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Showing 20 of 228 results by JBDive
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Topic
Board Economics
Re: IRS to come after people for selling Bitcoins
by
JBDive
on 10/04/2013, 19:01:39 UTC
A question if you will. How does it work in the US? One must declare the bitcoins that he holds, or just declare the income when converting them to dollars?

Here in 'merica you would only have to claim your income you made from selling Bitcoins, the Bitcoins you're holding are completely worthless in the eyes of the IRS, they can't tax it. Which is why it is a good thing to pay for things using bitcoins.

I don't think that would be true in all cases. I might go with that if you bought 100 BTC at $100 and sold 100BTC at $200 however if you mined those same coins you would at best fall under the Uniform Capitalization Rules and since my cost would be included in determining Cost Basis the "income" if any would be what I determined much of it to be. At the same time if I traded those BTC for say silver I'm pretty sure there is no "gain" to be taxed. A Capital Gain is when you buy an asset at one price and sell it at a higher one. Income is derived from employment. BTC falls under neither unless we start stretching the terminology and laws.
Post
Topic
Board Pools
Re: Ozcoin not as profitable as others?
by
JBDive
on 01/09/2012, 20:33:03 UTC
Got it, will round up my current BTC amount on Eligius and maybe give Oz another chance for a longer period of time. I had tried them in the past prior to DGM when Eligius was having some issues but hadn't been back until this week and gave it basically a 24 hour run.

@os2sam, off topic but you will get a kick out of this. I have a customer running their voicemail system on an old XT system running OS2! I just replaced the power supply about two months ago. Told them then though that when it crashes the motherboard they will likley be out of luck, probably need to see if I can dig out a an old 600MB HD and try to image the system onto another drive, original HD still running.

Post
Topic
Board Pools
Topic OP
Ozcoin not as profitable as others?
by
JBDive
on 01/09/2012, 15:38:21 UTC
Tried Ozcoin and I have not done the math but in just looking at the numbers over the past 24 hours it doesn't look like I am earning near as much as on say eligius. Sure pool vs. pool things are going to be different but my quick BTC balance divided by 24 hours seems to show almost 1/3 less mining potential on Ozcoin as Eligius.

Am I in the ballpark, math is off or just nuts?
Post
Topic
Board Mining software (miners)
Re: CGMINER GPU FPGA overclock monitor fanspeed GCN RPC linux/windows/osx 2.4.2
by
JBDive
on 06/06/2012, 14:04:10 UTC
Problem with aVast, even though I still prefer it, is the same thing that's wrong with all the other AV vendors, they toss the kitchen sink into it. By that I mean somebody like PCMag will do a review with a nice table saying what each AV product does with nice little check marks then management sees these charts and comes back at the Devs and says "why isn't our product also scanning for XYZ"? With each new tool added into the product it gets slower, more intrusive and overall less popular, look at McAfee, the number one product for years yet like Norton most educated users stay far away from both now.

With aVast I love how it scans webpages for rogue code so much better than others but it's becoming a challenge to stick with them. I am still on version 4.8 as it's lighter than the new releases PLUS allows for URL blocking which is great for those ad banners. I'm a bit ticked at it blocking downloading of CGMiner yet it's log does not show any event concerning that block. Having to disable scanning just to download is a total fail on their part.

ok sorry for the thread steal, back to CGMiner.
Post
Topic
Board Mining software (miners)
Re: CGMINER GPU FPGA overclock monitor fanspeed GCN RPC linux/windows/osx 2.4.2
by
JBDive
on 06/06/2012, 06:35:42 UTC
Boy aVast sure doesn't like this update. Have not had it complain about my current version but it doesn't even want me to download this one saying it's Malware. Reported as False like that will make a difference.
Post
Topic
Board Mining software (miners)
Re: CGMINER GPU FPGA overclock monitor fanspeed GCN RPC linux/windows/osx 2.3.6
by
JBDive
on 29/04/2012, 21:25:34 UTC
So I'm more or less a noob at all the ins and outs with cards, drivers and SDK's and have tried to follow more or less what is said here and to stick with the basics when setting up and running various miners. I went ahead and updated my drivers today while leaving the SDK at 2.4 and I'm seeing what I think is small decrease in performance. I also updated from 2.3.1 to 2.3.6 and if anything I find it slower but it could be the drivers.

