What's kraken, yo?

[DepricatedZero]

Hello lovelies! Been a while!

I have been absolutely shit at keeping up here. I'm sorry. I still love you all and you hold a deep place in my heart.

I just realized this isn't blocked on the work firewall...so while I'm on break...

...lets play catch up! I haven't been around in a while. I've dropped in now and then and said hi to a few people, but if you remember me - catch me up on the last 3ish years of your life. And if you don't remember me, or you're new here since I kinda dropped off the face of the board, join in and let me learn about you this way!

It can be hard to answer that off the cuff, so I'll drop in a questionnaire format. Don't feel obliged to use it, ramble all you like, this is just some of the stuff I'm interested in about you lot.

What is the most important thing you've learned in the last 3 years? What's the story about how you learned this, or learned how important it is?

What has been your biggest passion for the last 3 years, what has driven you to where you are today?

Did you achieve any goals you'd set for yourself in that time? Are you close to achieving a goal? What is it? Why is it important to you?

How have your views changed - regarding religion, theism, philosophy, the world at large - from 3 years ago?

Single best moment of the last 3 years?

I'll answer for all of you in a reply.

ALSO - Does anyone know how I can get ahold of FatStupidAmerican? I heard some upsetting news about him and I'd like to reach out. I've tried the avenues I know and had no success.

 

[DepricatedZero]

I'm fairly certain I iterated over a lot of this at some point in the fairly recent past...maybe a yearish or so ago.

So I dropped off the face of LOR when I quit working 3rd shift Tech Support. I usually came here during work hours, because overnight was boring as hell and I had massive amounts of downtime. I moved on from that job into my career as a software developer, and have rarely had downtime to just browse the interwebs since. When I have dropped in, it's been at home, and there I'm rarely taking the time to post on BBS.

So what have I been up to?

I got into Bitcoin Mining in 2013, built this:

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Made enough money to pay for the rig (that's 4 flagship Radeon 9 Series cards), some bills, and then got out of the market in March 2014 - just when the price of BTC dropped under $700. Sold all my coin and never went back - and it's now down to about $400 so, I got out at the right time.

Around the same time as that I started treating a sleep disorder. FSA had warned me when I started working 3rd shift tech support that it would wreak hell on my body, and he wasn't wrong. I wish I had listened. In the time I worked that job I went from ~250lbs to well over 500lbs by October 2013. Now quitting smoking compounded that, I think, but the other factors that drove it down the spiral - Vitamin D deficiency and Depression - came from working 3rd shift.

so I started treating my apnea and addressing the other factors. The depression is gone, I fixed my Vitamin D deficiency, and I've lost over 200lbs since. I'm down to 320, and kind of maintaining at that. It's not my goal or an ideal weight, but it's better than it was. I'm still chugging along. If you browse imgur at all you may have seen me on the front page a few times with my weight loss progress pic posts. I'll link that image at the bottom of this post.

So getting my weight down wasn't magic. There was a lot of work that went in to it. A lot of changes to the way I live and my hobbies. I reprioritized things. I started going camping regularly, and attending live music shows again - I started living, doing things I never did in my 20s that I really should have been doing.

I spent my 20s in my head - learning who I am ethically and understanding my motivations, but ultimately never doing anything. I wanted to affect change, but all I accomplished was knowing what I wanted.

Now I know what I want, and I'm on the way to making it happen. Unfortunately, that's part of why I haven't been around. When I reprioritized, internet communities are lower on the list than, say, music.

My friend Sean and I have been jamming together for years. In November, some friends of mine encouraged me to make things real with him. We started to earnestly search for other musicians to fill out our band. In December, we found our drummer - Jordan - and started writing. It's been amazing since. We dedicated then to spend 8 weeks writing a song a week, learn a couple covers, and then start playing out by June.

2 weeks ago we played our first gig. This Saturday night we have another one coming up. I'm crazily excited and can't wait. More in the future. We've got a show in Rochester in November, too (I'm from Cincinnati).

