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Tresorit Launches Campaign To Build An End-To-End Encrypted Social Network

Sociall.io

The new technology that aspires to #DeleteFacebook for good (Mastodon)

At the end of these charts, you can see a small spike in Diaspora users.

It might all be in the name. People/"dumb fucks" will sign up for a "Facebook", but "Prevaat"?

Just look over Apple's Cocoa and Darwin-Drivers lists.

There has been a great gnashing of teeth that commenced with iOS 2.0, which permitted third-party apps.

Stormy Daniels, Donald Trump, and Shark Week: ‘He made me sit and watch’ (archive)

Clickbait? Sure. But reading about the history of "Shark Week" in that context really makes something click.

Stormy Daniels describes her alleged affair with Donald Trump (w/ transcript)

"Wow, you-- you are special. You remind me of my daughter."

Some Soylentil replied to a previous diary about my aim to bootstrap a mining operation, by pointing out that leasing a warehouse would cost far less than colocating in a data center.

While a warehouse might not have enough circuit breakers, I expect most commercial landlords would be cool with me hiring an electrician to install some breakers, wiring and outlets.

For residential use, one Bitmain Antminer L3+ LiteCoin mining rig requires one circuit breaker. Possibly a warehouse could have higher-capacity breakers but really I don't know.

(I'm mining LiteCoin because the L3+ can work with 110 Volts, as God And Nature Intended, rather than that foreign 220V that is a Communist Plot to corrupt Our Precious Bodily Fluids.)

My apartment has three wall-outlet breakers. That yields the insight that the most I could profit by mining at home would be about one grand per month.

Just now I emailed the following to the usual suspects:

Subject: I'm hesitant to commit to a big cryptocurrency mining operation

Dear Suspects,

I wont need to decide until the time comes that I would have the cash to buy a fourth LiteCoin mining rig. I only have one now, so any possible fourth rig won't come until a few months from now.

Stefan points out that it is unwise for me to rely on LiteCoin mining for my livelihood, because the exchange rate could drop at any time. That's a common occurrence among all the cryptocurrencies.

There is a second problem: were I to lease a facility where I could operate more miners, commercial leases are typically three years. Were the price of LiteCoin to go down so much that I could no longer pay the monthly rent I would be quite screwed.

Just tonight I realized that even if mining were to yield enough income that I didn't have to work, not to hold a job would be bad for my mental illness. To work with other people is good for me.

I went totally bananas during graduate school because I had so much homework that I stopped hanging out with my friends. There was no one to point out the error of my ways when I began to grow paranoid about the North Korean nuclear reactor. It was discovered by a US spy satellite during my second quarter of grad school.

I felt the need to inform the entire world that it wasn't as hard to build nuclear weapons as most people thought: the US, in its infinite wisdom, declassified all but one of the Manhattan Project secrets in 1965. The only remaining secret is the "initiator", which is a source of neutrons that gets the chain reaction started in plutonium bombs.

I know enough physics, and even then had enough computational power at my disposal that I figure I could design an initiator all by myself.

Were I to earn enough money through any means - not just mining - that I was no longer required to work among other people, without a doubt I'd be in a straightjacket within six months.

Introspectively,

Misha

• Party at the Post Office
  As the clerk stepped out to lock the door, I dropped my tax return in the slot, knowing that next year I would attend the post office party again.

I'm not clear why Party's URL is among my mental illness essays. It's dated April 16, 1992; I wasn't symptomatic then.

I expect I'll move it to a more appropriate directory but this link will still work because I'll install a redirect.

Yet Another American Football League: The Alliance of American Football

Another New Football League Says It Will Start Play in 2019

The N.F.L. is under pressure from falling television ratings, lawsuits over its handling of concussions, and fan opposition to player protests during the national anthem.

Yet investors keep lining up to help start new football leagues. On Tuesday, the longtime N.F.L. executive Bill Polian and the television and movie producer Charlie Ebersol became the latest entrepreneurs to join the fray when they unveiled plans for the Alliance of American Football.

