Bill Arnold

Bill Arnold

  • Commented on The iron law of development
    FWIW, This implication flows naturally from the nonrivalry of technology. As Arrow [1962] and Romer [1990] point out, the cost of inventing a new technology is independent of the number of people who use it I got bored with Kremer's...
  • Commented on A plaintive request
    Bonus round: features Trump shaving the head of the WWE guy... and we all can think of somewhere that was common, can't we? Thanks for that. Friend badgered me into listening to Trump's RNC acceptance speech. Read it first for...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    NOTE: The ITG software package is NOT compliant with the GNU GPL,... LOL. Semi-serious question: how do various government security agencies (notably UK and US) deal with the GPL? Does anybody know for real and can talk about it? (Quick...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    (Not eligible, entry purely for fun. Pure Laundry-style, this one is. The logic-talk is a bit babbelish; I've never studied such logics.) Name: Mentat Worms Classification: Temporary Intelligence Augmentation Executive Summary A simple K-Space feeder worm consumes illogical thoughts and...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    (Not eligible, entry purely for fun. Another Very Elder Techno Druid/Superintelligence/Deity one. Needs a lot more baking, like a few thousand years. Also, it's a research project, not a device.) Name: Project O'Keeffe Classification: Research Program Executive Summary The goal...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    NAME: CUBICLE BLISS LOL The nitty-gritty of office planning where noise other than acoustic [1] is a concern... A few things: (1) I've noticed for a long time (Bose quiet comfort 1 vintage) that good acoustic noise cancelling headphones take...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    Probably dont need the laser shenanigans if you go with pre-entangled dragonflys kept in a little stasis ward. This is true, but I liked the hundreds of Ma backstory, and in that backstory, a Very Elder Techno Druid empathizes with...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    (Not eligible, entry purely for fun. Crypto is difficult if P = NP and extra-dimensional entities can attack the hardware !!! Really needs a few days more baking but here goes. Any too-close approximations of real-world mechanisms are unintended.) Name:...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    Oh, forgot about a glimmer of a possible such crypto-based device noticed on the commute home; needs some filling of ignorance chasms first. Really enjoying the "redacted" tag in this form, both reading and writing. Mars is glowing brightly, a...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    I've been trying to work up an amusing Laundry-style crypto-using device that survives P = NP. Nothing yet. Does anyone have anything? (Perhaps using a custom hash function that involves a small amount of uhm "risk" to the computing device...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    (Not eligible, entry purely for fun. This one is a bit involved. Hopefully it's original.) Name: Mycelium-Generated Perimeter Defense Classification: Defensive Background: Laundry investigators (acting on an extremely obtuse hint from BLUE HADES) of Phanerochaete chrysosporium (a white rot fungus)...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    (Not eligible; thought this one through for amusement during a long commute) Name: Elder-Deity Nanotechnological Thaumic Field Augmentation/Suppression (EDNTFAS) Classification: Elder Legacy Thaumic Tooling EDNTFAS is believed to be a self-replicating Elder-Deity remnant technology, reverse-engineered from nanostructures found in the...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    ...until their muscles cramp. Well, that all is certainly horrifying to those with a common mindset in the US and elsewhere. The scientist in me sees a 1-d slider and wonders what happens if the slider is driven way past...
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    That one also has weaponization potential, outwardly similar to (Vernor) Vingean Bobbles. (Cough frame of reference?) With a GPU one could create 10+ of these per second....
  • Commented on Competition Time!
    Dang. Been wondering why there are no (afaik) first person shooters with a tasp. Nicely done....
  • Commented on Three Unexpectedly Good Things VR Will Probably Cause
    That Hyper-Reality video is kinda horrifying. Thanks for the link....
  • Commented on A purely theoretical dilemma
    I am tempted to repost the contents of your "crying with joy" posts (from saved html). Doubt Sean would object; well past 300 now. They seemed pretty harmless, and happy. (Hope you return BTW. That day and evening (May 10...
  • Commented on Three Unexpectedly Good Things VR Will Probably Cause
    I am reminded of a story a friend wrote some 8 years, ago, "Meaties". “What was it?” Patrice asked, from under what appeared to be a squid. “Bunch of noisy Meaties out in the Outside street. Having a protest or...
  • Commented on Three Unexpectedly Good Things VR Will Probably Cause
    "Visual fidelity is overrated. Have you ever cried at a Pixar film? Have you ever been engrossed in a video game?" Fair points. I've spent ghastly amounts of time in mmorpg games (not recently), notably the first Everquest. In these,...
  • Commented on FAQ: The Laundry Files--series timeline
    The only time I ever enjoyed running was in a required PE ("Physical Education") class, where we mostly ran on paths in the woods. The uneven terrain made it interesting; every foot landing could be planned in mid-air or even...
  • Commented on FAQ: The Laundry Files--series timeline
    Cruz jumped on the bait and went into attack mode. ... Cruz just ducked out of the running. The main climate-change denial/climate action obstructionist party in the world, collapsing (or at least apparently imploding, and then possibly reforming in the...
  • Commented on Markov Chain Dirty To Me
    I saw that "attempted doxxing" post. It generated some job-related work for me and maybe something new to cautiously watch. Missed the rest that was removed, sigh. Personal rule is no-doxxing and it is pretty much absolute, though I can't...
  • Commented on Markov Chain Dirty To Me
    At the same time I'm wary of clients, because I find 'buying intimicy from people you know are not the least into you' a weird kink: It's about power-over. I don't have a developed position on purchase of physical intimacy,...
  • Commented on Markov Chain Dirty To Me
    [Not used to arguing from this angle/direction. Rusty at it.] ...understanding of how a humani(ish?) mind works, shall we say, leaves a lot to be desired, which reflects negatively on the quality and efficiency of models we construct. Predictive models...
  • Commented on The unavoidable discussion
    I meant 3-10x - but I wouldn't expect that until there is a run on sterling, and the housing bubble bursts and the foreign 'investment' in UK industry pulls out. 30% for the day after looks likely. Are there attempts...
  • Commented on The unavoidable discussion
    England... would rule again if only it didn't have to contend with EU regulations on banana curvature. Made me look. COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2257/94 of 16 September 1994 laying down quality standards for bananas. I call foul. The only...
  • Commented on 5 Magical Beasts And How To Replace Them With A Shell Script
    I vaguely recall that article (have long subscribed to Skeptical Inquirer). It is really good; thanks Nick @102 for sharing the link. ...make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition,... That's the core of the unexplained parts of it to...
  • Commented on The unavoidable discussion
    No, that's a written opinion piece. A transcript of the joint Obama-Cameron press conference is here: http://www.eurasiareview.com/23042016-transcript-of-prime-minister-cameron-and-president-obama-joint-press-conference/ (As as American, I am amused and pleased that the U.S. president did this.)...
  • Commented on Markov Chain Dirty To Me
    Well, there's mailbox baseball (1988), and copycat crimes (and suicides) seem to be a real thing. I lost a few mailboxes in that era to baseball bats. Some of the vandals who have been caught in the last two years-and...
  • Commented on Markov Chain Dirty To Me
    Curiously, I've heard that classification of GMO technologies, but only in the context of biological warfare. Both I and the other person (with U.S. security clearance/briefings) were drunk and he was trying to be coy, and probably not directly violating...
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