When I was a kid every school had a special ed class. What those kids were commonly called by others, I prefer to see it called the autism spectrum. The words used back then were much worse and a good portion of those kids would be called autistic today.

I find it amazing how everyone claims the death of bitcoin yet there it is. It just won't go away. I can understand people in first world countries being skeptical of bitcoin. By and large our society functions right now with fiat. They just don't see the need and have become accustomed to the way we do things today. They accept bank corruption as the price of insuring their savings acccounts. They accept the transaction costs as the price of having their purchases protected when using a credit card. But what of the people who can't get bank accounts and credit cards or the people who live under repressive regimes that think nothing of debasing their fiat which effectively steals peoples life savings (hello Argentina). Bitcoin is a revolution for people who live in countries that don't work so well. It, or something like it will survive, because many people in the world need it.

Someone who is sure about himself usually doesn't take that tone. You sound scared.

I think you touch on the weakest link right now with crypto currencies and that is the user level. The technology itself (the protocol) is impressive and has the potential to disrupt so many entrenched systems above and beyond money. There is a lot of good there but plenty of improvement needs to be made on making it safer for non technical users to hold the actual coins. Even a lot of otherwise technically savvy people do dumb things and lose coins because of it. What we are experiencing is the embryonic days of bitcoin. Plenty of smart people are working on these problems right now, but there is a lot of friction that will hold it back. Government interference and banks (our modern day buggy whip makers) the two most prominent I believe. Like bitcoin (the money) or hate it, it is one impressive social experiment and anything that shakes up the status quo is a plus on moving things forward for the better. The fact that some people are so vehemently opposed, to the point of foaming at the mouth to trash it, tells me we are on to something here.

That sounds more like high availability and less like backup. Unless he throws the server in a station wagon every once and while and brings it to his parents place.

But I agree at 20TB there is no "cheap" option. I think he needs to suck it up and buy a tape backup system and store a copy offsite, it all depends how much his content is worth to him. Not much of issue since he doesn't have the 20TB anymore. But like any good horder he will probably be back to that in no time.

I have a family member who is a digital horder. It's a site to see.

Pretty much, I have about 500GB of must have backup, family pictures and videos I backup to two 2TB USB drives and keep one offsite (locked cabinet at work). Sensitive documents get backed up to a Truecrypt container on a local USB and to an offsite VPS I rent monthly. The rest can be backed up on strangers systems, it's called bittorrent and Netflix

The skills you have learned as a developer really come alive when you get out of development. Coding skills can bring so much value to professions not associated with coding. Way easier for you to pick something up than for someone who is not in IT to become a coder.

First off I am sorry you lost some. Of course you need to put some in there to trade. But there are people that had hundreds and some even thousands of bitcoin tied up there. Some were using it for storage, not just trading. That's nuts.

I think people just misunderstand what the real problem is that bitcoin resolves. It should not be a replacement for dollars. I hold dollars, I love dollars, I hold quite a few actually and hope I always will. I'm not a libertarian. I see bitcoin being a real threat to payment processors like Visa, MC, PP and Western Union. It offers a seamless way to wire funds across borders without a money transmitter taking a big cut. If you live on the other side of the world I can pay you instantly and I don't need big brother banker to approve. I can see why banks are afraid of that. I also have to watch what I use it for, the responsibility lies with me because there is no bank protect me. I don't always need to be protected, when I do I use a bank. It's not an either or choice, I want access to both.

What really is needed is a way to seamlessly move funds from fiat to bitcoin and back, which is not a bitcoin problem but a financial industry that is mired in red tape, an industry whose interest only aligns with mine when they get their cut. There are many people in the world that are cut off from modern banking services. They just don't get to participate. It they need to move funds they pretty much get raped by companies like WU. Bitcoin solves this for them. If not Bitcoin then the next crypto that replaces it and resolves issues around the current implementation will.

I am very surprised by the amount of negativity from self professed geeks here at slashdot. The action is in the protocol but everyone focuses on the money. The protocol itself can be used for so many things over and above money. If anyone who is a true geek really takes time to understand the protocol and the disruptive nature of it to established hierarchical systems, I can't believe that they wouldn't get excited about that. Everyone is just focused on the insane price of bitcoin right now which is simply noise clouding the bigger picture.

Bitcoin is cash. If you walk around with a suitcase full of dollars and somebody steals it there is no insurance. Wells Fargo will not give a shit.

Ok, well I know you are a bit emotional about this but I will chime in anyway. All the problems we have seen with thefts have had nothing to do with the Bitcoin protocol. The problems have been in trusting your stash with companies that have no business being trusted. It's the equivalent of leaving your bag full of cash with Lenny down at the bowling alley because he has a safe in the basement. Flexcoin, Gox et al., -- Why would anyone trust their funds to these people? These fly by nights are either a bunch of incompetents or just plain old crooks.

Bitcoin itself is not a shitty idea. The problem right now is that bitcoin is very young and there is a 'wild west" aspect to it. The infrastructure will mature.

If you feel so strongly about it then just don't use it. What's the problem? But to say a system that offers frictionless payments is a shitty idea and should not even be attempted is stupid. There is a huge need in the world for this right now. The ride will be bumpy so buckle up.

One last thing and more of an open comment to people who have bitcoin. "Don't be a dumbass and let Lenny hold your bag of cash for you!" Geez does it even need saying?

just not for his shareholders.

I am going to cut AC some slack on this one. Without trying to sound like the old man yelling at a cloud, there was a time when reading the headline alone on this site exposed you to new things. I remember thinking that I had no clue what the headline was referrring to which would entice me to read on and broaden my understanding. Now it is littered with crap like this and oooh Iphone this and and Android that. Oooooh shiny, happy happy. You still get a nugget of good stuff here once in a while and the discussions are still leaps and bounds better then anything I have seen on reddit, but overall this site has taken a dive and is getting more reddit like every year.

..and nothing prevents his company from offering scholarships. Governments are stretched pretty thin and it would be nice if private industry stepped up here, as they will be the ones to really benefit from qualified engineers. Perhaps government could match their investments and make it a partnership at least. What he is asking for is to socialize the costs so he can privatize the expected profits. These always end up with the threat of leaving, like they wouldn't do that anyway if it was beneficial to them.

He probably loses money wasting time collecting that dust.