The best Cryptocurrencies to mine with GPU/CPU right now

When Bitcoin started it was made so any average person could mine it on their home computer. Currently difficuly is too high but still there are many coins which can be only mined on CPU/GPU or that are at least still worth it.
Lets have a look on whats the best now.

CoinWarz

So ZEC and its forks ZCL ZEN are the best. Ethereum on second place. Worth noting that ETH soon will go into PoS mode so mining this might be historical soon.

Minergate

This guys in their auto app choose XMR for now for GPU and in CPU. Whats cool in latest app version is that you can withdrawal coins mined right from the app, dont need to get on website at all (need to register first HERE).

NiceHash

Their app auto chooses what to mine and currently its XMR algo.

What To Mine

Interestingly it says SUMO is the top coin for payment, then we have XMR (which SUMO is fork of) and then NiceHash.. Possibly people mine SUMO today for payments on those.

Summary

If you are very lazy go for MinerGate since they are on iMAC,Linux and Windows. If you are little less lazy and want better profits mine directly ZEC or use NiceHash but windows only or you have to point your miners ot them directly.
in CPU XMR Monero wins, no doubt in this.

How Do We Mourn In a Digital Age? 哀傷，在這新的世界？

This is a question that I have no answers. It's open for everyone to think about.
I came across this post today about our loss of a brilliant Steemian @lauralemons. I seemed to see this name but cannot recall exactly. I wasn't privileged enough to know her but obviously a lot of old Steemians know her so I can feel their grief.
As I didn't know her, this post isn't about Laura. Just that the post reminds me of my past experience of mourning a close relative of mine. A few years back, I lost a younger cousin of mine. She was only a little over thirty back then. Let's call her Angel.
Angel was the daughter of my mom's sister. She was a warm, caring and optimistic person with always a smile on her face. Even she was diagnosed with a troublesome disease at a very young age, her smile wasn't seemed to be shadowed by this saddened incident. She and I weren't in the same city, so we did not see each other often. Mostly once a year during the new year holidays. But we feel close when we see each other every time.
She was in the service industry for her entire career. She likes to interact with people I guess although these kind of jobs don't get you good salaries here. I have always admired her braveness as had this happened to me, I would have been very depressed to even lead a normal life. Later when I got married and later was blessed with a lovely baby boy, Angel was there to cheer for us and very happy to be his auntie. Angel did not get married probably due to her disease, so she shared her love to those kids in the family including mine.
One day I was told that Angel passed away and I was speechless and shocked. She was probably the first close relative of my generation to pass away. How could it be? how could it? She was so young and beautiful and caring and nice and everything... Why would God want to take her away? Just like that. Life disappeared overnight. Without a sign.
I didn't go to her funeral as my family thought we were so close. We weren't and we were. I did not blame them for not letting me know. So I might had cried for a few hours and was depressed for a few days but I got over it as we did not really have very deep attachment.
Three months later. I received a message from facebook. Today is Angel's birthday! Write a birthday wish on her timeline ... It was then I realize for the first time that people don't die on facebook. They can live as long as facebook shall live. I checked all the most recent messages on her page. Three months ago, there were a lot of messages expressing condolences. Some were even told by these mourning and got shocked. How advanced are we to learn others' death from internet messages...
As I checked Angel's photos of her fantastic life (yeah, quite a lot of places she had been to and a lot of cuisines she had eaten), I felt relieved to see her had a good run but at the same time I knew that facebook messages sometimes do not even come close to one's real life. I could only hope for the better.
I wrote a few words for her as well. Still a happy birthday to her although she had started another one. And said something like she will always be on our mind. I had no one to say to except facebook version of her.
I knew that at this time next year, facebook would notify me again. As no one will ever want to turn that page off. Angel will always be there. Always like that in her thirty's. She will not get old like we will. One day her nephew will grow to be his auntie's age...
In this digital age, we can all have a version of us online, on the blockchain maybe ... maybe even your entire life can be mostly recorded in the future ... If the technology is going to gather more and more information or even get an AI to mimic the dead, it will certainly make us dizzy and wonder what death means then....
Still, at the bottom of my heart, I know that she had left. No matter how many photos there are how many words she said there are... She was long gone. And I can imagine that even an AI can pretend to be her to some extreme standard, I can tell the difference.
The way we mourn our love ones' death is always the same. Never will it change. What changes is only the format. Deep down there is no other way for a human to mourn a human. If there is, we are not human any more.
Sorry, the blockchain does not have answer this time.

