I started another instance of the program and both of them ran at about 800 khash/s.  Setting two threads had the same effect, 800 khash per thread, but is more convenient than starting two instances.  Thanks for the help, I appreciate it.

Yes, it is dual core, so that must be the problem.  However, I just looked at the commands for minerd and didn't see anything for specifying the use of both cores.  Do you know how to do that?

When I run BitCoin on my laptop it gets about 1800 khash/s, when I run the cpuminer and connect to the pool I only get about 800 khash/s.  Anyone else's speed slow down when they connect to the server?  Is this normal or do I need to fix some setting?

What about someone who doesn't want to spend a lot of money on building a super mining computer but still wants to be able to generate a few bitcoins now and again through pooled mining?  All I have right now is my Lenovo Thinkpad which generates ~ 1800 khash/s when running the bitcoin program and only ~800 khash/s when running a miner connected to Slush's server.  Running the miner for two days straight generate me about 30 mBTC, which is far from exciting.  My thought was to find some old towers, install Ubuntu on them, download the miner and then connect them to the mining pool.  If I could get a couple free towers then I'd just use their CPUs and hopefully several of them would bring my total hash rate up to a point where I could get rewarded more. 

Are there any options you guys know of other then forking out a bunch of cash for expensive graphics cards?

Hey, I'm a complete newbie but am trying to ramp up my hash/s rate so I can get more shares in Slush's pooled mining venture.  I have a Lenovo SL510 laptop which apparently has the GMA4500 graphics card.  I have Win 7 and Ubuntu dual booted on the machine.  Currently I'm running my miner in Ubuntu and was wondering if this python code is compatible with my graphics card.  Would that be the best way to get a higher hash rate? Any advice?

Oh yeah, currently I'm only getting ~800 khash/s running the miner using my CPUs (dual core, 2.2 GHz).

You need to look carefully at what sort of conflicts are actually resolved by the State.  Social pressure and negotiations between individuals tends to resolve a lot of our conflicts without involving the State.  However, when you have a disagreement with a neighbor about property lines or when someone cheats you in a business transaction you do indeed take it to the State's courts.  But it's very costly, time-consuming and there's no guarantee that your case will be decided justly.  This is because the State decides the law and even how to interpret the law and so you have an arbitrary decision.  Why couldn't we have a free-market system of courts, judges and arbiters?  Economics tells us that with competing courts, the judges would have to settle cases fairly and do so in a way that the "customers" see as just.  If the judge doesn't he will lose customers and go out of business.

The case of how courts would work in an anarchist system is a very good question, and much brighter minds then mine have taken a hard look at it. I would refer you to "The Market for Liberty" by the Tannehills for some specific examples of how courts, national defense, insurance, etc. might work in a laissez faire society.  We can't know for sure exactly how things would turn up, because left to a free-market individuals would try different ideas and the ones that worked well would stay around, and the ones that did not would not be able to make a profit and stay in business.

If enough of us ask it will at least be advertisement for bitcoins and give the currency some credence, though I doubt they will accept it until it becomes more mainstream.

Probably the best thing going for bitcoins is that the US dollar is going to crash.  Sooner or later.  Probably sooner....

So reading these posts I've realized I'm way out of my league.  I downloaded this miner but don't know how to use it.  I have virtually no programming experience so I don't understand all the technical talk in previous threads.  I'm trying to join Slush's pool mining operation but when I open the CPU-miner.exe file it says

HTTP request failed: couldn't connect to host
json_rpc_call failed, retry after 30 seconds

I know that I have to pass my worker credentials to the program and then connect to Slush's URL, but don't know how to do that.  If someone could help I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

I joined Slush's pool mining operation, but am having trouble with the actual mining program.  Mostly because I don't know what the hell I'm doing and have very little tech/programming experience.

I live in Alaska....   

If you like Tim Hawkins, you'll like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MKQKmWVhns

Thumbs up.  I agree with you.  Also, I really like your example of radio spectrum allocation.  That one is near and dear to my heart...

What. The. Fuck.  I'm sending this to my uncle.  He's always liked Japanese music and culture.  Perhaps he can explain to me what just happened.

Ha ha, I actually just joined one right before I read your post. 

Someone will probably point out that I can always buy bitcoins and use them to purchase the Shaman Scents products, but my goal is to get bitcoins without using any standard form of currency.  So either mine them or receive them in trade for goods and services and then use the bitcoins to buy something.  This is mostly as a proof to skeptical friends or family.

Brutal.  I just plugged in the calculations and you're right: my average is about 209 days.  Once again I've arrived at a trend a year or so too late.  So my laptop chugging away at generating bitcoins is pretty worthless.  Ha ha, oh well. 

