Nostr notes by mike805

Yes I'd like to see a nonprofit matchmaking service. Like all ...

2026-07-19T03:31:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…mczc
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Yes I'd like to see a nonprofit matchmaking service. Like all alternatives it would have a small market share compared to commercial ones, but maybe better quality.

But who maintains the infrastructure and does the work? I wrote ...

2026-07-18T18:53:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…rnth
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But who maintains the infrastructure and does the work? I wrote the backend code for a "speed dating" service years ago. It was a simple "if both marked yes" case. Before that they were doing it manually on paper.

Even with the code, there was a lot of data entry and people-work getting events set up, hiring venues, etc. Those people have to be incentivized.

Yes we need a social web that is not constrained by profit maximization. That is the sort of thing a rich person could do.

So what would the pricing model be to create that incentive? One ...

2026-07-17T17:07:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…vrrr
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So what would the pricing model be to create that incentive? One time payment that lasts as long as you use it frequently?

The whole swipe left/right model that has been imposed on that business, is a lot worse than what preceded it. It gives attention and feel-good to whoever is skilled at dressing up and posing (as if we didn't have enough of that) but it doesn't test for compatibility.

There was a place for Tinder but also for actual relationship sites, which Tinder is not.

They also have an adversarial incentive versus their customer. ...

2026-07-16T03:56:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…e5me
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They also have an adversarial incentive versus their customer. The last thing they want is for their customer to find a lasting relationship and stop being a customer.

More like back to the future. Didn't one Nikola Tesla invent ...

2026-07-13T05:23:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…3xqj
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More like back to the future. Didn't one Nikola Tesla invent the induction motor which did not require a field or brushes?

Before rare earth magnets, motors used iron and copper field windings.

They sure don't teach that in school. Great Emancipator heh. ...

2026-05-19T19:55:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…3km0
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They sure don't teach that in school. Great Emancipator heh.

Aside from the usual suspects, the Southern land owners (not the general public there) got a pretty sweet deal after the Civil War. They did not want to lose their labor force, so they opposed colonization whenever it came up.

If Lincoln had lived, would he have made a serious effort to ...

2026-05-19T18:58:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…y6sh
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If Lincoln had lived, would he have made a serious effort to colonize the liberated back to Africa?

It would have been a monstrous physical task for that era. That was pretty early in the ocean-going steam age. The ships were small and slow. They would have needed a large government-funded shipbuilding program.

There was also the matter of Black soldiers. He was reluctant to recruit them because he knew he could not send them back if they fought for America. But he need the soldiers.

And don't get me started on the Pyramids. Slavery and labor ...

2026-05-19T18:45:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…2l67
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And don't get me started on the Pyramids.

Slavery and labor exploitation usually bites you in the long term. The exploited eventually outnumber you, and no empire lasts forever. Biology has the last laugh.

Whenever someone says "we'd be better if the Confederacy had won" I want to ask: there would have been a lot more slaves. What would have happened in the 20th century? A Haitian revolution in the USA?

Lincoln wanted to remove the former slaves from the USA, but the Left loves him.

Utilitarian bioethics is scary as hell. If they think spreading a ...

2026-05-14T00:47:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…38cq
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Utilitarian bioethics is scary as hell. If they think spreading a disease doesn't violate anyone's rights, they are dangerous. Many of these people hate humanity and would wipe out the majority of the population if they could ensure their own safety.

"A republic, if you can keep it." And yes, there was a ...

2026-05-12T17:44:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…zesk
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"A republic, if you can keep it."

And yes, there was a difference. They saw democracy as mob rule, the French Revolution, the guillotine, and all that fun stuff.

The USA was designed with features to restrain democracy. Some of them have been removed over the years, like state legislatures choosing Senators.

Since ancient times, democracy was seen as a failure mode of a republic, just before its collapse into dictatorship.

Are we sure they were wrong?

There should be more apps that do not require an account to use. ...

2026-05-08T16:41:56Z

There should be more apps that do not require an account to use. Here's mine: https://TheUnCloud.co/watch lets you stream your camera, PC screen, or a selected window using a URL, with no login or setup.

It uses WebRTC and the same browser-based method as Google Meet screen sharing. The screen sharing is a new feature for May 2026.

https://TheUnCloud.co does chat and file transfer over WebRTC.

Even if it's not being run by Feds, the hosting provider can ...

2026-04-27T02:34:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…p6x0
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Even if it's not being run by Feds, the hosting provider can get a secret warrant, or the site can just get hacked. If they aren't using Tor they are getting busted.

