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canoodle@nerdpol.ch
SilouettE

server heating a lemon tree crypto experiment: rechnet es sich in 2022-01 monero zu minen? does mining monero pay off? - maybe better of boinc

the whole project started, because a lemon tree needed some heating in the winter.

getting started is not hard,

does it pay off? not without “free” energy

because there is no such thing as free energy, “only other user’s devices” and “other’s users energy bills” (which is more than CO2 evil).

currently: not with i5s and Xeons, the user will need a very expensive 32x Core or even better 64x Core x86 CPU

At1 XMR monero price trading below $250 @ (0.3€ per 1kWh) ratio, all Xeon CPU mining is a loss and thus pure activism

  • what is good:
  • activism: might be somewhat legitimate, but only @ 100% renewables
    • as mankind is in desperate need for more innovative forms of finance based cooperation system that “make sense” in the terms of “create jobs innovation and sustainable products for a sustainable survival of mankind” (cause that should be what it’s all about)
  • so if monero turns out to be a good thing for mankind or not
    • it is recommended to mine with 100% renewabele energy only (only mine when the sun is up and the wind is blowing and the user can not store the energy): don’t do it.

here are the numbers:

monero’s RandomX is optimized (on purpose) for CPU to avoid ASIC mining monopolies taking over/dominating the whole project (foster democracy, more distributed mining as it has happened with other crypto projects).

let’s assume a Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1270 V2 @ 3.50GHz is xmrig mining at 1000H/s using 300W.

(here is a list of CPUs and their monero hashrates)

That translates into 0.3kWh * 24h = 7.2kWh @ the user’s power costs of 0.3€ per 1kWh: 7.2 kWh * 0.3€ = 2.16€ per day.

generated/mined 0.000137068369 XMR in 24h which translates into

1 XMR = $219.26

219.26/(1/0.000137068369) = $0.03005 ~ 0.03€

that’s a loss of: 2.16€ – 0.03€ = -2.13€ per daily, -15€ per week.

(this calculator (red numbers = bad) confirm that current calculation)

(another calculator)

in the future: who knows. depends on availability of cheap renewable (!) energy and the monero price or the inflation of $ and € (the last one being pretty certain).

pool mining?

https://web.xmrpool.eu/

“pending balance reaches the minimum payment threshold of 0.07 xmr, the pool will automatically send you your mined coins”

that would be ~ 1 year of runtime full cores of that Xeon CPU E3-1270 V2 @ 3.50GHz @300W, no thanks, man.

“The payment occurs once every day between 12:00 midnight – 01:00 am CET.”

“Kindly specify if you want a manual payout, without reaching the threshold. Note, you will be charged about 0.00003 XMR for transaction fees.”

what is being calculated?

“Bitcoin production is estimated to generate between 22 and 22.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year” (reuters in 2021)

(comparison: netherlands in 2020 138t CO2, so bitcoin alone produces as much CO2 as 6% of the netherlands)

massive calulation powers are thrown at crypto and AI deep learning.

unfortunately most countries are not on 100% renewables, so a lot of CO2 is generated in that process (please check the energy mix of your country)

Why can all this block mining/generating not do something usefull… like train AI how to cure cancer… or calculate possible solutions for complicated problems… or try to predict the shape of an asteroid according to very low quality images https://asteroidsathome.net/ every asteroid = one token? #AsteroidCoin?

unfortunately the only “free energy” is in other user’s devices, which is frankly bad bad bad because it is producing CO2: https://www.zdnet.com/article/free-money-cyber-criminals-are-installing-cryptojacking-malware-on-unpatched-microsoft-exchange-servers/

alternatives to heat up cpus: boinc @ milkyway@home

https://dwaves.de/2014/11/27/3d-milkyway-home/

setup boinc for debian

We recommend installing the BOINC client directly from the Ubuntu/Debian repositories.

