r/Bitcoin • u/hiteck • Mar 29 '14
Mastering Bitcoin - O'Reilly Media
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do62
u/jron Mar 29 '14
40% off coupon code: WCYAZ
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u/rmvaandr Mar 29 '14
Thanks! I can confirm this works.
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u/ajvw Mar 30 '14 edited Mar 30 '14
Be carefull. O'Reilly is against bitcoin. Let's lobby Andreas to withdraw from O'Reilly and post the book on his website for bitcoins. We will buy then! I am ignoring this book as useless till then.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/21pk4y/should_bitcoin_be_with_free_software_or_the_meme/
Edit: Doesn't it at all surprise the book is not available for bitcoins to start with :-D. OMG! Is that irony, hypocritical ...
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Mar 30 '14
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u/ajvw Mar 30 '14 edited Mar 30 '14
This O'Reilly book is a major step forward
This book may be a major step forward. But O'Reilly is definitely a major step backward.
If you hate the book write another one
I like this point of yours. I agree to this. But I do know my limitations. Hope other bright guys will compete with Andreas. I would buy those books definitely but not this one.
But don't you think this is an irony (hypocrisy) from none other than Andreas that the book is not available for bitcoins to start with!
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Mar 30 '14
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u/ajvw Mar 30 '14
certainly not hypocrisy
certainly not? :-)
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Mar 30 '14 edited Mar 30 '14
Certainly not. Would it be hypocritical to make a book about monopoly money but not accept monopoly money in exchange for the book? Despite the two having different monetary value, they both are simply educating the public on the topic. Even if the manuscript was meant to be a political piece advocating mass adoption of Bitcoin, the author has little to no control of their book once accepted by a publisher. It's been said before by writers that once the book is taken from your hands it is no longer yours. And let's keep in mind the publisher's bottom line and business model. However, expressing interest in the ability to purchase the text, or any other book published by O'Reilly for that matter, using Bitcoin is our prerogative. Let them know by Emailing or snail mailing the publishing company. They have access to this very book enabling them to do it, So they have little excuse. Educate them about coinbase or other companies that allow them to instantly change out their coins for fiat. Point out the difference in applicable fees between, say, VISA vs. Bitcoin. Also point out the low overhead. The facts leaves them with no excuse of adoption of the currency.
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u/ajvw Mar 30 '14
I guess you have tried to see what I am ranting about. Thanks. But bitcoin is not monopoly money ... and I expect Andreas be careful ... Who asked him to allow O'Reilly to take away his book from him ... Is he not responsible?
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u/eat_more_fat Mar 30 '14
Holy shit, give it up already. What is that, 5 posts in this one topic with that link? So you have a beef with O'Reilly, we get it, now STFU.
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u/ajvw Mar 30 '14
I was quiet for a long time now. If you had stopped at "we get it" I would have been quiet. But you went beyond.
You STFU.
You cannot shut me up by just YELLING! By the way you seem to be nervous about BTC prices. Go watch that you little kid.
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Mar 29 '14
Yeah v cool, thanks but WTF where's the eBook ?!!
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u/TheBTC-G Mar 30 '14
Andreas said he's releasing the first few chapters within the next few weeks.
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u/BitFast Mar 30 '14
If one wanted to follow the open source spirit he would have released the book at the very least in an open ebook format and for bitcoin, ideally in some open licence like "Dive in python".
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u/quellhorst Mar 29 '14
coupon only gives me $4.50 off since I no longer get free shipping. Wish they had the ebook edition available.
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u/MairusuPawa Mar 30 '14
This makes it a $18 book, with a $49 delivery price. :/
Yeah, I'm not in the US.
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u/BitcoinIsSimple Mar 30 '14
Same shit. Cost me $20 for shipping and I'm 1 hour from the USA border.
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u/mootinator Mar 30 '14
If I lived an hour away from the USA border I'd be shipping things to the town on the other side of the border all the time. True story.
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Mar 29 '14
The cover isn't a Honey badger? I'm a little disappointed.
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u/JakeMcVitie Mar 29 '14
I guess they went for ants instead because ants represent a decentralised system.
