And I'm sure it would be an interesting read. However, I feel I should also point out that what makes this article interesting isn't that this technology is out of date, it is that it is a glimpse into a time when we didn't have computing technology and the solutions people found for Very Important Communication.

You missed the point. You're comfortable enough with your equal status to openly deflate their status, _because_ you both know it doesn't mean anything. Fair trade/permission giving: later they can tease you and lower your status.

Then real dicks use that sort of friendship to only lower the status of their friends, which is why we call them dicks.

Nah, I didn't miss the point, I got it square on. I just wanted to make the point about equality, which the post I replied to doesn't: "comfortable enough with the status dynamics of your relationship" doesn't necessarily indicate equality.

The fact that _he_ believes it is important which shoulder he touches produces enough an effect that one can be fooled into thinking the touches have the power instead of the belief.

The problem is that sort of video doesn't show the failures, so we have no idea how real the success rate is.

The video states that it worked on about two-thirds of people.

On the other hand, it's a little flaky that they set a parameter to try to get human-like response times. Statistical fitting.

We built it to hit this number, we're surprised when it does!

Cool calculation process, though.

I'm under the impression they fitted only the most basic operations, and the surprise was that the bigger picture followed too, as if the program and the human brain were following the same steps.

It's that "as if" that is a little bit hand-wavy. Fitting/overfitting is insidious in that it corrupts both the procedure and the data.

I'm not saying that's exactly what happened here, but I am saying that it's a _hunch_ that human brains are following the same steps. It might be a good hunch, but it's still _not_ a scientific statement with the weight of statistical backing.

I don't know why my instinct is to anthropomorphize them, but somehow they're goddamned _cute_. Look! Robots playing ping pong!

A robot dog might be in my future :/

The last ditch effort they make to grab the ball before it falls feels very human.

Yeah, they need an attachment to pick the ball up and start again. I'm sure they're just dying to get rid of the slow human component of their game so they can play faster.

You think they're cute? I think they're incredibly sinister.

Maybe you haven't played Half Life 2?

No, he played portal.

You just 'sucked the life' out of this thread and proved forensic's point about 'chronically negative people.' :(

Also, in a topic like this where we're examining differences between cultures, it's pretty implicit that we're speaking generally. If that's racist, any cultural examination is racist.

No offense, thinking about it is fun, but we're not exactly accountants; and we're definitely not accountants with access to Groupon's numbers. It "seems crazy" isn't exactly a critical argument.

"Techcrunch speculates on revenue numbers, gets caught."

Am I reading this right?

Why do their articles get posted here so frequently? They are consistently garbage.

I have to say that every TC article that ends up on here is very boring. It usually contains one Tweet's worth of information and the rest is somehow meant to make a big deal of that little nugget. On top of that the nugget is usually quite mundane, like "is Facebook overvalued?" or "Twitter is big".

There is no sense in my mind that a cook is not an engineer of the kitchen.

Engineering is just using quantities, directions, and properties to effect a result.

You are spot on. I am a huge math nerd and I love to bake. Chocolate chip cookies are delicious.

After college I thought briefly about starting a cookie business. I have a notebook full of detailed cookie experiments. I changed quantities, ingredients, mixing technique, and baking temp/time trying to make the best cookies. My housemates tested the experiment results. Luckily, they were more than pleased most of the time.

Baking is all about chemistry and reactions. The delicious part is just a fantastic side effect.

Yup... it's also the best science experiment.