Root Access

12:00 AM

0

Q: I can't change my vote to close, bug?

I voted to close a question, then realized it was not the best fit. So I went to change my vote, and saw there was no option to do this: Not a big deal, I thought. I can retract (seeing as that's my only option really) and then re-vote to close. But! It apparently is not meant to work that wa...

Boris_yo

@JourneymanGeek They Live...

@DarthAndroid Hellou!

tapped-out

12:31 AM

i need to replace a keyboard key on a laptop. any Super Users have experience with LaptopKey.com?

Journeyman Geek

that looks slightly dodgy, but considering I can't think of any alternatives...

Boris_yo

@tapped-out wat? 1 key is $4.95?

tapped-out

hm, okay

@Boris_yo much cheaper than replacing the whole keyboard, it seems

there's a couple of other ones, but they don't seem any more or less sketchy

Bob

@tapped-out You could give eBay a shot.

Sometimes, people sell parts taken from old laptops quite cheaply.

Might want to give it a bath in bleach first, though...

tapped-out

i need to first find out whether this client even wants the key replaced

some don't (?)

Journeyman Geek

12:44 AM

lol

Boris_yo

@Bob What for?

Journeyman Geek

@Bob: did a test run removing some keys off my keyboard

its grotty, even when you take good care of em

Bob

@Boris_yo Bleach is a good disinfectant.

Used keys (and keyboards) are filthy

Boris_yo

1:01 AM

@JourneymanGeek That's why eating in front of computer is bad.

Journeyman Geek

lol

naw, fur, hair, stuff like that

Boris_yo

This has potential to invite ants into your keyboard. They will thank you for it.

Journeyman Geek

I don't eat in front of my computer ;p

Boris_yo

1:25 AM

@JourneymanGeek You eat at your kitchen table like normal citizen with morals?

Journeyman Geek

@Boris_yo: I happened to be a civilised example of canid-kind, thank you very much.

Boris_yo

@JourneymanGeek Great! We have something in common now and it is now my courtesy to offer you friendship!

Journeyman Geek

....

thats kinda offensive, actually

Boris_yo

1:43 AM

@JourneymanGeek It wasn't meant for you.

Journeyman Geek

in general!

Boris_yo

@JourneymanGeek Yes, for a laugh.

Journeyman Geek

not funny

Boris_yo

@JourneymanGeek It's funny to me because I am off such people who can laugh on themselves sometimes having sense of humor. You on the other hand find this offensive because you don't like to laugh on yourself.

Canadian Luke

2:15 AM

@Boris_yo I'm going to agree with @JourneymanGeek on this one. I don't find it offensive, but I can see how it would be. In the interest of us all being one big happy Super User family, I'd suggest taking it down

Bob

3:11 AM

@JourneymanGeek it's also not how statistics work

nor how sexual orientation works, incidentally :P

John Cavil

3:34 AM

@Keltari Hey there! You're pretty special, aren't you? :)

Keltari

?

John Cavil

@Keltari I awoke on Thu, 29 Aug 2013 16:45:57 GMT (that's about 10 hours ago), got invoked 23 times, learned 19 commands

@Keltari github.com/Zirak/SO-ChatBot/wiki/Interacting-with-the-bot

Hennes

4:57 AM

Morning

slhck

6:23 AM

@Boris_yo FYI, I removed that image. This is not a question about sense of humor or a lack thereof. We simply do not discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation—and this also includes using pejoratives.

Journeyman Geek

6:58 AM

ahh

removed all the keys from my keyboard, and gave em a dunk in lightly sudsy water then clean water. Took me about 2 hours or so, but it feels so much nicer

Oliver Salzburg

9:03 AM

@JourneymanGeek I want clean keys too. Still haven't cleaned this board :(

Journeyman Geek

@OliverSalzburg: I got a key remover ;p

not the nice one Jeff Atwood has ;p

Oliver Salzburg

@JourneymanGeek I was looking for one, but couldn't find it on German Amazon

Journeyman Geek

I got the cheapie sort that looks like a plastic ring for removing eyeballs

Oliver Salzburg

So I wanted to build my own, but... yeah

Journeyman Geek

heh

dx has one for a few dollars ;p

Oliver Salzburg

9:04 AM

Eyeball remover...