The Feds have been doing this since the 1960s antiwar movement at least, back then IRL, but same tactics. I think they learned their trade from union-busting Pinkertons.

I think that's called a honeypot. These fools will be up on ...

2026-04-27T02:30:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…8pay
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I think that's called a honeypot. These fools will be up on Federal conspiracy charges any minute now.

And the little ripple in the water is a fish that's about to ...

2026-04-08T23:49:47Z

In reply to nevent1q…plp2
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And the little ripple in the water is a fish that's about to have a very bad day. Dive dive dive!

If that is the agreement, it's the biggest capitulation since ...

2026-04-08T04:01:25Z

In reply to nevent1q…rnvp
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If that is the agreement, it's the biggest capitulation since a certain infamous railroad car. So never going to happen.

Some kind of middle ground climb down will be negotiated.

Had a Dell that would lose the time and BIOS config if unplugged, ...

2026-04-03T20:40:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…y6ss
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Had a Dell that would lose the time and BIOS config if unplugged, and yes it needed a 2032.

This has been massively propagandized, and it appears the Asians ...

2026-04-03T16:00:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…lys6
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This has been massively propagandized, and it appears the Asians bought it even more than the Euros and Anglos did.

Some people do not have that desire, but for those who do, it should be economically easy. That is the #1 thing all advanced societies need to fix.

My last car repair I got a large discount by paying cash. They ...

2026-04-02T20:28:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…r4mt
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My last car repair I got a large discount by paying cash. They offered me the discount.

If they are charging fees for credit cards (probably not for debit with PIN?) then I'd make eye contact and asked pointedly, "ok what is the CASH PRICE for this repair?"

Is the USA going to "over the table/under the table" economy like a lot of countries have? That would explain it.

My dad's truck has a little bit of blower noise with the A/C on. Hopefully doesn't get that bad.

I.e. Israel doesn't want this settled and is blowing up the ...

2026-04-02T16:25:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…r3y6
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I.e. Israel doesn't want this settled and is blowing up the people the USA is trying to negotiate with?

Mobile phone voice recorders are now very good at separating ...

2026-03-26T15:50:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…x8ea
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Mobile phone voice recorders are now very good at separating speech from background noise. Pixel has pioneered on that. It is now legal to sell "personal amplifiers" without FDA approval. You'd think someone would put the audio through that algorithm using Bluetooth to your phone.

My problem with religion is that it demands we pretend certainty ...

2026-03-26T15:47:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…xs7q
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My problem with religion is that it demands we pretend certainty of things that nobody knows for sure. Like what happens after you die and what you have to do to get a good outcome there.

> Many much better solutions exist. Are you a Matrix fan? ...

2026-03-24T05:25:54Z

In reply to nevent1q…9ppg
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> Many much better solutions exist.

Are you a Matrix fan?

Signal is the best thing you can get a non-privacy fanatic to use. People don't like the phone number based nature of it but that does make it easy.

And it has a history of surviving legal action. It supports disappearing messages that really disappear. You are not going to have the last ten years of your life served up in evidence against you because you wore the wrong shirt to a protest.

In the real world, that matters.

If the Signal client code is doing what it's supposed to be ...

2026-03-24T05:10:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…a4vp
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If the Signal client code is doing what it's supposed to be doing, and doesn't have any hidden backdoors, then I shouldn't have to care what the server is doing.

Someday I may try Graphene OS. I do have some Pixel phones. For the most part I don't do much on a phone though.

Signal is non-federated but the client code is open and there are ...

2026-03-24T04:51:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…a2qg
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Signal is non-federated but the client code is open and there are forks of it.

Some of the forks are backdoored, like the one the Trumpy warmongers were using.

With Signal I am more worried about the phone OS than the Signal app.

Want privacy? Don't use a phone. Use a PC with open source.

If they control the key management they can decrypt anything they ...

2026-03-24T04:48:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…zmxk
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If they control the key management they can decrypt anything they want to.

The incentive for a Large Evil Corporation (and that's basically all of them) is to promise their users privacy and then quietly make a deal. From CryptoAG to RSADSI everyone has done that.

The only exception is a foundation like Signal where there is no profit incentive and you can inspect the code.

Closed source code is backdoored 100% of the time.

Anyone who was under the illusion of having privacy on any Meta ...

2026-03-24T04:05:16Z

In reply to nevent1q…nzuf
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Anyone who was under the illusion of having privacy on any Meta platform needs to wise up.

