asciilifeform: by that argument, the 'colt .45 retirement plan' would be the ultimate peace of mind...

asciilifeform: i just don't get the 'here's my private key. please don't run off with everything' way of thinking.

asciilifeform: "The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling to and make its home for life. For this task, it has a rudimentary nervous system. When it finds its spot and takes root, it doesn’t need its brain anymore, so it eats it!"

asciilifeform: like the sea cucumber that eats its brain when it finds a place to plant?

asciilifeform: fiddybucks buys you a 'raspberry' or whatever the pocket computer of the day

asciilifeform: not like you need a brain to run the blockchain

asciilifeform: i'm still perplexed by the popularity of 'web wallets.' what do 20GB cost now? $0.20?

asciilifeform: 'triple integral too heavy? here's a wakizashi. see you at noontime, bring the white sheets.'

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: right. and don't forget to include seppuku.

asciilifeform: s is an actual original mind. each of his pieces is entirely different, like mozart's.

asciilifeform: nah, this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anathem

asciilifeform: want to diddle maths? wear a cloak, eat rice, visit the outside every decade.

asciilifeform: neal stephenson had the right idea with his 'math monasteries'

asciilifeform: problem, as often is, sinecures attract time-servers.

asciilifeform: got lysenkoized along with the others.

asciilifeform: 30 yrs. ago.

asciilifeform: was.

asciilifeform: truffles: typical american 'public-private partnership.' (would close down overnight if not for payola.)

asciilifeform: the 'new books' shelf at my uni library is full of this.

asciilifeform: 'climate change consequences of transsexual discrimination' all the way through.

asciilifeform: anyone who thinks that american academia is alive should look at the products of 'mit press' for the past 20 yrs.

asciilifeform: how many have touched so much as algebra.

asciilifeform: those are a dime a dozen in paul graham's zoo. how many have so much as heard of landau & lifschitz.

asciilifeform: only so many ex-soviet wizards left.

asciilifeform: problem, as always, is with quality, not quantity.

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: you also need the human material to be actually available.

asciilifeform: the reason why modern attempts at this are laughable is the state of the credentialling system.

asciilifeform: bell labs / xerox parc.

asciilifeform: this is actually a fundamental problem in 'virtual reality' machines. including a servo powerful enough to make a fist hitting a simulated 'desk' feel like table and not goo, will break your arm if the timing is a few Ms off.

asciilifeform: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/business/worldbusiness/17gazshoes.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

asciilifeform: the ones that would bust your knees after a little run.

asciilifeform: whenever i see 'exoskeletons,' i think back to the soviet gasoline-powered '7-league boots'.

asciilifeform: peanut gallery hates physics. you walk in, their /perpetuum mobile/ stops. who likes that.

asciilifeform: gotta wonder, how many 'own goals' this scored.

asciilifeform: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Eldest_Son

asciilifeform: http://jouster.com/saga_of_M16/saga_of_the_m16_part_2.pdf

asciilifeform: "the little black rifle" which is useless to our cause!" ☟︎

asciilifeform: exception to the rule. It stated that all equipment was to be picked up with the exception of

asciilifeform: police the battle fields for usable equipment. This document however, had one telling

asciilifeform: "The VC used this recovered equipment to equip there own rather meager supplies as would any good guerilla force. The intercepted document reinforced this practice, exhorting the VC troops to

asciilifeform: re: vietnam:

asciilifeform: the one that would go full auto if you dropped it.

asciilifeform: or americans in vietnam, clubbing the enemy with jammed m16 and take his rifle.

asciilifeform: just like russians would club a german with 'ppsh' and take his schmeisser...

asciilifeform: nobody cancelled slipped tracks.

asciilifeform: while inside? or target practice.

asciilifeform: betcha there are still '34s puttering around pakistan or some other pesthole.

asciilifeform: quite.

