A Louisiana man arrested in July 2015 for his role in selling a botnet on Darkode forums has been sentenced to 366 days in prison and 3 years supervised release after being found guilty of "obtaining information by computer from a protected computer". At the time of his arrest Mr. Guildry was found to be in possession of stolen credit card information, and allegedly stole almost 150 Bitcoin from his victims. Authorities said some of the Bitcoin stolen had been converted to cash and spent. Guildry was one of 70 members of the Darkode site around the globe that were arrested in a crackdown on carding sites as part of "Operation Shrouded Horizon".
Cooling Pacific Has Potential To Further Injure Corn Belt's Fortunes This Season
As El Nino breaks in the Pacific it is set to be followed by a cooling of waters in the Pacific in a meteorological phenomenon known as La Nina. For the American Corn Belt this shift bring the potential for still further pain in a season which already has farmers scrambling in loss control mode. Depending on the degree of cooling in the Pacific the La Nina phenomenon may have a range of effects on the temperature and wind speed1 in the Middle West, but summertime La Nina events reduce reduce rainfall in a region where irrigated fields are the exception rather than the rule. A drought event in 2012 absolutely decimated crop yields due to the region's dependence on rainfall to water crops.
While a season of failed crops could otherwise get farmers to finally deliver their glut of stored grains waiting for more favorable prices to market, the more likely scenario is a continued increase in imports of staple and fodder crops. Thanks to "progress" the problem of endemic2 obesity is likely to continue to grow.
Yes, La Nina has ways of making Iowa in particular suffer exceptionally. ↩
The reality that this problem is here to stay precludes referring to it as an epidemic. Epidemics pass. ↩
Asia Losing Garment Manufacturing Jobs To Machines
Numerous reports are emerging that Adidas will be destroying the jobs of numerous workers in Asia who have been manufacturing their footwear for decades. Adidas is following numerous other garment manufacturers in deciding to trade payroll and other assorted costs associated with employing homo sapiens for the comparatively predictable costs associated with financing and maintaining machines. Urban apparel maker Nike is also working on eliminating its workforce in Asia in favor of roboting garment assembly. Mining never changes. Sorry for your loss.
T – A Ticket Management System For The Most Serene Republic
Bitcoin Foundation co-chair Shane Kinney (WOT:mod6) just unveiled the ticket management system T. This development is bullish for TMSR's ability to organize its myriad works.
KnC Miner Goes Into Bankruptcy
Even layoffs, a datacenter stabbing, and a win in court over their own customers for BFL-isms related to their "Titan" altcoin mining rig could not keep KnC miner out of bankruptcy court. With the halving approximately 43 days away hodling time is upon us all and mining is as it always has been. Sorry for your loss.
US dollar Falls Against Bitcoin In Move Lead By Chinese Trading
The value of the United States dollar has been falling sharply over the past week as evidenced by prices reported by various exchanges. Compare today:
gribble: Bitstamp BTCUSD last: 515.98, vol: 12731.63597753 | BTC-E BTCUSD last: 504.248, vol: 15287.34937 | Bitfinex BTCUSD last: 525.01, vol: 78077.20951914 | CampBX BTCUSD last: 455.0, vol: 8.61002736 | BTCChina BTCUSD last: 582.162181, vol: 98456.32250000 | Kraken BTCUSD last: 523.412, vol: 5386.22732809 | Bitcoin-Central BTCUSD last: 489.06, vol: 175.11466033 | Volume-weighted last average: (1 more message)
gribble: 549.658128339
To May 27th:
gribble: Bitstamp BTCUSD last: 470.26, vol: 12079.16275283 | BTC-E BTCUSD last: 467.8, vol: 12941.60984 | CampBX BTCUSD last: 451.0, vol: 4.26073272 | BTCChina BTCUSD last: 496.321332, vol: 74752.45100000 | Kraken BTCUSD last: 470.9, vol: 1744.79227392 | Bitcoin-Central BTCUSD last: 471.5728, vol: 209.9632246 | Volume-weighted last average: 489.10970125
Notice from today's report that Chinese trading is leading this devaluation of the United States dollar. Chinese traders have also been substantially divesting from non-dollar United States assets at an accelerating rate for the past several years. Sorry for your loss.
