ironsoap

joined 1 year ago
[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 2 points 4 hours ago

Economists at JP Morgan, the largest US bank by assets, published a research paper on de-dollarization in 2023.

In reference to the global economy as a whole, they concluded that, "while marginal de-dollarization is expected, rapid de-dollarization is not on the cards".

However, they argued that, "Instead, partial de-dollarization — in which the renminbi assumes some of the current functions of the dollar among non-aligned countries and China’s trading partners — is more plausible, especially against a backdrop of strategic competition".

The JP Morgan economists added, "This could over time give rise to regionalism, creating distinct economic and financial spheres of influence in which different currencies and markets assume central roles".

This seems inline with the Chinese leadership game of influence, as well as the clown show that the US has become. Even with the interest still there from the US standpoint two decades of GWT, the lack of prioritize spending on following our so called values, the very high debt to GDP ratio we are running, the lack of real legislative ability, plus other challenges, all make the fundamentals seem less fundamental. Although China very much has it's own issues such as an excess of manufacturing, a housing bubble, and a very steep demographic bubble. So their fundamentals are seemingly similar in question, but they have a marked ability to pivot quickly and do seem to be using their status as the 2nd largest economic to garner the same level of influence.

Whether either has staying power of economics and global influence for the next 50 years is a very interesting question.

I certainly don't count the US out yet, but even if the election settles things down, there is some real work to do which has little to do with the current hotly discussed policy topics. I'd be curious about your opinions?

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 11 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

True, but worth reading their about page and privacy page. Not saying it'll stay this way, but the way they are running is something that makes more sense then being sold as a product to Google. And you aren't getting much of an incognito these days with all the fingerprinting they are doing.

I will admit kagi search isn't the highest performer, but it's viable. DDG, Start page, etc. Might give you more privacy, or not (hard to tell with DDG these days), but it might be worth trying a different model for a while.

I miss the days when the internet was truly free, but in lieu of that we have to have something better. Kagi is a start.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 4 points 2 days ago

Yes evolution involves pressure, however the nuance here is how much pressure and how much change is happening how fast.

Unlike evolution, human can use rational thought and the scientific method to analysis and engage in and affect our environment. So we can learn from it as well as change it. Obvious perhaps, but I mentioned it as I work on a research vessel which constantly sees new unseen species of life which we don't know the value of.

Of those that have been studied one is in trials as an anticancer drug. And it's only one because the backlog of studies required is incredibly deep. Thousands at least, possibly tens of thousands. Millions if you include bacteria and virus. For ever new species we find it might take years to be fully cataloged, and then more years to be studied, before someone might find a tangential use for it.

So an unexplored cave, or an untouched lake in Antarctic is a vast wealth of potential cures, innovation, and ancient information which could change our lives. Yes we can and do put pressure on our ecosystem (and vice versa), but the Anthropocene extinction we are causing might include us if we don't leverage our ability to abstract and cognate faster then evolutionary pressure pushes us.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 6 points 2 days ago

Want countries to re-dollarize, you have to incentivize the, which probably means making the US the dynamic yet stable economic it was. Punishing countries, how laughable.

I think that ship has sailed though, as globalization has caught up yet again.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That's an interesting example, I'll have to look it out and see if the context bears it out. I say that as although yes he might have only gotten 43%, the question is how many registered voters didn't vote and how many eligible but unregistered voters there were.

Vermont has a fairly high voter turnout, but looking at Vermont's Secretary of State 2016 had a voter turnout of 63% of Voting Age Population from census population. So that 185k of 505k thousands people who didn't vote.

Also if I have the right numbers from Vermont' SOS, that's 43% of the state total 63% who voted.

I've read other demographic breakdowns on those who don't vote which is worth looking into, but it's hard for me to see someone say that there isn't a mass when we have this huge population of American citizen who don't vote. Something between 35-45% of the US just doesn't. That's a huge swath of disenfranchised people.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 1 points 4 weeks ago

Glad the MLS is no longer used.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Cool map! Do you have a source? Curious if they've done other countries.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 6 points 1 month ago

Good write up!

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What's the privacy criteria you are thinking about?

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 18 points 1 month ago

[# Systematic Destruction (Hacking the Scammers pt. 2)

Taking on the "Smishing Triad"](https://blog.smithsecurity.biz/systematic-destruction-hacking-the-scammers-pt.-2) g

His blog on the topic if you don't want the wired summary.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 31 points 1 month ago

A brief technical summary from iMAP reveals what happens when users attempt to access sites using Cloudflare and Google DNS.

• On Maxis, DNS queries to Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8) servers are being automatically redirected to Maxis ISP DNS Servers;

**

• On Time, DNS queries to both Google Public DNS (8.8.8.8) and Cloudflare Public DNS (1.1.1.1) are being automatically redirected to Time ISP DNS servers.

“Instead of the intended Google and Cloudflare servers, users are being served results from ISP DNS servers. In addition to MCMC blocked websites, other addresses returned from ISP DNS servers can also differ from those returned by Google and Cloudflare,” iMAP warns.

...

