Hirom

@Hirom@beehaw.org

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨10 to 100 Times Faster than a Starlink Antenna, and Cheaper Than Fiber: Taara Unveils a Laser Internet That Could Shatter the Status Quo⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩:

  10 to 100 Times less reliable than WiFi

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pocket is Saying Goodbye: What You Need to Know | Pocket Help⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago⁩:

  The Android app has a decent read-aloud feature. Hope it will still works after the service closes. I don’t use it for article discovery, nor for sync.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Former PlayStation exec says "$70 or $80" games are a "steal": "As long as people choose carefully how they spend their money, I don't think they should be complaining"⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m carefully spending my money by buying less games, mostly DRM-free indie games.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Meta is making users who opted out of AI training opt out again, watchdog says⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  This dark pattern seems similar to what spammy company do. After registering you’re automatically registering to 10 differents newsletters/spamlist. Clicking unsubsribe at the bottom of a newsletter removes you from 1 out of 10 lists. People either need to repeat the operation, or better, delete their account.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  same on all chains. All have a proposal, discussion, implementation, waiting period (for code to be deployed), and activation

  I though most of those steps didn’t occur on-chain in the case of bitcoin. But I could be mistaken.

  Could you share a link with the equivalent information on bitcoin, ie its governance process and how each governance operation (proposal, vote, activation ) is handled by the chain?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Tezos would still require all nodes to upgrade to the code which contains the new algorithm. It can’t just automatically know what the new code is. It then can schedule these to activate at a certain block using a signaling system of some sort.

  Code proposal, vote on new code activation of new code, are all Tezos on-chain operation. These operations include a hash of the new code to be deployed. There’s some off-chain work happening to update tools, which I guess include compiling said code. So you’re right, some off-cain action is needed for deployment www.tezosagora.org/learn#an-introduction-to-tezos…

  My understanding is that compared to BTC governance, a larger part of the process happen on-chain. Also there is a relatively smaller portion of nodes (baker) involved in creating/verifying blocks that must update. This allowed various protocol changes without forks over the years.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pictures of Animals Getting CT Scans Against their Will: A Thread⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Got no serious answer, so here are some results based on reverse image search:

  1. Rhinoceros. Credit: Chicago Zoological Society. Possible source: Black Rhinoceros Undergoes Portable CT Scan At Brookfield Zoo

  2. Bear. Credit: Kimberly Fornek / Pioneer Press. Possible source: Brookfield Zoo CT scan

  3. Humsters. Credit: unknown.

  4. Alligator. Credit: UF College of Veterinary Medicine. Possible source: Massive sick alligator given CT scan at University of FloridaFeel free to add more in your replies if you have time to search.

  Dear, @fossilesque@mander.xyz please credit the authors and/or sources of the picture you’re posting. Those most likely aren’t public domain, meaning credit is required (and possibly more). Also citing the source provide interesting background on the pictures.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pictures of Animals Getting CT Scans Against their Will: A Thread⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Interesting.

  Did you take these pictures, or could mention their source? I want to make sure the author(same) get credit.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Good point, with BIPs the Bitcoin community is more adaptive than I gave it credit for.

  It still doesn’t prevent soft nor hard fork. My understanding is that a change in consensus logic require ALL users/miners need to deploy the new software to avoid hard forks. That’s impossible in practice. So a BIP to change the consensus logic would necessary cause a hard fork.

  Not all chains handle this the same way nor suffer from this. Tezos for instance made its improvement proposal system part of its core. Using Tezos means automatically accepting chain and consensus logic change if they are approve.

  Tezos incorporates a built-in, on-chain mechanism for proposing, selecting, testing, and activating protocol upgrades without the need to hard fork. This mechanism makes Tezos a self-amending blockchain and allows any user to propose changes to the economic protocol, which defines the possible blockchain operations and how they are processed.

  Bitcoin sure have more hype and higher price, but appears to have more difficulty evolving compared to others.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  lol it can’t adjust on public approval. It’s software that runs.

  It can. Software is written by people. Its authors can build it wigh an update mechanism.

  Crypto currencies such have Tezos have a vote-based update mechanism and a community that periodically submits algorithm changes for approval.

  Bitcoin doesn’t have a update mechanism that allows smooth change. Its take it or abandon it (ak hard fork). Peole can move away from it, and, it’s sad that so many people still haven’t.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The network was built to adjust

  Then why doesn’t it adjust to avoid negative social and environmental effects? My guess is that it’s because it’s not possible to adjust bitcoin’s algorithm, and that miners don’t have enough intensive to abandon bitcoin for something less destructive.

  My understanding is that bitcoin’s core algorithm, which include the difficulty and consensus logic, cannot modified nor fixed in any way.

  A hard fork is possible, which means leaving the bitcoin network and setting up an alternative (hopefully better) network with different result.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Thanks for the refresher. I’m aware of the basics, but assumed the difficulty measured by the number of zeros could only increase. Apparently difficulty can decrease, and I’ve read it’s expected to decrease very soon to keep the system running a while longer.

