dhork
@dhork@lemmy.world
- Comment on Whatever happened to the blockchain/smart contract 'revolution' we were told about? 1 week ago:
VISA handles 65,000 transactions per second. That’s one of the major reasons we’re not seeing more widespread adoption.
I thought they were gonna fix that by running a bunch of bar tabs
- Comment on At this point who in the world could stop Trump over doing something totally illegal? Like lets say using bunker buster bombs to destroy DEM cities? Or is USA communially FUCKED? 2 weeks ago:
The US President is not subject to laws, when acting in his official capacity, unless at least 1/2 of the House and 2/3 of the Senate vote to impeach him. So winning the election is a license to do illegal things, if you have enough political support.
- Comment on Is it possible to sell semi-old computers/parts? 2 weeks ago:
I collect old stuff too. There are only a handful of things that have been useful over the years, mainly USB devices. People who work with hobby embedded devices can also make use of RS232 serial equipment. It might be worth holding on to a single old monitor that can also do VGA. Or a single SATA DVD drive in case you find some old discs you need to read. I have a box of C-64 stuff I am never getting rid of. The kids will have to figure out what to do with that when I am gone.
But all those old ISA cards? Parallel printer port cables? Zip drives? Yeah, nobody wants them. Maybe you can list those old Apple talk dongles on eBay and make a hundred bucks, but you also have to deal with shipping them and stuff.
Just be careful when disposing old drives. I have a stack of busted drives that I won’t get rid of because I don’t know if anyone will be able to pull the data with the right equipment. Every now and then if I get too bored I take one apart to play with the magnets, I figure it’s safe to discard the platters if I scratch them up good.
You may want to look for local “electronics recycling” places. They might charge a fee, and if they find something they can refurbish and sell they will do it. But then you have more space to accumulate new stuff.
- Comment on Why do some companies like a utility put out ads? 2 weeks ago:
I bet the local energy provider is owned by a large conglomerate, and they want you to think that the company is locally managed and any profits they make go back into the community, instead of to the Corporate Overlords…
This can be particularly important for heavily regulated industries, as their profits are contingent on the local politicians continuing to like them. So while I am sure a significant portion of their budget goes to greasing palms to make sure politicians take care of them, they also need to make sure the voting population is not hostile to them, so that they don’t get some grass roots movement going that elects hostile politicians.
- Comment on To win the show Alone, could someone smuggle a GPS locator inside of their anus? 2 weeks ago:
Then that’s more feasible. It also means that it doesn’t have to try to operate while safely stowed. The contestant can remove it and then turn it on. They might even be able to strategically bury it somewhere. The small amount of dirt above it will attenuate the signal, but if buried in a place with an open view of the sky they will get a much stronger signal than they would in a building.
We are spoiled with how quickly the GPS in our phones work, but they already have a good idea where they are from the cell towers, and they can also get information on which satellites are in view from the Internet. If the GPS receiver had to work without access to those resources, it may take minutes to get a fix.
Then, it also has to get communicate the position data: if there is no cell service, that would have to be some sort of satellite communication or other long-range thing.
- Comment on To win the show Alone, could someone smuggle a GPS locator inside of their anus? 2 weeks ago:
Many of the trackers that would easily fit (like AirTags) don’t actually have their own GPS receivers, they piggy-back on the receivers in iPhones that are in bluetooth range (and also use those iPhones for the cell communication back to Apple).
- Comment on To win the show Alone, could someone smuggle a GPS locator inside of their anus? 2 weeks ago:
You may be surprised to find that GPS signals are quite low power by the time they get to Earth. Receivers employ a bunch of trucks to extract the signal out of noise. It does not take much in the way to attenuate them to the point where they are useless. If a receiver is embedded in a body cavity it is unlikely to work well unless it has a direct full-sky view – which is especially troublesome for that particular body cavity.
It might be easier to embed a tiny receiver in someone’s skin: in their shoulder, or the nape of their neck. A strategically-placed tattoo could help cover it up. The receiver would also need power so you would either need to embed a power source in it (which may be larger than the receiver itself) or work out some RF power source nearby. (But if you didn’t know where in the world they were, how would you know where to place the power source?)
