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I believe the incentive is that they help establish a reputable connection between the ransomware group and the victim.

From what I have read in the past is that victims have no reason to trust ransomware groups and pay because what is stopping them from just demanding more money or hacking the company again. So from what I read is that ransomware companies depend on building a trust that after payment you will get your data back and he left alone.

So I believe that by working with a ransomware negotiator, a company that assumingly is a legitimate lawful business, the victim and hacker both benefit with the trust that this middleman is legit and the working history established has shown that those who pay do end up getting their data back.

TLDR: why believe a hacker that if you pay they will actually leave you alone. But a legitimate middleman with a history of dealing with these things and a proven track record can establish immediately confidence that paying will result in data recovery. So it's not about a lower price but rather a confidence you won't get screwed after paying.

Our planet is not actually dying or anything close to dying. It is however rapidly changing and may reach a point where the planet is no longer survivable to humans, but life will go on without us. I get your point though and yes it is sad that we as a species have largely ignored the impact of our actions at the cost of our planet.

There is almost zero practical use for this technology. No one is going to drive around and pop a flip. The only possible use would be when some shit box car loses control and is about to head on crash a billionaire and the billionaire's car kickflips over the shit box and continues to drive while the shit box crashes behind him into flames.

Any pressurized tanks or vessels have a finite lifespan. The multiple cycles from high to low pressure over time cause stress fractures in the tank. Take scuba tanks for example. They require periodic testing to certify that the tank is still safe to be filled to over 3000psi. That said this car not only would cost stupid amounts of money but would also require specialized expensive lifetime maintenance. Lastly as for the rocket flips and insanity I can only see that making sense to use in one scenario and that is a collision detection and the jets fire and the billionaire driving is magically saved and does die.

I have owned a quest 2 and now 3 and have always heard about that game but yet to try it. I forgot about it. I don't often get to play the quest as my kids seem to have taken over it. But there are definitely some gems out there. Echo VR was so fun it was sad to see it shut down. I also love Google Earth vr on the quest.

I can assure you while out sailing the high seas I have watched many Netflix titles. So their DRM is literally only there to make the experience shittier for the honest customers.

I just made a comment about having good air quality but with summer fires we were getting smoke for weeks at a time so I got an air purifier. My kid wasn't struggling horribly but I did notice right away after putting one in his room that he slept better and his breathing seemed so much more relaxed at night and it just felt like it made a noticeable improvement to me.

I live in British Columbia so we have fairly good air quality. But with the yearly fires lately summer air some years is poor. So one year with the fires smoking and air quality getting poor I got an air purifier for my kids room and the living room. It is only anecdotal but right away if felt like he had better sleeps. The smoke wasn't thick as it was from fires hundreds of miles away and it wasn't like any of us were hacking or coughing crazy but in hindsight I felt that my young son who would have been effected the most slept better and his breathing at night seemed quieter and easier.

This reminds me of my dad's story about decades ago as a kid paperboy they had a contest get people to sign up and who ever had the most after a few months would win a bike. He smoked everyone. They were desperate to know how he got so many people to sign up but he refused to tell them.

His trick, well back then for a nickel you could go to a paper vending machine and buy a paper. But it would just open up and you could literally grab all of them if you wanted. So for a month every day he sacrificed a nickel and essentially stole about 20 papers. He then delivered them to non customers along his route for about a month. Then he left a note "if you have enjoyed your free trial of the paper and would like to continue as a customer....". He won the bike hands down and never did tell the paper company how he got so many new starts.

The reminded me of Johnnie Cochran "If the glove don't fit, you must acquit" slogan he used during the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

I bought a medium sized above ground pool that the kids rarely used. More work than it was worth.

Next I bought a nice trampoline for the kids and the second it showed up at my door my dad commented that he thinks it was a waste of my money and that the kids don't even use the pool and the same would be true for the trampoline.

Well he has since apologized many times over after realizing my kids would put about 6 hours a day on the thing in the summer and even on some of the less then optimal weather days put in some time. My dad now keeps talking about the cost per hour the trampoline has gotten ($500 trampoline - 500 hours use = 1$/hr), well now I think he calculates it by the cents per hour no longer dollars.

I would love to learn the cost of the AI versus how many new workers they could afford to hire and get more calls done. But I assume the end goal will be full replacement of human workers once the AI has had enough time to learn the job.

This post is the definition of why I like HN. You never know what random fun and interesting post will make it's way here.

I had a couple drinks so having one of those moments. I am always so fascinated by the science and experiments done to prove what we know. I consider myself at least of average intelligence probably slightly above but the things scientists research and solve always blows me away.

My guess to the Fermi paradox is that there actually are intelligent life across the universe but just like in Star Trek they stay quiet until we reach a certain level of knowledge.

As a Canadian cool! Never heard of this school before but on the west coast so probably why.

I've watched many watch repair videos online and the knowledge base required is huge. Also there are many tools needed which are not cheap. There is just so much to know that takes years to learn. Very cool that the knowledge is being shared and the skill passed on. In my small town there was only one guy who worked on clocks and watches. He passed a while back and his kids continue with his jewelry store but they now send out watches and clocks to another business as none of his kids learned how to do it.