The Pros and Cons of Bitcoins

Around 2009, Bitcoins became a new way of digital currency that came into the picture to the public.  The first concept of using a cryptocurrency happened around 1998 with a better way of making new money using cryptography.  It was the idea of Wei Dai from cypherpunks mailing list that gave way to the new idea.  Then by 2009, a pseudonymous "staged" name, Satoshi Nakamoto came up with proof  and specification of the concept to the public.  What exactly is bitcoins? Bitcoins is an open-source digital currency that is used internationally like a credit card, but without the issue of having to process through an institution like a bank. It's a peer-to-peer service and it's hard to believe there's no banks involved to regulate it.  It has all become reality today, but Satoshi left the group.  Ever since then, bitcoins continues to grow with developers in the mix.

An example of a paper bitcoin wallet with QR Codes.

Bitcoins works online such as an app or a desktop program that lets the user have a bitcoin wallet.  It isn't controlled by a specific company at all.  It is by users who use the programs with both sides making an agreement equally on the amount as long as they follow the rules. The user can send and receive the bitcoins safely where it's secured.  This public ledger sharing network is called a "block chain."  It gives the users the chance to verify each transaction recording every one of them for proof. The transactions are protected by digital signatures that are equivalent to the sending address which allows users full control of sending bitcoins from their address.

You can be rewarded in bitcoins just by processing transactions using the computer with specialized hardware which is called "mining."  New bitcoins are created by the use of competitive mining where I mentioned earlier, by rewarding the users by the network for it.  It's similar the a raffle draw where the users are mining nodes and all they have to do is find a solution to a mathematical problem which creates a new block.  The block gives proof of the work.  The difficulty of it shows the strength in the network.  Every fours years this is done and rewarded for solving a block.  The result, half of the bitcoins is created.  Every ten minutes, blocks are mined which averages within four years 210,000 blocks.  Each block contains 50 new bitcoins.

The way to acquire these bitcoins is either through a bitcoin exchange site, exchanging with someone near you, earn through mining, exchanging with people who are willing to sell bitcoins for whatever such as a credit card/paypal payment, or even through sites that give free samples/offers.  I just read that most exchanges for the credit card/PayPal funding isn't allowed with this method.  It's not allowed because for someone to buy bitcoins with PayPal, it'll reverse half of the transaction.  Bitcoin payments are supposedly a lot more easier than credit card purchases.  Of course, it's all done without any account, but through the use of the wallet app anyone can download.  You can scan a QR code or "bumping" phones together to obtain a recipient's address.  There are many sites out there who accept bitcoins with buying goods and now, you can come across businesses like a coffee shop that will accept them.

Physical bitcoin

The benefits of bitcoins first and foremost is not having to deal with a bank.  The transactions have no limits and can be done at any time of the day even during the holidays. It is always active and gives you full control of your money.  Bitcoins being used online as payment is better than using the physical form of Casascius coins since bitcoins online cannot be altered.  Bitcoin transactions are secure and straightforward without having any personal information involved which protects the users from fraud or identity theft.  Users can backup to protect their money and even with encryption.  Those who are selling products cannot ever force hidden extra charges to users.  It may come with fees for each transaction or none at all, but with low fees it may make the transactions done a whole lot faster.  Overall, nobody can ever mess with the Bitcoin protocol where it's cryptographically secured.

Bitcoins are mostly used in other countries more so than the US.  Last December 6, according to Huffington Post, "Bitcoin's value plummeted today, by 25% from a high of over 1100 US dollars per BTC to a low value of under 830."  In 2011, the value of one bitcoin rose from thirty cents to thirty-two dollars then down to two dollars.  It jumps up and down with the value which makes it scarce to deal with having them sometimes.  The whole concept of bitcoins didn't catch on more until 2012 with the media where services like Reddit started accepting them.  Currently, China is involved with the Bitcoin exchange which has become the largest bitcoin trade over Japan after their Mt. Gox bitcoin company was seized.  It was due to a security breach where a hacker used credentials from the company's auditor on the computer illegally transfering a large amont of bitcoins to the hacker. Accounts that were worth $8 million were affected. Not only that, but the government seized more than $5 million due to engaging in money transmitting without a license in May, 2013.  Accounts with Mt. Gox had a Wells Fargo account which the government took money from as well.  Soooo, basically using Bitcoin in the US might not work so well with its reputation.

