Wow.  My thanks and appreciation to those who have sent me BTC's for this post.  Bitcoiners are special indeed.

The key benefit of LiveUSB over full install: the resulting LiveUSB Armory will boot on the full variety of PC hardware supported by the OS.
With LiveUSB, the owner has a much better chance of being able to successfully use their offline Armory when the transaction needs to be done on an alternative computer.
The mods in this process are meant to overcome the tradeoffs of LiveUSB vs. full install.

USB 3 drives have several potential issues:
-some models give issues when you try to format as bootable.
-some have propietary partitions that can persist formats
-many laptops/netbooks will boot USB's at 2.0 speeds, even if it's USB3 port with USB3 drive. Go figure.

Thus I recommend USB2 for Live, bootable install.  It's the most cross-compatible and reliable platform IMO.

What version of Windows did you install?

You can't install the Ubuntu install bundles for offline use onto a Windows PC.

Overview
Creates a self-contained offline Bitcoin Armory, on a bootable USB drive, from signed verifiable sources (ubuntu.com, bitcoinarmory.com, truecrypt.org).  Your wallet remains saved in encrypted storage.
This is intended for those seeking the benefits of an offline wallet, but without dedicating a PC to this purpose.
The setup process, while verbose, will require less overall time to setup compared to installing a fresh OS from scratch.
It’s laid out in step-by-step format with select sections labeled Recommended, which can be skipped to shorten the setup time, and performed at a later time to improve your experience with the Offline Bitcoin Armory on LiveUSB.

Create a LiveUSB

Get a fast USB 2.0 drive
A 4 GB or greater USB stick with fast reads and good outer construction will do.
Recommended: Super Talent Pico-C USB 2.0 drive, LaCie iamakey USB 2.0 drive (not v2, no encryption).   Fast, compact, waterproof, metal housing.
Not recommended: USB 3.0 drives, drives with hidden partitions that auto-run proprietary software, drives with wear-leveling firmware.

Create an Ubuntu 12.04 Persistent LiveUSB

• Download and validate the .iso image for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Desktop to your online PC, in either 32bit (recommended) or 64bit.  Note 64bit will only run on PC’s with multi-core processors and will not work on many netbooks powered by single-core CPU’s.
• Do a low-level (not “quick”) format of what will become your LiveUSB drive.  Warning: all data in the target drive will be destroyed...this is not the step to be careless.
• With your freshly formatted USB drive, create a persistent LiveUSB:
  
  • In Windows, use these instructions.
  • Within Ubuntu, use the “Startup Disk Creator” application pre-installed in Ubuntu.
  • For either method, you will specify the .iso image you downloaded
  • For the persistent space, select the maximum allowed.

Download Armory and TrueCrypt
Use a separate, extra USB drive to transfer information to/from your LiveUSB session:

• Download and verify the Bitcoin Armory package for Linux, which includes all dependencies for offline installation to Ubuntu.  Match the Ubuntu version and bitcount.
• Download and verify the latest stable version of TrueCrypt for Linux.  Select the Standard version for the corresponding Ubuntu version and bitcount of your LiveUSB.
• Save both files to the extra USB drive.

Boot to your Ubuntu LiveUSB

• Isolate the laptop/netbook you will use as offline Armory:
  
  • Remove hardwire LAN cable
  • If your laptop is provided with a WiFi switch, turn off WiFi.
  • Ensure the BIOS allows the PC to boot from USB.
  • (Recommended) Alter the BIOS boot order such that the PC will boot your LiveUSB drive whenever present.
• With your LiveUSB plugged in, power on your PC.  If you didn’t or couldn’t change the boot order, be prepared to hit the right key to enter the BIOS boot screen and select the option to boot from the LiveUSB drive.
• You’ll get a dialog screen from Ubuntu.  Select the option to “Try Ubuntu”.
• Ubuntu OS will boot up.

