Recent Posts

3276

Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Renegade on March 29, 2013, 07:23 PM »

Renegade, what a coincidence! Before I posted my (sad) image, I already had three versions of that. I posted the first. The second was/is just the one you have published today!

-Giampy (March 29, 2013, 08:15 AM)

I love the "Inspect element" context menu item in my browser.

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Living Room / Re: The Supreme Court makes a rational decision!

« Last post by Renegade on March 29, 2013, 06:37 AM »

The decision set a very important precedent.

-kyrathaba (March 29, 2013, 06:32 AM)

+1

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Living Room / Re: silly humor - post 'em here! [warning some NSFW and adult content]

« Last post by Renegade on March 28, 2013, 11:57 PM »

I guess Google only serves regional humour:

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Living Room / Re: Ad Industry Attacks Firefox

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 08:56 PM »

  I just wonder if he is that much off his rocker or if he's just trying to use FUD against Firefox users..... 

-Tinman57 (March 27, 2013, 08:17 PM)

I really, really wonder about this very often. He's just one example of some guy with a clear conflict of interest spouting complete lunacy. Do these kinds of people REALLY believe what they're saying? Or are they simply morally bankrupt?

To be honest, I think a lot of these people really and truly believe that up is down and ignorance is strength. And then I really and truly wonder how they managed to deceive themselves into believing stuff like that. Can you lie to yourself over and over until you believe the lie?

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Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 07:55 PM »

Money-laundering rules for virtual currency

With the increasing popularity of online cash, there’s growing concern that virtual currencies bought on the Internet are funding illicit activities.

Now, standard banking rules aimed at suspicious dollar transfers will be applied to Web money. Companies that issue or exchange online cash will be regulated like traditional money-order providers, such as Western Union. Wall Street Journal reports.

http://www.smartplan...rtual-currency/15905

-Tinman57 (March 27, 2013, 05:01 PM)

Yet another in a long, long string of hit pieces.

Baseball bats can be used to hurt people. Better outlaw them.

Cars can be used to crash into stores. Better outlaw them.

Salt has a lethal-50 dosage. Better regulate it more.

 

Cash is used to illegal activities. Better get rid of it and have only digital currency that can be tracked and traced. 

Regulation is just a bad, bad idea. No regulation is needed. There are already laws on the books to deal with "illegal activities". If they'd just use the laws that exist, but noooooo... that's too obvious. 

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Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 07:47 PM »

After 30 days, even with a bunch of people in the DC IRC channel trying to mess up my experiment by hitting the miner page and parking their PCs there and mining BTC for me, I still had not managed to generate a full BTC. And Krishean has some powerful computers!

-app103 (March 27, 2013, 12:44 PM)

Mining is intensive. CPU mining is pretty much dead for BTC, though it is still used for LTC.

I've managed to mine about 0.065 BTC using 2 video cards. That was a couple weeks or so. Not a lot, but still a bit more than $5.00 USD, almost $6.00.

I blew some of it playing Satoshi Dice though. (It's a kind of fun little casino for BTC.)

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Living Room / Re: Ad Industry Attacks Firefox

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 07:19 PM »

Good on them at Mozilla! 

From the article:

"If Mozilla follows through on its plan ... the disruption will disenfranchise every single Internet user," said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB, in his post. "All of us will lose the freedom to choose our own online experiences; we will lose the opportunity to monitor and protect our privacy; and we will lose the chance to benefit from independent sites ... because thousands of small businesses that make up the diversity of content and services online will be forced to close their doors."

Oh sweet Jesus... Is he really THAT deluded?

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Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 12:10 PM »

But you know who are and will continue to really make out like bandits with this? The guys with the botnets, distributing malware with bitcoin miner software, getting unsuspecting users to generate BTC for them when their computers are idle.

-app103 (March 27, 2013, 12:03 PM)

I've actually thought of doing that... But.. alas.. I have this sense of right & wrong...

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Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 12:09 PM »

But really, if it's climbing, who cares?

-Renegade (March 27, 2013, 09:56 AM)

Hmm...what was that you were saying earlier about selling one's soul to Lucifer?

-40hz (March 27, 2013, 10:07 AM)

At best I have a small mortgage!

As long as you can climb upwards and jump off at the right time.

-Renegade (March 27, 2013, 09:56 AM)

And that- as many broke or dead from terminal forces after jumping off a high precipice day traders can attest to- is not as easy as putting those words to the keyboard is.  

-wraith808 (March 27, 2013, 10:52 AM)

Ha. Ha. Ha. Laugh it up fly boy!

