If I were to make a early prediction, based on the recent outgoings of Leeds, I'd say they're going down this season. They'll be relying on Bamford (if he's still there?) to keep them up, and quite frankly Bamford is easily nullified.

Phillips is a great player, and I know there's usually a lot of hype around English players, but I genuinely think he's a good player, and would suit any mid table team or back up for one of the top eight. I wouldn't agree that he is overrated, and definitely isn't the most overrated English player in the league.

Also, I think I've filled up until round 6 at the moment? That should give me some leeway. Filling out the whole season, without knowing form, was pretty difficult I'll be honest. So, many things change during the course of a season, I'll just have to set a reminder.

I'm leaning towards Ortega for this fight. However, I think it could easily go the other way. I just like Ortega as a well rounded fighter. Sometimes, not the best at defending himself though. I will be putting a short odd accumulator on this week I think. Probably aim for the four fold accumulator again. I'll be going with specific method of victory though.

I'm going to review some more tape on the less familiar fighters, for my predictions, and will likely post them on Friday to avoid any late cancellations. Although, we had a cancellation a few hours before last weekend due to what I believe was a stomach virus.

Definitely. I mean any developer will know that you wouldn't know half the stuff you do, or at the very least wouldn't be as efficient without StackExchange. I understand StackExhcange has now developed into a wider community, but that place is like knowledge central. They have a decent way of going about things from a moderation stand point, to suit their needs. So, you generally get well constructed answers, which conform to their sort of standardised approach.

Ultimately though, Bitcointalk can't be compared with StackExchange, and the same goes for most of the sites listed here. They appeal to different needs, and users. Bitcointalk I'd say is the best community spirit, only probably rivalled by Reddit, but then Reddit's internal systems let it down hugely for me, and its community generally encourages lower, off topic, and more funny responses than here.

I'm not going to knock any of them. They're all popular for a reason.

They're a outlier, so it's not fair to compare them to the average user. I mean, even if they posted in the Altcoin section, at the same quality they'd get a decent amount of merits, albeit not as much as they have, but they would've been recognised for sure.  

However, the Altcoin section doesn't have that. Honestly, I think chopping up the section a little more, i.e having a technical discussion area for Altcoins, would really help the section. It would allow to sift through some of the junk, but also for those that are only interested in emerging technology, and technical discussions could just go there.

I'd like to see us moderators getting on top of the spam problem a little bit more, and better categorisation of the whole section.

The only issue with that is the Altcoin section has a bad reputation, and that's not unwarranted. Even today, where I think things are a little more under control, since 2017/2018 was absolutely crazy, the section is still full of poor quality discussion. I reckon if I sat down, and dedicated an hour a day to reporting there, I could report north of 100 posts. That's just under two a minute, which speaks volumes to the amount of discussion that's poor there.

However, there's genuinely good discussion to be had there too. However, a merit source would have to sift through the crap, to be able to get to the good. I guess, the titles of the threads can be an indicator of the crap, but not always.

I'm of the opinion that the Altcoin Discussion is a breeding zone for account farmers. We moderators need to spend a little more time cleaning that area up before good quality discussion gets exposed there. I've been planning to start reporting there for a while now.

This also doesn't look at the whole picture. How many newbies are there, compared to legendaries? How many are posting 20,30 or 50 posts a week? Legendaries get more merit, since there's some pretty significant users here which happen to be legendaries.

While, I do get your point, I do think you'd need to collect additional data, as right now it looks bad, but when you factor in the amount of newbies signing up, and remaining active it's a different story. For example, a lot of the legendaries have more posts than merit per month. Therefore, that suggests you might have to be posting quite often to receive merit, not because merit sources consider that as a factor of distributing, but because there's more exposure to their posts.

Plus, the section matters. Technical discussion is always going to get more merit, as people generally learn a little more or have interesting discussions, and debates. Gambling discussion doesn't get nearly as much, which a lot of newbies tend to gravitate towards. The altcoin section in general has been boycotted by a lot of users, on its reputation alone.

Like I said, I understand the point being made, and I'd probably agree standards should be allowed to drop a little bit or at the very least, increasing the amount of merit given marginally to those that are good.

