[Please PM me with your order.]

Here goes my first attempt to sell! I can build to order and I will check that Mac OS X 10.8.4 runs correctly, including iTunes, iMessage, and the Apple App Store. Please PM me with your order. We will need to agree on the BTC price and I will submit the newegg order when I have 6 confirmations of BTC payment. I will ship UPS Ground (or any UPS if we agree) when all the parts arrive, plus 2 business days for testing.

Here is an example build for a budget hackintosh:

• $140 Core i3-3225 Ivy Bridge 3.3GHz
• $62 Kingston 8GB RAM DDR3 1600
• $70 Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H - note: the analog VGA 15-pin output does not work in Mac OS, but the DVI and HDMI do work.
• $45 TP-link TL-WDN4800 wireless PCI-E adapter
• $60 WD Blue 500GB hard disk
• $30 Rosewill 350W power supply
• $20 Gigabyte GZ-F3HEB case
• $20 Mac OS X 10.8.4 Mountain Lion
• $32 UPS Ground S&H to the continental 48 US States, packed in the box the case came in
• $50 for my time installing Mac OS X, around 10% of the bill of materials
• $529 Total

A Mac Desktop for BTC equalling $529 (as of right now, 3.70 BTC). I'll build it for you and include a step-by-step PDF of what I did. Compare that to the cheapest Apple product -- $699, or you can downgrade to 4GB for $599 but that significantly limits the machine's abilities.

Here is my wallet address: 1221iZanNi5igK7oAA7AWmYjpsyjsRbLLZ

Upgrades:

One of the best things about a Hackintosh is - standard parts! I don't supply the monitor, keyboard, webcam, and speakers because you will want to get the ones that you like the most. Please consider ordering a DVI or HDMI monitor, keyboard, webcam, or speakers. You may already have ones you can use. For less than $100 you will be able to use the hackintosh right away.

Here are some upgrade options, with the price difference:

• +$44 2 TB hard drive
• +$209 Core i7 3770k Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz Quad-core
• +$314 SSD boot drive
• +$435 GeForce GTX 670, will disable the internal Intel HD graphics
• +$2,999 Xeon E5-2687W Sandy Bridge, upgraded everything. Note: power management, such as the "sleep" menu option, will not work.
• I will add the Core i7 4960X when it goes on sale

The Install Guide PDF

Take control of your hackintosh. I ship the computer with everything installed and working. But Mac OS is distributed by Apple as a digital download, so please consider dedicating a USB key as a backup, storing Mac OS and the additional bits needed to make the hackintosh work. Then you can reinstall, upgrade, dual/triple/quad boot as you wish.

Everything Tested

This is what makes it all worth it. I have the experience building hackintoshes and know where problems might pop up. I'll write everything down for you.

NO WARRANTY

This is why it's called a hackintosh. I can't guarantee the machine will work with Mac OS into the future. If you have specific questions about things you need it to do, I can point you to the right places to start searching.

But the software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. The hardware has been powered on and works when it ships, but there are no returns/refunds/exchanges. If you want to try to negotiate case-by-case I may be able to help you, but NO GUARANTEE.

I also cannot do escrow because I need to use the funds to buy the equipment. I am as open and detailed above, showing exactly what I do with the funds, so that escrow concerns are minimized.

[Down for Maintenance]

instawallet.org says:




Down for Maintenance
We have detected a security breach. Services are temporarily suspended until we have thoroughly investigated the situation. We will resume services as soon as possible.

Please do not send funds to your address for the time being.

Stay tuned for further updates, thank you for your understanding.

the founder (user here on bitcointalk) has locked his thread but it has some details

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/26/texas-wants-its-gold-back-wait-what/

I posted another thread about Germany wanting their gold back (and the above link mentions Germany too).

As the fine article says, "Wait, what?"

If something is going on, do you think it's "hyperinflation, ... a total collapse of the U.S. monetary and political system, ... post-apocalyptic hellscape" as suggested by the article?

