wybo

Cool to see the tinkering works for you! It is mesmerizing :)

Do save your model as a new one if you want, makes it a one-click experience for visitors.

(in an ideal scenario AgentBase would do this automatically, and for each edit provide a link to that version... gists don't fork, sadly)

If you take the terms technically, it is private mass-transit. However, considering its function, it does cut directly into the market for public transport (that already is difficult in many US cities due to lower density and more car-use). The terms don't matter that much (except for politically perhaps).

As for solving traffic problems, they don't necessarily do this more so than public transport would, if Googlers took that.

I think the issue is more that MUNI might have to think about introducing first-class busses, or first-class sections, or something like that. Because many people don't like sharing a bus bench with smelly (homeless) people.

Is this really happening? If it is, it brings up an interesting issue.

Private public transport can out compete public transport. But then school buses already do this as well (compared to Europe). Though I did commute using SF buses, and I fully understand why one would not prefer ones kids to travel on them, and even why one would prefer company buses.

As for rents, true, but can that not mostly be blamed on restrictive building regulations? Not so much with regards to standards as well with regards to limits to flats and highrise buildings. As there is an undisputed market demand for more housing in the bay-area.

Imho protesters are a tad misguided in who they are targeting.

I don't know. If you can simulate a brain, you can alter it. And if you can alter it, you can make it artificially happy, or simply remove areas hosting willfulness, sleep, sexuality or independent thought. Won't make them suitable for all tasks, but for some it would be more efficient.

Ethical? That's the question.

This looks like a brilliant way for spammers to collect e-mail addresses...

It may not be from a business perspective. But in terms of whether the market is working its wonders, I'd say it is perfect. Consumers benefit because there is a lot of fierce competition.

Exactly the way it should be for a hardware product like this.

Another fan here. Played them all a lot, from the original TA + expansions, TA Spring (loved how long-range bullets literally bounced back off the shields), and the Supreme Commander series.

So far I think the best in the series was Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance (not Supreme Commander II).

I backed & am greatly looking forward to Planetary Annihilation (though not too excited about the cartoony art-work). Just made a donation to 0AD too.

True. It is a nice system we have (no school districts + full government funding for all schools based on nr of pupils they attract; also for denominational & other types of education on an equal basis (as long as test-results are okish)).

Allows 'the market' for good education to operate, without bringing money into the equation.

There are alternatives to home-schooling if one wants freedom (& without making every parent a teacher & both my parents had been teachers - not at my school when I was there -, so they could have).

Montessori, or Jenaplan (a Dutch/German thing, which was the one I went to).

There was a bit of 'prison' in that there was a certain number of fixed tasks to complete each week in areas such as Math, Dutch and English. But one could pick which, and mostly even check them oneself. Once done, the rest of the time was free to work on projects and things just like you described above (the carrot :-). Often by Wednesday afternoon I was done.

It thus worked wonderfully for me, though it may not be for everyone. But when I have kids they are definitely going to a Jenaplan-type school. As it never felt like a prison to me and instilled a love of learning, and ability to plan and reward myself (besides other positive things such as a sense of equality towards others, including bosses & profs)

School != School. Shop around before you reinvent.

What surprises me here is that virtually all comments are about whether peasants really had many holidays.

And not about the current situation (+ the macho 'my hours are longer than yours' trap that most of the California Software world seems to be in...) that drains much of the possibility of having a life besides work.

One idea that crossed my mind when I still worked in the Vallley, was that the situation might be reversed by a 'Union' that only concerns itself with working hours. Leaving salaries up to everyone for themselves to negotiate as currently.

This would:

1) Allow people a coming-out in terms of favoring work-life balance. Which many people confessed to me in private, but did not dare say in front of their boss/team (has nothing to do with a lack of love for the job/project/company, even love itself you can't enjoy 10 hours a day 50 weeks a year, or that would be the length of billionaires honey-moons. Also what is wrong with loving your life and family/friends in addition to the job, and needing some time for that?).

2) Create a bargaining position and a public face for it.

3) Dispel myths of long-term productivity gains through longer hours. Especially in a creative industry like Software Engineering long hours reduce productivity (there are studies of this + the many self-evaluations on HN over the years of people being able to code consistently and productively 4 to 7 hours per day max).

Just an idea that crossed a mind.