China has banned their banks from ever using bitcoins and how it poses a risk to criminals.  Bitcoins have come with a bad reputation due to the illegal trading site Silk Road which was shut down.  It was the place for the largest bitcoin market which gave fear to users that the value would go down since it did with Mt. Gox.  Last November, the value of a bitcoin on Mt. Gox was US $900.

Since I've been talking about the negative sides of bitcoins, it really does come with some disadvantages if one isn't careful such as with a hacker.  Bitcoins is still a growing business and hasn't entirely catch on with the public really.  Only a small list remains with accepting the use of bitcoins.  The more it grows, the more value it could come with bitcoins.  Any trades or business transaction can affect the price of it though.  It's still in development with a better way to handle bitcoins with new tools and services safely.  In the US, Bitcoin can sometimes be seen as foreign money depending on the use of it.

People in the US who use bitcoins internationally, the one service that is concerned about it that provides regulations on their website for virtual currency is  FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) which is the Treasury Department. FinCEN has been keeping its eye on bitcoin.  In the US, FinCEN helps take care of the money laundering with national security keeping the financial system safe. From the regulations, it seems in the US you have to register with FinCEN if you are involved with a Bitcoin OTC market for cash, run a wallet hosting site, or run an online trading site.  Here's a link: FinCEN Regulations for Virtual Currency.

I really don't know if I'd ever consider myself to ever try buying bitcoins, or investing in them.  It just seems difficult to me lol that I'd probably would screw up with it all.  It just comes with a lot of knowledge of the whole process.  Basically, I'd have to have a whole lot of money in order to get a bitcoin.  I'll just stick to my USD for now.

Check out the latest news that I found out with bitcoins with an excerpt from it below. A guy from Wales losing his hard drive that had $6 million dollars worth of bitcoins:

 http://www.technologyreview.com/news/522411/bitcoins-rise-constrained-by-heists-and-lost-fortunes/

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Humor Sites to Make Your Day!

 Engrish.com

As a person who was born from an Asian family, this site pretty much makes me laugh a lot lol.  I noticed in many different countries that there are mistakes when writing out signs for the public a lot.  It's all being lost in translation, but at the same time it's all entertaining when you have the chance to travel out and see these signs! 

The site overall is just a simple layout of daily photos posted by users of signs they have come across while traveling and so on.  On the left, it shows a variety of categories to click on.  The site is easy and simple to browse through! It even has a store with memorable wordings from the signs done tastefully lol.

I can go through this site forever and find most of them pretty funny.  Here's one that I laughed my ass off because I love bubble tea!  It get rights to the point :).

I enjoy this guys attempt with his english... Overall, the good thing is I can understand what he's saying.  Basically, stay the hell off his property because he just generally hates all mankind.

eBaumsworld.com

This site has been around for quite awhile now and I have been going to it for years since I can remember.  A majority of the time, I go to this site for the videos only.  This site and Break.com are the only sites I go for videos that are funny usually.  The site is all categorized and provides a variety of things to look at on there.

  

Here's the categories:

There's just thousands and thousands of videos and pictures on there.  I remember back in the day how it used to be with the interface and there wasn't a lot like it currently is today.  It's a lot nicer, that's for sure!

Since Christmas is coming up, I remember finding this video back then and laughing so hard.

The recent buzz is the remake video with Seth Rogan and James Franco of Kanye's video with Kim Kardashian lol.  I love those two:

I love FAIL and WTF photos on there as well:

 

TheOatmeal.com

I really like this site a lot with the comics and drawings.  I have heard about it and especially about "The Blerch" which makes me giggle like a little school girl.  My favorite part was looking at this one about running with "The Blerch."  I laughed my ass off reading through this comic. It talked about how running became a passion for this guy and has this little flying fat cherub constantly following him to get back into his old habits.  The Blerch crept on him constantly to eat this and that throughout the comic lol.

It's so freaking funny reading through it and always seeing the things he says to make this guy fall back in his old ways.  I can relate with that situation when trying to lose weight and even for my brother who is a runner himself.  My brother can eat anything like it was nothing and then feel awful saying he needs to run it off.  He is constantly tempted all the time like this dude in the comic.

