maybe someone could develop a keyboard for password entering
that would be part of bitcoin client,
(actually next version will have encripted keys,
and ask for password when sending btc)

keyboard would be used with mouse only,
keys would reshuffle after every stroke,
and change color

for example,
keys could be in red green or blue color,
my password : 79eight"blue""red"four"red"11nine"green""blue"

so whenever I enter a keystroke, I could be entering it because of color, or because of number/letter it holds, so if someone watches my screen he can't easily read my pass,

also keylogers would have problem catching pass...


we could brainstorm this, to give developers some ideas ...

[/quote]

Assuming you already have the Bitcoin program loaded:
1)  Backup the current wallet.dat (Wallet 1) file.
2)  Delete the wallet.dat file from the disk.
3)  Open Bitcoin (it will create a new wallet.dat)
4)  Note the address created automatically
5)  For kicks, let it run until it has the full block chain
6)  Close Bitcoin
7)  Backup this wallet.dat (Wallet 2)
  Delete wallet.dat from the disk
9)  Restore Wallet 1 back to your disk
10)  Open Bitcoin, let it update the block chain.
11)  Send 100 coins from one of your standard addresses to the address in Step 4
12)  Wait for it to be confirmed
13)  Close Bitcoin
14)  Re-backup Wallet 1
15)  Delete Wallet 1 from disk
16)  Restore Wallet 2 (technically these steps are optional, as the blockchain will have the transaction, but you probably want to see your balance)
17)  Open Bitcoin and let it update the block chain.  You should now see 100 coins as your balance
18)  Close Bitcoin
19)  Backup Wallet 2 to your USB Stick (or write it via QR Code, or whatever you want to do)
20)  Delete Wallet 2 from your disk
21)  Restore Wallet 1
22)  Run Bitcoin, you'll see your balance is updated to -100 coins. 

You now have a 100 coin wallet.dat file backed up and off the network.  You can also verify all of your transactions in the block chain using Block Explorer:  http://blockexplorer.com/

[/quote]


Am I lazy, or is this too complicated ?
I mean, c'mon, do we really expect that my 50 year old uncle will do this,
or even read this recipe somewhere, to be able to go through this guide ?
This is crazy, I am not a coder, so I DEMAND that this be simplified,
and do not care how you do it
but this should be 3 mouse clicks and maybe one or two password entering type of job...

this is part of someones post :

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To have a secure "savings account" wallet, I would suggest installing Bitcoin inside a VirtualBox VM. That way any viruses on the host computer can't access the wallet. You only need to boot up the VM when you want to spend coins, you can receive them while Bitcoin isn't running, and check the balance on blockexplorer.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

can someone explain this,
I want to know more about it.

What happens if HDD crashes and I have to install VM on other HDD ?
Would my saved wallet.dat be valid there  in that new install of virtual machine?

Same question with truecript,
If i encrypt something on one computer using truecript,
that computer hdd crashes,
I install truecript on a new computer,
all i have is wallet.dat encrypted with truecript instance on first computer,
will my password be enough, will the encrypted wallet.dat file be readable by other truecrypt installation ?

[/quote]

Here's the configuration of the computer I'm currently on.
Two 5870's
An Athlon II X2 250
A Foxconn 790GX motherboard
An Antec Earthwatts 750w PSU
4Gb DDR3 1333 RAM
500GB Wd Cav. Blue HDD
Running caseless

I use poclbm to mine, and MSI Afterburner to overclock.

