I'm now thinking that you aren't familiar with any large multinational real estate corporation and how they run their business. They frequently have to "keep the lights on" in an unoccupied spaces for various reasons: marketing, general safety, technical impossibility of not air-conditioning a fraction of a shared space, long term contracts, etc. It is not only theft, it is actually a win-win and overall savings.

Here's an example from a nearby location managed by www.cbre.com : A specialty grocery/supermarket closed and with it two nearby specialty restaurants. Discount grocery/supermarket is going to move in after remodeling the main spaces and ramps to their specification. The restaurant spaces will be used only as a temporary storage of the fixtures of the anchor store while remodeling is done. Meanwhile megawatts of power and a/c are sitting nearly unused and cannot be completely turned off because the remaining local businesses are "open while remodeling".

From your comments about the hanging Ethernet cables I can surmise that you have an experience with catering to the OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) end of the spectrum of customers in the data center businesses. On the other hand I for many years worked in the entertainment and related businesses. Completely different personalities are involved.

What do you mean by "take care"? Virgin is just a retail brand that resells the wireless bandwidth provided by Sprint, which it turn uses equipment developed/installed/maintained by Alcatel/Lucent/Ericsson.

Comparing the raw tariffs for the new service locations with the actual payments for established locations (after various adjustments, bonuses, promotions, incentives,etc.) will show that there are great savings available for flexibility and inventiveness. It is not unusual to pay nothing for electricity provided that you stay below certain ceiling usage and allow yourselves to be cut off first during peaks.

Here's an example picture from an improvised Bitcoin mine that somebody just posted in the Hashfast thread



https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=262052.msg8626008#msg8626008

In case the picture above is removed: it shows rows of miners running with no cases but laid out on the rearranged office desks with chairs&cabinets removed. I wish I could find and post the pictures for the first data centers for Victoria's Secret (and associated clothing brands) which were assembled from desktop computers laid out in cafeteria and mini-cubicle call center locations in supposedly expensive downtown skyscrapers.

Again, while I don't have specific information about the locations mentioned here, I'm positive that there are great opportunities available for temporary, improvised locations. Just look and ask around.

Here's an example: entire USA customer base of Virgin Broadband (a CDMA wireless carrier) was (maybe still is, this is device-dependent) behind a couple of IPv4 addresses geolocating to Sandy,UT.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrier-grade_NAT

Depending on the internal mechanics of the CGN two connections from the same IP on the internal IP space could show as coming from the same or different address on the global IP space. There were special provisions for correct handling of legacy protocols like FTP and RSH.

Then post the link to the software you used. HP site is huge and messy, you'll save us some time.

What is the file system that HP uses in their MF devices nowadays? I do remember that in the past (when disks had about 100MB) their devices used some sort of proprietary file system that was nontrivial to reverse engineer.

The mention of IP (as Intellectual Property) is worth replying. Because there is none.

SHA256 brute forcer is such a trivial circuit, that anyone can design and make it. For students this would be a semester project, for experienced engineer with access to the appropriate toolchain this would be a couple of weekends. All the value is in the execution: people who have the "know how" and "from manufacturing to fulfillment" channel. Once those people left Hashfast and went back to Uniquify the value of the "IP" went to near zero, less than the value of the software licenses of the tools used to produce it.

Because there's no real, separable, intellectual property it would be better to account for it as a
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodwill_(accounting) . There are no patents, trademarks, brand names, etc. that would have a value/worth to a different organization.

Bitcoin gives the users the power to disintermediate the conventional banks and classical accounting. This just means that the work done (expensively) by the bank or accountancy can be done (cheaper) by the end user. But not doing that work at all converts the investors into gamblers.

Conventional finance uses letters of credit to buy/manufacture custom equipment. It is similar to escrow, with the difference that LoC can be used as a collateral for obtaining a loan by the manufacturer. Thus far the Bitcoin "group buy" deals look more like a purchase of a lottery ticket for an office pool that a proper business deal. I'm kinda hoping that this fiasco will give some readers the motivation to familiarize themselves with the commerce and accounting beyond the most basic "consumer" level, or in this case "investomer" level.

Edit: To maybe summarize my post: the choice isn't between "hodl" and "gamble". You always have an intermediate choice of "invest like a pro", which means doing things like "due dilligence", "accounting", "risk analysis" without handholding and safety net from "Fidelity Investments" or other retail brokerage.

