To be fair, I’m a Gen-Xer so yes, I do believe Millenials and voting age Gen-Zers share responsibility for our current state of affairs.
I appreciate your point of view and your concern for your kids. They didn’t ask for what’s coming. But the fact is, democracy is just an unstable form of government; It works for a while, but once people realize they can use a tyrannical government to vote money into their own pockets, the system collapses. It’s just the nature of the game. You can’t vote your way out of it. The parasite class is simply too big now.
Maybe something better will rise from the ashes. Maybe not. But in the meantime my focus is on maximizing enjoyment of the time I have left, trying as best I can to protect my assets while draining the system of resources, and hoping we keep this house of cards alive for another couple decades, maybe three, until I’m too old to care.
Is that the optimal strategy? Is it “psychopathic,” as you say? Maybe. Not sure. Don’t care. But I’m 10x happier as a toxic libertarian than I was as an angry Republican, so there’s that.
I have zero sympathy for the masses. They willingly vote to use government force to transfer money into their own pockets. So I just look out for myself. Extract all I can (legally) from the system that they created, while contributing as little as possible. Starve the beast.
It’s just a game, and we’re just players. I harbor no more anger nor resentment toward the illegal immigrant, nor the welfare mom voting for handouts than does a baseball pitcher when another player tries to steal a base, or the poker player when someone calls his bluff. Everyone’s just trying to exploit the rules of the game to their own advantage. Once you start looking it as a game rather than a moral issue, the anger subsides.
Is the next generation totally screwed? Absolutely. And I don’t care. They brought it on themselves, and more importantly, there’s nothing you nor I can do about it. So try to maximize and preserve wealth while you can, and let them suffer the consequences of their decisions. Just look out for yourself.
Coherence (2013)
Match Point (2005)
Thoroughbreds (2018)
The Killer (2024)
Underworld (2003)
Pretty much every movie on my favorites list is panned as "forgettable" or "uninspired."
Warning:
!!!! Huge Critical Linux Vulnerability !!!!!
Remote code execution.
Key Points:
A critical, unauthenticated Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability in GNU/Linux systems, rated 9.9, is about to be disclosed. [2]
The flaw has been known for over a decade but was disclosed to developers only three weeks ago by bug hunter Simone Margaritelli.
Margaritelli's upcoming write-up will include a proof-of-concept exploit and technical details.
While the bug has no CVE assigned yet, it is expected to need at least three and ideally six CVEs.
Canonical and RedHat have confirmed the severity of the issue, but there's no fix yet.
Entry Points from Simone Margaritelli:
WAN / public internet: a remote attacker sends an UDP packet to port 631. No authentication whatsoever.
LAN: a local attacker can spoof zeroconf / mDNS / DNS-SD advertisements [1]
Sources:
[1] https://www.evilsocket.net/2024/09/26/Attacking-UNIX-systems-via-CUPS-Part-I/
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-CVSS-9.9-Rating
https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/red-hat-response-openprinting-cups-vulnerabilities
I’m not particularly tech savvy and am unfamiliar with Linux but, if I understand the article correctly, wouldn’t you have to (1) expose print services directly to the Internet and (2) wait for a server operator to intentionally try and send a job to the newly created bogus printer (which he doesn’t even know exists) in order to execute the malicious payload? Seems like pretty low probability of being able to pull that off without an insider on the victim’s network to cooperate, no? Not impossible, of course. But seems like the attacker would have to be pretty lucky.
This would explain my active dislike of "Game of Thrones." And Windows 8, for that matter.
Couldn’t Lightning Network be used to fight spam? Each relay could impose a fee, one too low to be material for ordinary users but high enough to thwart spammers. The fee could increase exponentially with note size, ensuring that we don’t get a repeat of what happened with USENET, with people posting encoded binaries and whatnot.
Or what about some sort of proof of work threshold that must be satisfied prior to a relay accepting a note? This worked well for BitMessage.
I absolutely love Lightning Network. I use it daily. Setting up my own LND node was tricky enough though that I can't recommend it to a normie. I'm anxiously awaiting some sort of turnkey, self-custodial LN solution.
Great post, man. This is exactly why I was so confused and saddened by the decision of Bitcoin devs to allow users to embed monkey pictures and other garbage on-chain. The beauty of ETH is that it attracts all of those worthless use cases and the charlatans that shill them like a magnet 🧲 — keeping them safely away from the Bitcoin ecosystem. And the Bitcoin community responds by bringing that crap into our own house? I don’t get it.
The beauty of people like this is, you don’t have to come up with a clever retort. You don’t even need to yearn for an “I told you so” or “how’s that huge truck working out for you?” moment. You just keep silently doing what you’re doing, and one day you’ll observe that an unspoken understanding has emerged between the two of you — of who was wise and who was foolish.
They’re kind of a mixed bag in my experience.
I’m self-hosting an LND node and AlbyHub provides a nice LnUrl endpoint for it, allowing me to receive inbound lightning transmissions via a custom address (e.g. anon@anon.dev)
If you’re planning to self-host, setup of AlbyHub is very clunky and error-prone, at least with their Windows version. Click the ‘Notes and Replies’ section of my profile and scroll almost to the bottom and you can read a long reply of mine that details some of the problems you’ll face. Some are minor, but others can be show-stoppers if you’re unaware of them.
They use way too many CAPTCHAs, even for simple things like changing common settings. That alone caused me to avoid playing around with the product beyond what was absolutely necessary for my use case.
