skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I kind of agree, when working on a large team.

Adding optional arguments everywhere is a bit like declaring checked exceptions everywhere. It's true that optionals make the code more explicit, and they force developers to handle every situation, but in the end you still need developers who actually care about writing readable and maintainable code for it to be a net gain.

Something I have come across a fair bit is code where too many values are declared as optional, so the developers try to build an elegant solution by mapping functions over these optional values, returning a default at the end. If there is a value, then the expected code path gets called, else it just silently skips the rest of the code and returns back up to the top layer. This causes a similar issue to what can happen with promises - you lose the context of where the first "error" happened. This could be avoided by eagerly throwing an exception in the first absent case, but that takes us back to where we started with null.

I think the "best practice" way of using optional values is to get buy-in from all the developers on the project that basically nothing should be optional, ever. The goal, then, is to explicitly throw an exception (or return an error) at the very top level and ensure that only actual values enter into the main part of the project's code. But enforcing that is more of a management problem than a technical problem.
How much energy did it consume to mint all the physical metal coins we have in circulation?

How much does it consume to mint fresh ones when the old ones are damaged?

Bitcoins don't wear off, the ones we've been mining now will be in use for possibly centuries to come once the block reward is zero and only transaction fees will fund the miners.

By then, mining will decrease a lot because people won't be willing to pay as much transaction fees as miners currently earn from minting coins.

So this is completely equal to the question of how much energy our physical coin minting has cost us - except that physical coins actually are damaged and will be replaced! In the end they might consume more energy!
One of these can be trivially understood to be unnecessary, given the alternative proof-of-stake system, the alternative cash system, the alternative banking system...
Alternatively - you're only because you're noticing it now because of the WhatsApp drama

Thomas Brewster has been on the encrypted messaging apps and law enforcement beat for a very long time and puts these stories out with regularity
Actually I would say yes, they are. Once you have a reasonable cash buffer and are out of the danger-zone for random financial ruin most people should invest all excess rather than be paid a pittance for their bank to do it for them.
My understanding is that the vast majority of crypto mining happens at dedicated farms in energy cost optimal locations such as Iceland where you can have clean geothermal energy. I haven't seen an analysis that looks at actual mining facilities carbon costs vs. a general average figure of CO/2 emissions per energy unit which absolutely would not apply in this case.
Imagine if the government required you to use ice cubes for currency and people wondered why everyone was using some highly inefficient workaround so their money didn’t vanish in between getting paid and paying bills.
"Until then it’s strictly fair and accurate."

Your argument is about as convincing as "well you couldn't make a payment billion dollars because a penny weighs 1 gram, and their combined weight would be too heavy to transport"
I know I just replied, but I just thought of something I hadn't thought of. How many of these Bitcoin miners are using their mining rigs as heaters? I'd be more stoked on it then.

There was a Dutch company I knew that was using a distributed protocol to combine data computation in people's homes and have the heat be an actual dependable byproduct. I hope they're doing well. Such a cool idea.
> The energy usage is for mining new bitcoin and collecting fees, not "7 transactions per second".

I think you've misunderstood. The mining fees you cited are for those 7 transactions per second. Miners collect fees for processing those transactions.

Focusing on the dollar amount of those Bitcoin or how many times a Bitcoin can be re-used is irrelevant. If anything, it's bizarrely wasteful that Bitcoin requires the energy consumption of a medium sized country just to continue confirming that your balance hasn't changed.
> The biggest concerns are making sure vendor's support personnel can troubleshoot remotely because frequently the on-site personnel have limited skills.

That's an excellent call-out. City salaries will almost never employ the type and level of personnel to do anything beyond maintaining the status quo typically.
SK Innovation EV Batteries Banned for 10 Years by U.S. ITC
All technology behaves this way! It generates a significant quantity of non-reusable electronics waste, from that 10 year old laptop to that 3 year old cell phone.

Its ALWAYS a Red Queens race. This is good actually, because our lives are enhanced by the resultant technology to solve our problems. What I feel is missing from these comparisons to waste is a sense of scale. Quoting Gigajoules of usage should be seen as a plus to the scale of any technology. Its never waste. It means its working!

Waste is when a finite resource like the atmosphere is ruined. Energy is everywhere. It is everything. We harness it to achieve our goals and solve our problems. Energy is never truly wasted.
Sweet, thank you.
> As a human, it seems relatively straightforward to intuitively determine whether that person is in DST or not.

But you don't know if someone used a calculator and invoked actual PST during the summer.

> I usually just say something along the lines of "1045am CT," omitting the S/D in its entirety.

