The March of Technology

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, if I understand the news about that correctly, the reason it uses less power is because they can pack them tighter, which means less wiring running between transistors. In a chip most of the power consumption is due to resistance on the wires between the transistors, so if they can use less wire that means less resistance and lower power usage.

[deanb]

Not really sure what this is, I think cos I don't 100% understand the concept of money, but it's supposedly going to change the world (unless governments ban them)

http://launch.is/blog/l019-bitcoin-p2p-currency-the-most-dangerous-project-weve-ev.html
http://www.weusecoins.com/
http://www.bitcoin.org/

The mining part sounds...dodgy.
Maybe someone here can further explain it. Is the top article being sensationalist, or is this really something that could change everything?

[Thursday Next]

Bwahahahahaha! I think that might be a touch on the sensational side. Just a hunch. As you say, the mining sounds dodgy. The lack of a central, regulated, independent institution is also troubling, without that I don't get how you can't just make loads of duplicate bitcoins, I mean if I give two different people bitcoin number 00000002, how will they know that I've spent the same coin twice? And what's to stop me claiming that I also own bitcoin 00000012?

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, it smells like BS to me.

[deanb]

Bwahahahahaha! I think that might be a touch on the sensational side. Just a hunch. As you say, the mining sounds dodgy. The lack of a central, regulated, independent institution is also troubling, without that I don't get how you can't just make loads of duplicate bitcoins, I mean if I give two different people bitcoin number 00000002, how will they know that I've spent the same coin twice? And what's to stop me claiming that I also own bitcoin 00000012?

 

I'd guess the same system that tells my computer that I have part 0042 of latest EA game, and someone in brazil is missing part 00042 of same game, and so sends that chunk from my PC to the brazil PC?

Also it uses a hash, which would make duplicates pretty unlikely. (as in unlikely as someone in the world being born with the same DNA as you)

 

 

It was some Googlers side project so I assume out of any part of the idea, the tech side is down to pat. It's the economical stuff where it's wobbly. Like where the value comes from.

[Thursday Next]

Bwahahahahaha! I think that might be a touch on the sensational side. Just a hunch. As you say, the mining sounds dodgy. The lack of a central, regulated, independent institution is also troubling, without that I don't get how you can't just make loads of duplicate bitcoins, I mean if I give two different people bitcoin number 00000002, how will they know that I've spent the same coin twice? And what's to stop me claiming that I also own bitcoin 00000012?

 

I'd guess the same system that tells my computer that I have part 0042 of latest EA game, and someone in brazil is missing part 00042 of same game, and so sends that chunk from my PC to the brazil PC?

Also it uses a hash, which would make duplicates pretty unlikely. (as in unlikely as someone in the world being born with the same DNA as you)

 

 

It was some Googlers side project so I assume out of any part of the idea, the tech side is down to pat. It's the economical stuff where it's wobbly. Like where the value comes from.

 

People make unauthorised duplicates of EA's games all the time... I think there's a thread on it somewhere called... um... "Piracy"? What's to stop someone making a pirate copy of a bitcoin?

[deanb]

I dunno. (though Hashes are still crap ton more unique than a cd-key)

[Thursday Next]

I dunno. (though Hashes are still crap ton more unique than a cd-key)

 

I guess, I just don't get it. Who creates it? Who verifies it? How do we know how much currency there is? There has to be some sort of central infrastructure to decide all this because the bitcoin has no intrinsic value, it's not a goat or a lump of gold, it has no use beyond its symbolic value and is not a finite or tangible resource.

[deanb]

There's a central "block" or something. It's from a pool of $40million or so. (well $40million worth now) and you make them through that mining thing which seems to go at a speed that changes depending on how many coins are in existence. Then you trade them with the wallet program.

 

As I said, I don't understand the concept of money. I don't even know why the pound coin in my pocket is wroth as much as it is, but supposedly someone sat down somewhere and said "one pound equals something" and from that day forth it was worth something. And someone in Japan said a yen is worth a pixel of a something. And someone in US said a dollar is worth a somethingelse. (unless I did the convert the wrong way around)

 

I don't know where it comes from, I don't know who says it has any value or why. The money with the queen on as far as my understanding of money goes may as well be leaves instead.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

It sounds more like some kind of internet based reward program. I certainly wouldn't want any value tied up in it when it crashes and burns.

[CorgiShinobi]

I know that there's the fantasy of having a future with universal "credits" and all, but with all the trouble an online atmosphere brings, the most rational and paranoid part of me appreciates the idea of banks keeping my real money.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

problem is that's not much better. I had rather a lot of money in Icesave. Literally it was fine, I went on holiday, and when I got back all their (read: my) assets were frozen and I couldn't access my money.

