Yes, this is a patent troll, but Apple's been on both ends of these cases.
Case in point: A few years back, Burst.com had them by the short hairs over video streaming patents - probably worth billions today - and Apple got off with only paying $10 million.
If this actually replaced hard currency and became a widely accepted standard, the government would eventually introduce legislation to ban the usage of all non-government cryptocurrencies. I'm not sure what the argument will be ("we can't afford it anymore", "terrorists used cash to commit atrocity X", etc.) but it would fit in with the model of our current system (the dollar is the only legal, federal U.S. currency).
Also, from the article: Understanding this, it is unlikely that Fedcoin will be the preferred vehicle to finance illegal activities. -- This would cast an unfair, "guilty until proven innocent" suspicion upon anyone wishing to still use cash. And there's no way in hell I'd trust the government to not abuse the privacy issues. They wouldn't be able to control themselves with that info...
Add Phoenix metro to this. Yeah, the evap cooler tech works somewhat in the spring and early summer. When the multi-month monsoon season hits, however, evap coolers are pretty much worthless.
I'm also pretty sure that hard water deposits in these "bricks" would render them useless pretty quickly.
...then this would be a reasonable idea (until the GOP-led, mostly corporate-controlled Congress says no thanks). Without it being balanced, in about 2 years that $2,000,000,000,000 or so would be gone in the black hole of growing, irresponsible debt.
I love Douglas Adams (his books are great), but I have a problem with this quote.
"...and without faith I am nothing."
If God exists as a sentient being and isn't just a figment of human imagination, then it doesn't matter whether anyone has faith in him or not. He still exists.
It comes from being willing to actually ask questions and observe the world to find our answers, rather than an unwavering loyalty to an ideology. In this case these fucknuts are taking their religious beliefs, based on nothing, and prioritizing them over actual science.
That phrase "based on nothing" is where you lose religious people, and expose your own belief system that isn't based in fact but supposition.
Don't get me wrong - I'm from Gilbert, AZ, and that lady had no business forcing her religious beliefs down everyone's throats and tearing out sound science because she was afraid of her beliefs not being equally represented. That kind of fear-based action is dangerous. It also gives religious, educated people a bad name.
Don't assume all of us religious people are "fucknuts", however. That's a broad stereotype that's just not fair to those of us with an open mind, have real faith in God, and want science to push forward unimpeded by any ideology - athiesm or fundamentalist.
People out there have had "spiritual" experiences that as are real as seeing the sun rise in the morning but can't explain easily or won't explain for fear of mockery at the hands of those who believe it is based on nothing. This lack of communication is often what leads to intellectual standoffs over crap like this textbook fiasco.
Perhaps by the time this becomes a large enough problem, automation will have made our productivity and wealth generation sufficient that we can just provide everyone the resources they need to live off of while they acquire a new skill set...
The original post makes a good point about the stifling effects of over-taxation and over-regulation - not some argument for supply side economics.
Did you even think about the post, or did you immediately start typing up your anti-Reagan blast? Did you listen, or wait to talk?
It's amazing how reactionary people are online these days. Look at some of the other responses besides this one. They can be summed up with - "Ohhp... someone said Ronald Reagan. Nanananana - not listening!".
And people on the left wonder why Barack Obama's better ideas get buried in a wave of "rethuglican" ignorance - the exact, same way. Critical thought has given away to intellectual laziness and yelling factoids back and forth. No respect or compassion or will to work together... just "win the next election."
The world is full of people that are gifted in some way but don't work hard (it came too easily or they burn out). They ultimately don't make near the impact that good but not necessarily gifted people that work their butts off.
It's a truly rare bird when someone is truly gifted, they personally recognize it early, chase it, and has the drive to perfect their skill until it shines above the rest. These are the oddballs in society, secretly feared/hated and sometimes taken advantage of by their more socially adjusted but lesser peers, that move their world of influence forward. Socrates. Archimedes. (William) Tyndale. Galileo. Newton. Mozart. Tesla. Einstein. (George) Patton. Bobby Fischer. Michael Jordan. Imagine if any of these people decided to sluff off... How different would our world be?
