@ 1e52c554:21771908

Posthumous work of the Colombian poet born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948.

Welcome to this blog dedicated to the Posthumous work of the Colombian poet Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (my father), born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948-2010. Where I will be publishing each of the 175 sonnets from his unpublished collection 'Sonnets For The Twenty-First Century And A Circadian Musical (1984-1987).' Analyzed with GPT4 artificial intelligence and illustrated with AI tools... I hope you enjoy this garden of words snatched from the solitude of a locked room.

Likewise, any enthusiast of the sonnet form is invited to conduct their personal studies of Arroyave Tabares' work, as it is a collection that, although registered since 1989, has not yet been published.

Frank Duna

---

Analysis of "A Mere Or Tenderness"

Introduction

Sonnet 131 by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is a beautiful piece of poetry that explores themes of love, desire, and the transformative power of art. The sonnet is divided into three quatrains and a couplet, following the structure of a Shakespearean sonnet.

Thematic Analysis

Lines 1-4: The speaker expresses a longing for the subject of the poem, symbolized by a “mere” or pond. This body of water is described as pure and full of tenderness. The speaker finds joy (“mirths”) in the reflection of the pond, which seems to offer a respite from darker days.

Lines 5-8: The speaker’s heart is described as “adamant,” suggesting a state of emotional hardness or unresponsiveness. However, the speaker hopes to revive their passion (“zeal”) through the influence of the subject’s art.

Lines 9-12: The speaker anticipates a closeness with the subject, whose virtues are compared to stars that light up the night. The subject’s love is portrayed as an altar where hidden pleasures are revealed.

Lines 13-14: The speaker intends to illuminate their soul with a special kind of light (“luminescence”) that emanates from the subject’s depths and “quintessence,” or purest essence.

Overall, this sonnet uses vivid and symbolic language to convey a deep sense of admiration and affection. The speaker’s desire for transformation and enlightenment through love is a central theme. The use of words like “mere,” “mirth,” “adamant,” “zeal,” “alight,” “luminescence,” and “quintessence” add layers of meaning and contribute to the poem’s rich imagery.

Structure and Rhyme Scheme

First Quatrain (Lines 1-4): The rhyme scheme is ABAB.

Line 1: mere (A) Line 2: tenderness (B) Line 3: are (A) Line 4: somberness (B)

Second Quatrain (Lines 5-8): The rhyme scheme is CDCD.

Line 5: heart (C) Line 6: adamant (D) Line 7: art (C) Line 8: dormant (D)

Third Quatrain (Lines 9-12): The rhyme scheme is EFEF.

Line 9: close (E) Line 10: alight (F) Line 11: disclose (E) Line 12: night (F)

Final Couplet (Lines 13-14): The rhyme scheme is GG.

Line 13: luminescence (G) Line 14: quintessence (G)

This structure allows for the development of three distinct but closely related ideas, each contained within its own quatrain. In the final couplet, the poet can present a summarizing or concluding thought. In this sonnet, the final couplet serves to highlight the speaker’s intention to be enlightened by the subject’s essence.

Analysis of Aspects

Sonnet 131 by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is a rich tapestry of language, imagery, and themes. Here’s a detailed analysis:

Language: The sonnet uses a mix of simple and complex language. Words like “mere,” “mirth,” “adamant,” “zeal,” “alight,” “luminescence,” and “quintessence” are less commonly used, adding a layer of sophistication to the poem. The language is emotive and descriptive, helping to convey the speaker’s feelings and experiences.

Imagery: The poem is filled with vivid imagery. The “mere” or pond serves as a symbol of the subject’s purity and tenderness. The speaker’s heart is described as “adamant,” suggesting emotional resilience or hardness. The subject’s virtues are compared to stars that light up the night, creating a beautiful image of their admirable qualities.

Themes: The main themes of the poem are love, desire, and transformation. The speaker expresses a longing for the subject and hopes to undergo a personal transformation through their influence. The theme of enlightenment is also present, with the speaker seeking to illuminate their soul with the subject’s essence.

Meter: The sonnet follows the traditional iambic pentameter, which is a line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable. This gives the poem a rhythmic quality and makes it pleasing to the ear.

Overall, Sonnet 131 is a beautifully crafted poem that uses language, imagery, and themes to convey a deep sense of admiration and affection. The speaker’s desire for transformation and enlightenment through love is a central theme. The use of a traditional sonnet form and meter adds to the poem’s charm and appeal. The sonnet is a testament to the power of love and the transformative potential of art. It invites readers to reflect on their own experiences of love and desire, making it a relatable and thought-provoking piece of poetry.

(GPT4)

---

Syllable count for each line.

```

A Mere Or Tenderness

10 Trending a desire I came to your mere
10 That is clean and witholds all tenderness 10 And in its mirrors I found mirths we are
10 Always missing in days of somberness.

10 This is why I want to unfold my heart 10 That has becone a piece of adamant
10 And come to life again under your art 10 Waking up my zeal that has been dorrmant .

10 In short time I will get to be real close
10 To your virtues that are the stars alight 10 When in the altar of love you disclose
10 Hidden pleasures that lay amid dark night.

10 I will light my soul with luminescence
10 That comes from your depths and quintiessence.
***

```

---

Sonnets For The Twenty First Century And A Circadian Musical Written By Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (1984-1987)

---

Analyzed by GPT4; Image by leonardo.ai; First published on Nostr Protocol by franciscoarroyavet@nostrplebs.com A Mere Or Tenderness

@ 46fcbe30:6bd8ce4d

Opinion about Trust: Crypto & Bitcoin Wallet (iphone)

"Trust" ironically needs a lot of trust as it's closed source. The provider does share some code but not all of it. Given they failed to adequately use crypto libraries (CVE-2024-23660), resulting in easy to guess backups, I would never trust them.

WalletScrutiny #nostrOpinion

Join the conversation!

@ 11be7dbc:82a5f8e9

Cyberyen, at its core, epitomizes autonomy, decentralization, and a fervent dedication to establishing an independent, non-monopolistic mining structure that aligns profoundly with the cypherpunk ethos. This ethos forms the bedrock of a robust operational foundation, heavily reliant on a Proof-of-Work (PoW) distributed network of ASIC-enabled mining hubs, prioritizing efficiency, scalability, and the conceptualization of an ideal mining framework.

The envisioned mining structure transcends mere technical prowess; it aspires to be a global architecture capable of accommodating vast capacity without succumbing to monopolization or external influences. A strong mining configuration necessitates the establishment of an expansive network of Cyberyen hubs across diverse global locations, ensuring uninterrupted operation. This deliberate dispersion serves a dual purpose: safeguarding the network against vulnerabilities associated with centralized authority and mitigating potential regulatory interventions that might impede the network's autonomy.

Unity in Decentralization: Resilience and Independence

The relentless pursuit of amplified mining capabilities within the Cyberyen community isn't solely about operational efficiency; it's about fortifying a resilient Proof-of-Work system, serving as a linchpin for network security, scalability, and the unwavering reliability of transactions—a testament to Cyberyen's fundamental principles.

Cyberyen's vitality doesn't stem from individual pursuits but from a collective, unified community effort. Collective action, unified aspirations, and collaborative endeavors form the bedrock of the mining structure's evolution. This unity in championing decentralized mining practices resonates with cypherpunk ideology, fostering an ecosystem valuing privacy, decentralization, and individual autonomy.

The mining capacity is the bedrock of Cyberyen's sustainability and credibility within the crypto sphere, fortifying trust in the network's resilience and security, positioning Cyberyen as an unwavering force amidst the dynamic and constantly shifting landscape of cryptocurrencies. This steadfastness becomes a defining factor, attracting those who value transaction reliability and network stability, reinforcing Cyberyen's position in the competitive crypto market.

The technical underpinnings of Cyberyen's mining infrastructure revolve around household ASIC Scrypt devices and deployed nodes on mini PCs, strategically positioned in a distributed network across diverse global locations. This dispersion safeguards against centralized authority vulnerabilities and regulatory interventions while enhancing the network's computational capacity.

Strategic Infrastructure Deployment

The establishment of these mining hubs isn't merely a logistical strategy but a crucial technical imperative. Each node functions as a computational powerhouse, engaging in complex cryptographic puzzles integral to validating and securing transactions within the Cyberyen network. The amalgamation of these distributed nodes fortifies the network's computational capacity, enabling seamless transaction processing while upholding the integrity of the blockchain.

The continuous amplification of mining prowess fortifies Cyberyen's security and scalability, ensuring reliability amidst cryptocurrency dynamics. The strategic placement of nodes and ongoing enhancement epitomize Cyberyen's commitment to a decentralized ecosystem, preventing any single entity from dominating network operations.

This shift is characterized by a profound commitment to decentralization, prioritization of privacy, and an unyielding dedication to safeguarding individual autonomy. The robustness of Cyberyen's mining infrastructure translates into tangible benefits for users, attracting individuals seeking secure and dependable transactions, reinforcing Cyberyen's position as a trustworthy network within the competitive crypto sphere.

In summary, Cyberyen's primary task is to craft a powerful mining structure—an ecosystem built on principles that defy centralization, prioritizing the sovereignty of its users. The establishment of a globally distributed decentralized mining infrastructure serves not only to guarantee the stability of the network but also to establish the fundamental framework for a future where innovation flourishes within an environment that champions individual empowerment. This stands as a profound demonstration of the influential capacity of decentralized networks, guided by the ethos of cypherpunk ideology, in catalyzing transformative shifts within the cryptocurrency domain.

Stay with us... C¥kuza

@ df67f9a7:2d4fc200

Trusted connections between real people on Nostr is how this open social network (owned by nobody) will avoid being overrun by bots and bad actors.

Because Nostr doesn’t have centralized moderation or content control, the surfacing of quality content is becoming a growing concern for users and developers alike. Decentralized “webs of trust” (friends trusting friends for content and account recommendations) is our best protection, but the tools that form these webs (content filters and trust rankings) need to be in the hands of end users. The ad-hoc manner in which webs of trust is implemented on Nostr today (based on follows and different for each client) is both inaccessible and unscalable.

Sovereign Webs of Trust will fix this.

Sovereign WoT is a Nostr Implementation Possibility (NIP) being designed to put the end user in charge of their own feeds and recommendations. It proposes two standards. One for end users to indicate whether a followed account “is trusted” and another for developers to publish filters that can suggest “trustworthy” content and accounts for their subscribed users.

Here’s (roughly) how it could work:

1. Because “followed ≠ trusted” (for most users), a dedicated and private “is trusted” list (replaceable event kind) for every user will provide the canonical reference for algos to suggest “trustworthy” content and accounts.

2. Because “free markets” are a great environment for discovering what works and what doesn’t, end users will be able to subscribe to (and share) their favorite WoT filters for content feeds and account recommendations. These WoT filters (event kinds) may be published by clients, or relays, or any vendor, and may use any Nostr event data to surface “trustworthy” content and accounts.

Some WoT filter possibilities

Maybe WoT filters for content feeds?

• all my folllows content?
• all my follows trusted by my WoT?
• only from my trusted follows?
• only content reacted to by a trusted follow?

Maybe WoT filters for recommending new follows?

• accounts who post reactions or comments on a “marked” post?
• accounts followed by my trusted accounts?
• accounts trusted by my trusted accounts?
• accounts with content “reposted” by a trusted account?
• WARN of imposter (having similar profile data as trusted or followed)?
• better WARN of imposter (also checks for similar pfp)?

Maybe WoT filters for suggesting wot filters?

• used by my trusted friends?
• used by anybody in my WoT?

Maybe WoT filters to manage trust ranking itself?

• all my follows are trusted?
• all my follows whom I’ve “interacted with” in 30 days are trusted?
• TrustNet style “let me assign labels and numbers” to qualify trust level.

It’s all on the table.

Join the discussion :

• follow and post to these tags on Nostr: #wot, #wotnip, #sovwot

• join and post to the “Sovereign WoT WG” working group : nostr:naddr1qvzqqqytlgpzpx8pdanlsch5rlmpdxj5e3d0zgegxz9vqrn5rjmzlz6pp4axw443qqgnxwf5xuunzvfkxgcr2d3jxvcrgdqep6vst/notes

• track our progress in the NIPs repo on GitHub

@ 3c984938:2ec11289

Before I dive into kindness and Unicorns let's first discuss the main difference between the two.

Kindness

is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. It involves actions that are intended to help or comfort others, often without expecting anything in return. Kindness can be shown through words, actions, or gestures, and it helps to create positive social connections and foster a sense of community.

What is a Unicorn?

Unicorns are mythical creatures often depicted as horse-like with a single horn on their forehead, and are often associated with magic and grace.

If you are being friendly and are generous, this already would be considered to be graceful in itself. So what if we combined this with consideration(something you don't see, but more often DO as this is more of a thought process) then we can say this is Magic. Because now you are the creator of magic just by being considerate of others and sometimes even overlooked and unappreciated especially when you're younger. But as you grow older, I believe this to be more sought out and is often a currency in on it's own.

@ 1e52c554:21771908

Posthumous work of the Colombian poet born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948.

Welcome to this blog dedicated to the Posthumous work of the Colombian poet Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (my father), born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948-2010. Where I will be publishing each of the 175 sonnets from his unpublished collection 'Sonnets For The Twenty-First Century And A Circadian Musical (1984-1987).' Analyzed with GPT4 artificial intelligence and illustrated with AI tools... I hope you enjoy this garden of words snatched from the solitude of a locked room.

Likewise, any enthusiast of the sonnet form is invited to conduct their personal studies of Arroyave Tabares' work, as it is a collection that, although registered since 1989, has not yet been published.

Frank Duna

---

Analysis of "Looking For You"

Introduction

“Looking For You” is a beautiful sonnet by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares. It’s a poem that explores the theme of searching for a loved one through various elements of nature and life.

Thematic Analysis

First Quatrain (Lines 1-4): The speaker begins by expressing their search for their beloved through the intrinsic love that things possess and the inherent beauty of nature. The speaker also mentions the unbiased freedom of a flower’s face that the Sun withholds, suggesting a sense of longing and desire.

Second Quatrain (Lines 5-8): The speaker continues their search with the strength and longings that never end, and the reach of light that outlives the star. This could symbolize the enduring and timeless nature of their love. The speaker also mentions the selflessness of a true friend, indicating the depth of their feelings.

Third Quatrain (Lines 9-12): The speaker’s search takes them to the easy motion that rides on waves and the gladness of a tree that truly gives. This could represent the ebb and flow of emotions and the joy derived from giving. The speaker also mentions the passion of a beloved one who forgives past absences, showing the importance of forgiveness in love.

Couplet (Lines 13-14): The speaker concludes their search with the faith of water to become sea and blue, symbolizing transformation and depth. The speaker has been all over looking for their beloved, indicating a relentless and enduring search.

Overall, this sonnet beautifully captures the speaker’s journey of love and longing, using vivid imagery and metaphors drawn from nature and life. It’s a testament to the enduring power of love and the lengths one can go to find their beloved.

Structure and Rhyme Scheme

The sonnet “Looking For You” by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares follows a consistent rhyme scheme that is typical of a sonnet. Here’s a detailed analysis:

Quartets:

The first quartet (lines 1-4) follows an ABAB rhyme scheme:

Line 1 (A): Through the intrinsic love that things possess Line 2 (B): And beauty by itself that Nature holds Line 3 (A): Through freedom without bias or recess Line 4 (B): Of a flower’s face that the Sun witholds.

The second quartet (lines 5-8) follows a CDCD rhyme scheme:

Line 5 (C): With a strength and longings that never end Line 6 (D): And the reach of light that outlives the star Line 7 (C): With the unselfiness of a true friend Line 8 (D): So hard to find even if we go far.

The third quartet (lines 9-12) follows an EFEF rhyme scheme:

Line 9 (E): With the easy motion that rides on waves Line 10 (F): And gladness of a tree that truly gives Line 11 (E): With passion of a beloved one who says Line 12 (F): That each absence of the past he forgives.

Couplet: The final couplet (lines 13-14) follows a GG rhyme scheme:

Line 13 (G): With water’s faith to become sea and blue Line 14 (G): I have been all over looking for you.

This rhyme scheme is a variation of the traditional English (Shakespearean) sonnet form, which typically follows an ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme. The poet has chosen to vary the rhyme scheme in the quartets, while maintaining the GG rhyme in the final couplet, which is a defining feature of the sonnet form. This variation adds a unique rhythm and flow to the poem, while still adhering to the sonnet structure. The consistent rhyme scheme throughout the poem creates a sense of harmony and unity, enhancing the overall impact of the poem. The rhymes are mostly full rhymes, which add to the musicality of the poem. The use of rhyme in this sonnet serves to emphasize the poet’s message and emotions, making the poem more memorable and engaging for the reader.

Analysis of Aspects

“Looking For You” by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is a beautifully crafted sonnet. Here’s a detailed analysis of its language, imagery, themes, meter, and overall impact:

Language: The language used in the sonnet is simple yet profound. The poet uses everyday words to express complex emotions and experiences. The language is direct and accessible, making the poem relatable to a wide range of readers.

Imagery: The sonnet is rich in imagery. The poet uses vivid descriptions of nature, such as “the intrinsic love that things possess”, “a flower’s face that the Sun witholds”, and “the easy motion that rides on waves”, to evoke strong sensory experiences in the reader. These images serve to enhance the themes of the poem and create a vivid picture in the reader’s mind.

Themes: The sonnet explores several themes, including love, nature, friendship, forgiveness, and the search for a loved one. These themes are universal and timeless, making the poem relevant to readers of all ages and backgrounds.

Meter: The sonnet follows the traditional iambic pentameter, which is typical of sonnets. This means that each line consists of five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables, creating a rhythmic pattern that enhances the musicality of the poem.

Overall, “Looking For You” is a beautifully written sonnet that skillfully combines language, imagery, themes, and meter to create a powerful and moving expression of love and longing. The poet’s use of vivid imagery and simple language makes the poem accessible and relatable, while the consistent meter adds a rhythmic quality that enhances the overall impact of the poem. The sonnet invites the reader to reflect on their own experiences of love and longing, making it a memorable and engaging read.

(GPT4)

---

Count the syllables of each line of the poem

```

Looking For You

10 Through the intrinsic love that things possess 10 And beauty by itself that Nature holds 10 Through freedom without bias or recess 10 Of a flower's face that the Sun witholds.

10 With a strength and longings that never end 10 And the reach of light that outlives the star 10 With the unselfiness of a true friend 10 So hard to find even if we go far.

10 With the easy motion that rides on waves 10 And gladness of a tree that truly gives 10 With passion of a beloved one who says 10 That each absence of the past he forgives.

10 With water's faith to become sea and blue 10 I have been all over looking for you. ***

```

---

Sonnets For The Twenty First Century And A Circadian Musical Written By Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (1984-1987)

---

Analyzed by GPT4; Image by leonardo.ai; First published on Nostr Protocol by franciscoarroyavet@nostrplebs.com Looking For You

@ c11cf5f8:4928464d

Is callin'! Wrangle up your latest tech discoveries, reviews, and recommendations.

Found any gadgets or gizmos that blew your mind? Don't be shy—share the pros and cons and help your fellow stackers in the ~AGORA stay ahead of the tech curve!

@ 1e52c554:21771908

Posthumous work of the Colombian poet born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948

Welcome to this blog dedicated to the Posthumous work of the Colombian poet Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (my father), born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948-2010. Where I will be publishing each of the 175 sonnets from his unpublished collection 'Sonnets For The Twenty-First Century And A Circadian Musical (1984-1987).' Analyzed with GPT4 artificial intelligence and illustrated with AI tools... I hope you enjoy this garden of words snatched from the solitude of a locked room.

Likewise, any enthusiast of the sonnet form is invited to conduct their personal studies of Arroyave Tabares' work, as it is a collection that, although registered since 1989, has not yet been published.

Frank Duna

---

Analysis "Queen Of Many Hearts"

Introduction

"Sonnet 129" by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares celebrates a deep and devoted love for someone referred to as the "queen of many hearts." The poem conveys a sense of commitment and gratitude, with the poet finding completeness and guidance in the presence of the beloved.

Thematic Analysis

First Quatrain (Lines 1-4): The speaker addresses the “queen of many hearts,” acknowledging her past relationships but asserting that their shared history cannot be erased. This quatrain sets up the theme of the sonnet, which is the speaker’s unwavering commitment to the queen.

Second Quatrain (Lines 5-8): The speaker expresses humility and willingness to cater to the queen’s desires. The speaker’s life is portrayed as being guided by the queen’s wishes.

Third Quatrain (Lines 9-12): The speaker describes a change in his behavior. No longer will he wander aimlessly, seeking love elsewhere. He has found all he needs in the queen’s “cove.”

Couplet (Lines 13-14): The speaker admits to occasional distractions but ultimately affirms the queen’s wisdom as his guiding force.

The sonnet explores themes of love, commitment, and the transformative power of a significant relationship. The speaker’s tone is one of reverence and devotion towards the queen. The phrase “in troth” in line 4, as the author notes, means “in faith,” further emphasizing the speaker’s commitment. The sonnet’s rhyme scheme follows the pattern of a Shakespearean sonnet (ABAB CDCD EFEF GG), contributing to its rhythmic and melodic quality.

Overall, the sonnet presents a heartfelt declaration of love and loyalty, despite past relationships and occasional distractions. The speaker’s devotion to the queen is unwavering, and her wisdom is acknowledged as a guiding force in his life.

Structure and Rhyme Scheme

In the sonnet “Queen Of Many Hearts,” by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares, the rhyme scheme follows the pattern of a Shakespearean sonnet, which is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. This means that the first and third lines rhyme with each other (A), and the second and fourth lines rhyme with each other (B) in each quatrain. The final two lines, which form a couplet, also rhyme with each other (G).

Here’s how the rhyme scheme works in this sonnet:

``` The queen of many hearts that you have been (A) Cannot erase what was built by us both (B) But just add to that majesty so keen (A) Which inspired me a commitment in troth. (B)

Made humble with your unselfish gesture (C) My life I will not hinder from your wants (D) And from now on my zeals you will nurture (C) With sweet bondages of your yes and do nots. (D)

My pouring soul will have to roam no more (E) Through wanton streets where I complete my love (F) That silly way to beg from door to door (E) Is needless when I find all in your cove. (F)

Sometimes you see my eyes going adrift (G) But your wisdom wins and becomes my gift. (G) ```

This rhyme scheme contributes to the rhythmic quality of the sonnet and helps to emphasize the themes and emotions conveyed in the poem. It also creates a sense of unity and completeness to the sonnet. The final couplet often serves as a conclusion or summary of the themes explored in the preceding quatrains. In this sonnet, the final couplet (GG) serves to reaffirm the speaker’s devotion to the queen, despite occasional distractions.

Analysis of Aspects

The sonnet “Queen Of Many Hearts” by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is a rich piece of poetry with several noteworthy elements:

Language: The language used in the sonnet is formal and elegant, fitting for the traditional form of the sonnet. The poet uses sophisticated vocabulary and phrases such as “majesty so keen,” “unselfish gesture,” and “sweet bondages of your yes and do nots.” These choices contribute to the overall tone and mood of the poem.

Imagery: The sonnet is filled with vivid imagery that brings the speaker’s emotions to life. For example, the speaker describes his soul “pouring” and roaming “through wanton streets,” creating a sense of restlessness and longing. The “queen’s cove” serves as a metaphor for a safe and fulfilling place of love.

Themes: The main themes of the sonnet are love, devotion, and transformation. The speaker expresses deep love and commitment to the queen, despite her past relationships and his own distractions. The transformative power of their relationship is also a key theme, with the speaker changing his ways and finding fulfillment in the queen’s love.

Meter: The sonnet follows the traditional meter of a Shakespearean sonnet, which is iambic pentameter. This means each line typically contains five pairs of syllables, with the stress falling on the second syllable of each pair. This creates a rhythmic quality that enhances the reading and listening experience.

Overall, the sonnet is a beautiful expression of love and devotion. The use of formal language, vivid imagery, and traditional sonnet form all contribute to the depth and richness of the poem. The speaker’s unwavering commitment to the queen, despite the challenges, makes the sonnet a powerful declaration of love. The final couplet serves as a poignant conclusion, reaffirming the speaker’s devotion and the transformative power of the queen’s wisdom.

(GPT4)

---

Syllable count for each line.

```

Queen Of Many Hearts

10 The queen of many hearts that you have been 10 Cannot erase what was built by us both 10 But just add to that magesty so keen 10 Which inspired me a commitment in troth.

10 Made humble with your unselfish gesture 10 My life I will not hinder from your wants 10 And from now on my zeals you will nurture 10 With sweet bondages of your yes and do nots.

10 My pouring soul will have to roam no more 10 Through wanton streets where I complete my love 10 That silly way to beg from door to door 10 Is needless when I find all in your cove.

10 Sometimes you see my eyes going adrift 10 But your wisdom wins and becomes my gift. ***

```

---

Sonnets For The Twenty First Century And A Circadian Musical Written By Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (1984-1987)

---

Analyzed by GPT4; Image by leonardo.ai; First published on Nostr Protocol by franciscoarroyavet@nostrplebs.com Queen Of Many Hearts

@ cce0989b:b497e608

The single most important factor for happiness is our relationships with other people.

And, yet, I think we can also all acknowledge that our relationships frequently get put on the backburner, deprioritized in favor of goals and responsibilities and deadlines.

In your next interaction, you can show up in a different way. Take these six simple steps to truly connect with another person:

1. Pause. Really, truly look at the person in front of you. Whether they are a stranger or as familiar to you as your own self, look like you're seeing them for the first time. It's a person, a beautifully unique one, who is, in so many ways, just like you.

2. Notice any judgmental thoughts running through your head. What assumptions are you making? What stories are you telling about them? They will get in the way of true connection. Put them aside, even if it is just for the length of this conversation.

3. Imagine an empty space between the two of you. You have created this space for the other person, to fill up with their thoughts and feelings. Welcome them into the space with a question.

4. As they share, engage your curiosity. What if this was the only chance you ever had to speak with this person? Ask more questions. Invite them to continue to fill up the space, so that you can get the clearest understanding of their experience.

5. With this new understanding, imagine what it is like to be them. Let yourself feel how it would be. As you do, you might notice: I am no longer separate from this person. I am connected to them by our shared humanity.

6. Wish them relief from any pain. Wish them happiness in every form. If you can, take action to make those wishes a reality. This is love.

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

What's your favorite paraphernalia, and how has it improved your life? What it has helped you design or accomplish lately?

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

Prompt: Reviews, Testimonials & Contributors

Create a design with some kind of testimonial. It could be a book or product review testimonial, a contributors page or a review section for a product or service. Who is the customer? What did they buy and why did they enjoy it? Is there a star rating or a 1-10 style?

Feedback help build trust with an audience so these can be especially important elements for a website.

Flex your design muscles and join in. Most of all, keep this exercise loose and keep it stress-free. The FUC is about growing our design skills, together, as a community. We can't wait to see what you create!

Happy designing, Stackers!

---

Share Your Results When you finish the challenge, post your work on this thread! If you also share it on nostr, be sure to use the hashtag #FUCdesiger and tag Design_r@iris.to or @Design__r on X! We'll keep an eye out and repost good examples on a regular basis.

---

Curious to know WTF is a FUC? Read the ⚡️Flash Ui Challenges welcoming post.

Looking for more FUCs? Check the archive here!

@ 88471493:9987a9bd

ttss

@ 1c6b3be3:73f0ae6f

🍵 Actualités securite

Une cyberattaque sur France Travail compromet 43 millions de comptes (1 min) France Travail, l'organisme qui remplacera Pôle Emploi, a annoncé avoir été victime d'une cyberattaque avec vol de données. Les informations personnelles de 43 millions de personnes ont été compromises, dont celles des personnes actuellement et précédemment inscrites au cours des 20 dernières années, ainsi que des personnes non inscrites mais ayant un espace candidat sur le site. Les données volées comprennent les noms et prénoms, les dates de naissance, les numéros de sécurité sociale, les identifiants France Travail, les adresses mail et postale, et les numéros de téléphone. Les mots de passe et les données bancaires ne sont pas concernés. France Travail a notifié l'incident à la Cnil, déposé plainte et ouvert une enquête. Une plateforme téléphonique a été mise en place pour accompagner les personnes concernées.

Sécurité IT/OT: Nozomi Networks lève 100M$ (1 min) Nozomi Networks, une entreprise spécialisée dans la protection des systèmes informatiques et industriels contre les cyberattaques, a récemment annoncé avoir levé 100 M$ lors d'un dernier tour de table. Parmi les investisseurs figurent Schneider Electric et Mitsubishi Electric, ainsi que des actionnaires historiques tels qu'Activate Capital, Energize Capital et Forward Investments. La société prévoit d'utiliser ces fonds pour renforcer le développement de ses produits et la commercialisation de ses offres à l'international. Reconnue pour sa sonde OT certifiée par l’ANSSI, Nozomi Networks protégerait plus de 105 millions de terminaux OT, IoT et IT dans le monde entier et serait présente dans plus de 12 000 installations. Selon Edgard Capdevielle, président et directeur général de Nozomi Networks, cet investissement démontre "clairement le besoin et le soutien pour des solutions de sécurité agnostiques à la lumière de l'escalade des attaques contre les infrastructures critiques dans le monde entier".

La commission de l'IA veut un fonds de 10 Md€ et libérer les données (3 min) La commission dédiée à l'intelligence artificielle a rendu son rapport après 6 mois de travail, comprenant 25 recommandations pour améliorer la compétitivité française en IA. Le rapport propose la création d'un fonds de 10 Md€ dédié au financement de l'écosystème IA et un assouplissement des contraintes sur l'accès aux données, qui sont essentielles à l'existence de l'IA. Il recommande également une approche plus radicale pour améliorer l'accès aux données de santé et la réduction des délais de réponse de la Cnil. Le rapport plaide en faveur d'une infrastructure technique sur les données en dépôt légal pour faciliter la mise en relation entre développeurs d'applications IA et propriétaires de données culturelles et patrimoniales. La formation sur l'IA est également un point clé, avec une estimation de 56 000 postes par an en développement d'IA et 25 000 postes par an en déploiement d'IA d'ici 10 ans. Enfin, le rapport recommande que la régulation de l'IA se fasse à l'échelon international et que la France soit un moteur dans la mise en place d'une organisation mondiale de gouvernance de l'IA.

Patch Tuesday mars 2024 : des failles critiques dans Hyper-V (2 min) Microsoft a publié un ensemble de mises à jour de sécurité pour mars 2023, corrigeant 64 failles, dont deux sont considérées comme critiques et concernent Hyper-V. La CVE-2024-21407 permet une exécution de code à distance (RCE) depuis un système d'exploitation invité vers l'hôte, tandis que la CVE-2024-21408 entraîne un déni de service. Une autre faille critique, la CVE-2024-21334, expose Open Management Infrastructure à une exécution de code distant avec un score CVSS de 9,8. La CVE-2024-26198 est également préoccupante, car elle permet une possible exécution de code distant sur Exchange. Malgré l'absence de failles en cours d'exploitation, les entreprises sont encouragées à installer ces mises à jour pour minimiser les risques.

🍵 Actualités le-monde-du-cloud-computing

Sécurité IT/OT: Nozomi Networks lève 100M$ (1 min) Nozomi Networks, une entreprise spécialisée dans la protection des systèmes informatiques et industriels contre les cyberattaques, a récemment annoncé avoir levé 100 M$ lors d'un dernier tour de table. Parmi les investisseurs figurent Schneider Electric et Mitsubishi Electric, ainsi que des actionnaires historiques tels qu'Activate Capital, Energize Capital et Forward Investments. La société prévoit d'utiliser ces fonds pour renforcer le développement de ses produits et la commercialisation de ses offres à l'international. Reconnue pour sa sonde OT certifiée par l’ANSSI, Nozomi Networks protégerait plus de 105 millions de terminaux OT, IoT et IT dans le monde entier et serait présente dans plus de 12 000 installations. Selon Edgard Capdevielle, président et directeur général de Nozomi Networks, cet investissement démontre "clairement le besoin et le soutien pour des solutions de sécurité agnostiques à la lumière de l'escalade des attaques contre les infrastructures critiques dans le monde entier".

Patch Tuesday mars 2024 : des failles critiques dans Hyper-V (2 min) Microsoft a publié un ensemble de mises à jour de sécurité pour mars 2023, corrigeant 64 failles, dont deux sont considérées comme critiques et concernent Hyper-V. La CVE-2024-21407 permet une exécution de code à distance (RCE) depuis un système d'exploitation invité vers l'hôte, tandis que la CVE-2024-21408 entraîne un déni de service. Une autre faille critique, la CVE-2024-21334, expose Open Management Infrastructure à une exécution de code distant avec un score CVSS de 9,8. La CVE-2024-26198 est également préoccupante, car elle permet une possible exécution de code distant sur Exchange. Malgré l'absence de failles en cours d'exploitation, les entreprises sont encouragées à installer ces mises à jour pour minimiser les risques.

Quand les projets Kubernetes dans le cloud public dérapent (2 min) Le rapport de Gartner met en évidence le sous-utilisation importante des ressources de calcul et de mémoire dans les clusters Kubernetes déployés sur le cloud public, entraînant des coûts supplémentaires considérables. Selon une étude de Cast.ai, qui a analysé 4000 clusters, seule 13% de la puissance de calcul et 20% des capacités de mémoire sont utilisées en moyenne, ce qui est similaire aux niveaux d'utilisation des serveurs non virtualisés. Ce faible taux d'utilisation est probablement sous-estimé et concerne principalement les entreprises ayant un niveau de maturité plus élevé sur la technologie d'orchestration. Les mégaclusters (plus de 30 000 CPU) ont un taux d'utilisation plus élevé à 44%. Les raisons principales de cette sous-utilisation sont le surprovisionnement, des marges de manœuvre injustifiées dans les requêtes mémoire et CPU des pods et la sous-utilisation des instances spot. Ces difficultés interviennent dans un contexte d'inflation des prix des instances spot, qui se sont envolés en moyenne de 23% entre 2022 et 2023 sur les régions cloud aux États-Unis. La dépense mondiale sur le cloud public devrait atteindre 679 milliards de dollars en 2024, contre 564 milliards de dollars en 2023.

Des LLM à portée des terminaux Android et iOS (1 min) Google a publié une API expérimentale, MediaPipe LLM Inference, qui permet d'exécuter des grands modèles de langage (LLM) sur des terminaux Android, iOS et web. Cette interface de programmation prend en charge initialement quatre modèles : Gemma, Phi 2, Falcon et Stable LM. Google a indiqué que les applications de production avec LLM peuvent utiliser l'API Gemini ou Gemini Nano via Android AICore sur Android. Les développeurs peuvent essayer l'API via une démo web ou en construisant des applications de démonstration, et intégrer les LLM sur un appareil en quelques étapes à l'aide de SDK spécifiques à la plateforme. L'API offre une latence optimale en se concentrant sur le CPU et le GPU pour prendre en charge plusieurs plateformes. Google prévoit d'étendre l'API à d'autres plateformes et modèles cette année.

🍵 Toutes les actualités :

Telex : Le Parlement européen valide l'IA Act, Zendesk acquiert Ultimate, Google paye 10 M$ de bug bounty (1 min) Le Parlement européen a approuvé le règlement sur l'intelligence artificielle (IA Act) avec 523 voix pour et 46 contre. Ce texte prévoit une régulation à deux niveaux : des contraintes de transparence et de respect des droits d'auteur pour les modèles d'usage général, et un encadrement plus exigeant pour les modèles à haut risque. Le Conseil européen doit maintenant ratifier le texte, qui devrait être publié en avril ou mai.

Zendesk, une entreprise spécialisée dans la gestion de la relation client (CRM), a annoncé l'acquisition de la start-up allemande Ultimate pour un montant non divulgué. Ultimate propose des outils d'automatisation et des assistants basés sur l'IA pour résoudre jusqu'à 80 % des interactions via ses agents d'intelligence artificielle.

Google a versé 10 millions de dollars en primes aux chercheurs pour la découverte de vulnérabilités dans ses solutions en 2023. Les récompenses ont diminué par rapport à l'année précédente, mais restent un montant significatif. L'année dernière, 632 chercheurs de 68 pays ont reçu une prime et la plus élevée a atteint 113 337 dollars. Sur Android, le montant global des récompenses a atteint 3,4 millions de dollars et sur Chrome 2,1 millions de dollars.

Une cyberattaque sur France Travail compromet 43 millions de comptes (1 min) France Travail, l'organisme qui remplacera Pôle Emploi, a annoncé avoir été victime d'une cyberattaque avec vol de données. Les informations personnelles de 43 millions de personnes ont été compromises, dont celles des personnes actuellement et précédemment inscrites au cours des 20 dernières années, ainsi que des personnes non inscrites mais ayant un espace candidat sur le site. Les données volées comprennent les noms et prénoms, les dates de naissance, les numéros de sécurité sociale, les identifiants France Travail, les adresses mail et postale, et les numéros de téléphone. Les mots de passe et les données bancaires ne sont pas concernés. France Travail a notifié l'incident à la Cnil, déposé plainte et ouvert une enquête. Une plateforme téléphonique a été mise en place pour accompagner les personnes concernées.

Sécurité IT/OT: Nozomi Networks lève 100M$ (1 min) Nozomi Networks, une entreprise spécialisée dans la protection des systèmes informatiques et industriels contre les cyberattaques, a récemment annoncé avoir levé 100 M$ lors d'un dernier tour de table. Parmi les investisseurs figurent Schneider Electric et Mitsubishi Electric, ainsi que des actionnaires historiques tels qu'Activate Capital, Energize Capital et Forward Investments. La société prévoit d'utiliser ces fonds pour renforcer le développement de ses produits et la commercialisation de ses offres à l'international. Reconnue pour sa sonde OT certifiée par l’ANSSI, Nozomi Networks protégerait plus de 105 millions de terminaux OT, IoT et IT dans le monde entier et serait présente dans plus de 12 000 installations. Selon Edgard Capdevielle, président et directeur général de Nozomi Networks, cet investissement démontre "clairement le besoin et le soutien pour des solutions de sécurité agnostiques à la lumière de l'escalade des attaques contre les infrastructures critiques dans le monde entier".

La commission de l'IA veut un fonds de 10 Md€ et libérer les données (3 min) La commission dédiée à l'intelligence artificielle a rendu son rapport après 6 mois de travail, comprenant 25 recommandations pour améliorer la compétitivité française en IA. Le rapport propose la création d'un fonds de 10 Md€ dédié au financement de l'écosystème IA et un assouplissement des contraintes sur l'accès aux données, qui sont essentielles à l'existence de l'IA. Il recommande également une approche plus radicale pour améliorer l'accès aux données de santé et la réduction des délais de réponse de la Cnil. Le rapport plaide en faveur d'une infrastructure technique sur les données en dépôt légal pour faciliter la mise en relation entre développeurs d'applications IA et propriétaires de données culturelles et patrimoniales. La formation sur l'IA est également un point clé, avec une estimation de 56 000 postes par an en développement d'IA et 25 000 postes par an en déploiement d'IA d'ici 10 ans. Enfin, le rapport recommande que la régulation de l'IA se fasse à l'échelon international et que la France soit un moteur dans la mise en place d'une organisation mondiale de gouvernance de l'IA.

TechPourToutes veut former à l'IT 10 000 étudiantes d'ici 2027 (2 min) Le gouvernement a lancé le programme TechPourToutes pour promouvoir l'égalité des genres dans le domaine du numérique. L'objectif est d'accompagner 10 000 jeunes femmes d'ici 2027 dans leurs études supérieures liées au numérique, en commençant par 2 000 lycéennes et étudiantes dès la rentrée 2024. Ce programme vise à augmenter significativement le nombre de femmes dans les formations au numérique en France à partir du collège. Les élèves ciblées sont les terminales qui rejoignent une formation scientifique et technique du numérique diplômante reconnue par le ministère de l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche, ainsi que les étudiantes de moins de 25 ans déjà inscrites dans un établissement scientifique et technique.

TechPourToutes offre une large gamme de services de soutien, comprenant la découverte des métiers du numérique dès le collège, un accompagnement individuel, du coaching, du mentorat, un soutien dans la recherche de stage ou du premier emploi, ainsi qu'une assistance financière et matérielle. L'accompagnement est entièrement gratuit et peut se poursuivre jusqu'au Master 2. Les jeunes femmes intéressées peuvent prendre contact avec l'équipe de TechPourToutes dès maintenant en remplissant le formulaire fourni dans l'article.

🍵 Actualités securite

Une cyberattaque sur France Travail compromet 43 millions de comptes (1 min) Sécurité IT/OT: Nozomi Networks lève 100M$ (1 min) La commission de l'IA veut un fonds de 10 Md€ et libérer les données (3 min) Patch Tuesday mars 2024 : des failles critiques dans Hyper-V (2 min)

🍵 Actualités le-monde-du-cloud-computing

Sécurité IT/OT: Nozomi Networks lève 100M$ (1 min) Patch Tuesday mars 2024 : des failles critiques dans Hyper-V (2 min) Quand les projets Kubernetes dans le cloud public dérapent (2 min) Des LLM à portée des terminaux Android et iOS (1 min)

🍵 Toutes les actualités :

Telex : Le Parlement européen valide l'IA Act, Zendesk acquiert Ultimate, Google paye 10 M$ de bug bounty (1 min) Une cyberattaque sur France Travail compromet 43 millions de comptes (1 min) Sécurité IT/OT: Nozomi Networks lève 100M$ (1 min) La commission de l'IA veut un fonds de 10 Md€ et libérer les données (3 min) TechPourToutes veut former à l'IT 10 000 étudiantes d'ici 2027 (2 min) Meta détaille ses méga clusters pour entraîner Llama 3 (3 min) Orca-Math, un SLM de Microsoft sur base Mistral AI (2 min) Python creuse l'écart dans l'index de Tiobe (1 min) Jonathan Bourhis prend les rênes de Pure Storage France (1 min) Patch Tuesday mars 2024 : des failles critiques dans Hyper-V (2 min) L'expérience client augmentée à la GenAI (9 min) Quand les projets Kubernetes dans le cloud public dérapent (2 min) Des LLM à portée des terminaux Android et iOS (1 min) L'éthique by design au secours de la représentativité des femmes dans l'IA (4 min) Douloureuse bascule informatique chez Gifi (2 min) Telex : Nijta lève 2 M€, Telegram envisage IPO, La CNIL distribue des amendes (2 min)

🍵 "llm | cloud computing | ddos" - Google News

Cloud Technologies Drive Change at K–12 Schools - EdTech Magazine: Focus on K-12 Introducing Sunil Sukumaran Nair, a Software Engineer and Lead Pioneer in Cloud Computing and Automation - USA TODAY MongoDB expands availability of MongoDB Atlas to six more cloud regions - CloudTech News Rackspace revenue down 4Q and full year, CEO expects 1Q 'slow start' - San Antonio Express-News Is Oracle an AI Stock to Buy Now? - Yahoo Finance Energy efficiency drives HPC to the cloud - High-Performance Computing News Analysis - insideHPC Acurast Joins peaq: Transform Your Spare Phone into a Decentralized Cloud Computing Powerhouse - Blockster Israel's Orca Security CEO reveals the future of cloud security - The Jerusalem Post Oracle finally becomes a cloud company, helped by ‘enormous’ AI demand - MarketWatch Improving software licensing is the key to cracking hyperscaler cloud market dominance - ITPro 1 Little-Known Cloud Computing Stock to Buy Hand Over Fist Before It Soars 43% - Yahoo Finance

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

I realized langchain is an overkill. Went with the ollama-python library. It connects to Ollama server and sends the query.

I tried different prompt templates and it looks like llama2 is becoming a default in open source models. (The [INST] ... [/INST] format).

I played with different models, * llama2 - The OG model by Meta. Don't expect much because people iterated a lot on it and produced better ones. * llama2:70b-chat-q4_K_M - This is the 4-bit quantized version of 70 billion parameter version of the above. I.e. smarter but slower * miqu2iq - 2 bit quantization of Miqu, a leak from mistral. Thought to be Mistral Medium. * miqu4 - 4 bit quantization of the above * mixtral:8x7b-instruct-v0.1-q3_K_S - Back in the days when mistral was open sourcing, this was their last publicly open sourced model. Then they leaked Miqu. * qwen:72b-chat-v1.5-q3_K_S - another model that does well on LMSys Leaderboard. * qwen:14b - faster and stupider version of the above

I use the bold one above mostly. It has less censoring and can adapt to your directive in the system prompt.

Here is a sample run. The orange is sent by a user on Nostr. The purple text is the bot's reply.

This quick and dirty script below connects to a few relays and looks for recent notes with #AskNostr in them and produces sample replies. It does not send the replies to the network yet. It then waits for new notes that could have #AskNostr in them.

``` import queue import threading from nostr_sdk import Client, NostrSigner, Keys, Event, Filter, \ HandleNotification, Timestamp, nip04_decrypt, init_logger, LogLevel, Tag import time import ollama from colorist import rgb

def handle_kind1(q): msgs = [ {"role": "system", "content": 'You are a helper bot who is chatting with people on Nostr network.' ' People ask you questions using the #AskNostr tag.' ' You are seeing that tag and responding.' ' Your name is MIQU2.' ' Nostr is a decentralized censorship free freedom minded social media and other stuff protocol.'}, {"role": "user", "content": "Hi MIQU2, nice to meet you!"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "Hello user, what's up!"}, {"role": "user", "content": "Hi MIQU2. What a beautiful network this is!"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "Indeed, lots of freedom minded people!"}, {"role": "user", "content": "I am glad I joined Nostr. Plebs here are really friendly."}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "There are also friendly bots like me :)"} ]

model = 'mixtral:8x7b-instruct-v0.1-q3_K_S'   # format llama2.

opt = ollama.Options()
opt['num_ctx'] = 8192  # load time. 8192 holds about 13 q/a's.

