The kind of looser that loves *REALLY* soft, warm socks that keep your feet from freezing even in the Antarctic winter.  I don't have any alpaca socks, but do have alpaca gloves, knit hat, and living room rug.  Alpacas were bred in the Andes; alpaca is IMHO warmer and softer than any sheepskin or wool.  (Although I've got an Irish wool sweater that's close.)

I just placed my first bid for bitcoins on Mt. Gox.  Once I've acquired some, I might well buy a pair of socks.

* I have a skill I sell for dollars, so why not bitcoins?

Oh, you meant why are you selling BITCOINS? 

I'm not.  D*mm*t, Jim, I'm a writer, not a currency trader.

Seriously, if you want the Bitcoin economy to go anywhere, you need to be selling, not bitcoins for dollars and dollars for bitcoins, but goods and services for bitcoins.  *That* is where the real value of a currency system is in what you can buy for units of that currency.  That's when it quits being a means to "get rich quickly" (and lose it just as quickly), and becomes something of enduring value.

Hablaba el Español cuando era muchacha mas bueno como hablo, pero lo hablo bastante bien por una gringa.   ¿Tiene usted un web page con informacion sobre sus calificaciones, y con información de contacto?

Seriously, I'd like to have a Spanish translator available (and some other languages), but would need to find out more about your background first.  So email me and give me your web URL, and a summary of your background and qualifications.  If you don't have a web page, perhaps I can help you get one set up.  Having a native speaker (as opposed to someone of my pedestrian Spanish skills) available would defintely be a plus in my line of work.  Thanks!

I am a technical writer and editor with twenty years experience in the field.  I've worked professionally to document products and services in the following fields: web application security, network and server traffic management/load balancing, business-related client-server products, radiotherapy devices used in cancer treatment, power generation and transmission technologies, and environmental engineering.  However, a good technical writer's best skill is not what they know, but that they can learn almost anything with a small amount of lead time.  I'm a quick study, and I love to learn. :-)  I'm also a good developmental and copy editor with extensive experience with business and academic writing, in addition to technical writing.

I'm employed full-time, but occasionally take outside writing and editing jobs for variety and because they often give me a chance to learn something new or work with somebody new.  I have decided to start accepting BTC in payment for that work.  My standard rate in US $ is $50/hr for businesses, $25/hr for graduate students or professors who want editing help for a paper, thesis or dissertation, and varies between that for other types of work.  My rates in BTC are 2 BTC/hr for businesses, 1 BTC/hr for academia.

If you have a project that you would like to discuss, please check my web site (www.ergosphere.net) under "ErgoOne" for my resume and contact information. 

The domain BitHyip.com is being spammed to the leaked Mt. Gox email address list.  I am not sure whether the spam is sent by BitHyip.com itself or a rogue affiliate.  Here's what the spams look like:

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

From: Jasper <Jasper@gmail.com>
To: <hacked.mt-gox.email.address>
Subject: Bitcoin Investment Program - BitHyip.com
Reply-To: anons####@gmail.com

Hello,

I've found an aweomse opportunity to invest our bitcoin safely.
Based on a HYIP concept BitHyip offer upto 150% in return after 5 days.

They also provide a daily profit plan !

Please use my referal link to signup.
Email me back and i will send my referal bonus to you !

http://www.bithyip.com/?ref=jasper

Talk to your friends about this awesome news !

Jasper.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

If the owners of bithyip.com are here, they need to respond to this, and disable the account of this user and any other that is spamming the Mt. Gox email list. :/  That's *really* scummy behavior.

I wrote the Windows section on securing your wallet, and my only complaint about your article is the title -- it isn't so much security dos and don'ts *for Windows* as for users of any operating system and platform.  For example, I'd point to this URL for my Macintosh-using husband if/when he starts using Bitcoin too.   Ditto people using an iOS or Android tablet. 

Since you wrote this, I'll propose the fix here instead of just doing it -- I propose removing "Windows" from the title and encouraging any new Bitcoin users to read this, especially those who are not highly savvy about computer security.  What does everyone think?