Anyway that's not really my comment or question. I'm more interested in knowing where the I (intensity) setting comes into play. My command line has been all default except for I 9 forever, mainly because somebody else suggested the setting. Since I was playing with things today I thought I would try other intensity levels to see what happens and the difference was HUGE in terms of CPU use. I found that just about any setting 1-10 resulted in the same 50% CPU use I had been seeing and accepting as normal to only 1-5% CPU use by cgminier using I 7. Now what would CPU cycles be higher at 5 or 6 than 7, as well as 8,9,10 I can understand if it's a rising scale? I'm seeing maybe 7Mh/s less with 2.3.6 and Intensity 7 but my CPU is idling while GPU is maybe a touch hotter but overall machine heat is way down due to lower CPU use.

CARD: 5770
GPU/Mem: 975/350
OS: Win7X64
SDK: 2.4
Catalyst: 12.4
Post
Topic
Board Goods
Re: BitcoinMint.US offering Silver, Platinum, Gold, Nickel & Copper Eagles for BTC!
by
JBDive
on 20/04/2012, 21:03:36 UTC
Ordered and received so I thought I would leave a few comments.





Lastly I was a bit disappointed in the coin itself. I found a rather large ding in the gown near the back foot, see below. Not a large ding and I did not expect Proof but did expect  Uncirculated to Near Uncirculated.

Overall I would purchase again and probably will as Silver prices vs. Bitcoin makes it a good buy.



Interesting one here. I've just sent part of my coin collection off for sale (to upgrade my mining operation with a load of FPGAs). Regarding US silver Eagles, I had 120 (i.e. 6 tubes) and sent two tubes off, leaving four untouched tubes.

My Eagles are all 2011 year, and were bought from a reputable dealer in Europe (I've bought most of my coins from them). They arrived sealed in their 'TREASURY UNITED STATES MINT' green-lid tubes - so for the coins to be circulated would have required a bit of subterfuge. Used tubes tend to be obvious - I believe the material is polypropylene or low density polyethylene as it picks up dents and scratches very easily. My tubes arrived in 'mint' condition, so I take it as an assumption that all my 2011 Eagles are *uncirculated* condition.

Now on to the coin - because this 'ding in the gown near the back foot' rang a LARGE bell in my mind. If you're referring to the area around where the rear foot meets the 'ground', which looks like the coin edge has been impacted, causing a 'warp' - this is just the design and caught me off guard when I first bought American Eagles. You can assure yourself that the coin hasn't caught an edge by examining the circularity of the outer ring.

If you're referring to the tiny 'snakebite' scratch on the 'material' of the gown, then that looks like a minor handling error on removal from tubes. Pure silver coins are soft and hard to keep 'BU' when not individually encapsulated from the Mint (China and Australia send theirs out like this and there's no excuse for a scratched Panda or Koala, for example). IME, US Silver Eagles have the most vertical space in their full tubes (compared to the 25-coin Maple tube, or the 20-coin Philharmonic tube), and since there are no protective spacers between each coin in the tube, simply shaking the tube up and down (especially with a bit of twist to cause rotation) will result in the coins rubbing against each other, causing minor scratches.

Even worse are Canadian Maples - I bought a sealed tube straight out of a Monster box, bunged it in my safe without opening it, and under a year later opened the tube to find the coins were covered in white 'milk' corrosion. Apparently this is 'normal' for Maples - but they are of a higher purity (.9999 silver) than most others. I've an Andean Cat (Royal Silver, .99999 purity, highest available IIRC) which has remained perfectly shiny.

So to conclude, even untouched, uncirculated silver coins, held in stock by a dealer in a safe with dehumidification packs alongside (like my small collection, though I'm no dealer), can end up deteriorating if left in their Mint tubes. If you order less than a full tube, the dealer MUST by definition remove the coins from the tube and re-package, and it's VERY easy to make tiny handling marks. This doesn't constitute 'circulation' and your coins will be re-sellable as 'uncirculated'. The coins can pick up 'dings' even *without* handling, if the tubes are rattled around in transit.

