Polkadot is complicated as hell! This 24-tweet thread is a beginner's guide to @Polkadot $DOT and @KusamaNetwork $KSM in simple English.

What is Polkadot? Kusama? Parachains? Crowdloan and Parachain slot auction?

Comment with other questions and share if you learn something ⤵️

What is Polkadot?

@Polkadot is a platform on which blockchain networks are built and connected into one unified network. These connected chains, called parachains, form a living organism of networks all in sync and secure. This forms the foundation on which Web3 will be built.

Dr. Gavin Wood, @gavofyork, founded @Polkadot after inventing the Ethereum Virtual Machine and the Solidity programming language for #Ethereum as the co-founder and CTO. Ethereum wasn't going to scale, and thus, Polkadot was born in 2017.

Blockchains built for Polkadot use a dev framework called Substrate (@substrate_io), the easiest and most advanced blockchain-building framework for coders.

Think of it as drag-and-drop blockchain consensus, or even easier, like Music EQ with dials up & down on certain features.

Ethereum is a one-size-fits-all chain. This doesn't work at scale.

Dev teams use @Polkadot's Substrate framework to build custom chains for a specific use/vertical, such as @AcalaNetwork for DeFi, @PhalaNetwork for Privacy, @chainlink for Oracles, or @hydra_dx for liquidity.

People are asking for more pirate bay stories. Sure. I have a few... Thousands.
Do you know that tpb once hijacked North Koreas Internet?

Someone managed to find a broken router setup which managed to make it possible to pretend to be north Korea, in a more central routing location than actual north Korea. To make it look real even the traffic was slowed down to look like a satellite connection.

Took days before people figured it out. It was quite fun, unfortunately it meant that people in North Korea had issues getting online. But I think their sacrifice was worth the lulz.

Tpb also did one of the first (maybe the first) crowd funding campaign. What did we try to finance? New servers? No, we tried buying a country called Sealand. I remember I was laughing when the Prince of Sealand got invited to Larry King because of it.

On a side note, a weird American dude contacted me when this happened, he liked that we had weird ideas and wanted our help to build Internet in a corrupt African nation, which he had traded guns for a lot of rights.. Like owned their infrastructure. Forward thinking dude.

Just gonna leave this here. When we released the Alternative Influence Network report (@beccalew is the author), many were criticial of the humble recommendation that social media companies should review accounts as they gained popularity.

Becca wrote, “In a media environment consisting of networked influencers, YouTube must respond with policies that account for influence and amplification, as well as social networks.” This recommendation was simple, clear, and I told every company of the implications.

I wonder if we would be in this situation today if some of the more prominent disinformation voices had supported this recommendation, instead of saying that deplatforming threatened free speech.

Too busy trying to spot a bot maybe? Too worried about declining data stockpiles?

It’d abhorrent to have been arguing for simple policy fixes for years and only have support for them when hell touches down for the white middle class. BIPOC and women have been organizing for decades to get policies enforced for community safety online.

Instead of learning their work and policy recommendations and doing everything we can as researchers to help get these shared concerns on the table, I see white men rebranding as “disinformation,” “extremism,” and “conspiracy” experts.

It’s bumming me out.

@BillyBostickson @Rossana38510044 @ydeigin @MonaRahalkar @BahulikarRahul Excellently written article
Nicholson Baker
https://t.co/IZWOjdYeGL
https://t.co/0jeie0jIHO

Worth its long length, although the conclusion is muted, for acceptability I imagine.

@Rossana38510044 @ydeigin @MonaRahalkar @BahulikarRahul Original x Rewritten

@Rossana38510044 @ydeigin @MonaRahalkar @BahulikarRahul @nicholsonbaker8

Some takes out of this master piece. Head been spinning for some time.

Implications!

@Rossana38510044 @ydeigin @MonaRahalkar @BahulikarRahul @nicholsonbaker8 1- It was Fauxi & his moneytrail from the beginning:

@Rossana38510044 @ydeigin @MonaRahalkar @BahulikarRahul @nicholsonbaker8 The Wuhan Lab&Leak "coincidence" argument leads to the other Lab&Leak "coincidence" argument:

https://t.co/LjpdlHa0C7 is getting a good face-lift.
Samples now have variant tables with annotation on their impact to the gene.
There is also an IGV integration. You need IGV installed locally but the Start|Jump links will open up you BAM file in IGV.

You must have IGV open and then click the start link.
The sample's BAM will show up for viewing in IGV.
Once open, you can use the jump link to move swiftly around to each variant. This is a variant in THCAS.

You can jump to other variants in the same gene. In this case we have one non-synonymous variant in phase with a synonymous variant in THCAS.

