Mike Dilger ☑️
mike@mikedilger.com
Author of Gossip client: https://github.com/mikedilger/gossip Dual National (USA / New Zealand) My principles are Individualism, Equality, Liberty, Justice and Life
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
2h ago
My dad used to work for the Air Force as a civil servant. And he had this joke about civil servants.
Some psychologists did an experiment. They had a top mathematician, a top physicist, and a top civil servant. Each was confined to a small cubicle room with no windows and just the one door for 24 hours without food or water. They gave them each 3 steel balls (bearings) and came back 24 hours later to see what had transpired.
In the mathematicans room they discovered that all three balls were perfectly balanced on top of each other in the middle of the room, and the mathematician was sitting against the wall pleased as punch.
In the physicists room, to their amazement, the three balls were hovering in space, and the physicist was sitting in the corner mumbling about equasions.
In
Some psychologists did an experiment. They had a top mathematician, a top physicist, and a top civil servant. Each was confined to a small cubicle room with no windows and just the one door for 24 hours without food or water. They gave them each 3 steel balls (bearings) and came back 24 hours later to see what had transpired.
In the mathematicans room they discovered that all three balls were perfectly balanced on top of each other in the middle of the room, and the mathematician was sitting against the wall pleased as punch.
In the physicists room, to their amazement, the three balls were hovering in space, and the physicist was sitting in the corner mumbling about equasions.
In
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
3h ago
I can take any system, and I can define the "set of all things" on that system. For example, I could consider my desk a system and define the set of all things on my desk. By making such a definition, do I change the system? No. The definition about the system doesn't affect the system.
Then I could name this set. I could take the country of China as a system and the set of all people in China and I could call that set the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Now, by defining such a thing into existance, does that have any real world effect on the ground? No. It's just an abstraction.
Of course the real CCP is not the set of all people in China.
My point is that the longer single-party rules goes on in China, the larger that party
Then I could name this set. I could take the country of China as a system and the set of all people in China and I could call that set the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Now, by defining such a thing into existance, does that have any real world effect on the ground? No. It's just an abstraction.
Of course the real CCP is not the set of all people in China.
My point is that the longer single-party rules goes on in China, the larger that party
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
4h ago
As long as there is interesting content on nostr it makes sense for everybody to get on nostr so they can see it. This is true even if they don't spin up a keypair, don't post, and only follow one or two people.
npub1sg6pl
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5h ago
i don’t care how many people use nostr.
i care that this is the one place that will always be there for me to broadcast to the world.
i care that this is the one place that will always be there for me to broadcast to the world.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
6h ago
The Next Big Idea in News Media
People hate the news. Because not only do they get some small facts wrong, explanations even more wrong, but the normative context and word choices belie a belief system that huge numbers of people disagree with.
News media tried to solve this problem by reporting "just the facts" without any contextualization, choosing the most neutral words they could. You might think that would be the perfect news that you would want to get your news from. But it is not. You will find it boring. The viewership numbers of that kind of thing plummet. It is far better to give the *wrong* context and infuriate you than to give no context.
Well, what if you could give a personalized context to everybody? With A.I. now we can. We can have "just the facts" neutral news fed into
People hate the news. Because not only do they get some small facts wrong, explanations even more wrong, but the normative context and word choices belie a belief system that huge numbers of people disagree with.
News media tried to solve this problem by reporting "just the facts" without any contextualization, choosing the most neutral words they could. You might think that would be the perfect news that you would want to get your news from. But it is not. You will find it boring. The viewership numbers of that kind of thing plummet. It is far better to give the *wrong* context and infuriate you than to give no context.
Well, what if you could give a personalized context to everybody? With A.I. now we can. We can have "just the facts" neutral news fed into
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
8h ago
My bank website has a notice today:
"We are no longer able to accept EUR denominated payments to Russia, Belarus or Ukraine. Please select USD for payments into these countries."
"We are no longer able to accept EUR denominated payments to Russia, Belarus or Ukraine. Please select USD for payments into these countries."
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
1d ago
Most people crave mental peace. You can get mental peace by believing that you already understand everything, that you are always right, that your country is good and it is only other nations and cultures that are bad.