What do you think? (I'd be happy to add poll options.)

I'm in the process of a purchase that will be finalized here on the website when the right email is received. Are any well-respected members interested in escrowing the transaction?

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/most-peculiar-test-drive

Score: Tesla 1, NYT 0

Click on the image to see the most up-to-date statistics.

It may just be amazing luck, but "unknown" is getting 49% of the blocks in the last 24 hours. "Unknown" is unknown but assume most of the hashing is done by botnets.

Are they trying to get as much BTC as they can before the difficulty increases? Are they running scared?

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/01/bitcoin-based-casino-rakes-in-over-500000-profit-in-six-months/

Satoshi Dice rakes in more than $500,000 profit in six months (BTC33,310 May-Dec 2012)

[105]

I'm not long or short on either of these stocks, see below for why I think this is a long con:

INTC	$21.25/share x 4,980,000,000 shares	= $105,740,000,000
QCOM	$64.68/share x 1,700,000,000 shares	= $110,220,000,000

Everyone who has ever gone up against chipzilla Intel has always lost. Market cap is not an indicator of success. But even the NYT is saying things like:

"The PC business as we’ve known it is evolving," said Paul S. Otellini, Intel’s chief executive, in a call to analysts.

"The form factors are going to blur here."

Instead of PCs, more people and businesses are buying smartphones and tablets.

Intel gets 64 percent of its revenues and some of its highest profit margins from chips for PCs.

It has scrambled to revive the market, while it aggressively tries to supply tablet and smartphone makers, so far with little success.

That last part is the con, I think: Intel isn't scrambling the big guns to get into tablets and smartphones. It's simple: small devices have small margins, so Intel is content to take a few lazy steps just to keep the engines warm until the timing is right.

The press is bear on INTC to pick up the stock right before they shift into high gear.

Ok this forum is where I wish I had posted the code to a cheap hardware watchdog.

I ported it to an MSP430 Launchpad ($4.30) I had lying around as well. I'm currently using one Teensy 2.0 ($16) per rig because I already have them.

Maybe a mod will move that thread here?

[echo "" >/dev/ttyACM0]

After my rigs were down last night for most of the night I decided to bite the bullet and create a hardware watchdog.

The irony is that the chipset on these motherboards has a watchdog! But because the manufacturer won't share the chipset datasheet, no driver exists. What I did was easier than reversing the BIOS (but I might still do that):

After a night of tinkering:

Code:

#include "VirtualSerial.h"

static CDC_LineEncoding_t LineEncoding = { .BaudRateBPS = 0,
                                           .CharFormat  = CDC_LINEENCODING_OneStopBit,
                                           .ParityType  = CDC_PARITY_None,
                                           .DataBits    = 8
                                         };

uint8_t led_pwm = 255;
int8_t led_pwm_delta = 0;
uint16_t led_pwm_delta_delay = 0;
uint8_t reset_countdown = 6;

enum {
watchdog_off = 0,
watchdog_armed = 1,
watchdog_cleared = 2,
watchdog_timeout = 3,
watchdog_reset_wait = 4,
};

uint8_t watchdog_state = watchdog_off;
char * report = 0;

int main(void)
{
MCUSR &= ~(1 << WDRF);
wdt_disable();
clock_prescale_set(clock_div_1);
USB_Init();
sei();
DDRC = 0;
PORTC = 0;
DDRD = 255;
PORTD = 0;

uint16_t count = 63;
for (;;) {
count += 64; // 64 controls the update rate of the LED by speeding or slowing the overflow to 0