Cannabinoid synthase genes are cute but some folks can answer those questions with HPLC.
How about flowering genes?

This sample has a disruptive in frame deletion on a late flowering gene. And it's very rare in the population.

Looks to be heterozygous....
But its never this simple in cannabis.

Let's look at what other damaging variations it has.

Out of all the technological hacks I've used to better the quality of my life, the single most painful yet effective way to increase wellbeing, throw people out of your life who do not align with your values.

Don't wait; the soon, the better.

I'm not talking about disagreements; I'm talking about fundamentally how we treat each other when we are communicating & solving problems.

This means freedom to express all your feelings, not just some. Especially the ones you're afraid of sharing because of shame or confusion.

Yet, while my skill for expressing myself in person, online and onstage has increased exponentially over the past decade, my ability to not be isolated by these skills has continued to dwindle.

The irony of maturation.

On the one hand, to communicate effectively, you need a command of the language, a sense of self, and autonomy over interconnected reality. Oddly enough, the exact opposite skills need to be utilized to be understood.

In the past year, I have had two different scenarios with people I respect; both ended in months, the other in a day.
Neither relationship is gone, I hope, but the ground in which those relationships were changing, partnerships, agreements, deepening of commitment have vanished

sunshine artinya

Selanjutnya, Nusa Tenggara Barat, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Kalimantan Tengah, Kalimantan Utara, Kalimantan Timur, Kalimantan Selatan, Sulawesi Utara, Sulawesi Tengah, Sulawesi Selatan, Sulawesi Tenggara, Maluku Utara, Papua Barat, dan Papua.

Hardware requirements for Windows Vista should not be taken lightly. In a controversial move to garner positive reviews, Microsoft sent hundreds of bloggers (not including CNET) free copies of Windows Vista Ultimate; Microsoft did not send boxed copies, rather the software giant

sent top-of-the-line Acer Ferrari laptops with the operating system preinstalled. So even Microsoft seems to admit that the best performance is only available on top-of-the-line machines manufactured within the last year or so.

That said, many people will still want to upgrade

their current Windows XP SP2. This will keep all your current data and applications, importing them directly into the new operating system. To see which edition(s) of Windows Vista your current computer can handle, visit the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to find specific hardware

A short thread on tips for using Google Forms.

Firstly, everything I have learned about Google Forms was via @missdcox amazing YouTube tutorials. All the ways we use Google Forms are based on these videos. I would start by watching these:

We design Google Forms collaboratively across the department. These are created on the department Google Drive. The use of admin questions at the start of a Google Form enables this.

Teachers can access their class responses via the drive. All responses can be downloaded onto a Google Sheet and then filtered according to class/teacher/question.

We primarily use Google Forms for MCQs. At KS3, these are set weekly as the final task for students to complete. Most questions are based off knowledge students will have looked at in that week.

I think the most common question I get asked is what exactly is a Technical Experience Designer? When we say Experience we’re referring to UX or User Experience, so let’s break it down. 1/8

When we talk about experience design, the majority of the time we are talking about UI. Examples are things like the HUD, or the settings screen. However this discipline also extends beyond UI into things like user flows, first time boot ups, and such. 2/8

To make a UI in a game the following people typically are involved: Experience Designers, Technical Experience Designers, Programmers, and UI Artists. 3/8

An Experience Designer is likely the one you’re most familiar with. They create wireframes and design documentation for features. They also may work closely with groups like user experience research, data specialists, and various feature owners. 4/8

Okay but what exactly is a Technical Experience Designer then? Well they take those wireframes and design documentation and create it in game. They work with the Experience Designer and try to implement the most performant and best feeling version possible. 5/8

The announcement of a new Perfect Dark has reminded me of a good story from my time at ATI. It was 2005 and I was in the 3D Application Research Group. The team which included @shaderwrangler @ChrisOat @mirror2mask @pixelmaven was working on the "Ruby: The Assassin" demo for

the launch of the ATI X1800. The ATI X1800 was significantly delayed (that's a great story too about a crazy hardware bug, but someone else who knows the details better should tell that one) and Microsoft was about to show the Xbox 360 for the first time at E3 2005. They were

planning to show Perfect Dark Zero, but apparently it was delayed. ATI had made the Xenos GPU for the X360 and Microsoft got wind of the new Ruby demo. It was a female character who vaguely resembled Joanna Dark so they asked us if we could port our demo to run on the Xbox 360

in time for E3. If memory serves, E3 was about three weeks away, which was insane. Our managers told us MS were offering each of us on the team $5,000 each if we were able to pull it off. This was a rare kind of incentive to get for us and I was really excited.