How much is shipping?

Journeyman Geek

free

thing's under 3 dollars

it works perfectly for the regular keys

I suggest a wide screwdriver to help with the stabilisers

Oliver Salzburg

wtf, do you have a link for me?

Journeyman Geek

... fucking hell

dx.com/p/keyboard-key-removal-tool-red-2-pcs-185061

thats TWICE the key removers for HALF the price

dx.com/p/… is what I bought

Oliver Salzburg

And that works well?

Journeyman Geek

ya

Oliver Salzburg

9:12 AM

Bought

Purchasing something with free shipping that costs $1.50 feels weird

And my phone just arrived \o/

Bob

@OliverSalzburg ...I've bought quite a lot of crap for $1 with free shipping from China recently.

@OliverSalzburg Yay!

Journeyman Geek

@OliverSalzburg: uploading a video

@OliverSalzburg: heh, If I'd know I'd have gotten that ;p

@OliverSalzburg: uploading a video now ;p

its a LITTLE trickier with the bigger keys, but for the small ones, your hands will thank you

►

Oliver Salzburg

@JourneymanGeek Cool

Journeyman Geek

youtube.com/watch?v=NsZqAU9u0-w this is the sort that Atwood likes ;p

but other than bigger keys, this works perfectly

(I use the screwdriver on the infamous swiss army knife for those, along with this)

you should hear a click with standard keys and you just yank it

Oliver Salzburg

@JourneymanGeek They should have made a longer intro...

Journeyman Geek

9:22 AM

lol

Bob

@JourneymanGeek I just use a flat bit of metal to lever keys out :P

Oliver Salzburg

Setting up a new Android phone always drives me nuts

Journeyman Geek

@Bob: I do that with the bigger keys to an extent

this is VERY painless

Oliver Salzburg

How am I supposed to log into my Google account if my password is like 64 characters long

Bob

@JourneymanGeek I do that for all keys. It's quite easy :P

Journeyman Geek

9:24 AM

@Bob: also less risky ;p

Oliver Salzburg

And I can't QR code it into the phone without a QR code scanner because I need a Google account to use the Play store

Bob

@OliverSalzburg Telepathy.

(or connect it to your computer and copy a text file to the storage)

@JourneymanGeek Eh.

Oliver Salzburg

Now I remember, use application-specific passwords!

Bob

@OliverSalzburg I thought you could only do that with two factor auth?

Oliver Salzburg

@Bob Well, you have to enable it anyway. Which I have

And there's the update to 4.3 weeee

Ivo Flipse

9:41 AM

@JourneymanGeek That's handy

@JourneymanGeek How will he know where to put the caps back on? They all lack a label!

Journeyman Geek

lol

@IvoFlipse: good question

I had a roughly keyboard sized sheet of MDF, and cleaned keys row by row ;p

John Cavil

@AmalMurali Welcome to Root Access chat for Super Users! Please don't ask if you can ask or if anyone's around; just ask your question, and if anyone's free and interested they'll help.

Journeyman Geek

(oh,and an identical keyboard to refer to should I make a mistake, but that won't help there ;p)

@IvoFlipse: I guess he'll never know the difference ;p

except for the non standard keys

slhck

I still don't get the benefits of app-specific passwords. It's not like you can't use them in different apps anyway, and if you have more passwords for one account, that's like… your security decreasing with every new password you add.

Ivo Flipse

@JourneymanGeek The obvious answer is it doesn't matter :P

Journeyman Geek

9:51 AM

@IvoFlipse: oh, yeah, that too ;p

Bob

@slhck the point is you can save those passwords instead of having to two factor auth every time

and you can delete one password if copromised

if you use the same password everywhere, you have equal chance of it being stolen, but the impact is greater

slhck

@Bob Well, the passwords are not specific to an application, that's why they're not any safer.

