Whatever his current net worth is, he probably makes more in 1-2 hours work than 136$. Is it really worth creating potentially hack-luring accounts on Tip4Commit and (e.g.) Mt.Gox (the apparently most reliable exchange)?

Only decent reason to do this would be giving his thumbs-up to Bitcoin, but does he really need to? I believe he's seen as an open-source guy, not as a "let's decentralize the financial systems and currencies of the world" activist. An despite deciding to do it for that reason, not even safeguarding his bank accounts would prevent at least providing real personal addresses and social security numbers in order to actually withdraw the stuff.

See it from a common, millionaire person point-of-view:

Why would Linux Torvalds, a (probable) millionaire, want to share his personal information on a bleeding edge platform like Tip4Commit, or worse, share his bank information with an exchange service (that could very well be seized, go down, open bankruptcy, pose security flaws) when he wants to convert the wallet to common currency.

Just focus on the latest trends of core technologies which some 60%+ employers rely on today: Java, SQL and C variants.

Specifically to your new market targets, and going away from low level and embedded, I would say you need to go hands dirty with the most popular frameworks for things like web, mobile and distributed systems, which are indeed vast, but if you wanted to evolve one of each I'd say JavaEE/Rails, Android, and JavaEE (again), respectively to each technology. REST/SOAPclient and server knowledge, along with concepts of SOA will also be a plus for general-purpose. If you want to keep your C roots go for the .NET version of those standards.

Cracked version of Teamviewer from your favorite torrent tracker. Fight the powa!

Conduit and those amazing javascript injected price checkers are killing the internet. I have had at least 10 family members, friends and work colleagues come to me the last year in order to remove conduit from their PC. And they varied widely in browser of choice: Chrome, IE and Firefox.

Conduit, Search protect, and price grabbers need to be put to court soon so they can stop making money from distributing malware and browser hijackers.

As Bill Hicks would put it: "If you work in advertising, kill yourself. It's the only way to save your fuckin soul."
Despite backing up Bill's statement to it's fullest extent, I would like to take the chance to introduce some alternatively valid, tiny criticism to all this action being taken by advertisers, advertiser-backed companies and "advertisement enforcers":

TAKE THE FUCKIN HINT - If we use ad blockers, it's because we'd rather have your page fully messed up, your online game unplayable, your newspaper news unreadable, to abiding to deal with the consumerism-centered policies that brainwash us to pay for things we do not need. You want to make money out of the publicly available resource which the internet is since its creation? Provide me a better service by not using ads in the first place and I will be sure to drop some money on your premium services. And by premium I don't mean the ones without ads, I mean the ones where you actually had to work for, unlike whatever web-app reinventing the wheel you developed last Thursday and put ads on linked to your PayPal account.

This will be the perfect excuse for every situation the human being can't explain his moral decisions, like why do we act stupid when in love, why do some people chose to go to war and why did they sack Conan from the Tonight Show.

Just weeks ago we heard about Google thermostat prototypes. It wasn't enough to have so much in-house projects but now the policy is becoming "let's buy popular brands in emerging segments where we suck so we can be everywhere". This monopoly and diversity is bad for company focus and especially for the consumer. Android, Youtube, Motorola, Boston Dynamics, FlexyCore, and the list goes on and on. Up next: Oculus VR

We are the biped evolution of bees. It's a fact now

Better than facing death sentence for actually doing a good thing, IMHO. The time of martyrs is long gone: we have attained a maturity level, as a species and a global society, which should prevent us from taking irrational action such as murdering people because they read the bible (North Korea) or they export an encryption algorithm to foreign countries (US). He just decided it was better to be labeled a false traitor than a dead one.

About time more americans started acting snowde-like. As in ballsy

I believe the OP is asking the question with an underlying motive that most users aren't grasping - The manufacturer definitely has a way of estimating the gate "cost" from C++, as some experts on the matter have pointed out here, but for that he probably demanded source code, which the OP probably has no safe way of handing over without compromising his Intelectual Property. He doesn't want to lose the business contract or spend money blindly on a consultancy he doesn't even know which's name is, so the question makes FULL SENSE regardless of its child-like semantics.

You can probably bet the manufacturer is based and/or has legal safe-haven in a dodgy country, along the lines of having properties like:

1. An established electronics manufacturing industry;
2. Low respect and legislation for IP and the concept of royalties

(hint: China) ...This makes the OP think twice about passing source around.

Now, my personal opinion regarding a possible answer is more business-focused - if such a kind of manufacturer is even remotely interested on your "product" as to ask that, then you have a very marketable piece of code on your hands and you need to do the following...

1. Find a "safer" buyer - something based on Europe (Germany?), Japan, or maybe the US if location is pinnacle over legislation. This nets you light IP protection
2. Spend on a good legal advisor to draft a nuke-proof NDA with special clauses like "if we give you the code for estimation of costs, you either buy it or refrain from implementing similar technology for at least N years" (N>10)
3. Despite all this, you still need an expert on electronic device manufacturing by your side, and I mean full-time. This also ensures you don't get robbed when they don't gain leverage on a final money deal with you by stating "it's too much gates! We can't pay more than XXXXX"
4. In alternative, find business angels, investors or waste a TON of money and do the hardware YOURSELF, under your own company's umbrella, or maybe some form of partnership. This is the stuff that makes you a millionaire, but also places a lot of risk on your side.

Give him bitcoins instead :D
This is definitely my favorite /. article this year so far.

Unlike most here might think, this might actually be needed regulation (projects/companies need to have the people's money traced, or else failed project become easy robberies or even forms of money laundering), but not the added taxation. Reasons are varied but the best example: I don't think nice text and a youtube video are safe enough for proving a company will keep their word, and the money will actually be used for what they state. Most people on the web will trust blindly and pour money, so regulation is essential for funding credibility, just like quality control/warranty are essential for consumer protection.

Unfortunately such bureaucratic measures are usually associated with the thievery of the money pie that needs be passed around, because that's the democratic government way of telling you: "yes, we promote capitalism, but you only deserve to level up in society if you profit so much you can actually get past our taxes, since we also need to be a bit communist" (which is usually the fair thing to do).

BUT this "give and don't take" funding, where public interest is primordial for the project's launch (unlike, say, investments that seek return of some form or have indirect interests from large companies) must fall under full exemption categories, much like academic research, or, since the start-ups actually make money from their funded innovations, a new category where public interest and FAIR taxation meet halfway.