It is very expensive, difficult, and sometimes even dangerous to load up all that hardware. Somebody decided it was easier to just sell to a new government that needed a real army to remain in control (which should've been a warning sign in the first place).
I immediately thought of the 1st episode of the reboot of Battlestar Galactica, where 99.9% of their modern military force was rendered inoperable. No. Thank. You.
The best "kill switch" is to kill the idea of leaving a ton of advanced military hardware in the hands of less-than-solid governments in the first place (no matter how much defense contractors want to sell their wares). You'd think we would have learned from Iran and the F-14s we left in Iran in the late 1970s as the Islamic Revolution took place.
There's nothing wrong with optimism based in facts, and I'd love to believe what he's saying.
At this point, however, Obama's optimism just strikes me as amateurish and naive. After watching for six years, I honestly don't think he and those in positions of power around him have an objective or accurate view of how the world really works. It's almost feels like he doesn't believe the USA is exceptional or that it should at the very least stand as an example for the rest of the world. Or that we should give up all that we as a country fought for and earned/stole/created (or whatever verb your views want to insert here).
I even heard a crackpot story on the radio that he was considering executive action that would give Hawaii back to the Hawaiians by making it more of an "Indian reservation" than a state and treat it as a "separate nation". If the president actually considered that... You just have to shake your head in wonder.
It's this kind of red herring, fearmongering that is why Obama was re-elected - despite his piss-poor record on deficit spending, inability to compromise, increasing the spy programs (vs. curtailing them), naivete about international issues from Benghazi to Syria to the Crimea.
Yes, the GOP sucks, too. Why are the extremists even debating abortion and birth control when we're running huge deficits, polluting the planet, and the world is coming unhinged? And companies like every huge bank and Monsanto are inherently toxic to society as a whole because they don't even pretend to serve a purpose for the market or the people. They only serve themselves, and any politician that is owned by one of those corporations via dirty money is irreparably tainted.
It all just makes an average Joe that actually cares and wants to get something positive accomplished about those big issues scream and puke all at once.
The 1980's just called, and they still want their foreign policy back...
The sad part is that the president actually believed what he said that night during the debate. It was all cold war paranoia. Romney was clearly out of touch. Vladimir Putin would NEVER do anything like invade another country in "today's civilized age", let alone do the unthinkable and use nuclear weapons simply to gain some Russian soil. I guess the president can just say: "Well - Chernobyl's already radiated parts of the country, so it's not that big of a deal if the rest glows in the dark, too."
I'm even more sad that so many Americans would STILL vote for this guy today simply because they're Democrats and that's that.
We've already mostly lost V-8s to tech advances, but no "turbo"-powered four banger is in the same league in smoothness and power that a solid V-6 gives you without having to floor it. Why is the V-6 becoming a luxury item not available to the middle class guy??
Others people have listed good ones further down my list:
Flip phone (privacy and cost issues with smart phones). Corded telephone at home (for power outages) CDs (damn carmakers have ditched CD changers) pico in the CLI (so much quicker for some tasks) Windows 7 (though working on a Mac at work almost has me out the door) A handgun firearm (sorry DC and Chicago - I'll never live there because of this).
If they hire new people back from the same general neighborhoods and they make the same money, then the CEO will have done the right thing. Besides - the bottom 8% of any workforce usually has some serious dead wood in it.
If they don't fill those slots back up to increase quarterly earnings, go overseas to essentially hire the same people back at a fraction of the cost, or say a WORD to Congress about how there's a "major talent shortage" in the USA and call for more H1-Bs, someone needs to go punch that guy in the face.
Yes, the rich should be paying more back into the economy (through taxes or spending) instead of hoarding wealth, and the H-1Bs and other outsourcing of costs has to be curtailed.
However, when the poor stop getting earned income credits totaling in the several thousands every year (which goes up with the number of children claimed as dependents), while they don't pay a penny in income tax because they're unemployed for whatever reason, then you'll have a solid argument. Until then, too many of the "poor" are getting a free ride on the backs of bad government policy - and they have no skin in the game. Maybe they need to get rid of their iPhones, stop buying $250 Nikes, and cut their cable to pay some taxes back into the system that's paying for those luxuries.
