Comment by doodlebugging | Hacker News Reader

Comment by doodlebugging | Hacker News Reader

I guess the author of that article has never used an orbital grinder since they identified it as a circular saw. The author and the editor both whiffed on that.

The story about the family losing their money to a bitcoin scammer just reinforces the perception that bitcoin is tool of and for criminals, scammers, and general low-lifes to use to launder money in the hopes that they won't be caught. People around there can't afford to get scammed as the area is very low income. $25000 was probably that family's life savings and is not far from the median annual income for the county. Bitcoin scammers should focus on scamming high net worth zip codes and leave poor people alone. They might be seen as modern Robin Hoods instead of just a bunch of robber hoods.

No matter how high the "value" of bit-coin or other shit-coins rises they will always carry the permanent stink of fraud and theft, money laundering. Other legitimate forms of payment may share some of that stink but with crypto it is a design feature.

> The story about the family losing their money to a bitcoin scammer just reinforces the perception that bitcoin is tool of and for criminals, scammers, and general low-lifes to use to launder money in the hopes that they won't be caught.

Doesn't this need more reinforcing?

Calling all crypto-bros. Unfavorable commentary needs to be countered, again.

LOL

Every new scam reported just reinforces the perception that bitcoin and other shitcoins are the preferred exchange media of scammers and other criminals everywhere. It turns out that proposing a payment methodology that allows one to operate outside all the usual controls imposed by traditional regulated monetary systems causes those who desire to escape criminal accountability and need to operate in the shadows to adopt it as the default mechanism for managing asset flow into and within their criminal enterprises.

Does that help you?

I think you misunderstood my post - probably my fault. I am certainly not in favour of cryptocrap and was trying to suggest that the OP stressed he was neither.

>I think you misunderstood my post

With the extra context I agree that I did misunderstand your post. Thanks for clarifying that. It's been a long, hot, humid day here and I spent too much time in the sun to be trying to write anything coherent at this time of the day. I think I need to rest and rehydrate some of my brain cells so that they might be more useful to me in the morning. Too many misfires tonight. LOL

What is an orbital grinder? I've been metalworking for 20 years and never encountered one.

Got me. It's an angle grinder in the photo. There are orbital grinders though that isn't one pictured. To me they look a lot like orbital sanders though since they use sanding pads or disks. Let me have some of whatever that author and editor were smoking when they signed off on that text.

Didn't mean to "get you", I'm always excited to learn about a new tool.

Thanks. I'm also a tool person. Woodworking, metal fab, stone and tile, agricultural (hand or mechanically powered) tools, electrical and plumbing, automotive maintenance, garden and orchard tools, etc. I have a lot of tools and will definitely buy new ones if the functionality and efficiency is better than one I already own two versions of. I resisted the switch from corded to battery tools for a long time but after buying combo sets for my wife and Mom I borrowed theirs often enough that I found I can work within their limitations and break out the corded model if the job requires it. I love to use a well-designed tool.

I really whiffed on the angle grinder ID though which irritates me a bit since I first used one in the late 1970's working on a pipeline maintenance crew and I own at least two of them including one old Skil brand that I bought more than 40 years ago. It was late at night when I posted and my old brain couldn't find the right word after all the sun I had absorbed that afternoon.

Stay hydrated out there so the things you post make sense. LOL.

Orbital sanders are a thing of course, but the whole "orbital" part is about the center of rotation moving around, usually in another circle. That'd just be a recipe for cutting your leg off for a grinder; a bit of an ironic mistake for GP to make while insulting somebody else's knowledge.

>a bit of an ironic mistake for GP to make while insulting somebody else's knowledge

I agree. What the hell was he thinking?

According to the series Scam Inc by the Economist much of these scammers are literal slaves who are held captive in southeast Asia. It is absolutely shocking and disheartening. They are often held in compounds where the scam organization is one of many tenants and the captives who don't bring in the money might get tortured, sold to other tenants for prostitution or eventually for organ harvesting. It's obviously awful for the captives, but pretty much anyone might be scammed out of a fortune and these organizations are getting more and more sophisticated to the point of setting up fake conference calls, etc.

First episode is available free on YouTube: https://youtu.be/vUg-cLVhv-4?si=xXL3tZNl36pJj5Lk

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