I also believe the merit system is doing its job, and I wouldn't want to see it not doing it, if you get what I mean. Plus, we've got threads dedicated to only lower ranks, for merit sources to merit them. So, I don't think this issue is being ignored completely.

It's a rank, that is all. Something, which anyone can achieve. Now, only a select few people will etch their name into history, that would be comparable to that of a legendary figure. A few names come to mind, and I'm sure most of us know these names.  

On the contrary, I'm still a idiot, and routinely get things wrong. Although, that's part of the learning process. Time certainly isn't indicative of knowledge, I could've been here for 10 years, and only participated in the gambling section, whereas I'd be limiting my exposure to anything that would teach me more about Bitcoin.

It's not the time it takes, it's how effectively, and intensively you study usually. However, yeah being here longer means you've probably strayed from your normal posting habits from time to time, which might mean you pick up some extra knowledge. Honestly, if you spent a year in the Development, and technical discussion section being active, and participating you'd probably have a decent fundamental base by the end. Since, those guys that frequent that section tend to have a passion, and aren't afraid to tell you why you're wrong in what you've said. Which, honestly is perfect for learning.

I do feel some users do get intimidated by certain sections because of it, but I genuinely believe it's not hostility for the most part, but their passion for the subject at hand shining through.

Alright night of fights. The main event was good. Other than that, not too much to write home about. After Ricky screwed me, I put a bet on for Sherman to win via decision since the odds were just too good, Said to win via decision, and then Borralho to win. For a couple of k, and bloody Sherman had to knock out his opponent didn't he. He was so close .

Well, that bet would've come in if I didn't replace the Nunes vs Calillo fight, with Ricky. Bloody Ricky couldn't hit a barn door if it was right in front of him. Close night for me for some decent money. Too bad. I'm liking the look of the next event though.

Wales on the other hand aren't looking too great. We might let down the Northern Hemisphere teams here honestly. I've thought that the South Africans have had the better of the first half, although I'm not counting my chickens yet. Wales usually do play better the second half. I don't know why that is, I wouldn't say we're more fit than South Africa.

South African wingers definitely scare me though, those are some big boys, who are surprisingly fast when they get the ball. We've done alright. I think the ref has been a little harsh on Welsh offsides, when SA have been basically doing the same, just not on their try line.

I've got Wales to win (4.0), first leg of an accumulator which also has some UFC in it. So, they better pull something out. 3-3 at half time though is pretty good considering how much South Africa has had of the ball. I'm worried about the experienced players coming on in the late game for South Africa though, especially in the scrummage area.

I expect Scotland to lose to Argentina later on for the final test match of the day. I suspect it'll be close, but feel they just haven't got enough to beat them, and quite frankly Argentina are usually underestimated in rugby.

I'm feeling confident, which usually means I'm way off. So, I'm still going to put that disclaimer that I have no clue what I'm doing, and you shouldn't follow my picks, at least thinking that I'm an analyst. I've literally only won one MMA this year .

Having said that, this event isn't as bad as I first thought. There's some good fights, some decent match ups, and I actually expect it to be more entertaining than last weeks headliner, which was arguably one of the more disappointing events this year.

 

Why do you want too? There's plenty of alternatives which are free, and you have complete control of the private key. What would be your objective? I'm assuming you'll either be charging or not giving the users the private key, since you describe it as a "service"?

If you want to build one just to learn, I'd probably suggest aiming your sights a little lower, and eventually progress up from that.  Think about interacting with nodes or wallets before building one. That'll give you some knowledge going forward too how they somewhat operate.

As with anything that has a good amount of support. Plus, Bitcoin has a lot of people relying on it, so it makes sense to be careful about what's adding or not. Even without that you should be careful. Development is painfully slow as you might know. Even massive companies which have a ton of devs are quite slow, and usually time frames are thrown out of the window, even when overestimated. At least, that's what I've found.

That's alright. For a little more detail I use some Qubes to transfer data, isolate that data, and even wipe things. I wouldn't knowingly inject a malicious storage medium, and totally rely on virtual isolation (sys-usb). I'd much rather use a physical machine for that. So, Live cd's definitely are good for that sort of thing, but then you've got to ask the question whether the live USB has been compromised.

