skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
The part about stolen electricity is not actually true, though, at least the way it's justified there. The paper argues that botnets will drive out honest mining, but at this point they can't can't because custom-made hardware is so much faster at mining than general PCs. The current global hashrate is currently about 10 petahashes/sec and your average computer can manage around 10 megahashes/sec. Doing the maths, in order to achieve that through a botnet and drive out all honest mining you'd need a billion computers - that's roughly every PC in the world, running 24/7!

(Computers with high-end AMD cards can do better - up to 1.2 gigahashes/sec on AMD's top-of-the-range card but they're also a lot rarer so shouldn't drive up the average much.)
This (logging to a ring buffer) has been done many times - eg
http://www.stefanrufer.ch/snipsnap/space/Virtual+Brain/Java/...

There's even an implementation built right into log4j, 13 years ago, the SMTPAppender:
http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/logging/log4j/trunk/src/main/ja...
Um, it isn't anti-depressants that are feminizing fish. That doesn't even make sense. It is synthetic estrogens, ie pee from women taking birth control pills. Also a few other things, bisphenol A, and certain types of natural and synthetic steroids that are byproducts of agricultural run-off and cattle farming.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100729122332.ht...
Quoting at the top doesn't feel right to me.

Scrolling usually happens from top to bottom. While email clients could simply send the scrollbar to the bottom of the page by default, displaying the message from the bottom, letting the user read the quoted message if they want, it would probably be hard to implement without breaking HTML email.

Scrolling from bottom to top is natural when you want to see something again because you already scrolled to the bottom, but it feels weird when you have to first read the bottom of the page, then scroll up.
New to this editor, but $70 per license? As an Emacs user, I really don't understand why one should pay $70 for this, which is even not an IDE, while there are powerful ones like Emacs and Vim that can do almost everything you can imagine..
I switched over after the last build and things have been really stable.
The hobbit — an unexpected deficiency
TL:DR;

Big government socialist type doesn't like financial decentralization and a monetary system that can't be strictly controlled. Wants it to die quickly because ultimately free people might decide that it's worth keeping and using. News at 11.
When Charles Stross is talking about "carbon footprint" he ignores the not even comparable amount of resources that the current world wide banking infrastructure devours.
Actual money is "a better thing than Bitcoin for all of its current uses" other than speculation (for which we have tulips) and crypto-anarchist fetishism (for which no better solution is available).

Bitcoin may someday be better than existing currencies for some of the tasks we use them for, but it isn't yet.
You can't as easily pay someone across the country in cash for drugs that they then ship to you.
> governments are going to act forcefully to kill Bitcoin, and the fallout will be utterly unpredictable.

I don't think so. I think it's quite predictable that, if that happens, Bitcoin will lose. In the sense that it will ultimately become a cryptocurrency also-ran. Something else will probably rise to take its place after it's been bloodied, something designed to be resistant to whatever response the world's governments bring to bear.
In my opinion, the whole principle of bit-coin is like a manifesto for financial sovereignty - i.e. it says that money should be above government, and above democracy. Personally, I do actually want the government to be able to levy taxes to pay for public services, to be able to trace corrupt payments, to be able to seize the assets of fraudsters who have convicted under a fair judicial process, to be able to nudge the value of a currency to pursue wider macro-economic aims, and so on. Ultimately, living in a society means being subject to its laws. To accept Bitcoin at face value is to accept a future where every country operates by default with a financial system like Switzerland, and I don't believe that the vast majority of the population want that to happen.
I disagree that it's massively difficult. I think it's a skill that has to be learned. As I get better at it, I become faster putting together something loosely coupled than tightly coupled... because while writing something big and monolithic may have a momentary short-term advantage, when it comes time to, you know, make sure it works, correctly, my system is a lot easier to verify, test, deploy, and ship than the monolithic one.

