His iPhone was in the centre cubby hole on his dashboard, with the earbuds plugged in. The battery was dead.
I wonder if the judge thinks this defense is bullshit. i.e. Why are 2 earbuds in his ears, while driving in the first place? If the phone was dead when he got into the car, why did he put the phone in the centre cubby, but keep both earphones in his ears?
Maybe the judge was thinking, "Do we let distracted drivers use the dead battery defense? Or do we counter bullshit defense with bullshit legal reasoning?" Slippery slopes both ways.
The TFA perhaps states the best compromise for the moment:
B.C. RCMP say 1 earbud is fine, but wearing 2 can land you a $368 fine.
This isn't bad, especially since wearing 2 earbuds can lower the volume of what you can hear outside of the car, even without audio playing.
Many mapping systems give specific latitude and longitude coordinates and an accuracy radius for an IP address. When the accuracy radius is inaccurately large (like searching for a city, or a country) the coordinates arrow points in the middle, which can be someone's house. Someone using location services (like "Find My Lost Phone", and even police) often get these coordinates without understanding the accuracy sucks.
This particular case in South Africa happened because of a mapping service created by "National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency", which is part of the US Dept of Defense.
I'm not sure why useful information like this wasn't in the summary, but... I guess it made me read the article, so the jokes on me.
My favorite quote was from a guy that lives in this house. Right after the article says, "a team of police commandos stormed the property, pointing a huge gun through the door at Ann, who was sitting on the couch in her living room eating dinner", a few sentences later he says, "The Apple customers seem to be the worst."
They should really replace the yellow light with a countdown timer
While this sounds good at first, it will kill people.
Tests have shown that timers on red lights decrease road rage, and people drive safer. (Probably because waiting, while seeing the countdown for the end of the wait, is less aggravating then waiting at a long traffic light without knowing when it will end.)
Similar tests show that when timers are on green lights, people speed up toward the end, trying to get there before it changes, and driving more recklessly.
Putting timers on yellow lights would be similar or worse to timers on green lights.
With car accidents being one of the leading causes of death and dismemberment, it's not hyperbole to say that we could save a number of lives by passing legislation for traffic lights requiring timers on red, and making timers illegal on yellow and green.
There is a problem with yellows on lights with cameras, but a timer for yellow is not the solution.
These people completely misunderstand "desirable difficulty".
From the article:
The multidisciplinary team of typographic design specialists and psychologists said they designed Sans Forgetica using the learning principle called "desirable difficulty."
Using this font has nothing to do with desirable difficulty unless you're training yourself to read wonky fonts.
That's the names, dates of birth, and tax ID numbers of roughly 45% of the entire United States (population ~326 million). Subtract children who don't have credit yet (~74 million), that's roughly 58% of US adults.
If "payment card" means credit card, that's 20% of all them in the US (1,041 million). Often you only need the number and expiration date to charge something to the card.
Those addresses are for roughly 30% of the population (if an address was attached to one name), or more (if an address was attached to multiple names [ie: people living together]).
Except some of us don't always think in words. We think in pictures & diagrams coupled with movements. Of course we think in words too. But that mode of thought is often too slow. An easy example would be solving a Rubix cube. Thinking in words would cripple the process.
I think most people think like this at different times. I find thinking in words useful when communicating or when solidifying/defining something in my head. But if I try to go through the day while thinking in words, my next sentence interrupts almost as soon as each new sentence starts, since that thought "bundle" has already been processed and understood.
Craig Wright gave a talk about the Lightning Network. Vitalik was pointing out something in that talk that made absolutely no sense (using basic mathematics). Craig Wright tries to defend himself. Then someone, who I believe was Joseph Poon, said,
"I wrote the Lightning Network paper. I straight up don't understand your presentation. I'm sure the rest of the audience does not as well."
Craig Wright is a fraud. The conference organizers should be embarrassed to include him.
Sidechains are divorced from the block so require other layers of trust and are therefore not blockchain.
You're absolutely right. Blockchain was only one of the inventions in the whitepaper. The system doesn't work with it alone. And if you can replace the buzzword "blockchain" with "database" in an application, it's not interesting and adds little to no value.
51% attack is completely possible, in 2 cases especially....
Right again. Bitcoin may not be what fintech applications are written on in ten years. But it will be a cryptocurrency that is trust-less, fungible, censorship resistant, immutable, peer to peer, and open. Bitcoin introduced decentralized security through computation that can operate in highly hostile environments. It is currently the most "anti-fragile" cryptocurrency because of size, but another may take its place.
