yep. LTC is a Scrypt algo and the R606 is SHA256 only.

Exactly. Having worked for the NSA does NOT automatically make someone an expert in cryptography or blockchain tech. More to the point, according to the Wiki on him he was a cyber security specialist mainly responsible for upgrades along with looking at how systems and their infra can be hacked. He was NOT a cryptographer of *any* sort.

To me his opinion on Taproot is meaningless.

Kudos for that, at least Kano can't argue about that aspect

There is no "PoW energy waste issue". The energy is not 'wasted', it is being used for a purpose: Securing the blockchain. Why is that a less valid reason to use energy vs any other large industrial-scale usage of energy?

 Before going on about the power used for mining BTC you *might* want to check some facts about it...
A couple good links regarding power usage:
Mining power usage
Power usage comparisons
On that comparisons page they looks at the power used in the US alone to power always-on but idle devices: result is that power used for idle devices would power the entire BTC network for 1.9 years.

A couple good links regarding power usage:
Mining power usage
Power usage comparisons
On that comparisons page they looks at the power used in the US alone to power always-on but idle devices: result is that power used for idle devices would power the entire BTC network for 1.9 years.

Regarding China also taking several large aluminum refining plants offline, that is a double 'win' if their goal is to reduce carbon emissions. The reason is because not only does it require vast amounts of energy but also because the process of reducing Al2O3 into Al combines the liberated O2 with carbon from the electrodes used and that produces CO2. How much? 11.5 tons of CO2 per ton of Aluminum. That number is including the CO2 from using coal to produce power. When Hydro is used that same article states that emission drops to two to four tons of CO2 per-ton of Aluminum.

Actually, the "dumb as dog shit" moniker seems to fit most new crypto investors and wannbe investors living in all countries. No single race or nationality has a lock on that distinction...

Which on any Forum is where such things are always found... 

Why do they ask?
Because these days it seems far too many people do not know how to think and formulate a proper question to do an internet search using a search engine. They just want a binary yes or no to questions that any person with even just a little life experience should know must include "it all depends on..." The question rates right up there with "Is Bitcoin still profitable?..."

those will not work because they are 4-pin connectors, the Avalons use 5-pin ones, the 5th pin is for the cable shield.

Or as all too often I've found to be the case, all 3 of the above is true...

Just put in another low-ball buy order, this time using a trigger of $30k or less. Don't want to miss out again if another big dip (like Elon? ) shows up  

This belongs in altcoin area not the BTC area. Expect mods to move it.
BEWARE OF MOST 3rd PARTY FIRMWARE! Read https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5096158.0 as to why....

The 5nm node used by Bitmain's S19's is already about as efficient as is possible using silicon chips. In a few more years when 3nm becomes a viable process there will be very little improvement in power efficiency because shrinking gate size has long been a game of diminishing (power) returns since the 16nm node.

Throw in the fact that as gate size shrinks and reduces the power used per logic element, miner manufacturers just put more logic cores into the chips and more chips into the miners to keep power usage around 3kw or more. Yes it gives faster hash rate per machine but users just get more of the better miners to keep their total power usage the same while increasing their hash rate -- they do NOT aim to keep same hash rate for less power  

NO! Unless a PSU is specifically made for what is called n+1 (paralleled) current sharing operation and correctly wired to use that mode NEVER EVER connect 2 or more PSU's in parallel. One will always have a slightly higher or lower voltage output than another and they will fight each other trying to regulate the voltage and supply power to a load. Great way to fry circuits...

Another concern is how the miner is regulating voltage to the chips: As I recall the S17 does not use on-board Vcore regulators -- like most if not all recent miners it adjusts the PSU output to directly feed the chip strings whatever voltage they are set by autotune to use. That means the controller has to be able to talk with the PSU.

NO!
Try doing a search such as "How does Bitcoin work?" and you will find that the algorithm was designed as Proof Of Work aka PoW. You cannot cheat by cutting corners as that would (attempt) to defeat the whole point of POW.

And of course after hitting a low of 30k, BTC is back to banging around 39k again. Damn -- I still have some money in my trading act and should've bought more at that low...

Yep. Ya can always tell when I buy BTC...  
Just like the last time, I buy on a large dip -- and it keeps on dipping   Good part is that that it will *eventually* rise again 
Down to $32k so far. That will no doubt lead to a fair bit of older gear going offline again. Question is: How much new gear is finally starting to show up to balance that loss?

Or Kano's solo pool for lower fee of 0.5% if you find a block https://kano.is

As Kano said, they are standard 6-pin PCIe.
Breakout boards are only needed to adapt the outputs of hot-swap server PSU's that do not have PCie connectors. Do be aware that the PSU must be rated for at least 1,350w to power a s9 at full speed.

It is a standard 5-pin SPI/I2C female-to-female data cable. Just do a search on Amazon or other site for that, maybe include the word Avalon in the search. Only thing to pay attention to is the connector size. (measure it in mm). 10$ per cable is actually a decent price but you *might* be able to do better from a place like DigiKey, Mouser or Newark where you get bulk price breaks.