It's all about scale. HSBC money laundered trillions of dollars and had to pay a few billion bucks in a fine with no criminal charges. Liberty Reserve laundered a few billion and the guys running it got arrested. If this guy had charged more so it was 380 million then perhaps he'd be better off? Wasn't there just a story about the pentagon paying 1 billion for rewriting a payroll system that they didn't use? I doubt anyone went to jail for that one (Yes, different country, but scale is important)
There are very few free market lovers in politics. There are maybe a half dozen on the federal level that have any sort of real free market / libertarian leaning beliefs and voting records. My local congressman was R and head of the house subcommittee on telecommunications. His largest donors were in the telco industry. He also was in favor of allowing the telcos to regain their monopoly position after the 1996 telco act forced them to allow competition. As various reliable studies show the US really is in the pits for broadband speed even in large metro areas compared to western countries.
I agree with the single owner method. As the universal access fee was a tax the citizens paid to roll out telco infrastructure, and the "200 billion broadband scandal" showed we all overpaid for nothing, I'd be alright with that being spun off into a USPS style entity. At that point anyone could tie into the infrastructure. Won't happen but it'd be nice.
Rainbow's End had a lot of automated systems. Cars could be called for a quick ride auto dispatched to the nearest available. UPS delivered using automated drones that were shot into the sky and glided to delivery - even if you weren't home it would hone in on your signal. I have no idea what book the guy is writing but I think Vinge is on to something. And I do want to have augmented reality pratchett space.
I agree. Real geeks should know that bitcoins aren't worth doing CPU mining. Litecoin is the place for that until all the GPU bitcoin miners move over to LTC.
A business client had his household computers taken by the police, with warrants, because they had IP logs showing he was downloading child porn. They returned all of them except one saying those had been cleared but the one definitely had child porn on it. His lawyer requested a copy of the drive, more information about the files, anything to help them figure out what was going on themselves as he was adamant he did nothing wrong. The police kept delaying but they did keep threatening to go public with their current status unless he plea bargained. He stood his ground. Finally the police admitted they found nothing on the drive, returned the last computer and closed the case.
I was talked to a few times during the ongoing thing, poor guy had a month of insane stress. He figured the guest open WIFI along the major roadway he lives on was no longer a good idea. He's a business owner and decided it was best to not complain or it'd hurt his business. I can understand your fears of finding evidence.
I've been playing far too many FPS. I was reading #2 "See if the rabbit is owned by a small child" and before finishing the sentence started wondering why a little kid would be out there teabagging a dead rabbit corpse.
I think Microsoft is starting a trend that Sony and Nintendo will continue as the market is ready for this. As consumers we've been programmed to accept that you can't trade anything digital. Buying anything on itunes, google play, or steam is a one time purchase, can't trade or even give away. Kindle lets you loan books - if the publisher allows - for a single short period. Get a book loaned to you but something comes up and can't read it in that window? Oh well out of luck!
It's simplier to launder coins. You move them to one of the many exchanges that keep coins in a common pool. Then you withdraw coins to a new address - chain is broken. Bounce around to a few exchanges in different countries. That's the easy way, there are even services specifically designed for laundering.
I don't think a kid on a lemonade stand can officially accept paypal, isn't it 18 and older? Same with any merchant account which would let a kid mow a lawn or do all the normal things that kids can do for cash.
I've noticed the local comedy clubs have closed down. South Bend, IN Funny bone closed then Kalamazoo Michigan had a smaller club downtown that closed. Is this a national problem or just the bad economy in the area?
I saw Dunham at a local club before he got big, twice. He was a regular on the tour of local clubs I believe. I guess it was part of the right of passage for that job? Saw a stage hypnotist - with a member of our group getting hypnotized to have an orgasm with a tap on the forehead. Absolutely hilarious evening. Shame that entertainment option isn't around anymore.