On top of this, we're talking *bullion* coins here - not proofs. Bullion coins get the same resale value even when circulated and knocked about. It's about the silver, not the scratches - as long as they weigh in OK then you'll be fine. It sounds like you'd prefer a Proof coin. Get a Panda - they come from the Mint in a slightly convex plastic capsule, have beautiful designs, and whilst not technically 'proof' coins, they're up to the standard of the bloody Royal Mint's so-called overpriced 'proofs' (I'm English and have received some shoddy examples - one being of a 2,500 limited mintage!)...


US Eagles aren't my favourite coin design - for some reason the Mexicans make my favourite coins of all time (the silver Liberdad is beautiful, and the gold 20 Peso's Aztec calendar is awesome) - and after reading this, I've opened all my Eagle tubes to check them... two out of four are showing white 'milk' on the reeded edges Sad

Anyone know how to remove the 'milk' without removing silver or making the coin unsellable? The dealers are well aware of the problem with Maples but I was surprised to see the milk on some of my Eagles. Since the Mexican mint send their Libertads out in crappy cardboard tubes, I bought a load of Air-Tites and encapsulated each and every one of them (I love Libertads) - they have remained unsullied.

However, if I'm considering selling some of the Eagles individually on eBay or here for Bitcoins, my customers are going to be pretty pissed off to receive coins with white 'milk' on them - regardless of normality.

Any experts here know the answer? Is the usual practice a simple dip in silver cleaning solution, followed by a thorough rinse and dry with microfibre cloth? I was told never to handle my coins without gloves, but untouched silver coins in sealed tubes *still* deteriorate...

No I agree that it's pretty easy for these to get dinged. I was trying to be very honest on the product and service for others so they will know what to expect. I'd like to have seen the coin near flawless but as you say if turned in for pure silver content it won't matter and keeping them for any numismatic value you would have to be waiting for 200 years for it to make any real difference. I actually rarely buy Eagles simply because the markup is so high for purely silver investing over silver blanks and such but they are a nice looking coin.

I added the images so folks could see these are real. Nice thing about the ding I guess is I know it's not clad Wink
Post
Topic
Board Goods
Re: BitcoinMint.US offering Silver, Platinum, Gold, Nickel & Copper Eagles for BTC!
by
JBDive
on 20/04/2012, 20:55:06 UTC
Other than the email problem which we haven't worked out yet I was not unhappy with the purchase and as I said would purchase again.

Did you ever get to the bottom of this?  I wouldn't mind hearing what the issue was.   Smiley

Sorry I've not been back here in awhile.

I would like you to send me a test message, actually I am going to request a quote on a multiple coin buy so will send you a note. I think the problem is with the logic used by my frontend mail filter. I had to remove a filter with a "or", "and" statement as it was killing off a bunch of email. Interesting thing was it appeared to be limited to incoming GMail even though those emails did not have any of the "and" or "or"'s in the entire email and header.

Basically the filter was if any email contains anywhere in it or the header, "enlarge" or "supplement" and "free" then trash the email. It was not processing this correctly at all after testing it with emails from my own GMail account with only "123" in the subject and body would be trashed. Remote the "or" statement and it worked or send from another provider and it worked.

Not that anyone cares but there it is.
Post
Topic
Board Press
Re: Bitcoin press hits, notable sources
by
JBDive
on 02/04/2012, 19:36:52 UTC
First off I want to know which of you had a Pint and made this quote because it's marvelous!

Quote
"Bitcoin is not run by people with hot sexual appetites for hotel maids"  one trader and Bitcoin enthusiast told Reuters over a pint of Guinness in London's financial district.

Second off the above reference as well as this one:

Quote
'Workers at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in London and New York have been visiting online Bitcoin exchanges as often as 30 times a day, according to documents seen by Reuters. Neither bank wanted to comment.'

bother the heck out of me. The last thing we need is somebody with the pockets of G.S. to come in and either push the market down to basically a collapse, try and own the entire market or have their programmers go to work in developing trading programs and totally skew the market and screw over the smaller players. Right now I don't see it being of much interest to them as the volume is just to low but if they came in full bore the only ones getting anywhere with Bitcoin at that point would be Goldman or those early miners who are sitting on thousands of coins.