And you can maintain this mental peace quite easily, indefinitely even, with just a few simple habits:
1. If anybody presents information that conflicts with your worldview, immediately categorize it as a lie.
2. If anybody challenges you do research the point, decide that you cannot be bothered.
3. Even easier, choose to disbelieve all authority. Now nothing can be researched, even in principle! Because every source is lying to you. So just make up whatever belief makes you happy!
Mmmmm.... I feel so calm..... and stupid.
And you can maintain this mental peace quite easily, indefinitely even, with just a few simple habits:
1. If anybody presents information that conflicts with your worldview, immediately categorize it as a lie.
2. If anybody challenges you do research the point, decide that you cannot be bothered.
3. Even easier, choose to disbelieve all authority. Now nothing can be researched, even in principle! Because every source is lying to you. So just make up whatever belief makes you happy!
Mmmmm.... I feel so calm..... and stupid.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
1d ago
All you Americans need to start (or join and operate from) a Church organisation so you can be exempt from taxes.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
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1d ago
I am more convinced than ever that representative democracy cannot work, ever. All representatives can be captured, even ones I thought couldn't be.
We need a new form of government, preferably based on nostr keys.
We need a new form of government, preferably based on nostr keys.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
2d ago
We all should learn Mandarin.
When Jim Rogers moved to Singapore in 2007 so his daughters would grow up able to speak Mandarin, I knew this. I was 37 and thought "I'm too old." Now I'm 54 and I think "I can do this!"
When Jim Rogers moved to Singapore in 2007 so his daughters would grow up able to speak Mandarin, I knew this. I was 37 and thought "I'm too old." Now I'm 54 and I think "I can do this!"
npub17f66k
•
2d ago
In China, they encourage saving.
While bitcoin isn’t really used here, you can buy physical gold directly from the banks here.
Nevermind, in every shopping mall.
Combine the values they encourage, and the cashless society they already live in… I believe China will take to Bitcoin like a fish to water…
Basically, I’m telling you, my frens… start learning mandarin 🇨🇳
While bitcoin isn’t really used here, you can buy physical gold directly from the banks here.
Nevermind, in every shopping mall.
Combine the values they encourage, and the cashless society they already live in… I believe China will take to Bitcoin like a fish to water…
Basically, I’m telling you, my frens… start learning mandarin 🇨🇳
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
2d ago
#politics Nothing terribly contentious below... just a clarification.
Within the pro-Israel and pro-Palestine groups of people, sometimes I find that they are both wrong.
I hear from pro-Israel people that "there is no state of Palestine. There never was." to which I hear from pro-Palestine people that the state of Palestine existed for thousands of years and Israel stole it.
There is a region called Palestine that has existed for thousands of years and been called Palestine (Palestina) since at least the Roman times.
But the people of that region have either never, or almost never, been under self-administration. Rather, other larger powers controlled them: Currently Israel, before that Britain, before that the Ottoman empire (Turkey), before that the Mamluk Sultanate (of Egypt), and various empires before that (Ayyubit, Fatimid, Abbasid, Roman, etc). And so a case can be made that there
Within the pro-Israel and pro-Palestine groups of people, sometimes I find that they are both wrong.
I hear from pro-Israel people that "there is no state of Palestine. There never was." to which I hear from pro-Palestine people that the state of Palestine existed for thousands of years and Israel stole it.
There is a region called Palestine that has existed for thousands of years and been called Palestine (Palestina) since at least the Roman times.
But the people of that region have either never, or almost never, been under self-administration. Rather, other larger powers controlled them: Currently Israel, before that Britain, before that the Ottoman empire (Turkey), before that the Mamluk Sultanate (of Egypt), and various empires before that (Ayyubit, Fatimid, Abbasid, Roman, etc). And so a case can be made that there
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
2d ago
Secret tariff: enact the tariff, but don't tell the country you are doing it to.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
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2d ago
I trend towards de agua. Water is good for you.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
4d ago
For many of you, the Apple iPhone changed the world.
For me, the TPS-L2 changed the world.
For me, the TPS-L2 changed the world.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
4d ago
For a long time I've been disappointed that gossip does not act as a NIP-46 (bunker) client. Just about every other client supports it (https://github.com/nostrability/nostrability/issues/73), and without support gossip users can't use bunkers!
I tried and tried and tried again and kept hitting esoteric rust bugs around async and closures and type erasure.
But as of today, with the newest stable compiler, I've gotten past the sticking point. I still have to do the work of adding the feature, but I believe that I am no longer blocked from progressing on this.
