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Comment: Re:Stills seems like it has to be an inside job (Score 1) 227

by JWSmythe (#46468223) Attached to: Hackers Allege Mt. Gox Still Controls "Stolen" Bitcoins

That was my immediate thought. Any decent system needs to ensure that it isn't running at a loss. To make that happen, they need an accounting system in place.

Rather than a loss, they managed a significant profit. The profit didn't go to the company.

I've seen lots of affiliate systems (sign up for a sight, the referring webmaster gets x%). In the adult industry, it's called shaving. The referring webmaster has a percentage of their sales (I've seen up to 25%), where it isn't recorded that they got the sale. Instead, it is credited to another account. The owner of the system doesn't always know. They see sales come in. They see payments go out. The shaved sales go to one of the developer's accounts (usually to a difficult to trace 3rd party).

If I were the developer, I'd have a friend in another country set up his affiliate account. The "lost" sales get paid out to him. He keeps a percentage, and pays me the rest. It can be very difficult to trace until there is a code audit. The audits don't usually come until the boss knows there's something funny going on. As long as the boss is getting a large profit, they have no reason to audit.

In the rest of the corporate world, it's skimming. Accountants can make it look like the missing funds are going to nondescript costs.

In both skimming and shaving, it becomes obvious when the person doing it gets too greedy. Like, it's difficult to justify that $1M/yr goes to miscellaneous custodian costs. And yes, I've seen exactly that, in a company that only made about $3M/yr profit. Sometimes it goes to consumable costs. It can be tricky to track if they're smart. When they get greedy, smart falls out of the equation.

Comment: Re:This is why we can't have nice tihngs... (Score 1) 227

by JWSmythe (#46468089) Attached to: Hackers Allege Mt. Gox Still Controls "Stolen" Bitcoins

You need to read up more on economics. Maybe swing by a local college and audit some economics courses.

No, most (all?) of the current in use today is backed by nothing. Well, nothing more than the idea that it's worth something.

I have a $20 bill in my pocket. It's not worth anything. There is a perceived value of it, so I can exchange that piece of paper for goods and services.

If it were backed by anything, there would be an obligation by the issuing party to exchange it for the commodity it was backed by. You can't go to the federal reserve and say "I want to exchange my $20 note for $20 worth of gold". Best case, you'd get a smile, pat on the head, and be sent on your way.

We effectively work with a bartering system. The perceived value of one service or object, for another. You can barter drugs, ammunition, or sex. That doesn't make any of them a currency, even though they'd each be good examples in your description. Actually, I think I like my examples better than the ugly paper in my pocket.


Submitted by cartechboy

Comment: Re: Truly (Score 1) 99






Comment: Re:Re... or without a background check? (Score 1) 310

by JWSmythe (#46422145) Attached to: Facebook Wants To Block Illegal Gun Sales

I guess I lucked out.

I worked for a background information company a while back. I did a broad search for my real name (i.e., not my Slashdot name), and found all the other "me"s out there. There are several right around my age. There were doctors, lawyers, and a pilot. One, approximately my age, didn't live very far way, so we could easily be mixed up.

I had some nefarious thoughts as I was looking at their full record. I had their DOB, SSN, address history, phone numbers. I could have easily become a doppelganger.

Damn. I just checked on Intelius.com for myself. I know how they pull some of their records, and they use the same resources as some employment verification companies. The real me on there, based on age, cities shows all the wrong employers, the wrong education, and an extra relative that I don't have. Great. Maybe I should go try to buy a gun, to see what new shit comes up. It's been a few years.

Maybe it's just time to change my name to a string of random letters, and live in a nice cabin in the woods. I hear the property Ted Kaczynski was living on is available now. He lived pretty quietly out there for a while.


by JWSmythe (#46417733) Attached to: RadioShack To Close 1,100 Stores

You can make a somewhat functional oscilloscope with a Windows PC that has a sound card, Zelscope (or other free software), a headphone plug, a few resisters, and some alligator clips. For the fairly primitive stuff I've needed, it's worked fine. For higher frequencies (i.e., not in the normal audio range), you'd have to look at something better, but there are perfectly functional USB devices that will do the job for cheap.