1) Hahahahaha. I hope Google does drive them out. The same companies that had higher "wholesale" DSL rates than they were offering retail to end users direct? The ones that have government mandated monopolies for regions where they can set any price they want for interconnect fees? There's a reason thousands of ISPs closed up shop in the early 2000s, they simply could not gain access to lines at anywhere near competitive rates because the incumbents got the FCC to undo the reform that forced them to share. The baby bells have received hundreds of billions of tax breaks and monies they got to roll out uprgades that never appeared (Google 200 billion broadband scandal) so I hope they do lose out. Now a few independent ISPs that are around, the few that have survived, I do hope they keep surviving.
2) Some areas have municipal fiber where anyone can connect. If an area wants this they should go for it and start the bond process. I don't think many do as they're rather rare.
You're right, off the cuff I'm going to say the typical skilled tradesman will have better financial success than a typical college grad.
Master plumber in my state requires 5 years apprenticeship with mandated tests to be licensed. I wouldn't compare it to a 5 year engineering program but it sure the hell beats the pants off of a typical management or lib arts class load. Although there are a lot of people who call themselves plumbers or engineers who aren't really those things.
Deregulation like the 1996 telco reform act helped spawn the ISP industry and is responsible for making the 'net ubiquitous. Then telecom firms got rid of the pesky rules requiring them to provide open access to competitors when the FCC was ran by Powel's son under Bush Jr. The thousands of ISPs across the country died because wholesale costs to lines were more expensive as the telcos were charging for retail. Kill the competition and force the clients back to the monopolies all through regulation. Corporatism is bad for consumers.
FIOS is halted because the large telcos made deals worth hundreds of billions and then realized they could keep their money without rolling it out. Although states like NJ are supposed to have 45Meg to every household by now - it's in the contracts the telcos signed. Sadly no politician has the gumption to go against such big companies.
How many people got fined, or did jailtime for the economic collapse and the era of too big to fail? If you're a small time crook it's called a crime. If you have the government bail you out and the DOJ gives up even investigating what happened it's called business as usual.
I would like to see anyone try to take on such a huge network. A bank couldn't afford to do it. Perhaps with the NSA's budget they may have some crypto chip that could outhash anything out there. Otherwise I simply don't see how to take over 51%.
Right now the bitcoin network is using 58.710 T/hashes. Everything is gauged in Mhashes so that is 58 billion 710 million M hashes. Top GPU does 1200 Mhash so you'd need about 49 million in GPUs of them running. At $777 each that's 38 billion to duplicate the network, doubling it. Not including anything else on a computer.. no boards, no CPUs, no electric to run them. I think my math is right.
Total value of all bitcoins if bought outright is 10,936,000 BTC * $72 = 787 million. Sure an entity could try to buy every coin out there. That'd be interesting to see if that would shoot the price even higher. I'm not sure how that would play out. But BTC can go 8 decimal places so even if they get very expensive people can use small portions of them.
Shutting down the peer to peer network is about the best that would be doable. Outlaw bitcoin, shut off anyone using it, and perhaps. But there is an estimated $2 million USD done on the silk road every month so people are fine doing illegal things.
This is all about control. Bitcoin was created to avoid the banks. There is no way to "print" more USD to buy treasury bonds like we're doing now. The banks with direct ties with the government is probably fearful this idea of being able to avoid banks entirely actually catches on. That would not be good for business.
If I was truly paranoid I'd wash the bitcoins before sending to a new wallet. I could have one payment key for each website so there would be no tracking. I do think bitcoins would be a nice way for websites to do micro transactions as there would be no processing or transaction fees and a fraction of a penny in value would be doable.
As to this beep I can't wait for the first television or radio commercial to include this. Or in store muzak while shopping at wally world to start having little beeps for 'flash sales'. The techy equivalent of blue light specials.
Slashdot Mirror
It's all about scale. HSBC money laundered trillions of dollars and had to pay a few billion bucks in a fine with no criminal charges. Liberty Reserve laundered a few billion and the guys running it got arrested. If this guy had charged more so it was 380 million then perhaps he'd be better off? Wasn't there just a story about the pentagon paying 1 billion for rewriting a payroll system that they didn't use? I doubt anyone went to jail for that one (Yes, different country, but scale is important)
There are very few free market lovers in politics. There are maybe a half dozen on the federal level that have any sort of real free market / libertarian leaning beliefs and voting records. My local congressman was R and head of the house subcommittee on telecommunications. His largest donors were in the telco industry. He also was in favor of allowing the telcos to regain their monopoly position after the 1996 telco act forced them to allow competition. As various reliable studies show the US really is in the pits for broadband speed even in large metro areas compared to western countries.
