Talk by Ciro Santilli by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Dean Kamen by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Dell Inspiron 15 3520 by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Bought May 2024 to be my clean crypto-only computer. Searched for cheapest 1 TB disk 16 GB RAM not too old on Amazon with Ubuntu certification, and that was it at £479.00.
Some reviews:
  • the keyboard is kind of crap. Notably the key "a" is very hard to press!!
  • the lack of a sleep state indication LED and "I'm powering on LED" compared to Lenovo is really sad
  • it gets way too hot doing work (Monero bootstrap) with lid closed, likely brought system down
OPSEC: will run only cryptocurrency wallets and nothing else. Will connect to Internet, but never ever to a non clean USB flash drive.
The OPSEC for this machine supposes:
  • no supply of chain attack on USB hardware, Laptop hardware, pre-installed Windows and Ubuntu ISO
  • connecting with browser to a few well known websites to download stuff (Ubuntu ISO, Monero software) is safe
Bootstrap OPSEC:
It must have taken about one week running full time to sync the Monero blockchain which at the time was at about 3.1M blocks! I checked on system explorer, and CPU and internet usage was never maxed out, suggesting simply slow network. But the computer still overheated quite a bit and froze a few times.
Formal proof is useless by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
The only cases where formal proof of theorems seem to have had actual mathematical value is for theorems that require checking a very large number of case, so much so that no human can be fully certain that no mistakes were made. Some examples:
Spy by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Jack Barsky by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Signal feature request by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
GitHub awesome repo by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Brits can't say "no" directly by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
If you ask for something, and they don't want to do it for whatever reason, they won't say no. They will say "I could do it, sure, no problem" and just never do it, nor explain why they don't want to do it!
And then if you don't understand that this actually meant "no" and push things further, they might eventually say "no", but they might become offended that you didn't understand them at first!
Please just say at least "yes" or "no". And if you're feelig specially nice, say "why no" which helps a lot the asker sometimes, though that's optional since people are entitled to their privacy. Just don't waste our poor foreigners' time with "bhlarmeh"!
Perhaps East Asia is a similar and more severe case of the same problem. But at least in their case it is so obvious that you already expect it.
The polar opposite apparently beign Germen and the like.
Why we can't find more bibliography on this?
  • www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/ywt98p/why_are_british_people_so_indirect/ "Why are British people so indirect?". Now deleted body with some fixes, bullshit deletion procedure they have:
    I've worked with people from all over the globe, but its when i work Work with British people it's always frustrating.
    From conversations to communicating what they would like me to do for them in notes. Never direct. Confusing and unclear. When I ask politely what they are asking me to do I get some patronising passive aggressive BS.
    Most times I don't even have to ask questions or clear things up. I try to make sense of everything, but sometimes I have to ask. In my job its important that I have the exact facts. I need 100% clarity from colleagues, so decisions I make don't come back to bite me on the ass. My clients don't have time for British behaviour like that. I don't have time for that.
    Why are Brits do indirect and passive aggressive in the workplace?
    The best comment:
    Brits do tend to be a bit passive aggressive, but we're also generally quite logical and reasonable creatures. Be direct and just say 'look, cut the bullshit, tell me your honest opinion, I won't take offense' and they should open up more.
    Nice try Johnson, I'm not falling for that trap.
  • www.facebook.com/soverybritish/posts/things-that-mean-no-yeah-could-do-im-easy-really-well-yes-and-no-well-see-maybe-/1497343080313575/
    Things that mean "no" by "Very British Problems":
    • Yeah, could do
    • I'm easy really
    • Well, yes and no
    • We'll see
    • Maybe
    • If that's what you fancy
    • I'll see how I feel
  • letstalk.voiceprint.global/talking-with-the-brits-the-problem-with-indirectness/ "Talking with the Brits - the problem with indirectness"
Video 1.
How I Faked Being American interview with Jack Barsky
. Source. The former East German spy undercover in the USA says:
I had learned to speak English and write it as well as anybody, but I hadn't become an American culturally.
My behavior was still very German.
Having now learned the difference between the German style and the American style, I have been trying to adjust and soften the way I'm approaching things.
Germans are in your face, they will tell you what they think even if you don't ask for it, and they will criticize you at any chance they get.
And that was me.
And there's still a residue of that left.
Americans will be a little more passive, sometimes passive aggressive, and they wrap everything, every piece of bad news, in some kind of a velvet cloth so it doesn't hurt that much.
Printers by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
USB flash drives by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Epson XP-640 by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
The cartridge is number 33 or 33 XL.
SanDisk Ultra Flair 64 GB by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
Marked read speeds up to 150 MB/s
Write speed burning 5 GB Ubuntu ISO from Dell Inspiron 15: 5.4 MB/s
For clean Dell Inspiron 15 3520 cryptocurrenty laptop bootstrap and backup.
Cryptocurrency swapper by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created
A "Cryptocurrency swapper" is a service that swaps one type of cryptocurrency for another.
It is basically the same as buying and selling from exchanges for fiat, except that you only get fiat.
Swappers are in general able to receive send coins from any address, including self custody addresses.
Centralized swappers were a good way to workaround the endless Monero bans from exchanges circa 2024, e.g. x.com/cirosantilli/status/1771900725649371240 as they effectively serve as proxies for exchanges that are still legal in other countries.
They will eventually have to ban Monero of course, and then the only way left will be decentralized exchanges.
This leads to a scenario where the only effective way to ban Monero is to also ban all other cryptocurrencies. The question is if countries will go that far or not.
Privacy coin legality by Ciro Santilli 35 Updated +Created

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