This could be happening because of the rash of Bitcoin-related spam after the Mt. Gox incident.  My Mt. Gox-specific email address (used only there) is getting hit regularly by spammed offers, most of them fraudulent.  One of the spams was filtered out of my mailbox because my spam filters check SpamHaus: they had listed the IP and web site of the spammer.  I checked with Spamhaus about it, mostly because I didn't want them thinking Bitcoin itself was fraudulent.  It turns out that they know about it; one of their guys has an account at Mt. Gox. ;-)  But I bet a lot of the big email providers and web hosting providers don't know about it, and might be treating any mention of Bitcoin as suspicious because of this.  You'd *think* they would check, but fraud and cybercrime are such big issues that companies sometimes act first, and then check later if at all.

PayPal is annoying for buyers, but usually safe.  It is NOT SAFE for sellers, though.  PayPal transactions are reversible while Bitcoin transfers are not; a buyer can dispute the transaction for a considerable period of time after it closes and PayPal will reverse it.  Unless you like lawsuits :/, you may find it easier to let yourself be defrauded than to dispute the reversal, or so friends who have done business on PayPal tell me.

BTW, I opened an account there a couple of weeks ago as part of my investigation into various payment methods available to online businesses.  A few days later, I got tired of all the email, logged on and unsubscribed from everything.  (PayPal subscribes you to receive a bunch of email by default.)  After I did that, the next time I logged on PayPal insisted that I agree to their terms of service which let them send me email that I did not ask for and did not want. :/ After I realized that there was no way to avoid this if I wanted to use the account, I closed the account.

Since you agree to receive the email, it isn't spam.  Technically.  But given the hard sell and arm twisting, I considered it an attempt to coerce my agreement to something I did not want.  I decided I didn't need PayPal badly enough to put up with that.

The post that started this thread is one of the more informative, better posts for new investors and traders I've seen on the Bitcoin Forum.  It's the kind of advice that financial advisers are always giving to new clients: basic principles on which you build with experience.  If you're smart, you gain at least some of that experience by learning from other people's mistakes instead of your own.

The post that questions Mt. Gox, Tradehill, and presumably other Bitcoin exchanges also appears reasonable to me; it asks the questions that any investor ought to ask when considering an investment in a new and volatile market.  That doesn't mean that Mt. Gox, Tradehill, or other exchanges are crooks, or are doing anything wrong.  The Bitcoin market is new, and these exchanges are new and still finding their way.  However, because they're new, the government (whichever government, depending on where you are and where the exchange is located) isn't looking out for new investors in the same way that it would with an established stock or commodities exchange.  Since "the experts" aren't investigating the Bitcoin exchanges (yet), those who invest need to do so.  These exchanges are the epitome of "buyer beware"; there is risk and people need to know that and have some idea of what those risks are before they get in over their heads.

I'm not much of an investor, let alone an expert in the field, but I understand the basics of risk management and investment strategy.  My activity on the Bitcoin exchanges will be limited to acquiring a small sum of them that doesn't cost me more than I can afford to loose, and then using that small sum to do business.  In my opinion, somebody who isn't spending a lot more time than I do understanding currency trading, new currencies, markets, and investment strategies would be wise to do the same, at least until they learn more.

Okay, before I'd send money to a web site, I'd like to know who owns and runs the web site and what their reputation is.  So let's check Whois for the domain information:

$ whois exchangebitcoins.com
Query:     exchangebitcoins.com
Registry:  whois.dynadot.com
Results:
Domain Name: exchangebitcoins.com
Registered at http://www.dynadot.com

Registrant:
Exchange Bitcoins Inc.
David Sterry
805 Veterans Blvd. Suite 200
Redwood City, CA 94063
United States

Administrative Contact:
Exchange Bitcoins Inc.
David Sterry
805 Veterans Blvd. Suite 200
Redwood City, CA 94063
United States
info@exchangebitcoins.com
+1 8553924282

Technical Contact:
Exchange Bitcoins Inc.
David Sterry
805 Veterans Blvd. Suite 200
Redwood City, CA 94063
United States
info@exchangebitcoins.com
+1 8553924282

Record expires on 2012/05/10 UTC
Record created on 2011/05/10 UTC

Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.dynadot.com
ns2.dynadot.com

I'm not acquainted with a "David Sterry" either personally or by reputation, so I did a Google search.  I *think* this is the David Sterry that we are looking at (name and address match the above):

http://www.manta.com/c/mmyjm63/sterry-it-llc
http://www.sterryit.com/

Does anybody know him or his reputation?

