While I think that Jackson is an opportunistic jackass, resorting to racial epithets is completely unnecessary and only serves to undercut your message. Be better than this. You owe it to your society and yourself.

Well, I have seen racism in dev shops before, to be sure, but not the sort that Reverend Jackson wants shakedown money for. I've worked for more than one place where "white men born in America" were about 2% of engineers. Normally, it's just not an issue, but at one place the racism was so bad that everyone not of the preferred race left over the course of 6 months after a shift of management. (Not saying what that race was, as the problem was just a couple of assholes, and not a more general problem).

I've also seen straight-up redneck racist at the first dev shop I ever worked at, back when we rode dinosaurs to work, but that company was so exploitive that racism only makes the middle of its list of abuses.

There are plenty of smart engineers working for Visa. How much would $CLEVER_IDEA cost? How much does this sort of fraud cost? You can bet someone did the math.

Jesse Jackson: "I desperately need a new cause to trumpet, or I'm no longer going to be able to afford my lifestyle. Therefore, I shall identify a desperate need for my community, for which I shall naturally be named the spokesman. By this method I shall articulate a set of vague, impossible goals such that we can once again identify an entire culture as 'victims' of the nebulous (but nevertheless nefarious) forces that keep us "down". I shall continue attach myself to this I-hope-ever-growing-movement, in order to be able to pay for my cars, mistresses, and if I'm lucky, even the lawyers needed to keep my son out of prison. Perhaps I have finally found the cause celebre that will even allow me to ride into media sinecure, like that dirty sellout bastard Al Sharpton."

Well, that's what I heard, anyway.

I'd call his plan for IT diversity the Nationwide IT General Graduate Effectiveness Resource System. Come up with your own acronym as required.

The real question, for the IT community is, of course, does his plan ensure enough vaginas in IT departments? If not, then his victim train will have to wait until that one leaves the station.

Has it been scheduled yet? Been hearing about this off and on for 30 years now.

I think that the main reason people speed, race the yellow, and in other ways behave as general asshats when behind the wheel is the inherent understanding that every second spent driving is a wasted second. You notice you rarely see passengers road raging. Once everyone becomes a passenger, and transit time becomes productive time, whether it involves work, updating facebook, playing games, or getting a few extra minutes of sleep, much of the incentive to rush goes away.

Personally, I generally drive like a bat out of hell, and regularly am cussing the idiots who wont get out of my way. But, once I get my autonomous vehicle (I plan to be a very early adopter) I won't care that the car is doing the speed limit, stopping when I would have chanced it, not changing lanes into the "fastest", etc. I'll be reading, sleeping, gaming, etc. In fact, once my commute becomes reliable productive time, I can see myself getting irritated that I get to my destination before I've finished my chapter, level, quest, etc.

Theory and Practice. In theory, you are correct. In practice, you are not.

IMHO, there will be a nominal number of widely accepted crypto-currencies. I fathom perhaps 4-6 "standard" coins will be adopted, and another 6-10 in secondary/limited adoption. The 4-6 "adopted" will have "regional" flair being accepted widely in some geographic locations, and might not be accepted everywhere. There will likely be 2-3 Dominant currencies accepted most places, making them "default".

The concept of merchants eating costs is a bit nonsensical anyhow: most of what we buy on a daily basis is sold on a very thin margin, so when an external cost is imposed across the market, it has to come from the customers.

The money in your bank account also continues to exist regardless of data connections where you go. And your ability to spend a given physical currency vary depending on where you go - dollars are special, but e.g. a rupee note isn't going to spend well in the US.

Specie-based currency has at least some value everywhere, but these days it's easier in most of the world to find a data connection than someone who trades in gold (plus a whole host of other problems).

No auditor I have dealt with in five years of PCI DSS has demanded software firewalls. They do require that systems be monitored for changes and only critical services be running.

Ironically, the software that most often makes it difficult to run a local firewall is AV software. Symantec is notorious. They need dozens of ports opened. And when you upgrade, suddenly they need a different set.

We gave up our freedom through the ACA, and yet this continues. It's not about being billed, it's about being billed incorrectly and not having any control over the process. The UK has fully socialized health care, yet people are denied care or left to die waiting... sometimes, literally waiting in the ER.

Clearly, giving up more freedom isn't the answer.

Only if people follow the complete chain through.

AND you can leave with a receipt for your returned equipment, plus the names of people you dealt with face to face. That could be extremely useful if they want to play the common game of "we never got your stuff and you still owe us monthly payments".

I have two recommendations:

1. read your mail daily, in case, you know, you get bill reminders or court orders,
2. Don't trust anyone to pay your bills; verify that they were paid. It's still easier and quicker than using checks.