_{image - pixabay}
今天意外看到這篇文章，說的是一個令人悲傷的消息，一位資深的Steemian @lauralemons過世了。我對於這名字有模糊的印象，但應該沒有什麼交集或淵源，只是看到許多老用戶在悼念她，同感到悲傷而已。
這讓我想到，多年前我一個表妹的過世。表妹是一個開朗樂觀、永遠臉上帶著微笑的小女孩。在我心中，她永遠是這樣一個可愛的女孩，只是後來我已經看不到她變老了。
表妹長年在南部，偶而也到過台北工作過幾年，但我們通常很少機會見面。過年時回老家，親戚聚會是最可能的場合。她總是笑咪咪，開朗迎人，我從不曾在她臉上看過哀傷。但造化弄人，表妹在年紀很輕時就被診斷出一種不好對付的疾病，當時我們知道後都感到十分震驚，但她臉上的笑容卻似乎從不曾受到影響。媽媽偶爾會更新她治療的情況，但我總是不忍多聽，後來似乎也穩定了，生活工作都可以如常。
她在餐飲類服務業工作，可能也是跟她喜歡與人互動有關，即使這行業在台灣並不容易出頭也不容易有高一點的薪水，她仍然樂在其中。聽到她一點一滴在累積自己的資歷，我們也為她感到高興。可能因為生病之故，她都沒有走向結婚這條路，就連男朋友也沒有聽人提起過。但她的愛可以分享給家人，我結婚時，生小孩時，她都參與其中且可以感受到她的真心歡喜。
幾年前某天，家人通知我，表妹過世了。一時之間，我感到無可置信。她還這麼年輕啊？上天為什麼要這麼殘酷呢？這麼好的一個人，這麼豐沛的愛，世界真的就這麼殘忍嗎？當時，死亡對我來說，都是七老八十的家族親長們，悲傷固然，悲痛不至於，這是生命的常態，說得過去。三十年華的表妹，說不過去，不合理，不應該。沒有人會回答你這問題。痛哭幾小時，再加上幾天的低落情緒後，我算是終於走出這情緒，畢竟我們不算真正有培養深厚的家人般的情感。面對這些，只能讓時間過去。
三個月後，我臉書接到一個訊息，通知我今天是表妹的生日，要我留言祝福。那是我第一次意識到，臉書可以讓你長生不老，永遠存在，只要伺服器不關。我都忘記我有她臉書了。於是我瀏覽著她臉書過去三個月來的訊息，三個月前，哀悼的訊息湧入，祝福她一路好走，下輩子再做朋友等等... 還有人明顯是到這裡才被通知死訊，震驚於此事的發生... 好殘忍的時代啊，臉書通知妳臉友的死亡...
我看著表妹過往的照片，她一如過往般的，似乎在三個月前的時光裡，仍那般快樂悠閒。拉拉拉拉，你可以上看她這幾年的生活，到哪裡去玩，吃了什麼東西，轉通知朋友什麼生活小訊息，開心跟其他朋友合照等等... 一切都還在，彷彿觸手可及... 雖然臉書所呈現的生活，跟真正的生活有可能是天差地別的，但我們作為生者，總是願意相信任何亡者曾經非常快樂的徵候，總是希望她不曾有過遺憾，走的時候快速而安靜，趕緊下一趟美好的旅程...
我也不免俗地留下紀錄。祝福她這一生的生日快樂，希望她下一生也早日快樂。告訴她，我們永遠會念著她。顯然是寫給我自己看的。她已經走了，不在臉書上了，但也許我們不知道，其實她看得見？那時我知道，明年此時，我還會收到通知，我相信祖克伯的工程師們。
沒有人會有動機想去關掉表妹的帳戶，家人尤其是。誰不希望能永遠看到她這樣的存在。她的臉書版本，會一直存在，她不會變老，我們才會。兒子長大了，他還不太記得的表阿姨可能漸漸跟他同一年紀。這世界，這數位的世界，甚至是這區塊鏈的世界，可以把人都數位化了，栩栩如生你看過嗎？相片比本人更真實。影像不用說，聲音不用說，甚至以後會有AI來模擬人的說話與表情？可能還能在我七十大壽時聽到表妹的祝賀？
天啊？那樣的世界又該怎麼面對？我們既不捨於亡者的離去，難道就能接受他們的永存？
內心深處，我知道表妹就是走了。在多相片、影音甚至AI都無法模擬。她早已經走遠了，我們也該離開了，彼此懷著記憶裡的愛離開吧。數位化、智慧化，都只是表象。
一個人類哀悼另一個人類的死亡，只能有一種方式。那就是讓時間遺忘傷痛，留下美好的記憶。或就是只是遺忘。
這是不會變的。如果有一天變了，那人類可能也不再是人類了吧？
區塊鏈今天請閉嘴吧。