Configure your LiveUSB installation

Disable network connectivity

• Click on the top-right gear-shaped icon.
• Select “Startup Applications…”
• Click on [Add]
• On the Name field, enter: Disable Networking
• On Command, enter: nmcli nm enable false
• On Comment, enter: disables all networking
• Click on [Add], then [Close]

(Recommended) Remove unneeded icons from the Launchbar:

• Since this is meant to be a special-purpose installation, you can delete unneeded icons from the launchbar, which will make way for icons of other apps you’ll install later.
• Successively right-click icons for choices of LibreOffice apps and Firefox, and select “Unlock from Launcher”.  This deletes the icons, but doesn’t delete the apps.
• Do not delete preinstalled apps using the Ubuntu Software Center.

(Recommended) Bypass the “Try Ubuntu” screen:

• On the Ubuntu Launchbar, select the top “Dash home” icon.
• Type “terminal” in the search box.
• Click on the “Terminal” icon.
• On the terminal screen, type: sudo gedit /cdrom/syslinux/syslinux.cfg
• A text editor window will open to edit this file.  Replace all text there with one of the following: for 32-bit install use this; for 64-bit install use this.
• Save the file and close the text editor.
• Close the terminal window.

Copy Armory and Truecrypt to your LiveUSB:

• Insert the extra USB drive holding the Armory and TrueCrypt installers.
• The File Explorer should open automatically showing the content of the extra USB
• Copy the TrueCrypt and Armory installation files from the extra USB drive to the “Downloads” folder within the Ubuntu LiveUSB file system.
• Eject and remove the extra USB drive.

Install TrueCrypt and Bitcoin Armory

• While in the Ubuntu File Explorer, go to the Downloads folder and locate the TrueCrypt installation file.
• Right-click on the TrueCrypt installation file and select “Extract Here”
• Locate the Armory installation file, right-click on its file name, and select “Extract Here”
• Double-click on the created TrueCrypt decompressed file
• Select [Run From Terminal].
• Select [Install TrueCrypt], accept the terms, and hit [OK].
• Once the TrueCrypt installation is done, you’ll be prompted to press [ENTER] to exit.
• Double-click on the newly-created folder named armory…
• Double-click on the file named Install_DblClick_RunInTerminal.sh
• Select [Run In Terminal]
• When the installation is successfully finished, the window will close.

Create and configure an encrypted storage space for your wallet

Create a TrueCrypt volume (steps are for TrueCrypt version 7.1a):

• On the Ubuntu Launchbar, select the top “Dash home” icon.
• On the search box, type “truecrypt” and click on the TrueCrypt application icon that will appear listed.
• Once TrueCrypt launches, right-click on its icon now on the Launchbar and click “Lock to Launcher” for future use.
• In TrueCrypt window, click on [Create Volume]
• Make sure “Create an encrypted file container” is selected and click [Next].
• Volume type “Standard TrueCrypt Volume” click [Next]
• Click [Select File…], select the “Documents” folder
• In the “Name” field, type safety.cab (or any other name you wish), click on [Save], click on [Next>]
• Take the default (or your choice of) encryption options and click [Next>]
• Select a volume size.  Recommend using 200MB less than the max available.
• Enter your TrueCrypt volume password twice.  Make it strong, and keep a safe copy of it.  Click [Next>]
• On format options, select “Linux ext3”.  Click [Next>]
• Select “I will mount the volume only on Linux” and click [Next>]
• Move your mouse around as instructed for as long as you have patience for, then click [Format].
• Wait until the volume is reported as being successfully created.  Click [OK], then [Exit]

Mount your TrueCrypt volume

• Click on Slot 1 in TrueCrypt
• Click on “Select File…”, select the safety.cab file, click [Open], then select [Mount].
• Enter your TrueCrypt volume password.  Your encrypted volume should now show on the list with “mount directory” as /media/truecrypt1

(Recommended) Configure TrueCrypt to auto-mount on boot:

