1 karma · joined January 23, 2023
It's such a powerful tool at surface level in this api/k8s interfacing world that looking under the hood and seeing all the work just knocked me over.
You all have done something so powerful for the community regardless of the hiatus.
THANK YOU!
Crude as in there are many forms of existing processes we have inherited and continue on. No different than any other industry but this one has been linked to profound impacts on a multitude of outcomes that affect many in more immediate ways.
I've been hearing much more lately about how crude our approach to farming/agriculture is and how counterproductive current methods are. No-till, carbon farming, cover crops, etc. which spend more effort in creating a balanced ecosystem where crops are incorporated versus placing product, extracting value, leaving nutrient deficient earth behind.
There's an interesting documentary called Biggest Little Farm where a couple tries to strike that balance although not focused on tech/automation. This article bringing in the resourcefulness and ingenuity of farmers with tech alongside that balanced ecosystem has worldwide impact.
We have such a throwaway culture that prototyping and experimentation has a fairly low bar/cost. Getting serious and building a "sellable" product can have a bit of a ramp (my opinion due to the administrative and scale aspects which can arguably distract from the goal) but if you stick to the "by-the/for-the community" approach I feel we have a great moment where the protocols and many of the tools are open to try with.
The challenge is the electrical side if you come from software and vice-versa. There are plenty of resources but it's scattered and getting started ends up touching a little bit of everything.
Python and Arduino / Pi have been incredibly friendly to augment and don't feel like you need to start from scratch, take something that exists and extend it.
Zigbee, X10, WiFi, and Bluetooth LE are all common and open ways to talk with easy to comeby plug-and-play ish modules/hats for microcontrollers.
I suggest Python, not necessarily my favorite, but by far the friendliest and batteries included for experimentation.
This is an awesome list of questions and it's incredibly thoughtful that you documented and shared it with us.
It reminds me of Hitchhikers Guide where they know the answer but need the question. So many answers are out there floating around that we are often trying to force into certain frames for various motivations.
Having questions that get us thinking, recognizing how unclear things are in current state, this feels like such a powerful thing to share.
Apologies for the diatribe, very much appreciated.
It is by definition distribution of this material and to have software edge-case exceptions allowing certain situations through is something I can't imagine anyone willing to sign their name to endorse.
It seems from a heartless management perspective that the simplest decision is to walk away from the whole situation, wash their hands of it, and accept this as collateral damage.
I meant to say specifically that until we can define things from an objective and not subjective stance, AI will not fare better.
That's an interesting proposition on the solution. I feel I see some potentially undesirable effects similar to the legal system but perhaps better than what exists currently.
I think this represents two issues. One: AI is not AI but a litany of conditionals that poorly reflects what we as humans can determine fairly quickly. Unless the process is unquestionably objective and possibly quantitative in its outcome, I just don't feel full automation will be without these events.
Google as a business automates everything. They are over their ski-tips in the amount of "getting it perfect" that is possible and are completely accepting of "close enough". I don't think this thought process is unique in the corporate world and unless revenue is impacted heavily, they will not be incentivized to incur the heavy cost of making the end-user whole. The majority of revenue is ad based meaning B2B. Users are a bucket of data, not the person they are selling to.
It's like complaining that a cattle farmer doesn't treat his cows kind enough...the farmer would think you're nuts despite the masses possibly agreeing.
As it relates to this specific type of content, I'd rather see something bad happen to good people than something good happen to bad. Maybe it's unpopular, and I'd hate to be the person on the receiving end, but unless we can have truly objective AI, I don't think we will be absent of these types of problems. In the meantime there has to be someone in the background fixing these cases and Google has shown clearly with YouTube...unless you are making enough noise they aren't listening.
It almost feels like the Wikipedia vs Encyclopedia Britannica argument. Chess.com just feels like a company driven on profits whereas lichess has made adjustments to be reasonable about their own OpEx costs (specifically just the controls on game analysis and not wasting compute).
