Clipse....  You should probably give him at least 10 minutes to answer. After that call the FBAIIIIIGHT. |
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Any estimates for the cost of shipping it to Ontario, Canada?
I imagine the amount would be quite small. Maybe 2BTC for slow. Would have to check urgent postage options. I have pretty much sold this to an NZer, but they have not confirmed. |
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Looking at that pic BFL are so going to get sued! Apple doesn't care what the device does. No one is allowed to think like them.  BFL won't get sued just and here is why, look at all the vast number of other devices on the market that look like apple stuff and are not apple. There are hundreds of examples of the same look and feel but don't operate at all like the device it is copying. Now if this BFL device will mine coins, warm coffee and do entertainment through my TV then they might have an issue. This post defines BitcoinTalk for me. Joke posted, reposted, taken seriously, argued. |
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bASIC units will be assembled at the same plant that the ModMiner Quad's are, they will be produced in batches of 30-50 every 5-10 days and shipped out on first come first served basis Does that mean this old estimate of production has changed? Or have you just had 30-50 orders? Can you provide us with a sales number so the order date can be known? Just in case; sorry if i sound like a smart ass, not trying to be. Just reading through the thread. |
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Hey guys, maybe we should have some technical questions, so we don't turn this session into a 100% witch hunting meeting.
I would like to know:
1. Details on the delivery of first ASICs
- are they still scheduled for end of October?
- what are the risks to delivery dates? (i.e. we are waiting for some shipments that might or might not come) and what's the impact (will put us 2 weeks/months/years behind schedule)
- is there a "cut-off" date for pre-orders? (aka a date after which the 1/3 shipping rule will no longer apply and is basically first come first served?)
2. Details on the future plans and products
- what's the warranty period for the SCs? (I really hope there is one ...)
- any ASIC v.2 planned in near future or full focus on production?
Thanks.
Your answers can be found everywhere with a tool called search  . They have been answered multiple times. |
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I watched it hit 0, then it started counting in to negatives. Funny :-).
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I'm curious, what's "interesting" about it, exactly? My hashrate hops off, the pool drops by the same amount and that's interesting?
It's clear you are proud of it  |
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Questions not going ahead? Just that post? Or preparing to answer?
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Just don't spread it, then it bubbles everywhere.
Unsure what happens when heat is applied post bubbling - so that could just be a moot point.
Heat that acrylic block up to 80C !!! ;P
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Why is allowing people to bet on the outcome of lotteries illegal? Because the government said so? Do you also consider it morally wrong? Why? Please read everything. |
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Please stay on topic, i.e. post only questions to be asked, this thread clearly isn't supposed to end up in a continuation of that recent flamewar.
What do you expect when the old thread gets locked? Here is a thread on the subject for chit chat . Bring any questions back if you want them answered, i'm not sure if BFL_Sonny will post in all threads. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=110805.0 |
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I agree. I feel very sorry for the people who have been conned. But you have a justice system, and the system punished. Technically the victims and the public won. :/
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Is sonny going to make his previous victims whole ? That's what the justice system is supposed to do. |
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Questions area. Note again, these are not quoted.Any slights, or digs, in any context will be trimmed down to the black and white question. 1: Is Sonny Vleisides the BFL employee who signs his emails "Sonny K?" Why the K? 2: Did Sonny Vleisides found the company or is he merely an employee? 3: Of those 22 employees, are any of their names: James Ray Houston, Rex Rogers, Dennis Emmett, William Cloud, Henry Walther, Scott Henry Walther, PJ Swink, or Michael Swink? 4: What other surprises will people find if they dig further? 5: Who are the owners of BFL? Does Sonny own 100% or is it shared between him and others? (E.g. VCs) 6: Given these conditions of his parole, is Sonny able to produce evidence that he has the permission of his probation officer to undertake BFL activities? (address 3, 14 of http://ca.findacase.com/research/wfrmDocViewer.aspx/xq/fac.20100915_0004129.CCA.htm/qx)7: How quickly can you prove the preorders are legitimate and not a preorder scam? And how can you do this? 8: Can you provide the company details (registered trademarks, registered business etc)? 9: Who is the treasurer/CFO? How are preorder and order funds looked after (do they stay in the company?) and are they converted to another currency? 10: Does Sonny still hold offshore accounts and do any BFL funds transfer to them? 11: When did he find out about bitcoin and how did his interest develop in to this? Is it related to his Laissez Faire City, James Orlin Grabbe and KGB ties? 12: Can you shred any light around the chip sandpapering? Will this continue with ASIC chips? 13: You say your only involvement was your software your company being used by your father, but testimony shows you directly involved with mailouts, and you also covered your name. Can you elaborate? 14: Are you saying the lottery tickets existed in all cases? 15: BFL originally stated they were not going to mine with the devices. Now we have Inaba/BFL_Josh stating they will 24 hour mine (burn in) with each device on a live network. Is BFL a producer or a miner now? Or just profit gouging? 16: Your story just doesn't match the affidavit at all. Why the huge difference? 17: Did BFL design the FPGA chip from scratch or use "altera atratix3 EP3SL150F780 FPGA" chip?
