Democracy is clearly heading toward complete authoritarianism.
A proposed amendment (of poor quality) is not a law
Readit Newscryptonym commented on A proposed amendment to ban under 16s in the UK from common online services decoded.legal/blog/2025/1... · Posted by u/ibobev
If something should not be done: make it illegal. Trying to have a gentlemen's agreement not to do something seems like a futile position.
Having you own morale and ethics is far from futile. Each individual should be able to question the law and object taking part in something they don't agree, as long as it doesn't break the law.
Killing someone is legal in certain countries for different reasons (I'm not talking about war). Not sure I would like to get involved in that business, for instance if I don't agree on how and why people are sentenced to death in my country.
Some people are built with low ethics. Sure, if it's not made illegal, they'll always find someone to do it. Looks like in that case it might be illegal, as TV makers are sued.
"All of the big TV makers" except Vizio which is owned by Walmart, of course, who happens to do ACR and ad targeting:
> In August 2015, Vizio acquired Cognitive Media Networks, Inc, a provider of automatic content recognition (ACR). Cognitive Media Networks was subsequently renamed Inscape Data. Inscape functioned as an independent entity until the end of 2020, when it was combined with Vizio Ads and SmartCast; the three divisions combining to operate as a single unit.[1]
If the lawsuit goes forward, it'll be really easy to force the same on Vizio.
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cryptonym commented on AI helps ship faster but it produces 1.7× more bugs coderabbit.ai/blog/state-... · Posted by u/birdculture
Exactly. I'm sure assembly language programmers from the 1980s could easily write code that ran 2x faster than the code produced by compilers of the time, but compilers only got better and eventually assembly language programming became a rare job, and humans can rarely outperform compilers on whole program compilation.
Assembly experts still write code that runs faster than code produced by compilers. Being slower is predictable and solved with better hardware, or just waiting. This is fine for most so we switched to easier or portable languages. Output of the program remains the same.
Impact of having 1.7x more bugs is difficult to assess and is not solved that easily. Comparison would work if that was about optimisations: code that is 1.7x slower / memory hungry.
cryptonym commented on Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself? infosec.press/brunomiguel... · Posted by u/pabs3
It wouldn't bring in their estimate, it'd kill the browser.
Maybe they'd still get paid $150M for that, while only having to barely keep the browser alive, with no user request, for illusion of non-monopoly.
Fewer devs, more bucks, big win for the execs on the short term.
cryptonym commented on I wasted years of my life in crypto twitter.com/kenchangh/sta... · Posted by u/Anon84
And the stock market isn't gambling? I view it as such.
Was this more or less risky than buying $1000 in scratch offs, or lottery tickets, or spending $1000 in Vegas?
In my opinion, crypto when I bought it had a lot more "potential" than any of those more "traditional" forms of gambling which is why I was willing to give it a try with a sum of less than 1% of my yearly income...
I am not saying it was a smart choice, just that I don't think it was a particularly stupid choice.
Putting money in a company because you reviewed its business, the way it operates and add value to the society is more of an investment than gambling. Now things happens and I agree there is always a part of luck, called risk.
BTC isn't really adding value to the society, except the shady parts of it. I can't assess the part of luck in BTC gambling. Many lost money, many betted on the wrong coin. Did you bet on it because of the impact on dark economy or because you believed in unlocking the economy, blockchain everything which didn't happen?
cryptonym commented on I wasted years of my life in crypto twitter.com/kenchangh/sta... · Posted by u/Anon84
So it was dumb of me to buy my bitcoins back when they were less than $100 a coin just in the slim chance that it completely blew up? I don't see what was dumb about a decision to put less than $1000 into 10 coins just in case. Worked out really well for me in the end and a less than $1000 gamble doesn't seem like that crazy of a gamble, at least to me.
You basically just confirmed that, from beginning, it's just gambling.
Being lucky on your bet doesn't make it a wise investment. I wouldn't call you dumb. I don't know how gamblers feel about their moves.
cryptonym commented on I wasted years of my life in crypto twitter.com/kenchangh/sta... · Posted by u/Anon84
https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2024/01/31/end.html#section...
Vitalik touched upon this briefly in an other-wise long and wide-reaching essay. I think its a good treatment of the topic that the author is talking about. He categorizes the ecosystem broadly into 4 cohorts- [token holders] (which includes investors, speculators, etc.), [pragmatic users] (actual end-users who spend crypto to buy stuff), [intellectuals] (who give the vision and ideology), [builders] (of blockchains, apps, etc.) - These 4 groups come together but with different motivations and there is a gap in understanding between them. Indeed, there is even resistance against trying to reach an understanding - one which plays out in the comments section of every crypto-related post on hn. The author of this twitter-post clearly falls under [intellectual, builder] and has been disillusioned by the speculators from [token-holders]. Yet the [token-holders] are a vital component (as are the other groups) as they fund most of the development and adoption. Ultimately these 4 groups have more in common than not. The challenge going forward is to balance the occasionally conflicting needs of all the 4 groups, which includes checking the excesses of each group, while try to achieve a consensus. (Vitalik provides a nice diagram that maps out what that would look like). Crypto is an experiment in economics and economics is a science as well as a social-science. Anyone looking for a good solution must seek to understand and address the psychology of all the actors involved.
In a casino you have
- The gamblers spending a lot on the casino
- The people coming in for the fun and spending little money
- The owners/C-levels
- The operational team
Someone from the operational team just learned that business relies only on the first group to be successful.