markjgsmith

Hey crypto / web3 devs out there can you help me understand the nature of crypto coins at a technical level?

I'm looking for a way to compare coins, something vaguely similar to comparing HTTP request / responses when you are comparing web APIs. #

I think markdown is awesome. I use it everyday. It's a great semi-technical way to write HTML. Pretty much everything I publish is stored in markdown. Having worked quite a bit with markdown parsing libraries like marked, which have advanced plugin systems, I wonder whether it would be possible to create a markdown editor with a plugin system.

I haven't seen such a thing, but I reckon such a tool could really take digital collaboration to a new level. You might be able to design workflows specifically tailored to people with very different skill sets. Just putting it out there. #

Great recent Daily Show with a segment on making monetary theory approcheable to the every-man/woman. Also a segment all about internet culture, with Filterworld author Kyle Chayka.

I think it's notable that monetary theory is now cool. This definitely was not the case when I was growing up. Even if you don't agree with the thesis, that deficits are good, the mere fact that it's in the consciousness of the general population is a net benefit. Also Chieng's faux useful idiot questions are both hilarius and insightful. He totally nails it. It's like he's been burned before trying to understand money, and is trying to step through the algorythm extremly carefully from file1/line1. Something every programmer can relate to. Good, bad, happiness, that's got to be somewhere close to file1/line1.

Kyle Chayka is excellent too, I find all his interviews are brilliant. He's so insightful about modern internet culture, aesthetics and other very esoteric things that I suspect he's actually secretly a physicist or buddist monk, or both. #

Yet again food vendor mischief. Early this morning a manufactured incident at a food vendor. The only thing I did was ask for the chicken dish. That caused some sort of issue, and one of the laddies working at the food stand was really insisting that I have a totally different dish, that I did not want.

I eventually got the dish I asked for but not before the same lady started pointing and complaining about a breakfast dish I'd bought at totally different vendor several kms away and was holding in my other hand. Why was she making that her business?

Anyway, I had the chicken dish for lunch. Shortly after eating it, I had to make an emergency trip to the bathroom. I've felt bloated since. In case you are wondering, the dish she was pressuring me to have also included some of the very same chicken, but less of it, so she wasn't trying to warn me of something.

As is the case with all these incidents there were several seemingly related oddities leading up to the incident, including the night before with a large bag of croisants, which were quite nice btw, but I haven't included details here for brevity reasons.

Just another manufactured incident, where I end up being blamed and punished, for something even though I did obsolutely nothing wrong. #

From the most recent newsletter: "This might be some of the best software user feedback I’ve ever heard".

I wrote this referencing a recent Citadel Dispatch episode with Anna Chekovich. Her feedback about real world cross border usage was particularly insightful. But there's something else worth mentioning.

It occurred to me this morning that there's another reason it's a great episode when it comes to software development: Matt Odell. At this stage I've listenned to a lot of episodes with him leading the discussions around very technical topics, the conversations aren't forced, they meander a bit, with some enjoyable banter, but they don't shy away from getting into the nitty gritty. He's able to put users at ease, dispite language differences and push towards finding solutions to real world problems.

As a software developer myself, these sorts of interactions are really facinating. It's not that easy to do the user feedback dance, and Matt's pretty darn good at it. #

The last few issues of the TLDR Crypto newsletter have been awesome, so many articles I want to read. Really great selection. Just wanted to mention them here because likely many of the links on the linkblog this week will be via them. #

Great Citadel Dispatch episode covering Bitcoin privacy with some really interesting examples of normal people getting caught up in the regulatory weeds. There's this big distinction between clean and dirty coins. Dirty being those that have questionable history, like having been through a mixer or perhaps were previously stolen. Many exchanges will block and confiscate your coins if they are deemed to be dirty, even if you have legitimate reasons for having the dirty coins.