  1. In a terminal window, run the following command:
  <span style="color: #00ffff;">sudo apt install boinc-client boinc-manager</span>

Set the BOINC client to automatically start after you restart your computer:

<span style="color: #00ffff;">sudo systemctl enable boinc-client</span>

Start the BOINC client:

<span style="color: #00ffff;">sudo systemctl start boinc-client</span>

Allow group access to client access file:

<span style="color: #00ffff;">sudo chmod g+r /var/lib/boinc-client/gui_rpc_auth.cfg</span>

Add your Linux user to the BOINC group to allow the BOINC Manager to communicate with the BOINC client:

<span style="color: #00ffff;"><code>sudo usermod -a -G boinc $USER</code></span>

Allow your terminal to pick up the privileges of the new group:

<span style="color: #00ffff;">exec su $USER</span>

In the same terminal window, start the BOINC Manager:

<span style="color: #00ffff;">boincmgr -d /var/lib/boinc-client</span>
  1. When BOINC Manager opens, select World Community Grid from the list of BOINC projects then enter your World Community Grid username and password.
  2. When these steps are completed, you should see a screen to confirm that you’ve been successfully signed up to World Community Grid.

creditz: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/download/debian

how to start stop boinc client:

# start BOINC client, running as a system daemon
<span style="color: #00ffff;">/etc/init.d/boinc-client start</span>

# stop the BOINC daemon
<span style="color: #00ffff;">/etc/init.d/boinc-client stop</span>

# stop and start the BOINC daemon
<span style="color: #00ffff;">/etc/init.d/boinc-client restart</span>

# report on status of the daemon (is it running or not?)
<span style="color: #00ffff;">/etc/init.d/boinc-client status
</span>

Links:

Why Monero?

Active attack vector

The attack is pretty straightforward: when the wallet requests data from the remote node to create a transaction, the remote node sends bogus data in response. This results in an error message displayed to the user. If the user clicks through the error and retries the transaction a second time, this immediately reveals the real input to the remote node. Mitigations: If you see *ANY** error message after attempting a transaction, DISCONNECT from that remote node and DO NOT try your transaction again right away.*

Please run your own node

Public nodes should be considered a last resort if you can’t get your own node working. The entire value of a decentralized cryptocurrency is its decentralized nature. If you are a mobile user, you can even setup your mobile wallet to connect to your home node. Please, take the time to try running your own node, or perhaps just use a remote node until your daemon is synchronized.

src: https://moneroworld.com/

mining pools: https://miningpoolstats.stream/monero

https://www.getmonero.org/community/workgroups/

so heise: “when it pays to mine monero” currently it does not and produce too much CO2: https://www.heise.de/ratgeber/Mining-Guide-zum-Geldverdienen-per-Prozessor-Wann-sich-Monero-Schuerfen-lohnt-5991303.html

“Namely, on Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told a U.S. Senate committee that a report on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) would be ready “within weeks.” This announcement stoked fears that top cryptocurrencies may see competition from a government-backed cryptocurrency. However, Monero’s focus on privacy and untraceable transactions has provided investors with a key reason to own this token this week.”

https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/01/14/why-monero-was-one-of-the-best-performing-cryptos/

tweets:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/monero

https://twitter.com/fluffypony

https://twitter.com/mattblaze/with_replies

wallets:

#linux #gnu #gnulinux #opensource #administration #sysops #crypto #monero #co2 #climatechange #cryptocurrencies #finance #boinc #berkely #milkyway

Originally posted at: https://dwaves.de/2022/01/14/server-heating-a-lemon-tree-crypto-experiment-rechnet-es-sich-in-2022-01-monero-zu-minen-does-mining-monero-pay-off-maybe-better-of-boinc/

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canoodle@nerdpol.ch
SilouettE

crypto: does mining monero pay off? - maybe better of boinc

the whole project started, because a lemon tree needed some heating in the winter.

currently: no, at the current monero price (1 XMR = $219.26) @ (0.3€ per 1kWh) ratio, it is a loss and thus: pure activism

  • what is good:
  • activism: might be somewhat legitimate, but only @ 100% renewables
    • as mankind is in desperate need for more innovative forms of finance based cooperation system that “make sense” in the terms of “create jobs innovation and sustainable products for a sustainable survival of mankind” (cause that should be what it’s all about)
  • so if monero turns out to be a good thing for mankind or not
    • it is recommended to mine with 100% renewabele energy only (only mine when the sun is up and the wind is blowing and the user can not store the energy): don’t do it.

here are the numbers:

here are the numbers.

monero’s RandomX is optimized (on purpose) for CPU to avoid ASIC mining monopolies taking over/dominating the whole project (foster democracy, more distributed mining as it has happened with other crypto projects).

let’s assume a Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1270 V2 @ 3.50GHz is xmrig mining at 1000H/s using 300W.