Another comic I freaking laughed so hard at was about this guy who had tons of cats and how his house caught on fire.  The way he talks about how his cats perished in the fire, but likes to think they escaped creating a cat colony lol.  Then how they had that one "special" cat out of the group.

There's so many comics to look at on there and even a store to buy representing the characters in the comics!

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Google Maps and Google Earth

Two of the best things that has ever come to Google, is Google Maps and Google Earth.  Each of the two work together and have paved a new view on finding directions easily.  Google Maps/Earth makes traveling a little easier and viewing the world up close giving way to exploration.  I have always used Google Maps before a trip besides using a GPS to know where I'm going street by street view, so I don't miss the specific destination.  Google keeps improving it more to the point it may seem a little scary if someone is wanting to check out your home haaaaa, but the image quality is a lot more clearer and sharp with the street views.

Directions are easy to follow and interacting with the map is simple to do on the browser:

The one thing I never noticed with using the Google Maps is it saves every destination you searched for in it.  It still had a list of all the places from months ago still saved on the site itself.

The street views keep expanding more to even places beyond such as the "boonies," but there is still tons of roads you can't view.  The street views really show the surroundings of where you're driving which is basically a full 360° view.

You can view before heading out whether there is traffic, weather conditions, accidents, and so on by clicking in the top right corner in the picture below.  You will have the option of whether which type of map to view your trip: Satellite, Earth, and regular map view.

Below is the view of the project for class of the camping trip our class is doing by using Craiglist to buy an RV, etc. using Google Maps to pinpoint the places to visit.  This is a way to plan a trip beforehand.  It is shared to the whole class by my teacher for all of us to pin the areas live.

It's really cool that you can customize your pins and be able to do this with the class editing it together.

Google Earth, is a pretty amazing program to play around with because you see the world in the 3D and you can even look into space which I love to do.  I also like using the program to view small islands across the world and looking up about the country that even have pictures placed within the area to view.  I look at other places around the world that a typical person hasn't heard of before.  I look around the place up close exploring and even viewing airline tickets just to see how much it would cost to travel there.  Anyway, you have the option of using the desktop program, browser, and mobile.  

The desktop program you can do a number of things and the layers

provide a variety of other places/items to view:

As I mentioned earlier, anywhere you look on the desktop program, it will list pictures of users who have traveled there and posted it which is such a nice feature.  The only issue is some are not accurate pictures from that area especially in the middle of the ocean which I have noticed.

You can view the historical map which shows what the area looked like back in 1996.  The picture below shows Logan, WV in 2011 with the new stores and restaurants built.  Then it shows below it, a view of it in 1996 when it was nothing but a hill.

Well, that was just the start of talking about Google Maps/Earth because there's so much more things you can do with each that I haven't even gone over.  Traveling is really made easy anymore without having to go old school with using regular atlas maps.  I know they will come up with something even more advanced with the maps throughout the years because Google seems to amaze me more each year with their products.

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Feedly vs Digg Reader

Feedly is a news feeder reel that that is available for web browsers, mobile phones, and is even included on the cloud.  It combines any news feeds from other websites providing a variety of articles to read.  As Google Reader closed down, Feedly was one of the top options for users who need their daily dose of news.  You can integrate it into your web browsers as well as just using the web based site and it is now cloud-based.

Digg has been around for awhile now.  It has always been the site that is known for the most talked about stories, pictures, and video on the web.  They have started their own Digg Reader that works the same as Feedly combining all your interests of news and so on into one spot.  Both Feedly and Digg are quite simple to use with adding the news feeds of sites you enjoy the most at your fingertips.

I really like Feedly because of how much it loads faster compared to Digg.  Even in magazine style showing the pictures from the article load within a second.  Digg took a couple of seconds to load most of the time with just the title style. Feedly has different views of your news and I really like the magazine style rather than the titles showing only.  Digg only has two views which is titles and card view style.  Below is Feedly's different styles.