Dude, then pray tell us what was the purpose of Hashfast,DE in addition to Hashfast,CA? Something like "special purpose investment vehicle" at Enron?

I'm not in the mood for arguing, so I'll let Professor Frank Zappa do the talking:

The mystery man came over
And he said "I'm outta sight!"
He said for a nominal service charge
I could reach nirvana tonight
If I was ready, willing and able
To pay him his regular fee
He would drop all the rest of
His pressing affairs and devote
His attention to me

But I said "Look here brother
who you jiving with that cosmik debris?
Now who you jiving with that cosmik debris?
Look here brother, don't waste your time on me"

The mystery man got nervous
And he fidget around a bit
He reached in the pocket of his mystery robe
And he whipped out a shaving kit
Now I thought it was a razor
And a can of foaming goo
But he told me right then when the top popped open
There was nothin' his box won't do
With the oil of Aphrodite, and the dust of the Grand Wazoo
He said "You might not believe this, little fella
But it'll cure your asthma too"

And I said "Look here brother
Who you jiving with that cosmik debris?
Now what kind of a guru are you, anyway?
Look here brother, don't waste your time on me"
*(Don't waste your time)*

"I've got troubles of my own", I said
"And you can't help me out
So, take your meditations and your preparations
And ram it up your snout!"
"But I got the crystal ball", he said
And held it to the light
So I snatched it, all away from him
And I showed him how to do it right

I wrapped a newspaper 'round my head
So I looked like I was deep
I said some mumbo-jumbo, then
I told him he was going to sleep
I robbed his rings and pocketwatch
And everything else I found
I had that sucker hypnotized
He couldn't even make a sound
I proceeded to tell him his future, then
As long as he was hanging around
I said "The price of meat has just gone up
And your old lady has just gone down!"

And I said "Look here brother-who you
Jiving with that cosmik debris?
Now is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
Don't you know, you could make more money as a butcher?
So, don't waste your time on me"
Don't waste it, don't waste your time on me
*(Shante)*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtx4ZJ1cwI0

I have to mildly disagree with this portion of the sentence. There is nothing unusual to find a great hosting deal in the downtown, super-expensive location. One could land a sublease after a previous tenant moved out to consolidate. Or one could repurpose an existing space (e.g. cafeteria or food court) for an data center that foregoes some non-essential capabilities like physical security or backup generators.

I however have no specific information about the company or address mentioned.

In my experience those problems are intentionally caused by the firmware, which reads "OEM ID" field through the I2C bus. While I don't recall the details anymore, those are somewhat easily fixable by reflashing the PSU "OEM ID" or changing the firmware. The details probably still can be found on Internet when searching for the information about Sun Microsystems server hardware and how to break out of the Oracle (and others) service contracts on hardware while maintaining software service contracts.

In this case it may be easier to pressure Spondoolies into releasing the unlocked firmware.

"receiving your money back" event will not happen, but there is still an useful purpose for continuing this discussion.

You could consider money paid to Hashfast a prepaid tuition in the school of hard kicks. And the CRO a dean of the curriculum on how to recognize a long con and how to avoid similar scams in the future.

I understand that the majority of Hashfast buyers/investors were simply compulsive gamblers (or compulsive investors), and for those continuing this thread is really a waste of time.

But I think I recognize many people who simply were naive and Hashfast simply took advantage of their naivete and giddiness after the (then recent) gains in the price of Bitcoin. Those are the people who skipped the boring accounting classes where they anesthetize students with stuff like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_credit .

I know that the school of hard kicks is unfair: only a few people paid the tuition but many more students can audition the coursework for free from the sidelines. Personally, as an non-paying student, I just want to learn some details on how to run a prepackaged bankruptcy scam in Silicon Valley. I'm also hoping to learn if cypherdoc was a paid roper who knew what he was doing or just another giddy naif.

frez.co.uk is a quite awful source for coding examples, unless your goal is to make it work on non-Windows platforms (e.g. Microsoft Office for Macintosh or ASP emulators like Chilisoft, etc.).

I suggest that you learn how to use VBA as a "glue language" to invoke Windows Cryptographic Service Providers and then implement your own CSP or generic DCOM object in C/C++ and invoke it from VBA.

Following the examples from frez.co.uk is a sure way of developing substandard software for special purposes, e.g. milking consulting billable hours, creating fake benchmark baselines, etc. It still may be a viable business model though.

The "special character" you are trying to name is called "ligature" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographic_ligature .