Good.
They will sell off their equipment to the general public, which causes a lot of decentralization, and thus makes a coordinated attack more difficult.
You're arguing against the clinical consensus on addiction, which is backed by decades of evidence. You're going to have to do much, much, much better than just saying, "well, I think that's wrong." You're no more justified in your belief than a climate change denier.
> Isn’t most of work browsing code and Googling things?

Browsing code is easy to do with a keyboard - not sure I see how a mouse would improve things.

Browsing web: Firefox has since forever let you go to and open a link by typing a few characters in the link. I'll grant I don't always do it this way, but it is quite fast - unless the link is an image or something.

Finally, if you're one of those people who've had ergonomic pains, then avoiding the mouse can really help (depending on what the pain is).

But yeah, obsessing over not using a mouse is taking it a bit far.
Which is the worst thing you could possibly use to secure anything.
I'm kinda curious how starlink would do if they went public? And if they would take the spac or direct listing route to get out faster? And if starlink would IPO?

Also does Starlink hire SpaceX engineers? So how would their Ipo work? People in spacex who worked on starlink will get transfered to that company?

Since starlink already has a successful customer (tesla). I wonder how other space companies and etfs would do given that theres a lot of hype around space companies
Princess Bubblegum in Adventure Time is a scientist.
>> The respectful thing to do, IMO, is not to ask people to perform this type of free work

Could you share the link to where someone else presented that same point? In fact, I only commented because I found it odd that nobody had said it yet in this subthread.
For sure- One of the best junior developers I’ve mentored placed top ten in the Miss America competition.
I think it feels less powerful because it is a buggy mess and takes forever to use. I loath setting up Facebook ads now because I know it is going to take me forever to do it properly.

I pine for the days of PowerEditor. It had a confusing interface, but like Google Ads, once you had learned it you could get what you wanted to get done quickly.

I don’t mind the interface of Business Manager or the Ads Manager platform at all, but I find the ads platform to be riddled with weird bugs. It has perhaps improved slightly in the past year or so, but only slightly. They also constantly change how it works, so you can’t just copy the campaign or ad set of an ad and build out new ads from a year ago, it will almost always have to be built out from scratch because something changed, but they don’t tell you that before you copy the campaign. Why even let me copy it if it isn’t going to work?
Take it up with the creators of Gridcoin
No I probably should write it down before I forget though.
Ah, the Bitcoin gang has arrived! Have you considered the fact that coinage is actually for buying things? It drives economic activity! Now explain what Bitcoin does
I find this completely tone deaf, factually unconvincing, ignorant of the true required comparisons to the sum total power consumption of the whole transactional, fossil fuel and military industrial complex systems and infrastructure required to support the existence and usage of first world fiat currency.

“Bitcoin uses a lot of energy” utterly doesn’t mean anything on its own like this.

It’s infuriating to see such an intellectually dishonest and disgraceful, disingenuous line of argument taken with even the smallest modicum of seriousness.

This just needs to be ignored out of existence.
Investigating AnyDesk Logs for Ransomware Incidents
I object to this slavery analogy entirely. I do not believe it is appropriate.
This looks pretty cool. I wonder how much sand it contains!

We use plastics in non-structural building material replacements already.

Fencing, railings and decking all have plastic variants, or plastic + wood.

Mixing it with sand might turn it into mechanically stabilized earth? The load is born by the sand, and the plastic keeps the sand from shifting.

https://practical.engineering/blog/2016/5/15/mechanically-st...
It wouldn't be as a punishment or sanction, it would be a procedural event as part of the transition to a republic.
Quite. I'd hate to test it but 60 days is long enough to deploy a new CA and push the cert out to trust stores.

In an emergency.

It would take quite some coordination but I suspect the current pandemic might provide some models and examples as to the way to do things at scale with JiT decision making from wonks who normally drag feet by default.
How so? I said on a per transaction basis by falsification it’s not possible, factoring in all externalities for a Bitcoin transaction to be more efficient than visa. It is not. End of story. The scaling is a thought experiment not a plan.

Your counter example is nonsense.

Could it be in the future more efficient given unspecified future changes? Who knows but it sure as shit isn’t today. I was pushing back on Nic’s theory on pricing in externalities.
> I also don't need a TV that will take up my whole field of view while bathing me in light.

To have an immersive experience, isn't taking up your whole field of view kind of the point? I used to have a 9' projector screen in my living room, and I definitely noticed cinematography and directing a lot more with the more immersive experience.
Or, to put it more strongly, if no-one mined bitcoin tomorrow, you literally can't transact anymore. Bitcoin PoW /needs/ the energy consumption to function at all.
> Bitcoins don't wear off

Sure, they just get trapped in a wallet that's lost in a hard-drive failure.
I cringe because I've dealt with so many timezone bugs, because it is notoriously hard to get right. So it is just sort of a PTSD reaction. Of course I know what they mean, I just cringe to myself.
Are there any evaluations of cryptocurrency energy consumption as total usage rather than peak usage, A sort of area-under-the-curve comparison?