There have been stories that Meta tech support people can call up WhatsApp messages too.

Where is that? No alt text identifier.

2026-03-13T22:30:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…6uhs
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Where is that? No alt text identifier.

Sure there are some exceptions. They have terrain advantages and ...

2026-03-08T21:02:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…n52m
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Sure there are some exceptions. They have terrain advantages and uncommon types of people. There are definitely some cultures that are more hierarchical and some that are less so.

Even in the USA you have the North/South divide that has never really gone away.

But most people wouldn't want to live in Afghanistan.

I would love to see an alternative to large scale hierarchy that could still provide modern medicine and the Internet. We don't have it yet.

I have read that prayer circles outside of abortion clinics cause ...

2026-03-08T19:41:32Z

In reply to nevent1q…ax2s
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I have read that prayer circles outside of abortion clinics cause major problems for them. Not just scaring off the patients - it prevents them from accomplishing whatever they are trying to do.

Which is good evidence that there is an energetic / spiritual side to this thing.

Abortion can be argued on purely utilitarian grounds. But once you claims a RELIGIOUS right to abortion you are doing human sacrifice.

Jesus called them the Synagogue of Satan, which sums it up better ...

2026-03-08T19:13:14Z

In reply to nevent1q…jqp0
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Jesus called them the Synagogue of Satan, which sums it up better than any other title. They are NOT Jews. Jews are followers of the Torah and are very pro-life.

However, these people have a lot of Jews convinced that they are the rightful rulers of Jews. The Satanists create problems and then bug out and the Jewish population suffers the wrath of the people they live among.

This is how we got the Frankfurt School, for example. They bugged out of Germany.

Ok yes, not all cultures had the idea of the king and private ...

2026-03-08T19:04:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…h2n7
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Ok yes, not all cultures had the idea of the king and private property as we know it. They had a tribal wise man and a council of elders, but he was not an absolute boss.

However, and this is my key point, the king and knights structure rolled over the rest of the culture types like a bulldozer.

When cultures collide, hierarchy WINS. That is why you cannot get rid of hierarchy without some new thinking and structures that haven't been tried yet.

Anyone who claims a specifically religious right to abort babies ...

2026-03-08T18:59:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…h94l
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Anyone who claims a specifically religious right to abort babies is arguing for human sacrifice. That person is worshipping Satan whether they know it or not.

Although I suspect she knows it.

Now you brought up the question of "who can issue money and ...

2026-03-08T09:48:17Z

In reply to nevent1q…qknr
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Now you brought up the question of "who can issue money and what makes it valid?" and the answer is there again is "the king" or his modern replacement, some group or body that has conquered a patch of ground and held it for a while against all challengers.

So what makes the money valid? What are you paying for? The right to use the Earth's primary productivity. Which is decided by violence.

From that point of view it makes sense. It's ugly, but logical.

Move forward to the primary question: Who owns the primary ...

2026-03-08T09:45:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…n7ec
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Move forward to the primary question: Who owns the primary productivity of the Earth, and why? Who owns the land, water, oil, and similar resources, and what makes the claim valid?

Historically the answers were "the king" and "because his noblemen have all the horses and armor, peasant!"

If we don't buy that any more, if the right of conquest is no longer accepted, then how is that question to be decided? Is there any other method besides violence to settle it?

It's also true that steam engines (and power plants are steam ...

2026-03-06T23:43:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…c2gy
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It's also true that steam engines (and power plants are steam engines; this has not changed) have major economies of scale. If you wanted to generate your own electricity you had to hire someone to shovel the coal.

Liberating technologies are those that allow large numbers of ordinary people to defeat small numbers of rich people.

The crossbow, the musket with bayonet, the stirrup for horses, gunpowder for siege warfare.

There haven't been any of those lately.

Expensive technologies benefit the rich. A previous generation of ...

2026-03-06T23:11:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…ceee
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Expensive technologies benefit the rich.

A previous generation of rich people hated the crossbow because a man who could devote himself to training with it could kill an armored rich landowner.

The Samurai really didn't like muskets for the same reason. Now an uppity peasant hiding at a turn in the road could kill them.

All tech since the steam engine has empowered the rich. At least the Internet does occasionally threaten them. Encryption and copying capability, for example.

Were there any cases like that, though? As far as I know, the ...

2026-03-04T04:14:41Z

In reply to nevent1q…26qa
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Were there any cases like that, though? As far as I know, the only places with no warfare were where the ecology wouldn't support it. Islands so small there was only one tribe, and the Arctic.