The kicker is that if you have a cheap, corded phone that ALSO plays a role. I bought the Radio Shack device, plugged it into a cheapo speakerphone I had purchased at Target, and it didn't work. If you turned your speakers all the way up, you could barely hear a mumble in the recording.
I bought the JK Audio device online, and THAT didn't work well, either. Surprised, I threw out the speakerphone and got a better one - and the JK Audio device suddenly worked like a champ.
I wish I would've kept the Radio Shack device to try it out on that new speakerphone, but I guess the rule was that you generally get what you pay for when you buy the cheapest thing at Wal-Mart, Target, etc.
I was also thinking of another control variable that's missing: religion. Communist countries attempt to instill an atheist dogma because the people are supposed to "worship" the state (in a nationalist sort of way), where capitalist countries (whether they had socialist leanings or not) generally have religious freedom in varying degrees.
I'm simplifying, but if you fear a God that commands you to be honest, then you try and be honest because you don't want to burn in hell. If you're brought up in an atheist communist society, however, and the government is your "god", you can more easily cheat or lie to it because people invariably figure out how to beat non-omnipotent/omniscient systems of governance and their punishments (which aren't eternal, either).
At the same time, I have found that comments on news sites were actually some of the best information out there - just like here on Slashdot. Yes, there are ahole trolls and idiots, but there aren't as many as some make it out to be - and there are usually sides to a story that aren't being told by the story itself where commenters fill in the blanks.
To be fair, though, the quality of comments overall - including here at Slashdot - has declined, simply because people don't spend the time typing up large treatises anymore. More people want a Twitter-like soundbyte more than information, and won't read comments more than a few lines long. They have better thing to... squirrel!
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, this is a patent troll, but Apple's been on both ends of these cases.
Case in point: A few years back, Burst.com had them by the short hairs over video streaming patents - probably worth billions today - and Apple got off with only paying $10 million.
You win some, you lose some...
If this actually replaced hard currency and became a widely accepted standard, the government would eventually introduce legislation to ban the usage of all non-government cryptocurrencies. I'm not sure what the argument will be ("we can't afford it anymore", "terrorists used cash to commit atrocity X", etc.) but it would fit in with the model of our current system (the dollar is the only legal, federal U.S. currency).
Also, from the article: Understanding this, it is unlikely that Fedcoin will be the preferred vehicle to finance illegal activities. -- This would cast an unfair, "guilty until proven innocent" suspicion upon anyone wishing to still use cash. And there's no way in hell I'd trust the government to not abuse the privacy issues. They wouldn't be able to control themselves with that info...
Add Phoenix metro to this. Yeah, the evap cooler tech works somewhat in the spring and early summer. When the multi-month monsoon season hits, however, evap coolers are pretty much worthless.
I'm also pretty sure that hard water deposits in these "bricks" would render them useless pretty quickly.
...then this would be a reasonable idea (until the GOP-led, mostly corporate-controlled Congress says no thanks). Without it being balanced, in about 2 years that $2,000,000,000,000 or so would be gone in the black hole of growing, irresponsible debt.
On Drupal 7 and its issues with some modules, Backdrop may be an alternative to consider.
Well, this GOP guy is 100% behind Mr. Holder for once. Only a completely partisan fool would not see how civil forfeiture is being abused.
We should all probably thank John Oliver for the exposure his show gave this abuse of power.
"Sorry - wrong number," as a get out of jail free card? They might as well get rid of the phone protection part.
I love Douglas Adams (his books are great), but I have a problem with this quote.
"...and without faith I am nothing."
If God exists as a sentient being and isn't just a figment of human imagination, then it doesn't matter whether anyone has faith in him or not. He still exists.
How can I have sex without you (which actually kind of makes sense...)
Another (more well known mishearing):
Blinded by the light, Revved up like a deuce
I hear something like "...wrapped up like a douche". I just can't take that song seriously... it's the douche song.
It comes from being willing to actually ask questions and observe the world to find our answers, rather than an unwavering loyalty to an ideology. In this case these fucknuts are taking their religious beliefs, based on nothing, and prioritizing them over actual science.
