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Comment Re:Do you need a database? (Score 1) 272

For storing and querying arbitrarily-structured data, which is what the submitter seems to be wanting, a traditional relational SQL database is not necessarily the best way to do it.

And if anything, MongoDB is easier to start using than any relational database, IME. No need to create databases, schemas, or tables (collections) beforehand - you just install MongoDB, start writing data, and it gets stored.

Comment Re:Viva La XP! (Score 5, Insightful) 641

Short version: They have a perfectly working computer with all their stuff on it. Why should they have to throw it in the trash and go through all the pain/expense of an "upgrade"?

Not to mention that, for many people, Windows XP is the only desktop operating system they've ever known.
XP has been around for 13 years. In consumer technology, that's an incredible length of time. After so many years of consistency, of course there are going to be people - millions of them - who don't want to face change.

Comment Re:Space travel (Score 5, Insightful) 357

In the end it will also not matter, because when these people reach the distant location, there will be no compatible civilization on earth left.

People don't generally think of multi-millennium cryo-sleeper journeys as a "there and back" deal, so the state of any civilization on Earth would be pretty much moot once they wake up at the destination.
That is, unless Earth has advanced so much that FTL Earth ships arrived at the destination before the sleepers did. In which case; "welcome to the world of tomorrow!"

There is no point in deep space travel as long as we are not able to go faster than light or at least close to light speed.

Perhaps no point for those staying behind, no. But for the pioneers, however long the journey takes, they may well become the first humans to explore and colonise a new planet and star system. If you honestly think that such an amazing achievement is entirely pointless, then I think you might be on the wrong website.

Comment Re:But He Isn't (Score 4, Interesting) 276

So an "official" SN account has denied this being the "real" SN.
The question I ask is: Why didn't that "official" account post a denial for each of the other times someone has been suggested to be "the guy"? Why does this Satoshi Nakamoto get a denial, and not the others?

Methinks he does protest too much.

Comment Re:Personal Details (Score 5, Insightful) 276

Thought experiment: Remember that guy at Tiananmen Square? If you're not Chinese, you probably know who I mean. Would you consider it "ethical" for an American newspaper to publicise his new identity, location, family, etc.?
What if it then turns out that wasn't the guy after all? Do you consider it "ethical" to publicise all the details about some random citizen, and - at the very best - turn their life upside down, just because some journalist thinks they're probably someone important, due to finding some circumstantial evidence?

"In the public interest" is not the same thing as "interesting to the public".

Comment Re: Why? (Score 1) 2219

That's the point of a protest though; to get the attention of people who might otherwise not notice that there is a problem.
They are effectively picketing slashdot; inconveniencing the normal readers like you and I, to put pressure on the management to take their protest more seriously, and offer something more than just platitudes and empty promises.

Comment Re:eh, it's not that bad (Score 1, Interesting) 459

As someone who touch-types Dvorak at home, and has to switch back to QWERTY at work, I think I can safely say my experience trumps your few symbol keys moving around...

I'd argue that no, it actually doesn't trump it.
IME it is *far* easier to switch between two completely different systems, than to switch between two systems which are exactly the same, except for one or two minor parameters.

Consider a Brit, who fluently speak both English and Russian, conversing with two people; one of whom speaks Russian, and only Russian; the other speaks US English, and only US English. When speaking with the Russian, the Brit's brain need switch to and maintain Russian only once. When speaking to the USian, the Brit can speak in their native tongue - except when certain words come up, which the brain must anticipate, and engage to translate those to US English.

Comment Re:"according to the law" (Score 2) 408

Indeed. I see a lot of assertions that Ulbricht was "The Dread Pirate Roberts", and in this article that he was the "founder". Has Ulbricht actually been found - in a court of law - to be either, or confessed to being so? Not so far as I've heard. There's a lot of accusations flying from government agencies, which are then repeated verbatim by "news" agencies who are more interested in a dramatic story than accuracy or facts.

However, the phrase "... shall dispose of the bitcoins ... according to law" is pretty much a non-statement. They're hardly going to say "we're going to sell them off illegally". What they will do all depends on what the law says, and it may well say they can't do jack until and unless the accused is found guilty, and the assets found to be the proceeds of crime.
That said, it is entirely possible that his assets could be lawfully siezed and disposed of by US law enforcement at this point, since they apparently have the legal power to do so when they suspect or accuse someone of a crime, in certain circumstances/jurisdictions.

Comment Re:This is bad (Score 4, Informative) 229

IF you start making it to where a company has to pay for the bandwidth of its users, then you raise the barrier of entry. Not good for innovation.

Internet companies already pay for the bandwidth of their users - all incoming and outgoing traffic to a data centre is bandwidth which the data centre must pay their internet provider to carry.

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