Surely eventually all coins will be dirty though right? We are talking about a circular economy. Isn't this just going to eventually remove all coins from circulation? Exacerbated by the fact that it would benefit some people because the price would go up since less useable coins. #

Very cool segment in the latest Linux unplugged podcast where they talk about the tech on the International Space Station (ISS).

• Hardware inside and outside, sometimes spacewalks are necessary to replace hardware
• Lots of linux on ISS
• Activating windows from space can be a bit tricky
• Lots of very old computers, pentiums, 386s, rad hardened to protect from X-rays
• They use wireshark a lot

It's a pretty neat segment especially if you are interested in space related stuff. #

Wow things are really dire. Not sure I'm going to make it until my build minutes reset. That's 4 days away. Nearly just choked on my last teaspoon of water. Hardly any sleep last night. Constant bullying from gang stalkers. Not much else to add. Personal morale very low indeed. #

They've put up war path banners all along the route to the internet place, but nowhere else. Large 10 foot vertical banners that hang from trees and posts. It's quite a sight. Large gangs of old people waiting on corners, vigorously pointing me in the direction they want me to go in with enormous determination. People at the internet place, where I can only stand, telling me to 'up up'.

They are of course not at all on the war path, only me it seems. Could there ever be a better example of everything-is-your-fault? The mind boggles.

They are still starving and thirsting me.

Just another day where it's all my fault. #

I mentioned on Twitter a few days ago that my cough / possible lung infection was resulting in a very strange taste of wine. Specifically it often tastes like Beaujolais Nouveaux. That in itself is very strange, and I can't figure out what's causing it. I haven't drank any alcohol for at least 5 years, and I don't think I've had a glass of wine in over a decade.

Imagine my suprise to come across this article, a few days ago, about a belgian man, who's body naturally produces alcohol, and was cleared of being over the alcohol limit while driving. I spent many years growing up in Belgium btw. Seriously what are the chances? #

Reluctantly reporting the return of starvation and thirsting, accompanied by the usual food goading, and manufactured incidents escallating in every location I go to. Just noting it here. The correlation is about as strong as how your little finger moves along side all the other fingers on your hand. #

I subscribed to an air traffic control recordings podcast a few days ago. Haven't mentioned it to anyone. Listened to the first episode yesterday. It's sort of interesting. Today fat people dressed in pilots uniforms have appeared smoking cigarettes on front of the hotel across the road. Seriously what are the chances? #

You're really on the war path again today aren't you world? You've been war pathing and escallating and trying to blame it all on me constantly. The morning is hardly finished and I reckon it's somewhere in the region of 30 seperate war pathy incidents already. #

The latest favorite food goading technique of the gang stalkers is to wait until you are already starving, then have a large women wearing lephard skin print outfit pass by, walking directly on front of you on the road, carrying a bag full of delicious food in one hand, and a large sheet of bubble wrap in the other. Of course she's popping the bubble wrap. Later there are small bits of bubble wrap in every location you go. It's happened several times now, definitely a thing. #

The act of blogging is useful in and of itself. If other people read it and like it, that's an added bonus. #

NY Times: "Roughly 170 million Americans use TikTok. That’s half the population of the United States."

I knew the app was very popular, but I hadn't appreciated just how popular. Half the entire population. Wow. #

Two noticeable trends from food vendors this morning. Maniacle evil laughter from both women and men. Women vendors denying me buying food, only for a man vendor to jump in and sell me said food. Just another day in weirdland. There's always something that I'm being blamed for, every single day, a new thing that I've supposedly done wrong.