// square led_pwm: fast linearization of the nonlinear response of the LED
PORTD = (count > ((uint16_t) led_pwm*led_pwm)) ?
0 : (1 << PORTD6);

if (watchdog_state == watchdog_timeout) {
led_pwm_delta_delay += 2;
if (!led_pwm_delta_delay) {
if (!reset_countdown) {
led_pwm = 64;
DDRC = 1 << PORTC7;
reset_countdown = 7;
} else if (reset_countdown == 7) {
led_pwm = 10;
reset_countdown = 6;
watchdog_state = watchdog_reset_wait;
} else {
led_pwm ^= 255;
reset_countdown--;
DDRC = 0;
}
}
} else {
if (watchdog_state == watchdog_cleared) watchdog_state = watchdog_armed;
led_pwm_delta_delay += 64;
if (!led_pwm_delta_delay && led_pwm_delta) {
int16_t next_pwm = led_pwm;
next_pwm += led_pwm_delta;
if (next_pwm > 255) {
led_pwm_delta = -1;
led_pwm = 255;
} else if (next_pwm < 0) {
led_pwm_delta = 1;
led_pwm = 0;
if (watchdog_state == watchdog_armed) {
watchdog_state = watchdog_timeout;
led_pwm_delta = 0;
led_pwm = 255;
}
} else {
led_pwm = next_pwm;
}
}
}

CDC_Task();
USB_USBTask();
}
}

void EVENT_USB_Device_Connect(void)
{
led_pwm = 0;
led_pwm_delta = 0;
}

void EVENT_USB_Device_Disconnect(void)
{
led_pwm = 255;
led_pwm_delta = 0;
watchdog_state = watchdog_off;
}

void EVENT_USB_Device_ConfigurationChanged(void)
{
if (Endpoint_ConfigureEndpoint(CDC_NOTIFICATION_EPADDR, EP_TYPE_INTERRUPT, CDC_NOTIFICATION_EPSIZE, 1) &&
Endpoint_ConfigureEndpoint(CDC_TX_EPADDR, EP_TYPE_BULK, CDC_TXRX_EPSIZE, 1) &&
Endpoint_ConfigureEndpoint(CDC_RX_EPADDR, EP_TYPE_BULK,  CDC_TXRX_EPSIZE, 1))
{
led_pwm = 0;
led_pwm_delta = 0;
} else {
led_pwm = 128;
led_pwm_delta = 0;
}
LineEncoding.BaudRateBPS = 0;
}

void EVENT_USB_Device_ControlRequest(void)
{
switch (USB_ControlRequest.bRequest)
{
case CDC_REQ_GetLineEncoding:
if (USB_ControlRequest.bmRequestType == (REQDIR_DEVICETOHOST | REQTYPE_CLASS | REQREC_INTERFACE))
{
Endpoint_ClearSETUP();
Endpoint_Write_Control_Stream_LE(&LineEncoding, sizeof(CDC_LineEncoding_t));
Endpoint_ClearOUT();
}
break;
case CDC_REQ_SetLineEncoding:
if (USB_ControlRequest.bmRequestType == (REQDIR_HOSTTODEVICE | REQTYPE_CLASS | REQREC_INTERFACE))
{
Endpoint_ClearSETUP();
Endpoint_Read_Control_Stream_LE(&LineEncoding, sizeof(CDC_LineEncoding_t));
Endpoint_ClearIN();
}
break;
case CDC_REQ_SetControlLineState:
if (USB_ControlRequest.bmRequestType == (REQDIR_HOSTTODEVICE | REQTYPE_CLASS | REQREC_INTERFACE))
{
Endpoint_ClearSETUP();
Endpoint_ClearStatusStage();
}
break;
}
}

void CDC_Task(void)
{
static char * last_report   = 0;

if (USB_DeviceState != DEVICE_STATE_Configured)
 return;

report = (watchdog_state == watchdog_timeout) ? "watchdog timeout\r\n" : "watchdog armed\r\n";

if ((report != 0) && (last_report != report) && LineEncoding.BaudRateBPS)
{
last_report = report;
if (watchdog_state == watchdog_off) {
watchdog_state = watchdog_armed;
led_pwm_delta = 1;
}

