Start button -> All Programs -> Bitcoin -> Uninstall Bitcoin

As mentioned above, though, the Bitcoin client's existence as an application on the PC isn't the danger - the wallet.dat file's existence on an Internet-connected PC is. You'll want to move it to an encrypted archive on a couple USB sticks and/or keep a paper backup. Just stuffing it in an encrypted file named something non-obvious and moving it anywhere but the default location is a big step up in security over just leaving it in the default folder.

The wallet.dat file can be found in driveinstalledon(defaultC):\Users\ComputerUserName\AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin -- AppData is a hidden folder, so you'll need to go to folder options in Control Panel to enable viewing hidden folders.

If you're paranoid, you should also "shred" the wallet file (after moving somewhere so you can use it later, of course) using some type of file shredder, which deletes the program and writes over it multiple times with random data so it can't be recovered.

When you want to use the wallet again, you'll need to move the file back over to \AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin. Alternately, you may want to consider the Armory client, which offers a good range of options for easily importing and exporting wallet files.

A Dominos BTC pass-through (pay them BTC and they have a pizza delivered from Domino's) had their dominos.com account credentials stolen and now having a bunch of pizzas delivered to customers' house with really gross toppings. When the owner wrote to customer support, they kept asking for all kinds of evidence that he was not ordering the pizzas, but then whoever controlled the email account at that time said the guy who contacted customer support before was the actual hacker, so now one of the customers is really annoyed and demanded the pass-through forum account be banned and labeled SCAMMER, but now here's a guy defending the original account-holder as having been hacked by someone else, not "hacking himself."

Just start guessing and typing in commands, see which ones are valid, and experiment with them a few weeks to see what they can do.

Consider it Brute Force Education.... Probably the name of a porn series...

Really, though, the bank made the dumbest claim of the story. "one Bank of America branch claimed it had cost $6,000 to clean up the [water-soluble!] chalk writing."

That quote's presence is vandalizing my monitor, and I can't remove it without hiring a team of contractors to scroll for me.

Introduction to Woodworking (32nd ed.)

Welcome to the exciting world of woodworking. Before you begin your adventure, you must first learn fundamental information.

Wood: An Introduction

Wood is defined differently by various organizations. In our study, however, wood will be defined primarily as hard, organic, fibrous structural tissue, a natural composite of cellulose fibers (which are strong in tension) embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression. It is thought that the use of wood as a building material significantly predates historical records due to animals' use of wood in various structures suiting their immediate purposes.

Among its structural uses, wood is considered a considerable choice as a fuel source, with records indicating wood being intentionally used as a fuel source almost as early as the dawn of mankind. Wood has unique and fascinating characteristics we will explore as this chapter progresses.

Wood as a fuel source

Wood is classified as a carbon-neutral renewable energy source. While wood has a high amount of water content, it generally is dried prior to burning as a fuel source. Water occurs in living wood in three conditions, namely: (1) in the cell walls, (2) in the protoplasmic contents of the cells, and (3) as free water in the cell cavities and spaces. In heartwood it occurs only in the first and last forms. Wood that is thoroughly air-dried retains 8–16% of the water in the cell walls, and none, or practically none, in the other forms. The drying of the wood prior to burning allows wood to be a viable and economical choice in industrial and residential fuel consumption.

Wood's characteristics as a fuel source are considered by some as beneficial, adding a warmth non-present in some other fuel source choices. Historically, wood as a fuel source required a point of ignition sometimes difficult to obtain, such as the spark from a flint rock. In Japan's Edo era, wood was favored as a fuel source and the current administration of Japan created a forest management program.

........... o.o.... -.- ....... zzz....

8GB RAM on a minimalist Linux distro, maybe. I have 8GB on Win7 and Armory still crashes every few hours when Doze starts stuffing Armory resources onto hard drive. Not sure if there's software to help force RAM priorities on certain applications -- that'd be super.

It'd probably work on modern Doze if all other applications were shut off. Skype, a couple pages on Chrome, some productivity software, AND Armory was just too much for my machine, though.  It reminds me of living in a run-down warehouse for a while with all available outlets on one circuit, and sometimes I'd dare to run a PC, coffee maker, AND toaster oven on the same circuit. Never tripped immediately, but maybe half the time, ~20-40 minutes in (if I forgot to stop the coffee maker from continuing to warm the pot), there'd be a pop and I'd roll my eyes and walk over to reset the breaker... again.