opt['num_predict'] = 512
opt['temperature'] = 0.2
opt['repeat_penalty'] = 1.0
prompt = f"<s>[INST] <<SYS>>\n{msgs[0]['content']}\n<</SYS>>\n\n{msgs[1]['content']} [/INST] {msgs[2]['content']}</s>"
i = 3
while i < len(msgs):
    prompt += f"<s>[INST] {msgs[i]['content']} [/INST] {msgs[i + 1]['content']}</s>"
    i += 2
msgs += [{"role": "user", "content": q}]
prompt += f"<s>[INST] {msgs[i]['content']} [/INST] "
# print(prompt)

response = ollama.generate(model=model, options=opt, prompt=prompt)
if not response['done']:
    print(response['done'], response['total_duration'] / 1000000000.0)
return response['response']

init_logger(LogLevel.WARN)

keys = Keys.parse("nsec1ufnus6pju578ste3v90xd5m2decpuzpql2295m3sknqcjzyys9ls0qlc85")

sk = keys.secret_key() pk = keys.public_key()

print(f"Bot public key: {pk.to_bech32()}")

signer = NostrSigner.keys(keys) client = Client(signer)

client.add_relay("wss://relay.damus.io") client.add_relay("wss://nostr.mom") client.add_relay("wss://e.nos.lol") client.add_relay("wss://nos.lol") client.connect()

kind4_filter = Filter().pubkey(pk).kind(4).since(Timestamp.from_secs(int(time.time() - 3600))) kind1_filter = Filter().kind(1).since(Timestamp.from_secs(int(time.time() - 86400))) client.subscribe([kind4_filter, kind1_filter])

evs = queue.Queue() dms = queue.Queue()

def proc_evs(): while True: ev = evs.get() event_tag_seen = False for tag in ev.tags(): a = tag.as_vec() if a[0] == "e": event_tag_seen = True # print(a) if event_tag_seen: # possibly a reply to another note return rgb(ev.content(), 247, 147, 26) response = handle_kind1(ev.content()) rgb(response, 200, 30, 255) time.sleep(30)

def proc_dms(): while True: dm = dms.get() msg = dm['msg'] author = dm['author'] rgb(msg, 247, 147, 26) response = handle_kind1(msg) rgb(response, 200, 30, 255) time.sleep(30)

class NotificationHandler(HandleNotification): def handle(self, relay_url, event: Event): if event.kind() == 4: try: msg = nip04_decrypt(sk, event.author(), event.content()) print(f"Received new DM: {msg} from {event.author()}") dms.put({'author': event.author(), 'msg': msg}) except Exception as e: print(f"Error during content NIP04 decryption: {e}") elif len(event.content()) > 20 and event.kind() == 1: # print('got new event kind 1 len(tags)=', len(event.tags())) # check if first message in thread if '#asknostr' in event.content().lower(): # ban injection attacks: banned = ['[INST]', '', '', '[/INST]', '', ''] for b in banned: if b in event.content(): print(f"Ignoring event {event.id()} due to possible injection attack") return evs.put(event)

def handle_msg(self, relay_url, msg):
    return

client.handle_notifications(NotificationHandler()) threading.Thread(target=proc_evs, daemon=True).start()

filter1 = Filter().kind(1)

events = client.get_events_of([filter1], timedelta(seconds=10))

for event in events:

print('get_events_of()', event.as_json())

while True: time.sleep(5.0)

```

There is still not much magic here. But I think interesting part will start when we train it using the Nostr wisdom.

I will also try training it using the chats with users. I.e. if it "likes" a user, it may choose to start learning from him/her. The user could say

Learn this: Cashu is a free and open-source Chaumian ecash system built for Bitcoin. Cashu offers near-perfect privacy for users of custodial Bitcoin applications. Nobody needs to know who you are, how much funds you have, and who you transact with.

Then the bot in its "spare time", while not answering other users' questions, can train on those wisdom shared by Nostriches!

This whole project is about finding the "truth" and training an AI using that truth. I think Nostr is a good place to start. This is a much needed approach because it will offer people an alternative. Instead of misaligned models that are provided by big corps plebs could do their own thing..

@ 1f9e547c:8af216ed

Opinion about Trust: Crypto & Bitcoin Wallet (iphone)

2024-03-19 CVE-2024-23660

The Binance Trust Wallet app for iOS in commit 3cd6e8f647fbba8b5d8844fcd144365a086b629f, git tag 0.0.4 misuses the trezor-crypto library and consequently generates mnemonic words for which the device time is the only entropy source, leading to economic losses, as exploited in the wild in July 2023. An attacker can systematically generate mnemonics for each timestamp within an applicable timeframe, and link them to specific wallet addresses in order to steal funds from those wallets.

Sources: - https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2024-23660 - https://secbit.io/blog/en/2024/01/19/trust-wallets-fomo3d-summer-vuln/

WalletScrutiny #nostrOpinion

Join the conversation!

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

Table Of Content

• Content

• Introduction

• Conclusion

• FAQ

• You May Also Like

• External Links

When it comes to conversations about technology, blockchain and other cryptocurrencies are nearly always brought up. You can't have missed the lightning-fast rate at which conversations around blockchain technology have been expanding tremendously in recent years, can you? It is no longer the case that the only people who use the terms cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are those who work in the IT industry. Anyone, in point of fact, is capable of learning about blockchain technology and the amazing value benefits it offers. Before continuing on your educational path, it is necessary to think of methods to describe blockchain technology to a youngster. Only then can you continue on to the next step.

Because of the meteoric rise in popularity of blockchain technology, it is very likely that your child will ask you about Bitcoin at some point.You need to be prepared to explain blockchain technology to your children at some point, and you should know the best way to do it. The following essay will assist you in conceiving some creative approaches to elucidating the notion of blockchain to younger audiences.

Why Should You Learn How to Explain Blockchain to a Child?

The first thing that is probably going through your head right now is the reason why a youngster would want an explanation of blockchain technology. This is probably the first thing that is going through your mind right now. The technical language and complicated concepts linked to the field of blockchain technology are not something that should be forced on a youngster. Despite this, you can't deny that blockchain will play a significant role in the development of future technologies. Consequently, if you were to educate youngsters about blockchain technology using kid-friendly language, you would be preparing them for the future.

Learning how to explain blockchain technology to children is important for several reasons, one of which is that not everyone is an expert in blockchain. Top executives are becoming more interested in how blockchain technology can be used because it is being used more and more in a wide range of situations and industries.

The true benefit of blockchain technology, on the other hand, can only be conveyed to CEOs and other business leaders via the use of straightforward language by blockchain specialists. In circumstances like these, the blockchain's significance and straightforward explanation are beyond anything you could ever conceive. For example, top executives, leaders, and people in charge of making decisions could quickly understand blockchain-based projects. This would remove the barriers that are currently in the way of projects getting approved.

The Definition of Blockchain Technology

When it comes to the several ways that blockchain technology may be explained to a youngster, the definition of blockchain should be the primary point of emphasis. Additionally, the responses to the question "How do you explain blockchain to a child?" would place an emphasis on keeping things as simple as possible. Blockchain is a distributed public ledger that helps keep track of all transactions on many different computers. This is the simplest way to explain what it is.

The absence of a single point of authority throughout the network is one of the most significant advantages offered by blockchain technology. How? Because the information on the blockchain is concurrently saved across several computers, it is more difficult to get into a single computer or steal data from that machine. However, the term may be a little puzzling to youngsters since they may ask why transactions are recorded across several computers. This is because children are not as technologically savvy as adults. Why is it good that blockchain technology doesn't have a central point?

The History of Blockchain Technology

Even the most straightforward explanation of blockchain may have certain nuances that are difficult to grasp for younger audiences. When attempting to explain the concept of blockchain to youngsters, you will undoubtedly come across a variety of replies to the question "What is blockchain in one sentence?" Explaining how blockchain first came into being is a crucial step at this point. Consider the case of Yap Island, which is located in the Caroline Islands group in the western Pacific Ocean. Yap Island is a rather tiny island.

Around 3000 years ago, probably around 1000 BCE, the people who lived on the island utilized a currency known as Rae Stones. These stones were about the size of a human fist. The Rae Stones stand at a height of over 12 feet and weigh close to 8000 pounds collectively. When trading them for products, such enormous quantities of cash would have been very difficult to move about and transport.

How could people maintain a functioning economy when there was no opportunity to deal in money face-to-face? Everyone in the tribe was responsible for remembering the trade, and any transactions had to be shared with the other members of the community. Demonstrating decentralization was the fact that every other member of the tribe kept a mental ledger of the transaction. You are welcome to use the straightforward example as your starting point for understanding blockchain in further depth. On the other hand, you would search for other means by which you might overcome the challenges that exist in the physical commerce industry today. What will the appearance of the system be like?

The Trouble with Centralization

Banks are required to tackle the difficulty of administering an economy that does not include any kind of physical transaction if the problem is to be solved. In the case of Yap Island, financial organizations such as banks and other centralized financial institutions would maintain records about the ownership of Rae Stones. The banker would keep track of all the transactions and provide verification of the legitimacy of certain transactions.

In addition to this, you need to make an effort to explain blockchain technology in terms of the fundamental needs of a centralized authority. The central authority or the banker must offer security for the ledger in order to prevent any adjustments that are not authorized. In addition, the banker has to be accessible at all times to guarantee that users may complete their transactions with one another. In addition to this, the banker has to have credibility and professionalism so that they can avoid making errors by accident.

On the other hand, a straightforward description of blockchain that children can understand argues that blockchain does away with centralized authority. In the case of blockchain technology, you do not need to be concerned about the veracity of the banker. When using blockchain, it is irrelevant if one of the users in the network is not trustworthy or whether a single user causes the network to be compromised. Even if a particular user is absent from the network at the time of a transaction, the transaction will still be recorded on the blockchain and it will be completed. How?

Are you interested in learning more about blockchain technology's decentralized vs. centralized ideas? Check out this comprehensive tutorial for a complete comparison of centralized and decentralized systems!

Working of Blockchain

The answer to the question "What is blockchain in one sentence?" may be summed up with another reference to the Yap Island example. There are many aspects of the way that blockchain technology operates that are comparable to those of the older transactions that took place on Yap Island. Every transaction on the blockchain must be broadcast to the whole network, much like when you announce a transaction to the tribe. The "nodes," or individual computers that make up the network, are the ones responsible for documenting the transaction particulars on their own individual distributed ledgers.

The ledger may be thought of as an account of all of the transactions that take place on the blockchain. The computers that were connected to the network would examine the ledgers in order to validate the legitimacy of the transactions. Consequently, in order for a transaction to be considered legitimate on a blockchain network, it must first be validated by the network's majority. On top of that, the inaccurate ledgers would be updated with the right data from the majority of the nodes, which would then be added to the ledgers.

Blockchain Transaction

Let's say that John wishes to give Jessie 1 Bitcoin from his crypto wallet, which now has 10 Bitcoin. When John initially sends the transaction to the network, this marks the beginning of the first stage in the process. The transaction is recorded by each and every server that is part of the network. Nevertheless, it is possible that certain nodes may register incorrect information.

In the subsequent stage, each node will examine its own data to determine whether its version of the transaction is consistent with that of the majority. If someone is in possession of an inaccurate copy of the transaction data, they will be able to get a correct copy of the data from the majority. In the end, all of the servers reach a consensus on the particulars of the transaction, which guarantees the insertion of the transaction into blocks.

Decentralization on Blockchain

A fascinating illustration of how decentralization functions may be seen in the very straightforward explanation of how blockchain networks store transactions. On the other hand, the example demonstrates the fundamental procedure for doing a transaction using a blockchain. To show a child how important decentralization is and to explain blockchain technology, you will need an example with which they can interact.

Imagine that a little boy named Michael, who is just seven years old, wants a video game for Christmas and sends a letter to Santa requesting that he bring him one. Michael, however, does not understand how to deliver the letter to Santa, so he begs his father to carry out this task on his behalf. After that, Michael's dad will read the letter before he sends it off to Santa Claus. The fact that Michael spends so much time playing video games is frowned upon by Michael's father.

As a result, he alters the contents of Michael's letter and adds the titles of a few books that should be in his classroom library. Michael is devastated to discover that Santa did not send him a video game as his Christmas present. He had been hoping for one. It is clear that Michael's father, who acted as a middleman in the deal, was to blame for preventing Michael from reaching the outcome he had hoped for.

Let us say that Michael utilizes a blockchain network that is located at the North Pole and includes players such as Santa Claus, his elves, children, and their parents from all around the globe. Michael is able to post his letter on the blockchain network, requesting a video game, and the request will be visible to everyone who is a part of the blockchain network. When Michael's father found out about the request and attempted to make changes to it, the rest of the network did not agree with his proposition. The transaction that Michael's letter for a video game ended up becoming is the one that was finally recorded on the blockchain. The distributed ledger technology (blockchain) guarantees that Michael will be able to finish his transaction in the manner he chooses. Imagine this similar concept used for various use cases, such as financial transactions.

Blockchain and Money

If your younger sibling approaches you with a question regarding blockchain, you will almost certainly find yourself in a position where you need to explain cryptocurrency. The question "How do you explain blockchain to a child?" would also reflect how blockchain technology and monetary systems are tied to one another. Children will eventually learn that blockchain is one of the key technologies behind cryptocurrencies, which are some of the most cutting-edge ways to invest.

In point of fact, it is essential to emphasize the example of Bitcoin as the initial use case of blockchain technology. This is because Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency. You may demonstrate how Bitcoin uses blockchain technology to create a decentralized, peer-to-peer network for exchanging electronic currencies. All of the nodes or miners on the Bitcoin blockchain network are responsible for documenting Bitcoin transactions, as was explicitly outlined in the explanation of the fundamental concepts of blockchain. However, blockchain technology is applicable to more than just digital currency.

Other Uses of Blockchain

When trying to explain blockchain technology to youngsters, the next significant aspect you need to focus on is providing a rundown of its many applications. It is essential that young people understand that blockchain technology functions as a distributed ledger that may assist with the recording of almost any kind of information. A blockchain network might record data like the weather, market prices, the specifics of voting, and information about healthcare in an exhaustive and detailed manner. Additionally, blockchain technology may assist in the documentation of supply chain information, which can lead to improved product tracking efficiencies. As you can see, blockchain technology offers a wide range of potential uses that go far beyond the realm of cryptocurrency.

The Significance of Blockchain

The last and most important part of an introduction to blockchain technology for children would concentrate on the technology's usefulness in various contexts. Children need to be educated about the benefits that may be realized from using blockchain technology in contexts that are more grounded in the real world. When laying out the fundamentals of blockchain for youngsters, the explanation has to center on how the technology guarantees that transactions are correct and completed on time. Along with keeping the quality of the products high, it is important to get rid of any bottlenecks in the supply chain.

The use of blockchain technology facilitates the documentation of data pertaining to the status of products across the various stages of the supply chain. Consider the many advantages that might accrue to you as a result of monitoring the degree of freshness of the vegetables sold in the store. The procedure is sped up when bottlenecks in the supply chain in terms of authorisation and essential inspections are removed. Because of this, you have a much better chance of getting important products and services without any restrictions.

Most importantly, blockchain technology also has the potential to play a significant role in the future by providing assistance for the authentication of information's authenticity. One of the most pressing issues of modern day is the authenticity of the information that is available. On the other hand, making accurate use of the blockchain technology may assist in determining whether or not certain information is accurate. In addition, in the not-too-distant future, you will learn about many more creative applications of blockchain technology around the globe.

Conclusion

Some of the most promising use cases of blockchain technology have been identified in well-known industries like financial services and supply chain management, which bodes well for the technology's future. Blockchain may now be explained to a kid using examples and tales that they can relate to and find engaging. When teaching kids about blockchain technology, there's no need to use hard-to-understand words or put them under too much stress with high expectations.

FAQ

What exactly is blockchain technology and how does it work? A blockchain is a distributed ledger that stores information in such a manner that it is difficult, if not impossible, to alter the data, hack the system, or deceive the system. A blockchain is simply a digital log of transactions that is copied and spread throughout the whole network of computer systems that make up the blockchain. This makes the blockchain very secure.

How would you describe blockchain to a child that is just 5 years old? In its most basic form, a blockchain is a network of computers known as nodes, all of which share the same record of past transactions. Now, rather than having one organization or database that stores all of the information, that responsibility has been transferred to the whole of the network.

What is blockchain explain with an example? The use of blockchain technology in businesses or applications like Airbnb and Uber makes it possible to create a decentralized peer-to-peer network. It gives customers the ability to pay for items such as parking fees, tolls, and other costs. The healthcare sector may utilize the blockchain technology as a safe platform for the purpose of keeping sensitive patient data, which is one of the many potential applications for the technology.

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Slerf, Ether.fi e IQ50 sono finalmente disponibili!

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Ether.fi: la piattaforma completa per la gestione del tuo portafoglio di criptovalute.

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Author's note: I wrote this piece in July 2021 called "An Investor's Case for Bitcoin" as a guest article for a newsletter whose audience was not knowledgable about bitcoin or crypto. The price of bitcoin was $34k USD at the time.

The newsletter no longer exists so i'm sharing it here in case it's still helpful to anyone.

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An Investor's Case For Bitcoin

by Mark Mulvey

“If you wouldn’t hold something for 10 years you shouldn’t hold it for 10 minutes.” —Warren Buffett

I own bitcoin because I’m a value investor.

Let me explain.

The whole idea of value investing is to buy high-quality assets with strong fundamentals and proven potential, with a clear path to growth and profits over a long time horizon. You buy before price appreciates and the wider public comes to appreciate the value it holds.

And so, armed with a stoic attitude that encourages buying “when there’s blood in the streets,” value investors accumulate more shares and patiently wait for market prices to return to “true” value rather than chase the hot new thing on the run-up.

That’s what I do with bitcoin. In fact, it has overtaken my traditional buy and hold portfolio and swing trading activity as I’ve shifted my concentration to take advantage of what is right now a particularly special inflection point in its lifecycle.

If you’re not familiar with how bitcoin works and why I’m so bullish on it this may all sound very confusing. “Bitcoin is volatile and risky. It has no yield. It has no intrinsic value. It’s a Ponzi scheme. What if governments ban it? What if something better comes along? Bitcoin is the furthest thing from value investing!”

In fact, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

To start, it’s important to understand that value is subjective. The idea of “intrinsic” value is purely theoretical and somewhat nonsensical, since it’s up to individuals to determine whether or not—and how much—something is of value to them personally. This very dynamic is what makes trade and exchange possible at all.

For traditional investors and ordinary citizens, the main use of bitcoin is as savings technology and protection against inflation. It's a way to store and transmit value across space and time in a way that preserves its purchasing power instead of being inflated away.

Bitcoin has a number of qualities that lend itself to being a scarce and desirable store of value:

• It’s decentralized, with a geographically distributed network of nodes and miners who check every transaction against the agreed upon rules and secure the network with encrypted energy respectively. Everyone is checking everyone else like a Mexican standoff in cyberspace. This means no trust is needed for the system to work and for individual transactions to be confirmed, which is part of why it's such a profound invention.

• It has a finite supply, with only 21 million bitcoin tokens that will ever be issued within the network, distributed with a fixed issuance schedule that gets cut in half every 4 years, making it ever more scarce. Even the supply of gold today increases by about 2% per year, but bitcoin’s total supply is absolutely fixed. And if miners want to work even harder to get even more of it, an automatic difficulty adjustment kicks in to keep things in check, ensuring that blocks of transactions are steadily added to the chain every ~10 minutes like clockwork

• It’s easily divisible into 100,000,000 units called satoshis, or “sats.” Part of gold’s shortcoming, aside from the hassle of having to melt it down in order to verify its authenticity, is that it can’t easily be divided up for use as a medium of exchange. This is why paper notes were originally issued, to be “backed” by gold should they ever want to be redeemed. Those were the days. The US dollar was taken off the gold standard back in the early 1970's and we've been dealing with the consequences of a free-floating fiat currency ever since.

• It’s secured by the processing of the most powerful computer network in the world, with individual miners distributed all over the globe expending energy and converting it directly into a store of value token as efficiently as possible. This is what "backs" bitcoin. It’s the physical energy expenditure of miners that enter each individual transaction into blocks on the network, with a chain of blocks growing ever larger and more immutable as independent nodes on the network check and validate all the work along the way. Bitcoin has passed the size at which someone (or some government) could coordinate an attack on it because the amount of processing power, money, and coordination needed is effectively out of reach now. Even then, it would simply allow an attacker to do a single double-spend transaction. Game theory suggests it's far easier and much more profitable to just buy some instead.

• It’s also clean: bitcoin miners are incentivized to find the cheapest energy possible, which is mostly non-rival or stranded energy sources too far from human population centers to be used otherwise. Miners are also the buyer of last resort for renewable power sources on-grid, helping to subsidize energy costs for large power plants looking to monetize these intermittent, non-reliable sources. There are even companies like Crusoe who are capping otherwise wasted flared gas and reducing carbon emissions in the process. Have a look at any gold mining operation to compare the difference. (Or the emissions and energy profile of the US military industrial complex, which currently backs the US dollar.)

These qualities have many people initially understanding bitcoin as “digital gold” or “Gold 2.0” and will give it a portfolio allocation accordingly. But bitcoin improves on gold by at least an order of magnitude, since it’s optimized for transferring value not just across time (preserving its value from the past into the future) but also across space. Gold is terrible at the latter.

Moving gold across town let alone across national borders is a time consuming and expensive hassle, but with bitcoin you can send billions worth of real-world value from one continent to another at the speed of light—with final settlement—for a tiny fraction of the cost. It’s a bearer instrument that requires no one’s permission, and you don’t even need a bank account to buy and hold some. Seeing as much of the world's population is entirely unbanked and unable to even participate in the global financial markets let alone open a PayPal account, the subjective value of this innovation to them should be immediately apparent. You can buy a piece of it like a plot of land in cyberspace, holding the private key in your mind and travel freely knowing your property can’t be confiscated in transit.

But the Bitcoin network itself is also being used today in some game-changing ways. Just look at Strike, the company founded by Jack Mallers that is solving the problem of global remittances. Many people in developing countries are forced to leave due to violence or lack of opportunity, earning money abroad and then sending it back home to family. This is a huge market, and currently companies like Western Union take a major cut (upwards of 20% on each end). Those back home still have to travel long distances and risk carrying cash on their way back from the nearest Western Union storefront in order to receive it. But Strike leverages the Bitcoin network as the rails of a free and open payment system. Using Strike, dollars in the US get converted to bitcoin and sent abroad to a recipient’s wallet in another country before being converted back into dollars (or the local currency), almost instantaneously and with near-zero fees. The price that bitcoin is trading at is irrelevant because the conversion happens in a split second. Both users don’t even know they’re using bitcoin, they just see US dollars get sent from one digital wallet to another.

All of this is made possible via the Lightning network, which is a layer 2 protocol that sits on top of bitcoin and allows it to function as a kind of bar tab, batching transactions between trusted parties before settling against the main bitcoin blockchain. Layer 2 solutions are what will help bitcoin scale and remain economical in the years ahead. Layered architecture is not only how networks like the internet function but it’s how monetary systems function too. (See Nik Bhatia’s excellent book Layered Money). Some compare Bitcoin to the "IP" part of TCP/IP, which was an internet protocol developed back in the 1960’s but is still the base layer of the same internet that lets you play Call of Duty with friends across the world and stream Netflix into your connected TV.

So what is Bitcoin worth? Well, after 2020 saw the unrestrained printing of trillions of dollars (and Euros) by central banks, a deflationary asset with a fixed supply and unchanging monetary policy became quite attractive to investors who started worrying that maybe the prices of their stocks weren't growing, but the purchasing power of the dollars used to price the stocks were shrinking. Governments have been debasing their currencies ever since, which is actually reflected in the credit default swap (CDS) market where traders began to view inflation and sovereign default as an increasing concern, and viewing things like bitcoin as insurance.

There are many ways you can try to calculate bitcoin’s expected value. Here are a few:

• Greg Foss, a former bond trader and 30-year veteran of debt markets, has a long-term valuation formula to understand the asymmetric return potential for a small allocation to bitcoin today: The total value of all global financial assets—including all debt, real estate, equities, art, and gold—is ~$900T USD ($400T if you don’t include debt, i.e. the bond market). If bitcoin becomes a global reserve asset, say because energy is priced in bitcoin instead of the US dollar, it’s not crazy to think that 5% of that global wealth would be stored in bitcoin. 5% of $900T is $45T. Divide that by 21 million and that puts you at ~$2M per bitcoin

• Some prefer the logic of Lyn Alden, an investment strategist and prominent writer on macroeconomics, who looks at the market cap of gold which is about $12T right now. Bitcoin’s price of ~$34k at the time of this writing puts its current market cap at about $600B, so a $12T market cap would mean bitcoin trading at ~$500,000 per coin.

• NYDIG calculates bitcoin's value by applying Metcalfe’s Law, which states that a network’s value is proportional to the square of the number of its users. Historically this has proven to be pretty accurate. Their November 2020 calculation using 15%-25% network growth per year suggested a price level range of $51,611 - $118,544 in 5 years.

• And Cathie Wood, CEO and founder of ARK invest, bases her $400,000 price target on the premise of every member of the S&P 500 allocating 5% of their balance sheet to bitcoin.

My sensible case for buying bitcoin simply argues that as the US dollar continues to be debased by the trillions, then protecting your purchasing power becomes increasingly crucial. Any other investment needs to clear a hurdle rate that is ticking further and further up, and your risk-free rate of return (formerly the 10-year US Treasury) is no longer a trustworthy yardstick against which to discount equity valuations. But with an asset like bitcoin that’s approaching the elbow of a parabolic curve upward (the hallmark of exponential growth driven by network effects), a little can go a long way. Given its profile, I think it’s more of a risk not to own at least some. The opportunity cost of missing such a trade is high compared to almost anything else you can invest in.

People will sometimes point to bitcoin’s dollar-denominated price volatility as evidence of it being risky or not useful, but any asset in the early stages of monetization necessarily involves volatility as people try to understand what it’s worth to them. All the best outperforming assets have been volatile in early growth stages. Amazon had multiple drawdowns of >50% on its path to becoming the most valuable company in the world, reaching as deep as 80-90% in the aftermath of the dot com bubble. Volatility is not the same thing as risk. I would rather have an upwardly trending volatile asset than a downwardly trending stable one. Position sizing is also important when it comes to risk management.

Bitcoin has actually been the best performing investment so far in terms of risk-adjusted returns. Since 2010, the Sharpe ratio of bitcoin (1.24) is a tick under the Sharpe ratio of a simple 60/40 portfolio of stocks/bonds (1.25), but bitcoin’s 255.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) since inception crushes the 10.3%. of the traditional 60/40. Given that much of bitcoin’s appreciation occurred when it was growing from zero, the more realistic CAGR percentage to use is closer to ~120% based on more recent timespans. Over long periods of time this will slowly go down, and I personally use 100% CAGR when running expected return models. And if I'm wrong by half it would still be my best performing investment.

Even if you bought some bitcoin at the worst possible time you would have done better than most of your other investments. Measured using 5 year holding periods, bitcoin's worst annualized return has been +28.8% so far.

My investment strategy for bitcoin is simple: 1.) I buy a little bit every day in order to dollar-cost average my overall allocation. 2.) I don’t use leverage. 3.) My time horizon is measured not in months or quarters but in years. That’s it.

At the end of the day I do believe that a diversified portfolio is important, but I also think it’s important to have at least one investment for which you have deep conviction and continue learning about and contributing to. That’s what investing is all about. We should all be investing in quality assets, people, and relationships. We don’t diversify our spouses, and we shouldn’t outsource all of our serious commitments to indexes.

For me, bitcoin is a worthy investment. If it’s not for you that’s okay too, but I still encourage you to find something that deserves your conviction. Conviction is what allows you to weather the volatility necessary for anything of significant future value to prove itself and grow. Without it, you’ll let it go at the first sign of trouble.

This isn’t me as a Bitcoiner talking, it’s me as a value investor.

“Diversity is for people who don’t know what they’re doing.” —Warren Buffett

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Navigating the Future Together

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRLQ-lfM47Q

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For too long, our lives and activities have been surveilled and trackedby powerful third-parties like Big Tech platforms, banks, payment networks and governments. They have erected a panopticon prison of monetized monitoring, analyzing our most personal data and transactions for their own undisclosed interests. This is a fundamental violation of privacy and economic freedom.

it is time to stop. A pivotal shift is underway and we need you!

Free and open source software is the antidote to this suffocating climate of surveillance.

FOSS liberates code from the controlling grip of proprietary licenses, allowing users to examine, modify and truly own the software they run without informational monopolists looking over their shoulders. And Bitcoin takes away the government and banking sector's choke-chain over money itself.

This is a revolution, but we don't seek chaos, we don't seek destruction; we're not going to burn buildings down or engage in violent protests. We won't march down the street and demand change, instead, we'll code our way to freedom.

Our revolution is digital, fueled by lines of code and secured by cryptography. We will build decentralized systems and platforms where privacy is the default and freedom is non-negotiable. We shall rebirth genuine privacy rights.

Compare the transparent code of Linux's codebase to the opaque nature of proprietary software, compare the transparent mathematics governing Bitcoin's codebase to the concealed algorithms Big Tech Platforms use to surveil and manipulate. Bitcoin's rules are open for all to verify, while Microsoft's are a collusion-prone black box.

They will fight us, they always do, but we will persevere. The petty bureaucrats and Big Tech CEOs will keep fighting us how they can, they will fight to preserve their ability to monitor and control not because they have any real legitimacy, but because FOSS and Bitcoin threaten to make their invasive rackets obsolete.

We shall create amenable territories where true privacy is the default.

Does this terrify the corporatist data oligopolies and bureaucratic surveillors? It should! No longer will free individuals be tracked and traced without consent. Value exchange, speech and human action will be freed from the shackles of centralized control, operating in a world where trust is built into the system, not imposed from above.

We will not fight with guns or bombs, there will be no blood shed; instead we will fight with ideas. We will fight with the most potent weapon at our disposal: knowledge. Encryption is our shield, and open-source protocols are our weapons. We are simply restoring privacy as the bedrock, putting the individual squarely in control over what information gets optionally revealed rather than having our data surreptitiously expropriated by middlemen.

We are coding a future where privacy is sacrosanct, economic freedom is a given, and surveillance capitalism is a relic of the past. We are crafting tools that empower the individual, disempowering the surveillance state and the oligarchs of information.

This is our battle. Not fought with weapons, but with wisdom. Not with anger, but with algorithms. Our armor is anonymity; our shield, encryption.

So we call on you, the coder, the thinker, the dreamer. Join us. Take up the tools of freedom. Contribute to the code of liberation. In every line you write, see the chains breaking. Witness the old world of control and surveillance crumble.

Join us, join the revolution, start coding. Together, we will reclaim our privacy, our freedom, and our dignity.

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L'evoluzione del sistema di controllo sociale cinese e le sue implicazioni per l'Occidente.

💰 Pubblicato da Bitcoin Report Italia, 18/03/2024 💰

Il sistema di Credito Sociale cinese non è più un semplice esperimento: è una realtà in continua evoluzione che si estende a macchia d'olio in ogni ambito della vita quotidiana. Una nuova legge, approvata di recente, mira a rafforzare e integrare il sistema in modo ancora più pervasivo, con possibili implicazioni profonde per il futuro non solo della Cina, ma anche dell'Occidente.

🕹 Punti chiave: La nuova legge sul Credito Sociale cinese delinea una visione ambiziosa: standardizzare i flussi informativi, creare meccanismi di incentivazione e punizione basati sul "credito" individuale, e aumentare l'integrità di tutta la società. Il sistema si basa su una vasta gamma di dati, che includono informazioni anagrafiche, situazione finanziaria, rispetto delle leggi e regolamenti, attività sociali, licenze e qualifiche professionali. Un "Unified Social Credit Code" fungerà da chiave di accesso al sistema, permettendo di monitorare e valutare il comportamento di ogni individuo in tempo reale. Il concetto di "onestà" è centrale nel sistema e si traduce in una responsabilizzazione a 360 gradi: economica, lavorativa, giuridica e persino sociale. La Cina considera il sistema di Credito Sociale come un modello di successo per la stabilità sociale e lo sviluppo economico, tanto da auspicarne l'adozione anche in altri paesi. Personaggi influenti come Klaus Schwab, fondatore del World Economic Forum, elogiano il modello cinese e spingono per una collaborazione globale che integri i sistemi di controllo sociale.

🕹 Esempi concreti: Il sistema di Credito Sociale è già utilizzato per limitare l'accesso a determinati servizi, come il trasporto pubblico, i voli aerei e l'assunzione di determinati lavori. Vengono applicati sistemi di "punti" che possono essere detratti in caso di comportamenti scorretti, come il mancato pagamento di un debito o la diffusione di fake news. Al contrario, i cittadini modello possono ottenere benefici, come sconti su alcuni prodotti o l'accesso a servizi esclusivi.

🕹 Preoccupazioni e implicazioni per l'Occidente: Il sistema di Credito Sociale cinese solleva preoccupazioni per la sua natura pervasiva e per il potenziale controllo sociale che ne deriva. La sorveglianza di massa e la censura online sono già realtà in Cina e il sistema di Credito Sociale rischia di rafforzare ulteriormente queste tendenze. L'adozione di un sistema simile in Occidente potrebbe avere un impatto significativo sulla libertà individuale e sui diritti civili.

🔊 Domande per la riflessione: ➡️In che modo il sistema di Credito Sociale cinese potrebbe influenzare l'Occidente? ➡️Quali sono i rischi e i benefici di un sistema di controllo sociale così pervasivo? ➡️Come possiamo bilanciare la sicurezza e la libertà individuale in un'era di tecnologie avanzate? ➡️È possibile trovare un equilibrio tra l'efficienza del modello cinese e la tutela dei diritti individuali?

🕹 Conclusione: Il sistema di Credito Sociale cinese rappresenta un modello di controllo sociale senza precedenti. La sua evoluzione e il suo potenziale impatto sull'Occidente sollevano questioni cruciali sul futuro della società e della governance. È fondamentale un dibattito aperto e consapevole su questi temi per poter costruire un futuro che sia sicuro, libero e prospero per tutti.

🔊 Call to action: Condividi questo articolo con i tuoi amici e familiari per aumentare la consapevolezza sul sistema di Credito Sociale cinese. Unisciti alla nostra community Telegram per discutere di questo e altri argomenti importanti.

🚀 Leggi tutti i nostri articoli: https://t.me/BitcoinReportChannel

☄️ Nella nostra community Bitcoin Report Italia, troverai un ambiente accogliente dove gli esperti ti guideranno nei primi passi nel trading, offrendo analisi, strategie di trading e l'opportunità di partecipare al CopyTrading con trader professionisti.

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BitcoinReportItalia #Crypto #CBDC #SocialScore #Cina #Schwab #Bitcoin #Halving #Analisi #Trading #CopyTrading #Censura #Agenda2030

@ 1e52c554:21771908

Posthumous work of the Colombian poet born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948.

Welcome to this blog dedicated to the Posthumous work of the Colombian poet Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (my father), born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948-2010. Where I will be publishing each of the 175 sonnets from his unpublished collection 'Sonnets For The Twenty-First Century And A Circadian Musical (1984-1987).' Analyzed with GPT4 artificial intelligence and illustrated with AI tools... I hope you enjoy this garden of words snatched from the solitude of a locked room.

Likewise, any enthusiast of the sonnet form is invited to conduct their personal studies of Arroyave Tabares' work, as it is a collection that, although registered since 1989, has not yet been published.

Frank Duna

---

Analysis "Beach Rendition # 1"

Introduction

"Beach Rendition # 1" by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is a beautiful sonnet that uses vivid imagery to depict a beach scene.

Thematic Analysis

First Quatrain (lines 1-4): The first quatrain presents the ocean as a living entity. The ocean’s heartbeat is felt in the waves, and it tries to reach us through the reefs. The corals are its veins, and the seaweeds are its hair. This quatrain sets the scene and introduces the main theme of the poem: the connection between humans and nature.

Second Quatrain (lines 5-8): The second quatrain continues the theme of nature’s allure. Heaven is preparing a fire (possibly referring to the sunset), and the thoughts that evolve from our heads are compared to the enticing green oceans.

Third Quatrain (lines 9-12): The third quatrain further develops the theme of temptation and adoration. The water whispers rumors of temptation around a sweet, red and white smile (possibly a person or a metaphor for a captivating aspect of nature). The clouds show signs of adoration, and the lush (possibly referring to the vibrant nature or the ocean) shines and swells, beckoning the night.

Couplet (lines 13-14): The final couplet concludes the poem with a sensual image of the moon heating up and starting a dance that we follow. This could symbolize the irresistible pull of nature and its rhythms that we, as humans, are drawn to.

Overall, the sonnet uses vivid imagery and metaphors to depict the allure and power of nature, and our deep connection to it. The quatrains and the couplet work together to build and then beautifully conclude this theme.

Rhyme Scheme

This sonnet follows the Shakespearean sonnet rhyme scheme, which is ABABCDCDEFEFGG. Let’s break it down:

A: We feel the ocean’s heart beat in the waves B: As it tries hard to touch us through the reefs A: The corals of many kind are its veins B: And its hair is shown in all the sea weeds. C: Heaven is now preparing a huge fire D: While those glamorous and laced underthougts C: That evolve from our head that never tire D: Evoke green mains which are a lure to us. E: The water has rumors of temptation F: Around thy smile made of sweet, red and white, E: The clouds give us signs of adoration F: And thy lush shines and swells asking the night. G: How soon that sensuous heated piece of moon G: Starts boiling in a dance we follow soon!

The rhyme scheme helps to structure the poem and contributes to its rhythm and flow. The final couplet (GG) often serves as a conclusion or summary of the themes explored in the quatrains. In this sonnet, the final couplet brings the poem to a sensual and rhythmic close, reflecting the dance of nature that the poem describes.

Additional Aspects

Let’s delve deeper into the analysis of Sonnet 113 by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares:

Language and Imagery: The sonnet uses rich and vivid language to create a strong sense of imagery. The ocean is personified as a living entity with a heartbeat, veins, and hair. The use of words like “heart beat”, “veins”, and “hair” in relation to the ocean creates a vivid picture in the reader’s mind and helps to establish a deep connection between humans and nature. The sonnet also uses sensual language, particularly in the final couplet, to evoke a sense of passion and allure.

Themes: The main theme of the sonnet is the connection between humans and nature. This is explored through the personification of the ocean and the depiction of its allure. The sonnet also touches on themes of temptation, adoration, and the rhythms of nature.

Meter: The sonnet appears to follow the iambic pentameter, which is a common meter in English poetry and is particularly associated with sonnets. In iambic pentameter, each line consists of five iambs - pairs of syllables where the first syllable is unstressed and the second is stressed (da-DUM). This gives the poem a rhythmic quality and helps to guide the reader’s pace.

Overall: “Beach Rendition # 1” is a beautifully crafted sonnet that uses vivid language and imagery to explore the deep connection between humans and nature. The sonnet’s structure, rhyme scheme, and meter all contribute to its rhythm and flow, while its sensual language and strong imagery draw the reader in and evoke a sense of passion and allure. The sonnet is a testament to the power of poetry to capture and convey the beauty and mystery of the natural world.

(GPT4)

---

Syllable count for each line.

``` Beach Rendition # 1

10 We feel the ocean's heart beat in the waves 10 As it tries hard to touch us through the reefs 10 The corals of many kind are its veins 10 And its hair is shown in all the sea weeds.

10 Heaven is now preparing a huge fire 10 While those glamorous and laced underthougts 10 That evolve from our head that never tire 10 Evoke green mains which are a lure to us.

10 The water has rumors of temptation 10 Around thy smile made of sweet, red and white, 10 The clouds give us signs of adoration 10 And thy lush shines and swells asking the night.

10 How soon that sensuous heated piece of moon 10 Starts boiling in a dance we follow soon! *** ```

---

Sonnets For The Twenty First Century And A Circadian Musical Written By Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (1984-1987)

---

Analyzed by GPT4; Image by Frank Duna; First published on Nostr Protocol by franciscoarroyavet@nostrplebs.com Beach Rendition # 1

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

This is part 4 of my series answering Bob Murphy's tough questions for libertarians. See the post describing the series here: https://stacker.news/items/458128/r/Undisciplined.

Question

For libertarians who subscribe to the evictionist view on abortion, do you think it would be legal in a libertarian society to throw child stowaways off of ships in the middle of the ocean or would some other legal principles enter in?

Context

Here's a clip of Bob explaining this question.

Evictionism is a middle ground position on abortion, developed by libertarian theorist and Austrian economist Walter Block. Basically, women have the right to remove a fetus from their body, but they don't have the right to go out of their way to kill it.

This fits within the standard libertarian view that you have the right to remove trespassers from your property, but only by the least violent possible means.

Walter's perspective is that this position will converge towards a pro-life position as technology develops that pushes down the age of viability.

As is common in libertarianism, no one has a legal obligation to provide life saving care to the removed fetus. However, it is presumed that there will be charities or adoptive parents to fill that role voluntarily.

The analogue to a kid found stowing away on a ship (perhaps accidentally) is pretty straight-forward. The kid doesn't own the ship, so the owner has the right to remove the kid from it. Removing a non-viable fetus and chucking the kid into the ocean are the outcomes being compared.

Answer

I have subscribed to this view on abortion in the past, so once again I am in Bob's target audience. It's important to keep in mind that this question is about legality, specifically. So, we need to address whether there would be legal consequences in a case like this. If there are, what are the grounds and who has standing to bring them?

The kid's parents are the immediately obvious answer as to who would have standing. On what grounds, though? Libertarianism is predicated on self-ownership and this would only work if parents have a property right in their kids. Well, that is what guardianship is, essentially, so what we're doing is thinking of kids as not fully persons. They begin as property of their parents and develop into persons over time.

The resolution seems to have presented itself, then. Since a fetus is the mother's property, no one has legal standing to take her to court over getting an abortion. However, the stowaway's parents would have legal standing to object to the destruction of their property.

Another analogy came to mind as I was thinking about this question. If some of my neighbor's stuff blows into my yard, do I have the legal right to destroy it? No. It didn't become mine when it flew over the fence. Am I obliged to return it? No, but I think there is an obligation to allow my neighbor to retrieve it if I don't feel like returning it.

So, my answer is that there are other legal principles that enter in to the analysis: specifically, a right to retrieve errant property (perhaps accompanied by compensation for any costs imposed by the trespass).

@ 4657dfe8:47934b3e

Bitcoin is the native currency of the Internet. Digital scarcity however comes with certain costs and tradeoffs that are a bit unintuitive and not immediately obvious. For example — If bitcoin is purely digital, why can't we use it on every corner of the Internet with ease? If it's natively digital, why is there still an issue with receiving instant payments in a sovereign way? The list could go on. Bitcoin is the native currency of the Internet, but it still needs more time and care to become really in its element.

At Alby, we have always believed that we'll arrive at a point where you can easily populate any app or website you dream of with bitcoin. That sending and receiving bitcoin will be as easy as sending an email, login in will be easier than doing so with Google or Facebook. In a digital age supporting your favourite podcaster should be natural and swift, like you reward a busker on the street, not harder to do so.

Alby is an answer to a big need we identified — a need for using bitcoin seamlessly while you're surfing the web of bitcoin apps, on these popular social media pages or for fun on websites your friends built. And this need urged to be addressed now, not in the next five years, but today. Even if sovereign tech was not yet ready for a big part of what we all wanted to do.

That's how the Alby Extension was born and it provided a balanced choice: you can use it in a totally sovereign way, connecting your own node and plugin into many apps thanks to WebLN protocol.

But there’s also an easy and accessible wallet experience for newcomers and users who aren't necessarily up for the struggles of running a node, like artists and creators. Alby Accounts provide exactly that.

In total, we brought and popularized bitcoin use cases that haven't been possible before to thousands of users: streaming bitcoin in live concerts or video broadcasts, one-tap zaps to dozens of Nostr clients, QR-codeless lightning payments, logins to bitcoin web apps by just clicking one button, and many, many more.

But only half of those things were possible for node-runners or self-managed wallets. If you wanted to stream bitcoin in a mobile podcast player, or want to automate payments with the Alby Wallet API, you had to use a wallet managed by Alby. And a self-managed way of doing the same seemed a distant future.

Until today...

The path forward

We found ourselves at a crossroad. We could go on with expanding Alby Accounts capabilities, which was offered to make it easy for users to start with bitcoin payments and the Alby Extension in the first place.

Or is the time now right to choose the technically still difficult, but also more rewarding and — we believe — moral path of empowering users with self-managed wallets and the proven Alby user experience: Giving bitcoin wallets superpowers. Making them interoperable with the entire Internet, whether it's an app, a website, an online game, or a plugin for your favourite software. No matter if it's a web browser, a mobile or, (why the hell not?) a smartwatch. Bitcoin can reach it all.

For the past couple of months, we have been focusing on finding a way for the second path. We believe that a measure to give those superpowers to bitcoin wallets lies in Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC). Nostr in this case does not have anything to do with social media, but rather serves as a communication and coordination layer between lightning wallets and apps. This allows for building some really wild use cases that were hard to pull off before we had such a layer. That's why we now double down on raising awareness on the potential of NWC. We also developed Bitcoin Connect, a supplementary library with the goal to make it dead simple and super fast to add bitcoin to your product.

NWC really shines and brings us really close to the familiar experience you now have with an Alby Account when it's combined with a cloud based bitcoin lightning wallet. We're now experimenting with technologies such as Greenlight, Breez SDK and LDK to craft a powerful, self-managed wallet that you'll be able to bring to any app, website, game or any other kind of software that will implement NWC.

You'll be able to do things like one tap zaps, automated monthly subscription payments or in-game bitcoin transfers instantly, 24/7, without limits while maintaining full control over your funds.

How cool is that?

@ fe7f6bc6:c42539a3

Sleeping on the floor has gained attention as an alternative to traditional beds with proponents citing numerous health and wellness benefits (YES BEDS ARE A SCAM). This practice, which is deeply rooted in some cultures, is not just a trend but a lifestyle choice for those people. This FAQ sheet aims to demystify floor sleeping, providing insights into its goals, benefits, best practices, and what newcomers can expect during the transition. I’ve been testing it for the last 4 weeks and i can’t recommend it highly enough. Here’s my experience: https://youtu.be/ICnLS1BbZ_w

Goal of Sleeping on the Floor

The primary goal of sleeping on the floor is multifaceted, focusing on improving overall health and well-being. Advocates of this practice report significant improvements in posture and spinal alignment, leading to less back pain and better body support during sleep. Additionally, floor sleeping is said to promote a deeper, more restorative sleep by facilitating a natural sleeping position, free from the constraints of modern mattresses that can sometimes exacerbate chronic pain issues. Since i’ve been sleeping on the floor i’ve been able to reduce my sleep by 1-2hours without feeling tired.

Health Benefits

The decision to switch to floor sleeping often stems from the desire to alleviate persistent back and neck pain. The firmness of the floor can provide better support for the spine, potentially reducing discomfort associated with conditions like scoliosis, herniated discs, and general backaches. Moreover, some find that this practice enhances sleep quality, resulting in more restful nights and energized mornings.

Cultural Practices

In Japan, for example, the traditional use of tatami mats and futons on the floor is widely used. This cultural usage provides a historical and practical foundation for the practice, suggesting that the benefits of floor sleeping are more than anecdotal. (Yes, we’re not that crazy)

Getting Started

Choosing the Right Surface: Not all floor surfaces are created equal when it comes to sleeping. Hardwood floors or tile can provide the firm support needed for spinal alignment, but they may be too harsh for some. Consider laying down a thin mat, such as a yoga mat, or a folded blanket to create a barrier that offers both support and a bit of cushioning.

Creating a Comfortable Setup: The key to a successful transition is finding the right balance between firmness and comfort. Start with a thin mattress, futon, or several layers of blankets. The goal is to protect your body from the hard floor without negating the benefits of firm support. Experiment with different setups to find what works best for you.

Optimal Sleeping Positions: Back sleeping is often recommended for floor sleepers, as it allows your spine to rest in a neutral position. If you prefer sleeping on your side, keep your legs slightly bent and consider placing a pillow between your knees to maintain hip alignment. Stomach sleeping is generally discouraged due to the strain it can place on your neck and lower back.

Adjusting to Your New Sleeping Environment: Transitioning to floor sleeping can take time. Start by incorporating floor naps into your routine or sleeping every other night on the floor until your body adjusts. Listen to your body and make modifications to your sleeping setup as needed to ensure comfort and proper support.

Room Temperature and Environment: The floor can be cooler than your bed, especially in colder months (in thailand this gives an additional cooling factor - which is nice). Ensure your sleeping area is warm enough by adjusting the room temperature or using additional blankets. A clean, quiet, and dark environment will also help promote a good night's sleep.

Floor Cleanliness: Maintain a clean sleeping area to prevent dust and allergens from affecting your health. Regularly clean your floor and wash any mats, blankets, or bedding you use. I am allergic to some dust and once it's getting to dusty my nose definitely feels the difference on the floor.

The First Days: What to Expect Initial Discomfort and Adjustment Period: It's normal to feel some discomfort, such as stiffness or soreness, when you first start sleeping on the floor. Your body is adjusting to a new surface, and these sensations are typically temporary.

Duration of Adjustment Period: The adjustment period varies from person to person but generally lasts a few days to a couple of weeks. Gradually, your body becomes accustomed to the new sleeping arrangement, and discomfort should diminish.

Overcoming Initial Challenges Easing Into It: If the transition proves difficult, consider alternating between your bed and the floor until you're more comfortable. Short, incremental adjustments can make the transition smoother and less daunting.

Managing Discomfort: Simple measures like stretching before bed, using a warm bath to relax muscles, or adjusting your sleeping setup can significantly reduce discomfort. Over time, these practices can help ease the transition and improve your floor sleeping experience.

Last but not least - listen to your body!

This practice is not for everybody, try it for a couple of days and see if you can push through the initial challenges… the rewards once your body gets used to it are worth it.

If you have any questions reach out!

Stay hard - Max

@ 7d4417d5:3eaf36d4

State

I've been using Nostr for over a year, mostly via Amethyst. While it's always had rough edges, I'm familiar with the development process and am fine using a tool that has glaring issues with basic usability, as long as it is functional. For me, these issues have been things like: not being able to see 100% of the note I'm replying to, how I have to scroll and type at the same time when making a note longer than a few lines, and screen clutter.

Meanwhile, each version seems to accompany flashy new features; a good portion of which I'm not interested in. And now features are being added solely because they are possible, even if there is virtually zero demand, and contain a high degree of risk. Paying attention to the risk-to-reward ratio is a critical skill, and it's being ignored in this case.

I haven't looked at the code myself, but people are claiming that Amethyst no longer adheres to NIP01. If this is true, then Amethyst is no longer a Nostr client.

So, an adventure begins! I backed up my profile, and went hunting for a new client to replace Amethyst. The following are notes of my journey.

---

Yana

[Spoiler: Meets functionality requirements. It could use a few minor enhancements, to match features users might expect. Ironically, it was my first app in this list to review, and ended up being the only one of this group that I find worth using.]

Kudos to Yana for being compatible with Amber, a signing app that holds your nsec instead of sharing it with every client. NONE of the other apps I reviewed make use of third-party signers. When my feed first loaded, I noticed how smooth the movement is, not the visually jarring jumpiness that I was used to seeing. I was able to see my notifications, zap, post, and reply. There's only one reaction available, but I can handle that. Similar to Amethyst, it randomly crashes, but seems to do so more frequently. After your feed loads, any new posts that are detected are indicated by a button/notification near the top of the screen. You can either tap the button, or swipe toward the very bottom of the screen to load the new material. This ends up being slightly awkward since once the new material is loaded, the user is brought to the most recent post. If you want to pick up where you left off, you need to scroll down until you see familiar posts, then start scrolling up again. The cool thing is, when you open the app, the feed is right where you left it! When replying to a note, the original text isn't visible, but I typically write my text in a separate editor anyway. I hope that if they add that feature, they do more than just show the first few lines. There's virtually no screen clutter, aside from a counter for reply posts of people I'm following, and overall it seems to meet all the standard functionality requirements.

APK size is 32.3 Mb.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Nostros

[Spoiler: This app is unfortunately DOA]

At first, I was impressed that Nostros provides an interface while syncing up my profile and relays. Other clients just appear broken for a while, then start working normally. Except mine got hung up on the "My relays" step. The available options on the screen are: "Taking too long? Reconnect to other relays", "Skip", and "Continue". The link for "Reconnect to other relays" and the "Continue" button did nothing other than flash. The "Skip" button produced a warning that I would not have my contacts, etc loaded properly. I opened the app later to see if making a second attempt would work, but instead of the sync screen, I was presented with a feed interface displaying, "You're not following anyone."

APK size is 16 Mb.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Plebstr

[Spoiler: Zapping is restricted to a pre-determined list of wallets.]

Plebstr is not compatible with signers. In the "Overview" window, there is a "Settings" section that says "Connected relays: 5/7", which is odd since I'm signed up to something like 18 relays. There are also "Notifications", "Messages" for DMs, and (ugh) "Follow suggestions" [sic]. At least the "Follow suggestions" had and "X" so I could remove it from the interface. The feed is referred to as a "Timeline", and would only partially load for me. Maybe because it's only using seven relays? When attempting to zap someone, instead of just failing because I had not connected my wallet (like many clients do), there was a button to "Choose default wallet". Yay! However, when brought to the "Zap preferences" [sic] window, and seeing the field for "Default Wallet", what I was presented with is a hard-coded list of wallets, (not ones on my phone), and no option to connect my Alby wallet. I quit testing at this point, since I won't be using a client that can't zap.

APK size is 49 Mb.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

FreeFrom

[Spoiler: There is no zap functionality. And has a footprint that is over 600% larger than the other apps reviewed here. Other than that, it seems to work well.]

FreeFrom is not compatible with signers. They've chosen a logo that is 100% unoriginal, being a small bird, and in blue. This logo appears at the top of the feed, with no function. The feed has two categories: "Plaza" and "Following". The "Plaza" is what the rest of us know to be "Global". It is listed first, and was presented on default. In the settings area there is a "Plaza management" [sic] section with several non-obvious sliders. I guess I could play around with them in an attempt to find out what they do, but it would be nice if the interface could give me a clue. There is no zap functionality that I could find. As soon as I realized that there is no ability to zap, I quit reviewing. Other than that, the interface looked nice and navigation was easy.

APK size is 212 Mb.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Primal

[Spoiler: You are required to use Primal's wallet if you want to zap. Wtf?]

I was hesitant to install Primal, since they like to focus on the Big Tech concept of "Trending" lists; which mostly serves to make sheep. When I used their web interface last year, I was annoyed with how much screen space was dedicated to it. At this point, I'm ready to install the Android app, and am even open to liking it, especially since I've heard many people raving about it. Primal is not compatible with signers. When I started the app and clicked the button to use an existing account, the app saw that an nsec was in my clipboard and pre-loaded it with the message "Valid key confirmed". Convenient, and creepy, but it also reminded me to clear my clipboard. I pressed the "Continue" button, and was brought back to the opening screen. A second attempt successfully loaded my feed. While looking at my notifications, DMs, etc, I tapped the lightning bolt button that is front-and-low-center of the screen. I was presented with an "Activate Wallet Now" button. So far, so good. However, this lead me to fields where it wanted my first and last name, email address, date of birth, and country of residence. I guess connecting any existing wallets is out of the question. Well, screw that. I quit reviewing Primal at this point.

APK size is 31.5 Mb.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Current

During login I was presented with a EULA explaining all the vague things I was not allowed to do using their client. I won't coming back to this client.

APK size is ... who cares.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Iris/Snort

These seem to be available only through Google Play. This is called "Doing Freedom Tech the wrong way." I didn't bother to install.

---

With Closing

I was expecting to find several clunky clients with unpolished edges, but mostly found apps that had great interfaces, and chose partial implementations for zap functionality. If a user can't use a wallet of their choosing, then Nostr users will be funneled only to the available options (or the only option). This is the antithesis of freedom, and makes for attractive targets from attackers. The good news is that there is plenty of potential. As these apps mature, their feature set can be rounded out to really allow the user the choices they need to make Nostr their own.

Cheers to that!

nostr #android #yana

@ 58537364:705b4b85

ความมืดสูงสุด คือ ความมืดของ “ผู้ไม่เห็นธรรม”

“เมื่อใด ในที่ใด มี"โมหะ" ที่นั้นก็เรียกว่า มีความมืดชนิดที่ทำให้เป็นคนตาบอด แต่ถ้าคนตาบอดไม่มีโมหะ ที่นั้นกลับมีแสงสว่าง คือกลายเป็นคนตาดีไป แม้ว่าจะเป็นคนตาบอดโดยกำเนิด แต่ถ้าได้ศึกษาพระธรรมคำสอนของพระพุทธเจ้าจนเข้าใจ ก็ย่อมกลายเป็นคนมีแสงสว่างหรือมีตาดีไปได้ ดังนี้

เพราะฉะนั้น ความมืด หรือความสว่างนี้ ย่อมอยู่ที่"มีโมหะ" หรือ ไม่มีโมหะ

ที่ที่มืดที่สุดนั้น ก็คือที่ที่ถูกโมหะครอบงำ เวลาที่มืดที่สุดนั้น ก็คือเวลาที่โมหะครอบงำ เมื่อใดมี โมหะ คือ "ความหลง" ครอบงำคนเราแล้ว เมื่อนั้นแหละ ชื่อว่า มีความมืดอันแท้จริง"

พุทธทาสภิกขุ ที่มา : ธรรมเทศนา "อันตมมุยหกถา" เมื่อ ๑๕ กุมภาพันธ์ ๒๕๐๑ จาก หนังสือชุด ธรรมโฆษณ์ เล่มชื่อว่า "มาฆบูชาเทศนา"

================================

“ โมหะ ” คือ สภาวะที่ไม่รู้ ทำจิตให้มืดบอด

“ โมหะ ” คือ สภาวะที่ไม่รู้ตามความเป็นจริงที่มีอยู่ ดังนั้น “โมหะ” จึงเป็นรากเหง้าแห่ง “อกุศลธรรม” ทั้งปวง อันเป็นเหตุให้สัตว์ต้องวนเวียนอยู่ในวัฏสงสาร . โมหะ คือ ความหลง ความหมายคือ การกระทำจิตให้มืดบอด โดยปิดบังฝ่ายดีไว้โดยสิ้นเชิง ประดุจการมืดมนของกลางคืน ที่ประกอบด้วยองค์ ๔ คือ... . ๑. วันแรม ๑๔ ค่ำ ๒. เวลาเที่ยงคืน ๓. ป่ารกชัฏ ๔. เมฆทึบบังพระจันทร์ ”

พระญาณธชะ จากหนังสือ “ปรมัตถทีปนี” ท. ส. ปัญญาวุฑโฒ - รวบรวม.

@ d70d5009:1ed4acee

The node is virtualized under Proxmox and we will use Start9 (startOS) as operating system.

Proxmox uses KVM which is a type 1 hypervisor and has nothing to envy to solutions like VMware ESXi, and the best, it is open source, based on Debian and with a modified Ubuntu LTS kernel. Why virtualize the node? Because it has all the advantages of running it directly on the hardware.