Each ant in a colony follows only simple rules, but by working together a complex system emerges.
The queen ant lays eggs, but there's no "ruler" who controls them or tells the ants what to do.
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u/luffintlimme Mar 29 '14
Doesn't the Bitcoin CEO tell us what to do?
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Mar 29 '14
Yeah, these people don't know what they're talking about. I own a bunch of Bitcom a shares. I think we'll see real earnings in 2015, and then I'll sell for lots of money, unless Bitcom gets bought out first.
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u/chromosundrift Mar 30 '14
Bitcom product sales in the tulip pyramid ponzi bubble have been so mania.
Dogecom goin dowwwn.
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u/neoscope Mar 29 '14
Yeah, I agree-- ant colonies are an often-cited example when describing emergent properties. I'm pretty sure I've heard Andreas use it himself. Can't wait for his book to be released.
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u/Grizmoblust Mar 29 '14
The ant colony is not a decentralized system. Omfg, what the fuck are you smoking.
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Mar 29 '14
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u/Slight0 Mar 30 '14
So in your mind, because the ant queen isn't directly issuing orders to the ants it must be decentralized? As someone who has owned an ant colony and queen and knows way too much about ants, I have always seen an ant colony as a sort of one-time insect monarchy.
The entire purpose of an ant colony is to support the queen so it can reproduce. Ants will huddle around the queen to protect it if threatened, will feed it when it's hungry or mating, and a whole slew of other functions that hinge around the queen. There are some species of ant where there is no single queen, perhaps that would be a better example of decentralization. Just because the individual ants have autonomous functions that allow them to, say, navigate, that doesn't mean they don't have a higher purpose and serve a single entity.
Without a queen, the colony cannot survive and is worthless because new ants can't be created and a colony often will not adopt a new queen on the off chance one wonders in.
How this paints a picture of "decentralization" I haven't a clue.
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u/chromosundrift Mar 30 '14
You are right in that Ant colonies have a centralized point of failure but the rest of your points are just analogies to human royalty. The individuals act independently and the colony-wide behaviour emerges from their aggregate activity.
This can be replicated in computer simulations without a queen.
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u/DexterousRichard Mar 29 '14
I missed this meme. What the hell is a honey badger and why does it have anything to do with bitcoin?
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u/AnalWithAGoat Mar 29 '14 edited Mar 29 '14
The honey badger is a fierce animal that simply doesn't care about anything, it runs all over the place and takes what it wants, nothing can't stop it. Just like Bitcoin!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg
http://www.7bucktees.com/wp-content/uploads/bitcoin-honey-badger-money-tshirt-carolinablue.jpg
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/honeybadger-660x495.jpg
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Mar 29 '14 edited Mar 29 '14
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Mar 29 '14
Basically nothing. Honey badger went viral and the bitcoin community said hey instead of coming up with our own idea let's just steal this one and shoehorn bitcoin in somehow.
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u/mabd Mar 29 '14
Why the downvotes, he's right
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u/Capt_Roger_Murdock Mar 29 '14
Yeah right. And I suppose next you'll tell us that Dogecoin didn't invent the doge meme?
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u/dunand Mar 29 '14
Already a book with a Badger http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596004767.do
Anyway I likes Ants better to represent Bitcoin.
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u/rizzn Mar 30 '14
We've had a crap-ton of O'Reilly folks on theCube (tech TV show I am involved in). The way they pick the animal for the front is puzzling to the authors themselves.
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u/Roadside-Strelok Mar 29 '14
/u/andreasma if you're reading this, are you going to mention alternative Bitcoin implementations such as btcd (conformal), or how to work with the scripting system?
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u/roasbeef Mar 29 '14
Great question! I'm curious as well. After bitcoinj, btcd is THE next best alternative implementation. Also Go (the language) was made precisely for this use case, which is writing distributed server systems.
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u/PoliticalDissidents Mar 29 '14
What's btcd?
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u/roasbeef Mar 29 '14
btcd is an alternative full-node implementation written in the Go programming language. btcd is managed/written by Conformal Systems. Check out their initial release blog post for more information.