If Bitcoin is a flash in the pan phenomenon and it one-day collapses into nothing then comparisons against countries like Argentina are inaccurate (Argentina is likely to continue existing).

To extrapolate into the future you would have to have some assumptions. Some would be fixed, such as Miners would only mine if they could do so profitably, Mining scales with electricity consumption. Some would be tunable such as cost of electricity, value of Bitcoin

The long term energy consumption seems intrinsically tied to the long term value. This seems at odds with the surprising correlation between those who dismiss the utility of crypto currency and those who express concerns about the energy consumption
Imagine if you could just print money to pay your bills and hide the fact that you're bankrupt.

- That's what governments do with fiat money.
That seems like a reasonable timeline, which means the fab will be online by 2023, just like the article says. Mass production won't start until 2024, though.
Golang though excellent lost the plot by having Nil pointers. it means bugs will always exists inside code intentionally or not.
Python Cryptography, Rust, and Gentoo
Let's all agree that yes, it's complicated and that Bitcoin interacts with fiat currency, and that SOME of bitcoin's energy waste could be attributed to external factors.

That still leaves us with bitcoin being an environmental disaster and a net loss for humanity, apart from the few people who are benefitting from the pyramid scheme right now; Thus, changing none of the arguments against it.
Similarly, it's not common to build stick houses in Florida. Definitely regional.
Bitcoin is only a problem if you believe the future of energy creation is fossil fuels. This is simply not the case. Solar and wind are the cheapest sources of energy for new power plants compared to nuclear, gas peaker (natural gas), and coal.

https://ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth

2019 Prices

Coal - $109/MWh

Solar - $68/MWh

On shore wind - $53/MWh

Basic economic theory dictates that energy consuming businesses would seek out the lowest cost sources of energy to maximize profits.
What you can learn about medieval Europe if you focus on peasants
Great write up of the issues in migration to wasm.

It should give insights into anyone contemplating thoughts about replacing JavaScript with X technology.

JavaScript is the most popular and deployed full stack platform. It simply works with web workflows and development patterns. All the issues with JavaScript are trivial and new features and frameworks are available to overcome most issues.
Gold has some industrial uses. Therefore it has some "intrinsic" value. However, I suspect that the VAST majority of today's price of gold comes from the fact that it's used in jewelry (not actually "valuable" unless you also allow my bragging about my bitcoin wallet to count as value) and from "gold bugs" (basically the same as bitcoin "hodlers").

That was my point. Any "real" value in most of these things is dwarfed by social delusion value.

Same with AAPL stock. Sure, I can pay ~$130 per share to technically own a fraction of Apple. And what good does that do for me? What's the dividends on AAPL? Will my vote EVER actually influence the company? I could spend $130 on canned beans and rice and likely get far more utility than I'd get from the ACTUAL share of AAPL. On the other hand, I'll probably be able to sell my AAPL share to the next sucker for more than $130. THAT'S the real reason 99.99% of us are invested in the stock market.

And, like it or not, bitcoin DOES have uses. It's still a little bit cheaper to send money via bitcoin than via Western Union, AFAIK. It's easy to pay for something online without giving your personal info to PayPal or the person who you are paying. Are those minor conveniences worth $40k? Hell no. But that's also my point. It's all crap.
In my perspective, this is a perfect example of accelerationism.
On the other hand, what drives Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is the need for certain properties that conventional currencies don't have - this includes properties some might find undesirable as they mainly benefit crime.

The definition of "crime" itself is murky - are the citizens of sanctioned countries criminals because they're just trying to survive by participating in the global economy despite a stupid feud between governments they have no power to change?

Same thing for drugs - the much of the violence associated with them is caused by their illegality. You decriminalize them and a huge chunk of that violence goes away, and so does the need for cryptocurrencies if people can now legally buy it and can use conventional currencies without fear of repercussions. Violence going away has also a viral effect, as drugs are typically what supports other violent/criminal enterprises (such as weapons smuggling) - if drug operations no longer operate in the shadows, it removes their need for other bad things such as weapons.

If we assume cryptocurrencies are wasteful, we need to obviate the need for them. The cat is out of the bag when it comes to controlling the technology (it's just cryptography at the end of the day, that could theoretically be done on paper even if all computing devices are outlawed), so the best we can do is merely remove any need for it. Put the future of our planet ahead of some government's interests.