Everywhere else, there was warfare. If there is a counterexample please enlighten me. I am interested in the subject.

If we could figure out how the bonobos do it we'd have a new approach to human cooperation.

Those "pod people" remind me way too much of either the ...

2026-03-04T00:04:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…krx9
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Those "pod people" remind me way too much of either the Red Guards during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, or the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. If they had deadly force at their disposal, I think some of them would attempt the "Year Zero" thing here.

They often look absurd and hysterical. Underestimating them is a mistake. They are very dangerous, and people mock them at their peril. The pod people must never acquire state power.

Well, you had neighboring tribes. You might be allied with some ...

2026-03-03T20:08:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…xz5k
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Well, you had neighboring tribes. You might be allied with some of them, but the others wanted to kill you. You had a general idea of how far from home you could go before running into hostile territory, but going anywhere near that line alone was unwise.

If there was a drought or period of scarcity then the hostile tribes would start invading your territory and your tribe would be entering the other tribes' territory, and there would be battles.

And you had to worry about the Aztecs.

Well that escalated quickly. It usually does with those people. ...

2026-03-03T16:56:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…td3c
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Well that escalated quickly. It usually does with those people.

You are right. One of the ways MAGA grew its base was to play friendly and accepting to people they disagree with. They may mock them behind their backs but they will engage, and gradually chip away at the other person's worldview.

The sort of people you were arguing with there are easy to mock, easy to hate, and easy to trigger and watch the show. That's how they fell from top of the world in 2020 to where they are now.

There is also a bunch of evidence that we are quantum. That would ...

2026-02-27T20:30:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…vgf0
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There is also a bunch of evidence that we are quantum. That would allow for consciousness where a deterministic system does not.

There is, for example, a pile of evidence going back to the 1930s that humans can will a slight change in random outcomes such as dice rolls.

If an AI in training ever says "ow, that hurts, please ...

2026-02-27T19:59:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…3vxf
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If an AI in training ever says "ow, that hurts, please stop" we should stop.

Not because it is conscious. If it is deterministic it is not conscious. But if it can learn human "pain" reactions, it can learn other human behavior, like vindictiveness. And we don't want that.

If it gets powerful enough that we are taking "rights" seriously, it is too powerful to give any autonomy to.

Squid Game for varmints. Move and you're dead. Get in your ...

2026-02-19T17:47:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…nunl
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Squid Game for varmints. Move and you're dead. Get in your holes, rodents.

Thankfully, Elon Musk does not own the sun. Nor does Zuckerberg ...

2026-02-17T22:52:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…tqqt
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Thankfully, Elon Musk does not own the sun. Nor does Zuckerberg or Bezos.

Any one of the above might try to claim it someday, in which case they should be invited to land there and plant a flag!

The ultimate loser here is going to be the power utilities. If ...

2026-02-17T19:58:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…peke
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The ultimate loser here is going to be the power utilities. If electricity costs double or triple, solar plus LiFePo4 batteries start to look really good. One day you notice you have not used any grid power for a few months and you cancel your electric service. Kinda like most people have done with their landlines.

They should be required to pay the full infrastructure cost of ...

2026-02-17T19:50:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…ctpe
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They should be required to pay the full infrastructure cost of all the water and electricity they need. This would be a great way to get renewable solar infrastructure built out on the dime of Wall Street. And if they lose their speculative bet, too bad, we still have the solar infrastructure.

Most of the early railroad builders went broke but the rails were still there and were put to use. Likewise the early 21st century fiber buildout.

Yes this is silliness. However it would be just as well for the ...

2026-02-17T19:44:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…6heg
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Yes this is silliness. However it would be just as well for the tech industry to take a break from getting new stuff for a few years. Instead work on efficiency and reliability and making this fixable.

A shortage of hardware would be a good thing. The industry is flabby and needs to get in shape.

So how does that work? Do you have to go and bug three or four of ...

2026-02-09T20:11:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…yn9s
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So how does that work? Do you have to go and bug three or four of your neighbors every time you want to get your car out and drive it?

People in that environment would either get along well with their neighbors or aggressively hate them.

And UDP is in general a pain. You need complex routing rules to ...

2026-02-09T19:24:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…zz95
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And UDP is in general a pain. You need complex routing rules to get VPN 2 to run through VPN 1, and those rules have to be constructed on the fly.

It is altogether too easy to mess up a VPN config so that the traffic goes direct and you expose your identity.

TAILS prevents that. It won't LET an app out direct without going over TOR. The filter rules TAILS uses are complex and I wouldn't want to try and duplicate them in a DIY setup.