The thing that won me with Feedly is being an all-in-one reader for me. What I'm trying to say is, I really like how you can click on the link and it opens the article within the page.  Below you will see it National Geographic in magazine style too:

As for Digg, it opens up a new window once you click on the title.  The site itself is very simple and it does get right down to the point of reading your news overall for those who don't need anything fancy:

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Tor and Darknet: World of Anonymity

TOR first began as a provider for the Naval Research Laboratory to help protect communication with the government.  It it used now among everyone in order the protect their privacy from rigorous marketers and identity theft.  Millions of people's information are being sold to other marketers every day.  I can see that such as in my email comparing it to the things I have searched.  Private data is kept from being public to others to keep you safe.  It even hides your IP address whereas just your IP alone can give away your location especially when it comes to children and teenagers who aren't aware of this when browsing the web.  Tor itself keeps websites from ever tracking you while browsing to instant messaging with others.

As you can see in the title of TOR is an onion which represents "Onion Routing" that relates to the layers of encryption where data is broken down and encrypted multiple times through a cycle from revealing information of the user to whatever destination it's sent to in the end. I researched that even the NSA believes that Tor is "still the King of high secure, low latency Internet anonymity."  That's pretty much a big deal there to something that is free among all users and especially for the the government  to make a statement like that.

It works by separating information sent out of a user and its routing.  Then the onion routing comes into play as it encrypts and then it jumps around through the network randomly.  It routers the encryption in a "multi-layered manner" to ensure anonymity in the network between relays.  I know this much that internet service providers dislike the use of Tor because they cannot see what the user is downloading etc.  Someone I know, I got a letter from the provider that they knew they were using a program to block them from knowing their internet activity.  That didn't stop them though from continuing use of it.

Darknet is known as the "Deep Web" where it is so much harder access as it's very anonymous. The address you use isn't the same as on a regular browser. It supposedly consist over 200,000 websites listed "down there" and is extremely hard to find.  You must connect to the Tor network in order to use it where you can host a website without revealing your location.  On the Darknet, you don't have the real address of the server with the data encrypted.

There is a lot of very interesting things in Darknet with typical news, blogs, forums, speaking your mind freely, etc.  Then there is the bad illegal side such as with drugs, sex, weapon dealers, credit-card scammers, and other illicit activity. Sadly, there are people who use it for sick reasons such as with child porn. Just because Tor network provides so much security and keeps you anonymous it doesn't keep you from the basic everyday problems on the internet like being hacked, identity theft, or viruses.  It just seems it's the place to do more evil than good to many.

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Online Music Players: Spotify, Grooveshark, Slacker, and Pandora

Spotify

Out of all the music players that I have to blog about, Spotify I have used a lot for 3 years.  The one thing I really liked and noticed with Spotify is how you can connect with your friends on there through Facebook   As if having your own little social network through music.  You can see each other's playlist and share it.  Follow one another and see the music playing live on Facebook.  I use the desktop app which is the closest thing to iTunes interface.  But the difference is, Spotify is more focused on music only.  No books, movies, etc.  The one thing I disliked on there is the radio feature.  I think it's poorly done when it comes to finding genres in the search bar because I searched for indie folk and it came up with massaging music and relaxing moods music haha.  BUT you know what, they do redeem themselves with the "apps" where it provides different types genres and playlists.

Spotify has a pretty good massive music collection.  I was able to find everything I wanted on there and my music taste is a lot different from mainstream music, so that's a bonus.  It's really nice to be able to see not only the music album, but the history about the band or singer.  In the picture is the desktop app and it's unlimited streaming with ads.  The ads aren't bad at all or keep popping up constantly while playing the music.  The mobile app is what brings Spotify down for me where you only have a trial for free users.  The only way to have offline play and unlimited music on the mobile app is upgrading.  As mentioned on the site, "Spotify Free users can listen for 14 days. 9.99 premium plan, 30-day trial on any device."  Here is the premium plan:

The great thing about Spotify Premium is you can listen to albums before they even come out and of course as it says above, it allows you to listen offline saving your music on there. The music is 320Kbps and that's freakin' nice.  Another feature with using Spotify is the fact you can plug up your Apple product like iPhone, iPod, etc.  It syncs all your stuff on there and even photos.  The web player is pretty nice too and the interface very simple.  It's just right with how it looks and I like the huge thumbnails of the related music it shows on mine. Overall, I do enjoy Spotify and I haven't had any issues with it other than the mobile app and having to sign-up in order to use it.

