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Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Why do most Bitcoiners seem intelligent?
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on: July 31, 2013, 11:31:56 PM
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You may remember that when it started, Facebook was only between Harvard students. Rich, bright kids. Now that it's mainstream, intelligence level of the average user has come down dramatically. With BTC still in an early phase, intelligence level of the average bitcoiner is high, but this will not last, and nobody should want it to last.
It's awful, but if we want bitcoin's success, we want it to be used by dumb blondes, high school dropouts, sickos, Homer Simpson, etc...
Interesting how you correlate harvard students with bright, and trow high school dropouts together with the dumb blonds. You might want to read some stories about Bill Gates, Steve Jobs etc. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are not high school dropouts... In fact, Bill Gates is a Harvard student...
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425
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Other / Off-topic / Re: [Demographics Polling] Hub
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on: July 30, 2013, 05:59:48 PM
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According to the personality test, I'm not supposed to be a libertarian . Maybe I should read some Karl Marx... Then again, Ron Paul ≠ libertarian...Also, for religion, what about Shintoism? If there are a bunch of "Other" responses, I'll modify the list. I generally look for options with a low number of responses, and merge that option with others (or "Other") to make room for responses which are most common in comments, but don't have an option representing them. Won't be until 2014, though... but this is something I have no problem doing for years. It'd be interesting to be able to see cross-sectional data (for instance, occupation and education by personality type), but I'd have to point people to an external survey service, and figure there'd probably be many less responses, where there probably wouldn't even be enough responses to get any kind of confidence in cross-sectional data even without adding that hassle. Ramble, ramble ramble... I'm curious -- which type did it spit out at you? ENFP: You have moderate preference of Extraversion over Introversion (56%) You have distinctive preference of Intuition over Sensing (62%) You have moderate preference of Feeling over Thinking (25%) You have slight preference of Perceiving over Judging (22%)
This is from an earlier test I did yesterday. I might try the first link once I get the time.
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426
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Other / Off-topic / Re: [Demographics Polling] Hub
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on: July 30, 2013, 05:21:03 PM
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According to the personality test, I'm not supposed to be a libertarian . Maybe I should read some Karl Marx... Then again, Ron Paul ≠ libertarian...Also, for religion, what about Shintoism?
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427
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Other / Meta / Re: Why has this site been going so slow?
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on: July 30, 2013, 04:59:49 PM
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Maybe we should get rid of threads like the one "Lets post 21 million photos"
Why the hell do we need that garbage on the forums anyways? Its just getting out of hand, reduce the noise, that leads to reduced traffic and load on the servers = less problems.
I don't think that costs the forum anything. Storage is dirt cheap—highly doubtful that's the issue—and it makes an insignificant portion of the posting volume.
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428
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Bitcoin / Press / Re: 2013-07-30; Ha'aretz; Lawyers may be paid in bitcoin, says Ethics Committee
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on: July 30, 2013, 01:43:21 PM
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I'm confused as to why an ethics committee is vetting Bitcoin. How can Bitcoin be considered "unethical"?
I'm no expert, but my understanding is that it's their job to decide how can lawyers NOT be paid. Such as sexual favors for example. If I read the article correctly, after an inquiry they said "a lawyer must be paid with money" and after a second inquiry they approved that bitcoin falls under that category. Ah, okay.
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430
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Bitcoin / Legal / Re: Bitcoin legality across the globe
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on: July 30, 2013, 01:14:18 PM
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Bitcoin is not a legal tender of any nation, meaning it's also not a "foreign currency". No government controls bitcoin or claims to use it as a legal tender and there is no central bank for bitcoin. If anything bitcoin is a "global currency" which can be used by anyone with internet access. The way the Act is written doesn't appear to cover bitcoin, because it specifically talks about foreign currencies but doesn't deal with currencies which have no connection to a single government.
I'll bump Thailand up to contentious legality until we get clarification from the Bank.
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431
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Other / Meta / Re: Why has this site been going so slow?