Ya - John offers the most popular escrow service as far as I can tell, but does not live in the US, doesn't have any physical or registered businesses relating to the escrow service in the US (AFAIK), probably doesn't have US bank accounts holding customers' USD, and has no US-controlled domain they can seize. That's practically complete protection from government interference. 

Defendant has super-shit lawyer. That Tom Tosdal must feel like supreme commander of fuckin' idiot.

Prosecutor should go for the throat and pile on criminal chrages for attempting to incite unlawful acts against the banks government. Only "philosophical abstraction" is protected speech when against the government.

Since when do they bother trying to catch end-users of drugs? On SR, the buyers shouldn't have any useful info on sellers, so Idunno how the DEA could justify spending time there. The DEA might be able to find which post offices the biggest sellers are using, but so what?

Selling on SR is pretty close to the perfect crime... right up until you confess by giving away info.

Simply signing a message with a known Bitcoin address you used should be more than enough evidence.

Whoa, whoa, whoa -- what the Hell IS happening there?

The DEA has a coin vault? Or they actually just outright sold the coins? Are they actually already engaging in entrapment on SR?

On a smaller scale, this is like if Bill Gates went up to a known panhandler and threatened to expose his tricks if he doesn't pay him $200. Even if it did happen, no person believing in the fundamental spirit of law over the letter would ever prosecute him. I'm guessing those who chose to prosecute are either believing themselves "incorruptible" or were paid off. - Or to lazy to think about it - the herp-a-derp doin' mah job dipshits.

The USG may's well go after BitPay for trying to facilitate the "extortion," and maybe throw in some money laundering and terrorism charges, too.

@Tinus, that's the case here, too. If you do recover what was stolen, it's often damaged, and if you don't claim it in time, it's forever forfeit.

If it makes you feel better, the SS left a mess of drives at Brown's house, some in really obvious places, like on the floor right in front of him.

AFAIK, the SS never took any coins while thumbing through Brown's thumbs. (but then, as far as I knew, the case was dropped a few hours before being formally charged. :p )

If MB did do this, there's really no reason to keep him locked up. He's a very clever guy who was trolling either for the attention of authorities, media - and either for himself, Bitcoin, or Romney's reaction.... So... I'm not sure if this would've been unexpected in that case. Maybe he just likes being a pain in the USG's ass. 

I don't think "for the lulz" is a valid defense in the US jusstiss system, yet. Either way, unless Brown confesses, I can't see the USG being able to successfully prosecute Brown, because the evidence we know they have is a joke, while there isn't really much outside evidence which could link him to it except maybe whatever came out of PWC (but surely, they must have had that evidence way before raiding his house if it existed). It's not like you have eyewitnesses, and Brown's tech-savvy enough to know all the obfuscation techniques. The USG would have to have a REAL smoking gun to prove this "without reasonable doubt." They waited a very long time before charging him, so again - unless he confessed, I don't think they have shit on him.

o.O

"The Justice Department said Brown falsely claimed that he had gained access to the PricewaterhouseCoopers internal computer network and stolen tax documents for Romney and his wife, Ann Romney, for tax years before 2010."

Was that mistyped? Oh, no... They were referring to the tax documents saying they were the stolen ones, not that he falsely admitted to stealing them, which'd be... weird. ETA: Actually, I have no idea what that sentence's supposed to say. He falsely claimed he gained access to PWC's internal computer network *and* stolen tax documents *for* Romney and his wife. That's pretty open to interpretation...

It's a shame. If he's a liar, he obviously has no use for the $1m and was trolling. If he isn't a liar, then... one more case of horseshit government investigations where they need someone to point at.

ETA: Alphabet soup's reading (or will read) this thread if anyone wants to wave hello, btw.

AFAIK, Alan *IS* Armory. 

Only client I can bear to use, even if the RAM requirements (- and it seems almost guaranteed to crash if certain parts wind up on virtual RAM) and need of maintaining the blockchain make it nearly unusable in my situation. I go to great lengths to be able to use Armory, because even while it currently has critical flaws, it's the most flexible and powerful client I've ever used. Alan's a freakin' rockstar in handling support issues, too. It's actually unnerving how interested he is in ensuring users have good experiences.

I really can't imagine a better way to donate money for the fundamental growth of Bitcoin and the ventures it spawns than to send it to Alan.

