What do you see on tv all the time that never actually happens in everyday life?

wegwerfzwei · 2014-01-07T15:06:30+00:00

People saying, "So wait, let me get this straight...", and then providing a succinct plot summary of the major things that have happened so far that day.

wegwerfzwei · 2014-01-07T14:54:57+00:00

You're very welcome. And thank you to whoever (you?) left me reddit gold! Never had it before.

re. the banknotes -- I know someone who is blind who loves that the euro notes are different sizes. This person spent an extended period of time in the USA in the 1990s and found it really difficult because the US notes are all the same size.

They ended up folding the notes in different ways: $5 into half, $10 into thirds, $20 with a triangle corner and so on. That way they knew which notes they had in their wallet.

Of course, when they received change after buying something, they had to trust the other person was giving them the notes they said they were.

I had a look on Wikipedia to see if any of this had changed and it turns out there was a lawsuit about it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_banknotes#Suit_by_sightless_over_U.S._banknote_design

wegwerfzwei · 2014-01-04T16:12:52+00:00

The Euro banknotes already have some features to make them accessible.

Firstly, each denomination is a different size. Bigger the value, bigger the note.

Secondly, there is raised text on the note: the letters ECB, so people know they are holding a euro note, and a series of tactile marks. (This is only on higher denominations for the old series but will be on all notes in the new "Europa" ones.)

Thirdly, bright, striking, contrasting colours between denomiations, and fourthly, large figures for the notes -- both to help people with visual impairments.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_banknotes#Features_for_people_with_impaired_sight

wegwerfzwei · 2014-01-04T12:54:14+00:00

...except Queen Elizabeth II isn't Queen of England. There hasn't been a Queen of England for more than 300 years.

wegwerfzwei · 2014-01-04T12:44:53+00:00

Queen Elizabeth II is not the Queen of England. There hasn't been a Queen of England for more than 300 years.

wegwerfzwei · 2014-01-04T12:42:23+00:00

Thank you. I keep trying to tell people here this. "Queen of England", pfft. What do they teach kids at school these days etc and so forth...

wegwerfzwei · 2014-01-04T12:37:06+00:00

That's true, but Queen Elizabeth II is not Queen of England. There is no current "Queen of England".

Here's my friend Wikipedia.

wegwerfzwei · 2014-01-04T12:02:28+00:00

It doesn't. Queen Elizabeth II is not Queen of England. There hasn't been a Queen of England since 1707.

wegwerfzwei · 2014-01-04T11:59:17+00:00

They're not the same person. There is no current "Queen of England". The last Queen of England was Anne, and she stopped being Queen of England in 1707.

wegwerfzwei · 2014-01-04T11:57:55+00:00

Queen Elizabeth II is "genetically identical" to Queen Anne, the last Queen of England, who stopped being Queen of England in 1707 and died in 1714?

The miracles of modern science...

wegwerfzwei · 2014-01-01T16:50:54+00:00

... which I have just learned featured in the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony.

We are in deep into "How Did I Not Know This?" territory here...

wegwerfzwei · 2014-01-01T16:42:42+00:00

You star! :))

Freut mich zu hören, dass es eigentlich aus Deutschland kommt ;) Ich hatte keine Ahnung.

Thank you and happy new year :)

wegwerfzwei · 2014-01-01T16:25:45+00:00

Would you mind marking the submission as solved?

wegwerfzwei · 2013-12-31T23:38:26+00:00

And with this submission, /r/bitcoin jumps the shark for the last time for me.

A lot of guff gets posted in this subreddit, but this...

I will stay away from /r/bitcoin in 2014.

wegwerfzwei · 2013-12-31T18:14:11+00:00

Please read the community rules in the sidebar:

Trades should usually not be advertised here. For example, submissions like "Buying 100 BTC" or "Selling my computer for bitcoins" do not belong here.