That translates into 0.3kWh * 24h = 7.2kWh @ the user’s ower costs of 0.3€ per 1kWh: 7.2 kWh * 0.3€ = 2.16€ per day.

generated/mined 0.000137068369 XMR in 24h which translates into

1 XMR = $219.26

219.26/(1/0.000137068369) = $0.03005 ~ 0.03€

that’s a loss of: 2.16€ – 0.03€ = -2.13€ per daily, -15€ per week.

(this calculator (red numbers = bad) confirm that current calculation)

in the future: who knows. depends on availability of cheap renewable (!) energy and the monero price or the inflation of $ and € (the last one being pretty certain).

what is being calculated?

“Bitcoin production is estimated to generate between 22 and 22.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year” (reuters in 2021)

(comparison: netherlands in 2020 138t CO2, so bitcoin alone produces as much CO2 as 6% of the netherlands)

massive calulation powers are thrown at crypto and AI deep learning.

unfortunately most countries are not on 100% renewables, so a lot of CO2 is generated in that process (please check the energy mix of your country)

Why can all this block mining/generating not do something usefull… like train AI how to cure cancer… or calculate possible solutions for complicated problems… or try to predict the shape of an asteroid according to very low quality images https://asteroidsathome.net/ every asteroid = one token? #AsteroidCoin?

unfortunately the only “free energy” is in other user’s devices, which is frankly bad bad bad because it is producing CO2: https://www.zdnet.com/article/free-money-cyber-criminals-are-installing-cryptojacking-malware-on-unpatched-microsoft-exchange-servers/

alternatives to heat up cpus: boinc @ milkyway@home

setup boinc for debian

We recommend installing the BOINC client directly from the Ubuntu/Debian repositories.

  1. In a terminal window, run the following command:
  sudo apt install boinc-client boinc-manager

Set the BOINC client to automatically start after you restart your computer:

sudo systemctl enable boinc-client

Start the BOINC client:

sudo systemctl start boinc-client

Allow group access to client access file:

sudo chmod g+r /var/lib/boinc-client/gui_rpc_auth.cfg

Add your Linux user to the BOINC group to allow the BOINC Manager to communicate with the BOINC client:

sudo usermod -a -G boinc $USER

Allow your terminal to pick up the privileges of the new group:

exec su $USER

In the same terminal window, start the BOINC Manager:

boincmgr -d /var/lib/boinc-client
  1. When BOINC Manager opens, select World Community Grid from the list of BOINC projects then enter your World Community Grid username and password.
  2. When these steps are completed, you should see a screen to confirm that you’ve been successfully signed up to World Community Grid.

creditz: https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/download/debian

how to start stop boinc client:

# start BOINC client, running as a system daemon
/etc/init.d/boinc-client start

# stop the BOINC daemon
/etc/init.d/boinc-client stop

# stop and start the BOINC daemon
/etc/init.d/boinc-client restart

# report on status of the daemon (is it running or not?)
/etc/init.d/boinc-client status

Links:

so heise: “when it pays to mine monero” currently it does not and produce too much CO2: https://www.heise.de/ratgeber/Mining-Guide-zum-Geldverdienen-per-Prozessor-Wann-sich-Monero-Schuerfen-lohnt-5991303.html

#linux #gnu #gnulinux #opensource #administration #sysops #crypto #monero #co2 #climatechange #cryptocurrencies #finance #boinc #berkely #milkyway

Originally posted at: https://dwaves.de/2022/01/14/crypto-does-mining-monero-pay-off-maybe-better-of-boinc/

petapixel@xn--y9azesw6bu.xn--y9a3aq
petapixel (unofficial)

Fog Allows for ‘Impossible’ Photo of Milky Way Over Golden Gate Bridge

image



Photographer Michael Shainblum captured what was previously thought to be impossible due to heavy light pollution: a photo of both the Golden Gate Bridge and the Milky Way together.

It takes great determination to head out in the night and patiently wait hours to photograph a landscape scene that may or may not work out in the end. Shainblum wanted to combine some iconic elements together into a photo, but getting everything to fall into place perfectly was a gamble and the idea of seeing stars and the bridge together was, to this point, a pipe dream.