Only 3 of the top 4 pools need to conspire to further their own self interest
This attack has been tried and will be tried again. It's a long story, but the current result is a fork called "Bitcoin Cash". So far it hasn't gained the same traction as the original "Bitcoin".
even if they are able to disrupt the network for their own purposes with 30% of the hash rate
Has most likely been tried very recently. Many suspect that spam transactions that drove transaction rates up for many weeks were exactly this. Transaction rates are lower again. These attacks are very expensive to continue. They require an immense amount of electricity.
Maybe there is a simply a spam attack possible that delays all transactions for many hours or days.
same as above
Maybe there is a trust attack where proof appears from multiple sources.
You mean a Sybil attack. Currently highly unlikely based on how the code works. Read through the source code.
When does a classic man in the middle attack become 'worth it', impersonate the work originator.
If you're talking about the network, it doesn't. With the amount of electrical power required, it's always much more profitable to simply mine bitcoin.
If you're talking about individuals, many are doing this right now and draining people's wallets. It's one user at a time. It does not affect the whole network. Crypto allows the user to be their own bank. This carries significant risks at the moment. I wouldn't recommend it to the masses yet.
if its not regulated out of use by governments in short order anyways
Some governments can make it go underground (like in Venezuela). But it's impossible to stop (like in Venezuela). Unless you destroy every computer on the planet that runs a full bitcoin wallet.
I encourage you to be skeptical. Be highly skeptical. If you dig into it, you'll see that your ideas on compromising this system are not new. You'll find a multitude of other attacks that have been accounted for as well. Bitcoin has been under attack since day 1.
51% Attack Andreas Antonopoulos - 51% Bitcoin Attack from 2015. Short clip from a longer talk. You may have to look more into the ASIC miner distribution, and mining rewards to understand this clip.
Thank you for posting the exact type of comment I was writing about. You may be completely sincere, and the concerns may be intelligently thought out, based on the information you've been given. But the premises you are starting from are factually inaccurate. Bitcoin is not what it appears to be at first glance.
If you really want to understand this topic, start by watching Andreas Antonopoulos, a computer scientist who specializes in Data Communications and Distributed Systems. If you care to go further, he has 2 books Mastering Bitcoin (very technical), and The Internet of Money (for the layman).
Don't believe anything in the Slashdot comments. On every article about Bitcoin / Crypto, so many comments are factually inaccurate, even when they sound intelligent, plausible, and are modded +5. In the words of Andreas, "(Bitcoin) isn't what it appears to be at first glance."
What's exciting (to me) is that this method is what's necessary for the universal translators in Star Trek / other Sci-Fi to actually work. In Star Trek: Enterprise, for example, their universal translator had to listen to a lot of alien speech as it would gradually make phrases more and more understandable. We're still a long way to go, but this methodology brings that dream closer.
There's a large body of evidence correlating economics & culture to educational outcomes.
Genetics correlate also, but this is mostly genetic differences between individual families, not "race".
Gender difference in mathematics is only apparent in individual countries and fairly nonexistent when looking at the world as a whole (implying that gender differences in mathematics is due to culture).
This evidence is a good place to start understanding the problem and search for improvements. Therefore scholarships may be helpful (deals with the economics side). But focusing on "race" is misguided, when focusing on the problem of culture can give tangible improvements (ex: community centers in rough inner city areas), regardless of "race".
Anyone can search Google Scholar to look into these in more detail.
Slashdot Mirror
His iPhone was in the centre cubby hole on his dashboard, with the earbuds plugged in. The battery was dead.
I wonder if the judge thinks this defense is bullshit. i.e. Why are 2 earbuds in his ears, while driving in the first place? If the phone was dead when he got into the car, why did he put the phone in the centre cubby, but keep both earphones in his ears?
Maybe the judge was thinking, "Do we let distracted drivers use the dead battery defense? Or do we counter bullshit defense with bullshit legal reasoning?" Slippery slopes both ways.
The TFA perhaps states the best compromise for the moment:
B.C. RCMP say 1 earbud is fine, but wearing 2 can land you a $368 fine.
This isn't bad, especially since wearing 2 earbuds can lower the volume of what you can hear outside of the car, even without audio playing.
app rejections went up 55%
So from 20 to 31?
app suspensions also went up, by more than 66%
So from 3 to 5?
We find that over 80% of severe policy violations are conducted by repeat offenders and abusive developer networks
So they found 5 severe policy violations, then 4 of them did it again the next year?