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on: July 30, 2013, 01:12:41 PM
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That's how modSettings should work, but it's actually also used for things like a timestamp of the last ban added, so it changes pretty frequently.
Why does every visitor need to refresh the cache though? It's still a global array, so I'm confused as to why it's not just refreshed globally through a cron script, dumped into a mod_settings_cache.php file, and loaded.
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432
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Bitcoin / Legal / Re: Bitcoin legality across the globe
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on: July 30, 2013, 01:58:56 AM
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Are you sure about this? I reread the Exchange Control Act, and it seems to authorize the Bank to do what it did. But IANAL, so I may be wrong on this. Foreign currency means legal tender in any country other than Thailand including foreign exchange;
Is Bitcoin legal tender in any country? As far as I know, the answer is no, so how does a law defining "Foreign currency" as "legal tender in any country other than Thailand" have anything to do with Bitcoin? Apparently Bitcoin was okay when it was not considered a currency, but has now been recognized as one. Initially the Bank of Thailand had bypassed the company’s money exchange license on the basis that Bitcoin was not a currency, however the company was invited back, on July 29th, 2013, to participant in a conference about how Bitcoin works in general, and business operations of Bitcoin Co. Ltd. The conference was held with about 15 members of the Bank of Thailand in attendance. During this conference, managing director of Bitcoin Co. Ltd. gave a presentation about the workings of Bitcoin, the benefits of Bitcoin, incite into the company’s operations and future implications of Bitcoin.
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433
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Other / Meta / Re: Why has this site been going so slow?
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on: July 30, 2013, 01:54:14 AM
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I think that the site becomes slow every 90 seconds when the modSettings cache expires and every visitor then needs to do an expensive query. Does this seem to match your observations?
SMF handles modSettings really badly.
Based on a grep of SMF source, it seems the modSettings contains only forum-wide settings. If it's global, can't the cache be set to indefinite, and manually cleared when needed?
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434
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Other / Meta / Re: Why some donators are in default Trust list ?
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on: July 30, 2013, 01:44:47 AM
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There have been allegations that DiamondCardz has given out inaccurate negative ratings. Do you believe these allegations to be unfounded?
Is there a thread about this? This is the allegation I was talking about. I removed DiamondCardz from my personal trust list after this. this thread is just the tip of the Iceberg. DiamondCardz you are on the right track with identifying scammers, however you're accuracy is becoming poor at best. you negged this account mistakenly in the HollowInfinity thread. you can contact TF to inquire about my identity. there is alot more going on here then most of us understand at this point but we have narrowed this group down to a list of people, and we caught them coming of of tor exit nodes and traced them all the way back to [country ommitted]. keep up the good work and i will keep helping as needed.
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435
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Other / Meta / Re: Is there a guide to using this forum anywhere?
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on: July 30, 2013, 01:37:53 AM
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Patrol lets you read posts without clicking topics, so I sometimes use it in lieu of "Show unread posts since last visit".
Patrol only shows newbie posts, though. It's mostly intended for moderators and people who want to help with moderation. There's a different page which shows all posts (actually only the last post of each topic): https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=recentAh. I remember enabling it, then using the link for a browser extension. I must have changed the link somewhere along the line. My bad, then.
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436
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Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Why do most Bitcoiners seem intelligent?
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on: July 30, 2013, 01:18:02 AM
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I've never seen so many con men and marks together in the same place.
The Bitcoin world has reproduced in miniature almost every financial scam known, from pump and dump to blind pools to bucket shops to front-running. There are plenty of marks on here who have no clue how to recognize a con game. It's embarrassing.
I have to agree! It's like watching the math department flocking into a Vegas casino. So innocent. So unsuspecting. So hilarious! I think the stated size of certain scams were wayyy overestimated. PirateAt40 made off with 500,000 XBT?Bullshit. Those people are misinformed. It's actually 263024 BTC.
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437
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Bitcoin / Legal / Re: Bitcoin is legal in Thailand
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on: July 29, 2013, 11:22:50 PM
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I tried that—it doesn't work. There's an error. I've concluded that I'm not fit to read legalese. I located the actual legislation here. A cursory glance seems to indicate that the Bank, or at least officials appointed by the Bank, does indeed have the authority to regulate "foreign currency". Can anyone who is more well-versed in law read this and confirm?
