Was going to post this to BitMit, but it appears they are closing up shop...sad day


Fairly sure this key is only valid for the Americas; I make no guarantees that it will work if you attempt to use it from another area. Caveat empor.


Hoping for around 30 USD equivalent in BTC, since that seems to be the going rate. Open to offers.

So there are plenty of online wallets for dedicated Bitcoin, Litecoin, and <insert-your-favored-alt-here>coin storage for no cost. There are also exchanges which allow users to effectively "store" their coins, but tend to have a small fee for deposits and withdrawals.


However, are there any existing services that allow users to store multiple types of cryptos in one interface for no added cost to the user? I'm trying to track something like this down and having no luck so far.

I'm all too aware that the looming threat of the United States government defaulting on its loans is a subject that's been flogged to death by all major news outlets. Especially here in America. However, what I'm interested to hear is what everyone on here thinks will happen this upcoming Thursday. And - more importantly - how it will affect Bitcoin prices...if at all.


Personally I think that despite international pressure to reach a solution, this will be another down-to-the-wire decision with a lot of posturing from both of the major parties (just like last time). We'll see the US credit rating get marked down another point, largely because of the current administration's dysfunctionality. Finally, we'll see a moderate rise in BTC prices over the week (maybe 30%) as smart US traders look to new sources to hedge their assets.



Anyone else have an opinion or any thoughts?

[Cost:]

As the title says, I've written a small script that completely automates the process of TF2 idling. This will work with any number of accounts and any number of Sandboxie windows; I have tested in across a variety of scenarios across the last few weeks.

Additionally, it will record how long each account has been idling. That way, in the event of a catastrophic failure (ie: power loss, internet loss, keyboard attacked by cat, data center catches on fire, etc) there will be a last saved checkpoint without any guesswork necessary.

There are more features on this, but I'm hesitant to reveal them here since this is not a particularly difficult script to replicate for a halfway-decent programmer...and I'd hate to lose out on a small financial opportunity


Cost: $5 USD in Bitcoins, which is at current MTGox exchange rates.

What you get:
- The script described above
- A README on how to use it
- A copy of the WTFPL
- All the help, technical support, advice, and updated versions of this script - if any - from yours truly.



F.A.Q

Why are you selling this instead of using it yourself?
I am already using this script myself However, paying for premium accounts isn't cheap. Especially on a large scale. The TF2 economy is large enough to support a few more idlers than just me and this is a way for me to get a few extra accounts up to premium status on the side.

I idle manually and it works for me. Why would I bother buying your script?
Try idling 200 accounts manually at let me know if it "works for you"

I already have another idling script. Why would I bother buying your script?
You might not need it after all then! As long as your your current script automates everything (including logins) and backs up the current state of your account idling status. Feel free to PM me if you want to talk details about the differences.

Why only $5?
It's enough for me to get an extra premium account. It's also low-cost for any other idlers to jump on this opportunity.

What's to stop me from selling this script myself as soon as I get it? Or giving it away it away for free?
Nothing in particular. Just your own honesty, and the fact that you'll be handing something away for free that you purchased with money. I'll also be putting my contact info and donation addresses in the README and script itself to hopefully avoid anything like this.

Will you accept any other cryptocurrencies?
I will accept the equivalent in DVC or LTC. That's it. None of these strange, new altchains that have been popping up like weeds over the last few weeks.



Thanks for reading all that!

While bored on a train ride home the other day, I threw a quick Python script together that tracks how many times each altchain appears in the top N pages on this subforum for funsies and shiggles. This number N is passed in as a command line argument, to try and keep things modular. Additionally, the script counts the number of times that the word "scam" appears in thread titles as a very basic metric to track FUD on this board.


Source code at https://www.dropbox.com/s/8g2ye2ft3xvj5d6/track_altchain_hype.py

I use Python 2.7.3 on my machine. You will also need the BeautifulSoup library, but it has easy_install support so that shouldn't be an issue.


Example run from 9:30 am PST today:

Code:

$>python track_altchain_hype.py 10
Parsing url...https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67
Parsing url...https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.40
Parsing url...https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.80
Parsing url...https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.120
Parsing url...https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.160
Parsing url...https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.200
Parsing url...https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.240
Parsing url...https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.280
Parsing url...https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.320
Parsing url...https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=67.360
POPULARITY RESULTS:
('LTC', [83, 15404, 950183])
('WDC', [40, 4052, 84124])
('DGC', [28, 2318, 32873])
('PXC', [28, 1631, 18869])
('XRP', [23, 6251, 126662])
('GLD', [21, 1704, 21208])
('DVC', [20, 3692, 82914])
('YAC', [17, 5870, 129839])
('FTC', [16, 2092, 78508])
('BQC', [11, 1912, 40346])
('IXC', [9, 1397, 16831])
('SCAM_INDEX', [9, 286, 7803])
('PPC', [8, 2219, 103103])
('BTE', [8, 1306, 41215])
('PWC', [8, 1013, 16584])
('RYC', [8, 764, 18476])
('JKC', [8, 653, 15343])
('CNC', [7, 1831, 51636])
('NVC', [7, 1757, 50161])
('BTB', [7, 995, 26373])
('NBC', [5, 1306, 18739])
('FRC', [5, 645, 13167])
('TRC', [5, 623, 13955])
('FRK', [3, 581, 12025])
('MNC', [3, 422, 8220])
('BTG', [3, 352, 6042])
('NMC', [3, 11, 304])
('doubloons', [1, 256, 5098])
('SRC', [1, 0, 10])
('SPC', [0, 0, 0])

