The issue with using a heat pump for your winter heating is that the cold outside air has very little heat that can be pulled out of it. The colder it get's outside, the less efficient the device becomes.
Yes and no, and while air is still a gas, it has lots of kinetic energy. Moving from 10C to 0C (50f to 32f) only extracts about 5% of the energy available. Move it to -100C and it will choke. Remember also that AC units (heating and cooling) are normally designed for their environment, that's why some will work happily at -15C and others will have iced up. Flip side, exchanging energy from a hot room to an even hotter outside is the same principle. |
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Now if you were to get a window air conditioner (heat pump) and put it in the window backwards then you might put 1000W of electricity in and get 2000W or more of heat out. But a window AC won't come on once the outside temperature falls below a certain point.
With this and your BTC guild posts, we can safely conclude you really are mad  Not to detract from Joel's post, but to add to the silly side - obviously you should put your miners outside blowing onto the AC unit so it doesn't get cold. On the proper side - I am enjoying winter and the rigs keep the place nice and tropical. |
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Alternatively, if you DO know it is there, is it criminal? If anyone did embed something illegal into the blockchain, then released the decryption method to the public, then everyone would know it was there, and anyone could extract it. But whether it is illegal to have such content in the blockchain has yet to be determined.
If I know "something" is there, but don't know what, maybe I'm just paranoid rather than criminal. It's like a whole lot of wiki-leak files that are available but not unlocked - someone knows the key, and someone could find the key, but just because I could access it (locked or unlocked) doesn't turn me into a criminal. If I did access the file in a locked state, but not know it's contents, that would also be a hard point to press. (reference receipt of stolen goods - there is a difference between knowing they are stolen or not) |
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A more simple example (and quite made up) is if you apply the correct cyptographic key to this post you will get a defamatory statement (with is illegal). Is this post therefore illegal?
Depends on the jurisdiction and what the court rules. For a defamatory statement it would be worth the risk, but would you want to take the risk of uploading child porn given the life-ruining consequences of even being accused? I think that this is a very real risk to the current system. I just used defamation as an example (and as you say, it depends of jurisdiction). I was more making the point that with the correct key or filter you could make anything look like anything else. And if you don't know it's there and can't extract it, is that criminal? |
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It's a bit like Schrödinger's cat.
If I have an unopenable box and tell you there is something illegal in it, is that illegal. You can't rove it or see it or know that it exists, therefore no harm is done. Something embedded in a block isn't visible unless you know the key, and on simple viewing would not be illegal.
A more simple example (and quite made up) is if you apply the correct cyptographic key to this post you will get a defamatory statement (with is illegal). Is this post therefore illegal?
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Bitcoin will only fail when people stop believing in it, which is.... never? ^^
OR when people stop buying them with other currencies/commodities. Some observations: - There are a few central bank currencies (physical notes and coins) where the locals refuse to take them for goods and prefer another currency (like USD). - The volatility of the exchange rate is simply reflective of an early stage. If I look at other currency cross rates (JPY/USD or GBP/USD) they are also volatile, but at a different level, and people still price cross-border goods like amazon in multiple currencies. - There are a few physical stores accepting multiple currencies. I had the choice of paying for my burgerking in an airport in at least four currencies last month (JPY/EUR/USD/SGD), and when I booked a flight yesterday had the choice of using real or fake dollars to pay for the ticket. - I also used BTC to quickly transfer some USD to someone this week at a reasonable exchange rate, that's a function I like. |
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Gox charges 0.65% on each side, so very roughly on your $10 coin, 13 cents. (More precisely, 13.08 cents.)
Have one BTC
Sell 1 at $10.1308, pay 0.06585 commission, have 10.065. then
Buy 1 at 10.0000, pay 0.06500 commission, have one BTC and no $$
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I was helping someone yesterday with a similar problem. They wanted Gox USD and had local currency. Easiest was for them to buy coin and transfer direct to the exchange. Even with different currencies on different exchanges, it is hard to move it around - coins are easy. It would be similar for AUD trades (I have a ComBank account I use when I'm in Aus). Fastest is an OTC among a group that has built mutual trust - like ebay perhaps - and I have several people I trade with like that.