I really respect and appreciate the work lichess does.
The epitome of Hacker News and one of the reasons I find myself laughing enjoyably so much here.
I picture this marathon and the first one trips out of the gate with everyone piling up behind them.
> I'm not saying crypto is THE solution and maybe in it's current state it isn't.
Your quick admission and then doubling down is disappointing.
Ironically, you really are owning this attribution error with your textbook self-serving bias.
I'm talking about the actual systems and physical infrastructure.
I have been fortunate to work with some of these larger institutions which carry the "full faith and credit of the richest country in the world".
Save Dunning-Krueger in your back pocket, I learned that quite some time ago in college, you may not be finished with it just yet.
If you are serious about learning look into FedNet. Bump that against the white and yellow papers and you'll have a better understanding of what I mean.
The fact we have currency that fluctuates on a day to day basis despite not being tied to anything beyond our trust in the system is not much better of an argument.
There was a point that the U.S. based it on the gold standard which locked in how much could be produced. This would be similar to how certain crypto lending exchanges claim they are backed 1:1 with dollars to create this concept of stablecoins.
The crypto is easy to determine, the dollars not so. Some are having audits to provide trust and transparency.
The clearing houses and financial levers are more complex than many understand. Our financial systems operate on trust, credit, and risk more than they do on having everything working in proper order.
I'm not saying crypto is THE solution and maybe in it's current state it isn't. I have learned a lot more about what exists today because I have something to contrast it too and I understand different pros/cons that I didn't see before.
> I've never encouraged people to buy crypto and if someone does [encourage people to buy crypto], they are not as smart as you or they think.
> I personally invest in crypto because fundamentally I believe something deeper that I hope works.
I've implemented my own blockchains, I have produced patents in the space, I have spoken and worked in this space for a significant amount of time.
Pumping and dumping is a get rich scheme which is destroying the perception with very real victims. I feel bad for people young and old that attempt to play in the stock market options space and lose it all because they are gambling thinking they will get rich.
I feel equally for those getting hurt in crypto despite the sad reality that they should have come in with questions not hope of a windfall.
These two things are more alike than different in my opinion
I had a lot of friends reaching out to understand more. A lot of them didn't really like the reality of how simple it would be to lift and mint a new thing. They were convinced they were holding a winning lottery ticket and I was a bad guy for saying it wasn't what they thought.
I've never encouraged people to buy crypto and if someone does, they are not as smart as you or they think. I personally invest in crypto because fundamentally I believe something deeper that I hope works.
Parasites live in the real world, the digital world, on the internet attached to whale buyers, and in the real ocean attached to real whales.
I've been burned so many times in crypto but I've been burned equally, if not more, by options offers, RSU bonuses and blackout periods, company mergers and subsequent outcomes of my shares, 401k/, etc etc.
We are constantly outrunning this wave and we are asking for transparency. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't but we need to be expecting this public nature of failure and not being able to hide the juggling of balance sheets to hide insolvency
I think to expect perfection in timing and aligning work done by humans, even where someone could make reasonable foresight arguments, is overlooking how challenging this wide level of supporting an ecosystem is.
The response they made is in regards to security and making ut clear to users that they are expected to be anti-fragile to change. Even if the roadmap itself changes.
I've changed decisions, even flip-flopped several times due to uncertainty. When at the heart of the message they are acting with positive intent, I applaud their short, sweet, and to the point message along with their reasoning.
I worked with an organization that allowed TLS 1.1 for far too long because customers systems hadn't been updated. If they paid enough money, we had to allow it. Meanwhile we were getting beat up by the competition because, "Why would any good development company allow this?!?"
MS and OSX are locked down enough that you need to be fairly clever to begin with just to get off the beaten path.
I think community is always the way to go when heading down the Nix road, you all are doing an incredible job with it!
It's fairly obvious in hindsight but the idea that everyone running a general purpose computer wouldn't recognize enough value to try and take over the network. Running your own node would be more realistic and the "user" and the "miner" would be on a much more equal footing (and likely one in the same).