Yeah, the firewall is what surprised me the most, and I will be taking a look at the logs, and figuring out why that is the case. I'm wondering whether that performs better on newer machines, and newer RAM. I'm still using very slow RAM as a disclaimer. This computer is very old. I'm waiting for the battery to die on it, because the batteries aren't easy to get hold of any more, that'll finally convince me to upgrade the machine.

It's very limited, I mean 8GB on a normal operating system isn't really that great for development as you know. However, I've used it in a pinch. I've even ran Unity on it, which admittedly wasn't all that great performance .

Nah, I've used it for when a client needed something sorting out quickly or you know those moments that something come to you, and I test it out. Compiling time can be painful compared to that of a normal computer.  

I don't actively develop on this machine. I've got a desktop running another Linux distribution that does the meaty tasks.

Fair to say, I've pushed this machine to its absolute limit. Got to get your monies worth, right?

Okay, I'm going to change a few things here I think.

Caio Borralho instead. I like Petrosyan, but after reviewing some tapes I'm liking Caio in this match up. I wouldn't be surprised if Petrosyan does take it though.

My other pick Antonina Shevchenko isn't a confident one. Her ground game has looked really suspect at times, but her opponent definitely doesn't have the best of records going into this fight. If she can keep it on the feet I expect a win, if not I'd go with Casey, marginally.

Right, to my bets (I am making some!). I still have left over winnings in my account, after withdrawing some of it, so thought why not. Here's my bets:

- David Onama 1.12 (probably a knockout, but I'm using this as a buffer so if he shits the bed I'm going to be pissed)
- Jamie Mullarkey by decision (very likely a knockout in this fight, but going where the value is at)
- Nunes vs Calvillo to go the distance
- Said Nurmagomedov decision
- Caio Borralho

This would return 68.85 at this time. I'll be reviewing some more tape, but I'm pretty sure my final bet will look something like this.

Yeah, theymos allowed donators, and staff to put anything (obviously with approval) they wanted into a factoid slot. theymos even deems it as a "mini-ad". theymos manually approved all of them that went into that slot. So, it shouldn't be seen as just facts, and quotes. Although, I do believe the vast majority of them are indeed facts, and quotes. Even, from donators, and staff users.

All donators, and staff were allowed one submission as a factoid. The ad info page states:


Do note, the latter part of the sentence. However, whether you disagree with that is another matter, but that's why you're seeing these types of factoids. There's also some that are funny ones or at least meant to be funny.

They probably shouldn't be called factoids for this reason, but I don't think that's a massive problem. Most users know them as adverts rather than factoids I should imagine.

I imagine it was a way of saying thanks to those that have contributed to the forum, whether monetarily or via helping out with forum related duties.

So, you've got to run certain Qubes for it to be functional, so here's what I've got:

- dom0 (required)
- sys-firewall (network)
- sys-net (network)
- sys-usb (isolates usb's connected, and allows you to choose which Qube to plug the USB in, without being plugged into all of them, can be disabled though if you don't want this capability)
- sys-whonix

The above are like the core of functionality, unless you didn't want internet access, didn't want to isolate any USB's plugged into your system, or didn't use Whonix. However, Qubes OS allows you to download system updates over Tor.

So, those are the one's I've pretty much always got running. I sometimes run into issues with sys-usb due to my processor, however it does work it just fails to start up at times. So, you've manually got to start it up. I never bothered digging in whether this was definitely due to my processor or a common Qubes issue. Simple restart of the qube fixes it most of the time anyway.

Then, I have two qubes that I've created, mainly for web browsing. So I separate Work form personal stuff. Those are almost constantly opened. Now, things to get a bit tight if performing particular tasks with these open.

I have used up to four Qubes at once in addition to the core qubes, doing different things. For example, I have offline qubes which are for security purposes, and I'm usually just copying data using the built in copy system Qubes has. Think like having Keepass in a offline qube etc, usually refered to a "Vault" by qube users. So, these aren't particularly doing much, but are still open. I've dedicated minimum ram to them both.

I've got many other qubes setup for different purposes, but they aren't part of my routine usage, where as the above are. Plus, I do tend to shut down qubes when not in use. One thing I have noted is, watching video on this device while having other qubes open just isn't great. You'll get choppy results, and if you use a rugged computer like we, you'll get some serious heat. However, I don't watch much video or Youtube so for me it suits.

