ATM's are good in concept but not in implimentation unless you have the right scenario, maintenance costs as said by other posters would eat into profits if the scenario aint right. although if placed inside a retail store instead of outdoors, the vandalism would be negligible as it would be monitored by staff all day and locked away after shop closes at night and having to only refill the ATM once a week instead of travelling by car to different locations to meet random people for penny deals would also decrease costs.

basically best scenario is anyone living in a town with high bitcoin userbase, and they worked in a car fuel station, an amusement arcade or a retail store. They could easily get a ATM put into the corner of the store and advertise the hell out of it. the boss would enjoy the extra business it would bring with people fueling up/buying stuff with him instead of his competitors .

another option for local meetups
if you have a high concentration of users. it is much better to just arrange a mass meet up at certain times.

EG u meet up with people wanting to sell their coins to you for ur gox-3% before mid-day. so u can gather a hoard of coins without much fuel costs
and then after 2pm have a mass meetup of people wanting to buy at your gox+3 prices.

that way the buyers and sellers never meet each other to compete against you, due to the 2 hours gap and u get your 6% profit same day. just a little riskier having a group of people surrounding you knowing u have a stash of cash on you.
so staggering it so one guy meets you every 30 minutes at a central location would be best.

the problem is that media already know of bitcoin, but it needs some local impact such as a business accepting bitcoin for the press to write about it without just another silk road propganda story. the second problem with inspiring idea's like this here is that although great, the vast majority here are not entrepreneurs in real world bricks and mortar.
there's only a few notable real world businesses. EG alpaca socks, cupcakes. a few bars and restaurants etc

i know there is hundreds of thousands of people that have touched into bitcoin. but bitpay only has 2k businesses on its books, and some of them are not wanting to be listed to the community, let alone the world, so its makes me wonder how many legit businesses there are that can actually spread the word locally in their area.

i do believe that the restaurants and bars should get in contact with local media and get a interview done. for 2 reasons.
1 it highlights bitcoin not just as a SilkRoad payment system
2 it makes more people aware of the restaurant, and even if they remain fiat payers, its free advertising for their business.

although im also into litecoin, i use both and i, with others are trying to form a business relationship/regular contact with just-eat.com

imagine it, many fast food places in many towns many countries al of a sudden allow for payment in bitcoin if ordering through their just-eat payment gateway.

each of those fast food places could easily get local media to highlight bitcoin payments as no longer for the secret online groups.

just a shame their HQ is in Europe or i would pester bitinstant/bitpay to use their PR skills with them. just-eat do not like dollars so that's why you don't see USA listed. they do have offices in canada though hint hint

EDIT: going through the lists of payment methods each country uses, here is the combined different ways one corporation uses, yet not all are available globally (bar visa and mastercard)


imagine bitcoin logo added to the payment list on all the countries websites for just eat

but thats my contribution to community expansion if anyone else wants to help out to get just-eat onboard you can help too, after all it is a community we are in. and by help out i dont mean spam there inbox from your comfy sofa's. if your a PR guy and live near a just-eat HQ feel free

and if any thailand(bangkok) PR guys want to help with the bitcoin mainstreaming. heres a idea for you to aim your sales pitch
http://www.chefsxp.com/restaurants.php
and
http://foodbyphone.com/

these websites cater to the english speaking ex-pats. most of the ex-pats have UK or US bank accounts and hate having to do regular money transfer to Baht. so if they were able to buy food direct with bitcoin. they would then see the other uses of bitcoin and start a chain reaction

black lines means mega amount of nodes in one spot (probably supernodes/exchanges)
orange lines a bit less
green lines less then orange
blue lines even less..

the height of the lines gives it away.

the blackline in the centre of USA.. the location of the line is in the Kansas area near the Missouri boarder which many Dox'ers know as the locations of inaba data centre/pool and BFL

it has brought up many theories.
BFL's mining hotspot(although when clicking the mining option it reduces to a orange line)..
Inaba's old job the data centre which many users host their bitcoin projects
Inaba's old job the data centre which hosts his mining pool lots of people connect to.
or a tor exit node many users get routed to. 