Post
Topic
Board Goods
Re: BitcoinMint.US offering Silver, Platinum, Gold, Nickel & Copper Eagles for BTC!
by
JBDive
on 17/03/2012, 02:50:53 UTC
No information from seller as to the acceptance of the order or shipping. After processing the Bit-Pay order your sitting there wondering if you've been scammed or your order will show up. Emails went unanswered which I won't totally condemn considering coin came in within 3 days and not everyone checks emails daily but a business should.

Thank you for the feedback.

It sounds as if you didn't have a very good experience.  I apologize.  Please check your spam filter so you can see that no email went unanswered, and in fact all inquiries both via email and forum PMs were responded to within minutes.

Other than the email problem which we haven't worked out yet I was not unhappy with the purchase and as I said would purchase again. Still working on where those emails went and I probably should have tried a PM here that first day as well.
Post
Topic
Board Goods
Re: BitcoinMint.US offering Silver, Platinum, Gold, Nickel & Copper Eagles for BTC!
by
JBDive
on 16/03/2012, 21:11:13 UTC
Ordered and received so I thought I would leave a few comments.

First off the ordering and Bit-Pay do work well and quickly. Second the product arrived quickly.

Now the cons.
Seller says they did respond to emails but somewhere along the line those just didn't make it. I'll try another email address next time.

No information from seller as to the acceptance of the order or shipping. After processing the Bit-Pay order your sitting there wondering if you've been scammed or your order will show up. Emails went unanswered which I won't totally condemn considering coin came in within 3 days and not everyone checks emails daily but a business should. Second off the shipping is plain vanilla envelope with no insurance. I would hope to see that changed with orders of any quantity but even on a single Silver Eagle your talking $45 and considering the level of service by the USPS I certainly wouldn't ship in that manner. Lastly I was a bit disappointed in the coin itself. I found a rather large ding in the gown near the back foot, see below. Not a large ding and I did not expect Proof but did expect  Uncirculated to Near Uncirculated.

Overall I would purchase again and probably will as Silver prices vs. Bitcoin makes it a good buy.

Post
Topic
Board Currency exchange
Re: BTC -> Copper/Nickel/Silver at BitcoinMint.US
by
JBDive
on 16/03/2012, 14:58:05 UTC
Is the site a scam? I was pretty sure I read post where people had ordered and completed the deal?
Post
Topic
Board Goods
Re: 1oz silver round for litecoins!
by
JBDive
on 24/02/2012, 22:14:08 UTC
I don't understand at all, why are people willing to pay such premiums for silver. Now I'm going just by the prior post of 11-12 BTC @ a silver spot of $35 (splitting the price from Wed-Friday for an avg). If BTC are at $4.5, 11 BTC would be $49.50 for $35 in silver. Most any coin store will sell Morgans at spot plus putting Morgans at $27-$30 this week depending on silver price that day.

Is this just a BTC markup, people really seeing silver doubling, having that pure silver round vs. a Morgan or what is making people pay that much over spot?

Don't get me wrong more power to the seller. I am just wondering what the buyers thinking is. I seem Morgans on eBay going for prices that would put silver at near $70, a doubling from today's prices when you can go to any local store and get a Morgan for less than half that.
Post
Topic
Board Computer hardware
Topic OP
WTB: Quad Core Q8600, Q9400 or similar
by
JBDive
on 16/02/2012, 19:56:46 UTC
Looking for a used Core 2 Quad. Must support VT, prefer 1333FSB and over 2.5Ghz
Post
Topic
Board Goods
Re: WTS 1880-1921 Morgan Silver Dollars
by
JBDive
on 13/02/2012, 21:50:56 UTC
They appear to have all been cleaned pushing them into the "cull" category unless there is something special about any one of them and the 1880's don't appear to be double strikes. That puts them at spot plus a bit.

I am sorry, I am not the seller but just find it funny what some people will post.  You are calling these coins culls?  You really just must want them cheaper.

http://www.acoin.com/answerwizard/answerwizardcull.html

Coins that technically grade above Good by wear, but have a big problem can also be considered cull coins. Big problem is somewhat subjective, but might include the following:


No I said it pushes toward culls or basically melt value for most of these. Per the Big Red Book on Coins

"Slightly worn coins ("sliders) that have been cleaned and conditioned ("whizzed") to simulate Uncirculated luster are worth considerably less than perfect pieces."

