Yep. Apparently a lot of the "sex trafficking" people are really just fundie Christians and Knights of Columbus (also know as the Pope's Toadies) out to get rid of all porn. I was wondering about that a few years ago when it became all the rage (and got rid of sex workers on backpage/craigslist.

If someone doesn't fire up an onlyfans clone that uses bitcoin I will (a) Spit and (b) Build it myself.

Sorry dude. Fixed, thanks for the tasteful edit.

Really? Oh....

More seriously, if so I'll replace it. Just seemed apt at the moment.

Edit: Replaced with a different kind of porn.

Honest answer: No.

Longer answer: I think the T series units are the "binned" chips and parts from the Antminer world. They put the best chips after testing into the S series units, and put the more "oddball" series chips in a lower performance box that is underclocked, undervolted, and call it the "T" series. Likewise I think boards that have mediocre solder jobs and the like are put into the "T" bin, matched, and sold as units.

Thus with proper firmware a T17+ could hash at a higher than badged rate. However those chips may fail in use under conditions that an S series box won't. This is why I've been merrily chasing chip failures on the T17's, sure you can replace a chip but another one is not quite so far behind.

Antminers are not quite the um.... highest quality things I have worked on. They blow up easily, solder isn't that great, and the difference between peak chip temp and the point where the chips fall off the board is not a whole lot of C. The cases are good, and the controllers are mostly good.

Another thing to watch is the earlier T17's and T15's used clips to hold the boards to the power supply rail while the later ones used real screws. Given the current draw on these boards I think the clips and loose screws could explain a number of burned top boards. Go for the screws.

If you're going to get one I'd recommend you do new (because everyone who buys one will run it with nuts firmware till it starts dropping boards, then sell it as "used") and run it with the supplied firmware (which is probably warrantied to work as long as the warranty lasts). Or run it with faster firmware, then sell it on Ebay when it starts tossing errors (just disclose it, pls).

Sorry, been busy for a bit here, will post some more observations next week including some pics of boards that had a bit of a.... shipping failure. :-)

Doha accords. Or:

Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan
between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which is not recognized by the United States
as a state and is known as the Taliban and the United States of America

https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Agreement-For-Bringing-Peace-to-Afghanistan-02.29.20.pdf
https://www.geo.tv/latest/274872-us-secretary-of-state-pompeo-lands-in-doha-to-oversee-signing-of-taliban-deal

I think Trump also threw in one of these to "seal the deal".



Fixed, no bewbs.

Edit: No, I think that's worse. Let's try again.

Well, if you were running for your life it would be better to have your seed phrase in your head than $$$ in the great Afghan "bank". Or lugging a cart of Gold.

Wonder how much that fake "President" got out with. Doubt it was bitcoin though.

I think things hollow out from the inside until the whole tree suddenly collapses. USSR was a great example: In 1984 they were going to be around for a thousand years. Then gone. The Afghan thing was "quick" but not really: The Taliban have been paying people off ever since Trump sold the people there into slavery. Wonder what he got out of it, but the point is the hollowing out went on for over a year. Then the first puff of wind and down it goes.

The US still seems to have some resilience, but it is being hollowed out nicely. Not looking forward to a collapse: I really hate being a warlord and leather chaps+helmet can chafe.

50k, then 500k. This is good.

A heat pump water heater never made sense to me: Because it pulls the heat from the surrounding air it makes the air in that room cooler. Which the main heat system has to re-warm up. So it's just making your main house heating system work harder, you might as well just power your heater with gas or electricity anyway.

A house heat pump pulls the heat in from outside, so is more efficient than a straight electric heater (there is almost always heat outside even when cold). Geothermal makes optimal sense as it pulls the heat from the ground around your home which is warm-ish even when it's truly cold.

But I don't see the logic in a heat pump water heater. Even if you exhaust the cold air outside it still pulls inside air through it which creates a vacuum in the house which just pulls air in from the outside (which is um... cold). So wut....

That statement is crude....

But accurate. Hm.

A Geo one *will* work in lower temperatures as it draws heat from underground as opposed to air. Much better system to be honest.

Now that I think about it maybe I should replace my natural gas unit with a geothermal. I wonder if it's worth it. Hm......

Of course. This is the logical, and to be honest ONLY possible outcome from a "Free, Ad supported" business model. Just look back to the penny papers and "newsies" of the 1890's: Each day the paper had to sell based on its own merits at that time. Just like news articles. And of course the more salacious, the more exciting, the more indulging articles are the ones that get clicked/bought and thus generate revenue.

It's a complete race to the bottom with consequences such as "Remember the MAINE!" and 600k dead in the US due to CoVID stupidity.

Paywalls and subscriptions fix this (look up the NY Times under Ochs) and provide more balanced and rational information because the articles are sold in a collection. We had the chance to do this in the late 1990s. We did not. And here we are.

So if your "news" source is exciting you, confirming those deepest desires/fears, and leads to endless clicks then it's not news. It's simply a hook to lure you around because you are the product being sold.

Life like that.

Sure. Here's 2 to get back on the train.

Close but not quite. 47.8k on Stamp

True. If one with wealth does the (ha ha) borrow trick then as long as the interest payment is <800,000 a year you're set. That's a good 20 million house, I guess you could live in one of those. Maybe. But you do have to do upkeep, which runs into the classic trap of "mo money, mo problems".

Bob's ranch will be cool and will also require a fair bit of annual $$$ to run. So you have to figure that in as well. Same thing with a Lambo, they're cheap and all but you need to do a lot of maintenance which pretty much requires buying an Italian or two to take care of it :-)

Life is full o' problems.

15% increase to the current 20% is 3% overall. Going to 39.6 is a different story. I doubt that will pass.

Edit: Damn, living on a mere million a year will suck horribly. Hm, divorce the wife split the bitcoin and we can do 2m. Still, I have no idea how we will live on that.....

Still won't pass.

If bitcoin keeps rolling like it has than a 3% increase in CG (15% of 20%) isn't going to mean dick for me. That's like stepping on a penny.

Best strategy is tit for tat: Start out being nice, then do unto them what they do unto you.

Works like a charm.

Kind of like saying the sun rises in the East or tires fall in potholes.

Well overall not a bad trip to Vega$. Defcon wasn't bad but the "crypto village" was 100% Monero and Ethereum. Need to have a WO table with a flamethrower and cookies or something like that.

Everyone did mask up pretty well, to be honest the whole city is being pretty careful. I was impressed, it's possible all of the idiots are up at Sturgis this weekend....

Despite that I felt no real desire to play craps, gamble otherwise, smoke cigars, wench with women, or even get seriously drunk. Must be the residual stress, but still did spend time looking at nice watches and enjoying the hotel.

We need to have a gathering here sometime. Maybe land our black helicopters in the desert outside the city in a circle around a big bonfire...