Honestly, I think the best way to be "happy" with regards to money is to learn to live within your means, whatever those means are.  If you make $20,000 a year, spend less than $20,000 a year.  If you make $200,000 a year, spend less than $200,000 a year.  Work towards paying off any debt you have, and living debt-free the rest of your life.

Most "wealthy" people only get stressed by money because they mismanage it.  They see a higher paycheck, and instead of working on paying down their current mortgage, they take out a bigger mortgage on a better house, start spending more on their credit cards because they can just pay it off later, etc.  Then, when they lose their job, or they have to take a decrease in pay, they realize they've screwed themselves, and that's when the real stress begins.

Believe me, I've been there, done that.

So, learn to always spend less than your income, to save up for your big purchases instead of taking out loans for them, and to live debt-free.  Then, when and if you do make $200k, you can have a hearty laugh at all your neighbors making the same amount, but somehow struggling to make ends meet, while you have a surplus of $15k+ a month.  And if you only make $20k the rest of your life, you can still live happily being focused on other things besides how you'll pay this month's credit card bill.

I can't remember... is it possible to use the BitMinter client with another pool?

Money makes trading more efficient.  Trying to operate in a modern world without money is complete lunacy.

Acknowledged.

But the market price already takes that into account.  When I am investing, I know that there are 2-3M coins that are still sitting dormant in their generation blocks.  I know that someone could take those out, and drop the price.  And maybe that's part of why BTC's are only worth $5 instead of $10 right now.

So yes, it decreases confidence, but confidence would be even lower if people knew they could lose all their money if they didn't touch it for long enough.

I agree with you there - the incentive to cheat is very high, and it is very likely that it would be done.  I think the only potential to combat against it is to do 5 minute or less games.  Even 5 minute, it might be possible to use a chess program on the side, but it would be difficult.  Certainly a shorter time period would make it impossible.

Oops.  Sounds like you fell for a phish.    Sorry, that definitely sucks.

Denial confirmed.

Interesting indeed... maybe it wasn't really 20 gauge?

This wire chart seems to indicate that 5 amps on 20 gauge should be able to run 9.5 feet without any trouble.
http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o159/ocdropzone/electrical/WireChart.jpg?t=1242308611

You're valuing your startup advertising service at $50,000?

What is your current monthly profit?  How much growth do you see in the future?  What is the total market for Bitcoin advertising?

I agree with you on all points evoorhees, well written!  I am completely against the welfare system we have in the states, as it only discourages responsibility and hard work.

I know someone who is on welfare... a single mom with 3 kids.  She was able to buy, on the taxpayer's dollars, a flatscreen TV, a laptop, a blu-ray player, etc, etc.  It upsets me when someone who does nothing but stay home with their kids all day can afford things more easily than my family can, when I'm working 50 hours a week and struggling to put food on the table for us all.

Someone posted this on their facebook wall... thought it was interesting, but haven't visited any of the links to verify the numbers.  But it wouldn't surprise me...  I really dislike the fact that my tax dollars go towards helping people who break the law, regardless of the actual dollar amount.



It's easy to dismiss individual programs that
benefit non-citizens until they're put together
and this picture emerges. Someone did a lot
of research to put together all of this data.
Often these programs are buried within other
programs making them difficult to find.


A Real M Eye Opener
WHY is the USA BANKRUPT?

You think the war in Iraq was costing
us too much? Read this:

We have been hammered with the
propaganda that it was the Iraq war and
the war on terror that is bankrupting us.

I hope the following 14 reasons are
forwarded over and over again until
they are read so many times that the
reader gets sick of reading them. Also
included are the URL's for verification
of all the following facts.