Arbitrage and all of the boiler room tricks of the stock market were applied instantly. Add this the centralized power of mining farms increasing incentives and the race for lightning chains creating these black box dark pools and we are just getting up to speed with similar problems we face today in public markets.
The biggest difference is that we can dig into the details in a very convenient way which is the constant balancing act of getting people to care enough to look.
Front-running on a consensus based system where transactions are public... almost like they took a look at every system to date and picked the low hanging fruit for exploitation.
It's either a server somewhere handling tasks in a queue or the client is the server. I hate that we have to care so much about "words" but I've seen far too many walking away with an impression that the server is unimportant or requires little maintenance in this model. I'd argue it becomes even more important because of how persistence, consensus, availability, etc works /rant
That being said, always excited to see work coming out of webassembly. Network is the computer
I think a more pointed argument is the relationship the software, hardware, and consumer has in this.
As consumers we really can only vote with our purchasing and much of it is mired in learning by induction what we do/don't want.
The walled garden and immense control of iOS is great until it isn't. The open landscape and diversity of Android is great until it isn't.
The hardware manufacture and telecoms are an added pain in the mobile ecosystem. They want a hook into getting advertising in front of you so some of this hardware is subsidized through bloatware and system level apps that can't be removed. I have an Amazon Prime app that I cannot uninstall (only hide) because it is a system app!?! Hardware manufacturing is a loss at the start of the sale and supporting it is an added cost.
The economics of the system are problematic and going to iOS will only work long enough until it doesn't. Point I'm making is the problem is upstream.
I say this because I am exactly that. I often cut straight to the point and can't really read the room. I think I'm helping and being brutally honest when in reality it comes off condescending or arrogant.
I heard a quote that I really like, honesty without kindness is cruelty. That helped me rethink my approach towards how I communicate.
I love these styles of development where it can be thrown together quickly but complete the full spectrum of ux, creativity, and hitting that sweet spot that felt satisfying to play.
Seriously well done!
Crypto is not for buying your latte. It's for the people that cannot trust the system that issues the money to begin with. In your country perhaps it's not an issue. I am sure there are plenty of countries you can see that it is.
How much impact does the banking institution makes vs how much crypto makes. Comparison is not a novel concept and is quite literally part of the scientific method.
It's almost like you are intentionally sowing seeds of misinformation and distrust to redirect...or you just like throwing stones from glass houses.
Your argument is flawed. Making a bomb has a narrow purpose to do damage. Banking institutions do dramatically more damage. This is a potential alternative removing middlemen from the equation and operating at a fixed rate.
Proof of Work didn't predict the use of ASICs and was intended for common hardware that would make dominating the pool cost prohibitive. Proof if Stake is one alternative although has its own issues.
Yes, greed is what you are angry at. That is absolutely the problem. If you are truly upset about the environmental impact then moving upstream to energy producers should be your target.
Nuclear is astronomically more energy dense and has made significant strides in zero waste plants and safety features. Then again you aren't complaining about the banking institutions impact on climate which outscales crypto and continues to climb.
I don't "boost" crypto. I disagree that crypto is how we should buy our lattes.
If you live in a country where financial independence and control is not a reality this could be something greater than the corrupt system you are trying to extricate yourself from.
There is rampant corruption in crypto and although I feel easier to see, still a dangerous investment vehicle.
Is this the thing that changes the world? I think it did in some ways already. Is it the final iteration? I doubt it.
As a first cut, I am wholly impressed and I believe it can create something different.
An exchange is merely a full node with a user interface.
To operate as an exchange there are certain KYC/AML rules they must follow.
Setting up a node takes about 20 minutes and then letting it sync for a couple hours to a day depending on your internet.
You can send crypto with as high or low as a fee as you want...it's just a manipulation of the queueing metric and which transactions miners add to the chain. With exchanges they set that for you.