If anyone does go ahead and download bitcoin (being as its entirely free I don't see why you wouldn't) make sure if you intend to use it properly you get it all together and make a nice secure package  https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Securing_your_wallet

All I did was make a truecrypt file then mount it up as the Z:\ drive, move the bitcoin .exe and data directory to the Z:\ drive, then create a shortcut to the .exe with Z:\bitcoin.exe -datadir=Z:\Bitcoin and I was done. You can then obviously copy the truecrypt file off to wherever you like 

If you're just having a prat about on it though don't bother 

Another interesting feature with bitcoin, you will have a recieving address as default, but you're supposed to create more for different things, so you could have one as 'public' one as 'mtgox' for recieving money from there (assuming you use mtgox) infact every trade you ever get into, if you want you can create a unique address, the money always ends up in your wallet.

I bought BTC for cash money, I have an Nvidia card = lose 

If your machines on all the time anyway mining may well be worth it, make sure electricity costs aren't wiping out any potential profit mind http://bitcoinx.com/profit/index.php

You ridin' solo or did you jump in a pool?

None, just bought BTC, crazy huh 

Or is it crazy? it's RISKY, but the money I put in yesterday has gone up 3%

Yes, in one DAY.

That's pretty special. I have lots of GPU time and no money to invest, I think it will take some time before I had even a few Bitcoins but we'll see how it goes after I leave this running all weekend. I'm getting around 98% efficiency apparently, which should mean I get a good share out of the pool long term.

I dunno about pools or mining but I get the idea the difficulty is very high now and it takes an age to even get 1 coin 

The whole thing is pretty fascinating still 1FwAWgpxBsPVWsLBMi9xMkJKAo3C4N66hR is a 'public' key I generated, I could create another recieving cake payments, or for being a pimp, fascinating really

Well after a slow start due to issues my end as well as pool issues, I'm now mining 24x7 while the computer is running and should be averaging hopefully 1BTC a week, which doesn't sound like much, but if I hold onto them and the market creeps back up it could prove fruitful. All it's costing me is a few extra watts.

You should have hung onto them I think. The BTC is at a low point, it should go back up to around $10 per BTC eventually. I'm hoping by that time I'll actually have a few mined - I should have 1 by the end of the weekend 

Easy ish I think, there's a load of sites you can exchange on but most seem to be aimed at Americans, matt5cott might have a better idea on that, I've just earned one coin so not really going to sell for a while