I've also joined the Satanic Temple. It's interesting, because religion has always been relevant to me, and I've always struggled with the idea that I LIKE the community, structure, and support that religion provides - just not the dogma. As an atheistic religion, it's spot on - and the tenets are the same ethics I had come to through my own introspection and discussions here. Hell I even like the Catholic aesthetic, perhaps because I was raised in a Catholic household.

So that's me, the fun stuff in my life. There've been women I've fallen for, been hurt by, but that's all fleeting. I won't dredge on about that. There's one who got away years ago, and she ruined me for other women, I think.

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[he_who_is_nobody]

What is the most important thing you've learned in the last 3 years? What's the story about how you learned this, or learned how important it is?

I am the type of person that believes you should learn something new everyday. Out of most of that, I do not think any of it is that much more important than the other.

What has been your biggest passion for the last 3 years, what has driven you to where you are today?

Being an archaeologist and working on fossils.

Did you achieve any goals you'd set for yourself in that time? Are you close to achieving a goal? What is it? Why is it important to you?

I have two (kind of mutually exclusive) goals. I have not achieved either one of them.

How have your views changed - regarding religion, theism, philosophy, the world at large - from 3 years ago?

Well, according to some philosophically minded atheists, I am actually not an atheist.

Single best moment of the last 3 years?

Marriage.

I got into Bitcoin Mining in 2013, built this:

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Made enough money to pay for the rig (that's 4 flagship Radeon 9 Series cards), some bills, and then got out of the market in March 2014 - just when the price of BTC dropped under $700. Sold all my coin and never went back - and it's now down to about $400 so, I got out at the right time.

Would you mind talking about Bitcoin. I think I have a general idea.

 

[Collecemall]

I read a bit about mining bitcoin a few months ago. It seems that now it's near impossible for the average person to make it profitable. Between the large scale equipment purchases and electricity to run it you end up going in the hole. I too would like to hear more about how you did it etc. seems like it might be an interesting tale.

 

[Dustnite]

What is the most important thing you've learned in the last 3 years? What's the story about how you learned this, or learned how important it is?

I've specialized in network security and gotten deep into firewall land. I also learned how to do arduino, 3D printing, working a laser cutter, and I started a woodworking shop at my house. I started a couple side businesses, one of which failed but the other one is bringing in steady income on top of my primary employment. I learned it like I learned IT, read a lot of books and just took the plunge.

What has been your biggest passion for the last 3 years, what has driven you to where you are today?

Getting rid of debt... The divorce fucked me pretty good and I'm finally getting out from under it after 10 years. Hopefully, I can stop renting soon.

Did you achieve any goals you'd set for yourself in that time? Are you close to achieving a goal? What is it? Why is it important to you?

I made the leap out of MSP IT into corporate and I'm thriving, so that's nice. Life is definitely a lot easier when you're not traveling constantly... My goal is to get my CCIE R&S by the end of this year and keep growing my skill set.

How have your views changed - regarding religion, theism, philosophy, the world at large - from 3 years ago?

For religion and theism, I've grown more confident in my argumentation. I've definitely noticed that a lot of theists repeat the same bad arguments over and over again so not much can change when that happens. I was traveling all around the world up until 2 years ago, so I've noticed how batshit insane the US has become and it's not really

Single best moment of the last 3 years?

Managed to catch 2 crackers on my honeypot server this year. Hope they enjoy their ransomware

ALSO - Does anyone know how I can get ahold of FatStupidAmerican? I heard some upsetting news about him and I'd like to reach out. I've tried the avenues I know and had no success.

Last time I talked to him, he had become quadriplegic due to a car accident (or some type of accident at work). He hasn't floated into chat in awhile. I had his phone number, but it's not working anymore.

sitting right with me. I'm still thinking of moving out of the country...



PS. Are you still working on the LoR show or is that dead on arrival?

 

[DepricatedZero]

I have been so caught up with the band and stuff around that that I completely forgot about everything else, including the LoR show. That can definitely still happen, but I need to figure some of the stuff out for it - not the least of which is time.