That phrase "based on nothing" is where you lose religious people, and expose your own belief system that isn't based in fact but supposition.
Don't get me wrong - I'm from Gilbert, AZ, and that lady had no business forcing her religious beliefs down everyone's throats and tearing out sound science because she was afraid of her beliefs not being equally represented. That kind of fear-based action is dangerous. It also gives religious, educated people a bad name.
Don't assume all of us religious people are "fucknuts", however. That's a broad stereotype that's just not fair to those of us with an open mind, have real faith in God, and want science to push forward unimpeded by any ideology - athiesm or fundamentalist.
People out there have had "spiritual" experiences that as are real as seeing the sun rise in the morning but can't explain easily or won't explain for fear of mockery at the hands of those who believe it is based on nothing. This lack of communication is often what leads to intellectual standoffs over crap like this textbook fiasco.
Perhaps by the time this becomes a large enough problem, automation will have made our productivity and wealth generation sufficient that we can just provide everyone the resources they need to live off of while they acquire a new skill set...
You're describing a version of a post-scarcity economy.
The original post makes a good point about the stifling effects of over-taxation and over-regulation - not some argument for supply side economics.
Did you even think about the post, or did you immediately start typing up your anti-Reagan blast? Did you listen, or wait to talk?
It's amazing how reactionary people are online these days. Look at some of the other responses besides this one. They can be summed up with - "Ohhp... someone said Ronald Reagan. Nanananana - not listening!".
And people on the left wonder why Barack Obama's better ideas get buried in a wave of "rethuglican" ignorance - the exact, same way. Critical thought has given away to intellectual laziness and yelling factoids back and forth. No respect or compassion or will to work together... just "win the next election."
This has ALWAYS been true. It's just never been quite as important, since most of what 90% of people do today requires little more than communicating.
The world is full of people that are gifted in some way but don't work hard (it came too easily or they burn out). They ultimately don't make near the impact that good but not necessarily gifted people that work their butts off.
It's a truly rare bird when someone is truly gifted, they personally recognize it early, chase it, and has the drive to perfect their skill until it shines above the rest. These are the oddballs in society, secretly feared/hated and sometimes taken advantage of by their more socially adjusted but lesser peers, that move their world of influence forward. Socrates. Archimedes. (William) Tyndale. Galileo. Newton. Mozart. Tesla. Einstein. (George) Patton. Bobby Fischer. Michael Jordan. Imagine if any of these people decided to sluff off... How different would our world be?
It is very expensive, difficult, and sometimes even dangerous to load up all that hardware. Somebody decided it was easier to just sell to a new government that needed a real army to remain in control (which should've been a warning sign in the first place).
I immediately thought of the 1st episode of the reboot of Battlestar Galactica, where 99.9% of their modern military force was rendered inoperable. No. Thank. You.
The best "kill switch" is to kill the idea of leaving a ton of advanced military hardware in the hands of less-than-solid governments in the first place (no matter how much defense contractors want to sell their wares). You'd think we would have learned from Iran and the F-14s we left in Iran in the late 1970s as the Islamic Revolution took place.
There's nothing wrong with optimism based in facts, and I'd love to believe what he's saying.
At this point, however, Obama's optimism just strikes me as amateurish and naive. After watching for six years, I honestly don't think he and those in positions of power around him have an objective or accurate view of how the world really works. It's almost feels like he doesn't believe the USA is exceptional or that it should at the very least stand as an example for the rest of the world. Or that we should give up all that we as a country fought for and earned/stole/created (or whatever verb your views want to insert here).
I even heard a crackpot story on the radio that he was considering executive action that would give Hawaii back to the Hawaiians by making it more of an "Indian reservation" than a state and treat it as a "separate nation". If the president actually considered that... You just have to shake your head in wonder.
It's this kind of red herring, fearmongering that is why Obama was re-elected - despite his piss-poor record on deficit spending, inability to compromise, increasing the spy programs (vs. curtailing them), naivete about international issues from Benghazi to Syria to the Crimea.