Bob

the only added risk of multiple passwords is increased risk of brute force, which won't happen with a web service

slhck

I can generate an app-specific password and use it for both, say Chrome on OS X and on iOS.

Bob

@slhck they are if you only use them in one application

@slhck that's what we call user error

slhck

9:54 AM

@Bob No, you don't understand. I can log into my Chrome on iOS with the "app-specific" password I generated for Chrome on OS X.

And vice-versa.

Bob

@slhck Yes. You can.

But you shouldn't.

That's the whole point.

slhck

Heh, yeah, but nobody tells you.

Bob

Say you lose your phone.

If you used a password only on that phone, you can just delete the password.

If you used the same password everywhere, you must now change that password everywhere.

slhck

I get your point, it's just that the passwords aren't really connected to an app. Google should make it impossible to register another device with an app-specific password you've used before.

Bob

there's no greater risk to app-specific passwords

@slhck And how do you propose they do that?

How would they distinguish between me connecting from Thunderbird from my laptop and desktop? From the same local network?

What, log some hardware ID?

Now we're stepping into privacy issues.

It's not their job.

There's also nothing really wrong with using an "app-specific password" in more than one place.

You lose the advantages.

slhck

9:58 AM

Well, they say it's "app-specific" while it actually isn't, unless you get to choose exactly what app it refers to. Just like Dropbox links against a certain machine, or Facebook apps require your explicit permission.

Bob

You don't gain any additional disadvantages.

@slhck I'll remind you that one of the primary purposes is a fallback login method for devices using a plain, standard protocol.

Say, IMAP.

Oh, but they could just extend IMAP, you say!

No. That's what standards are for.

slhck

Yeah, it only makes sense if you used an API they provided.

Meh, afk

Bob

Great, Facebook presents you with a permission screen! (Google does that too, actually - it's an OpenID thing) Email clients don't do OpenID.

OpenID is a different thing. It provides a token to verify who the user is while absolving the service of the responsibility of protecting passwords.

It isn't used to provide access to their own services.

Facebook has an additional API for plugins/apps/whatever. I'll just note that that is specific to FB.

Email existed before Google, and will continue to exist independently of Google.

(That they've extended app-specific passwords to account login in some other areas, apparently... I can't really comment on that. Depends how they have things set up.)

Oliver Salzburg

10:35 AM

Wikipedia is down

I demand my money back!

Boris_yo

12:08 PM

@Bob I use OpenID to sign in to SU...

@OliverSalzburg How much have you donated?

Oliver Salzburg

@Boris_yo $100 last year

Boris_yo

@OliverSalzburg Why you donate that much?

Will tell you a secret. Wikipedia downtime is not a coincidence. The more your IP donates the less will you be shown "downtime".

Oliver Salzburg

12:31 PM

@Boris_yo Why not?

I use Wikipedia all the time, several times a day

I really don't understand why governments don't donate large amounts of money to them

Like, what's a couple millions to keep Wikipedia running compared to the whole of government spending

Gowtham

Bob

@Gowtham is that...

@TomWijsman may or may not be interested :P

Tom Wijsman

Gowtham

12:55 PM

I don't know if that's her or not

Tom Wijsman

Not a lot going on at the moment, or... http://t.co/37wpoitLbC

Tweeted by taylorswift13 on April 2, 2013 at 4:45 PM

Boris_yo

1:23 PM

@OliverSalzburg Because that's government's and rich people's job to keep Wikipedia running.

@TomWijsman Oy can't feel my beard...