• Right-click on the listing for Slot1 showing your volume.  Select [Add to Favorites…]
• Click [OK]
• Close TrueCrypt
• Click on the gear-shaped icon in top-right, select “Startup Applications…”
• Click [Add]
• On field Name, enter: Mount TrueCrypt
• On Command enter: truecrypt --auto-mount=favorites --background-task
• On Comment, enter: mount TC favorite volume(s)
• Click [Close]

Configure Bitcoin Armory

Create a launch icon for Armory linked to your encrypted volume:

• Click the top-most icon in the Launchbar named “Dash home”
• Make sure the Dash search window is not running maximized, and you still have a viewable portion of the Ubuntu desktop area.
• In the search box, type “armory”
• Drag and drop the “Armory (offline)” icon from the Dash applications search results to any viewable area of your desktop.  An “Armory (Offline)” icon will be created on your desktop.
• Click on “x” to close “Dash” search.
• Right-click the “Armory (Offline)” desktop icon, click “Cut”
• Open the File Explorer, go to your Documents folder (or other folder you create for this purpose), right-click on the right pane, and select “Paste”.  The desktop icon will now be moved to the destination folder.
• Right-click the “Armory (Offline)” icon in the destination folder, and select “Properties”
• In the field titled Command, go to the very end of the existing text, hit spacebar, and add the following: --datadir=/media/truecrypt1
• Click “Close”
• Drag and drop the “Armory (Offline)” desktop icon into the Launchbar.  This will create a new icon for Armory in the Launchbar.
• You may close your File Explorer.

Create your Offline Armory wallet:

• Click on the “Armory (Offline)” icon in the launchbar.
• When Armory starts for first time, click to agree to license and click “Accept”
• Click on “Create Wallet”
• Decide on naming, encryption and backup printing of your Armory wallet.
• Safely store your wallet paper backup.  Save your encryption password too!
• Create one or more test receiving addresses.
• Do not transact yet, until you’ve successfully finished the following step.

Create your Watch-Only Armory wallet:

• Plug in your extra USB drive.
• Click on “Wallet Properties”.
• Select “Create Watching-Only Copy”
• IMPORTANT: If you did everything right, Armory will default to saving the “watchonly” version of your wallet to the /media/truecrypt1 directory.  If this is not the case STOP.  Cancel out of this screen, delete this (empty) wallet, ensure your TrueCrypt volume is properly mounted, and revisit the section above titled “Create a one-click launcher for Armory-offline” for spacing or syntax errors.
• On the save dialog screen, select the extra USB drive
• Click on “Save”
• Eject the extra USB drive
• You can now import your Watch-Only wallet from the extra USB drive to your Armory installation running in your online PC.

Test your finished LiveUSB
Test restarting your PC and booting to the LiveUSB:

• Depending on your BIOS settings, you many need to press a key upon startup to enter the boot device screen, and select USB as boot drive for the session.
• Upon startup, you should be asked for the password to your TrueCrypt volume, and validate it’s mounted in File Explorer.
• After your encrypted volume is mounted, use the Launchbar icon to start Armory.  Your wallet appears listed.
• If you plan on using your LiveUSB on multiple PC’s, test booting on all.
• Stretch goal: try deleting and restoring your wallet from your paper backup.

Begin using Armory:

• Read up on usage of Armory
• Try transferring small amounts using your offline/online Armories.
• Kiss your paranoia goodbye, now you can just be careful:
  
  • With just your wallet paper backup, you can safely recreate your offline environment and survive your LiveUSB drive being lost or compromised.  Upon such event, and assuming you used strong encryption passwords, you can restore your environment and move your bitcoins to a new Armory wallet with very low risk that anyone can brute-force their way to your bitcoins.
  • Run your LiveUSB offline Armory only on PC’s and environments you control and trust are private and secure.  Plugging your LiveUSB to an untrusted PC and/or typing your passwords where someone may be physically recording your every move are not secure practices.
  • Keep paper backups of your wallet and encryption passwords secure.
  • Don’t keep your LiveUSB connected while you boot to the OS in your hard drive.
  • Don’t mount your hard drive while in your LiveUSB environment.
  • Don’t connect to the internet while running your offline LiveUSB….ever.

