Recent Posts

1426

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on August 25, 2014, 09:33 PM »

Gold dealers are dropping fiat:

http://techcrunch.co...ayments-for-bitcoin/

The world of gold bullion sales is often peopled by the odd and interesting. Joseph Castillo is one of the latter. The owner of Agora Commodities, his company now only accepts Bitcoin for online sales, a move that has reduced fraud and improved his service.

Castillo talked to Coindesk about his decision, saying that “What we had to do to protect ourselves against card fraud, we no longer have to do with bitcoin – and that saves us on costs.”

The company has done $10 million in revenue through bitcoin since he moved to cryptocurrencies in the beginning of 2014. Customers understood the move and have been working with him to transfer assets via the blockchain rather than the Visa card. Castillo is also planning on building a BTC exchange for his customers. The goal is to create a one-stop-shop for all your goldbug tendencies, including fiat to BTC conversions.

“Bitcoin fits perfectly with gold and silver, right? So if people come to the site and want to buy gold and silver, why wouldn’t they want to buy bitcoin from us as well?” he told Coindesk.

Amagimetals has also announced that they are dropping fiat and only accepting Bitcoin.

1427

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on August 25, 2014, 09:31 PM »

And this is what happens when you completely lose you freaking mind:
 (see attachment in previous post)
The 2 S3 440 GH/s machines are turned to pull cold air out of the room, and - yes that is Dryer Vent Hose - then push the hot exhaust air out through the attic. The other S1 180 GH/s machine only has one fan and no outer housing (rather odd I thought), so it's still dumping a ton of hot air into the room ... But it's at least half assed tolerable in here now.

If these are the "Quiet Ones" (and they are), I'd hate like hell to hear the noisy ones ... Let's just say the wife is not thrilled with this latest development..

-Stoic Joker (August 17, 2014, 10:39 AM)

Like living on a tarmac, eh?

1428

Living Room / Re: The Movie and Book Writing Thread

« Last post by Renegade on August 25, 2014, 01:24 PM »

I certainly have my pet peeves when it comes to language and grammar though. One of the big ones is the general inability of English speakers to account for number when they write or speak. It's not that hard to tell the difference between "1" and "other than 1". Sigh... There are others though. (That was a concise demonstration of the issue.)

-Renegade (August 25, 2014, 08:25 AM)

Que?  I'm curious, but I don't think I understand what you are saying?  Clarification?

-superboyac (August 25, 2014, 09:37 AM)

Most people are incapable of understanding that "2" is not "1".

The typical error is:

There is 5 glasses on the table.

WRONG!

There ARE 5 glasses on the table.

That's just one of my pet peeves.

Most people can't even speak their own language properly. It's pathetic.

1429

Living Room / Re: Interview with Dread Pirate Robert's mother - Silk Road

« Last post by Renegade on August 25, 2014, 01:18 PM »

Another interview by one of my favourite hosts (who a lot of people will hate):

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE.

It doesn't matter if you like Jeff Berwick or not. The issue is the issue.

1430

DC Gamer Club / Re: Suggested top 30 solitaire board games

« Last post by Renegade on August 25, 2014, 08:27 AM »

Don't know if anybody else has this problem, but I often have trouble putting together a game night because the it's hard to find people who have the patience to learn (or the time to play) the sort of games I like.

-40hz (August 22, 2014, 03:32 PM)

Which would be...?

1431

Living Room / Re: The Movie and Book Writing Thread

« Last post by Renegade on August 25, 2014, 08:25 AM »

The vast majority of what I do is all corporate stuff. Emails, documentation, software UIs, web sites, brochures, video scripts, communications, planning documents, blah blah blah etc. etc. etc. Extremely boring stuff for most people.

But I don't really do pron scripts. Thank god. Though I did do a campaign for a pron company once upon a time...

I certainly have my pet peeves when it comes to language and grammar though. One of the big ones is the general inability of English speakers to account for number when they write or speak. It's not that hard to tell the difference between "1" and "other than 1". Sigh... There are others though. (That was a concise demonstration of the issue.)

1432

Living Room / Re: The Movie and Book Writing Thread

« Last post by Renegade on August 25, 2014, 08:09 AM »

Hey, I've never mentioned my pron-script moonlighting... Have you been reading my email?

1433

Living Room / Re: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 11:58 PM »

   
[move]    
[move]    
[move]
CLICK ME!!!
[/move]
[/move]
[/move]




.

1434

Living Room / Re: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 11:45 PM »

[move]
DODGE!  
[/move]

1435

Living Room / Re: Ice Bucket Challenge...You all got nominated!

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 09:11 PM »

Chris Cantwell & Josie the Outlaw chime in on the subject...