They dropped the case AFAIK, and he's back to operating his WISP. He's actually developed and sells some pretty useful hardware and software for WISPs. https://amaranthinetech.com/

The cats refused to give up their dark secrets and are being held at Guantanamo Bay as enemy combatants, likely to die before a release hearing.

Oh. Since there's some interest in this, again... I wrote an article intended for Bitcoin Magazine last year, but they apparently lost interest in it when ownership changed over (I wasn't paid, I'm assuming I retain ownership), so here it is:

(Someone pick me up to write -- I'm bored out of my mind and could use some side-income)

Two Secret Service Raids Later, Previous Holder of Over $4m in BTC in Good Spirits

One man's world has been inarguably changed, for the better, and the worse, by Bitcoin. Through a shrewd and, what some have claimed dubious, business deal, Nashville, TN resident Michael Brown (known online as “Knightmb”) acquired 371,000 Bitcoins (then worth roughly $20,000 in a market which couldn't bear downward pressure) for $5,000. As of this writing, the 371,000 Bitcoins he purchased in 2011 are currently worth approximately $4m. Now, however, he may not only be Satoshi-less, but may also (again) be at risk of a stay in federal prison.

Who Is Michael Brown?
Brown lives in TN with his wife and child, working in just about everything technical. He provides wireless Internet service, designs hardware for other his company and other Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) to use, as well as software. Brown also works as network, email, and website administer for multiple SMBs. Brown is quite familiar with Bitcoin and within the earlier online community. Around 2010, Brown even wrote and published an abstract on “Timekoin,” a proposed Bitcoin alternative he still uses.

Brown's Bitcoins
Around the time of Bitcoin's birth, Brown collected money (the project had roughly $12,000 in total funding) and bought hashing power to accumulate Bitcoins. By the time the money had run out, the project owned approximately 371,000 Bitcoins. However, even while the price of Bitcoins were roughly $.06 each, there was only very weak market demand. According to Brown, “It is easy in hindsight to think of how foolish anyone would be to sell that large amount of bitcoins for such a small amount, but back then there were articles written all over the Internet about bitcoin being a pyramid scam or a fools investment. The people (investors) that originally got into it, thought they had made a huge investment mistake and just wanted to get out.” And get out they did, allowing Brown to buy the project and its 371,000 Bitcoins for “only” $5,000.

However, while this collection of Bitcoin would be worth roughly $4,000,000 USD as of this writing, Brown states he did give away most of his holdings, including a large chunk to Wikileaks when they began accepting BTC donations, with Brown adding the quip “At the time though, I might as well have been sending power points from pokemon cards as far as what actual value they would get from it.“ Brown also gave much of his holdings away to those finding his contact information, with the remainder being sold once the Bitcoin market skyrocketed, allowing him to “make back my initial investment plus a lot of interest.“

There have been claims of foul play by Brown's previous partners, who were primarily members of electric bicycle forum Endless-Sphere. Bitcoin Magazine reached out to Justin, the current owner of the forum (Brown previously owned the forum while the Bitcoin accumulation project was ongoing). However, as of this writing, no evidence was brought up indicating Brown had done anything morally questionable. While there was “a three day mutiny” against Brown while he owned the forum, it appears this was solely related to the sale of the forum to another person (not Justin) who wanted the forum to be monetized.


Tax Document Theft
In mid-2012, Mitt and Ann Romney's tax documents were stolen from their accounting firm, PWC. Later, PWC received a flash drive and ransom letter demanding $1m worth of Bitcoins to keep the documents private. These documents, as of today, were never released, though it would appear the Romneys never paid the ransom. BitInstant, for their part in grabbing the media's attention in this ordeal, offered the Romney campaign a free USD-to-BTC conversion should they be interested.

The flash drive in the envelope sent to PWC did not just contain copies of the documents the ransomer was threatening to release, but also included two pictures of cats around furniture. The cat pictures were heavily scrutinized by the US Secret Service and considered to be the smoking gun of the case, which Brown says “has kind of turned into a running joke now among friends and family.” The Secret Service then decided, likely with evidence not yet presented to the public, to conduct a raid against Michael Brown and his family's home (again).

