I've made two new statements on the outcome of the Australian Federal Election which is due next year.  Those statements are that:

1) The ALP will form government following the election.
2) The Liberals/Nationals Coalition will form government following the election.

Although one statement most likely means the other loses, I decided to make both statements to cover certain very minute chances of other outcomes.  My reasons for doing so are in this blog post.

http://betsofbitco.in/item?id=688

The black (and grey) market site will be closed permanently by 12:01am UTC, 1/7/2013 (or 7/1/2013 for Americans).

It does not matter whether it is shutdown by law enforcement (DEA, FBI, whatever) or whether Silk Road staff shut it down and returned any funds owed to users or even if they absconded with whatever BTC they had left in the site when they ran. The site moving to a different hidden/darknet address does not count as shutting the site down. Shutting the site down means all operations have ceased.


Opening date: Sept. 19, 2012
Bet deadline: June 29, 2013 end of day Eastern Time
Event date: July 1, 2013 end of day Eastern Time
Category: Other

I expect this one will simultaneously amuse and annoy people.

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Hash: SHA512

Hello,

I know there are a number of people already using GPG effectively here (and elsewhere), but I am sure there are plenty more who want to use it and just can't quite get a grip on it.

I have been using GPG since the Crypto Wars of the 1990s and these days I use it constantly.  I'm also a qualified trainer and understand the different ways people need to learn.

Someone struggling with this topic and often many confusing explanations, or who just does not have the time to investigate the online manuals and mailing lists, could benefit from my knowledge and experience.

What is offered (in roughly the order they would be taught or demonstrated):

* One-on-one instruction, primarily via email or IM.  IM is subject to timezone compatibility.
* Explanation of the basics of public key infrastructure (i.e. how it all works).
* Step-by-step instructions on installing GPG4Win for Windows and/or GPGTools for Mac OS X.  Linux distributions should already have GPG installed.
* Modifying the GPG configuration file to include some more advanced options (e.g. setting cipher preferences, activating DSA2, setting default keys, using group lines).
* Using expert mode to generate a custom or advanced key (e.g. to mix RSA and Elgamal).
* Editing a key to add subkeys.
* Explanation of the purpose of signing keys, signing messages and the Web of Trust.
* Exporting the public key, backing up the secret key.
* Configuring Thunderbird and the Enigmail add-on.
* Testing the ability to send and receive encrypted email and signed email.

If it is of interest, the following more advanced options are available:

* Step-by-step instructions on how to compile GPG 1.4.x on *nix systems (e.g. Linux or OS X with Xcode).  Will include Camellia and IDEA.  GPG-Agent is optional (user's preference).
* Configuring a key to only use the subkeys for day-to-day use (to keep the master key off an active system).
* Command line instruction to achieve tasks not readily available through the GUI frontends (e.g. hiding recipients, protecting against Van Eck Phreaking, identifying a session key, decrypting a specific message with a session key, using symmetric encryption).
* I will answer any question on the topic (assuming the answer is known or there is an answer) or will attempt to locate the answer.  If something is obscure enough that I don't know the answer I will NOT charge for the time it takes to find the answer.

What is NOT offered:

* An explanation of the mathematical algorithms which comprise the ciphers and hashes.  This is a practical course, not a post-graduate mathematics course.


My fee for this service is 15.0 BTC for the first 3 hours and 7.0 BTC for every hour thereafter.

Fees may be adjusted depending on currency fluctuations against my local currency.  But the current fees have been selected to handle a certain degree of fluctuations in the BTC value.


Regards,
Ben
 
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Hello,

Anyone wanting to use the EFF's HTTPS-Everywhere add-on for Firefox and who haven't yet written their own rule, can use this one.

Step 1) Load https://www.bitcoin.org/ and add an exception for the site (it currently uses a self-signed certificate).
Step 2) Download the HTTPS-Everywhere XML file.
Step 3) Copy/move the file to the HTTPSEverywhereUserRules directory for your profile.

Profile paths for various operating systems are available here.