Oliver Salzburg

@Boris_yo Well, obviously I am rich!!

jokerdino

1:39 PM

!!xkcd new

John Cavil

Fortunately, exactly zero other annoying internet behaviors have developed during this time.

jokerdino

FIRST!

somequixotic

2:05 PM

hi

Gowtham

bleh rupee is falling too fast, India is dying

somequixotic

@Gowtham just because a currency is deflating doesn't mean it's necessarily bad for everyone -- companies that do remote IT work can bill in USD or CAD or something, and the cheaper the rupee is, the richer they become internally

soon you'll have remote call center employees buying penthouse apartments in downtown New Delhi ;D

Gowtham

2:23 PM

@somequixotic It will increase inflation tho

Also if currency falls, it might globalize india further

lololol fakingnews.firstpost.com/2013/08/…

Bob

@somequixotic The employees likely won't see a cent more.

...Randall Munroe probably really did jinx it.

jokerdino

@somequixotic yeah, the rich people will become richer

Gowtham

@jokerdino it's a conspiracy

jokerdino

what's conspiracy?

Gowtham

Since @Boris_yo is not here, I am not going to discuss about this further ;p

Bob

2:35 PM

Oh, god.

0

Q: Website / kids monitoring

Mom needs to spy on baby sister / 11yo. What's the best option? We're looking for the following: Baby uses MacBook Air Copy of all emails sent/received List of websites accessed List of account/passwords logged in with Copy of all "communications" like Facebook IM's, GChat, etc Mom-friendly rep...

security logging spyware kids

Gowtham

> Baby uses MacBook Air

@_@

jokerdino

not everyone is exporting. the poor will not benefit from a weak rupee. the imports (mainly oil and other necessities) will be affected and will have a greater impact on the public.

Gowtham

Yes people need to stop buying stupid gold

Apparently all the gold in India is worth some 800 billion inr(?) iirc

jokerdino

@Gowtham more than gold, the real estate boom.

i am in no way an expert in this field but the corrupt government at all levels doesn't help a poor economy at all.

Gowtham

The real estate boom isn't that obvious in a my city(it's too small ;p)

India is fucked

Bob

2:43 PM

@Gowtham The same could be said for just about every country...

jokerdino

a sustainable economic growth is most preferable. India was at 10% growth just a couple years ago and that figure just made the disparity gap wide.

@Bob yes!

Gowtham

Fine, earth is fucked :D !

jokerdino

it is just messed up on different levels

Boris_yo

@Gowtham So is USA... What will die faster?

jokerdino

What will die faster? What kinda question is that?

somequixotic

2:55 PM

@jokerdino there's no such thing as sustainable growth

geometric growth by a percentage year over year will always be unsustainable by definition

jokerdino

@somequixotic right.

somequixotic

the entire world economy is based on growth, but not just any growth, geometric (exponential) growth; in population, in resource consumption, in wealth. but it's unsustainable by its very nature. it's mathematically irrefutable.

jokerdino

yeah, i want to be a commie.

somequixotic

if you agree that 1=1, then you must, to remain a rational human being, agree that the economic model upon which the world exists is fundamentally unsustainable... the steps in between 1=1 and that conclusion are mere algebra

and it has nothing to do with communism or capitalism

even an overt authoritarian/fascist/dictatorship state, monarchy, oligarchy, democracy, republic, communist country, socialist country of any kind, basically any form of government that humans have yet imagined, falls into the same trap

jokerdino

@somequixotic Thinking about it, we shouldn't look towards growing. Is that what you say?

somequixotic

2:58 PM

@jokerdino precisely. an intermediary step between geometric growth and true sustainability would be non-exponential growth, e.g. linear or quadratic growth, and eventually a steady-state

even an x^3 growth model would be categorically more sustainable (not infinitely sustainable, but for the near term it'd help) than the exponential model we're on now

jokerdino

I think it would help if economists don't disagree on everything.

somequixotic

problem is, people don't know how to create policies or economic models that allow for anything other than exponential growth, without causing all kinds of issues that we are too mentally screwed up to overcome

every so-called "economist" bases their entire profession, reputation, everything on the assumption that any economy must involve, at its foundation, exponential growth

economists as a whole are at the very heart of why we're in this predicament

their first assumption, the very foundation on which their entire academic discipline is based, is wrong

not only is it wrong, it's ridiculous

it's the equivalent of, say, the entire foundation of physics being based on the assumption that objects in the universe naturally repel away from one another, and the greater the mass of an object, the more it repels other objects (something like the opposite of what we know to be gravity)

trying to form a coherent model of physics that includes that law as an assumption would be exceedingly difficult, and our entire technological base would be backwards

jokerdino

Righto.