If you want the Porsche of O'scopes, you'd have to pay the premium prices. It all depends on what you're trying to measure.

Comment: Re:Radio Shacks in Silicon Valley (Score 1) 423

by JWSmythe (#46417713) Attached to: RadioShack To Close 1,100 Stores

You know, there are a lot of people who hate you.

I lived in LA, and had two Fry's within a few miles of my house. I was explicitly forbidden from shopping without a chaperone (i.e., my girlfriend), because I'd always buy extra stuff, and I'd be gone for hours. Fry's is my favorite toy store.

Now, where I live, the nearest Fry's is about 490 miles away. Any time I travel to a city with Fry's, I make a point of going, just because. I don't really *need* anything, but let me loose in there, and I'll find all kinds of things I didn't need before, but I can't live without now. I'm not in some remote hole, I'm in one of the top 20 markets in the US. Take that as you will. Nielsen television/radio markets. DMAs. OMB MSAs. Yet, we don't rank high enough to get a Fry's.


by JWSmythe (#46417665) Attached to: RadioShack To Close 1,100 Stores

Funny you mention a lot of stuff that I'm working on as a side project. I decomputerized the engine in one of my vehicles, because when I really got into it, the design was horrible from the electronic and physical standpoints. Who the hell blocks 50% of the airflow to half the cylinders with a chunk of plastic to hold the injector spider (ya, weird design). My neighbors thought I was nuts, because I just kept pulling out parts saying "Nope. Bad. What the fuck were they thinking? That's awful, gone."

There was an awful lot of "What the fuck were they thinking?"

As it turns out, with this particular design, the transmission doesn't understand that the vehicle is moving, so it goes into limp mode. It has 2nd and 3rd gear only in limp mode. So I'm recreating the transmission control computer. Who needs automatic, when you can have push button shifting? The aftermarket unit is something like $700. To replace the transmission with the older mechanical one costs something like $1,000.

So I have:

3 shift solenoids that are on or off depending on the gear it should be in

1 PWM controlled solenoid, to determine the TCC (a computer operated torque converter)

3 shifter position sensors (I believe, I'd have to check my notes) to say what the gearshift is in.

1 brake position sensor (on/off)

1 variable resistance throttle position sensor.

1 pulse sensor for the vehicle speed sensor.

All in all, a pretty simple setup. I'm giving two push buttons, to shift up or down, for the forward speeds. Automatic was horrible at picking gears anyways. But now I have to run 3 solenoids to pick the gear, and send the appropriate duty cycle PWM to the TCC, based on the TPS and gear.

Like 1st gear low TPS gets a low duty cycle or it would stall. Full throttle in any gear gets a pretty high duty cycle.

Reading around, I could only find one company with a fairly open box, but it's pricy, and you get to assemble everything yourself. Or you can spend a bunch of money on a purpose built box that you have no control over.

I had to get a oscilloscope, to make sure the PWM was what I intended to put out. I got creative there, and found some software to use with a sound card. It works pretty well. It's not perfect, but good enough for this purpose, since I know what it's suppose to generate. I wouldn't try to tune something I wasn't controlling the source on though. Honestly, it had been years since I had used an oscilloscope. I was very happy with my results, and even sang to it by clipping it onto a microphone (probes, alligator clips, same thing. {grin}). I sang a C3 at 129.20Hz, which should have been 130.81Hz. Not bad, considering I didn't listen to a reference tone first, especially since I can't sing for shit.

Now picture going into a Radio Shack and saying that's what you're trying to do. They glazed over after the first 10 seconds, and then just said "if you need help finding anything, just ask." I asked for a bigger box to put the parts into while I was shopping. :) I did send them on a quest to find LEDs for me. Just saying "find me red, yellow, green, and blue LEDs, all rated for the same voltage" caused them trouble. I wasn't *trying* to be difficult. I just wanted to be able to swap them without playing too much with different resistors. As I recall, they found them online, but they'd have to order them.

