Where does the global need to mine Bitcoins come into the analysis? By need, I mean the idea that all Bitcoins should be mined so they are in circulation, so to speak. If everyone gives up mining now, does that mean Bitcoin "failed"? Or does it mean the value of Bitcoins goes up because of limited supply?

Just a few of the questions that bother us so...

Will do. The different hashing rates is with ASICs. CGMiner was producing hash rates around 330 Mh/s per ASIC, but the pool was reporting rates about 60% of that figure.

Thanks, mate, but I really was just venting. I was able to shift over to the BFGMiner and not run into problems. But you're right, anyone expecting some help needs to provide more information.

It appears the BFGMiner definitely has better performance in terms of what it's reporting to the pools, but it's still a bit slow.

Within the miner I'll get 660-680 MH/s, but only about 580-600 are getting reported by the pool.

This is observed using MacMiner 1.3.17 (which may not be the latest build or official release version).

In MacMiner, the FPGA/ASIC miner works great except that every once in a while it'll just stop. I can set up a notification for idle workers but it always happens when I'm at work and can't take the hour round trip to restart the buggers.  

Hopefully the BFGMiner will run with greater stability, even if I'm losing several dozen hashes/second. Better that than huge swaths of downtime.

And it always happens after I leave home and get to the office.

Rats.

Eight to ten hours of perfectly good mining lost.

Double rats.

I think the OP is probably correct, but there are still a lot of people who want to get into mining. Maybe they are right...

Profitability? Other?

The reason I'm curious is I was looking at Litecoin and Feathercoin. Assuming all other things are equal, a mining calculator for each shows that I'd generate about the same amount in US dollars each month. So why pick one over the other? Litecoin is obviously more established, but that doesn't always mean you're better off mining Litecoins. I suppose there's more risk mining Feathercoins since it's not as well established--and if it goes kablooey (to use the technical term) then you've wasted all that time.

So, I pose the question to my fellow crypto currency fans: what makes you decide to mine one particular coin versus another?

This question comes from a complete non-computer engineer, but I'm curious. Since ASIC is designed to accomplish a specific task, wouldn't it be possible to create an ASIC to "mine" prime numbers? [This isn't a question about whether it would be a marketable device like the ASIC USB miners, just about the engineering side.]

The simplest answer to this question is that I was able to find a great guide (like "Mining Primecoin for Total Dumbsh*ts") for Linux, but not one for OS X. I understand the very broad concept of compiling code, but I am not familiar with actually doing it.

I think it might be already too difficult. I'm running on OS X 10.8.4, and I set up an Ubuntu OS in VMWare Fusion. It's running around 600-700 ops, has gone through almost 80,000 blocks in 24 hours, and there's nothing produced so far. I'll let it keep running for a few days. I understand that luck is a major factor, so maybe lady luck will visit me.

I do have one question (not arguing, just asking).

How certain is it that BFL is a scam? The reason I ask is that they are paying for advertising on various BTC-related sites still. Part of me thinks that if they were a scam, they wouldn't continue to advertise. (On the other hand, by advertising a scammer can look legit--I know, it cuts both ways).

I'm not disputing anyone's feelings or conclusions about BFL. Just asking rhetorical questions that could come up in a court case.

I hope I didn't sound like I was suggesting people wait. My hope was to explain that filing a lawsuit may not accomplish much, but seeking help from the FTC and state attorneys general might be a bit more productive. For example, although the regulators might not be able to get any money back, they can ask for orders that prohibit the individuals involved in BFL from ever being owners of similar businesses in the future (depending on the laws in your particular jurisdiction).

As for timing, I would think you should file any complaints with regulatory agencies sooner rather than later.

No legal approach here is going to be entirely satisfying, but I think if you're going to act you should focus energy in ways that may accomplish more in the end.