If you found this tutorial useful consider donating:
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BFL shipping Feb'13 orders and training new workers.
Monarch BTC must be rolling in.

Monarch-induced Osbourne syndrome:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect

At this point, BTC has better probability of making it to $300 by Sep, than my unit arriving this year.

Texas has a big economy, it's third behind California and NY.  It's 14th in the world if comparing the state against other countries.  Texas residents don't fare too well, though, ranking 25th among US states, which earns TX the "impoverished" state qualifier for their below-average earnings per capita.

Bomba, I was concerned about the future upon new coin reward phases out, and transaction fees replace this as an incentive to continue spending computational effort to create new transaction blocks.

Last 24hrs, 5,400 BTC were created and 23 BTC were passed to miners in txn fees.

Question was about future expectation of txn fees per block, and dynamics of how this increase would occur

BFL 2nd-gen pre-order model....wait for it:

https://www.eliomotors.com/make-a-reservation/

What aspect of the pool or mining exactly are you wanting to "tier" based on hash rate?

Well, I sure hope there's some deliberate thought process around transaction fees.

There's this delicate balance between mining -net- profitability, transaction fees BTC/fiat, and network health in the face of volume growth.

Seems to me a sensible mining regime wrt transaction fees will become critical.  Should ensure enough incentive is in the system to keep the distributed nature of Bitcoin.

No, I disagree.  You're confusing problem with symptom.  The high prices (and poor overall outcomes) of US healthcare relative to other countries is a *symptom* of the dysfunction in the current system.  It is not, by itself the cause.

One of the big issues resulting in high individual pricing is that the healthcare revenue pool is currently not well-aligned with the cost pool.  This causes a huge amount of unpaid costs and preventable emergency care costs to be tacked on to those who responsibly have insurance and pay their bills, including business-financed health plans.  Again issue->misalignment, symptom->high prices to those that actually pay for healthcare.  Alignment of revenue & costs is a key part of the solution.  Freeriders be gone.

The other big issue is citizen unwillingness/inability to afford healthcare planning en-masse.  Why do people find themselves with crushing medical debt, unprepared, and even uninsured?  There's a whole number of reasons this happens, and only a few are individually controllable.


It may be a terrible idea to you, and I bet to many alert people with time to micromanage their healthcare, plan ahead, and have a stash of free cash for emergencies and "wellness" care.  This is not the profile of the average US citizen, this is not even your 30th percentile citizen.  I'm happy for you and you seem to have succeeded so far.  However I disagree your stategy is widely applicable, or that it's a good idea to export it to those who are known to be ill-prepared to execute it.

Partial self-insurance is not a workable/sound idea for a population who, for various reasons, is unable to save even for their own retirement.  75% of US people nearing retirement have <$30K saved.  Are you recommending these seniors, unable to save for a patently certain event like retirement, to go with the emergencies-only plan?  If not, then you're just advocating for a variation of the freerider program we had prior to ACA...a "freerider-light"?


Again, you may be good at negotiating, and it may provide you with instant savings.  The skill and inclination to execute this isn't common, and it's not a strategy that will succeed for your average (especially below-average) population.  There is an enormous, built-in imbalance of power in healthcare, and the patient is ALWAYS in the weakest (pun intended) position to negotiate.  Why hang your hat in the weakest of all pegs?

"...get to make reasoned choices about the health care options in front of me"....really now?  This must be close to verbatim what I read on a notice years ago...Human Resources smooth talk for higher premiums, higher co-pays, and higher out-of-pocket limits.  But hey, they're doing us all a favor, we should all feel good 'cause now we're all empowered and motivated, and have skin-in-the-game, and I guess the HR people can sleep at night.  I'll tell you, a decreasing amount of people actually find these statements convincing.  Not because they're not achievable by some (i.e. there's a bit of truth in every good lie), but because by now everyone is aware they're impractical for most.