🥂
I tried and tried and tried again and kept hitting esoteric rust bugs around async and closures and type erasure.
But as of today, with the newest stable compiler, I've gotten past the sticking point. I still have to do the work of adding the feature, but I believe that I am no longer blocked from progressing on this.
🥂
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
4d ago
According to Michael Shellenberger, https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1909755511182180796, time spent on BlueSky is a significant predictor of Left Wing Authoritarianism (which justifies the murder of Trump and Elon Musk, and the destruction of Tesla automobiles)
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
4d ago
Remember when writing your code" do not over stress the language's type system or the compiler. Use simpler constructs, and more of them. Give it a break from time to time. Keep your work surface clean. It helps to feed it some syntax sugar to keep it energized. The last thing you want is for your compiler to give up and throw an angry fit.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
5d ago
Every single one of you is running a massive trade defecit with the company that supplies electricity to your house. You buy electricity from them over and over and over, and they have bought NOTHING from you. That trade defecit is just skyrocketing.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
6d ago
Long ago the US government wanted to put a "clipper chip" in everybody's computer. This chip would encrypted traffic (wasn't common at the time) but witih a backdoor so that law enforcement could see your data.
Later NIST recommended Dual_EC_DRBG encryption that suspiciously could have been constructed with a backdoor, and later evidence from Snowden indicated that it probably did have this backdoor.
Also the P curves (P-224, P-256, and P-384) were constructed with numbers that are unexplained and could weaken the algorithm if you know the secret of how those numbers were chosen.
Chrome and Firefox do not support ed25519 in TLS, but they do support the P-curves.
I suspect TLS isn't secure against the NSA unless both sides are using algorithms that the NSA can't break, which in the browser HTTP world is hardly possible.
ed25519 isn't the
Later NIST recommended Dual_EC_DRBG encryption that suspiciously could have been constructed with a backdoor, and later evidence from Snowden indicated that it probably did have this backdoor.
Also the P curves (P-224, P-256, and P-384) were constructed with numbers that are unexplained and could weaken the algorithm if you know the secret of how those numbers were chosen.
Chrome and Firefox do not support ed25519 in TLS, but they do support the P-curves.
I suspect TLS isn't secure against the NSA unless both sides are using algorithms that the NSA can't break, which in the browser HTTP world is hardly possible.
ed25519 isn't the
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
6d ago
Don't have a bucket of flour where you keep adding more flour before it gets empty. You'll eventually end up with a weevil infestation. Instead use it all up, clean the container, and start fresh.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
6d ago
New Zealand has been increasing the number of countries we trade with freely.
We have bilateral agreements with Australia (1983) Singapore (2001), Thailand (2005), China (2008), Malaysia (2009), Hong Kong (2011), Taiwan (2013), South Korea (2015) the United Kingdom (2023) and the European Union (2024).
We have an agreement (TPSEP, 2005) with Brunei, Chile and Singapore.
We have an agreement (ASEAN, 2009) with Australia and the Association of Southeast Asian Countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam)
We have an agreement (CPTPP, 2018) with Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Vietnam
We have an agreement (PACER plus, 2020) with Australia, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu
We have an agreement (RCEP, 2022) with Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Thailand,
We have bilateral agreements with Australia (1983) Singapore (2001), Thailand (2005), China (2008), Malaysia (2009), Hong Kong (2011), Taiwan (2013), South Korea (2015) the United Kingdom (2023) and the European Union (2024).
We have an agreement (TPSEP, 2005) with Brunei, Chile and Singapore.
We have an agreement (ASEAN, 2009) with Australia and the Association of Southeast Asian Countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam)
We have an agreement (CPTPP, 2018) with Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Vietnam
We have an agreement (PACER plus, 2020) with Australia, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu
We have an agreement (RCEP, 2022) with Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Japan, South Korea, Laos, Thailand,
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
1w ago
When you want to find a subset of events in a large database of events, but you know that subset is very large and may cause a memory problem, there are a number of strategies to deal with this situation:
1) Iterator: Redesign your fetch function as an iterator, to remember where it left off and keep giving the next Event. Then you only have one event in memory at a time. This is very trad.
2) Screen: Add a screening function to your fetch function. You usually don't actually need all those events, and the screen function can reduce the result set by a lot.
