• Sailor Sega Saturn
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      24 days ago

      Unsigned integer means an integer that hasn’t been cryptographically signed by the chain of blocks right?

      The verdict quotes this exchange (page 163):

      Q: Just out of curiosity, do you know what unsigned means in that?

      A: I do. Basically it’s unsigned variable, it’s not an integer with–

      Q: With what?

      A: It’s larger. I’m not sure how – I mean, on the stand here, I’m not sure how I’d say it, but –

      Q: Take a wild guess.

      A: How I would describe it, I’m not quite sure. I know what it is.

      Q: Okay.

      A: I’m not terribly good when I’m trying to do things like this. Writing it down would be different.

      Q: Well, do you recall you mentioned that you had a book by Professor Stroustrup?

      A: I do.

      Q: You haven’t disclosed that book, but you have disclosed three other books about C++, so I want to take you to one of those. It’s {L1/199/1}, and could we go to page 47. Do you see that it explains that “unsigned” means that it cannot be negative?

      A: Yes, I do understand that. Would I have thought of saying it in such a simple way? No.

      • @froztbyte
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        24 days ago

        one of the things that I really love about this is that, while there are indeed some nuances you can get into (platforms/archs, number theory, internal representations, …), it’s one of the rare computerwords in english that you could viably reason about on first principles without knowing much and get a sortacorrect answer

        and yet

      • @zogwarg
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        724 days ago

        Unsigned integers are larger because… Because the containing variables don’t have a signature that crypto-statically constrains it to the lower set! (Yes that must be it)

        • @froztbyte
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          724 days ago

          “my computer’s so secure! it does mean I can only use 32-bit applications on this 64-bit cpu, but alas. all for security!”

          • @froztbyte
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            424 days ago

            (even typing that made me wince. I hope anyone who had to deal with 32->64 in any capacity some years ago doesn’t get hurt reading this)

  • David GerardOPMA
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    924 days ago

    it’s important to note, btw - and I didn’t know this until a couple of days ago - that Justice Mellor was an engineer before he went back to law school. Engineering degree from Cambridge. He is a technical guy and understood every tech detail in the trial. Can you imagine sitting through Craig Wright’s arrogant technobabble, knowing immediately what utter charlatanry this is and not being able to say so until the end.

    • @froztbyte
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      723 days ago

      wake up babe, new level of steelmanning just dropped

    • @froztbyte
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      525 days ago

      in advance of asking this I’ll cop to not actually having followed Wright’s insane arc in detail much the last few years on account of life yaks, but

      why the hell is he even trying? is there a big pile of seized bitcoins that he believes he can get access to if only he managed to dupe people?

      like I’m not trying to legitimate any views or valuations here, but it’s just so … wat

      • @V0ldek
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        1225 days ago

        From what I gathered it was about “since I invented blockchain now I own a percentage of every crypto project ever because intellectual property/patent law/vibes”.

        I think he was also selling something? So clout and publicity.

      • @gerikson
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        925 days ago

        I think he just started lying and then continued lying to cover up his previous lies. And he had a deep-pocketed backer in the form of Calvin Ayre.

          • @froztbyte
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            725 days ago

            I wonder if at any point anyone involved (no matter how tangentially) in this process ever went “uh… guys…” and got (metaphorically) defenestrated for trying to pull the eject handle

            • David GerardOPMA
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              725 days ago

              Stefan Matthews apparently sorta tried, but

  • @mountainriver
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    423 days ago

    Just curious, now that crypto seems to be nearing the end of its destructive bubble life, is their any good ideas on who or what (if group, not suggesting aliens) Satoshi Nakamoto is or were?

    • David GerardOPMA
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      523 days ago

      nope. a standard pile of guesses, no more evidence for any of them (except that Craig isn’t)

      • @gerikson
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        423 days ago

        <Scene from Spartacus>

        “I am not Natoshi Sakamoto!” <crowd takes up the phrase and repeats it>

        • @froztbyte
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          323 days ago

          “his name was Natoshi Paulmoto”

    • @froztbyte
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      323 days ago

      the len hypothesis is one of the most coherent one I’ve heard, I think. there is a certain weight behind it in the form of “and that’s why the original coins never got transacted”

      but even that entire is essentially unprovable barring a couple of extremely unlikely events happening (original drives of person still existing, the passwords being acquired from some deaddrop somewhere, etc etc)