Cardboard looks really well polished, well done!
313 karma · joined June 21, 2012
Cardboard looks really well polished, well done!
Also should consider what was selected last time - a bit of a predictive algorithm would be useful to start providing towards my likes a bit quicker.
My understanding is DIDs are a unique identifier. There's a few methods that can be used regarding the construction of the identifier. It could be a unique key (did:key- https://w3c-ccg.github.io/did-method-key/). It could be using web infrastructure (did:web - https://w3c-ccg.github.io/did-method-web/). It could be using blockchain infrastructure (did:ion).
Whatever it is, it becomes an identifier used to receive credentials and send messages to. For example, your digital wallet can have a DID which can be used to store credentials. Your digital wallet can have many DIDs which can be useful to avoid correlation of identities.
The credentials (and the identities they represent) themselves are normally bundled into things like Verifiable Credentials (https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model/) which have to be issued to something - like a DID.
I've just bought a house, and it's been interesting to see the selling method change as the market goes from hot to cold - Auction, Tender, Deadline, Buyer Enquires Over, Asking price.
Having people do stuff to protect the safety of themselves and others is part of the social contract of these countries. We wear seatbelts. We wear helmets on Motorbikes. All things that restrict our freedom to damage ourselves.
Because who incurs the cost of when you hurt yourself or others? The government! Like a lot of advanced countries we have a single payer government operated healthcare system that needs to ration care since nothing in life is infinite. So governments are motivated to protect systems that protect everyone like healthcare.
I think that’s the worst part, the fact that this burnout process is happening to you, and regardless of your mental ability, you can’t outwork it, or outwill it, or outwish it.
But personally I see it as your brain providing you a health and safety moment - there is danger in your current approach, and the circuit breaker has been tripped.
Having a massive virtual peaker plant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peaking_power_plant) is a neat idea. Telsa, another new business idea for you!
That stuff is great for me as a consumer. But selling power below the cost of production seems like a weird economic model. And you still pay for these reductions somehow. In Ontario, the government mandates a rebate (https://www.torontohydro.com/for-home/ontario-electricity-re...). But who pays for that rebate? The taxpayers! So you get a discount on your power, paid for from your income!
I'm not an 'all-in free market' guy. I do think regulation is required to constrain the free market to operate within certain parameters. But I also don't agree that all 'critical services' should be managed directly by the state. I remember that the state used to run the Telephone network in NZ, and it would take 6 weeks to get a new phone line. Why? Because there's a process, there's a queue, and there's no competition, so what else will you do? Stuff like that is a crappy experience.
All of that in itself isn't evil. But the retailer could have been more proactive to say "During terrible winter storms, paying the market rate is a bad idea. Switch companies now." Or a better idea would have been to charge $X a day as insurance, that would cap the price per kWh to $X. That way people have certainty as to what their maximum charge is. Imagine if the power company said "Pay $10 extra a month, and we'll make sure that in an adverse event, your bill for your normally consumed 1000 kWh would be $1000".
The New Zealand electricity market is similarly deregulated like Texas and has some of the same benefits and problems. The great thing is you can choose your power retailer, that all have different types of plans that work for different people. Some only buy from 'green generators'. Some allow you to buy 'packs of electricity' in advance, a bit like buying a hedge. Imagine having 1000 kWh in your bank to spend during this peak event. Some don't charge daily rates for your holiday home. I like the innovation in the retail market.
But that doesn't prohibit transmission companies, and generators from investing in their assets. Transmission companies are a natural monopoly so should be constrained from the free market. In NZ most of those have a maximum rate of return they're allowed to extract from their assets, so their profit is restricted. In turn they lobby to invest more into their assets which in turn increases their allowed profit. This leads to an outcome of overinvestments in assets, which in Texas's case might not be such a bad thing.
Generators make their typical profit based on stable generation. They make their windfall based on adverse weather events, different hydrology, competing generator capacity going offline etc. The NZ market would have automated 5 minute auctions where the Grid Operator would purchase the cheapest bid from generators to meet the grid demand in that 5 minute block. There would also be diesel generators that would be guaranteed to provide the most expensive supply if things went wrong, so that would be the upper limit on the market.
If all of this is interesting, check out the real time market pricing at https://www.em6live.co.nz/
This is immediately the reason why these donations are anonymous!
Guy gives away nearly all his money, and people are still not happy about it.
These anecdotes provide societal context to the story. Why would Microsoft get the public to harden their product? Surely they have enough resources to do it themselves right?
Because many eyes make light work. Some people would obsess over trying to hack this OS, putting in far more effort than someone paid 9-5 to do it.
Now imagine that was scaled up to a whole country. That's New Zealand. Check out the Accident Compensation Corporation. All medical costs related to accidents are automatically covered!
But who pays the costs! Everyone, via levies. How much? $2000 on a $150K IT income.
But how do you control costs? Who is entitled? Who is at fault? Surprise! It's a no-fault accident insurance system that covers all accidents.
In exchange for that, we gave up our right to sue in accidents for medical damages. Why pay a lawyer when they're not required?
Boutique tractors, hand repairable, simple parts. If people are hoarding onto 40 year old tractors, then that's a market signal that people want those type of tractors.
Shelters should be free, and so should water fountains. But free doesn't mean nice. I've seen some poorly maintained bus shelters and water fountains.
If people want to slap ads on the side, and increase the quality, then that's great. If your VC funding, or ad funding can pay for a filter on a water fountain, even better.
There's always the thread of competition for Uber. Ironically, the thread from the very market they disrupted! I'm guessing Taxis 2.0 won't have medallions to worry about anymore, just the same regulations as any other ride sharing firm, with only one car.
But hey, I'll take subsidised rides from Uber for as long as they're offering them!
Personal commentary:
As someone from New Zealand, who moved to Canada, I still don't understand why people would want the responsibility of their employer and themselves to choose what health coverage they want in life, especially when employment tenure can be upended so easily.
Yes I know, USA has funky research and new drugs and whatever, but as a whole, it doesn't seem like a particularly efficient system. So if it's not efficient, what's its objective? For me it sounds like prioritising medical providers to extract the maximum amount of revenue from captive customers, in a scheme where all the prices are similar so it's not a monopoly, but none of them are cheap, so it's nearly like a cartel.
Citations: (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_hea...
(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expe...
As for unemployment rate, 3.9%. Pretty close to the UK, USA, China.
As for tax, on $100K USD, you'd be taxed 28.3% on your income, and 15% on your consumption via GST.
Now that I know that, how can I fight it? Yes, I'm lucky to do a job that allows me the flexibility to be task-centric rather than time-centric, but I'm just happy that I've found a working model that, works, pun intended, for me.