Anyway, we got pre-release dev kits which were actually Mac Pros with Radeon 9600 I believe. The first thing we had to do was get it all to build and run. The hard part there was dealing with PPC/endianess issues, but fortunately we had a lot of experience with that from porting

I’ve been loosely following the @CRTCeng Third Party Internet Access (TPIA) Tariff. It’s been of interest to me as I had recently switched to a TPIA provider to save some money. A few of weeks ago I had noticed my providers website listed my plan but with 100Mbps upload. 1/

This has now started livestreaming, you can watch it here https://t.co/fGV4sx7OfD

Russia will not be participating as they've refused to take part in the hearing. Definitely the act of an innocent party.

Jacques Maire starts by explaining the situation they're investigating, the poisoning of Navalny with Novichok, and introduces the work of Bellingcat, as seen here

Jacques Maire also refers to the call between Navalny and an FSB officer who detailed the operation

Jacques Maire says no-one from the Russian delegation will attend, and will miss the opportunity to respond to the allegations being put today. The Russian authorities claims the poisoning happened either in the aircraft or the Berlin hospital.

A thread on windows facts you actually don't know.

Two different types of windows operating system:
1. Windows -> Old windows that doesn't exist anymore.
2. Windows NT -> The version that is used nowadays in modern microsoft computers.

1/n

Windows : It was old version of windows operating system. It was used in Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME and was a ancestor of the old 16 bit versions of windows.

More 👇

2/n

Windows NT: It is the never/modern version of Windows, It is used in every Windows version avaiable today. It was Firstly used in Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Windows NT comes with more recent/modern design that microsoft intiated in the early 1990s Windows.

More 👇

3/n

Windows NT was designed as 32 bit processors capable. It had some new features like: Virtual memory, Multithreading and multiprocessor support.

In other words, Windows NT was/is a Modern Operating system.

4/n

Both(Windows and Windows NT) operating systems were made compatible of Win32 API, so that applications running on Windows can also run on Windows NT.

In 2001, Microsoft finally decided to eliminate the Windows product and offer only NT based systems.

5/n

I hate to correct @elonmusk, but his assertion that it takes 20 years to replace the vehicle fleet is wrong. This thread tries to describe why. 1/

His 20 year replacement timeline is based in the normal rate of car manufacturing/car retirering and total global fleet size. Both of these will be disrupted 2/

Whilst I don't expect total car manufacturing rate to increase much, with the introduction of cheap autonomous taxis networks, the number of cars being retired will increase very fast especially with people living with urban settings where these networks will become ubiquitous 3/

And in the more rural / commuter belt 2 car families will become 1 autonomous car families.
This will drasticaly decrease the total size of the global car fleet as the rate of cars retirering will be at least twice the size of the cars being retired 4/

As time progresses, legislation increasing taxes on polluting cars (ICE) and restrictions on where those cars can travel to will make them increasingly stranded/decreasing value assets on a household and further increase the retirering rate of ICE vehicles 5/

have you ever:
- struggled to find junior roles with game studios?
- wondered how to find contract roles?
- been a contractor, been disallowed from attending a holiday party and not known why?

let's talk about the weird world of contract labor in the US games industry! 🧵

first, i want to give context for why the system works this way so that you aren't just reading this thread going "WHY?"

in 2000, Microsoft lost a lawsuit with contractors. you can read more about it here. this is where "permatemp" comes from.

that lawsuit formed the backbone of "permatemp" contractor law in the US. the end result was that companies who need a lot of contract labor (i.e. game studios!) distance themselves from the process of hiring contractors, and it's largely done via third party shell companies.

i want to disclaim a little bit that by creating this thread, i'm not arguing that the contract labor process is ideal or fair or pro-worker. i have been a contractor. it had pros... and serious cons. i am simply describing the system as it works; do with this info as you will.

other disclaimer that obviously, i am not a lawyer, and please don't interpret any of this as "100% true in all situations." this info is based on my experience contracting, helping hire/convert contractors as a manager, and having many friends who have been through this process.

Please read.

Antis + akgaes have been mass creating bot accs recently to trend hashtags that look like they support J/M, but they're spreading misinformation to defame him + make him aware of h@te etc.

This is a thread to report them.

Dm me if you find any.
This is so scary.

@Ayjchan @MoNscience @nicholsonbaker8 Is this not "willfully bioengineering"?
No one's implying "for nefarious purpose"

Maybe I made it up myself or copied it from an scam site?

Check out the authors:
https://t.co/Llb6NKUEPc

@MoNscience @nicholsonbaker8

@MoNscience @nicholsonbaker8 That *these* "researchers were willfully involved with bioengineering SARS-CoV-2" is published demonstrated fact.