paulgorman.org

< ^ txt

Fri Dec 15 09:15:52 EST 2017 Slept soundly from eleven to five, then dozen fitfully until seven. High of twenty-seven today. Snow amounting to less than an inch. Work: - Remember to change backup media Done. - Order last two SSDs for Mizzen upgrade Done. - Review invoices Done. - Email Scott a to-do list Done. - Work on MECS Not much. - Remember to set out of office on email and voicemail, lock keepass, put phone on DND Done. Scott took a PTO day today, which is somewhat inconvenient since I'll be on vacation for the next two weeks. No time for a walk at lunch. Home: - Charge my phone Done. - Remember to grab new keepass database Done. - Buy Super Mario Odyssey Done. https://gizmodo.com/morbid-experiment-proves-this-neolithic-weapon-was-an-e-1821288449 Archaeologists Meaghan Dyer and Linda Fibiger from the University of Edinburgh ran an experiment to determine if the “Thames Beater,” found near the Thames river and radiocarbon-dated to about 4,600 years old, could inflict injuries matching those of damaged skulls found at Asparn/Schletz, a Neolithic massacre site in Austria. The injuries were nearly identical. In a sort of quiet protest to the FCC net neutrality repeal, I finally got around to signing up with a VPN provider. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/12/how-bitcoin-works/ > Currently 12.5 bitcoins is more than $200,000, so naturally lots of people would like to add the next block to the blockchain. To win the right to add the next block, bitcoin miners compete against each other by performing a highly repetitive computation. They add a random value called a nonce to the candidate block they have assembled. Then they apply the SHA-256 hash function, which produces a short, seemingly random string of 1s and 0s that serves as a cryptographic fingerprint for the block. The goal is to find a block whose hash is very small—that is, its binary value starts with a large number of zeroes. As I'm writing this, a winning block needs a SHA-256 hash that starts with at least 72 zeros. Because SHA-256 hash values are essentially random, the only way to find a very low value is by repeated guessing. Most of the time, the hash value will be too high and the miner will repeat the process—changing the nonce and computing another hash value. Right now, the network computes around 7 x 10^21 SHA-256 hashes, on average, for every block that is created. Jesus. What do I want to do during my vacation? - Finish paining Warhammer 40k miniatures - Work on a Go project Maybe also play some video games and take a virtual trip. Breakfast: cafe latte, sausage and egg sandwich Lunch: Thai catfish Dinner: frozen pizza

< ^ txt