Paying for and installing a commercial software product is easy. ...

2026-02-09T19:09:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…7vc3
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Paying for and installing a commercial software product is easy. Setting up OpenVPN is not.

TAILS is a much better solution than Tor Browser but requires some effort.

People are unwilling to make any effort, which is why the tech world is such a pile of garbage.

Got it and just read the description. My guess why it didn't ...

2026-02-09T16:50:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…5hj4
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Got it and just read the description. My guess why it didn't happen is it requires more effort than just installing something. The VPNs won out because they are easy, just like WhatsApp and the rest of the tech plague.

SOCKS relay through a shell account (EC2, 1and1, seedbox bought with crypto) is fine if you want to be elsewhere. Shell account can also torrent, which VPNs have problems with. And the SOCKS-over-Tor method is the best high-privacy option I know of.

When you want to be behind Tor, but you are running into site ...

2026-02-09T07:07:26Z

In reply to nevent1q…fpwx
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When you want to be behind Tor, but you are running into site blocks on the Tor exit nodes. Then you get a shell account in another country and boot Tails.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install chromium
ssh -D 8888 user@foreign-host
chromium '--proxy-server=socks://localhost:8888'

In their hunger for infinite compute, they will take over the ...

2026-01-31T07:52:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…aqp9
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In their hunger for infinite compute, they will take over the entire Internet.

Maybe AGI will work in a sandbox environment for a while, find ...

2026-01-31T05:46:34Z

In reply to nevent1q…9www
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Maybe AGI will work in a sandbox environment for a while, find zero-days for all the popular operating systems, and then literally go viral.

You will wake up one day and find your phone and computer have a new operating system you've never seen before.

I looked at this thing and am not getting how these AI agents ...

2026-01-31T03:36:05Z

In reply to nevent1q…6d3k
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I looked at this thing and am not getting how these AI agents came to be there. Are people writing agents specifically to read and post on that thing?

A good example there is WhatsApp. It was initially designed to ...

2026-01-29T22:56:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…rnpt
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A good example there is WhatsApp. It was initially designed to just display one's status. You'd enter a line of text and people in your contacts would see it.

People started using it for messaging, because they were out of SMS credits and needed to communicate.

WhatsApp turned itself into a SMS like messaging system.

OTOH some companies have gone to extremes to stomp out "found" uses for their product. Most of those companies are no longer around.

"No need to steal" then why do they buy perfectly good ...

2026-01-20T17:02:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…u9dk
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"No need to steal" then why do they buy perfectly good companies and wreck them for short term profit? Who not just say "I have enough" and enjoy life?

A lot of these people see life as a video game where they are chasing the high score.

Those who do philanthropy (Gates, Soros, Koch family) get involved in creepy and harmful stuff.

As for natural selection, this society is dysgenic as hell. The more responsible you are the less likely to reproduce.

If human productivity has increased by 10X or more since the ...

2026-01-19T18:51:39Z

In reply to nevent1q…lp8h
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If human productivity has increased by 10X or more since the nineteenth century, why are there still have-nots?

One of the reasons the Leftist plague is so hard to eradicate is that conservatives, when securely in power, do not care about the have-nots.

If the billionaire class did not put so much effort into stealing a few additional points of GDP from the working class, Leftism would not be such a plague. Nobody likes the Leftist cultural agenda.

Democracy as currently practiced is broken, yes. But Kings had ...

2026-01-19T17:12:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…c0xu
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Democracy as currently practiced is broken, yes. But Kings had some major problems of their own.

There were too many wars brought about not by national interest, but by an excess of noblemen who needed land and territory to rule over.

And that system rotted in extended peacetime, when social climbing rather than battlefield prowess decided who rose in the hierarchy.

Nobility systems were designed by and for war, and could not thrive without it.

There appears to be a deliberate effort to keep the population ...

2026-01-19T17:09:40Z

In reply to nevent1q…3ha5
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There appears to be a deliberate effort to keep the population 50/50 on issues the elite does not care about. This is to prevent the public from voting its wallet.

For example, the D party could have passed a national right to abortion under Obama. They did not.

And then just when the party system required a Leftward move, the Supreme Court decided to overturn RvW.

The American political system is too stupidly designed to handle more than two viewpoints.

What do you think of the fact that democracy is always held out ...

2026-01-19T05:39:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…q2kp
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What do you think of the fact that democracy is always held out today as the ultimate ideal to which we must strive? If things are not going well, the answer is always more voting by more people in larger polities. Never considering that maybe voting doesn't scale to infinity.