What is Gorilla Glass, Sapphirewhat is Gorilla Glass, Sapphire glass, Tempered Glass & Dragontrail glass glass, Tempered Glass & Dragontrail glass

Gorilla Glass and Dragontrail Glass are both very hard and tough glasses. Both these glasses are scratch resistant and are very difficult to break. Here I am making a clear comparison between these two to find out what makes them different from each other in terms of their properties and usage.

Lets First get to know what is Gorilla Glass, Sapphire glass, Tempered Glass & Dragontrail glass.

 Gorilla Glass :
 Gorilla glass is registered trademark of Corning Glass Company of USA, it’s a alkali-aluminosilicate sheet toughened glass, it’s a special type of glass which has following properties, its hard, thin, lightweight & scratch resistant, after steve jobs used gorilla glass on Iphone, gorilla glass became the choice of all high end device makers and used in laptops, mobiles, tablets and other portable devices
 Gorilla glass have different versions, like Gorilla glass 2 & newer and better Gorilla glass 4, which is more shatter resistant the previous generation glasses
 Also please note that its not the glass which is scratch resistant but it’s the “secret” coating these manufacturer make which gives the hardness along with the chemical process of making glass bonds stronger

 Dragontrail:
 Dragontrail is also a alkali aluminosilicate glass which is made by Asahi Glass company of Japan, Dragontrail is considered to be more resistant than gorilla glass 2 and suppose to resist scratch better, it can also support more weight upto 60kg. although in drop tests it does not compare well against the Gorilla glass. it can break more easily than GG3

Sapphire Glass:
 Sapphire is not glass at all but it’s a crystalline material, sapphire glass is made of synthetic sapphire which are made in labs. Synthetic sapphire is generally made by applying incredibly high heat and pressure to aluminum oxide powder and getting blocks of synthetic spphire, these blocks are then cut and polished in screen sizes and this is what is called a sapphire glass
 Sapphire is very hard and compared to gorilla or dragontrail glass but sapphire transmits 6% less light. Also its heavier than gorilla glass of same thickness.

 Sapphire glass is nothing new, infact high quality watches have been using sapphire glass from a long time but the watch glass are usually 2 to 3 times thicker than the glass used on mobile devices. But all this has now changed, as companies have found to produce sapphire glass as screens. But sapphire are prone to shatters, they can shatter easily compared to Gorilla Glass or Dragontrail glass.


 Tempered Glass:
 Tempered glass screen protectors are essentially toughened glass, they are heat treated and chemically treated to make it stronger, it essentially is same as a GG or Dragontrail glass but made to protect devices. it contains different layers like silicon, PVC sheet between glass layers to give it impact resistance. tempered glass are essentially meant to give you the same glass feel of your device screen but to protect against minor scratches, drops. thing to note here is that many tempered glass vendors claim it to have hardness of 9, but those claims are mostly false. they same similar hardness as your normal GG



 Hardness levels:
 Now to understand what makes these glass resistant to scratches and so hard, we have to understand something called “Mohs scale of mineral hardness” in layman terms, this scale means, anything that has hardness less than the material will not scratch it. For example, quartz has hardness of 7 on Mohs scale, so a material likes copper will not be able to scratch quartz
 Coppers Mohs scale of hardness is 3, while quartz is 7
 (Please note that Corning values on their official website on the Vickers hardness scale, which is alternative to the Mohs scale)

 Corning gorilla glass has a Mohs hardness of 6 for Gorilla glass 2 and its suppose to be 6.7 for newer Gorilla glass 3. Dragontrail glass has hardness of around 6.5 on mohs scale while sapphire glass has hardness of 8 ~ 9.

Now that we know the basics, lets clear few things
 Gorilla glass, Dragontrail glass, even your Tempered glass and sapphire glass will all scratch, sapphire will be the hardest to scratch but will scratch none the less, so once you put them or have them dont expect your device to be impervious to damage. treated glass may resist scratches better but tend to shatter.

