Test de cultura termodinamica
Or in English, "A test for your general knowledge of thermodynamics". Here goes :
The question before you being, of course, what exactly is depicted above ?
I'll give it a week or so and then say.
« The twinheaded announcer announces!
No, you don't have something to say on the topic. »
Category: Zsilnic
Wednesday, 06 August, Year 6 d.Tr.
Terms of Endearment
Terms of Endearmenti is the definitive story of the human condition : anything you may ever want to do is exceedingly difficult and will not be worth it should you succeed doing it. Meanwhile you will find yourself randomly tripped by pointless, invincible difficulties which usually result in your death - should you survive them however you'll just grow old. Anywhere you turn you lose and the prize for trying is that you lose. Good luck with it, which means you lose.
In this broad context, the scene in which the grandmother holds the little girl in her lap right after having stated that the little girl is too old for her on-again, off-again boyfriend is particularly instructive. The old woman knows exactly just how stupidly pointless the young woman's life is going to be, in all its winding details (that only hold the appearance of novelty and worthwhileness for they too young to know better - as there's nothing new in this world except for the history you didn't know). She equally well knows there's no way to communicate this, and no point to actually trying. It's a grandiose scene. Here you go :
This is a film of and about women. The "men" accidentally involved are typical Americans, which is a polite way of saying "pathetic excuses for slime molds". They don't fulfill the role, and so the perfectly natural and perfectly healthy female need for male dominance and enforcement of structure and limit rapidly turns to desperation, to the degree that the mother begins a relationship with the closest approximation of a dominant male she can find, some random neighbour whose narcisiac dedication to protecting his ego from the vaguest possibility of a wound makes him the perfect closeted homosexual, while the daughter begins a relationship with a married accountant on the basis of his generous donation of three and a half dollars. Hey, it's a show of strength! In the end he gets the only blowjob of his life, and a picture of a woman which mostly depicts her husband (an absolute avatar of what in Romanian is known as a pampalau). And he's quite happy with the deal! The daughter's eventual death to cancer elegantly circumscribes the larger problem : yes, a universe made out of women and their children is indistinguishable from metastasis. That's exactly what it is : cell growth bereft of rhyme or reason, a society bereft of men. Might as well put a slice of carcinoma on agar and call it a day.
You should probably see this thing, it cleanly illustrates the difference between actual feminism and femfanon. Pro tip : the fact that women have nothing else to talk about aside from men and their children isn't a shortcoming of cinema, it's a characteristic of actual life. Making movies that depict faux women isn't a victory of art over patriarchy, but a metastasis of ideology invading art.
———1983, by James L. Brooks, with Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito. [↩]
« The FinFisher/FinSpy story, for posterity.
The Bitcoin Lordship list, first revision »
Category: Trilematograf
Monday, 11 August, Year 6 d.Tr.
Teenage boys, the premier source of comedy gold
Part I. Months ago, I put an ad up on the local craiglist.i It attracted its fair share of interested or merely curious girls an' young women. It also attracted a bunch of teenage boys, because honestly everything attracts themii. Like so :
derp@me Hi, may be we could have some fun in a 3some...
me@derp w stands for woman.
derp@me yes...just in case a rainy afternoon could you consider other options...lol...
Isn't this some of the best logic ever ? So what if he's a worthless young male with no options that's also not quite brave enough to go try fight for ISIS or something! That shouldn't disqualify him from anything! He's as much a people as I am, and definitely more a people than the slavegirls in question. The notion that there isn't even anyone willing to take him as a domestic animal does not occur, because... why would it ? Welfare! Equality! Fairness!iii A future for beta bois! His mommy loves him and told him he was smart!
I might as well alter a lifetimes' worth of preference to accomodate his pointless existence on the solid grounds that... it rained that day. Because that's how I live my life, whether it rains that day or not is the decisive factor, and if I made a harem I didn't make that harem. It belongs to "the people", aka noi sclavi. What, there's something wrong to living your life according to the rain ? IT WORKS JUST FINE FOR HIM!
Logic, seriously.
Part 2. I have a profile on one of the few BDSM dating sites out there. They also have an irc server. I get random PMs from people. Like so :
Wunstar Buenas fotos con muchos culos........
Wunstar if you do have a female slave you don't want I might be intrested in her.
Wunstar you never know....
Right ? "You never know", because these women are essentially little car models painted red, and we're 12, and hey, he might be interested in her. He. In her. Let alone her being interested in some fucktarded 40 yo "dominant" from LA that sends pms to people he doesn't know as if the people he doesn't know are animals of his own mental age.
What, to consider that maybe not everyone in this world is a jackass ?! Impossibru! Slavegirls are toy cars that my parents gave me and he should have some too! That's totally how the early discussions go with any prospective slavegirl, "honey, you're going to be mine in the sense that if some random derp might be interested, all bets are off". What, it doesn't make any sense and it's not conceivably what anyone'd ever sign up for ?!
BUT WHY SHOULD THAT MATTER! He calls himself a "dominat" and that therefore means he actually IS part of this game where superior males graciously allow humble females to go on their knees, bathe in piss and so on and so forth. Oh, you had no idea that's how the world works ? How silly of you! Some nobody calls herself "the bitcoin wife", that means she's actually part of Bitcoin now, and relevant for Bitcoin. Because of what she calls herself. Yep, that's right, what she calls herself matters. Problem ?
What work ? What sense ? Too hard, dude. The consumers have come to expect!
Conclusion. "You never know". Like "you can never be sure a scam is a scam". Like "I want to believe". Like lots and lots of other such attempts of the primitive parts of the brain to take over the neocortex. They're funny, what can I say.
———Highly structured TPE relationship, will consider junior slavegirl [↩]This is by design, because humans, like all mammal species, work by creating large swarms of generally useless beta males that get culled.
And just in case you ever wondered why holes in power outlets are always so narrow : it's because if they weren't penile electrocution would kill more than smoking and ebola combined. [↩]Not for women, though. Equality in the mind of the cattle works in the sense of his private, personal equality to anyone and anything above him. That's all. [↩]
« Time to recuperate this chauvinism thing.
The press, forever derpy »
Category: Meta psihoza
Monday, 15 December, Year 6 d.Tr.
Tango on Avenida Corrientes, Buenos Aires
Remember the flamenco dancing girlies in San Jose, Costa Rica ? How about the morning bird ? Well, allow me to introduce a combination of the two, captured yesterday evenining around 1800 altura.i
She works hard and is talented, but I'm pretty sure she lives in the street. Which, if you think about it, is rather impressive - Washington DC doesn't even allow bums in the "security perimeter", through police violence ; most everywhere else, they're more likely to either glare or look through things in stupor than actually go to all the trouble of maintaining a costume set and dancing complicated, figure dances.
That guy's also street fauna, except the more common fare : incredibly odorous, shitstained all over, the works. As my companion pointed out, he's probably the worst part of her day because... how does she get rid of him ? Think about it, it's no small matter. If you're a pianist you don't even touch this, if anyone's being obnoxious in any way some people you've never met kick him out. If you're a stand-up comedian or some other version of entertainer closer to the street bum, you try and use the audience's own preconceived notions against itself to control it, and hope that you've sold tickets for a price point high enough to not allow too many free spirits in the hall. But what if you're free ? Really, truely, skyclad free ? What if you're stuck dealing with other free people ? Sucks to be you, huh.
Freedom isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially if idiots get any freedom whatsoever.
Here's on display the correct use of high heels. As explained other places in other languages, the high heels aren't there to walk on, they're to stop walking and that's it.
Notice the camera movement on the bike wheel. I am rather proud of this shot because I was trying to get her thigh in focus doing a freehand autofocus thing. Seems to be working to some degree.
So there she is, dancing by herself, in the street of the big city.
Just like you.
———As discussed earlier, Buenos Aires is splendidly organised. Since the town's a grid, and since the last two digits indicate the position within a block whereas the rest indicates the block index, with the passage of time and the accumulation of social practice you get a further meta-benefit along all the direct ones : people abstract a concept of "height", ie, how far up/down/left/right you find yourself. This is aptly called altura.
It doesn't exist in shitholes such as Bucharest, which being irregular do not support the abstractive benefits of regularity. What's more, fuckwits living there don't even know this could exist, because how could they imagine it ? And so live happy, self-contented lives in their muck. (Drop dead yo, you're too offensively, stupidly dumb to justify any further expenditure of calories. Stop breathing people's air, on you it's a waste.) [↩]
« The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, or What happens to the old whore ?
Let's translate a little. Rinduieli, de Marin Sorescu »
Category: La pas prin lume
Thursday, 11 September, Year 6 d.Tr.
