidence of the last midterm election cycle seeing an amount of private spending nearly double the previous record.
Meanwhile there's an abundance of evidence that poor people are successfully lobbying for a higher living wage, longer unemployment benefits, and access to quality healthcare.
Comment · 16 years ago
Regarding your first point: since you already stated you're sometimes in favor of publicly subsidizing things like vaccinations and criminal incarcerations, your opposition to publicly funded education must result from this distinction you draw between public good and "private enjoyment". But I think rather than just assuming a position on college degrees a priori there is a rich and valuable debate to be had about whether higher education should be considered a public good and not merely a private enjoyment.
And your second: this seems to be both a distraction (I don't see how arguing that an educated citizenry is a necessary ingredient of democracy implies that one should necessarily agree with denying participation to those deemed incapable) and somewhat misguided (seeing as we already do deny the right to vote to a certain class of people unable to make correct judgments--we call them felons).
Comment · 16 years ago
Consider as a counterpoint Aristotle's Politics, Vii.2: "It is evident that the form of government is best in which every man, whoever he is, can act best and live happily."
Comment · 16 years ago
His project reminds me of this great passage from Colson Whitehead's Colossus of New York: "No matter how long you have been here, you are a New Yorker the first time you say, That used to be Munsey's, or That used to be the Tic Toc Lounge. That before the internet cafe plugged itself in, you got your shoes resoled in the mom-and-pop operation that used to be there. You are a New Yorker when what was there before is more real and solid than what is here now."
I suspect that same sentiment speaks to quite a few HN'ers as well.