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Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 09:56 AM »

@40hz

Hehehehe!

Well Rockefeller sold his soul to Lucifer, so I have no illusions about his "endeavours". I can only think of a small handful of people equally sinister as him. Anyways... THAT is a VERY long rant.

I've been dodging major stock market manipulation and come out ahead of it by a good margin, though that is is a different and far more manipulated and volatile market than BTC.

If there is manipulation, it will become apparent very quickly. These things cannot be hidden.

Here's a tip for the Korean stock market... If you see 18 shares bought or sold, one of the market manipulators is VERY pissed off, and mostly likely by people manipulating the market in the opposite direction.

18 - NSFW

The Korean pronunciation for "18" is almost identical to "fuck you".

But really, if it's climbing, who cares? As long as you can climb upwards and jump off at the right time.

Markets are NOT about value - they are about PERCEIVED value. For BTC, this will continue for a long time for reasons better discussed in the Basement. (Or by PM/email/not DC main forums.)

3286

Living Room / Re: DonationCoder.com Avatar Mysteries

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 08:45 AM »

I did wonder about "DE J" being "DJ", but... still no clue.

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Living Room / Re: DonationCoder.com Avatar Mysteries

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 08:44 AM »

Gothi[c]'s real first name is John, so i think the last 2 lines simply say "From John, To DC"
but the first 3 lines have my stumped.

-mouser (March 27, 2013, 08:31 AM)

I figured probably "From J to DC", but that was pretty obvious. I didn't know what "J" was though. And as with you, the first 3 lines have me wondering. Base-26? Makes no sense. There's an inside joke there. I just don't get it.

3288

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 08:26 AM »

Well, digressing from the obvious implications of a free market currency that has no central bank controlling it...

Here's a great chart to follow BTC.

WARNING: Be prepared to crap your pants and kick yourself...

http://bitcoin.clarkmoody.com/



On the chart, make sure to click these:

Period: W1 D3 D1 H4 H1 M15 M5 M3 M1

Those let you zoom in. Weeks, days, hours and minutes. Here's a minutes chart (m5):



There's lots of volatility in the for the forex people.

I've been following corrections, and if you are a forex expert, you can capitalize on them and profit to insane degrees, but if not, they're simply bumps on the way up.

After I initially bought, I saw it drop, crapped myself for a moment, then calmed down and watched it rise well over my buying price.

I am extremely bullish on this. All the news and indicators point up. I fully expect it to breach the USD 100 mark very soon. That will be a major event in financial history.

The thing that I find absolutely fascinating about it is the power of the people in a P2P network to create such an incredible market.

Right now we are seeing the Wild, Wild West repeating itself online. It's a gold rush for anyone willing to jump in, get dirty, and start panning, and the barriers to entry are very low.

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Living Room / Re: DonationCoder.com Avatar Mysteries

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 07:54 AM »

Nice work renegade -- and what about the last page?

-mouser (March 27, 2013, 07:38 AM)

Code: Text [Select]

1. ZCZC
2. ZNY SSSSS
3. DE J
4. FM Mr J
5. TO DC

I figured that it was just some kind of internal joke and didn't even bother to try figuring it out. The rest of the message I recognized immediately, but took a couple minutes to write down as I scrolled through the frames.

3290

Living Room / Re: DonationCoder.com Avatar Mysteries

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 07:03 AM »

Now, in my defense, it only took me a couple minutes...

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Living Room / Re: DonationCoder.com Avatar Mysteries

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 07:02 AM »

YOU HAVE TO MUCH TIME ON YOUR HANDS

3292

Living Room / Utah State University Unveils Wirelessly Charged Electric Bus

« Last post by Renegade on March 27, 2013, 01:46 AM »

Who's the sexiest scientist of all time?

Hint

What?!?! Seriously? Pfft...

http://www.usu.edu/u...ex.cfm?article=51862

Utah State University presented a first-of-its-kind electric bus that is charged through wireless charging technology in a demonstration Nov. 15.

 The Aggie Bus rolled onto the streets carrying passengers just 16 months after USU demonstrated the first high-power, high-efficiency wireless power transfer system capable of transferring enough energy to quickly charge an electric vehicle. In July 2011, the USU Research Foundation demonstrated 90 percent electrical transfer efficiency of five kilowatts over an air gap of 10 inches. The demonstration validated that electric vehicles can efficiently be charged with wireless technology.
 