S.WOL, June 2014 Statement
S.WOL incoming and outgoing
Incoming
Outgoing
Description
Value
Description
Value
Cash BTC deposited
300.00000000
--
F.MPIF Loan
200.00000000
--
Total
500.00000000
Total
0
S.WOL assets
Account
illo tempore
Net change
30.06.2014
Cash
0
500.00000000
500.00000000
Tangibles
0
0
0
Intangibles and goodwill
0
0
0
Total assets
500.00000000
S.WOL liabilities
Account
illo tempore
Net change
30.06.2014
Debentures
0
200.00000000
200.00000000
Shareholder equity
0
300.00000000
300.00000000
Total liabilities
500.00000000
S.WOL has a total of 10`000`000 authorised shares outstanding. The total book value per share is thus 0.00003000 BTC.
S.WOL realised no operating revenue this period. The P/E implied value per share is thus 0 BTC. It is expected to realise operating revenue next period.
« 3! 3 things!
Ah sweet sweet delicious communitard tears »
Category: S.WOL
Saturday, 05 July, Year 6 d.Tr.
Strange things people think
Go to a pharmacy to buy Epsom salts. Pharmacist, clearly knowledgeable, has no fucking idea what that is.i Magnesium salt dude. He starts backing away slowly, like a contradicted cat. Goes to talk to even older, even more clearly knowledgeable pharmacist. They agree there isn't such a thing, not only in their own pharmacy, but in the Authoritarian and Definitive Pharmacopoeia of the Ages. It just dun exist, this, what Epsom salts, you must have hallucinated the entire thing during a dream.
So noticing they have a computerized inventory system installed, I write it down for them. E-P-S-O-M. They shake their heads, hopelessly. "This foreigner cat is not making any sense, poor him" they think. But then they type it into the magical machine (calculadora mecanica inglesa) and... wait! Yup-yup-yup-yup-yup-yup. D-rrrrring!
What the fuck do you suppose they think Epsom salts are called, over here ? Hm ?
Sal inglesa. That's right. And I shoulda fucken known, because when I asked for Worchestershire they thought I'm asking for little moon rocks or something, until some clearly English fellow that had been slowly marinating himself in straight whiskey for at least fifty if not eighty years somewhere in the back of the shop yelled out "salsa inglesa!". In the spirit of which, I suppose next I see a street hooker Ima ask her how much for follar inglesa, cause I have no idea how you say half'n'half in Spanish.
But moving on (not very far) :
As you can see, this is a restroom. It belongs to a nice and spacious cafe / rendezvous place in their local version of Greenwich Village (Palermo), except this is populated by whores and immigrants rather than aspiring writers. Actually come to think of it...
But anyway, notice there's a notice in between the urinal and the hand drier station ? Wonder what it could possibly say ? Here you go :
Just in case you were sitting there with your penis in hand and thought to yourself, "you know what I'd really need right about now ?! A condom!". Maybe you need a urine sample or something, what do I know. Yet judging by the various announcements inside the stalls, such as "busco activo" and other similar...
At any rate I'm taking a woman there and fucking her in that restroom just to see what happens. (I will be bringing my own condoms, tyvm).
Moving on, my crosstransverstudinal and also longitudinal market & socioeconomic study is complete. A cab medallion costs ~ 200`000 pesos, which is about 18k or so. Most cars are rented by the drivers, who pay 600 pesos a day, Mon-Fri, for a total of about 13`000 a month (cca 1`150 USD), Sat-Sun they get the car for free (some actually pay for the car to be on the street). The driver pays for the gas, but the owner pays all repairs. In general a driver willing to work like in Romania (12 hours a day) takes home 15`000 to 20`000 pesos a month. That's about 5`000 RON, something that ain't happening in Romania, ever, period.
Meanwhile the locals think that well, since I'm from Europe, all this is peanuts for us, and so what do I care. That's right : these people here actually make more money than the EU average, and yet perceive themselves as a sort of you know, post colonial shithole. Which perhaps they were, thirty or so years ago, before the socialists managed to completely ruin the capitols, rendering them worse shitholes than their erstwhile colonies.
Life.
———At least when I was a wee tyke - or two centuries ago, whichever comes sooner - not knowing that'd have worked as a literary means to suggest whoever is negatively qualified. Like you know, a sysadmin that has no idea what ll does. [↩]
« Food. Para comer.
On The Superiority of Monarchy (or, adnotations to Why the Worst Get on Top) »
Category: La pas prin lume
Wednesday, 11 June, Year 6 d.Tr.
Strange in the street
Give some kill to mommy!
Remember that famous case which happened a few years ago and I googled but couldn't find anymore because
Bali murder suspect claims she's PREGNANT and 'had sex after killing her mother' and stuffing her in a suitcase...as videos emerge of lovers partying with mom's cash weeks before she was murdered
apparently they got a new one now? Them crazy kids! They need wholesale kill, not amateurs anymore.
The funny story here is that half hour prior I had just changed dollars to Argentine pesos, at 14.80 each. So one crisp Benjamin nets 1`480 Argentine pesos, which would then theoretically, at the listed rate of .4 turn into 3`700 Paraguayan pesos. Meanwhile last time I visited Paraguay (a coupla weeks ago) the dollar was trading at 24.5 or so, which means a Benjamin traded there would have only yielded 2`450 Paraguayan pesos. Since Paraguay doesn't have Argentina's problemsi, you could readily exchange it back into... 150 US dollars.ii
Obviously this doesn't actually work, because the official office of pretending doesn't actually follow through and deliver on the pretense (much like its US counterpart, actually). Still, a funny thought.
———Or so it tells itself, but in the space of about two months the dollar went from 22.1 to 24.5, which neatly matches the devaluation experienced by the Argentine peso on the black market, from 13ish to 15ish in that same interval. [↩]Or into about 1`500 Argentine pesos, I've never seen anywhere a spread like the Argentine peso enjoys in Uruguay. 1.4 / 2.5 or something, the stuff nightmares are made of. [↩]
« "Progress" and "Revolution"
Money, fucking and lying »
Category: La pas prin lume
Saturday, 11 October, Year 6 d.Tr.
Spy stuff
Ever wondered what the cleanup after a stint looks like ? Why, allow me.
That's about a cubic meter of cut up paperwork, something to the tune of 20k pages.
That's about 500 KJ/s, or at the very least it feels like it were. Paper burns very hot. Secrets burn even hotter.
The thing with CDs (or DVDs as the case may be) is that if properly stored they hold on to information practically forever. Then again, they're easy to reprocess.
That's a pot with about 10 pounds of tomatoes.
This is an open-air hard drive. As you can see, inasmuch as the seal has not been broken, the warranty still stands.
And here are the platters getting ready for their spa treatment...
... which involves the ample application of heat.
In fairness this last process is entirely spurious, seeing how modern harddrive platters are made out of a glassy ceramic composite, which shatters easily. But, as a throwback to older times, back when 1.44 MBytes was ample space, capable of carrying all the porn one might want...
See you all later, somewhere.
« The public burning of Bob Beck
Istanbul selamlar! »
Category: Zsilnic
Thursday, 22 May, Year 6 d.Tr.
Spamming reddit, an "experiment".
Motto : "It's perfectly fine to be a redditor with a website, it's not okay to be a website with a reddit account." - DFWITRi
Intro
To explain the title : the tradition online seems to be that whenever you do something you suspect unethical, just call it "an experiment" and that's that, get out of jail free card. Same principle at work as in "no offense, but go fuck your mother!" : you're a special snowflake of mystical powers, magically protected from any evil by verbal amulets! My own position has nothing to do with all that, I am simply an asshole : inasmuch as reddit hasn't been made by me or my friends nor is it owned by me or my friends it is ultra legem et extra curia, an outlaw thing, marked for death and without a future. Just like it's no crime to kill, maim or rob one without a WoT account, it's no crime to abuse reddit any way you please. Inasmuch as it exists, its only covenant is with the laws of nature, and whatever it may get and manages to keep by the nude application thereof is the whole extent of its "rights". Other than that we have no "presumed" or "implicit" agreement nor will we ever, and so I don't care what it thinks the world should be like or how it wants to be interacted with.
