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The universities also very quickly banned crypto mining in dormitories. People still did it secretly, but it was very easy to get caught. There would have been

The universities also very quickly banned crypto mining in dormitories. People still did it secretly, but it was very easy to get caught. There would have been no way to have any sizeable operations in a dorm.

AmericanChopper 4y ago
A friend and I managed to run a PS3 cluster mining bitcoins in one of the labs on campus for pretty much the entire 2009 academic year. But I think that was before mining rigs became much of a nuisance.
- seper8 4y ago
  And you're proud of this treft why exactly?
  - snapcaster 4y ago
    You're on _hacker_ news dude
    - Loughla 4y ago
      That's an interesting statement. Are there still people on here who define hacker as a bad thing, instead of someone who wants to take things apart to see how they work? Is tech still counter culture now that it pervades every place in society? Is it still okay to completely shirk the law now that many tech companies, for all intents and purposes, write the laws? These are interesting questions to me.
      - q-big 4y ago
        > Is tech still counter culture now that it pervades every place in society? Tech is not counter culture (and has in my personal observation never really been). Hacker culture, on the other hand, was counterculture from beginning on and still mostly is.
      - bleuarff 4y ago
        I'd say the stereotype may include a willingness to break the law in order to achieve some technical feat.
        lupire 4y ago
        Or a willingness to achieve some techical feat to break a law.
        brianwawok 4y ago
        Is it a technical feat to install code someone else wrote on a computer and click RUN?
      - lupire 4y ago
        The distinction between legal and illegal hacking it relatively recent. Stealing small amounts of money or value goes way back. And Hacker News is run by YCombinator, which has an application form that asks applications to explain a time when they cheated ("hacked") a system for personal advantage.
      - jazzyjackson 4y ago
        To be a hacker is to know the rules well enough to work around them Besides, breaking the law is not inherently a bad thing.
  - AmericanChopper 4y ago
    Was just sharing my experience with the topic really. Tbh, building a PS3 supercomputer was one of the most educational experiences I had during my time at university. If they didn’t have an 11 figure endowment I might almost feel bad about it. Edit: Also, I absolutely didn’t get rich from this if that’s what you’re concerned about for some reason. We cashed out after an early price spike, pocketing several thousand dollars each, which with both considered to be a major windfall.
  - helloworld11 4y ago
    Considering the typical behavior of about 90% or more of all major tech companies that many people on this site work for or contract to, it's laughable that you'd snark at someone talking about a minor pseudo-theft of electricity form a dorm room several years ago. Hell, much of the shit being thrown by commentators on this site on cryptominers, who often use renewable energy sources for their mining, is itself laughable considering how much electricity and resources the mega tech corps they work for burn all the time. You could argue that said companies do so for "better" reasons, but that's debatable and a separate matter.
- SamPatt 4y ago
  I'm extremely skeptical of this claim. Only a handful of people were mining Bitcoin in 2009, which is the same year it was created.
  - AmericanChopper 4y ago
    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  - lupire 4y ago
    Yeah, only computer tech geeks were using it then. The kind of people who would do wild stuff like go to college and install Linux on PlayStations.
    - lottin 4y ago
      I don't know if Linux users had (have?) much sympathy for bitcoin.
      - idiotsecant 4y ago
        I think Linux users are humans with a range of interests.
      - squeaky-clean 4y ago
        I'd say 2009-2012 it was mostly Linux users, at least the communities I was in.
        greycol 4y ago
        I know a gui for bitcoin core was available for windows machines by at least the end of 2010 as that's what I used when I was first reading about it.
        lottin 4y ago
        The original bitcoin software ran on Windows if I'm not mistaken, so I don't know about "mostly Linux users". Maybe it was different in the US. In Europe I get the impression the FOSS community is predominantly left-leaning. My local Debian community certainly is, and they're anti-cryptocurrency (like myself). Slashdot was also quite skewed against bitcoin, and that was a pretty international geek readership.

AmericanChopper 4y ago

A friend and I managed to run a PS3 cluster mining bitcoins in one of the labs on campus for pretty much the entire 2009 academic year. But I think that was before mining rigs became much of a nuisance.

seper8 4y ago
And you're proud of this treft why exactly?
- snapcaster 4y ago
  You're on _hacker_ news dude
  - Loughla 4y ago
    That's an interesting statement. Are there still people on here who define hacker as a bad thing, instead of someone who wants to take things apart to see how they work? Is tech still counter culture now that it pervades every place in society? Is it still okay to completely shirk the law now that many tech companies, for all intents and purposes, write the laws? These are interesting questions to me.
    - q-big 4y ago
      > Is tech still counter culture now that it pervades every place in society? Tech is not counter culture (and has in my personal observation never really been). Hacker culture, on the other hand, was counterculture from beginning on and still mostly is.
    - bleuarff 4y ago
      I'd say the stereotype may include a willingness to break the law in order to achieve some technical feat.
      - lupire 4y ago
        Or a willingness to achieve some techical feat to break a law.
      - brianwawok 4y ago
        Is it a technical feat to install code someone else wrote on a computer and click RUN?
    - lupire 4y ago
      The distinction between legal and illegal hacking it relatively recent. Stealing small amounts of money or value goes way back. And Hacker News is run by YCombinator, which has an application form that asks applications to explain a time when they cheated ("hacked") a system for personal advantage.
    - jazzyjackson 4y ago
      To be a hacker is to know the rules well enough to work around them Besides, breaking the law is not inherently a bad thing.
- AmericanChopper 4y ago
  Was just sharing my experience with the topic really. Tbh, building a PS3 supercomputer was one of the most educational experiences I had during my time at university. If they didn’t have an 11 figure endowment I might almost feel bad about it. Edit: Also, I absolutely didn’t get rich from this if that’s what you’re concerned about for some reason. We cashed out after an early price spike, pocketing several thousand dollars each, which with both considered to be a major windfall.
- helloworld11 4y ago
  Considering the typical behavior of about 90% or more of all major tech companies that many people on this site work for or contract to, it's laughable that you'd snark at someone talking about a minor pseudo-theft of electricity form a dorm room several years ago. Hell, much of the shit being thrown by commentators on this site on cryptominers, who often use renewable energy sources for their mining, is itself laughable considering how much electricity and resources the mega tech corps they work for burn all the time. You could argue that said companies do so for "better" reasons, but that's debatable and a separate matter.
SamPatt 4y ago
I'm extremely skeptical of this claim. Only a handful of people were mining Bitcoin in 2009, which is the same year it was created.
- AmericanChopper 4y ago
  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- lupire 4y ago
  Yeah, only computer tech geeks were using it then. The kind of people who would do wild stuff like go to college and install Linux on PlayStations.
  - lottin 4y ago
    I don't know if Linux users had (have?) much sympathy for bitcoin.
    - idiotsecant 4y ago
      I think Linux users are humans with a range of interests.
    - squeaky-clean 4y ago
      I'd say 2009-2012 it was mostly Linux users, at least the communities I was in.
      - greycol 4y ago
        I know a gui for bitcoin core was available for windows machines by at least the end of 2010 as that's what I used when I was first reading about it.
      - lottin 4y ago
        The original bitcoin software ran on Windows if I'm not mistaken, so I don't know about "mostly Linux users". Maybe it was different in the US. In Europe I get the impression the FOSS community is predominantly left-leaning. My local Debian community certainly is, and they're anti-cryptocurrency (like myself). Slashdot was also quite skewed against bitcoin, and that was a pretty international geek readership.