Programming speed is not the only consideration when it comes to shipping software. Squishing something together as rapidly as possible may shorten the programming time (and then only for smaller systems), but only at the cost of shoving the time into all the other phases, usually at a ratio greatly in excess of 1:1!

In other news, programmers are generally pretty bad as estimation, and this is probably related. I suspect the estimations for the "squeeze something together" part are pretty good overall, it's the rest that breaks down.

And again, to be clear, I'm not disagreeing that it's challenging. I'm saying that rather than being fundamentally challenging in a way that can never be made easier, it is a skill that can be learned. That makes for a very different cost/benefit set than a task that is fundamentally difficult. And, frankly, few developers are taking the time to learn it; far more are sneeringly dismissive at the skills that are required to learn this. Rather a shocking amount of our "structure" in programming is still just covering over cowboy programming with terms management can get behind. I think XP actually avoided this, but the average bastardization of XP is a thin patina of words over cowboy programming.
Peercoin is such an example with an inflation rate planned to be 1% per year.
The problem is not bloat so much as forced paradigm. There are a lot of problems that don't fit nicely in Django, and suddenly you find yourself writing a bunch of code to work around the framework. An example - something I hear a lot of from local Django fans: "Oh that's simple - just ship it off to another process using celery and be done with it". That's great sometimes. Other times why not just use Bottle or flask and do a thin "translate to http" layer and move on?

Another problem with many of the existing big frameworks is that they don't do single page apps too well - A lot of stuff I do these days just doesn't need to be designed around the notion of composing templated widgets server side. I just want to ship static html/tpl/etc files and dynamically built data. Wrapping my head around pretending everything is a full page build gets a bit frustrating - why is the response to a query a view or *view? It's just a serialized model I'm pushing over the wire, or a remote function call. Pretending it is a view is a layer of cognitive overheard in between the work I'm doing and the data I'm using.
Don't sweat about your mistake. Money comes, money goes.

Lessons learned: timing investments is really hard. Trying to buy from the bottom can be equally stupid.

Personal story: I got a bit of play money when we were acquired. Naive me thought that I understand how the world works. The first months of finance crisis had just happened. In US and selected European countries real estate prices had dropped, but in Finland market hadn't crashed. I reasoned that they eventually will, and it's a bad time to buy an apartment, but a good time to invest to finance stocks because they had already crashed. Among other investments I bought some Citibank stocks -"they are the largest, thus probably the safest". Boy I was naive.

Real estate prices in Finland never crashed, Citibank's free fall had just only started.
Thanks. Now, with a context, it made sense.

[Added a bit later] Although, I don't see how "mobile" is much conceptually different from the "web". The only missing part is linking and transferring of mobile app code over the network, on demand, instead of barcode/hyperlink-market-install manual process. But that's because of security model deficiencies on modern mobiles, and I won't be surprised things'll change. Then mobile'll be part of the web - no conflict here.
I, too, am suffering Bitcoin-headline-fatigue, to the point where I was glad to see machined QR bitcoins b/c I could finally tell people to kindly shove them where the sun don't shine.

HOWEVER, just b/c I'm exhausted, I don't think Stross' points are valid or limited to Bitcoin in the least. He might want BC to die in a fire, but BC isn't doing anything special that cash/gold isn't/can't be doing. Here is an overview of his points:

> 1. Mining BtC has a carbon footprint from hell

> 2. Bitcoin mining software is now being distributed as malware

> 3. Stolen electricity will drive out honest mining. (So the greatest benefits accrue to the most ruthless criminals.)

> 4. Bitcoin's utter lack of regulation permits really hideous markets to emerge, in commodities like assassination (and drugs and child pornography).

>5. It's also inherently damaging to the fabric of civil society.
Looking at Wikipedia, there are BGA Xeons - a couple of new quad core, low power E3 models. However, all other Xeons are socketed, including the ones used in earlier Mac Pros. And all the 6/8/12 core Xeons are using either LGA-1356 or LGA2011 sockets (not PGA, my bad)...
...The Gini coefficient of the Bitcoin economy...