I agree with the single owner method. As the universal access fee was a tax the citizens paid to roll out telco infrastructure, and the "200 billion broadband scandal" showed we all overpaid for nothing, I'd be alright with that being spun off into a USPS style entity. At that point anyone could tie into the infrastructure. Won't happen but it'd be nice.
Rainbow's End had a lot of automated systems. Cars could be called for a quick ride auto dispatched to the nearest available. UPS delivered using automated drones that were shot into the sky and glided to delivery - even if you weren't home it would hone in on your signal. I have no idea what book the guy is writing but I think Vinge is on to something. And I do want to have augmented reality pratchett space.
Wasn't this in demolition man? I vaguely recall wesley snipes destroying a bunch of robots with human faces having a meeting.
I agree. Real geeks should know that bitcoins aren't worth doing CPU mining. Litecoin is the place for that until all the GPU bitcoin miners move over to LTC.
I doubt you'll see a flood of GPUs. Anyone who is technically minded enough to be mining will simply move to Litecoin for GPU mining.
A business client had his household computers taken by the police, with warrants, because they had IP logs showing he was downloading child porn. They returned all of them except one saying those had been cleared but the one definitely had child porn on it. His lawyer requested a copy of the drive, more information about the files, anything to help them figure out what was going on themselves as he was adamant he did nothing wrong. The police kept delaying but they did keep threatening to go public with their current status unless he plea bargained. He stood his ground. Finally the police admitted they found nothing on the drive, returned the last computer and closed the case.
I was talked to a few times during the ongoing thing, poor guy had a month of insane stress. He figured the guest open WIFI along the major roadway he lives on was no longer a good idea. He's a business owner and decided it was best to not complain or it'd hurt his business. I can understand your fears of finding evidence.
I've been playing far too many FPS. I was reading #2 "See if the rabbit is owned by a small child" and before finishing the sentence started wondering why a little kid would be out there teabagging a dead rabbit corpse.
I think Microsoft is starting a trend that Sony and Nintendo will continue as the market is ready for this. As consumers we've been programmed to accept that you can't trade anything digital. Buying anything on itunes, google play, or steam is a one time purchase, can't trade or even give away. Kindle lets you loan books - if the publisher allows - for a single short period. Get a book loaned to you but something comes up and can't read it in that window? Oh well out of luck!
It's simplier to launder coins. You move them to one of the many exchanges that keep coins in a common pool. Then you withdraw coins to a new address - chain is broken. Bounce around to a few exchanges in different countries. That's the easy way, there are even services specifically designed for laundering.
I don't think a kid on a lemonade stand can officially accept paypal, isn't it 18 and older? Same with any merchant account which would let a kid mow a lawn or do all the normal things that kids can do for cash.
I've noticed the local comedy clubs have closed down. South Bend, IN Funny bone closed then Kalamazoo Michigan had a smaller club downtown that closed. Is this a national problem or just the bad economy in the area?
I saw Dunham at a local club before he got big, twice. He was a regular on the tour of local clubs I believe. I guess it was part of the right of passage for that job? Saw a stage hypnotist - with a member of our group getting hypnotized to have an orgasm with a tap on the forehead. Absolutely hilarious evening. Shame that entertainment option isn't around anymore.
But geeks everywhere actually liked snarfquest
Like getting in early to any company stock early adopters will usually benefit.
1) Hahahahaha. I hope Google does drive them out. The same companies that had higher "wholesale" DSL rates than they were offering retail to end users direct? The ones that have government mandated monopolies for regions where they can set any price they want for interconnect fees? There's a reason thousands of ISPs closed up shop in the early 2000s, they simply could not gain access to lines at anywhere near competitive rates because the incumbents got the FCC to undo the reform that forced them to share. The baby bells have received hundreds of billions of tax breaks and monies they got to roll out uprgades that never appeared (Google 200 billion broadband scandal) so I hope they do lose out. Now a few independent ISPs that are around, the few that have survived, I do hope they keep surviving.