Mine wasn't on this list, but anybody here would be foolish indeed to assume that this means their password wasn't cracked.  If you use the same password in multiple locations, and a security breach occurs in one location, you need to change the password at every location that you used it.

A couple of things occur to me....

First, while there is bound to be abuse, that possibility is not a reason not to help people in need.  Don't let the vetting process get cumbersome or you'll undo the good you want to do.

Second, working locally and through people who deal with those in need (such as a local food bank, churches with food pantries, etc.) increases your chances of spotting the leeches and frauds, especially when they talk to each other.  (They do where I've worked with charitable organizations.)

Third, online direct one-to-one help with people that you do not know is more prone to being abused than almost anything else that you could do.  Face to face works *much* better.

We've got a local food bank in my area that is run by this wonderful elderly woman who swore, over a quarter of a century ago after her husband died, that in his memory nobody in this area would go to bed hungry if she could help it.  I work through her. :-)  You might want to find someone like that where you live.  But be warned, respecting people like this and working with them does tend to lead you to become like them.  So don't do it if you want to remain self-centered and ignorant of the needs of people around you.

In early May of this year, LastPass announced that it believed that its user database had been compromised, very much like Mt. Gox recently.  Here's a link to a story in a respected technical news source, TechWorld:

http://www.techworld.com.au/article/385447/lastpass_hack_fear_leads_password_reset/

I work as a technical writer for a Fortune 1000 firm in the U.S., in a product area that provides security software for use by banks and other institutions that deal with financial and other highly sensitive (usually legally protected) information.  I would NEVER use or recommend a cloud-based product to protect passwords to any account that is linked with a bank account that I own or a credit card that I am responsible for.  LastPass is a great idea for managing all of those accounts you have to sign up for to get access to news sites or other fun stuff, but not for the accounts that actually matter.  

For accounts that matter (your bank accounts, accounts on your credit card site, PayPal, Dwolla, investment firm accounts, accounts with a currency or stock exchange, accounts with your utility company, etc.), you need something local and secure.  I recommend keeping those passwords stored in a text file encrypted with GPG or in some other form that uses a strong encryption method.  I also recommend backing the encrypted file up on a USB dongle or (even better) a CD that you replace every time you add a password.  Finally, use a product that wipes (rather than just deleting) files on the computer that you use to encrypt and decrypt this file, and wipe the swap file every time you access that file.  Another option is to use a product that encrypts your hard disk or swap file, or both, such as TrueCrypt or my favorite, Jetico Bestcrypt.

I'm not entirely immune to hackers or a password-stealing trojan; nobody is.  But if you do what I suggested, your chances of surviving a hacker or virus intent on stealing valuable information are much improved.

+10  I'm with Jaime.  I firmly believe that the Bitcoin standard itself should allow anonymity (such as cash does), but I'm not interested in playing games with U.S. law either.  Any trading I do will be above-board.

I might well acquire my first bitcoins here. :-)

I'm seriously impressed, assuming that the data we get proves that the audit took place and was of the nature described.  This is how web sites that are used to access and handle other people's money *should* be tested -- for Bitcoin or anybody else! 

Could somebody post the URL to this site, now?  I didn't see it, and I want to go look.

Same here, and I'm sure it did. 

Now to get my new bank account (for online stuff) linked to Dwolla, and get started. :-)

If I were living in a police state or a highly corrupt one, I'd use Tor.  Then you're not counting on the operators of this forum to keep your connecting IPs secure.

Had email awaiting from Mt. Gox when I logged on this morning.  Went to the URL; my claim has been accepted.  So yes, they're restoring accounts, albeit fairly slowly.

My email didn't say that the account recovery had been successful; it just gave me a URL to go to on the recovery site.  *That* said that the account recovery had been successful.  But apparently Mt. Gox recognizes that I am me.

Nothing from Mt. Gox about my account yet.