Is this a thing? I mean, there are all sorts of fungible assets floating around the world, but I've never heard anyone talk about e.g. "the molybdenum economy" or "the Gini coefficient of the hard red winter wheat economy". Aren't economies usually located in actual places?
...on "Piracies and Felonies", you forgot to say.

I somehow doubt you could call Pope or Merkel a "pirate" or "felon", but that's what its boiling down to. By spying on anyone US does not trust anyone because there is possibility others do the same thing...

Its like a looped liar syndrome. Someone who constantly lies does not believe other people because if he constantly lies then in his world it means everyone else does the same as well. Sick sick situation.
You can, but cash is cumbersome to manage and dealing in large quantities of it all the time immediately makes you a suspected drug dealer.
That's not how the economy works (international trade is different from local trade, you're not taking employment into account etc.), but for now let's just say that some think a regulated currency is better and some don't. This has little to do with buying Bitcoin now.
Thank you! Thank you! I finally understand what theorems are. I kinda got axioms already, but this explanation is definitely useful.
Urm Charlie could always issue "Charlie Dollars" backed by bitcoin, nothing stopping him creating his own inflationary currency.

Just like nothing stopped governments issuing currencies backed by gold (and later removing the link moving to complete fiat)

All in all the author exhibits all the signs of someone who doesn't understand bitcoin in his troll attention seeking article.

Bitcoin is not perfect but its a damn interesting new technology/platform that the world has not seen before.

He was probably busy in the 90s slamming this new emerging technology/platform called the web
Thanks for taking the time to make such a well written reply to my comment. This further backs up one of my main points. I'm not a sophisticated trader (nor do I wish to become one) so I probably shouldn't be speculating.
That doesn't make you selfless, that makes you selfish, because you only care about what you think of your self and ignore what others think of you.

Enjoy it while the delusion of being right lasts!
I've known one of the guys for over 10 years, and he has paid me promptly for odd jobs in the past.

I didn't see any reason to fear.
Minor point. That's bluefin tuna. The stuff that comes in cans in the United States is albacore tuna. Albacore is less overfished than bluefin, the latter of which is more highly prized in Japan. I believe bluefin is the one that is widely illegally fished in Japan.
I was pretty sure that after this current "crash" (3rd already in Bitcoin history, depending on how you count them) articles like that ("Bitcoin is doomed", "I want Bitcoin to fail") will surface. And here it is. Nothing new to see here folks. Same ol' arguments, which were discussed hundreds of times already.
I slightly bemused that some one presumably living in the UK think that we have an electoral college USA style.
Algorithm makes your face shots more memorable
Cool gadget!
|new bitcoins are created by carrying out mathematical operations which become progressively harder as the bitcoin space is explored

No, no, NO!

Statements like this immediately lessen the writer's credibility.
It's looking like that is the most likely outcome. I just wasn't sure if I was selling myself short by letting it be an even split when I'm the one doing the hard yards right now.
Well most illegally grown marijuana uses large amounts of stolen electricity (absolute control of temperature and lighting is a must to get the highest yield). I'm guessing it would not be profitable to grow it otherwise (or not as profitable).

Similar issues will affect Bitcoin mining in the long run however I expect this to be more something that is achieved through mining bots and not through setting up server farms in houses with diverted electrical trunking.

As to electricity companies finding out, the issue here is that the 'noise' from loss of electricity in the network masks a specific house consuming huge amounts of electricity. I'm guessing there must be some sort of profiling going on to determine if an occupied house is using too little electricity.
I'd buy that, but bitcoin is inherently deflationary. That's a problem for a currency. The more popular it gets, the worst it gets.
I find the figures about bitcoins carbon footprint to be somewhat dubious. Anyone verify the calculations?

