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[quote=afx114]Glad someone finally found a use for recursion…[quote=Rich Toscano]Glad someone finally found a use for recursion…[/quote][/quote]

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Same story, did 2 years of CS, but couldn’t hack the advanced math. Switched over to Cog Sci with specialization in computation, so all my CS lower-division courses covered everything I needed for Cog Sci Computation. It basically ended up being an easier CS degree.

Don’t ask me how, but I ended up writing my honors thesis on the effects of rhythmic drumming on brain waves.

And yes Rich, your server is currently part of a massive distributed LISP botnet that remotely controls a drone that mows my lawn and trims my hedges for me so that I can just sit around and drink more beer.

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[quote=Hatfield]Nice interview. Also: UCSD Cog Sci, represent! I had no idea.

Go Tritons![/quote]

WTF, I represent UCSD Cog Sci as well. What is it about us?

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On my Dad’s side of the family, everyone is a straight-edge Christian and dies young.

My Mom’s side is more of a “lets have wine every night and have a good time” family and they all live to 90-100.

I think my choice is clear. DNA doesn’t lie.

BTW, “1 beer per night” is a useless measurement, especially here in San Diego with our plethora of septupple-IPAs and Bourbon-barrel-aged Russian Imperial Stouts. “1 pint of Speedway Stout per night” is the equivalent of “1 case of Corona per night”

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Check out LittleBits: http://littlebits.cc/. Really amazing way to get kids into an engineering mindset. They’re basically modular electronic circuits that you can easily combine in an infinite number of ways. There are over 50 different modules you can use to build things. Sensors, motors, switches, knobs, lights, etc. Think Legos for engineers.

Watch this video for a good overview: http://vimeo.com/45276780

I bought the Korg synth kit so that me and my kid can build analog modular synthesizers without the messiness of needing to solder. It says ages 14+ and she’s only 3, so maybe I actually bought it for myself, but still…

Edit: forgot to mention that they’re open source and all of their schematics and PCB’s are available on their github page

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Andreessen Horowitz just invested $25mil in Coinbase

I like Chris Dixon’s take:

“One of the interesting things about Bitcoin is the contrast between how it is portrayed in the press and how it is understood by technologists. The press tends to portray Bitcoin as either a speculative bubble or a scheme for supporting criminal activity. In Silicon Valley, by contrast, Bitcoin is generally viewed as a profound technological breakthrough.”

Interesting he draws parallels to the HTTP/SMTP protocols. By themselves they are pretty useless — it is the apps built on top of them (the web / email) that make them valuable. The same is true with Bitcoin if you think of it as a protocol rather than as a currency or payment method.

I still think that people writing off Bitcoin as a scam or fad or pyramid scheme are missing the bigger picture. Looks like the big boys in Silicon Valley agree with me.

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For the record and full disclosure, I don’t own any Bitcoins. And given that it just passed $1000 I probably won’t be owning any anytime soon.

What does it offer over traditional currency? I suppose I could just post a link to https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Myths, but:

• Negligible transaction costs. For small businesses this can save them 3-5% on their bottom line by not having to pay merchant fees. These savings can be passed down to the consumer as well, for lower cost of items.
• Sending global remittances is much cheaper. Traditional wiring services charge upward of 10% and take days to process. Bitcoin is instant and costs less than 1%. Wire fees currently cost an estimated $400billion annually. This could be a big deal for immigrants sending money home
• Financial services for the world’s unbanked population. They may not have banks, but they have cellphones. Kenya, for example, is using a lot of Bitcoin.
• There are no chargebacks, so if you as a customer are due a refund, the merchant would need to issue it — versus today’s fraud-laden method where the consumer initiates the chargeback, whether it was founded or not.
• Accounts can’t be frozen. This is a feature not a bug, especially if you are a dissident in an oppressive regime. Or even if you are a dissident in a non-oppressive regime.

Regarding asset storage, you can print out a paper wallet or store it on a USB stick or hard drive and put it offline in a safe or deposit box. No different than gold… well, except that you can carry it in your pocket too if needed.

But the best benefit: easier to buy drugs and prostitutes.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Bitcoin is the greatest thing ever or that it will take over the world. It obviously has issues like any new thing does, but I’m not ready to write it off as a Ponzi scheme or the Friendster of finance either. As a h4x0r it kinda gives me a stiffy. I’d just like to hear some cogent arguments against it other than “it’s a ponzi scheme” or “it’s a fad” or “who cares?”

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[quote=bobby]afx, so people shouldn’t worry about gangs of teens to randomly target strangers just for kicks?
people shouldn’t be outraged over these senseless acts of violence?[/quote]

You could have asked that same question throughout any time period in history. Go ahead, be worried. Same as it ever was.

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Guess What? The ‘Knockout Game’ Is America’s Latest Phony Panic

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[quote=temeculaguy]Or maybe it’s just some guys who went to harvard and think that they are smarter than you and will get you to give them your money.[/quote]

Or maybe one could take the initiative to do some research and read up on the technology and how it works so that we can have an actual discussion on the pros/cons rather than a series of lazy dismissive comments?

A virtual currency is inevitable. It may be Bitcoin, or it may be some other technology. But the underlying fact is that our current systems are obsolete in today’s insta-economy. In 10 years we will laugh at having to wait 7 days for a wire transfer. By then we’ll feel about today’s banking the same way we now feel about sending a hand-written letter via the post office.

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Trying to shut down Bitcoin would be like trying to shut down Bittorrent. How has that worked out so far?

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Bitcoins now accepted as payment for flights into space on Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic

This is hilarious.

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Tesla’s Model S Receives ‘The Highest Owner-Satisfaction Score Consumer Reports Has Seen In Years’

“Owners of the Tesla Model S gave it the highest owner-satisfaction score Consumer Reports has seen in years: 99 out of 100,” the magazine said.

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[quote=all]An army of bots is mining. It might be more profitable to use bots for mining than for spamming.[/quote]

That’s what the difficulty metric is for:

The difficulty is the measure of how difficult it is to find a new block compared to the easiest it can ever be. It is recalculated every 2016 blocks to a value such that the previous 2016 blocks would have been generated in exactly two weeks had everyone been mining at this difficulty. This will yield, on average, one block every ten minutes. As more miners join, the rate of block creation will go up. As the rate of block generation goes up, the difficulty rises to compensate which will push the rate of block creation back down. Any blocks released by malicious miners that do not meet the required difficulty target will simply be rejected by everyone on the network and thus will be worthless.

Keep throwing bots at it, the harder it becomes to mine successfully.

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Small samples of Bitcoin as a currency:

• Bitcoin Now Accepted at World’s Largest Game & Gift Card Retailer.
• You can now buy WordPress.com (world’s largest blogging platform) upgrades with bitcoins
• Meet the Subway franchise owner who accepts bitcoins
• Shut up and take my bitcoins! A map of Bitcoin-friendly businesses

Obviously the recent volatility is an issue, because your Subway sandwich may cost 0.005 Bitcoins when you order it and then cost 0.009 Bitcoins when you go to pay 2 minutes later.

What happens when Starbucks starts accepting Bitcoins?

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