 

[DepricatedZero]

Well, according to some philosophically minded atheists, I am actually not an atheist.

Care to elaborate? I've been accused of not being an atheist since I became religious - with insistence that they're mutually exclusive.

Single best moment of the last 3 years?

Marriage.

WOOT WOOT That's great news!

Would you mind talking about Bitcoin. I think I have a general idea.

Surely. Any specific questions you have?

I'll talk about my experience with it. I'll start with addressing...

I read a bit about mining bitcoin a few months ago. It seems that now it's near impossible for the average person to make it profitable. Between the large scale equipment purchases and electricity to run it you end up going in the hole. I too would like to hear more about how you did it etc. seems like it might be an interesting tale.

Kinda true.
My former roommate and I went in on it together. We had a couple factors in our favor: he had just gotten $15,000 to do what he wanted with (he opted to try Bitcoin Mining with some, and convinced me to go half in on a rig), was unemployed (so he was able to do a lot of the grunt market work), and I'm a programmer.

I'd say that for the average person, who can't sink $4000 into it right out the gate, and who lacks the time and ability that he and I had at our disposal - it would be near impossible to make a profit.

Now the trick we used was to not actually mine Bitcoin itself. Rather, we mined other cryptocurrencies - primarily Dogecoin. The reason is this: Bitcoin mining relies on the number of calculations per second your computer can do, called your hashrate. There's specialized hardware, called an ASIC, that's tuned to the SHA-256 encryption that Bitcoin is based on. ASICs perform extraordinarily well for Bitcoin and Lightcoin, but fall off when competing against GPUs on other types of encryption (disclaimer: this may well have changed in the 3 years since I did this research). GPUs (video cards) are the best for mining secondary cryptocurrency (Scrypt) like Dogecoin or Coinye.

In that regard, there are different things to consider. nVidia cards aren't geared for doing high volume calculations, but Radeon cards are. Radeon's architecture relies on a high number of shaders, each capable of doing independent calculations - so Radeon cards are ideal for Scrypt Mining. The higher tier and series card, generally the more shaders it possesses and the better it functions for the purpose of mining.

So we got 4 of the R9 290 cards the day they came out, and built the mining rig.

My roommate at the time did a lot of research into the markets, while I researched the technology. We determined to mine Dogecoin, which we would then trade for Lightcoin, which we'd trade for Bitcoin, then sell for cash. I wrote monitoring software that would watch the markets for little tells we knew to watch for that indicated a spike or drop in value, and we'd buy/sell accordingly. So while on the one hand we would mine constantly, on the other we were also trading and riding the market.

So without the resources and knowledge we had to dump in to the project, we would not have made the money we did. For my roommate it practically became his job - he spent most of his days playing guitar and trading, and we occasionally sold tips and access to our monitoring tool.

 

[DepricatedZero]

I also learned how to do arduino, 3D printing, working a laser cutter, and I started a woodworking shop at my house.

Dude that is cool as fuck. Got anything you want to show off? I've been thinking of projects for an arduino or pi, and my (new) roommate and I discussed going in on a 3D printer and starting up a 3D printing business. We have a really solid idea, just need the capital to get it off the ground (but all mine is currently being poured into my band).

What has been your biggest passion for the last 3 years, what has driven you to where you are today?

Getting rid of debt... The divorce fucked me pretty good and I'm finally getting out from under it after 10 years. Hopefully, I can stop renting soon.

I just started the same. My credit is still a little fucked from my ex 10 years ago, but now it's mostly student loans. Working on that too...

Did you achieve any goals you'd set for yourself in that time? Are you close to achieving a goal? What is it? Why is it important to you?

I made the leap out of MSP IT into corporate and I'm thriving, so that's nice. Life is definitely a lot easier when you're not traveling constantly... My goal is to get my CCIE R&S by the end of this year and keep growing my skill set.

What's MSP IT?

How have your views changed - regarding religion, theism, philosophy, the world at large - from 3 years ago?