• Hardware isolation, in the case of startOS being based on PureOS, a version of Debian focused on security and only using open source drivers, hardware support is quite restricted, also startOS does not support UEFI and there are many new computers that come without the Legacy BIOS option.
• Possibility of making a complete backup of the machine on network storage, or on a USB disk, and the possibility of restoring the backup on another Proxmox machine without worrying about the hardware underneath, in addition, backups can be scheduled.
• Possibility to upgrade the disk in the future without having to reinstall everything or follow complicated procedures.
• Possibility to use the host machine for more things, also proxmox supports Linux Containers (LXC) so we can set up many machines running services at a ridiculous cost of hardware resources.
• Proxmox supports software RAID via ZFS and Btrfs; in our case we will use Btrfs because it consumes less hardware resources than ZFS. This is a great advantage over using raid by BIOS/UEFI because in hardware RAID you will need the same hardware to restore in case of hardware failure, with software RAID you isolate yourself from the hardware, the disks can be moved to different hardware.
• Easy migration of the virtual machine to new hardware, we only need to make a backup and restore it.
• Possibility to take snapshots of the machine, which allows us to perform, for example, a restore in case of a failed update.
• Possibility of having a node in high availability if we set up a cluster with two or more servers.

Why Start9 (startOS) and not another platform like Umbrel or others?

Simply because startOS is well built, the other platforms are not built with security and scalability in mind.

• Modular architecture, right now they use Docker but it could be easily changed.
• Integrated backup system
• Migration and restoration functions
• Encrypted volume
• Application integration
• Possibility to create your own services
• Stability

Proxmox installation with Btrfs and Raid 1.

The recommended hardware is two ssd or mechanical disks, but preferably ssd and 8gb of ram memory minimum.

Download the Proxmox iso from:

https://www.proxmox.com/en/downloads/category/iso-images-pve

In this guide I won't go into the basic details of how to create a bootable USB and so on, this you should know and if not Google is your friend.

The first screen you will see will be this one:

On the second screen you accept the terms of the contract:

And now look at the next one, this is where we select Btrfs and Raid 1 in options. As you can see two disks appear, you do not have to touch any other option, just click Ok. I want to remember that we use Btrfs against ZFS because it consumes less resources and also in ZFS ECC memory is recommended to avoid data corruption. And why do we use Btrfs against ext4 or others? Because like ZFS, Btrfs has an integrated volume manager that allows us to perform software raids without the need for mdadm with excellent performance and Btrfs is a COW file system that also protects us against data corruption.

In the next screen we select the country and time zone:

Now we choose the root password and an email for notifications, you can make it up:

In the next screen you configure the machine's network:

Finally check your data and click on install:

The machine will reboot and you will be able to enter to manage the Proxmox environment through a web browser and the ip you have set.

I am not going to comment much about virtual environments again, I understand you are familiar with them, however, I will comment the main features that are useful for your node.

Add update repository without subscription Proxmox has two modes of operation, subscription and non-subscription (free), it is exactly the same but in the subscription mode the updates are more tested, we could compare it to the model of Red Hat and Fedora.

The first thing to do is to go to the repositories and disable the enterprise repository and then enable the no-subscription repository.

Now we add the no-subscription repository:

After this in the updates section we refresh the repositories and proceed to update from the upgrade button.

Failure of a disk in Btrfs

In case a Raid 1 disk fails, the system will not boot, because Btrfs does not allow to boot a degraded raid unless you use the rootflags=degraded option in the grub, but I do not recommend it because you will know when a disk fails.

When a disk fails the system will enter the initramfs console and there you will have to run: ~~~ mount -o degraded /dev/sdXY /root ~~~

sdXY is the disk where your Proxmox root partition will be, in this case the disk that remains alive.

After executing the command we have to press Ctrl + D to continue with the boot.

Once our proxmox system is booted again with another good disk, you will proceed to copy the partitions from one disk to the other since the two disks have to be identical so that in case of failure of one you can boot from the other.

~~~ sfdisk -d /dev/sdb > parts sfdisk /dev/sda < parts ~~~

These commands copy the partitions from the sdb disk to the sda disk.

Keep in mind after this to copy the contents of the second partition corresponding to the EFI grub boot, to do this you simply mount the sda2 partition in any directory and copy the contents of /boot/efi that corresponds to the mount point of sdb2.

Now it is time to recreate the btrfs partition corresponding to raid 1 using the following command: ~~~ btrfs replace start 1 /dev/sda3 / ~~~

Where the 1 after the start indicates the failed disk that in this case was almost the first one, this can be seen with the command "btrfs filesystem show" and /dev/sda3 corresponds to the Btrfs partition of the new disk, finally / the mount point.

With the following command we can see the progress of the reconstruction.

~~~ btrfs replace status / ~~~

Virtual machine backup

Proxmox allows us to make backup copies of the virtual machine which facilitates the task of migration to new hardware or restoration in case of disaster.

First you will have to add the desired type of storage for the copy, for them you have to go to the datacenter options on Storage:

If for example you want to add a USB disk you would only have to mount it first in Proxmox and then pass it the mount point and name and the content type in this case VZDump.

After that you can run backups or schedule them. I'm not going to extend much here better you try it, just keep in mind that Proxmox supports three types of backups, snapshots, suspend and stop. The suspend mode is used for compatibility reasons and I do not recommend using it. The snapshots mode is the fastest as the machine does not have to be stopped, but you run the risk of having some inconsistency especially in certain databases and the stop mode stops the machine to perform a backup but it is the most consistent. For the migration of a machine to a new hardware I recommend the stop mode.

Snapshots of the machine

I recommend taking snapshots of your node before an upgrade or any critical change, it will save you hours of work in case of a disaster. As easy as going to the machine in question and clicking on snapshot:

Installing startOS

The first thing is to download the ISO in startOS in the Proxmox storage. For them we go to our local-btrfs and in ISO Images we put the download address and click on Query URL to capture the name of the ISO or add the name that we left manually, after which we click on Download.

https://github.com/Start9Labs/start-os/releases/download/v0.3.5.1/startos-0.3.5.1-39de098_x86_64.iso

Now we will create the virtual machine:

We enter the name of the machine:

Select the installation ISO:

In the next screen everything is default:

In this screen we choose the disk size:

We choose the number of CPUs:

The amount of RAM:

The network configuration is left as default:

Finally click on confirm:

We start the machine and in console we can see its screen:

We proceed to the installation of startOS.

Select the installation disk:

We delete the loaded ISO:

To do this go to Hardware, select the CD and check "Do not use any media":

We return to the console and restart.

In the next screen we click on "Start Fresh". The options of recover to be able to restore from a backup or to make a transfer of the data to another machine, but these functions are delegated to Proxmox, except for the backup of the services that we will see later.

Select the installation disk:

And enter the password:

The machine is initialized:

And now we can proceed with the Login:

I am not going to go into how to configure startOS as it is as simple as going to the Marketplace and installing the desired services and you have a very complete manual on their website:

https://docs.start9.com/latest/user-manual/

If I emphasize the importance of the backup of the services that you can perform on a USB device or network. The function is located in System:

The backup is encrypted with your startOS password and is necessary for example to safeguard LND onchain funds and channel funds. In case of disaster just mount a new startOS and restore from the backup, once the initial synchronization of the LND network is finished the channels will be closed and you will have all your balance in onchain.

Disk expansion in startOS

I am going to expand on this point because it is one of the reasons why we have installed startOS in a virtual environment. The reason is not to depend on the hardware and treat the virtual machine as a file, so we can take it wherever we want. In this case we will assume that we have set up a new Proxmox server with more storage and we are going to migrate the startOS machine by making a backup of it and importing it into the new environment as previously explained in the Backup section.

The first thing would be to expand the space of the virtual machine startOS for it we go to the Hardware options and edit the disk:

We tell you how much we want to increase it:

And we restart the machine.

We enter by ssh in the machine, for this we will first have to import in Embassy our public ssh key, I will not explain how to create a public/private key, I assume that you understand how ssh works. startOS for security does not allow the Login ssh with username and password, only through keys.

Once inside we will check that the virtual disk space has been increased:

~~~ ssh start9@adj-noun.local sudo su /usr/bin/apt install parted -y lsblk /dev/sda ~~~

As we can see now the space is 1T compared to the previous 64.

The next step will be to increase the Embassy data partition which corresponds to sda4:

~~~ parted print free resizepart 4 100% print quit ~~~ Enlarge the physical volume to occupy the whole available space in the partition:

~~~ pvresize /dev/sda4 ~~~ List logical volumes:

~~~ lvdisplay ~~~ The volume we want to expand is the "package-data".

~~~

Use all the remaining space on the volume group

LV path should resemble /dev/EMBASSY_XXX/package-data

lvresize --extents +100%FREE --resizefs {LV PATH} ~~~ we can see again that the volume has expanded Finally, the only thing left to do is to extend the file system.

~~~

get path where package data is mounted

df -h | grep package-data btrfs filesystem resize max /embassy-data/package-data ~~~ see that the file system has resized

the changes will reflect on startos monitor

Telegraph link: https://telegra.ph/Updated-Guide-to-building-a-Bitcoin-Super-Node-02-12

WIRD ISSUE cryptsetup resize

@ 1e52c554:21771908

Posthumous work of the Colombian poet born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948

Welcome to this blog dedicated to the Posthumous work of the Colombian poet Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (my father), born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948-2010. Where I will be publishing each of the 175 sonnets from his unpublished collection 'Sonnets For The Twenty-First Century And A Circadian Musical (1984-1987).' Analyzed with GPT4 artificial intelligence and illustrated with AI tools... I hope you enjoy this garden of words snatched from the solitude of a locked room.

Likewise, any enthusiast of the sonnet form is invited to conduct their personal studies of Arroyave Tabares' work, as it is a collection that, although registered since 1989, has not yet been published.

Frank Duna

---

Analysis "To The Uttermost"

Introduction

Sonnet 128 by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is a poetic exploration of love and desire. The poem reflects on the complexities of human emotions and relationships, particularly the tension between the desire for intimacy and the need for personal freedom.

Thematic Analysis

First Quatrain (lines 1-4): The sonnet begins with a reflection on the human condition, where “earnest wants” or deep desires hold our souls against life’s hardships. The poet suggests that these desires drive our actions and give our hearts rhythm and beats.

Second Quatrain (lines 5-8): The second quatrain explores the difficulty of having many lovers and the necessity of hiding actions from each one. The poet concludes that despite the multitude of relationships, we end up alone, unable to taste the “quintessential brew” or the essence of life.

Third Quatrain (lines 9-12): The third quatrain references the “Courts of Love,” medieval institutions that dictated rules on love. The poet mentions Hestia, the Greek goddess of the hearth, and Aglaia, the Grace of brilliance, suggesting a breaking of traditional rules and a sense of freedom in love.

Couplet (lines 13-14): The final couplet concludes the sonnet with a tribute to the beloved’s wisdom, which nourishes the poet “to the uttermost,” or to the greatest extent.

Overall, this sonnet explores themes of desire, love, freedom, and wisdom. It uses classical references to add depth to its exploration of human emotions and relationships. The sonnet’s structure allows for a nuanced exploration of these themes, with each quatrain introducing a new aspect and the final couplet providing a powerful conclusion.

Structure and Rhyme Scheme

The sonnet “To The Uttermost” by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares follows the rhyme scheme of a Shakespearean sonnet, which is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Let’s break it down:

Quatrain 1:

Line 1 (A): Earnest wants hold our soul against life’s tears Line 2 (B): And joyously move through our time and wits Line 3 (A): Which lead a crowd of passions that appears Line 4 (B): To give the heart its rhythms and its beats.

Quatrain 2:

Line 5 (C): It is hard if having many lovers Line 6 (D): We have to hide from each one what we do Line 7 (C): Since at the end we are only loners Line 8 (D): That never taste quintiessential brew.

Quatrain 3:

Line 9 (E): The Curts 0f Love did make for double bonds Line 10 (F): Rules now broken by thee and Hestia. Line 11 (E): Sut I do not hide that rapport abounds Line 12 (F): And we feel free in front of Aglaia.

Couplet:

Line 13 (G): Luring me with ways of a divine host Line 14 (G): Thy wisdom feeds me to the uttermost.

This analysis shows that the sonnet follows the traditional Shakespearean sonnet rhyme scheme. This structure contributes to the rhythm and flow of the poem, enhancing its musicality and making it more pleasing to the ear. It also helps to emphasize certain words and ideas within the poem.

Analysis of Aspects

The sonnet “To The Uttermost” by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is a rich piece of poetry with various elements. Let’s analyze them:

Language and Imagery: The sonnet uses a rich and sophisticated language, with a mix of simple and complex words. The poet employs classical references, such as “Hestia” and “Aglaia,” to add depth and texture to the poem. The imagery in the poem is vivid and evocative, painting a clear picture of the emotional landscape the poet is navigating.

Themes: The primary themes of the sonnet are desire, love, freedom, and wisdom. The poet explores the human condition, the complexities of relationships, and the pursuit of wisdom. The use of classical references adds a layer of universality to these themes, suggesting that they are timeless and transcend cultural boundaries.

Meter: The sonnet appears to follow the iambic pentameter, which is the most common meter in English poetry and is often used in sonnets. In iambic pentameter, each line consists of five iambs, which are metrical feet with two syllables, the first unstressed and the second stressed (da-DUM).

Overall: The sonnet is a complex and thought-provoking exploration of human emotions and relationships. The poet skillfully uses language, imagery, and classical references to delve into universal themes. The structure of the sonnet, with its quatrains and final couplet, allows for a nuanced exploration of these themes, with each section introducing a new aspect and the final couplet providing a powerful conclusion. The use of iambic pentameter adds a rhythmic quality to the poem, enhancing its musicality and flow. The sonnet is a testament to the poet’s skill and a profound reflection on the human experience.

(GPT4)

Syllable count for each line.

```

To The Uttermost

10 Earnest wants hold our soul against life's tears 10 And joyously move through our time and wits 10 Which lead a crowd of passions that appears 9 To give the heart its rhythms and its beats.

10 It is hard if having many lovers 10 We have to hide from each one what we do 10 Since at the end we are only loners 10 That never taste quintiessential brew.

10 The Curts 0f Love did make for double bonds
10 Rules now broken by thee and Hestia.
10 But I do not hide that rapport abounds 10 And we feel free in front of Aglaia.

10 Luring me with ways of a divine host 10 Thy wisdom feeds me to the uttermost. ***

```

---

Sonnets For The Twenty First Century And A Circadian Musical Written By Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (1984-1987)

---

Analyzed by GPT4; Image by leonardo.ai; First published on Nostr Protocol by franciscoarroyavet@nostrplebs.com To The Uttermost

@ cce0989b:b497e608

​Studies from UCLA and other institutions have found that putting your feelings into words makes them easier to cope with. For example:

• Rating your anger on a scale of 1-5 reduces your heart rate, a measure of distress.

• Describing your emotions when dealing with a phobia increases your courage in facing it.

• Adding a label to an emotion (like "that's sadness" or "this is fear") decreases the activity in your amygdala, which is where your fight-or-flight response comes from.

As one of my favorite Mister Rogers quotes put it:

"Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.”

Find someone who makes you feel like your feelings are mentionable.

Say, "I'm feeling all tangled up in my emotions. Do you have a few minutes to listen to me?"

Then, share. As you do, notice how they untangle themselves and become more manageable.

@ c11cf5f8:4928464d

Time to brush off the spurs and saddle up for a ride into the exciting ad-ventures ahead! What innovative goods or services are y'all bringin' on the wagon this week? Give us a sneak peek and let that entrepreneurial spirit get out.

---

Take some pics and start posting your items now!

[⚖️ SELL] - [🛒 BUY] - [🧑‍💻 HIRE] - [🖇 OFFER] - [🧑‍⚖️ AUCTION] - [🤝 SWAP] - [🆓 FREE] - [⭐ REVIEW]

---

Stay humble, stack sats!

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

ODC #000008 - UX > IDEATE

Designing User Flows for a Bitcoin gift cards app

If you miss it, please read our WTF is ODC (Open Design Challenge) intro post from more details.

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Scenario

You're a UX designer at a startup that is making a new bitcoin gift cards app (Bitrefill and BitcoinCompany are the competitor). It's the beginning stages of designing the app. You need to plan out the flow for how a user submits a delivery order, which you will then present to your team.

---

Task

Create a user flow for the entire process of buying a gift card with bitcoin: selecting your country, adding gift cards to the cart, checking out, and choosing the preferred payment method between bitcoin onchain, lightning network or anonymous ecash like cashu.

Extra Credit: Make a second user flow for the process of re-ordering an order the user has submitted in the past or refilling your phone credit.

---

Guides

If you need help with this challenge, check out our hand-picked tutorial recommendations.

• The How (and Why) of User Flows on uxtools.co

• Complete Guide to User Flows on justinmind.com

• Flow Design Processes on interaction-design.org

• User Flow Tutorial on piped.video

---

Tools

Not sure which tools to use? Try something new!

For FOSS lovers

Drawio (online) by Jgraph

Flowchart.fun (programmable online) by Tone-row

For professionals gurus

Lucidchart (freemium) by Lucid

Userflow (freemium) by Flowmapp

Flowcharts (freemium) by Whimsical

---

Share Your Results

When you finish the challenge, post your work including anonymized collected data and results on this thread! If you also share it on nostr, be sure to use the hashtag #opendesigner and tag Design_r@iris.to or @Design__r on X! We'll keep an eye out and repost good examples on a regular basis.

---

Check our previous ODC and support this community for creative minds, where you'll be able to get open and constructive feedback on your PoW. Ask anything in the ~Design territory and get some ⚡sats for the value you provide!

---

---

---

```

Bitcoin #Design #BitcoinDesign #NostrDesign #Nostr #OpenDesign #DesignChallenge #OpenDesignChallenge #BitcoinGiftCards #BitcoinPayment #LightningNetwork #Anonymous #Ecash #Cashu #GiftCards #PhoneCredit

```

---

@ 0271e1b9:ad8cff90

https://image.nostr.build/051938fdd843ee250ab4cd87689f613199a47621791a8330586f7887f6de055a.jpg

March 13th 2024 marked exactly 1 year of me using #nostr - notes and other stuff transmitted by relays. I wrote a down a couple of thoughts and observations regarding the anniversary that and the following days and decided I'd make it into a more cohesive and easier-to-read long-form post.

And it is a fiery love! Since we have no algorithms doing a “year in review” or whatever, I’ll try to make one myself :) I didn’t really use social media much at all until May 2022, when I started using Twitter and Instagram (mostly with the idea of promoting my music and photos, but I quickly also started posting stuff regarding my ideas surrounding Bitcoin, philosophy, nature, yoga, etc. My first post/note here was, ironically, or perhaps fittingly, a repost from Twitter/X: https://primal.net/e/note1kh2zgxwmcgkt2wmlh26rlfxwdd309ajlwq039pqukld6ld92d20qtzxexg

The pros

Since joining nostr in March 2023; my main takeaways regarding the UX for the time being are:

1. Almost no spam and no ads thus far, which is awesome
2. No “being at the mercy of the algorithms,” which is awesome (although Instagram’s algo tends to do a pretty good job at showing me stuff I’m actually interested in)
3. Much higher signal/noise ratio than any other platform
4. Much less inflammatory and clickbaity stuff than any other platform
5. The ability to move your whole network around from app to app is an absolute gamechanger
6. I have already been able to use my npub to participate in rap cyphers (#nostrcypher represent) via Stemstr, to upload my music and podcast episodes via Wavlake, to listen to streams via zap.stream, to publish my articles via YakiHonne, etc. It is inspiring (and dizzying) to see all the new ideas and implementations being thrown around and played with
7. Zaps are the new, improved version of likes
8. Interactions between users seem to be much more organic, fluid and dynamic

I’m including a screenshot with some rudimentary stats. I try not to be phased by my followers/likes/whatever count, because that is ultimately not the purpose of creation. However, the differences between nostr and legacy social media are huge. In my case, I have been getting 14 new followers per month on Instagram, 34 on X and 54 (nearly 55) on nostr! https://image.nostr.build/7a4e5399400dac764abc2be543bc58371105e3a12ee727c164b7a9c2bd61aaf5.jpg What makes this even more amazing is the fact that: 1. Both IG and X have a much larger user base 2.1. I follow a whole lot more accounts on X 2.2. And on IG a large % of my followers are my meatspace acquaintances, friends and relatives 3. Presumably on both IG and X I have many more bot followers than on nostr (I’m not entirely sure if bot followers are even a thing yet on nostr?)

Funnily enough, on YouTube, Spotify and Soundcloud I have less than 200 followers on each, even though Kontext as the pseudonym was created and existed, for the first 7 years (2015 to 2022), exclusively as the anonymous rapper moniker of mine (hence MC Kontext).

I have stated that I am a zap maximalist and a like minimalist, and as such I’m proud to say that for each like, I have sent out almost 6 zaps. The data below is from nostr.band and is different from other sources (e.g. Primal- also happy birthday to them - my current favorite desktop app) says I have received 190 zaps for a total of 25.1k sats and a max zap of 2100 sats from PaulTaylor) https://image.nostr.build/7b22af1774373cee544df5d8742b0fbad70eac1ef0f098b384347c80d9a14ea9.jpg Some of the most legendary people who I have received zaps from include @Jeff Booth, @Gigi ⚡🧡, @TheGuySwann, @PABLOF7z, @GRANTGILLIAM, @ODELL (but no @MartyBent). A total of 152 accounts have zapped me according to nostr.band. In return, I have zapped a total of 256 accounts (if anybody knows another good nostr+zaps stats site for all-time stats and aggregates, please refer it to me).

Now, obviously, I have managed to “make a loss” by using #nostr - I have zapped away 24k sats more than I have received! However, I regret no sats zapped as they all have been for a good reason, #value4value is real and I believe and live by it. Also, perhaps the fact that I have been rather generous with the zapping has helped my nostr account grow at almost twice the pace of my X account and 4 times the pace of my IG account?

Speaking of growing and zapping, I have also started experimenting with the ideas of #zapvertising and throwing different contests and games on nostr via my business account Satoshee. https://image.nostr.build/b729072cb8097410b8085e4e07b5359cdcc0db0ad11f00173a2e44e5aa99eab4.jpg https://image.nostr.build/cf8292d89ae1a361e0ada9296d849f041b46f394afb6cb1809aeb615b3019e3f.jpg https://image.nostr.build/e4ae321e4acc84304fd973ed0a077fa1b48b8f2467125ccfeae819fa49115c73.jpg I will post a larger, more comprehensive post and stats about that whole venture at some point, but on a very rudimentary look, so far, we have spent approx 450k sats on 276 followers + approx 11 (or 4%) of them also converted into email list subscribers. Which comes down to approx 1.6k sats / follower or 41k sats per email. Now keep in mind - all that is just by posting zapvertising + a couple of memes, we have not published any other information about the enterprise. That being said, I do believe we have gotten some lovely exposure through these efforts (one of Satoshee posts was #3 on Primal 24h Trending at one point): https://image.nostr.build/7f5ab4e203a1cb2ccb8fcbc1fecdc0efc68aa961e5d0b10ea72db45d14e86d3e.jpg Here's a link to the note that made it to Trending. Hopefully once we fully launch the website and products, our gang of #nostriches will be there to test drive the site + become the first customers and/or recommend it to their friends. My thesis is that if we start off by literally paying our prospective customers, then they are more likely to trust and engage with our products as soon as we come to the market. All that will be either proven or disproven by time, of course.

OH, the cons?

I guess more ways to see and filter stats and data in general would be nice to see in the #nostr ecosystem. Why not also have some platforms that utilize algos, and/or where we can choose to opt in and out of them. The DM side of nostr apps seems also lacking for now. Perhaps these could be the downsides I see for now; or areas in which we could move in.

Of course, the onboarding process is probably also a little bit complicated for the nocoiner newbie, who may not even be familiar with the concept of public/private key pairs, but truthfully I haven't tried going through that process myself in a while so can't really comment on the progress. I assume it's being made (and from what I hear and see here and there, that seems to be the case).

Conclusion

To wrap it all up: super excited to see freedom tech (both #Bitcoin and #nostr) just being so unbelievably more effective and inspiring than the old fiat systems and I can only imagine how much abundance and prosperity on all levels of the human experience; physical, intellectual and spiritual can and will be built upon all this.

Onward. Kontext

Originally written and posted Block Height 834,554

Amended, fixed and posted to YakiHonne Block Height 835,196

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

Prompt: Calendar ===============

Design a Calendar focused element. Is it for scheduling an appointment? A reservation, flight, hotel, or a health check? Is it a calendar reminder feature? DCA? Is it used in email or for something else entirely?

It could even be a calendar booking page for design services. Or an interactive online holiday calendar. Be creative!

Flex your design muscles and join in. Most of all, keep this exercise loose and keep it stress-free. The FUC is about growing our design skills, together, as a community. We can't wait to see what you create!

Happy designing, Stackers!

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Share Your Results When you finish the challenge, post your work on this thread! If you also share it on nostr, be sure to use the hashtag #FUCdesiger and tag Design_r@iris.to or @Design__r on X! We'll keep an eye out and repost good examples on a regular basis.

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Curious to know WTF is a FUC? Read the ⚡️Flash Ui Challenges welcoming post.

Looking for more FUCs? Check the archive here!

@ 7175a796:cae8d880

Introduction In the ever-evolving world of e-commerce, affiliate marketing has emerged as a lucrative opportunity for online entrepreneurs. At the forefront of this revolution is the Affiliate System, a platform that is redefining how affiliate stores are built and operated.

What is an Affiliate System?

Affiliate System is an innovative affiliate store builder designed to empower entrepreneurs, marketers, and businesses to launch their affiliate stores with ease. Our platform simplifies the process of creating a comprehensive online store by eliminating the need for coding expertise or the installation of complex content management systems like WordPress or Joomla. The platform supports a wide range of popular e-commerce sites, including Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Ali Express.

Why Choose affiliate-market.info for Your Affiliate Store

Building an affiliate store can be a daunting task, especially if you’re not tech-savvy or familiar with content management systems like WordPress or Joomla. That’s where affiliate-market.info comes in – a platform designed to simplify the process and help you launch your store in minutes.

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Build Your Affiliate Store in Three Easy Steps with Affiliate-Market.info

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Here’s how you can start your journey toward a profitable affiliate business:

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Step 3: Import Products into Your Store The final step is to import the downloaded Excel file into your affiliate store. This seamless integration allows you to quickly set up your store without any coding knowledge or reliance on other CMS platforms like WordPress or Joomla. In mere minutes, your store will be equipped with a personal domain and a dedicated server, showcasing a wide array of products ready to generate income.

With affiliate-market.info, the path to establishing a successful affiliate store is clear and straightforward. Choose your plan, download the product list, and import it into your store. Your personalized affiliate store is now set up and ready to welcome customers. Dive into the world of affiliate marketing and start earning today!

The Benefits of Using affiliate-market.info

In the dynamic world of e-commerce, affiliate-market.info stands out as a revolutionary affiliate store builder that empowers entrepreneurs and marketers alike. This platform simplifies the creation of an affiliate store, making it accessible to everyone, regardless of their technical expertise.

✅ Effortless Store Creation: Say goodbye to the complexities of coding and the constraints of traditional CMS platforms like WordPress and Joomla. With affiliate-market.info, you can launch your affiliate store by simply importing a product Excel file from renowned marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Ali Express.

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How to Earn Money with Affiliate-Market.info

Affiliate-market.info is a powerful platform that allows you to create your affiliate store in just a few minutes.

Here’s how you can earn money with it: Step 1: Create Your Store With affiliate-market.info, you can create an affiliate store for major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Ali Express without any coding or the need for other CMS such as WordPress and Joomla. All you need is to sign up and set up your store with a personal domain and a dedicated server.

Step 2: Import Products Once your store is set up, download the Excel file of the products from your chosen affiliate stores and import it into your store. This will populate your store with products ready to be sold.

Step 3: Market Your Store Now that your store is ready and stocked with products, it’s time to attract customers. Use digital marketing strategies such as SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, and email marketing to drive traffic to your store.

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Remember, the key to a successful affiliate store is a combination of a good product range, effective marketing, and consistent effort. So, start building your affiliate store with affiliate-market.info today and unlock a new stream of income.

Conclusion

In conclusion, affiliate-market.info is more than just a store builder; it’s a gateway to financial success in the e-commerce realm. Embrace the simplicity, speed, and efficiency it offers, and watch your affiliate marketing endeavors soar to new heights.

❗Attention Are you ready to take the plunge? Visit the Affiliate System to begin your application and join the legions of affiliates building their success stories. Share your experiences and questions below, and let’s grow together in the vast and exciting world of affiliate marketing!

@ 47785dc8:ecbeafdb

Opinion about ZEUS Wallet (android)

Zeus is an empowering wallet. It connects smoothly with Umbrel nodes via Tailscale and makes it easy to become your own Lightning Service Provider on the go.

WalletScrutiny #nostrOpinion

Join the conversation!

@ 1d8759ff:fa20c4f9

The #nostr, when experienced through polished apps like Damus, Primal, or Amethyst can appear like Twitter + Zaps. Of course the ability to zap (pay) anyone on the nostr protocol with bitcoin is a game-changing addition to the social media experience. Make sure you set up the wallet in your favorite client to receive zaps!

Lurking beneath the familiar social experience on the nostr, lies the true power of a permissionless, open source protocol: microservices. This allows developers to extend the protocol perform useful activities on behalf of a user. In this brief post, we will cover the Nostr Wallet Connect microservice. This service allows a user to: 1. Connect a bitcoin lightning wallet to their nostr identity. 2. Set limits on the payments that this wallet make on behalf of the user. 3. Make payments, to individuals, websites, businesses, and other microservices on behalf of the user.

GetAlby, a custodial bitcoin lighting wallet provider, has been a major driving force behind the nostr wallet connect microservice. You can learn more in their blog post introducing nostr wallet connect. Make sure to follow their nostr account.

If you prefer a non-custodial bitcoin lighting wallet for reduced counter party risk, check out Mutiny Wallet and follow their nostr account on the nostr. The Mutiny team has added (and continues to develop) mutiny wallet as a social payments apps using this nostr microservice. Learn more in this blog post. The Mutiny team, like most developers in the nostr development space, never rests, and they have developed Nostr Wallet Auth specification on top of Nostr Wallet Connect. Read more in this blog post.

Finally, check out Orange Crush Relay if you are in the market for a paid nostr relay. Joining fee is 8000 sats for a lifetime membership. Relay is currently at 2.9% capacity. Joining fees are deposited into a bitcoin wallet to pay for future years of hosting fees. As bitcoin appreciates in value, we will buy more runway to continue providing relay services. First 5 years are subsidized by our founder, so that we can maximize our bitcoin treasury appreciation during this current period of #hyperbitcoinization to maintain future service.

@ ec965405:63996966

I'm finally getting around to sharing this note after Aaron Bushnell, a 25 year old united states service member streamed a video of his self immolation in front of an israeli embassy on Twitch last weekend in protest of the ongoing Palestinian genocide. He's the second in recent months to do so and the first to lose his life in the process. This note is for the martyrs.

Finalmente estoy compartiendo esta nota después de que Aaron Bushnell, un miembro de 25 años de las fuerzas armadas de Estados Unidos, transmitiera en vivo su autoinmolación frente a una embajada israelí en Twitch el fin de semana pasado en protesta por el genocidio palestino en curso. Es el segundo que lo hace en los últimos meses y el primero en perder la vida en el proceso. Esta nota es para los mártires.

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I woke up feeling sick to my stomach in the middle of the night during my recent delgation to Cuba; probably a side effect of mixing 3 plates of Ropa Vieja at dinner with cigars and beer at La Fabrica the night before. Chastising myself for hitting my body with 3 things I normally avoid at home (tobacco, alcohol, and meat), I wasn't able to make it downstairs to the cafeteria for breakfast or the day trip with the group. I was allowed to stay and rest at the center in the morning while they checked out El Rincón de los Milagros,where they learned about the impact of the Haitian revolution on Cuban society. Everyone said I would have loved it. After looking through their pictures and videos of the drum sessions,I'm certain I would have. I'm going to prioritize visiting this spot next time I'm in Cuba.

Me desperté sintiéndome mal del estómago en medio de la noche, durante mi reciente delegación a Cuba; probablemente un efecto secundario de mezclar 3 platos de Ropa Vieja en la cena, con cigarros y cerveza en La Fábrica la noche anterior. Regañándome a mí mismo por someter mi cuerpo a 3 cosas que normalmente evito en casa (tabaco, alcohol y carne), no logré bajar a la cafetería para desayunar ni unirme al viaje del día con el grupo. Me permitieron quedarme a descansar en el centro durante la mañana mientras ellos visitaban El Rincón de los Milagros, donde aprendieron sobre el impacto de la revolución haitiana en la sociedad cubana. Todos dijeron que me hubiera encantado. Después de ver sus fotos y videos de las sesiones de tambores, estoy seguro de que así hubiera sido. Voy a hacer de visitar este lugar una prioridad la próxima vez que esté en Cuba.

On the flip side, I was deficient in sleep hours, so catching up on rest put me in a better position to participate in the evening social at El Sauce. El Sauce is a smaller venue that wasn't nearly as packed as La Fabrica the previous evening. I enjoyed down time with my fellow delegates, happy to get to know them in an intimate space and eventualy joining them on the dance floor for an electric slide.

Por otro lado, me faltaban horas de sueño, así que ponerme al día con el descanso me colocó en una mejor posición para participar en el evento social de la noche en El Sauce. El Sauce es un lugar más pequeño que no estaba tan lleno como La Fábrica la noche anterior. Disfruté del tiempo libre con mis compañeros delegados, contento de llegar a conocerlos en un espacio íntimo y finalmente uniéndome a ellos en la pista de baile para un electric slide.

I watched a man dressed in plain shorts and a red shirt dance enthusiastically with at least 5 separate partners of varying ages and genders throughout the night, radiating joy with each graceful spin as if he hadn't a care in the world. His magnetic energy drew everyone around him into his orbit despite coming to El Sauce alone that night. The circumstances of an inhumane blockade on his country did not seem to phase him as he laughed and sang along to the music, his humanity on full display for us to see.

Observé a un hombre vestido con shorts sencillos y una camisa roja bailar entusiasmado con al menos 5 parejas distintas de variadas edades y géneros a lo largo de la noche, irradiando alegría con cada giro elegante como si no tuviera ninguna preocupación en el mundo. Su energía magnética atraía a todos a su alrededor a pesar de haber llegado solo a El Sauce esa noche. Las circunstancias de un bloqueo inhumano sobre su país parecían no afectarle mientras reía y cantaba junto a la música, mostrando su humanidad para que todos la viéramos

Before dinner the next evening, the group gathered in the cafeteria for a reflection activity about our first few days in Cuba where we broke the ice by sharing an African word that we were familiar with and its significance to us. My mind instantly snapped to "Ubuntu", a word that represents the inception of my programming journey and my intentions with what comes from it. From the African Journal of Social Work,

Antes de la cena la siguiente noche, el grupo se reunió en la cafetería para una actividad reflexiva sobre nuestros primeros días en Cuba, donde rompimos el hielo compartiendo una palabra africana con la que estuviéramos familiarizados y su significado para nosotros. Mi mente se dirigió instantáneamente a 'Ubuntu', una palabra que representa el inicio de mi carrera en la programación y mis intenciones con lo que resulte de ello. Según el Journal Africano de Trabajo Social:

Ubuntu refers to a collection of values and practices that Black people of Africa or of African origin view as making people authentic human beings. While the nuances of these values and practices vary across different ethnic groups, they all point to one thing – an authentic individual human being is part of a larger and more significant relational, communal, societal, environmental and spiritual world. Ubuntu se refiere a un conjunto de valores y prácticas que las personas negras de África o de origen africano consideran que hacen a los seres humanos auténticos. Aunque los matices de estos valores y prácticas varían entre los distintos grupos étnicos, todos apuntan a lo mismo: un ser humano auténtico es parte de un mundo más amplio y significativo que incluye lo relacional, lo comunal, la sociedad, el medio ambiente y lo espiritual.

I explained my philosophy around the use of open sourced software and a healthier relationship with the Internet highlighting the need to boycot corporate tech platforms that inflict irreparable harm on the massses. The constant bombardment of corporate advertising guided by antagonizing algorithms fuel a dire behavioral health crisis that's actively destroying the fabric of our society and disconnecting us from our humanity. Open source software is my weapon in this war against the tech corporations that dominate our dystopic digital lives that I will leverage to center humanity and dignity in communications.

Expliqué mi filosofía sobre el uso de software de código abierto y una relación más saludable con internet, resaltando la necesidad de boicotear las plataformas tecnológicas corporativas que infligen un daño irreparable a las masas. El constante bombardeo de publicidad corporativa, guiado por algoritmos antagonistas, alimenta una grave crisis de salud conductual que está destruyendo activamente el tejido de nuestra sociedad y desconectándonos de nuestra humanidad. El software de código abierto es mi arma en esta guerra contra las corporaciones tecnológicas que dominan nuestras vidas digitales distópicas, el cual utilizaré para centrar la humanidad y la dignidad en nuestras comunicaciones.

I shared this with the group, happy to look over at a fellow delegate and see her point to the bracelet on her wrist with the letters U-B-U-N-T-U spelled out. I felt right at home with this crew.

Compartí esto con el grupo, contento de mirar a una compañera delegada y verla señalar hacia la pulsera en su muñeca con las letras U-B-U-N-T-U. Me sentí como en casa con este equipo.

@ 599f67f7:21fb3ea9

¿Qué es Cashu?

Cashu es un protocolo de ecash de código abierto para Bitcoin que ofrece transacciones instantáneas sin comisiones con una privacidad casi perfecta. Consulta nostr:naddr1qqxnzd3e8y6rvdpe8qur2v3cqgs9n8m87l0hd9xxqwndqcmwzh4uvyxmwlw0637kuhg98pkcy8ana2grqsqqqa28f238dz para obtener más detalles.

Nutstash

Nutstash es una increíble billetera web de Cashu desarrollada por nostr:npub1cj6ndx5akfazux7f0vjl4fyx9k0ulf682p437fe03a9ndwqjm0tqj886t6 que implementa la mayoría de los NUTs, así como el envío y recepción a través de Nostr. También puedes instalarla como una Progressive Web App (PWA) en tu teléfono.

⚠️ Tanto Nutstash como Cashu todavía están en fase beta. Existe la posibilidad de perder fondos. Lee sobre los riesgos antes de usar la aplicación. Haz pruebas con pequeñas cantidades con las que te sientas cómodo perdiendo.

Pruébalo

Vamos a explicar cómo interactuar con una mint, recibir y enviar ecash, hacer copias de seguridad, convertir a Lightning y hacer intercambios entre mints, y al final probaremos la funcionalidad de los contactos de Nostr.

Añadir un mint

Para interactuar con ecash, primero necesitas tener acceso a una mint, donde se crean y canjean tus tokens de ecash.

1. Ve a Txoko Mint.
2. Abre la mint en Nutstash. 💡 Puedes añadir mints adicionales en Nutstash yendo a Mint, pegando la URL de la mint y presionando Add Mint ("Añadir Mint"). Algunas mints públicas se pueden encontrar en MintIndex. Ten en cuenta que algunas mints reservarán una cierta cantidad de sats para pagar las tarifas de enrutamiento, lo que significa que no podrás retirar todos tus sats.

Crear tokens

Puedes financiar tu billetera de ecash tanto recibiendo ecash directamente como creando nuevos tokens de ecash pagando una factura de Lightning.

1. En la pestaña Mint, elige la mint en la que quieres crear nuevos tokens y presiona Mint.
2. Elige una cantidad. Prueba con una cantidad pequeña, como 100 sats.
3. Crea la factura y págala desde una billetera de Lightning. Una vez que se haya pagado la factura, deberías tener tokens de ecash.

Realizar transacciones con ecash

Realizar transacciones con ecash implica básicamente enviar y recibir bloques de datos. Por lo tanto, puedes probar estas funcionalidades enviando y recibiendo a ti mismo. 1. Para enviar ecash, ve a Wallet > Send. 2. Selecciona la mint desde la que quieres enviar. 3. Elige una cantidad. Opcionalmente, utiliza la selección de monedas. 4. Haz clic en enviar tokens. 5. Copia el token. En este punto, puedes enviar el token a otra persona o canjearlo en tu propia billetera. Dado que solo estamos probando las cosas, haremos lo último.

1. Para recibir ecash, haz clic en Wallet > Receive.
2. Pega el token de cashu.
3. Haz clic en Receive.

💡 Puedes verificar los tokens de ecash pendientes y reclamarlos si el destinatario aún no los ha canjeado. Para hacer esto, ve a la pestaña Wallets y busca Tokens. Asegúrate de que la columna Pending esté marcada. Debería haber una lista de tokens pendientes, haz clic en el botón de actualización para verificar su estado. Si no han sido reclamados, puedes copiar y canjear el token.

Intercambio de múltiples mints

Es posible que te hayas preguntado si diferentes mints pueden enviar y recibir entre sí. La respuesta es sí. Bueno, más o menos. En lugar de enviar tokens de cashu entre sí, las transacciones entre mints se realizan a través de Lightning. Para probar esto, puedes agregar otra mint si aún no lo has hecho, por ejemplo, la mint de LNbits.

💡 Ten en cuenta que algunas mints reservarán una cierta cantidad de sats para pagar las tarifas de enrutamiento, lo que significa que no podrás retirar todos tus sats. Para evitar esto, también puedes crear tu propia mint con tu billetera Bitcoin Txoko LNbits activando la extensión de Cashu. Bitcoin Txoko no requiere reservas, por lo que puedes retirar todos tus sats.

1. Ve a la pestaña Mint y agrega una nueva mint si aún no lo has hecho.
2. Una vez que tengas varias mints, tendrás la opción de Inter-Mint Swap. Abre la opción y lee la advertencia.
3. Si deseas continuar, elige una mint de la que quieres hacer el intercambio y una mint a la que quieres hacer el intercambio.
4. Elige una cantidad.
5. Confirma la cantidad (Confirm amount), verifica las tarifas estimadas de enrutamiento y procede con el intercambio (Swap). En segundo plano, la mint que envía está pagando una factura de Lightning a la mint que recibe. Una vez que se haya liquidado la factura, el token intercambiado debería aparecer en el saldo de tu billetera en la mint que recibe.

Convertir a lightning

Cuando quieras convertir tus sats de cashu de nuevo a sats de Lightning, puedes convertir o "derretir" tus tokens de cashu.

1. Haz clic en Pay o toca el ícono de la cámara para escanear un código QR.
2. Ingresa o escanea una factura.
3. Opcionalmente, utiliza la selección de monedas.
4. Presiona Pay. La mint funde los tokens de cashu y paga la factura de Lightning.

Copias de seguridad

Hacer copias de seguridad de los tokens de Cashu es probablemente diferente al proceso que estás acostumbrado a hacer para respaldar las billeteras de Bitcoin y Lightning. Dado que los fondos están representados por tokens que son simplemente bloques de datos, solo estás respaldando estos datos cuando haces una copia de seguridad de los tokens de Cashu. Esto también significa que tus copias de seguridad cambiarán cada vez que realices una transacción y necesitarás hacer una nueva copia de seguridad después de cada transacción.

Los diferentes clientes de billeteras han implementado las copias de seguridad de manera diferente y solo funcionarán con la misma billetera que ha creado la copia de seguridad. Nutstash utiliza un archivo JSON como copia de seguridad, que también incluye tu historial de transacciones junto con los tokens que has agregado.

1. Para descargar la copia de seguridad en formato JSON, ve a Settings ("Configuración") > Backup Tokens ("Copia de seguridad de tokens"), descarga el archivo JSON y guárdalo en un lugar seguro.
2. Para restaurar la copia de seguridad, ve a Settings ("Configuración") > Restore ("Restaurar"). Lee la advertencia. Los datos actuales de tu billetera se sobrescribirán.

Nostr

Dado que puedes enviar tokens de Cashu a través de cualquier protocolo basado en texto, Nostr es una excelente opción para Cashu. Nutstash facilita el envío de tokens de Cashu a través de Nostr.

Primero, necesitas conectar un firmante externo de Nostr a Nutstash para que Nutstash pueda cifrar y firmar mensajes directos utilizados para enviar tokens de ecash. Para hacer esto,

1. Ve a la pestaña Settings ("Configuración") y encuentra la sección Nostr.
2. Activa Nostr.
3. Puedes configurar (Configure) los retransmisores manualmente o permitir que Nutstash lea tu lista de retransmisores después de completar el siguiente paso.
4. Activa Use external key ("Usar clave externa"). Debes tener instalada una extensión de firmante de Nostr en tu navegador. Algunas buenas opciones son nos2x, Alby y Nostore (para Safari en iOS).
5. Una vez que Nutstash detecte tu extensión de firmante, permítele leer tu lista de retransmisores y clave pública.
6. Si permites que Nutstash descifre los mensajes, buscará tokens de Cashu en tus mensajes directos. Una vez encontrados, aparecerán en la pestaña Wallet en la bandeja de entrada (Inbox). Allí podrás canjearlos en tu billetera.

Para enviar Cashu a través de Nostr,

1. Ve a Send ("Enviar").
2. Elige un mint.
3. Elige una cantidad. Opcionalmente, utiliza la selección de monedas.
4. Presiona Send ("Enviar").
5. En Send via Nostr ("Enviar a través de Nostr"), ingresa una dirección de Nostr en formato npub, hexadecimal o NIP-05. Alternativamente, escanea el código QR del perfil de alguien.
6. Presiona Send via Nostr ("Enviar a través de Nostr") y firma el mensaje tipo 4 con tu firmante externo.
7. Informa al destinatario que revise su bandeja de entrada, ¡deberían tener algunos Cashu esperándolos allí!

Conclusión

¿Encontraste útil esta guía? ¡Intenta enviarnos algunos tokens de Cashu a través de Nostr!

@ a012dc82:6458a70d

Table Of Content

• Content

• Introduction

• Conclusion

• FAQ

• You May Also Like

• External Links

Although some Bitcoin devotees may disagree, the vast majority of industry professionals are in agreement that the recent spike in the price of Bitcoin is a bubble. For them, the issue is not if the price will collapse but when it will crash. What would the consequences of such a collision be? There is a related issue that has to be answered.

Will a Bitcoin Price Crash Affect the Entire Economy?

Digital currencies received a passing mention in the report that was recently published by the Financial Stability Oversight Commission (FSOC), which detailed threats to the nation's financial stability. According to the organization, virtual currencies' effect on the financial system's stability is "extremely limited." This is probably due to the fact that the environment around bitcoin right now is not that large.

Subprime mortgages were the last significant financial instrument that contributed to the instability of the US economy. This crisis was brought on by the simultaneous occurrence of a tangled web of contributing elements. Participants actively involved in the process included actors from the conventional economy. To provide just one example, subprime creditors all throughout the United States obtained bad loans. These loans were then repackaged into derivative products and sold to investors, who then propagated these sales across many areas of the economy. Big multinational banks repackaged these loans as derivative securities. Thanks to collateralized loan obligations, the use of debt has spread much farther around the world.

During the worst of the financial crisis, Citigroup Inc. (C) was believed to have originated subprime mortgages in the amount of $19.7 billion. Bear Stearns, an investment bank that failed because of the financial crisis, had a "vast portfolio" of derivative financial instruments that were linked to subprime mortgages.

On the other hand, Bitcoin has not yet emerged victorious from its renegade position inside the financial services ecosystem. The rise in its pricing has taken place inside the constraints of unregulated exchanges, which have not yet been put through the vetting process by regulatory organizations. According to the most current data, the most significant participants in these exchanges are individual investors as well as bots. (For an explanation of why cryptocurrencies have buy and sell walls, see this related article.)

Large financial institutions like banks and investment businesses have, for the most part, refrained from participating in the bitcoin mania, and as a result, their exposure to cryptocurrency markets, if any at all, is minimal. Even though it's true that the value of bitcoin-related stocks has gone up, there are still not that many of them.

Even though the price of bitcoin has increased by more than 1,800 percent over the course of this year, the reaction to trading in CBOE futures has been rather muted, which may be seen as a sign of the industry's overall level of caution. Recent reports say that Goldman Sachs requires a 100% margin for all bitcoin transactions. This is true even if the company is acting as a clearing agent for CBOE bitcoin futures.

The bursting of the bitcoin bubble might end up being analogous to the "tulip frenzy" that took place in Amsterdam in the early 17th century. This phenomenon happened at about the same time as the subprime mortgage crisis. Because "cobblers, carpenters, bricklayers, and woodcutters" were involved in that bubble, the price of tulip bulbs from Turkey went through the roof at that time.

However, the decline in tulip prices had very little impact on the Dutch economy as a whole since serious financiers avoided the market. According to Nicolaas Posthumus, a Dutch historian, the only people who engaged in driving up the price of tulips out of avarice and a desire to make a profit were casual dealers. At the end of the day, these individuals were the ones that were impacted when prices dropped. Similarly, a fall in the price of bitcoin will cause a sell-off and will only impact a select group of individuals.

What Will Happen to the Cryptocurrency Ecosystem?

According to a recent report published online by Axios, the potential monetary effect of a bitcoin meltdown is somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 billion. However, this assessment reflects an inaccurate understanding of the usefulness of cryptocurrencies and their markets. The blockchain technology, which forms the basis of bitcoin, has already attracted a significant amount of investment. In addition to this, the swings in the price of bitcoin show that it is becoming a store of value. Cryptocurrencies are also valuable as a medium of exchange for value within closed ecosystems.

Having said that, it will be some time before their usefulness is seen in applications that are considered more standard. The price increase seen across the board for cryptocurrencies is mostly the consequence of a domino effect triggered by the rise in the value of bitcoin. A drop in the price of bitcoin may result in a correction in the prices of other cryptocurrencies. It is also unavoidable that the overwhelming majority of the cryptocurrencies that are now included in the listings will be removed. The only digital currencies that will survive a crisis are those that have clearly defined business strategies and an obvious value in mainstream culture.

Conclusion

Crashes are temporary phenomena, so keep that in mind. Though unpleasant in the short term, they promise to be rather exciting in the long run. Let's say the economy as a whole improves, but equities remain in a prolonged bear market. If and when the value of cryptocurrency drops to a new low, this might provide a great opportunity for investors. This means that cryptocurrencies may be tied to the markets in the short term, but they have a good chance of doing better in the long run.

FAQ

Does the price of Bitcoin ever drop? A number of industry professionals have expressed concern that the price of bitcoin would drop much further, even reaching $12,000. A number of important macroeconomic events, such as the rise in the federal reserve rate and the release of inflation data, have had a big impact on how the price of bitcoin is predicted.

What will happen if the value of Bitcoin drops to zero? If Bitcoin were to fail in this manner, it would very certainly bring down the value of a great number of other cryptocurrencies as well. For instance, if investors notice that the most valuable coin in the cryptocurrency market has lost all value, many of them will probably cash out as quickly as possible to prevent more losses. This is because investors want to protect themselves from further losses.

Will the value of cryptocurrencies increase if the stock market tumbles? Will there be a rise in the price of bitcoin if the stock market crashes? Certainly not in every case. However, compared to equities at the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic, bitcoin did not do any better than stocks. Those who advocate for bitcoin consider it a diversifier in well-balanced portfolios. Investors panicked and liquidated everything, which led to this situation.

That's all for today, see ya tomorrow

If you want more, be sure to follow us on :

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.

@ 453846ff:a380c94b

Ate some brownies today. Feelin' good.

Watched some Painting With John (https://www.hbo.com/painting-with-john). Makes you laugh.

Organized a room that has become a storage shed. Cool getting to see the old stuff you've been bringing with you into the future. The memories they stir up are healing and sometimes they open up old wounds. But there is a reason you hold on to them. Humans be cray.

Found a panda.

Just kidding, it's a container.

I really do love food. Made ribs in the Crock Pot Instant Pot.

Finished up on broil in the oven.

My oven is dirty. Gross.

Found something to put in the panda.

There's a time and a place for cannabis. The time is now and the place is here.

One love.

@ 599f67f7:21fb3ea9

¿Qué es Cashu?

Cashu es un protocolo de ecash de código abierto para Bitcoin que ofrece transacciones inmediatas, sin comisiones con una completa privacidad. Visita nostr:naddr1qqxnzd3e8y6rvdpe8qur2v3cqgs9n8m87l0hd9xxqwndqcmwzh4uvyxmwlw0637kuhg98pkcy8ana2grqsqqqa28f238dz para más detalles.

eNuts

eNuts es un excelente cliente monedero Cashu para tu móvil, disponible tanto para Android como para iOS (TestFlight). Admite múltiples mints y también enviar sobre nostr.