 USU’s Wireless Power Transfer team, in cooperation with the Utah Science Technology and Research initiative’s Advanced Transportation Institute at USU, has designed a more efficient way to meet the nation’s transportation needs. By carefully applying a mix of modern advances in engineering and Nikola Tesla’s principles of induction, USU engineer Hunter Wu and his team have solved one of today’s vexing problems in WPT. Their research has led to the development of a robust prototype, which has been fitted to the Aggie Bus. The prototype transfers power over an air gap where no physical contact is required. Wireless power transfer technology delivers a multitude of benefits to consumers that include greater reliability due to no moving parts or cords, added convenience through the elimination of plug-in charging, the assurance of safety by removing the risk of electrocution and aesthetically pleasing devices as a result of no visible wiring.

3293

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on March 26, 2013, 10:59 PM »

So, in summary... Full on "make Nineteen Eighty-Four looks like paradise".

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think we both know what will happen before that. We've discussed that in PMs, so I'll leave it out here for the sake of not pushing the elevator button.

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Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on March 26, 2013, 10:23 PM »

Time to call a spade a spade... 

-Renegade (March 26, 2013, 08:41 PM)

And press the express elevator button... down?

And here we survived for 4 pages! LOL

-wraith808 (March 26, 2013, 09:33 PM)

Hey, I didn't bring up the... ummm... I'll leave it at that.

3295

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on March 26, 2013, 10:22 PM »

@40hz - How could it be shut down? Shut down all encrypted traffic? I don't get how it's possible to shut down like that.

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Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on March 26, 2013, 08:41 PM »

Time to call a spade a spade... 

This attempt to regulate is a 2-pronged attack on people.

1) The kleptocrats trying to get into your pockets and steal more from you.
2) The authoritarians trying to exert complete control over all transactions between people.

That's the short version. Here's the almost-ranty version.

1) The Kleptocrats

The kleptocracy in charge does nothing but look for new ways to steal from people. This is pretty obvious when you hear about attempts to tax breathing. (No... that isn't made up... It is horrifyingly real.)

The US has no legal jurisdiction over any currency other than its own. It is neither their responsibility nor duty to address any other currency outside of their own borders. BTC is a P2P crypto-currency that has no relationship to the US whatsoever. Their attempt to regulate that which does not concern them only further illustrates the kleptocratic nature of the beast.

2) The Authoritarians

The control freaks still don't get it. The cat is out of the bag. It's loose. It ran away and they'll never catch it.

The power is in the network and out of their hands.

However, their attempt to try and regain control only further exposes their insatiable greed for power & control.

John and Fred are drinking then head out to a bar. They have a few more when John realizes that he forgot his wallet at Fred's place. Fred spots him a few bucks, and John happily pays for a beer then pays back Fred when they get back to Fred's place for another round or 10.

How many transactions are there there? How many more could be scrutinized and taxed if the authoritarian control freaks had their way?

Well, Fred lent John a few bucks, so why shouldn't they take their cut there? With a digital, centrally controlled currency this is very possible. With BTC, it is not. Then there's the transaction where John pays Fred back. And why shouldn't the authoritarian control freaks at a minimum at least KNOW about that? With a centrally controlled digital currency that is possible. With BTC, it isn't that simple, nor is it realistic. With BTC, control has been taken from the authoritarians, and they don't like it one little bit.




BTC robs the authoritarians of the possibility of knowing what people have, and further robs the kleptocrats of the possibility of stealing people's money. (Oh certainly they create laws to call their theft "legal", but it's still theft.)

THIS is why BTC is such a threat to the establishment. It puts POWER back in the hands of the people. It RETURNS the rightful power of commerce to the participants in commerce, and prevents the establishment from meddling where it has no legitimate right and doesn't belong.

They will fight tooth and nail on this issue.

BTC is antithetical to current system. And that is why it will flourish as it returns the power to the people.

3297

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on March 26, 2013, 06:48 PM »

What I mean is a minimum amount in transactions before you have to register.

-wraith808 (March 26, 2013, 06:32 PM)

Is that about FinCEN? I'm still confused. 

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Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on March 26, 2013, 06:13 PM »

I wonder if there is a floor on the amount of money.  I mean, for my years here, I've really only made money to support hobby and entertainment stuff.  Not sure if anyone else has made more than that...

-wraith808 (March 26, 2013, 04:56 PM)

I'm not sure what you mean there.