Endpoint_SelectEndpoint(CDC_TX_EPADDR);
Endpoint_Write_Stream_LE(report, strlen(report), NULL);
bool IsFull = (Endpoint_BytesInEndpoint() == CDC_TXRX_EPSIZE);
Endpoint_ClearIN();

if (IsFull)
{
Endpoint_WaitUntilReady();
Endpoint_ClearIN();
}
}

Endpoint_SelectEndpoint(CDC_RX_EPADDR);
if (Endpoint_IsOUTReceived())
{
uint8_t  Buffer[Endpoint_BytesInEndpoint()];
uint16_t DataLength = Endpoint_BytesInEndpoint();
Endpoint_Read_Stream_LE(&Buffer, DataLength, NULL);
Endpoint_ClearOUT();
Endpoint_SelectEndpoint(CDC_TX_EPADDR);
Endpoint_Write_Stream_LE(&Buffer, DataLength, NULL);
Endpoint_ClearIN();
Endpoint_WaitUntilReady();
Endpoint_ClearIN();

watchdog_state = watchdog_cleared;
led_pwm = 0;
led_pwm_delta = 1;
led_pwm_delta_delay = 0;
}
}

How this works: download LUFA, then either WinAVR or Linux has gcc-avr in your package manager. Unzip LUFA and copy the VirtualSerial demo to another directory, then replace VirtualSerial.c with the above code. Now edit the makefile and specify your MCU and BOARD. Then type 'make' to create a .hex file you can pass to avrdude or a similar flash programmer for your board. If you get to this point but 'make' reports an error and does not spit out a .hex file, feel free to ask questions.

The code uses 1 LED for status, and one GPIO connected to the reset switch on your motherboard. The pins are correct for a Teensy 2 ($16). The reset line can be connected to both the GPIO and your manual reset button: the line is open drain with a pullup so any number of reset drivers can be wired to it.

The AVR emulates a USB serial adapter, and must receive 1 byte every 4 seconds (if your AVR crystal runs at 16 MHz), or it will hit the reset button. I have Windows and Linux code that does this for me - it's quite simple. To reduce the number of moving parts for reliability, I recommend against a simple echo "" >/dev/ttyACM0 because it will open and close the port, causing unnecessary USB traffic. A slightly better way is to leave the fd (handle) open:

Code:

exec 5>/dev/ttyACM0
while true; do
echo "" >&5
sleep 4
done

The status LED stays off until the serial port is configured. For Windows this happens when the serial port is opened. For Linux, this happens when the cdc_acm module is loaded. Then the status LED indicates the countdown, starting over each time a byte is received. During the reset process, the LED shows a "warning pattern," asserts reset with a different intensity, and then waits for the system to reset the serial port.

There's still lots that needs work! A watchdog should be as reliable as possible, and the serial port code is more complicated than necessary. It does help when debugging things. Please donate if you want me to improve on this. I also want to port Coin Control to Bitcoin-Qt head - send me a PM if that would be useful to you.

Here are some older threads on watchdogs:

• Hardware watchdogs start at €25 on ebay: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=31417.0
• A software watchdog: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=29021.0 (software watchdogs would not have saved last night)
• A remote-control power switch: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=7150.0 (but cycling power is overkill and shortens the life of your rig)

Please donate if you find this useful: 1KBMjP645vz9HGyUru22V5RgSyacdJHsfh

The title says it all, but just to elaborate:

German citizens may have thought their federal government had gold reserves.

It turns out that was a lie. The Euro is truly a Fiat currency, and not backed by anything – not even the gold they say they have.

Ok, they're now moving some of the gold back to Germany. I wonder if that means some other nation will now be on the "short end" and lack sufficient gold to back its currency?

Obligatory: I'm not a goldbug (or a silverbug for that matter). I actually think gold is a bad long-term investment. All I'm saying is, those guys who claimed to be holding all that gold? Yeah, they don't have it.