Of course it's probably more. But without actual numbers, statistics like these are useless.
Many mapping systems give specific latitude and longitude coordinates and an accuracy radius for an IP address. When the accuracy radius is inaccurately large (like searching for a city, or a country) the coordinates arrow points in the middle, which can be someone's house. Someone using location services (like "Find My Lost Phone", and even police) often get these coordinates without understanding the accuracy sucks.
This particular case in South Africa happened because of a mapping service created by "National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency", which is part of the US Dept of Defense.
I'm not sure why useful information like this wasn't in the summary, but... I guess it made me read the article, so the jokes on me.
My favorite quote was from a guy that lives in this house. Right after the article says, "a team of police commandos stormed the property, pointing a huge gun through the door at Ann, who was sitting on the couch in her living room eating dinner", a few sentences later he says, "The Apple customers seem to be the worst."
They should really replace the yellow light with a countdown timer
While this sounds good at first, it will kill people.
Tests have shown that timers on red lights decrease road rage, and people drive safer. (Probably because waiting, while seeing the countdown for the end of the wait, is less aggravating then waiting at a long traffic light without knowing when it will end.)
Similar tests show that when timers are on green lights, people speed up toward the end, trying to get there before it changes, and driving more recklessly.
Putting timers on yellow lights would be similar or worse to timers on green lights.
With car accidents being one of the leading causes of death and dismemberment, it's not hyperbole to say that we could save a number of lives by passing legislation for traffic lights requiring timers on red, and making timers illegal on yellow and green.
There is a problem with yellows on lights with cameras, but a timer for yellow is not the solution.
The ironing is delicious.
Yes, but not the best way to add fiber to your diet.
The multidisciplinary team of typographic design specialists and psychologists said they designed Sans Forgetica using the learning principle called "desirable difficulty."
Using this font has nothing to do with desirable difficulty unless you're training yourself to read wonky fonts.
Nothing ever started, no plans were even drawn, and no one worked on it. Doesn't look like there was much of a project to "shelve".
Obligatory XKCD from October 15, 2010.
Exactly. Indulging in unhealthy habits can (sometimes) cause a person to sleep longer. Exercise, and it's easier to get up in the morning.
Sometimes conversating gets more complexicated irregardless of localation.
It's more likely something like this: New Air-Gap Jumper Covertly Transmits Data in Hard-Drive Sounds
That's the names, dates of birth, and tax ID numbers of roughly 45% of the entire United States (population ~326 million). Subtract children who don't have credit yet (~74 million), that's roughly 58% of US adults.
If "payment card" means credit card, that's 20% of all them in the US (1,041 million). Often you only need the number and expiration date to charge something to the card.
Those addresses are for roughly 30% of the population (if an address was attached to one name), or more (if an address was attached to multiple names [ie: people living together]).
Except some of us don't always think in words. We think in pictures & diagrams coupled with movements. Of course we think in words too. But that mode of thought is often too slow. An easy example would be solving a Rubix cube. Thinking in words would cripple the process.
I think most people think like this at different times. I find thinking in words useful when communicating or when solidifying/defining something in my head. But if I try to go through the day while thinking in words, my next sentence interrupts almost as soon as each new sentence starts, since that thought "bundle" has already been processed and understood.
Craig Wright gave a talk about the Lightning Network. Vitalik was pointing out something in that talk that made absolutely no sense (using basic mathematics). Craig Wright tries to defend himself. Then someone, who I believe was Joseph Poon, said,
"I wrote the Lightning Network paper. I straight up don't understand your presentation. I'm sure the rest of the audience does not as well."
Craig Wright is a fraud. The conference organizers should be embarrassed to include him.
From the article: "Was Agora simply attempting a PR stunt in support of its upcoming token sale."
No question mark used. Just a period. Wasn't much of a question anyway.
Agora's Whitepaper
Agora's Github Repo
Only actual information: Jupiter's spot has shrunk over the last 100 years. No one knows what will happen next.
I feel like this summary & article wasted my time.
Most things can be explained very simply
"For every complex problem there is a simple solution that is wrong."
If you can handle the technical side:
That's all you need.
To address your other points:
Sidechains are divorced from the block so require other layers of trust and are therefore not blockchain.
You're absolutely right. Blockchain was only one of the inventions in the whitepaper. The system doesn't work with it alone. And if you can replace the buzzword "blockchain" with "database" in an application, it's not interesting and adds little to no value.