[Thursday Next]

There's a central "block" or something. It's from a pool of $40million or so. (well $40million worth now) and you make them through that mining thing which seems to go at a speed that changes depending on how many coins are in existence. Then you trade them with the wallet program.

 

As I said, I don't understand the concept of money. I don't even know why the pound coin in my pocket is wroth as much as it is, but supposedly someone sat down somewhere and said "one pound equals something" and from that day forth it was worth something. And someone in Japan said a yen is worth a pixel of a something. And someone in US said a dollar is worth a somethingelse. (unless I did the convert the wrong way around)

 

I don't know where it comes from, I don't know who says it has any value or why. The money with the queen on as far as my understanding of money goes may as well be leaves instead.

 

Ok... so early on we used to operate on a needsies and wantsies basis, "I'll swap my Shearer for your Fowler." known as bartering.

 

Then we found something that everyone valued relatively equally. E.g. Gold, Silver, known as "Commodity Trading". That is, the item being traded is valuable in and of itself. Gold was pressed into coins so that people knew how much gold they were getting, a flat square may look the same-ish size as a cirle, but the circle has greater volume, and so is more gold. "Coins" just meant everyone had a reference point without needing cumbersome scales and such.

 

Now we use "Fiat Money" which is the trade of rusty piece of crap Italian cars items (coins, notes, etc) that have no intrinsic value other than that value conferred on them by government statute. Basically, there is a law that says "£1 is worth this much." In the past the government used to state that it would personally redeem currency for gold at that rate, that then changed to being guaranteed by tax revenue.

 

At the moment (most) currencies are valued against the US Dollar, which is itself valued against gold.

 

That said, the "value" of a pound is entirely relative. £1 may officially equal €1, but if all you've got is €20, the taxi driver tells you the fare is £15 sterling and a passer by offers you £15 for your €20, then €20 could suddenly become very worth £15.

[TheMightyEthan]

At the moment (most) currencies are valued against the US Dollar, which is itself valued against gold.

lol, nope. The US went off the gold standard in 1971. Since then the dollar has been a free-floating currency. It's not pegged to anything.

[Thursday Next]

At the moment (most) currencies are valued against the US Dollar, which is itself valued against gold.

lol, nope. The US went off the gold standard in 1971. Since then the dollar has been a free-floating currency. It's not pegged to anything.

 

Oops... forgot that.

[deanb]

http://www.disappearing-car-door.com/

[TheFlyingGerbil]

that actually seems better than a sliding door, but maybe a bit complicated especially if there is an alectrical problem you are pretty stuffed.

[ADIRTYWINDOW]

Holy crap, now I finally will be able get out/in with ease when some butthole parks his/her car way too close to mine.

[CorgiShinobi]

WHY DON'T MODERN CARS HAVE THAT ALREADY!

 

Seriously, the parking lot for my apartment complex can be a nightmare. You get enough people with trucks and SUVs, and someone is going to be stuffed in a regular parking spot. So really that means you don't want to be the last one (or two) home at the end of the day.

[Battra92]

That said, the "value" of a pound is entirely relative. £1 may officially equal €1, but if all you've got is €20, the taxi driver tells you the fare is £15 sterling and a passer by offers you £15 for your €20, then €20 could suddenly become very worth £15.

 

Actually in current trading £1 = €1.16.

[TheMightyEthan]

He was just using simple numbers to illustrate the point.

[Thursday Next]

He was just using simple numbers to illustrate the point.

 

What he said. I also used the conditional term "may" like "In the future we may end up living on the moon." Loads of wiggle room to be hd there.

[staySICK]

http://www.disappearing-car-door.com/

 

 

made me think of this.

 

[deanb]

Now this looks interesting, photos that can be focused after they've been taken:

 

http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/21/lytro-launches-to-transform-photography-with-50m-in-venture-funds-tctv/

 

There was a concept, and that's all it was, on this by Samsung(I think) on this about a year or so ago. It was their "what photos will do in the future". Also said we'd take like 50megapixel videos that we could then pull still photos from. That bit isn't here yet. (The RED cameras kinda do it I guess)

[deanb]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_BREAKING_LIGHT_SPEED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/22/us-science-light-idUSTRE78L4FH20110922]

 

In case you haven't heard CERN reckons it's found neutrinos travelling faster than c. They're getting the international scientific community to check it all over just in case, but they seem fairly confident.

 

Now folks are jumping to "time travel!!" but I don't think that'll happen, at least for humans or anything as big as us. Nor would it be feasible, or have any practical purpose, to send messages back in time since it's taken them a year to check their findings and it's only faster by a few nanoseconds.

 

Though it is reckoned that electrons and positrons time travel, though given that's a quantum event and electrons are already a pain to check out as it is we're not certain.