For these coins and the 2010 book the prices are (sorry on formatting, tried to put in table and it looked worse):

Coin       VF-20      EF-40      AU-50
1880      22           25           30
1882      22           25           30
1883-O   33           25           30
1891-O   25           30           50
1921-S   20           21           22

So we need to take each coin down one grade more or less based on what looks like coins that have been cleaned. Only the 1921 IMHO could be AU, one of the 1880's is probably EF, the other 1880, 1882, 1883, 1891 probably in the VF range and the 1882 not rated. That said and I am not a professional grader and can't see the reverse you have no coins that meet AU grade due to the cleaning and the EF's get downgraded as well. There are times cleaning does not take away that much value but thats when you have to have a coin professionally graded. So IMHO not one of these counts are worth more than their melt, melt today is $26.04

I'm not complaining about the coins or the seller. I'd buy these at melt plus some for trouble but not at $30 plus shipping of $2, that's roughly 30% over spot at my door. Again I think I mentioned buying with BTC should add some to the cost as well probably since it's not a cash in hand exchange.
Post
Topic
Board Goods
Re: WTS 1880-1921 Morgan Silver Dollars
by
JBDive
on 13/02/2012, 05:55:34 UTC
They appear to have all been cleaned pushing them into the "cull" category unless there is something special about any one of them and the 1880's don't appear to be double strikes. That puts them at spot plus a bit. Current value as of this posting is $26.13 based on silver at $33.87. I see people paying more than spot plus a touch and I just don't get it. Silver would have to go over $42 to be even at the posted $30 plus shipping and I see people buying Morgans at prices which to break even would mean silver would have to cross $60.

Not saying silver won't go that high nor making any comments on the seller. I just wonder who is buying at these markups? At least with BTC I can justify some premium over a local cash sale so something more along $28 might be doable.
Post
Topic
Board Pools
Re: [300 GH] Eligius pool: ~0Fee SMPPS, no reg, RollNtime, hop OK, BTC+NMC merged!
by
JBDive
on 08/02/2012, 16:45:19 UTC
Well I cannot connect via IPv4, I get basically host not resolving.

As I tended to connect to IRC via the chat on the webpage I don't have the IRC info for connecting directly.

I understand not wanting to broadcast any of the new info but we do need a bit more to go on in order to fix our miners or connect to the IRC channel for help. Stuck mining for Deep right now, yuck.
Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: Article: Citi Bank Slaps Down Bitcoin
by
JBDive
on 23/09/2011, 20:59:46 UTC
How many reason do you need to not trust banks or believe a word coming out of their mouths?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/business/18launder.html

Quote
The Wachovia Bank, a unit of Wells Fargo & Company, has agreed to pay $160 million to settle accusations that it laundered Mexican drug money.

Under the agreement, Wachovia will forfeit $110 million, representing the proceeds of illegal narcotics sales that were laundered through the bank, the United States attorney’s office in the Southern District of Florida said.
Post
Topic
Board Mining speculation
Re: I'm not seeing miners leave in hoardes...
by
JBDive
on 20/09/2011, 20:06:32 UTC

I just don't see the benefit of spending electricity on something of dubious value. Scientists have access to all sorts of computers, including clusters of off-the-shelf PCs connected by ETHERNET, as well as actual supercomputers. They don't need my $20 in wasted electricity per month. Besides, I'm firmly convinced that cancer has been cured several times over. They just won't let us have the cure, since chemotherapy is so profitable. And let's not forget that the Georgia Guidestones call for a world population of only 500 million people -- curing a killer like cancer would be counter-productive to that goal.

Long story short -- I'm not a sucker. They don't need my computer, or my electricity.


Why remain ignorant.  If you don't want to fold then don't but why make up claims that are false.

Folding isn't dubious.  It has already resulted in numerous breakthroughs.

Building and running a supercomputer is expensive insanely expensive.  Folding has a combined computational power of 6404 TFLOP.

To put that into perspective the most powerful supercomputer in the world is ~8000 TFLOPs.  The 2nd largest is ~4700 TFLOPS.

No international medical research program in the world even makes the top 100 supercomputer list ( sub 80 TFLOPs).