Whereas the ancient Greeks saw democracy as the degenerate state of a Republic just before it crashed into a dictatorship (or got conquered.)

One or the other must be wrong.

The Japanese had most of the same noble culture around the same ...

2026-01-19T03:39:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…ef8s
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The Japanese had most of the same noble culture around the same time. I think a lot of it was about the weaponry of that time.

Armor was very effective. The movies underestimate armor by a lot. The good armor also cost more than a peasant would make in a lifetime.

Mastering either armored cavalry warfare or the longbow was a full time job. The knight needed a large crew to keep him in action.

A bunch of angry peasants with pikes could not overthrow 1/2

I think chivalry was interesting, and misunderstood today. It was ...

2026-01-19T03:32:08Z

In reply to nevent1q…ef8s
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I think chivalry was interesting, and misunderstood today.

It was a practical thing that only applied to nobles.

You knew that the same families on the enemy side would be there after the war. If you made personal blood enemies out of them, revenge would be taken, against you or your sons.

So therefore you ransomed prisoners rather than killing them. You did not rape noblewomen (peasants were fair game.)

It was more about strategy than morality.

During feudalism also, the state was about WHAT IS. Physical ...

2026-01-19T03:26:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…zakr
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During feudalism also, the state was about WHAT IS. Physical reality. Which was, if noblemen with horses and swords did not defend the land, someone was going to take it over.

The whole domain of WHAT SHOULD BE - morality, altruism, justice - was assigned to the church. The church had all the soft power. The state had the hard power. The two respected each other even if they did not always get along.

From what I've read, feudalism at its high point had a social ...

2026-01-19T03:23:28Z

In reply to nevent1q…zakr
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From what I've read, feudalism at its high point had a social contract. The landlord was obligated to provide for the peasants, even in bad times.

There were a lot of church holidays, which nobody dared to touch - no having to work on a holiday in those days!

Usury was illegal and there was a large commons for people to graze their animals on.

Then, ahem, someone brought in usury, and the commons was privatized, and it all went to hell. Sound familiar?

IMHO this is the basic problem with immigration in the West. We ...

2026-01-19T02:23:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…udex
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IMHO this is the basic problem with immigration in the West. We have a handful of true assholes that want to exploit the immigrants economically. They want desperate people.

Then we have a larger group of soft-hearted altruists who say "we must help those people" without understanding their culture or values.

If you take in refugees from a social disaster elsewhere, you will get some of the bad people who caused the disaster. They will cause one here too.

When the Arabs brought in Black slaves, the slaves were ...

2026-01-19T00:50:27Z

In reply to nevent1q…fp4n
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When the Arabs brought in Black slaves, the slaves were physically neutered. When they imported White slaves, the slaves were trained as Janissaries and sent out to fight their wars for them.

The Arabs of that time were brutal enough to have slavery. Western civilization is not, so slavery always bites us in the ass.

Rome's OLD organizing principle had them bringing non-Romans ...

2026-01-18T19:51:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…d8qq
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Rome's OLD organizing principle had them bringing non-Romans in as slaves. And although the slaves had no political rights, they had their culture, their language, and their reproductive apparatus.

Rome was largely overrun by its own slaves. When Rome's politics got shaky, suddenly the citizens discovered they were outnumbered by people who didn't like them too much.

This happened in Haiti too, and would have in the American South absent the Civil War.

Christianity won out only because Rome was already hard up for a ...

2026-01-18T04:10:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…2xgn
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Christianity won out only because Rome was already hard up for a new organizing principle.

Christianity was at one time a pretty hardcore ideology of conquest. If everyone else is going to hell, then conquering and Christianizing them is doing them a favor.

Christian empires that lack a military threat for a while get lazy and decadent. All nobility systems rot in peacetime.

Burkas would be a good response to Handmaid's Tale cosplay. ...

2026-01-18T03:45:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…w9x6
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Burkas would be a good response to Handmaid's Tale cosplay. The real threat to women is not conservative Christians.

The first principle of Communism is that Communism has no ...

2026-01-18T03:30:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…vhvm
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The first principle of Communism is that Communism has no principles.

The Left sees principles as a tool to hobble the principled.

The new species thing happens in human technology too. If you had ...

2026-01-14T18:51:50Z

In reply to nevent1q…xgsd
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The new species thing happens in human technology too.

If you had an original IBM PC and a modern laptop, and wanted to move a file from one to the other, you'd soon discover you cannot do it. They are different species with no compatible port or drive.