Also, see my post from 8/13 regarding the issue of Alby monitoring and logging every single transaction going through my node, even those that don’t require the use of Alby, and sending me an email about those transactions. Right now, on Alby’s email server, sits a record of every Lightning transaction I’ve ever made. Since I’m just testing and playing around, I don’t care. But for production use it would be a deal-killer.
If you read Alby’s reply to me, they say there’s a way to limit what Alby can see on your node. They even provided a screenshot. That screen is nowhere to be found, unless it’s hiding behind one of their endless CAPTCHA puzzles and I just missed it.
To be clear, the Alby team seems to be a good bunch of guys and I don’t think they’re trying to pull a fast one on anyone. I think they genuinely care about the Lightning ecosystem and want to participate in growing it. But there are trade offs with privacy and usability to consider, so it’s up to you as the user to decide what you’re comfortable with.
Aaron Swartz would have loved nostr.
Effectively the culmination of his life’s work.
1999: At the age of 12, he co-authored the RSS 1.0 specification, which is a format for syndicating web content.
2000: Swartz became a member of the Creative Commons organization, which aims to expand the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally.
2002: He founded the Infogami platform, which later merged with Reddit.
2005: Swartz joined Reddit as a co-founder after a merger with Infogami.
2006: He left Reddit and began working on various projects, including the development of the web application framework, "Open Library," which aimed to create a web page for every book ever published.
2008: Swartz was involved in the development of the "Demand Progress" organization, which focused on issues related to internet freedom and government transparency.
2010: He played a significant role in the campaign against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), advocating for internet freedom. He also developed a tool that allowed users to download large amounts of data from PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records), which was typically behind a paywall.
2011: Swartz was arrested for downloading a large number of academic journal articles from JSTOR with the intent to distribute them freely. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Massachusetts pursued the case against Swartz, and he faced the possibility of severe penalties, including up to 35 years in prison.
2012: On January 11, Aaron Swartz tragically passed away at the age of 26. He allegedly took his own life due to the pressure of government prosecution.
https://cdn.satellite.earth/43780cc29e73f0ac8a226aba6e3ca93422a9022c4b27422995e5b99127d8d900.mp4
It’s a sad tale, indeed. I wonder how he’d feel about what became of Reddit though. It’s become a censorship-ridden, woke cesspool. The owners must’ve made a ton on the IPO though, which I’m sure he would’ve enjoyed.
Interesting video. Things have definitely changed. With Spotify I can seek out really specific niches — like for example, synth pop with female vocals, and it’ll play me a bunch of songs of that sort. But I couldn’t tell you one of the singers’ names if my life depended on it. Whereas back in the 1980’s I might search out an album by a specific band like The Smiths. That just doesn’t happen anymore.
Most of these people live and breathe in leftist echo chambers like Reddit, as opposed to NOSTR. They’re so full of bitterness, envy, and resentment; They just can’t contain themselves. It must be soul crushing to live as they do.
I’m trying to do the same. I tried testing the idea by turning on airplane mode (no cell radio) with WiFi on.
The one thing I miss is Waze. I feel like Waze plus a solid radar and laser detector are indispensable when driving. I still haven’t found a way around that.
Also, some services require a cell number to sign up. VOIP and disposable numbers don’t always work, so at a minimum I might have to keep a prepaid $35/mo flip phone sitting powered down in a drawer until I need it.
Oh my gosh, you’re so right. The original Bisq was wonderful. Bisq2 is an absolute train wreck. It’s the Windows 8 of decentralized P2P transaction facilitators.
I thought Bisq2 is what they wanted people to use now and, as a result, I just rage quit Bisq all together. I didn’t even realize I could rollback to the original.
AI is a bubble
This insightful article from Mises Institute makes the case that Artificial Intelligence is misunderstood,
It's promoted as this buzzing trend that will take-over every industry. When in fact, all the evidence points to the opposite. They are losing money and nearly all commercial application have failed.
-OpenAI, leader in LLMs loses $5 billion a year, and there is no path to profitability.
"The losses only expand with the more customers the company signs up and the better their model gets."
-Air Canada tried to use AI for customer service, but it made so many mistakes, that it sent waves through the industry. It gave out discounted airfare causing the company to bleed out and the court ruled against them.
-Google’s new AI summary at the top of the search page takes roughly 10 times more energy to produce than the search itself and has near zero end-user utility according to numerous reliable polls.
-Many of the AI demos have been proven to be fake by whistleblowers, from OpenAI to Google.
-AI has ruined search engine results with worthless dribble
Don't make the mistake that others are by investing in this. Let's dive into this amazing article on the rampant corruption of money-losing AI,
https://mises.org/mises-wire/artificial-intelligence-next-easy-money-bust
I’ve been rather underwhelmed with AI. I just installed a Brave extension called “Goodbye Google AI” that removes the useless AI drivel from my search results.
I know AI can create some really beautiful (but creepy) artwork and whatnot. Maybe I’ll use it to design a logo or something one day but, by and large, it just seems like a bunch of hype.
I’d prefer to see all that CPU power go into Bitcoin mining personally.😀
Nice, where can I get that bag?
Hmm, I’m surprised to hear that. I’ve always heard people say, “Safari is the new Internet Explorer.” Always three steps behind, never up to date with standards, etc. Maybe it’s worth giving them another look. It’s been a few years.
I’ve had good luck with Brave. You just have to turn off all their gimmicky wallets and shitcoinery promotions, etc.
The depressing part is that even if you self-host your website, you’re still dependent on centralized solutions like Cloudflare for DDOS protection, and they’re more than happy to censor you if a government thug requests them to do so.
Maybe one day IPFS will catch on?