Whenever I trace it back, the escallations usually turn out to have been for something they did to me. #

Feels like today has been a reasonably productive day as far as writing goes. A few links, some blog posts, and now a note :)

I've also listenned to a few interesting bitcoin podcasts, though I did have to have a mid morning nap because I didn't get that much sleep last night. #

I saw a bloke a couple of days ago who had mounted a big speaker on the back of his motorbike. Microphone in hand, he was driving around seranading everyone with his singing. I'm guessing where he lives the people don't like him practicing so this was his compromise solution. You see some weird things here sometimes. #

Things are shaping up to be rather dire here. I’m not sure the world is going to allow me to finish my interleaved homepage feature. It’s the same old story. It happens almost everytime I am nearly finished a major feature. Suddenly everything becomes super difficult. Things that you thought couldn’t possibly get worse, get even worse. It’s like clockwork.

Well it’s happening again, so I'm noting it here. #

Dave Rupert: "People don’t know. […] Everyone’s too busy to care. You have to constantly be sharing the cool things about your thing. Your blog, your framework, your whatever. Keep advocating for the things you like […] If you like something you should talk about it. Then other people will know about it. And then it will get picked up." Shop Talk Show Ep#611. #

Nat Friedman - previously CEO at Github: "AI helps with activation energy and momentum, getting started, the blank slate problem. Projects are easier to get started on." Techmeme Ride Home Podcast. #

Gosh the world sure has been on an epic war path the past few days. Every location I've been to, it's pretty much the same tired old story, where I end up being blamed for everything. On the plus side I discovered I had an infinite peace flag!

It's really just an old towel. But get this, the old towel infinite peace flag beats infinite murder flag!

When all is said and done, and you've murdered the entire universe, you are still going to get beat by the infinite peace flag.

That cheered me up a bit, even if I'm tired, hungry and thirsty. #

Strange day of synchronicities. The number 2 is trending bigtime. Both things that double and things that 1/2. There was a moment earlier this evening when in the space of a few minutes there was a flurry of dopplegangers and main characters all turning up one after the other. Just wanted to make a note of that here.

Several linked incidents again at food places today. One place at lunch time they took my money and tried to give the food to a short man in a white shirt. Btw, the last cold I got happened after another incident with a bloke in a white shirt at the same food place. Anyway this time, the way I reacted, motioning to give me my food was then replicated in two other places in retaliation. It's the same old tricks, they blame you for the thing they do to you, then punish you for speaking out.

The thing is, if you say nothing, they also punish you. That happened to me the day before. Either way you get blamed and mutilated.

It's difficult to describe this stuff. It's for sure co-ordinated. The later places made references to the previous incidents.

Just another day of intimidation in plain sight. Likely, based on past experience, starvation and thirsting will follow, with food and water goading, and sleep depravation. #

Mysterious truck convention - The latest trend is for large trucks, smaller trailers, and even huge 16 wheelers to park directly on front of where I'm sitting. I can't tell you how unusual this is. It's been happening for about a week. The drivers often make comments directed at me. #

Nose fully blocked, both nostrils ;(

Still coughing quite a lot, with flem, worse in the evenings and during the night. Right side og body still painful. More painful again in the evenings. #

Bitcoin === Eurodollar?. On a recent WBD episode Danny points out that governments could potentially firk Bitcoin to create their own CBDC.It would be idential to Bitcoin except for they would control issuance, so actual Bitcoin, not controlled by any government would still be better.

It occured to me how similar this was to the current fiat systems. They are basically fiat + eurodollar. Which feels similar at least in shape to CBDC Bitcoin + OG Bitcoin. #

Disapearing things. It's been a couple of weeks of things I own disapearing under mysterious circumstances. First there was my sun hat, which vanished the day after I was gifted some cakes, some toothpaste and bizarely, an old damaged baseball hat. Next was my travel coffee cup. And earlier today I noticed that 1/2 of my nail clipper has gone walk about, from a very innaccessible place in my backpack.

I very rarely have stuff like this happen to me, I'm mostly very careful with my belongings. The one thread that connects all these items is how essential they are. Without the hat, I get sunburnt when walking, that's already happened. Without the cup, a plastic recepticle with a screw on lid, I don't have any way to prepare instant noodle soup. That's a big deal, making handling starvation periods even harder than they already are. And of course without nail clippers your hands don't look presentable for very long. Did I mention there was an incident in the past few days involving a person that had very long nails? What are the chances?

