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milcron

897 karma · joined May 17, 2016

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milcron··on Why Pencils Are Yellow (2017)
>Manufacturers usually painted their pencils if they were looking to cover up imperfections in the wood. Accordingly, typical paint colors were dark: purple, red, maroon, or black. But Hardtmuth was looking for a way to advertise the caliber of its graphite rather than its wood.

Bright color to stand out, as opposed to dark colors hiding imperfections. Another stretch, perhaps.

milcron··on Robotic 'trees' can turn CO2 into concrete
If a woodpile isn't dense enough, then surely building homes and furniture out of wood isn't dense enough either.

Can you think of a better way to store carbon!

milcron··on I don't trust Signal
The open-source base OS is fine, the closed-source services layer and cloud platform are not.
milcron··on Power Worth Less Than Zero Spreads as Green Energy Floods the Grid
Electricity isn't a great market. End-users with solar power are allowed to use the grid as a perfectly free battery, which is why everyone is dumping power on the grid at high noon.
milcron··on Power Worth Less Than Zero Spreads as Green Energy Floods the Grid
That's mostly due to the hydroelectric dams, though. Negative prices come from too much solar power in the middle of the day.
milcron··on Coinbase Custody is exploring a range of new assets
1 Satoshi is currently worth $0.000069, and transactions are being approved for as low as 2¢. So this isn't currently a big problem.

In the future, bitcoin could be extended to have more digits. Or perhaps this will be dealt with on a second layer. Lightning transactions could deal with sub-satoshi quantities.

milcron··on Coinbase Custody is exploring a range of new assets
>Dogecoin seems to have a great use case due to its cheap price

What does the price per token have to do with anything? You can buy a fraction of a bitcoin, so I don't see how doge has any advantage over BTC here.

milcron··on Security Begins at the Home Router
This is quite possibly overkill, but I'm pleased with this setup at home:

    Cost | Purpose        | What
    $109 | Router         | PCEngines apu2c2 http://pcengines.ch/apu2c2.htm
     $10 | Router Case    | http://pcengines.ch/case1d2blku.htm
     $17 | Router Storage | http://pcengines.ch/msata16g.htm
     $30 | Gigabit Switch | https://www.amazon.com/D-Link-Gigabit-Unmanaged-Desktop-DGS-108/dp/B000BCC0LO/
     $80 | Wifi           | Ubiquiti Unifi Lite https://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-Unifi-Ap-AC-Lite-UAPACLITEUS/dp/B015PR20GY/
With this setup, the router only does _routing_, so you also need a Wireless Access Point (WAP). Connect it like so: Modem->Router->Switch->WAP.

Install pfSense on the router, configure the Unifi using Ubiquiti's Java app, and you're done. It's about $250 all together which _is_ more expensive than consumer routers, but IMHO it's worth the superior quality. The APU board is well-documented (PCEngines provides schematics!) and the firmware is based on Coreboot. The processor supports AES acceleration for faster encryption (great if you use VPNs!) PfSense is an enterprise-grade router/firewall with scads of graphs and features. And the Unifi has a great antenna with excellent range. Not to mention this setup leaves you with six spare ethernet ports on the switch.

milcron··on I’m leaving China
"concerns about the illiberal, authoritarian communist government of China"
milcron··on CopperheadOS update: Developer suspended from Reddit
>Well I don't really want to use Android. What I want is a long-battery-life GNU computer that fits in my pocket.

Librem5 is definitely something to watch: https://puri.sm/shop/librem-5/

I'm also watching the Pyra, but development is super slow: https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/

milcron··on CopperheadOS update: Developer suspended from Reddit
Daniel sounds rather burnt out, and also needs to find a new job. I wouldn't expect updates at the same pace.
milcron··on Comcast, in 2nd Try, Offers $65B Cash for 21st Century Fox
They could have more confidence now since the AT&T merger with Time Warner.
milcron··on [dead]
It wasn't at first. The change happened over a year ago.
milcron··on I fear Google's control of the web
Not to mention AMP on every news site, and Google Analytics on nearly every page.
milcron··on Does China’s digital police state have echoes in the West?
Which part of history are we rhyming with at the moment?
milcron··on Amazon follows Google and Apple and bans system-wide ad blockers on app store
>I also like going back into my browser history.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Firefox has browsing history, if that's what you mean.

There is a different product Firefox Focus which erases your history when the browser closes, maybe you're thinking of that.

milcron··on Amazon follows Google and Apple and bans system-wide ad blockers on app store
Firefox for Android supports full extensions, so you can install uBlock Origin or even uMatrix.
milcron··on People using Venmo to spy on cheating spouses
> Venmo IS PayPal, just with different branding

They were a startup in 2010 but got bought by PayPal in 2013.

milcron··on I wish mum's phone was never invented
It might not be new, but newspapers had to target the general public. Today's feeds are hyperfocused on individuals and their preferences.
milcron··on What Data Does Facebook Collect When I’m Not Using Facebook, and Why?
On some phones, Facebook comes preinstalled as a system-level app that cannot be uninstalled.

Idk what to recommend other than getting a phone that doesn't do that to you.

milcron··on OpenBSD 6.3 released
OpenBSD is great if you enjoy rooting around in the innards. I find the code simple and easy to read. Man pages are extraordinarily complete and accurate. OpenBSD devs go out of their way to delete unused and crufty code.
milcron··on Introducing the LineageOS SDK
> Copperhead is an information security firm located in Toronto, Canada, specializing in protecting mobile data and devices through security assessments and secure endpoint deployments.
milcron··on Japan’s Prisons Are a Haven for Elderly Women
QE is definitely a boost for asset prices, but the economy is way too complex and interrelated to draw such direct inferences.

All things being equal, a QE program ought to raise real estate prices.

milcron··on Bitmain, the largest mining hardware company, made around $4B last year
Lyra2re2-based coins such as Vertcoin and Monacoin.
milcron··on React Native and Yoga Both Given MIT Licence by Facebook
Wait, they're getting rid of the patents grant?
milcron··on OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble
What about OSMAnd for Android? https://osmand.net/
milcron··on Pineapple Fund Drops $1M on the Sustainable Ocean Alliance
What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?
milcron··on Chip advances require fresh ideas, speakers say
Ah, EL from ELectronics. Search was turning up nothing.
milcron··on Chip advances require fresh ideas, speakers say
What is SEL?
milcron··on Ending Bitcoin Support
That's true. But regardless of which ledger is "the real asset", there will only be 21 million of that coin.

You can clone the technology, but you can't clone societal acceptance.

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