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Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox goes offline as insolvency rumors swirl

Feb25
by on February 25, 2014 at 3:36 am
Posted In: Around the Web, bitcoin, Insider, mt.gox

bitcoin 520x245 Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox goes offline as insolvency rumors swirl

Troubled Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, once the largest of its kind, has disappeared from the Internet after its website went offline following rumors that it is battling insolvency.

Here’s what we’re seeing when we visit mtgox.com: nothing but white space.

gox down 730x413 Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox goes offline as insolvency rumors swirl

There is clearly something seriously wrong going on at the company. Before the website went down, there were reports that Mt. Gox had disabled all trading on its site in a hint that it may be planning major restructuring.

A Mt. Gox customer posted a screenshot on Reddit that showed trading had been disabled:

gox 730x289 Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox goes offline as insolvency rumors swirl

Separately, we found that the company was not allowing new users to register for an account on the site, before it went down:

gox3 730x488 Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox goes offline as insolvency rumors swirl

This sudden disappearance of the site comes less than an hour after the heads of six of the world’s biggest Bitcoin exchanges penned a letter in response to reports of Mt. Gox’s impending insolvency.

There has been much talk that Mt. Gox is struggling financially, having been beset by technical issues. The company has not commented on those claims, but the joint letter — which was initially titled ‘Joint Statement Regarding the Insolvency of Mt.Gox’ but now reads ‘Joint Statement Regarding MtGox’ – promises to learn from “the trust squandered by the failings of Mt. Gox”:

Responsible bitcoin exchanges are working together and are committed to the future of bitcoin and the security of all customer funds. As part of the effort to re-assure customers, the following services will be coordinating efforts over the coming days to publicly reassure customers and the general public that all funds continue to be held in a safe and secure manner: Coinbase, Kraken, BitStamp, Circle, and BTC China.

We strongly believe in transparent, thoughtful, and comprehensive consumer protection measures. We pledge to lead the way.

This is unlikely to be the end for Mt. Gox, however. A report suggests shows that the company has acquired Gox.com, hinting that it may relaunch a rebooted service on the domain under a new brand.

Mt. Gox has consistently traded below the market valuation for months due to security concerns. The threat that the site might be hacked or was heading for insolvency was motivation enough for some customers to cash out at a far lower rate in order to ensure that their Bitcoin holdings — which are locked inside Mt. Gox — were sold for something and not lost forever.

Update: Interestingly, a document that it is claimed leaked out of Mt. Gox is circulating within the Bitcoin community. The contents is not confirmed but it does suggest that 750,000 bitcoins (worth around $375 million using today’s valuation) belonging to the company’s customer base have been lost.

There are also big hints that the company is being acquired:

Headline image via Zack Copley / Flickr

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Datalabel height and width for 2007 or earlier.

Feb25
by on February 25, 2014 at 3:15 am
Posted In: Around the Web

Over at Chart LeaderLines in Excel 2010 or earlier I posted some code that draws leader-lines on charts just like Excel 2013 does.

Unfortunately that title was misleading in regards to the or earlier bit: Eric said that the code isn’t working at all in XL07, and Jon Acampora advised that the DataLabel.Height and DataLabel.Width properties are not available in XL07.

Andy Pope had a crafty workaround for this:

The trick to getting datalabel width and height is to force the data label off of the chart by setting left and top to chartarea width and height. The data labels will not actually go out of the chart so by reading the new left and top properties you can calculate the differences.

So I whipped up some functions to get the datalabel height and width:

Function dlHeight_2010(dl As DataLabel)
    dlHeight_2010 = dl.Height
End Function

Function dlWidth_2010(dl As DataLabel)
    dlWidth_2010 = dl.Width
End Function

Function dlHeight_Pre2010(dl As DataLabel)
    Dim dlTop As Long
    dlTop = dl.Top
    dl.Top = ActiveChart.ChartArea.Height
    dlHeight_Pre2010 = dl.Top – ActiveChart.ChartArea.Top
    dl.Top = dlTop
End Function

Function dlwidth_Pre2010(dl As DataLabel)
Dim dlleft As Long
    dlleft = dl.Left
    dl.Left = ActiveChart.ChartArea.Width
    dlwidth_Pre2010 = dl.Left – ActiveChart.ChartArea.Left
    dl.Left = dlleft
End Function

They are all separate functions because if I lumped them together in one, it wouldn’t compile on pre-2010 machines. So I call these from the main code with this:

If Application.Version = 14 Then
  dlHeight_2010 dl
  dlWidth_2010 dl

ElseIf Application.Version < 14 Then
    dlHeight_Pre2010 dl
    dlwidth_Pre2010 dl
End If

I’ve updated my leaderlines code to use these. If I comment out the stuff relating to 2010 and force Excel to use the pre2010 functions then it seems to work perfectly. But I asked a buddy to try it in his 2007 installation, and he advises that it doesn’t work…it just deletes the chart leader lines without redrawing them.