I do agree there are costs to be saved, but I have little faith in these savings being realized by grassroots haggling (or pulling bootstraps for that matter).

You talk about regular checkups.  The costs to deliver these are tiny compared to non-preventive care.  Yet, a surprisingly large proportion of patients don't take advantage of annual wellness checkups even when included in their "subscription plan".  I assert that the rate of preventive care will always be hopelessly worse with self-payers.  Given the documented cost-benefit of catching conditions early, again another area your suggestions, as successful as they may prove to you, just don't scale and don't improve the overall system.

Really?  The cycle will *never* end?  Well, signs already point to this not being the case, but no one can rule out we'll go a few more years of escalating HC costs.
That being said, you paint an impossible unraveling.  We will NEVER become a "company town" where we all work to pay for HC.  The people will install some form of "single-payer" long before we're anywhere near your prediction.  Not a chance.

My prediction is that we'll be taking another run at a public option again in ~10 years time.  No "company town".

Behold, read above an impractical, this-size-fits-me, health-meme of an opinion.

So little time for so many logical holes. Not a single paragraph, impressive self-serving cluelessness.

Well, let's start here: you seem to have left out the humiliating suffering of almost 2 Million citizens...sorry, 1.7 Million US households that declare bankruptcy EVERY YEAR at the inability to cover their healthcare expenses.  Many of them carrying the high-deductible traps or self-pay you feel so giddy about.  15 million others will deplete their savings to cover medical bills. Another 10 million will be unable to pay for necessities such as rent, food and utilities because of medical bills.

Do you intend to sell the notion that this "issue" will be solved when larger proportions of citizens go WITHOUT insurance?  At least I'm glad you jumped first.

For everyone else that might've found the above post interesting, but still be coachable about it, the difference between vehicle insurance and health insurance should be easy to comprehend: while your scooter has a known value at any point in time, a limited value both you and your insurance company can agree it's better to declare a total loss, no such cap actually exists for humans, especially for loved ones.  By law, no one can decide you're a total loss until the most emotionally involved human being decides to kill you.  Are there any parallels in the commercial insurance world to this?  No, human healthcare is in a category of its own.

Irrespective of whatever downward cost pressure may be obtained with your localized self-pay-want-to-haggle strategy, or your willingness to do research and become a pseudo-doctor that can fake "informed decisions" about which medications you take, or take trips to Thailand for the kidney transplant, when it comes to pulling the plug on your wife or your daughter, most people are inclined to do quite the opposite of haggling.

Healthcare and education....two aspects of life you really, really are best advised not to skim on.

Thread overload condition detected.  Please use overflow space to ensure continuity.

Woa.... a 1% bounty on network transactions could turn out to be quite a bit of dough even with a modest 10% turnover of BTC circulation per week.  That comes out to 40+ BTC/block.

Yes...yes it does follow.

Your statement only occurs in exceptional small-scale cases where preservation of the ecosystems happens to be vital to the economic activity within the private property.  These two conditions are rarely aligned, and never over any significant land area.  RARELY.

The inevitable scenario is: individual property owners engaged in economic activity will have little incentive to learn or value what aspect of the ecosystem they could potentially impact.  These owners typically figure out the cause-effect of their actions once it's irreversibly impacted...if ever.

This goes on now even under the most intense regulatory regimes and in the face of evidence and enforcement.

Will you please state any example, anywhere in the world, where significant swaths of privately-held, economically-productive land have resulted in long-term preservation of the inherent ecosystems in the absence of intervention from regulatory action?

You know, just anywhere in the world?

Are there any good estimation models of increase in transaction fee payouts to miners?

What is the view for future transaction volumes and per-block payout?

I find countless charting focused exclusively on new-block payout and ROI, yet none I've reviewed attempts to account for transaction fees partially counter-balancing the drop in payout rate.