Vanzetti

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• Commented on Books I've written
  Why not do it year by year, and write about every book that you worked on that year (assuming you have some kind of diary or just remember when you worked on what. This way we could see how your...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  >>>all bets are off -- we either end up with a global leisure society, or global civil war fought by the owners of capital against all others It interesting how even though all bets are off, we only have 2...
• Commented on Changing my mind on nuclear disarmament
  1. Convince everyone to disarm. 2. Rebuild nuclear capabilities first. 3. Nuke everyone who tries to follow in your step. 4. ??? 5. Profit!...
• Commented on The last refuge of scoundrels
  >>>I wasn't expecting a full-blown Nuremberg Rally You have triggered Godwin's Law and I claim my five pounds....
• Commented on Obituaries
  Small, but relevant off-topic, due to persistent use in this thread: "TL:DR" - 5 letters. "In short" - 7 letters. Meaning is the same. Are those 2 letters worth it? Den y rnt u abbreviating everything else?...
• Commented on Off the Map: Women in Science and Science Fiction
  Lesswrong is also devoted to building Heaven on Earth via creation of a God-like AI, so exercise caution while reading, lest a basilisk devours you. :-)...
• Commented on Off the Map: Women in Science and Science Fiction
  >>>So what can we do about it? 1. Use male pseudonym. 2. Become famous. 3. Reveal your gender and enjoy the ensuing hilarity......
• Commented on The permanent revolution
  >>>Last time I washed a T-shirt, I did so by hand to avoid its neck being stretched out of shape by a washing machine. That's weird. Either your t-shirts are more delicate then mine, or your washing machine is more...
• Commented on Why I don't self-publish
  >> It's an AI-complete problem. Human level AI, surely? Otherwise human authors couldn't do it. (Unless you are all secretly weakly-godlike)....
• Commented on Why I don't self-publish
  Too bad King's plots suck. But he is absolutely brilliant at describing a bunch of awesome characters on an awesome background slowly going from Nowhere to Nowhere. OK, OK, off-topic, I'll shut-up......
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  So, Charlie, which service did you pick to replace Google Reader?...
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  >>>Fiction writing doesn't work that way. You don't reliably end up with exactly the book you contracted for. This is why you write the book first, then KS it....
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  >>>> It occurs to me that the distinctive traits of the American political system are almost entirely explainable by assuming that Americans tend to ask, "if my government was possessed by a brain-eating monster from beyond spacetime tomorrow, what is...
• Commented on Things publishers can't do (yet)
  >>>The author is the micro-brand; despite centuries of striving there are few sub-sectors of trade fic publishing where a reader might go to a store and buy half a kilo of a particular publisher's product range without reference to the...
• Commented on "We're going to need book covers. Lots of book covers!"
  For some reason I don't like covers where the author name is larger than the title. I understand why it is so - the book is new, the title is meaningless, and the author reputation is the only way to...
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  I wouldn't call you evil, as such. You are using the tools that are available to you, in a world you live. However, in the end, a person looking for the service you provide will find it bundled with an...
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  Look, the free ad-supported resource is as free as the cheese in a mousetrap. You are getting anything at all only because someone agreed to pay to have a chance to show you an ad....
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  Look, Kickstarter itself is just infrastructure. All the projects on it are independent. As far as I know, _most_ of the funded project deliver what they promise. Also AFAIK, most of those who fail are not scams but victims of...
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  You don't actually know anything about Kickstarter, do you?...
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  I have products I received from KS in my room right now, so there. :-P...
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  >>>I think it'd be possible to have a truly free game, perhaps something started by a KickStarter to get initial funds and then thrown open to all. But absent any actual examples, I don't know how viable that'd actually be....
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  >>>There will be KS related scandals and collapses, and probably some scams, What do you mean, WILL be? :-) There already are....
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  There's no such thing as free. It's either subscription, micro-transactions, ads or donations. I'm not sure how to call the Guild Wars model. Macro-transactions?...
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  MMORPGs seem to do just fine with a subscription system using credit cards. I think the problem is that while World of Warcraft was never perceived as a free service, Google was never perceived as something you have to pay...
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  >>>True, but that's what's good about the Internet and why we love it so much, it's free lunch everywhere. I'm not sure if you are serious or being sarcastic. Surely you know TANSTAAFL....
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  >>Couldn't Google make Reader a pay-service at miniscule amounts? Couldn't they make all of their services a pay-service at miniscule amount? Probably not. I wonder what are the reasons. Is it because paying over the internet is still not so...
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  >>>I don't know about dumping, but it seem to me that all the Internet companies do this, because the majority of netizens expect Internet service to be free. I don't see why we should blame the companies when they're just...
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  I just don't get something. Is the subgroup of people who would rather pay for a service than have an inferior ad-supported service so small that the pay-for services have no chance of rising?...
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  Giving a free service at a loss is a form of dumping, IMO....
• Commented on How I feel this morning
  For a moment there, I thought you were serious. Please add emoticons next time, you just scared the hell out of me. :-)...