It's all very unusual. The world in each case, arranged itself in very bizare and contorted configurations. I just wanted to note it here. Hopefully the nail clippers will be the last of it. #

Feeling very rushed today. The world is constantly trying to swap the start with the end, at exactly the wrong moment. Not much you can do. It's like the weather. Doesn't matter what you do you'll end up at loggerheads with the world on days like today.

Ya....Woah Hurry up....blocked Up....lie Anything....oh look the thing's opposite Do this....no do that! Again and again and again It's a collection of race conditions, a traffic jam of sorts

Just another maximum cloud. Everyone can see their own maximum cloud, some don’t take notice of it though, and it’s not so easy to see other people’s maximum clouds.

It's like the system has finished all it's calculations or something and is folding back on itself. And of course it's a fractal.

It’s the weather looking at the weather, but we are the weather!

All this to say, probably not going to write much today. Help I'm being narrated again! #

Okays are trending. I noticed all day yesterday that everywhere I went, there was a big trend in people saying 'Ok' whenever I responded to some harrassment. It was really noticeable. But it was also evident that there was a lot of people creating-the-problems-they-complain-about, since in order to say this they first had to provoke me.

Seems to be related to the Ok Boomer escallation. #

It's kind of wild that the EU fines that are being impossed on Apple are so big that there is talk that they might just leave the EU. Apparently the EU only represents 7% of total Apple revenue and the fines are more than 7%. Apple is a business after all, at some point if it's not profitable then that's what would happen.

It would create a lot of opportunity for european startups, but brings back memories of people having to smuggle in jeans to the Soviet Union.

Perhaps the EU is being a bit too self important here? #

There is a lot of talk that the EU has effectively excluded itself from the AI boom because of excessive regulation. #

People that say 'you learn' when other people realise that they have stolen their stuff does not in fact make everything OK.

You can't be a thief and just pretend to be a teacher when you get caught. But this happens. Whether it's the truth or not, it's a terrible alibi.

Stealing stuff in the name of teaching someone is still stealing. #

Yesterday evening in the middle of all the driveby gang stalking harrassnent, there was one that stood out:

"Ok animal!"

I guess it was a reference to my use of the term 'Ok boomer' yesterday. Well IMO that's very much a false equivalence. Ok animal is by definition literally dehumanizing, it says 'you are not even human', Ok boomer, though a bit of an insult, refers the official name for a particular generation cohort. Am I now to reprimand people for using the term Gen X?

Weird thing is that it was from a person of young adult age.

Anyway, it's just another example of the world having one set of rules for me, abd a totally different set of rules for everyone else. Everything I say is wrong. I cannot even.

Also a reminder that anyone can read your blog / RSS feed, even millenial motorbike gang stalkers.

BTW, millenials you have no idea how difficult it has been with the Boomers. #

Alan Moor via Jason Louve: "Young men used to go to sea when they wanted to get away from their family, go for adventure, make something of themselves in the big wide world. Now they try to become famous." #

The component overrides bug that I tracked down and fixed yesterday was a real tricky one. Glad I got that one fixed amidst all the head winds the world was throwing in my direction. Why are you so conflicted world? Why are you on the war path yet again? #

One thing I've noticed recently is that some of the biggest Trump critics online are in fact very Trump-like themselves. They might have completely different political views, but their behaviour, outside of their righteous political commentary, is almost a carbon copy of Trump's playbook. I wonder do they realise? Serious question.

Perhaps it's just a high performer boomer thing. Ok boomer, let's move on.