Interestingly, with Bitcoin you could do the mining with carbon neutral energy, since the electricity can be consumed where it's generated and the output is just data to be transmitted.
I believe setting "close_windows_when_empty" to false in your preferences should prevent this.
tl;dr mixed-market capitalist says Bitcoin is problematic because it's a vapid libertarian talking point disguised as a currency. HN user replies with vapid libertarian talking points.
There must be a dead link somewhere. If I follow the documentation link in the top menu, I get to docs.
At least it's amusing :)
If the BTC reward drops too low the fees will start going up. As long as they're able to collect sufficient fees I wouldn't expect the number of miners to decrease.
I see the documentation.

Seems to be Git without Commits - kind of. It seems to be better described here:

> Unlike traditional version control systems (such as CVS and Subversion), Gitless is distributed. Rather than having a single, centralized repository, each user has her own repository that is synchronized with other repositories.
So... what advantages does this provide over straight Git? Reading the docs, it doesn't appear to abstract over Git at all.
But under age soldiers cant actually fight.
Docker Use Case: Selenium and WordPress
Watch a leopard reaction when it finds out that his prey has a newborn...
True, but there is no shortage of drivers even if they start snapping them up. For $20 a mile, I'll get in my car and pick you up. Uber would have to corner the market for all drivers by paying them off which is... expensive, and extremely unstable.

If you required a CDL or other more involved permit to pick people up that might restrict supply but I don't anticipate demand outpacing supply of drivers if there is money to be made.
Nuclear. You want to generate a lot of heat and you don't have geothermal energy handy, you go nuclear.

You could make the whole facility mechanical - the heat from the reactor is used to heat the algae and use steam-driven pumps to create the pressure. Eliminate the electrical middleman.
It looks like there's no concept of a stage, which would imply that commits can only be made at a file level. This nerfs the single greatest feature of git: git add -p
You do know who Charles Stross is, right? Influential sci-fi author, early web user, old school programmer? You may not agree with him, but it's not trolling, he raises many valid points and he's not the first to do it.
Big data startup VSSOD provides big data supply chain analytics
That quote can be applied verbatim (but for s/Gitless/Git) to Git itself.
Ask HN: What is the best way to value stocks?
What methods should you use to determine the fair price of a stock, given its recent price distribution? Can you do anything better than just using the mean?
Best desktop video upload solutions?
Forget the energy content; there are already tons of uses for petroleum that don't require burning it for fuel.
Sigh.

> For starters, BTC is inherently deflationary.

For starters, tell us why this is inherently bad. This statement also assumes that the BTC economy will grow forever.

> Bitcoin is designed to be verifiable [...] but pretty much untraceable

What would be bad about this if it were true? Paper bills work just fine, even though they are pretty much untraceable. By the way, this opinion is pretty much wrong, bitcoin is very far from being untraceable (IPs, exchanging BTC, etc.)

> Libertarians love it because it pushes the same buttons as their gold fetish

Ok, article is clearly emotional. How did this end up on the front page?

> Mining BTC has a carbon footprint from hell

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/FAQ#Is_it_not_a_waste_of_energy.3...

> Bitcoin mining software is now being distributed as malware

Surprise. Thieves steal valuable things. This wouldn't happen without BTC, right?

> Bitcoin's utter lack of regulation permits really hideous markets to emerge, in commodities like assassination (and drugs and child pornography).

FINCEN would like a word with you. Also, how does it hurt the USD that it is used for assassination, drugs and child pornography?

It's ok that people hate bitcoin though, some people just let their emotions take control.
They won't share the data with the NSA, as the GCHQ and other agencies would :)
I agree with all of his points; I've been making them myself for the past few months. Bitcoin is bad specifically because it is unregulated.

Regulation of financial markets exists for a reason: the optimal strategy of individuals and institutions in unregulated financial markets is to lie, cheat and steal to accumulate as much wealth as possible.