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Placeholder for BFL introduction;Hey man, Here's the intial response from Sonny. We are trying to get him out of newbie jail, just waiting on Theymos to fix the account. But might as well post this in your second space: Hello, my name is Sonny Vleisides. I've been involved in technology and libertarian focused ventures for most of my adult life. I believe very strongly in freedom, honesty and personal responsibility. I decided to drop university studies at UMKC back in 1991. My mother wasn't very happy about it, but with youthful ambition and no sense, I set out to travel the world instead. I've lived in Russia, Indonesia, Latin America, Europe etc... Mostly seeking opportunity while trying to learn what I could. Along the way, libertarian ideals became more interesting than any other and looking back, it's clear that's the attraction that's pulled me through life from one focus to the next. The internet was an exciting development. I started webspawner.com in 1995. It was my focus for many years. Do a search for 'free webpages' on google. I'm currently president of that company, not BFL. In the late 90's, I found myself face to face with a great new concept. It was called jurisdictional arbitration. That's where you're able to leverage technology to profit from differences in law from one jurisdiction to another. The hotbed of it was in offshore gaming where a Costa Rican license could be used along with satellite telecommunications to offer gaming services to clients all over the world, even in the United States. I thought this was pretty cool, so I started a software company to provide the back end for these systems. We operated services as Sportsbook Solutions and the SportsPulse platform. It was a lucrative and fun time. I saw it as a libertarian adventure in challenging the authorities of the world while earning a good living. I came to know my real father only as an adult. So when I got the opportunity to know him better, I was eager and curious. His name was James Ray Houston (the focus of the indictment). He was very charismatic and had a wild past from having ran for governor in Nevada. At one time he had a Lear jet with his picture on the tail. He'd gone broke and rich several times since and had a zillion GREAT stories to tell. I was completely enamored. At that time he had been building a business bundling lottery tickets and selling shares of ownership in their potential winnings. He moved to simply guaranteeing the ticket results on his own via re-insurance pools (US Pattent application number US 2004/0058726 A1). At some point after that it became clear to him that he could use my company's software system and sportsbook license to clarify legality and allow his customers to bet on the outcome of a lottery without buying a lottery ticket. . So instead of "I bet the Giants win by 7", it's "I bet the NY Lottery pick 3 is 4-7-2". It was a roaring success. It's fair to say the US Government didn't like it much in spite of the legal basis. After several years, indictments suddenly rained down on all forms of offshore gaming. That year (2007), about 30% of the larger offshore sportsbook/poker/lottery gaming companies were indicted with mail fraud and money laundering related accusations including betonsports.com, sportsbook.com, sportingbet plc. Later it was Bookmaker.com, 2Betsdi.com, Funtimebingo.com, Goldenarchcasino.com, Truepoker.com, Betmaker.com, Betgrandesports.com, Doylesroom.com, Betehorse.com, Beted.com.... and many more. Each case was different and this one was particularly unusual because it wasn't a standard sportsbook model. In fact, this case was started by the IRS. Why the IRS? It's not my place to say, but it's worth any reader taking a moment to think about. The core of their argument was that if a customer didn't buy the ticket from the government, then they were being victimized. Consequently, all economic activity by James Houston's company was fraudulent and this forms the basis of their indictment and fraud accusations. The customers bought tickets and were paid their winnings as promised. Only the government lost out. This made the case hard to prosecute. In fact, the government ended the case without any obligation to repay anyone anything. No restitution. My role was mostly as a software & license supplier, However, I was involved enough in the company that my name was included in the indictment. Later this role distinction would become an important factor. Everything was fine until one day I was picked up while traveling in Florence. It was a sealed indictment, so I had no idea what was going on. I spent the next two years fighting extradition. The case went all the way to the Italian Supreme Court. In the end, I was extradited after the US was made to drop half of the charges. That's all they could do for me, but they really helped. I'll always be thankful to Italy for that. In the US, I was preparing for my case. It had been a long slog. My finances had dwindled to zero, leaving me with a free court appointed lawyer from the legal pool. He showed me that the US federal system had a 97% conviction rate... higher than the Russian courts under Stalin. He calmly informed me that I was facing full life without possibility of parole as a first time white collar defendant. Yes.. really. This is no joke. It's called the federal sentencing guidelines implemented in 1984. It's the point system that determines the sentence, not the judge. My points totaled 43. Life in prison. Look it up and prepare to be amazed. At the last minute, the prosecution calls for a meeting and tells me I can go home if I accept a single count of mail fraud. They would drop 23 charges and leave me with a simple postal violation (lesser count of mail fraud). After two and a half years, I thought about it and agreed. I signed and went home to my Mother's house in Kansas City. I sat there looking at the wall for a long time. I didn't feel like leaving the house much. It was difficult to get over the emotional loss. My life was ruined. Mom got me an account on match.com and encouraged me to date. I met a wonderful girl and we had a little boy. We named him Indy. My life continued and I started to look for a new project to begin life again. A fresh start. I'm on a good track now, trying to put the past behind me.  