Thursday, December 12, 2013

Bitcoins

Bitcoin logo.svg

Bitcoins are a digital currency created by "Satoshi Nakamoto" (a pseudonym for the actual unknown person) in 2008. Bitcoins function as an Internet-based currency that is equivalent to actual physical currency, such as 1 Bitcoin= almost $900 US dollars. There is a function that keeps private keys and addresses in something called a "wallet", like a typical wallet it keeps hold of money (or Bitcoins, in this case) and various other personal dealings, but in a private sector of the Internet, print-outs, or on hardware, like mobile devices or flash drives. Theft of Bitcoins is not uncommon, though, as it is open to anyone, if they know the right way to get to it. It is thought that Bitcoins are so popular is simply due to its availability of seedy practices, such as the use of things like the Silk Road, where you can buy various illegal things, such as drugs or guns. Like all things, Bitcoins do come from somewhere: It comes from various people who take the time to construct them for the masses, but in compensation, they get their own fresh mint Bitcoins transactions as a reward.

Most sources consider it a viable source of new currency, but discredit it due to its use in illegal activity and how it cannot be monitored by the banks/governments; despite that, many critics praise the way it came into being, and support it existing, even if there are some problems they would prefer to be sorted out.




Cracked v Geek Culture v The Oatmeal


Cracked.com is a humor site that specializes in list type entries. The basis of the comedy on the site is an organized list (to some degree) of information, but presenting it in a humorous manner. It was founded in 2007, and still by some miracle has new content every single day. The content can come from the lists, videos, and Photoshop photo; all of which revolve around some type of comedy. The comedy is mostly lowbrow; toilet humor, with a dash of pop culture references and dark comedy. Meaning it never gets too heavy to handle. The lists are easy to read, humorous (which it should as a comedy website), and simple enough for any kind of person to read.


Geek Culture is another humor website, but this one specializes in various "geeky" media. The main draw of the site seems to be something, but I can't quite find it. I honestly have no idea why anyone would use this site. The layout isn't very appealing to look at, and it doesn't seem to update very often. It's also not very funny; just various somewhat interested geeky things from around the web, but since it isn't updated very often, I wouldn't consider it reliable as a portal to the web.


The Oatmeal is yet another humor website (getting repetitive, I know) that specializes in web-comics. The site seems to be updated fairly often, but I can understand due to comics being a more time consuming activity then simply writing a list. The variety of comics is also astounding; you could probably get trapped in your house for a few weeks straight if you attempted to read all of them on the site. This is actually a quality site, especially with its nice and easy to use layout and it's ton of content to peruse through.