That particular example seems like something that's probably a lot cheaper than you'd initially think. The OS has to constantly take mouse input anyway to move the pointer and dispatch events to userspace. It also needs to record the current and new position of the mouse pointer to dispatch the events. Detecting whether the mouse is being "shaken" can be done with a ring buffer of mouse velocities over the last secon…
Why not use an exponential filter that only uses a single variable?
Agreed, a single-pole IIR filter would be cheaper and have a better frequency domain.
Sure, you're not breaking any laws, just intentionally violating the spirit of the law for personal gain. This isn't a court of law. I can understand trying to avoid language that makes it sound like you may have been in violation of the law to a judge or jury, but you literally described that what you did was intended to keep operating a service that had been banned by using an absurd technicality in the definition…
Corporations do not so dissimilar things with teams of accountants and lawyers. Via tax planning, international subsidiaries and all other sorts of loopholes.
Are you trying to make an argument?
I'm equally hostile to corporations doing that. I don't recall the HN comment threats about Google doing the kind of things you describe being full of replies congratulating their ingenuity.
Big corporation doing bad thing is bad doesn't mean much smaller corporation doing bad thing is okay, it means we should work on preventing that bad thing and if we seemingly can't we should reconsider the underlying systemic conditions that enable it.
When I launched my former bitcoin casino in 2011 (it's gone, but it was a casino where all games, even roulette tables were multiplayer, on a platform built from scratch starting in '08), I handled all web requests through a server in Costa Rica that cost about $6/mo. Where I had a shell corporation for $250/year. Once the front end -- the bullet containing the entire casino code, about 250kb -- loaded, from Costa Ri…
> we didn't perform random calculations on their server, thus weren't a gambling site under IoM law. Does it really matter if you get your random number from /dev/urandom or a server in Switzerland?
What's so funny is - I was in a peer group of early btc founders who were starting random Bitcoin hustles and didn't care at all about laws. No one at that time had even approached the IoM about whether BTC was currency - nor would they have, because trying to find legal haven was the furthest thing from their minds. And so not surprisingly, the IoM didn't have a ready answer when I asked them whether gambling with B…
Are you actually an LA taxi driver, like it says in your bio? What a story.
I used to be. I got a web design job in San Francisco when I was 18 out of high school but I burned out and quit when I was 21. Drove a taxi so I could write and play music. Did it for a couple years. It was a good education. I feel old. Taxis don't even exist anymore.
Uh, excuse me, but this whole story demonstrates that I went to extreme lengths to never break any laws , no matter how large or small the jurisdiction. Had I been willing to bend laws, I'd surely be a lot richer today.
Come on, cURL'ing to a foreign server to get a random number and not just reading /dev/urandom is logically identical. It's a hack, just like calling into GPL'ed code over HTTP is a hack to avoid "linking" the GPL'ed code. It doesn't really suddenly turn a site from gambling site into a non-gambling site. I mean, I have mad respect for the hustle with the former MP etc. I agree with what you say in that you did not a…
When I launched my former bitcoin casino in 2011 (it's gone, but it was a casino where all games, even roulette tables were multiplayer, on a platform built from scratch starting in '08), I handled all web requests through a server in Costa Rica that cost about $6/mo. Where I had a shell corporation for $250/year. Once the front end -- the bullet containing the entire casino code, about 250kb -- loaded, from Costa Ri…
> we didn't perform random calculations on their server, thus weren't a gambling site under IoM law. Does it really matter if you get your random number from /dev/urandom or a server in Switzerland?
I don’t think it’d hold up in court. This is the same as saying: “I bet you ten bucks when I mail my friend in Switzerland, he will mail back a ten.” The random part is being done in another country, but the betting is still being done wherever you and your friend are.
When I launched my former bitcoin casino in 2011 (it's gone, but it was a casino where all games, even roulette tables were multiplayer, on a platform built from scratch starting in '08), I handled all web requests through a server in Costa Rica that cost about $6/mo. Where I had a shell corporation for $250/year. Once the front end -- the bullet containing the entire casino code, about 250kb -- loaded, from Costa Ri…
Focusing on a small but important detail that some have already mentioned but with a more aggressive tone... was your "loophole" system tested in an actual litigation at any point? What I mean is that this: > The IoM server would call the Swiss server every time a hand was dealt might seem like a clever loophole around the laws in IoM, but in reality it sounds to me like the kind of technicalities that wouldn't reall…
It was never legally tested. It was what I felt I had to do such that the randomness didn't take place on the island. And no randomness ever did. I was in touch with a lot of officers of the large casinos operating out of there at the time, who were curious but skeptical about Bitcoin. I think by the time they realized it was a potentially valuable thing, I had already shut down operations, because I wasn't willing to chase the market into legally gray areas.
When I launched my former bitcoin casino in 2011 (it's gone, but it was a casino where all games, even roulette tables were multiplayer, on a platform built from scratch starting in '08), I handled all web requests through a server in Costa Rica that cost about $6/mo. Where I had a shell corporation for $250/year. Once the front end -- the bullet containing the entire casino code, about 250kb -- loaded, from Costa Ri…
Focusing on a small but important detail that some have already mentioned but with a more aggressive tone... was your "loophole" system tested in an actual litigation at any point? What I mean is that this: > The IoM server would call the Swiss server every time a hand was dealt might seem like a clever loophole around the laws in IoM, but in reality it sounds to me like the kind of technicalities that wouldn't reall…
He got an MP on his side which seems to be all it takes these days in the UK.
Come on, cURL'ing to a foreign server to get a random number and not just reading /dev/urandom is logically identical. It's a hack, just like calling into GPL'ed code over HTTP is a hack to avoid "linking" the GPL'ed code. It doesn't really suddenly turn a site from gambling site into a non-gambling site. I mean, I have mad respect for the hustle with the former MP etc. I agree with what you say in that you did not a…
What's so funny is - I was in a peer group of early btc founders who were starting random Bitcoin hustles and didn't care at all about laws. No one at that time had even approached the IoM about whether BTC was currency - nor would they have, because trying to find legal haven was the furthest thing from their minds. And so not surprisingly, the IoM didn't have a ready answer when I asked them whether gambling with B…
> But the letter of the law was that gambling occurs _in the jurisdiction where_ the random chance takes place
"where the random chance takes place" could easily be interpreted as where the random number is _used_ and not where it has been created. Creating random numbers is not "chance" per se (in this context). Using random numbers to e.g. determining a winner would be the chance in my opinion.
> we didn't perform random calculations on their server, thus weren't a gambling site under IoM law. Does it really matter if you get your random number from /dev/urandom or a server in Switzerland?
I don’t think it’d hold up in court. This is the same as saying: “I bet you ten bucks when I mail my friend in Switzerland, he will mail back a ten.” The random part is being done in another country, but the betting is still being done wherever you and your friend are.
Isn't it like betting on games happening in a different country? I'm pretty sure that is still gambling, even if entropy is generated in a different place.