51% attack is completely possible, in 2 cases especially. ...
Right again. Bitcoin may not be what fintech applications are written on in ten years. But it will be a cryptocurrency that is trust-less, fungible, censorship resistant, immutable, peer to peer, and open. Bitcoin introduced decentralized security through computation that can operate in highly hostile environments. It is currently the most "anti-fragile" cryptocurrency because of size, but another may take its place.
Only 3 of the top 4 pools need to conspire to further their own self interest
This attack has been tried and will be tried again. It's a long story, but the current result is a fork called "Bitcoin Cash". So far it hasn't gained the same traction as the original "Bitcoin".
even if they are able to disrupt the network for their own purposes with 30% of the hash rate
Has most likely been tried very recently. Many suspect that spam transactions that drove transaction rates up for many weeks were exactly this. Transaction rates are lower again. These attacks are very expensive to continue. They require an immense amount of electricity.
Maybe there is a simply a spam attack possible that delays all transactions for many hours or days.
same as above
Maybe there is a trust attack where proof appears from multiple sources.
You mean a Sybil attack. Currently highly unlikely based on how the code works. Read through the source code.
When does a classic man in the middle attack become 'worth it', impersonate the work originator.
If you're talking about the network, it doesn't. With the amount of electrical power required, it's always much more profitable to simply mine bitcoin.
If you're talking about individuals, many are doing this right now and draining people's wallets. It's one user at a time. It does not affect the whole network. Crypto allows the user to be their own bank. This carries significant risks at the moment. I wouldn't recommend it to the masses yet.
if its not regulated out of use by governments in short order anyways
Some governments can make it go underground (like in Venezuela). But it's impossible to stop (like in Venezuela). Unless you destroy every computer on the planet that runs a full bitcoin wallet.
I encourage you to be skeptical. Be highly skeptical. If you dig into it, you'll see that your ideas on compromising this system are not new. You'll find a multitude of other attacks that have been accounted for as well. Bitcoin has been under attack since day 1.
Andreas also put his Mastering Bitcoin book on GitHub for free.
4 talks from Andreas that directly address your concerns.
Scaling
Delivering Liberty, at Scale
Blockchain
Blockchain vs. Bullshit: Thoughts on the Future of Money. Too long? Watch a few minutes starting 6 or 7min in.
51% Attack
Andreas Antonopoulos - 51% Bitcoin Attack from 2015. Short clip from a longer talk. You may have to look more into the ASIC miner distribution, and mining rewards to understand this clip.
Fool Bubble
Investing in Education Instead of Speculation
Thank you for posting the exact type of comment I was writing about. You may be completely sincere, and the concerns may be intelligently thought out, based on the information you've been given. But the premises you are starting from are factually inaccurate. Bitcoin is not what it appears to be at first glance.
If you really want to understand this topic, start by watching Andreas Antonopoulos, a computer scientist who specializes in Data Communications and Distributed Systems. If you care to go further, he has 2 books Mastering Bitcoin (very technical), and The Internet of Money (for the layman).
I would recommend starting with Blockchain vs. Bitcoin in front of Consultants. You can watch his videos on x2 speed because he enunciates well.
Don't believe anything in the Slashdot comments. On every article about Bitcoin / Crypto, so many comments are factually inaccurate, even when they sound intelligent, plausible, and are modded +5. In the words of Andreas, "(Bitcoin) isn't what it appears to be at first glance."
Finally, Princeton has a series of free lectures here: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies
Delivering Liberty, at Scale
What's exciting (to me) is that this method is what's necessary for the universal translators in Star Trek / other Sci-Fi to actually work. In Star Trek: Enterprise, for example, their universal translator had to listen to a lot of alien speech as it would gradually make phrases more and more understandable. We're still a long way to go, but this methodology brings that dream closer.
sorely tempted to take the "we could fire you or you could quit" option of quitting.
So he was coerced by the department... kinda ironic.
There's a large body of evidence correlating economics & culture to educational outcomes.
Genetics correlate also, but this is mostly genetic differences between individual families, not "race".
Gender difference in mathematics is only apparent in individual countries and fairly nonexistent when looking at the world as a whole (implying that gender differences in mathematics is due to culture).
This evidence is a good place to start understanding the problem and search for improvements. Therefore scholarships may be helpful (deals with the economics side). But focusing on "race" is misguided, when focusing on the problem of culture can give tangible improvements (ex: community centers in rough inner city areas), regardless of "race".
Anyone can search Google Scholar to look into these in more detail.