asciilifeform: here in the 'civilized' u.s. they'll do it 'humanely.' pay your ransom and get out, don't come back. like in (early) GDR.

asciilifeform: right

asciilifeform: that was more of a 'fuck, we won't let all the phd's out simultaneously'

asciilifeform: (knew too much. non-exportable. physicists, etc)

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: soviet 'nevyezdnye' ?

asciilifeform: only part that surprised me was the $50k. might as well 'owe parking fine? no passport.'

asciilifeform: dekulakization, ever popular.

asciilifeform: old news.

asciilifeform: or the electric bill didn't make its way into the nth 5-year plan...

asciilifeform: or maybe great wall blew a fuse.

asciilifeform: lemmings from the last wave of asicism tossing their miners in the skip in the wake of the middle kingdom's Great Wall of ASIC?

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: to pdp-8.

asciilifeform: peace as in: 'rest in...'

asciilifeform: mostly botnet traffic, as far as i can tell.

asciilifeform: (as classic nsa clearly does not, if the 3rd tor 'leak' is to be believed.)

asciilifeform: that would be FBI', the other FBI. just like there is (or ought to be) an NSA', where they keep people who know how to set up 'iptables' on the 1st try.

asciilifeform: (or not.)

asciilifeform: when we see a sr clone with aerostat delivery, we'll know it's the real deal.

asciilifeform: from the honeypot dept: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/11/06/silk-road-2-0-launches-promising-a-resurrected-black-market-for-the-dark-web/

asciilifeform: cancelling bullion orders when btc spiked

asciilifeform: these wouldn't be the fellows that shafted people back in april?

asciilifeform: will be interesting to see 'company towns' where you can get food, housing, etc. for btc.

asciilifeform: (boards are probably a buck more at plants where they allow toilets.)

asciilifeform: chinese soldering girl, not permitted even toilet break, less than steady hand.

asciilifeform: probably just burnt flux

asciilifeform: (scorch marks, lower-right quadrant)

asciilifeform: btw this photo of the latter shows tell-tale signs of hand soldering

asciilifeform: so i suppose somebody did have them packaged as bga, and now shoestring resellers are having a bit of headache.

asciilifeform: quad flat pack.

asciilifeform: http://198.245.60.111/Pix/Erupter2.jpg

asciilifeform: it was one of these

asciilifeform: actually nope.

asciilifeform: mircea_popescu: the only btc asic i've seen alive (colleague's collection) was a bga.

asciilifeform: (btc asics that is)

asciilifeform: this is an asic house, right? afaik all of the current asics ship as bga...

asciilifeform: i can't mount bgas with 100% working yield in my kitchen, either.

asciilifeform: so chances are they're sending away for them to be mounted.

asciilifeform: (need xray machine)

asciilifeform: likely a bga, and can't mount it in-house

asciilifeform: (assuming they meant anything at all)

asciilifeform: almost certainly these: http://www.i-micronews.com/upload/image/PG/4%20chip%20stack%20on%20interposer.jpg

asciilifeform: i do.

asciilifeform: with the one exception that people in those times, for the most part, were clever enough to refuse the ride.

asciilifeform: this is all reminiscent of, say, pre-Otis elevators - that would sometimes plunge, occupants screaming, splat.

asciilifeform: ;;gulag

asciilifeform: think big. next johannesburg.

asciilifeform: i predict: the 'obamacare' software fukkupy will turn into a full-blown 'de-automation' campaign. 'create jobs!' you heard it here phirst.

asciilifeform: mining coal or uranium is 'so 20th c.' now they mine: votes.

asciilifeform: BingoBoingo: expect to see quite a bit more 'job creation'

asciilifeform: not that i recall. presumably used up the wife.

asciilifeform: anybody recall the scene in 'atlas shrugged' where they pass through the remains of a city and see a man grunt a plow by hand, lacking even a horse?

asciilifeform: 'the collapse party always wins, whether anyone votes for it or not, and whether it runs or not...'