I do want to upgrade at some point, I just don't want to lose some of the features of the computer I've got. To get equivalent you're talking some serious money. I've been looking at some ThinkPads, as I think a minimum of 16GB would suit me, ideally more. Since, I would like to do some more dev work on it, I've got another computer which satisfies those needs for now though.  

Although, for the time being I'm not using this computer for anything resource heavy. If you're you'll be needing more than 8GB. I'm really stretching this computer to its very limit. I do have other computers that would be able to run it, but it doesn't have the features I like. I literally have tons of old, and even newer computers sitting in the cupboard .

I'm generally decently organised though. Unlike my partner who has a million tabs open at once, I've usually only got a few open. Although, I have tested it with 50+ tabs open, since when deleting replies in a particular troublesome thread, they amount up quickly. Though, that's loading the forum, and this isn't particularly resource heavy.

I definitely do see performance issues though, and that's just something I'm living with right now. I'd definitely one hundred percent recommend shooting for higher ram if you want to switch to Qubes OS.

As, we're speaking my work Qube is using 10% of the CPU, and around 1-2GB ram. sys-net, sys-usb are using minimal ram, around 100-200MB, sys-firewall up to 1000MB, sys-whonix around 1000MB, my other personal qube around 1100MB. Dom0 using 2000-4000MB. So, you can see things are tight, and as soon as I do something rather intensive, performance will drop, and be quite noticeable. Although, these are exact, I've over estimated some as the "Qube domain" functionality shows you what they're using, but since they fluctuate I'd thought I'd over estimate to give you some idea of how tight things are.

I have around ten additional custom created qubes for different things. These generally are only opened, and then close on a need to basis. Plus, I do shut down Qubes if not using. I spend most of my time on my work qube, rather than personal. Personal used for things like emails, and things like that. It's nothing much. I do have a development qube which is not used much, as previously mentioned only in a pinch, and with all other qubes shut down. I use VScode on it.

My CPU is also pretty old, there's multiple bottlenecks on this machine. However, I've been comfortably using Qubes OS for my tasks for more than a year now, and despite having better performance on other Linux operating systems, I'd never go back.

I never do singles. So, when I'm close to winning its usually big. Of course, due to putting one massive accumulators I never win. So, when I do it's a pleasant surprise. The UFC win I had a week or two ago was massive for me. My first win of the year .

I'm just that crazy bastard that puts on at least 4/5 fold accumulators, but most of the time up to 8 fold accumulators. I basically donate money .

Yeah, that's the norm for Izzy fights. Usually, either fighters become frozen because of the fear of catching a kick or counter punch, e.g Costa or they shoot, but don't get the take down. He has one of the best take down defences I do believe.

Yeah, Cannonier would've been heavier on the night. Not sure by how much, but that's usually the case for Izzy too. Stepping up to Jan was a total different story though, he was much heavier in the official weigh in.

I think it has the potential to be a snooze fest, there will be that tension that I've missed though. You know when you get all nervous before the fight for your fighter. Alex will likely have enough threat to bring back that nervousness, but Izzy has improved since he last fought Alex, we haven't seen enough of Alex to determine if he has especially in MMA.

Interesting fight, and I don't mind Alex skipping ahead of the rankings since this sort of has a fairy tale storyline.

Right prediction time. Obviously, I've previously said I won't be betting on this event. Too many close calls, and to be honest I'm not overly familiar with a lot of the fighters on the card. Anyway:

Saidyokub Kakhramonov
Karl Roberson
David Onama
Cody Brundage
Antonina Shevchenko
Aiemann Zahabi
Jamie Mullarkey
Nina Nunes
Jared Vanderaa
Silva de Andrade
Armen Petrosyan
Rafael Fiziev

This card is underrated now looking at all those names, David Onama, Jamie Mullarkey, Petrosyan, and Andrade. This card is quietly a good one, too good to bet on. There's so many close fights that I don't feel comfortable betting on a winner. I might look at some going the distance, and not though. I think that's where the money will be.

I can't stress it enough, no one listen to these predictions above in terms of betting. I'm literally not confident on 80-90% of them.