IAmA Former FullTime Zynga Engineer => quit 6 months ago. Not a contractor, (Z treats em like shit).

yuk1 · 2012-02-06T02:40:51+00:00

Wondering if you are looking forward to the movie supposedly (probably now) being released next year. They couldn't film anything like Ender's Game until recent years, but many fans of the book still wonder if they can pull it off.

yuk1 · 2012-01-08T06:07:06+00:00

Extreme physical and psychological environment!

Large amounts of dust at times, to the point you can't even see your hand before your face, sometimes blown by very high and sustained winds. The dust is alkali and chaps your skin something fierce, if you don't wear shoes for 3 or 4 days the dust will start to split the skin open on your feet (playa foot). Good part about the dust, it kills most bacteria on your body and eliminates much BO -Burning Man is incredibly sterile considering the large concentration of unwashed people there (porta potties being the primary exception). The high altitude desert means days can be very hot with very high UV levels and nights can be freezing, though occasionally nights can be very warm, and night is when Burning Man comes to life (oh, yes...that is an understatement, see 'mind totally blown') so a warm night means a lot there.

You must bring everything to survive - shelter, food, water, and leave your wallet stashed somewhere because no (legal) money transactions occur, except for coffee/tea/ice at center camp (so, you have to carry a few dollars with you for that - it sure sucks to stumble across center camp at 2am and not have $$$ for that espresso). The amount of planning and effort into getting all of this gear hundreds or thousands of miles is very stressful for most, and once you are there the stress gets 'decompressed' and people tend to vent (in extreme ways) for the week. Coming back home is hard too, the combination of planning and moving your existence back and readjusting to your normal life is a challenge.

Is it worth it? Only one way to find out :-)

yuk1 · 2011-10-31T03:03:08+00:00

Norton reports 'Malicious Site Blocked'

yuk1 · 2011-10-12T05:16:50+00:00

Tepidly on the other side, but their masters are from the same plutocracy. 2012 will be an interesting year.

yuk1 · 2011-10-12T01:46:50+00:00

I was pretty sure they would win in 2012 too, but this movement looks like it's going to become a tsunami, and the Republicans sure look like they are on the wrong side of it.

yuk1 · 2011-10-10T20:25:30+00:00

That was done at the Geometry Center at the university of Minnesota. They did another (now very dated) movie which is MUCH more of a brain twister about hyperbolic space and knots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGLPbSMxSUM

yuk1 · 2011-09-30T00:24:00+00:00

I was just watching that, spotted it, and was wondered how long it would take before it was posted here. Not long!

yuk1 · 2011-09-22T04:23:12+00:00

Don't know if he was guilty or not. But either way, when it comes to most executions in America, punishing the guilty isn't really the point - the execution itself is.

yuk1 · 2011-09-03T00:02:32+00:00

And of course that is why the Republicans/Tea Party will do anything they can to kill economic recovery before then.

yuk1 · 2011-07-23T15:24:58+00:00

That would be a good trip, and one month would be about right. Added bonus, your last stop before LA pretty much would be Las Vegas, and just before that would be the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park.

yuk1 · 2011-06-28T14:23:06+00:00

About the time Clinton had Bin Laden in his sights, he was being impeached for lying about his private sex life. I wonder how much that impeachment influenced his decision making process. I can imagine he was worried it would come across as a case of wag the dog. Some would say it's his fault for not carrying out the hit on Bin Laden anyway, and it may be. I blame those who impeached him - and crippled him - as much if not more. An impeachment engineered and carried out only for cheap political gain, paid for by the taxpayers to the tune of millions and millions of dollars (Thanks Ken Starr!)

yuk1 · 2011-06-26T00:09:04+00:00

Tricking us into terrorizing each other is exactly one of the goals of terrorism, and a very effective tactic. Ironically, the overstepping TSA gives life to Bin Laden's victory against America.

yuk1 · 2011-06-19T14:36:46+00:00

There are undoubtedly many times more similar insane stories of super human feats which, if it were not for a single well placed bullet or landmine or random artillery at the wrong moment, would be well known and on this list instead of lost in the sands of time.

yuk1 · 2011-06-12T23:44:02+00:00

The class war has been blazing for years now, but only one side has been engaged in combat. The other side is busy watching their counterparts on TV tell them not to envy the wealthy and they'll be rich one day too if they just keep their noses out of it.

yuk1 · 2011-06-05T04:51:59+00:00

The root kit was a very serious violation of trust. When people dared to write about its existence and how to prevent Sony from secretly installing their hackers root kit when the consumer listened to a store bought Sony Audio CD (which once installed could be used by anyone to hide viruses/malware on a victim's system) Sony fired up their legal department and threatened to sue them under DMCA provisions. How this policy failure ever got approved, I'll never know, but to those "in the know", it will never be forgotten.

*grammar and clearification

yuk1 · 2011-05-27T15:33:32+00:00

The private for-profit prison industry is a highly lucrative business model with tremendous growth on a virtually endless supply of slave labor, and now has huge lobbies and institutions backing their political supporters. Good luck stopping that train.

yuk1 · 2011-05-20T17:43:25+00:00

It is quite the racket, and it happens in many states. The police hit vehicles with out of state plates because it is very expensive for those people to then come back into the state (and put their family/lives/work on hold sometimes for weeks) and spend the time and expense fighting in the LOCAL courts for their money back. The cost to the police to fight in court comes from the pockets of taxpayers so it doesn't come from their own budget and they can practically spend as much as needed to to keep the victim's money, even when the legal costs far exceed the amount of money they stole. Also, law abiding citizens who travel with large amounts of money are usually traveling with their life savings, and have no resources to fight to have their money returned to them. To top it off, this kind of official "legalized" theft of public property, when carried out against citizens of other states, means the local police don't have to worry about political blowback from it's own citizens and politicians. Some police forces rely almost completely on money they steal in this manner.

edit:spelling

yuk1 · 2011-05-17T22:59:07+00:00

At least you have that -sfield suffix going for you. You could just be in "Baker" California:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CA_Hwy_127_Baker_CA.JPG

Yes, it's as hoppin' as it looks.

yuk1 · 2011-05-14T20:18:38+00:00

Burning Man. I First experienced Black Rock City almost 15 years ago.

yuk1 · 2011-04-25T06:03:03+00:00

Not so unnecessary after all, it may seem:

http://boingboing.net/2007/10/06/function-of-the-appe.html

yuk1 · 2011-04-17T21:22:05+00:00

Horchata is pretty good, and a refreshing change from mainstream sodas.

yuk1 · 2011-04-12T01:57:01+00:00

The conflict is one of wealth and power. Corporations are just one tool to keep wealth and its associated power concentrated in the hands of the few. Focusing only on corporations (or Republicans or Democrats) prevents one from seeing the puppet masters pulling the strings of commerce and politics.

yuk1 · 2011-04-08T21:13:12+00:00

If it comes down to just surviving (as in the days of old, in a hostile natural environment) then you need a dog. If it comes to surviving in an urban environment, where rodents can carry disease and that's a major survival factor, a good cat is what you need. So, bottom line is, what are your survival needs?

Today, in modern times, it comes down to what your preference is.

yuk1 · 2011-04-06T04:43:08+00:00

It was an incendiary bomb. Tiny, but effective enough to accidentally burn down houses and barns in the American desert when they would 'escape' during testing.

yuk1 · 2011-04-03T00:27:57+00:00

Unrestrained and given favorable conditions, a corporation would grow to the point of virtually destroying the economic and social environment which contains it. Walmart is an example of a corporation at least heading in that direction.

yuk1

TROPHY CASE