Finnish Prime Minister Breaks Promise To Personally House Refugees
Numerous sources are reporting that Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä (WOT:nonperson) has broken a promise he made earlier to personally offer his second home as housing for refugees arriving in Finland (archived). Sipilä cited concerns about security and "heavy publicity" in withdrawing the offer, even though the offer was made in order to generate publicity. Sipilä reportedly has two privately owned homes in addition to the residence provided to him by Finnish taxpayers. By offering the home it initially appeared that Sipilä intended to ease a portion of the burden he was imposing on taxpayer through inviting the world's poor to make their own cold weather Africa on Finnish soil at taxpayer's expense by at least housing one refugee family himself. Instead he just demonstrated that he was just another Trump-Clinton full of empty promises putting tax payers on the hook for his hollow publicity stunt. Sorry for your loss.
Dentistry Researcher Drilled Over Discovering Public FTP Server
Dentistry enthusiast and amateur security researcher Justin Shafer is the latest casualty in the Government war on persons who speak out on web insecurity. Shafer discovered a flaw in dental record software which led to the discovery of a public FTP server that contained a trove of unsecured patient dental records. (archived) Despite the responsible disclosure of his discoveries, Shafer's home was raided by FBI agents on Tuesday on behalf of the software maker's parent company Patterson Dental. The company is claiming he “exceeded authorized access” in accessing its FTP server as defined under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. A seized property list indicates that federal agents took 29 items from Shafer's home including dental magazines. While Preet Bharara is likely foaming at the mouth at the possibility of prosecuting the case, the government has yet to formally charge Mr. Shafer.
Interview With Cock.li Email Service Founder Vincent Canfield
MP (WoT:mircea_popescu) Hey, mind doing an interview with me to be published on qntra ?
VC (Vincent Canfield WoT:vc) Sure, I don't know what qntra is though.
MP qntra.net, bitcoin news site.
VC Oh I see.
MP So then… let's see… why did you quit college ?
PD1: "The Romania-based e-mail admin concluded his video with this proclamation: "It’s raining dicks right now. And the forecast isn’t that good either. There’s a 90 percent chance of dicks tonight and a 90 percent chance of dicks tomorrow." — gggggold.
VC I dropped out because I was at a shit university and also I had a job where I was making as much as with a degree so I didn't really see the point. Since then my decision has been confirmed with professional experience and also I'm travelling the world instead which has been leagues better to me than university ever was.
MP What was your major ?
VC CS, specializing in computer security.
MP Ever thought of trying something more alligned with the actual purpose of universities (ie, scoring) ? Dunno, humanities, bidniss, whatever ?
VC Maybe, though I have heard bad things about the university here, I am currently living in Romania ;)
MP Where in Romania ?
VC Bucharest.
MP Possibly shittiest city in the whole country. Try Brasov or Cluj or something eh.
DC2 Ahahaa, in that Bucharest is the only *city* as such… towns aplenty, way better than Bucharest too, sure3
MP So how do you like Romania ?
VC It's great, the internet here is very fast4 and the food is very good :@) It's also very cheap to live here, considering I still work for a US company.
MP I lived there for a few years. 2nd bitcoin conference also held there (Timisoara). Meanwhile though, moved to Argentina. So what was your involvement in that 2015 "scandal" ?
VC Someone registered on my public E-mail server and sent threats through my service, I was the only public face other than the police or the school district so I was subject to a lot of media attention. I was all over the news in the US and Romania for 3 or 4 days.
MP You know vc.gg is not responding ?
VC Works on my machine ™.
MP I see. Alright, so what are your plans for the future ?