Yes, the GOP sucks, too. Why are the extremists even debating abortion and birth control when we're running huge deficits, polluting the planet, and the world is coming unhinged? And companies like every huge bank and Monsanto are inherently toxic to society as a whole because they don't even pretend to serve a purpose for the market or the people. They only serve themselves, and any politician that is owned by one of those corporations via dirty money is irreparably tainted.
It all just makes an average Joe that actually cares and wants to get something positive accomplished about those big issues scream and puke all at once.
The 1980's just called, and they still want their foreign policy back...
The sad part is that the president actually believed what he said that night during the debate. It was all cold war paranoia. Romney was clearly out of touch. Vladimir Putin would NEVER do anything like invade another country in "today's civilized age", let alone do the unthinkable and use nuclear weapons simply to gain some Russian soil. I guess the president can just say: "Well - Chernobyl's already radiated parts of the country, so it's not that big of a deal if the rest glows in the dark, too."
I'm even more sad that so many Americans would STILL vote for this guy today simply because they're Democrats and that's that.
We've already mostly lost V-8s to tech advances, but no "turbo"-powered four banger is in the same league in smoothness and power that a solid V-6 gives you without having to floor it. Why is the V-6 becoming a luxury item not available to the middle class guy??
Others people have listed good ones further down my list:
Flip phone (privacy and cost issues with smart phones).
Corded telephone at home (for power outages)
CDs (damn carmakers have ditched CD changers)
pico in the CLI (so much quicker for some tasks)
Windows 7 (though working on a Mac at work almost has me out the door)
A handgun firearm (sorry DC and Chicago - I'll never live there because of this).
If they hire new people back from the same general neighborhoods and they make the same money, then the CEO will have done the right thing. Besides - the bottom 8% of any workforce usually has some serious dead wood in it.
If they don't fill those slots back up to increase quarterly earnings, go overseas to essentially hire the same people back at a fraction of the cost, or say a WORD to Congress about how there's a "major talent shortage" in the USA and call for more H1-Bs, someone needs to go punch that guy in the face.
Yes, the rich should be paying more back into the economy (through taxes or spending) instead of hoarding wealth, and the H-1Bs and other outsourcing of costs has to be curtailed.
However, when the poor stop getting earned income credits totaling in the several thousands every year (which goes up with the number of children claimed as dependents), while they don't pay a penny in income tax because they're unemployed for whatever reason, then you'll have a solid argument. Until then, too many of the "poor" are getting a free ride on the backs of bad government policy - and they have no skin in the game. Maybe they need to get rid of their iPhones, stop buying $250 Nikes, and cut their cable to pay some taxes back into the system that's paying for those luxuries.
The kicker is that if you have a cheap, corded phone that ALSO plays a role. I bought the Radio Shack device, plugged it into a cheapo speakerphone I had purchased at Target, and it didn't work. If you turned your speakers all the way up, you could barely hear a mumble in the recording.
I bought the JK Audio device online, and THAT didn't work well, either. Surprised, I threw out the speakerphone and got a better one - and the JK Audio device suddenly worked like a champ.
I wish I would've kept the Radio Shack device to try it out on that new speakerphone, but I guess the rule was that you generally get what you pay for when you buy the cheapest thing at Wal-Mart, Target, etc.
I was also thinking of another control variable that's missing: religion. Communist countries attempt to instill an atheist dogma because the people are supposed to "worship" the state (in a nationalist sort of way), where capitalist countries (whether they had socialist leanings or not) generally have religious freedom in varying degrees.
I'm simplifying, but if you fear a God that commands you to be honest, then you try and be honest because you don't want to burn in hell. If you're brought up in an atheist communist society, however, and the government is your "god", you can more easily cheat or lie to it because people invariably figure out how to beat non-omnipotent/omniscient systems of governance and their punishments (which aren't eternal, either).
At the same time, I have found that comments on news sites were actually some of the best information out there - just like here on Slashdot. Yes, there are ahole trolls and idiots, but there aren't as many as some make it out to be - and there are usually sides to a story that aren't being told by the story itself where commenters fill in the blanks.
To be fair, though, the quality of comments overall - including here at Slashdot - has declined, simply because people don't spend the time typing up large treatises anymore. More people want a Twitter-like soundbyte more than information, and won't read comments more than a few lines long. They have better thing to... squirrel!