Grooveshark

After checking out Grooveshark, I really enjoyed the site and the way it looked.  It basically shows all of the music upfront right there and even music videos.  I like the setup where it's more compact compared to Slacker. It's more colorful than Pandora and Spotify.  Anyway, there's so much variety in the music especially with the radio stations with all genres. 

The music streamed nicely on my pc with no issues. The benefit with Grooveshark is being able to play unlimited music by using your mobile browser which is awesome!  I really love that.  I like how you can drag the songs to the bottom and creates playlist of all the songs you want.  I haven't heard an ad after playing 5 songs. 

The list of genre radio stations below is not a whole lot at first until you click on "Related Genres."

I searched for random artists that are not so big among mainstream groups and found all the albums.  That was surprising to me.  I listened to one of the radio stations on there and the music didn't match the genre which was weird.  I honestly don't like the whole thumbs up and down to vote for the next song, or not being able to skip on to the next.  But hey, you can just look up that one song you like anyway and stream it for free :).  In order to vote, you have to sign-up on the website.  I really do enjoy the site and find it pretty useful.  I'd even suggest it better than Spotify where I have that music player listed in my top 3.

Slacker

As soon as I entered the website, I noticed I liked the interface, not so much as Grooveshark, but overall it stood out to me.  It took a bit for the site to load, but just could be my connection.  It took me awhile to load at school as well, but that's okay.  Everything seems so big with the album's thumbnails popping out, but below it quickly shows the many genres towards the bottom.  

The great thing about Slacker is, it's all about the radio stations on there.  There's so much variety listed besides just music.  There's the news, sports, and even listening to comedy stand-up on there.  Slacker pretty much wins in that category.  The only issue I have is the "skip" method.  If you don't like the song they're playing within the radio station genre, you have a limit of 6 skips per hour. 

I'd more than likely use Slacker for radio use especially on my phone.  I already had Slacker downloaded on my smartphone when I bought it.  Even if there isn't a lot of skipping in the free account, it does have a lot of great playlists with the variety of genres I have played around with such as indie rock, oldies, and the 90's.  Here is the subscriptions to using Slacker:

Pandora

Pandora I have pretty much heard a lot about by word of mouth with friends and then on TV.  The interface of the site is a bit dark compared to the other sites.  I just seem to like different colors, but Pandora is easy on the eyes with it being more sleek.  I really wasn't feeling the site once I got on there because it just seemed so plain to me when searching for music:

Pandora is pretty good with their radio stations and many genres.  After playing a few songs, it wouldn't let me continue to keep playing anymore until I signed-up.  Music sounded great playing, but there was a lot of songs I searched for that fooled me into believing they had it.  Once I clicked on it showing it was supposedly listed in the search bar, it came up with this:

I like a music player to actually provide music for every type of genre out there for all the millions of people out there.  It's sometimes rare and I can understand they're always trying to update their database with more music.  Finding that one song you love that is not mainstream, is golden.  You can't just have one song from that album and fool you into believing there's more listed by automatically popping up the name as you type it.  That's misleading to me, but that's alright haha, I'll live.  Pandora has the mobile app or you can stream live from your mobile browser personalizing your music list with genres. For subscription to Pandora, here is the upgrade:

Pandora is best known for their Music Genome Project where it uses a algorithm to organize the music by the characteristics of the songs and connecting it among other similiar "genes" based on users tastes.

Among all the music players, I would consider using Grooveshark as my top for all music where I didn't even have to sign-up for it, then Spotify, and Slacker more so for radio use. All four of them sounded great playing music and among my top three, it had most of the music I like.  They were all easy to use and manage as well with finding music and different radio stations to your liking.

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Top 10 IT Related Halloween Costumes

10.  The Oregon Trail Floppy Disk

 9. Umm yeah..keyboard keys

 8. Lazy costume, but it works

7.  Your Facebook Profile...

 

 6.  Google Maps!

5. Android OS mascot

 4.  Instagram

3.  The Cloud - Storage

2.  Digital Dudz Costume - You use your smartphone to download the app and it's placed safely in a pocket with the shirt provided.

1. Social media helped this video get out more - Keyboard Cat!

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