Dr. Hax

Sometimes I can't figure out how to use a command and I need the man to tell me what to do. #unix geeks will understand what I'm talking about here.

People are saying the bottom just dropped out of nVidia and all the companies they are propping up. "The money flows in loops: Nvidia invests in AI startups, startups commit to cloud spending, cloud providers purchase Nvidia hardware, Nvidia recognizes revenue, but the cash never completes the circuit because the underlying economic activity—AI applications generating profit—remains insufficient." https://substack.com/inbox/post/179453867

I'm trying to get people on the Fediverse to think about why technology feels like it keeps getting worse and whether it's because of capitalism or monopolies. Posted at https://4d2.social/@CryogenicNighthawk/115592397420821907 but I'll post a copy here to save people a click. It'd be great if people would wake up to why tech products go down in quality and up in price. Anti-competitiveness is part of it. A bigger part is that they have to make more money each year, not because of capitalism or that some legal code requires it, but because our money is intentionally debased at least 2% every year. This is why we have to have exponential growth. It's why prices go up instead of down. There's a reason fractional reserve banking isn't taught in high schools. This need for infinite growth is why people treat their home like a savings account. It does a better job at holding its value than getting 1% interest (if you're lucky) in a literal savings account. It's why people invest in the stock market. It's not like people think Apple needs a little extra cash so they can invest in better equipment. It's how we get these crazy derivatives, because the normal stocks and bonds can't keep up. Currency debasement is why real wages go down every year by default. If the money supply were held constant, a 3% raise would actually buy you 3% more. Instead you are merely treading water. And, no, I'm not going to suggest you call a politician to change this. They're not interested in that. I'm not going to suggest moving to another county either. It wouldn't help. There are other solutions. Time banking, mutual aid, bartering, and using money that doesn't have inflation. It's easy to hypothesize that governments need to keep printing money, but I have to ask... how well has the fiat system served you? If, on average, your purchasing power is going up every year or you're holding steady on that front and getting more time off, then I'd say it's working well for you. If, on the other hand, things keep getting harder and you feel like you don't have any free time, maybe it's worth considering the alternatives. People should be talking about this.

TIL, there are 1,134 sudent groups in my town. 😲 Now I realize why it's so hard to know about all ths things going on locally. https://one.illinois.edu/club_signup?category_tags=6551797&group_type=

If elliptic curve cryptography is ever broken, I hope we don't lose too many people to suicide. It's one of those things where people not only could lose their life savings, but also their identity. Not as in their nym, but as someone who is a bitcoiner. Even if that the cracks show slowly, and new key options are added, there are all those old UTXOs out there that's be ripe for the picking. Even setting aside the broken trust that the system is/will be secure, just think of what that'd do to the economics. DES was also once thought to be secure. It fell. MD5 was once thought to be secure. It doesn't look so good now. SHA-1 is even showing collissions are easier than we thought. It seems inevitable that, given a long enough timeline, that all the algorithms will eventually fall from grace. #RandomMusings

Yo nostr:nprofile1qqsgqke57uygxl0m8elstq26c4mq2erz3dvdtgxwswwvhdh0xcs04scprpmhxue69uhhqun9d45h2mfwwpexjmtpdshxuet5qyt8wumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnswf5k6ctv9ehx2aqpp4mhxue69uhkummn9ekx7mqlndqlm you wamt to learn stained glass? I got you. https://makerspaceurbana.org/all-events/?event=958

Tonight I saw the northern lights for the first time

I bumped into Satoshi today. He's been hiding in Mortal Kombat: Scorpion's Revenge since 2020.

14 hour day, and counting. I'm going to be feeling this tomorrow

Greetings Mortals #GM

Is there any information about the details of how it will work when square starts accepting bitcoin on their retail payment systems? 1. Will everyone be able to pay via lightning by default? 2. Will the merchants just get fiat in their account by default? And if so will they even see how much money is coming in via bitcoin?

What's the freak with not being able to pay money to watch "Unbanked"? https://gathr.com/vod/91561b11/unbanked Apparently it was only available for like a week and now it's gone?

If anyone doesn't understand why I'm so ampped up about building a simple shed: 1. I'm an overweight computer geek, so it's a physically difficult task for me. 2. I'm a software security engineer, so while the plans all looked great in FreeCAD, seeing it actually work out in practice is exciting. It's an experience I'm not used to. 3. I'm going to get my garage back, as it won't have all the things that should be in the shed plus the lumber need to build the shed. 4. I'm going to get my electronics lab back, as there are currently bicycles in there which should be in the aforementioned overflowing garage. 5. I'm going to be able to combine the arts & crafts area into the lab to make it a nice little makerspace at home. This will free up the craft room to become a guest bedroom. So yeah, I think this is going to be a substancial improvement to our household.

Insurance companies have an incentive to get you to spend more money on health care. It's the only legal way they can increase their profits (which are restricted by law AS A PERCENTAGE of payouts, so more payouts = more dollars for them). That makes all the difference. If insurance companies got paid to save money, they would have clamped down on the $50 fee for one aspirin. Because the cost of insurance is basically unaffordable, I tried switching from health insurance to Crowdhealth this year. I was nervous at first but it's worked out great. I get the same care I got before, but pay less money. It's a lot easier to afford healthcare when the monthly bill gets reduced by over $1000! Some prescriptions actually cost me less now than when I had insurance. If you are in a similar situation, I'd highly recommend checking into Crowdhealth. If you go with it and want to save $99/month for the first three months, use my referral code: LOLHAX Feel free to ask me questions here too.

Some of us said it was a mistake for the centralized Signal chat app to rely on secure enclaves to keep information safe. https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/10/new-physical-attacks-are-quickly-diluting-secure-enclave-defenses-from-nvidia-amd-and-intel/ Don't build systems that put trust in one manufacturer or company. Don't have a centralized data collection point. Build completely open source, decentralized systems. And if you're a user, choose to use those systems.