Data
I paid someone to dump Trilema articles into Reddit. The account used is hereii, the entire exercise took about two days (10-12th) and cost me something around a Bitcent. That sounds a lot worse than it actually was, it only took a day because of my insistence on using a single account for the sake of "experiments" - this allows reddit to whittle away some time because it simply doesn't permit any account to submit links too frequently. Hardly any sort of defense, and definitely an annoyance to the legitimate users, whoever they may be, but anyway, the day consisted of about an hour and a half of data entry work, for which four bux is amply generous pay. The intern in charge was instructed to simply go through the redditlist.com list of largest subreddits and insert whatever Trilema article fits best. In the end 27 articles were inserted, none faring better than 4 votes, most receiving 0 votes. The practical results (so far, from reflogs via Awstats) :
Url
Pages
Percent
Hits
Percent
de.reddit.com
3
0 %
3
0 %
de.reddit.com/r/linux
1
0 %
1
0 %
es.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit/
2
0 %
2
0 %
i.reddit.com/r/linux
1
0 %
1
0 %
i.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit
2
0 %
2
0 %
i.reddit.com/r/sex
1
0 %
1
0 %
np.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/22civx/mpex_owner_gettin...
1
0 %
1
0 %
np.reddit.com/r/firstworldanarchists/
2
0 %
2
0 %
np.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit/
12
0 %
12
0 %
np.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit
2
0 %
2
0 %
ro.reddit.com/r/romania
3
0 %
3
0 %
www.reddit.com
5
0 %
10
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/all/new/
3
0 %
3
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/argentina
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/argentina/comments/2g00cw/views_from_ar...
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/firstworldanarchists
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/lgbt
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/2g3p6w/ubuntu_is_a_worse...
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/somethingimade/
1
0 %
1
0 %
ud.reddit.com/r/Romania/
1
0 %
1
0 %
us.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit/
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com
259
0.5 %
305
0.6 %
www.reddit.com/domain/trilema.com/
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/me/m/argentinahub/new/
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/new/
20
0 %
25
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/all/new/
1
0 %
3
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/all/new
6
0 %
6
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/argentina
16
0 %
16
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/argentina/
19
0 %
19
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/argentina/comments/2g00cw/views_from_arg...
11
0 %
11
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/argentina/new/
20
0 %
20
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/aww/comments/2cg4on/clash_of_clans_hakke...
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/17zq8j/because_most_peo...
3
0 %
3
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1bxj8u/mircea_popescus_...
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1vnmb4/romanian_bitcoin...
3
0 %
3
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/20sg7l/mp_was_approache...
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/business/
10
0 %
10
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/business/comments/2g3mw1/the_psychology_...
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/cringe+cringepics+tumblrinaction+conspir...
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Economics
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/economics
5
0 %
5
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Economics/
8
0 %
8
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/firstworldanarchists
156
0.3 %
156
0.3 %
www.reddit.com/r/firstworldanarchists/
68
0.1 %
68
0.1 %
www.reddit.com/r/firstworldanarchists/controversial/
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/firstworldanarchists/top
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/firstworldanarchists/top/
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/investing
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/investing/
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/investing/comments/2g4mp1/the_best_inves...
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/rising/
7
0 %
7
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/lgbt/
14
0 %
14
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/lgbt
8
0 %
8
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/lgbt/comments/2g75sd/the_typologies_of_h...
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/lgbt/new/
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Libertarian/
3
0 %
3
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Libertarian/new/
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Linux
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/linux
44
0 %
44
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/linux/
59
0.1 %
59
0.1 %
www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/2g3p6w/ubuntu_is_a_worse_...
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/2g3p6w/ubuntu_is_a_worse_...
64
0.1 %
64
0.1 %
www.reddit.com/r/linux.compact
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/linux/.compact
3
0 %
3
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/linux+debian+gnu+elementaryos+debian+hac...
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Linux/new
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/linux/new/
28
0 %
28
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/linux/new
3
0 %
3
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/linux/search
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/math
11
0 %
11
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/math/
17
0 %
17
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/2g46o9/its_not_the_sauce_i...
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/math/comments/2g46o9/its_not_the_sauce_i...
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/math/new
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/math/new/
3
0 %
3
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/mod/about/modqueue
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/mod/new/
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/philosophy
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/philosophy/
6
0 %
6
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/psychology
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/psychology/
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/psychology/.compact
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/psychology/new/
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/psychology/top/
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit/
108
0.2 %
108
0.2 %
www.reddit.com/r/QuitYourBullshit
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit
70
0.1 %
70
0.1 %
www.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit/controversial/
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/QuitYourBullshit/new
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit/new/
19
0 %
19
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit/new/.compact
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit/top/
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/romania/
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/romania
53
0.1 %
53
0.1 %
www.reddit.com/r/Romania/
66
0.1 %
66
0.1 %
www.reddit.com/r/Romania
8
0 %
8
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Romania/comments/2fg7vj/sa_explicam_clar...
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Romania/comments/2fg7vj/sa_explicam_clar...
28
0 %
28
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Romania/new
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/Romania/new/
27
0 %
27
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/romania/new
3
0 %
3
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/scientology/
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/seduction/new/
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/sex
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/sex/
5
0 %
5
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/sex/new/
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/socialskills/
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/socialskills
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/somethingimade/
15
0 %
15
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/somethingimade
4
0 %
4
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/somethingimade/comments/2g7bil/pics_how_...
2
0 %
2
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/somethingimade/new/
3
0 %
3
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/VoiceActing/comments/2ar1u9/how_i_learne...
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/2g3fv3/september_9_2014...
10
0 %
10
0 %
www.reddit.com/search
6
0 %
6
0 %
www.reddit.com/toolbar/inner
10
0 %
10
0 %
www.reddit.com/top/
3
0 %
3
0 %
www.reddit.com/user/Madeline_Darling
1
0 %
1
0 %
www.reddit.com/user/TrollHarderer/
3
0 %
3
0 %
www.reddit.com/user/TrollHarderer
4
0 %
4
0 %
www.reddit.com/user/Whitestep/m/argentinahub/new/
1
0 %
1
0 %
zz.reddit.com/r/linux/new
1
0 %
1
0 %
Total:
1`437
Leaving aside the dubious "oh, look at that, 3% of your traffic for the month right there!" as not all that many writers find themselves in a similarly fortunate position even if plenty would love nothing more, and further leaving aside the otherwise very legitimate "look at that robo-crap, 156 visits 156 hits, seriously ?", what's left is that the bare bones, minimum effort cost per click is 0.01 / 1`437 = 0.00000695 BTC, also known as 700 satoshi. At current prices, about a third of a cent, give or take. So : if you are paying more than that "for traffic" you are being gypped. Much more importantly, in my own mind, is the question of quality. You could, of course, proceed on the lines of "Trilema is poorly written, uninteresting drivel, whereas Reddit is a collection of intelligent, inquisitive, well spoken gentlemen with an eye to quality and value, which explains why 156 hits for 156 visits". Just as well you could proceed on the lines of "Trilema is one of the very few things writen in English today worth being read, whereas Reddit is a collection of mutually-satisfying, limited and clueless sods, which explains why 156 hits for 156 visits". I am persuaded of the latter approach, you're free to pick and choose for yourself. The point remains that there exist customers whose custom no one wants. They will gather together somewhere, like all mammals ever do. Just by the simple fact of aggregation they do not achieve notability, nor is the headcount a valid reason to consider any position. Democracy, much like socialism, much like any other utopia, makes for excellent books and movies about history, but for appalling actual history and even worse living conditions. Let's just consider it buried alongside communism and move on.
Meta
**** BEGIN LOGGING AT Fri Aug 8 20:35:09 2014
mircea_popescu O, you're the guy with the reddit accts ?
Anon Yup.
mircea_popescu Aha. Hey.
Anon What is it you had in mind? Because it sounds more like a flood than any kind of influence / promotion. Not that I care much either way, just changes the requirements.
mircea_popescu I couldn't give less of a shit about visits from the mentally retarded kids on reddit. But let me ask you this, how familiar are you with the math behind WoTs ?
Anon Apparently not at all because I don't even recognise that acronym.
mircea_popescu WoT, web of trust.
Anon Ah okay, I've never dealt with them before. A client took legal action against them before. They gave up pretty much instantly and removed what the client wasn't happy with.iii
mircea_popescu Ok, let me fill you in here. Bitcoin is huge. It's not huge because it happened to be, but because the intellectual elite of planet Earth has pretty much gathered around it. One of the major tech underpinnings of this hugeness is an old ideea, the web of trust. Its practical functioning is described here : trilema.com/what-the-wot-is-for-how-it-works-and-how-to-use-it/
Anon But for the automated parts, i've never played with it.
mircea_popescu Some of the more important practical effects are discussed here : trilema.com/gpg-contracts/
Anon It's gonna take awhile to digest this. brb.
mircea_popescu I'll be around. [...]
Anon You like writing eh.
mircea_popescu I have a lot to say :D
Anon Lol yeah, it's an unusual writing style. It's like a mix of technical , story telling and stretched analogies. I'm sure you get a lot of hardcore readers who follow along, but from a technical standpoint it's somewhat of a nightmare lol.
mircea_popescu I r sorry.