Credit economies rely on a foundation of trust; and while it may seem hard to trust our financial system, you CAN trust that when you put your money in a bank, it will be there when you go to get it out (thanks, FDIC!) As much as we may not like credit, it provides market efficiency on an extraordinary scale.
I'm still really surprised every time I see a windows-based ATM. Why would a full, general-purpose OS be included in those machines that need to do just under 10 operations?

I know it's easier to deal with it that way, but just to limit the exposed code, it could be based on something much more restricted. If it was small enough, it could even reboot / netboot itself between each operation to prevent any modifications being stored locally.
Thank you so much for this...

you have just made my day
Totally misleading post title, if you can read drive... It isn't dead... Got it?
I seriously doubt Charles Stross is skeptical of bitcoin because he hates and fears freedom. That kind of hyperbole only serves to feed cynicism about bitcoin and its community, particularly given the assumption that the article wasn't even worth a glance for you, because obviously "not liking bitcoin" = "globalist shill."
What a strange time to release something...a week before Christmas, after Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and after the "deadline" of December 15 by which most retailers guarantee delivery before Christmas.
As someone that grew up with snow and been to a beach more than I'd care to admit, I can't help but agree that it's quite the uncanny valley.

I'm sure Disney et al will find ways to distract you enough not to notice.

I'm far more interested in seeing snow falling, especially with (for example) a street-lamp contrasting it. That would be something to marvel at.
If bitcoin becomes a currency and not a commodity, it will matter to a lot of people. Wheat and molybdenum are not currencies or used as currencies (certainly not at any large scale) so speaking of their "economies" is a nonsensical statement.

> Aren't economies usually located in actual places?

We have a global economy, and bitcoin advocates seem (or used to) interested in establishing BTC as a global currency with its own markets for buying and selling a variety of goods.
China: a generation full of hope

US: the lost generation

talk about role reversal...
You don't need to drive out all honest mining. All you need is not to have to pay for any costs.

The issue he's pointing out is that the rational, amoral actor will have to decide between a saturated market of ASICs with extremely long time to ROI, and a quick buck off of grandma's draining laptop battery.
The major problem that I see with BitCoin is that they underestimated the demand for it. BitCoins can not be mined fast enough to meet demand and they maximum mineble number of BitCoins will be reached far before demand is met. It is possible that BitCoin might be able to serve its original purpose as an alternate currency if it eventually stabilizes.

The BitCoin concept is wonderful. My understanding is that the biggest strength of BitCoin is that it is designed such no organization can have central control of it. The value of it is totally driven by market demand rather than by what faith we have in government, the IMF, or any other organization. It's totally new concept at this moment but I believe eventually there will be some sort of resolution that may allow BitCoin as an alternate currency for the world.
They do, but you should explain why in your comments to debunk this nonsense.
Right now I have two available: https://properapp.com and http://whatwhenapp.com.
Wonder if this could be done in space? A few months ago I read about the idea of solar energy being captured in space, and I struggled with the question of how to transport that energy to where we'd like to use it.

If the algae could grow in space, and this process could occur in space, then we could wastefully convert solar to oil in space, and spacecraft could use that oil in space.

Lot of if's and speculation there, but it's an interesting line of thought.
I find people who have a negative opinion on BTC funny. I honestly just do not care about it, it is an interesting experiment, and one that I'm not going to trust my money to. More power to ya if you're going to. If it crashes, alright. If it doesn't, then sweet. Seriously, I'll never understand articles like these...

Oh, and his point about BTC "creating" drug markets -- are you for real? Seriously? People have been buying and selling drugs on the internet since... well, I'd wager since it's inception, but at least for the past decade. BTC may make it easier, or "safer", but those markets have existed for a very long time, you just needed to know where to look...
For some reason I don't see $5000 computers with workstation-class dual-GPUs being popular stocking stuffers.
Its not that long ago that the UK law explicitly allowed for the ownership of guns for personal protection it was only post WW1 when the government of the day was paranoid about red revolution that this started to change.

The "peaky blinders" series recently on the BBC made this a major plot point - Churchill freaking out over the loss of 50 BAR's