markjgsmith

2024/03/28 #

• Big tech blocks smaller companies - One of the things that is very different during the AI revolution we are in is that the big companies are being as nimble as historically the smaller upstarts have been.

  This means for the first time ever, it's not obvious that the ecosystem will turn over. Smaller companies might never again become bigger players, and the big players will always be at the top. Much of the innovation is coming frlm the big players. That's a new dynamic and quite clearly could have terrible concequences for diversity throughout society.

  Do we need to redesign how all these institutions interact so the ecosystem remains healthy?

  If bitcoin was designed as the business system is stuctured, 4-5 people would do all the transactions in the entire world. #

• cat << EOF > Feature phone interfaces

  Really interesting episode of Citadel Dispatch with KG about his custodial Bitcoin solution Machankura, deployed in a many countries across Africa. The cool thing is that their solution works with old school feature phones. And it's suprisingly advanced in terms of functionality. In a way, it's simplicity is it's strength. If users can add credit to their phone, then they send/receive/store bitcoin.

  They even have a way to pay for groceries directly in stores via lightning, and a way to buy bitcoin annonomously using cash via gift cards or directly over the counter in participating stores. It's really very impressive.

  I wonder if he could open up his solution to other developers via an HTTP API?

  I'm also wondering how easy it would be to add a feature phone interface to an existing web2/3 app. What is the min app for a feature phone interface app?

  Personally I quite like the idea of using a simple device to do bitcoin transactions because it minimises your attack surface. Of course you would also have a smart phone for surfing the web, but keeping these devices seperate might be a good idea. Also should you loose all your belongings, it's a lot cheaper to buy a feature phone than the latest iPhone with 10 cameras and AI photo editing.

  EOF

• Swollen ankles - The strange thing about my ankles swelling again is that after the initial round of antibiotics that I did, they didn't swell up after I stopped taking the medication. After this round of antibiotics, they started to swell up the day after finishing the course. I find that strange. #

Today’s links:

• Building a Micro HTMX SSR Framework - Super interesting to see how Vite works, and it's a very good tutorial, but I got about half way through and realised my idea of micro and the author's differ considerably. Imo this is very complicated, and it feels like there's quite a lot of 'magic' going on, or at least more than I am comfortable with. However I'm willing to concede it might just be my unfamiliarity with modern esm frontend applications. blog.platformatic.dev #

• New Post: Feature phone interfaces markjgsmith.com #

• Digital wallets and the "only Apple Pay does this" mythology - Has some interesting and useful technical info about digital wallets, specifically about the reasons and uses for FPAN and DPAN numbers. birchtree.me #

• Astronomers Unveil Strong Magnetic Fields Spiraling at the Edge of Milky Way’s Central Black Hole - I'm still a bit confused how we are able to get these side on views since we are in the same plane as the rotation of the black hole. Or is it that the black hole rotates perpendicular to the plane of the galaxy? Or is it because of how the light gets polarized? Anyway cool picture, and cool to discover similarities between these beasts. eventhorizontelescope.org #