Thank you!

Finland Solves Refugee Identity with Blockchain Debit Cards

Finland has said it has “solved” the problem of refugee identity, using the Blockchain to record data of new residents.

As part of its commitment to support asylum seekers, Finland is providing arrivals with a prepaid debit card instead of cash, and linking the identity of cardholders to the Blockchain.

As Technology Review reports, quoting Finnish Immigration Service director Jouko Salonen, the issue of “strongly authenticated identity” is no longer a problem.

“We have found a way to solve that,” he told the publication.

The cards are the product of local startup MONI, and function more like a bank account replacement than a simple payment device.

In issuing them, Finnish authorities are able to track both spending and identity with the added benefit that the Blockchain data is immutable.

“Our purpose has always been financial inclusion, and especially to help people in developing countries,” MONI CEO Antti Pennanen added.

A cross-Europe effort to solve the problem of refugee identity is currently a topic of debate for the European Parliament.

A task force is looking into the options for using the Ethereum Blockchain to alleviate the problem, with the latest information showing an allocation of €850,000 ($1 mln) for 2017 having been half spent.

“[...] EU governments in partnerships with other countries and organizations (e.g. NGOs) need innovative solutions to manage increasing flows of migrants and their temporary stay in different countries,” the organization commented last month.”

How millennials use their smartphones in 2017.

How millennials use their smartphones in 2017, and the surprising reason for why they delete apps.

 

(Via BigStock)

Developers: Make sure your app logos are designed well, or else millennials may delete your product off their phones.
That’s one takeaway from comScore’s 2017 U.S. Mobile App Report that published Thursday and provides a fascinating look into the smartphone habits of Americans aged 18-to-34.
The study, which analyzed comScore digital audience data and survey results, found that millennials “prove to be the most engaged, sophisticated and addicted users of apps.” Those in the 18-to-24 age bracket spend an average of 3.2 hours per day with apps — that’s nearly 50 days per year — compared to 2.3 hours for the average user.

(Via comScore)

Compared to older age groups, millennials are much more interested in discovering new apps, paying for apps, and making in-app payments — about 20 percent download an average of one paid app per month. They are also much more likely to delete an app because of thumbnail logo designs — “because apps confer social identity, millennials will delete an app if they don’t like how it looks on their screen,” the report noted. More than 20 percent of millennials said they deleted an app in the past year because of how it looked on their home screen.

(Via comScore)

Nearly half of millennials use 21 or more apps per month, while about 75 percent say their smartphone would be “useless” without apps and say they get an urge to open an app when they are bored. A majority of millennials also said they check app notifications immediately after receiving them.

(Via comScore)

YouTube and Facebook topped the list of millennials’ most-used apps, but 35 percent said Amazon is the app they “can’t live without.”

(Via comScore)

(Via comScore)

The report also analyzed how millennials are more likely to position apps on their smartphones based on “thumb reach,” and are “increasingly considering this dynamic.” And for my favorite slide of the report: App users 55 years old and up are five times as likely than millennials to only operate their smartphone with two hands.

(Via comScore)

.....

Google Detects Dangerous Spyware Apps On Android Play Store

Security researchers at Google have discovered a new family of deceptive Android spyware that can steal a whole lot of information on users, including text messages, emails, voice calls, photos, location data, and other files, and spy on them.

Dubbed Lipizzan, the Android spyware appears to be developed by Equus Technologies, an Israeli startup that Google referred to as a 'cyber arms' seller in a blog post published Wednesday.

With the help of Google Play Protect, the Android security team has found Lipizzan spyware on at least 20 apps in Play Store, which infected fewer than 100 Android smartphones in total.

Google has quickly blocked and removed all of those Lipizzan apps and the developers from its Android ecosystem, and Google Play Protect has notified all affected victims.

For those unaware, Google Play Protect is part of the Google Play Store app and uses machine learning and app usage analysis to weed out the dangerous and malicious apps.

Lipizzan: Sophisticated Multi-Stage Spyware

According to the Google, Lipizzan is a sophisticated multi-stage spyware tool that gains full access to a target Android device in two steps.

In the first stage, attackers distribute Lipizzan by typically impersonating it as an innocuous-looking legitimate app such as "Backup" or "Cleaner" through various Android app stores, including the official Play store.

Once installed, Lipizzan automatically downloads the second stage, which is a "license verification" to survey the infected device to ensure the device is unable to detect the second stage.

