Category Archives: Technical

I decided to use github for pettycoin, and tested out their blogging integration (summary: it’s not very integrated, but once set up, Jekyll is nice).  I’m keeping a blow-by-blow development blog over there.

At linux.conf.au I spoke about my pre-alpha implementation of Pettycoin, but progress since then has been slow.  That’s partially due to yak shaving (like rewriting ccan/io library), partially reimplementation of parts I didn’t like, and partially due to the birth of my son, but mainly because I have a day job which involves working on […]

Chris Fisher’s Jupiter Broadcasting pod/vodcasting started 8 years ago with the Linux Action Show: still their flagship show, and how I discovered them 3 years ago.  Shows like this give access to FOSS to those outside the LWN-reading crowd; community building can be a thankless task, and as a small shop Chris has had ups […]

I was thinking about peer-to-peer networking (in the context of Pettycoin, of course) and I wondered if sending ~1420 bytes of data is really any slower than sending 1 byte on real networks.  Similarly, is it worth going to extremes to avoid crossing over into two TCP packets? So I wrote a simple Linux TCP […]

I tested out livingroomofsatoshi.com, which lets you pay any BPAY bill (see explanation from reddit).  Since I’d never heard of the developer, I wasn’t going to send anything large through it, but it worked flawlessly.  At least the exposure is limited to the time between sending the BTC and seeing the BPAY receipt.  Exchange rate […]

As my previous post documented, I’ve experimented with localbitcoins.com.  Following the arrest of two Miami men for trading on localbitcoins, I decided to seek legal advice on the sitation in Australia. Online research led me to Nick Karagiannis of Kelly and Co, who was already familiar with Bitcoin: I guess it’s a rare opportunity for […]

I bought 10 BTC to play with back in 2011, and have been slowly spending them to support bitcoin adoption.  One thing which I couldn’t get reliable information on was how to buy and sell bitcoin within Australia, so over the last few months I decided to sell a few via different methods and report […]

At linux.conf.au I gave a last-minute talk previewing my work on pettycoin (video, slides), an experiment to shard a bitcoin-like network.  The idea is to trade off some security and robustness in return for scale, but use it only for small amounts where fraud is less worthwhile.  On the bitcoin network today this is already […]

Delightedly finished reading through the linux.conf.au program.  Some nasty clashes have me still arguing with myself, but here are my personal compulsory attendance talks.  Your preferences will no-doubt differ, so I’ve tried to explain my reasons:   Tridgell: Open Hardware Differential GPS – I spoke to Tridge about this, and the abstract completely undersells it. […]

I don’t know who wrote this originally, but this is from my .bashrc.  Tridge’s is simpler, but has colour! Before this, I avoided git branches in favour of multiple copies of repositories because I use my prompt to provide location.  This provided the missing piece… # Git me harder! __git_ps1 () {     local g=”$(git […]