Likely taken into consideration by the United States SS was Brown's previous acquaintance with SS agents during their last raid of his house, which occurred in 2009. At the time, Brown worked for an insurance company to help them neatly organize customers' personal information into a spreadsheet. Brown alleges that part of the information he was to organize were social security numbers, which he wasn't sure if was legal. Brown contacted the insurance company but wasn't given proper attention until he threatened to tell national media. Brown says, “They explained that no one should have access to any customer's social security number, but I was trying to show them it was wrong assumption. Soon afterward, instead of fixing the issue, they called the federal government and told them I had stolen their customer data which contained tens or hundreds of thousands of social security numbers.“ It was at this point Brown first experiences the joy of a federal raid, where only his workstation was seized (he would not be so lucky in the future).  According to Brown, “After many months and many visits to the Secret Service office in Nashville, the case was finally closed for being a waste of time and resources for the Secret Service and my workstation was returned (damaged). No charges were ever filed and the case dropped.“

The 2012 Raid
It was September 14th, 2012 when Brown and his wife would again awake to bright flashlights being shone in their faces by Secret Service agents. This time, agents demanded answers about the pictures of cats written to the USB drive included with the ransom letter sent to the Romneys' tax firm.

Unfortunately for the Secret Service, they soon found neither the cats nor the furniture pictured. This didn't prevent them from further interrogating Brown and his family, however. His daughter would later be able to identify the cats as being owned by one of Brown's former clients, Janine Bolin, whose computer he backed up for her while helping repair her system. The Secret Service left Brown's house after crawling around his attic and confiscating any electronics they could find. They then paid a visit to Bolin's house, where they'd again confiscate all electronic equipment in case it might have evidence.

Brown states legal fees may be as high as $6,000, with other damages including what was done to his house (including the stereotypical broken doors), and says the situation the US Secret Service has created is similar to if “your local plumber has his entire truck taken, along with all the tools he uses for the trade.” Brown appears in good spirits, however, saying “if I ever do get any/all of my equipment back, I'm going to have a lot of extra of the same thing at least.” Brown ends responding to my questions with “Overall, the Federal government is made up of regular people like myself. The Federal government makes mistakes and bad things happen because of it. The most our family can do is pick up our life and move on. That is why we were reaching out for help. There have been many times when I've donated money or resources to help those in need, I guess it is time I ask the same in return of my fellow man.”

Brown has created a site for donations at www.mbdonationfund.com.

Just in case this hasn't been brought up, this has brought other coins to their knees in the past. With a lot of the altcoins, there's a spike of interest, then everyone quickly moves on to the next coin. It's not a big problem if you're frequently adjusting difficulty, and adjusting difficulty too often can present its own problems (if it were changed every ~1 day, ASICMiner and a couple other major players could collude to shut their miners off for a day, then flip them all on when difficulty changes to try easier double-spends -- the flip-side to that would be that longer difficulty windows would also give malicious miners more time to try double-spends at an "artificially" lowered difficulty).

Kind of a "fucked if we do," "fucked if we don't" situation, and we're in a pretty critical time right now, where there are a few people and companies making up over a quarter of the network. Just be glad Voorhees isn't running ASICMiner and trying to do artificially lower difficulty to "encourage development." :p

Actually, hash rate's spiking to such an extreme, we might find ourselves with a 7-day difficulty window, which I'm not sure has happened yet (except maybe in the first weeks of Bitcoin's existence). This is obviously very dangerous, and people should be waiting for more confirmations during these times (6 is probably still more than enough) when network hash rate is increasing at such a shocking rate.

I guess I'm just missing where a superposition would be useful. Why would I want 0, 1, AND 2? How does "both" make for more efficient code, and why wouldn't it be incorporated in instruction sets where it could be useful in general purpose? I guess just a sample of simple instructions, like maybe for an adder, and how it would look, mechanically, in binary logic and quantum - would help.

Right now, I'm thinking of a truth table with "AND" in it, and now there's "yes," "no," and the useless (or I'm just unimaginative) "both." Do there need to be new operators to work with "both," or does "both" just replace "AND" to simplify?

Edit: Or maybe it doesn't log a "2" (some potential state between 0 and 1) but is instead a whole slew of possibilities between 0 and 1? - But it has to compute the probabilities, right? Dammit. Now I need this to click.

Okay, so what exactly's happening here -- something's trying to record the probability of something being on or off, because we can't measure it in certain cases with certain materials. How can it do this without tons of calculations going into determining whether something's "on" or "off" - how could something possibly measure that?

Is there a good resource for the totally uninformed pointing out why this is superior to binary calculations, or what the benefits and drawbacks are in using qubits?

When I try to learn about it, I either get


which I completely lack foundational knowledge to understand,

or

"It grabs answers from another dimension."