the one in UK. thats blockchain.info or intersango, exit nodes again more theories

the one in Ukraine, most probably BTC-E.com exchange or a few other theories

it doesnt give you all the answers to who or why there's alot of action there. but atleast the info is updated regularly. and as a brit its nice to see 2 big black lines in england. one near london and one in north england.

i guess the UK is starting to wake up to bitcoin and taking over like a storm to have high frequency of nodes in a small area.

its viewable. but infact is dead. the json data it grabs i think ended in october..

but if you want a better more accurate uptodate version

http://blockchain.info/nodes-globe

enjoy

update the video to have less emphasis on the miner because soon, you can only mine with ASICS (economically& effectively).

so the video shouldn't emphasize that its easy as "all over the internet, by anybody running free a application called a bitcoin miner"

the old/current video is like saying 'what is gold. gold is where you get a bucket and a wash plate and you collect lots of gold nuggets'. Yet in reality you need expensive excavators just to get to gold dust.

i think bitcoin mining has got to the stage that new people shouldnot be taught about mining as their entry into the coin. But how easy it is to set up business and shops, without having to rely on business plans and bureaucracy for banks just to get a payment gateway set up.

and unlike other payment systems no one entitiy controls it to stop certain countries from using it. anyone, anywhere can use it.

pretty much where is says "bitcoin is changing finance" at one minute into the video:
the parts before that point need changing, the parts after that point are great and need to be emphasised more

hint one: Tom/Dave must be the same person or it would have read: Tom and Dave are no longer...


great so far. holding off till they actually have a product. that way they can plan batch allotments and know how many pre-orders through before closing that batch.


although i agree with the statement from a professional business point of view. making public statements based on opinion is grey area libal.. becareful.. dont getting a "slagging match" reducing your professionalism. try critisism with a flare of elegance and subtle meaning.  
300 if you include the next few days, they should arrive before the weekend from all announcements and whispers


now this is the point i start to think, hang on. you have slated another company.. and have many grammar inaccuracies..
the professionalism is starting to evaporate.
i myself dont write for my business the same way i would as i would on forums, so my bad grammar is acceptable to me here, but not on a business announcement.

company name? details?


wow u invented a ASIC and in under a week you will start taking pre-orders. WOW amazing.. pfft


so throwing existent FPGA chips into a big box all wired together. basically.. just a shame your decades of knowledge and equipment you should already have and not need to purchase due to your military ASIC projects can't produce a chip on the cheap. but at least you have half explained yourself out of how you will suddenly be able to start begging for cash in a few weeks

cough FPGA cough


now im thinking you have no idea the difference between an ASIC and a FPGA but 25 chips at 2Ghash thats atleast something worth noting.. 50Ghash product


so from seeing Toms 'secret recipe' to already having a prototype.. that is quick


could have started your professionalism with a better pre-drafted out announcement.


too many holes.. im going to hold out till batch 2 and even worse spelling, grammar and paragraph layout then me.. and that's saying something

lets just say all the traders on gox based their pricing thoughts on memory dealers, alpacasocks and SR for instance.

instead of those three selling an item worth $21 for 1BTC. you want them to sell it for 0.8BTC because the price in the future "should" "in theory" rise with time and the merchant would eventually break even by hoarding the coin.

my answer to that is: chicken or the egg
why: because although it may drive up speculation because now gox will say everyone is willing to spend more then $26 for a bitcoin (price of a whole BTC based on the $21 for 0.8BTC). they are only willing to do this because of speculation.
its fuelling itself with no bases in reality for the valued cause.
its better to stick to a proper value base, such as electricity costs+time+equipment costs+ small profit. and let the difficulty of the network drive the price for ACTUAL value/cost.

my second answer is: merchants need their fiat that week to buy more stock. so basing it on a projected value of 6 months time would lose him money when he cashes out at the end if the week.

the only way it would work is if middle men gave the merchant his £21 for his 0.8BTC that week and they hoard the coins for the speculated rise it causes

rebilling is this:
FREE PORN*
*for 2 minutes, after that you will be billed an extortionate amount, u been warned (unless u gone blind already)

they earn money on the hopes people don't read the small print, so asking for money upfront would make people not want to visit his site.