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438
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Bitcoin / Legal / Re: Bitcoin legality across the globe
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on: July 29, 2013, 11:17:55 PM
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Thank you, added. +1 It's not illegal until we hear it first hand from an authoritative source of the law. Can you review this? My reading seems to suggest that the bank does indeed have the power to enact these regulations. However, I am terrible at reading legalese. I have heard two versions of the story: the Bank is only advisory and the Minister must carry out the regulation, or the Bank is entrusted by the Minister to carry out regulation.
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439
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Bitcoin / Legal / Re: Bitcoin legality across the globe
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on: July 29, 2013, 10:43:14 PM
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The Bank of Thailand does not correspond to the Bank of America. It is actually closer in meaning to the Bank of Canada, which is the central bank, owned by the government, and is responsible for monetary policy and payment systems. See wikipedia for more information. BOT merely provides "suggestions", or "advises" the government. See http://www.bot.or.th/English/AboutBOT/index/Pages/RolesAndResponsibilities.aspxYou made a nice map and you may feel good about using the full palette of colors of your legend, but until the Exchanges Currencies Act of Thailand is updated or superseded by another Act to prohibit Bitcoin, your map is spreading misinformation. Are you sure about this? I reread the Exchange Control Act, and it seems to authorize the Bank to do what it did. But IANAL, so I may be wrong on this. Foreign currency means legal tender in any country other than Thailand including foreign exchange;
After the Minister has entrusted the Bank of Thailand with the execution of this Act, the Governor of the Bank of Thailand shall be empowered to appoint the officers of the Bank to be the Competent Officers under this Act...
Competent Officer means a person appointed for the execution of this Act...
The Minister is empowered to issue Ministerial Regulations controlling, restricting, or prohibiting the execution of all exchange or other operations in which foreign currency is concerned in whatever form and is also empowered to issue Ministerial Regulations as regards the following: (1) the purchase, sale and loan of foreign currency or gold; (2) the exportation of currency, bank notes, money orders, securities, foreign currency, or gold; (3) the transfer of securities out of Thailand; (4) the drawing or negotiation of bills of exchange or promissory notes, the transfer of securities, or the acknowledgement of any debt so that a right to receive payment in Thailand is created or transferred as consideration: (a) for receiving a payment or acquiring property outside Thailand (b) for a right to receive a payment or to acquire property outside...
Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with the Ministerial Regulations, Notifications, or Directions issued under this Act shall be liable to a fine not exceeding Baht 20,000 or to imprisonment not exceeding 3 years or both.
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440
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Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Why do most Bitcoiners seem intelligent?
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on: July 29, 2013, 09:13:34 PM
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There is a poll in another thread that shows that this forum has a MUCH higher rate of INTJ/INTPs than the general population. That group is generally more intelligent than the rest, and I agree with other comments here: Bitcoin simply attracts certain types of people. Specifically introverted logical types.
I'm apparently ENFP: - You have moderate preference of Extraversion over Introversion (56%)
- You have distinctive preference of Intuition over Sensing (62%)
- You have moderate preference of Feeling over Thinking (25%)
- You have slight preference of Perceiving over Judging (22%)
I got into Bitcoin thanks to friends, so I guess extraversion helps there. But introverts are more likely to work in Bitcoin-related fields, or so I've heard. Granted, this is an online forum, so my extraversion is probably an anomaly here. I agree that intuition is necessary to understand why Bitcoin works, as it can't be sensed. As for Feeling, I've always thought of myself as someone who thinks things through... maybe the personality test doesn't agree. I agree that Thinking is probably needed to understand Bitcoin—maybe I'm an anomaly. But I think that Perceiving/Judging also makes a difference. I feel that neither feeling nor thinking about Bitcoin will get one to understand it, so those who perceive are at an advantage over those who judge. I don't think anyone has done a poll of this. Maybe we should start one.
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