VC Re: future plans https://my.mixtape.moe/rwuurt.jpg
MP I'm kinda hoping for something with cocks in it. So how did you hear about bitcoin ?
VC idk I first got into it in 2010 I think? BTC was $0.8 – $0.9
MP Did you do anything ? Services, whatever ?
VC Mostly just between friends, and buying stuff with bitcoin when it was available. I gave away several bitcoin when they were worth nothing :)
MP You ever heard about Eulora ?
VC Nope.
MP How about the SEC sending supoenas to this Romania-based dude back in 2012, when they were posturing about Satoshi Dice ?
VC I do remember Satoshi Dice, though I don't remember much past that.
MP Interesting how fragmented this supposed "bitcoin community" actually is. Alright, so what's your plan with the hoster ? What was it, cock.li ?
VC the email site is https://cock.li/, the VPS provider is https://box.cock.li/. The former is not-for-profit, the second is for-profit.
MP Do you plan to pivot from corporate life to independence with it ? Or is it just a hobby on the side ? For the lulz ? For the whats ?
VC The server hardware I purchased can host a maximum of 280 clients with some more memory and disk space, so after I get it up and running and stable then I'm probably going to go for that. I don't think those are necessarily mutually exclusive ;)
MP So what do you mean "get it up and running and stable" ?
VC I have literally 0 experience running a VPS provider.
MP What do you have experience with ?
VC I have lots of experience as a linux sysadmin, which helps ;)
MP That's not really 0 then, is it ?
VC I dream of a world where I incorporate cock.li and operate and expand a semi-trolling corporation. The way I had it described to me is "almost like ironic professionalism". I take inspiration from GNAA in that regard, though I think I could make it into an actual profit-producing company. Also yes, fair point :)
MP Do you happen to know the republic has been looking for an actual republican ISP ? Actually, you even heard of tmsr ?
VC I have no idea of the republic or tmsr I just heard shit was hot and poppin' here so I joined.
MP Pretty cool. So… are you married ?
VC Nope, I'm 21. I almost got married though a couple years ago. (After a 6 year relationship, so it's not like I was jumping in feet-first).
MP What broke it off ?
VC Oh, you know, reasons ;) Turned out to be one of the best decisions I've made.
MP As in, other cocks ?
VC Haha. Not getting married has allowed me to pursue travelling the world and pursuing other ventures. Only after it was all over did I realize I'm too damn young to get married.
MP So where've you been besides Maine and Bucharest ?
VC Nowhere that's public information :@) Though I plan on backpacking most of Europe next year, and Asia the year after that.
MP Sounds like a plan eh. So what's your favourite Romanian dish ?
VC Cow bone soup O_O
MP Id est oxtail soup ?
VC I had lunch at Excelsior in Bucharest, if you know that place.
MP I do.
VC I went with an older friend who was a government official before he retired. Crazy place.
MP So what don't you like about it ?
VC Excelsior? Nah it was great.
MP Nah, the country.
VC Ah. I don't really know anything I don't like, though I did see a gypsy shitting in the street about a month ago, that was pretty unsettling.
MP Better in the street than in your enchilada though.
VC Hah.
PF5 Wait till you make it to Asia…
MP Alrighty, anything you want to tell teh readership in closing ?
VC Yes, always follow you are dreams.
Perhaps also of interest, the off-the-record discussions once the mike cut.
Pete Dushenski WoT:pete_dushenski ↩
Diana Coman WoT:diana_coman ↩
She sees us Transylvanying, she hatin'. ↩
Spain (WOT:nonperson) Raid And Arrests Mining Farm Operators
Spanish police (WOT:nonpeople) have raided a number of Bitcoin mining farms and arrested their operators over "money laundering" concerns. The willingness of Spanish police to do this in the face of Chinese and Anglophone mining hegemony exacerbates, but not critically the miner problem. In spite of the love various "anarchists" give Spain, Spain doesn't seem to reciprocate that affection.