Update: Just to be clear, I'm not making commentary on my politics, only an observation about people's behaviour. #

I've updated several notes from the past week updating them to blog posts. I'm still trying to get the balance between notes and blog posts right. I want notes to be small enough they can be posted to social medias. I also want a bunch of days that have vaguely the right balance to test the interleaved homepage feature that I've been working on recently. #

Something else that's super weird that keeps happening, and this one has been happening for years, but I only just thought of a good name for it. It's the end of task yah. You are busy doing something important and you finally finish whatever it is, and low and behold, a seemingly random 'Ya' materialises from your environment. I don't know how, I've got a pretty solid idea of why it happens, but I do know that it's a thing. Happens so often.

The plot thickens. The even stranger thing is that whenever it happens 99% of the time I was literally about to get out of whatever hamster wheel I find myself in. And get this, it seems to happen more when the task st hand is painful. Come on world, it's pretty obvious what you are up to here. #

Two things that are extremely correlated with periods when they are starving and thirsting you are cigarettes and sexual harrasment incidents.

For the former, suddenly a huge uptick in people offering you cigarettes, or smoking right up in your face, or empty cigarette packets left everywhere you go. For the later, the massive uptick happens from both men and women, usually as a way to anger goad you. Often from men and women operating together. Also massive uptick in number of random people saying 'lie' as they walk past. Whatever do they mean?

I don't know how, only that it happens, like clockwork. #

People often say Bitcoin is money for enemies. It's meant to bring to the for that it's for everyone. Well it's worth remembering that RSS is information for enemies. Hardly anyone, actually no one, said this back in the early web years, but it's worth remembering. YMMV.

You kind of just have to hope that everyone is not a veloceraptor. #

Health issues suck bigtime. They seem to happen constantly here. The runny nose and sneezing I had a few days ago turned into a full on cold. The sneezing stoped yesterday, but my nose has been totally blocked with thick mucus all day. All the skin around my nose has lost it's moisture and is pealing. It's not much fun.

One thing I noticed during the previous lung infection illness was that a lot of my smelling ability returned. I'd lost much of my sense of smell a few years back after using an inhaler. Suddenly my sense of smell returned and was almost bionic. But it was bitter sweet because it was making me throwup a lot during the lung infection. I'd notice some very specific and often subtle smell and it would set me off coughing.

Now that my nose is again blocked, I can't smell anything again. I hope I haven't lost my sense of smell again. #

Recently I've noticed that help from people tends to be a bit like complex numbers. There's a nice part and a malicious part. At times it all seems malicious. Is this how we want our societies to be?

Are you so certain that you will never need help again? #

I'm busy updating the test suites for all my static site generator's plugins. It's to try and dig myself out of a hole at least partially caused by being blocked tidying up the code. The very thing I was worried about happening, which was the reason I was tidying up the code, actually happened when the world blocked me from tidying up the code! #

I'm finding that very humid environments make my lungs worse. More coughing. Also air polution. People keep banging on about masks, and seemingly everyone wears them, especially here in HCMC. But imho they don't work!

They don't filter the air very well, because the poluted air just goes around the sides of the mask. So you inhale it anyway. And ontop of that, the air on the inside of the mask is hugely humid, because obviously the air that comes from your body is full of water vapour.

Isn't this mask theatre really just a dangerous way to avoid the air polution problem? #

Another night of sleep depravation, it's the 3rd night in a row. This time it was a gang that setup a round table nearby from around 230am until 430am. Very roundy and loud. It's the second time they've done this, once again right after a day of escallations.

It's clearly part of a retaliation campaign by the folks that tried to force me to sleep in wet clothes and blanket. They are literally trying to make me ill again. Last night before the gang appeared, they sprayed water everywhere around near where I was, which made the air really damp and humid for the whole night. That caused my lungs to get sensitive, and I woke up coughing loads of flem.

Once again the world attempts to block me from getting well and actively trying to make me ill again. They are all on the war path, blaming me for a situation they caused in the first place.

