Is the iPhone sufficiently awesome to justify its high price? Are there good low-cost smartphones? Ios or android?
My first question would be: how do you intend to use the device?
The two apps you mentioned are also available on Android, and I'm very happy with Evernote on my HTC Desire HD (I don't use Toodledo). So if your main use would be those apps along with the typical phone stuff (calls/text message/email/web browsing) then an Android device should be fine for you.
However, a high-end Android device gets close to the price range of an iPhone.
For example, if we started a human-level AGI tomorrow, it's ability to revise itself would be hugely limited by our slow and expensive infrastructure (e.g. manufacturing the new circuits, building the mainframe extensions, supplying them with power, debugging the system).
This suggests that he see the limiting factor for AI to be hardware, however I've heard people argue that we probably already have the hardware needed for human-level AI if we get the software right (and I'm pretty sure that was before things like cloud computing were so easily availa...
This looks to be a Google Docs form (used for making surveys), it just has a single question which is a "paragraph text" field. It shouldn't take long to do the same thing for yourself.
Have a look at this help topic for details on making a form.
When signing up, I was told the password I tried to use was too long (I have unique, randomly generated, passwords for each site I use). so I generated a < 20 chars password instead - however, password length limits around this size suggest that the site might be storing the passwords as plain text, rather than only storing a salted hash of the password.
So I was wondering, if that's the case here?
I do not however have a solution for how to become a respected agency.
If journals start to reject publishing researched because it relies on 'poor' citations, that should have the effect of making this proposed archive-of-study-quality respected.
So maybe a more specific question: how could we get journals to use this archive as part of their review process?
That seems likely to me.
I enjoyed this post a lot, and I've shared with several other people that I think would also like it (and spend the time to read it). But it did take me a while to get to get through, I made coffee at least twice while reading it. I think it was almost 2 hours from opening the article to getting to the end. Not all of that time was spent reading - as well as getting coffee, I paused several times to digest what I'd read so far. However, it was still a lot longer than I'd normally spend on a single post.
I might not make it to any hangouts, but this post gets an up vote for having a list of LWers on Google+
I'm here if anyone wants to circle me.
This reminds me of http://lesswrong.com/lw/vk/back_up_and_ask_whether_not_why/ but I prefer the phrasing "What caused you to X" over "Should I X" and it feels like an easier question to get into the habit of asking.
What about interesting RSS feeds? Anyone that uses Google Reader for RSS will have a 'shared items' feed that other people can subscribe to. I'm guessing that LW readers would tend to have an interesting 'shared items' feed if they use that feature?
For example, mine is http://www.google.com/reader/shared/wilka.hudson - although most of the stuff I share that would interesting to LW readers actually comes from LW, so maybe it's not such a good idea after all.
Would it be possible for whoever to did the design to also do the layout for this? The style can go in the main .css, otherwise it could interfere with any future layout tweaks of the site.
I like the idea, I just don't like the potential future work of having to go update N signatures when the main site styles are tweaked.
I think http://inhabitat.com/google-succeeds-in-making-driverless-cars-legal-in-nevada/ was a big step to helping improve that. Providing it works, once people start to notice the (hopefully) massive drop in traffic accidents for autonomous cars they should push for them to be more widespread.
Still, it's a way off for them to actually be in use on the roads.
I checked on google.com and google.co.uk, both with me logged in and logged out, and it was the second hit each time. Also using 'private browsing' to make sure no cookies were still trying to personalize the results. Still, different national flavors of Google will probably give slightly different results - more so if it's personalizing the search results for you.
based on an agenda you were naive to at the time?
This is almost always the case with warning labels (such as the silica gel example), I don't recall ever seeing a warning label that also told you why it was warning you.
This reminds of a recent post over at Meteuphoric: Don’t warn nonspecifically!
Good question. I have a recurring direct donation set-up, but maybe donating via the Facebook page will make it more interesting for my friends to have a deeper look (and maybe donate).
Does anyone know what % of the donation via the causes app goes to the charity? I'm guessing it's not 100%, so I'm wondering if that x% is worth it to have it announced on Facebook. Although I could just announce it myself, I think I'll do that next time my donation happens.
person A wanted X level of neatness and was uncomfortable at Y level, and person B wanted Y level of neatness and was uncomfortable at X level.
I've had a similar experience of somebody wanting a (small) amount of mess. The explanation was that if a house didn't look 'lived it' it wasn't really home, and therefore not a conformable place to live.
Maybe it was "Once you can guess what your answer will be, you have probably already decided." from Hold Off On Proposing Solutions
Those of you that aren't in the US, but wanted to donate to this: you can still donate via PayPal using singinst.org/donate/ - so if you were going to donate something, don't let living out of the US stop you.
You can also choose to donate more than a dollar this way, if you want to.
- On your Android phone, open 'Market.'
- Search for 'Anki'.
- Install the 'AnkiDroid Flashcards' app.