Anon ;) so whats the TLDR of what you wanna do?
mircea_popescu The idea being that any current "social media" website is a defective implementation of the WoT, what I intend to do is prove this point. Because the sort of idiots involved won't figure it on their own, and the assholes a la zuck and conde nast have about as much interest in the matter as your random bank cares about getting off shitty buggy ms software.
Anon And what do you get out of proving this, aside from an interesting story with your name in it?
mircea_popescu Pretty much that. Also, the lulz of discovering that average redditor can't distinguish average redditor from well written markov chain. This will put an end to all socialistoid crap, about how "the group" is the solution. In computer times, the group can't even exist.iv I want the average redditor to understand that when he interacts with a screen name, he is not interracting with a person.
Anon Surely the argument would still be that the budget and resources required to do such a thing would leave it outside the realm of the average person and therefore not such a strong argument against that WoT. And to do it on the scale you mentioned in the email would mean using some rather questionable tactics and therefore hard to use as proof without implicating yourself.
mircea_popescu I have no problem implicating myself. [The discussion continues in technical and practical terms, and is of no further interest in this context.]
**** ENDING LOGGING AT Fri Aug 8 22:04:36 2014
I hope you get it, but in the end it makes absolutely no difference whether you get it or don't. The world is changing regardless. PS. A day late, but Oglaf delivers.
———Short for Demented Fucktards Who Imagine Themselves Relevant. Because that's what it is - and no, that "everyone does it" is no defense. For one thing "nobody" can never be "everyone", nor will a collection no matter how vast of nobodies ever amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. For the other thing who the fuck cares what everybody does!
There's a fundamental difference between attributing a ridiculous absurdity to Oscar Wilde and attributing some self serving burgeois platitude in your FAQ to "Confucius" ; and while I am sure this difference is not lost on the corporate structure of Conde Nast, I am also not particularly surprised they'd pretend to be unaware. Their job as they imagine it would be to get the endless hordes of clueless fuckwits that actually don't make that difference to believe themselves "part of" a "community", one which does things, one which in the grand scheme of things matters. To keep them content in that belief no matter how false it may be. To help the ruminants chew their cud placidly. But let's not cop out and blame "capitalism" or "corporatism". They're not doing this deliberately, or out of a commitment to evil. They're doing this because it's the thing to do, the path of the least resistance, the cheapest approach. They're doing this out of a commitment to cut costs and cut corners, the same thing that brought us not just the Ford Pinto and the BP spill, but cars and gasoline in the first place. There's nothing wrong with the suits at Conde Nast herding the cattle, they're just doing their job, poorly, as best they can. The problem are the cattle in question, the millions of herbivores that technical progress has placed into housing for no reason and dressed up for no good cause. You ever saw one of those unfortunate, sad, crazed pet dogs old women keep on a short leash and dress in cozies ? That's most of the Internet population - there's absolutely no dog-relevant reason for the dog to wear a flannel, and there's absolutely no reason for your average "in a transitional phase right now" soft "sciences" major to own a computer - yet here we are, and for the same reasons in both cases. Someone with the ability to spend a lot of money they didn't earn and with a lot of free time they can't in any way employ decides to force the dog into the cozy and the fucktard into housing. The cattle in question, poodles in the hands of a bored old Jewish woman, they're the problem, but honestly you can't really say it's their fault. After all, they're doing exactly the cheapest thing that'll allow them to survive, just like Nature intended. You don't see earthworms writing poems, although they arguably carry the calamus with them, you don't see snakes painting on the endless dunes of the desert, and yet they could. Sure they could, but they don't absolutely need to, and so they won't. Why wonder then that when confronted with the correct solution and the easy solution cattleboy and cattlegirl take the easy ? Sure, it's the attribute of humanity to favour the correct over the easy, but then again they're not human, not in any meaningful sense. So there you go, full circle. Cui castigat ? [↩]Feel free to use it yourself, the password is the same as the username. For that matter : feel free to contribute your own accounts in the comment section or on irc, that way others will be encouraged to contribute theirs and soon enough you'll have quite the "SEO" army at your disposal, if that's the sort of thing you wish to spend your time with. [↩]I have nfi. [↩]Chew on this for a minute, there's a lot more here than readily meets the eye. [↩]
« The fucking understudy
I love Rochester. So will you. »
Category: Rautati si Mizerii
Saturday, 13 September, Year 6 d.Tr.
Spam and malware, let's be cool together.
Here's our dataset :
Return-path: <fax@polimech.com>
Delivery-date: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 13:32:55 -0400
Received: from [86.123.169.198] (port=47460 helo=cuadripol.ro)
by eleusis.polimedia.us with esmtp (Exim 4.82)
(envelope-from <fax@polimech.com>)
id 1WUg4n-0007NZ-BC
Received: from cuadripol.ro (86.123.169.198) by scan.polimedia.us
(10.0.4.75) with Microsoft SMTP Server
(TLS) id 15.0.712.24 via Frontend Transport; 31 Mar 2014
10:29:39 GMT
Received: from p3plsmtpa07-08.prod.phx3.secureserver.net
(p3plsmtpa07-05.prod.phx3.secureserver.net [173.201.192.75]) by
us-mta-1.us.mimecast.lan; 31 Mar 2014 10:21:37 GMT
Received: from MFP33543226 ([68.14.231.75]) by
p3plsmtpa08-06.prod.phx3.secureserver.net with id
gLSc1n0084JJIRQ02JS9N4;31 Mar 2014 10:24:36 GMT
Date: 31 Mar 2014 10:25:30 GMT
From: <fax@polimedia.us>
Subject: New Fax : 5 pages
Message-ID: <TTEC99dff903-e466-859e-b025-bcac3d6e1aaa@cuadripol.ro>
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Uacett 4.0
X-MC-Unique: IE78L43SIZB3CH44ZX0LQT-1
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary="TTEC99dff903-e466-859e-b025-bcac3d6e1aaa"
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-Network-Message-Id: TTEC99dff903-
e466-859e-b025-bcac3d6e1aaa@polimedia.us
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-AVStamp-Enterprise: 1.0
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-AuthSource: FAX.polimedia.us
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-AuthAs: Anonymous
X-Spam-Status: No, score=4.8
X-Spam-Score: 48
X-Spam-Bar: ++++
X-Ham-Report:
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
1.2 RCVD_IN_BL_SPAMCOP_NET RBL: Received via a relay in
bl.spamcop.net
[Blocked - see <http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml?
86.123.169.198>]
1.6 RCVD_IN_BRBL_LASTEXT RBL: RCVD_IN_BRBL_LASTEXT
[86.123.169.198 listed in bb.barracudacentral.org]
0.7 SPF_NEUTRAL SPF: sender does not match SPF record (neutral)
1.3 RDNS_NONE Delivered to internal network by a host with
no rDNS
So now let's dig in.
polimech.com is a Russian website of some sort of plastics processor. It could be either a legitimate company with inept IT support that failed to notice the unauthorised fax@ email address, or else actually operated by the would-be malware peddler.
86.123.169.198 is a RDS Net IP, allocated to cuadripol.ro, operated by SC Imsat Cuadripol SA, CIF 1093431 J08/3782/1992, a 20+ year old real-estate services firm in Brasov, Romania. The company itself is perfectly legitimate, but its IT department is either completely absent or outright incompetent. In any case, it is involved in fraud by forwarding this crap to my server, at least inasmuch EU and local regulations are concerned. At this point I could sue them, and definitely extract a few Bitcents through the working of Romanian courts, for their wanton negligence.
scan.polimedia.us is an inexistent domain, about which the spammer purports to a) be bound to 10.0.4.75, b) have received mail through Microsoft SMTP Server and c) have received mail from [86.123.169.198] (port=47460 helo=cuadripol.ro). All these are false, but coadripol.ro [86.123.169.198] accepted them as factual.
secureserver.net is a legitimate domain, which does provide legitimate (and large scale) email services. The spammer purports it to be the origin of his spam, but this is false : it either originated directly on cuadripol.ro or else at an unknown location from whence it was forwarded to cuadripol.ro. The webmaster should, at least in principle, be able to find which through parsing the logs.
86.123.169.198 is listed by spamcop and barracudacentral, which means this would not be the first time they fraudulently forward malware ladden emails.
The payload, as you'd expect, is a 9kb FAX397395.zip.
So how does something like this work ? Well, the spammer first forges a bit of malware, using whatever 0day exploits and other leet haxxory he finds on whatever "dark web" forums. Then he either buys a beer for whatever famished kid working in whatever poor quality "website design shop" to obtain credentials, or perhaps just simply is the famished kid in question, and so subverts the webservers of otherwise respectable businesses. He feeds his crap to a list of addresses, meanwhile listening on the Return-path: address to see if there's any bouncing going on.
