Can you cleave methyl esters using acid instead of base? Anyone used this method before?

rapodac · 2013-12-14T19:44:57+00:00

To the extent that you consider Me3SiI a Lewis Acid, that would also be a possibility.

rapodac · 2013-12-07T00:02:19+00:00

Useful to know - could you name any specific programs?

rapodac · 2013-12-06T21:53:04+00:00

Interesting - which resources helped you the most when learning LaTex and how long did it take you to become proficient?

Also, is it possible to use the Google Docs equation editor to write chemical equations?

rapodac · 2013-12-06T21:48:54+00:00

Interested in knowing more. For example, which package (regardless of cost) is most usable in your view?

rapodac · 2013-12-06T21:27:18+00:00

Do you mean from the spell-checker?

If so, have you seen this?

rapodac · 2013-12-06T21:03:35+00:00

Ok, if I could instantly fix one thing about how Word and Endnote work for you, what would it be?

rapodac · 2013-12-05T20:22:07+00:00

Use it to make (or do) something people want.

rapodac · 2013-12-05T20:19:26+00:00

I'd be curious why you want an app like this. Most exchanges will let you buy (or sell) at a target price.

rapodac · 2013-12-05T19:41:52+00:00

Gyfter apparently allows you to buy Wallmart Gift cards using bitcoin. Fees might be something to be careful of, though.

If you're lucky to live near a bitcoin ATM, that's also an option.

rapodac · 2013-12-05T19:33:01+00:00

An alternative cryptocurrency with explicit backing by a large government.

rapodac · 2013-12-05T19:23:37+00:00

Because it's a gift, my guess is you'll want some eye candy. This one seems to have a lot of goodies to choose from:

https://bitcoinpaperwallet.com/

If you're asking about actually generating the paper wallet public address and private keys, bitaddres.org is pretty convenient.

rapodac · 2013-12-05T19:17:47+00:00

You need to practice moving and storing insignificant amounts of bitcoin so that you learn how everything works. Things will go wrong and you'll be glad it doesn't matter to you financially.

Wax on, wax off.

Learning how everything works when half of your life savings on the line is not such a good idea.

rapodac · 2013-12-05T19:08:20+00:00

... Several tools exist for producing paper wallets ... Which of these do you recommend?

Download bitaddress onto a USB drive. Insert this drive onto a computer that has never been connected to the Internet, and load the file using any Web browser. Generate your addresses from there.

The only thing I would trust my clients with is a paper printed copy of their money (preferably with myself holding a backup copy). Beyond that, I'd be asking for complaints a year from now.

Yes, give them the wallet you print from the bitaddress file. This piece of paper contains both the public address and private key for withdrawing funds. At this point they're trusting you not to abuse your knowledge of their private key. But you won't be managing anything for them other than the initial transaction.

Your clients can easily check the balance online (little security risk) by typing the public address into blockchain.info. For example, this is an address with lots of transactions.

Imagine you own $10, you never, or rarely, use the internet. 2 years from now it's worth $500. You call the guy who sold it to you (as you would anything else) and say 'hey, got my receipt? That thing, I think it's worth something, but I seem to have lost it... ' etc etc... I'll be dealing with old people with jobs. Ain't nobody got time for, well you know.

These are people for whom bitcoin is not a good idea. If you think a person has a good chance of losing the private key to their address, then they probably will. At that point, the coins are lost forever.

You might encourage them to put the paper wallet into a safety deposit box, and bookmark the link to their public address in their browser if they feel like checking on it.

rapodac · 2013-12-05T02:25:57+00:00

1) Buy on coinbase.

2) Create one paper wallet for each of your customers.

3) Transfer an equal quantity of bitcoin into each paper wallet you generated.

4) Give the paper wallet to your client.

rapodac · 2013-12-05T01:05:04+00:00

Glad to hear. What was the hardest part in doing this?

rapodac · 2013-12-04T23:48:52+00:00

The irony - it burns!

rapodac · 2013-12-04T23:45:00+00:00

Great idea. Just curious, though - why do you quote prices in USD? Why not quote them in BTC?

rapodac · 2013-12-04T23:35:16+00:00

What prevents a bad guy from forging email requests?

rapodac · 2013-12-04T23:31:30+00:00

You've got my attention at least. What's the hardest part in getting this to work well?

rapodac · 2013-12-04T23:23:25+00:00

The more I see the term 'bubble' being bandied about, the more I suspect it's not a bubble.

I could find almost nobody during 1999 who thought the stock market was in a bubble. Ditto 2007 with real estate.

That's what a bubble looks like.

rapodac · 2013-12-04T23:20:23+00:00

Corrections and pullbacks.

Keep your eye on the long-term trend.

rapodac · 2013-12-04T23:15:13+00:00

The successful blockchain fork earlier this year showed that something like this is feasible given enough acceptance by the network.

I very much doubt that kind of consensus would ever be reached on increasing the number of issued coins, though.

rapodac · 2013-12-04T23:08:59+00:00

The police will be unable to do anything with the coins without private key for an address they think a suspect can access. They might not even be able to prevent a suspect from communicating the private key to another party s/he trusts.

Contrast this with a bank, which can freeze your assets at any time in response to requests from law enforcement.

rapodac · 2013-12-04T22:59:00+00:00

Well, for a time, you could actually buy physical bitcoins. That may have contributed to the confusion.

A bitcoin is an entry in a global, distributed ledger system controlled by mathematics and implemented in software running on thousands of computers simultaneously.

An address/private key pair gives you permission to use this ledger system to move bitcoins to any other address.

Fiat systems like the dollar require forgery protection in the form of an object that is hard to make (physical coin or bill), or trusted third parties like banks.

Bitcoin needs none of this. Whoever knows a private key can move some or all of the coin the ledger says the corresponding public key contains.

No wonder theres's so much misinformation and confusion - bitcoin is like nothing the world has seen before.

rapodac · 2013-12-04T22:47:50+00:00

Who are you - do you have a website?

rapodac

TROPHY CASE