But he got extremely lucky thanks to perfect conditions.

Although he has captured fog numerous times before, such as in a forest and high up in mountains, he was able to join the brightly lit Golden Gate Bridge with the normally invisible Milky Way galaxy in one photo.

Normally, the San Francisco Bay is a terrible spot to try and photograph any stars and being able to capture the Milky Way at all in this location is incredibly uncommon. Shainblum tells PetaPixel that he has visited the site countless times but always had little to no stars visible due to heavy light pollution in the area.

"I think this was the perfect balance of a few different things," he explains. "The fog was thick and low enough to really block out most of the light pollution from the city, but the fog had also traveled so far inland that it covered most of the eastern bay as well. The clouds above just the eastern side around the cities may have also helped. The last thing is the time of evening and time of the season. I was photographing the Milky Way late at night as it started to glide across the western sky, away from the city."

Fog over Golden Gate Bridge

To make the photo, Shainblum took two rows of horizontal shots that he later stitched together in post-processing. Although at the time of capture he had no idea if it would result in a successful shot, he was pleased with what he made, especially considering the rarity of the circumstances. With the warmly lit bridge tower slightly pointing out of the thick fog on the left, the blue Milky Way delivers a contrast on the other side of the image.

Fog over Golden Gate Bridge

The one photo wasn't the only image he captured that night. Shainblum also took a "classic view" of the iconic bridge that many enjoy photographing. In the composition, he included both bridge towers, poking out of the soft fog that completely covered the scene, and the light trails of cars driving on the road.

To get different patterns of fog and variations of car light trails, Shainblum took multiple exposures and created a photo with colorful contrasts between the warm and cool tones.

Fog over Golden Gate Bridge

The Milky Way overlooking the hill deserved an image of its own, too. Unprepared to encounter a photo opportunity like this, Shainblum notes that photographers should take the chances when they present themselves, even if it means steering off the initial plan.

Fog over Golden Gate Bridge

Just before calling it a day, Shainblum took the few last long exposures of the bridge tower and the fog flowing past and through the gate for a simple, minimalist scene.

For photographers who are considering capturing the Milky Way, Shainblum recommends checking the weather first, such as on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website, noting the phase of the moon, which can be tracked using the PhotoPills app, and checking the light pollution.

When it comes to equipment, Shainblum recommends bringing a tripod and a wide lens, such as a 14mm-24mm full-frame lens, with an aperture f/2.8 or lower. In addition, a headlamp comes in handy, especially if the phone runs out of battery.

More of Shainblum’s educational and inspirational videos can be viewed on his YouTube and his photographic and video work can be found on his website and Instagram.

Image credits: Photos by Michael Shainblum.

#inspiration #spotlight #travel #fog #landscape #landscapehotography #landscapephotographer #michaelshainblum #milkyway #milkywayphotography #sanfrancisco

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petapixel@xn--y9azesw6bu.xn--y9a3aq
petapixel (unofficial)

Nexus Panoramas: Two Landscapes Linked Together with the Milky Way

image

Photographer Geoff Decker has spent the last two years creating what he calls Nexus Panoramas: vertical photos that use the Milky Way to link two landscape foregrounds in a single image.

All images below can be clicked and viewed in higher resolution.

Decker calls the images Nexus Panoramas for two reasons. One, the term nexus is defined as "a connection or series of connections linking two or more things." He says he wanted to clearly define this type of images as a panorama where the Milky Way is used to link two lanscape forgrounds using a single series of images.

The second reason?

"Nexus honestly just sounds spacey," he tells PetaPixel. "It's used by a various number of space organizations and Sci-Fi material so it just fit the definition."

Decker says that he got the idea for these images in August of 2019 while going through old equipment. He came across an old Nodal Ninja, which is a spherical panorama head that was used to create "tiny planet" photos and virtual walkthroughs for realty companies before the modern methods used today became available. On that note, Decker says that about a month after he rediscovered his Nodal Ninja, the company announced it was closing its United States offices.

"At the time I was also practicing astrophotography, learning how to stack images to clean up noise and such. When I found it, a bit of inspiration just kind of hit that, in theory, I should be able to use this type of head to achieve a perfect vertical shot of the Milky Way," he says.

The idea made sense, but creating finished images was more of a challenge and revolved around his tripod setup and software issues.