Statistically, about ten percent of clueless small businesses which perceive they need "a web presence" for unclear reasons and do not have either the intellectual nor the technical resources to actually manage one fall for this, resulting in a number of infected computers (mostly running Windows). Which are useful... for what exactly ?
For nothing, really. But being a leet haxxor living dangerously and fuck-da-police.biz (the *business* of fucking da police, riddle me that one!) is a phase in the normal development of the teenager mind, especially male, especially on the fringe of civilisation. And so, just like pashtun young men shoot guns and rifles for weddings, because gotta take the edge off not getting to shoot that other thing, Russian and Romanian young men are leet haxxors and spammers and whatnot.
That's about all.
« A sad story, illustrated
MPOE, March 2014 Statement »
Category: Meta psihoza
Monday, 31 March, Year 6 d.Tr.
Soft pre-announcement of awards at stealth third Bitcoin conference of any import
fluffypony Gavin Andresen dressing up as a mad scientist to accept an award on Satoshi Nakamoto's behalf is such an odd decision.
punkman *dressing up as a homeless lab assistant.
mircea_popescu Odd doesn't begin to cover it. They must be putting something in their water over there.
Subplot 1 :
mircea_popescu Vexual: I just read a deliciously accessible blog post by mp
Saturday, 17 May, Year 6 d.Tr.
So what do you want ?
Check out the Bitcoin Jesus :
But what is interesting is that Patek Philippe thinks the readers of The Economist are a good fit for this campaign. Are they insane? Perhaps not. On the one hand The Economist is an intelligent magazine that does promote free market, free thinking, "liberal" values in a mostly non-partisan way; but if you imagine a magazine's ads as the unconscious fantasies, the dreams, of the readers, then the wish fulfillment they depict is not riches or bitches but a return to the old feudal order.
What you are seeing is the slow acceptance among an important demo, Aspirational 14%, of rigid class divides. They may have some lingering disapproval about income inequality, hedge funds and genetic engineering, but it is tired of fighting a losing battle and you know what? all men aren't created equal, science keeps saying so and we pay our athletes accordingly, why not everybody else? Aspirational 14% doesn't want a monarchy, but they sure as hell don't want democracy, not the American kind, not anymore. I know, I know, you're rolling your eyes, you don't care what the readers of The Economist think or want, but the trouble is that as compared to the readers of Wired, Time, or The Atlantic, The Economist readers are more likely the ones who are shaping the new world order.
That is exactly correct : the socialist utopia of a "democracy" understood as that mytho-fabulous sociopolitical space where marked differences in culture and wealthi are somehow translated into idempotence of activityii is just about dead in the water.
It's dead, forget about it, the "republic of laws not men" died the horrible thermic death of bureaucracy, the electoral system ate the last apathy pellet it can possibly fit in its otherwise impressive gullet, the possibility even of collective action is long, long gone.iii There's nothing left there, and while men past their prime and women already barren may well spend their remaining days chasing the illusion of continuity with the past through whatever means available to them, you're not quite old enough yourself.
You're not quite old enough yourself, and so you face the choice that people just like you have been facing forever, in all times and places where life's been worth living, which is to say not in the modern US since at least 1915. That choice is, what the fuck do you actually want ?
Obviously, you being the agent is quite out of the question. You don't even have a name, not your own name at any rate, to approach this from the easiest angle possible. You're not an agent, you're an object, and while that distinction doesn't need to be made quite as acutely as this, nevertheless it's never going to go away.
In practical terms, your choice is whether you wish to live in a monarchy, which is to say, a group that has invested its sovereignityiv, with the attendant risk that the person you pick to serve may very well not be worth it (and the major disadvantage that you fundamentally and in principle can't know this) or if you'd rather try and reimplement the same utopia once more (but like the gamblers say - this time for keeps!v).
This is not a choice that can be avoided, nor is it a choice that is in any sense meaningful, as neither prong actually works in practice. You won't be as luckyvi as to be accepted into servitude by a good monarch - Cincinnatus the Dictator is busy with his field and you don't have any senatorial togas he might recognise (meanwhile Alcibiade the Demagogue eagerly awaits, and you can't even distinguish the two until much after the fact). You won't be able to build the working socialist democracy on this five hundredth pass any more than youvii were able to do it the four hundred ninety-nine times beforeviii, and if you try to make it unsocialist it'll just reduce to badly implemented monarchy (and Alcibiade the Demagogue eagerly awaits).
There's absolutely no way to choose, and nothing within your grasp to be chosen, and you don't even exist which means you can't be responsible - or, properly, that you'll always "be able" to blame the ill eventual effects on something else. Which situation is paradoxically the best you could ever encounter, because for once in your life and never again, here's freedom.
So. What do you want ?
———Id est, wealth as ownership of the means of production and culture as the ownership of the means of abstraction. [↩]Id est, the proposition that my saying "take off your skirt and sing a song" somehow magically'd yield the same practical results as random-redditor's saying the same. How precisely would something like that ever work was never seriously considered, which is the chief benefit of utopia in the first place. [↩]If this last bit doesn't wash so easily, consider some points.
Firstly, that the "deadliest strike in the history of the US" not only happened a century ago to the day (how is this possible, given the population inflation ?), but scored a bodycount roughly equal to the count of agents of the government dead in 2012. Let that sink in for a minute, will you. And just in case it floats rather than sinks, consider also that it is more likely for the average law enforcement mouthbreather the USG employs to be killed in his very dangerous line of work than it is for the average breaker of USG laws-and-regulations to go to prison. Such are the blessings of attempting war on abstractions, such are the bruises of the end of delusion.
Secondly, consider not the fact that a seven trillion dollar investment over a decade, plus the work of hundreds of thousands scattered in the forsaken jungles of the Middle East resulted in complete and unadulterated defeat and a scurrying, shameful retreat from Baghdad, a final strong point in a hostile sea, muchly reminescent of the victory in Vietnam, but the fact that all this was done without a general mobilisation. You recall, Vietnam had the draft. Do you recall ? This time around they paid some people to do it, and those people aren't your people. Ah, the draft wasn't needed this time around, you figure ? If it wasn't needed why and how come was the war lost ? Ah, it wasn't lost, you figure ? This is an excellent line of thinking, one that promises to serve you well in the future : if you don't scream it's probably not going to be rape. Might as well relax and enjoy it.
Thirdly and most importantly, Woodstock was a million kids. Occupy Wall Street was five hundred. That's all, really, that's the end of the story : law enforcement workers are suffering a Ludlow Massacre each year and they're not even striking ; society can't even jokingly be stirred to collective action by the spectrum of complete military defeat with all its attendant benefits - and no, I wasn't even slightly kidding about the rape, vae victis and your sisters ; but not even the fucktarded kids, the late teens and early twentysomethings. Not even they can do something together anymore. And no, talking isn't doing. A vast unending torrent of clicks never fed any poor kids in Africa any rice - sorry. You can have the clicks back when you yourself need the rice later, however. [↩]The only way such a thing can be done at all, which is to say into a person. [↩]There's a very amusing older Romanian article entitled Moment de visare. You see, a small grassroots group tried to start a political movement in Romania half a decade ago on the premise that each citizen should be granted 20k euros. Just like that, by virtue of breathing, even if it were through the mouth.
The (very rudimentary) ideology at its root being that the people currently being poor - ie, most everyone - are poor not through fundamental faults of their own, generally known as being fucking stupid, but through lack of opportunity. And so, the narrative went, if opportunity were disbursed to everyone equally and at the same time, clearly that'd be the solution. The whole affair completely neglected to account for the simple fact that not two decades prior, the Romanian Revolution actually did that thing, exactly, to the letter (each Romanian got basically a free house out of the deal, so it is to the letter), resulting of course in the most drastic inequality imaginable. Zipf wasn't kidding, you know ?
In any case, to compound the lulz, the proponents ended their statement of their case with the imprecation that "should anyone fail to properly use this, they would then deserve to be poor!". Then, you see. As if now they don't, but nevertheless then they will. Such is the depth of the infantile mind. [↩]Sure, some will. They'll be a minority. You're not special, even if you "think" you are. That's not thinking, that's your genes using you for their goals. [↩]Yes, exactly you. Not "someone like you", not your forefathers. You, yourself, as you are, exactly. You. To imagine yourself a person distinct from the other indistinct persons lost in the anonymity of history's ossuaries beggars belief. [↩]Speaking of which, ever wondered the which nth Latin it was ? 87, turns out. [↩]
« Advertising sucks, an illustrated narrative
The pseudo-Bitcoinsphere feels just as squishy-poo as the Romanian pseudo-blogosphere felt five years or so ago. »
Category: Politica si Prostie
Monday, 28 July, Year 6 d.Tr.
