Last question then I'll drop it. What is the motivation? What is the point for the strings of "junk data". Are they just trying to embed spam type messages in the blockchain? Again forgive my lack of imagination here...

EDIT: This article answers some of the questions I have. I didn't even consider some of the uses talked about in the article such as:

“Most controversial [are] things like Counterparty and Mastercoin”, said Coinwall’s Ortutay. “They try to use the block chain as a datastore for various protocols, where things like bids/asks are embedded in bitcoin transactions.”
http://www.coindesk.com/new-forms-spam-bloat-bitcoins-block-chain/

I'm sure the use of blockchain type systems/technology is whatever people want it be but yes it would be better if they would use their own side chain to do their dirty work.
Ultimately it's up to the miners to decide what transactions they want to include in their blocks, so with that said I will be at the next discussion Elgius has about the pools policies.

Thanks for putting up with my curiosity.

I write the code, wizkid057 runs the pool. Why do you think it matters?

It was always disclosed, both for Eligius (for years now) and Gentoo (although ambiguously to someone not familiar with "Luke-Jr's patches", which I hope to improve on).
It's also not arbitrary, but based on clear technical reasoning.

Ah, I think most people take it as "based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system".
Hardly use of authority either when people can choose whether or not to use it, but *shrug*. :p

Poorly documented, yes. But definitely not obfuscated.
Go troll somewhere else.

P.S. Nobody is saved until they die in a state of grace (ie, free of mortal sin), and even then they only enter Heaven when they are made perfect by God.

You call this "disclosed"?

I literally lol'd at this.

*spins head around like the good cop/bad cop in the LEGO Movie*

Yeah, me too!

Hmm... yeah, going to have to make it a point to make it over next time I'm in the area, which will probably be in February-ish.

Do you have other hashpower pointed here?  Maybe run a stratum proxy and point your hashpower through it ... and once the proxy difficulty gets up to 1024, point your S4(s) to it.

M

I'd suggest asking Bitmain to switch to BFGMiner, which can request a (starting) difficulty from Eligius among many other benefits.
They sent a S1 for development a long time ago, but never followed up with documentation or future products.
I can only guess they believe there might be a lack of demand - in which case their customers need to be more vocal in expressing the need to them.