"There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or web search results pages. There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever."
Marissa Mayer, December 2005

If the NSA can bring down botnets, why don't they? Are spammers making political contributions?

Why is Fox News politics on Slashdot?

It's not the inaccuracy that matters, it's the completeness. I may write an article about my company and omit the fact that the FTC has fined me seventeen times for cheating customers. When a company PR hack writes a Wikipedia article, you can bet it will present the company in a move favorable light.

This is not limited to companies. Political parties hire people to write Wikipedia articles on even their most minor elected and appointed officials. While naturally unbiased and accurate, they consistently portray the person as a great and brilliant humanitarian and sage.

... Senator Feinstein has significantly less technological prowess than my cat, and has exhibited this on numerous occasions.

Didn't I see this poll the first week of November? "Slashdot requires you to wait longer between hitting 'reply' and submitting a comment. It's been 18 seconds since you hit 'reply'." There are two things wrong with this. First, it's a computer. Computers are supposed to INCREASE productivity. Slashdot wants me to sit and wait on a stupid clock before I press enter. Second, Slashdot refuses to tell me how many seconds I must wait before hitting 'reply'. I can only assume they want me to pontificate on the stupidity of this forced reduction in functionality and productivity. This is a highly productive comment, after all.

They should monitor politicians for corruption.

Is that some number between 0 and 1000, or could it also be negative?

I tried to mod up, but it won't work (even though I have 15 mod points). Slashdot seems as competent as MtGox.

A motion filed by lawyers is not a judgement and is nowhere near legal precedent, as the typically sensational /. headline implies. Lawyers regularly file motions claiming the sun rises in the West and sets in the East.

I prefer sucrose. It tastes good.

Not dumb at all. There is risk with an unregulated exchange, and there is risk with a bitcoin wallet on your own PC. There are techniques for good security for a personal bitcoin wallet, but there is no (or little) regulation for bitcoin exchanges. Savings in an unregulated, uninsured bitcoin exchange are at a much higher risk than in a bank. But some people are not so good at personal PC security, so a bitcoin exchange might actually be safer than their PC.

Yes. You don't have to use an exchange at all if you don't want to. By the same token, you can start your own exchange if you want to, get people to send you their bitcoins, and close the exchange and claim they were stolen.

There's a reasonable chance of it. It would be easy to do.

flexcoin was insignificant compared to MtGox -- about 1000 times smaller. Even so, unregulated, uninsured bitcoin exchanges (banks) are risky places for savings.