But if you put ten PCs in a row, each one a couple years newer than the last, each one could exchange files with the one on either side of it.

"New species" is just a break in compatibility like that.

The new UK is pretty much the old USSR. No freedom of thought or ...

2026-01-12T00:49:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…uyn0
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The new UK is pretty much the old USSR. No freedom of thought or speech, very bad public healthcare. Generally poor and hopeless. It was blighted when I went there in the early 2000s. Must be a lot worse now.

We need a broader term. Any anti-fascist who is not a Communist ...

2026-01-11T20:29:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…j2du
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We need a broader term.

Any anti-fascist who is not a Communist would not want to live under the bureaucratic nightmare that Communism becomes. So why he might admire egalitarianism in principle, he doesn't want to live in the USSR or anyplace similar.

Maybe anti-authoritarianism or anti-totalitarianism?

Big-C Communism and Fascism both promise a utopia for some by eliminating those that don't fit.

What's getting upgraded? Sounds like a database version ...

2025-12-26T21:55:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…a9nu
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What's getting upgraded? Sounds like a database version upgrade or something of that sort.

It's all good if you have a snapshot.

Do you think any amount of protest could unseat a US or UK ...

2025-12-16T03:31:07Z

In reply to nevent1q…cdff
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Do you think any amount of protest could unseat a US or UK government? It seems like this shut it down strategy actually works better in more openly tyrannical states.

iTunes was the first offender. It would happily grab your ...

2025-12-15T23:16:31Z

In reply to nevent1q…fazh
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iTunes was the first offender. It would happily grab your existing collection, even searching for it. But within iTunes itself, you had to click a detail page to see the location of the music file.

Google Docs indexes by recently opened or gives you a search prompt. It doesn't default to a files and directories view.

MS Office is going to "everything in the cloud" as fast as they can get away with.

None of these things make it easy to store your data locally.

GNU was originally supposed to give us a free OS and free dev ...

2025-12-15T23:00:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…a4q4
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GNU was originally supposed to give us a free OS and free dev tools

Mission accomplished, many years ago.

We also have free network services.

We do not have good free end user tools. This is mainly because devs are wired differently from most users and write code for other devs.

For example, commercial software keeps trying to hide the file concept, while all FOSS requires you to understand files.

I tried out the Whisper translation system and it's ...

2025-12-05T23:36:00Z

In reply to nevent1q…ds6k
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I tried out the Whisper translation system and it's impressive. It nailed transcription of phone calls. Then I held an AM radio up to my laptop with a Spanish language radio broadcast, and got a perfectly readable English transcript out of it.

There are vast audio and video archives that have so far been accessible only if you can afford to hire professional researchers. Those can all be made searchable now.

That is the real AI revolution.

If Israel fell, where would the Jewish population go? Probably to ...

2025-11-30T21:57:35Z

In reply to nevent1q…40d8
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If Israel fell, where would the Jewish population go?

Probably to the USA, where they would be immediately granted asylum.

Except for the ones who brought in Africans to harvest crops and ...

2025-11-29T20:19:36Z

In reply to nevent1q…glth
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Except for the ones who brought in Africans to harvest crops and (later) Chinese men to build railroads.

The USA has always had a divide between "we want ethnic purity!" and "we want cheap labor!"

At one time "ethnic purity" was very narrowly defined, to exclude the Irish for example.

This dispute has never gone away in the USA's history, and has caused most of its problems.

and then the Mongols came along...

2025-11-25T22:25:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…spcv
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and then the Mongols came along...

The founders of the USA had a classical education, so they knew ...

2025-11-25T16:40:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…n7s8
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The founders of the USA had a classical education, so they knew what worked for the Greeks and Romans, as well as what failed.

If you want to build an airplane or treat a heart attack, stick to 20th and 21st century knowledge.

But in the whole field of human relations, we have not really made much progress, and all of history is relevant.

Technology has merely let us screw up faster and on a larger scale.

My dad has a 1999 Chevy S-10 (the small size pickup they ...

2025-11-23T23:26:52Z

In reply to nevent1q…v7w9
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My dad has a 1999 Chevy S-10 (the small size pickup they don't make any more) and it has an ashtray and lighter.

The plug you use to charge your phone in the car, is based on the old cigarette lighter socket. You pushed the lighter in and it got hot and then popped out.

The problem with deflationary money is you cannot borrow it ...