3) Reference: If those events are mmapped, you can just pass a reference to each one where it sits, with no copys, and the OS will page in the data as accessed.
Gossip uses method (2) and I'm
1) Iterator: Redesign your fetch function as an iterator, to remember where it left off and keep giving the next Event. Then you only have one event in memory at a time. This is very trad.
2) Screen: Add a screening function to your fetch function. You usually don't actually need all those events, and the screen function can reduce the result set by a lot.
3) Reference: If those events are mmapped, you can just pass a reference to each one where it sits, with no copys, and the OS will page in the data as accessed.
Gossip uses method (2) and I'm
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
1w ago
I don't believe there is an afterlife. And people who assure themselves that God is going to get justice in the afterlife are just depowering themselves. There is no justice unless we make it so in this life.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
1w ago
test á/é/í/ó/ú/ü
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𝕾𝖊𝖗 𝕾𝖑𝖊𝖊𝖕𝖞
•
1w ago
ITS HERE
ENJOY MY FRENS
https://wavlake.com/album/2cdc1505-7e76-4039-b3e0-7d78472e57f5
ENJOY MY FRENS
https://wavlake.com/album/2cdc1505-7e76-4039-b3e0-7d78472e57f5
𝕾𝖊𝖗 𝕾𝖑𝖊𝖊𝖕𝖞
•
1w ago
Good Music Vol 1
Drops Tonight
Drops Tonight
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
1w ago
Hot take: Nostr took all the bitcoin enthusiasts off of the other platforms and isolated them together where their advocacy can't be heard anymore.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
1w ago
New Zealand has no air defense systems. We are just as vulnerable as Palestine and Lebanon are. Any beligerant nation could just fly bombers down here and start bombing the sheep and there is nothing we could do about it.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
1w ago
I believe the USA needs to repeal laws regarding posession of child porn. Not because that stuff is ok... it's sick. Creation of child porn should remain illegal. But because it is being used as blackmail to steer politicians into acting against the interests of the United States.
I think this issue is far more important than immigration, the economy or tarriffs. It is only surpassed by issues of war.
It has to be driven by the people. Politicians are coerced so they won't drive it.
Of course the "moral signalling" is totally backwards... it looks like an issue only perverts would support.... which is why the USA probably cannot be saved and will collapse into a smoldering heap of evil.
I think this issue is far more important than immigration, the economy or tarriffs. It is only surpassed by issues of war.
It has to be driven by the people. Politicians are coerced so they won't drive it.
Of course the "moral signalling" is totally backwards... it looks like an issue only perverts would support.... which is why the USA probably cannot be saved and will collapse into a smoldering heap of evil.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
2w ago
For those of you that don't like seed oils... what do you think about yellow mustard? Do you avoid it?
I'm just curious because yellow mustard is from the seeds of a Brassica plant, same as canola oil is. But I haven't heard people preaching that mustard is poison.
I'm just curious because yellow mustard is from the seeds of a Brassica plant, same as canola oil is. But I haven't heard people preaching that mustard is poison.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
2w ago
I made some whole wheat bread, but it was really rough and bitter. Maybe next time I'll leave out the roots.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
2w ago
I'm going to create the world's first AI blockchain.
... what else is big right now? I can throw it in.
... what else is big right now? I can throw it in.
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Mike Dilger ☑️
•
2w ago
Trump before being elected wanted to end the bloodshed. Tulsi Gabbard wanted to end all the "regime change" wars. But after getting into office, these people are completely different. Elon Musk was all for free speech until after he bought Twitter, then he started making exception after exception.
I can think of (at least) five explanations:
1) They saw classified information that was accurate that changed their minds
2) They saw classified information that was inaccurate but deceptively crafted to change their minds
3) They never had their prior stated opinions, they just lied to get into office
4) They are being blackmailed
5) They aren't even the same people - Israel has a top secret look-alike replacement program that kills the original Trump and the original Tulsi and replaces them with look alikes
(5) is the most entertaining explanation.
I can think of (at least) five explanations:
1) They saw classified information that was accurate that changed their minds
2) They saw classified information that was inaccurate but deceptively crafted to change their minds
3) They never had their prior stated opinions, they just lied to get into office
4) They are being blackmailed
5) They aren't even the same people - Israel has a top secret look-alike replacement program that kills the original Trump and the original Tulsi and replaces them with look alikes
(5) is the most entertaining explanation.
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