K‮ly‬e @khird@qoto.org

@casualwp

> ... using it commonly as a medium of exchange is pretty important. It’s just that even from that perspective I don’t quite get the argument.

It's the same argument, really, because loans are some of the most economically important exchanges in terms of dollar value. Bitcoin might operate in certain niches (and to be fair to @Aurelius_17_6_313, I don't think it's "failed" yet - the experiment is ongoing) but the fact that it is deflating is a good reason not to expect it to be useful in the rest of the economy.

> I’m not entirely convinced that
> i) interest rates in a free market won’t converge to where people are willing to lend anyway

Interest rates converge to where people are willing to lend *and borrow*. The upper limit for the borrower (appreciation of the business) has to be greater than the lower limit for the lender (appreciation of the currency) for such a point to exist. Very little of the economy is at that point wrt Bitcoin.

> ii) making a startup do better than deflation when currency is deflationary is significantly harder than making it do better than inflation in the current world.

These mean slightly different things. "Doing better than inflation" means keeping your *real* growth above zero; "doing better than deflation" means keeping your *denominated* growth above zero. The degree to which the one is harder than the other corresponds to the degree to which real growth outstrips denominated growth; i.e. the rate of deflation. Whether that's "significant" is a judgement call, although with Bitcoin deflation as high as it's been this winter, I don't really think it's reasonable to conclude otherwise.

@Aurelius_17_6_313

> must be used commonly as a medium of exchange

That's kind of the point of a currency though, so it's a reasonable assumption that's the goal of something that purports to be a crypto-currency. If bitcoin fans called it a crypto-asset or something instead and stopped trying to push it as an alternative to fiat currency, people would probably stop pointing out why it sucks in that role.

@casualwp

The argument is that a deflating currency discourages investment if loans are denominated in it. Only investments that appreciate faster than the currency make financial sense. So the economy suffers because value-generating enterprises can't get startup capital if the bankers would rather sit on the money than lend it out.

@homeomnis I've since played with it a bit more, mainly on the first level as there seems to be much more to do there. I use Pale Moon, a Firefox derivative, and the sound works but occasionally crackles.

It might be nice to offer a right-click that places the planet on an orbit with the same perihelion and apihelion as the left click, but oriented so it lies in the plane of the screen. I've been able to achieve this a couple times by placing two that orbit at right angles and getting them to interact so one is flung in an oblique direction, but it's difficult to do so with any precision. Having all three dimensions available opens up more possibilities to explore the physics.

I believe I've noticed one bug. Orbital radius and planetary surface radius seem to get out of sync, so under some conditions the smaller body appears to "pop through" the larger body. This most frequently occurs in binary star systems or when a planet has a moon. I *think* what might be happening is that the planet is drawn larger as it approaches the screen, but perspective isn't accounted for when plotting the coordinates of any moons orbiting it, so the apparent orbital radius stays fixed.

@ianmacd

Assuming the crossposter and the instance have the same blacklist, QOTO is blocked on their end. You'll see us under "Servidores banidos" at the bottom of https://masto.donte.com.br/about/more

@freemo

@biomedmax Alchemy posited that one metal could be turned into another. Chemists then discovered that the metals were distinct elements which precluded this transmutation, but nuclear reactions were later discovered in which one metal did become another.

@homeomnis I played with this a bit today. As far as I can tell, there are three levels:
Spheres orbiting a white sphere
Disks orbiting a black sphere
Hemispheres orbiting a coloured sphere

Each appears to have slightly different collision mechanics, but the only one I really understand is the first level. More info would be welcome.

A couple questions for you:
What is the camera fixed to? It doesn't appear to be either the barycentre or the largest sphere - the main star wobbles relative to the view, but there is a discontinuity when you build up a star that overtakes the main one in size.
Is it possible to adjust the initial conditions of the planets placed by clicking? They appear to have zero velocity in the x and y directions, and a small velocity coming out of the screen.

@freemo I don't think the earth needs to be curved to have that effect though - even on a plane, if you have a thin layer of less-dense air along the ground, the ray from any distant point on the surface to your eye will originate at a shallow (nearly horizontal) angle, then be refracted upward to strike your eye at a steeper angle. So the horizon will appear depressed, because a ray originating at a point on the horizon strikes your eye along a line which intersects the ground at a point nearer to you than the true direction of the horizon. The ship, on the other hand, sits mostly above the density gradient, so rays originating from it travel a more or less straight path and strike your eye from an angle above the apparent horizon.

I see that #QOTO now has 14,000 users! Thanks to everyone who's decided to become a part of our community :-)

Which of these is the past tense of the verb "shine", as you would use it in your variety of English? If you would use different forms for the past tense and the past participle, spoken and written communication, or formal and informal contexts, please leave a comment.

@freemo

To be even more pedantic, an exception also occurs north of the Arctic Circle during polar night, when there are no shadows cast by the sun ;)

But it has snow, the sun is shining, and the caption says Lake Michigan, so I'm pretty sure it's just the calving of an ice sheet playing backwards.

@datatitian

@freemo

You can see a the shadows of various buildings at different points, moving *counterclockwise* across the screen. Shadows move in a clockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere.

This, by the way, is how we came up with "clockwise" - shadows moving in that direction meant that sundials have to be laid out in that direction, and the design of clocks derived from that of sundials.

@datatitian

@FailForward The guy said they can go over a million cycles before failing. That's kind of surprising and I wish he'd explained more - both about how they achieve that, knowing how many plastic tabs on things I've broken, and how they measure it (what's the probability that any individual specimen fails at half a million? a thousand?). Knowing more about the failure modes is essential to being able to use these things safely.

@valleyforge Yep, that looks a lot nicer than my Printrbot Simple V1. I'd still want to do a lot of test prints to gain confidence in the print quality though.

@valleyforge I don't doubt that they *can* work if printed on a sufficiently reliable and precise machine! But my printer is neither of those, so I'd be buying the finished print from someone else - which kind of defeats the purpose.

@valleyforge as someone who's spent the last couple days dealing with my 3D prints delaminating, collapsing, and warping, the idea of firing a 3D printed gun is terrifying. I would be amazed if it didn't come apart and at least break a finger or embed a bunch of plastic fragments into my hand.

@clickwithtina

In case you misunderstood:
> If the whole point of your posts is to advertise, though, you'll likely fall under our rule

Your posts [here](https://qoto.org/@clickwithtina/105686615346279630) and [here](https://qoto.org/@clickwithtina/105686489014976973) are *exactly* what I described. The only reason you're not banned is that you've previously been responsive to the moderators, so you're getting a second chance in hopes that you'll amend your behaviour and be part of QOTO.

I have, however, silenced your account to prevent you from causing further annoyance to users on QOTO and the wider Fediverse, who have complained of your conduct. This means that none of your posts will be published on the main timeline, although they'll remain visible if anyone clicks through to your profile. If you persist in trying to advertise, I or another mod will remove your account entirely. If you want your account unsilenced, we'll need your word that you'll abide by QOTO's [rules](https://qoto.org/about/more#rules).

@freemo @arteteco @Sphinx