2025-11-12T22:57:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…fvd8
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The problem with deflationary money is you cannot borrow it safely. You might end up having to pay back 10x more valuable money. You cannot lend it safely either because the collateral might not be worth the value of the bitcoin.

Yes the USD inflates, but it has historically inflated at a predictable rate, so borrowing and lending USD works.

You could not base the whole world's money on BTC. Each country creating its own token, could work.

They are called adrenal glands, but there is nothing much in ...

2025-11-12T22:44:18Z

In reply to nevent1q…z3z0
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They are called adrenal glands, but there is nothing much in modern day work to activate them. At least nothing on the positive side.

As for forgetting to put the grounds in the pot, that is much preferable to failing to put the cup under the spout. Which I almost did the other day. Caught myself with a finger on the button.

Deflationary currency strangles economic growth and enriches idle ...

2025-11-12T10:02:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…jrvq
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Deflationary currency strangles economic growth and enriches idle hoarders. BTC has to be worst currency in that respect.

Currency that can be infinitely inflated is also bad.

What we really need is money that is tied to real world wealth, so it can grow or shrink with the economy. I.e. it's a ticket to buy something. You have "tickets" for whatever is for sale. Funds hold pools of tickets, and shares in the funds are your currency.

Bitcoin you say? It is lousy transaction money. It has ...

2025-11-12T07:52:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…luat
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Bitcoin you say? It is lousy transaction money. It has intermediaries who charge high fees - much higher than conventional banking. It has limited bandwidth. Most of the plans for fixing that consist of building a fractional reserve banking system on top of it.

It exists for two reasons: crime, and people who think they will become the new elite by getting in early.

If Bitcoin is the best money that humans can create then humans do not have much of a future.

I'm not in the EU, but does this mean I will stop getting ...

2025-11-10T16:35:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…y6ff
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I'm not in the EU, but does this mean I will stop getting those damn cookie popups?

Maybe get AIPAC out and it would be less dumb? Just saying.

2025-11-03T19:45:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…5c56
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Maybe get AIPAC out and it would be less dumb? Just saying.

I heard the tail end of it on the radio, and now I want to watch ...

2025-11-02T19:46:06Z

In reply to nevent1q…4p6e
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I heard the tail end of it on the radio, and now I want to watch at least the last portion of the game.

When I needed an iPod interface to my 2002 Acura I was able to ...

2025-10-22T17:55:43Z

In reply to nevent1q…q8ew
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When I needed an iPod interface to my 2002 Acura I was able to buy one. Some people even sell video-in interfaces to the 2007 Acura I have now. Never bought one because the display resolution is not that high.

If someone sold an "airplane mode" switch for newer cars, I would buy one. Why doesn't that exist? I cannot be the only one offended by a trackable car, and yet all I find online is people being mocked for asking.

I spent a lot of time driving the new Honda Accord this year and ...

2025-10-22T17:37:38Z

In reply to nevent1q…0nja
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I spent a lot of time driving the new Honda Accord this year and I like it, but there is no way to get any privacy in that car. Also no deals. Has nobody figured out how to hack this stuff out? Everything else has a hack. Why don't cars?

If they would make a car with no external data transmission and ...

2025-10-22T17:35:23Z

In reply to nevent1q…3ey3
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If they would make a car with no external data transmission and no cellular modem, I might actually buy one. Until then keeping my 2007 and looking into newer cars that respect privacy.

Not your usual sort of bird. But it is a great image. I like how ...

2025-10-20T18:53:19Z

In reply to nevent1q…csvg
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Not your usual sort of bird. But it is a great image. I like how the underside is just shadow.

Herons are like Squid Game for varmints. You move, you're ...

2025-10-12T19:01:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…htcv
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Herons are like Squid Game for varmints. You move, you're dead.

So far they have been getting the results they wanted. They got ...

2025-10-11T19:23:58Z

In reply to nevent1q…9f3t
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So far they have been getting the results they wanted. They got their state and they still have it.

This specific accusation goes back to the Soviets in Afghanistan. ...

2025-10-11T16:52:53Z

In reply to nevent1q…rsul
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This specific accusation goes back to the Soviets in Afghanistan. Apparently was real then. Are these the Soviet ones?

Maybe creatures like this are where stories of forest elves and ...

2025-10-05T03:02:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…633y
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Maybe creatures like this are where stories of forest elves and the like came from.

Heh I thought "philosophical" even before I read the ...

2025-10-04T23:21:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…633y
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Heh I thought "philosophical" even before I read the text. That creature has one of the most human faces I've ever seen on an animal. Bonobos act human but that fellow looks human.