"At the time, I was using an older steel Manfrotto tripod I had lying around. As I came to learn, the tripod was going to be pivotal to getting the image quickly and easily and this was not it. The thing, while sturdy, was impossible to level, and with these panoramas, you only have so long before the Milky Way is out of ideal alignment. I was still able to get my first Nexus Panorama the first go-around but it took a bit longer than what was ideal," Decker says.

"I went through a couple of test setups before I found the ideal one. I use a 3 Legged Thing Punks Brian as it's quite lightweight and fairly stable at its tallest setting (which comes in useful). I still use my Nodal Ninja, and between the Nodal Ninja and the tripod, I have a leveling base to expedite leveling the entire setup," he explains.

Decker says that on the software side, anyone who tries to stitch photos together for panoramas understands that it can be a pain. He explains that with this particular panoramic image, it is very easy for some of the automated options to get "lost" in the stitching process and as a result, fail. He says he took a lot of time finding the right software that wouldn't be terribly time-consuming but would also retain high image quality with minimum compression.

"At the time, Photoshop had a difficult time (and still does). Surprisingly, I found Lightroom’s Panorama function could resolve it most of the time. And any time I have a difficult one, such as the Tombstone panorama, I use Affinity with no issues," he says.

The time for an edit can take a while, and Decker says he's edited one in as little as a few hours while others can take a week or more to get right -- editing on and off during that span, of course.

Decker explains that the process for creating these images breaks down into eleven steps.

The process starts just as most typical astrophotography expeditions do:

  1. Find a location
  2. Check weather and cloud coverage
  3. Locate the milky way and locate an area with some nice foreground.

"With locations, it's hard to be picky because you have to be facing a very specific direction," he explains. "And honestly, I take a bit of a nomadic approach to astrophotography in general, where I find an area with a dark spot, travel there, and see what happens."

A good location for these photos means clear skies and low light pollution, which he says has been hard this past year in Colorado where he lives because of the smoke from forest fires.

"Next year, I do plan to experiment a bit more. Despite taken during a close to full moon, I do like the Tombstone panorama and plan on hitting up a few ghost towns to get some more interesting foregrounds."

After he has picked a location, next comes field planning:

  1. Figure out when the Milky Way will be directly overhead and verify you are in a location that shows it off well. You can use apps like Photopills to get an estimate, but its pretty easy to just observe the movement with either your eyes or your camera.
  2. Extend the tripod and level out the head.
  3. Attach the camera. Re-level the head.
  4. Move the nodal ninja with camera attached fully around. Make sure nothing shifts, make sure the lens does not hit the tripod. Knobs and platforms shift so it might be loose, it might not be set the same exact way you had it (or you put the camera on in the wrong position, ask me how I know).
  5. Set the camera up pointing to the core of the Milky Way. Test your astro exposure, focus, and foreground exposure. Adjust as needed.
  6. Once ready, point the camera at about 15 – 30 degrees down. Take one picture every 15 degrees (works the best for stitching), remembering to take two photos for the foreground photos (one at the astro ISO, one at a higher ISO to see the foreground). Step and repeat until you get all the way to the other side of the tripod.
  7. Review images.
  8. Import and edit.

Decker says that the number of photos he uses for his Nexus Panoramas varies depending on if he sets the camera in a landscape or portrait orientation. He says the landscape setup requires more images as it is a shorter image, but usually resolves better.

"At the Grand Tetons, I used 32 images in the session," he says. "Duplicates of the foreground were taken, one at the ISO used for the sky (1250) and one for a brighter foreground (4000)."

Decker says that ideally, the best medium to enjoy his photos is in print.

"I had one printed on metal this year for the annual Louisville Art Association National Photography show (won people’s choice award) and what's cool about these photos is that there is no right or wrong way to hang them. You can literally hang them on any side and each orientation makes it a different photo," he says. "You lose that in digital. Plus, they look really cool printed on metal.

"That being said, I bet they look great on ultra-wide monitors."

More of Decker's Nexus Panoramas and his full portfolio of photography can be seen on his website.

#features #inspiration #astronomy #astrophotography #fineart #fineartlandscapephotography #landscapephotography #milkyway #milkywaygalaxy #nodalninja #prints #space #ultrawide #vertical

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