Month: January 2024

P2P Meaning

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P2P is a common abbreviation mentioned in both computer and finance fields, but do they have the same meaning?

Most of the P2P mentioned now refers to Peer-to-peer networks (user group to user group). However, P2P also represents another concept, which is Point-to-point.

Point-to-point narrowly requires a dedicated line physical link and belongs to the concept of network topology, so it is less used outside professional fields. Peer-to-peer networks are content distribution protocols and structures, integrating client and server, which is a network architecture different from the client-server (C/S) architecture.

Some articles say that “BitTorrent protocol is a point-to-point (Peer-to-Peer) transmission protocol.” The Chinese part of this description is wrong, but the English part is correct. It may be because someone previously misunderstood that P2P here should be an abbreviation for Peer-to-peer, so it was translated into point-to-point, and as a result, this error could not be corrected.

The financial P2P is the same, referring to Peer-to-peer lending. It belongs to a type of shadow banking, which is non-traditional banking but assumes the functions of a bank. P2P lending platforms only act as intermediaries, and both creditors and debtors are customers of the P2P lending platform.

Since the platform’s operating costs are lower than traditional banks, the lending rates are higher and the lending review is more relaxed. However, the possibility of bad debts is also high, and some people believe that shadow banking fueled the 2008 financial crisis.

Foot Run Over by a Car, But Uninjured

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WHO statistics from 2016 show that cars caused 1.35 million deaths. Cars kill many people and cause many disabilities, but it is rare to hear of someone’s foot being disabled by being run over by a car.

This also caught the attention of Jens Falk, but such a dangerous experiment could not be tried on volunteers, so Falk used the feet of body donors to complete the experiment. The results were only abrasions and soft tissue contusions, and there were no serious injuries such as fractures.

People on Zhihu and Quora have said that when a car is driving slowly, running over the foot will not have serious consequences, and even if someone is only wearing sandals, their feet will only swell.

There are also similar tricks in “Qigong” or some kind of acrobatics performance. On August 16, 2006, in the “Who is the Hero” program on Hunan TV, someone performed the stunt of “car over the arm”. A 3-ton jeep ran over his arm.

It is speculated that the foot and arm will not be injured by the car, which is related to the car’s suspension system, but the details are not clear.

The Cybernetic Book of Answers

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《The Book of Answers》is a book published in 1999 that offers a simple and intuitive method of divination. Just flip through the pages to see a “revelation.” Compared to the Magic 8-Ball with only 20 answers, 《The Book of Answers》has over 600 answers, making it more fun to play with.

《The Book of Answers》is like a polyhedron dice, with different fates written on each face. By rolling the dice/flipping the page, you can see the result in one step, without the complicated processes of looking up tables and interpreting, as with other divination methods. So it’s perfect for playing at parties.

When the party venue moved to cyberspace, similar divination toys to The Book of Answers also appeared, which are animated GIFs that play in a continuous loop. Just take a screenshot to “draw” an answer from it. However, these GIFs do not have a specific name, only common phrases such as “Screenshot to select…”, “Screenshot to select…”.

It doesn’t use any special technology. As long as you can upload a GIF, you can publish this type of animation, so it is widely spread. In essence, it is playing 《The Book of Answers》as a video, giving 《The Book of Answers》a new medium. It’s quite interesting to think about it that way.

Telegram has also launched similar random Emoji animations. Sending a single 🎯 🎲 🏀 ⚽ 🎳 🎰 will present your Roll point in the group. The disadvantage is that it can only be used in Telegram, so its spread is not enough.

P.S.: For an example, see the Tarot card divination for 《Persona 3》published by 𝓜𝓲𝓼𝓼𝓟𝓲𝓹𝓮𝓻 🎀📚.

Graphical Representation of Probability

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《Blue Archive》 One Spark (200 pulls), Probability of obtaining the number of 3-Star P.U. Characters

Probability of "Once-in-a-Century" Flood Occurrences in 100 Years

Previously, I introduced calculating the probability of a “once-in-a-century” flood in 100 years, but plain text is not intuitive enough. Recently, Mermaid introduced Sankey diagrams, which seem easier to represent probabilities, so I tried drawing some images.

P.S.: Mermaid’s Sankey diagrams do not support Chinese, which is not ideal.

Dynamic Domain Name

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“Google planned to provide dynamic URLs to mainland users before September 2002 to bypass censorship.” This is a sentence mentioned by VOA in its 2002 news report. Although this was just a rumor at the time, it also shows that some websites relied on dynamic domain names to prevent censorship.

Specifically, webmasters needed to purchase multiple domain names and redirect the old domain name to a new domain name every once in a while. As long as the GFW’s blocking speed is not fast enough, this brute-force cat-and-mouse game will be effective. However, the disadvantage is that you need to visit it frequently; otherwise, if the domain name is blocked by the GFW, you will not be able to obtain a new domain name.

Adding multiple domain names to a website is a bit extravagant, so some people combined dynamic domain names with “web proxy.” A web proxy is a web tool that can load other web pages through the “web proxy” server. This method of bypassing the Great Firewall was popular for a while.

Dynamic domain names are rare now, but some websites are still using them, such as pirated movie websites and animation forums. They are blocked slowly, and most of their audiences do not use other tools, so dynamic domain names are sufficient to cope with the GFW. (Conspiracy theory: Perhaps not completely blocking pirated movie websites has the effect of reducing the number of users bypassing the Great Firewall, because the demand is met and there is no need for “efficient” tools.)

Principle

Persona 5 Beta Leak

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p5

Earlier, someone obtained 20 Persona 5 beta discs through an underground auction and shared them with Hidden Palace. (Specializing in organizing content related to archived game development, such as prototype games, source code, and internal test versions, etc.)

Unfortunately, most of the discs are severely damaged, and only three discs have been successfully read so far. However, the content is quite interesting, such as early versions of the music, and even the OP is different from the official version’s singer. There are also unused character models, such as a grown-up Nanako Dojima model, who uses a naginata as her weapon, the same as Hamuko.

These discs are definitely treasures, but there are also some potential legal risks. The best way is for the game’s official to directly release the content behind the game, such as art books, developer speeches, or directly add developer comments in the game.

游戏 #杂谈