Bitstamp, the first and only fiat/bitcoin interface built out of two cans and a string, has announced they are moving their cans to new software which would put them on an XTCoin fork of the Bitcoin blockchain. The XTCoin effort has been dead in the water since September when MIT sacrificed their "technology review" in an attempt to make XTCoin politically palatable. There is no word on any potential plans by Bitstamp to add a third can or more string.
Monthly Archives: November 2015
Clinton Found A Turkey!
In a clearly US-driven, desperate attempt to create some cover for a badly battered President Bahamas, Turkey uninspiredly decided to involve itself in the US-RU conflict over Syria. Transparently, the State Department judges that downing an old Russian plane might offer some opportunity to re-brand a multi-year string of painful humiliations the US president suffered on the global stage into a local conflict between local powers. As outright insane as this approach may be, it is perfectly consistent with the US tradition of denial and misrepresentation of failure, a tradition that ensured a century of constant, predictable and egregious failure while effectually preventing any possibility of learning, with the ultimately unsurprising result of ruining that country. Continue reading
Recent "SigOp" "Attack" On The Blockchain Or Advanced Power Rangering
Signature operations or "SigOps" in Bitcoin transaction scripts requires checking ECDSA signatures to assure a Bitcoin transaction is valid. This is computationally expensive work making it an avenue of potential disruption on the Bitcoin network. The possibility was known for months (archived). Yet little attention was paid until yesterday's events caused ineffective block filling. The mining side was amply discussed there, and can be easily fixed by miners who know their stuff. I rather wish to shed some light on network propagation of these transactions, as the burden of signature checking rests on full nodes, too. Continue reading
Disgraced Gavin of "Global Warming" Government-Scaling "Debate" Moves On to Alt-Kook
We find (from the Washington Правда) that James Hansen (conspiracist nutjob chiefly famous for going on about "global warming" long before it became the official USG party line) has moved on to playing with the little rocks on President Bahamas' beaches. Continue reading
Arris Cable Modems Weak
Bernardo Rodrigues has found a "double security threat" in Arris cable modems. The vulnerability was published on Oct 2013 and it still works (archived). This threat affects at least 600`000 modems and has been likely exploited. Compromised models include the TG862A, TG860A and DG860A. Continue reading
Breaking: Suspected Lone Gunman Wounds 3 (Update: 5) Colorado Police Officers, Still At Large
Reports are emerging from Colorado Springs that a Planned Parenthood political health clinic is under assault by an active shooter who has wounded at least three four five police officers and inflicted unknown civilian casualties (archived). As of this publication time, the shooter is still outside of police custody and presumed to be alive. A motive for the attack is undetermined with possibilities ranging from anger about abortion, to a desire to kill police officers, or even annoyance that the political health clinic inundates him with fundraising spam. The shooter reportedly is using a "high powered rifle."
Update: A suspect has allegedly been taken in to police custody alive.
Montana Standard 'Outing' Pseudonymous Commenters
Butte, Montana newspaper the "Montana Standard" plans to retroactively display the "real" names of commenters who previously commented anonymously or under pseudonyms (archived). Commenters have until December 26th to opt out by contacting the paper to have their comments removed. "Real Name" comment policies are something of a fad in old media circles, with the idea being tying comments to the author's real name would encourage a higher standard of discussion as though spammers, idiots, and social engineers don't already have or can't create "real" enough names already.
North Carolina State Troopers On Food Stamps
In yet another example of provincial governments in the United States being unable to keep their promises of largess, a class action suit with half of North Carolina's State Police force joined as members alleges the state owes them substantial back pay and other promised compensation (archived). Some of the troopers are reportedly having to supplement their wages from the state with food stamps, Medicaid, and supplementary employment. North Carolina instituted pay freezes for state troopers in 2009. This move in addition to allowing the state to shift the burden of covering the cost of nutrition and medical care for trooper's families offers further savings to North Carolina's government as the lower frozen wage rate is used in retirement calculations for troopers leaving the force. Continue reading
President Hussein Bahamas Ends National Security Speech With "Happy Thanksgiving"
In a nationally televised speech to residents of the United States President Hussein Bahamas ended his missive on the grave threat posed to the United States by ISIL with "Happy Thanksgiving" today. Whether President Hussein Bahamas is thankful for the lack of knowledge of imminent threats as he professed or the recent escalation of centuries old tensions between Turkey and Russia is undetermined.
Forever 21 Inc Tries Preventing Other Raspberry Pis From Running Software
Forever 21 Inc. raised $116mn in venture funding before a product or business plan was even announced. Earlier this fall the company announced the 21 Computer, a Frankenstein creation using a Raspberry-Pi 2 and a proprietary ASIC which will be obsolete soon given the continual difficulty increases. This computer can be bought for the low price of $400, which allows users to connect to 21 co.'s API a bastardization of the already functioning Web of Trust. Recently code was independently released allowing individuals to run the 21 co. software stack on a $40 Raspberry Pi, to which the CEO of 21 Inc. responded on reddit stating they will be patching the code to prevent non-21 Co. from connecting to their marketplace. Continue reading