- Comment on Is the periodic table still getting new additions? 2 weeks ago:
My (flawed and amateur) understanding is that they create new elements by smashing together atoms on particle accelerators to see if their nuclei stick. If you can create an atom with a new number of protons in its nucleus, in a manner which can be repeated, then you have created a new element.
The last new element that was created with a natural process was found sometime in the 1930s. Many of the artificially generated elements are extremely unstable. Our labs may be the only place in the universe they are made, that aren’t inside stars.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 weeks ago:
Asking about “return” is kinda useless in this context. AI is frequently being integrated into things that people didn’t ask for, and making them more shitty.
And while Bitcoin mining does generate a return, there is nothing inherent in cryptocurrency that says it must consume electricity to generate these returns. Ethereum transitioned to an algorithm which secures it’s network just as well for a fraction of the energy cost. Bitcoin only consumes so much energy because it’s developers are stubborn.
But to answer your question, people think that AI applications will consume fully half of all datacenter power by the end of this year, and if it does it will likely have a higher energy footprint than BTC.
- Comment on Is it sexist to say "I've never worn a wet dress before" 3 weeks ago:
She might be conflating it with a wet t-shirt contest
- Comment on When someone asks for help/asks what something is on Reddit and the top comments are just stupid jokes that don't answer OP's question 3 weeks ago:
Well, what is it?
- Comment on Andrew Cuomo wants to become Mayor of New York City. This is his driving record. 3 weeks ago:
Why does he hate the Bronx so much? He gets tickets in the other boroughs that have lots of Democrats…
- Comment on Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Platinum Edition is free to claim on Epic 3 weeks ago:
Did 7 get any better with the updates? I bought it on release but it couldn’t hold my attention for more than an hour, and I haven’t been back.
- Comment on When does Trump finally start taking accountability? 4 weeks ago:
Donald Trump has not been held accountable by anyone since his father died. Even when he was convicted of felony paperwork violations, his punishment was to get elected President (again!).
- Comment on If I found voter irregularities in my home district do I have to hire a lawyer to prove it.? Or just let it go and the Florida Orange win? 4 weeks ago:
I think your best bet would be to go to the local Democratic party. You don’t have the cash to contest this; they do. They also (depending on the local laws) probably have local officials on the local elections boards, so they are in the best position to evaluate your claims. There may be a simple explanation…
- Comment on What is the "dip"? 4 weeks ago:
Yup
- Comment on Why doesn't the US government just tax illegal immigrants a little bit more than the Average american? Then use those funds to fix infastructure or a new WPA of the 21st century? 5 weeks ago:
Interesting, I didn’t know this at all. Thanks for the links.
But I wonder how much longer this program can be kept up, now that this administration has made it clear they want all these people to leave, and will dispatch masked thugs to do so. Seems like applying for one of these TINs now is basically putting a sign on your back saying “Deport Me!”
- Comment on Why doesn't the US government just tax illegal immigrants a little bit more than the Average american? Then use those funds to fix infastructure or a new WPA of the 21st century? 5 weeks ago:
People who are in the country illegally do not have authorization to work. You can’t tax them at all, at least officially, without giving them the authorization to work.
Now, of course these folks are working, and either getting paid without their employers declaring them, or paying them and withholding taxes with fraudulent identities, both of which are illegal for the employer as well as the employee. So, unofficially, they may be paying taxes, but if the authorities knew they were illegal they would probably be deported, especially in today’s hyper ICE environment.
A solution like you propose would acknowledge the basic humanity of these people, which is against everything the ruling party here stands for. So it will never happen.
- Comment on Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? 5 weeks ago:
Stat Trek has always had Socialist Utopia vibes. And the new stuff on Paramount+ is undeniably woke…
- Comment on Do the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? 5 weeks ago:
It’s only logical
- Comment on Duke University lost NIH grants because they used the prefix "trans" in reference to disease transmission, transgenic genetic material, translational studies and signal transduction 5 weeks ago:
They will do nothing about this until crypto transfers are banned…
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
Yes, the system works, but it kinds sucks that it’s based on getting the biggest gorilla on your side, rather than which side is actually in the right.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
My experience is that managers don’t normally “overcompensate in the other direction” on purpose. After all, if they are friendly with someone, they will be inclined to help them.