1.
$11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare
to illegal aliens each year by state governments.
Verify
at: http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecenters7fd8

2.
$22 Billion dollars a year is spent on food
assistance programs such as food stamps,
WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
Verify
at: http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.HTML

3.
$2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on
Medicaid for illegal aliens.
Verify at:
http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.HTML

4.
$12 Billion dollars a year is spent on
primary and secondary school education
for children here illegally and they
cannot speak a word of English!
Verify
at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt....0.HTML

5.
$17 Billion dollars a year is spent for
education for the American-born
children of illegal aliens, known as
anchor babies.
Verify
at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML

6..
$3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to
incarcerate illegal aliens.
Verify at:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/%20TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt.01.HTML

7.
30% percent of all Federal Prison
inmates are illegal aliens.
Verify at:
http://transcripts.CNN..com/TRANscriptS/0604/01/ldt...01.HTML



8.
$90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on
illegal aliens for Welfare & social
services by the American taxpayers.
Verify
at: http://premium.cnn..com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01..HTML

9.
$200 Billion dollars a year in suppressed
American wages are caused by the illegal
aliens.
Verify
at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRI



13.
In 2006, illegal aliens sent home
$45 BILLION in remittances to their
countries of origin.
Verify
at:. <http://www/..rense.com/general75/niht.htm>
14.

The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration:
Nearly One million sex crimes committed
by Illegal Immigrants In The United States ...
Verify
at: http: // www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

M
The total cost is a whopping
$ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS
A YEAR AND IF YOU'RE LIKE ME,
HAVING TROUBLE UNDERSTANDING
THIS AMOUNT OF MONEY; IT IS
$338,300,000,000.00WHICH
WOULD BE ENOUGH TO STIMULATE
THE ECONOMY FOR THE CITIZENS OF
THIS COUNTRY.

Stamped with approval

I was in full support of your advertising service until I saw your blatant threadjacking/rudeness/unprofessionalism in this thread.  Sorry Andrew, but you've really got to stop now.  It just makes you look bad - it doesn't make anyone want to use your service more than the one listed in this thread.  Advertising your own business in a competing business's thread even once is pretty low.  Arguing with the OP about whose service is better over and over again is even worse.

Stop shooting yourself in the foot.  Apologize, delete your posts in this thread, and don't post in competitor's threads in the future.  It's for your own good...

I suppose there was a lack of advocacy to get Bitcoiners there in the first place.

You've been mentioning potential solutions all throughout the thread, but you never had a call to action.  You never said, "Hey, now is the time for everyone to join this game (URL)!"  Nothing about promoting Bitcoin's use in a particular game at a particular time/date.

So, try it again, but be more clear with what you want to accomplish.  What game are we supposed to advocate for Bitcoin in?  How do we go about accessing said game?  What's the best way to advocate for Bitcoin within the game?  What date and time should we do this?

Again, your posts have all come off as being "potential" ideas.  I don't think anyone understood that you were actually trying to gather Bitcoin players into a particular game.  And if that was the case, your posts are unclear enough that I still don't know which game you wanted to promote Bitcoins in.

If I'm understanding this experiment correctly, they want people to pay to play chess on their site?

Why would I choose to do that, when I can play for free at any number of well-established sites that already have decent-sized playerbases?

1)  A 5 year interval DOES hurt long term savings.  What if I put 100 BTC on a piece of paper, forget about it for 6 years because it's stored in my attic, and then they're all gone?  A lifetime interval MIGHT be acceptable, but....
2)  What's the point?  The coins are infinitely divisible, so even if there's only 1 satoshi left, Bitcoin can still be used.

Now, if you're worried more about deflation and less about actual coins lost, then a much better solution is to just let the 50 BTC block rewards continue on indefinitely.  Eventually, the coins generated would equal the coins lost, and the amount of currency in circulation would be completely stable - no inflation or deflation.

If the concern is keeping exactly 21M coins in circulation, then use a combination of both:  Generate new coins for coins that haven't been transferred in 5 years.  The old coins are still available to the original owner, but if they were truly lost, then they won't detract from the 21M coins in circulation for longer than 5 years.  If they are eventually used again, then slightly more than 21M coins would be in circulation, but that could be made up for by not creating new coins for the next batch of 5-year-old coins that would have otherwise been regenerated.

What is it?

It's the power of the crowd.  If 75% of investors believe the price is going up, and buy accordingly, then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.