FAIR WARNING: It involves Chris Cantwell (NSFW), and so it WILL offend some people.

White T-Shirt Ice Bucket Challenge!!

https://www.youtube..../watch?v=yhAzOvvFJqU

(I'm pretty certain that the video will make a lot of people see red. Consider it NSFL.)

1436

Living Room / Re: Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 09:04 PM »

Please elaborate?

-eleman (August 24, 2014, 08:51 PM)

It's Stephen being Stephen!

I'm still waiting for more 1,000 animated GIFs posts.

1437

Living Room / Re: Ice Bucket Challenge...You all got nominated!

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 01:02 PM »

Stephen, ignore the negative posts -- thanks for putting yourself out there and encouraging us all to participate in something fun.

-mouser (August 24, 2014, 11:20 AM)

I'm sorry, but you don't get to issue a challenge then ignore those that reject the challenge.

If you want only positive opinions, then direct your inquiry at people that will respond positively. But don't throw a wide net and expect everyone to join in the circlejerk.

1438

Living Room / Re: Robots could murder us out of KINDNESS unless they are taught the value of human

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 12:28 PM »

Issac Asimov anyone?

-Renegade (August 24, 2014, 11:09 AM)

Except Isaac sidestepped the issue of the value of human life completely back in '42. His three laws only said:

    A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
    A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
    A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

T'aint nothing in there about 'value' - nor is there the need for a robot to be self-aware in order for humanity's butt to be covered by those three rules pretty adequately.

But if (and that's a very big if) machines could reach a form of self awareness, it would be a challenge to teach them these so-called "human values." Especially since we're so bad at teaching said values to humans.Even on those rare occasions when we're in complete agreement as to what such values are. Values - especially the value of human life - varies a great deal among different (and differing) human cultures.

-40hz (August 24, 2014, 12:10 PM)

Sigh... Y'know... I really hate hearing from you sometimes. It's not that I disagree - but rather that I do agree. And I hate that.

Yes. Humans can be really, really shitty towards each other. We have no shortage of examples either in history or in contemporary examples.

It sucks.

Like, just how f**king hard is it to NOT murder people? Is it really all that f**king hard? Apparently for some people it really is that hard.

I go through my normal day without murdering anyone on a regular basis. In fact, I'm batting 1.000 for not murdering people. Am I an exception? Perhaps. I don't think so.

Blah... This is just an issue that sets me off.

1439

Living Room / Re: Ice Bucket Challenge...You all got nominated!

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 12:20 PM »

No matter what you think about him... that was cool.

-wraith808 (August 24, 2014, 12:12 PM)

That was pretty cool! I like CS.

1440

Living Room / Re: Ice Bucket Challenge...You all got nominated!

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 12:07 PM »

Lol no criticism taken guys xD 

Btw...none of you are excused from the nominations lol

-Stephen66515 (August 24, 2014, 11:51 AM)

Challenge declined.

1441

General Software Discussion / Re: Wordpress and Hackers

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 11:21 AM »

And don't use too many plug-ins without having checked their code.

-Tuxman (August 22, 2014, 06:05 AM)

While this is 110% solid advice, it's really hard for most people to do this. Very few people, and even few programmers, are qualified to actually determine security vulnerabilities. It's not easy.

Could I do it? Yes. How long would it take me? FOREVER!

I understand enough to track down issues. But I'll never actually do it because it's simply far too time consuming.

There's the actual code itself, which is relatively simple to check for things like SQL injection, etc.

Then there's the checking of the actual PHP methods, and so on down the line. NIGHTMARE!!!

My rule of thumb here is to use only commonly used plug-ins with a record of security. I have to blindly trust them because checking is too expensive for me.

1442

Living Room / Re: CMD-commands

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 11:15 AM »

Oooooh! Nifty!

For "assoc", try "assoc >aso.txt" then open the file or just type "aso.txt".

I've not seen assoc before.

The CMD window doesn't hold many lines in the buffer, so you'll likely need to write it to a file to see the results.

1443

Living Room / Robots could murder us out of KINDNESS unless they are taught the value of human

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 11:09 AM »

The AI question! Such fun and speculation!

http://www.dailymail...engineer-claims.html

Robots could murder us out of KINDNESS unless they are taught the value of human life, engineer claims

• The warning was made by Amsterdam-based engineer, Nell Watson
• Speaking at a conference in Sweden, she said robots could decide that the greatest compassion to humans as a race is to get rid of everyone
• Ms Watson said computer chips could soon have the same level of brain power as a bumblebee – allowing them to analyse social situations
• 'Machines are going to be aware of the environments around them and, to a small extent, they're going to be aware of themselves,' she said
• Her comments follow tweets by Tesla-founder, Elon Musk, earlier this month who said AI could be more dangerous than nuclear weapons

Future generations could be exterminated by Terminator-style robots unless machines are taught the value of human life.

