Comment author: level 19 March 2015 06:24:03PM 1 point [-]

I already spend less than $1.50 on food most days, so it might be hard to get sponsors. If anyone is interested in specifics, my diet is similar to that of these people.

Comment author: mwengler 26 March 2013 03:42:09PM 7 points [-]

I submit to you the iPhone. Developed by a company that had never built a cellphone or any other kind of phone for that matter before. Developed in to an industry that spent billions every year thrashing about trying (it thought) EVERYTHING to see how to build a phone that would exploit data in a way which would compel all those who saw it to want one if not actually buy it.

Apple didn't do anything that it wouldn't have been easier for a larger more expert cell phone maker (Nokia, Motorola leap to mind) to do. And the iPhone blasted it out of the park and completely defined the current generation of smart phones virtually immediately upon its becoming available.

Perhaps the rate for being correct is low, but the times it is correct are powerful.

The idea that automakers are not as "stupid" about some design assumptions as the collective entrenched cell phone makers prior to the iPhone were, how likely does that seem? My experience teaches me I would be shocked if it weren't at least as true with automakers as it is with cell phone companies. Automaking is an even harder field for a newbie to come in to, but they do manage it once in a while.

Comment author: level 28 March 2013 03:06:56AM 2 points [-]

Apple didn't do anything that it wouldn't have been easier for a larger more expert cell phone maker (Nokia, Motorola leap to mind) to do.

Indeed, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nokia designed smartphones and tablets well before Apple:

More than seven years before Apple Inc. rolled out the iPhone, the Nokia team showed a phone with a color touch screen set above a single button. The device was shown locating a restaurant, playing a racing game and ordering lipstick. In the late 1990s, Nokia secretly developed another alluring product: a tablet computer with a wireless connection and touch screen—all features today of the hot-selling Apple iPad.

Comment author: level 23 January 2013 07:35:04PM 9 points [-]

Please destroy me immediately after I share this concise proof that Friendly AI is impossible:

Comment author: level 14 November 2010 10:53:57PM 0 points [-]

"Austria knows that ey would have no incentive not to break his promise once Austria's given him the help he needs"

HIS promise once Austria's given HIM the help HE needs?

You are sexist, sir.