"Users that are affected, can configure their browser settings to enable DNS over HTTPS to secure their DNS lookups by using direct encrypted connection to private or public trusted DNS servers. This will also bypass transparent DNS proxy interference and provide warning of interference,” iMAP concludes.

Essentially Malaysia law required ISP to drop DNS entries for some sites, local users started using public DNS. ISP started redirecting public DNS requests, and local users started using DNS over HTTPS.

The pirate wars continue in their arms races.

[–] ironsoap@lemmy.one 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Should have remembered they do an English version. Thanks!

It was noted that more than half of the KN-23 missiles lost their programmed flight trajectory during flight and likely exploded in the air, as the launches of these missiles were recorded, but their debris was not found.

 

Rostov-on-Don hit again? Anyone have links to visuals?

 

Trump has the magic touch to juice turnout and excite Republicans in a way that his imitators do not. In 2018 and 2022, the two elections in the Trump era when the head honcho was not on the ballot, pro-Trump Republican candidates did poorly, running below expectations and losing winnable races. Meanwhile, even when Trump lost in 2020, he overperformed in public polling.

It’s an interesting puzzle: Many of Trump’s ideas are largely unpopular with voters; without his charisma, his ideological allies are left with policy positions like abortion bans that most Americans don’t really like. It’s Trump’s personality that keeps him happily ensconced at the head of the party.

The result is that candidates like Vance up and down state ballots try to build on Trump’s political legacy without being able to capture his personal one.

 

Bill Gates name-checked Elon Musk and Steve Jobs during a fireside chat on Thursday. The Microsoft founder said he considers himself "very nice" compared to his fellow tech leaders. But Gates acknowledged that a certain level of intensity is required in innovative fields. Bill Gates said he considers himself a more relaxed boss than many of his tech compatriots at the top.

The Microsoft founder name-checked Elon Musk and Steve Jobs during a fireside chat on Thursday after being awarded the Peter G. Peterson Leadership Excellence Award by the Economic Club of New York.

The talk's moderator asked Gates about the lessons he learned in creating a culture of innovation during his time at the helm of Microsoft.

The billionaire, who co-founded the technology company with his childhood friend Paul Allen in 1975, said leaders like himself have to think about how "hardcore" they should be when spearheading innovative companies.

"Everybody is different. Elon pushes hard, maybe too much," Gates said, referencing Musk. "Steve Jobs pushed hard, maybe too much."

"I think of myself as very nice compared to those guys," he added with a laugh.

Jobs co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak, while Musk is the founder and SpaceX and the Boring Company, and cofounder of OpenAI and Neuralink.

Gates has a checkered history with both men. He and Jobs nursed a decades-long love-hate relationship, going from allies to rivals and back again several times. Their back-and-forth competitive spirit is often credited with spurring major innovations at both Microsoft and Apple over the years.

Steve Jobs Bill Gates Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Beck Diefenbach/Reuters; Mike Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times

After Jobs died in 2011, Gates said he respected the Apple founder and was grateful for their competition.

The philanthropist's relationship with Musk has been even more turbulent in recent years. The two men have publicly poked at each other and frequently disagree on everything from space travel to climate change.

Gates told Musk's biographer, Walter Isaacson, that the Tesla CEO was "super mean" to him in 2022.

"Once he heard I'd shorted the stock, he was super mean to me, but he's super mean to so many people, so you can't take it too personally," Gates told Isaacson.

But Gates acknowledged during the Thursday discussion that a "certain intensity" is required to succeed as an innovative leader.

"In my 20s, I was monomaniacally focused on Microsoft," he said. "I didn't believe in weekends or vacations.'

The moderator asked Gates to confirm an urban legend that has circulated in recent years in which the billionaire memorized all of his employees' license plates during the early days of Microsoft so he could track who was putting in long hours at work.

"It wasn't that many license plates. We only had a few hundred employees," Gates said, seemingly confirming the tale.

"I can still tell you when they came in and out," he added.

Gates cites his intensity with the "positive experience" he had at Microsoft, which he said still guides his thinking today.

"I view every problem through this innovation lens," he said.

 

Ukrainian forces claim to have destroyed a Russian 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled howitzer with a highly maneuverable racing drone rigged with explosives.

Shared on X (formerly known as Twitter) by civil rights activist Serhii Sternenko, a video showing a Russian 2S19 Msta-S self-propelled howitzer which was destroyed by a Ukrainian First-Person-View (FPV) racing drone laden with explosives.

In dramatic footage, the Russian self-propelled howitzer is being blown to pieces in a huge blast.

Ukrainian Soldiers are strapping rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and self-made bombs to cheap racing drones and using them to attack the Russian armored vehicles and trenches.

https://twitter.com/sternenko/status/1712764228837224856

The inexpensive racing drones are apparently so effective that Ukrainian forces can quickly locate and destroy enemy heavy armored vehicles with minimal cost and risk to themselves.

 

Verge interviewed the maker of Relay for Reddit and says he might survive on a subscription only model of $2-3 USD per month. Lots of limitations inherent in that, but maybe.

How do lemmies feel about this?

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