So here's a problem for you...
Imagine you're captured by hm... Who's a good capturer these days ? If we were in the 70s I'd have said the aliens, and the whole thing'd have then involved the threat of... you know, probing. Yeah, right there. You know where. Yeah.
In the 80s it'd have been perhaps the Soviets, or was that in the 60s ? And in the other 80s it'd have been the Berber slavers, of course.i But what is it by now ? I suppose it's the Americans, huh. Our previously very prosperous, very successful, muchly promising colonies in North America that we had such great hopes for meanwhile turned into... well... It's a sad thing to look upon, really. Like this upper middle class white kid that had straight As in high school, moved out to college on a full scholarship + stipend and then dropped out in junior year to do drugs and live in downtown Detroit.
But sad or not, it's what it is. So imagine you're captured by a troop of savage, lawless USisans from America. These lurid, immoral rogues give you one coin, and tell you that unless you manage to come up with a perfectly balanced random number generator they'll toss you into the endless burning pit of NSA. Which... you know, isn't really all that far off.
So what do you do ? How do you turn a coin that's potentially slanted, and who knows which way, into a tool of divine fairness ?
Suppose you can't measure its slant in any way, perhaps because the coin has a mechanism inside that alters it later on, or for whatever other reason. What do you do ?
I'ma give you a little space to think it through.
Ok, so did you come up with Newman's method or not ?
If not, here's how you do it : toss the coin twice. If it comes up both heads, or both tails (no matter which), report heads. If it comes up tails and heads (no matter in which order), report tails.
Basically, you're not measuring what the coin says, but how the coin differs from itself. This allows you to abstract the coin away from the entire process, and just deal with the quantum phenomena all randomness measures.
And now for the problem, because all this has been introduction : obviously a coin is a dice, with only two faces, conveniently labeled "heads" and "tails", which is ~==== 0 and 1.
What if we used the more general case of dice ? You know, the six faceted cube sort. How do you take six dice, which may be loaded in whichever way, and come up with actually fair dice throws ?
Ok, ok, I was cheating, you can't do this with two dice (you did notice that the original coin example used one not two, right ?). But anyway, so you get one die, how do you go about it ?
———Oh, you didn't know about this ? Sure, your grandmother's mother got herself all wet in private thinking about how these Berber guys are capturing her ship and forcing their fingers, their thick rough nubbly stubbly fingers into all the womens' vaginas. To make sure there's no jewels hidden there, you see. Because the women of the other 80s walked around with rubies and emeralds shoved up their cunts all the damned time. Didn't you know ? [↩]
« This privacy thing...
Awstats and stuff »
Category: AICMF
Saturday, 22 March, Year 6 d.Tr.
S.NSA, May 2014 Statement
S.NSA incoming and outgoing
Incoming
Outgoing
Description
Value
Description
Value
--
--
Total
0
Total
0
S.NSA assets
Account
01.05.2014
Net change
31.05.2014
Cash
461.89802769
0
461.89802769
Tangibles
2.87709515
0
2.87709515
Intangibles and goodwill
7.98496216
0
7.98496216
Total assets
472.76008500
S.NSA liabilities
Account
01.05.2014
Net change
31.05.2014
Shareholder equity
472.76008500
0
472.76008500
Total liabilities
472.76008500
S.NSA has a total of 4`737`075 authorised shares outstanding. The total assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009980 BTC. The cash+tangible assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009811 BTC.
S.NSA realised no operating revenue this period. The P/E implied value per share is so far 0 BTC.
S.NSA has Special Stock Warrants outstanding issued as per the IPO agreement, as follows :
#
Fingerprint
Shares
BTC
Par
1
17215D118B7239507FAFED98B98228A001ABFFC7
3`315`952
331.5952
1
2
6160E1CAC8A3C52966FD76998A736F0E2FB7B452
1`421`122
142.1122
1
T
4`737`074
473.7074
1
Miscellaneous
For the benefit of inquiring minds that wish to know, I will be publishing selections of the CTOs letter below. As so :
Dear MP,
Item no. 1.
Battery holder was a tough little bitch, but is complete. Two spring contacts - Keystone Electronics Corp. part no. xxxxxxxx. Snugly fits two LR6 cells (series, sum to 3v) or a single CR-V3. [1] We shall have two of these (redundant - like the motorcycle with two petrol tanks.) Landing pads & silkscreens (custom drawing) seen in fig0.png. Tested emprirically with several examples of both cells from different manufacturers (there is ~10% tolerance, apparently, in consumer battery mechanicals. live and learn.) Contact and retainer springs (the former is visible in the pic) have sufficient 'give' to accomodate varying lengths of cell.
Item no 2.
Unrouted view of cpu landing pads (fig1.png) - some connections snipped for clarity. IC is a 10x10mm square (package only, pads protrude.) Quartz oscillator (8MHz, PLL multiplied internally) and bypass capacitors (shown) must be in close proximity to cpu, connections for these through vias are undesirable. Manufacturer of my sample board pulled this off (see fig2.png) with a two-layer pcb - by using 0.4mm drills. Presently researching the manufacturability of microvias of 0.4mm drill diameter, at our usual house (gp) and others (we aren't married to gp.) They say they will do it - but question is, what yield (% of dud vias. dud via -> dud board.) Also need to determine minimal annulus supported by GP (the actual, not the claimed.) Would prefer to avoid doing this empirically. See below: The pcb real estate occupied by a single via consists of the drill radius plus the annulus (as discussed previously.) Consult literature for the agonizing details if needed. 4-layer board routes trivially but multiplies pcb manufacture cost by 2.5. [2]
Presently routing 2-layer board with drill parameters used by 'olimex,' manufacturer of sample unit. If GP yields a sample batch with even one dud, I then know exactly where to take the whole orchestra - Bulgaria.
One shot at routing the whole shebang presently takes ~2 hours of cpu time ('opteron' circa '07.) Doesn't parallelize, either. [3] One of these days I buy new hardware.
---
[1]
Steel retainer spring ('C'-shaped) in cover slid into plastic chassis. Connects the two LR6 (AA) if used, for CR-V3 simply provides retaining pressure against contacts.
[2]
fig3.png -> stack-up diagram of typical 4-layer board (to get an idea of why this costs what it does.) Illustration shamelessly cribbed from somewhere. Essentially two ordinary double-layer boards aligned and glued, then plated together. Alignment must be virtually perfect.
[3]
With what? answer: 'eagle' - closed-source linux gizmo by 'cadsoft' (germany) running in (net-less) vm. at one point I patiently re-drew the whole shebang in 'GEDA' - the flagship gnu pcb CAD - which turns out to be fatally buggy - flood fill ground planes break up (!). Wanted to love it, takes S-expressions for circuit netlists, spiffy graphics, open formats, etc. But - how anyone uses it for real work is a mystery. Also tried 'kicad' - router is dumb as a rock. And the GUI snows (!) These round out the list. The fellow who can cough up a serious open source pcb cad package is not yet born, it appears.
To put this into its just and proper perspective : a project that started in November with an intention to deliver by Xmas is now more than six months late. On the other hand, while the hardware involved is nearing completion at an astounding pace, we've not even had the pleasure of working on the software involved - which may or may not include an infinite number of pitfalls and gotchas. Speaking of which, did you know consumer buttons actually have such a wide geometric tolerance ? Neither did I.
Fortunately, as the various aspiring currencies sponsored by the various governments continue their inexorable sinking against Bitcoin while the actual capital expenditure of S.NSA is pretty well kept in check we can close on the comforting note that "every investor is making ROI hand over fist in fiat terms", a phrase I've heard somewhere.
The referenced figures, below :
« We continue our foray into distant lands
Klye, or Confession of a Degenerate. Adnotated. »
Category: S.NSA
Friday, 06 June, Year 6 d.Tr.
S.NSA, March 2014 Statement
S.NSA incoming and outgoing
Incoming
Outgoing
Description
Value
Description
Value
--
Mouseri
0.15486364
Golden Phoenixii
0.64306928
Total
0
Total
0.79793293
S.NSA assets
Account
01.03.2014
Net change
31.03.2014
Cash
462.69596062
0.79793293
461.89802769
Tangibles
2.87709515
0
2.87709515
Intangibles and goodwill
7.18702923
0.797932923
7.98496216
Total assets
472.76008500
S.NSA liabilities
Account
01.03.2014
Net change
31.03.2014
Shareholder equity
472.76008500
0
472.76008500
Total liabilities
472.76008500
S.NSA has a total of 4`737`075 authorised shares outstanding. The total assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009980 BTC. The cash+tangible assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009811 BTC.