Only makes a slight difference, but you can also install apps via the Market website, so you can give a direct link to the AnkiDroid Flashcards app. However, it does depend on the version of Android you're running for remote installs.
Since I started listening to interesting and/or entertaining things, I really enjoy my commute. I usually get through two books each month (I have an Audible subscription) and several podcasts, along with other talks etc. that I stumble across on the interwebs.
Last time I moved home I made sure my new place wouldn't be too close to work (either by walking, or cycling). Granted, there's probably other ways I could achieve the same result, but this is nice way of combining regular mild exercises with learning that also means I get to save money on rent by not living right in the middle of the city.
Over-correct your opinion by reading propaganda
You could also try creating your own propaganda (also useful for Akrasia). You should have a good idea of the types of things that motivate you, so you can use that knowledge to make very focused adverts (e.g. basic posters) for yourself.
There's more on this kind of thing, advertising to yourself, over at http://www.takebackyourbrain.com/ - but it looks like it hasn't been updated in a while.
I agree with other commenters that suggest getting a new place be your top priority.
You could try geting somewhere close enough to work that you can jog (or cycle) there and back each day. That should get you your exercise and appreciate-the-outdoors-warm-fuzzies, as well as saving you the cost of a gym membership.
To save folks from Googling it: https://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae5_3_3.pdf (PDF file, 15 pages)
I was reminded of this post by a blog article I've just read: http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/10/27/procrastination/ - it covers the same topic, but I think it presents it in an easier-to-grasp way for folks who aren't actively trying to be more rational.
Fear of failure. (Fail at something and make no excuses).
This reminds me of an idea to try failing on purpose to overcome this.
Here's a longer (1h 16m) version of his TED talk he gave at Google: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrA-8rTxXf0
The more polished TED version is kind of a summary of this talk.
I've been using Swype for a while, and was very impressed with it. It did make a big improvement when I got the hang of it.
SwiftKey is also very good when you're writing a lot of text on your phone. I currently switch between the two of them, depending on what I'm going to be writing.
Seeking to make good arguments might be a better goal than always thinking about the ends like whether homeopathy is true in the end.
This feels backwards to me, so I suspect I'm misunderstanding this point.
I'd say it's better to test homeopathy to see if it's true, and then try to work out why that's the case. There doesn't seem to be much point in spending time figuring out how something works unless you already believe it does work.
The Red Cross made this same point in a blog post recently: http://blogs.redcross.org.uk/emergencies/2010/01/help-not-hinder-haiti/ - I think it's the first time I've seen a charity make the point so explicitly and publicly.
When choosing my beliefs, I use a more important criterion than mere truth. I'd rather believe, quite simply, in whatever I need to believe in order to be happiest. I maximize utility, not truth.
Have you ever the experience of learning something true that you would rather not have learned? The only type of examples I can think of here (of the top of my head) would be finding out you had an unfaithful lover, or that you were really adopted. But in both case, it seems like the 'unhappiness' you get from learning it would pass and you'd be happy that you f...
Text is faster than speech, but if the video isn't important (e.g. with BHTV) you can listen to them during times that you couldn't read. Such as driving, or walking.
I listen to a lot of podcasts on my way to and from work, and it effectively doesn't use extra time in my day - I'd be travelling anyway, so I might as well make good use of the time.
What are some examples of recent progress in AI?
In several of Elizer's talks, such as this one, he's mentioned that AI research has been progressing at around the expected rate for problems of similar difficultly. He also mentioned that we've reached around the intelligence level of a lizard so far.
Ideally I'd like to have some examples I can give to people when they say things like "AI is never going to work" - the only examples I've been able to come up with so far have been AI in games, but they don't seem to think that counts because "it...
That reminds me of http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dennett06/dennett06_index.html
"To whom, then, do I owe a debt of gratitude? To the cardiologist who has kept me alive and ticking for years, and who swiftly and confidently rejected the original diagnosis of nothing worse than pneumonia. To the surgeons, neurologists, anesthesiologists, and the perfusionist, who kept my systems going for many hours under daunting circumstances. To the dozen or so physician assistants, and to nurses and physical therapists and x-ray technicians and a small army of phle...
We could create a group on http://friendfeed.com for that. That's how groups on there tend to be used. e.g. http://friendfeed.com/googlebits and http://friendfeed.com/dslr
Is it possible for you to give an example of this works in practice? I'm curios what type of things you would note down.
It sounds like a useful idea worth trying out, but I'm having trouble seeing how I would start using it.
Not the prettiest example, but I had a log-running acne problem that I could never seem to get a handle on. So a few years ago, I started writing down, every morning, whether I had new zits that day, what I was using on my face, and any other factors (like diet) I thought might be relevant. It suddenly became quite easy to zero in on the right solution (a low concentration benzoyl peroxide facewash), and I've been happy with the results ever since.
A second example is that I started a (rather involved and silly) spreadsheet tracking my time working one seme... (read more)