There have been several short-lived football leagues before, including the United Football League, United States Football League and XFL. Like others before them, Polian and Ebersol say they have a formula for success. They have acquired investments from Silicon Valley firms that will allow their eight-team league to start playing a week after the Super Bowl in February 2019. Their partners include CBS, which will show a few games on its main channel and some on its cable network. They will also launch a smartphone app on which fans will be able to stream games and play fantasy football.

The league will also aim for two-and-a-half hour games (N.F.L. games generally last at least three hours). To achieve that, there will be no kickoffs or extra points — only 2-point plays — and a 30-second play clock, as opposed to the N.F.L.'s 45-second clock. There will also be no television timeouts, which will lead to about 60 percent fewer commercials.

Also at Variety.

Previously: As National Football League Ratings Fall, Could the "XFL" Make a Return?

So, I want to engrave some things. Most of these things are going to be iron, steel, or aluminum tools, but I'd also like to engrave some less durable items, such as plastics. I've done a couple searches, and I'm looking at engravers ranging from about $80 (US$) all the way up to about $180,000. I suppose that if I searched, I could find some cheaper, and almost certainly more expensive.

So, I'm looking - and all that I can really see, is how ignorant I am. I have almost zero idea what it is that will make a long-lasting engraver. Will one of those ultra-cheap engravers from China last for ten years of light-to-moderate use? Probably not - but what do I know? Is it necessary to spend thousands of dollars for the same thing? Newegg has a variety of engravers, for less than $400, but the biggest, most powerful among them has a disclaimer:

Engraving Material Note:
1.can engraving materials:wood,bamboo,plastic,paper,leather,bank card,rubber
2.can not engraving material:metal,stone,ceramic,shell,light-reflecting material,transparent material

Seems pretty obvious that I need something bigger, and more expensive, than a $400 engraver. Can engraving metal, dammit!

Does anyone here have experience with non-industrial laser engravers? (Industrial? Quarter million dollars entry level?) Power ratings, sizes, brands, whatever - any information is welcome!

NASA to Discuss Upcoming Launch of Next Planet Hunter

Join NASA at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, March 28, as astrophysics experts discuss the upcoming launch of NASA’s next planet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Reporters can attend the event in person at the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington or participate by phone.

The briefing will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

Scheduled to launch April 16, TESS is expected to find thousands of planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, orbiting the nearest and brightest stars in our cosmic neighborhood. Powerful telescopes like NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope can then further study these exoplanets to search for important characteristics, like their atmospheric composition and whether they could support life.

Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite.

This is a follow-up to your previous request #389648 "Very Loud, Very High-Pitched Tone From L3+"

The loud, high-pitched tone was an over-current alarm from my UPS.

Its voltage/current label rated its power output at 750 Watts. The L3+'s printed instructions report the combination of L3+ and APW++ use 1000 Watts. I had some other devices plugged into it, so the total power consumption was way over the limit.

I rearranged my power cords, and am now blessed with a happy home that has no loud, high-pitched tones driving me totally bananas.

Thank you for your prompt, courteous and helpful support.

You may close this ticket.

PS. I'm going to order another L3+ soon - my second.

================

I really find my UPS' behavior puzzling: I was way over the rated power 24/7 yet my Coinfoundry stats as well as my rig's embedded website both reported that my unit was working just fine.

John Oliver’s Gay-Bunny Book Is Outselling the Mike Pence Book It’s Trolling

John Oliver’s Marlon Bundo Book Sells Out In A Day; Another Printing In Works

A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo

Worst Pence bashing since Trump:

“Trump thinks Pence is great,” Bannon told me. But, according to a longtime associate, Trump also likes to “let Pence know who’s boss.” A staff member from Trump’s campaign recalls him mocking Pence’s religiosity. He said that, when people met with Trump after stopping by Pence’s office, Trump would ask them, “Did Mike make you pray?” Two sources also recalled Trump needling Pence about his views on abortion and homosexuality. During a meeting with a legal scholar, Trump belittled Pence’s determination to overturn Roe v. Wade. The legal scholar had said that, if the Supreme Court did so, many states would likely legalize abortion on their own. “You see?” Trump asked Pence. “You’ve wasted all this time and energy on it, and it’s not going to end abortion anyway.” When the conversation turned to gay rights, Trump motioned toward Pence and joked, “Don’t ask that guy—he wants to hang them all!”