My goal was to generate enough bitcoins to buy my wife a Valentine's day gift from Shaman's Scents to prove to my friends that bitcoin is a legitimate currency. 

I've heard good things of her writings in general and do plan to read some of her books at some point.  I just don't think she is the end-all of libertarian thought.

Agreed. However, when someone openly asserts this sort of mindset, they relinquish the expectation of a charitable response. The only appropriate response to such a ridiculous position (ridiculous in the framework of discourse) is ridicule.
[/quote]

I don't believe personal ridicule is ever an appropriate response.  You preach about human solidarity and the worker class uniting to improve their society, yet seek every chance you can find to scorn members of this forum. 

From what I've read, the state of Somalia is highly dependent on where you are talking about.  Everyone seems to focus on Mogadishu, which is indeed a hellhole from all accounts, and ignore other parts of the country.  The interesting thing is that the place where conditions are the worst (Mogadishu) is the only part of the country still controlled by the Somali "government". 

As far as Sultan's statement that tourists are not safe, examine this first hand account: 

"Under the traditions of Somali culture, a guest or visitor or client is called a marti. His patron or host is called an abaan. It is very easy for a person of reasonably good character to find an abaan. Introductions help, of course. Let me note further that in my wanderings around various parts of Awdal, I was accompanied by several Somalis. At times, I was not in sight of any of them. At no time was I accompanied by armed guards. The countryside was peaceful, and the few reminders of warfare were museum-piece tanks and armored cars.

So, it isn't like the sort of war-torn, strife-ridden area that many Western journalists convey the idea that Mogadishu has been for some time. One hardly ever reads of a Western journalist who has traveled as far from Mogadishu as the communities of Baidoa or Kismayo. By coast, Awdal is some 3,000 kilometers away. Somali territory is quite large and diverse."

http://libertariannation.org/a/n030d1.html

Also, I hesitantly refer everyone to the Wikipedia article entitled "The History of Somalia (1991 - 2006)".  Hesitantly, because I don't know how members of this forum view Wikipedia as far as legitimacy.  My own view is that Wikipedia articles are as legitimate as the sources they use, just like any other article.  This one seems to be well cited.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Somalia_(1991-2006)

Gene, you make strong logical arguments and obviously have thought and read about these subjects in depth.  If I understand correctly your main concern is the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few while the many live in poverty.  This concern is justified as history is rife with many examples of this sort of social injustice.  However, upon examination, you'll find this is always caused by government.  Even today, Big Business tends to grow so large because it's in bed with government.  Without government regulations and taxes to drive out marginal consumers Big Business would have a lot more competition and would not be able to grow so large and abusive.

From what I can tell you are in favor of decentralization and I agree with that.  What I don't agree with is that democracy is the best institution for governance, even local governments.  Democracy is fundamentally flawed: just because a majority of people hold an opinion, does not mean that opinion is right. Morality and reality aren't subject to the majority concentration of opinion.  I'm sure you're aware of this, so I guess what I'd like to hear from you is how you think individual rights and private property rights would be protected under any sort of democratic system.

I noticed your Ayn Rand comment in an earlier post.  I'd like to point out that associating all Libertarians with Randian objectivism is hardly fair.  I know it is the stereotype and is very easy to paste onto anyone vaguely libertarian to discredit them, but for heaven's sake that's what the mainstream media does.  Don't be like them.   

I consider myself libertarian but have never read Miss Rand's "epic" works of literature and don't subscribe to her philosophy of objectivism, where what ever she believes is what is objective and whatever someone else believes is subjective.  That being said, I'm not completely discrediting her because she doubtless had many good ideas which helped fuel the libertarian movement.

Hey, I want to reply to the OP and skirt this confrontation between Hero Members and Junior Gene.  Walter Block is indeed a bad-ass.  I have been a student of Austrian economics for a while now and really appreciate their logical consistency.  If you haven't been there I definitely recommend going to Mises.org and exploring.  You can sign up for their daily article, or just browse the website for articles and podcasts.  They have a LOT of free literature there.  It's fantastic.   

Also, in response to the "what is money" posts, I recommend reading Murray Rothbard's book "The Case Against the Fed".  You can find it free in PDF form ( http://mises.org/books/fed.pdf ) or order it from the Mises site  ($7) .  It's a rather short book so not too time consuming.  What's really interesting is that the first part of the book he covers the history of money and explains what money is and how it works.

Anyway, I'm new to BitCoins and would really like to see them succeed as they provide a path around State controlled currencies.

I downloaded the BitCoin program yesterday evening and have been trying to generate coins all night and still have not received any.  Is this normal for this stage in the BitCoin controlled inflation program?  From reading about BitCoin I was under the impression that a user like me would be able to generate some BitCoins by running my laptop for several hours.