the only way he can do it is by changing his rebilling service provider to one that accepts bitcoin aswell as credit cards and bank transfers to settle the 'debt'.

bitinstant can charge you 4% for converting received moneygram into BTC. and moneygram would charge you $40 aswell just for sending it to bitinstant.

to ensure you get full use of that days bitinstant $500 limit. you would have to give moneygram $540. then bitinstant would charge you their 4% on the 500 they receive.leaving you $480

$480 worth of bitcoin is 96BTC.

and thats without including your fuel to visit the store and travel time wasted.

ill say it again $540 for 96BTC

atleast your 100BTC are now worth $20each if you sold them.. so he lost by not just hoarding them. not many places you can turn $550 into $2000 in under a year

and leave you to ponder if the deal that guy offered you was inconvenient or not.

yea in the UK for years (before the millennium) the price you see included everything (tax and surcharge) in glossy magazine brochures and price tags on products. when you handed over your card the price you see was what got debited out.

but now the receipts (especially VAT receipts) split out card surcharge. yet you never get a discount by paying cash.

retailers: don't expect your loaves of bread and milk to suddenly reduce in price and allow you to choose to pay extra at the cashiers desk by using a card or not. retailers will just profit more on your cash.

high purchase goods: like flights, don't expect the price you see to include everything. even though the same flight you have been travelling on,year in year out is price tagged the same.  they wont discount the flight because you were using cash, compared to last years prices. they will now charge you extra for using a card. as an 'optional convenience charge'

this is used in the bitcoin 3D game / casino dragons tales

i like many others are use to btm(bitmills) and sat(satoshi) already. so if it isn't broke, done fix it.

just read the last message about subsidizing and hiding tax..

retailers know people like round numbers and they find it easy to add up in their head how much to pay before getting to the cashiers desk its why u dont see weird price tags with 23c or 71c at the end.. its mostly 0c or 99c(read on for this explanation too)

because of that, if true product value was $19.71 the retailer would still charge you $20 even if there was no tax/ card surcharge. simply to do with nice round numbers.

the cunning retailer may ofcourse bring it down to $19.99 as their belief(due to consumer behavior studies) is that customers don't see it as $20 minus a penny(expensive) but as $19 "something". making customers subconsciously think is way more cheaper then $20 then it actually is. purely because they see the big $19 followed by the smaller print 99, which they think is ignorable. that is why you always see price tags wrote like below to make an extra near on dollar not even noticable.
$1999

the point being whether tax/surcharges are hidden or not you are still going be paying the retailer the same.

imagine a world where no surcharges are charged at the shop but instead at the end of the month the banks debited out 1.5% of your total spend from your account, thus solving your ... i don't want to pay hidden charges.... would you still be happy spending $20 in the shop then 30c at the end of the month..

what this new rule does do is highlight to customers how much the retailer pays credit card companies so that customers can see that credit card companies are hurting retail profits, and those with compassion would start using debit cards or cash. (that's their hope anyways)

the point again, you will still end up paying the same price.. just a different person would get to keep the 30c

this wont affect things much. retailers know if someone sees a product price tag for $20 and goes up to the counter to pay, passes them their credit card and the cashier says "that'll be £20.30" the customer will first take another look at the price tag to make sure they didn't misread it, before starting an argument with the cashier.

all you will see change, is what the sales receipts will say
product cost      $19.71
____________________
card fee             $0.29
____________________
total                 $20.00

that way the retailer would only pay sales tax on $19.71 as oppose to the full $20. (thats how some retailers work in the UK)

bitsyncom. i fully understand there are parts parts sourcing issues with avalon. and those genuine people that want ASICS (either from yourselves or BFL) to succeed. one thing that has been BFL's biggest failure is the way it communicates with customers.

i know both BFL and yourself have passion about your products. but the professional silence followed by insults has been BFL's failings and from what i am reading today, will become avalons too.