Simply put without access to Folding @ Home the computational power available to protein researchers would be maybe 1% of what they have access to.  The amount of simulations completed this year w/ Folding program would have taken a century.   More likely without access to computational power that would lead to discovers in a researcher's lifetime the research would never even be undertaken.

The downside, once a major cure is found from one the results that thousands of people put their computer to work on there will be some big pharma outfit come in, patent the drug or process and then turn around and charge those same helping hands a 5000 percent markup for access to the cure.

Even if a cure is found, it doesn't mean that there isn't stuff left to discover. Besides, Folding@Home is about protein folding, not curing cancer.

Knowing how certain proteins act could in fact lead to a cure or more directed treatments. As with all new treatments however if they cannot be made into a profit center you will never see them come to market. Case in point there are several totally natural treatments that have shown to be very positive in the treatment of cancer which you won't even find current trials on because no big pharma will back those trials because there is no potential patent they will be able to enforce.

You have no idea how drug development works. I have spent the last 8 years throwing myself at a prostate cancer vaccine synthesized from a marine snail's blood. We won't hand it over to bayer to be quashed, and so we are all going broke floating it as far as we can. You won't find it on current trials, but it has been into trials on four occasions now. There is most definitely an enforceable patent. 'Big Pharma' wants it bad.

Once again...protein folding is about protein interaction. Yes, that information can help lead to a cure, but to suggest it IS the cure is just foolish. Fuckin' Biochemistry...how does it work?

First off I don't really feel like being insulted by somebody who doesn't know one thing about me. Second off I have dug into multiple "cures" for certain types of cancer that have shown great promise in the lab and even results in limited trials but that research is dead in the water because of no funding by big pharma into more natural cures. I have spoke with the researchers themselves and asked about further trials and was point blank told that any further trials on a larger group would not happen by them because of the lack of funding, their words are below since this was just a few weeks back:

" there is no patent on it. This means that if some company spent millions on clinical trials, anyone else could come in and sell it cheaper because they had no patent costs to recoup.

A change in the law is needed so that if some company performs clinical trials, they should be able to obtain an exclusive right to sell. Would you go into business to lose money, no matter if you helped people?"


As to protein folding thank you for admitting I was correct.
Post
Topic
Board Mining speculation
Re: I'm not seeing miners leave in hoardes...
by
JBDive
on 20/09/2011, 05:16:54 UTC

I just don't see the benefit of spending electricity on something of dubious value. Scientists have access to all sorts of computers, including clusters of off-the-shelf PCs connected by ETHERNET, as well as actual supercomputers. They don't need my $20 in wasted electricity per month. Besides, I'm firmly convinced that cancer has been cured several times over. They just won't let us have the cure, since chemotherapy is so profitable. And let's not forget that the Georgia Guidestones call for a world population of only 500 million people -- curing a killer like cancer would be counter-productive to that goal.

Long story short -- I'm not a sucker. They don't need my computer, or my electricity.


Why remain ignorant.  If you don't want to fold then don't but why make up claims that are false.

Folding isn't dubious.  It has already resulted in numerous breakthroughs.

Building and running a supercomputer is expensive insanely expensive.  Folding has a combined computational power of 6404 TFLOP.

To put that into perspective the most powerful supercomputer in the world is ~8000 TFLOPs.  The 2nd largest is ~4700 TFLOPS.

No international medical research program in the world even makes the top 100 supercomputer list ( sub 80 TFLOPs).

Simply put without access to Folding @ Home the computational power available to protein researchers would be maybe 1% of what they have access to.  The amount of simulations completed this year w/ Folding program would have taken a century.   More likely without access to computational power that would lead to discovers in a researcher's lifetime the research would never even be undertaken.

The downside, once a major cure is found from one the results that thousands of people put their computer to work on there will be some big pharma outfit come in, patent the drug or process and then turn around and charge those same helping hands a 5000 percent markup for access to the cure.

Even if a cure is found, it doesn't mean that there isn't stuff left to discover. Besides, Folding@Home is about protein folding, not curing cancer.

Knowing how certain proteins act could in fact lead to a cure or more directed treatments. As with all new treatments however if they cannot be made into a profit center you will never see them come to market. Case in point there are several totally natural treatments that have shown to be very positive in the treatment of cancer which you won't even find current trials on because no big pharma will back those trials because there is no potential patent they will be able to enforce.