For religion and theism, I've grown more confident in my argumentation. I've definitely noticed that a lot of theists repeat the same bad arguments over and over again so not much can change when that happens. I was traveling all around the world up until 2 years ago, so I've noticed how batshit insane the US has become and it's not really sitting right with me. I'm still thinking of moving out of the country...

I've considered the same. I actually had a job offer in Oslo that I turned down about 3 years ago, because fear of moving so far...now? I'd jump on it.

It's also what fueled my decision to join TST - as the batshit insane jingos move to take over Murica, it's ever more and more important that we fight back against their antics.

Single best moment of the last 3 years?

Managed to catch 2 crackers on my honeypot server this year. Hope they enjoy their ransomware

That's a win!

ALSO - Does anyone know how I can get ahold of FatStupidAmerican? I heard some upsetting news about him and I'd like to reach out. I've tried the avenues I know and had no success.

Last time I talked to him, he had become quadriplegic due to a car accident (or some type of accident at work). He hasn't floated into chat in awhile. I had his phone number, but it's not working anymore.

That's the upsetting news I'd heard. An accident in his martial arts class left him paralyzed. I'd love to reach out and talk to him, see how he's doing. He was so, so, so very physically active, it hurts to think about him losing that. Like Stephen Hawking, who was an amazing athlete.

 

[he_who_is_nobody]

Well, according to some philosophically minded atheists, I am actually not an atheist.

Care to elaborate?

If you want a complete picture, you can watch this video. However, in short, having a lack of a belief in deities is not philosophical atheism. The dictionary definition of one that does not believe in a deity is atheism. The lack of belief view is referred to as non-theism (or lack-theism).

I've been accused of not being an atheist since I became religious - with insistence that they're mutually exclusive.

Whoever is telling you that does not know what they are talking about. One can be religious and lack belief in deities. One can also believe in a deity and not have a religion. One does not depend on the other. Buddhists and deists are examples of both.

 

[Dustnite]

MSP IT refers to managed service providers. I used to manage environments for schools and businesses that didn't want to handle their own environments.

 

[Prolescum]

Hey there, DZ. Glad to see you're doing well. Send me a PM if you wanna chat about a podcast.

 

[Laurens]

Hello lovelies! Been a while!

I have been absolutely shit at keeping up here. I'm sorry. I still love you all and you hold a deep place in my heart.

I just realized this isn't blocked on the work firewall...so while I'm on break...

...lets play catch up! I haven't been around in a while. I've dropped in now and then and said hi to a few people, but if you remember me - catch me up on the last 3ish years of your life. And if you don't remember me, or you're new here since I kinda dropped off the face of the board, join in and let me learn about you this way!

It can be hard to answer that off the cuff, so I'll drop in a questionnaire format. Don't feel obliged to use it, ramble all you like, this is just some of the stuff I'm interested in about you lot.

What is the most important thing you've learned in the last 3 years? What's the story about how you learned this, or learned how important it is?

What has been your biggest passion for the last 3 years, what has driven you to where you are today?

Did you achieve any goals you'd set for yourself in that time? Are you close to achieving a goal? What is it? Why is it important to you?

How have your views changed - regarding religion, theism, philosophy, the world at large - from 3 years ago?

Single best moment of the last 3 years?

I'll answer for all of you in a reply.

ALSO - Does anyone know how I can get ahold of FatStupidAmerican? I heard some upsetting news about him and I'd like to reach out. I've tried the avenues I know and had no success.

The most important thing I've learned is probably a more healthy understanding of love and relationships. My early 20s were spent with some kind of semi religious ideal that love was some kind of saviour thing that would make me feel good all of the time. Needless to say this didn't translate into healthy meaningful relationships. I understand now that its more about a conscious decision to be with someone even if they fuck you off. That no one will make you feel good 100 percent of the time and it is ridiculous to expect that. This realisation came between the end of my last relationship and my current one. I certainly feel like I could have saved some heartache had I known this earlier.

My biggest passion has probably been my music. Other stuff comes and goes, but for me music is something I am always learning about and developing. I'm currently building a home recording setup and hoping to do good things in the future with my music.