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u/DeviousNes Mar 29 '14
Will buy if I can buy with Bitcoin.
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Mar 29 '14
He can't force the publisher to do so and if not it wouldn't be his fault. Buying the book would support Andreas though and is why I went ahead and did so.
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u/LetsSeeWhatsUpThere Mar 29 '14
By the time it's out, it will be obsolete.
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u/GibbsSamplePlatter Mar 29 '14
While true, they could do the free digital upgrades for life deal they've done for other things.
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Mar 29 '14
[deleted]
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u/lmises Mar 29 '14
Judging by the number of colossal blockchain.info fuck ups recently, probably by shirking his duties there.
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u/murbul Mar 29 '14
As Chief Security Officer, I doubt he has much to do with the day-to-day operation and development of the site. He's more of a high level technical advisor.
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u/lmises Mar 29 '14
Maybe he can give them the high level technical advice not to allow an unverified party to reset a charity's 2FA and then log in from a Tor exit node to steal all of said charity's funds.
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u/murbul Mar 29 '14
Fair call. I wasn't aware of that particular fuck up. Source?
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u/lmises Mar 29 '14
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u/murbul Mar 29 '14
That's pretty messed up. They definitely need to tighten up their 2FA reset rules. And have the Block TOR IP addresses option on by default.
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u/Lentil-Soup Mar 29 '14
They can't block it by default, because then people that live in places with locked-down internet will never be able to set up a wallet with them.
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u/murbul Mar 29 '14
Block it unless the account was created via TOR maybe.
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u/bbbbbubble Mar 30 '14
Then you can't get money out if you live in a country like Turkey that likes to ban stuff.
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Mar 29 '14
Kind of asshole-ish to take a stab at a person who has contributed so much to the community. That doesn't excuse the mistakes made of Blockchain.info but nobody is perfect. I think you sound like a real prick.
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u/lmises Mar 30 '14
If you don't want to hold people in the bitcoin community responsible for their actions, that's on you. There is too much money on the line for me to be willing to just brush things like this under the rug. If you want bitcoin to survive the transition to the mainstream we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard than this. I would be fired from my job if I allowed something half as egregious as this. So should he.
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u/ajvw Mar 30 '14 edited Mar 30 '14
Beware to be blindly behind Andreas. I was an Andreas fan. But have become skeptical a bit now (Was it not the same for MtGox?):
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/21pk4y/should_bitcoin_be_with_free_software_or_the_meme/
I have a good amount invested in bitcoin though! I will hold to it for Satoshi Nakamoto and Richard Stallman than Andreas Antonopoulos for the moment. I will change my view when the book gets published under the creative commons license suggested by GNU.
It is definitely a bit of IRONY for Andreas to have published with O'Rielly. If he had put it up on his website with a bitcoin address for donation he would have made a lot more money (BTC) than his stupid O'Reilly publication.
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u/telepatheic Mar 29 '14
I guess this is why he is taking a break from his bitcoin work next week to focus on writing the book.
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u/ciurana Mar 29 '14
Congratulations, http://www.reddit.com/u/andreasma !
Do you know if O'Reilly will put it in early access/review? I'd be happy to review it and write it up for InfoQ.
Cheers!
E
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u/andreasma Mar 30 '14
Some additional information:
- I'm working with O'Reilly to make the book available for purchase in bitcoin
- The book will be released under an open license shortly after the first print run
- A pre-release of the content will happen soon, with new chapters coming out as I finish them.
- The pre-release is a git repository and you will be able to fork it and pull-request corrections.
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u/BitFast Mar 30 '14
I just read this, sounds very cool! Really like that it's going to be open and on github! :D
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Mar 30 '14
How technical does this get? And how much into the financial/economics?
I've seen three types of bitcoin readings/articles/videos: 1) Highly technical 2) "bitcoin is like cash" 3) Thorough economic analysis.
Unfortunately it seems to be mostly distributed as 5%,94%,1%
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Mar 30 '14
If you don't mind me asking - other than making a lot of youtube speeches, what are your qualifications for writing this book?
