19 - Summer time in N. Ireland
It's summer here in Nothern Ireland - of course the weather is cooler and cloudier than when we were here back in March and April!
On the family side, I am looking into services to support independent living for aging parents. Bluebird Care (office in Holywood!) seems interesting - if you have information on this or other such services in Northern Ireland - do reach out.
Refreshing my Web Development skills I have been "working out" on quite a few technologies and tools, including:
- HMTL5, CSS, Visual Studio Code, Github and git, tmux, fuzzy find (fzf)
- Handy sources: Brad Traversy and Tech Craft here and here
A few lessons already relearned and to share as I get back in the driving seat:
- You forget so much so quickly - you will not remember things that were completely obvious when you did them (usually after quite some struggle) - comments and good notes that you can easily find and review are required!
- Conversely - things that used to be complicated and hard to learn suddenly seem obvious and easy - eg Object Oriented and Functional programming seem entirely obvious and straightforward now; some things just take time. Older and wiser!
- Just do it - get your hands dirty - get back into coding, building lots of things and debugging - many small "projects"; a "project" can be a web-page or a website feature - have several on the go concurrently. Watching videos and following courses is nowhere near enough.
- Git is your friend - this is the most amazing tool ever. It still seems like magic that this basic tool can keep track of every single line of code that changes. Use it will and you can have multiple tasks in parallel and also find and fix issues wherever they arise. Learn it well and practise regularly.
If you are interested to collborate on some development - let me know!
Update on my Bitcoin project
You ought to know that bitcoin nodes can be run by anyone and they play an important part in securing the bitcoin network; you too can run one - anyone can. This is one of the significant strengths that helps ensure that the bitcoin network is decentralised and not controlled by any central body or group.
- running a bitcoin node on Raspberry Pi is straightforward. You can build one yourself (all you need is a low end computer and free software) or buy them off the shelf. More explanation here
💰 Listen to Nik Bhatia explain why Lightning on Bitcoin represents an unprecedented opportunity allowing for risk-free yield generation on bitcoin. His vision on this is pragmatic, realistic and achievable.
- I am looking into running a lightning node. Initially this will be a private node for me and friends to use and learn from and I do plan to experiment with routing as knowledge and experience builds up - this will be a medium term project over the coming months. Fascinating interview by Stephan Livera here on potential business model and some of the game theory that will come into play on small retail transactions on Lightning as it is happening today on the bitcoin network for larger transactions. All as foreseen in The Bitcoin Standard and Sovereign Individual.
If you are interested to know a bit more about Bitcoin practicalities for beginners - do listen to this Q&A session with Matt or check out the Bitcoin Q&A site. Talk to me if you need more.
Fun discovery of the week
🏰 Over many years I have had the privilege to visit many historic heritage sites including Angkor Wat at Siem Reap in Cambodia), Borobodur in Indonesia, Mahabalipuram in India, Tikal in Guatemala I have yet to visit the Pyramids in Giza. How about you? Have you visited any of these or others and what were your impressions? Can you imagine how these were built and by whom? Look around each location at the local scenery and population; do they look like places that have the skills and resources to construct such things? Do you think that you have been told the full story? You may have had similarly uneasy thoughts if you have really looked around inside any of the larger Cathedrals in Europe!
🧮 At least sit back and enjoy Randall Carlson's talk on Hidden Mathematics
🐫 Ben's talk takes you further any may help you see Challenging the Mainstream Story
Reading, Watching and Listening
Reminder - for videos and podcasts you will benefit from watching/listening at 1.5x speed or more. Once you start, you will require this everywhere!
🤔 Chris Martensen has a bad feeling and is taking positive steps - a rather thoughtful discussion between him and his wife about what is happening and coming up next - for your consideration. For those who wish to see there are certainly increasingly obvious signs of all pervasive lunacy and mass formation psychosis - do you still think politicians are acting on your behalf and in your best wishes? Check back in Issue 9 - What can you do about it?
🧾 You may not have realised that Bitcoin fundamentally challenges yet another industry - that of Financial Accounting - long ruled by Double-Entry Bookkeeping that was the last innovation in this area! Listen and learn to Darin Feinstein explain how Bitcoin innovates accounting to the next level and you will likely see why some might not be so happy about this! Why and How Bitcoin Changes Accounting
＄ Saifedean evolves his thinking on stablecoins - indeed they are extremely useful and you can see why the Empire does not like Tether (USDT)! Learn from this discussion with Paolo Adoino, CTO of Bitfinex and Tether - reminds me of similar discussion re how and why people are today using stablecoins and Bitcoin in Ukraine for (resp) transactions and savings. Fascinating to understand how much better Tether performed recently compared to the capailities of the traditional banks! Maybe good to understand and prepare before you need it?
🌍 Perhaps you have been taken in by the ESG narrative. If so, do listen to Guy reading I Finance the Current Thing by Allen Farrington - when money is political, everything is political... The original article is here if you prefer to read it yourself.
😱 You may have noticed that there is rather a lot of inflation these days (and certainly much more than the official numbers say). Bad as things are, it can certainly get much worse - and this has happened before in Europe. If you have forgotten, or never knew, start with When Money Dies - The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar, Germany.
One thing that I often do is consider Unpopular Opinions - no matter how much you think you know you can always be amazed at new insights that you had not seen yet! It is a good exercise to do - try it yourself - watch out for living in your own echo chamber!
Current affairs
Politicians are busy unleashing destruction on the economy while simultaneously distracting you with endless soap opera scenes playing at volume 11 on the mainstream media - supposedly in your name and with your support. This ought to give you pause for thought at least. Hint - Animal Farm, 1984 and Brave New World. If your eyes and mind are open you'll find more here: 🚀 Reading List and References
- George talks tongue in cheek but seems to nail it - here
- Chris Martensen explains: Why Economic Collapse is Inevitable
- Neil points out yet more madness imposed by politicians in Europe - here and here!
- And then this... How much madder can it get?
- Did you ever play Monopoly? Now you can do it in real life! Joe explains
- Ivor's 🚀 most important interview ever - important call to action at the end
- Jordan is pretty clear how he feels about his Twitter Ban
- If you still don't see it - George Carlin explained it clearly back in 2013
That's it!
No one can be told what The Matrix is.
You have to see it for yourself.
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You can also email me at: LetterFrom@rogerprice.me
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