Ok, so by reading the title of this topic you already know what yer walking into here.  I'm gonna ask now.....and I have been mining for a bit and have a few coins in a few pool accounts.....so im not %100 clueless but I have to be at around %99.3 on the clueless meter.  Here goes.....ok...gonna ask now...meow....


I can see that in my account for a pool (say BTCGuild for instance) that it says I have 2.5***** bitcoins.  And I know I can "move" these to a "wallet account" like at MyBitCoin.  But, I hear its best to keep these coins in a more secure "wallet" like on a thumb drive.  And I have even gone as far as to follow a guide to create such a drive.  But my question is...when I put cash in my real life wallet, its cash or paper if you will.  When I put a credit card in my wallet its not cash but its linked to a company that has my cash (and is keeping it secure)....so what ON EARTH an i putting in a Bit-Coin-USB-Thumb-Drive-Wallet?  Why is it more secure THAT way?

Trying to figure this out....Im SURE Im a moron..but it just isn't clicking.

So, mining with a modest 5770 rig GUIMiner shows me mining at around 200 m/hash.

Mining in the BTC Guild Pool, it is showing that in the last 24hrs (mining 18 of those hrs) I have generated 0.09059131 BTC.  Still stupid-new to all this so....does that sound right?  Good?........normal?  I dont know if it does or doesn't so, ...Im asking....lolol

So (still new...bear with me), I am using GUIMiner on several of my machines.  One of which is a GTX570 SLi PC (bought for gaming LONG before I had ever heard of a Bitcoin).  Anyhow, GUIMiner shows the "device" I am using as [0-0] GeForce GTX 570.  It has a drop-down box that I can select [0-1] (the other card).  Does this mean I must launch and run GUIMiner twice to utilize both cards, one using [0-0] the other using [0-1]?

Thanks!

Ok, so I am MEGA new to this whole Bitcoin thing but stumbled upon it the other day reading about the "crash".  Anyhow, my question is really really simple.  Would it make sense for me to mine?

I am a gamer and have a 15 PC LAN in my home currently.  Up until now I had no knowledge of the Bitcoin realm yet it seems I may have the hardware to maybe make a lil bit. A few of my machines might not make sense (I have a couple with lowly 9600GTs for GPUs) but I have a few that might make more sense.  I have one with dual 570s, one with a single 570, two with single GTX285's and two with single HD5770s.  From the reading I have already done it seems the ATI systems would fare much better but the GTX570 systems I have are on all the time anyway.  Since I have this hardware just sitting here at times, would it make sense to mine?

(I have ventured out to try it already, downloading GUIMiner and joining BTC Guild....I just wanna know if its a total waste of time or not.  I also know the power consumption does go up on said machines when mining but from the calculators I have seen I might still be able to turn a lil profit.)

Thanks!

Edit- And as for my hardware costs...since I own this stuff anyway for gaming and Bitcoin has never mattered to me before.....making up the difference in what I already own is mute to me.