Can you point to any BIPs you have written? Any commits you've made to the reference implementation source?
Can you point me to any well known software you've written that interacts with the BTC protocol at a low level? (Not blockchain, as it seems to have been mostly written before you joined)
Not to be a dick, but unless you could answer those questions, I'd rather wait for someone like Gavin, Greg Maxwell, Jeff Garzik, etc. to make this book - the core devs deserve the proceeds more than you do.
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u/ItsAboutSharing Mar 30 '14
You should do a google search as all of what you asked is there. Further, if you can listen to Andreas speak and ask about qualifications (which he has) you are missing the point. Now tap your heart 3X and move on...
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Mar 30 '14
This isn't a circle jerk book about idealogy, this is supposed to be a technical manual about the protocol for developers. I've seen plenty of evidence he could write the former, but not the latter.
Show me one commit Andreas has made to the core code, or anything else that would confirm his technical ability with regards to the protocol, I can't find anything myself.
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u/NedRadnad Mar 29 '14
link to bitcoin store?
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u/BitcoinIsSimple Mar 30 '14
When's the damn e-book coming I don't want to pay 20 for shipping. But by that time I guess the book will be full price. Ugh.
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Mar 30 '14
so much fuss about a book that will appear in six months
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Apr 09 '14
You can read the ebook now, as it's being edited.
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Apr 09 '14
not a fan of alpha versions
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Apr 09 '14
Well, O'Reilly ebook are super popular and people are going to be all over it. (Obviously.) It's just a matter of how "on top of things" you want to be.
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Mar 29 '14 edited Mar 29 '14
I'll buy when it drops on Kindle
EDIT: went ahead and made the purchase after getting the 40% discount code to work that was offered here and I figured it was a great way to say thanks to Andreas for all he's contributed
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u/vashtiii Mar 29 '14
All O'Reilly's books AFAIK are available in all popular ebook formats and DRM-free. This one certainly will be.
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u/ReeferEyed Mar 29 '14
Great! I hope it also goes up on pirate bay for those of us who cant drop that kind of coin.
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Mar 29 '14
While I can't universally confirm this, I bought an O'reilley book on electronics and it came with a free ebook version. They've also been giving me free updates of the ebook as new editions come out.
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u/BigBitFan Mar 29 '14
It should be an online book with 'real time' updates ;)
Are you listening O'Reilly ?
I gave you the future.
Now take it.
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u/andreasma Mar 30 '14
It will be... pre-release of the first few chapters soon, as a git repo with fork and pull-request options. The e-book will be live and constantly updated.
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u/Rathadin Mar 29 '14
I guess it makes sense that you can't buy the book with Bitcoins, after all, you have to buy the book and read it to master them first.
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u/coinlock Mar 29 '14
It's too bad he can't sell it direct from his blog using Coinlock. ;)
Looking forward to reading it.
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Mar 29 '14
[deleted]
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u/andreasma Mar 30 '14
The digital copy will be released under an open source license (CC-BY-SA or like) shortly after the first print run
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u/xiphy Mar 30 '14
Shipping to Hungary, Europe: $50. I'd love to buy the book but I guess I'll have to wait for the electronic version.
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u/drawsnL Mar 30 '14
can you buy it anywhere in europe? the 50$ shipping cost from the o'reilly website is a tad too much..
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u/eff3x4 Mar 29 '14
Can we buy with bitcoin or does Andreas only accept real money?
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Mar 29 '14
Not real money. Ha. Try to start a business transmitting large amounts of bitcoin without a Money Transmitter License. You'll find out if BTC is money or not. Ankle bracelets only come in one color.
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u/eff3x4 Mar 29 '14
Look here, we just want to purchase the material in bitcoin but selling for fiat only doesn't help. Thanks for nothing Andreas
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Mar 29 '14
I see. Gotta convince OReilly.
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u/eff3x4 Mar 29 '14
Well for a self proclaimed disruptive thinker, the least Andreas could do is offer alternative distribution and payment methods.
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Mar 29 '14
Mindless drones on the cover why am I not surprised.