Now, if you want a 4 card configuration, and you want it cost effective...
I'd recommend the MSI 890FXA-GD70
4 58XX series cards
A Sempron 140 or Athlon II X2 (Don't need much in the way of a CPU, OK to skimp here)
A cheap hard drive. (Ok to skimp here.) (I personally get SATA 6Gb/s 500Gb Caviar blues, because they'll maintain most of their resale value for a while.)
A solid PSU - Antec 1200w Quattro (Don't skimp here, it's important)
And run caseless/a mining case. (Ok to skimp here, but for sake of airflow/temperatures, you'll want to come up with something.)
And pick up a 2Gb stick of DDR3 (Ok to skimp here)

With that configuration, you can probably build 2-3 of them.
You'll be pulling mad Gh/s in no time flat.
[/quote]

yea, this is the kind of post I was hoping to c

thx

I am rather new to bitcoin, and not so tech educated,
bought  some btc a month ago, and now I want to mine as well, joining the pool

Can you please send me list of hardware components to buy, that would be easy to make work

budget 3000-3500 usd

someone said that best price-electricity consumption-hashes output gives 5870 gpu,
so something based on that card

are there MBO-s with 4 gpu slots ?
or only with 2 ?

if someone could just post their configuration, please
and what mining toolsoftware you use

where's that "10k pizza" guy ?
maybe he is ashamed or something, but he is actually a hero,
if he did not invest in btc community, maybe things would go a lot slower...

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/usbkey

just put it in a plain sight,
where u can grab it fast,
and no one else would want to



I actually hate donations & tips,
but u can disappoint me here :     

1BvbU2yk4AfNhXvdm7Sm5EvrkfabnsfDtc

Should I just uninstall the bitcoin, so that some virus or worm or trojan could not find wallet on my pc ?
[/quote]

That won't make a difference, if you want them to be safe without encrypting, move them to a different directory, and rename.

1)
Can mining rigs be used for something else, (if/when it is payed off, becomes cost ineffective) ?
I intend to buy 1 motherboard that can hold 2 or 4 graphic cards,
Could I run chess software on those graphic cards, to have a home chess "supercomputer" ?
I don't understand this, what OS is installed on mining rigs, linux, or something custom made for mining only?
I was thinking something like linux - wine - fritz software configuration on it...


2)
What should i do with bitcoin client on my computer ?
I have bought some btc, waiting for the "this time next year" scenario
I have stored several copies of encripted wallet.dat here and there...
I don't intend to spend them soon.
Should I just uninstall the bitcoin, so that some virus or worm or trojan could not find wallet on my pc ?

later, I just download and install bitcoin, copy paste wallet.dat in it ?
Is that how it should be done?
I don't want to screw something up...

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/the-tech-observer/2011/05/25/google-expected-to-launch-mobile-payment-initiative

not good,
SELL, SELL SELL

U can try here :
http://longbets.org

I think that futures, shorts, options, bonds and other deriving
stuff similar to that is a great danger to the btc

the reason is because it creates a leverage.
If someone could bet (and win money) that btc would crash,
then there is just a matter of time when parameters (and price) will be set
to favor that outcome on pure economical base,
"nothing personal, just business"...

if there is a leverage, than politics can make it move
if bitcoin has nothing else correlated to it, than it would be much harder to hurt it...


what do u say?

what methods of funding are available ?
how can i get money there?

where can I buy those UBX shares ?

I am not in EU
so transfers are costly...

encripted in e-mail attach

it's a shame that a head like this generates more heads like this,
gets paid,  more so,  for doing it

and he has no increase in difficulty of generation
over time...

we are doomed

question here is if e-wallets are vulnerable to US law

and second question was :
is it true that restoring bitcoin client wallet can cause coin loss ?

I would like to hear your comments about this quote, 
regarding mybitcoin.com e-wallet service :

United States: Virtual Currency -The Legal Issues Are A Reality by Kobus and Schurko of Marshall Dennehey law office.
“An issuer of virtual currency [might be considered] a “financial institution” for the purposes of the PATRIOT ACT by virtue of creating and managing customer virtual currency [eWallet] accounts.”


In my interpretation,
it says that as soon as someone offers e-wallet management,
"might be considered" a financial institution, therefore liable to patriot act
and therefore could be shut down or whatever...

I intended to keep one half of my coins in e-wallet, and other half in bitcoin client
because
my main concern with keeping it all in bitcoin client is that even restoring a wallet can cause loss of bitcoins,
i read that somewhere on this forum...