This is the stark warning made by Amsterdam-based engineer Nell Watson, who believes droids could kill humans out of both malice and kindness.

Teaching machines to be kind is not enough, she says, as robots could decide that the greatest compassion to humans as a race is to get rid of everyone to end suffering.

'The most important work of our lifetime is to ensure that machines are capable of understanding human value,' she said at the recent 'Conference by Media Evolution' in Sweden.

'It is those values that will ensure machines don't end up killing us out of kindness.'

...

Professor Hawking said dismissing the film as science fiction could be the ‘worst mistake in history’.

More at the link.

Issac Asimov anyone?

1444

Living Room / Re: Ice Bucket Challenge...You all got nominated!

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 11:05 AM »

Btw, just so you all realize...I did also donate to them, just thought it would be fun to do the challenge as well...always enjoyed making myself look like a fool haha

-Stephen66515 (August 24, 2014, 10:53 AM)

It was fun to see you! 

The entire thing seems like fun. (Anyone ever done a polar bear swim?)

Except when you see some moron drop a 50 gallon garbage can filled with water on someone from a height of 3+ m in a failed attempt to pour water. That's got to hurt.

1445

Living Room / Re: Ice Bucket Challenge...You all got nominated!

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 10:43 AM »

Perhaps it all was worthwhile!

https://www.youtube....ry=ice+bucket+bikini

To me this is similar to when celebrities go to poor places and are shown helping the poor and/or adopting a child. 1000 awwws mixed with 1000 poking fun....

-rgdot (August 24, 2014, 10:35 AM)

That's because attention-seeking draws out the cynics.

....to be honest neither is the right answer, if someone is being helped good if not a typed opinion won't change it.

-rgdot (August 24, 2014, 10:35 AM)

True enough.

As one of the cynics, what I find particularly obnoxious is the "Do A or do B or you're a pussy/<insert insult>" dichotomy.

Good causes don't require psychological bullying.

1446

Living Room / Re: Ice Bucket Challenge...You all got nominated!

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 10:34 AM »

For everyone that thinks this ice bucket challenge is stupid, read this: http://www.forbes.co...-stupid-youre-wrong/

-Dirhael (August 24, 2014, 10:01 AM)

FWIW - Bill does it with some style:

(I'm not a fan of Bill in the least, but... he manages to pull that off rather well. Something to be said for production value in video there.)

1447

Living Room / Re: Ice Bucket Challenge...You all got nominated!

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 10:30 AM »

For everyone that thinks this ice bucket challenge is stupid, read this: http://www.forbes.co...-stupid-youre-wrong/

-Dirhael (August 24, 2014, 10:01 AM)

They make a lot of good points in there.

I don't like the approach. Here's an identical approach:

"Donate to the Israel 'Bomb a Palestinian Fund', or shoot yourself in your face and film it."

This at some meta-level gets back to game theory and psychological warfare. My stock response as an acronym is "FO".

1448

Living Room / Re: Ice Bucket Challenge...You all got nominated!

« Last post by Renegade on August 24, 2014, 10:12 AM »

I still think the bucket of ice water thing is one of the most asinine promo/affinity stunts anybody ever came up with. It's kinda snarky too.

-40hz (August 24, 2014, 07:15 AM)

In part that... and...

Don't play the fool. Donate instead.

-Tuxman (August 24, 2014, 08:04 AM)

Precisely. Just donate.

-40hz (August 24, 2014, 08:24 AM)

No. I won't be held hostage by some kind of peer pressure for "charity".

"That makes you a bad person, Renegade!"

No. It makes me belligerent against flat out, in-your-face manipulation and emotional hijacking.

1449

Living Room / Re: Ice Bucket Challenge...You all got nominated!

« Last post by Renegade on August 23, 2014, 09:50 PM »

Before it was cool

Adam Kokesh's take on it.

1450

Living Room / Re: Homebrewing

« Last post by Renegade on August 23, 2014, 07:17 AM »

This is Youtube channel from a homebrew retailer. They have a LOT of really good material. They do advertise some of the things they sell, BUT... get this... they actually talk about the products in a practical way, i.e. exactly the opposite of the drivel commercial ads you get on TV. They're more like product reviews.

Most of the videos are educational, and even the short ones get into some depth with explanations that I've not heard elsewhere.

https://www.youtube....thernBrewerTV/videos

Now, back to watching a fellow explain yeast strains!