Anyone with 2007 or earlier fancy taking this for a spin, and advising where I might have gone off the rails?

Mucho Gracious.
Leader lines_20140225 v7

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Messaging service WeChat passes 100 million downloads on Google Play internationally

Feb25
by on February 25, 2014 at 2:42 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, Asia, Product Updates, wechat

wechat 730x419 Messaging service WeChat passes 100 million downloads on Google Play internationallyWeChat (and Weixin, its Chinese version) is one of WhatsApp’s greatest global competitors. With a combined 272 million monthly active users, it surpassed 100 million user accounts outside China in August last year.

Now, WeChat has chalked up another milestone by crossing the 100 million download mark on Google Play internationally. Poshu Yeung, vice president of the international business group at Tencent, which owns the messaging service, says in a statement that WeChat will continue to give its users “an easy-to-use, all-in-one experience.”

This comes as WeChat games were rolled out internationally recently, a crucial step in its evolution to become more like a social platform – and part of its strategy to differentiate itself from other messaging services.

The Google Play download milestone also comes after WeChat recently stepped up efforts to woo the Western market, in particular sharpening its focus on the US market, after quietly launching a campaign last month to reward users for recruiting their friends.

Related: WeChat is going international in a different way to WhatsApp: using games and commerce [Interview]

Image via Bryanlyt/Flickr

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LinkedIn goes after China with a new joint venture and a localized Chinese-language site

Feb25
by on February 25, 2014 at 12:23 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Asia

linkedin china video1 1024x380 520x245 LinkedIn goes after China with a new joint venture and a localized Chinese language site

LinkedIn has just announced the beta launch of a Chinese version of its site. While the company already has four million members in China, this is the first time it has localized its site.

The expansion will take place as a joint venture with Sequoia and CBC Capital. CBC has several Chinese success stories in its portfolio, including Evernote and Dianping. It also invested in MySpace China, though I’d be hard-pressed to call that a success.

LinkedIn’s Chinese version includes integration with popular local social networking services, such as Sina Weibo and Tencent WeChat, but it also lacks some features from the main site, such as Groups. Now that it has a local presence, the company also opens up itself to greater monitoring from the Chinese government.

In a blog post, CEO Jeff Weiner stated that the company disagrees with China’s approach to censorship, but it will abide by any necessary laws in order to operate in the country. Weiner also outlined the following three guidelines that LinkedIn will maintain for the venture:

  • Government restrictions on content will be implemented only when and to the extent required.
  • LinkedIn will be transparent about how it conducts business in China and will use multiple avenues to notify members about our practices.
  • The company will undertake extensive measures to protect the rights and data of our members.

Based on the company’s launch post, LinkedIn appears to be treading carefully as it enters China. Foreign Internet companies have historically struggled to gain traction in mainland China, even as they faced criticism in their home countries for submitting to government censorship.

Weiner noted in his post that LinkedIn consulted with human rights organizations as it weighed whether to enter China. In the end, the company decided that the venture would have greater benefits for its user, both in China and abroad, than the downside of increased regulation.

Image credit: LinkedIn

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Bebo’s revival begins with the debut of Blab, its 1:1 ephemeral video messaging service

Feb24
by on February 24, 2014 at 11:09 pm
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web, bebo, bebo blab, blab video messaging app, Insider, launch

IMG 0063 520x245 Bebos revival begins with the debut of Blab, its 1:1 ephemeral video messaging service

In July 2013, entrepreneur Michael Birch spent $1 million to buy back Bebo, a company he founded and sold to AOL for $595 million. A couple of months later, Birch announced the rebirth of his creation through the use of a ‘ballsy’ video. Today, Bebo is kickstarting its revival with the debut of Blab, a video messaging service that allows you to send ephemeral notes to anyone.

This isn’t a rebrand of Bebo and when you look at it, you’ll immediately think of it being a “wannabe” Snapchat.

IMG 0067 220x390 Bebos revival begins with the debut of Blab, its 1:1 ephemeral video messaging serviceThe application is billed as being “like FaceTime, but on your own time.” Users need only press on the screen to record and then release to stop. The recipient can review the video in the same manner — hold tap on the screen to view and release to end. Once viewed, the message will be removed from the app and the phone.

Shaan Puri, the CEO of Monkey Inferno, the tech incubator behind the revival of Bebo, says he believes that this will allow users to express themselves how they want without having to worry about what they’ve said in the past.

Currently, Blab will only allow users to send messages to another person. However, in future releases, multiple recipients are planned, in which case it will be in a “blind carbon copy” basis. The app also will work across multiple platforms — doesn’t matter if you’re on iOS, Android, or if you don’t have the app.

Unfortunately, Bebo hasn’t come up with anything really unique — it’s facing competition from Samba, Snapchat,  and others.

It’s important to note that while Bebo has announced its latest mobile app, it’s not going to be available quite yet for people to download and use. However, this is the first of three apps that Bebo will be releasing this year. Puri says that each one will focus on doing one simple thing exceptionally well.

You can sign-up here for Blab.

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