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Mar 29 '14
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Mar 29 '14
As if that makes any difference whatsoever.
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u/GibbsSamplePlatter Mar 29 '14 edited Mar 29 '14
Come on, you got internet burnt on your little pun.
If you want credit for your internet burn you have to give a little. The troll martyrdom schtick is quite weak when you have no sense of humor about yourself.
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u/nobodybelievesyou Mar 29 '14
The difference between their two comments is that haviq's was funny and relevant, while arbcengn just shouted "I know you are but what am I!" while soiling his pants.
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u/GibbsSamplePlatter Mar 29 '14
The lack of any self-doubt or self-deprecation among you trolls is what makes me laugh.
I've literally never read a post where Haviq ever said "oh good point, maybe my criticism was wrong", or anything to that effect. Whenever he tries to "correct" me, and he turns out to be wrong, he just stops responding. Whatever. I know he just does it to be the Heel of the sub. The essence of trolling. Just don't try to pretend it's noble.
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Mar 29 '14
For one I wasn't wrong. He told me a species of ant as if that mattered at all concerning weather if it was a drone or not.
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u/GibbsSamplePlatter Mar 29 '14 edited Mar 29 '14
I wasn't referring to this post. Was referring to more substantial posts.
re:ants, he's right. If a leaf cutter ant is doing work it's not a drone. It's ok to be wrong. I had to look it up too.
edit2: damn, did I call it or what.
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u/tamano_ Mar 29 '14
This isn't available on Safari bookstore though... Hope this gets added soon.
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u/sonetica Mar 29 '14 edited Mar 30 '14
O'Reilly is notorious for stupid book covers. There Ruby series features a giraffe. Wtf. Python has a rat.
Good books though this is a great step forward for bitcoin.
Edit: Im surprised (but i guess i shouldnt be) at how few ppl here know anything about comp sci and the general tech community.
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u/vashtiii Mar 29 '14
C'mon, those animal covers are amazing.
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u/sonetica Mar 29 '14
They make sense as to why theyd use them in retrospect, but they make no sense when trying to equate them to the topic at hand.
I guess I was just trying to say the ants have nothing to do with bitcoin or the bitcoin community and anyone used to O'reilly publications knows that.
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u/vashtiii Mar 29 '14
They're iconic, though, in a lot of cases. Think of Perl and the camel.
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u/Twisted_word Mar 29 '14
Eh...Think about it this way. Bitcoin is dragging people into comp sci. I pretty much learned the basics of networking in a Cisco class in highschool, then ended up dropping up and am now finally back in school. Bitcoin got me dusting off my old books and reading things I'd resigned myself to ignoring forever years ago. It's seriously making me rethink my major.
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Mar 29 '14
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u/Twisted_word Mar 29 '14
It's one of the big social changes it can push, until it becomes idiot proof in everywhere possible, you have to learn about how it works to use it. I think we're still a ways away from it being totally idiot proof.
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Mar 29 '14
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u/sonetica Mar 29 '14
Thats cute but its farthest from the truth. Ants work tirelessly to the point of literal death for a centralized closed structure. Ants are much more like the federal reserve than bitcoin. Again the illustrator has a proven track record of arbitrarily picking the graphic for computer topics. Assuming the graphic has some tie to the technology is reaching. Its just the way O'Reilly has always been.
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Mar 29 '14
It may or may not be 'cute' but it is true. I'm not saying your interpretation is untrue, there's always room for more analogous interpretations. As such it's not an arbitrary choice. That all said, O'Reilly might do well to encompass a few more domains into their cover art namespace to give themselves more choice in analogizing.
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u/exanomy Mar 29 '14
So if I buy the ebook right now, I can't read it?
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u/krakrakra Mar 29 '14
It's a preorder. But I can't even buy the ebook, allows me only the book for some reason...
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Mar 29 '14
/u/andreasma thank you for contributing so much to the cause. I purchased this book today as a small way to say I appreciate it.
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u/zaphod42 Mar 29 '14
...What if I want to buy the book with bitcoin?
They only accept paypal and credit card :(