Just asking for some heatsinks for some of the components I grabbed turned out to be too much for one store. It's not like I had a *huge* box, it was just a few parts out of their bins. They had some at one store, and a different type at another store, but not enough for the project. I relegated myself to repurposing old CPU heatsinks that I have at home. They'll do fine.

Comment: Save the mythology for church (Score 2, Funny) 431

by JWSmythe (#46417561) Attached to: Jewish School Removes Evolution Questions From Exams

School children should be taught *facts*.

If it's a religious owned/operated school, save the mythology for the theology class. Be fair, make it a honest comparative religions class, so they can see how their stories compare with the rest.

For public schools, leave the mythology out entirely, except in the historical context.

Teaching kids the mythology encourages them to grow up to be adults that believe the mythology. They fail to grow up and learn in the real world there is a cause and effect relationship.

The last thing I need is someone coming into my office asking for help, and then praying to their deity to solve it. When I fix their problem, they'll thank their deity, who didn't have a thing to do with it.

I swear, if one more person prays for a fix, I'm going to stop working. Let the deity of their choice fix it, and I'll go helping other people.

Ya buddy, your deity works in mysterious ways, that's why you still can't log into your email, and your application server is still down. Keep praying, maybe it will miraculously recover. Ha.

Comment: Re... or without a background check? (Score 1) 310

by JWSmythe (#46417111) Attached to: Facebook Wants To Block Illegal Gun Sales

I worry every time I have to go through a background check. It's not that I've done anything, or I intend to do anything. There's always a chance for human error.

I had an interaction with the police once. They got rather irate that I had a felony warrant. At least the officer asked for them to look at it carefully. It was my name, but my DOB was about 30 years off. That was years ago, and hasn't come up again, so I'm guessing the warrant was satisfied.

We're all just one clerical error away from failing a background check. About the time you're going through the background check, isn't the best time to try to get it fixed. Well, unless you're flying, then we're all one soundex match away from someone with a name or alias that sounds similar ours to get put on the no-fly list. Good luck getting off of that.

Comment: Legal interstate sales. (Score 1) 310

by JWSmythe (#46417063) Attached to: Facebook Wants To Block Illegal Gun Sales

Well, at least in Florida, I (an individual firearms owner) can sell to another individual in person.

I was told by the operator of a gun store, that I *can* choose to ask FDLE to run a background check for the purpose of selling a firearm. They will only give a yes/no answer to if the buyer is ok to sell to.

I, as a private individual, *can* sell to anyone, in any state. It has to be shipped to a federally licensed firearms dealer who is willing to do the transfer (i.e., pretty much any gun store). Around here, the cost to do the transfer is about $25, paid by the buyer. For the sake of not having the weapon seized in transit, it has been recommended to me, to ask a local store to handle the outbound shipment. The receiving dealer is responsible for ensuring local laws are followed. For example, if you live in California, and I sell you an AR-15, but not in a California-legal configuration, they are obliged not to give it to you. Likewise, if you don't meet the legal requirements to own a firearm, they will refuse it. I haven't personally been involved in such a transaction, but it is my understanding that if the transaction cannot be completed (the weapon is not legal in that jurisdiction, or the owner cannot take possession of it), it will be returned to me.

If you sell me a firearm, I, as a CCW holder, can pick up the weapon at the receiving store immediately, but they still call FDLE to ensure there's nothing new on my record. If I didn't have a valid CCW, there may be a waiting period, depending on the type of weapon.

There are some things that are illegal in Florida, but not everywhere. I happened to stumble across a few while looking at alternative ammunition. The "dragon's breath" shotgun shells are illegal here. I just thought they were interesting, although I don't see them being very practical. Flechette shotgun shells are also illegal. In theory, I could go buy them in another state. I may also be able to mail order them. If I am caught possessing or using them, I may be in trouble.

Comment: Re:Too Bad. (Score 1) 40


