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Cake day: June 18th, 2023

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  • Crypto is doing kind-of ok. But what about other blockchain apps and startups, or blockchain integrations into every tech imaginable? There were so many popping up, just like there are with AI now. Business models and use-cases that are based solely on the hype of the tech in question, without any consideration about whether it’s actually a good fit for the tech. That is the point, and what it has common with AI and other “buzzwords”.


  • It has been a while since I have to deal with problem complexities in college, is there even class of problems that would require something like this, or is there a proven upper limit/can this be simplified? I don’t think I’ve ever seen O(n!^k) class of problems.

    Hmm, iirc non-deterministic turing machines should be able to solve most problems, but I’m not sure we ever talked about problems that are not NP. Are there such problems? And how is the problem class even called?

    Oh, right, you also have EXP and NEXP. But that’s the highest class on wiki, and I can’t find if it’s proven that it’s enough for all problems. Is there a FACT and NFACT class?


  • Here is a picture, that may help a little bit. The n is input size, and f(n) is how long does the algorithm runs (i.e how many instructions) it takes to calculate it for input for size n, i.e for finding smallest element in an array, n would be the number of elements in the array. g(n) is then the function you have in O, so if you have O(n^2) algorithm, the g(n) = n^2

    Basically, you are looking for how quickly it grows for extreme values of N, while also disregarding constants. The graph representation probably isn’t too useful for figuring the O value, but it can help a little bit with understanding it - you want to find a O function where from one point onward (n0), the f(n) is under the O function all the way into infinity.




  • I’m not sure about other countries, but here in Czech we actually have a mandatory subscription, that’s absolutely bullshit.

    So far, the law is that if you own any TV or radio, you have to pay monthly fee for public service broadcasters (national Czech TV). It’s bullshit, the channels are full of ads anyway, and the shows they run and create is insultingly bad. Sure, it is important to have public service broadcasters that are not dependent on the state (because state-owned TV is reeaallly bad idea), but FFS can they just reduce costs and stick to news, instead of doing another stupid series, and stop forcing us to pay for something I don’t care about or use?

    You could just not pay the fee, if you state you don’t have a TV capable of receiving it (which I don’t). But now, they are changing the law that everyone who has any kind of internet-capable device has to pay the monthly fee, while also rising prices to something like 6 EUR per month. Fuck that and fuck them.


  • Exactly this. I only have pretty vague experience with machine learning, since it was one of the other specializations for my Masters than the one I choose, which however means we still shared some basic courses on the topic, and I definitely share his point of view. I’ve been saying basically the same things when talking about AI, albeit not as expressively, but even with basic insight into ML, the whole craze that is happening around it is such bullshit. But, I’m by no means an expert in the field, so I may be wrong, but it’s nice to finally read an article from an “expert” in the field I can agree with. Because so far, the whole “experts talking AI” felt exactly like the COVID situation, with “doctors” talking against vaccines. Their doomsaying opinion simply contradicts even the little knowledge I have in the ML field.





  • Ever since I played watchdogs and shadowrun, I wanted to work in cybersecurity, especially as a Red Teamer, which is literally Shadowrun - you run complex ops that have to break in, and steal stuff from largre banks without anyone but the management knowing about the test, with almost nothing being off-limits, as long as it doesn’t cause some kind of damage.

    Five years later, I do work as a Red Team Lead. Hpwever, our company was just scrambling to start doing RT since thats the buzzword now, and while we did have amazing pentesters, unfortunately pentesting and Red Teaming requires vastly different skills. Ypu never need to avoid EDRs, write malware with obscure low-level winapi, or even know what kind of IoC ajd detections will a command you run create, when you are doing a pentest.

    But since no one knew better, and I love learning and researching new stuff, while also having Red Teaming romabticized, my interrest in it eventually led to me getting a Lead position for the barely scrambling team.

    Mind you, I was barely out of being a junipr, with only three years of part time pentesting experience. It was NOT a good idea.

    I quickly found out that RT is waaay harder and requires the best of the best from cybersec and maleare development. We didnt have that. Also, turns out that I love to learn now stuff and take on a challenge, but being a Lead also means you are drowning in paperwork and discussions with client, while also everyone from the team doesn’t know what to do and turns to me about what should we do. Which I didn’t know, and barely managed to keep learning it on my own. Our conpany didnt want to give us much time for learning outside of delivery, I was only working parttime, and I was slowly realizing that we don’t have almost any of the skills we need.

    We were doing kind of a good job, most of our engagement turned out pretty well, but it was atrocious.

    Turns out, I’m not good at managing and planning projects, or leading people. I’m better just as a line member.


  • My favorite windows update was when I was attending an onsite coding competition hosted my Microsoft. We were all in this large meeting hall that looked like a theater, and we spent first 10 minutes or so at the start of the competition just looking at Windows update, with the Microsoft rep apologizing to us, because his pc decided to do the “Forced update restart you cant postpone any more” literally two minutes into the presentation





  • Another one came to my mind - ROBLOX_OOF.mp3 by hbomberguy.

    It’s really a wild ride. As traditional with his videos, it starts with a pretty innocent investigation into one of sounds popular on the internet, and then gets into a mindboggling rabbit hole about Tommy Tallarico, the guy behind Video Games Live, and how he accidentally discovered what an insane text-book example of pathological lier he is. It’s funny, and really absurd - I’d recommend it to everyone, because it’s really interesting insight into how bad can it get with pathological liers. It’s a roller coaster, and a really fascinating one. And I also learned that Guiness World Record is a scam and literally only an advertisement business, which I never realised before.

    It’s a shame, I really liked Video Games Live, the live recordings of it’s shows are great. Assuming you skip the ego-trip monologues he interupts the concert with.



  • Down the Rabbit Hole for EVE Online is absolutely amazing. I’ve played the game here and there for quite a long time, and it’s one of my favourite experiences, that is however really hard to put into words.

    That game is weird. I still can’t explain why it’s one of the best games I’ve played, but I always keep returning to it and love consuming content about it from time to time. And this document is amazing in explaining how extremely unique and cool the game is in it’s metagame and the stories it generates. The game has it’s problems, but I still think it’s one of the most unique lifestyles in gaming, that nothing ever comes close to. It’s the only MMORPG that’s actually literally roleplay, that basically forces you to roleplay without you even realizing it. Sure, you may not speak in character, but the fleet doctrines, logistics, corp organization, propaganda, corp-politics and everything around it people do - that’s literally roleplaying.

    Another one would be B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-1989. This document is really really hard for me to watch, because it’s a subculture that was always really important to me, to the point where I help with event promotions and DJ at local 80s goth/synthpop events and it’s my main hobby. But, since I’m now in my 20s, I’ve missed it. The way internet transformed music subcultures is terrible, especially so the alternative ones, but music consumption in general - sure, it’s really amazing to have every almbum ever in the palm of your hand, but there’s just so many that I don’t know any. If I talk to anyone who started with music with the one MC tape, and each new relleas was something hard to get that you actually treassured, I really envy their relationship with music. And that’s something that’s almost impossible to build in this day and age.

    The fact that I’ll never get to experience the scene as it was in the 80s is one of the saddest things for me, and this documentary shows it in really genuine and amazing way.

    And then there’s The Social Dillema, about the dangers of social networks. A word of warning from people who worked at large social network companies and left because the way they exploit users got too much for them, and now they are trying to spread the word. I really recommend this for everyone, it’s eye openning and really terrifying. It was one of the first impulses that got me heavy into privacy, and it everyone should see it at least once.