cantrevealname

> The content is pretty good but I think they missed the target audience pretty badly with that title and cover.

I'm in agreement with you. The cover art and title give the impression of a children's book or a coffee-table book or something "light and fun!". It's not a textbook, but it's much more than a fluffy lightweight children's book. Reading the sample chapter, I think the audience he should have targeted is anyone who liked the monthly magazine "Scientific American" (if you're old enough to remember that). Basically anyone who wouldn't mind being called a hacker, nerd, geek, or science fan. Which is still a huge audience.

> But consider what happens when a lot of people use muse to enmasse do this. There can be a run on the banks because it's not the same "money" in the balance sheet of the bank.

But isn't this self-correcting? If everybody starts moving money from checking/savings accounts to money market funds to get better rates, then the bank will start offering better interest rates in their checking/savings accounts so people won't do that.

I'm fascinated to read about the motivations of people who do some much great work in places like OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia where it's almost guaranteed that they will get zero recognition (and obviously no money). I wanted to quote what the number 1 contributor (with 75,583 contributions) to the North Korea map said about his motivations:

"Hello Wonyoung,I live in Germany. I also do a lot of mapping here-partly with a GPS-device. I use OSM-maps in my navigation system (OSMand) when i travel.

Mapping is just a private hobby for me. Like others doing Sodoku or Mandala i draw rivers and roads from a satellite image. It just gives a good feeling to relax and contribute at the same time.

Sometimes when i hear the news i wonder if the mentioned places are already mapped and take a look into OSM. Somehow i got stuck in North Korea. There was a blank map. So i could draw big roads and rivers. Here in Germany you only can do details, like junction restrictions or housenumbers.

North Korea is really an interesting country. The political situation beween North- and South-Korea ist also very fascinating and has a lot of similarities to former East- and West-Germany. I live not far away from the former border (Iron Curtain) - on the east side. I have old maps here from cold war time with missing, wrong and falsified data. We dont need wrong maps if we want to live together in peace. Finally militaries always do have their own much more detailed maps.

In North Korea i only use the OSM-aerial images (Bing, DigitalGlobe, etc). Of course i also watch documentaries about North Korea more interested now and i took a look into the Armistice Agreement-maps from 1953. OSM is a great Project. Like Wikipedia it creates free data from all countries, free for everyone!

Im sure one day the maps will also find their way into North Korea. But for now it will help everyone else who is interested in this area anyhow. One example: I found reports from ornithologists researching migrating bird-routes and North Korea is one stop for the birds.

As far as i can see North Korea is mostly mapped by people like me just travelling on the map with their fingers and contribute on interesting things. Nobody is really working systematic or regularly like professional mappers would do. I hope this text helps you. It would be great to get some feedback about the results of your studies. Best regards"

Some decades ago there was an actual product you could buy that did the analog version of this service. It was a cassette tape with various background noises, so you could call your boss or spouse from a payphone and play background noise from (for example) a car mechanic’s shop while you explained that you’re not coming because your car broke down. The auto repair recording had a convincing mix of clanging, hammering, and car engine sounds, but there were a dozen other scenarios to choose from on the tape.

I find it sad that he never got rich. Someone so energetic, articulate, and connected with the Who’s Who of Silicon Valley, getting the inside track on everything (especially in his early years), didn’t become fabulously wealthy. There may have been opportunities for him to be an early investor in a meteoric startup, or becoming a co-founder or adviser or board member. But didn’t happen.

> not with even with your computer would I run VeraCrypt

This has got to be the most surprising encryption-related comment I've ever read from you. Please tell us what you're thinking about VeraCrypt. What would you say about TrueCrypt v7.1a, the last known good release?

To everyone who doesn’t know how Plaid works: You give your banking username and password directly to Plaid, and it keeps it (so it can continue to login).

I don’t understand how anyone is OK with this. It goes against every security principle and it’s against the terms and conditions of every bank.

I realize that almost no bank provides a secure and proper API to get info and/or to transfer funds, but Plaid’s solution is a disaster waiting to happen.

I agree with construction and auto repair, but why psychology and psychiatry? If there's anything that's perfect for LLMs, it self-diagnosis and self-treatment by chatting with them. Other than prescribing drugs, an AI system could do everything a psychologist or psychiatrist does.

The only significant barrier is that it's not condoned by the medical establishment and by law (which I imagine will indeed take a few years to work around).