I should also state here that I'm not representing anyone, not providing legal advice, and you should be aware that there are laws that can limit your rights to file a lawsuit if not filed within a certain time. Filing complaints with FTC or attorneys general will not extend the deadlines the law imposes. (I hate sounding like a lawyer, but my malpractice carrier would crap if I didn't say that stuff.)

How about app crashing after just starting mining with the CPU miner? Here's the short version of what the crash reporter generates:

Process:         MacMiner [9020]
Path:            /Applications/MacMiner.app/Contents/MacOS/MacMiner
Identifier:      com.fabulouspanda.macminer
Version:         1.4.5 (1405)
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [203]
User ID:         501

Date/Time:       2013-07-19 14:59:12.834 -0400
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.8.4 (12E55)
Report Version:  10
Sleep/Wake UUID: A4B38065-B8C3-4209-9C79-57390591AEFA

Interval Since Last Report:          120961 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           105
Per-App Interval Since Last Report:  117 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   1
Anonymous UUID:                      EB33D52C-4C2A-B49B-F33E-44B2D2576F15

Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x0000000000000000

VM Regions Near 0:
-->

I forget, what miner (bfg? cg? other?) runs in the CPUminer? Just making sure there's no conflict there. Thanks!

I've got a couple of the ASICMINER block erupters plugging away on BTC, but I also have two MacBook Pro laptops with CPUs not doing a whole lot from time to time.

Recognizing CPU mining is dreadfully slow, and that it's unwise in some cases to mine due to overheating, are there any coins that people think could be profitably mined with the CPUs alone?

My guess is the answer is no, but I try to make decisions in life based on evidence, not guesses or gut feelings. 

Thanks for any input, discussion, advice, abusive language (wait, what?), etc.

Well, this didn't take long. Plugging the "slow" device directly into the USB port on the laptop had no effect on the speed reported to the pool.

I guess the next step is to swap the two devices to see if one of them is defective in some fashion... 

This may or may not help the search for answers, but here's a further observation.

My "slow" USB device is running off of a powered hub (USB 2.0) hooked into a MacBook Pro (mid-2009 15" 2.8 GHz).

My other USB device is running off of a MacBook Pro (early 2013, 13"), no hub, and seems to be reporting the correct hash rates to the pool.

I'm going to plug the "slow" one directly into the mid-2009 MacBook Pro and see if it's any different. I'll report back what I find.

Enjoy the time away! 

I'm an attorney, but I don't practice in the area of commercial litigation like this, so I don't want to comment on a topic I'm not qualified to discuss.

But here is another thought: You might be better off marshaling your forces to file complaints with the Federal Trade Commission and your state attorney general offices that have consumer protection/fraud divisions. There's no cost to doing so. The FTC or state AG can opt to not do anything (they get A LOT of fraud complaints each day and have to figure out how to best use their limited resources).

The only point of suing BFL would be to recover money from them. If BFL has been running a scam, then the money is probably long gone. You could end up with a nice judgment that's worth the paper it's printed on. I have several clients with judgments that we'll never be able to collect. It can be a waste of time and money.

Also, don't waste your time suing BFL in small claims court unless it's in the jurisdiction where BFL is. They are located in Kansas. If I sued them here in Indiana, I could get a default judgment against them, but then I need to find a way to get that judgment registered in Kansas so it becomes a Kansas judgment.

I understand the desire to go after BFL for what appears to be a scam (maybe it is, maybe it isn't). Just be aware of the practical problems with doing it before making the commitment to launch a lawsuit.

Now that's rather odd. You'd think given Windows's prevalence that folks would be discussing it already, but maybe very few have two USB miners plugged into the same computer. Fortunately, I've been able to plug one into the laptop at home and one into the laptop at work, so I'm covered.

Edited to add: Still, each hardware device is reporting roughly half speed to the pool, even from separate computers. Sorry for the confusion!

No, just 10.8.4. I haven't felt the urge to get into the OS X beta (yet). 

Excellent news!