bitcoincharts.com last trade  $3.57/BTC
Thanks for the tip. 

Because it [almost] works. I still block when loadavg goes too high, but it somehow works.

All go to the https://btcex.com just as planned

Liquidity in banks do not move on weekends anyway, and we'll be back by monday

No, don't worry, this is fine. Your balance will show up correctly once things are back to normal.

If this is a joke, it's a bad one.

It sounds credible enough to be serious (with bitcoin address and email) for me to remove btcex from WeUseCoins until this is cleared up.

Nope.

in theory; but he will likely be able to find patterns in the traffic and/or block the right IPs to restore functionality.  depends on how smart a ddos and how much resources they have

To say it more generally, anonymity requires that you not transfer or spend bitcoins in any way that attaches your identity to them; it is thus far better a tracking tool than cash but less effective a tracking tool than credit cards, ACH, SWIFT, and so on.

If you earn bitcoins anonymously, you can maintain anonymity as long as you properly hold the money (in the way Creighto was describing) and as long as, when you eventually transfer it to others, you either (1) avoid attaching your (non-pseudonymous) identity to that transaction or (2) deal with an intermediary (or set of intermediaries) to whom you disclose your identity but whom you trust not to disclose it to others.  As an example of (1), you might simply purchase a subscription to a website using a pseudonym and access it through Tor.  As an example of (2), you might convert bitcoin-denominated funds to USD using a bank that you believe will not choose (and cannot be coerced by those you wish to maintain anonymity from) to disclose your identity, or you might attempt to use a series of intermediate exchangers that mix and "launder" coins, hoping that the chain will not be compromised (and that its components haven't maintained logs if they are).

Whether it will in practice be feasible for a criminal to transfer large amounts of money in bitcoins anonymously in the ways they desire remains to be seen (and I would personally hope not and would support regulation to make it less likely), but it is already possible for criminals to transfer large amounts of cash.  Except to the extent that the physical limitations of cash provide opportunities for the detection of criminal activity (e.g., it has to be in a truck or on a plane for some amount of time), it ought to be strictly less likely for a wrongdoer to avoid detection using bitcoins.

well face to face and local is where most of my trading activities are happening on a day to day basis.
 Finding what you have to say interesting,and appreciate the extra info on the other systems.
i have been thinking hard about how to introduce businessmen to bit coin in my local area.
http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=6644.0

I was thinking of buying the bread with the bitcoin actually and that second home in some remote region with the 1 oz silver.

i am very bullish on bitcoin, i am not saying it has to be backed by silver, just pointing out that they have similar characteristics. both seem a good place to store value, and if your investment is split beetween these two options you are hedging your bets whatever the outcome.

If bitcoin is a  roaring success and the dollar dives silver will still be worth loads in bit coin as it is consumed in all those electronics in a good economy.

if bitcoin fails and we do have a massive depression silver will have more use and purchasing power than gold.

 Gold has no use and it is horded, therefore there is lots of it now above ground.
there is less silver above ground than there is gold, as it has mostly been consumed.

therefore silver would be worth more than gold if the price was not artificially manipulated down by the market makers dumping silver paper.

when these guys are exposed, silver will return to its true value as expressed in food, land, or homes to live in ....not usd.

I don't think it is too far out of the box to say bitcoin will meet parity with 1 oz of silver.
and a usd will be equal to some micro of a bitcoin or something very similar like www.witcoin.com

imagine what this system would be like if facebook rewarded everyone a micro payment for the valuable information they enter and started facecoin.

that would be the end of bitcoin, but i would still have my silver to buy facecoin with.

before btc came along, i was a big believer in Bob Prechter's theory of dollar down, everything else up (incl PM's); dollar up, everything else down.  if u look at mkts u can pretty much see this is exactly what has happened since the advent of the Fed and even more tightly correlated since 1971 when the gold std was revoked.  paradoxically, acc. to Prechter, if we go into a depression (we had a small whiff of this in 2008), the dollar will skyrocket and everything else will crash incl. PM's.  If you look at FerBanke's actions in light of this theory, u clearly see he believes we r on the brink of severe deflation and depression which is why he has pulled out all the stops and more in inflating the money supply.  amazingly he has sparked the greatest stock mkt rally ever since the bottom Mar 2009.  the question is whether we're in another bubble. i think we are.  BTC was spawned by Satoshi precisely b/c of worldwide central bank reflation.  so it is an inflationary phenomenon as far as i'm concerned and certainly will flourish in that environment.  the real question is what happens to BTC if everything goes into reverse and we re enter the deflationary spiral b/c some bubble blows up somewhere like the Middle East or a European default.  it certainly could crash as well as the dollar skyrockets.  why would the dollar skyrocket.  b/c 60% of world debt is USD and would have to be liquidated severely contracting USD money supply and paradoxically increasing its value.  up until recently i believed BTC would crash as well but i'm increasingly leaning against that view.  why?  b/c i think the drive towards BTC popularity will be b/c of its inherent STABILITY.  the problem with the USD is its INSTABILITY with a bias to the downside.  every business owner incl myself hates this volatility making it hard to make longterm business decisions.  the Fed doesn't understand this.  i don't think the 2nd Great Depression takes down the internet or smartphone technology and will be the winner in the end vs gold and USD.

I've never quite understood this. If we're talking a Mad Max type situation, is anybody going to want gold, except perhaps for its industrial uses? I think oil, food, or other useful consumables will be in much higher demand.