I haven't really set many goals that relate to my passion, however I have set out to find secure employment a place of my own both of which I have achieved and am planning to upgrade. My musical aim always seems to be to learn and do awesome stuff which has already happened this year. I partake in a challenge to write and record an album in one month. I did one last year and it worked out well, however this year I excelled myself. I also learned a lot about recording and mixing etc in the process.

The whole religion and theism thing has generally dropped off my radar. I engage occasionally on these forums but no where near the extent that I used to. My views haven't changed, I'm still an atheist. I just no longer feel that it is an issue worth being overly passionate about. I think wealth inequality and climate change are far bigger issues that need talking about. I can't see that my philosophy has changed much over the years. I suppose I have become somewhat less politically apathetic.

Best moment? I'll be sappy and say meeting my girlfriend.

 

[Engelbert]

Hello lovelies! Been a while!

Hi there I'm engelbert! Thought I'd have a crack at a few of your questions.

It can be hard to answer that off the cuff, so I'll drop in a questionnaire format. Don't feel obliged to use it, ramble all you like, this is just some of the stuff I'm interested in about you lot.

What is the most important thing you've learned in the last 3 years? What's the story about how you learned this, or learned how important it is?

Really not got a clue... Learned a few things I suppose, but nothing that stands out as revelatory to me. Suppose the news is always new... so maybe the fact that Donald Trump might actually have a chance to become the next president is something pretty astounding that I've learned. Not sure how I feel about that whole deal. Overall, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't want to see him become the next president, but there are some redeeming qualities of the current campaign. It's been pretty entertaining and quite engrossing. His lack of political correctness and edgy approach have been challenging, perhaps refreshing and comical at times. Maybe some challenges to established politics could be positive. Politics can be so dull at times, yet this campaign has been far from dull. But I suppose some of his actual policies are frightening and he wouldn't receive my vote if I was an American.

What has been your biggest passion for the last 3 years, what has driven you to where you are today?

I don't know what my biggest passion has been... not felt very passionate these last 3 years. Maybe thinking about what to do with myself. Contemplation maybe is what I've been trying. Haven't succeeded though. Where I am today is no better than or different to where I was 3 years ago.

Did you achieve any goals you'd set for yourself in that time? Are you close to achieving a goal? What is it? Why is it important to you?

I don't think I did achieve any goals in the last 3 years. Maybe some small ones... I don't know. Certainly haven't achieved any of my bigger goals. I think one of my bigger goals for many years has been to try to work out what to do with my life... I'm unemployed. I haven't been able to work it out. I used to try quite hard to work things out, but I think when you fail enough, eventually efforts stagnate and whilst the goal might still exist, the efforts to achieve that goal can become a little minimal.

How have your views changed - regarding religion, theism, philosophy, the world at large - from 3 years ago?

My views on these subjects haven't changed a great deal for many years really, at least not in the fundamental sense. I used to be quite a strong atheist for quite a long time, but for several years now that's softened a little to agnosticism. My views have probably evolved a little over the last 3 years. You're always learning stuff, but broadly speaking with respect to belief, my views have been pretty similar for a long time. I think Deism is a possibility sometimes. Sometimes even theism. "I really don't know what's going on" would be my general position with regards to God. With regards to wider issues of philosophy and religion, I've certainly learnt new things and almost on a daily basis. It's an area that really interests me and continues to do so. Whilst a lot of people spend a lot of time arguing and thinking about the veracity of certain religious metaphysical claims, there are wider aspects to religion that I find equally interesting and valuable to consider. Religion as a part of our culture, our morality, our society, our politics is not to be dismissed in my view. Should we discard religion completely? Should we retain certain aspects of religion? Should we be thinking about new religions? Should we be thinking about new ways of living with ventures or constructs that are similar to religions? These types of questions and issues are always sloshing around my head, confusing me, making me wonder and often giving me dissonance.

Single best moment of the last 3 years?

Really don't know. Have barely done anything. Unemployed since April 2010. I guess that's 6 years exactly soon.