I'm not going to "Cash out". There will just come a time where it makes as much sense to spend them as acquire them.

It's likely other ominous indicators of desperate times ahead that cause the nerds to focus on politics. Things like out-of-control debt, out-of-control spending and huge swathes of people who should be being productive in a healthy economy living off the government dime (read leeching off people who *are* productive).

That's pretty sweet. And following a few links...

http://www.madox.net/blog/2013/01/04/tl-wr703n-example-project-3-wireless-3d-printing-or-2d-printing-or-just-simply-wireless-usb/

I have been searching for things that are similar (but a bit different from this) recently so don't know why I didn't run across it. I guess sometimes, Google-fu can be a little bit too sharp.

For me, it's a money management thing. There's also debit cards, checks/cheques (for some weird reason, Americans seem to love these. Considering you have to pay for them and not the bank, I don't know why), online banking (some of which are direct transfers some of which just print and mail paper checks), cash machines and for receiving money,  direct deposit, cashiers checks (for when you don't want to carry large amounts of cash around)... There is no direct account-to-account available to the public (with my bank anyway) but this wasn't available in the UK when I left either. There's also no check guarantee cards so if you write a check at the grocery store, the person will take your driving license number and phone number. There's no chip and pin either, still regular old mag-stripe (though some cards do have RFID chips - look for the little logo. Though I have never seen these used *anywhere*)

The US consumer banking system, like its mobile network until recently, is antiquated.

I'm not sure what the details of the controlling software are but one of those Android mini-pcs can be had for $50. Built in wifi. If the control software could be ported to that, you'd be laughing since it could be powered from the USB hub.

The US operates under some pretty bizarre banking principles. There's not really direct deposit, you simply give a company access to your bank account. And without direct deposit, there's no direct deposit guarantee so if something goes awry, it can be the devil of a time stopping it. Some people maintain multiple bank accounts for this reason.

Agreed. I'm not sure why changing the cable type would increase the range (unless USB is designed to use spectacularly craptacular cables). Though it does knock things down to USB1 levels presumably because of that. The USB over IP avoids that issue but is a little more expensive and requires drivers etc. However, it might mean that you can run the control from anywhere in the world (though you could do the same with VNC or RDP in any case). I don't recall if Mac drivers were available either...

I was kinda thinking something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/SIIG-ID-DS0512-S1-USB-Over-1PORT/dp/B002C6J9ZW/ref=pd_sim_sbs_e_3

But maybe not that actual one. It seems like a reasonable price though.

I don't know enough about ASICs to say. I thought a lot of the ASIC thing was down to the fabrication though and I know that can be copied if the desire is there (which realistically, there probably isn't).

Though to be fair, you're not wrong, there's plenty of scare-mongering to go around. Things do seem to be accelerating though and unlike many things that appear to be getting crazy but are limited by negative feedback, there's ample evidence that those in control are actually in a positive feedback loop.

I guess that actually makes this somewhat fitting and appropriate:

The most effective way is to find people wanting to buy bitcoins for £. Trust is an issue there, of course.

Yeah, it's crazy in the US. When I do online banking, half the time the bank prints a paper check and puts it in the mail. WTF? This has cost me money on a few occasions.

Sounds like the long cable will work for you but if not, there's a few wired solutions you could check out too. My reading on wireless solutions indicated that they were often less-than-satisfactory.

I don't know why anyone considered the bet valid without both parties having submitted funds to escrow in any case. I mean sure, Matthew should have not made bets he shouldn't cover but it's not like bitcoin can't make a bet enforceable if everyone is sensible about things. (I'm sure this has been covered in other threads though).

Heh. If so, they'll have it torn apart and a clone up on DealExtreme for $13 by the end of the month.

What makes the US have no hope is the people who see the cliff coming but won't ease up on the accelerator.

You're talking about the Kindle Fire. The other Kindles are quite excellent at their intended task.

That's like saying a kid who is doing great in his studies has a lot of potential energy. I'm done.

Spin alignment in a magnetic field? Howso?


Does not make it kinetic energy.


For an ideal gas.


I'm certainly starting to assume something but it isn't that.

Energy has the same unit (J) in all forms and thus will always be susceptible to such dimensional-analysis tricks. That doesn't mean that it all breaks down into kinetic energy.