Bitcoin was born out of anonymity and now with increasing scrutiny by regulatory bodies, there is a demand for online identity checking.

In 2008, a man named Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the world to a revolutionary new piece of software, he introduced us to Bitcoin. From its early excitement amongst a small group cryptography geeks it grew and is now recognised as a viable alternative currency. Many find the concept of a virtual currency with no physical material (such as gold) to back it, and no central authority to control it, a mystery. But the greatest mystery of Bitcoin remains this; Satoshi Nakamoto does not exist… [read more at miicard.com]

This post was written by Andy Barratt and continues at http://www.miicard.com/blog/201306/internet-passport-solving-bitcoin-id-checks

Couldn’t help but laugh at a friend’s review of the new trailer for Gravity… here is my literal interpretation of her comment.

And of course, here is a link to the actual trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufsrgE0BYf0

The post can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=494299503970563&set=a.392658847467963.91808.392654067468441&type=1&theater

This week saw the quiet launch of something big.  A new crowd funding platform that welcomes any project no matter where in the world you are!  How can they remove such a limitation?  Well by using a globally recognised currency that anyone can use, that of course would be Bitcoin.

Just one of several projects on the brand new crowd funding site.

Bitcoin Starter is like any other crowd funding platform such as Kickstarter or IndieGoGo, the difference being that it only accepts Bitcoin payments as contributions to projects!  Other than that, the main rules stay the same.  Anyone can submit a project, they write up their aim and they post it on the website saying how much they’re needing, what they’re planning to use it for and how long they have to raise the funds.  If the target isn’t reached, the money is returned to the people who pledged it and if it’s successful, the pledgers get rewards for their help.

So what’s so great about using Bitcoin rather than dollars, euros, pounds, yen or indeed what ever currency you’re used to spending?  Well for starters, no matter where you are in the world, your Bitcoin is usable and you don’t have to go through any lengthy process to open a bank account to use it.  In fact, you don’t need a bank account at all, just a Bitcoin wallet on your device.  If you don’t trust yourself to keep your Bitcoin safe on your device you can keep one online too but the important thing is, anyone can have one and trade online.  It means that money can be sent instantly over the internet without payment providers taking large costs and without so much banking regulation (money is sent directly from user to user).  More people are able to raise the Bitcoin they need to start a project, regardless of country, age, ability to open a bank account, everything!

Bitcoin is the worlds fastest growing currency, when I first started investigating, 1 BTC cost 48 GBP, now it costs 90 GBP and is fast heading toward £100 and that’s in just a couple of weeks.  The rapid growth shows just how much people are trusting this new currency, especially after a rocky start with some pretty nasty press.  My next post will be more about Bitcoin though, this one is about Bitcoin Starter.

As I say, it’s been a quiet launch but the creators have been kind enough to invite me to seek funds for My Agility Board on launch, therefore, My Agility Board is on the front page and looking for funds to help it expand.  There are also other projects such as those seeking funds for a photographer who’s dream is to go to Pripyat in Ukraine so that he can photograph the home of the Chernobyl Disaster and another wishing to raise funds to buy Tablet computers for educational purposes in the world’s poorest areas.

It’s been a very quiet launch and it’s taking off very slowly but I’m sure as the Bitcoin community grows, so will BitcoinStarter.com, it’s definitely one to watch!

This video keeps being taken down because people who don’t support Scottish Independence don’t like its hard truths.

Now I don’t currently support independence but I do support grown up debate.  Don’t ask me to take it down, I won’t.

Alternatively download the video here (You may have to right click and choose to save it that way).

I just think it’d be nice to be able to express an opinion on which shows should be included for Netflix streaming in my region.

Growing up, my family didn’t just have Santa, we had an extra little thing, something that I didn’t know until I was quite a bit older, was unique to my family.  We also had, The Cracker Fairy.

In Great Britain and some members of the common wealth, crackers are a traditional part of Christmas.  You have a decorated tube with a handle at each end and a strip of paper through the middle. Two people will hold onto the cracker, one at each side and pull it open.  A small bit of black powder inside makes a loud cracking sound and some treats fall out.  Traditionally, these are a little party hat, a very bad joke and a little toy or trinket of some kind.

Well normally most families buy these crackers at the shop but in my family, we make them, the children will collect old toilet roll tubes in the run up to Christmas and then we decorate them together, put it together but here’s the sneaky thing, we don’t put any toys inside.  This is the magic part, the children put empty crackers on the tree put when Santa comes, the cracker fairy comes too.  The cracker fairy then puts little toys inside all the crackers ready to be pulled open at Christmas dinner!  I’ve never seen her but she has never failed to come.

Well, I’ve just told all the kids staying with us this year about the cracker fairy and we’ve made our crackers.  Now they’re off to bed and sleeping, waiting to morning to see what Father Christmas and The Cracker Fairy have brought in the night!

My own finished cracker!

First we decorate the paper, when I was a kid we just used wrapping paper but our tradition has evolved a little bit :)

You take an old toilet roll tube and put a joke, a party hat and of course a snapper inside.

Roll it up

and scrunch up the ends!

Finally put it on the tree waiting for The Cracker Fairy to put little presents inside!

My Christmas helpers this year :)

On the 4th of November, I spotted a strange term trending on Google+, “#nanowrimo2012″.  I had no idea what it was or how much I would find myself tagging posts on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ with #nanowrimo after I found out exactly what was going on.

NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month.  The challenge?  Write or begin a novel with 50,000 words in 30 days.  I’ve wanted to write a novel several times, I’ve even tried.  Particularly stalkerish readers may even remember posts on this blog from years ago where I stated that I was writing one.  They all failed and, after going back to them, they were all awful.  30 days and 50,000 words?  I thought that was doable.  I’d had an idea for a story floating in my mind for a few days, just a single opening scene, so I wrote it and had my first 4,387 words already done.

I found myself wanting to write more but with work during the day, I couldn’t write until evening.  This turned out to be a blessing as the ideas I had during the day were able to form into full chapters, ready to write in the evenings.  Then these day dreamed chapters became collections of chapters.  After about a week, I knew the entire story.  I actually had a full story, from beginning to end, in my head.  That’s something I’d never been successful with in the past.

On the 26th day of NaNoWriMo, I’d finished my first draft, I’d started late and finished early.  51,723 words written in 22 days!  By the 29th, I had my 2nd draft and so I took a break.  I saw people saying I should claim the domain name for the title of my book so I did that too.  I also wrote a site which I’m quite proud of, put on your headphones and head over to www.hududandescape.com where you can read the first chapter.

I’m now working on my third draft and soon, I hope, I’ll be looking for people to represent it, to see if it’s something people think is worth publishing.  I believe it is but then, I expect many bad writers think what they write is a masterpiece.  I know the feedback from those who have read it so far has been good though and I hope they’re not just being nice to me.

Check out www.hududandescape.com and if you know of someone who you think might be interested in publishing it, please show them the site too.