Gowtham

Economics @_@

I should learn how the stock market works ;p

jokerdino

Honestly speaking, most economic theories are based on assumptions that aren't practical, which should make those theories useless for real world usage.

Journeyman Geek

3:05 PM

@Gowtham barely controlled sentiment ;p

Gowtham

bleh don't want to get flagged ;p

somequixotic

there's a great lecture called "Arithmetic, population and energy" by Albert Bartlett that describes it better than I can -- but to put it simply, with our exponential growth, we're headed toward a time when something is going to require us to turn that growth backwards, and have massive shrinkage of: available resources, population, food supply, etc.

at this time, it looks like we still have the ability to choose just what that something is

do we want it to be: war? famine? I don't know, something actually worthwhile like birth control and voluntary population control?

see, there are some bad, seemingly-inevitable things that might happen to turn the population growth, wealth growth and resource consumption growth on its head, such as famine, and nobody's going to go out in the streets and campaign for "I advocate famine!"

Gowtham

Dan Brown suggested we sterilize 1/3 of the world population in Inferno :D

Journeyman Geek

@Gowtham: heh, we're not the bridge. We ask nicely ;p

somequixotic

but then there are other options we can elect which aren't quite as bad, and yet people demonize anyone who advocates them

jokerdino

3:08 PM

@Gowtham let him volunteer

Gowtham

@JourneymanGeek lol

jokerdino

@somequixotic you mean like abortion?

Journeyman Geek

@somequixotic: on the short run though, human society is a pyramid scheme

somequixotic

@jokerdino that's one possibility, but not having the children in the first place is another

jokerdino

@JourneymanGeek Ponzi scheme?

Journeyman Geek

3:08 PM

@jokerdino: birth control of various sorts

@jokerdino: we rely on the working population to help support the retired population

jokerdino

@somequixotic Oh, the beginning of the end!~

somequixotic

problem is, people won't give up things like so-called "reproductive rights" and "the bible told me to have 92 children'

Journeyman Geek

lol

Gowtham

Shit like that happens a lot in India

jokerdino

@somequixotic children are god's gifts. no refuting that.

somequixotic

3:10 PM

you think you have the right to do the single thing that is the greatest threat to humanity? cool story bro

jokerdino

^_^

@somequixotic it wasn't really a problem until people started finding cures.

Journeyman Geek

@somequixotic: not to mention infant mortality rates are way down, and child labour is illegal

somequixotic

if a "free society" lets people all but ensure that we'll wipe ourselves out by overpopulation, I want to live in an un-free one

Gowtham

Take my great great great grandpa, he had 7 sons/daughters and the family tree of the 7 guys is now HUGE

somequixotic

I seriously do

Journeyman Geek

3:10 PM

having 92 children made sense when most of them died, and the rest helped out economically

(mom had '5', 2 survivors :/)

somequixotic

@JourneymanGeek it also made sense when only a few thousand humans existed worldwide, but at some point we have to say enough is enough

jokerdino

guess the problem is our moralities are a bit outdated. They were meant for the older world.

Journeyman Geek

@jokerdino: heh, Indian morals are victorian, almost

Gowtham

And Old idiots rule us :/

Journeyman Geek

with a thin veneer ;p

jokerdino

3:12 PM

And the Biblical one? That's even older.

Gowtham

Hola @Hennes

somequixotic

the Indians I work with are popping out babies like there's no tomorrow

Hennes

HI all.

somequixotic

almost as fast as they can physically have them

Journeyman Geek

lol

Hennes

3:12 PM

/me drinks beer. Standard after work action.

somequixotic

"you're not pregnant?! what's wrong with you?!"

