1841
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Other / Off-topic / UK: got paypal?
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on: February 12, 2011, 10:40:28 PM
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Hey,
I need to buy a part for my laptop, but the guy ONLY takes paypal. I've tried several cards already and they give me various stupid errors (or redirect to main page or need 7 day confirmation .etc)...
Anyone here able to let me xfer them £10 through internet banking and then they send the £10 to him for me? Trusted members only (don't want to get scammed :p)
Thanks
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1843
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Bitcoin / Development & Technical Discussion / file_lock in python/Qt
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on: February 12, 2011, 10:03:57 PM
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Hey, So I want to detect when bitcoind is running but that RPC server hasn't yet started up. The way bitcoind checks whether it's already running is by using boost::file_lock http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_35_0/boost/interprocess/sync/file_lock.hppAny ideas how to use this in python? I could create my own binding for python but I'd rather not have a compilable dependency for such a minor thing. The problem with checking a systems processes is that it's unreliable to assume the program is always called bitcoin (i.e different server implementations). I tried a different file-lock library: $ bitcoind $ sudo apt-get install python-lockfile $ python import lockfile lock = lockfile.FileLock('.bitcoin') with lock: print lock.path
'.bitcoin' $ cd .bitcoin/ $ python import lockfile lock = lockfile.FileLock('.lock') with lock: print lock.path
'.lock'
Any ideas how to do this? Must be cross-platform. File locking is an OS function, so maybe I'm not using the correct file?
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1844
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Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / bubble imminent
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on: February 12, 2011, 07:09:33 PM
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Yesterday night there was 1.1 BTC per $. This morning it was 0.9 BTC per $ briefly.
- Small core community. - Not many services. People mainly using bitcoin as an investment vehicle. - Sharp increases in value. + Linux users tend to be idealists and not invest in something because of money necessarily. + Lots of outside interest recently.
I conclude a large chance of a bubble soon happening.
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1848
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Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: pioneer one now accepting bitcoin
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on: February 12, 2011, 06:29:57 AM
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western population is decreasing. that's why governments import clever brown people (immigration). most growth estimates for humans place a cap. where the cap lies differs according to various risk estimates, there's an interesting effect that newly urbanised countries shop drops in fertility and more as they become developed. many western countries are still shrinking far below 2.1 children per family which is the replacement rate. so overpopulation is not a worry for me. esp since no government agency finds it a worry either. also the UN predicts that famine will in a few decades disappear... currently most food shortages in the world today are the result of dictators and war.
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1850
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Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: pioneer one now accepting bitcoin
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on: February 12, 2011, 03:14:23 AM
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It is just *not a place designed to sustain human life*. The Earth is no more designed for us then we ourselves fit to it. The difference between man and the other animals is that we don't spend millions of years evolving to adapt to our environment, we fit our environment to us. Shaping Mars for habitation is not incredulous, and places well within the bracket of extremes people experienced through history. The issue here is your own mind, not our abilities.
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1855
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Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Core ideas of Bitcoin
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on: February 11, 2011, 01:02:56 AM
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forget mining. It's too much of a hang-up for new people when it's a minor thing (for them). If they need to know more they can do research to find out. Bitcoins are associated with cryptographic public keys controlled by the person who owns them. To transfer them to someone else (i.e. to make a payment) he broadcasts on the Bitcoin network a digital signature identifying the bitcoins he is transferring, along with the public key of the new owner. This information is stored in a distributed database maintained by the Bitcoin network that records the public keys that own every bitcoin. Bitcoin software validates the digital signature and updates the database to record the new owner of the bitcoins. He will then be able to transfer them to someone else in the future. Maybe you don't realise how technical sounding that is. Let me highlight all the problem language: Bitcoins are associated with cryptographic public keys controlled by the person who owns them. To transfer them to someone else (i.e. to make a payment) he broadcasts on the Bitcoin network a digital signature identifying the bitcoins he is transferring, along with the public key of the new owner. This information is stored in a distributed database maintained by the Bitcoin network that records the public keys that own every bitcoin. Bitcoin software validates the digital signature and updates the database to record the new owner of the bitcoins. He will then be able to transfer them to someone else in the future. And it's very hard to follow. I'd rather pick 4 core ideas, forget everything else and drive those sole points home. No need to talk about the distributed blockchain, public keys or mining.
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1856
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Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Core ideas of Bitcoin
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on: February 11, 2011, 12:07:32 AM
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What are the core ideas? Don't get bogged down in details- it's for non-technical people.
- Distributed. We set the rules. - Microtransactions. - Transactions cost nothing. - Anonymous
How would you phrase this to the common man? I've heard the gold farming analogy for mining, but how about for everything else?
How would you best explain distribution while allaying any security fears?
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1860
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Other / Off-topic / Re: The Free State Project (split)
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on: February 10, 2011, 05:27:11 PM
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Prove to us that government force actually provides more favorable conditions than a freer society. Prove to us that prosperous people should truly owe their prosperity to the current state-of-affairs, if you will.
I suspect that you're young and maybe a little inexperienced in discussing these matters with somebody who disagrees with you, but let me explain why I will ignore that paragraph. The first part is a classic example of begging the question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_questionIt is also filled with loaded terms. Finally, a hypothesis or theory cannot be proved. The best one can do is to try to disprove the null hypothesis. I suspect that you're young and inexperienced in these matters, but let me explain why I will ignore that paragraph. The first part is a classic example of an ad hominem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
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