I'll acknowledge that Microsoft gathers our info. Google does too. So does Apple. Surprised no one tossed out Facebook. They make some good red herring.
Everyone is collecting our information. If you think otherwise you're just fooling yourself. You should just give up now, sell off all of your electronics, move to the mountains, and live off the land if you really want to be safe all those people out to get you. You can be a paranoid delusional mountain man looking more scraggly than a Duck Dynasty star if you want.
I've just come to terms with information being gathered, take reasonable measures so that not all of it goes out there and don't care about the rest. I don't really have a lot to hide. In fact, if I'm going to have information or advertisements pushed on me anyway, they might as well give me something interesting. To that end, I really don't mind targeted advertising.
Both money and tech are absolutely essential for the majority of Slashdotters. I think it would be stranger if Slashdot *didn't* cover Bitcoins.
On top of that, people understandably expected it to crash "soon". Every day it doesn't crash into oblivion makes it more interesting. And if there is a crash in the end, every day brings us closer to it. Because of this, Bitcoin is even more interesting.
It's the same reason we follow one of those horribly tragic stories about some child who was born with some severe deficiency that will result in low/no quality of life. The child fights against all odds, by generally doing nothing more than relying on outsiders either completely or almost completely. They post about how great baby x is doing until the sad day of loss and everyone mourns. I, for one, would appreciate just the highlight reel. I don't need all the details on the child's suffering.
I like money and tech. Oddly enough, don't care about bitcoins though. Maybe there is just some subset of slashdot that has an interest in bitcoin, specifically it's value. So they post articles like this or support these postings to speculate the value up. That seems a reasonable explanation as well.
The ghost of the spirit of the law is now haunting the patent office, waiting on the Mystery Van to trap it and do the big reveal to show that it's actually...
The US Dollar, and nearly every other currency, are backed by gold or some other precious metal that held value at the time the money was printed.
Nope. The U.S. has not been on the gold standard since the 1970s. The U.S. Dollar is effectively backed by the government and economy of the entire United States, not gold in a vault.
Totally true. It started life being backed by precious metal, but isn't now. That's how most currencies get their start though. Thanks Anon for the correction!
Maybe this makes it easier to understand: a hundred-dollar bill doesn't derive its value from the effort used to manufacture it, it derives its value from its usability for trade, which in turn derives from everyone who accept it as a payment and the ease you can send it to them with. Bitcoins are already very fast, cheap and easy to send, so as the number of parties that accept Bitcoin as a payment method increases, so does the value of Bitcoin.
The US Dollar, and nearly every other currency, are backed by gold or some other precious metal that held value at the time the money was printed. That's not to say that they are backed fully, or even remotely close. In fact some printed currency isn't backed by much more than wishes and dreams at this point, see aforementioned US Dollar. However they all started out having value due to being backed by something else, be it precious metal or some other real world item.
Now if you are trying to sell me on the idea that bitcoin is a product or item and not a currency, then that is fine. As a product or item it could hold value. I still don't agree. I still think it's a bit retarded. But I can agree with it being valued as an item or product and being traded for real world currency. I will just never see it as currency itself because it's not backed by anything. That it holds any value at all will continue to totally mystify me. Just like people selling virtual real estate in Second Life and the like.
Really... this virtual scrilla *still* has value? How?! It is backed by literally nothing in the real world?
It's backed by the utility value of a distributed tamper-resistant accounting system that lets you send them easily to other people and makes it very hard to change the rules the system operates by.
Glad you cleared that up. So you put value in the system by which they are distributed and controlled. So it's actually the system that is worth something and not the actual coin itself. That makes perfect sense. They should license it out. Bet they could make a killing. Oh wait... they can't because it's tied to the coin itself, which still has nothing other than the time invested for value. No, I can definitely see where this is valuable. Yeah...
Really... this virtual scrilla *still* has value? How?! It is backed by literally nothing in the real world? What you gonna do when the apocalypse, e-pocalypse, zom-pocalypse, etc, etc, etc happens?
Your 'Coins' will be inaccessible or unusable. That's why I invest in bullets, guns, beer, and women. You girls can keep your nancy boy 'Coins' and throw your USB sticks or external hard drives at a zombie's head. I'll be plugging 'em from a distance, where it's safe, while eat a sno-cone, making out with my woman and drinking a beer.
Ok, if Verizon is intentionally slowing down Netflix, something like putting a delay on the transmission of packets or throwing away a certain percent of them so that they have to be resent, etc... That would be an unfair practice and something to be pretty upset about.
But, what exactly are 'Peering Points'? Are they special Verizon to Cogent connections put in place specifically to help us use Netflix? If so then shouldn't we be thanking them for having any such connections at all? Do they for some reason have to add more just because we want to use them? I thought an internet connection was just a connection to the network 'cloud' and from the 'cloud' we just get what we get.
Kudo's to Apple for giving up so much money to the government. I'd have a better warm fuzzy about that if I could trust the government to spend those taxes appropriately. Which is really kind of sad, considering how much Apple likely gave to the government due to their huge profits, largely driven by cheap outsourced labor and overpriced products with huge profit margins. Oh don't get me wrong, they are good products, just way overpriced. But hey, as long as people are willing to buy them at those inflated prices, Apple will be more than happy to provide.
Slashdot Mirror
If we've progressed and evolved as suggested, can someone please explain US Congress to me?
Idiot.
If they were going for whiney spoiled teenager with Hayden's character, then they nailed it spot on.
