January 2, 2014

There were 3 posts published on January 2, 2014 (this is page 1 of 1).

Highlights of 2013: Giving up the Parks board gavel

It was a great year to be chair of Raleigh’s Parks board. In February, I led what I consider the best meeting I’ve ever led. The energy I from these kinds of meetings will leave me giddily bouncing off the walls for hours. It’s a shame that I get good at this right before I have to turn it over to someone else.

I did get some good park dedications this year, some of which I probably didn’t blog about. In April, I gave what was arguably my best speech at the Neuse River Greenway dedication. I followed that up with a speech at the synthetic field dedication at the WRAL Soccer Complex. Though there wasn’t much of a crowd at this one, it was special because my parents got to witness it.
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A Guide to Bitcoin Mining: Why Someone Bought a $1,500 Bitcoin Miner on eBay for $20,600 | Motherboard

I’m late to the Bitcoin party so this is probably already out of my reach, but this is fascinating stuff from a geek point of view.

With the price of bitcoins skyrocketing, mining is suddenly big business, so enticingly big that one wannabe miner was willing to pay a 1,333 percent premium to get his or her foot in the door of this wildly lucrative bitcoin bonanza. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the bitcoin gold rush.The craziest part? This wasn’t an auction for a physical, working, ready-to-ship bitcoin mining machine from Avalon, which claims to be the first to develop turnkey, bitcoin-specific mining computers for sale. For $20,600 bidding started at a reasonable $500, the lucky winner only received a place in line and the promise that an actual pre-ordered miner will be delivered sometime next month. If that sounds ridiculous, well, it’s because it quite possibly is.

But clearly there are bitcoin-savvy folks betting that paying 13 times the price of a machine will actually pay off. How did we arrive at this maniacal juncture? Was it greed? Stupidity? Or simple mathematics? For the full story, we’ll have to start from the top.

via A Guide to Bitcoin Mining: Why Someone Bought a $1,500 Bitcoin Miner on eBay for $20,600 | Motherboard.

Why I fled libertarianism — and became a liberal – Salon.com

After leaving my small town upbringing, I learned that libertarians are made for lots of reasons, like reading the bad fiction of Ayn Rand or perhaps the passable writing of Robert Heinlein. In my experience, most seemed to be poor, white and undereducated. They were contortionists, justifying the excesses of the capitalist elite, despite being victims if libertarian politics succeed.

If you think that selfishness and cruelty are fantastic personal traits, you might be a libertarian. In the movement no one will ever call you an asshole, but rather, say you believe in radical individualism.

via Why I fled libertarianism — and became a liberal – Salon.com.