2) Some areas have municipal fiber where anyone can connect. If an area wants this they should go for it and start the bond process. I don't think many do as they're rather rare.
The Wired Article : Anthrax Redux: Did the Feds Nab the Wrong Guy? makes me wonder if the anthrax mailer got away with it. Also the Wiki article says one of the 19 involved in 9/11 may have had anthrax based on a doctor which I had never heard before.
So the ATF is after adult cam friends too?
You're right, off the cuff I'm going to say the typical skilled tradesman will have better financial success than a typical college grad.
Master plumber in my state requires 5 years apprenticeship with mandated tests to be licensed. I wouldn't compare it to a 5 year engineering program but it sure the hell beats the pants off of a typical management or lib arts class load. Although there are a lot of people who call themselves plumbers or engineers who aren't really those things.
Deregulation like the 1996 telco reform act helped spawn the ISP industry and is responsible for making the 'net ubiquitous. Then telecom firms got rid of the pesky rules requiring them to provide open access to competitors when the FCC was ran by Powel's son under Bush Jr. The thousands of ISPs across the country died because wholesale costs to lines were more expensive as the telcos were charging for retail. Kill the competition and force the clients back to the monopolies all through regulation. Corporatism is bad for consumers.
FIOS is halted because the large telcos made deals worth hundreds of billions and then realized they could keep their money without rolling it out. Although states like NJ are supposed to have 45Meg to every household by now - it's in the contracts the telcos signed. Sadly no politician has the gumption to go against such big companies.
How many people got fined, or did jailtime for the economic collapse and the era of too big to fail? If you're a small time crook it's called a crime. If you have the government bail you out and the DOJ gives up even investigating what happened it's called business as usual.
I like how the values haven't changed with the times. I don't know when the 10K rule went in but I wonder what it'd be today with inflation.
I would like to see anyone try to take on such a huge network. A bank couldn't afford to do it. Perhaps with the NSA's budget they may have some crypto chip that could outhash anything out there. Otherwise I simply don't see how to take over 51%.
Right now the bitcoin network is using 58.710 T/hashes. Everything is gauged in Mhashes so that is 58 billion 710 million M hashes. Top GPU does 1200 Mhash so you'd need about 49 million in GPUs of them running. At $777 each that's 38 billion to duplicate the network, doubling it. Not including anything else on a computer.. no boards, no CPUs, no electric to run them. I think my math is right.
Total value of all bitcoins if bought outright is 10,936,000 BTC * $72 = 787 million. Sure an entity could try to buy every coin out there. That'd be interesting to see if that would shoot the price even higher. I'm not sure how that would play out. But BTC can go 8 decimal places so even if they get very expensive people can use small portions of them.
Shutting down the peer to peer network is about the best that would be doable. Outlaw bitcoin, shut off anyone using it, and perhaps. But there is an estimated $2 million USD done on the silk road every month so people are fine doing illegal things.
This is all about control. Bitcoin was created to avoid the banks. There is no way to "print" more USD to buy treasury bonds like we're doing now. The banks with direct ties with the government is probably fearful this idea of being able to avoid banks entirely actually catches on. That would not be good for business.
If I was truly paranoid I'd wash the bitcoins before sending to a new wallet. I could have one payment key for each website so there would be no tracking. I do think bitcoins would be a nice way for websites to do micro transactions as there would be no processing or transaction fees and a fraction of a penny in value would be doable.
The neatest QR code I've seen mentioned is the sundial based one that works to get more customers at noon. http://beqrious.com/sun-based-qr-code-a-cool-gimmick-in-south-korea/
As to this beep I can't wait for the first television or radio commercial to include this. Or in store muzak while shopping at wally world to start having little beeps for 'flash sales'. The techy equivalent of blue light specials.