Wow this is a great offer!  I've done business with Kosmo several times and have had an incredible experience.  He really takes care of his customers.  I'm sure the order is legit on his end but I'm too heavily invested at the moment to snatch these chips up! :/

I already have a couple of restaurants in mind that I think might be willing to accept btc, a gas station too I guess.  Do you typically encourage merchants to use a payments processor (Bitpay or Coinbase)? As a customer I think both are suitable, but I know Coinbase is currently offering no fee for the first $1M. 

If you plan to take I-80, you'll travel through the state of Iowa. Without being too specific, I live in a city located along I-80 in the state of Iowa.  I'd love to meet you and help out if I can.  I may not be the only Iowan bitcoiner, but I have yet to meet another.  To my knowledge, there are no businesses that accept bitcoin in the state; however, I've managed to use Gyft to get most of what I need.  @LifeOnBitcoin, PM me if you would like my details.

64@.1 please

I like to think of pre-orders as funds that are sitting in escrow.  The sale is final, more or less, but the funds can't be appropriated until the products are delivered.  In this way, pre-orders represent guaranteed future profit.  Once this profit is realized, it can be disbursed to investors in the form of dividends.

I like where this merger is heading and I plan to tender my shares soon; however, its unfortunate that my purchased options are virtually worthless now.  I will lose a small fortune on those.

As a side note, to avoid confusion with ASICminer (AM), I propose that the abbreviated form of ActiveMining should simply be ActM.

I live about 7 hours driving distance from Springfield.  I might have to visit you sometime soon Ken!!  Exciting things happening.  Can't wait for the pending news!

As a burgeoning economy, bitcoin business needs to maintain ethical standards and practices if it hopes to gain widespread acceptance.  In particular, what sets apart virtuous businesses from subpar ventures is the degree of integrity, honesty, transparency, and trust that the entity cultivates from its customer-base.  These are not merely platitudes and they stand as pillars of solvent, successful businesses.  Bitcointalk forums are a testament to the importance of an established trust network for conducting equitable transactions.  

It is apparent that Kosmo has earned his customers' trust from his dedication and diligence over the past few weeks.  While some re-sellers tested the waters by risking their customers funds (e.g., group buys) Kosmo dared to be different and risked his own personal wealth to provide a well-needed service to the community -- selling only those devices that he currently holds in stock.  Time and time again, and to the chagrin of prospective buyers, he resisted temptation and refused to accept pre-orders.  His insistence on protecting the customer at the cost of his potential large gains speaks volumes to his integrity as a businessman.  

Through his steadfastness, tenacity, and self-sacrifice, Kosmo has demonstrated his virtuous nature.  He has tact and civility.  He is responsive and generous.  His remarks are thoughtful and honest.  These are the behaviors of good business practice and the qualities of ethical standards.  If he has one fault, it is that he is ambitious.  But this putative weakness fuels his service and is a benefit to his customers' satisfaction.  We are all challenged everyday, but don't we deserve to reap the fruits of our labor?  I certainly don't think Kosmo intends to monopolize hardware re-sales.  On the contrary, I think the intent behind "exclusivity" was to acknowledge that not all businesses are created equal, and those businesses that support their customers the best should be allowed to continue.  Thus, the exclusive right to re-sell is a privilege bestowed to those who earn it.  Kosmo's request to his customers to PM friedcat was apparently a way of demonstrating that he has earned the privilege to faithfully serve the bitcoin community.  If others are indeed deserving, then they should be honored with this privilege as well.  After all, re-sellers are themselves customers.  Do they not deserve to be treated as such?

I'm loving the transparency Ken!  Keep it up!

All 6 were ordered on Feb 18, albeit in two separate batches.  The next 3 Avalons should be shipping soon, no?

Perfect! Thanks.

Thanks for initiating the dividends Ken. 

What are your plans for the frequency of future payouts?  Daily? Weekly?

I think keeping this thread in custom hardware is rather important to the community.  What better place to learn about the economy of custom bitcoin hardware than to see first hand the interest others have in purchasing ASICs?

Personally, I have diversified my investments in start-ups, mining shares, and mining hardware.  I did some math this morning and discovered that my mining shares are almost exactly on par with my hardware investments (Original purchase ~2.25BTC w/ equivalent daily ROI).  However, I find that the two erupters I purchased have been the most intellectually fulfilling.  I wanted to get into mining, but the pre-order scams are daunting and single CPU/GPU mining is not profitable.  It was certainly fun to learn more about mining and the purchase of the hardware provided the impetus for me to do so.

Thank you for the insightful comment.  The analogy helps a lot.

You also might consider diversifying your investment by picking up a USB miner.  I have two of them and they are nice little earners, albeit as hot as bunsen burners.

You can buy them here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=223916.msg2353374#msg2353374

It looks like kosmo just got some in stock and he is ready to ship ASAP!

Seamless integration with BitMinter mining pool.

After creating the thread I read what a lot of other bitcoiners have been recently mulling over.  Here is a brief summary: proto-quantum computers exist (D-Wave based in Canada) and have sold for $10-$15 M to Lockheed Martin and Google/NASA Ames.  It is generally thought that these adiabatic devices are not capable of high-level cryptography and pose little threat to the bitcoin ecosystem.  Additionally, some believe that the device will also be inefficient at mining -- although I am inclined to think otherwise.  Needless to say, the challenges to the bitcoin protocol posed by QC will be met as affordable devices reach the market.  I am confident that the bitcoin community will adapt, but I do think that QC will be used to mine someday.

It seems that the Chinese have a ton of experience with virtual currency already and perhaps a pent-up desire to exert more control over their financial affairs.  The recent CCTV coverage could possibly lead to widespread adoption, but I'm interested to see how the Chinese government regulates the bitcoin trade in the coming years.

I also use BitMinter to mine for both BTC and namecoin.  I'd like to put my namecoins to use.  What are some good ways to spend them?

Here's the analogy that I'm familiar with.  A CPU runs like a bunch of CEOs in the boardroom.  They are a few highly intelligent employees of a corporation who exhibit cognitive flexibility, and supreme decision-making skills.  Although CPUs serve a vital role in computation, they are ineffectual miners.  GPUs are like factory workers who routinely perform the same monotonous operation.  GPUs are extremely well-suited to perform mining tasks (e.g., proofs of work).  FGPAs compound the benefit of GPUs by sheer numerosity.  ASICs are substantially better than CPU for the same reason but they were specifically designed perform the same mundane task over and over.

Your comment above indicates that you'd lump quantum processors in the same group as classical CPUs.  What support is there for this contention? 

One of the most well-known properties of quantum computers is their ability to concurrently maintain multiple states due to quantum superposition.  A qubit can take on the classical values of 0 and 1, but it can also take a third value that conveys a sense of indeterminacy -- both/neither 0 and 1 simultaneously.  The way I see it, the speed-up comes in the way the data are processed as a result of prepared inputs.  Thus, if the inputs to the hashing algorithm were sufficiently prepared to take advantage of the quantum speed-up, then we'd have a system that could hash exponentially faster than a classical CPU.