Right after the sleep depravation gang left, a motorbike with 2 girls stopped and they offered me a bag full of food that would be impossible to eat because I have no hot water, a few sweats, and of course milk. This is classic war path tactics. Create a situation, ie the sleep depravation, then follow it up with anger goading malicious help. This has happened so many times I've lost count.

What will happen next? Likely more escallations everywhere I go, I'll get the blame, and I'll end up in some way mutilated, then starved and thirsted. #

A statement made recently by chinese foreign minister Wong Yi refering to the US' unfair knee caping with trade restrictions struck a chord with me.

The minister said the situation was "reaching bewildering levels of unfathomable absurdity".

This is in some way similar to how I feel trapped here in Vietnam every single day. #

I enjoyed listening to the recent Lex Fridman interview with Mark Cuban. Really interesting early internet entrepreueur and personality. Two things he said that I think are worth noting:

• Be insanely curious so you can really get to the crux of issues
• Be good at sales, for any company, hone in on how exactly they make money, then figure out what new thing you can introduce that can make them more money, then sell them that thing. Works in any industry.

Worth listening to the whole episode, he has a load of pretty fascinating stories about the early internet. #

Malicious easter help - I got gifted some dinner last night. It was a hot microwaved meal from a nearby shop. I accepted, said thanks. Ate the meal and it tasted fine. However I woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible sore throat, voice all f-ed up, it's still not right this morning.

During the night motorbike gang stalkers doing various drive-bys. One was a weedy looking bloke waving his little finger at me, in what looked like a reference to Austin Powers character Dr. Evil.

Once again the world not only won't let me get well, but is actively trying to make me sick again. The very same thing happened a few days ago. That time I found a way around the blockage. This time they poisonned me, presumaby in retaliation for escaping their previous trap.

Blaming me for the problems they caused in the first place, then mutilation me for the thing they did to me. This stuff never ends. As soon as it does, they get on the war path again and create another issue that they blame on me, and it starts all over again, wave after wave of bullying, eventually escallating to mutilation. All the while they become more and more righteous, more and more certain that everything in the entire multiverse is my fault.

Earlier in the day they put a giant pink motorbike, a sort of Harley, that had the word Victory in huge letters along the side, prominently parked on the path I was walking.. Remember they've been pink bullying me since they gifted me a black bag that has the word pink in massive letters on 3 of the 4 sides of the bag.

What a coincidence that this should all happen on Easter Sunday, probably the most important Christian festival of the year. It never ends. #

Targeted goading - The gang stalkers favorite thing this morning is to goad me shouting 'lie' as they drive past, when I'm just minding my own business, not saying anything. All the poisoning thing happened hours ago, but they keep trying to dig up old graves.

It's typical war path behaviour, like when they wake you up just to tell you to go back to sleep again, or when they are starving you and they shout 'allow' as they drive past laughing like a pack of hyenas. #

Ankles - Ankles are still swollen, a bit worse than yesterday. All the walking I'm having to do and standing for internet access isn't helping. #

Bitcoin Mechanic (16:04): "If it’s valid, and what you are doing is appealing to a miner, because they are not slaves, they will put into the chain what they feel like putting into the chain. That’s why transaction fees exist. They don’t have to put anything in." #

Bitcoin Mechanic (43:35): "Miners should be the ones constructing block templates, […], for the deeper purpose of decentralising that horribly centralised part of Bitcoin. Right now you have a dozen entities in the world that say what can get in the blockchain […]. That’s not censorship resistance.". #

IMO, It’s weird that Bitcoin miners get to choose which transactions to include, but they look for signal from network nodes about what to include, especially since they can’t verify if they are getting paid properly by the mining pools, and since it's in everyone's interest to pay them as little as possible, aren’t they bound to get exploited? #

Bitcoin Mechanic (2:12:00): "Most people aren't aware that their nodes filter out concensus valid transactions all the time [...]. You have to learn how your node works, and what that is, is very different to a government saying don't include coin joins or transactions that originate from iranian bitcoin exchanges." #