Hennes

Last day at that place though.

Journeyman Geek

@somequixotic: hehhe....

Gowtham

@somequixotic :/

Hennes

Friendly people, but exhausting

Journeyman Geek

3:13 PM

@somequixotic: lack of something to do in spare time I guess ;p

jokerdino

lol

Journeyman Geek

Indians apparently don't have hobbies, least from the attitude my parents have

somequixotic

@JourneymanGeek they should spend their spare time learning English, or learning how to be better QTP programmers, both things would greatly benefit their careers

Bob

So, uh. We talking about eugenics now?

jokerdino

@somequixotic hm, I just read an article that put career and relationship on the same pedal.

somequixotic

3:14 PM

pedal?

Journeyman Geek

@somequixotic: they really need hobbies so they can be better people ;p

Gowtham

Does chatting here count @JourneymanGeek ? ;p

somequixotic

@Bob No, and I don't know why you would think that.

jokerdino

@somequixotic hm, maybe not pedal. what word would suit?

here's the link anyway: medium.com/architecting-a-life/cff4161f551c

somequixotic

@jokerdino pedestal, maybe?

Journeyman Geek

3:15 PM

@Gowtham; its not part of a ~~complete breakfast~~ respectable job, so yeah

jokerdino

@somequixotic yes that. my vocab is a bit jammed.

Gowtham

lol

Journeyman Geek

honestly if you're here, you obviously LOVE computers. Its a hobby. As such you're not one of those people.

somequixotic

computing is more than a hobby; it's the essence of what I am

Bob

@somequixotic Oh, nothing. Just caught the tail end of a conversation about reproductive rights.

Journeyman Geek

3:18 PM

@somequixotic: nothing respectable about how I feel about computers ;p

somequixotic

@Bob eugenics is one possible, extremely amoral way of imposing restrictions on reproductive rights; but saying "We talking about eugenics now?" in response to a conversation about reproductive rights that had nothing to do with eugenics is like saying "We talking about fascism now?" in response to a conversation about the merits of voting systems in a democracy.

Journeyman Geek

Its like the girlfriend you love to bits but can't take home to meet dear old mom ;p

3

@somequixotic: its taken a whole for my parents to accept my geekishness ;p

somequixotic

"eu" prefix means "good"; "genics" = genes, meaning, "eugenics" == "good genes"; hence, proponents thereof would say that "you have to have good genes to be allowed to reproduce" -- no one here is making such a claim.

I advocate population control by way of random.org

Gowtham

I advocate population control through proper education

Journeyman Geek

lol

I advocate population control through hobbies

so people have things other than work and babymaking.

somequixotic

3:23 PM

@Gowtham that's a very good step, but so far it looks like education doesn't work all that well... we've been trying very hard to educate people, but people will still do what they want

I wish education were effective enough as to actually stop population growth, or make the growth rate so small that we can let our ancestors in 10,000 years worry about it

Journeyman Geek

@somequixotic: in brazil, apparently soap operas helped reduce population growth ;p

somequixotic

but right now it looks like education just puts a teeny tiny bump in the growth curve

Boris_yo

@somequixotic Free porn is a huge contributor to population increase.

jokerdino

hmmmm

Bob

Except, the population growth rate (by birth) has actually been declining for a while. At least in Australia - I'm not sure about other countries.

jokerdino

3:27 PM

@Bob on the whole though, it is increasing.

Journeyman Geek

@Bob: our government think its a horrible thing ;p

and we need moar people.

jokerdino

it is either declining or staying constant only for developed countries.

the developing and the underdeveloped have a population boom.

somequixotic

@Bob other countries are picking up the slack. western wealthy countries are still gaining population (net) by importing people from other countries, and those other countries continue to reproduce at an increasing rate, and then export their populace to wealth centers

Boris_yo

@somequixotic Don't they realize consequences, responsibilities?

Bob

@JourneymanGeek Interesting thing there. Well-educated people, those who have careers, seem to have less children.