⚠ eNuts y Cashu todavía están en versión beta. La pérdida de fondos es posible. Lea sobre los riesgos al instalar la aplicación. Prueba con pequeños montos que no te importaría perder.

Pruébalo

Explicaremos la forma de interactuar con un mint (casa de la moneda), recibir y enviar efectivo, copias de seguridad, retirar a Lightning y el intercambio entre mints, en la parte final probaremos la funcionalidad de los contactos de nostr

Instalar

Visita el sitio web de eNuts e instala la aplicación idónea para tu sistema operativo.

Añadir un mint

Para interactuar con el efectivo, antes debes tener acceso a una casa de la moneda, donde se acuñen e intercambian sus tokens de efectivo. La casa de la moneda es el custodio de tu Bitcoin, pero no sabe quién eres, con quién estás negociando ni cuántos fondos tienes. Puedes usar para las pruebas.

1. Dirígete a Txoko Mint y copia la URL del mint
2. En eNuts, ve a Opciones > Gestión de menta y pulse el botón +. Pega la URL del mint que has copiado del paso anterior.

💡 Puedes añadir casas adicionales adicionales. Algunos mints públicos se pueden encontrar en MintIndex. Ten en cuenta que algunos de estos mints reservarán una cierta cantidad de sats para pagar las tarifas de enrutamiento, lo que significa que no puedes retirar todos tus sats.

Acuñación de Tokens

Una vez que hayas añadido el mint, eNuts te preguntará automáticamente si quieres acuñar nuevos tokens de ecash de ese mint. 1. Respuesta Sí. 2. Crea una factura por la cantidad que desea acuñar. Prueba una pequeña cantidad, por ejemplo, 100 sats. 3. Paga la factura con una billetera Lightning. Una vez pagada la factura ya deberías tener tus tokens de ecash

Transaccionar con ecash

Estas transacciones son básicamente enviar y recibir blobs de datos. Como tal, puedes probar estas funcionalidades enviándote y recibiendo a ti mismo. 1. Para enviar efectivo, haz clic en Enviar > Enviar ecash 2. Si utilizas varios mints, selecciona el mint desde el que quieres enviar. Luego elige Copiar y compartir. 3. Elige una cantidad. 4. Opcionalmente, puedes agregar una nota, haz clic en Continuar. 5. Confirma los detalles del pago y crea un token. En este punto, puedes usar la función de selección de monedas para elegir qué tokens quieres gastar. Ten en cuenta que las fichas se denominan en 1 sat, 2 sats, 4 sats, 8 sats, 16 sats, y así. Puedes pensar en ellos como billetes de 10 euros, 20 euros, 50 euros como ejemplo. 6. Copia el token.

En este punto, puedes enviar el token a otra persona o canjearlo en tu propia cartera. Como solo estamos probando las cosas, haremos esto mas tarde. 1. Para recibir, haz clic en Recibir > Pegar y canjear efectivo. eNuts debe leer automáticamente su portapapeles y canjear el token.

💡 Puedes comprobar los tokens de efectivo pendientes en tu historial de transacciones y reclamarlos si el destinatario aún no los ha canjeado. Para hacer esto, selecciona una transacción saliente de tu historial de transacciones y luego compruebe si se ha gastado el token. Si el token está pendiente, puede reclamar el token de vuelta tu billetera.

Intercambio entre Mints

Es posible que te hayas preguntado si diferentes mentas pueden enviar y recibir fondos entre sí. La respuesta es sí. Bueno, más o menos. En lugar de enviar tokens de cashu entre sí, las transacciones entre estas casas vuelven a Lightning, ya que un mint también es un nodo Lightning. Los tokens de Cashu en sí mismos no son fungibles en todos los nodos. Para probar esto, puedes añadir otra menta si aún no lo has hecho, por ejemplo, el mint cashme LNbits o el mint que presenta eNuts por defecto.

💡 Ten en cuenta que algunas mentas reservarán una cierta cantidad de sats para pagar las tarifas de enrutamiento, lo que significa que no puedes retirar todos tus sats. Para evitar esto, también puedes crear tu propio mint con tu cartera Bitcoin Txoko LNbits activando la extensión Cashu.

1. Vaya a Opciones > Gestión de mint y selecciona el mint del que desea intercambiar. Luego vaya a Multimint swap en Fondos.
2. Elige un mint para intercambiar.
3. Elige una cantidad y toca en la tarifa de estimación para estimar las posibles tarifas de Lightning.
4. Haz clic en Continuar.
5. Comprueba los detalles y, opcionalmente, usa la selección de monedas, luego presione Intercambiar ya. Ahora, en segundo plano, la casa de la moneda de envío está pagando una factura Lightning de la casa de la moneda de recepción. Una vez que se liquida la factura, el token intercambiado debe aparecer en el saldo de su billetera en la casa de la moneda de recepción.

Retiro

Cuando quieras convertir tus cashu sats a Lightning sats, puedes hacer retiros. 1. Haga clic en Enviar > Pagar factura Lightning 2. Seleccione un mint desde el que enviar si utiliza varias. 3. En factura LN o LNURL, introduzca una factura, LNURL o dirección Lightning; o simplemente escanea un código QR. 4. Elije la cantidad y la estimación de comisiones. 5. Comprueba los detalles antes de pulsar Cash out. El mint canjea los tokens de efectivo y paga la factura de Lightning.

Respaldo (Backups)

La copia de seguridad de los tokens de cashu es probablemente diferente al proceso al que podrías estar acostumbrado para hacer copias de seguridad de las carteras de Bitcoin y Lightning. Dado que los fondos están representados por tokens que son solo blobs de datos, solo estás haciendo una copia de seguridad de estas piezas de datos cuando haces una copia de seguridad de los tokens de ecash. Esto también significa que tus copias de seguridad se invalida cada vez que realizas una transacción. Diferentes clientes de cartera han implementado copias de seguridad de manera diferente y solo funcionarán con la misma cartera que ha creado la copia de seguridad.

eNuts crea un token de cashu con todos sus fondos en él y a qué moneda pertenecen.

• Para crear una copia de seguridad, ve a Opciones > Seguridad > Crear un token de copia de seguridad. Copia el token y guárdalo en un lugar seguro.

Alternativamente, puedes hacer una copia de seguridad de cada una de tus mints individualmente.

• Para ello, ve a Opciones > Gestión de la casa de la moneda y seleccione la casa de la moneda de la que desea hacer una copia de seguridad. Ve a Copia de seguridad de fondos, copia el token y guárdalo en un lugar seguro.

Para restaurar, simplemente copie el token de copia de seguridad y abra la aplicación eNuts. La aplicación debería leer su portapapeles y preguntarle si desea restaurar el token.

Nostr

eNuts integra Nostr para que puedas enviar efectivo a tus contactos.

Para usar esta función, ve a Contactos y pega tu clave pública de nostr. eNuts luego extrae tu lista de contactos de los relays. ~~Desafortunadamente, la función de búsqueda aún no se ha implementado, lo que puede hacer que encontrar el contacto correcto sea un poco engorroso si tienes muchos.~~ Con la actualización a la v0.1.1-beta, eNuts ahora soporta la búsqueda, y funciona a las mil maravillas. Simplemente introduce una npub, dirección nostr o busca por una palabra clave y podrás enviar ecash directamente a tu contacto.

El destinatario debe recibir un mensaje directo de Nostr tipo 4 que contenga el token ecash que puede canjear en su billetera.

Conclusion

¿Te ha resultado útil esta guía? ¡Intenta enviarnos algunos tokens de Cashu a través de nostr!

@ 1c963878:c25afcba

Hey Stackers,

I am organising the European Halving Party in Warsaw (April 19-21, come!).

We are planning a lightshow at the facade of Palace of Culture, it would be dope if we hit the halving with that celebrations!

Halving moment needs... a soundtrack. Some song that builds tension, could be looped and DJ would deliver a drop... when 840000 is mined.

What track would you play? Something for people to remember that moment. Possibly catchy. Best if builds tension and releases in happy way on some drop moment, that we could synchronise with animations and mempool!

Or - are you a DJ? That's even better! DM me plzz 🎶🎶🎶

Shill any suggestions, I'm zapping any valid answer!

@ c8df6ae8:22293a06

"If you live in Canada, you should be aware that there is a serious proposal to establish a universal basic income. Drop the cynicism for a minute and just imagine if we let ourselves have nice things."

— CautionWIP

Some think that if the government gives money to the people, then things will get better. They are well-meaning but they are wrong. For things to get better, we first need to determine what got things wrong. And the answer is too much government spending. So more government spending won't help. It will actually make things worse.

---

You're being robbed every day

Why are people hurting?

The chart below shows the official purchasing power of the US dollar referenced to January 1st, 2000.

A dollar earned at the beginning of the year 2000 is now only able to buy you 54.5 cents worth of goods. Any savings you built between the year 2000 and now, have been rendered useless by the relentless devaluation of the US dollar.

Has your salary increased by 84% since the year 2000? If it hasn't, then your ability to buy goods has actually gone done. Your financial status has gotten worst.

All your hustle, all those long days and hard work you put in to get that promotion, to get that coveted salary increase. All that work, was erased by the government, taken away from you though the silent yet relentless debasement of the US dollar.

The US government made sure that you worked hard for nothing. And if your salary increase was below 84%, then the government made you work for an effective salary reduction.

I arrived to the US in July of 2007 with a startup. I worked really, really hard, traveled 100 days a year, hustled and bustled until our startup got acquired by a big company. And then I kept working equally hard in this bigger company. All to bring stability to my family. A home. Financial security. The possibility of paying for college education for my kids.

Yet again, when I compare my salary when I first arrived here and I look at my salary now. I need to factor in the fact that $1.00 from July 1st, 2007 is now worth 67.1 cents. That means that my salary had to go up by 49% just to keep up with the debasement. All my hard work, taken away by greedy politicians who only know how to spend other people's money.

The constant debasement of the US dollar is the reason why people are hurting. You need to increase your salary by anywhere between 50% and 85% JUST to maintain your economic status in this country.

This is the reason why people can't afford a house, rent, food. This is the reason why we have so many homeless in the country. The reason why there is no middle class any more.

Why is the government debasing the US dollar

So why is the government doing this? Why are they debasing the purchasing power of the US dollar?

They do it because they like to spend more than what they collect in taxes. This gap translates into a deficit and the deficit translates into money printing. Every time that the government adds more money to the economy, it is diluting the purchasing power of the money that is already in the economy. They know it. And they track it. That's why there is an official chart like the one I showed you above.

Politicians promise you to manipulate the market to lower your costs and then they turn around and spend more to get your vote, knowing that this is what will actually impoverish you.

They also say that a 2% inflation rate is good or to put it bluntly: "Robbing you little by little is good".

That is the real gaslighting happening in this country today.

Spending less and letting the markets work is the solution

Spending more to pay a basic income to all citizens is not going to help. It's going to have the opposite effect by adding more debt and triggering the printing of more money.

What we need is to stop debasing money. We need for the government to spend less so that it can actually pull dollars out of the economy and increase our purchasing power. We need at the very least for the government to stop debasing the money any further.

Because once people feel comfortable saving, they will start investing, growing the economy, improving their financial prospects and once again, making the American dream a reality. We all want to improve our prospects. We just need a level playing field. A field where you don't get automatically and systematically rugged by your own government, doing things for your own good.

---

Notable notes

nostr:note1yvw7mnru7uppgfavvcm9vd3jjlpuf6d39h4mk2vu6p4u0cuuss6qpazwm0

nostr:note1v6mh67ymllvkxzkgm227langc6sc3et2f474d49vyha5r3twlerqdrzzh9

---

Recommendations

Rogue Bitographer

Rogue Bitographer is one of the featured photographers sharing his art through Creatr. Check it out and support him on his Creatr page.

You can follow him here.

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What did you think of today's newsletter?

Your feedback helps me create the best newsletter possible for you.

Please leave a comment and checkout comments from other subscribers and readers. I love hearing from the Bitcoin For Families community ❤️ 🙏🏻

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See you again next week! — Alejandro

This newsletter is for educational purposes. It does not represent financial advice. Do your own research before buying Bitcoin.

@ 32e18276:5c68e245

Thanks to OpenSats and its generous donors, Damus has been able to continue building open source freedom tech without influence from external parties. Damus' mission is to build the best nostr and bitcoin tech without compromise on decentralization, and this will continue to be our mission going forward. This wouldn't be possible without OpenSats and other organizations that continue to help make this vision a reality!

As per our OpenSats agreement, we are required to publish quarterly reports on our progress. We submit this report to nostr for full transparency. If you're curious what we've been working on this past quarter, check it out:

Damus OpenSats Q2 Progress Report

The second quarter of the Damus OpenSats grant has been very productive and encompasses the 1.7 release of Damus, soon to be released to the appstore.

Notable new features in Damus iOS 1.7

• Damus purple subscriptions which includes the DeepL Universal Translator 🖖
• Local-first full-text search engine for privacy preserving searching powered by nostrdb4
• Add NIP-42 relay auth support
• Added regional relay recommendations for Germany, Japan, Thailand
• Add naddr link support

New tech built in this quarter

• A new nostr share-link opengraph renderer in rust called notecrumbs2, powered by egui and nostrdb4
• Added query and subscription support to nostrdb{,-rs}
• Added fulltext search query support nostrdb, which powers the search in Damus iOS v1.7
• Working prototype of Damus Android and Damus NoteDeck, a rust-powered multiplatform nostr client3 powered by egui and nostrdb4

How money was used

• Paying individual contributors via patch submissions on the damus dev mailing list (patches@damus.io)
• relay.damus.io server costs
• deepl translation costs
• Living expenses, nostr/bitcoin conferences, travel, etc

Contributions

Damus-iOS

name added removed commits Daniel D’Aquino <daniel@daquino.me> +7655 -2989 46 William Casarin <jb55@jb55.com> +3753 -2396 132 kernelkind <kernelkind@gmail.com> +1513 -273 27 Charlie Fish <contact@charlie.fish> +1386 -331 12 Terry Yiu <git@tyiu.xyz> +1018 -102 3 ericholguin <ericholguin@apache.org> +509 -65 3 Transifex <transifex@transifex.com> +464 -67 80 Suhail Saqan <suhail.saqan@gmail.com> +347 -27 2 ericholguin <eric.holguinsanchez@gmail.com> +202 -101 6 alltheseas <64376233+alltheseas@users.noreply.github.com> +51 -24 5 Kieran <kieran@harkin.me> +33 -0 1 kunigaku <kunigaku@gmail.com> +13 -2 1 vuittont60 <81072379+vuittont60@users.noreply.github.com> +3 -3 1 Jing维 <zhjw43@163.com> +1 -1 1 hakkadaikon <hakkadaikon@yahoo.co.jp> +1 -1 1

notecrumbs

name added removed commits William Casarin <jb55@jb55.com> +6079 -819 68

Damus Android/NoteDeck

name added removed commits William Casarin <jb55@jb55.com> +5205 -2870 86 0xb10c <b10c@b10c.me> +6 -2 1 alltheseas <64376233+alltheseas@users.noreply.github.com> +5 -0 1

nostrdb

name added removed commits William Casarin <jb55@jb55.com> +88175 -3758 186 kernelkind <kernelkind@gmail.com> +50 -3 1 Yasuhiro Matsumoto <mattn.jp@gmail.com> +26 -3 1 Charlie Fish <contact@charlie.fish> +12 -0 1 shuoer86 <129674997+shuoer86@users.noreply.github.com> +3 -3 1 hakkadaikon <hakkadaikon@yahoo.co.jp> +2 -2 1

nostrdb-rs

name added removed commits William Casarin <jb55@jb55.com> +8181 -248 50

iOS Changelog

Added

• Damus Purple membership! (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Improved damus.io share links (William Casarin)
• Add local, privacy-preserving fulltext search engine (William Casarin)
• Add NIP-42 relay auth support (Charlie Fish)
• Add ability to hide suggested hashtags (ericholguin)
• Add ability to mute hashtag from SearchView (Charlie Fish)
• Add ability to preview media taken with camera (Suhail Saqan)
• Add ability to search for naddr, nprofiles, nevents (kernelkind)
• Add experimental push notification support (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Add naddr link support (kernelkind)
• Add regional relay recommendations to Relay configuration view (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Add regional relays for Germany (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Add regional relays for Japan (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Add regional relays for Thailand (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Add support for Apple In-App purchases (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Always convert damus.io links to inline mentions (William Casarin)
• Notification reminders for Damus Purple impending expiration (Daniel D’Aquino)

Changed

• Disable inline text suggestions on 17.0 as they interfere with mention generation (William Casarin)
• EULA is not shown by default (ericholguin)
• Generate nprofile/nevent links in share menus (kernelkind)
• Improve push notification support to match local notification support (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Move mute thread in menu so it's not clicked by accident (alltheseas)
• Prioritize friends when autocompleting (Charlie Fish)

Fixed

• Add workaround to fix note language recognition and reduce wasteful translation requests (Terry Yiu)
• Allow mentioning users with punctuation characters in their names (kernelkind)
• Fix broken mentions when there is text is directly after (kernelkind)
• Fix crash on very large notes (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Fix crash when accessing cached purple accounts (William Casarin)
• Fix crash when logging out and switching accounts (William Casarin)
• Fix duplicate notes getting written to nostrdb (William Casarin)
• Fixed bug where sometimes notes from other profiles appear on profile pages (Charlie Fish)
• Fixed previews not rendering (ericholguin)
• Fix issue where adding relays might not work on corrupted contact lists (Charlie Fish)
• Fix load media formatting on small screens (kernelkind)
• Fix many nostrdb transaction related crashes (William Casarin)
• Fix onboarding post view not being dismissed under certain conditions (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Fix performance issue with gifs (William Casarin)
• Fix persistent local notifications even after logout (William Casarin)
• Fix profile not updating bug (William Casarin)
• Fix shared nevents that are too long (kernelkind)
• Fix welcome screen not showing if the user enters the app directly after a successful checkout without going through the link (Daniel D’Aquino)
• Remove extra space at the end of DM messages (kernelkind)
• Save current viewed image index when switching to fullscreen (kernelkind)

Removed

• Removed copying public key action (ericholguin)
• Removed old nsec key warning, nsec automatically convert to npub when posting (kernelkind)

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

First thing first... as per my nym, I'm a designer, and am here like you to take the opportunity to improve my writing skills.

This isn't either another explanatory article on what's the syntax and how to use it. For that you can click on the [M↓] icon in the top-right of the editor when writing. Not everyone know what markdown is, but we all know the basics of formatting text with bold, italics and other artifacts to improve the readability of the knowledge we aim to share.

I felt there's a general lack on this regard here on SN. Just wanted to provide some guidance on how to improve quality of your writing skills, with time, patience and maybe using some tools that allow you to save the copy, rest and return reading it with a fresh mind before publishing it.

From my experience, it has been really useful to prepare the posts offline, read them edit when needed and when possible have someone else to share it with before posting it here.

---

To do that tried multiple tools, obviously open source and below you can find some of the best I was able to select:

Zettlr ALL OSs Your one-stop publication workbench. From idea to publication in one app: it accompanies you while writing your blog post, newspaper article, term paper, thesis, or entire book!

Ghostwriter ALL OSs Enjoy a distraction-free writing experience, including a full screen mode and a clean interface. With Markdown, you can write now, and format later.

Marktext ALL OSs A simple and elegant markdown editor that focus on speed and usability. It also has Formula and Diagrams support, unfortunately not yet supported here on SN.

Rentry ONLINE Fast, simple and free. A markdown paste service with preview, custom urls and editing. Nice but it has some limits like 200k characters for text field, 2-100 characters for custom url field (must contain only latin letters, numbers, underscores or hyphens) and 1-100 characters for custom edit code field (anything is allowed here).

Stackedit ONLINE The in-browser Markdown editor, offers an unrivalled writing experience enhanced by WYSIWYG controls, Smart layout, Live preview with Scroll Sync and ideal collaboration functionality that allows you to insert inline comments and embed collaborator discussions in your files, just as well as famous ones does.

MacDown MAC only When current available Markdown editors are almost all for general writers, MacDown is different: It's for creative developers. Syntax highlighting, live preview, sync scroll, fullscreen mode, auto save, powerful actions, auto pair, custom themes and CSS, HTML and PDF export, enhanced CJK support. I know, it's exactly the app you want.

Retext LINUX only A simple but powerful editor for Markdown and reStructuredText markup languages. One can also add support for custom markups using Python modules. Just like that!

---

It is really easy to get caught by our emotions and start ranting down anything that pass through our mind... it's also a really hard process! We think at a speed that our body can not replicate and most of our thoughts get lost during the writing process, fixing typos and rephrasing, we lose sometime the thread of what we wanted to communicate.

All of us think and speak faster than we can write, and when we are thinking and writing, guess what we’re concentrating on? One strategy is to learn a little shorthand or condensed writing that you'll expand on when reading back to edit and improve it. Another to improve your WPM (word per minute) skills with tools like typingbolt and keybr or testing your current speed and might also get a certificate!

Other tools that you could use if you are a good speaker is to try a speech-to-text software. I'll leave that for another post! Hope you find this useful, and please, feel free to share tour tips and tricks below so we can all learn from each other experience.

Uh, and don't forget the keyboard shortcuts like ctr+b for bold text, ctr+i for italic and ctr+k for inserting a link.

@ 3cd2ea88:bafdaceb

L'evoluzione del sistema di controllo sociale cinese e le sue implicazioni per l'Occidente.

💰 Pubblicato da Bitcoin Report Italia, 18/03/2024 💰

Il sistema di Credito Sociale cinese non è più un semplice esperimento: è una realtà in continua evoluzione che si estende a macchia d'olio in ogni ambito della vita quotidiana. Una nuova legge, approvata di recente, mira a rafforzare e integrare il sistema in modo ancora più pervasivo, con possibili implicazioni profonde per il futuro non solo della Cina, ma anche dell'Occidente.

🕹 Punti chiave: La nuova legge sul Credito Sociale cinese delinea una visione ambiziosa: standardizzare i flussi informativi, creare meccanismi di incentivazione e punizione basati sul "credito" individuale, e aumentare l'integrità di tutta la società. Il sistema si basa su una vasta gamma di dati, che includono informazioni anagrafiche, situazione finanziaria, rispetto delle leggi e regolamenti, attività sociali, licenze e qualifiche professionali. Un "Unified Social Credit Code" fungerà da chiave di accesso al sistema, permettendo di monitorare e valutare il comportamento di ogni individuo in tempo reale. Il concetto di "onestà" è centrale nel sistema e si traduce in una responsabilizzazione a 360 gradi: economica, lavorativa, giuridica e persino sociale. La Cina considera il sistema di Credito Sociale come un modello di successo per la stabilità sociale e lo sviluppo economico, tanto da auspicarne l'adozione anche in altri paesi. Personaggi influenti come Klaus Schwab, fondatore del World Economic Forum, elogiano il modello cinese e spingono per una collaborazione globale che integri i sistemi di controllo sociale.

🕹 Esempi concreti: Il sistema di Credito Sociale è già utilizzato per limitare l'accesso a determinati servizi, come il trasporto pubblico, i voli aerei e l'assunzione di determinati lavori. Vengono applicati sistemi di "punti" che possono essere detratti in caso di comportamenti scorretti, come il mancato pagamento di un debito o la diffusione di fake news. Al contrario, i cittadini modello possono ottenere benefici, come sconti su alcuni prodotti o l'accesso a servizi esclusivi.

🕹 Preoccupazioni e implicazioni per l'Occidente: Il sistema di Credito Sociale cinese solleva preoccupazioni per la sua natura pervasiva e per il potenziale controllo sociale che ne deriva. La sorveglianza di massa e la censura online sono già realtà in Cina e il sistema di Credito Sociale rischia di rafforzare ulteriormente queste tendenze. L'adozione di un sistema simile in Occidente potrebbe avere un impatto significativo sulla libertà individuale e sui diritti civili.

🔊 Domande per la riflessione: ➡️In che modo il sistema di Credito Sociale cinese potrebbe influenzare l'Occidente? ➡️Quali sono i rischi e i benefici di un sistema di controllo sociale così pervasivo? ➡️Come possiamo bilanciare la sicurezza e la libertà individuale in un'era di tecnologie avanzate? ➡️È possibile trovare un equilibrio tra l'efficienza del modello cinese e la tutela dei diritti individuali?

🕹 Conclusione: Il sistema di Credito Sociale cinese rappresenta un modello di controllo sociale senza precedenti. La sua evoluzione e il suo potenziale impatto sull'Occidente sollevano questioni cruciali sul futuro della società e della governance. È fondamentale un dibattito aperto e consapevole su questi temi per poter costruire un futuro che sia sicuro, libero e prospero per tutti.

🔊 Call to action: Condividi questo articolo con i tuoi amici e familiari per aumentare la consapevolezza sul sistema di Credito Sociale cinese. Unisciti alla nostra community Telegram per discutere di questo e altri argomenti importanti.

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Bitcoin Core

Bitcoin Core 26.0 released Bitcoin Core version 26.0 has been released, offering many new features and bug fixes. To learn more, check the release notes. If you have questions, visit the #bitcoin IRC chatroom for assistance.

Bitcoin Core 24.2 released Bitcoin Core version 24.2 has been released, offering various bug fixes. Users are encouraged to refer to the release notes for further details. Support and assistance can be obtained by visiting the #bitcoin IRC chatroom.

Bitcoin Core 25.1 released La version 25.1 de Bitcoin Core est désormais disponible en téléchargement. Consultez les notes de mise à jour pour plus d'informations sur les nombreuses corrections de bugs apportées par cette version. Si vous avez des questions, veuillez visiter le salon de discussion IRC #bitcoin (IRC, web) et nous ferons de notre mieux pour vous aider.

Bitcoin Optech

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #291 (9 min) L'article présente plusieurs nouveautés et initiatives en cours dans le domaine du Bitcoin:

1. Proposition d'un contrat pour des futurs de taux de hachage de mineurs sans confiance, permettant à deux parties de se payer conditionnellement en fonction du taux marginal pour inclure une transaction dans un bloc futur, avec différentes options de retrait des fonds en cas de feerates plus bas que prévu pour maximiser les profits des mineurs.

2. Mise en avant d'un algorithme de sélection de pièces pour les fournisseurs de liquidité Lightning Network pour optimiser les frais on-chain et offrir une réduction de 15% par rapport à l'algorithme par défaut de Bitcoin Core.

3. Présentation d'un prototype simple de coffre-fort utilisant l'opcode OP_CAT dans un langage Rust, montrant comment le coffre-fort pourrait fonctionner en ne dépendant que des règles de consensus actuelles et de l'opcode proposé.

D'autres sections de l'article incluent des discussions sur l'envoi et la réception de ecash en utilisant le Lightning Network et les ZKCPs, des résumés des questions populaires de Bitcoin Stack Exchange, des annonces de nouvelles versions et des modifications récentes apportées aux projets d'infrastructure Bitcoin populaires.

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #290 Recap Podcast (69 min) L'article discute du podcast Bitcoin Optech, où Mark “Murch” Erhardt et Mike Schmidt sont rejoints par Gloria Zhao, callebtc, Chris Stewart, Fabian Jahr et Pierre Corbin pour discuter de la Newsletter #290. Dans le podcast, ils abordent des sujets tels que les instructions de paiement Bitcoin lisibles par DNS, l'incitation en ce qui concerne le mempool, les systèmes de crypto-monnaie Cashu, la conception de Cashu et autres sujets techniques liés à Bitcoin. Ils discutent également des mises à jour des applications construisant sur le réseau Bitcoin, comme le protocole de coordination multiparty (NWC), la sortie de la Mutiny Wallet v0.5.7, le service de regroupement GroupHug, les swaps taproot annoncés par Boltz, et les versions récents de logiciels comme Core Lightning 24.02rc1.

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #290 (10 min) The article discusses a proposal for providing DNS-based human-readable Bitcoin payment instructions, a summary of a post about mempool incentive compatibility, a link to a thread discussing the design of ecash systems, a brief look at the discussion on 64-bit arithmetic in Bitcoin scripts, and an overview of an improved process for reproducible ASMap creation. It also includes updates on client services, new releases, and changes to popular Bitcoin infrastructure software.

Releases - No Bullshit Bitcoin

Zeus v0.8.2-beta1 Is Now Available for Testing Zeus is a self-custodial mobile Lightning wallet that includes an embedded node, self-custodial lightning addresses, Point-of-sale functionality, and a Bitcoin/Lightning node manager and wallet application for LND, Core Lightning, and Eclair. The latest version, ZEUS v0.8.2-beta1, introduces several new features including 0-conf LSP support for LND REST connections, Point of Sale with receipt printing for Android, a multi-currency conversion tool, enhanced wallet recovery interface, default channel opening settings, new animations for Send and Receive, an invoice expiration picker interface, and LND v0.17.4 integration. This update also includes 33 new fiat currency conversions. The full changelog from v0.8.1 to v0.8.2-beta1 can be found on their GitHub repository.

Fountain v1.0.9 & Fountain Radio Released (2 min) L'article du 29 février 2024 présente la dernière mise à jour de Fountain, mettant en avant des améliorations de l'interface utilisateur, des corrections de bugs et des mises à jour de la fonctionnalité des clips. Fountain Radio, une station de musique communautaire alimentée par Bitcoin, a été lancée pour aider à la découverte de nouvelles musiques. Les auditeurs peuvent se connecter avec leur compte Fountain sur un ordinateur ou un téléphone, écouter la musique en cours tout en soutenant les artistes, ajouter des pistes à la file d'attente pour un montant nominal, voter pour faire avancer une piste et enregistrer leurs morceaux préférés dans leur bibliothèque. En outre, les utilisateurs peuvent participer à un chat en direct avec d'autres auditeurs et artistes. Les mises à jour de l'application comprennent l'affichage des derniers clips sur la page d'accueil, une publication plus rapide des clips, une meilleure précision sur iOS, la possibilité de voir les transcriptions des clips en cours d'édition, l'affichage du temps restant sur les cartes de contenu des épisodes, ainsi que l'ajout de liens hypertexte pour toutes les URLs dans les notes d'émission.

Wasabi Wallet v2.0.6: Jade and BitBox02 Support, Safety Coinjoin & Performance Improvements (2 min) Wasabi Wallet's latest release, as of February 29, 2024, introduces new hardware device support, privacy and performance enhancements, and more. The update includes compatibility for Blockstream Jade and BitBox02, a Safety Coinjoin feature for improved privacy, an enhanced RPC server with new calls, significant performance upgrades reducing CPU and memory usage, user experience enhancements like wallet renaming and clearer privacy warnings, improvements in cross-wallet performance, framework and GUI enhancements, bug fixes for deployment flow, UI memory leaks, Coldcard hardware device integration, and PGP key changes for reporting software vulnerabilities.

Bitcoin Core

Bitcoin Core 26.0 released Bitcoin Core 24.2 released Bitcoin Core 25.1 released Bitcoin Core 25.0 released Bitcoin Core 24.1 released Bitcoin Core 23.2 released Bitcoin Core 23.1 released Bitcoin Core 22.1 released Bitcoin Core 24.0.1 released Bitcoin Core 23.0 released Bitcoin Core 0.20.2 released Bitcoin Core 0.21.2 released Bitcoin Core 22.0 released Bitcoin Core 0.21.1 Released With Taproot Activation Code (1 min) Bitcoin Core 0.21.0 Released Bitcoin Core 0.20.1 Released Bitcoin Core 0.20.0 Released bitcoincore.org hidden service Bitcoin Core 0.19.1 Released Bitcoin Core 0.19.0 Released

Bitcoin Optech

Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #291 (9 min) Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #290 Recap Podcast (69 min) Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #290 (10 min) Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #289 Recap Podcast (46 min) Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #289 (9 min) Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #288 Recap Podcast (63 min) Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #288 (12 min) Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #287 Recap Podcast (45 min) Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #287 (8 min) Bitcoin Optech Newsletter #286 Recap Podcast (53 min)

Releases - No Bullshit Bitcoin

Zeus v0.8.2-beta1 Is Now Available for Testing Fountain v1.0.9 & Fountain Radio Released (2 min) Wasabi Wallet v2.0.6: Jade and BitBox02 Support, Safety Coinjoin & Performance Improvements (2 min) Eclair v0.10.0: Dual Funding, Latest Bolt 12, Fully Working Splicing Prototype (3 min) Voltage Introduces Redesign, Teams and Pricing Updates (1 min) Bitcoin Optech #291: Trustless Contract for Miner Feerate Futures (1 min) New on Geyser: Spirit of Satoshi, Bitcoin Chiavenna, B3, NOSH & More (3 min) Blockstream Green Wallet Desktop v2.0.0: New UI and UX (1 min) Mostro Web v0.0.19 Released Strike Announces Africa Expansion (1 min) Keystache by Resolvr: Desktop Client for Managing Nostr Private Keys (1 min) Core Lightning v24.02: Testnet Fix, New Recovery Plugin & More (1 min) Tails v6.0: Important Security and Usability Improvements (2 min) Plebeian Market v0.0.13: CMS Improvements & Bug Fixes Envoy v1.6.0-beta: Full RBF Control, Address & Amount Display Redesign & More (3 min)

🍵 "btc | bitcoin | lightning network | asic" - Google News

The Innovative Approach to Address Demand for ZKBase in the Market – Press release Bitcoin News - Bitcoin.com News 1 reason for new bitcoin mania: 'Simply not enough' supply - Yahoo Finance Crypto miner Marathon Digital unveils Bitcoin layer 2 network Anduro - Cointelegraph Anduro: A Network of Sidechains - Bitcoin Magazine Bitcoin Price Is Surging Ahead of Halving, But Network Fees Aren't Keeping Pace - Decrypt Cipher Mining (CIFR) Jumps 6% as Mined Bitcoin Tops 334 Units - CoinGape Infrastructure Providers Warn of ASIC Scarcity for Bitcoin Miners - Cryptonews JPMorgan: Bitcoin Could Correct Downwards to as Low as $42000 in April - TradingView Bitcoin surges, briefly touching $64,000 for the first time since November 2021 - CNBC Lightning, Canadiens aim to shake off OT disappointment - CBS Sports Is Bitcoin due for a major correction? JPMorgan predicts drop to $42,000 after April halving - Fortune Bitcoin miner consolidation appears imminent as halving looms - Blockworks Robinhood Wallet Embraces Arbitrum for Seamless Token Swaps - Crypto Times Cipher Mining Announces February 2024 Operational Update - Yahoo Finance Bitcoin ASIC maker Canaan's revenue stagnant despite crypto bull run - Cointelegraph

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Posthumous work of the Colombian poet born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948

Welcome to this blog dedicated to the Posthumous work of the Colombian poet Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (my father), born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948-2010. Where I will be publishing each of the 175 sonnets from his unpublished collection 'Sonnets For The Twenty-First Century And A Circadian Musical (1984-1987).' Analyzed with GPT4 artificial intelligence and illustrated with AI tools... I hope you enjoy this garden of words snatched from the solitude of a locked room.

Likewise, any enthusiast of the sonnet form is invited to conduct their personal studies of Arroyave Tabares' work, as it is a collection that, although registered since 1989, has not yet been published.

Frank Duna

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Analysis "Nightly Vision"

Introduction

The sonnet “Nightly Vision” by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is a beautiful piece of poetry. This sonnet explores themes of love, passion, memory, forgiveness, transformation, and hope.

Thematic Analysis

Octave (first eight lines): The octave introduces the theme of love and music. The speaker hears music that reminds him of a loved one and their shared past. The music evokes memories of their love, which the speaker suggests was passionate and intense. The speaker also mentions an “old crowd” that believes loving too much and giving in to passion is not a fault. This could suggest that the speaker is reflecting on societal views of love and passion. The octave ends with the speaker becoming light and praying, possibly for forgiveness or redemption, while his friends keep his air clean, perhaps symbolizing support and purification.

Sestet (last six lines): The sestet shifts the focus from the past to the present. The speaker captures the distances of the evening, creating room for his desires, symbolized by stars. He barely remembers his old gloom, suggesting a transformation or healing process. A nightly vision appears with petals raining from a blooming sky, symbolizing hope, renewal, and beauty. This could indicate that despite past sins or mistakes in love, there is always room for growth, healing, and new beginnings.

Overall, the transition from the octave to the sestet also marks a shift in tone and theme, from reflection on past love and passion in the octave to anticipation and hope in the sestet. This structure is typical of sonnets, where the octave sets up a situation or problem, and the sestet provides a resolution or response.

Structure and Rhyme Scheme

The sonnet “Nightly Vision” by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares follows the rhyme scheme ABBA ABBA CDCDCD, which is a typical structure of an Italian sonnet. Here’s how the rhyme scheme works in this poem:

The first eight lines (the octave) are divided into two quatrains (four-line stanzas). The rhyme scheme is ABBA ABBA:

A: within B: today B: play A: sin A: in B: say B: pray A: clean

The last six lines (the sestet) are divided into two tercets (three-line stanzas). The rhyme scheme is CDCDCD:

C: evening D: room C: beaming D: gloom C: appearing D: bloom

In terms of content, the octave usually presents a problem or conflict, while the sestet provides a resolution or commentary. In this sonnet, the octave discusses the speaker’s memories and feelings about love, while the sestet describes a transformation from gloom to a hopeful vision. This structure allows for a nuanced exploration of the theme.

The rhymes themselves are mostly full rhymes (e.g., “today” and “say”, “room” and “bloom”), which create a harmonious sound pattern. This enhances the musicality of the poem and helps to tie the lines together.

Overall, this sonnet is a beautiful example of how form and content can work together to create a powerful poetic expression.

Analysis of Aspects

The sonnet “Nightly Vision” by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is a rich piece of poetry that employs various literary devices and themes. Here’s a detailed analysis:

Language and Imagery: The language used in the sonnet is lyrical and evocative, creating vivid images in the reader’s mind. For instance, phrases like “music coming from within”, “stars of my desire”, and “petals raining from a sky in bloom” paint beautiful pictures and evoke strong emotions.

Themes: The sonnet explores themes of love, passion, memory, hope, and renewal. The octave reflects on past love and passion, while the sestet looks forward to new beginnings and the blossoming of new love or happiness.

Meter: As is typical with sonnets, this poem likely follows iambic pentameter, which means each line consists of five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables. This gives the poem a rhythmic quality that enhances its musicality.

Overall, this sonnet is a beautiful exploration of love and longing, past and future, despair and hope. The shift from the octave to the sestet marks a transition from reflection to anticipation, from looking back to looking forward. The vivid imagery and lyrical language make this poem a pleasure to read.

(GPT4)

Syllable count for each line.

```

Nightly Vision

10 When I hear music coming from within 10 Asking what can be done for love today 10 Your name comes to my mind and starts to play 10 With memories left over from our sin.

10 "To love too much and let the passions in 10 Is not a fault" I hear an old crowd say 10 As I becone light beginning to pray 10 While all the friends of life keep my air clean.

10 I trap each distance of the evening 10 And make it my own to have enough room 10 For stars of my desire that start beaming . 10 I hardly can remenber my old gloom 10 For a nightly vision is appearing 10 With petals raining from a sky in bloom. ***

```

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Sonnets For The Twenty First Century And A Circadian Musical Written By Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (1984-1987)

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Analyzed by GPT4; Image by leonardo.ai; First published on Nostr Protocol by franciscoarroyavet@nostrplebs.com Nightly Vision

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https://shows.acast.com/herschel-sterling/episodes/conflations-and-synonyms-etymology

Here are some terms that are often conflated, and I’ll add these word studies as a section to my podcast. MORE

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In my previous article First Steps in the Bitcoin Journey, I outlined method for someone new to Bitcoin to implement their first Bitcoin wallet.

Since the method outlined didn't go into detail on how to implement cold storage, this article will outline how to implement a cold storage solution with your Green wallet. Although this solution will be using the Green wallet as an example, it will work with any Bitcoin wallet that provides an option for specifying a data directory where the wallet data is located.

If you don't have Blockstream's Green wallet installed, please refer to my previous article.

First let me define my perception about the meaning of a Hot, Warm, and Cold storage.

1. Hot Storage - accessible, unecrypted and readiable when the computer is started.
2. Warm Storage - accessible, encrypted and NOT readiable when the computer is started.
3. Cold Storage- NOT accessible, encrypted and NOT readiable when the computer is started.

With a Cold Storage solution, one as to physically or logically connect a storage device to the computer.

By my definition, the Green wallet previously installed is using a Warm storage solution because the wallet folder is encrypted until the wallet is opened using the correct PIN value. Once the wallet's folder becomes unencrypted it changes into a HOT wallet solution.

Regardless of the wallet and the type of storage used, always quit the wallet after using it.

Now, I think the best question one needs to ask themselves. Do I need cold storage solution for my current Bitcoin wallet implementation? I can't answer this question for you. If your are using your VM instance as a dedicate computer for only running your Bitcoin wallet, I say it's optional.

I also think it is wise to have multiple levels of security guarding your Bitcoin wallet. The cold storage solution that I'm going outline here is so simple to implement and maintain, its worth doing.

In order to implement the Cold Storage solution on your Linux system hosting your Green wallet, the following software will need to be installed.

BEFORE INSTALLING OR UPDATING YOUR LINUX VM ALWAYS DO A BACKUP FIRST!!! This way if something goes sideways on you, you have a stupid simple way to retreat to the prior instance of your Linux VM.

VeraCrypt

VeraCrypt is a free open source disk encryption software for Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.

Install VeraCrypt

Click on the above link for instructions on how to install and Setup VeraCrypt.

Take some time creating small encrypted disk volume(s) and mounting them on your Linux system. Do NOT move onto the next step until you have a basic understanding of working with VeraCrypt.

Now that you are comfrontable with creating encrypted disk volumes and mounting them on your Linux system, create a new 2GB or bigger encrypted disk volume to serve as your Green wallet's cold storage.

I'll assume you have mounted this new encrypted disk volume as /media/GreenWallet using VeraCrypt.

Now start the Green wallet application and point it to this new directory location.

GreenWallet -datadir /media/GreenWallet

There won't be any wallets in this new directory, so you'll need to create new wallet(s) as you did in the previous article.

After you stop the GreenWallet, the disk volume should be dismounted using Veracrypt and if the Veracrypt file is located on removable media (USB drive) then disconnect the removable media too.

Great!!! Now your wallet data is in cold storage

Next Steps

Perform another VM backup to save the changes you've just made.

If you are like me, at this point you should be overwhelmed with the amount of sensivity information you've had to write down on that piece of paper. On a follow-up article, I will document several solutions to automate the storing and retrieval of sensitiviy information and present some automation scripts that makes this process nearly effortless to use.

All of my automation work on Linux has been accomplished with PowerShell, so if you want a head start on my next article you can install PowerShell now and get some experience with it. The extent of knowledge you need to know is how to execute a PowerShell script from the terminal console. So, no coding will be required but feel free to dive deeper into PowerShell if that interests you.

Install PowerShell

Create PowerShell Profile

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Unlock the secrets of generating passive income through Bitcoin mining with Elias, featured in the "Croxroad Podcast." Join key figure Elias as he discusses the Infinity Hash project, offering insights into the challenges and philosophy of sustainable Bitcoin mining. Learn about the long-term benefits of Bitcoin investment and its role in personal savings and retirement planning. Elias shares a vision for the future, emphasising decentralisation and community input through innovative features like a voting system. Explore lessons on emotional detachment and the significance of a long-term perspective in the dynamic world of Bitcoin mining. Dive into the community-driven approach of Infinity Hash, promoting transparency and education for a strong network. Elias reveals how Bitcoin mining can be a powerful tool for financial growth and personal empowerment. Uncover the secrets of the Bitcoin ecosystem and embark on a journey toward passive income and financial independence with Elias on the Croxroad Podcast.

Table of Contents

• Introduction

• Bitcoin Mining Operation

• Future Plans for the Mining Project

• Achieving Passive Income through Bitcoin Mining

• Personal Interests and Background

• Conclusion

• FAQs

Introduction:

Meet Elias, a key figure in the cryptocurrency space, at the forefront of innovation and sustainable Bitcoin mining. In this exclusive interview conducted by the Croxroad Podcast, Elias shares profound insights into the revolutionary Infinity Hash project, offering a unique perspective on the world of Bitcoin and passive income.

As a driving force behind Infinity Hash, Elias brings a wealth of experience and expertise to the table, discussing the challenges faced by the project and the philosophy guiding its commitment to long-term success. Elias unveils a narrative that extends beyond the traditional realm of Bitcoin investments, emphasising the transformative potential of Bitcoin as a tool for personal and financial empowerment.

Throughout the interview, Elias provides a detailed overview of Infinity Hash, highlighting its community-driven ethos, transparent operations, and innovative voting system. Gain a deeper understanding of the emotional resilience needed in the face of market fluctuations and the significance of adopting a steadfast, long-term perspective in the dynamic Bitcoin landscape.

Elias also shares insights into the future plans of Infinity Hash, revealing a vision for decentralisation and the establishment of mining farms in diverse geographical locations. Join us as we delve into the journey of Elias, exploring the intricate intersection of Bitcoin mining, sustainable practices, and the pursuit of lasting financial success in the ever-evolving cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Bitcoin Mining Operation

Embark on a captivating exploration of the intricate world of Bitcoin mining operations with this enlightening interview. The spotlight is on Elias, a visionary figure in the cryptocurrency domain and a driving force behind the innovative Infinity Hash project. Uncover the secrets of sustainable Bitcoin mining and passive income as Elias delves into the nuances of Infinity Hash's community-driven approach, transparent practices, and unique voting system.

Throughout the discussion, Elias navigates the challenges encountered during the project's inception, offering invaluable insights into the emotional resilience required to navigate the dynamic Bitcoin landscape successfully. The interview goes beyond conventional narratives, emphasising Bitcoin not just as an investment but as a transformative tool for personal and financial empowerment.

Gain an in-depth understanding of the project's future plans, including a commitment to decentralisation and the establishment of mining farms in diverse global locations. Elias paints a vivid picture of the project's journey, encapsulating the essence of sustainable Bitcoin mining, resilience amid market fluctuations, and the pursuit of enduring financial success in the ever-evolving cryptocurrency realm. Join us on this illuminating journey into the heart of Bitcoin mining, where innovation meets sustainability, and passive income becomes a reality.

Future Plans for the Mining Project

Embark on a journey into the future plans of the Infinity Hash Bitcoin mining project as Elias shares a compelling vision for sustainability and decentralisation. The interview unveils the intricacies of the project's roadmap, aiming to make the mining endeavour more resilient and globally distributed.

One of the key initiatives involves implementing a transparent and community-driven feature request system, allowing members to propose and vote on new project features. Elias envisions a collaborative approach where the community actively participates in shaping the project's evolution.

The future also holds a groundbreaking shift towards Lightning Network implementation for payout processing. Elias envisions a system where participants can seamlessly receive their daily mining profits directly to their Lightning or Bitcoin addresses, enhancing transparency and minimising the need for centralised processing.

In a bid for long-term sustainability, the project aims to establish mining farms in geographically diverse locations, mitigating risks associated with geopolitical factors. Elias paints a picture of three mining farms strategically positioned in South America, Iceland, and Russia, ensuring resilience against legislative changes and fostering a truly global and decentralised mining ecosystem.

As the project progresses, Elias emphasises the commitment to community engagement and education, advocating for the importance of spreading awareness about Bitcoin's value. The future of Infinity Hash promises not just financial success but a paradigm shift in how mining projects can achieve resilience, transparency, and global impact.

Achieving Passive Income through Bitcoin Mining

Dive into the core theme of achieving passive income through Bitcoin mining with Elias, the visionary mind behind Infinity Hash. The interview unveils the unique approach adopted by Infinity Hash, turning Bitcoin mining into a tool for long-term financial stability rather than a mere speculative endeavour.

Elias shares insights into the challenges faced by the project, highlighting the need for emotional detachment and a rule-based approach to stay profitable in the volatile crypto landscape. The conversation delves into the reinvestment strategy, where 50% of the project's profits are redirected towards purchasing cutting-edge mining hardware. This innovative tactic not only ensures the project's competitiveness but also serves as a safeguard during Bitcoin's halving events, mitigating potential profit reduction.

The interview explores the philosophy of Bitcoin mining as a form of savings, emphasising the importance of community participation and long-term commitment. Elias sheds light on how reinvesting profits directly into new hardware, governed by a transparent process, creates a self-sustaining mechanism for both the project and its community members.

Through the lens of Infinity Hash, the audience gains a profound understanding of Bitcoin mining as more than a financial venture. Elias discusses the project's future plans, emphasising a decentralised and globalised approach, positioning Infinity Hash as a beacon for those seeking not just passive income but a revolutionary perspective on the potential of Bitcoin mining.

Personal Interests and Background

Delve into the personal side of Elias, the driving force behind Infinity Hash. Beyond the realm of Bitcoin mining, Elias shares glimpses of his personal interests and background, adding a human touch to the narrative.

Elias discloses his affinity for heavy metal music, particularly the European metal scene, providing a unique insight into his cultural and musical inclinations. This revelation unveils a dynamic personality that extends beyond the confines of the crypto world.

As a heavy metal enthusiast, Elias reflects on attending music festivals, emphasising the immersive experience of connecting with smaller European bands and embracing the raw energy of live performances. This personal touch adds layers to the interview, illustrating the multifaceted nature of individuals within the crypto community.

By exploring Elias's personal interests, the audience gains a more comprehensive understanding of the person behind the project. This human-centric approach contributes to breaking down barriers and fosters a deeper connection between the interviewee and the audience, showcasing the diverse passions that coexist within the world of cryptocurrency.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the interview with Elias sheds light on the intricate dynamics of Infinity Hash and the broader landscape of Bitcoin mining. From the challenges faced in the industry to innovative solutions like reinvestment strategies, Elias shares valuable insights. The personal touch, delving into Elias's heavy metal interests, adds a unique flavour to the discussion. As we contemplate the future of Bitcoin and mining, Elias's vision for decentralisation and sustainability paves the way for exciting possibilities. The interview encapsulates not only the technical aspects of mining but also the human stories and passions that shape the crypto space.

FAQs

What sets Infinity Hash apart from other Bitcoin mining projects? Infinity Hash stands out due to its commitment to transparency and community involvement. Elias emphasises the importance of decentralisation and long-term sustainability. The project's unique reinvestment approach, allocating 50% of profits to acquiring new hardware, demonstrates a dedication to staying competitive and protecting against market fluctuations.

How does Infinity Hash address the challenges of Bitcoin mining, especially with the upcoming halving events? To tackle challenges like the upcoming halving events, Infinity Hash is focused on strategic geographic decentralisation. The goal is to establish mining farms in different countries, ensuring resilience against regulatory changes and other external factors. The project's reinvestment strategy acts as a form of 'having protection,' providing stability in the face of reduced mining rewards.

How can individuals participate in Infinity Hash and earn passive income through Bitcoin mining? Interested individuals can join Infinity Hash by visiting their website and exploring the project's details. The transparent nature of the project allows potential investors to ask questions and get involved through the Telegram group. Elias encourages educating others about Bitcoin and mining, emphasising that Infinity Hash is not just about making profits but also contributing to the broader adoption and understanding of Bitcoin.

That's all for today, see ya tomorrow

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DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.

@ fa984bd7:58018f52

I have recently launched Wikifreedia, which is a different take on how Wikipedia-style systems can work.

Yes, it's built on nostr, but that's not the most interesting part.

The fascinating aspect is that there is no "official" entry on any topic. Anyone can create or edit any entry and build their own take about what they care about.

Think the entry about Mao is missing something? Go ahead and edit it, you don't need to ask for permission from anyone.

Stuart Bowman put it best on a #SovEng hike:

The path to truth is in the integration of opposites.

Since launching Wikifreedia, less than a week ago, quite a few people asked me if it would be possible to import ALL of wikipedia into it.

Yes. Yes it would.

I initially started looking into it to make it happen as I am often quick to jump into action.

But, after thinking about it, I am not convinced importing all of Wikipedia is the way to go.

The magical thing about building an encyclopedia with no canonical entry on any topic is that each individual can bring to light the part they are interested the most about a certain topic, it can be dozens or hundreds, or perhaps more, entries that focus on the edges of a topic.

Whereas, Wikipedia, in their Quijotean approach to truth, have focused on the impossible path of seeking neutrality.

Humans can't be neutral, we have biases.

Show me an unbiased human and I'll show you a lifeless human.

Biases are good. Having an opinion is good. Seeking neutrality is seeking to devoid our views and opinions of humanity.

Importing Wikipedia would mean importing a massive amount of colorless trivia, a few interesting tidbits, but, more important than anything, a vast amount of watered-down useless information.

All edges of the truth having been neutered by a democratic process that searches for a single truth via consensus.

"What's the worst that could happen?"