Two exceptions:
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Bad managers make bad decisions generally, and usually for illogical reasons, so they might do this by accident.
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Owners of family businesses can be much harder on their kids when they first start out, because the owners mean to have the kids run the business when they retire, so want to do a “trial by fire”
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- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
So, in that case, since we can rule out him trying to get in your pants (unless he happens to be in the closet, but that seems unlikely) the key thing you need to watch out for is any appearance of favoritism. Even if the guy is a good manager and is not letting his free time with you affect his decisions, it might affect how other people on your team perceive your assignments. It could also make your boss uncomfortable if they think that you have more access to the CEO.
And everyone is human, the CEO might be older but he clearly has his own issues. Look out to make sure he is not using you as a proxy for his son. But, on the other hand, if he simply has a desire to mentor someone and you happen to share similar enough interests, there is nothing wrong with that.
Like anything else involving adults, though, communication and transparency is the key thing. When people ask you what you both talk about, be honest, without oversharing. And try not to accept any gifts or favors that make you feel uncomfortable – you are allowed to say no, even if the other side perceives it as “generous”.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 month ago:
Sorry, but my answer to this post will be a bit different based on your gender and orientation. There is a huge difference between advising a young professional guy who has a few beers with upper management now and then and a young professional woman who finds the CEO “enjoys my company” but there is a “power dynamic”, if you get what I mean.
- Comment on How is spontaneous betting (as portrayed by comics and movies) supposed to work? 1 month ago:
A bet isnt a bet until there are multiple opposing sides matched together. If there is no bookie managing it, then it’s up to the individual participants to do it. If someone says “5 bucks on the big strong guy” it’s not an actual bet until someone comes along and puts money down opposite it.
When the supporting character comes along and says “100 bucks on the other guy whose win moves the plot along”, it’s like he’s saying " I will maych all the announced bets on the big guy so far, and everyone else’s up to a total of $100".
They could take the time to show that person taking out a wad of 5’s anc physically matching the bets already thrown down, but it’s more expedient to just do the shouting.
- Comment on Why is U2 considered "grunge?" 1 month ago:
The only thing U2 has in common with grunge is that both were popular in roughly the same time period (give or take 5 years or so).
- Comment on Odds of rolling a 7 with a weighted die 1 month ago:
If your goal is to roll a 7, then no, weighting one die doesn’t help, because it doesn’t matter which side comes up in the weighted die.
(Another way to look at it is that you can place 1 die on whatever side you like, then roll the 2nd die: you still have a 1/6 chance of rolling a combined 7).
However that is only the case for a 7, because you can roll a 7 with any combination of the first die. If your goal is to roll a 12, then weighting one die towards 6 will affect the odds, because you need a 6 on that first die to roll a 12; any other outcome makes it impossible.
- Comment on It used to be that when most countries were or in trouble or needed help they would go to the US for help. My question is who does the US go to for help if or when needed? 1 month ago:
I am one of those people who engaged in the sarcasm and mockery, particularly mocking American Exceptionalism. But you can argue that American position as an Indispensible Nation is (well, perhaps was) a real thing. But it’s important to acknowledge that status was not accorded to us because we’re special, but because we aligned our interests to many of the world’s democracies. They didn’t follow us because of any inherent birthright, they followed because we shared their values and interests.
John Kerry got skewered when he implies that American interests might be subject to a “global test”, but he was 100% correct. Other countries backed us because we backed then. If looking to America for leadership was no longer in their best interest, they will shop somewhere else for leadership.
And that’s what makes Trump so insidious. Generations of Americans (politicians, service people, etc.) put this country in a position of respect, and this guy is tossing it all out the window by being a pety asshole who doesn’t listen.
- Comment on It used to be that when most countries were or in trouble or needed help they would go to the US for help. My question is who does the US go to for help if or when needed? 1 month ago:
Haven’t you heard? America is Exeptional, we are the Indispensible Nation. We never need help, because we perfected Democracy. Anyone who says otherwise will be sent to CECOT…