S.NSA realised no operating revenue this period. The first Cardano is expected to be demonstrated before rapturous applause at the April conference. The P/E implied value per share is so far 0 BTC.
S.NSA has Special Stock Warrants outstanding issued as per the IPO agreement, as follows :
#
Fingerprint
Shares
BTC
Par
1
17215D118B7239507FAFED98B98228A001ABFFC7
3`315`952
331.5952
1
2
6160E1CAC8A3C52966FD76998A736F0E2FB7B452
1`421`122
142.1122
1
T
4`737`074
473.7074
1
Miscellanea :
Hey, at least we're doing better than Coinbase!
PS. Pic, because to shut up all the trolls and FUDsters trying to ruin our company like they did with that NewBie thing to buy shares on the cheap and commercial blackmail of standing trial or something with water and drones. SO THERE!
———HEADER 14 SIL HORIZONTAL PIN HEADER GOLD HT x8 ; SPDT ON-NONE-ON SIDE x16 ; SPDT ON-ON GRY R/A ROCKER ACTUATOR x8 ; LED Through Hole Red/Green Diffused x8 ; Delivery. [↩]2layers, 0.062", FR4-TG170, 1oz, ENG GOLD, BLUE SOLDER MASK, TWO SIDE MASK, WHITE SILK SCREEN, TOP SILK, 1.53cm x 3.95cm x50 ; Delivery. They jacked the price. What can you do. [↩]
« BitBet, March 2014 Statement
Hitler MP »
Category: S.NSA
Tuesday, 01 April, Year 6 d.Tr.
S.NSA, January 2014 Statement
S.NSA incoming and outgoing
Incoming
Outgoing
Description
Value
Description
Value
--
Subcontractori
3.45
Total
0
Total
3.45000000
S.NSA assets
Account
01.01.2014
Net change
01.01.2014
Cash
466.14596062
3.45000000
462.69596062
Tangibles
2.87709515
0
2.87709515
Intangibles and goodwill
3.73702923
3.45000000
7.18702923
Total assets
472.76008500
S.NSA liabilities
Account
01.01.2014
Net change
31.01.2014
Shareholder equity
472.76008500
0
472.76008500
Total liabilities
472.76008500
S.NSA has a total of 4`737`075 authorised shares outstanding. The total assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009980 BTC. The cash+tangible assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009828 BTC.
S.NSA realised no operating revenue this period, however is expected to realise operating revenue next period. The P/E implied value per share is so far 0 BTC.
S.NSA has Special Stock Warrants outstanding issued as per the IPO agreement, as follows :
#
Fingerprint
Shares
BTC
Par
1
17215D118B7239507FAFED98B98228A001ABFFC7
3`315`952
331.5952
1
2
6160E1CAC8A3C52966FD76998A736F0E2FB7B452
1`421`122
142.1122
1
T
4`737`074
473.7074
1
Miscellanea :
The Cardano was going to go out before Xmas, but then didn't. Then we were going to start taking pre-orders sometime in January... but then didn't. This has progressed past the stage where a simple handwave is satisfactory, so let's review together a field report from the CTO.
Dear MP,
Presenting:
~ Cardano Tidbits (field report) ~
This was originally longer, but I snipped a bunch of crap. If you like circuit diagrams, you'll have them in the end regardless.
1) Mainboard power supply.
-----------------------
Mainboard design was complete long ago - with the exception of one bit, which isn't trivial for the following reasons:
Cardano powers on via two paths: A) Trigger is pressed ; B) USB power applied (drive mount), and powers off via two respective paths: A) Trigger is released, operation complete ; B) USB power is removed (drive ejected, connector pulled).
In scenario (B), the microcontroller, SD, and block cipher ROM (distinct item from RSA ROM) operate on 5V from USB. In scenario (A), the entire device operates from battery. Note that perverse cases are possible - USB 5V is applied during (A), or removed during an incomplete (B). Thus it is necessary for the device to transition from one power source to the next, while also ensuring that certain components (RNG, RSA ROM) are powered exclusively from battery.
Mode (A) requires a 'soft power' toggler. The entire rest of the planet solves this problem by keeping a microcontroller in perpetual 'on with low power' mode. We cannot do this - Cardano must be honestly OFF when not in use - not only to preserve battery power and obliterate SRAM 'remanent' keys, but to establish 100% known initial state for all operations.
Finally settled on STM6600 to solve above. Handles switch 'debounce' (consult literature) and toggle, at the cost of ~$2/unit. Currently putting the finishing touches on the entire mainboard. Will source components (likely same vendor as previously) as soon as the design goes out to GP.
2) Firmware.
------------
2a) Crypto basics (RSA, AES, GPG format minutiae) complete. All being in ANSI C, this runs perfectly happily in a Linux-based 'test harness' (just a command-line blob that walks through basic operations.)
2b) Block device ops (FAT32) - tentatively working, in same test harness.
2c) USB Mass Storage. Largely based on manufacturer's example code; builds under GCC/MIPS, along with the above. Tentatively works; see below:
2d) SD. Fairly simple, draft version. Needs a working example of mainboard to test.
2e) I/O (incl. power) code. Not in any respectable state of completion, needs mainboard.
2f) CDC (aka USB Serial, consult standards docs) for 'raw RNG' mode. Not even started yet.
3) RNG.
-----------
5 RNGs, as discussed previously. Appear to work. 65 remaining. Ordered paste stencils, on the cheap, they should be here by Thurs. of this week. /SMT assembly by hand is a first-class bitch./
4) Chassis.
-----------
Chassis man (diametric) currently tweaking beam power settings for optimal reproduction of logo; sourcing materials (nylon screws, acrylic.) He awaits exact dimensions (incl. vertical protrusions) of the mainboard and mechanical switch daughterboard.
Yours,
-S
So : we are in fact making progress, and a lot of solid work has already been put in. The device is not exactly complete yet, but it's not particularly far off.
While complexity could still spring from the dark corners - devil in details and all that - the sum total of such dark corners has been steadily decreasing over the weeks. A lot of work has gone specifically into making the design easily scalable, so we could easily transition to mass production once Stan's carpal tunnels finally fall off.
We do not perceive any serious incentive to rush through any aspect of all this, not only because delivering a quality first product is important, but also because this is in a sense the prototyping of development processes that will happen again in the future, and so time, effort and attention to detail sunk into this project serve not only to make the Cardano a better product, but also to make No Such lAbs a better company. Especially this later consideration is liable to deliver lasting value to the discerning investor.
We could in fact have opened pre-orders with an incomplete product, at any point during January. S.NSA is not particularly cash starved, and so we enjoy the rare luxury of being able to make the correct choice there. We are nevertheless taking protective measures to help manage the workload - such as hiring a third party to handle the chassis.
In short : there will be a Cardano, it will be a minutely engineered piece of hardware. The rest is lost in Zooko's triangle.
———See first comment. [↩]
« S.MG, January 2014 Statement
BitBet, January 2014 Statement »
Category: S.NSA
Tuesday, 04 February, Year 6 d.Tr.
S.NSA, February 2014 Statement
S.NSA incoming and outgoing
Incoming
Outgoing
Description
Value
Description
Value
--
--
Total
0
Total
0
S.NSA assets
Account
01.02.2014
Net change
28.02.2014
Cash
462.69596062
0
462.69596062
Tangibles
2.87709515
0
2.87709515
Intangibles and goodwill
7.18702923
0
7.18702923
Total assets
472.76008500
S.NSA liabilities
Account
01.02.2014
Net change
28.02.2014
Shareholder equity
472.76008500
0
472.76008500
Total liabilities
472.76008500
S.NSA has a total of 4`737`075 authorised shares outstanding. The total assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009980 BTC. The cash+tangible assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009828 BTC.
S.NSA realised no operating revenue this period and is not expected to realise operating revenue next period. The P/E implied value per share is so far 0 BTC.
S.NSA has Special Stock Warrants outstanding issued as per the IPO agreement, as follows :
#
Fingerprint
Shares
BTC
Par
1
17215D118B7239507FAFED98B98228A001ABFFC7
3`315`952
331.5952
1
2
6160E1CAC8A3C52966FD76998A736F0E2FB7B452
1`421`122
142.1122
1
T
4`737`074
473.7074
1
Miscellanea :
The idea currently is to demo Cardano prototypes at the April conferencei, and subsequently open the order page. The engineering team is currently confident this should all go smoothly.
