flush (u/flush) - Readit News

flush commented on I wasted years of my life in crypto twitter.com/kenchangh/sta... · Posted by u/Anon84

> a transparent ledger

The only useful application of crypto/blockchain tech I've ever seen simply takes advantage of the transparent ledger as a way of tracking receipts.

One of the perfect applications is in shipping and logistics where receipt validation, transparency, and certification, is an essential part of the business.

flush · 13 days ago

Is there somewhere that explains this concept? When I "receive" something, there still must be trust that I correctly mark it so. By that point, doesn't it require trust, and therefore you may as well just use a trusted third party data store?

flush commented on Lab Leak 2.0? bprice.substack.com/p/lab... · Posted by u/howaboutnope

zzt123 · 4 years ago

"For example, we know that the delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 leaked out of a lab in Taiwan in late 2021." - is exactly (mechanically) true in that Delta did leak out of a lab in Taiwan in late 2021.

This statement does not declare that Delta’s origins were a lab leak, since late 2021 is a year after Delta was first detected in late 2020. Can’t have your origins in the future until time travel is invented.

Seems therefore more proper to interpret the statement exactly as written rather than add additional conspiratorial inferences.

flush · 4 years ago

FWIW, I read it incorrectly the first time too and had to do a double-take. I do think it's not written in the clearest manner.

flush commented on When is the revolution in architecture coming? currentaffairs.org/2021/0... · Posted by u/world2vec

d--b · 4 years ago

This is plain wrong.

Hamburg’s philarmony cost 900 million euros to build. That’s an awful lot of money. Architects decide to spend on structure and texture instead of decor. And with today’s machines, we actually could make all these intricate details without human intervention.

flush · 4 years ago

This on its own isn't enough to refute OP, since it could very well be that the equivalent cost of one of these other historic buildings is even higher. (e.g. cost of skilled slave labor vs equivalent labor in modern markets, cost of materials, etc)

EDIT: Hmm, even the payer's power could be factored in. A king may be willing to spend 1/10th of his empire's wealth on an extravagant palace, but the same would likely not be approved in a democracy.

flush commented on Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index cbeci.org/cbeci/compariso... · Posted by u/apples_oranges

snickms · 5 years ago

If the goal is to educate the public on the scale of power involved, a comparison with a commonly used service would help a lot IMHO. Something like 'Bitcoin consumes 14 times the energy of Google and half (according rough estimates) that of Youtube' would make things easier to grasp before hitting the reader with country comparisons.

FWIW here is my list of 'if a service were a country':

Google Guatemala

Bitcoin Argentina

Youtube South Africa (unreliable data)

[Edit] whoops - no references

https://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+total+power+cons...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_electrici...

flush · 5 years ago

Thank you for such a high quality comment.

flush commented on Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future techcrunch.com/2021/02/08... · Posted by u/Cookingboy

zupreme · 5 years ago

This comment is unlikely to win me many friends here, but it is worth considering that while Bitcoin is, nominally at least, decentralized and free from government control, internet access is not.

A simple glance at the trend of governments to partially or to fully shut down internet services to certain areas in times of unrest or mass protest means, in the case of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies requiring collective transaction verification via online communications, that a loss of internet constitutes an inability to conduct financial transactions for those thus affected.

While I applaud the efforts of so many to free the world from government control of "money", the full implementation of this effort should be preceded by freeing internet communications from the control of those same governments, otherwise what appears to be a new financial "power" is actually a new financial "weakness".

Think over this carefully.

flush · 5 years ago

Definitely not a _new_ weakness, right? The vast majority of financial wealth is locked up in digital stores, which are even more so in the jurisdiction and immediate control of their respective governing body.

flush commented on Tesla buys $1.5B in Bitcoin, may accept it as payment in the future techcrunch.com/2021/02/08... · Posted by u/Cookingboy

me551ah · 5 years ago

Sorry but I disagree about your analogy with an art piece. An art piece is unique, especially the antique ones made by an artist who is no longer alive. And that artpiece will always be the only one to ever exist. There are many other cryptocurrencies which can do what bitcoin can, dogecoin was made just to illustrate that point.

flush · 5 years ago

There are many other artists who can paint. Does not make their art equally valuable.

flush commented on Chemistry of Cast-Iron Seasoning (2010) sherylcanter.com/wordpres... · Posted by u/Tomte

systemvoltage · 5 years ago

I find these how-tos boggling. It's not that difficult to season cast iron cookware. Just cook on it. Same thing with soldering - there are countless videos of people teaching others on how to solder. If you can wear clothes that morning, you can solder.

Also, what if I told you its ok to use soap on cast iron pans? The hardened coating isn't prone to soap interaction. It removes all the grime and gives you a clean non-stick surface if you use soap.

I blame all this on hipster culture which is based on nothing but making things more complicated than it should be, getting viewership and generally misleading people into thinking something is more difficult that it really is. In turn, making people spend more money on useless shit that they don't need.

flush · 5 years ago

The no-soap rule came from back when soap contained lye, which does indeed strip the seasoning from cast iron. This knowledge was passed down, and became false as soap changed formulas. Not because of "hipster culture", by which I think you mean consumerism. Try to have an open mind.

flush commented on The boss who put everyone on 70K bbc.com/news/stories-5133... · Posted by u/orjan

627467 · 6 years ago

There have been several CEOS who historically have paid themselves 1usd or very low salaries. They end up making up the difference in other parts of their comp packages. I suppose this boss is also the main shareholder so he benefits from productivity increase.

flush · 6 years ago

>He realised that he would not only have to slash his salary, but also mortgage his two houses and give up his stocks and savings.

Not sure if this means ALL of his stock, but this doesn't seem to be the same thing.

flush commented on What happened to Mint? fastcompany.com/90453586/... · Posted by u/vontzy

Ozzie_osman · 6 years ago

Co-founder of a (yet to be launched) Mint competitor here [1]. One pattern I think we all see over and over again is when products get bought by a large company, they often lose their "soul" (and the original team). Both those things happened with Mint.

Another important pattern I've seen is that products, in the long-term, morph to take the form of their revenue model. Many personal finance products are free, but make money by selling data or trying to upsell you on something else that you don't need (like, say, a credit card you don't need or a tax product that is overpriced [2]). This is what happened with Mint. It became a "top-of-the-funnel" lead generation tool for other products.

This also explains a lot of the problems with the internet at large today—misaligned business models. I'd definitely encourage anyone joining (or starting) a company to think about what the revenue model they are choosing means for the product and company long-term. Every company will say they are different, and that they actually care about their users and about building a good product... and maybe in the early days, the original team can stay true to that, but eventually time and money take their toll.

Companies that really want to build lovable, user-aligned products, set up a revenue model that encourages them to stick to that long term.

[1] https://www.monarchmoney.com [2] https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-turbotax-20-year-f...

flush · 6 years ago

Psyched to try it! Any idea what the wait list time frames are looking like? I'm currently at position 11,178.