Somewhere along the way, I got involved with the BFL project. (No one from the indictment is involved in this company, in fact two of them have since died including my father.) With regards to BFL, I'm proud to have played a role in it's start up and focus on the current products, but I am not a majority owner. The company has 22 employees who are all dedicated and focused on delivering a truly amazing best in class product. The bitcoin community and it's success are important to me and my past are not a threat to it or to the BFL corporation. I hope you can see that. Thanks for your time in reading this. Kind regards, Sonny Vleisides
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Today's town hall (prep)meeting is about Butterfly Labs http://www.butterflylabs.com/This thread serves to gather questions that you have about the company, it's products, it's owners, it's staff, whatever you desire. I am sure BFL will answer selectively, but we have an acceptance from BFL Josh (or Inaba) to answer these questions via a media type that has not yet been decided. It has come about specifically from the quotes below, but could serve a wider purpose as i'm sure Inaba must feel like a parrot sometimes. If people ask repeat questions, send them here. Sonny Vleisides is associated with BFL and it's the same Sonny listed in the case documents. He was involved in off shore gaming in the capacity of selling and providing software engineering to companies that did the actual offshore gaming (there is even a US patent application for the process). The industry came under attack (as we all remember) around that time, and Mr. Vleisides was caught up in the process as well as a good portion of the industry based in Costa Rica.
Although this may be cause for concern to some, the fact is that we're a robust company with 22 employees. One of them has a colorful background in offshore libertarianism. If I thought there was even the possibility of something unsavory going on within BFL, you can rest assured I would a) not be part of it and b) would let everyone know it.
The reality is, we are legitimate, we have released revolutionary products and we are going to release more revolutionary products. I was made aware of this back story prior to my employment and I evaluated it and concluded that it was immaterial to the business at hand and thus joined BFL. There was nothing hidden from me and Sonny has always answered questions and been completely open about his past, but I think we can all agree that it's not something you just announce to the world.
From the extradition warrant.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/106417808/Affidavit-for-Extradition-Warrant
5. A joint investigation involving the IRS-CID and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), revealed that from at least 1990 through July 2006, SONNY VLEISIDES, James Ray Houston, Dennis Emmett, William Cloud, Henry Walther, Scott Henry Walther, and others committed a massive international lottery scam using the following company names: Shamrock Agency, German Swiss Group, World Expert Fund, Mutual Medical Insurance Co, Old Amsterdam Trust Co, Euro American Fax Co, European Union Commission, EU American Payment Co, Global Search Network, North American Foreign Payments Services, Wor'dwide Verification Service, and others. VLEISIDES ran the scheme along with Houston and Emmett. VLEISIDES, Houston and Emmett, who were all located in Costa Rica, worked with mailing houses which, at the direction of VLEISIDES, Houston, and Emmett, sent out tens of thousands of mailings to victims in the United States, many of whom were elderly. The mailings contained false statement s, half truths, and omissions, and induced the victims to participate in various international lotteries, falsely stating that if the victims participated, they were guaranteed to win or had a very good chance to win. The mailings directed the victims to send their money to Ireland, at d the Netherlands, among other locations, where William Cloud had set up addresses with commercial mail receiving agencies and individuals to forward the money, eventually, back to the United States. After receipt at the commercial mail receiving agencies, the victims' money was sent to Henry Walther, who, along with his son Scott Henry Walther, deposited the money into various bank accounts and then distributed it as directed by VLEISIDES, Houston, and Emmett. Some of the money was spent on furthering the criminal activity. Some of the money was paid out to victims in small-dollar checks that the co-schemers misrepresented to be lottery winnings. The rest of the money was paid out to the co-s chemers and others for their own use. VLEISIDES and the other defendants did not buy any lottery tickets, and the vast majority of the victims lost the money they sent. The total loss from the scheme is in excess of $19 million. For the town hall, what about IRC or is that too esoteric for a lot of people? And when? I will absolutely make this happen ASAP if we can agree on a time and place.
If we could keep it civil that would be great. Short to-the-point questions will be posted below and answered by BFL using the media that is decided upon. We don't need any Internet sleuths looking for more information. The link above provides enough. 2 replies below this are reserved. One for BFL to say whatever they wish as an intro, the other for questions. Questions will not be quoted. PM your question if you wish to remain anon. In case this matters to anybody: I am not associated with BFL in any way other than being a first time customer with one ASIC SC order. I once asked for a paid sig but was ignored! It's all about the btcjamins baby!!!
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