The energy cost of cryptocurrencies just represents the effort it takes to provide a currency immune to government interference. If there was an easier way (like if the government didn't interfere with fiat currencies) nobody would use crypto.
Wisconsin River Eagle Syndrome
For someone that's been following Dolphin's progress for so long it's really amazing that there's already a pretty well done Nintendo Switch emulator.
That's the narrative being pushed to distract from the massive scale of Bitcoin's energy usage, but it's largely a myth.

Yes, some Bitcoin mines use cheap renewable energy. However, renewable energy isn't free. If it wasn't going to mining, it would be transferred through the power grid to other locations that rely on non-renewable energy sources.

> the vast majority of crypto mining happens at dedicated farms in energy cost optimal locations such as Iceland where you can have clean geothermal energy

To put it in perspective, the energy usage of:

Bitcoin network: 121.36 TWh per year
All of Iceland: 18.68 TWh per year.

Bitcoin uses 6.5X more energy than the entire country of Iceland combined.
Bandwidth: Terabyte-using customers doubled from 7% to 14% as pandemic wore on
Because the energy expenditure is not supposed to halve when the rewards do. The premise of Nakamoto consensus is that the decisions are finalized if and only if the chain constantly has enough hash rate to outpace anybody that might want to rewrite it. If the hash rate were to every halve, the chain would be jeopardy.
OK I have some time, I hope you are able to see this:

Great piece on the reality of living in Las Vegas:
https://believermag.com/the-people-of-las-vegas/

An interview with Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python) from one of the early publications:
https://believermag.com/an-interview-with-terry-gilliam/

This volume came with a DVD that had a bunch of great artsy videos I used to watch a lot:
https://believermag.com/product/the-believer-december-2004-j...

Hope you get some enjoyment from reading these or finding other things.
If anyone has seen the Austin S2 campus before, you'd know that it has a massive blacktop to provide parking for its thousands of personnel.

It would be nice if as part of the conditions for application approval, Samsung were asked to commit to erect awnings for solar collectors integrated into covered parking and strongly encouraged to invest in making solar more cost effective.
well, imagine living in 1850 and someone telling you that 100 years in the future, ancient organic goop will allow millions of metal devices to tirelessly labor on behalf of their owners, some of these machines fly across oceans, and some can drop explosives that can annihilate entire cities
Yes that's wrong. Bitcoin can be trivially understood to be unnecessary, given the alternative proof-of-stake system, the alternative cash system, the alternative online banking system, the e-cash systems that exist...

It's less trivial to say that air travel can be trivially migrated to alternatives. In fact, I think you could make a good argument that some air travel is a net positive for the climate. The trick is knowing which part and whether you can get away with taking people's favorite toys away as a government (lots of people enjoy not traveling 3 weeks for a holiday on the other side of the globe).

The only practical use that I can see for Bitcoin is that you don't need a bank yet can make donations. I can donate to sci-hub without signing up for a shady online wallet that operates in Kazakhstan and isn't impacted by sanctions against sci-hub in other countries. But if that's really all there is aside from the investment scheme (you can invest in, say, helium: move the amount of money that people invested in Bitcoin to the helium market and you get the same effect without the power consumption) then we should just find alternative solutions for donating to "good for everyone but unfortunately illegal" services like wikileaks and sci-hub.
Are you being intentionally ironic here, or do you not know that regex DSL is written only inside of strings in python, not within the Python's syntax?
...There surely is a large overlap between bitcoin enthusiasts and people who don't understand how fiat currency works, isn't it?
Decentralized ownership of ASICs doesn't help if they're not being used. If they are being used then there's no decrease in energy usage.
Fossil fuels are already taxed and regulated.
Reporting on Foxconn’s Wisconsin “manufacturing plant” at the time.

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/07/foxconn...
So I remember using Facebook years ago. First it was people, pages, groups you followed in chronological order. Then it wasn’t chronological order, but it was still stuff you explicitly chose to follow. Then they started showing you things these entities liked. And then somewhere along the way they definitely got more and more aggressive about shoving things in your face from the last category, at the expense of things you explicitly chose to follow.

At this point, I pretty much just use the Messenger app.
I agree to a point, but this works both ways. We have plenty of complaining and shaming going on already on social media. Those platforms can be just as corrosive as they can be forces for positive change. I'm not sure we need more platforms for this.
> the alternative (chucking it in a landfill) is worse

Why is that worse?

Plastic is made out of oil. It belongs in the ground.
I addressed your "free work" comment in a separate subthread in response to your comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26096991
Intel does not run at Korean speed.

Samsung's Pyeongtaek Line 3 fab broke ground in 09/2020, construction expected to be complete by 2H/2021, mass production by 2023. This is not an unreasonable speed for Samsung.

Of course, the slower rate of work by American construction companies could slow this down.
If only Google had a search engine to help people and businesses find products and services they want and need.