———Speaking of which, the cutoff date for registration is still March 15th, and it's rapidly approaching. [↩]
« S.MG, February 2014 Statement
Hi, this is the article title. »
Category: S.NSA
Tuesday, 04 March, Year 6 d.Tr.
S.NSA, December 2013 Statement
S.NSA incoming and outgoing
Incoming
Outgoing
Description
Value
Description
Value
--
Capacitorsi
0.09730844
Resistorsii
0.01015553
Housingsiii
0.02178822
Logic Gatesiv
0.01218663
Gasketsv
0.13645339
Comparatorvi
0.02086499
Solder Pastevii
0.08012317
PCBviii
0.51821478
Shippingix
0.05702923
Total
0
Total
0.95412438
S.NSA assets
Account
01.12.2013
Net change
31.12.2013
Cash
467.10008500
0.95412438
466.14596062
Tangibles
1.98000000
0.89709515
2.87709515
Intangibles and goodwill
3.68000000
0.05702923
3.73702923
Total assets
472.76008500
S.NSA liabilities
Account
01.11.2013
Net change
31.11.2013
Shareholder equity
472.76008500
0
472.76008500
Total liabilities
472.76008500
S.NSA has a total of 4`737`075 authorised shares outstanding. The total assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009980 BTC. The cash+tangible assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009901 BTC.
S.NSA realised no operating revenue this period, however is expected to realise operating revenue next period. The P/E implied value per share is so far 0 BTC.
S.NSA has Special Stock Warrants outstanding issued as per the IPO agreement, as follows :
#
Fingerprint
Shares
BTC
Par
1
17215D118B7239507FAFED98B98228A001ABFFC7
3`315`952
331.5952
1
2
6160E1CAC8A3C52966FD76998A736F0E2FB7B452
1`421`122
142.1122
1
T
4`737`074
473.7074
1
Miscellanea :
This report reflects the fixed costs with the first batch of in-production RNGs. The fixed costs of the numerous prototypes as well as all the labour that went into creating this jewel (for it is a jewel) will not be invoiced, on the rationale that tracking all the respective numerous things would add an unreasonable burden - we're after all in the business of making parts not reports.x
There will be further charges reflecting the in-production motherboards, the casings, shipping and handling, advertising and so on.
Hopefully the first orders are also accepted and shipped this month.
———Multilayer Ceramic Capacitors : JMK212BJ476MG-T x140 ; VJ0603Y104KXJCW1BC x420 ; VJ0603Y103JXXPW1BC x140. Mouser. [↩]Thick Film Resistors : ERJ-3EKF1002V x280 ; ERJ-3EKF2203V x280 ; RK73H1JTTDD4700F x140 ; CRCW060347K0FKEA x280. Mouser. [↩]Headers & Wire Housings 2.54MM BREAKAWAY RA 3 CKT Gold 22-28-8033 x70. Mouser. [↩]74AUP1G86GW x70. Mouser. [↩]Sorry, couldn't resist :) The parts are of course EMI Connector Gaskets & Grounding Pads, BMIS-203-C x70 ; BMIS-203-F x70. Mouser. [↩]LM393AM_Q x140. Mouser. [↩]SMDLTFP250T3 x1. ChipQuik. [↩]2layers, 0.062", FR4-TG170, 1oz, ENG GOLD, BLUE SOLDER MASK, TWO SIDE MASK, WHITE SILK SCREEN, TOP SILK, Testing, 3.00cm x 4.20cm Special x79. Gold Phoenix. [↩]Aggregate. [↩]Or conversely that it'd be a poor use of time, which is still the principal expense of S.NSA and the principal reason the principals received their respective stock warrants at incorporation. [↩]
« BitBet, December 2013 Statement
Les veinards »
Category: S.NSA
Friday, 03 January, Year 6 d.Tr.
S.NSA, April 2014 Statement
S.NSA incoming and outgoing
Incoming
Outgoing
Description
Value
Description
Value
--
--
Total
0
Total
0
S.NSA assets
Account
01.04.2014
Net change
30.04.2014
Cash
461.89802769
0
461.89802769
Tangibles
2.87709515
0
2.87709515
Intangibles and goodwill
7.98496216
0
7.98496216
Total assets
472.76008500
S.NSA liabilities
Account
01.04.2014
Net change
30.04.2014
Shareholder equity
472.76008500
0
472.76008500
Total liabilities
472.76008500
S.NSA has a total of 4`737`075 authorised shares outstanding. The total assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009980 BTC. The cash+tangible assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009811 BTC.
S.NSA realised no operating revenue this period. The P/E implied value per share is so far 0 BTC.
S.NSA has Special Stock Warrants outstanding issued as per the IPO agreement, as follows :
#
Fingerprint
Shares
BTC
Par
1
17215D118B7239507FAFED98B98228A001ABFFC7
3`315`952
331.5952
1
2
6160E1CAC8A3C52966FD76998A736F0E2FB7B452
1`421`122
142.1122
1
T
4`737`074
473.7074
1
Miscellaneous
The board design, the electronics and everything else is - and has been - mature. The problem we've been battling with, for the past month, is power.
Power is a finnicky thing. The constraints are of two kinds, and they work like this : first and foremost, every moving current creates a field, and every changing field induces a current. This seems simple in theory but it rapidly becomes gnarly in practice. You can't, for instance, use line power, but have to rely on batteries for a lot of operations (all the red operations, in fact). You have to carefully avoid particular configurations that would otherwise work as antennae. And so on and so forth.
The second, and foremost, is power draw. You see, a battery is not like a bottle of water, wherein a certain quantity of water resides and whether you drink it with a straw or cut the thing in half, a liter or a gallon or however much comes out. A battery is more like a flaming skull sent from hell to torment engineers.
Our peak power draw is about 100 mA, which is mostly due to the workslate SD card. The micro can be clocked at whatever speed we wanti, but the SD card does need to be written, and that does take power. We've also considered EEPROMs in various configurationsii. Originally we were hoping to feed the whole thing off a triple cr2450s arrangementiii, but the manufacturer warns that current draw significantly over rated values (5 mA) drasticaly reduces battery life. Our tests so far show hours of continuous 30 mA draw without ill effects, but it is not really feasible to test a large enough number of batteries from various suppliers etc.
The current design is based off two CR-V3s, tied in parallel. We intend to use a universal socket if possible, so that any AAA batteries can be substituted. The parallel arrangement adds redundancy, as the Cardano will be able to run off either one socket filled, or with both for even less power draw per battery.
Here's looking forward to the next month's report.
———Which influences power draw, but not linearly. The cooler you run it (which is to say, the less power draw it has) the longer it has to run, which makes its total energy consumption per task increase. So we've done our math again and again and selected optimums and been shuffling them around and so on. [↩]Which need much less power but which also store much less data. [↩]Which, in aggregate, should have provided ~1800 mAh worth of energy, amply sufficient for many hours of continuous operation. [↩]
« S.MG, April 2014 Statement
MPOE, April 2014 Statement »
Category: S.NSA
Sunday, 04 May, Year 6 d.Tr.
S.MG, May 2014 Statement
S.MG incoming and outgoing
Incoming
Outgoing
Description
Value
Description
Value
--
--
Total
0
Total
0
S.MG assets
Account
01.05.2014
Net change
31.05.2014
Cash
8`744.89091807
0
8`744.89091807
Tangibles
7.92575030
2.64191710
5.2838332
Intangibles and goodwill
46.24907852
2.64191710
48.89099562
Total assets
8`799.06574689
S.MG liabilities
Account
01.05.2014
Net change
30.05.2014
Shareholder equity
8`799.06574689
0
8`799.06574689
Total liabilities
8`799.06574689
S.MG has a total of 88`096`605 authorised shares outstanding. The total assets per share implied value is thus 0.00009988 BTC. The cash+tangible assets per share implied value is thus 0.000099385 BTC.
S.MG realised no operating revenue this period, and is not expected to realise operating revenue next period. The P/E implied value per share is thus 0 BTC.
S.MG has Special Stock Warrants outstanding, as follows :
#
Fingerprint
Shares
BTC
Par
1
6160E1CAC8A3C52966FD76998A736F0E2FB7B452
88`096`605
8`809.6605
1
2
AE3A51FA6C038A5B4D3FE80FBD7C5558DD9EFA14
10`850`000
1`302.0
1.2
3
5015BD3D0AE659C8B8632F31CF2950F23C844002
192`307
25
1.3
T
99138912
10`136.6605
1.0224
Provisional statement, will be considered accepted within 24 hours. Make any observations or corrections below.
Miscellaneous
Nothing to report.
« F.MPIF, May 2014 Statement
BitBet, May 2014 Statement »
Category: S.MG
Monday, 02 June, Year 6 d.Tr.