Interview with me about Bitcoin and other virtual currencies

There was an interview with me on a Slovak web about money and I decided to translate it to English (and do a few minor edits). Enjoy! Is Bitcoin a pyramid scheme? Certainly not, is more like gold. Juraj Bednar talks about the most popular virtual currency in the world. Mining and buying are two […]

Avoid news

If you have an intellectual minute, read Avoid news by Rolf Dobelli I highly agree. I have not watched TV for years now (we don’t have a subscription and I did not bother installing an antenna) and I’ve been practicing a healthy news diet for more than a year now. It really helps, especially with […]

OHM2013 – hackers are camping

The evocative video made by conference organizer tried to convince the audience that the hacker campgrounds are a Dutch tradition – as well as tulips, windmills, Gouda cheese and wooden shoes. Since 1989, every four years hackers gather in a traditional Dutch style campsite. Imagine a large music festival, substitute concerts with tech lectures and […]

Stuck Bitcoin transaction and play with double-spend

A few days ago I was sending my friend a payment of 1.2 BTC. My account had only slightly more than this amount available, not even enough for recommended transaction fee. Instead of borrowing or waiting for a miner to generate more, I decided I would push a transaction with a much smaller fee to […]

Spying, liberty, NSA and USA vs. Europe

When I discussed the loss of American liberties with people here in Europe few years ago, my position was simple – we get the same draconian regulations without any opposition or fanfare here in Europe. Remember export controls of cryptography? We should have been fighting against this barrier because it was primarily against our interests […]

On darkness: Your fear of death attracts such strange objects

I am widely known for listening to darker genres of music. It makes some people feel I am a complete weirdo (which is true). A few weeks ago I was sitting in a cab with a full album (!) of Aqua playing on a radio. Happy songs of happy days, so unauthentic. It thankfully ended […]

Raspberry Pi and Block Erupter on Fidora

My AsicMiner Block Erupter USB miners arrived a few days ago thanks to Andreas and people from Bitcoin Austria who processed the order and the chief Bitcoin economist Peter Šurda who drove them to Progressbar. I shipped some of them abroad to friends. Although I appreciate the work guys that created minepeon do, I decided […]

Are we going to be slaves of algorithms?

Server idnes.cz published an interview with Josef Šlerka, an expert on new media (translation by Google Translate). He warns that we can become slaves to algorithms that we do not understand. This issue has been raised repeatedly in media. I don’t doubt the fact that the algorithms are much more important in our lives than […]

Experiments with ZRTP and FreeSwitch

ZRTP is very important project for securing your voice communication. I started playing with Jitsi, Acrobits Softphone and FreeSWITCH. What I found out after initial configuration of ZRTP for FreeSwitch is that FreeSwitch attempts to negotiate ZRTP keys and act as a trusted man in the middle. I wanted to avoid that and provide end […]

Moral reform by Ztohoven: An ultimate hack

Almost nobody would guess that the speech of Czech MP David Rath would start a moral reform in the country. Rath was arrested and charged with receiving bribes in May 2012. He had a chance to explain what happened to other MPs, who would then vote on his political immunity. His words were not addressing […]