algorias

21 ms·

181.
by algorias 13y ago
As mentioned in the article: before logging into a VPN, make sure your laptop hasn't been tampered with. You just downgraded the consequences of tampering from a security breach to an inconvenience (wiping / replacing your machine
182.
by algorias 13y ago
> why should bitcoin be enshrined as the only special crypto-currency worthy of recognition? I agree, but the reason you state has nothing to do with it. Who the fuck cares who Satoshi is? Why does it matter, given that the protocol oper
183.
by algorias 13y ago
While I have no strong opinion on this, it's interesting from a game theoretical perspective that the only way Mars doesn't get contaminated requires the consent of pretty much all of humanity, as a single entity deciding to send
184.
by algorias 13y ago
> Each time you want to find the coordinate of a vector you have solve a system of linear equations. This is wrong, unless I'm misreading you. The first time you want the coordinates of a vector in a nonstandard basis you need to
185.
by algorias 13y ago
Finally something about bitcoin that's actual hard CS and not fuzzy speculation or wishful thinking. From a very superficial reading I understand that this paper proposes to solve forks in the blockchain by choosing the subtree with th
186.
by algorias 13y ago
Agreed on pip-sync, but I find pip-compile to be a compelling idea (this is the first time I've heard of it). Even small projects get cluttered requirements.txt files very fast, causing unneeded packages to spread like viruses from ven
187.
by algorias 13y ago
It may be, depending on your definition, but the term "money laundering" has a distinctly criminal connotation. Bitcoin mixing is more analogous to paying for something with cash withdrawn from a bank account rather than making a
188.
by algorias 13y ago
Thanks for the advice! Upon a second reading, I realize that the way I expressed my point lacks many of the nuances present in my own head. My next task will definitely be concentrating the essence of the argument into a form that's le
189.
by algorias 13y ago
For many modern societies, I would consider the fact that they're free market economies their defining characteristic, rather than their being democracies. The idea of capitalism drives laws and lobby. It hides deep structural problems
190.
by algorias 13y ago
I think this is the most important vote we will get to cast in a long time, not just for us here in Switzerland, but for the world at large. By and large, capitalism (as a political system) has failed the world. Capitalism is a very efficie
191.
by algorias 13y ago
> “As a priority? It’s a joke.” Those words from Gates irk me somewhat. He seems to have the attitude that he's so obviously right we shouldn't even be having the discussion. That is something I very strongly disagree with. I&#
192.
by algorias 13y ago
You can't pivot your way out of ecological catastrophes, you know... There are many instances of "innocent" actions of mankind that ravaged huge areas of the world very rapidly (the beaver plague in south america, just off th
193.
by algorias 13y ago
Getting rid of Malaria is obviously a higher priority than internet access from the perspective of any one person living in the third world today. I have much respect for Bill Gates for the work he's doing in that area. However, there
194.
by algorias 13y ago
Well, that is an idea worth a moment's thought at the very least...
195.
by algorias 13y ago
Interesting that you bring up the demoscene. This music genre shares with it the fact that it takes a platform to its limits in a technically interesting way (just like 4k intros, C64 demos, etc), but in my taste it distinctly lacks aesthet
196.
by algorias 13y ago
Yeah, they have become very persistent in wanting you to link your google and youtube accounts, for instance. For the first time ever, I'm seriously considering ditching gmail.
197.
by algorias 13y ago
For younger generations who grew up with this kind of tech, it's just not conceivable. For them, Facebook is a synonym for having contact with their friends. In a discussion we once had in class, I mentioned that an option that hadn&#x
198.
by algorias 13y ago
With each passing day, I look less and less like a lunatic for avoiding facebook (and its ilk) like the plague. You should try it.
199.
by algorias 13y ago
Yeah, and one of the biggest value-adds of SDA is that the runs you see up there are verified by other runners. It takes a long time for a run to get up there, but once it is, you know it's the real deal.
200.
by algorias 13y ago
This is a nice hack! It's unfortunate that medical CT scanning remains expensive due to reasons other than the cost of designing and manufacturing one of these devices. It's about image acquisition speed, safety, quality assurance
201.
by algorias 13y ago
You're correct. Regular grammars are type-3 grammars in the Chomsky hierarchy, and those can be recognized by regular expressions (this is the definition of regexes in the CS sense). In practice, however, the regex engines of most prog
202.
by algorias 13y ago
I stand corrected. My general point still holds, though.
203.
by algorias 13y ago
Sometimes, painful compromises need to be made? Pick your battles, fight one bad guy at a time. Would you rather have Snowden in jail? Also, as a non-US citizen, I think it's justified targeting the US specifically, because they have a
204.
by algorias 13y ago
I had the same thought initially, but the problem I see is that breaking several keys in the same keyspace shares work. e.g. if you want to invert a one-way function, that's a tough problem. But if it's a 10-bit function, you can
205.
by algorias 13y ago
> the US are amongst the most aggressive countries in the world You have the answer right there.
206.
by algorias 13y ago
>I find with most jobs is that it's much easier to get more pay than less hours Actually, this is less of a problem in Switzerland than in other countries. Specially at the low end of the income scale, it's easy to get jobs in
207.
by algorias 13y ago
Nothing surprising here. They're fighting tooth and nail to keep their activities under a veil not of secrecy (that's impossible at this point) but of vagueness, which in the end achieves the same purpose: preventing people from c
208.
by algorias 13y ago
You give me two equivalent programs, A and B. I give you obfuscated versions of both, lets call them C and D. You can't tell whether I produced C from A and D from B, or C from B and D from A.
209.
by algorias 13y ago
You do understand, I hope, that poverty and lack of education go hand in hand. Getting a job is not a trivial matter if you're not well educated. That will manifest itself both in less jobs being offered to you, and being less apt at l
210.
by algorias 13y ago
Great article. I think considering lower bounds and building intuition of a problem before attempting to solve it is a major step in algorithm design lots of people miss. If you don't really know your problem well, how can you ever be

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