Maybe, but I doubt it. In fact, an outdoor ATM is probably an appealing location in which to rob someone. And now we have ipods, iphones, laptops, etc that almost everyone is carrying. Casual theft is still appealing and there's much to be stolen.
I don't think it's fair to compare her analysis with someone on HN who says it's becoming Reddit. The author is a Rhodes scholar herself, and she's been serving on the selection committee for 20 yrs. She's seeing a trend firsthand. Since you disagree, what evidence would you consider worthy of testing her claim?
Clever answers to broad questions? I don't think either adjective you're using is accurate. She asked thoughtful questions directly related to each student's area of study, and she found that the students hadn't spent much time thinking about the reasons for their own actions.
I knew the basic outline of this story beforehand and yet I read the article anyway.
A few new things that stood out:
- the description of Dagan's mgmt style and how it negatively affected the mission
- the way the author (a presumably non-techie) described the lock picking and practicing of lock picking (did the picker actually test the picking of the locks as the author suggests or did the team assume the locks would be electronic and simply bring a device that could pick any known lock?). the author glosses over this and makes a short inference, but it made me wonder.
- the Austrian private switchboard. i didn't know this kind of thing existed. can i get access to one?
So I agree with comments from many other people about it just being an interesting story, but those are 3 bits that made me think and made it worth my time.
Traveling through India I saw many people using what I think are called neem sticks. I don't know much about the science or efficacy, but if you're curious, explore away.
Free enough that you don't need to think about it as an expense. I think I bottomed out at $0.70 per night for a room in Malawi. Double that if you want to splurge on something nicer.
Why don't they collide at the source level? I'm assuming the db updates get checked into your central source code repo. Wouldn't the collision happen at that time?
What happens when developers create branches and use time stamps? Developer A working on trunk might check in db updates at 4pm and 5pm. Developer B working on a branch checks db updates into his branch at 4:30pm and 5:30pm. When working on the branch his db updates don't affect the "trunk" db. As soon as he merges does his 4:30pm update get run on the "trunk" db, or is it skipped over because the 5pm db update already ran, and only the 5:30pm change gets run?
Where I come from we use int values for our db update script names. When I merge from a branch I renumber my db update script file names starting at the tip int value +1 of the trunk db update.
fyi - I'm not coming from a Ruby/Rails perspective, if that matters.
There's a table listing the migrations that have already been run on the database. The list of migrations in source control are compared against the list in the database, the outstanding ones sorted into timestamp order and then run.
So if the two branches are separate there should be no issue - all my changes get run in order, irrespective of what the other developers have been doing.
They don't collide because the file names include more than just the number.
And yes, manually renumbering is exactly what you'd have to do. Timestamps obviate that.
Theoretically, you can still have collisions (two migrations alter the same column, eg) or violated prereqs this way, so some communication is still required, but not to the degree before.
* rich interactions without back-and-forth server trips.
* What's on client-side can technically be saved on client-side. Thus, making distributed setup possible. And that contributes to lower bandwidth bill.
* client hardware is no longer wimpy, why not use all those CPU cycles on users' laptop/iphone/ipad/android/etc.
There are so many amazing places in the USA. I'm astounded that you're saying most places are unremarkable. I'm not sure where to begin with suggestions. Slot canyons of Utah? Rain forests of the Pac NW? Appalachians? Small old coal towns in the NE PA? Snowy peaks of CO? Thousand Islands? Lancaster County, PA? There are big and awe inspiring places that I love and there are small and curious places that I enjoy too. There is so much here. Such a big country! I live in NYC now, and almost every neighborhood is remarkable in some way. You just have to open your eyes.
I'm curious why you thought Japan was cool. Could you explain?
Where in Rhode Island were you? What did you do there? Who were you with? Did you meet anyone?
If we are talking about nature, I agree. I love nature, and I love visiting cool environmental features. I was speaking mostly of cities, which is what most people I know want to visit when they talk about traveling.
Visiting Japan (suburbs, not city) was like visiting a sort of parallel universe. Everything was fundamentally similar, but totally different. Additionally, I was learning Japanese at the time, so it was rather exciting just trying to converse with native speakers. It was quite a while ago so I can't think of much in the way of specific examples of the 'bests', but they have a number of cultural aspects and traditions I preferred over their western equivalents, such as sleeping accommodations and choice in breakfast foods. (always found most western breakfasts beyond cereal/oatmeal and toast despicable)
Providence. Spent the week with a girl, roaming around the city a bit.
How are sleeping accom different in Japan from the US? What do Japanese people usually eat for breakfast?
I imagined Prov to be somewhat different from SV. Isn't SV composed of some smallish towns (PA, etc) and then vast modern suburbs? Isn't Prov an oldish city by US stds? Multi-story buildings with shopfronts, apts above, more pedestrians, less cars, narrower streets, different building materials, a harbor, more mom & pop shops, than SV? Granted, it's not Japan, but what did you expect?
Well, they use a futon (they are different from the Western futon, looks something like this: http://futonmattressinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/futo... ) which I found very comfortable. I don't know all the details, but while they still have a 'comforter' and a 'mattress', they were markedly different. The pillows were made of something similar to buckwheat hulls, and kicked the ass of every fluffy pillow I'd used to date. I have since acquired a buckwheat pillow, although it's not quite as good as whatever mystery filler it was. Not quite as cool and fluid. For breakfast, my favorite was hot rice mixed with small bits of meat and a raw egg cracked over it.
edit: I forgot about onigiri, that stuff was amazing too
Providence is most definitely different from SV. I wasn't disappointed or let down either- I expected pretty much what I got. I guess you could say besides the weather (rain) I felt I could have had pretty much the same experience in any of the US cities I've been to. Japan was different, because I was discovering the place rather than living in it. So, perhaps my lack of fascination with Providence stems from the fact that I am not enamored of m&p shops and old buildings. It was nice, but nothing to write home about.
The hostels I stayed in gave me a futon with a nice blanket. Most futons in Japan are thin (~4 inches thick), but quite comfortable. Several of the hostels had quite luxurious baths. In a town called Beppu, I stayed in a hostel that had natural hotspring pools available for guests. For $20 a night, that place was luxurious.
I stayed with a family in Japan. The dad was American, the Mom was Japanese, and they ate cereal and toast every morning. The dad said that's pretty much what all the kids eat. Another popular snacky thing is onigiri. It's a rice ball with a mystery filling (usually tasty), wrapped with dried seaweed. I ate them quite often for breakfast when I was on the road.
EDIT: Silverstorm's link is exactly the type of futon I slept on.
