asciilifeform: Obama: Maybe it's time for mandatory voting << mega-soviet-lulz
asciilifeform: mats: if you desperately need this, the popular hobbyist 'arm' dev board 'beaglebone' features a usb slave controller and comes with code example. wire up on the the gpio pins to a toggle switch and you have your drive.
asciilifeform: mats: USB drives with hw write switch << i do not know of any commercially-available items which fit this description (you will find switches on a few, but they are merely a 'polite request' to the host machine)
asciilifeform: ke a distinction between their observations and their conclusions, such that they are unable to change their conclusions about what they observed. They walk around like they had CD-Rs for brains.'
asciilifeform: ment in anyone's life is the order in which they experience things, seems not even to be underststandable -- they somehow believe that the order they run into them is universalizable and important, that first impressions really tell you everything you need to know about something. I have seen people who have the mental capacity only for the transition from "have not experienced" to "have experienced", and who are unable to ma
asciilifeform: 'Much could be said about this affliction of the mind that causes people to assume that what they do not understand does not matter, that they have reached such a level of omniscience that they no longer need to observe and listen and learn. Having learned enough, some people evidently stop learning altogether. What they learned first is the standard for everything that comes later. That the probably only _truly_ random ele
asciilifeform: and were was the numbers thing from ?
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: when they fail to grasp 'sky' once taken to the surface ?
asciilifeform: they're also dumb << that's the interesting part, plenty of folks walking around who are not dumb in the usual sense - but grew up in this bizarre underground ww3 vault where of course the fucking sky is made of cement, what else could it be made of, and why do you use that weirdo archaic word 'sky' anyway, it's 'ceiling'
asciilifeform: the folks born and raised on 'eat recycled phood, it's good for the environment And ok for you!' typically don't bother.
asciilifeform: ^ this is solvable, albeit at astonishing cost
asciilifeform: re: square metrage: on a number of occasions i spoke with tourists and visitors of various kinds from 'orc' lands. who marvelled at hearing of 'american salary' etc. i patiently explained that it's rather like a shabbier version of where they came from with a zero or two welded on to both sides of the household balance sheet. like zimbabwe 'dollar'. normally folks grasp it and face lights up.
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: eh no, plenty of properties with basements (not all flat elevation here). just $$$$
asciilifeform: i, for instance, tried to find a thing with a basement, here. but this was just beyond reach. instead i have a shipping-container-shaped 'garden shed'
asciilifeform: you will run into folks, for instance, who will whisper to you that they would have pistol range in their house if they could (a mighty fine idea, if you take care to separate the air flow)
asciilifeform: and just about everyone i know has some version of this
asciilifeform: brendafdez: i have entire things that i cannot do, for instance, because, while can afford the equipment - cannot, the space.
asciilifeform: because the 500 (or 50) is cheaper still in the congo than in ro
asciilifeform: thing is, the 'numeric wank' is just that. more interesting is what chunk of their meager daily coin the folks in each town get fleeced for by the land rackets
asciilifeform still salivates after the 'vibe' of timis.
asciilifeform: yeah but in this case it is as if the occupant had been mummified and nothing detectably changed in the behaviour of the visitors pre- and post-mortem
asciilifeform: in that a stable of parasites is still drawing fat salaries there, as if nothing whatsoever had happened
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: usa has no 'austerity way' but does have the inevitable убеднение (orlov tried to introduce the term to engl., but it has no good ready translation)
asciilifeform: and have enough 'immune system' remaining to avoid digestion by 'isis', pirates, or #b-a thus far
asciilifeform: both are 'going concerns' in the sense that they keep a great many folks out of the organ market
asciilifeform: ouses by 85 percent since 2009, the report found.'
asciilifeform: 'Here's why millennial villages might be a good idea. Boston doesn't have enough small apartments to satisfy demand from young adults and their boomer-parents. Millennials in particular have responded to the small-unit shortage by doubling and tripling up in housing originally built for middle-income families. That trend has helped drive up the average sales price of a single unit in one of Boston's distinctive triple-decker h
asciilifeform: also ancient newspiece, presumably that anthill is already packed to bursting point
asciilifeform: '... In that light, building smaller units for cash-strapped millennials who need to live in a tight housing market sounds like a sensible solution—helping young people find more affordable housing and preserving larger units for the families that need them. Still, as the single-family starter home becomes less viable, do initiatives like this doom millennials to spending their twenties living in dorms?'
asciilifeform: usic practice, or launching a technology startup. For young tenants really interested in cutting costs, some could be built with shared kitchens.'
asciilifeform: 'The authors of a new report from the Boston Foundation, a philanthropic organization that funds local nonprofits, prefer the phrase "millennial villages," dorm-like developments that maximize space by combining smaller living spaces with lots of common areas. Specifically, the report suggests building 10,000 units that make up for cramped living quarters by including shared lounges, health clubs, and shared areas for study, m