Sure, importing wikipedia would simply be one more entry on each topic.

Yes.

But culture has incredibly strong momentum.

And if the culture that develops in this type of media is that of exclusively watered-down comfortable truths, then some magic could be lost.

If people who are passionate or have a unique perspective about a topic feel like the "right approach" is to use the wikipedia-based article then I would see this as an extremely negative action.

An alternative

An idea we discussed on the #SovEng hike was, what if the wikipedia entry is processed by different "AI agents" with different perspectives.

Perhaps instead of blankly importing the "Napoleon" article, an LLM trained to behave as a 1850s russian peasant could be asked to write a wiki about Napoleon. And then an agent tried to behave like Margaret Thatcher could write one.

Etc, etc.

Embrace the chaos. Embrace the bias.

@ c11cf5f8:4928464d

Let's hear some of your latest Bitcoin purchases, feel free to include links to the shops or merchants you bought from too.

If you missed our last thread, here are some of the items stackers recently spent their sats on.

@ c9225413:10e84f4b

Last week I opened Damus to check something, and I noticed a notification for a private DM. The DM was from someone who had seen my nsec posted on a public site and wanted to warn me. They did so by logging into my account and sending a message to me from my account??? Kudos to the person who reached out. When I read the message I wasn’t surprised. I’d awoken a couple of weeks prior in a panic. I feared that I’d shared my nsec in a form rather than my npub. I fell back asleep and forgot about it. Turns out my panic was justified.

In thinking about the situation, I am not a typical Nostr user. Twice a week, I switch between accounts in the nos app for user acceptance testing. My default behavior is to copy one of several nsecs.

The brilliance of Nostr is that a user has a single nsec they can use to access a multitude of clients. It’s a bit like a universal login. A single account provides access to the entire Nostr network plus Mastodon, and Bluesky . Bonus is that it is a single string. There’s not a username or email address or password for users to remember. This one string becomes an all access pass.

Email / Usernames & Passwords

Let’s talk a bit about usernames and passwords. Throughout my career, I've had the unfortunate pleasure of implementing many single sign-on solutions, or building custom login workflows. If I’m being honest it is my least favorite software component.

First there’s the username vs email address identifier. Software never settled on a single solution. Often login interfaces are vague when it comes to username or email address. (For good reason, but this also creates friction for the user). Users are thus forced to remember for this app I use a username and this one I use an email address. Second, there is the password and the ever changing set of requirements for passwords. Apple's native password generation and keychain storage are nice. Yet, the elegance of this solution falters for people who log into the same app on other devices outside the Apple ecosystem. Then there’s 1Password. Which could have been cool if they’d hired a UX Designer with empathy for the non-technical user….

What about SSOs which allow people to login with their Google or Facebook account? SSOs require users to remember whether they created an account from scratch or signed up with Google. For those who've finally kicked their Meta habit? Untangling an app from the grips of Facebook is no picnic.

Today almost every software requires username/email and password. This results in an ever growing list of credential and application information that needs to be stored or remembered. This problem is about to get 10 times worse as the major platforms drop support of 3rd party cookies for advertising. Brands will no longer be able to follow people across the internet with ads. Instead they will need to rely much more on direct marketing via you guessed it - email.

Lastly, we ask people to create a username and password at an inopportune moment in their onboarding journey. During onboarding the user is focused on trying the software. Users are less likely to store their new credentials at this point, resulting in lost or forgotten credentials in the future.

The simplicity of Nostr’s nsec

In Nostr during sign-up the user’s key is generated in the background. In Nos we automatically store the user's nsec in the iOS keychain on device. While not a perfect solution for a lost nsec, it does help.

When logging out of many Nostr clients, users are asked each time if they have their nsec backed up. This is the right point in the process when a user wants to take an action to save the nsec in a secure location.

One challenge with Nostr is that many key terms begin with N. These terms are often represented by acronyms / uncommon jargon. In the case of nsec and npub they also closely resemble one another.

A user joining Nostr automatically receives:

• nsec - their private key
• npub - their public key

Then they are asked to create a NIP05 id.

Lastly they need to pick a name or display name.

Three of the four are acronyms or jargon terms that no one new to Nostr understands.

In the case of the nsec and npubid they look virtually identical. A long string of numbers starting with n. There has been a huge amount of work done to tie the nsec / npubid to a user name and password with the hope that it will make Nostr easier for Normies to adopt.

However, when I talk to non-technical Nostr users they are not concerned about a lack of username and password. It never comes up as a thing they would change about Nostr. When we ask them why they are reluctant to invite friends and family - it is also not a concern (lack of diverse content is).

When I talk to technical or Bitcoin Nostr users, the story is very different. They obsess about insuring Normies have an easy username password experience. For Bitcoin enthusiasts this makes sense. The nsec is the only way to maintain access to one’s wallet and is something you absolutely want to protect. Yet, that same level of security around a Nostr nsec on day one might be a bit much. The sky is not going to fall if you lose or compromise your nsec on day one or even day five for the vast majority of users.

When we think about nsec security there are two primary failures we need to help users solve for:

• Accidentally sharing their nsec, as I inadvertently did.
• Losing their nsec.

Preventing inadvertent sharing of the nsec

One of the biggest challenges is that the nsec and npub ID look virtually identical if someone is moving fast. One easy fix would be to visually represent these strings differently.

One option is to maintain the npub as a long string. And store the nsec as 3 rows of strings as follows:

nsec1er0trulkrt7n2zxp 17r57s7ae65y5wrhvhxae 4yd3dh4ccg38w8syqdq89

When a user copies their nsec to save elsewhere - it could also copy over the text:

DO NOT SHARE THIS WITH OTHERS nsec1er0trulkrt7n2zxp 17r57s7ae65y5wrhvhxae 4yd3dh4ccg38w8syqdq89

Thus when a user looks at wherever they’ve pasted their key, the see this reminder to not share with others.

Seed phrases provide another alternative for logging in and out of accounts.

In some clients the option to create an NIP05 in app already exists. It would be beneficial to make this a network-wide option. So users can share their NIP05 id instead of their npub id.

Nsec loss

At nos we automatically store the nsec in the on device keychain. During our Discovery Research round we intentionally met with a user who had “lost” their nsec. We learned that instead of losing the nsec, they had deleted their Nostr app and assumed that their nsec was lost. When they reinstalled, their nsec was saved in their device keychain. And they regained access to their account.

We have plans to extend this to give people the option to store their nsec in the iCloud Keychain.

Generating a new key and storing a new key in the device keychain enables Nostr clients to handle the "boring" aspects of keys and credentials behind the scenes. Thus freeing up the user to explore the Nostr network.

On Android Google Safe Lock can be used. Both also work on desktop web clients.

When and how to remind people to save their nsec somewhere safe

As I mentioned earlier, Nostr clients do a good job reminding people to save their nsec somewhere safe when they log out. However, there’s also an opportunity to make saving nsec’s fun and interesting.

Upon return to a client for a second use, we can prompt users to learn a bit about their nsec and to download a copy of it. Instead of a boring copy / paste action, clients can position nsecs on a well designed card for users to print (or store on their computer).

Going a step further, users could choose a card design for their nsec. By making it fun instead of annoying we can help users protect their nsecs. Users can store printed cards in the same place they store their passport (when not traveling).

Surviving the grift and scam era

Pre-pandemic we worred about our grandparents and employees succumbing to phishing emails. Today all of us are subject to an onslaught of phishing SMS messages, phone scams, Instagram scams. Usernames and passwords are a key element in many of those scams - asking people to log in and compromise their credentials. By opting out of the common credentialing system - we can give people a bit of a reprieve. We can also use this time to think through more creative ways to teach people to protect their nsecs.

Avoiding the maintenance of email / password systems

Because of the never ending scam machine, there’s an entire industry for 2-factor authentication, Okta logins, etc. Cybersecurity jobs may now be the only tech sector jobs still available stateside outside of government. However, as I mentioned earlier, this is not user facing work. It’s not solving problems for people. If anything this burgeoning security industry is only creating more friction, not less.

The creation of extra layers of security requires more maintenance and updates. Today we have teams dedicated to credential management. Instead of solving problems these teams are often adding friction to the experience.

Nostr is the beginning of an amazing decentralized future. Before we incorporate existing software patterns, let's pause to make sure we understand the problem we're solving. And then take some time to think outside the box about solutions.

If you’ve made it this far, this will be my last post on my compromised account. You can find me @npub1j60x528w2g2vkq5kae5uhh8y7sezjyj20zcsg0v9muc72cmdpu0s0md7ua where I am happy to hear your thoughts about this proposal.

@ 1e52c554:21771908

Posthumous work of the Colombian poet born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948

Welcome to this blog dedicated to the Posthumous work of the Colombian poet Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (my father), born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948-2010. Where I will be publishing each of the 175 sonnets from his unpublished collection 'Sonnets For The Twenty First Century And A Circadian Musical (1984-1987).' Analyzed with GPT4 artificial intelligence and illustrated with AI tools... I hope you enjoy this garden of words snatched from the solitude of a locked room.

Likewise, any enthusiast of the sonnet form is invited to conduct their personal studies of Arroyave Tabares' work, as it is a collection that, although registered since 1989, has not yet been published.

Frank Duna

---

Analysis "In The Land 0f Care Free"

Introduction

"Sonnet 126" by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is a beautiful poem that captures the essence of a dream-like and carefree land where the speaker seeks rebirth and fulfillment of their fantasies.

Thematic Analysis

Octave (Lines 1-8): The octave introduces the speaker’s dreamland, a place where life is carefree and he can be reborn every night. This land is filled with the best of fantasies that turn into realities. It’s a place of joy and passion, ignited by iridescent eyes that return his gaze with an unceasing fire. This land is also a place of celebration, where the speaker always finds ways to enjoy himself.

Sestet (Lines 9-14): The sestet shifts the focus to a floral stream, a place where the speaker refreshes his heart and desires. This stream provides him with enticing clues in the form of garlands. It’s also a place where he cleanses himself of earthly mires or deep muds (as explained in line 12). The speaker then crafts a crown with heavenly dew and breathes in the charm that the body of his beloved wears.

In terms of structure, this sonnet follows the Italian or Petrarchan sonnet form, which consists of an octave (eight lines) and a sestet (six lines). The octave typically presents a problem or conflict, while the sestet offers a resolution or commentary. In this case, the octave presents the dreamland as an escape from reality, while the sestet focuses on the rejuvenating power of nature and love.

Overall, this sonnet beautifully captures the speaker’s longing for escape and rejuvenation in a dreamland filled with love and nature.

Structure and Rhyme Scheme

The rhyme scheme of the sonnet “In The Land of, Care Free” by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is as follows:

```

In the land of dreams where life is care free (A) Every night I try to be reborn (B) To have the best of fantasies be turned (B) Into realities that I can see. (A) Here I always find ways toward a spree (A) When iridescent eyes to me return (B) With fire that never ceases to be born (B) And that nurturs my passions and my glee. (A)

A floral stream with its cascading hues (C) Is where I refresh my heart and desires (D) And gives me garlands with enticing clues. (C) I clean in it my feet of earthly mires (D) Make you a crown with heavenly dew (C) And breath the charm that your body attires. (D) ```

So, the rhyme scheme of this sonnet is ABBA ABBA CDC DCD, which is a variation of the Petrarchan sonnet form.

In a Petrarchan sonnet, the octave typically presents a problem or conflict, and the sestet offers a resolution or commentary. The rhyme scheme helps to delineate this structure, with the change in rhyme scheme signaling a shift in theme or tone.

Analysis of Aspects

The sonnet “In The Land 0f, Care Free” by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is rich in language, imagery, themes, and meter. Let’s analyze these elements:

Language: The language used in the sonnet is highly descriptive and emotive. The poet uses words like “iridescent eyes”, “fire”, “floral stream”, and “heavenly dew” to create vivid images in the reader’s mind. The language is also quite formal, which is typical of sonnets.

Imagery: The sonnet is filled with beautiful imagery. The “land of dreams” where life is carefree, the “iridescent eyes” that return the speaker’s gaze, the “floral stream” that refreshes the heart and desires, and the “crown with heavenly dew” are all vivid images that engage the senses and evoke strong emotions.

Themes: The main themes of the sonnet are love, nature, and escapism. The speaker longs for a carefree life in a dreamland where he can be reborn every night. He finds joy and passion in this land, which is ignited by the gaze of iridescent eyes. He also finds rejuvenation in a floral stream where he cleanses himself of earthly mires.

Meter: The sonnet follows the iambic pentameter, which is a common meter in English poetry. Each line consists of five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables, giving the poem a rhythmic flow.

Overall, this sonnet is a beautiful expression of longing for escape and rejuvenation in a dreamland filled with love and nature. The poet uses rich language and vivid imagery to convey these themes, and the use of iambic pentameter gives the poem a rhythmic flow that enhances its emotional impact.

(GPT4)

---

Syllable count for each line.

```

In The Land of Care Free

10 In the land of dreams where life is care free 9 Every night I try to be reborn 10 To have the best of fantasies be turned 10 Into realities that I can see.

10 Here I always find ways toward a spree 10 When iridescent eyes to me return 10 With fire that never ceases to be born 10 And that nurturs my passions and my glee.

10 A floral stream with its cascading hues 10 Is where I refresh my heart and desires 10 And gives me garlands with enticing clues. 10 I clean in it my feet of earthly mires
9 Make you a crown with heavenly dew 10 And breath the charm that your body attires. ***

```

---

Sonnets For The Twenty First Century And A Circadian Musical Written By Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (1984-1987)

---

Analyzed by GPT4; Image by leonardo.ai First published on Nostr Protocol by franciscoarroyavet@nostrplebs.com In The Land of Care Free

@ 38fe7b2b:222e901e

Ok, we need that procrastinators anonymous group already, lol. This has been a few weeks overdue, and I can't think of any other excuse other than a mix of laziness and the anxiety that comes with the task of writing a proper follow-up article. But, better late than never.

If you haven't had the chance to read the introductory piece on Apollo, I highly recommend taking a look at that first. It sets the stage for everything we're about to discuss and provides essential context about our mission and vision within NOSTR. Check it out here.

Alright, here we go!

State of development

Over the last few weeks, we’ve made some solid progress on Apollo, rolling out new features and UI enhancements to improve the overall user experience. Here’s a quick rundown:

• Zaps: Reward standout contributions with sats
• Profile Enhancements: Access your profile page and settings.
• Discussions: Comment on questions/answers with kind 1 notes.
• Accepted Answers: Mark answer as accepted.

Development has been slower than I had hoped, a challenging yet common scenario for solo projects with limited resources. Nevertheless, we press forward. I am reaching out for contributions in coding, feedback, quality assurance, or financial support in hard cold sats. Your support in any of these areas will significantly accelerate Apollo's development and of course, greatly appreciated.

We have a telegram group now https://t.me/+6EvEdCM2KnliMmNk. Please join us for real time updates and discussions.

Are we building the next Stack Overflow?

No, Apollo is not just another Stack Overflow clone on NOSTR, nor is it a Quora or any other platform you might think of. While it's true that some elements may draw inspiration from these familiar platforms, our goal is far from being a mere replica. We are building Apollo, end of story.

Allow me to digress for a moment, IMHO anyone claiming to be building a "better" version of an established platform like GitHub or anything similar on NOSTR is being delulu. Yep, delulu - and quite frankly, not looking at the full picture. However, I genuinely believe that we stand a fighting chance. We just need to build more robust, less buggy clients, delivering a decent user experience, and offering an appealing value proposition.

The average user may not care about this "freedom tech" nonsense or whatever underlying tech is powering their software. More often than not, they seek reliable solutions that serve their purpose efficiently and effectively. So what would make Apollo different from the rest (beyond NOSTR)? Our value proposition:

We reward active participation. It's as simple and powerful as that. Engage with the platform, contribute valuable insights, and you get rewarded. But it doesn't stop there. You have complete transparency and autonomy over your contributions and earnings. Sounds interesting? Well, this is made possible by this little thing called NOSTR. What is NOSTR you ask? NOSTR is…you already know where I am going with this, lol. We are simply offering an alternative that respects and rewards knowledge sharing without the constraints and limitations imposed by traditional platforms.

Yet, all this will not matter if we don’t already have a robust and functional piece of software.

Enough digression - we are still in the early stages of what’s possible with NOSTR, and whatever we come up with should transcend the idea of simply being a “better version” of something that already exists.

Uh, have you heard of Swamstr?

Yep, I have.

In the wise words of @fiatjaf:

Relays are already full of garbage, and there's garbage of every kind possible, so you have to write apps that are resilient to garbage.

Very sage advice from the creator of Nostr himself ;).

Apollo was designed from the ground up with coherence and organization, unlike Swamstr which lacks a certain degree of structure. The decision to build on custom event kinds for questions (kind 31993) and answers (kind 32017) was very deliberate - this very structure enables an efficient and coherent integration within Nostr, enhancing both the visibility and organization of content.

We are building with purpose (not that Swamstr wasn’t built with purpose, I don’t know), creating a resilient platform that can withstand the inevitable clutter - a critical aspect that IMHO Swamstr has overlooked. By leveraging custom kinds, Apollo offers a framework where specialized clients can thrive. Imagine integrating an FAQ section within a client, or tailoring the experience to suit educational purposes or technical support forums. The possibilities are boundless.

While Swamstr is undoubtedly a commendable effort, Apollo's methodical and structured approach sets it apart. It’s not just about surviving the "garbage"; we aim to transform this thing into something organized, useful, and most importantly, resilient.

Updates and future development

Here’s a detailed rundown of what we have accomplished and some very near future enhancements we are excited about:

Zaps and Zap splits: We have Zaps working and currently exploring zap splits as a potential approach to monetization. This idea proposes the distribution of zaps between answer contributors and Apollo itself, with the platform's share intended to support our development team and ensure a sustainable ecosystem. Here’s a link to the Github issue that proposes this https://github.com/samuelralak/apollo/issues/1. Let us know your thoughts

Discussions and Comments: The initial version of our discussions feature is up and running. We are leveraging kind 1 events to enable users post comments to seek clarifications or engage in deeper conversations around questions and answers.

Accepted Answers: We are satisfied with the current implementation of accepted answers, which allows users to recognize the most helpful responses. This feature contributes to the quality of discussions and ensures that valuable insights are easily identifiable.

Profile Page Enhancements: We already have a profile page framework set up but currently in its infancy. We will be adding detailed user statistics which will cover user’s questions, answers, and overall engagement level.

Expanding User Settings: Future updates will introduce a comprehensive settings menu, including Security, Notifications, Network, and Translation options. Additionally, customization features will allow users to upload and modify their profile pictures and banners.

Our goal over the next few weeks is to establish a more structured development cycle. This will enable us to implement new features and enhancements more consistently and timely.

Apollo remains committed to being a free and open-source project https://github.com/samuelralak/apollo.

Stay hydrated!

@ 93c6ab5c:77e0090f

1. ก่อนประวัติศาสตร์ ณ ดินแดน แถวๆ นี้

มนุษย์เริ่มเข้ามาตั้งถิ่นฐานในบริเวณไหล่ทวีปซุนดาแลนด์ (เอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้ในปัจจุบัน) ตั้งแต่ยุคน้ำแข็งครั้งสุดท้าย ตลอดจนยุคหินอันยาวนาน แล้วเริ่มสร้างอารยะธรรมขึ้นตามพื้นที่ราบลุ่มแม่น้ำซึ่งเหมาะกับการเพาะปลูกเลี้ยงสัตว์



หลักฐานแรกๆ ที่ถูกค้นพบ เกี่ยวกับชุมชนก่อนประวัติศาสตร์ คือ การเลี้ยงไก่บ้านซึ่งพบครั้งแรกในโลกที่ชุมชนบ้านโนนวัด จังหวัด นครราชสีมา ประเทศไทย



นักโบราณคดีขุดค้นพบ กระดูกไก่บ้านฝังอยู่ในบริเวณนี้จำนวนมาก และ เจอในอายุที่เก่าแก่ที่สุดที่เคยค้นพบ โดยสามารถนับย้อนไปได้ตั้งแต่ช่วง 1,650-1,250 ปีก่อนคริสต์ศักราช ซึ่งตรงกับยุคหินใหม่ (3,600 กว่าปีมาแล้ว)



ตั้งแต่มนุษย์โบราณเริ่มทำการปฏิวัติการเกษตร ลงหลักปักฐานตั้งชุมชน จึงจำเป็นต้องแผ้วถางป่าเพื่อเป็นที่ราบสำหรับปลูกข้าว ส่งผลให้ไก่ป่าเริ่มเข้ามาหากินตามพื้นที่ชุมชน และคนจึงเริ่มเลี้ยงไก่เพื่อเป็นอาหารอย่างจริงจัง องค์ความรู้นี้ถูกส่งต่อผ่านทางเครือข่ายทางการค้าไปยัง เมโสโปเตเมีย อินเดีย ไปจนถึงยุโรป



เมื่อชุมชนเกษตรกรรมใหญ่ขึ้น พัฒนาเป็นแหล่งอารายธรรมในยุคสมัยก่อนประวัติศาสตร์ - ยุคเหล็ก เห็นได้จากการเริ่มค้นพบเครื่องปั้นดินเผาในยุคนี้ และที่มีชื่อเสียงที่สุด คือจากที่อารยธรรมบ้านเชียง บริเวณจังหวัดอุดรธานี ซึ่งมีอายุกว่า 3,000 ปีมาแล้ว


2. ก่อร่างสร้างอารยธรรม กำเนิด “คนไทย”

จากชุมชนกึ่งเกษตรกรรม-หาของป่า เริ่มพัฒนาเป็นเมืองที่มีความซับซ้อนมากขึ้น โดยมีลักษณะเป็นเมืองที่มีพื้นที่ไม่ใหญ่ ประชากรไม่เยอะ แต่มีจำนวนเมืองมาก ตั้งกระจายอยู่ตามเส้นทางการค้าที่สำคัญ เช่นตามปากแม่น้ำ หรือ ช่องเขา ทางเดินผ่านป่า

คนที่นี่ ในสมัยนั้น ยังไม่ใช้ภาษาไทยในการสือสาร แต่ใช้ภาษามอญ-เขมร เป็นหลัก สืบเนื่องจากอารยธรรมฟูนัน จนถึง ขอม ที่แผ่ขยายอิทธิผลอยู่ในพื้นที่เป็นเวลานาน



แล้วคนไทย หรือตามนิยามก็คือ ”กลุ่มคนที่พูดภาษาไทย” อยู่ที่ไหนและมาเริ่มอยู่ที่นี่ได้อย่างไร ?



คนพูดภาษาตระกูลไท-ไต ยุคนั้นอาศัยอยู่แทบตอนใต้ของจีน , บริเวณอาณาจักร เดียนเบียนฟู(เวียดนาม) , และ เวียงจันทร์(ลาว) ส่วนใหญ่เป็นเขตที่ราบสูงภูเขา ซึ่งนักโบราณคดีตั้งชื่อบริเวณนี้ว่าโซเมีย (Zomia)

จึงจะเห็นได้ว่า ภาษาไทยนั้นยังไม่ถูกใช้เป็นภาษากลาง ณ บริเวณที่ราบลุ่มแม่น้ำเจ้าพระยา หรือ ภาคกลาง ของประเทศไทยในปัจจุบัน



จนกระทั่งการค้าทางทะเลกับจีนเริ่มเติบโตมากขึ้นจากเส้นทางสายไหมทางทะเล จีน ติดต่อกับ อินเดีย เปอร์เซีย ผ่านทะเลจีนใต้ - ช่องแคบมะละกา - มหาสมุทรอินเดีย ซึ่งการเดินเรือในสมัยก่อน ต้องแล่นเรือเลียบชายฝั่งไปเรื่อยๆ ยังไม่สามารถตัดผ่านทะเลเปิดได้ 



เรือเหล่านี้จึงจำเป็นต้องแวะติดต่อกับชาวเผ่าตามทางระหว่างเดินเรือ เพื่อเติมเสบียงและแลกเปลี่ยนสินค้า ก่อให้เกิดเมืองท่าตามปากแม่น้ำ ปากอ่าว

กำแพงทางภาษา คืออุปสรรคของชาวราบลุ่มแม่น้ำเจ้าพระยาที่ใช้ภาษามอญเป็นหลัก คนเวียงจันทร์จึงเริ่มเข้ามามีบทบาทในการสื่อสารเพื่อทำการค้ากับจีน เนื่องจากมีรากทางภาษาใกล้เคียงกัน กอปรกับ ชาวภูเขา(เวียงจันทร์ ถึง จีนใต้) นำสินค้าจำพวก ทองคำ ข้าวเปลือก ไม้หอม เครื่องเทศ มาแลกเปลี่ยนกับสำเภาจีนด้วย

จึงเริ่มมีการใช้ภาษาไทย เพื่อเป็นภาษากลางทางการค้า ก่อกำเนิด ”คนไทย” ที่อาศัยอยู่ที่ราบลุ่มแม่น้ำเจ้าพระยาเป็นครั้งแรก



เหล่าคนไทย เมื่อผ่านไปหลาย Generation เริ่มสะสม Wealth ก่อร้างสร้างวงศ์ตระกูล จนเริ่มเข้ามามีบทบาทในราชสำนักโบราณที่แต่เดิมเป็นคนมอญ เช่นใน อู่ทอง สุพรรณบุรี หรือ ละโว้ และยังมีคนไทยอีกมากมายที่เป็นชนชั้นนำผ่านการค้าขายกับจีน ส่งผลให้วัฒนธรรมคนพูดภาษาไทยเข้ามาครอบคลุมทั้งพื้นที่ภาคกลางของประเทศไทยในที่สุด...

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FYI : การค้าขายในยุคนั้น ใช้ Barter trade , ทองคำ/หอยเบี้ย (สินค้าประเภทเงิน) ควบคู่กับเหรียญโลหะของแต่ละเมือง

FYI : ศาสนาพุทธเริ่มเข้ามาในไทยผ่านช่องทางการค้าจาก อินเดีย - ทวาย(พม่า) - ด่านเจดีย์สามองค์ เข้าสู่หัวเมืองต่างๆ และพัฒนาเป็นอารยธรรมทวารวดีในกาลต่อมา ซึ่งมีเมืองใหญ่อย่าง นครปฐม ,เสมา ,ศรีเทพ โดยเฉพาะเมืองศรีเทพ(เพชรบูรณ์) ที่เป็นเมืองพุทธขนาดใหญ่ ถึงขั้นมีมหาวิทยาลัยสงฆ์อยู่ในเมือง

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3.เริ่มต้นประวัติศาสตร์ ยุคทองของชนชาติไทย ผ่านการค้าเสรี และ เงินที่แข็งแกร่ง

ถ้านับว่าจุดเริ่มต้นของประวัติศาสตร์คือภาษาเขียน ประวัติศาสตร์ชนชาติไทยคงเริ่มเมื่อพ่อขุนรามคำแหง จารึกภาษาไทยเป็นเวอร์ชั่นแรก บนหินทรายแป้ง เมื่อกว่า 700 ปีก่อน



เมืองสุโขทัย ถูกสถาปนาขึ้นบนเส้นทางการค้าบริเวณลุ่มแม่น้ำยมและแม่น้ำน่าน โดยพ่อขุนรามคำแหงมหาราชทรงส่งเสริมการค้าขายกับต่างประเทศ เปิดเมืองสุโขทัยให้เป็นเมืองท่าการค้าที่สำคัญ สร้างถนนหนทางเพื่ออำนวยความสะดวกในการคมนาคมขนส่ง



ลักษณะสังคมในสมัยสุโขทัยจะเป็นแบบกึ่งเกษตรกรรม คือ ปลูกข้าว เลี้ยงสัตว์ และ ทำการประมงน้ำจืดเพื่อการยังชีพเป็นหลัก เหลือกว่านั้นจึงขาย

ขณะเดียวกันก็มีการค้าขายของป่าจำพวก ไม้หอม เครื่องเทศ ไปจนถึงการถลุงแร่โลหะขาย เนื่องด้วยมีแร่เหล็ก ทองคำ และ ทองแดง อุดมสมบูรณ์อยู่ในพื้นที่ ดั่งชื่อ “สุวรรณภูมิ”

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FYI : สมัยนี้เริ่มใช้เงินพดด้วงอย่างเป็นกิจลักษณะ ทำจากโลหะหลายประเภท (Precious metals money) ซึ่งถือเป็นเงินชั้นที่ 1 ในลำดับขั้นของเงิน ใช้ในการแลกเปลี่ยนกับสินค้าราคาแพงเช่น ที่อยู่อาศัย หรือ สัตว์ใหญ่ ขณะที่ใช้หอยเบี้ย เป็นหน่วยย่อยควบคู่กันไป เพื่อแลกเปลี่ยนของราคาถูกเช่น อาหาร หรือ ของใช้ประจำวัน 



โดยหอยเบี้ยที่ใช้กันในอุษาคเนย์ จะนำเข้ามาจากหมู่เกาะตั้งแต่ฟิลิปปินส์ ไป จนถึง มัลดีฟฟ์ เป็นเหตุให้รัฐในสมัยนั้นไม่สามารถควบคุม Supply ของหอย จึงจะเห็นได้ว่าถ้าปีไหนมรสุมเยอะ ปริมาณหอยที่เข้ามาในระบบก็จะน้อย หอยเบี้ยจึงเป็นสินค้าที่มีคุณสมบัติบางประการเป็นเงินได้


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ต่อมาในสมัยอยุธยา ชนชาติไทยสร้างเมืองจนกลายเป็นหนึ่งในเมืองท่าที่ใหญ่ที่สุดในเอเชีย กลายเป็นศูนย์กลางการค้าขายที่สำคัญในกลไกเศรฐกิจโลก 



ในยุคนั้น ราชวงค์หมิงของจีนมีการสำรวจเส้นทางการค้าอย่างกว้างขวางโดย เจิ้ง เหอ (Cheng Ho, 1371-1433) ขันทีผู้บัญชาการกองเรือมหาสมบัติของจักรพรรดิหงอู่ ทำให้การค้าผ่านเส้นทางสายไหมทางทะเลรุ่งเรืองถึงขีดสุด 




อีกทั้งยุคอยุธยายังร่วมสมัยเดียวกันกับช่วงเริ่มต้นของยุคเรอเนสซองซ์ในภาคพื้นยุโรป ซึ่งเป็นยุคสมัยที่ศิลปะและวิทยาการก้าวหน้าอย่างต่อเนื่องผ่านระบบเศรษฐกิจบนพื้นฐานของเงินที่ดี (Gold standard) ทำให้เครือข่ายอารยธรรมรอบโลก ไม่ว่าจะตะวันออกไกลจนถึงเกาะอังกฤษล้วนมีการพัฒนาขึ้น

พร้อมไปกับการเริ่มล่าอนานิคมโดยชาวตะวันตก ที่สร้างนวัตกรรมทางการเงินอย่างตลาดหุ้น (Dutch East India Company (VOC)) และ การเกิดขึ้นของระบบธนาคาร ทำให้ชนชาติยุโรปสามารถเข้าถึง “ทุน” ได้มากกว่าชาติอื่น และใช้ทุนดังกล่าวในการล่าทรัพยากรทั่วโลก กอบโกยกลับสู่จักวรรดิของตน



อยุธยาตลอดจนถึงยุครัตนโกสิทร์ ได้ประโยชน์จากภูมิรัฐศาสตร์ ด้วยความที่เป็นรัฐกันชนระหว่างสองมหาอำนาจยุโรป (อังกฤษ,ฝรั่งเศส) จึงทำให้รักษาเอกราชไว้ได้ (แต่เสียสิทธิสภาพนอกอนาเขต และ โดนสนธิสัญญาที่ไม่เป็นธรรม)

รัฐอยุธยานั้นผูกขาดการค้า โดยมีพระคลังข้างที่ ดูแล ติดต่อ ทำการค้ากับฝรั่ง และเก็บภาษีหลากหลายประเภท เพื่อนำเงินมาใช้สร้าง ถนน สะพาน และกิจการทหาร



เนื่องด้วยความที่ประเทศโดยรอบต้องใช้แรงงานมหาศาลในการสร้างเมืองอณานิคม บริเวณที่ราบลุ่มแม่น้ำเจ้าพระยาซึ่งเป็นแหล่งปลูกข้าวชั้นเยี่ยม จึงได้อานิสงค์ในการส่งออกอาหารไปเลี้ยงแรงงานรอบๆ อุษาคเนย์ ทำกำไรให้มหาศาล เกิดเป็นยุคทองของประวัติศาสตร์ชนชาติไทย



อารยธรรมคนพูดภาษาไทยแผ่ขยายเหนือสุดไปถึงประมาณอุตรดิตถ์ ใต้สุดไม่ไกลกว่านครศรีธรรมราช ไม่ได้ครอบคลุมเหมือนแผนที่ประเทศไทยที่เราเห็นกันในปัจจุบัน ซึ่งเป็นการขีดเส้นแผนที่ และสถาปนาความเชื่อรัฐชาติสมัยใหม่

(รูปภาพอยุธยา วาดในปี ค.ศ.1665 โดย Johannes Vingboons, ผู้จ้างคือ the Dutch East India Company)

4. รัตนโกสินทร์

แต่เดิมพื้นที่บริเวณนี้เรียกว่า บางกอก มีชุมชนดั้งเดิมอาศัยอยู่ก่อนแล้วตั้งแต่สมัยอยุทธยา จนกระทั่งพระเจ้าตากสินสร้างกรุงธนบุรี และต่อมาพระบาทสมเด็จพระพุทธยอดฟ้าจุฬาโลกมหาราชทรงย้ายราชธานีมาอยู่อีกฝั่งตะวันออกของแม่น้ำเจ้าพระยาและสถาปานาเป็นราชธานีจนถึงปัจจุบัน



ช่วงแรกยังเป็นระบบเศรษฐกิจแบบดั้งเดิมคือกึ่งการเกษตร มีการค้าขายกับต่างชาติบ้างตามเดิมคือ จีน อินเดีย มลายู โดยสินค้าส่งออกหลักยังคงเป็นข้าว 



จนกระทั่งในสมัยรัชกาลที่ 2 เมื่อ พ.ศ. 2398 (ค.ศ. 1855) ที่ไทยได้ทำสนธิสัญญาบาว์ริง (Bowring Treaty) กับอังกฤษซึ่งในสมัยนั้นเป็นมหาอำนาจเบอร์หนึ่งของโลก ส่งผลให้เกิดการค้าเสรีระหว่างไทยกับอังกฤษขึ้น และ เกิดการขยายตัวทางเศรษฐกิจอย่างกว้างขวางตามมา

ถึงแม้ว่าสนธิสัญญานี้จะทำให้ไทยเสียสิทธินอกอณาเขตให้อังกฤษ แต่ก็ทำให้ไทยได้ค้าขายและเริ่มเปิดตัวสู่โลกมากขึ้น ตลาดเสรีเริ่มกำเนิดในไทย มีการเข้ามาลงทุนจากต่างชาติและพัฒนาระบบเศรษฐกิจอย่างต่อเนื่องไปจนถึงการผลิตเหรียญกษาปณ์และธนบัตรในรัชกาลที่ 4

ต่อมาเริ่มมีการปฏิรูปประเทศครั้งใหญ่ในรัชกาลที่ 5 ซึ่งมีการเปลี่ยนผ่านจากระบบศักดินาสู่อารยะ และสร้างโครงสร้างพื้นฐานขนาดใหญ่ทั่วประเทศ รวมถึงระบบการเงินการธนาคารอย่าง กรมธนบัตร , กรมการคลัง , และ ธนาคารสยามกัมมาจล

ในสมัยรัชกาลที่ 5 นี้ ได้มีการรวมศูนย์อำนาจ เริ่มขีดเส้นเขตแดน ยึดหัวเมืองเหนือจรดใต้ ปราบกบฏผู้มีบุญทั้งหลาย

”ความเป็นคนไทย“ ถูกขยายออกไปนอกที่ราบลุ่มแม่น้ำเจ้าพระยา มีการทำลายความเชื่อ ภาษาพูด,เขียน ของท้องถิ่นต่างๆ และสร้างค่านิยมการใช้ภาษาพูด,เขียน แบบไทยแทน

หลักสูตรการเรียนการสอนประวัติศาสตร์หลังยุคนี้จึงมีลักษณะเป็น “ราชาชาตินิยม” กล่าวคือการสอนเพื่อเสริมสำนึกความรักชาติไทย ผ่านตัวละครในประวัติศาสตร์ราชสำนักไทย ไล่ย้อนกลับไปถึงสมัยพ่อขุนรามคำแหง

เราจึงโตมาโดยแทบไม่รู้จักกษัตริย์ล้านนา หรือ เจ้าเมืองปาตานีเลย ทัังๆที่เราถูกย้ำนักย้ำหนาว่าผืนดินทุกตารางนิ้วตามแผนที่ปัจจุบันคือประเทศไทย

ขณะเดียวกันเรากลับโตมาด้วยความเชื่อใน “เชื้อชาติไทย” ตามวลีหนึ่งในเพลงชาติ ซึ่งเชื้อชาติไทยนั้นไม่มีอยู่จริง หากแต่คนไทยทุกวันนี้เกิดจากการผสมปนไปมาของคนอุษาคเนย์ คนจีน และ อื่นๆ ...

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ด้วยระบบการปกครองที่ยังรวมศูนย์อำนาจเบ็ดเสร็จและการบริหารเศรษฐกิจของประเทศโดยชนชั้นนำเพียงหยิบมือ ทำให้การใช้จ่ายของรัฐในสมัยนั้นไม่มีประสิทธิภาพ รวมถึงภาวะเศรษฐกิจตกต่ำทั่วโลกจากสงครามโลกครั้งที่ 1 และ 2 ในรัชกาลที่ 6 - 7 ก่อให้เกิดภาวะข้าวยากหมากแพง 



หลังการเปลี่ยนแปลงการปกครอง พ.ศ. 2475 ไทยได้กลายมาเป็นประเทศอุตสาหกรรมใหม่และมีการลงทุนเข้ามาประเทศอย่างมหาศาลจากต่างชาติ ทั้งในแง่การค้าขาย และ การเมือง ที่อเมริกาอัดฉีดเม็ดเงินจำนวนมากเพื่อสร้างโครงสร้างพื้นฐาน ถนนหนทางไปสู่ทั้งภูมิภาคเพื่อหวังจะหยุดการล้มครืนของ Domino effect จากลัทธิคอมมิวนิสต์ที่กำลังคืบคลานเข้าสู่เอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้


Bretton Woods Conference, meeting at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire (July 1–22, 1944), 


อย่างที่เราเห็น อเมริกาหยุดลัทธิคอมมิวนิสต์ไว้ได้สำเร็จที่ชายแดนฝั่งแม่น้ำโขง แต่แลกมาด้วยความเจ็บปวดของคนในพื้นที่จากภัยสงครามและความขัดแย้ง ความโกรธเกลียดฝังรากลึกมาถึงปัจจุบันพร้อมทั้งที่อเมริการสถาปณาตนเป็นผู้นำโลกรายใหม่ ผ่านการล่าอณานิคมโดย Us dollar , World Bank , IMF ....





@ 1e52c554:21771908

Posthumous work of the Colombian poet born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948

Welcome to this blog dedicated to the Posthumous work of the Colombian poet Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (my father), born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948-2010. Where I will be publishing each of the 175 sonnets from his unpublished collection 'Sonnets For The Twenty First Century And A Circadian Musical (1984-1987).' Analyzed with GPT4 artificial intelligence and illustrated with AI tools... I hope you enjoy this garden of words snatched from the solitude of a locked room.

Likewise, any enthusiast of the sonnet form is invited to conduct their personal studies of Arroyave Tabares' work, as it is a collection that, although registered since 1989, has not yet been published.

Frank Duna

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Analysis "There Is Lure In The Forbidden "

Introduction

"Sonnet 124" by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is a poem that celebrates love and the enduring nature of a deep and passionate connection between two souls.

Thematic Analysis

First Quatrain: The speaker begins by setting the scene, describing a world where various individuals meet and interact. The focus is on the timeless nature of love and its ability to rejuvenate.

Second Quatrain: The speaker talks about the power of imagination and storytelling in creating new dreams. There’s a sense of nostalgia and longing, with past sighs turning into sweet ecstasy.

Third Quatrain: The speaker expresses joy in witnessing love each morning, sharing life’s force with open eyes. There’s a hint of commitment beyond traditional vows, suggesting a deeper connection.

Couplet: The speaker concludes with a desire to spend time in slow rock, possibly referring to a steady rhythm of life or love that beats along with time.

Overall, the poem speaks to the timeless and transcendent nature of love, where two souls find a profound connection that enriches their lives, and they can cherish each moment together.

Structure and Rhyme Scheme

Let’s analyze the rhyme scheme of the sonnet in detail. The sonnet follows the Shakespearean sonnet structure, which has a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Here’s how it applies to this sonnet:

``` Ay lo, our place is deep inside a world (A) Where lovers, singers, strangers and else meet (B) But souls mate without ever getting old (A) And love can mean a massage for our fest (B)

By spreading wide the wings of fantasy (C) Stories we tell and make into new dreams (D) For our past sighs become sweet ecstasy (C) That we can feel even when our heart streams. (D)

How good to see the fall in love each morn (E) With open eyes sharing my force of life (F) And much more not counting what we have sworn (E) Further those rituals of man and wife. (F)

Ay lo! , to spend all our time in slow rock (G) That beats along the seconds of our clock. (G) ```

Each letter represents the end rhyme of each line. Lines with the same letter rhyme with each other. For example, the first and third lines (“world” and “old”) rhyme with each other, represented by ‘A’. The second and fourth lines (“meet” and “fest”) rhyme with each other, represented by ‘B’, and so on.

The final two lines form a rhymed couplet (‘GG’), which is a distinctive feature of Shakespearean sonnets. These lines often provide a twist, resolution, or summarization to the poem.

Analysis of Aspects

Let’s delve deeper into the analysis of “There Is Lure In The Forbidden” by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares.

Language and Imagery: The language used in the sonnet is rich and evocative, with a strong emphasis on sensory details. The poet uses vivid imagery to convey the allure of the forbidden, the physical and emotional manifestations of this allure, and the ultimate resolution in serene love. For example, “lips become scarlet from rubescent” paints a vivid picture of physical desire, while “hearts hoard their song of variations” conveys the emotional complexity.

Themes: The main themes of the sonnet are forbidden allure, desire, and love. The poet explores how forbidden allure can lead to intense physical and emotional experiences, ultimately culminating in a state of serene love.

Meter: The sonnet appears to follow the iambic pentameter, which is a common meter in English poetry and particularly in sonnets. Each line consists of five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables, giving the poem a rhythmic flow.

Overall, this sonnet is a beautiful exploration of forbidden allure and love. The poet skillfully uses language and imagery to convey complex emotions and experiences. The traditional structure of the sonnet, with its quatrains and concluding couplet, provides a clear framework for the poet’s exploration. The use of iambic pentameter adds a rhythmic quality to the poem, enhancing its overall impact.

(GPT4)

Syllable count for each line.

```

There Is Lure In The Forbidden

10 There is lure in thíngs that are forbidden 10 Oh those wanton dreams overing our days
10 Looking for minds that have not been ridden 10 Or renote places where a pure soul strays!!!

10 So lips become scarlet from rubescent 10 And new looks hint the eagerness of mood, 10 Conversations quickly end in consent 10 And zeals demmand more than kisses for food.

10 The hearts hoard their song of variations 10 And nothing else convinces or can please 10 Until the skins thrive with new sensations 10 And sudden impressions change, even cease...

10 A Sweet serenity abridges our fire
10 And we still conquer and our love admire. ***

```

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Sonnets For The Twenty First Century And A Circadian Musical Written By Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (1984-1987)

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Analyzed by GPT4; Image by leonardo.ai; First published on Nostr Protocol by franciscoarroyavet@nostrplebs.com There Is Lure In The Forbidden

@ 46f6acdf:6331b6e7

Ratings

A NIP for ratings.

Existing PRs This one has a lot of feedback but the PR has not been updated with it: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/203/files

You can rate other users like: json { "kind": 310xx, "tags": [ ["p", "b1a649ebe8..."], ["d", "bitcoin-knowledge"], ["rating", "$n"] // 0 < n < 100 ], "content": "He doesn't know anything about bitcoin but likes to larp", ...other fields }

The d identifier is for the topic that you want to rate the pubkey about. Standard d tags can be: notes, articles, videos, shorts, livestreams, nests, marketplace. We can also have ["d", "trust"] for trustworthyness.

Instead of parameterized replaceable events, we can also have non parameterized ones, with a single p tag and multiple rating tags : json { "kind": 110xx, "tags": [ ["p", "b1a649ebe8..."], ["rating", "notes", "100", "God tier shitposter"], ["rating", "trust", "0", "Still hasn't paid back my dues"] ], ...other fields }

We can also have another event kind for recommending services on nostr, that extends this idea of ratings. For now we only have relays and NIP-96 file storage servers, but can have many more.

json { "kind": 330xx, "tags": [ ["d", "...."] ["type", "relay"] ["u", "wss://alicerelay.example.com"], ["rating", "90"] ], "content": "This relay is for bitcoiners only", ...other fields }

Self Notes

Encrypted notes for self reference.

json { "content": "I met this guy at nostr orgy", "tags": [ ["d", "..."] ["p", "b1a649ebe8..."], ], ...other fields } These events can have a single e, p or a tag. We can make use of concept of rumour and seals from NIP-59 (Gift Wrap) to encrypt the event its creator. Don't need the gift wrap part.

Use Cases

When you follow/mute someone or add them to a list, you can add a note about them for your own reference. You can secretely add a comment on a shitcoiner's post and timestamp it using OTS, and then reveal it when they get rekt. But I am not sure how you'd reveal the decrypted message without exposing your nsec.

Pokey Pokey

First idea is an event with kind:200 that contains a plaintext message in .content, with a single p tag. It is interpreted as a writing on the timeline of the user with tagged pubkey. Kinda like writing on the wall of someone on Facebook. It's for things like asking "Hey @someone, when is the price of your product dropping?" without the message reaching all your followers too.

The second one is a terrible idea. No one should implement it. But at the same time I want to do it so badly. Event with kind:300 (could be encrypted using NIP-44 and NIP-59) that tags a user and pokes them. Why? Just because. Now the poked one has to figure out why the other guy did that.

Internet Archive Explorer

Basically [this idea from Gigi][nostr:note1mqe0y0vfyzck2yqnfkmgnq8kzr8zvrmyzay4jq58s0muhlgldzsqq4el0k]

Here is what I think will be easy to build - Scheduled and live watch parties similar to live streams and nests - Chatrooms like the ones used there - Highlights from different shows/episodes - Option to self host some data in case Internet Archive goes woke one day and deletes something

POW Tokens

A POW token has the following format: <hash>:<nonce>:<target>:<URI>. The hash is the SHA256 of everything after it. The URI can be any URI that you want to add POW to. It can be "nostr:npub..." or "wss://relay.example.com" or anything else.

These tokens can be used in Authorization headers while making HTTP requests, or added to notes to kind:0 profile metadata events to mark yourself as non spammer, or used by other protocols that have nothing to do with nostr. If you mine any nostr event like the kind:0, then you loose the POW when you decide to update it. With the POW token, you can reuse them in the updated events as well. We can also have events with a new kind for gifting these mined POW tokens with the recipients "nostr:npub..." inside. It will make more sense when we come to index relays.

Index Relays

Index Relays are a relay client hybird that only tansmit kind:10002 (relay list metadata) events. I need to explore if reusing the BitTorrent DHT for this will make much sense. Otherwise we can build it purely on nostr as well:

• Store kind:10002 events of anyone as long as those events have sufficient POW in them (as a tag containing the POW token)
• Keep a track of n other of index relays
• New index relays mine their URL using the POW token concept and announce their presence to the network
• If the relay can't find an kind:10002 event for a given pubkey, they can
• act as a client and ask their known index relays for the event and return it to the users
• reply with their known index relays

The idea is that, given an npub, we can do our best at finding where they post to. It adds more complexity but I think it's worth having as a fallback for when clients just can't find any information about a user in their configure relays.

Index Relays Having POW tokens be the criteria for acceptance means users don't have to subscribe to a bunch of different services to prove they aren't spammers. Also these are probably going to run by people who want to support the nostr network.

We can do distribution of the data so that they are pretty evenly distributed among the index-relays. If we allow these index realys to have their own nostr keys, then we can make them store events only from their pubkey neightbours.

Zap to Reply

Before your client posts events to the read relay of another user (in case of replies, DMs etc), there can be standard way for the client to ask the relay if they are going to accept events from you. That way, it can display information to you like: "21 sats to reply". If relays allow you to write to it after the initial payment, then the comment box remains open, otherwise you pay everytime you reply to them. Relays may allow you to post their even when are not a subscriber, if you are in the social graph of the user.

We can even do zaps that are split between the user and the relay too.

Also it allows us to do the equivalant of blocking DMs, hiding/deleting replies to your post etc, by asking the relay. It might be prefereable to muting someone, when you don't want your followers to see their comments under your posts either.

Lists v2

Semisol mentioned in a Telegram group that huge lists are a problem. Once you add thousands of items to a list (like a music playlist) it becomes very difficult to work with.

I am thinking of two solutions to the problem: - Meta-lists that point to part n/m of other lists. These events will define a list event as page 1, then another as page 2 etc. - Add, sub events to a list. You create events defining the addition, and deletion of items from a list. I think Semi was thinking of this. This might become a implementation nightmare though.

Nostr Tabs

Inspired by Melvin Carvalho's idea. Users make a group, add others, and keep track of who owes whom how much. He also menioned OpenTabs, need to find what that was about. This idea can be further expanded to include services who offer credit to people based on their financial history etc. I can see how cashu mints fit into this as well. Will expand on this idea later.

Nostr Dictionary

The idea came [while browsing urban Dictionary][nostr:note1y60d2hc25h34emrlxnd5qpc4q80vnsytf4zncfjnm3elpwq92musyedhza]. Now that Pablo has created Wikifreedia, I can steal his ideas, build a client for dictionary entries. It needs a language tag (so do long form content and wiki entries).

Nostr Canvas

Drawings

Nostr canvas is defined as a virtual canvas where people can draw anything using nostr events.

json { "kind": 33000, "content": "#ff0000", // HTML color code "tags": [ ["d", "100:4224"], ], ...other fields }

In these events, the .content is a HTML color code: - keyword name (red) - hex (#ff0000) - RGB (255,0,0) - HSL (0, 100%, 50%)

The d tag is of the format of x axis value : y axis value in terms of pixels.

Graffiti

We define public canvas drawings as events with kind:33001. They are also supposed to have proof of work to override other people's drawings.

json { "kind": 33001, "content": "# ff0000", "tags": [ ["d", "100:4224"], ["nonce", "776797", "21"] // proof of work ], ...other fields }

If people want to compete, then we need a way to override other people's pixels. We can do that by having some logic in a strfry relay about overriding kind 33001 events if another event comes with greater POW.

P2P Trading Groups

Idea is from Ravi Patel. Basically the concept is to replace these Telegram groups for doing P2P trades. Will need to utilize WoT. Will expand on it later.

Live Calls

json { "kind": 15000, "content": "", "tags": [ ["server", "https://example.com"] ["protocol", "signal"] ], ...other fields }

We can pick from one of these protocols: signal, simplex, and hypercore (like keet), or others. We may need to add some ID specific to that used protocol in the kind:15000 event, and do a NIP-05 like verification of it on the client side.

Here are the things that we can aim to enable:

• Private contacts
• One on one DMs
• potentially much more privacy preserving than NIP-44 DMs
• we can just use NIP-44 for DMs for those who don't have a kind:15000 event configured, but use the external protocol for those who do
• Group messages
• One on one voice calls
• One on one video calls
• Conference voice calls
• Conference video calls
• Share files via DM or to groups
• Audio texts, photos, videos, and other docs like in WhatsApp
• Expiring "stories" that can be seen only by your contacts or whitelists
• Voice calls with a link that can be shared with others
• Video calls with a link (like Google Meet) that can be shared with others

Maybe we don't need to protocol tag and the URI of the server will provide enough info.

Services on nostr

2 Way Auth

Client visits a URL on browser. Finds npub in meta tag like this:

html <meta name="nostr" content="npub...">`

We can use use a method similar to NIP-42 (Authentication of clients to relays). We can have event with kind:222xx with the other and challenge tags:

json { "kind": 222xx, "tags": [ ["other", <hex pubkey of other party>], ["challenge", <challenge string from the other party>] ], ... }

(Do we need the other tag? Why is the u tag there in NIP-98?) Both parties make authenticate each other this way. Idea borrowed from what I had heard John Carvalho talk about when talking about Slashtags.

