asciilifeform: i can't really picture the local tyrant fining them. now, paying, on the other hand!

asciilifeform: by all rights, 'fined' - by the users - 100% of their revenue

asciilifeform: anyone who voluntarily does business with them is chumpatron fuel

asciilifeform: at this point, these folks can be safely considered as lowered into goxerasty

asciilifeform: 'At no point during the nearly two-hour-long conversation was the caller asked to verify his identity.' << by coughing up a magic number known to every spammer, aha right

asciilifeform: gotta pick.

asciilifeform: it's this crap - or, 'shall be delivered.' you are your key.

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: not afaik

asciilifeform: 'help our beloved warriors in iraq'

asciilifeform: they even had the audacity to... solicit donations from the public!

asciilifeform: 100% gov. funded

asciilifeform: worked about as well as you'd expect

asciilifeform: many years ago, as a freshly graduated kid, i worked in a dreadful salt mine where one of the products was a military bot based on a segway with the top part sawn off.

asciilifeform: last words, 'noooooooo....'

asciilifeform: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/39377851/ns/world_news-europe/t/segway-company-owner-rides-scooter-cliff-dies/ ☟︎

asciilifeform: 'poetic justice' - the idiot who bought segway corp. ended up driving his... off a cliff.

asciilifeform: accounted for a good fraction of the net sales

asciilifeform: if i recall, there was a fed. gov grant for them to buy the machines

asciilifeform: if they're 'the bullet with your name on it, not the shrapnel addressed 'to occupant'' - doesn't matter if you're black, white, martian

asciilifeform: people have this odd concept that encounters with police take place exclusively in traffic

asciilifeform: bourbaki!

asciilifeform: and tossing the old one in the reactor

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: i like to imagine that it covers the cost of a girl etching the new key in a granite plinth

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: unless i'm mistaken, this counts as buying a new subscription

asciilifeform: diametric: afaik the only well-known, interesting place where key can never be changed is mpex

asciilifeform: but two weeks later, there it was

asciilifeform: i did mention that i tried and it croaked

asciilifeform: and took ages

asciilifeform: you can. it was buggy formerly

asciilifeform: diametric: assuming, naturally, control of the previous key

asciilifeform: diametric: you do know that one can change keys in wot

asciilifeform: the old saw, 'xxxx is free if yer time has no value'

asciilifeform: do not neglect to take into account what the substitute costs (incl. one's time)

asciilifeform: that is, the contrivance i assume everyone here is presently using in lieu of a cardano

asciilifeform: intent is for the product to be priced competitively vs. the state-of-the-art alternative (i.e. the traditional '90s laptop with linux/gpg in ROM)

asciilifeform: mp proposed a tentative price at one point, but that was some time ago

asciilifeform: this is certainly one of the intended use scenarios, yes.

asciilifeform: aha

asciilifeform: antephialtic: be so kind as to briefly describe your use case - for my enlightenment

asciilifeform: why the hurry?

asciilifeform: antephialtic: there is to be a cardano at mp's party. if you really can't wait, you can come and buy that one.

asciilifeform: http://www.intechopen.com/source/html/39326/media/image14_w.jpg

asciilifeform: sure does.

asciilifeform: no need for napkin!

asciilifeform: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/imgele/voldiv.gif

asciilifeform: or, the slightly more determined, buy/build 'dc-dc' converters, of the kind described previously.

asciilifeform: hence people buy 'regulators' - e.g. the ubiquitous 7805

asciilifeform: work it out on napkin

asciilifeform: voltage dividers also have a nasty habit of non-linearity over current draw

asciilifeform: 'buck converter' is more efficient, in that it works by letting a cap charge to the desired voltage and then empty into another

asciilifeform: you can - this is called 'divider' - but it throws away energy

asciilifeform: when disconnected

asciilifeform: which is to say, they are, in the sense that a li cell that's been dead for decades will sometimes measure 3.0

asciilifeform: if only.

asciilifeform: hence his question about vregs.

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: 'pi' needs 5.0v within 5%, if i recall

asciilifeform: make sure it actually pisses out 5v before connecting anything valuable...

asciilifeform: barbaric, but you can get them by the dozen

asciilifeform: for the voltage buck

asciilifeform: diametric: you might be able to get away with a re-purposed car->usb converter

asciilifeform: sha1 hash? wonder if those are legally binding

asciilifeform: afaik it's only ever done to zap potential competition of 'favorite son' dod contractors.

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: getting your patent 'secreted' was once the ultimate crackpot 'street cred' (e.g. flanagan and 'neurophone')

asciilifeform: diametric: what v to what v ?

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: usa has an ancient legal device called 'secret patent'

asciilifeform: sec, deanonymization << meta-nsa has patent, will be displeased

asciilifeform should probably goto bed

asciilifeform: nm

asciilifeform: wait i thought this was ltc

asciilifeform: Ademan: where is the RAM?

asciilifeform: my impression was that he suggested coupling a bitbet-like apparatus to a trading bot.

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: perhaps i misunderstood then

asciilifeform: as soon as it has +EV under any conceivably-predictable circumstances, you're fucked

asciilifeform: roughly, fooling the system by betting in a particular way should always have -EV.

asciilifeform: not that it's a bad idea per se, just that the builder must be careful to avoid creating a situation where someone can lift out of his pockets by artificially steering the machine using a heavy bet

asciilifeform: kakobrekla: any kind of heavy machinery directly wired to a prediction market is, well... this.

asciilifeform: http://unqualified-reservations.blogspot.com/2010/01/hanson-moldbug-debate.html

asciilifeform: 'Imagine a chess game. Now, imagine a group of kibitzers watching the chess game. Now, imagine the kibitzers begin to bet on the game. The betting will create odds. The odds express each side's probability of winning. This is a prediction market. To turn this prediction market into a decision market, we say: could we get rid of one of the players, and just have the kibitzers play the game?'

asciilifeform: kakobrekla: that sounds like a good way to end up playing 'moldbug's chess'

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: yes, i know of this - one time got a new job and forgot to opt out, lost a few bucks into nevernever land

asciilifeform: someone please enlighten me?

asciilifeform: why does anybody interested in btc need a 'fund' ?

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: evidently not.

asciilifeform: what prevents 'ordinary investor' from simply buying btc somewhere?

asciilifeform: wot tells you which mouth.

asciilifeform: Ademan: how does WoT = IP << see mp's piece on how 'the same string, emitted from different mouths, is worth different amount'

asciilifeform: but, why should i steal all of the surprises? it's unsportsmanlike.

asciilifeform: although there are interesting bits that can be inferred merely from the pcb mask posted by the author.

asciilifeform: dexX7: the vendor's site has a bunch of stuff but none of the actual interesting bits. this may change at some point, ask him.

asciilifeform: dexX7: in what sense is it open source?

asciilifeform: ninjashogun: if you must know, the answer is no.

asciilifeform: mispelling is 'yesterday' - 'today' is 'bit-squatting.'

asciilifeform: ninjashogun: there is sufficient information available about 'trezor' to learn the answer to this. but please do own homework

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: 'Courtesans and Fishcakes' (J.N.Davidson) mentions an ancient greek whore affectionately called 'Obole' (after her price, 1 obol)

asciilifeform: ninjashogun: almost certainly not, given that it isn't commercially available last i checked

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: when do we get 'dollar girl' ?

asciilifeform: it is largely about how tigers were hunted (written by a professional)

asciilifeform: but the general fact behind the animals described therein is, i believe, well-known.

asciilifeform: it is.

asciilifeform: ?