I've felt that online Poker (one of the big players with major marketing already in place) is the potential killer app. It may not be impossible to get USD to those sites today, but it's a barrier of entry for most.

This is very good advice.

I used the shop this evening. Everything worked perfectly. Thanks for offering these!

I chipped in .05.

Sending you .01 now. Enjoy!

0.052 (now I'm dipping into the kids' college fund, so this better be good information)

I'm going big: 0.05 BTC

I bid 0.01 BTC based on the vagueness of the post.

I'm sorry, but this thread doesn't ring true at all. 90% missing - computer froze - backups won't load - sad story about wife losing her job - no mention of -rescan.

I've got a 2+ month old copy of my wallet.dat, and I'd bet good BTC that I could recover my current balance with that copy.

Wow.

There should be a separate thread for the virgins.

Also, electricity costs money. 

I'm not doubting anyone's experiences, but for all the talk of stales, I rarely see any with slush. Also, my miners don't spontaneously crash (you should fix that), so the score based system is fair to me. I also don't get my panties in a wad whenever there's a hiccup or some variation messes with my expected reward.

slush has been responsive to every issue, actively fights ddos, and is active in this thread. That's about all I ask for.

I don't think this sentence means what you think it means.

I don't know if you're affiliated with btcsportsbet, but I'm a little concerned with this message from the registration process:
"The Password field cannot exceed 12 characters in length"

From his second sentence. 

I've fulfilled the time and post requirements (without posting useless "i need to get to 5" posts). I'd appreciate being let in to the big boy boards.

Start here (and then keep reading):
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=7269.0

Exactly. If you feel lucky, go for it. It could pay off, or it might not.

Aside from any fees, pooled mining just removes (most) variance from the equation.

Just my personal risk tolerance. I would not personally be comfortable with my cards between 85C and 90C for very long (not for safety reasons, but for GPU life/wear and tear).

Yes, you said lower is always better (and we both agree on that), but I wanted to let the OP know that there are many of us that wouldn't take a "Nah should be fine..." attitude with 90C temps.

I disagree with this advice.

Check this thread for additional opinions:
http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=18229.0

My 5830s are running ~60* C (open case with a household fan moving air through the case 24x7.