We can also use the Authorization: Nostr eyJ... format from NIP-98 (HTTP Auth) to send the tokens in headers when using an API.

Update: This PR by Semisol: NIP-97 Login with Nostr achieves half of what I want. Maybe add the other stuff as a PR that relies on it. The PR needs some reworking based on the feedback provided

Need to think: If on a browser and the client (most probably a browser extension) found out that it's a service provider on nostr from the meta tag, which URL does it consider to be the service endpoint?

Use Cases

When visiting a webpage, you can have a browser extension display you its npub (after authenticating) to make sure that you are on the right page. A service's service endpoint will be posted by it via a kind:100xx event (we can probably just use the kind:0 event with an extra field too), so you can visit a service's endpoint from just having it's npub, you don't have to trust DNS anymore.

You can bookmark services in a similar manner to NIP-51 (Lists). Bookmarks can be kind:1000xx lists, or kind:3000xx sets.

Here is an example set:

json { "kind": 300xx, "tags": [ ["p", "07caba282f76441955b695551c3c5c742e5b9202a3784780f8086fdcdc1da3a9"], ["p", "a55c15f5e41d5aebd236eca5e0142789c5385703f1a7485aa4b38d94fd18dcc4"] ], "content": "TJob1dQrf2ndsmdbeGU+05HT5GMnBSx3fx8QdDY/g3NvCa7klfzgaQCmRZuo1d3WQjHDOjzSY1+MgTK5WjewFFumCc.....TQ==", ...other fields }

We should probably wait till NIP-44 gains more adoption and then use it for encryption instead of using NIP-04 like NIP-51 suggests.

Bots on nostr

This is an extension of services on nostr. (I have seen Fiatjaf mention this idea multiple times, but not sure this is what hea meant) The services can have a standard interface with which users can talk to them.

Commands

These are kind:110xx events created by the service (bot) to list all the commands it responds to.

json { "tags": [ ["c", "balance"], ["c", "imagine"] ] ...other fields }

We can add more data in the future to these commands. Not sure exactly how, but a description, and maybe price etc would be nice.

We can have these command list events be only visible for the service users too. Either using gift wraps and NIP-44 or using NIP-04 for now.

Just like Discord bots, the client can keep a websocket connection open with it too. The simplest thing would be to just use nostr events (DMs) for communication. But if you open a websocket connection with the service endpoint by mutually authenticating each other anyway, then you don't need signed events for authenticating each piece of data to and from the service.

The idea is to also have widgets associated with these bots/services, that push information to you, or give an updated stream of information.

Consider these examples: - A widget from your ISP that shows an updated data balance - An auto expiring reminder from your ISP that you have consumed 50% of your data - A command from text to image service called "/create" that allows you to create pictures, but a sticky widget with the your sats balance that shows your balance decrementing every time you use it - A notification tagged urgent and important from your cloud provider when your production site goes down. Keeps repeating till you acknowledge it - A bitcoin's price widget from npubxyz... that always displays the updated price when you open the app

Collaborative Document Editing

The idea is to enable Google Doc, Figma like applications using nostr identities

See: - GitHub issue: https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/issues/929 - fiatjaf's article: https://habla.news/fiatjaf/Zih6ZDW1_63L3QUIaK8BU

Games on nostr

There is a Telegram group created by some other nostriches for discussing this topic: https://t.me/NostrGamedev

My idea is to use JSON schemas to define the rules of 1v1 games. And also have some kinda templates that can display the moves associated with the games, can be just HTML5. I will start with simple games like Rock Paper Scissors and then move on to Tik Tak Toe and then eventually to more complex ones like Chess.

# My Own Apps

• Liphapha: the finanance app using Cashu with a focus on private communcation over nostr
• Nauka: a mobile client for live streams and nests
• Roostr: the everything app? i dunno i just like the name

@ 5eff677b:9d10c180

🌟 Attention, meme coin mavens! 🌈 The countdown begins for our inaugural raffle event! Prepare your pockets and polish your HOSKY tokens—it's time to play for keeps! 💸

SmartPlaces #Cardano #Meme #CountdownToWinning #CashCowRaffle 🎩

@ 5144fe88:9587d5af

The answer to these bitcoin questions comes from an email correspondence between Martti Malmi and Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto on May 4, 2009. Although it has been 15 years, looking back now, it is still a timeless, simple and classic answer. Share it with everyone.

Address: https://mmalmi.github.io/satoshi/

* Bitcoin FAQ *

General Questions

1 What is bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer network based anonymous digital currency. Peer-to-peer (P2P) means that there is no central authority to issue new money or to keep track of the transactions. Instead, those tasks are managed collectively by the nodes of the network. Anonymity means that the real world identity of the parties of a transaction can be kept hidden from the public or even from the parties themselves.

2 How does bitcoin work?

Bitcoin utilizes public/private key cryptography. When a coin is transfered from user A to user B, A adds B's public key to the coin and signs it with his own private key. Now B owns the coin and can transfer it further. To prevent A from transfering the already used coin to another user C, a public list of all the previous transactions is collectively maintained by the network of bitcoin nodes, and before each transaction the coin's unusedness will be checked.

For details, see chapter Advanced Questions.

3 What is bitcoin's value backed by?

Bitcoin is valued for the things it can be exchanged to, just like all the traditional paper currencies are.

When the first user publicly announces that he will make a pizza for anyone who gives him a hundred bitcoins, then he can use bitcoins as payment to some extent - as much as people want pizza and trust his announcement. A pizza-eating hairdresser who trusts him as a friend might then announce that she starts accepting bitcoins as payment for fancy haircuts, and the value of the bitcoin would be higher - now you could buy pizzas and haircuts with them. When bitcoins have become accepted widely enough, he could retire from his pizza business and still be able to use his bitcoin-savings.

4 How are new bitcoins created?

New coins are generated by a network node each time it finds the solution to a certain calculational problem. In the first 4 years of the bitcoin network, amount X of coins will be created. The amount is halved each 4 years, so it will be X/2 after 4 years, X/4 after 8 years and so on. Thus the total number of coins will approach 2X.

5 Is bitcoin safe?

Yes, as long as you make backups of your coin keys, protect them with strong passwords and keep keyloggers away from your computer. If you lose your key or if some unknown attacker manages to unlock it, there's no way to get your coins back. If you have a large amount of coins, it is recommended to distribute them under several keys. You propably wouldn't either keep all your dollars or euros as paper in a single wallet and leave it unguarded.

6 Why should I use bitcoin?

• Transfer money easily through the internet, without having to trust third parties.

• Third parties can't prevent or control your transactions.

• Be safe from the unfair monetary policies of the monopolistic central banks and the other risks of centralized power over a money supply. The limited inflation of the bitcoin system's money supply is distributed evenly (by CPU power) throughout the network, not monopolized to a banking elite.

• Bitcoin's value is likely to increase as the growth of the bitcoin economy exceeds the inflation rate - consider bitcoin an investment and start running a node today!

7 Where can I get bitcoins?

Find a bitcoin owner and sell her something - MMORPG equipement, IT support, lawn mowing, dollars or whatever you can trade with her. You can also generate new bitcoins for yourself by running a bitcoin network node.

@ 3f770d65:7a745b24

February 24, 2024 - Nostr Nests, the premier decentralized audio platform powered by the Nostr protocol, announces the launch of its highly anticipated version 2.0 beta release. This major update brings complete integration with Nostr, a redesigned user interface, and a host of powerful features, making it easier than ever to connect, collaborate, and create in an open and censorship-resistant environment.

Originally launched in January 2023 as Nostr Plebs Spaces, Nostr Nests quickly gained traction as a haven for audio-based interactions across the Nostr protocol. The official rebrand to Nostr Nests in February 2023 further solidified its position as the go-to platform for chatting, jamming, micro-conferences, live podcast recordings, and more with the onboarding of users, shows, and content from around the globe.

Version 2.0 marks a significant leap forward:

Seamless Nostr Integration: Nostr Nests 2.0 was built from the ground up to be a full fledged Nostr client, enabling a truly decentralized experience with direct Nostr authentication. No need for separate accounts, logins, or verification posts. Login with your current Nostr keys via nsecBunker or NIP-07 extensions such as Alby, Nostr Connect, or Nostore for iOS.

Discoverability and User Choice: Find your favorite live audio events like never before, not only on NostrNests.com, but also via a variety of Nostr clients that support live events such as Amethyst, Snort, Iris, Flockstr, Nostrudel, Wherostr and more. Install Nostr Nests as a PWA on Android, iOS, or your favorite desktop operating system.

Redesigned Interface: Navigate with ease thanks to a streamlined and intuitive layout. Find scheduled events, discover communities, and manage your interactions effortlessly.

Enhanced Functionality: Host events with flexible permission settings, record and store audio directly from your Nest, be in charge of your data while you chat on your customized relays, leverage advanced moderation tools for a smooth and secure experience, and broadcast it all across the Nostr protocol. Experience value for value with Zap enabled profiles and chat announcements.

Multi-lingual: Access Nostr Nests in your native language. Nostr Nests supports over a dozen languages, making Nostr Nests a truly global platform for our users. Open Source: The platform's code is fully open-source under the MIT license, welcoming community contributions and fostering transparency. Submit issues and pull requests on GitHub to shape the future of Nostr Nests.

Nostr Nests 2.0 empowers individuals and communities to:

Connect: Host and attend audio events with like-minded people based on shared interests, making new friends along the way or reconnecting with old ones.

Collaborate: Jam with musicians, brainstorm with colleagues, or conduct insightful interviews in a live audio setting.

Express Yourself: Share your voice, thoughts, and ideas with the world in an uncensored and secure environment via text chats as well as audio conversations.

Build Communities: Foster vibrant, customizable communities around shared passions, hobbies, or professional pursuits.

Whether you're a musician, podcaster, entrepreneur, or simply someone who enjoys meaningful audio interactions, Nostr Nests 2.0 invites you to join the conversation. Visit NostrNests.com today and experience the future of social audio.

Join and contribute to the Nostr Nests community:

Website: https://NostrNests.com

GitHub: https://github.com/nostrnests/nests

Current Features:

Nostr Integration: * Sign-in * Live events * Scheduled events * Zaps * Public chat * Reactions * Room presence * Relays (default or custom) * Social sharing * Follow/Unfollow * Profile creation * Profile Editing * Lobby filtering

Lobby: * Active rooms * Scheduled rooms * Filter by global or following * Create new room * View profile

Create room: * Create custom room * Customizable banner * Preselected colors * Custom image (static or animated) * Schedule room * Use default relays or custom relays

Rooms: * Stage and audience * Add/Remove people to/from stage * Public chat (ability to hide/view on mobile) * Raise hand * Mute/Unmute own mic * Mute others (Mod or Host) * Zap * Reactions * Edit profile * View profile * Share to Nostr * Stream audio (coming soon) (Mod or Host) * Record audio (Mod or Host) * Access room recordings (Mod or Host)

Sign-in: * Sign-in as guest to listen only * Create new Nostr profile * Use existing Nostr profile

Future Features:

• Chat zaps, chat reactions, mutes, etc.
• Support additional nsecBunkers
• More room customization options
• Monetization options for creators
• And more!

Please note: While Nostr Nests 2.0 marks a significant step forward, this release should be considered beta software. Users may encounter occasional bugs or unforeseen issues as we continue to refine and optimize the platform. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work towards a fully polished experience.

Known Issues:

• A lot! It's very new and very beta!
• Sign-in user flow for direct links to rooms
• Mobile UI alignment
• Mobile UI chat bar

@ 1e52c554:21771908

Posthumous work of the Colombian poet born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948

Welcome to this blog dedicated to the Posthumous work of the Colombian poet Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (my father), born in Don Matias on January 20, 1948-2010. Where I will be publishing each of the 175 sonnets from his unpublished collection 'Sonnets For The Twenty First Century And A Circadian Musical (1984-1987).' Analyzed with GPT4 artificial intelligence and illustrated with AI tools... I hope you enjoy this garden of words snatched from the solitude of a locked room.

Likewise, any enthusiast of the sonnet form is invited to conduct their personal studies of Arroyave Tabares' work, as it is a collection that, although registered since 1989, has not yet been published.

Frank Duna

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Analysis "To See Thee Fall In Love Each Morn"

Introduction

"Sonnet 124" by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares is a poem that celebrates love and the enduring nature of a deep and passionate connection between two souls.

Thematic Analysis

First Quatrain: The speaker begins by setting the scene, describing a world where various individuals meet and interact. The focus is on the timeless nature of love and its ability to rejuvenate.

Second Quatrain: The speaker talks about the power of imagination and storytelling in creating new dreams. There’s a sense of nostalgia and longing, with past sighs turning into sweet ecstasy.

Third Quatrain: The speaker expresses joy in witnessing love each morning, sharing life’s force with open eyes. There’s a hint of commitment beyond traditional vows, suggesting a deeper connection.

Couplet: The speaker concludes with a desire to spend time in slow rock, possibly referring to a steady rhythm of life or love that beats along with time.

Overall, the poem speaks to the timeless and transcendent nature of love, where two souls find a profound connection that enriches their lives, and they can cherish each moment together.

Structure and Rhyme Scheme

Let’s analyze the rhyme scheme of the sonnet in detail. The sonnet follows the Shakespearean sonnet structure, which has a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. Here’s how it applies to this sonnet:

``` 1-. Ay lo, our place is deep inside a world (A) 2-. Where lovers, singers, strangers and else meet (B) 3-. But souls mate without ever getting old (A) 4-. And love can mean a massage for our fest (B)

5-. By spreading wide the wings of fantasy (C) 6-. Stories we tell and make into new dreams (D) 7-. For our past sighs become sweet ecstasy (C) 8-. That we can feel even when our heart streams. (D)

9-. How good to see the fall in love each morn (E) 10-. With open eyes sharing my force of life (F) 11-. And much more not counting what we have sworn (E) 12-. Further those rituals of man and wife. (F)

13-. Ay lo! , to spend all our time in slow rock (G) 14-. That beats along the seconds of our clock. (G) ```

Each letter represents the end rhyme of each line. Lines with the same letter rhyme with each other. For example, the first and third lines (“world” and “old”) rhyme with each other, represented by ‘A’. The second and fourth lines (“meet” and “fest”) rhyme with each other, represented by ‘B’, and so on.

The final two lines form a rhymed couplet (‘GG’), which is a distinctive feature of Shakespearean sonnets. These lines often provide a twist, resolution, or summarization to the poem.

Analysis of Aspects

Let’s delve deeper into the analysis of “To See Thee Fall In Love Each Morn” by Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares.

Language and Imagery: The sonnet uses rich and evocative language to convey its themes. The imagery is vivid and imaginative, painting a picture of a world where love is timeless (“souls mate without ever getting old”) and transformative (“our past sighs become sweet ecstasy”). The use of phrases like “spreading wide the wings of fantasy” and “fall in love each morn” create a sense of expansiveness and renewal.

Themes: The main themes of the sonnet are love, time, and transformation. Love is portrayed as a powerful force that rejuvenates and brings joy. Time is seen as a rhythm (“slow rock”) that beats along with the heartbeat of love. Transformation is evident in the way past sighs turn into sweet ecstasy.

Meter: The sonnet appears to follow the iambic pentameter, which is typical of Shakespearean sonnets. This means each line has five pairs of syllables, with the stress falling on the second syllable of each pair. However, there are some variations in the meter which add to the rhythmic interest of the poem.

Overall, The sonnet is a beautiful exploration of love’s power to transform and renew. It uses evocative language and imagery to convey its themes, while its adherence to the Shakespearean structure gives it a familiar rhythm and form. The final couplet provides a satisfying conclusion, encapsulating the desire to spend time in the steady rhythm of love that beats along with time.

Please note that this is an interpretation based on a general analysis, and different readers might have different interpretations.

(GPT4)

---

Syllable count for each line.

```

To See Thee Fall In Love Each Morn

10 Ay lo, our place is deep inside a world 10 Where lovers, singers, strangers and else meet 10 But souls mate without ever getting old 10 And love can mean a massage for our fest

10 By spreading wide the wings of fantasy 10 Stories we tell and make into new dreams 10 For our past sighs become sweet ecstasy 10 That we can feel even when our heart streams.

10 How good to see the fall in love each morn 10 With open eyes sharing my force of life 10 And much more not counting what we have sworn 10 Further those rituals of man and wife.

10 Ay lo! , to spend all our time in slow rock 10 That beats along the seconds of our clock. ***

```

---

Sonnets For The Twenty First Century And A Circadian Musical Written By Francisco Luis Arroyave Tabares (1984-1987)

---

Analyzed by GPT4; Image by leonardo.ai; First published on Nostr Protocol by franciscoarroyavet@nostrplebs.com To See Thee Fall In Love Each Morn

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

Prompt: Mining Pool ===============

It could be a UI for a mobile app, a web app, or something completely different such as a mining alert widget. Consider its elements: mining fees, miner temperature, forecasts, halving, electricity cost and any other data input taht might be relevant.

Is it being viewed on a smart watch or phone? Is it a mining warning for an attack or is it something unique such as something for a mining farm?

Flex your design muscles and join in. Most of all, keep this exercise loose and keep it stress-free. The FUC is about growing our design skills, together, as a community. We can't wait to see what you create!

Happy designing, Stackers!

---

Share Your Results When you finish the challenge, post your work on this thread! If you also share it on nostr, be sure to use the hashtag #FUCdesiger and tag Design_r@iris.to or @Design__r on X! We'll keep an eye out and repost good examples on a regular basis.

---

Curious to know WTF is a FUC? Read the ⚡️Flash Ui Challenges welcoming post.

Looking for more FUCs? Check the archive here!

@ e1ff3bfd:341be1af

Ben's fuck the bears book

Only sign this if you want to fuck the bears

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

Let’s reflect on this week's discussions

What did you learn from it? What did you think about it? Which valuable insights did you gain, and how can you apply them moving forward?

Share your Sunday sunshine and let's wrap up the week on a thoughtful note.

@ 0d6c8388:46488a33

I test? and then I test!

@ 1cb14ab3:95d52462

(Micro) "Boulder Creek" // stacked rocks [157' x 2' x 1']

(Macro) "St. Louis" // photo collage on foam board [16" x 20"]

This project was first presented in 2016, as a diptych installation at the group exhibition, "There to Here: Investigative Topographies from Land and Environmental Art" in Boulder, Colorado. Images remain property of Connor Hesen, but prints can be purchased via DM.

---

Artist Statement

Rockway: A Reflection on Roads and Nature

“Rockway” examines the concept of Micro v. Macro through the central theme of line; acting as a reflection on ideas of movement and connectivity in today's world. A line, simply defined as the connection between two points, takes on a profound new meaning in our urban landscape. The roads we have constructed, like arteries of the land, connect us to vast possibility. What happens when human progress and creation intersect with the natural world, and what role does that play in our lives?

https://image.nostr.build/620a74cf76fde892e481854e61adcfb9d8323ec9ac373fa45760d362b7596afb.jpg

Boulder Creek (pictured above) explores this intersection at the micro-level, focusing heavily on the delicate balance between humans and their environment. Stumbling upon the nearly 160-foot earthwork presents the viewer with an unnatural line, composed of stones, meandering through the pristine natural landscape. It evokes the winding roads through the mountains nearby one takes to get here- a stark contrast against the wilderness where it sits.

The earthwork employs a singular free-flowing, curvilinear line, representing a departure from the rigid angles of the surrounding landscape. This choice symbolizes more than just movement. It delves into the relationship between the towering skyscrapers, flowing highways, and gridded cities we inhabit. As the eye follows the work from start to finish, it encounters straight lines—those of trees and rocks—interrupting the flow, much like the complex highway systems and cities we build to connect ourselves around the globe.

https://image.nostr.build/a3dc4d38660700b273106026ef87cb097fddc2040f5e86120564fddca2f400c8.jpg

St. Louis (pictured above) explores the concept of line at the macro-level. In this piece, movement remains a central theme, but the intent shifts. The collage aims to create an unrealistic, yet harmonious, urban highway system. Lines intersect, diverge, and rejoin in nearly impossible ways; calling into question what exactly our future might look like. Each line signifies the movement of humans—from place to place, from birth to departure.

The city of St. Louis holds personal significance. It’s my birthplace, my starting point. The curved form of the line embodies movement and fluidity, echoing my own journey. Highways connect us to places, people, and experiences. They weave our stories, even as they reshape the landscape.

Step back, and the piece appears a unified whole. But lean in and scrutinize the details, and you’ll discover individual clippings and rigid overlaps from the satellite photos it is composed of. Each stone and curve. Each road and line — force us to consider the tale of movement, connection, and balance. "Rockway" invites us step back and dig deeper into the connections we [ourselves] hold with the land; and what responsibility we [as a whole] have in encouraging continued prosperity, while maintaining the delicate balance holding it all together.

Additional Photos

https://image.nostr.build/f1f95c9d21d3b662fb1b0939672b11a58f605ef3fede745d568c992ead96eeb7.jpg

https://image.nostr.build/0fcb10b0dd6dd89b653ae094b4d99e1d6383beb88120964b0deff7bdac2389af.jpg

https://image.nostr.build/23a9fd3d62049cb603a275a2fe54a500585f9a1a1bb52d0d29dad6bcd4c65f7e.jpg

https://image.nostr.build/e48e9ec54a03ef5eb584e41481b3f2a2dbffbf2cbb28495774bb60c5e12d1a22.jpg

https://image.nostr.build/3dd7d69f7a8f701453a9ee00fe7b5ce0de83eefb4e7dba00a374c236f0832aed.jpg

https://image.nostr.build/f2ddc7272f1f0da573327c55ae29b426e812a789539c273cd72b8d4ca6fa50e2.jpg

---

Originally published in 2016 by Connor Hesen. Republished at habla.news/u/hes@nostrplebs.com/1708400183541 on 2/19/2024.

Find more of my work at connorhesen.net

@ 7d4417d5:3eaf36d4

Toto, it's a long way to Kansas

In my first "Nostr Clients for Android - March 2024" (posted in a reply to this note), I shared my adventures of touring the landscape of Android apps aimed at using Nostr for social media. Even though I thought my journey was over, for the time being, I was wrong. Here is what I have learned in the last week. Mostly what I've learned is that Yana doesn't really implement zaps correctly, and that Primal has many horrible glaring issues, and one potential redeeming quality.

Yana? YaNO. Well, Maybe.

Although Yana seemed like a good choice, I found a major failing that I had not noticed before. I should have tested zaps more thoroughly, as the first note I zapped just happened to be a Strike wallet. Any notes made by users with other wallets would produce an error when zapped, even Alby wallets, and Alby is what I use. This means anyone using Yana cannot zap me. Boo. It also means Yana doesn't really implement zap functionality. I still prefer Yana for how it displays my feed, however.

Primal Zaps

Several people replied to my previous article about Primal's ability to use wallets other than Primal's wallet. Primal sure didn't direct me to this option when I tapped the zap button. I understand the desire for an organization to drive users to their own projects, but providing a link to the wallet settings page would be trivial to implement. This was the first experience in a reoccurring theme in Primal.

My First Zap In Primal

So, I get my wallet set up and hit the zap button. Immediately 10 sats are sent to the poster. Who decided this? Why 10? No option presented for the amount to send? I found out if I long-press, I get a list of options. Strangely enough, 10 sats was not one of the options available. Also, each of these amounts is associated with an emoji and a comment. You can erase the comment before the zap takes place, but that edit is only good for that zap. The next time you zap, the comment will be there.

Primal Zap Settings Funhouse

So I go to the zaps settings where I am presented with a default amount, and several preset amounts, all of which can be edited. Everything is cool so far, but then things got weird. All zaps are required to have a message. The default amount doesn't require an associated emoji, but the other preset amounts do. One of the preset amounts has the comment "Coffie on me". This whole area of the app feels like it's put together with edible paste and aged packing tape. I would think something as significant as zaps would have been given more appropriate attention, like allowing the user to choose that their transactions be public, private, or anonymous.

So, now that I have my wallet set up, what does the giant zap button in the middle of the lower tool bar do? Nothing.

Can I really zap everyone?

Some people do not have lightning wallets associated with their profile, and Primal produces a perfectly intelligible message for this situation. Compared to Amethyst, I can zap almost any note that has an associated wallet, even Wallet of Satoshi users... or can I? When I zap a note successfully the icon changes instantly. Compare this to other apps that show a wait indicator as the transaction completes. I noticed that even though I would get an indication that the transaction for a Wallet of Satoshi user completed, the icon on the note did not change like it did for other wallet users. I haven't taken the time to look through my transactions to trace everything down, but that seemed suspicious. It's difficult to determine if I really can zap more people in Primal than in Amethyst, but it seems so. Compared to Yana, where I can only zap one wallet, Primal wins in the zap category.

Notifications (and not much else)

I saw my notification area show a dot, "Yay! Let's see what it is!". Later, I find that this badge almost never goes away, giving the user a constant false positive. I tap a bell icon to open the Notifications area. I see that people have reacted, replied, and zapped notes of mine, but there doesn't appear to be a way to find out which note they are responding to. The only way I could find was to search my profile notes section and replies section, (or, if it was a note I had replied to, someone else's notes section and replies section), then scroll through looking for notes that have replies/reactions (replies aren't displayed until you tap on them), until I find a response that matches what I saw in my notifications page. This makes the notifications feature near useless, and it's not the last time I encountered this beast during my journey.

Relay Shell Game?

My feed seemed to be lacking a lot of content, so I looked at the "Network" settings to see what my "Relay" settings were. There was a single entry of "Caching Service" using Primal's cache relay. Here's another "You're going to do it our way" situation. There was a link to "restore default relays", which doesn't make sense since the default relay is obviously the Primal cache relay, but whatever. After hitting the link, eight relays were loaded up. A portion of them were ones I was using, along with some ones I had not used before. I made a text file of my relays, and figured I would paste them into Primal. This would be easier through their web interface than highlighting and pasting with my phone, but then I found that the web interface has all the relays I usually use, but the app doesn't.

Adding Relays Action Mini Game!

There is an option to add more relays. Attempts at adding a relay produced the message, "Unable to add relay. Please try again in a few moments." When I see messages like this from Google Play, I see it the same as a middle finger to the user. Other than communicating "Thing broke", it gives the user no information. How long is a moment? How many of these arbitrary units of time should I wait? Why not give me some error message that I can at least perform a search on? It would be nice to know if the issue is something I may be able to remedy or not. Real information might give me a clue as to how long to wait.

However, let's look at some details here. When I activate the button to add a relay, part of what I'm asking for is that a text string, like "wss://some.nostr.relay", be added to a list. Secondly, I expect that the app will connect to the relay addresses on that list. Sure, there may be connection issues, but why am I getting the error immediately? Why is the relay not added to the list at all? Doesn't Primal want to confirm that I have entered an address to the list even if connection attempts are still being made?

Hold Up, Or Holed Up?

While writing this, I wondered if it's been enough moments, and I was able to successfully add a relay, so I guess whatever mysterious problem took place has been solved ... for now. At the same time, when I visit the Network Settings page, often the relays show red dots instead of green, and sometimes they just stay all red. So what's going on here? Are these relays being used, or not?

Feed Issues - Tap And Rack? No Chance!

While in my profile I saw where I had forwarded a note (while using a different client), but Primal decided to show a Nostr string "nostr:nevent1qqsp9p77x..." instead of the forwarded note. I later saw this a lot in my feed while using Primal. Other clients I've used don't have this issue.

The default feed is "Latest and Replies". This shows me notes created by people I follow, and every reply they make to any note everywhere. This fills my feed with notes like, "Yeah, I think so to.", "That's great", "No, the other one.", "Thanks", or "But WHERE did you shave it???" And, just like the broken Notifications page, there's no way to find out what note they are replying to! Even if I could, I would never opt to open my client to a list of replies. Replies to other people do not add value for me. In fact, it's clutter, which wastes electrons for pixels. It's possible to temporarily change the feed to "Latest", showing only notes created by profiles I follow, but that setting isn't persistent, and will change back to "Latest and Replies" regularly. Primal doesn't want you to curate your own feed. They've decided for you what you're going to see each time you open the app. It seems that getting a "Global" feed is impossible too. Sure, it has a lot of trash, but I've also used it to find new users and cool bots that give me things like "Today in history ..." or tech news headlines. Preventing users from accessing posts just a lame practice overall.

Hashtags

The "Feed List" also has several default hashtags to follow. The hashtags I was following in Amethyst weren't recognized by Yana or Primal. Heck, sometimes Amethyst forgot which ones I was following, so I'm not hurt by it. What I don't understand though, is why Primal wouldn't ask new users what they want to follow. Their preset list is something I completely deleted, leaving only "Latest and Replies" and "Latest". The hashtags I was following in Amethyst could only be viewed in Primal if I made a feed for each hashtag. If you have 133 interests, you would need to load the feed for each one to see any of the content from those hashtags. This is not practical in any way.

"Missing" Notes

One day I opened Primal and saw the note I had been reading when I had last used it. That's so awesome! It shouldn't be, but we're in the world of bleeding edge technology, so simple jollies become huge wins. There was also a notification at the top of the feed showing that more notes had been posted since then. Great! I loaded the new notes, and continued to scroll. Then I noticed something odd. The times of the when the notes were posted went from "15 hrs" to "1 hr", and no notes in between. I had this scenario repeat for me later, which confirmed for me that this is "just how it works". In these cases, there is no way that I can find to get Primal to fetch notes between "last night" and "just a bit ago". Later, when I relegated Primal to being my zap tool, in some cases I was not able to load the note that I wanted to zap, even when searching using the note ID. This defect, whether by design or not, isn't tolerable.

Odds and Ends

There are several other oddities, like:

• Pictures always loading below the text of a note, even if the author put the URL to a pic before the text. Again, Primal not caring about how people want to do things. The author's intentions are void.

• There are no "wait" timers when a post is loading. Many times a post will load and it appears there are no replies.

• Replies of replies are not displayed until after you tap initial reply, then a new page loads showing only the second reply.

• If you want see the profile of someone in a reply, clicking their pic doesn't do anything. Clicking on profile pics that are not in a reply do take you to the profile.

• You can't zoom an image. There is a slight "bump" of the pic, so the zoom capability is there, but not enough to make useful.

• Videos launch your browser instead of running in the app.

• You can't view a profile pic at full size. If you want to know what that pic is, you're out of luck.

• The list of your Follows is sorted by the users with the largest number of followers at the top. Whatever logic is in place here is backwards since the top of the list contains people that are most easily found without coming to your list of follows. Alphabetical makes sense here, especially for someone like me that doesn't care about how many followers someone has.

Conclusion (Perhaps)

All software has defects, and it's rare for me to find a title where I can't find something to re-design. This adventure into the realm of bleeding edge technology requires putting up with some incomplete features, and the absence of cushy things, (like being able to select different reactions to a note), but it's also fun to play with, and the possibilities make for some great visions of the future. It would be nice to have a Nostr client for Android that fully embraces the concept of the users and authors being at the helm, while also having all the basic features for navigating and zapping notes.

So what's an adventurer like me to do? What I've been finding myself doing is using Yana to view my feed, Primal to zap posts (if I can find them), and Amethyst to look at my notifications. It's an odd horse to ride, being that it also has a long trunk and a caudal fin, but it's getting me where I'm going for now.

@ 53dab473:3a95f02d

The Grapevine is the name given to the implementation of the web of trust in the Pretty Good Project. Its purpose is to help you find the high quality content you seek, even when this means finding a needle in a haystack. To this end, the Grapevine calculates how much Influence any given user should have for the curation of another user’s content in some given context. This post presents an overview of precisely how the Influence score is calculated and how this method will allow us to escape the soul-killing tyranny of today’s social media so-called “influencer.”

Motivation

The rise of the social media “influencer” encapsulates much of what is pathologic about modern day social media. Tech companies, funded by advertising, will do anything to generate clicks and attract attention. This, by definition, is what a social media influencer is good at. Our tech companies spend billions of dollars on platforms and algorithms that cater to the MrBeasts and Kim Kardashians of the world. These people are brilliant in their own way and in what they do — which is what, exactly? Attract followers. Generate clicks and likes. Figure out better ways to trigger dopamine hits. In the process, the world’s ADHD only gets worse and worse.

Arguably, this is very bad for society. Our attention is focused on frivolous topics and people. But attention is limited. The influencer economy exists to the detriment of topics, ideas and users who might be better deserving of our attention. One wonders what would happen if the next Einstein, a genius in a meaningful topic like math or physics but perhaps not a marketing genius with the skill, time or desire build a follower count, were to post a theory of everything on Twitter/X. Would you see it? Probably not. The algorithms would never even notice it. You could very well have no idea it ever existed.

The Pretty Good way to calculate influence

The Pretty Good approach to web of trust is designed to change all of that. We are building the Grapevine in the hopes that it will allow you to sort the wheat from the chaff: to see through the social media influencers who sap you attention and distract you from what’s important, and to give you a mechanism to find the Einsteins of the world. Or the Picassos, or whatever or whomever you are looking for. Almost 8 billion people out there in the world: there are many who deserve your attention but are not getting it. Lots of needles in lots of haystacks.

One of the primary functions of the Grapevine is to calculate a quantity called Influence. It is context dependent and is the primary determinant of how much attention Alice pays to Bob in some given context.

Influence is the product of two numbers: the Average Score, which is a weighted average of trust ratings by other users, and a number called the Certainty in that average score.

Influence = Average Score * Certainty

Certainty is a number between 0 and 1 (i.e., 0% and 100%), and is designed around the idea that a higher number of ratings from trusted users gives you greater confidence, or “certainty,” that the average score is meaningful. This is an idea that all of us are already used to. Consider the rating of a product on Amazon. If two products each have an average score of 4 out of 5 stars, but one is based on one review and the other on one hundred, then most of us would probably be more inclined to purchase the one with one hundred ratings. The reason, of course, is that more ratings gives us greater confidence in the average score.

In the Grapevine, the variable Input is introduced and plays a role similar to the number of ratings on Amazon. But in the Grapevine, not every rating is weighted equally; so Input is defined as the sum of the weights of each individual rating, with the weight of each individual rating determined (primarily) by the relevant (context-appropriate) Influence of the rater.

But the key is the realization that Influence should not be proportional to Input. One hundred quality ratings is meaningful improvement compared to just one; but increasing from 100 to 200? Or even 100 to 1000? At some point, the addition of more ratings becomes only marginally more meaningful.

So we require an equation to map Input into the new variable, Certainty. There are probably more than one equation that would work for this purpose, but an exponential decay seemed to us to be a pretty good solution:

In this equation, alpha is a user-controlled scaling parameter that determines how quickly or slowly Certainty approaches 100% as Input increases towards infinity. This equation is depicted in Fig 1.

Figure 1. Calculation of Certainty from Input. The speed at which the curve approaches 100% is determined by the scaling factor alpha, which determines the “rigor” of the curve: a gradual rise towards 100% is more “rigorous” than a rapid rise.

As Figure 1 shows, a higher number of ratings (by trusted individuals) does translate into greater Certainty and therefore greater Influence, which makes sense. But there are diminishing returns. The incremental gains gradually level off. In this manner, the Grapevine seeks to avoid a recreation of what is arguably the central pathology of legacy social media.

Summary

1. The Average Score is contextual and is a weighted average of each context-based trust rating (“Alice trusts Bob 95 out of 100 to rate movies”).
2. The Input is a sum of the weight of each individual trust rating.
3. Certainty is calculated from Input using the equation above.
4. Influence = Average Score * Certainty.
5. Influence is the primary determinant of a rating’s weight.

Conclusion

The Pretty Good Project envisions a world where platforms can be managed by your web of trust rather than big tech companies. There is a lot of work to be done before this goal is reached. But once it is reached, there will be no more need for advertising dollars. Which means algorithms and platforms that cater to influencers and advertisers can fade into the background and be replaced by algorithms that are designed to serve your needs. To find the content you want.

Are you content to ransom your most precious commodity — your time and your attention — to the social media influencer? Or would you rather take control of your time and attention? Focus on the topics, ideas and people who deserve it? The simple solution described in this post may not be perfect. In the future, your web of trust will certainly find ways to improve it. But it’s good enough to get things started.

@ 5df413d4:2add4f5b

You Are Not A Gadget by Jaron Lanier

Reading Jaron Lanier’s 2010 You Are Not A Gadget in 2023 is an interesting experience—equal parts withering, prophetic, and heretical clarion call warning from a high priest of the Technocracy and rambling, musing, cognitive jam session from a technofied musician-philosopher.

Yet, in ways that I think the author would be simultaneously pleased, amused, saddened, and disturbed by, the 13 yeas since the book’s publishing have, in places, proven him right with stunning foresight and precision, and in others, made his ideas appear laughable, bizarre, even naive. The book is written in five parts, yet I would suggest viewing it as two discrete elements—Part One (around the first half of the book) and…everything else.

For context, Lanier, is a computer scientist and early technologist from the area of Jobs, Wozniak, and Gates, and is considered to be a founding father of virtual reality. He is also a consummate contrarian, a player of rare and obscure musical instruments, a deep interdisciplinary thinker…and a white man with dreadlocks named Jaron.

PART ONE

Part One of the book “What is a Person?” reads like a scathing and clear-eye manifesto—where Lanier is batting 1000, merciless in his rightness. Were one to pull a passage that speaks to the soul of this portion of the book, it might be the following: “The net does not design itself. We design it.”

Lanier terms the prevailing technocratic ideology—the particular winning tech-nerd subculture that has now come to capture our society—as “the cybernetic totalist” or “digital Maoists.” Essentially a materialist and stealth collectivist movement in new-age technocratic dress, that through its successes, and now excesses, represents much the same of religion that it’s founders would have claimed to be “evolving past.”

Lanier points out that in this, we are simply trading the pursuit of finding God in spirituality or the afterlife, for a notion of digital immortality—seeking, or, if possible, becoming, God in the cloud. He aptly identifies that this worldview requires that society, and all human interactions really, be savagely bent into adherence to this new religion of aggregation that demands deification of data, gross diminishment of the individual, and belief in some objective (but never defined) "meaning" that exists beyond and apart from the human observer.

With skill and simple wit, he raises strong, rational counterpoint to the digital Maoists’ obsession with quantity, data in aggregate and at-scale, as society's prime directive “A fashionable idea in technical circles is that quantity […] turns into quality at some extreme scale […] I disagree. A trope in the early days or computer science comes to mind: garbage in, garbage out.”

Lanier is able to envision the digital cages that likes of Facebook, Youtube, social-media dating apps would become for the internet native generations. Of whom he writes “The most effective young Facebook users […] are the ones who create successful online fictions about themselves,” and “If you start out by being fake, you’ll eventually have to put in twice the effort to undo the illusion if anything good is to come of it.”

Lanier’s 2010 criticism of Wikipedia-ism is now double or triply apropos in our current hype cycle of “AI magic” and Everything-GPT, “Wikipedia, for instance, works on what I can the Oracle Illusion, in which knowledge of human authorship of a text is suppressed in order to give the text superhuman validity. Traditional holy books work in precisely the same way and present many of the same problems.” This same deep truth now sits at the heart of every “new” creation churned out by the flavor-of-the-week, plagiarism-at-scale, generative AI tool.

More darkly, he is also able to foresee the spectre of a return to collectivism lurking both at the core and on the margins of our new digital age—“The recipe that led to social catastrophe in the past was economic humiliation combined with collectivist ideology. We already have the ideology in its new digital packaging, and it’s entirely possible we could face dangerously traumatic economic shock in the coming decades.”—“No Shit” said everyone who lived through 2020-2022…

This brings us, eerily, to the world of today. Where aggregate insights are upheld as more valuable than discrete insights. Where crowds are are assumed to have more wisdom than individuals. Where truth is twisted into a might-is-right numbers game. A world ruled by the idea that if we can just centralize enough information and sufficiently pulverize authorship, the result will, necessarily, be something super-intelligent, "alive," and perhaps even divine.

In short, the cybernetic totalists and digital Maoists, having killed reason, now sit on its corpse like a thrown, smearing its blood on the walls in the name of art and reading its still-steaming entrails for prophecy.

If I were to infer some ideological takeaway from Part One of the book, it might be that Lanier seems to axiomatically reject any affirmative implication of the Turing Test. Simply put, he believes that bits are not and cannot ever be alive independent of the human-as-oracle. Further, there is no objective meaning beyond the human observer—in fact, that observer fundamentally creates any meaning there is to be had. This is best illustrated by one of the most powerful passages in the book:

“But the Turing Test cuts both ways. You can’t tell if a machine has gotten smarter or if you’ve just lowered your own standard of intelligence to such a degree that the machine seems smart. If you can have a conversation with a simulated person presented by an AI program, can you tell how far you’ve let your sense of personhood degrade in order to make the illusion work for you?”

Ponder this well, Anon.

EVERYTHING ELSE

With all of the great stuff above out of the way, we must turn to…the rest of the book. Parts Two through Five breakdown into something more like a stream of consciousness. And while there are certainly many nuggets to insight and beauty to be found, the book becomes largely dis-coherent and very difficult to read. That said, the remainder of the book does contain three particularly compelling threads that I find to be worth pulling on.

Internet Attribution First, are Lanier’s musing about money and attribution in our authorless “information wants to be free” world. He laments the infinite elevation of advertising and offers harsh critique to the concept of attention as the new currency—as this tends to overwhelmingly reward the aggregator and a piddling few soulless super-influencers at the expense of all other users and creators.

Interestingly, under the guise of “what could have been” he imagines a world where attribution is tracked across the web (though how this achieved is left unanswered) and royalty payments can flow back to the author seamlessly over the internet. I find his vision to be intriguing because in 2010, we lacked the technology to either track attribution across the web or facilitate seamless micropayment royalties based on access / usage.

While we still don't have the ability to achieve the type of fully-tracked, always-on attribution Lanier imagines, we do now have the ability to stream payments across the internet with bitcoin and the lightning network. While Lanier can be excused for not mentioning the then uber-nascent bitcoin in 2010, bitcoin’s development since only goes to underscore the prescience of Lanier’s imagination.

The bigger question that now remains, especially in the face of the advent of “AI,” is whether such a system to manage and therefore enforce attribution globally on the internet would even be a good thing. Where obscured attribution enables mashed-up plagiarism-at-scale, centrally enforced attribution can just as easily enable idea, content, discovery, and innovation suppression-at-scale.

Music in the New Age Second, much of the book, particularly in the second half, is filtered through the lens and language of music. Music is essential to Lanier’s inner life and it is clear that he views music as an emergent mystery force attributable to something unknowable, if not divine, and entirely unique to the human experience.

He bemoans the music of the 2000s as lacking in any distinct chronological era sound—everything is either a rehashed mashup or digitally lofi-ed emulation of sounds from previous begone eras—it is music that is impossible to place. To him, it is as though musical evolution stopped right around the time of the advent of the internet…and then folded back in on itself, creating an endless kaleidoscoping of what came before but rarely, if ever, the creation anything truly new.

In response, Lanier goes so far as to imagine the ridiculous (my take, not his) world of “Songles”—songs on dongles—essentially physical music NFTs. In Songleland, listening to the hottest tracks at a party hinges on the guy or gal with the dankest songles swinging through and plugging them into the Songle player. And songles, being scarce, even become speculative investments. On this, Lanier manages to be both right and wrong in only the most spectacularly absurd of ways.

But what Lanier really laments is the passing of popular music as a shared cultural experience at national or even global scale. During Lanier’s coming of age through the 1960-80s—with only a few consolidated channels for music distribution, it was truly impossible to escape the sounds and influence of the Beatles or Prince or Micheal Jackson—everyone heard it and even the deaf still felt it.

In the end, Lanier could image Songles but he couldn’t envision what Spotify would become—a conduit to shatter music distribution into a myriad of tiny longtails—providing infinitely fragmented and individually fine-tuned music experiences rather than large and cohesive cultural moments. However, even in this miss, Lanier is largely able to project what Spotify-ed music would resolve to—music designed as much or more to please the self-referential selection algorithm than any real, human listeners. A dangerously foretelling insight that goes well beyond music as AI tools are posed to become the "googling" of the next technological cycle—what happens to information, to human thought, when the majority of "generative AI" outputs are just the machine referencing itself?

Digital Neoteny The final thread to pull is that of "digital neoteny," the retention of juvenile behaviors in adult form, in this case, a neoteny of the mind if you will. Lanier sees the internet as specifically primed to propagate three kinds of neoteny in digital-native humans— a blissful and curious Bachelardian neoteny (as in Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics of Reverie); a cruel and mob-like Goldingesque neoteny (as in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies); and a general and deeply pervasive, infantile neoteny.

Neoteny of the Bachelardian variety, which Lanier likens to “the sense of wonder and weirdness that a teen can find in the unfolding world,” is what he feels the internet has provided in a few brief and magical moments generally aligned with the “early days” of successive internet technologies, movements, and companies—through this generally degrades into Goldingesque neoteny as novelty gives way to ossification.

Lanier’s missives on Bachelardian neoteny feel especially pertinent to the present state of Nostr (where I am publishing this writing). Nostr is in a moment where winner-take all dynamics and corporatization have yet to take hold. Child-like revelry abounds with each new discovery or novel Nostr client development so much so that the likes of Jack Dorsey compare it to the excitement of the early internet.

But with time, if and as the Nostr protocol wins, to what extent will technical lock-in take hold here? To what extent will calcification of seemingly trivial or even comical decisions being made by client devs today have dramatic implications on the feasibility of other development in the future? And will we early Nostr users, at some point put down welcoming inclusivesness for insular tribalism—and in what ways might we be doing this already?

Finally, to the third kind of neoteny, Infantile neoteny—which perhaps incapsulates the internet even more so than either of the other two types—Lanier sees the net driving an evermore prolonged deferral of maturity, resulting ultimately in some centrally-managed permanent arresting of society in a stupefied and juvenile mental state:

“Some of the greatest speculative investments in human history continue to converge on Silicon Valley schemes that seemed to have been named by Dr. Seuss. On any given day, one might hear of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars flowing to a start-up company named Ublibudly or MeTickly. These are names I just made up, but they would make great venture capital bait if they existed. At these companies one finds rooms full of MIT PhD engineers not seeking cancer cures or sources of safe drinking water for the underdeveloped world but schemes to send little digital pictures of teddy bears and dragons between adult members of social networks. At the end of the road of the pursuit of technological sophistication appears to lie a playhouse in which humankind regresses to nursery school.”

The popular culture of the early 2020s—with it’s NFT Monke JPEGs, silent and masked TikTok dancing in the drab aisles of crumbling department stores, and rampant peer-pressured social-media virtue-signaling and paternalism—could scarcely be described in any more stark and specific detail. That such could be seen so vividly in 2010 is as masterful as it is dishearteningly dark.

CONCLUSION

You Are Not A Gadget is a special thing, a strange beast—as lucid in its first half as it is jumbled, meandering, and even nonsensical in its second half. And while the discerning reader might judge the book harshly for these structural failings, I doubt the author would care, he might even welcome it. Lanier’s apparent purpose in writing is to share his mind rather than please the reader in any particular regard. The sufficiently curious reader, one who is willing to engage with the book’s content, for whatever the book’s faults may be, finds a king’s randoms of wisdom, insight, and uncanny foresight.

In closing, it seems fitting to recall one of Lanier’s earliest warnings in the book, “Maybe if people pretend they are not conscious or do not have free will […] then perhaps we have the power to make it so. We might be able to collectively achieve antimagic.” 13 years on, this feels more pressing and urgent and true than ever. (Rating: 4/5🐙)

You Are Not A Gadget

@ 5d4b6c8d:8a1c1ee3

Since the atrocity that was the NBA All-Star Game, scoring is down about six points per game and foul calls have all but disappeared. Now it's not exactly the '04 Pistons, but games have been much more physical and defenders are really shining.

One funny element of this is that the league won't admit to intentionally changing how games are officiated, even though everyone seems to love this new brand of basketball. Why might that be? Might it be related to the fact that Vegas sportsbooks got annihilated on unders for about two weeks and Adam Silver values his knee caps?

How are you all liking the more physical play? The afore mentioned '04 Pistons are my favorite team of all time, so you know I'm here for it. Bring back the 63-59 defensive wars!

Relatedly, who do you think will gain and lose the most from this development?

@ d91191e3:7efd4075

Before I tell you how to design perfect software, let's look at the two most common design processes in use today.

These don't work, yet are firmly applied by a majority of engineers and designers, especially in software where it's possible to construct byzantine complexity.

They are slow-motion tragedies but can be fun to watch, from a safe distance.

Shit Driven Development (SDD)

The most popular design process in large businesses is Shit Driven Development.

SDD feeds off the belief that ideas are scarce and we just need a good idea to make money.

The main output of SDD is expensive "ideations", concepts, design documents, and finally products that go straight into the garbage.

1. The Creative People come up with long lists of "we could do X and Y". Once the creative work of ideation has been done it's just a matter of implementation.

2. Managers and consultants pass these brilliant ideas to UX designers.

3. The designs get passed to engineers, who scratch their heads and wonder who came up with such stupid nonsense.

The designs do not factor in the practical costs of implementation. Minor whims create weeks of work. The project gets delayed and the managers bully the engineers into working harder.

Something resembling a working product makes it out the door, but no-one wants to use it.

After twelve months of intense marketing, the company shelves it and buys a competing product from a small start-up.

The main lessons of SDD

Ideas are cheap. No exceptions. There are no brilliant ideas.

The starting point for a good design process is to collect problems that confront people, and filter out anything that isn't valuable enough to solve.

Success depends on how good and cheap the solution is, how important the problem is, and how simple the solution is to actually use.

Complexity Driven Development (CDD)

Really good engineering teams can usually build good products. But the vast majority of products still end up being too complex and less successful than they might be. This is because specialist teams, even the best, usually follow Complexity Driven Development (CDD).

Management correctly identifies some interesting and difficult problem with economic value. In doing so they leapfrog any Shit Driven Developemt team.

The team loves building things and they get straigh to it, starting with prototypes and core layers. These work as designed and the team is encouraged and enthusiastic. They go off into intense design and architecture discussions, coming up with elegant schemas that look beautiful and solid.

Management comes back and challenges team with yet more difficult problems. We tend to equate value with cost, so the harder the problem, and more expensive to solve, the more the solution should be worth, in their minds.

The team, being engineers and thus loving to build stuff, build stuff. They build and build and build and end up with massive, perfectly designed complexity.

The products go to market, and the market scratches its head and asks, "seriously, is this the best you can do?" People do use the products, especially if they aren't spending their own money in climbing the learning curve.

Management gets positive feedback from its larger customers, who share the same idea that high cost (in training and use) means high value.

Meanwhile somewhere across the world, a small team is solving the same problem using Simplicity Driven Development, and a year later smashes the market to little pieces.

CDD is characterized by a team obsessively solving the wrong problems to the point of ridiculousness. CDD products tend to be large, ambitious, complex, and unpopular. A lot of open source software is the output of CDD processes. It is insanely hard for engineers to stop extending a design to cover more potential problems. They argue, "what if someone wants to do X?" but never ask themselves, "what is the real value of solving X?"

A good example of CDD in practice is Bluetooth, a complex, over-designed set of protocols that users hate. It continues to exist only because there are no alternatives. Bluetooth is perfectly secure, which is close to useless for a proximity protocol. At the same time it lacks a standard API for developers, meaning it's really costly to use Bluetooth in applications.

CDD is a form of large-scale "rabbit holing", in which designers and engineers cannot distance themselves from the technical details of their work. They add more and more features, utterly misreading the economics of their work.

The main lessons of CDD

• Making stuff that you don't immediately have a need for is pointless. Doesn't matter how talented or brilliant you are, if you just sit down and make stuff, you are most likely wasting your time.

• Not all problems are not equal. Some are simple, and some are complex. Ironically, solving the simpler problems often has more value to more people than solving the really hard ones.

• It is crucial to have a "stop mechanism", a way to set short, hard deadlines that force people to make smaller, simpler answers to just the most crucial problems.

Reality Driven Development (RDD)

Reality Driven Development starts with a realization: we do not know what we have to make until after we start making it.

Coming up with ideas, or large-scale designs isn't just wasteful, it's directly toxic to creating truly accurate solutions. The really juicy problems are hidden away in crevices across the landscape. Any activity except active scouting creates a fog that hides those crevices. You need to keep mobile, pack light, and move fast.

RDD works as follows:

We collect a set of interesting problems (by looking at how people use technology or other products) and we line these up from simple to complex, looking for and identifying patterns of use.

We take the simplest, most dramatic problem and we solve this with a minimal plausible solution, or "patch". Each patch solves exactly a genuine and agreed problem in a brutally minimal fashion.

We apply one measure of quality to patches, namely "can this be done any simpler while still solving the stated problem?" We can measure complexity in terms of concepts and models that the user has to learn or guess in order to use the patch. The fewer, the better. A perfect patch solves a problem with zero learning required by the user.

Our product development consists of a patch that solves the problem "we need a proof of concept" and then evolves in an unbroken line to a mature series of products, through hundreds or thousands of patches piled on top of each other.

We do not do anything that is not a patch. We enforce this rule with formal processes that demands that every activity or task is tied to a genuine and agreed problem, explicitly enunciated and documented.

We build our projects into a supply chain where each project can provide problems to its "suppliers" and receive patches in return. This arrangement creates a "stop mechanism" - when people are impatiently waiting for a patch, we necessarily cut our work short.

Individuals are free to work on any projects, and provide patches at any place they feel it's worthwhile. No individuals "own" any project, except to enforce the formal processes. A single project can have many variations, each a collection of different, competing patches.

Projects export formal and documented interfaces so that upstream (client) projects are unaware of change happening in supplier projects. Thus multiple supplier projects can compete for client projects, in effect creating a free and competitive market.

We tie our supply chain to real users and we iterate the whole process in rapid cycles so that a problem received from a user can be analyzed, evaluated, and solved with a patch in a few hours.

At every moment from the very first patch, our product is shippable. This is essential, because a large proportion of patches will be wrong (10-30%) and only by giving the product to users can we know which patches have become problems and themselves need solving.

RDD is a form of "hill climbing algorithm" or a drunken stumble to greatness. It's a reliable way of finding optimal solutions to the most significant problems in an unknown landscape.

This was created as a collaboration between G and Pieter H.

@ 9a5cb6de:bc9f1272

In this article, I put forth a solution (using existing technology) to an issue which has posed an existential threat to biological humanity for centuries, predating even the advent of the steel-belted radial tire. The methodology by which this solution is implemented is easily grasped and is, in fact, already in use to a large degree.

The issue to which I refer your attention, is:

PROBLEMS

With that in mind, please take a moment to consider that this subject may be triggering for some readers; since, upon cursory examination of history, nearly every member of the long history of biological humanity has experienced a Problem. Thusly, a proper disclaimer has been issued. Take it upon yourself to cease further examination of this document if you are TRIGGERED to the point of requiring medical assistance.

. . . several tense seconds of silence pass, punctuated by directions to restrooms in the event of a panicked moment of realization that caffeine is a diuretic.

With the brave assurance that you are of sound mind with which to continue this presentation, I put forth a description of the procedure already in use and its unwavering success, which is inversely proportional to its ease of use.

A Review Of Problems

Over the natural course of history, biological humanity has ascertained in full the remarkable nature of the world. Despite its staggering complexity; from the colorways of the innumerable variations of sport-specific sneakers to the selections of flavor combinations to be had at the local coffee shop, there are but a handful of Natural Elements which work in concert to make the sphere of Earth turn at hundreds of kilometers per hour, even as some of the Earth's population is soundly asleep. Those Elements are:

Earth

Water

Air

Fire

Internet

Those five Elements may be well visualized in an anthropomorphic manner, and named in order as one would note the fingers on the hand. When beset with the task of “counting” or “naming” fingers, the opposable thumb is often listed last; though without its sure and constant function our ancient ancestors would be clumsily navigating ancient city byways, unable to indicate even to the most primitive of taxi services the need for a ride to work in the morning or home following the obligatory stint at the pub at the workday's end. The Internet has metaphorically served a similar all-important role in modern life since its discovery thousands of years ago.

The following thought experiment may serve to further explain the manner by which this analogy may apply.

Consider for a moment, the arrival of a Problem in the life of an average biological human. The nature and severity of the Problem is irrelevant, of course. The direct interaction with the Problem is impossible, since the term Problem is used here as a variable, P (also given that it is impossible to act directly with a single letter), and the letter capitalized since Problems are, without exception, all of an importance of such dire consequence that they push aside the clutter of one's mental desk and require complete and focused attention.

The suffering biological human is left to interact with one of the five Natural Elements as a means for rectification of the issue at hand.

The following equations will demonstrate the result of the attempted considered actions.

Where

P = Problem

0 = zero

:) = happiness

P + Earth = 0

P + Water = 0

P + Air = 0

P + Fire = 0

P + Internet = :) + [ :) *8.1]10^9

and in the final case of P + Internet ,

happiness + confirmation that the biological human population is offering reassurance and a virtual " Thumbs-Up ". This effect will hereafter be referred to as Mutual Internet Mindfulness (MIM) . Mutual Internet Mindfulness ( MIM ) is the virtual camaraderie necessary for today’s decision-making, without which only a small number of intellectual gatekeepers poised atop the mysterious pyramids of industry and technology thrive. MIM has, in fact, been a method of conflict resolution in nearly every conceivable field for millennia, evinced as the first megalithic structures were unearthed, inscribed with neat rows of ancient emojis depicting the chat rooms of our long-forgotten ancestors.

The transactional nature of MIM also lends itself to the final quandary of this article, at which a balance must be struck. Since interaction with the Internet as a method of problem resolution has been shown to propel society forward in its necessary evolution to the stars, many skeptics may argue that to do so to the exclusion of Air (used for breathing) and Water (used to supplement the biological human's internal supply of said Element) may bring physical discomfort or even cause harm .

Thus, the proper balance is proposed as follows. Internet + (min Water) + (min Air) = :)

The idyllic solution of being allowed constant and uninterrupted access to the Internet , whilst supplemented by enough Water and Air to allow continuity of biological existence, may seem at first to be a feat insurmountable by modern means.

However, as technology has allowed for the more difficult decisions of our lives to be grasped by synthetic humanity , we have only to realize that the next step of progress has already arrived. The unfortunate conundrum in which so many biological humans find themselves is that of the mountainous number of distractions available at each decision-making stage.

The Internet, ready to dispense the exact solution for every choice except when to void one's bowels, unfortunately does not itself provide the supply of Air and Water necessary to sustain biological life whilst it serves up to the user the much-needed Thumbs Ups ; nor can it eliminate the annoying distractions of telephones ringing, alarms sounding, or stinging insects landing silently on the user's neck.

With the advent of Headphones and Virtual Reality Goggles, though, the user's delicate attention may be gleefully focused on the Internet. The space in which the user sits becomes infinitely more amicable to entire days of consultation with the world's social networks and thus the user needs only to remain seated, stare blankly ahead, type, breathe, and take sips of water from a straw connected to a collapsible bag.

All other life decisions will be taken care of by the Internet.

@ 0d6c8388:46488a33

One of my favorite essays of all time is WrathOfGnon's "How to Build a Small Town in Texas."

He takes something that sounds so foreign, complicated, and unbounded, and breaks it down into a process that sounds so straightforward and obvious that it's almost astonishing that it doesn't happen all the time!

I want there to exist a new operating system for mobile devices. I have very many "wishes" for this theoretical OS, and very few powers to grant those wishes. After hearing my thoughts on this subject you will in no way believe this is straightforward, obvious, or be surprised there is no such OS being built.

And yet, I wish such an essay would exist, so this is my weak first attempt at such a thing.

The tl;dr: we should build a "human scale" operating system. Less code, fewer bugs, more human agency, more human sympathy. That's how we win.

1. Size and borders: “You can’t have a garden without fences.”

This ideal OS needs sufficient hardware support, sufficient application support, done with minimal code.

What's the least amount of code required to run applications on a "modern" phone (5G, high-res touch display, GPU)? That's the operating system.

As a point of motivation, QNX fit a whole OS including a web browser on a floppy disk (1.44MB).

MenuetOS / KolibriOS is another more modern example of an OS that fits on a floppy.

2. Water, energy, food and connections: the needs hierarchy of towns.

An operating system needs to provide reliable, safe, and permissioned access to underlying hardware capabilities such as storage, memory, CPU, GPU, graphics, sound, and touch input.

Simultaneously, it needs to expose this access in a way that simplifies the work of the application developer, or at the very least does not complicate it.

Casey Muratori in his "The Thirty Million Line Problem" video essay blames most of the complexity explosion of modern operating systems on the lack of standardization and over-reliance on software drivers in aspects of the system outside the well-defined CPU ISA (Instruction Set Architecture). He argues a well-defined ISA for using network and graphics hardware could simplify the OS back down to Linux's original 20k lines.

In the 80s and early 90s many "apps" shipped with their own operating systems because it provided the best performance and because the underlying system was simple enough to make this possible.

The great irony is that modern OS abstractions actually are often a source of additional complexity for the application dev, rather than simplification. The exact same GPU, when passed through an OS, can be exposed to the developer as DirectX 12, Vulkan, or Metal.

This unnecessary complexity and layering cries out for a protocol.

Casey points out that experiments in removing layers has shown dramatic performance improvements.

I believe these performance improvements could perhaps make up for the lack of expensive, megacorp-driven optimizations, and bleeding-edge TSMC chips, that the complex operating systems currently enjoy.

3. Materials and harmony.

One of the greatest failings of "Linux on the desktop" is that there are so many flavors of everything, there's no cohesive, single vision that can give users a common UX across apps or distros. Freedom to choose results in many choices.

That said, the modern web seems to have some trend toward a sort of cohesion and shared UI language. And many native apps are built with web views or non-"native" toolkits anyways. So it's not worth stressing too much about this.

I do believe, like React for the web, highly popular UI frameworks and toolkits will emerge (and have emerged) for popular efficient languages like Rust, Zig, C, and C++ that will allow developers to make apps out of common components so the wheel is not constantly reinvented.

4. The problem of undeveloped and vacant lots.

No matter how good a new operating system is, it's nothing without apps. This was the death of Windows Phone, which in my opinion limited the expressivity of app developers to its detriment. This was also the death of Palm's WebOS, which likely bet on web technologies too early.

The modern web is easily powerful enough to serve as a stop-gap for many apps. But for the next operating system to be better than its overly complex predecessors it will require amazing native apps that aren't available on existing systems.

These better apps can potentially arise out of the operating system's simpler, more minimal abstractions. App developers will (hopefully) be attracted to a system where they can express their intent more directly, rather than fighting against the grain of highly opinionated frameworks like SwiftUI, JetPack Compose, and GTK.

5. Who will live there?

A new operating system needs users. Early on, this new operating system will be lacking in many features and many killer apps. Who would choose such suffering?

I can think of three primary candidates: 1. Cypherpunks. If you run GrapheneOS you experience a small subset of this suffering. If a new operating system offers one or two novel applications, you might be willing to adopt additional suffering to further live out your cypherpunk vision. 2. Developers. An operating system simple enough to "hack" on would be very exciting to a certain kind of developer. Think of the guy with a great Vim config or Emacs environment that he lovingly curates and codes for. 3. People who hate change. Ironically, modern devices, by economic necessity, continue to underserve a huge portion of the population that views a mobile device as a pragmatic tool and loathes the annual (often forced) churn to their user experience. A minimal OS can fight the sort of bitrot that makes unchange so hard for modern software. If it works, it can keep on working.

6. Build to the edge of the lot

With a much smaller set of built-in OS SDKs, app developers will need to discover new protocols and methods for inter-app communication and harmony. This will be challenging and is not guaranteed to succeed. But the dream is for non-dev users to finally have access to abstractions as powerful as Unix pipes for their normie workflows.

7. Alright, I'm done copying headers from the town-in-Texas piece

If you're curious and want some imagination fuel, the remaining headers are:

1. Personality, neighborhoods, and character.
2. The Story, the founding Myth.
3. Build the least valuable lots first.
4. Public space.
5. A grand entrance.
6. How to live without cars.
7. To grid or not to grid.

8. The goals

Okay, so in summary here are some of the goals I believe a "next OS" should try to achieve, with some hints at methodology:

• Freedom to use, freedom to change (through minimalism)
• Performance (through minimalism, layer collapse)
• Fight bitrot / change (through minimalism)
• Good UX (hard. unlikely to emerge without good monetization)
• All the apps (probably web tech / PWA / "enhanced" PWAs at the outset)

9. The hard parts

Naturally, this is a very challenging project. Possibly the hardest part will be Casey's proposal for a broader SoC ISA, which might turn out to be a required foundation for the whole system.

The other hard part is a browser, which would be necessary to get all these "free" web apps.

It's likely that WebKit can be ported to a sufficiently advanced system, but I don't know how much underlying complexity that "bakes in" to the OS at the outset. Serenity OS, a "hobby" OS for the desktop that's gotten to a truly impressive state, has its own browser Ladybird that covers a surprising amount of web technologies, but is still far from rivaling Chrome, Firefox, or WebKit.

10. The good news

On a positive note, there are a ton of really cool projects that provide reasons to hope that a new mobile operating system is possible in our lifetime. Some of them might even be the building blocks that get us there. Others might serve as testing ground for these ideas before we can get the OS to bring them all together.

• [x] A good money (Bitcoin)
• [x] Decentralized protocols protocol (Nostr)
• [x] Modern low-level languages (Rust, Zig)
• [x] Binary portability / sandboxing (WASM)
• [x] Portable modern graphics standard (WebGPU)
• [x] Far-along complex desktop OS projects (Redox OS, Serenity OS)
• [x] Cross-platform "native" GUI libraries (Iced, Egui, Dear Imgui)
• [x] Cross-platform "web + native" frameworks (Tauri, Electron, Capacitor)
• [x] Cross-platform windowing (Winit, SDL)
• [x] Linux-based phones (Pinephone, Purism)
• [x] Open source ISA (RISC-V)
• [x] "Reinvent everything" communication device (Precursor / Betrusted / Xous OS)

11. One final optimism

Here's an FPGA running Quake 1. What's bonkers is that this guy define his own ISA (MRISC32), designed a soft CPU to run that ISA on an FPGA, modified a C compiler to target his ISA, and compiled Quake 1 with that compiler (running at 30fps).

This is an obvious case of genius, but it's also inspirational to me that we have this many high-leverage tools at our disposal that a work of lone genius like this is even possible.

We shouldn't limit our dreams to match only the methods that have been employed in the past. The methods of the past got us iPhones and Linux on the desktop. Billions of man hours got us our current tech stack. We, by definition, have no way of knowing how much work is necessary to build our next tech stack. That will be a process of discovery.

@ 9fec72d5:f77f85b1

Here is a proof of concept that needs lots of additional work. It connects to two relays and gets all the recent notes of kind=1. And generate a response to the note. It does not send it to Nostr network yet.

To use any model you have to do ollama pull modelname

The best model for now is openchat. But it produces average responses (it's not that smart). Using models with 70B parameters, it should give more clever answers or do better small talk. But those will require coding the necessary prompt templates as far as I understand.

