Bitcoin Forum

Hello all.

I could write all night long on the subject I know best, that would be me, but very little of it would be of interest to anyone.  So, I’ll just give you a snapshot of my background.

I first started using computers while in the US Navy in the mid-1960’s.  It was all analog back then.  After my enlistment, I worked for a company that had a nifty Univac 1004.  That speed demon had a whopping  961 characters (6 bits) of core memory.  After a couple of years the company purchased an IBM 360 and soon after that I was named Systems Manager.  This was the big time!
  
I moved from systems to sales and sales management until my retirement some thirty years later.  During my time in sales, I lost whatever skilz I had accumulated in systems.  While enjoying retirement, I got back into computer work again.  I did some web hosting, built quite a few web sites, and learned some of the new coding regimes; notably python, php, and java.

Retirement sucks.
  
Lately I have been working on some cyber security projects.  While researching the subject of my latest project (XKeyscore), I came across a very small notice concerning bitcoins.  That notice jogged my memory of an article I read where the EFF had reinstated their acceptance of BTC as donations.

Now, I have read the occasional blurb about bitcoins from time to time during the last couple of years, but passed it off as a fad.  The big-names in blogging and economics circles seemed to pan the concept generally, and sometimes got downright nasty in the insuations they cast on bitcoin miners and the concept of alt money.
  
I respect the work that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) does, so I decided to check bitcoins out a little.  That little has led to a lot and here I am.  Looking forward to asking a lot of questions and getting to know all of you.

This would be a good time to quit, but I think it is important to mention that if you don’t value your privacy, no one will.  Go here and see what you can do to stay off of the radar of the snoops:
  
https://prism-break.org/

/Frank

https://prism-break.org/ is a great site!

welcome :)

Thanks for the welcome.

Yes prism-break is a great resource.  I hope many individuals will become aware of how little their privacy is worth to the power hungry agencies.

/Frank

Thank you man, this site is usefull.

Hello and welcome here. :)

Thanks marcovaldo.

@magus:  You're welcome.  Pass it on.  Everyone needs to know about that resource.

/Frank

Welcome to the site Frank!

Glad to have you on board sir!

Welcome to the forums Frank!

Hello OldGeek! You seem to have a lot of experience with computers!

Nice introduction! Welcome on Board!

Hello.

Wow! Great site!

You should add Chromium maybe!

But, still, welcome!

Welcome.

Thanks to all of you for the warm welcome!

@ MRKLYE :  I'm glad to be here.  Late to the party as usual, but here anyway.

@ b!z  :  Yes, most of my adult life has been involved with a computer of some sort.  Perhaps sometime I might share with you how I learned about the DARPA project and what Tim Berners Lee planned to do with it.

@ iANDROID :  Yes, https://prism-break.org/ is a great site.  Lest anyone get the wrong idea, It is not my site.  I posted about it because a vast majority of computer users in general, and internet users in particular, do not realize how open their personal book is.  I have nothing to do with the site, except to tell people about it.

This isn't the right forum for a big discussion of this, but while I'm on a roll; everyone should look closely at what they have installed on their machines.  I can almost guarantee (P>0.95) that if you have closed source software on your computer, read that as 'commercial', there is at least one back door.  Sometimes there are three or four illicit entrances to your data. 

Go with open source, people.  Read the code.  If you don't understand it, get help.  Protect yourself because no one else will.

/Frank

Use a personnal computer for stupid stuff like Facebook and Websurfing, and a tiny Rasperry for serious stuff= my solution

Hello and welcome here.

@ iANDROID : That's a good enough solution so long as you don't have passwords, credit card numbers, etc on your public facing machine.

@ bitcoin44me : Thanks for the welcome.

welcome  :)

hi,

thank you for prism-break  8)