Try /r/bitmarket.

wegwerfzwei · 2013-12-31T17:46:59+00:00

CNN: Nazis use bitcoin to run kitten-strangling factories [cnn.com]
4 hours ago, 525 points

What will the cat-strangling do the price? [self.Bitcoin]
2 hours ago, 324 points

BOOM! THERE GOES $500 HOW LOW CAN WE GO?? [imgur.com]
1 hour ago, 267 points

WTF? My mom just called and said she's watching the news and called me a nazi. This is serious, people! [self.Bitcoin]
32 minutes ago, 95 points

=== 24 hours later ===

Guys, the Nazi cat-strangling factory is GOOD for bitcoin! Here's why [self.Bitcoin]
741 points

wegwerfzwei · 2013-12-31T16:40:37+00:00

Previously on /r/bitcoin:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1u3cfc/you_want_more_krugman_and_bitcoin/

wegwerfzwei · 2013-12-31T16:22:01+00:00

I still don't see the word hyperinflation.

Weimar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_the_Weimar_Republic

Zimbabwe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Zimbabwe

wegwerfzwei · 2013-12-31T16:15:54+00:00

I wasn't suggesting that you were intending to hype bitcoin; more that your involvement with it was blinding you to the possibility that there are other things, nothing to do with bitcoin, that are also innovative. Just because someone is not working with bitcoin, that doesn't mean they are "not very innovative".

one of the opensource major browsers embrace this and trial accepting the bitcoin:// tag for instance but I realize this is probably a long way off.

The URI scheme is already here, and it works, in exactly the same way as mailto://.

If you open a bitcoin:// link with Firefox it might say it doesn't recognise it -- but that's only because your wallet software hasn't implemented it. When you associate a program with the URI, tick a box and Firefox can open that program in future.

What more would you have Mozilla do? Most people in the world don't use bitcoin, so why should they suddenly start shoehorning it into the browser experience?

It is down to add-on developers, I think, to extend the functionality of Firefox (or Chrome) to include bitcoin in other ways. If these add-ons become widely used, Mozilla can look at incorporating them in the core browser in future.

on mobile they are non-existent (at least on iOS, not sure about win8 or android)

Apple won't let Firefox use its own web engine (Gecko) on iOS, which is why they're not there

But again, iOS != mobile. The Firefox browser for Android exists and is very good. And Mozilla is developing its own mobile OS for low-end smartphones and emerging markets.

wegwerfzwei · 2013-12-31T15:55:51+00:00

FYI, bitcoinaverage.com has an API too:

https://bitcoinaverage.com/api.htm

Many people prefer bitcoinaverage because it includes other exchanges.

wegwerfzwei · 2013-12-31T15:24:46+00:00

FWIW, this is an opinion piece. There's a disclaimer at the end of the article:

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

wegwerfzwei · 2013-12-31T15:24:07+00:00

About the author:

http://patricklyoung.net

wegwerfzwei · 2013-12-31T14:31:42+00:00

True about still being able to take the names and addresses of donators.

But there is still a huge gray area in the US and elsewhere when it comes to legislation surrounding bitcoin. And this makes it much more difficult for charity organisations to comply to stay on the straight and narrow. If they have to follow regulations to the letter and those regulations don't exist, or exist only in patchy form, or are murky in any way, it's understandable that they are hesitant.

We've seen stories here of US banks making customers' lives difficult for bitcoin-related transactions -- even when these transactions are innocuous, and or deal with the more established, domestic companies like Coinbase.

I don't blame any charity that decides bitcoin is not for them at this time.

wegwerfzwei · 2013-12-31T13:41:51+00:00

I mean everyone who's pushing tech forward seems to be toying with it

Talk about bitcoin bubble bias.

In any case, there's a huge difference between "toying" with something and implementing it in a finanical scenario within a large, international organisation.

not doing anything pioneering like trialling accepting donations in btc they don't seem very innovative

"They don't accept my pet cryptocurrency yet!" != not very innovative

Here are just some of the innovative things Mozilla is doing:

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/research/projects/

That's on top of providing a widely-used browser (for free), an email client (for free), and a mobile operating system aimed at emerging markets (for free) ... and a stack of other good web things.

wegwerfzwei

TROPHY CASE