asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: americans also buy socks on layaway, it is simply structured differently.
asciilifeform: 'BlockOn Conference 2017 will feature 2 days of inspiring talks, new demos and interactive networking to more than 300 attendees from the Blockchain community.' << for a dead horse, it neighs pretty well
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: from 'Bitcoin Foundation Appoints Llew Claasen as Executive Director Monday, June 20, 2016'
asciilifeform: 'Board members include Brock Pierce, of Blockchain Capital (Board Chair), Bobby Lee, of BTCC (Board Vice Chair), Elizabeth McCauley of Coinsecure, Vinny Lingham of Civic, Michael Perklin of C4 and Francis Pouliot of Satoshi Portal.'
asciilifeform: trinque: i am rather fond of the thing they had in ye olde american south, 1950s, portable electric chair truck ( most towns were, apparently, too poor to afford their own permanent one )
asciilifeform: and this is even outside of major cities where 'medallions' etc.
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: cabs in usistan are peculiarly expensive, i still have nfi why. it's the thing that ultimately spawned crackpot chumpatrons ('uber', 'lyft', etc)
asciilifeform: in egregiously-infested places they actually build massive wrought iron fences to keep'em from crossing in random spots and slowing down traffic for miles
asciilifeform: danielpbarron: this type of 'stotting' is ubiquitous here also
asciilifeform: ( no toll booths, either, you bought a radio pass thingie )
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: funnily enough, the state managed to lose money EVEN ON IT
asciilifeform: trinque: the one mega-road in md/dc that never, ever jams, and is gloriously empty, you can feel like chinese emperor on his private forbidden city road -- is 200; where you gotta pay ~tenbux end to end
asciilifeform: ( but oddly enough, even a very jumpable, strictly ceremonial fence -- keeps'em on the sidewalk. why -- i do not know. )
asciilifeform: there is a reason why the fence is the 'most stereotypically american' furniture of the landscape. everything, even the most worthless empty lot, ruined cement plinths overgrown with weeds, is fenced in -- and if you don't fence in even own front yard, sheeple will trample it to dirt within weeks
asciilifeform: for whatever reason (could be from plantation days? i have nfi) plebes are not managed like people in usistan, but more like livestock, they build pens, corrals, for them, this was even the subject of a mircea_popescu article ('embroiled in dealings with the stupid poor', or what was it called)
asciilifeform: they inherited a perverse, 'josephsmithed', fondness for trappings of 'country estate', from probably the british days
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: this'd be a massive dekulakization, more or less 100% of 'class privilege' in usistan is 'no plebes, no traffic, for mile around'
asciilifeform: so is hunger << 'a revolutionary must be ready to die three types of death: of hunger; of beatings; and of cold.' (iirc) sun yat sen
asciilifeform: i thought east (civilized) china, were wet..
asciilifeform: barge -- goes faster, than my auto went on most days.
asciilifeform: even motherfucking CANALS would beat american-style jam roads.
asciilifeform: also suggests that the chinese fucked up their golden chance to make the auto continue to be worth something as a transport for the reasonably elite, vs 'we ate a mutual spoon of shit for free'
asciilifeform: i dun know of 1 toll booth even half of this size, in usa
asciilifeform: 'Computer paranoia is inspired by an industry aggressive enough to liken internal competition to war and incompetent enough to ship faulty, dangerous products.'
asciilifeform: p.37: 'Market competitors wasted no time in knocking Microsoft's long awaited Windows environment... ...Microsoft, however, says that the criticisms ranged from unfair to incorrect. Says company spokesperson Marty Taucher "We changed the product significantly so it would support existing applications. Allegations that it does not, as (Quarterdeck president) Therese Myers says, and that you need to 'step aside' to support other progra
asciilifeform: they are creatures of the 'vhs america'.
asciilifeform: not only 'not black' but they are dressed like 'stereotypical capitalist devil', sharp suit, tie, sitting in respectable-looking study, or in office with obvious subordinates, etc
asciilifeform: in other types of leisure reading, 'scientific american' (i recently bought half a century's worth of'em, monster crate) also same types of people
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: it is interesting, in the american 'computing' mags of the time, to see the ads, how the pictured people are dressed, even
asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: yeah, as late as mid-90s even.
asciilifeform: 'IBM PC Creator Dies. DALLAS--Philip D. "Don" Estridge, 47, IBM vice president of manufacturing and former head of the Entry Systems Division, which developed the IBM PC, was among the six IBM employees killed in the August 2 Delta Air Lines crash at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport...'