TeX certainly has the capability to take certain letter strings, e.g. "ffi" and replace them with the traditional-typography ligatures "ffi". The native TeX fonts (Computer Modern) all have ligatures, but the tools that post-process them to other fonts (like Adobe Type 1) for PDF formatting may be missing or mishandling the ligatures.

In my browser and in my text font the single character "ffi" "ffi" ligature displays just fine. So this maybe something to do with your configuration if you can't see the "special characters".

It is either http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_random-access_memory or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDRAM .

The only really interesting thing about scrypt() ASIC is how many bitcointalk members kept discussing RAM as a separate chips. An it is still happening right now in many other alt-coin threads. Did most of the engineering schools completely gotten rid of digital logic design from their curriculum?

While I understand (and commiserate) with your argument, I don't think that this is what being "open source" is all about and what was the main thought of ckolivas, kano and the quoted portion of PatMan's message that I ridiculed.

I understand that ckolivas is (or was) also a Linux kernel developer/committer and he must have heard and read the arguments within the Linux community about the "bag-of-drivers" enabled/disabled with the preprocessor macros. So I'm not going to repeat that discussion here. Linux, like almost every other operating system designed after the end of sixties, has a concept of loadable driver module, and nobody is seriously discussing getting rid of that technology.

{ Small aside: if anyone is going to use the word "plugin" to describe "loadable driver module" I'm going to ridicule him for complete lack of understanding of hardware }

Obviously I cannot speak for ckolivas and/or kano; and I cannot know their goals in life and in developing cgminer under GPLv3 in particular. I just hope that they understand the progress of technology and they never ventured to be nothing but a Cerberus guarding a bag-of-drivers. I know that within the Linux community there's plenty of wanna-be Cerberuses and that subset has spilled over here, or into crypto-coin mining in general.

Here's the thread to watch for the official bootstrap torrents:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=145386.0

Sorry, man. You've started beautifully, but then just finished of the rocker (or of the rails).

Its like all those "open source" people who say that Raspberry Pi is all "open" and neglect to discuss that the Alphamosaic VideoCore is a primary CPU on the chip and the ARM is just an ASP (Attached Support Processor).

First couple of "groundings in reality" may hurt, but I assure you that you will learn to watch your step and understand the technology and the common traps.

Unfortunately this is borderline deluded rant, although built on the good intentions, the same that are used to pave the hell.

Miner software is just a lightweight shim around the fundamentally closed hardware of the ASIC. Perhaps the new readers need to be reminded about the timebomb that eldentyrell had placed in his FPGA miners, while keeping all the software open.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=49971.0

While I generally support the goals of GPLv3 (and ckolivas in particular), the supporters need to be grounded in reality, and periodically reminded about the fact that software needs hardware to run. In particular people who claim to run "all-open-source stack" aren't doing so unless there's no HDD/SSD in their machines or they really replaced the firmware in their disks.

The really effective GPLv3 enforcement needs to rely on standardizing the interface between the software and the hardware, not on more harassment of the hardware vendors. To further this goal cgminer needs to be made more modular and clearly delineate the "mining drivers" from the "mining kernel". Baking them together is a throwback to about 1960 or so.

Good proof of work algorithm has the following property: hard to compute and easy to verify.

Matrix inversion doesn't have good compute/verify ratio: O(n³) computation, O(n²) verification. Also, it really doesn't need caches, the access patterns are very predictable, so a dedicated prefetcher would easily outperform caches.

High-precision general purpose FPU would still be a decent defense against GPU and FPGA and would radically increase the cost of developing an ASIC.

Nearly 3 years ago I was thinking along the similar lines: pick a chaotic numerical algorithm (e.g. fractals) as a kernel for the proof-of-work for the (then proposed) Solidcoin v2.0 .

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=44423.msg537010#msg537010

@rethink-your-strategy:

One think that seriously detracts from the flow-of-rage in your original post is the inconsistency and ambiguity in the formatting of dates. It took me a while to figure out that you are using DD/MM/YYYY, I even almost dismissed your points when following your hyperlinks and looking at dates as MM/DD/YYYY.

So, either:

1) state your date formatting at the beginning
2) change numerical dates everywhere in the text to YYYY/MM/DD

I know it is a minor point, bordering on nitpicking. But the whole point of your missive is date inconsistency; and from where I sit reading it was unnecessary hard and simply didn't flow well. And without good flow the rage doesn't transmit well. It needs to be open-eyed rage, not the blind rage.

TL,DR: rethink-your-date-formatting.