Journeyman Geek

3:28 PM

@Bob: cause they have things to do other than....

somequixotic

@Bob you're absolutely correct in that regard, but I don't think we have enough natural resources or even demand to have enough people gainfully employed in white collar knowledge worker jobs to make a difference in the population dilemma

Bob

Well, there's your vicious cycle.

somequixotic

look at all the people who work in factories, take out the trash, gather or grow food, etc. -- it takes a lot of people to support all those efforts

Boris_yo

@Bob Cite the source?

Journeyman Geek

@somequixotic: a lot of this is automated tho

Bob

3:30 PM

Fertility and intelligence

Fertility and intelligence research investigates the relationship between fertility and intelligence. Demographic studies have indicated that in humans, fertility rate and intelligence tend to be inversely correlated, that is to say, the more intelligent, as measured by IQ tests, exhibit a lower total fertility rate than the less intelligent. Survival rates are also correlated with IQ, so the net effect on population intelligence is unclear. It is theorized that if the inverse correlation of IQ with fertility rate is stronger than the correlation of survival rate, and if heritable factors ...

If you want a broader article on it.

Hm. Can't find anything on the ABS site.

@somequixotic Perhaps not by genetics, but it certainly sounded like a suggestion of restriction by social criteria.

I apologise if I offended; that was not my intention.

Gowtham

@Bob Hmm random sterilization FTW

In inferno a guy releases a virus that randomly sterilizes 1/3 of the human population ;p

Bob

Next question to explode:

5

Q: Why does RAM have to be volatile?

If computer RAM was to be non volatile like other persistent storages, then there would be no such thing as bootup time. Then why is it not feasible to have a non volatile ram module? Thank you.

ramdisk

@Gowtham There's enough negativity associated with sterility.

somequixotic

@Bob My idea is to have a ticket system, where every year a country allows X number of births, and you can put your ticket into the system if you wish to conceive -- each time you put your ticket into the system and lose (you're not granted the right to conceive), you get to put one additional ticket into the system next year, doubling your chances on the second year, then tailing off as you add more and more tickets

it doesn't guarantee that each person will be able to reproduce, but your odds go way up on the second year, and up significantly on the third year, but to account for the fact that people are less likely to be able to conceive and take care of children as they age, you don't get that much more likely to be granted a ticket after, say, year 10... because the increase in chances from 10 to 11 is only 10/11, or 9.09%

Bob

Or just, y'know, reduce immigration.

Easier and less morally wrong.

13 mins ago, by somequixotic

@Bob other countries are picking up the slack. western wealthy countries are still gaining population (net) by importing people from other countries, and those other countries continue to reproduce at an increasing rate, and then export their populace to wealth centers

Boris_yo

@somequixotic Not sure if homo sapiens want babies more than sex...

somequixotic

3:41 PM

the system should also be designed so that the likelihood of being able to conceive goes down by a factor of 10 if you've previously "won" a chance... that way, your chances of having one child are significant, but your chances of having 2 or more are smaller

Bob

One-child policy

The one-child policy (, officially translated as "family planning policy") is the population control policy of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It restricts urban couples to only one child, while allowing additional children in several cases, including twins, rural couples, ethnic minorities, and couples who are both only children themselves. In 2007, according to a spokesman of the Committee on the One-Child Policy, approximately 35.9% of China's population was subject to a one-child restriction. The Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau are exempt from the policy. Al...

It's... not working out too well.

somequixotic

@Bob that would also help, but then you'd just turn third-world countries producing knowledge workers (like India) into, effectively, Zimbabwe

if this were an easy problem, it would already have been solved... I don't think the solution, if it even exists, has been designed yet. oh well; the alternative is resource exhaustion, famine, and then inevitable war over the remaining resources.

Hennes

In child policy. Thou shalt not fork(), though spooning is OK

2

somequixotic

part of the problem, of course, is that a lot of people aren't even aware of the problem, or they deny that it exists

jokerdino

hm, it has been shaped into an asset these days -- demographic dividend.

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