confirmed/unconfirmed for Bitcoin transactions refers to when a transaction is considered official. Usually (such as for the common BitCoin client app) this is when the transaction has been hashed into the original block and 5 subsequent blocks (e.g. it can be verified to have existed through 6 generations of successive blocks). Different apps can have different requirements, however.

I would assume that the mining pool uses some variation/extension on this system, referring to your hashing efforts, to reward credit to miners like yourself. I could be totally wrong though  

Yay, noob status defeated!

So yeah, what dalamchops said. Transaction went through, crisis averted.

dalamchops = helpful, trustworthy

A lot of analytics sites use images to do their tracking. When a browser loads an image it sends a request to the host that the image is on and can include lots of info from the client's machine in the request (e.g. ...image.jpg?extra=data&more=data, and that data can be dynamically provided via javascript). So it can be very effective for getting information about a client and the client need not even click on it. But it is no more effective than a link in altering a client's computer (other than its pixels, obviously).

I've made a successful trade with another forum user (dalamchops) and would like to post confirmation that everything went well so that we can have a nice record of our transaction, and I'd like to do so without waiting another 2.5 hours to get official status. Is this a good reason for whitelisting?  

post i would like to reply to: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=38969.0

Thanks!
jakeonfire

I'm Jake. I'm a computer nerd by profession. But it suits me. Hello! If you like kitties you might like this: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/kitty_pet

Apparently PayPal is way too easy to scam with so I've made arrangements with someone to exchange Amazon gift card for BTC, since you cannot 'rescind' an Amazon gift card. Just an FYI for anyone else in a similar bind who might want to make an offer of a trade with someone 

It was 50 once? Jeez, that'd take some serous Newbie trolling :oP hehe

bitcoins are pretty cool. it takes too long to convert $ to bitcoins though - too many hoops to jump through  now i find myself wanting to purchase something with bitcoins and being BTC0.3 short but needing to wait another day, or two, or three, or whatever for my deposit to clear so i can trade for bitcoins. blah. just blabbing.

I had the same question just now and found the answer elsewhere

If your Bitcoin client is new or has been idle recently (e.g. not open), it has to catch up to the block with the transactions that you are concerned about before it is aware of them. So check the "x blocks" status in your Bitcoin client, and check the block # for the transactions you are looking for on block explorer. if your client's # is less than your transaction's #, then wait for the client to catch up. Once it does, it should show the transactions and be able to redeem the bitcoins. At least I hope so, as I am in a similar situation