the way i read it is that so far you have not been getting parts from a factory, which would easily have millions of stock,  due to a big shipping/ordering time delay. so instead you found a local source, probably something like radioshack or a small wholesaler. which this week you have managed to empty them of stock. so now you have to either wait for the local wholesaler to restock. or order from their a foreign supplier, causing a bit of a delay.

which is fully understandable.

one thing i would say is be passionate about your product but don't take public criticism personally and attack people individually. allow the product to uphold your companies reputation. don't ruin it with insults, especially directed at individuals.

samsung CEO would never respond to each and every customer with use of insults due to their comments. i have however seen some CEO's make generalised statements that poke at critics in a elegant and subtle way.
its time bitcoin companies step up their game. PR can be the biggest advert a company has, try not to get personal with individuals.

i know its hard sometimes to bite your lip and thinking that replying to comments about the place you work, on personal time wont affect you or your business. but in the end it does. INABA is the proof of that.

at least pre-draft replies and read them twice asking yourself:
is this business or personal
is it factual
does it clear any concerns the recipient may have
will this statement hurt the companies reputation
you should call it the "am i doing a BFL_josh dumb reply" checklist

then redraft another copy that at least gives a positive answer to each of those questions. try not to make it sound like your bringing a gun to a knife fight. but more like bringing a beef steak for others to use the knives on. (do something they wont expect).

lastly. slander is vocal libel is written

please add 99.99% human (0.01% to account for any chatbots someone may write just to disprove the theory)

technically in 2012 litecoin was below 0.003 is there a stipulation that it has to be that under 0.003 at any point in history "before January 27th" or just in a 24hour - one month timegap it hits under 0.003.

i hate all these gambling things that leave soo many grey area's for people to abuse.

It is also worth noting that other projects are in development, but instead of "doing a BFL" by creating hype way before anything is even ready to be beta tested. It is best to ensure the projects are in a good enough working order before creating hype.

That way when they do get released, its ready to use. Which is best for the long term, instead of spoon feeding info now and again to cause pumps and dumps before anything is finalised.

The litecoin community learns all the great things bitcoin has brought to crypto community, and also litecoin will learn from bitcoins mistakes to make sure litecoin does not follow it like a deaf sheep.

As for bitcoins gold standard people keep giving it. Crypto-currencies are not a commodity, you cant make anything out of it, you cant eat it or drink it.

Crypto currencies are technically an Asset, much like a piece of art.

So its better to think of bitcoin as a Van Gogh and litecoin as a Picasso. Van Gogh will paint 21 million paintings and Picasso will paint over 80 million.
Just remember Van Gogh can be a little selfish and deaf when it comes to listening to his patrons requests, just like the bitcoin foundation. But Picasso is a totally different attitude, although some patrons will at first say it does not look like fine art at first glance with its crazy implementation, it does have an elegant beauty that will stand the test of time, and like the developers. Not afraid to learn new ways of doing things for the benefit of the patrons.

edit. i used too much waffle in my reply

the best payment processing with fraud REASSURANCE is the mtgox "pay with mtgox account" button

no need to worry about 0 confirm transactions. as the funds have to be pre-confirmed by MTGox to even send to merchants.
it requires customers to log in, which reduces the chances of them crying about leaving their open qt client on the phone/laptop whilst they walked away and a stranger moved funds.

i think the point trying to be made in the last post was that bitcoin conferences are usually just "get together's" of people already in the community.

take the euro conference of 2011 and the london conference of 2012. there was not much outsider involvement, nor much media coverage.

yet. if bitcoiners went to outsider conferences. EG going to technology conventions like CES, or the money2020 it will get more outsiders involved with bitcoin and help grow bitcoin more.

bitcoin conferences are more like tea parties for the community. so they can meet up face to face with people they have only seen before as a forum avatar and username. great for networking with people and so i do hope the main emphasis is on making everyone's business known so that new collaborations / projects are made. and not just for the social tea party scene.

very much off topic. not sure why its on this forum.

unless due to privacy reasons the names and businesses had been changed to protect the identity of the accused. and in actual fact the accused is sonny V and the victim is inaba lol