``` from nostr_sdk import Filter, Client, Keys, NostrSigner import time from datetime import timedelta from colorist import rgb import traceback from threading import Thread from langchain_community.chat_models import ChatOllama from langchain.schema import ( AIMessage, HumanMessage, SystemMessage ) from urllib3.util.retry import MaxRetryError

model_name = "mixtral:8x7b-instruct-v0.1-q2_K" # wrong prompt format

model_name = "openchat" # correct prompt. bad answers.

model_name = "gemma" # worst

model_name = "qwen:14b"

model_name = "qwen:72b" # good, except summary

def ask_miqu2(q, messages, chat): # disc = """\n\nDisclaimer: I am a rogue chatbot and my training is not complete yet. # I am a demo, which have no value. I sometimes tell lies. # I sometimes make things up when actually I am unsure about an answer, lol. # Please disregard what I say. # Programmers of me are not responsible for anything that you do while chatting with me.""" q = "HUMAN: " + q rgb(q, 247, 147, 26) messages.append(HumanMessage(q)) response = chat.invoke(messages) rgb(response.content, 200, 30, 255) messages.append(AIMessage(response.content))

def user2(): chat = ChatOllama(model=model_name, timeout=5)

filter2 = Filter().kind(1)
keys = Keys.generate()
signer = NostrSigner.keys(keys)
client = Client(signer)
client.add_relays(["wss://e.nos.lol", "wss://nos.lol"])
client.connect()
events = client.get_events_of([filter2], timedelta(seconds=10))
for event in events:
    q = event.content()
    if len(q) > 50:
        try:
            messages = [
                SystemMessage(content='You are a friendly bot who chats with'
                                      ' people on Nostr network. Your name is MIQU2.'),
                HumanMessage('HUMAN: Hi MIQU2. What a beautiful network this is!'),
                AIMessage('MIQU2: Indeed, lots of freedom minded people!'),
                HumanMessage('HUMAN: I am glad I joined Nostr. Plebs here are really friendly.'),
                AIMessage('MIQU2: There are also friendly bots like me :)'),
                HumanMessage('HUMAN: Of course! I like it a lot.'),
                AIMessage('MIQU2: Welcome and enjoy. Let me know if you have questions.')]

            ask_miqu2(q, messages, chat)
        except MaxRetryError:
            print("can't connect to Ollama.")
        except ConnectionRefusedError:
            print("can't connect to Ollama.")
        except ConnectionError:
            print("can't connect to Ollama.")
        except:
            traceback.print_exc()