I'll acknowledge that Microsoft gathers our info. Google does too. So does Apple. Surprised no one tossed out Facebook. They make some good red herring.
Everyone is collecting our information. If you think otherwise you're just fooling yourself. You should just give up now, sell off all of your electronics, move to the mountains, and live off the land if you really want to be safe all those people out to get you. You can be a paranoid delusional mountain man looking more scraggly than a Duck Dynasty star if you want.
I've just come to terms with information being gathered, take reasonable measures so that not all of it goes out there and don't care about the rest. I don't really have a lot to hide. In fact, if I'm going to have information or advertisements pushed on me anyway, they might as well give me something interesting. To that end, I really don't mind targeted advertising.
Can't be buried fast enough I say. If only a sand dune would have buried Jar Jar Binks or the career of Jake Lloyd before he could be cast. If only...
Bitcoins are money, and they are tech.
Both money and tech are absolutely essential for the majority of Slashdotters. I think it would be stranger if Slashdot *didn't* cover Bitcoins.
On top of that, people understandably expected it to crash "soon". Every day it doesn't crash into oblivion makes it more interesting. And if there is a crash in the end, every day brings us closer to it. Because of this, Bitcoin is even more interesting.
It's the same reason we follow one of those horribly tragic stories about some child who was born with some severe deficiency that will result in low/no quality of life. The child fights against all odds, by generally doing nothing more than relying on outsiders either completely or almost completely. They post about how great baby x is doing until the sad day of loss and everyone mourns. I, for one, would appreciate just the highlight reel. I don't need all the details on the child's suffering.
I like money and tech. Oddly enough, don't care about bitcoins though. Maybe there is just some subset of slashdot that has an interest in bitcoin, specifically it's value. So they post articles like this or support these postings to speculate the value up. That seems a reasonable explanation as well.
Why get this when you can soon get Xbox One? An honest question.
Why get an Xbox One when you can soon get a PS4? An rhetorical question.
The ghost of the spirit of the law is now haunting the patent office, waiting on the Mystery Van to trap it and do the big reveal to show that it's actually...
The US Dollar, and nearly every other currency, are backed by gold or some other precious metal that held value at the time the money was printed.
Nope. The U.S. has not been on the gold standard since the 1970s. The U.S. Dollar is effectively backed by the government and economy of the entire United States, not gold in a vault.
Totally true. It started life being backed by precious metal, but isn't now. That's how most currencies get their start though. Thanks Anon for the correction!
Maybe this makes it easier to understand: a hundred-dollar bill doesn't derive its value from the effort used to manufacture it, it derives its value from its usability for trade, which in turn derives from everyone who accept it as a payment and the ease you can send it to them with. Bitcoins are already very fast, cheap and easy to send, so as the number of parties that accept Bitcoin as a payment method increases, so does the value of Bitcoin.
The US Dollar, and nearly every other currency, are backed by gold or some other precious metal that held value at the time the money was printed. That's not to say that they are backed fully, or even remotely close. In fact some printed currency isn't backed by much more than wishes and dreams at this point, see aforementioned US Dollar. However they all started out having value due to being backed by something else, be it precious metal or some other real world item.
Now if you are trying to sell me on the idea that bitcoin is a product or item and not a currency, then that is fine. As a product or item it could hold value. I still don't agree. I still think it's a bit retarded. But I can agree with it being valued as an item or product and being traded for real world currency. I will just never see it as currency itself because it's not backed by anything. That it holds any value at all will continue to totally mystify me. Just like people selling virtual real estate in Second Life and the like.
It's backed by the utility value of a distributed tamper-resistant accounting system that lets you send them easily to other people and makes it very hard to change the rules the system operates by.
Glad you cleared that up. So you put value in the system by which they are distributed and controlled. So it's actually the system that is worth something and not the actual coin itself. That makes perfect sense. They should license it out. Bet they could make a killing. Oh wait... they can't because it's tied to the coin itself, which still has nothing other than the time invested for value. No, I can definitely see where this is valuable. Yeah...
Really... this virtual scrilla *still* has value? How?! It is backed by literally nothing in the real world? What you gonna do when the apocalypse, e-pocalypse, zom-pocalypse, etc, etc, etc happens? Your 'Coins' will be inaccessible or unusable. That's why I invest in bullets, guns, beer, and women. You girls can keep your nancy boy 'Coins' and throw your USB sticks or external hard drives at a zombie's head. I'll be plugging 'em from a distance, where it's safe, while eat a sno-cone, making out with my woman and drinking a beer.
Ok, if Verizon is intentionally slowing down Netflix, something like putting a delay on the transmission of packets or throwing away a certain percent of them so that they have to be resent, etc... That would be an unfair practice and something to be pretty upset about.
But, what exactly are 'Peering Points'? Are they special Verizon to Cogent connections put in place specifically to help us use Netflix? If so then shouldn't we be thanking them for having any such connections at all? Do they for some reason have to add more just because we want to use them? I thought an internet connection was just a connection to the network 'cloud' and from the 'cloud' we just get what we get.
Wow... just wow...
Kudo's to Apple for giving up so much money to the government. I'd have a better warm fuzzy about that if I could trust the government to spend those taxes appropriately. Which is really kind of sad, considering how much Apple likely gave to the government due to their huge profits, largely driven by cheap outsourced labor and overpriced products with huge profit margins. Oh don't get me wrong, they are good products, just way overpriced. But hey, as long as people are willing to buy them at those inflated prices, Apple will be more than happy to provide.