After completing the verification, the second stage malware would root the infected device with known Android exploits. Once rooted, the spyware starts exfiltrating device data and sending it back to a remote Command and Control server controlled by the attackers.

Lipizzan Also Gathers Data from Other Popular Apps

The spyware has the ability to monitor and steal victim's email, SMS messages, screenshots, photos, voice calls, contacts, application-specific data, location and device information.

Lipizzan can also gather data from specific apps, undermining their encryption, which includes WhatsApp, Snapchat, Viber, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, LinkedIn, Gmail, Skype, Hangouts, and KakaoTalk.

There's very few information about Equus Technologies (which is believed to have been behind Lipizzan) available on the Internet. The description of the company's LinkedIn account reads:

"Equus Technologies is a privately held company specialising in the development of tailor made innovative solutions for law enforcement, intelligence agencies, and national security organisations."

Earlier this year, Google found and blocked a dangerous Android spyware, called Chrysaor, allegedly developed by NSO Group, which was being used in targeted attacks against activists and journalists in Israel, Georgia, Turkey, Mexico, the UAE and other countries.

NSO Group Technologies is the same Israeli surveillance firm that built the Pegasus iOS spyware initially detected in targeted attacks against human rights activists in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) last year.

How to Protect your Android device from Hackers?

Android users are strongly recommended to follow these simple steps in order to protect themselves:

• Ensure that you have already opted into Google Play Protect.
• Download and install apps only from the official Play Store.
• Enable 'verify apps' feature from settings.
• Protect their devices with pin or password lock.
• Keep "unknown sources" disabled while not using it.
• Keep your device always up-to-date with the latest security patches.

Microsoft’ Calibri font hinges Pakistan’s entire government

It is probably the first time that the news regarding a corruption case surrounding Pakistani government involves a Microsoft font and the world-renowned encyclopedia website Wikipedia as the corruption scandal escalates to new heights threatening the country’s government.

The Panama leaks

As many of you may know, earlier in 2016, a hoard of documents dubbed as ‘Panama Papers’ was leaked which enlisted the customers of a law firm who were using its services to handle offshore companies.
Among the customers, were the children of the current Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. And among the children, was Sharif’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz, who was apparently linked to an offshore firm.

Maryam Nawaz

The case ended up in the hands of Pakistan’s Joint Investigation Team (JIT) after a long period of trials with the Supreme Court. The investigation culminated in a report being released on Monday, the 10th of July 2017.

The report and the Calibri font

In the report, Maryam Nawaz did claim to have ties with the firm called Nielson and Nescoll Ltd; however, there was just one problem with the documents.
The documents provided by Maryam Nawaz were written in the Calibri font and were dated sometime in 2006, apparently proving Maryam Nawaz’s claims regarding the firm.
However, an investigation into the matter revealed that the font was in fact, not available until 2007. This implied that the documents were fake.

The rush to Wikipedia

As soon as this was revealed, interested parties searched Wikipedia for details and found that the Calibri font was actually available in 2004, albeit, was not publicly released.
The public release was made in Microsoft Office 2007, as stated by investigators who believe that the documents are incorrectly dated. Around 60,000 people have visited the article since the controversy was made public.
The statement that the font was available in 2004 is what is causing all the hype in public media. However, according to a report, Dawn approached the designer of the font and found out that the font was indeed established in 2004 and delivered to Microsoft.
Also, public betas were released in 2006 according to the source. One of the representatives of LucasFonts stated that even though the public beta version was available, it is highly unlikely that someone would use a beta version of the font to create official documents.

Panama leaks chart against Shareef family’s corruption

Wikipedia locks article

As a result of the controversy, Wikipedia administrators initiated a vote in favor of or against locking the article from being edited openly.
Usually, articles on Wikipedia can be edited by anyone anonymously. However, sensitive content such as that related to President Donald Trump or the Israeli-Palestine conflict cannot be edited as such. Wikipedia has currently shut down open editing of the respective article.
The ban was supported by one major Wikipedia editor, Saqib Quyyam, who stated that he intended to prevent anonymous groups from editing the article with information that was doubtful.

Response from Maryam Nawaz

As a response to the controversy, Maryam Nawaz tweeted a Quora page which mentioned that the font was available in 2004. She also tweeted that “Every contradiction will not only be contested but decimated in [the Supreme Court].” The group has therefore refused to resign from office.