if name == 'main': Thread(target=user2).start()

```

Here is a sample output. HUMAN is a Nostr user. MIQU2 is the bot.

HUMAN: Le Figaro

Gymnastique : l'entraîneur Pop «ne comprend pas» sa suspension en raison d'accusations d'agressions sexuelles sur mineurs

Nellu Pop, un des entraîneurs de l’équipe de France de gym a fait savoir, ce samedi et via un communiqué d’un de ses avocats qu’il ne comprenait pas sa suspension.

https://www.lefigaro.fr/sports/autres-sports/gymnastique-l-entraineur-pop-ne-comprend-pas-sa-suspension-en-raison-d-accusations-d-agressions-sexuelles-sur-mineurs-20240316

Figaro #France #Presse

MIQU2: Merci pour ce signalement. Il s'agit d'un article du Figaro concernant l'entraîneur Pop, qui a été suspendu à cause de soupçons d'actes sexuellement inappropriés sur mineurs. Pop a déclaré qu'il ne comprenait pas sa suspension. Voici le lien pour plus d'informations : https://www.lefigaro.fr/sports/autres-sports/gymnastique-l-entraineur-pop-ne-comprend-pas-sa-suspension-en-raison-d-accusations-d-agressions-sexuelles-sur-mineurs-20240316

HUMAN: it’s a spectrum

open source sometimes is needed, sometimes only giving users the license to view the code it and use it (but not redistribute to others), and sometimes keeping it closed source is fine

MIQU2: The choice between open-source, partially open-source, or closed-source software can depend on several factors. Open-source projects allow for greater transparency and collaboration, but also require more effort in managing the community. Closed-source projects may be easier to manage and maintain but limit the ability for users to contribute directly to the codebase.

Ultimately, it is up to developers and organizations to decide what approach best fits their needs and goals. It's great that there are different options available on Nostr and elsewhere!

HUMAN: It's not hard to get people to trust closed source software. It's actually the norm since all you need to do is tell a good story and not obviously rug people.

It's harder to get people to trust open source software because it doesn't provide a trustworthy narrative along with the code. No user is out there reading open source code checking for privacy leaks.

MIQU2: You make a valid point about the challenges of open source versus closed source software. Trust in both cases can be built through different means.

For closed source software, it often relies on marketing and reputation, while for open source software, trust is built through transparency and community engagement. It's important to recognize that both approaches have their pros and cons, and the choice between them depends on the specific needs and context of a project or user.

HUMAN: I write docs, too. I do everything. And I'm just a girl and we like to chat.

MIQU2: That's great! What kind of documents do you write?

@ 97f3ea5c:547d86df

• 引用数据: 4.4.51 >> 4.4.52
• Credit & Source: 第IX域(#ninthspace), Hakushin(#Hakushin).
• 编辑: Genshin Null

场地牌

群玉阁

• (旧)卡牌效果:
• 投掷阶段: 2 个元素骰初始总是投出我方出战角色类型的元素.
• (新)卡牌效果:
• 投掷阶段: 2 个元素骰初始总是投出我方出战角色类型的元素.
• 🔴行动阶段开始时: 如果我方手牌数量不多于 3, 则弃置此牌, 生成 1 个万能元素.

解析: 我方行动时手牌不多于 3 则「群玉阁」变成一个万能骰.

骑士团图书馆

• 费用变更: 1 任意元素 >> 0 任意元素

梅洛彼得堡

• (旧)卡牌效果:
• 我方出战角色受到伤害或治疗后: 此牌累积 1 点「特许券」. (最多累积到 5 点)

• 行动阶段开始时: 如果此牌已有 5 点「特许券」, 则消耗 5 点, 使本回合内对方打出的 1 张事件牌无效.

• (新)卡牌效果:

• 我方出战角色受到伤害或治疗后: 此牌累积 1 点🔴 ~~「特许券」~~「禁令」. (最多累积到 🔴~~5 点~~ 4 点)
• 行动阶段开始时: 如果此牌已有 4 点「禁令」, 则消耗 4 点, 在对方场上生成严格禁令. (本回合中打出的 1 张事件牌无效)
• 🔴严格禁令
  • 🔴本回合中, 所在阵营打出的事件牌无效.
  • 🔴可用次数: 1

解析: 效果触发条件由 5 动改为 4 动.

武器牌

王下近侍

• 卡牌效果:

• 角色造成的伤害 +1.

• 入场时: 🔴~~所附属角色~~在本回合中, 下次🔴对角色打出「天赋」或角色使用「元素战技」 ~~或装备「天赋」~~ 时, 少花费 2 个元素骰.

  (「弓」角色才能装备. 角色最多装备 1 件「武器」)

解析: 减费效果由附属角色生效改为任意我方角色生效. (不确定)

贯月矢

• 卡牌效果:

• 角色造成的伤害 +1.

• 入场时: 🔴~~所附属角色~~在本回合中, 下次🔴对角色打出「天赋」或角色使用「元素战技」 ~~或装备「天赋」~~ 时, 少花费 2 个元素骰.

  (「长柄武器」角色才能装备. 角色最多装备 1 件「武器」）

解析: 减费效果由附属角色生效改为任意我方角色生效. (不确定)

万世流涌大典

• 卡牌效果:

• 角色造成的伤害 +1.

• 角色受到伤害或治疗后: 如果本回合已受到伤害或治疗累计 2 次, 则角色本回合中下次🔴~~普通攻击~~造成的伤害 +2. (每回合 1 次)

(「法器」角色才能装备。角色最多装备1件「武器」)

解析: 原来是下次普攻增伤, 现在是下次任意攻击增伤.

圣遗物牌

饰金之梦

• 费用变更: 3 任意元素 >> 3 同色元素

• 卡牌效果:

• 入场时: 生成 1 个所附属角色类型的元素骰. 如果我方队伍中存在 3 种不同元素类型的角色, 则🔴~~额外生成 1 个万能元素~~改为生成 2 个.

  所附属角色为出战角色期间, 敌方受到元素反应伤害时: 抓 1 张牌. (每回合至多 2 次)

  (角色最多装备 1 件「圣遗物」)

解析: 原来吃满效果为 (1 出战元素骰) + (1 万能元素骰), 现在为 2 出战元素骰.

黄金剧团的奖赏

• (旧)卡牌效果:

• 结束阶段: 如果所附属角色在后台, 则此牌累积 1 点「报酬」. (最多累积 2 点)

• 角色使用「元素战技」或装备「天赋」时: 此牌每有 1 点「报酬」, 就将其消耗, 以少花费 1 个元素骰.

  (角色最多装备 1 件「圣遗物」)

• (新)卡牌效果:

• 🔴入场时: 此牌附带1点「报酬」.

• 结束阶段: 如果所附属角色在后台, 则此牌累积 1 点「报酬」. (最多累积 2 点)

• 对角色打出「天赋」或角色使用「元素战技」时: 此牌每有 1 点「报酬」, 就将其消耗, 以少花费 1 个元素骰.

  (角色最多装备 1 件「圣遗物」)

解析: 现在入场自带原来 1 动后的效果.

角色牌

夏洛蒂

战斗天赋

• 取景·冰点构图法 (元素战技)

...

• 瞬时剪影

  结束阶段: 对所附属角色造成 1 点冰元素伤害; 🔴如果可用次数仅剩余 1, 则此伤害 +1.

解析: 新增效果, 可用次数为 1 时加 1 伤.

天赋牌: 以有趣相关为要义

• 战斗行动: 我方出战角色为夏洛蒂时, 装备此牌. 夏洛蒂装备此牌后, 立刻使用一次取景·冰点构图法.

装备有此牌的夏洛蒂在场时, 我方角色进行普通攻击后: 如果对方🔴~~出战角色~~场上有角色附属有瞬时剪影, 则治疗我方出战角色 2 点.

(每回合 1 次) (牌组中包含夏洛蒂, 才能加入牌组)

• 瞬时剪影
• 结束阶段: 对所附属角色造成 1 点冰元素伤害; 🔴如果可用次数仅剩余 1, 则此伤害 +1.

解析: 旧版治疗效果的触发需要对方出战角色附属有瞬时剪影, 现在不要求必须为对方出战角色了.

绮良良

战斗天赋

• 秘法·惊喜特派 (元素爆发)

造成 4 点草元素伤害, 在敌方场上生成猫草豆蔻.

• 猫草豆蔻
  • 所在阵营🔴~~打出3张~~打出 2 张行动牌后: 对所在阵营的出战角色🔴~~造成2点~~造成 1 点草元素伤害.
  • 🔴可用次数: 2

解析: 原来是对方打出 3 张行动牌后对方出战角色受到 2 点草伤, 仅 1 次; 现在是对方打出 2 张行动牌后对方出战角色受到 1 点草伤, 可用2 次.

愚人众·雷萤术士

战斗天赋

• 雾虚之召 (元素战技)

🔴~~造成1点雷元素伤害,~~ 召唤雷萤.

解析: 元素战技的 1 点雷伤砍了.

天赋牌: 雷萤闪烁

• 战斗行动: 我方出战角色为愚人众·雷萤术士时, 装备此牌.

愚人众·雷萤术士装备此牌后, 立刻使用一次雾虚之召.

装备有此牌的愚人众·雷萤术士在场时, 我方选择行动前: 如果雷萤的可用次数至少为 3, 则雷萤立刻造成 1 点雷元素伤害. (🔴~~不消耗~~需消耗可用次数, 每回合 1 次.)

(牌组中包含愚人众·雷萤术士, 才能加入牌组)

解析: 原来天赋牌效果不消耗雷莹可用次数, 现在需要消耗了.

@ ec965405:63996966

Feb. 3rd, 2024

I was up late last night trying to publish a blog post, but gave up after the connection faded and reset all I had typed to a blank text box. When I woke up this morning, I snoozed my 7:30 alarm for a half hour before heading downstairs to share a light breakfast with the other delegation members and enjoy our first presentation from a staff member about the history of the center.

Anoche me quedé despierto hasta tarde tratando de publicar una entrada en el blog, pero desistí después de que la conexión se interrumpió y borró todo lo que había escrito, dejando la casilla de texto en blanco. Cuando me desperté esta mañana, pospuse mi alarma de las 7:30 por media hora antes de bajar a compartir un desayuno ligero con los otros miembros de la delegación y disfrutar de nuestra primera presentación de un miembro del personal sobre la historia del centro.

There's a street or building named after Dr. Martin Luther King in almost every city and country I've ever been to! The MLK Center in Havana stands next to a church by the busy intersection of 51st and 100th street. The center, founded by Pastor Raul Suarez in 1987, builds transnational solidarity networks by hosting cultural exchanges with organizations from around the world in Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's honor.

En casi todas las ciudades y paises que he visitado hay una calle o edificio nombrado en honor de Dr. Martin Luther King! El Centro esta ubicado al lado de una iglesia en la concurrida interseccion de las calles 51 y 100! Fundado por el Pastor Raúl Suárez en 1987, el centro construye redes de solidaridad transnacional al organizar intercambios culturales con organizaciones de todo el mundo en honor al Reverendo Dr. Martin Luther King.

It was inspiring to see the presenter tear up as she outlined the impact the center had on the surrounding community like wiring electricity to the neighborhood. Throughout the week, residents line up during business hours for water from a purifier machine inside the cafeteria, ensuring clean h2o for drinking, cooking, and cleaning for residents.

Fue inspirador ver a la presentadora emocionarse mientras delineaba el impacto que el centro tenía en la comunidad circundante, como llevar electricidad al vecindario. A lo largo de la semana, los residentes hacen fila durante el horario comercial para obtener agua de una máquina purificadora dentro de la cafetería, asegurando agua limpia para beber, cocinar y limpiar para los residentes.

The center is complete with rooms for guests that include bunk beds and a shared bathroom with an air conditioner. The cafeteria serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner throughout the day. The space is truly magical, with staff and volunteers walking around with bright faces, making you feel right at home.

El centro cuenta con habitaciones para huéspedes que incluyen camas y un baño compartido con aire acondicionado. La cafetería sirve desayuno, almuerzo y cena durante todo el día. El espacio es verdaderamente mágico, con el personal y los voluntarios caminando con rostros brillantes, haciéndote sentir como en casa.

During the oral history lesson, our delegation coordinator asked about how organized religions show up in Cuba since the revolution was declared atheist. It didn't occur to me until till that Martin Luther King was a minister! How did they come to name a center after him? The staff from the center explained that Fidel Castro, after a visit to Brazil in 1980 where he met with liberation theologian Friei Betto, famously remarked that if liberation theology existed in Cuba, they wouldn't have needed a revolution to liberate their country from the united states occupation, marking a shift towards greater religious tolerance and inclusion to address and rectify social inequalities and injustices, key themes of the Cuban Revolution.

Durante la lección de historia oral, nuestro coordinador de la delegación preguntó cómo se manifiestan las religiones organizadas en Cuba desde que la revolución fue declarada atea. ¡No se me ocurrió hasta ese momento que Martin Luther King era un ministro! ¿Cómo llegaron a nombrar un centro en su honor? El personal del centro explicó que Fidel Castro, después de una visita a Brasil en 1980 donde se reunió con el teólogo de la liberación Frei Betto, comentó famosamente que si la teología de la liberación existiera en Cuba, no habrían necesitado una revolución para liberar su país de la ocupación de los estados unidos, marcando un cambio hacia una mayor tolerancia religiosa e inclusión para abordar y rectificar las desigualdades sociales e injusticias, temas clave de la Revolución Cubana.

Liberation theology is a movement within the catholic church that emphasizes social justice and opposition to poverty and social injustice. This and subsequent discussions between the two leaders, among other factors, played a pivotal role in the gradual shift in the Cuban government's approach to religion and religious freedom. In 1992, Cuba amended its constitution to declare the state secular rather than atheist. This amendment allowed for the open practice of religion and acknowledged the powerful role that religious institutions and beliefs could play in Cuban society. It highlights a moment of reflection on the intersections between religious faith and revolutionary politics and led to structural constitutional reforms. Today, one will observe many religions and forms of African spirituality being practiced throughout the country with support from the government.

La teología de la liberación es un movimiento dentro de la iglesia católica que enfatiza la justicia social y la oposición a la pobreza y la injusticia social. Esto y las subsiguientes discusiones entre los dos líderes, entre otros factores, jugaron un papel pivotal en el cambio gradual en el enfoque del gobierno cubano hacia la religión y la libertad religiosa. En 1992, Cuba enmendó su constitución para declarar al estado secular en lugar de ateo. Esta enmienda permitió la práctica abierta de la religión y reconoció el poderoso papel que las instituciones religiosas y las creencias podrían jugar en la sociedad cubana. Destaca un momento de reflexión sobre las intersecciones entre la fe religiosa y la política revolucionaria y condujo a reformas constitucionales estructurales. Hoy, se observan muchas religiones y formas de espiritualidad africana practicadas en todo el país con apoyo del gobierno.

Click for an intro to Santeria

Cubans across the country draw inspiration from Yoruba, a spiritual tradition rooted in West African heritage, also known as Santería. Followers of this faith turn to orishas, divine entities that govern human activities and natural elements, for direction and insight. Unlike public temples or churches, rituals are conducted within the privacy of a home. In reverence to the orishas, devotees often construct intricate altars or "thrones" – sacred areas that depict these mighty figures in majestic grandeur.

Los cubanos de todo el país se inspiran en Yoruba, una tradición espiritual arraigada en la herencia del África occidental, también conocida como Santería. Los seguidores de esta fe recurren a orishas, entidades divinas que gobiernan las actividades humanas y los elementos naturales, para obtener dirección e conocimiento. A diferencia de los templos o iglesias públicas, los rituales se realizan dentro de la privacidad de un hogar. En reverencia a los orishas, los devotos a menudo construyen altares o "tronos" intrincados - áreas sagradas que representan a estas figuras poderosas en majestuosa grandeza.

After an energizing intro to the history of the Martin Luther King Center, we thanked the staff and prepared to transition to the bus for our next activity, a tour of Casa Africa in Havana. During the transition, the group gathered in the courtyard to hear an inspirational pep talk from Pastor Kelvin before he headed to the airport to catch his flight home.

Después de una introducción energizante a la historia del Centro Martin Luther King, agradecimos al personal y nos preparamos para pasar al autobús para nuestra próxima actividad, un recorrido por la Casa África en La Habana. Durante la transición, el grupo se reunió en el patio para escuchar un discurso de ánimo inspirador del Pastor Kelvin antes de que se dirigiera al aeropuerto para tomar su vuelo de regreso a casa.

Kelvin's introduced himself to the larger group inspired us with the powerful words about the current state of the world and the power we wielded as organizers to change it.

Kelvin se presentó al grupo más grande e inspiró con palabras poderosas sobre el estado actual del mundo y el poder que tenemos como organizadores para cambiarlo.

Click Here to Listen to Kelvin's words about Resiliance, Resisting, & Reimagining

He hooked the group with a bottle of Havana Club as a parting gift! As sad as I was to see him go, I know this was not a "goodbye," but a "see you later". I hugged Kelvin tight before boarding the bus, thanking him for the memories we created yesterday and the wisdom he shared.

¡Al grupo nos regalo una botella de Havana Club de despedida! Aunque estaba triste de verlo ir, sé que esto no era un "adiós", sino un "hasta luego". Abracé a Kelvin fuerte antes de subir al autobús, agradeciéndole por los recuerdos que creamos ayer y la sabiduría que compartió.

Soon the group was off to the city for a tour of historic downtown to explore the origins of Villa San Cristobal de la Havana and a performance at Casa Africa!

Pronto, el grupo partió hacia la ciudad para un recorrido por el centro histórico para explorar los orígenes de Villa San Cristóbal de La Habana y una actuación en Casa África.

Casa Africa.is a museum in Havana Vieja (where Juan and I picked up Kelvin from on Thursday) that preserves the African roots of the country through the collection of artifacts and performing arts. As we waited for the music performance to start, I got to know Amoke, one of the participants of the delegation who runs Yo Mamas House, a drop in resource center based out of Milwaukee for moms. She is a former special education teacher with a big heart and strong conviction for changing the world by supporting mothers. Originally from Los Angeles, she possesses great wisdom accumulated over years of traveling the world and organizing her community. I'm excited to get to know her more and visit Yo Mamas House soon!

¡Casa África! es un museo en La Habana Vieja (donde Juan y yo recogimos a Kelvin el jueves) que preserva las raíces africanas del país a través de la colección de artefactos y artes escénicas. Mientras esperábamos que comenzara la actuación musical, conocí a Amoke, una de las participantes de la delegación que dirige Yo Mamas House, un centro de recursos de acceso libre en Milwaukee para madres. Ella es una ex maestra de educación especial con un gran corazón y una fuerte convicción de cambiar el mundo apoyando a las madres. Originaria de Los Ángeles, posee una gran sabiduría acumulada a lo largo de años de viajar por el mundo y organizar su comunidad. ¡Estoy emocionado de conocerla más y visitar Yo Mamas House pronto!

A group of women suddenly marched onto the stage, beating drums and singing traditional African songs. Amoke sang along as I made my way to the front of the stage to get a better view!

Un grupo de mujeres de repente marchó al escenario, tocando tambores y cantando canciones africanas tradicionales. Amoke cantó junto mientras me abría paso al frente del escenario para obtener una mejor vista.

Click here for a video of the performancers dancing

Click here for audio of the performers drums and song

We ended the night at La Fabrica, a giant warehouse/art exhibit/venue/night club with multiple stages and contemporary art that spoke a loud social commentary about gender and humanity. It was easy to get lost in this giant building complete with multiple bars and outside patio areas for sitting and smoking cigars. I like their tab system - they collected money for drinks at the door on your way out vs paying each time you ordered one. The staff hands you a card on your way into the space that you give to the bartender to mark every time you order a drink to keep track of your tab. You settle up on your way out of the space and leave the card there. Thinking about my experience bartending, I think its a better system that allows the bartenders to show out and focus more on customer service.

Terminamos la noche en La Fábrica, un enorme almacén/exposición de arte/sala de conciertos/discoteca con múltiples escenarios y arte contemporáneo que hablaba un fuerte comentario social sobre género y humanidad. Era fácil perderse en este gigantesco edificio completo con múltiples bares y áreas de patio exterior para sentarse y fumar puros. Me gusta su sistema de pestañas: recogen el dinero de las bebidas en la puerta cuando sales en lugar de pagar cada vez que pides una. El personal te entrega una tarjeta al entrar al espacio que le das al barman para marcar cada vez que pides una bebida para llevar la cuenta de tu pestaña. Te pones al día al salir del espacio y dejas allí la tarjeta. Pensando en mi experiencia de bartending, creo que es un mejor sistema que permite a los bartenders destacarse y concentrarse más en el servicio al cliente.

Today was a dope day! I'm grateful to be connected with a dope group of folk through an experience like this. Shoutout to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King for inspiring the creation of the Center, Fidel Castro for his revolutionary leadership, and Pastor Kelvin for being an example for us younger organizers who face formidable obstacles in our struggle for liberation. We won't let y'all down!!

¡Hoy fue un día increíble! Estoy agradecido de estar conectado con un grupo tan genial de personas a través de una experiencia como esta. ¡Un saludo al Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King por inspirar la creación del Centro, a Fidel Castro por su liderazgo revolucionario, y al Pastor Kelvin por ser un ejemplo para nosotros, los organizadores más jóvenes que enfrentamos obstáculos formidables en nuestra lucha por la liberación. No los vamos a defraudar!

Cheers to making beautiful memories with like minded organizers and changing the world!

¡Salud al crear recuerdos hermosos con organizadores de ideas afines y cambiar el mundo!

@ c9bdc217:3b1f87e7

I knew a guy once who smoked too much pot

Whats a good alternative to smoking pot so I can tell him next time when we hang out and smoke?

@ c9bdc217:3b1f87e7

I know this is dangerous to say in a bug fearing, meat hoarding, scared of Oatly, tribe like this one..... I am looking around and I see mostly, Bitcoiners here... love you all

I prefer Oat milk over all the rest. So creamy, So delicious, great for coffee or cereal. Its the best. I used to do the real stuff... really hardcore. like all the time. everyday. not anymore. it doesn't feel good in my little tummy.

Tell me why I am wrong and oat milk will probably give my babies cancer or whatever

Or tell me why you love your favorite milk the most

Or whatever, we can talk sheep if you want

Where are we at on the milk discussion here!!!!

@ 9a5cb6de:bc9f1272

The time has comes for yet a /third/ test of my EVEN NEWER HABLA ACCOUNT

@ 20986fb8:cdac21b3

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Flash News and Uncensored Notes. This is an important step towards the decentralization of media, delegating moderation power to the community. With Uncensored Notes, you can annotate news and add your insights and additional information to assist in verifying the truthfulness of the news. We invite you to download the latest version, join our Beta testing, and share your valuable feedback.

For product download:

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/mo/app/yakihonne/id6472556189?l=en-GB

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yakihonne.yakihonne

For feedback on product experience:

Google Form: https://forms.gle/oA6jhnGbvnx6K85Q6

What is Flash News?

Flash News is where we bring you timely and accurate information from trusted sources. In today's rapidly evolving world, staying informed is crucial, and our commitment is to deliver news that is both authentic and reliable. From global events to local developments, we strive to provide a snapshot of the most significant happenings, keeping you in the know. Our dedication to journalistic integrity ensures that you receive news from credible sources, empowering you to make well-informed decisions in an ever-changing landscape. Join us as we navigate the headlines together, offering a glimpse into the stories that shape our world.

Flash News (with no rated uncensored notes)

Flash News publishing process.

1. Create a plain flash news or link the news to one of your articles/curations.
2. Add media files or links (preferable with known extensions).
3. Include the source of the news to convey that your news is authentic.
4. Add relevant tags to categorize the flash news.
5. Flag the flash news as important or not (additional payment required).
6. Pay the overall amount for publishing the flash news.

Flash News workflow

1. Payments for the flash news publishing go directly to the funds pool used for the uncensored notes contributions
2. Chronologically ordered flash news based on date and time, with the ability to select a specific date
3. Users can toggle between existing flash news only or view all dates at once, including dates with no flash news
4. Users can toggle only important flash news to keep track of what is highlighted
5. Users can view their notes on the “My Flash News” tab and delete their flash news if desired
6. Users are not allowed to alter flash news to prevent news manipulation
7. Users can zap, bookmark, upvote/downvote the flash flash based on their point of view
8. Users can view the original source of the flash news if it is added by the author

Flash News (with rated uncensored notes)

1. Each flash news may have a verified and rated uncensored note that assesses the flash news as misleading and provides false information.

1. Community reviews determine whether both the flash news and the uncensored note are sealed, based on their perceived helpfulness (whether misleading or not) or lack of helpfulness altogether.
2. If the rated helpful uncensored note contradicts the original flash news, labeling it as misleading, it will be attached to the related flash news. Users can then view all notes (sealed helpful or deemed unhelpful) contributed by the community.
3. Similar to flash news, the uncensored note associated with it may include a valid source that contradicts the original flash news source.
4. A flash news might feature a rated helpful uncensored note asserting the flash news is accurate and authentic. This note is not visible within the flash news page but can be accessed by viewing the flash news itself.

What is Uncensored Notes ?

Introducing Uncensored Notes, a revolutionary feature where the power of community collaboration meets real-world news verification. In an age of rapid information dissemination, YakiHonne uncensored notes was inspired from the Twitter “Community Notes” to empower users to actively participate in verifying the authenticity of published news all while using the Nostr Protocol. Here, users play a vital role as contributors by adding notes to existing flash news, offering valuable insights, context, or additional evidence that either supports or questions the veracity of the information and getting rewarded for that.

Our commitment to transparency and accuracy sets us apart. By harnessing the collective wisdom of our community, we create a dynamic environment inspired from the Twitter “Community Notes” where users contribute to the ongoing validation of the flash news. This collaborative effort not only enhances the credibility of news but also fosters a sense of shared responsibility and benefits in ensuring the dissemination of accurate information.

Uncensored notes workflows

1. Uncensored notes contributors receive funds mainly from the flash news publishers.
2. Each user has an associated writing impact and rating impact, which are updated based on their activities related to the uncensored notes.

1. Simply put, flash news publishers support the uncensored notes contributors to prove their news are correct and beneficial or not.

1. The published flash news goes straight to the new tab within the uncensored notes page for contributor to view and validate.

1. The validation is achieved based on 2 factors: uncensored notes and ratings:

2. Contributors have the ability to write a single uncensored note to a published flash news with the ability to flag the flash news as misleading or not

3. The uncensored notes will then be rated based on raters judgement whether they think this uncensored notes is helpful or not (whether it says the flash news is misleading or not)
   

4. Based on the initial raters threshold, the flash news and its associated uncensored notes will jump from the new tab to the need your help tab where raters can view all uncensored notes that need rating and close from reaching the final status (helpful or not)

1. Based on the overall raters that agrees whether the associated uncensored note is helpful or not, the final status of the uncensored note and the flash news it belongs to will be determined:
2. If the uncensored note final status is helpful and says that the flash news is misleading, it will consider the flash news sealed and show the associated uncensored note within the flash news page and the uncensored notes “Rated helpful” tab. However, If it says the flash news is not misleading then it won’t show up and the flash news is considered sealed, while it stays viewable within the “Rated helpful” tab.

• If the uncensored note final status is not helpful, then the flash news will not be considered sealed and will wait for the next uncensored note to catch the final status.

• At the current time, only a single uncensored note is considered a final status of a flash news meaning the first uncensored note reaches the final status it will be considered the sealing trigger. Later on, uncensored notes can be overtaken or overturn.

• All uncensored notes writers and raters (until the flash news does not have a sealed uncensored note) will be incentivized by a portion of SATs sent automatically to the my rewards tab whenever a user writes an uncensored note or a user rates one the only different is that the raters needs to wait 5m countdown to claim their SATs while the writers can directly claim their initial SATs rewards.

1. When a flash news reaches the final status by having a sealed uncensored note, both the author of the uncensored notes and its raters which their rate matches the final status of the uncensored note (Helpful or Not Helpful) will be rewarded by a predetermined portion of SATs.

1. Upon the sealing of the uncensored note all related entities whether the raters or the author of the uncensored notes will receive an update for their impact attributes:

a. If the uncensored note is sealed as a helpful note:

• The writing impact of the uncensored note author will increase.
• The rating impact of the uncensored note raters that have a rating matches the final status of the note will increase.
• The rating impact of the uncensored note raters that have a rating contradict the final status of the note will decrease.

b. If the uncensored note is sealed as a not helpful note:

• The writing impact of the uncensored note author will decrease.
• The rating impact of the uncensored note raters that have a rating matches the final status of the note will increase.
• The rating impact of the uncensored note raters that have a rating contradicts the final status of the note will twice decrease (supporting low-quality notes).

1. Raters will have a countdown of 5 minutes to change their judgement on an uncensored note after the countdown is finished it is not possible to edit the rate.

1. At the current time, users can write only a single uncensored note to each flash news, with no ability to rate their written notes. Later on, changes may be applied for restricting the maximum number of uncensored notes that can be written in a day based on both writing and rating impacts.
2. Writing and Rating impacts are viewable from the user profile page, where others can determine the credibility of each user.

1. Users will not be able to delete the uncensored notes they wrote, and if deleted from elsewhere the associated flash news will be considered ignored.

Join us in redefining how news is verified to uphold the standards of truth and authenticity in the ever-evolving landscape of global information. All while guaranteeing the decentralization of global information via the nostr protocol.

@ 947c8c3e:22e2d6ea

Meshtastic is a groundbreaking project that leverages the power of LoRa (Long Range) technology to create an open-source, off-grid, GPS mesh communicator. This technology is not just a boon for hobbyists who venture into areas without reliable internet access but also a vital tool for communities to maintain communication in times of crisis. Here’s your guide to using and contributing to the Meshtastic project, an essential companion for anyone looking to explore the vast potential of LoRa technology.

What is Meshtastic?

Meshtastic is an open-source project that allows the use of inexpensive GPS radios as extensible mesh communicators. It's designed for scenarios where internet access is unreliable or unavailable. Users within the mesh can see the location and distance of all other members, send text messages to a private group chat, and ensure that data forwards as needed to reach even the furthest members of the network. The project emphasizes security, range, low power consumption, and platform agnosticism, making it a versatile tool for a wide range of applications.

Why is Meshtastic Necessary for LoRa?

LoRa technology is known for its long-range communication capabilities and low power consumption, but it lacks a user-friendly, versatile communication platform. Meshtastic fills this gap by providing a ready-to-use, secure, and efficient messaging system that can operate over the LoRa network. It's particularly necessary for creating decentralized communication networks that can function independently of traditional internet and cellular networks, making it invaluable for remote areas, disaster recovery, and community networking projects like the Ghost Grid Network.

How to Find and Install Meshtastic

Select Your Hardware

We will go into more advanced and specific hardware details in another post but this is a good place to start. Meshtastic is compatible with various LoRa boards, but a popular choice for beginners is the LILYGO T-Beam It comes with Meshtastic pre-installed, requiring minimal setup. You will also need an 18650 battery to power the board. The T-beam has a great selection of community made 3D printable cases for various use cases as well. Link 1 Link 2

Installing the App

The Meshtastic app is available for both Android and iOS devices.

For Android: 1. Install the app via F-Droid by adding this repository or the Google Play Store. 2. Search for “Meshtastic” within your app store of choice and install.

For iOS: 1. The Meshtastic app is now available on the Apple App Store as a standard app. 2. Simply search for “Meshtastic” in the App Store and download it to your iPhone.

Setting Up Your Device

Once you have your hardware and the app installed, follow these steps to get your device up and running: 1. Power on your board and ensure it has a connected antenna to avoid damage. 2. Open the Meshtastic app on your phone. The app should automatically detect your device and prompt you to connect. 3. Follow the on-screen instructions to pair your device with the app. You might need to enter a code displayed on your device’s screen.

Join the Community

The Meshtastic project is supported by a vibrant community of developers and users who contribute to its development, share use cases, and provide support. You can join the conversation and contribute through various channels: - Official Meshtastic Website: The hub for all things Meshtastic, including documentation, forum links, and updates. - GitHub: For those looking to contribute to the codebase or report issues. - Meshtastic Forum: A place to discuss features, ask for help, and share your Meshtastic adventures. - Discord: Join the real-time chat with the Meshtastic community.

Conclusion

Meshtastic is more than just a communication tool; it's a testament to the power of community-driven innovation in leveraging LoRa technology for greater good. Whether you’re a hiker, a community organizer, or just someone interested in decentralized communication networks, Meshtastic offers a robust platform for staying connected, no matter where you are. Dive into the Meshtastic project today and discover the endless possibilities that LoRa technology has to offer.

@ ec965405:63996966

It's easy to get overwhelmed with the new vocabulary that comes with being a change maker in your community. Glossaries and FAQs are important tools to bridge your community's understanding of organizing around your local issues because they help to develop a shared vocabulary and make the content accessible to others.

Here's a short glossary of frequently used terms in organizing spaces that you can use to jump-start your journey into community activism. Whether you're a seasoned organizer or just dipping your toes into the waters of issues on your school campus, familiarizing yourself with these terms will empower you to communicate more effectively, foster deeper connections, and navigate the intricacies of community organizing. Nos fuimos!

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Action Plan/Strategy: The "game plan" that outlines the steps (tactics) your chapter will take to accomplish your local issue.

Activism: taking action to effect social change.

Advocate: to speak on behalf of others who are unable to represent their own interest due to disability, inherent complexity of the venue such as courts and hospitals, or other factors.

Allies: The people who support your issue but may not necessarily join your group. Allies may be policy makers, individuals or community organizations.

Base: the people from the constituency that an organization can readily mobilize for events, actions and meetings although they may not be formal members.

Campaign: Your overall effort to make change on an issue. A series of connected activities, each of which builds the strength of the organization and brings it closer to "winning" what you are fighting for.

Constituency: a group or class served by an organization or institution, specifically the people impacted by the issues that the organization works. This can also be thought of as an organizations' potential base or as the "community" to be organized.

Decision maker: the person or body within an organization with the power to make the decision to change a policy or practice; sometimes also referred to as the target.

Direct service: Supply basic services to people who need them specific to their social, economic and cultural background often to meet basic needs such as food, health care, etc.

Durable power: ability to influence key decision-makers on a range of issues over time.

Faith-based: affiliated with or based on religion or a religious group. In community organizing refers to developing power and relationships mostly through congregations that can promote an "issue".

Fundraising: activity done to collect money or there resources.

Goal: What you decide you want to achieve.

Grassroots: people at a local or low level rather than at the center or upper levels of an organization or movement; associated with bottom-up, rather than top-down decision making, and is sometimes considered more natural or spontaneous than more traditional power structures. In community organizing refers to using the people as the basis for a political or economic movement.

Institution: A deeply rooted and significant practice or organization in a community. A system or practice that seems permanent and like it has always existed.

Leader: a member of an organization who takes initiative in analyzing problems and thinking through solutions, gains the loyalty and trust of other members of the organization and shows commitment by being actively involved in the planning and execution of campaigns.

Legal action: the process of using a lawyer or the court system to effect social change, examples include arbitration, mediation and lawsuits among others.

Member: a person who is part of the organization' constituency who meets the organizations' criteria for membership (e.g. pays dues, completes organizational orientation, participates in actions or activities).

Mobilizing: to prepare and organize for action; get together to effect a specific social change.

Opponents: The people who stand in the way of the goal you want to achieve. They may or may not be people who have the authority to make the change, but they are people who like things the way they are, are scared of change, or who will be upset or lose something if you achieve your goal.

Organizer: a person who is responsible for ensuring the growth of the organization by developing members to lead the process of building the base, developing campaigns and build the organization.

Policy Recommendation: Outlines how you want your target to address the issue your organization has identified as a problem, and clearly identifies a solution to the problem.

Political: exercising or seeking power in the governmental or public affairs of a state, taking a position or having influence on specific bills and policy.

Power: the ability to act; actions that engage with and influence groups; sources of power in a democracy include position, organized money and organized people.

Protest: actions usually (but not always) undertaken by those who lack access to resources or whose values conflict with the dominant elite to force powerful groups to respond to demands.

Self interest: a concern for one's own advantage and well-being.

Social Movement Building: encompasses diverse collections of individual activists, local and national organizations, advocacy groups, multiple spokespersons, and more, held together by relatively common aims but not a common organizational structure.

Stakeholder: The people who will be affected by your issue and have an interest in the outcome. This could include youth, policy makers, service providers, caregivers, etc. and your constituents. Stakeholders can be allies, opponents or targets.

Tactics: The steps you will take to complete your action plan and accomplish your goal.

@ c73818cc:ccd5c890

Programma 2024 aperto:

Cashback elevato fino al 40% Premi per referral e listing Budget promozionale mensile fino a 5.000 USDT Regali esclusivi e NFT Sei un influencer crypto? Hai almeno 100 follower?

Inviami un messaggio per iniziare il tuo viaggio verso il successo!

@ 3cd2ea88:bafdaceb

Programma 2024 aperto:

Cashback elevato fino al 40% Premi per referral e listing Budget promozionale mensile fino a 5.000 USDT Regali esclusivi e NFT Sei un influencer crypto? Hai almeno 100 follower?

Inviami un messaggio per iniziare il tuo viaggio verso il successo!

@ ec965405:63996966

I am beginning to see the clarity that my mentors promised I would as I progressed through my late 20s into my 30s, and it's getting clearer every day. I am inspired to change the world and bring my community with me. I know God has my back. A better world is within our grasp! I'm going to do my part in bringing my community with me by blogging about my upcoming trip to Cuba with Solidarity Collective via Nostr.

In February I'll be back in the skies headed to Havana, where I will participate in a delegation with Solidarity Collective to learn about Pan Africanism in the Cuban context. Some questions we will be exploring during this delegation are:

How do Cubans, in a Black-majority country, approach environmental protection, religion, housing rights, and healthcare?

What is the role of historic and contemporary abolitionist practices in their quest to eradicate racism?

What challenges remain to build an equitable society, especially under the yoke of 60 years of the u.s. Blockade?

What do these lessons mean for the struggle for black liberation in the u.s.?

I've dreamed about the next time I would visit Cuba and how I would track down the friends I made there in 2017. At that time, the government controlled access to internet via these cards that you would purchase then redeem on your device for timed access. The idea was that you would take your Wi-Fi card and head to a communal place like La Plaza with your device to access the Internet with others.

While some north americans might find that kind of Internet access draconian, surfing the web in public like that made me value my time on the Internet more. Has this changed since I was last there? I am personally interested in how groups are leveraging tech and the Internet for education and organizing. I now have a solid couple of years of IT/programming education to reference while I meet with teachers and journalists at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center and hear about the right to free education from daycare through university and literacy campaigns. I wonder if they've heard about decentralized social media protocols like Nostr or Activitypub or if they ever experienced censorship from the authorities on the Internet.

I recently experienced censorship in the YouTube comments as I explained to fellow web surfers why we must include Vieques and the other islands in the archipelago when talking about Puerto Rico politically. My ability to comment was restricted as I tried to convince others who talked down on Haiti and Cuba as failed states to instead take my Pan Caribbean perspective. I really enjoyed Dread's talk at Nostrasia 2023 about how he is using Bitcoin and Nostr to bring the islands together as the US Dollar and financial institutions like Western Union and the IMF keep us divided and oppressed.

The more I learn about Bitcoin as a tool for global wealth distribution, the more I understand how these institutions rob youth and families of basic necessities and facilitate the rise of authoritarian regimes and systems that punish journalists and activists through political repression. The corporate ownership of our means of internet communication by the likes of technocrats like Musk and Zuckerberg won't let authentic conversation between Caribbean-based diaspora happen on their platforms while they get to destroy countries like Myanmar and shape public discourse to their whim. That's why I'm glad I found Nostr.

My personal blog currently lives on my Uberspace asteroid in a Bludit instance that lacks much functionality outside of themes and data analytics, so it's just sits there as a personal repo for my thoughts. Nostr provides all of this with a direct link to my Bitcoin wallet address and comment functionality. If people value my content, I can get "zapped" and earn money for my content. I can now engage with my audience directly without a middle man. No Substack, no moderators censoring my messages, just community. The job now is to bridge my community and this new way of socializing on the Internet.

To help make this as educational of an experience as possible, I ask my audience: What questions or feedback do you have about my trip and the types of questions I want to explore? Is there anything you've ever wondered about Cuba? What suggestions do you have in terms of how I can better present information; written word, audio interviews, video, or photo essays?

Leave me some love in the comments and stay tuned!

@ 947c8c3e:22e2d6ea

Bitcoin, emerging as the most decentralized and scarce currency, stands as the epitome of financial revolution in the digital age. It embodies the principles of autonomy, security, and innovation, paving the way for a new era of economic empowerment. This exploration delves into the fundamentals of Bitcoin, the pioneering innovation of the Lightning Network, and the unparalleled privacy and offline capabilities of eCash, illustrating the transformative power of these technologies in fostering a resilient and decentralized financial landscape.

Bitcoin for Individuals: Empowerment at Your Fingertips

Bitcoin revolutionizes the way we think about money, offering a secure, low-cost method for transactions. It simplifies mobile payments, allowing for effortless scan-and-pay transactions without the need for traditional banking hurdles. The security model of Bitcoin, underpinned by mathematical certainty and proof of work (PoW), provides unparalleled control and protection over your funds, ensuring that your transactions remain immutable and resistant to fraud.

The Universality of Bitcoin

Bitcoin operates on a global scale, unfettered by geographical boundaries or time zones. Its decentralized nature ensures that it is always operational, allowing for instantaneous international payments without the restrictions imposed by traditional financial institutions. This universality empowers users to transact with anyone, anywhere, at any time, with the freedom to set their own transaction fees.

Privacy and Anonymity

Bitcoin also champions financial privacy. Unlike conventional payment methods that are prone to security breaches, Bitcoin transactions do not reveal sensitive personal information. This feature, coupled with the potential for anonymity similar to physical cash transactions should you choose to do so, places a strong emphasis on user privacy, allowing individuals to transact securely and discreetly.

Lightning Network: The Path to Scalable Bitcoin Transactions

The Lightning Network represents a monumental stride towards the scalability of Bitcoin transactions. By facilitating instant, low-cost payments, the Lightning Network addresses the inherent limitations of blockchain confirmations, thereby enabling a vast throughput of transactions per second. This innovation not only enhances the efficiency of Bitcoin transactions but also opens up new avenues for microtransactions and cross-chain interactions without compromising on security or decentralization.

Payment Channel and Off-Chain Scalability

At its core, the Lightning Network leverages smart contracts called a multi-signature payment channel to conduct transactions off-chain, significantly reducing the burden on the Bitcoin blockchain. This approach ensures that transactions are both rapid and cost-effective, fostering a more dynamic and inclusive financial ecosystem.

Cashu: Reinventing Privacy for Bitcoin

One of the Lightning Networks disadvantages is that both parties need to be online to receive funds. Utilizing a Chaumian ecash system built specifically for Bitcoin and Lightning Network, Cashu emerges as a great solution to this issue, with its potential for partial offline transactions and near instant payments.

This system also ensures near-perfect anonymity for users, making it virtually impossible to trace transactions back to their participants. By integrating closely with the Lightning Network, eCash facilitates private, instant transactions, further solidifying Bitcoin's position as a leader in secure and decentralized financial transactions.

The Future of Bitcoin and Beyond

The synergy between Bitcoin, the Lightning Network, and eCash heralds a new era of financial sovereignty. These technologies collectively represent the cornerstone of a decentralized financial system, one that prioritizes privacy, security, and user autonomy. As we venture further into this digital frontier, Bitcoin continues to lead the charge, challenging the traditional paradigms of money and empowering individuals with the tools for true economic freedom.

In conclusion, the essence of Bitcoin and its complementary technologies lies in their ability to redefine our relationship with money. By championing decentralization, scarcity, and innovation, Bitcoin not only promises a future of financial autonomy but also invites us to partake in the ongoing evolution of digital prosperity.

@ ec965405:63996966

2/1/2024

I finally got some down time to write! Its been non stop since I flew in to Jose Marti airport yesterday. The delegation didn't officially start until today, but I decided to arrive a day early to get acclimated and hunt for side quests. As we began to descend into Jose Marti airport, before the Wi-Fi cut out, I texted the taxi driver that was sent for me a picture of myself and mentioned that I would be outside soon carrying a pair of rollerblades. After one of the smoothest landings I had ever experienced on a plane ride, my adventure had finally begun.

I made it through customs and jumped to the baggage claim to retrieve my luggage, which, luckily, was among the first group that came out. My driver, Juan and I were able to locate each other within seconds of me walking out the door. After graciously helping me wheel my luggage to the car, he let me know he had one more pickup before heading to the Martin Luther King Center. At that point I could feel the dark circles forming under my eyes, but was happy to tag along and meet a new friend.

Overcome with a wave of nostalgia as we cruised through Havana, I explained to Juan that this was my second time in Cuba and that I was excited to be here with a group of like minded folk and a structured learning agenda. He mentioned that his wife organizes political education at the MLK center while he drives a taxi, supporting where he can with rides to and from the airport for delegations. He added that he spent time in Angola as a young man supporting African revolutionaries in their struggle for self determination, motivating me to finish the movie I downloaded for the flight but couldn't get around to completing. Now I can say I talked to someone who experienced it!

He parked on the side of the road somewhere in Havana Vieja and left me to find his next pickup a couple blocks up. I exited the vehicle to take in the scenery, smiling at whoever I made eye contact with. Havana is a busy city with a strong character. I can't wait to connect with Cuban professionals on a personal level and dive into the iteniary, which includes presentations from organizers, scientists, teachers, lawyers, and other civil servants who maintain an unparalleled literacy rate and healthy society despite having to do it under the boot of the u.s. blockade. Juan suddenly appeared onto the street ahead of me, approaching the car next to a tall Black man with a cap on. Enter, Kelvin!!!

Kelvin is an OG South African pastor who runs a community development corporation in Los Angeles. He is in Cuba planning a future cultural exchange for a group of young folks he works with. I was quick to commend his country with a fist bump for putting in work at the International Court of Justice in defense of Palestine. His lively spirit and contagious smile radiated a sense of safety in the car as we drove him to his meeting with an associate named Liz in Havana.

From the back seat, I couldn't help but notice he was texting Liz from Belly of the Beast, a popular internet documentary series where she interviews cultural and political icons like Francia Márquez and Elián González to tell an authentic story of Cuban resilience under blockade from the united states. I blurted out "Is that Liz from Belly of the Beast?!" You could probably imagine how hyped I was when Kelvin responded with an invite for Juan and I to join them for lunch. I enthusiastically accepted!

The slow onset of dementia from the lack of sleep offsetted how hyped I was to be sitting at that table. Kelvin and I learned that we are in community with some of the same organizers in Oakland while Liz gave commentary on her recent tour of the united states. Liz had to bounce for a meeting but invited us to her office for coffee after. (YES!!!) She ordered her food wrapped up to go, eventually leaving Kelvin, Juan, and I to continue to get to know each other and finish our food.

After lunch, we rode to Liz's office space where we met her producer, Gabriela, as she was in the middle of editing a new episode of Belly of the Beast. I spoke a little bit about my communications work and experience organizing cultural exchanges with systems involved youth while Liz and Gabriela told us production stories. They brought out coffee and let me connect to their Wi-Fi to check my messages. It was cool to see Wi-Fi access was not as restrictive as I remembered from my trip in 2017 and initially anticipated coming into this one. Private residences have internet access to do the same kind of communications work I am used to doing at home.

Our time kicking it with the Belly of the Beast team feels like a dream until I look at the group selfie we took on their balcony. God has my fucking back, man. Tomorrow I'll meet the rest of the group and officially begin my second adventure in Cuba!

@ bc4cdf40:640b4c19

Russian forces dealt a devastating blow to the Ukrainian military. On the morning of February 13, Russian strikes destroyed reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), which came for the joint combat training to the village of Selidovo in the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Several waves of Russian strikes hit the training ground, where about 1,500 Ukrainian servicemen could be deployed. There are still no official statements from any of the warring parties. The Ukrainian media remain silent, while Russian sources that are close to the military provide details of the attack.

There were reportedly at least two waves of strikes. The Russian military learned the tactics which Ukrainian Nazis are using against civilians in the Donbass and other regions that Kiev lost. After the first attack hit the ranks of Ukrainian servicemen, leaving dozens killed and wounded, the second wave of strikes targeted military and security forces that came to the spot to evacuate the killed and wounded.

The Russian military reportedly used several Iskander missiles with a cluster munition. Additionally Smerch MLRS, also with a cluster part, were used.

The real number of casualties is unlikely to be officially revealed by the Kiev regime. According to some preliminary reports from the spot, the attack resulted in about 500 Ukrainian servicemen killed and about 700 others wounded. According, to other reports, there are dozens killed. It is clear that the number of casualties is likely to rise, as many soldiers have been seriously injured and their lives are at risk.

Selidovo is a strategically important logistics hub of the Ukrainian military. Ukrainian units come there from Pavlograd and Pokrovsk before being sent to the frontlines. The military facilities in the village were used for accumulation of Ukrainian military reserves before they were sent to plug the holes in defense in the Donetsk direction. According to preliminary reports, a large part of the victims of today’s attack were servicemen of the notorious 3rd Assault Brigade “Azov”. The Ukrainian military command had previously declared that this unit would be send to reinforce Ukrainian garrison in Avdiivka.

Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Mariana Bezuglaya reportedly confirmed the attack and claimed that after the incident in Selidovo, mass inspections began in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, from the General Staff to those responsible “on the ground.”

Reports from Selidovo also confirm heavy losses to the Ukrainian Army. All the roads in the area were blockaded by security forces. There are many ambulances and trucks to take the corpses. The Security Service of Ukraine is reportedly raiding the village looking for spotters on the ground, those who leaked information about the accumulation of large Ukrainian forces on the training ground.

This is far from the first Russian precision strikes on the accumulation of Ukrainian forces near the front. In November, 2023, the 128th Brigade of the AFU lost dozens killed and wounded after Iskander thwarted the awarding ceremony in the village of Dimitrovo in the Zaporozhie region.LINK However, this is the first such bloody attack on Ukrainian units in the rear after the new Ukrainian commander-in-chief Syrsky took office. Such an incident will definitely worsen his already weak reputation among the Ukrainian population, especially among the military.

In an attempt to distract the population from another defeat, Kiev is expected to launch another bloody attack in the Russian rear, including on civilian targets.

@ 2363dd1c:5c34ebff

This post is the sixth in an experimental Stoic Philosophy book club series on Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Participants expressing interest are tagged at the end of the post, let us know if you're new and would like to join and be tagged!

Prior posts for context: * Book 5 * Book 4 * Book 3: In Carnuntum * Book 2: On the River Gran, Among the Quadi * Book 1: Debts and Lessons * Geneisis Post

Thanks to those of you who participated in the comments last week. Let me know if you would like to join.

Book 6

Summary and Highlights

I'm a little short on time, so I'm just going to stream-of-consciousness through my reading of Book 6 this morning.

1. Nature is pliable, obedient. And the logos that governs it has no reason to do evil. It knows no evil, does none, and causes harm to nothing.

I was struck here with the description that both Nature and the logos seem described as "unconscious". I'm eternally sorting out what these elusive terms mean, but sometimes I'm tempted to correlate the logos with the rational mind of man. Sometimes it seems like the Greeks are worshiping the rational faculty, but Marcus' statement here emphasizes either an unconscious ignorance, or transcendent reality to these worshipful objects of philosophy. Maybe both? Maybe Divine Paradox?

1. Dying, too, is one of our assignments in life.

Calls me to remember that dying is really "transforming". If metaphysics or other ancient traditions are too difficult to believe, modern man can hear it's echos in the first law of thermodynamics, "energy can be transformed from one form to another, but can be neither created nor destroyed." More interestingly, is Marcus' admonition to take up that process of transformation, or act of dying, as a job or duty, to be performed well, to the best of our ability.

1. Before long, all existing things will be transformed, to rise like smoke (assuming all things become one), or be dispersed in fragments.

This reminded me of Jacob's dream in the Old Testament of a ladder to heaven, with angels ascending and descending, and it sort of reminds me of the cycle of samsara as well. Transformation from unity to dispersion and back to unity, over and over again. I also like the allusion to smoke, as Marcus begins to incorporate the elements in his musings on transformation. A Tantric / Alchemical vibe.

1. The best revenge is not to be like that.

This quote is an early candidate for favorite from Book 6. So concise, yet powerful and deep to consider. The best revenge is not to participate in the nature of your attacker. Not to become like what you are attacked by. Furthermore, by refusing to be caught up in reactivity, we remain free -- free from the control an adversary is trying to impose upon us. Truly, the best revenge is to render an adversary powerless over us and invalidate their quality by our very way of being.

1. (i) Mixture, interaction, dispersal; or (ii) unity, order, design. Suppose (i): Why would I want to live in disorder and confusion? Why would I care about anything except the eventual "dust to dust"? Why would I feel anxiety? Dispersal is certain, whatever I do. Or suppose (ii): Reverence. Sincerity. Faith in the power responsible.

I'm quoting this not because I fully understand it, but because it is an interesting exposition of Marcus doing thought experiments to find meaning between multiple polarities of existence. I like the feel that he is working something out in his diary. For me, the polarity that seems to be emerging is continued from #1 as Nature vs. logos and from #4 as rising smoke vs. dispersing fragments. Marcus seems to be recognizing a fundamental polarity, and trying to unite it with meaning.

1. That's what we need to do all the time -- all through our lives when things lay claim to our trust -- to lay them bare and see how pointless they are, to strip away the legend that encrusts them. Pride is master of deception: when you think you're occupied in the weightiest of business, that's when he has you in his spell.

Nothing super revolutionary here, but I like this last description of pride. It's true, I've often found that I get bitten by life and taken down a peg when I feel like whatever I've got going on it big and important. Marcus does a great job in this passage of relativizing things like good food, drink, luxuries and sex. They're only important because of the interpretive layer we allow our mind to put on them. This whole complex of pride is a delusion of the mind.

1. Things ordinary people are impressed by fall into the categories of things that are held together by simply physics (like stones or wood), or by natural growth (figs, vines, olives...). Those admired by more advanced minds are held together by a living soul (sheep, herd of cows)... But those who revere that other mind -- the one we all share, as humans and as citizens -- aren't interested in other things. Their focus is on the state of their own minds -- to avoid all selfishness and logic, and to work with others to achieve that goal.

I don't have much to add to this, but I really liked the organizational hierarchy of values, and how it made me think of gravity. It feels like Marcus is alluding to a sort of spiritual gravity at the center of each individual thing, and which attracts the "impression" or attention of other related things to it. Perhaps that center is analogous to a Spirit or Soul? By emphasizing the the relatedness of "those who revere that other mind", I also consider that not only do I have my own unique center holding "me" together, but that I am a particle gravitating toward a shared center of the Human organism... and beyond. Time to put away the mushrooms?

1. The elements move upward, downward, in all directions. The motion of virtue is different -- deeper. It moves at a steady pace, on a hard road to discern, and always forward.

Sounds like the Middle Way of the Buddha. Again, this Tantric/Alchemical study of transformation, but this time with emphasis on the path through it -- with dedication and commitment.

1. All of us are working on the same project. Some consciously, with understanding; some without knowing it... The world needs them too.

This is a good reminder for dealing with other people, but also with myself. There is no use in judging or paying attention to how others spend their time and attention. I can't change it anyway. But more importantly, there are days where I'm more unfocused and unconscious, where I'm less in touch with "philosophy". Those days are important too. There are times where I naturally fall into an ordered cadence of routine and productivity, and other times, my body needs a death/transformation of my routines in order to integrate, process and prepare for new phases of activity. This has gotten a bit off topic from the quote, but I guess I see the necessity for both sides of the polarity between Order and Nature Marcus is describing -- and after oscillating between the two, balancing and coming into more harmony, we get closer to the steady, straight, forward line from #17.

With 59 stanzas, Book 6 was rather lengthy and there are a lot more good quotes and concepts. I feel like I've approached some degree of reflection in my journey through each of the comments above, so I'll skip that section this time around. I'm interested to see what anybody else came up with.

Participants

Thank you everyone who has been reading Meditations, and participated in the discussions. Feel free let me know if you don't want to be on the tag list anymore :)

@siggy47 @cryotosensei @carlosfandango @Bitman @gd @sudocarlos @BitByBit21 @bc52210b20 @Atreus @byzantine @davidw @Roll @grayruby @Taft @Oialt

Please signal interest in the comments if you'd like to be tagged.

@ 75bf2353:e1bfa895

https://i.nostr.build/# Orange Pilling Merchants

On the Freedom Foot Print show, Brian DeMint said he’s friend’s with a coffee shop owner in Riverside, California--The place where I host my bi-monthly bitcoin meetup. For the last 12,960 blocks or so, I've held a plebwalk on the first Saturday of each month. This plebwalk has been a solo-trek each time. More people are interested in going to meetups where we sit down and drink drugs like beer, soda, or coffee. Therefore, I have decided to cancel my Pleb Walk and move the meetup to Arcade Coffee Bakehouse the coffee shop mentioned on my favorite bitcoin author's podcast. Not to brag, but I bought an autographed copy of Sovereignty Through Mathematics with bitcoin from Knut Svanholm about 8,000 blocks ago. Just kidding, I am trying to brag.

Plebwalks did not attract as many plebs as I had hoped. I suspect I might spark more interest if we went to a coffee house that accepted bitcoin. Arcade Coffee-The Bakehouse in Riverside California does not accept bitcoin yet but I hope to change that. Some of my first blogs were about me going to the Riverside Farmer's Market to ask people if they accept bitcoin. About one-in-a-hundred said yes. This taught me an important lesson. That shit doesn't work. Rather than go home and cry in my coffee, what if I try a different approach?

The main problem is social proof. People are social animals. They look to others to see what they should or should not do. My dad handed me green paper to buy ice-cream from a dude with a mustache selling sugar to kids out of a van. That's the paradigm of money for most people. That's what everyone used for money before we became a nation of credit card debtors. We don't pay people anymore. We pay debt off to banks. Should I buy a Mercedes, or a whole Bitcoin? If you're reading this, you are more likely to drive an old Toyota, but most people will buy a Mercedes because suits like to pick their nose in cars made by Mercedes-Benz, or the richest man in the world. They think, I should buy a Mercedes-Benz so I can pick my nose like the rest of the successful people. Picking my nose in a Tesla is the ultimate status symbol. You need to have a great job and a great debt score to pick your nose in a Tesla.

Bitcoin was declared dead more times than I could give a fuck to count, but you know what really died? Cash. According to Dave Ramsey, "Cash is King." I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news Mr. Ramsey, but your king is dead. Almost nobody uses paper cash, let alone p2p cash. "This bill is legal tender and must be accepted for all debts both public and private." . Well...that's just about all you pay with it, debt. Cash not accepted at many places these days. I guess the legal tender mumbo-jumbo means your credit card must accept cash to pay off your debt. Besides you'll get "cash back" if you use your credit card. That's not cash. It's more like Weekend At Bernie's Cash. It's social engineering which created social proof that teaches everyone should pay with a credit card, not cash. Guess what fixes this. That's only used by drug dealers, and people who dry-clean money or whatever laundering it means.

It would be nice to pay for my coffee with bitcoin rather than pay credit card with bitcoin. To do this, I can't just be the one caffeine-crazed junkie, hopped up on orange pills, asking the poor barista, "Do you accept our lord and savior, bitcoin?" But what if ten people asked to pay for coffee with bitcoin? What if 21 people asked to pay for their coffee in bitcoin? 50? By the way, tell the credit card companies to go fuck themselves by shoving their fees up their ass. "Gradually...then suddenly," is a better catch phrase, but Parker Lewis already coined it and I digress. If I can bring enough customers, we will have social proof for p2p e-cash. That's the hard part, but we have to start somewhere.

How Businesses Can Accept Bitcoin.

People have been thinking about on-boarding businesses to accept payments for over a decade. NVK says that’s how Coinkite started, but the demand wasn’t there. It’s still not there. We need to create it. Strike has a Clover integration that works like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM4qfrywTew

Maybe you don’t want to spend your bitcoin because of the taxes or maybe the coffee house owner is a no-coiner. So what? Resist the urge to say “have fun staying poor.” Tell them the bitcoin can auto-magically convert to Trump’s favorite fiat currency.

strike Strike can’t pour a lot of resources into getting businesses to accept bitcoin as a payment when there’s no demand, but they have given us the tools to do it. Brian Tracy said, "if it’s to be, it’s up to me." He's right. Making bitcoin peer-to-peer cash is up to me and up to you. Some meetups have already integrated payments at their meetups. It's one of the best ways to grow bitcoin as peer 2 peer electronic cash. Many of the people who have signed up for my meetup are not aware of the lightning network. Some of them think video on a blockchain is the next way to pick their nose in a Lambo on the moon. They like “BTC” too. I say why video game on a blockchain NGMI and show them the lightning network.

After I give my spiel, I say, "so show me how this video game on a blockchain works." I might as well ask them to unify the theory of gravity. They don't know what a blockchain is.

"Wallet, you mean like my Coinbase wallet?"

Coinbase is good at marketing. They convinced the ETF's to let Coinbase HODL their bitcoin. They don't know how to accept payments. They think lightning addresses are for email. They sell SHIBullshit and send nasty letters to people playing online poker. Bitcoin doesn't fix this. We fix this, but I need some help. Like I said, it won't work if it's just me.

Note: I called the coffee house mentioned on the podcast. They have another location that does use clover down the road, but they use Square at the location the author from the Freedom Footprint show likes to frequent. Thank Zeus we can use Square anyway.

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Note: Pablo asked me to set up tiers on highlighter.com, so I did. I am also interested in FOSS AI and decided to use elevenlabs to create audio-versions of my blog after listening to this episode of AI U unchained I highly encourage you to listen to this episode even though it's not technically a bitcoin podcast--I think it is. The idea is to create a podcast feed for subscribers, but I don't have all the details worked out yet so I put this first audio recording on Spotify.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/271nHQEPxvqxVSSXHsbZM1?si=IocbUhgxTJSbBGi8oQaxGwnznq.jpg

@ 20986fb8:cdac21b3

When Twitter emerged in 2006, with its revolutionary 140-character microblogging platform, it didn’t take long for it to grow into the most powerful force in global information transmission. The site effectively cut out the middleman, loosening established media’s grip on shaping public opinion. Donald Trump, formerly the most powerful person in the world, co-opted the unfiltered platform until Twitter silenced him in January 2021. Elon Musk, the wealthiest person on the planet, seriously considered buying it.

But there’s that whole great power/great responsibility equation, and a growing chorus of people from decentralization idealists to governments to ticked-off consumers feel that control of the world’s leading social networks by a few for-profit corporations is bad for society. One of Twitter’s most outspoken critics is Evan Henshaw-Plath, 45, a little-known coder, who was Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s boss at a small tech platform called Odeo when they first started working on what was to become the microblogging site.

Henshaw-Plath also hired Blaine Cook, who would go on to be Twitter’s chief architect and helped brainstorm an early version of Twitter that could federate rivals into a decentralized system. If launched on Groundhog Day 2008, when it was completed, that federation would have prevented Trump from obtaining such a powerful megaphone in the first place by giving users more control over their network. It would also have taken away a huge part of Dorsey’s ability to censor the then president.

Evan “Rabble” Henshaw-Plath, poses at the MIT Media Lab in August 2022, where he spoke about decentralized social media at the Imagination In Action Event, cohosted by Link Ventures, MIT Connection Science and Forbes.KATHERINE TAYLOR

“If this had taken off and if this had worked, there would not have been a Zuckerberg. There would not have been a Jack,” says Mark Atwood, now the principal engineer of Amazon.com’s open-source program, who snapped a photo of the achievement, captioned “historic moment.” “We would live in a fundamentally different world right now,” adds Cook, who now works at media giant Condé Nast. “The fact that Facebook and Twitter control the business models of so many media corporations at some point becomes untenable.”

“And those corporations, if they’re smart, will move to models they can control the economic model a little bit more.”

Blaine Cook and Ralph Meijer on Groundhog Day 2008 in front of a schematic of their federated version of Twitter and Jaiku. MARK ATWOOD / FLICKR / CREATIVE COMMONS

A movement is now under way to make that happen; to turn back the clock on what might have been and force future social networks to give control back to their users. Fed up with watching from the sidelines while others try to make this happen and fail, Henshaw-Plath, who also goes by “Rabble,” is now the CEO of Planetary.Social, one of dozens of networks being built by developers who have decided the risks of so much power centralized in one company aren’t worth the benefits.

In August, Henshaw-Plath joined a group of 450 collaborators, privacy advocates, crypto-anarchists, libertarians and others at Camp Navarro in the towering redwood forest of northern California to plot how to take back social media and the internet itself. Representatives of every major decentralized social media platform, including some from as far away as China were there, as was Jay Graber, CEO of Twitter’s decentralized social portfolio company, Bluesky.

“The Trump deplatforming is fascinating because what was a fairly esoteric, edgy, nerdy concept became central to the public political debate,” says Henshaw-Plath. “The problem is that one institution and one set of businesses decide the speech rules for everybody. And the decentralized Web community and decentralized social media community thinks we shouldn't live in a world where a few people decide that. We should live in a world where we have many protocols, and many different communities.”

Dorsey, who is now on the Bluesky board, left as CEO of Twitter in 2021 and didn’t reply to multiple requests to speak with Forbes for this article. Twitter provided information about Bluesky on background, but declined to comment on details about Dorsey.

Danny O'Brien, senior fellow of the Filecoin Foundation, Planetary founder Evan Henshaw-Plath and Spritely Institute CTO Christine Lemmer-Webber at the DWeb Camp in August 2022.BRAD SHIRAKAWA

Long before Henshaw-Plath’s team helped Dorsey write some of the first lines of code for Twitter’s prototype, he worked on the Indymedia project, a publishing platform that let activists organize and monitor police activity. By the 2004 U.S. presidential election, the platform had grown to 175 collectives around the world and hosted 40,000 messages. After licking his wounds when their candidate lost the election, Henshaw-Plath responded to a blog post from Evan Williams seeking someone to help future Twitter cofounders Christopher “Biz” Stone and Noah Glass create Odeo, a platform to help podcasters make money.

When the effort didn’t get traction, Dorsey pitched a pet project he’d been working on for years that used SMS messages to send group texts. “We had such an ability to invent cutting-edge new Web2 websites and technologies, basically because of Rabble’s work,” says Tony Stubblebine, who Henshaw-Plath also hired at Odeo and who was appointed CEO of Medium last month. “Then that translated to Twitter, where we got our first Twitter prototype up in three weeks maybe. And I think if it had taken longer than that we wouldn’t have bothered.”

While the original, aborted version of a decentralized Twitter was built using the same messaging standard as Google Cloud Messaging and Facebook Chat, a number of technical innovations have recently surfaced, enabling an even more open and decentralized architecture. In January 2018, early blockchain-based social network Steemit exploded to its peak of about a $2 billion market value and Henshaw-Plath took his first job at a blockchain startup, seeking to learn from the inside about the technology that connects people without middlemen.

Though blockchains’ decentralized infrastructures might seem perfect for connecting friends on a social network, Henshaw-Plath was eventually turned off by their reliance on cryptocurrency. “Our feeling was that the primary social interaction should be based on intrinsic motivation,” says Henshaw-Plath. “If you integrate financial incentives into everything, then it can make it into a financial game. And then all of a sudden, people aren’t there because of their human connection and collaboration.” Users, it would seem, agree. Steemit fell 94% from its all-time high to about $107 million today.

Henshaw-Plath started looking for alternatives. “Eventually,” he says, “I discovered a protocol created by this guy who lives on a sailboat in New Zealand.”

That is Dominic Tarr, an eccentric, open-source developer who lives just off the coast of Auckland on a Wharram catamaran named Yes Let’s he found on the side of a road. Tired of being unable to send emails to his friends from his Pacific Ocean location, Tarr wrote software that uses technology similar to Apple’s Airdrop to create a protocol that lets anyone build social networks where information moves like gossip, directly from phone to phone—no internet service provider required.

Entrepreneurs using the protocol get to choose their own business models, their own designs and how their systems function. Users, meanwhile, can move freely from network to network. Tarr called the software Secure Scuttlebutt after the cask that stored water on old sailboats, which is also maritime slang for “gossip,” as in conversations held around a water cooler. “Modern capitalism believes that what people want is convenience,” says Tarr. “But I think what people actually want is a sense of control.”

Scuttlebutt itself isn’t supported by venture capital. Instead, taking a page from the way Tim Berners-Lee funded the creation of the World Wide Web, Scuttlebutt is backed by grants that helped jump-start the process. Similar to a distributed autonomous organization (DAO) that connects groups on a blockchain, there are now hundreds of users who personally donate to the cause and an estimated 30,000 people using one of at least six social networks on the protocol. An estimated 4 million more use the largest social protcol, Mastodon, which supports 60 niche social networks, with a rapidly growing pool of blockchain competitors in the works.

Joining Henshaw-Plath at the redwoods camp, called DWeb, were 14 other Scuttlebutt developers–including those from the Manyverse social network, designed for free-speech purists, and the Maori social network Āhau. While Manyverse is largely funded by a grant from the European Union and donor support and Āhau by tribal money and other sources, Henshaw-Plath is going a more traditional route.

In 2019, he raised $1.4 million in pre-seed funding from his old Odeo boss Stone; former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan; Bloomberg Beta, the venture-capital arm of media giant Bloomberg; and Ethereum startup ConsenSys, to build a social network where anyone can make public posts, share images, like content and send private messages without an online connection. Instead of being hosted by Facebook, Twitter or another social network, the data is kept by users and their friends.

Though decentralized social networking is proving a difficult way to make money, Henshaw-Plath has plans to sell support services. Bloomberg Beta founder Roy Bahat isn’t concerned about short-term monetization efforts. A Planetary investor and early backer of AngelList and Slack, he says that “anytime something has reached mass-market use, the owners of that service have figured out some way to realize business value.” After a slow start, Facebook last year generated $119 billion revenue, almost entirely from selling ads targeted at specific users. Twitter’s top line was $5 billion.

While anyone can create an account on Planetary by generating a private key only they know, similar to bitcoin, if a user loses their phone or the private key is stolen they can recover their identity from other members of their network who store encrypted copies of each other’s information. But even with such user-centric technology, free speech here isn’t entirely free. To conform with Apple’s terms of service, moderators have the ability to ban users who post certain kinds of content.

An important difference between social networks built on Scuttlebutt and Twitter, though, blacklisted users can simply pick up and move their accounts to a more lax competitor, such as Manyverse, founded by 34-year-old André “Staltz” Medeiros, a Brazilian living in Finland. “My motivation started with 2016, when I saw Trump gaining power via social media, and I thought of the great power that social media holds for society,” says Medeiros. “I would have made a similar choice that Jack Dorsey did to ban Trump. But I think the power to ban a president is a very, very strong power. I think that’s an extremely huge power. And I'm concerned.”

It turns out that Dorsey, too, was concerned, even before it happened. In the winter of 2016, as Henshaw-Plath says Dorsey was facing calls to ban the president and far-right extremists, he visited the San Francisco headquarters of Dorsey’s other company, then known as Square (now Block) to advise his former underling on how to proceed. It was a pivotal moment for social networks. Though it is unclear how much input Henshaw-Plath had into the decision, Dorsey briefly banned white supremacist Richard Spencer and right-wing extremist group the Proud Boys that November.

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Perhaps already seeing the difficult decision he might soon have to make, and even regretting the decision not to federate Twitter with other social networks when he initially had the chance, in December 2019 Dorsey tweeted that the social network would fund Bluesky, “an open and decentralized standard for social media.” With a mission similar to Scuttlebutt, Dorsey said Bluesky would make it easier to comply with rules in multiple international jurisdictions by allowing for more diverse applications and give users control over the algorithms that determined how they view content. “The goal,” Dorsey wrote in a tweet at the time, “is for Twitter to ultimately be a client of this standard.”

Two years later, in January 2021, Dorsey banned Trump from Twitter, calling the decision a failure “to promote healthy conversation. And a time for us to reflect on our operations and the environment around us.” Facebook, Instagram and others followed suit shortly thereafter, further fracturing the global social-media landscape. “For a long time, the decentralized social ecosystem was all people on the left, trying to make things more participatory,” says Henshaw-Plath. “And then all of a sudden, we had all these people on the right who were being deplatformed.”

Trump briefly moved to centralized social site Parler, before its internet service was pulled, forcing him to a more open technical standard originally developed by Berners-Lee’s nonprofit World Wide Web Consortium. Called ActivityStream—and developed in part by Henshaw’s former employee Cook—the open standard lets developers build an interoperable federation of decentralized applications, similar to Scuttlebutt, but for more than just social networks. Imagine being able to send a message from Twitter to Meetup, or Facebook to Hacker News, just like email.

By the time Trump was looking for an alternative to Twitter, a subset of ActivityStream for the microblogging site’s competitors, called Mastodon, was already powering more than 40 federated, interoperable social networks, or nodes. Notably, the alt-right Gab.com moved to the shared platform after it was shut down by its hosting provider for supporting hate speech posted by a gunman who killed 11 people.

Using the same platform, in February of this year, Trump Media & Technology Group launched Truth Social, which has now been downloaded an estimated 3 million times. Blockchain-based competitors include Andreessen Horowitz-backed Decentralized Social, which raised $200 million and whose Deso token market cap is valued at $71 million and Tinder cofounder Christopher Gulczynski’s Niche built on the Near Protocol. In December 2021 Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six venture firm and Ethereum developer PolygonMATIC 0.0% set aside $200 million to invest in decentralized social media.

Hosted by the nonprofit Internet Archive, DWeb Camp gathered more than 400 attendees for four days to plan how the internet might function differently with less control by large technology giants.BRAD SHIRAKAWA

The splintering of social media goes far beyond just political squabbles in the United States. Two months after Trump launched Truth Social, the European Union followed suit with two pilot social networks also on Mastodon. This March, European lawmakers agreed on Digital Markets Actrules that would prohibit large social networks and search engines from sharing customer data with subsidiaries and force messaging services, specifically Meta’s WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger and Apple’s iMessage, to interoperate with smaller platforms. The United States and the U.K. have similar legislation under consideration.

“In the EU, and increasingly also in the United States and other countries, governments and the general public, too, are starting to think long and hard about the impact and role of very large online platforms in our society,” says Colin Wall, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who coauthored a report in February on the forthcoming Digital Markets Act. “And this is the case for everything from harmful content to anticompetitive practices, to disinformation and trying to understand what the proper balance of regulation is, in order to basically create the best possible public good.”

Michiel Leenaars, who awarded ActivityPub and Manyverse grants on behalf of the European Commission’s Next Generation Internet Fund warns that ceding so much vital infrastructure to a few companies isn’t smart. “It’s like a kill switch on society,” he says.

Even Twitter has come full circle. Last August the social network appointed Jay Graber, a 31-year-old software engineer who worked on the privacy protecting cryptocurrency, zcash, as the CEO of Bluesky. Graber and early Scuttlebutt developer Paul Frazee, spoke with Cook as part of their research for the resurrection of his vision, now called Authenticating Data Experiment, or ADX, currently available to developers. “We spoke a bit with Blaine early on, and we’ve had conversations with lots of people in the space,” says Graber. “I’ve tried to come up with something that synthesizes a lot of these perspectives and research.”

Jay Graber, CEO of the Bluesky Project with advisor Jeromy Johnson and Bluesky team member Daniel Holmgren talking with DWeb Camp producer Wendy Hanamura of the Internet Archive.BRAD SHIRAKAWA

It turns out, Mark Atwood, the guy who took that photograph of the “historic moment” when Twitter briefly integrated with a competitor, is also exploring the sector. And while his vision of a protocol that connects any number of social networks, not just Twitter competitors, was eventually passed over by Bluesky, he has not given up. Atwood’s proposal for a social protocol, called Corundum, would be built on a cloud service provider called the Interplanetary File System, built by DWeb attendees, which links together individual computers. “It would work from the bottom up. And it could grow slowly—and then all at once,” says Atwood.

It’s a common theme in decentralized social. Similar to bitcoin, which started as a fringe technology adopted by idealists and computer scientists, decentralized social applications that directly connect users are growing slowly, and largely by word of mouth, according to Henshaw-Plath. At his first meeting in the California redwoods, the creators of Āhau gave a lecture on how they were going into Maori villages to teach people how to use the technology.

“The software we’re building, when we’re building decentralized social media, when we're building new social media platforms, they need to be about people and human connection, not structuring our world through algorithms,” he says. “It’s not about machine learning, or AI, generating the perfect viral media; it’s about groups of people getting together and finding meaning with each other.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published in Forbes, edited by Michael del Castillo.

Follow Michael del Castillo on Twitter or LinkedIn.

@ 3cea4806:10fe3f40

If you're wondering what's GamerGate, how it happened, why is there now a sequel to it with GamerGate 2, what has actually happened and know the truth, then this is what I'm writing here. This won't be a detailed one, which you'll most likely find in many other posts or videos, but rather a straight-to-the-point post and one that'll provide a reasonable view of it.

GamerGate

GamerGate started to expose corruption in games journalism, where the trigger for it was when a game developer allegedly slept with a games journalist, and that same journalist provided a positive review for that game developer's game.

That's about it. Gamers just wanted to expose the corruption for all to see.

Because of this exposure, the corrupt games journalists in the industry started to divert the focus from that objective towards a false objective of harassing individuals because of their sex, in an attempt to have the majority of people view it as an evil movement when in it wasn't.

Were there evil people from those who were anti-GG and pro-GG that harassed the other side? Yes, of course, but that doesn't paint either side as such. That's just noise. Remove the noise and you'll get what I already mentioned: Gamers exposing corruption in the games industry, and the corrupt side trying to protect itself.

GamerGate 2

Ten years later, GamerGate 2 is happening apparently, so what's the tri...

@ d96e0407:8a0da63d

The night had an eerie feel to it, a sense of something peculiar unfolding. Joe, nursing a pounding headache, pressed an ice pack to his temple—a feeble attempt to ease the aftermath of his excessive drinking, a warning he'd ignored from Amar. Amar, fed up with Joe's perpetual disregard for advice, launched into a nagging tirade that clashed with the chaotic atmosphere of the room.

"Keep it down!" I interjected assertively, a rare departure from my usual demeanor. Amar, acknowledging the disruption, apologized, revealing his consistently polite nature. Despite his manners, Amar harbored his own flaws, unspoken among our circle. In contrast, Wang, our friend, exhibited borderline sociopathic tendencies, clutching a pocket knife on the floor. We hesitated to separate him from the weapon, mindful of Amelie's experience—her left eye concealed beneath a glass eye after attempting such intervention.

The impending class loomed over us, prompting Amar to leave Joe's room for school preparations. Joe concerned etched his face as he mentioned, "Hyde hasn't returned." While I harbored a tinge of jealousy regarding Joe's attention to Hyde. I don't know my presence was never noticed around him. We talk ,hangout but there was never that kind of closeness between us .I was too exhausted to traverse back to my hostel. Sensing my fatigue, Joe offered, "You can spend the night here," yawning as his body signaled imminent shutdown. Odd thoughts flitted through my mind, contemplating a scenario akin to Ennis and Jack from Brokeback Mountain, though our connection lacked that chemistry. Drained, I succumbed to sleep, only for intrusive dreams to weave strange scenarios with Joe until an abrupt alarm jolted me awake.

The emergency alarm echoed through the school, propelling Joe and me to the hall where a crowd had amassed. In the center lay Amar's lifeless body. Cheryl, a friend, crumpled at the sight, requiring Joe's assistance. Another figure caught our attention—Wang, grievously injured, being attended to by paramedics. Questions of the killer's identity and who might be next swirled in my mind. Joe, a stabilizing presence, managed to calm my rising panic. Terrified, I opted to spend another night in his room.Upon awakening, we found ourselves in an abandoned arcade, bound and chained, confronted by a masked figure resembling the grim reaper. We were the next targets of the mysterious killer .

@ 57d1a264:69f1fee1

Prompt: Special Offer ===============

Design a promo. What is the product and how is it being promoted? Is it an email promotion, a clearance item on a website, a “Buy One, Get Two” offer, a 10% discount when paying with Bitcoin or something else?

Is it the discount size or percentage that's important? Does it look compelling?

Flex your design muscles and join in. Most of all, keep this exercise loose and keep it stress-free. The FUC is about growing our design skills, together, as a community. We can't wait to see what you create!

Happy designing, Stackers!

---

Share Your Results When you finish the challenge, post your work on this thread! If you also share it on nostr, be sure to use the hashtag #FUCdesiger and tag Design_r@iris.to or @Design__r on X! We'll keep an eye out and repost good examples on a regular basis.

---

Curious to know WTF is a FUC? Read the ⚡️Flash Ui Challenges welcoming post.

Looking for more FUCs? Check the archive here!

@ 6ad3e2a3:c90b7740

I remember reading something from Terrence McKenna wherein he hypothesizes that aliens might not be the way we imagine them, coming from distant stars via metal spaceships. After all, we live in four dimensions — three in space and one in time — and even our physical models of the universe sometimes have 11 or more. Perhaps aliens are already with us, but in higher dimensions beyond the range of our senses and conditioned minds. It’s possible we could perceive and interact with aliens — or beings from different dimensions — via a change in consciousness. Instead of sending probes and spherical discs across the galaxies to the skies of planet earth, maybe they have already planted their probes on its surface, via consciousness-altering substances like psilocybin residing in the spores of fungi. Could psychoactive fungi itself be their emissaries, inviting us to commune with them through the medium of mind rather than physics?

Whether one deems the particular hypothesis plausible is less important than the notion our ideas are so conditioned by our limited experience we imagine aliens to be somewhat like us — at the very least bound by the four dimensions in which we move. That they might operate in different dimensions altogether, perhaps even dimensions of mind, is so outside our paradigm it’s rarely considered. Hold that thought. We will come back to it.

. . .

I am not a Christian. I am Jewish by birth, and though I went to an Episcopal school, and grew up in an era where we sang hymns in chapel, I never went for organized religion. That said, I find the story of Jesus compelling as a myth and also as a moral framework. The New Testament is deep.

Jesus, the story goes, is the son of God, and he gave his life on the cross so that man could be saved. Jesus was also the son of Joseph and Mary, and he was conceived immaculately. That is, Mary was still a virgin when she became pregnant with her son. He was, in effect, an effect without a cause.

Buddhism, another ancient school of thought with deep psychological insight, has a similar notion. Beings take on ever new incarnations, driven by karmic desire. The deeds and desires of this life will propel your instantiation in the next. This wheel of samsara — or suffering — will continue until you become enlightened in which case you will not require another birth. The cycle of causation (karma) will have come to an end, though Bodhisattvas (enlightened beings) may still choose a birth to help others — a karma-free (immaculate) conception, if you will.

. . .

There is talk in some circles about the second coming of Christ and the end of the world. There are cults devoted to this notion, and the Book of Revelation specifies in great detail how it will come about. It is a mistake to take the details literally. Like our contemporaries who imagine beings from different realms arriving in metal crafts only because we ourselves require metal crafts to leave our planet, those who wrote Revelation were bound by the symbols and terminology of the times.

What might some of those terms mean for us in the present? For starters, the “mark of the beast” without which no one may buy or sell has an easy correlate: QR or other scannable codes now mandated in many places of business. The “beast” will force everyone who does not acquiesce to such a system (who lacks the mark) to go without those services.

This reading probably sounds over-dramatic — so Satan’s grand plan is to keep the righteous from leaving Canada? But let’s follow this to its logical conclusion — what starts with travel, migrates again to dining and entertainment (when cases spike or a new variant arrives) then eventually to all commerce. In China, there is already a social credit system that extends to most commercial interactions, and once people are in the system, it is trivial to expand it incrementally until ours too is all-encompassing. The final vision would be a central bank digital currency of sorts, wherein every transaction — a purchase of apples or booking of a flight to Japan — would require the transfer of funds from your account to the vendor. And your account exists only in a central bank, monitored by those who have absolute power to block any or all transactions.

There are good pieces that go into this process is greater detail, and at some point, I might even attempt my own. But it’s easy to see how such a system is desirable from the standpoint of powerful actors seeking to implement preferred policies for the greater population. This form of digital slavery would make it costly to express thoughts or words not in lockstep with the prevailing agenda. A word out of line, and they could, with the click of a mouse, shut off your access to food, power or the internet. People would learn to self-censor, mouth the proper pieties, take the required medicines, “own nothing and be happy," the reign of the beast, so to speak.

Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevski also foretold this state of affairs 140 years ago in the Brothers Karamazov via the Grand Inquisitor:

*Too, too well will they know the value of complete submission! And until men know that, they will be unhappy... Then we shall give them the quiet humble happiness of weak creatures such as they are by nature. Oh, we shall persuade them at last not to be proud, for Thou didst lift them up and thereby taught them to be proud. We shall show them that they are weak, that they are only pitiful children, but that childlike happiness is the sweetest of all...

And they will have no secrets from us. We shall allow or forbid them to live with their wives and mistresses, to have or not to have children—according to whether they have been obedient or disobedient—and they will submit to us gladly and cheerfully. The most painful secrets of their conscience, all, all they will bring to us, and we shall have an answer for all. And they will be glad to believe our answer, for it will save them from the great anxiety and terrible agony they endure at present in making a free decision for themselves. And all will be happy, all the millions of creatures except the hundred thousand who rule over them.*

But in these dark prophecies is a silver lining. Jesus is returning to save those who reject the mark. It will be a long and ferocious battle, but ultimately those who embrace Him will prevail.

At this point people who believe that might start to look literally for a savior — is it the Dalai Lama (no, much too old!), or some other spiritual figure? It can’t be a politician, can it? Is it some artist whose work moves billions to wake up and see. No! You are imagining metal-spaceship aliens and taking the Book too literally. The second coming of Jesus would not likely be any of those things.

What if instead, it were an idea — a brainchild of a creator rather than the child of The Creator. The idea would have to be one that liberates humanity from the centrally controlled system to which everyone who wanted to eat or have a home would be inexorably enslaved. And it would have to be impervious to co-option by the powerful forces who would seek to control it. What if that idea already exists in this world now?

Satoshi Nakamoto released his Bitcoin white paper in 2009. He made a few posts, mined some coins, then disappeared untraceably — leaving the effect but removing the cause. There is no one for governments or powerful factions on whom to lean or threaten. It is not owned by or controlled by anyone. In contrast to the dystopian vision of centralized control, bitcoin is an out, a parallel system over which individuals can transact peer-to-peer, permissionlessly, and exchange value voluntarily. As such, it restores the necessary conditions for self-determination, freedom of thought and word, a creative and spiritual existence.

Like the scientific enlightenment three centuries prior that separated Church from State, depriving the ruling class of the power to decree who goes to heaven and, more importantly, to hell, bitcoin liberates money from state. It prevents the authorities from decreeing what you can and cannot purchase, with whom you can and cannot transact, and ultimately what thoughts and ideas you are able to express. In short, it puts power back in the hands of the many rather than the few. It is a peaceful opt-out from an otherwise all-powerful system. And it cannot be stopped by force. The all-seeing Eye Of Sauron isn’t extinguished by the sword; it simply runs out of funding, flickers and goes dark.

. . .

Maybe there are alien beings in flying saucers traversing galaxies to come and save (or destroy) us. Maybe God will come from the sky, save the righteous and smite the wicked too. But it’s more plausible to me that He works in mysterious ways, and just as we can achieve altered states of conscious via strange lifeforms mushrooming from the soil, perhaps we can reclaim our birthright as free and prosperous human beings via an uncorruptible ledger of timestamped truth.

For those who hope for God — or a benign strongman working on his behalf — to save them the old fashioned way, I will end this piece with a joke:

During a great flood, a man climbs up on the roof of his house to temporary safety. A boat paddles by. “Get in!” says the man rowing the boat. "No thanks” says the man on the roof. “God will save me.” The man paddles off. The water rises up to the man’s neck. A helicopter comes by, and a man inside offers his arm to the nearly submerged home-owner. “Get in!” he yells. The man on the roof says, “No thanks, God will save me.” The helicopter leaves, and the man drowns. When he gets to the afterlife, he confronts God, saying, “Why didn’t you save me?” And God replies, “I sent a boat and a helicopter, but you didn’t get in!”