SCAM RESULTS:
('MNC', [1, u'zacho56'])
('LTC', [1, u'ecliptic'])
('WDC', [0])
('GLD', [0])
('RYC', [0])
('DVC', [0])
('PPC', [0])
('DGC', [0])
('doubloons', [0])
('PXC', [0])
('PWC', [0])
('FRC', [0])
('SRC', [0])
('BQC', [0])
('FRK', [0])
('IXC', [0])
('TRC', [0])
('NBC', [0])
('FTC', [0])
('CNC', [0])
('XRP', [0])
('YAC', [0])
('SPC', [0])
('BTE', [0])
('BTG', [0])
('NVC', [0])
('NMC', [0])
('BTB', [0])
('JKC', [0])

$>

Output for "popularity results" is in the format of [number of threads, number of replies, number of views]

Output for "scam results" is in the format of [number of threads, users who started the threads (if applicable)]



Things I'm planning to improve on:

- Correlate the "scam_index" with the names of altchains to gather data on which coins are considered scams.

- Add additional weight to the counts based on the number of pages in each thread and the thread's position on the board (more visible thread position and more pages in thread == higher popularity weight).

- Keep track of usernames as well to find who the main cheerleaders for each coin are. (Mostly complete, just need to display them properly)

- Write a prettyprinter to make output more self-explanatory and friendly

- Enable sorting by number of replies and views, in addition to number of threads for "popularity" output.

- (Long Term) Write a GUI and allow the output results to be sorted in real-time.



Suggestions I like:

Suggestion - compile a top 10 list of regulars who use the word scam the most.

Again, this is purely for shits and giggles; I'm not trying to make a quick buck or bash any particular coin or anything here...just display some data that I think is interesting. Questions/comments/constructive feedback/suggestions/rude remarks welcome (but maybe not so much on the rude remarks).

[little or no increase in the number of people offering escrow services]

So there's some disturbing trends I've noticed here.

1) Tons of new altchains. Which, on the whole, is fine (despite my own personal objections to some of them)

2) Tons of new scam accusations as these altchains are released. Which, on the whole, is to be expected with new uncharted territory.

3) As far as I'm aware, there has been little or no increase in the number of people offering escrow services. For most (if not all) of these new altchains.



What I'd personally like to see if we, as a community, are going to rush headlong into TotallyNotAScamCoin that we should at least have a dedicated list of trusted escrow contacts before any trades are made. Like trusted Bitcoin escrow'ers who don't mind grabbing the client for a few of the new coins (since I assume they will all be traded for BTC, given current trends) and offer up their services in some kind of global altcoin escrow list.


I'd offer up my own name for such a service since I threw this idea out here, but have 0 escrow experience and no reputation as a result. So, instead, I'm throwing together a list of people willing to provide these services. If you'd like your name added to the list, post here or throw me a PM. Be sure to include:

• The currencies you're willing to provide escrow for
• Your Bitcoin-OTC account link (if you have one)
• How you would prefer to be contacted. Such as an email address, skype, gchat, etc.
• The fees you will be charging for escrow. Or lack thereof.
• Any other additional information you'd like other users to know. Such as preferred chat times, explanations for high/low rep scores, etc.

List at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AibiuqEWnCPZdEN2NlBsUm9PQUoyelk2REVhd0hzSUE&usp=sharing (view-only for everyone but me, currently).

If you want your rep updated, toss me a link to the post where you were rep++'ed. If you have a complaint and want to rep-- an escrow'er, let me know. Hope this helps someone...

[JokeCoin!]

I was going to hold off on this for a little while longer and get the idea a bit more developed first, but with the recent foaming-at-the-mouth speculation, minor revival of RUC, and launches of several new altchains (not to mention the criticism of them in a recent thread), I'd say this is a good time as any to make the announcement of...JokeCoin!


Basic premise is simple: A lot of altchains turn into pre-mined pump and dump scams which harm users and the overall health of the cryptocurrency community. Even if they are legit and not premined, some of them (arguably) still add little in the way of positive growth, being little more than clones of existing coins. At the same time though, creating new coins is an interesting project, and some altchains have introduced beneficial new ideas not first considered by Satoshi. What this project will aim to do is separate the "silly" and potentially "scammy" coins from "serious" coins by establishing a well-defined moniker for currencies obviously intended as a project - or even as a joke, as the name "JokeCoin" implies. The core intent is to keep the creativity of new coin development alive (with a dash of humor thrown in for good measure), while at the same time hopefully reducing the anger and number of scam accusations flying around this subforum these days.


