jadeddrag

Here is a link to Part 1: http://doc-ok.org/?p=1095

Doc-Ok (and others) are getting closer to reverse engineering the Oculus DK2 so hopefully we can have an open source Linux SDK soon. Maybe even before Facebook/Oculus releases their official version!

We are looking for more help, so if you're on irc, pleaes join us in #openhmd on freenode.net

A linux SDK, or open source "runtime" is the sorest missing link.

I do.

Is there anything like this for android?

It's not necessary. The code is under 6MB. Remove the top level .git directory if the size bothers you.

That's probably not a bad thing. What gave you faith to begin with?

In my experience, having reliable network access was required to maintain a working VPN connection.

Why not? Isn't this exactly how they sell premium channels, like HBO?

For many of us, the Microsoft hate has been displaced with complete indifference. I don't think there are more than two people in our 250+ mobile engineering company who even think about microsoft. Even the gamers are moving onto better platforms. For my ease of family IT matters, I've upgraded everybody to Ubuntu. Sorry Microsoft, the war is over. You are now irrelevant.

As I understand it, this was a problem that was identified over 2 years ago, and fixed for over a year. The problem is that MtGox implemented their own wallet software, and neglected to include bug fixes from the reference client.

I think you're assuming his appeals to morality is the same as asking for government intervention. In fact, I read this just the opposite, and I would bet this is exactly NOT what he is asking for.

Block distractions:

sudo bash -c 'echo "127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com" >> /etc/hosts'

Which is more likely, that economists don't understand cryptography, or cryptologists don't understand economics?

China banking is now clearly anti-bitcoin, and new policy tries to kill bitcoin trading:

http://tech.sina.com.cn/it/2013-12-17/01139011174.shtml#4832...

The Casascius coin is just fine to communicate the idea. Either that or just the bitcoin logo.

Wow, this reminds me of the other time I cringed watching news media understand "the internets" and struggling with the concept of email. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUs7iG1mNjI

Cayman Island company is no more harmful than in the hands of a (likely CIA/NSA infested) USA company.

Exactly my point. This $15M figure is completely wrong.

If this $15M figure were true (and it probably isn't), at today's going rate of about $1K USD/BTC, miners as a whole are losing $11.4 Million in electrical costs. (assuming 25 BTC are paid out every 10 minutes, and ignoring miners fees. The value of all new mined coins is only 3600 BTC per day, worth about $3.6 Million USD.)

Betteridge's Law seems to apply here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge's_law_of_headlines

Yes, you are wrong. 3D printed anything is still pretty amazing, and now we have people who are trying to disrupt the adult toy industry. A worthy hack IMO.

I think that's one correct way to think about it.

This is such old news by now. Given the extreme price fluctuations, it is more useful if we can stop quoting "worth $X USD", and instead just stick with the actual number of bitcoin.

The author is forgetting that the process of mining is not just to receive the block reward, but to support the entire bitcoin network. If there were no miners, no new transactions would get verified and bitcoin would not be secure. So it's wrong, and probably disingenuous for him to state that mining is a waste of electricity.

The idea is that miners continue to mine to collect the miner fees. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ

Besides the freedom and privacy, there are a few more advantages.

Bitcoin transactions are very cheap, and can be free. (however most clients usually require a minimum miner's fee of about 5 microbitcoins, which will probably go down in future versions if the USD/BTC price goes much higher).

For example, a few days ago, someone sent about $140 million (USD) worth of bitcoin, and paid no fee.

Another advantage is that transactions can be as small as 0.00000001 BTC (called a satoshi), which when combined with little or no fees, makes online micro payments viable.

I believe that's called "dollar cost averaging". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_cost_averaging

If you are in a bigger city, I recommend in-person localbitcoins.com exchanges using cash. It's quicker, and much more anonymous.

Don't forget that the USD/BTC price could also skyrocket to partially compensate for the difficulty increase.

You're mostly correct, except the difficulty number is not exactly the same as the number of leading zeros.