If you're going to buy from an exchange, you kind of need to buy enough to lower your transaction costs (bank wiring fees) unless the offer some method that reduces your costs that you can take advantage of. So, depending on just how greedy your bank is, and how the collude with other banks to rip you off (the often send through intermediary banks that gouge you in addition to the sending and receiving banks gouging you), your wiring fees could be higher or lower. Also, remember that banks are allowed to abuse "float time", which is criminal for you or me and would land any of us in prison. By abusing float time they are able to skim interest off you. Some banks are worse than others. The practical upshot for people that don't care about banks stealing from them is that the worse your bank is, the longer it takes for the money to land in the receiving bank. Typically this is 2 to 5 days. (Electrons travel very slowly in banks when it suits them... Which just goes to show how powerful the banksters are when they can bend fundamental laws of physics. )

So, assume that you're going to get gouged for around $20~50 or so in wiring fees, but it should probably sit around $25. Again, how deeply the banks cut into you all depends on your bank and the receiving bank.

This makes it impractical for anyone that wants to buy 1 BTC or so unless they are confident that BTC will rise well above its current levels to cover their transaction costs. How long that will take is anyone's guess.

Of course the lower the percentage you pay in transaction fees, the better. So if you're comfortable with around 5% or so, then sending around USD $500 or so begins to make sense.

It's also possible to pool money with friends then buy BTC with a single wire transfer and then send everyone their BTC. If you have 5 or 10 friends that want to try it out, the transaction fees suddenly become far less important.

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Living Room / Re: Good for Nick D'Aloisio!!

« Last post by Renegade on March 26, 2013, 03:22 PM »

@40hz - HAHHAAHA~!  

When not working at Yahoo, he will keep up with his hobbies — cricket in particular — and set his sights on attending college at Oxford. His intended major is philosophy.

Well, that tells me he's got to be one of the good guys!

3300

Living Room / Re: Does anyone here use Bitcoins?

« Last post by Renegade on March 25, 2013, 07:59 PM »

Once you have an exchange account, you can buy BTC.

Now, there are some places that will let you buy BTC without an exchange account, however, that's a bad idea. Their spreads are massive, so it's a very expensive way to buy BTC. An exchange account will cost you far less. However, if you only want to buy a very small amount, the non-exhange way is ok.

Once you have your BTC, you can then send it from your exhange account to your bitcoin wallet. You get your bitcoin wallet at http://bitcoin.org. Just download it, let it update and sync (takes a while the first time around), then poof! Automagically you have your bitcoin wallet ready to use.

Click on the "Receive" button, copy an address, label it if you like, then give that address to your bitcoin exchange account to send to.

MAKE CERTAIN TO HAVE A BACKUP PLAN IN PLACE.

MAKE CERTAIN TO HAVE A BACKUP PLAN IN PLACE.

MAKE 100% TOTALLY FOR SURE AND ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN TO HAVE A VERY GOOD, RELIABLE, ROBUST, BACKUP PLAN FOR YOUR BACK PLAN AND THEN ANOTHER BACKUP PLAN FOR YOUR BACKUP PLANS.

If you lose your bitcoin wallet, it is GONE. Forever. Do not lose it. Guard it like nothing you have ever guarded before. Print it out on paper as well. (I think the name of the program that lets you do that is something like "armory wallet".)

Using BTC very easy. It's so simple that you'll wonder if you're doing something wrong.

All you need to do it type in an amount, enter the address that you are sending it to, and click. Done.

Mining is an easy way to get a small amount of BTC. It isn't economically feasible to do it on a typical desktop, but you can.

Well, that's not really true. RIGHT NOW it isn't economical, but, if you manage to mine a small amount, and BTC takes off, then you'll be glad that you did.

E.g. Say you manage to mine 0.01 BTC per day. That's about $0.75 or so today. If BTC hits the lower end of Falkvinge's target (won't be for years though), then you'll be sitting on 0.01 BTC worth $1,000.00. So, if you mined for a month, in 10 years or so you might have $10k.

For the BTC market, you can think of BTC the "gold" of the crypto-currency world and Litecoin (LTC) as the "silver".

I just started mining LTC and will be looking into it more in the near future. I have no idea about whether it will be worth anything, but there is a market for it and it is growing. I missed out on the very early days of BTC as I was just too damn lazy. I don't plan to let this potentially lucrative opportunity pass me by like I let the last one.

One other thing, if you read the MSM, you'll see numerous hit pieces on BTC. Tonnes of them. BTC is HATED there, which in "I'm not a complete moron"-speak means that there has to be something good about it.

The dominant theme in the hit pieces right now is "illegal drugs". And you can use USD or CAN or GBP or JPY or AUD to buy drugs too... Their point is total garbage. It's like saying that because someone was killed by some idiot with a hammer, hammers are bad. Pfft.

Got to run again...