As a simple proof of concept, I'll be updating the following blog with new JokeCoins as it unfolds. The proof of concept for the first of these coins is also posted to the blog. I sadly have nothing in the way of source code for it yet, hence why I wanted to hold off for a little while longer, but plan on releasing something for it relatively soon. Hopefully within a week.


I'm also planning the second JokeCoin (there's a few different ideas I could use for that one, thanks to far too many hours spent in the Trollbox) to be online fairly soon. Reader suggestions for new coin ideas is also very welcome. So far, ideas include:

• JinkiesCoin
• BoozeCoin
• BoobCoin
• BFLCoin
• HypeCoin

What are their defining characteristics? You'll have to wait and find out!


Should there be enough interest in this and/or the blog get enough hits, I'll see about expanding this from beyond a mere blogger page. This is, again, still in proof of concept format just to test the waters. I have several ideas for expanding outward and would love for the opportunity to make them happen.




As a final note: I hope this helps resolve - or at least poke fun at and make light of - some recent controversies we've seen in the cryptocurrency community recently. This project is not intended to cause offense to anyone or anything in particular; instead, it's merely to introduce some humor into the altcoin world.

[If you are interested, throw me a PM with the following:]

I always see a ton of "coder LFW" or "programmer LFW" posts here, but I'm not sure if I have ever seen anything about code maintenance as opposed to code creation...there is much, MUCH more to code's life cycle after it's been created. I'm also aware that there have been recent issues with underaged/underskilled programmers, making the need for (at least) half-decent code reviews that much more pressing.

None of what is intended here is directed as an insult towards any other coders here; bugs in production code are inevitable, even with legions of trained engineers and dozens of code reviews. I sinceerely apologize in advance if anyone takes offense to any part of this message...I merely think I could help improve some of the code quality before it bites someone in the butt later down the line.


So, based on that, here's my proposal:
- Do you have a busted project?
- Did the code monkey you hired for 6 bitcents per day fail to deliver?
- Not sure if your project’s design is feasible…or even possible?
- Got a nested loop 15 layers deep and can't see any way to flatten it?
- Are you hitting serious performance issues now that your site has 3,000 users instead of 30, and not sure where the bottleneck is?
- Or are you even just stuck with a dumb bug you can't find the answer to on StackOverflow?

I can help. Or, at the very least, I promise you I will do my best to. I've been poking around in various programming languages for the last 8 years, majored in Computer Science and Engineering in college, and currently work as a Software Engineer at one of the larger companies in Silicon Valley. Yes, I am over 18...and I'll gladly submit any proof as to that, or to my engineering skills.


If you are interested, throw me a PM with the following:
1) Language the code is written in
2) Brief description of the issue you're facing
3) What you want to have happen
4) If you want, any up-front cost you're willing to pay. Totally optional though  

We can also discuss over gchat, skype, or whatever else, but my full-time job will take priority over such conversations.


Pricing:
Given the difficulty in predicting how much effort any particular project might require, I'll keep this fairly vague for now. I apologize if this sounds evasive.

- I will give you a free estimate when presented with a task. I may need to ask for more information before providing such an estimate though.

- If the task is very simple (such as requires me just redirecting you to a StackOverflow question to resolve), then I will not as for anything. Donations are always welcome though  

- For code reviews and debugging help, it will depend on the length of the code.

- For discussions about projects, these will be free for a certain amount of time and questions. For now, let's call it 5 minutes or 8 questions. This is pretty arbitrary though. In any case, after the set limit, I will start charging a small agreed-upon amount to continue.

- Finally, actually writing or re-writing code will probably be the most expensive of these categories. However, I promise that you will get more than what you pay for.

Basically, when in doubt about about how much a job will cost, I will leave it up to how much it’s worth to you to have your code fixed. I think that sounds pretty fair.


Technical Skills:
Not to come across as arrogant, but I can probably learn anything not listed here if needed.

- Know and love: C, C++, Python, Django, Java, SQL (MySQL and PostgreSQL), miscellaneous *nix knowledge (mainly RedHat and Ubuntu)
- Know, but less fond of/less proficient with: HTML, JQuery, Ruby on Rails, PROLOG, Perl, C#, Android programming, Windows batch files
- Don’t know, or prefer not to use: PHP, vanilla Javascript, Lisp, MATLAB, Objective C

If your project/question is in any other language, I’ll still gladly take a look at it if you would like. However, I promise no miracles!


FINAL NOTE: Nothing illegal. Even borderline-gray-area-but-it-should-be-ok-cos-I-have-a-buddy-who-tried-it-and-didn’t-get-in-trouble-for-it-so-no-worries-right is thin ice.




Thanks for your time and for reading all that mess. [/wallOfText]

http://www.novacoin.org/site/

For if and when the picture is removed, I screencapped it for prosperity (downsized for forum, full-sized pic at http://imgur.com/FV4c3c4):





So much for all the hype; the "Party is over kids." It was good for a quick laugh though