Good thing we don't let them mint new Bitcoins!

Since there's now a "Flu Virus Outbreak" on the nightly news, what would it take to artificially introduce a new influenza strain that becomes a US pandemic?

Assume a new flu virus has been created already in a lab somewhere (skip the biology).

Also, who would benefit? Obama-care advocates? Wealthy plutocrats? North Korea?

(I'm just throwing out some bad ideas.)

Forbes.com says "blocking the money streams to these sites would be a more 'fruitful'" and "censorship-resistent bitcoin appears to solve the problem by providing a decidedly nonpolitical currency."

What's even more surprising is that Forbes.com is quoting Torrentfreak so much...

Torrentfreak: PayPal Demands Invites to Private BitTorrent Trackers

Torrentfreak: PayPal Bans BitTorrent Friendly Hosting Provider PRQ

The bad news: "PayPal is so widely used that donations would drop if forced to rely on lesser-known payment methods" like bitcoin.

I'm using the official Bitcoin-Qt client (0.7.2) and so far have just been receiving coins.

How can I control the inputs to a transaction? I've read Quantitative Analysis of the Full Bitcoin Transaction Graph (PDF) - I think that means I don't want to just combine all my coins by sending them to one address. An algorithm could safely deduce that all the inputs to the transaction were really just me all along.

I want to get in the habit of being as anonymous as possible. I understand that there's no such thing as perfect anonymity.

The "send coins" view in Bitcoin-Qt is missing an option to pick an input and see what the balance is at that address. I googled to see if anyone had asked a similar question but didn't find one.

[5 months!]

Brian Krebs, former Washington Post reporter, now a recognized blogger in computer security reports:

Turkish Registrar Enabled Phishers to Spoof Google

Turkish government agency spoofed Google certificate "accidentally"

Note that the fake intermediate CA files have been in the wild for 5 months! The ability to impersonate any SSL server is worth in excess of $25,000 on the black market.

Most bitcoiners can easily pass the requirements to get on supertorrents.org, but I have an invite I don't need, so...

Suggested bid: BTC1

This is probably me, but...

I'm running BitcoinQt 0.7.2rc2-beta I read the threads with free Satoshis. The bitcoin client had not yet finished catching up, so I thought, I'll put in for some free satoshis on these sites, but wait a few days to see them in my wallet. Only it has caught up now, and my balance is still 0.00 (with no transactions).

One example: dailybitcoins.org 1YzCWkVD2hAW1ovubVsf3JbjED1qck7sT - I unchecked the box to delay the transaction so shouldn't it have been sent over?

[This needs a better frontend.]

Since I'm still a newbie, I'll put this thread in the newbies section. Mods: please feel free to move this to the development section.

I'm new to bitcoins. Too bad, right? I missed out on all the fun! The ASICpocalypse is here and bitcoins have lost all their value. Heh, nevermind: it didn't happen.

Hey, one thing a newcomer might notice that everyone else has gotten used to: it takes forever to bootstrap a bitcoin client and it has to stay connected all the time!

Now, I don't trust anyone so I'll never be putting my wallet in the cloud. So I'll run bitcoind on an always-on machine I have in a locked cage somewhere, that's easy! And as soon as I started up bitcoind it hit me:

This needs a better frontend.

Ok, I admit, I only looked at a few and really only tried bitcoin-js-remote before I decided this isn't going to work.

Anyone want to help me write a better frontend? I'm currently unemployed but here are the apps I'd like to make, sorted from quick and easy (get my feet wet) to hard:

1. Linux Terminal App (bitcoind TUI frontend)

2. Qt App for my linux laptop. I don't like having to leave my laptop connected all the time just to keep my block chain up to date!

3. Android app

4. Mac OS native app

5. Windows native app

6. iOS app (I might never get around to this one. They can just use bitcoin-js-remote, right?) :-}