For example, if you want AUD100 in TH, then easiest is buy by local internet transfer and receive coins and I can execute the trade directly in the exchange to cover the position. Having a market maker helps, or realising you pay for the speed and ease. For instance, last time I move some money around took six days from my bank to LR (including a weekend) and then between 10 minutes and a few hours into the different exchanges. Somewhere along the way I lost 3% to 5% in conversion fees because of forex spreads and handling charges. At least trading directly I can use mid-rates.
Similarly, if you wanted AUD for BTC, having someone happy to buy the coin direct and transfer is handy, but it doesn't work if they're trying to make a business of it, then the fees kick in.
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I have not done any referrals and pay the full 0.6% (can't be bothered setting up a second account). Out of interest, yesterday I downloaded all of my trade history to check just how much I had paid in commissions.
$60
So if I had referred myself I would be $6 better off. At the moment, I consider I have way more than $6 or even $60 of value from my trading, and it helps keep TH in business. I would prefer a 0.5% rate, but it's not the end of the world.
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can't divulge more infos now, but US government is going to adopt bitcoin in place of the dollar. Moar infos after my meeting with Obama.
Doesnt seem like a bad idea. IMO its worth more.. Oh no, not another currency for the US to screw up. I'd want payment up front from the US govt because of the bad credit rating and mountain of debt. Perhaps I'd just trade them for a more solid currency - yuan maybe - lol. |
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Yes, really. Not cheap though.
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Last time I used a PCI to PCIE adapter there is no driver specifically for it. It goes straight through to the graphics card (I was using HD48xx at the time). You might want to test it separately.
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This thread wins Lowest Content Value by far.
 Smalleyeter - nice posting yet again, but I might ruin it. For most casual GPU users, the cards run happily for a long time. However, they do fail and there are several things that shorten lives. I'd agree with the smoke, but I don't have that problem. 1: Keep things clean. Dust is well know for doing amazing things and gets everywhere. Clean your case/fans/cards periodically. 2: Heat kills - if you overclock, you will probably shorten the life of the card, and it doesn't take too much to fry video ram or the gpu. I'm happy running stock speeds and down clocked memory. 3: Have spares. I have been running cards 24/7 longer than bitcoin has been around, and every now and then I get a bearing failure on a fan. I have a stash of failed cards so I can swap out a fan and replace it easily. I also "re-fresh" the thermal paste rather than applying new - saves me quite a bit. If I wanted to have my computers get cold, I can turn them off, but they are happier when warm. |
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It seems to me that the biggest hurdle to more people adopting BTC is the issue trust. How does one know if a merchant is reputable? We all know that when we go to Amazon.com and send them money, the product we ordered shows up like clockwork in a few days. There is no question as to the soundness of the transaction.
With this being said, does anyone have good ideas on how to foster such trust in a newly launched BTC business? Do you start by doing very small transactions in order to build up a rep? Do you participate in the forums extensively so people are comfortable with your organization?
Any ideas are welcome.....it seems like a very difficult problem, and one that has yet to be really addressed.
Back to the OP (before the pointless hijack on page one). Building a business is straight-forward. Building a successful one is harder. 1: Have a product or service that people want or need. Appropriate price/quality points. 2: Have a selling point - why they should buy from you. 3: Make sure you can source and supply with a positive margin. 4: If things go wrong, make sure you know how to fix it. If the customer is unhappy or becomes a bad debt, how much will this hurt. 5: Stay on top of regulatory issues (taxes/licensing as applicable). Building trust is hard, destroying it is easy. |
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The Dilbert cartoon did this - the word was "frienditute".
I'll pass, but I do remember learning programming in the early 80's before being subjected to a fresh language each month at university.
I also know a bit about a lot, and sometimes a lot about a bit.
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it will take almost 5 years before BTC become of public domain. BTC still too technical!
There it is, the gem of the post. it's going to take time. I can think I missed the early 2011 opportunity because I had a stack of GPUs doing something else, and have come in late, paid for a few hundred coins and having a bit of fun trading. BUT The people I see who are genuinely wealthy have invested many years on ventures. I got some money out of a high risk venture after working on it for eight years and I'm not expecting bitcoin to be months rather than years. |
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Interesting that the "failed" Beenz is mentioned. In other posts I have seen talking about failed currencies or electronic systems they have the single point of failure flaw. That is, if the sponsoring company fails, so does the currency. Airpoints/airmiles or store loyalty schemes are like that, as are gift vouchers that become worthless when the store fails. Anyone want to buy some shares in WorldCom or Enron?
Bitcoin will actually have a hard time failing because it lacks that similar single point of failure.
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