If you are technically challenged then mining may not be the most rewarding course for you.  If you to test the waters

1) buy 1 off of Amazon
2) Download and Install CGMiner https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=28402.0
3) Make an account on a reliable pool
4) Use CGMiner to mine on the pool with shiny new toy

You will probably not make a profit, but you'll understand the basics of mining, how pools work, share submission, difficulty, etc

If you want to throw a larger amount of money then go cloud hashing:
CEX.IO

Once you learn the fundamentals then consider buying from KNC, BitFury, CoinTerra or whatever ASIC manufacturer is viable.  As it stands right now buying hardware is a higher risk gamble than just buying BTC

No it's not that rare.

Don't kick yourself - you wouldn't have gotten that block if you were solo mining since the work your miner would be doing would be different than that issued to the pool. You can think about all the what-ifs all you want, but then life would suck...

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can’t pay its own bills... Leadership means that ‘the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.” - President Barack Obama 2006

I assure you cheap power was banned in California.  $0.30 this year serviced by SCE, $0.33 next year 

Probably from the same place that said you drink monkey blood.  Come on, fess up E.  We know your perversions. 

Sheesh. Was Trendon too busy to join Yifu's company?

May Yifu Guo get testicular cancer with mets to the bone  

That is only true when the network is not growing or shrinking.  With difficulty increasing like it has for the past 4 months it is better to pool mine as the chance for getting a block diminishes with time (not the case when the network is relatively static).

2.5 -3 bil

6j1YyVkV7kzwUeY7oEPD62Fc4QskamGwc6

Now one of my 5 held cryptos

Yep, now they're doing 8 of the last 10 lol

Oh noes!  Look out for BTCGuild 51% attack   

I know a couple of Nigerian princes who recently came into a large sum on money - maybe they'll go for 20nm ASICs

No longer viable to mine?  I can't imagine that day happening... I guess I would have to commit seppuku 

After months of trying to cancel my order for 4 Singles (ordered early March 2013) I tried the Paypal route but was denied due to being past the 45 period.  So I filed a chargeback with my credit card.  I did receive a conditional credit back for the original purchase.

BFL still shipped the singles 2 weeks after the chargeback and unfortunately my dad signed for it (I was out of town).  I spoke to my credit card processor who will be asking for an RMA address from BFL since I don't want to ship the singles back to some random address (where I RMAed a Day 1 single that died after 1 week).

I did get the telemarketing call last week but I was polite and didn't yell.  They were of no help getting a refund of course.

I'll see where this goes.  I just finished up a legal malpractice case (I was the plaintiff) so if BFL refuses to cooperate I will see them in court.

How a company can ship something 2 weeks after a credit card processor tries to contact you regarding a refund/chargeback is beyond me.  Left hand, meet right hand 

Hi TF.  Sent you an email and updated my sig with IO

It's probably legitimate... I received the call as well last week and was only offered 10% despite being a Day 1 order as well as having other orders.  My guy was definitely Filipino.

That's better than the 55GH/s I'm getting out of my single which was supposed to do 60.  Good thing it only cost me 208+ BTC.  Made back about 55BTC of that thanks to downtime with a 2 week turnaround on RMA. 

Enjoy the coffee/tea warmer.... it could have been worse.

What they can't do legally and what occurs in reality seem far removed from each other these days.  Unless you want to deal with 25 phone calls telling BFL not to send you to collections for their mistake, just refuse the package and have it returned to shipper.

It took me a week to get them to respond to an RMA on a day 1 Single - how much time you think it would take to deal with them if you kept it?  (I would wager closer to weeks or even months).

Yes the PSUs are kinda crappy considering the price.  My fire was inside my Single rather than the PSU.  I just happened to be sitting next to it when it clicked and then I saw white smoking blowing out of it as the fans spun down.  Scared the living crap out of me since I haven't seen that much smoke since I miswired the switch on a old AT case back in the 90's (Chinese instructions were wrong - shocking... no pun intended).

I think any miner has the possibility to catch fire since they are pushing the limits of some component on the board that was hastily designed (we've seen fires reported in Avalons, BFL & KNC devices).  I just hope running my devices on a ceramic floor away from other objects is enough to save me.

LOL - I put in some numbers and every single miner currently available for sale and pre-order will never make ROI even with free electricity except for Cointerra IV miner - but that's assuming it is delivered on time.

I used 30% increment on difficulty.  Now it may not go up 30% every increment, but the last 2 have been over 30% and it's irrelevant if the last few cycles are near 30% if your devices is already down to mining satoshis.

I'm going to sit on my sit on the sidelines with my 300GH and wait for the dust to settle.  My 2011 GPU farm has already made more than coins than any ASIC could provide (short of shelling out 7 digits).

My 6870s were making about 0.136BTC/day in January 2012 and they cost me about $140USD.  To get the same 0.136BTC/day today you would need 1/5 of a KNC Jupiter - so roughly $1000USD.   I sold my 6870s for $100s 2 years after purchase, doubt I would get $100 for KNC in 2 years.

Even with the 1/2ing the current pricing models are outside of equilibrium.  Anybody buying devices now is just gambling on fast ship times and trying to beat others to the punch.  I doubted the network would hit 1PH by this time - apparently I was wrong.  I guess some people will buy hardware even if means losing $.  Stronger network I guess