  Bitcoin’s creator was smart enough to design a system that automatically adjust to remain profitable for several years without intervention, but not smart enough to foresee social and environmental costs.

  It’s a good example that illustrate why automated systems shouldn’t be left running unsupervised, even if it’s designed by the best of minds with the best of intentions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The headline isn’t accurate as usual, but isn’t completely wrong either. We’re at a point where it’s no longer profitable for individual minors, even if we ignore externalities like the cost we’re collectively paying due to mining pollution and carbon emissions.

  Mining is require increasing amount of energy and resources as time pass, so unless there’s a radical change in bitcoin’s algorithm or unless energy becomes free, we should expect mining to get non-profitable in more and more situations.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bitcoin mining is no longer profitable⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Given the current price of bitcoin, I suspect the marking still doesn’t know.

• Bitcoin mining is no longer profitablewww.pcworld.com ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨technology@beehaw.org⁩ | ⁨55⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google won’t ditch third-party cookies in Chrome after all⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  If someone only agree because of a dark pattern or agressive/repetitive consent popups, then it’s not free and informed consent.

  It’s pressuring visitors into accepting they wouldn’t otherwise accept, and it might not be compliant.

  Clearly there need to be more enforcement of GDPR.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google won’t ditch third-party cookies in Chrome after all⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Those companies doing business in the EU should have been looking for alternatives since at least 2016 when GPDR was adopted.

  It doesn’t seem realistic to rely on targeted advertising if that require opt-in, informed consent. I suspect only a small fraction of visitors would agree.

  I hope contextual advertising and similar less-invasive approaches becomes the norm again. Contextual advertising have been used for decades in Newspapers, on the TV and radio.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨EU Commission Kicks Off 2025 With Yet Another Plea For Backdoored Encryption⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Police could focus on better using the data it already has. Rather than giving it the power to hoard more personal data and endangering public liberties.

  Existing police record are riddled with errors:

  • propublica.org/…/politic-il-insider-chicago-gang-…
  • lesnumeriques.com/…/alerte-cnil-trop-erreurs-dans…

  Piling more data on top won’t fix these errors. Putting more effort in fixing errors would make the records more useful to police, and would probably avoid ruining the lives of innocents people.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨try finger, rouge hole⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  A rogue hole looks even more dangerous than a rogue wave.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Privacy disaster as LGBTQ+ and BDSM dating apps leak private photos.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Cybernews has contacted M.A.D Mobile Apps Developers Limited for official comment, but a response has yet to be received.

  I hope Cybernews reported the apps to the relevant app store, including a detailed report.

  Developpers may ignore random researchers’ email, but probably wouldn’t ignore an app store that has the ability remove or until apps from its store.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Depart, men of education.⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Good point. That person’s solidarity with a colleague is remarkable and probably worth sharing, but it’s not a meme.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wait, why is the White House using Starlink to ‘improve Wi-Fi’?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Adding a second ISP can provide resiliency and ensure a critical infrastructure stays connected even when 1 ISP fails.

  I would be surprised if the White House doesn’t already have such resiliency.

  My speculation is they just want to avoid red tape and circumvent the restriction and strict access control applied to existing connections.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Least extreme biophysics phd⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Antiretroviral therapy for pregnant women already is a safe and effective way to avoid HIV transmission to the baby. It’s part of standard treatment guidelines www.sciencedirect.com/…/S1701216324003748

  So the guy has genetically engineered babies as a potentially risky and certainlycontroversial solution for a problem that already has a safe and non-controversia solution.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Google binning SMS MFA and replacing it with QR codes • The Register⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  The devil’s in the details. And there aren’t much details in this article.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Mark Cuban is ready to fund a TikTok alternative built on Bluesky's AT Protocol | TechCrunch⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  He shoudn’t send DanSupp a cheque directly, but help him setup a non-profit or foundation for Pixelfed, then give that foundation a cheque.

  Dan his doing a great job developing but Pixelfed looks like a one-man show, and that’s a bottleneck for development.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Probable source: European Federation of Journalists to stop posting content on X, by Jack Peat - The London Economic

  No source is visible in the post. I don’t know if that’s an issue with my client, or an oversight.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘It’s Total Chaos Internally at Meta Right Now’: Employees Protest Zuckerberg’s Anti LGBTQ Changes⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  “more speech and fewer mistakes.”

  You can’t make mistake while moderating if you stop moderating. tap head with finger

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Japan links Chinese hacker MirrorFace to more than 200 cyberattacks targeting national security and tech data⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Japan’s JPCERT released IOCs for MirrorFace malware earlier …jpcert.or.jp/…/mirrorface-attack-against-japanes…

  Kudos to them. Sharing IOCs and samples with other CERTs and vendors is important to protect others who may be targeted.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Uber for Nursing: How an AI-Powered Gig Model Is Threatening Health Care⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s going to make even more nurses run away, when many places are lacking nurses.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How New 'Star Trek' Shows Get Made, According to Alex Kurtzman⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  A significant hairdresser budget does help Strange New Worlds. The federation wouldn’t stand a chance without the captain’s magnificent haircut.