From the article:

"That threat began to feel genuine in January this year when the G.Hash mining group from China grew to control 41 percent of the network’s power, before backing off in the face of outcry. Nonetheless, the dominance of a handful of large mining operations suggests a 51 percent attack remains possible, whether from one growing or two colluding. G.Hash now controls 29 percent of the network’s power, with the next three largest controlling a further 42 percent between them."

What's to stop a government from forcing the top few groups to do a 51% attack under duress? (Via an all out secret or public war on bitcoin.)

Some scenarios: G. Hash group is forced to collude with the Chinese government and their own secret offline cloud of servers to do a 51% attack. US could force Amazon Cloud, MS Cloud, NSA servers, etc. to all run the mining software and do 51% attack with the sole intention of destabilizing and ruining Bitcoin. And US, Russia, China could all work together and force collusion on the top groups in their countries with threat of jail or execution.

The same argument could be made for any currency. US dollar, Bitcoin or otherwise. All tender is based on faith much like religion. But it doesn't make it a Ponzi scheme.

...as far as we know.

I just recently looked into solar energy, and you don't get as much power as you would need to constantly maintain flight. But a solar powered quadcopter connected to a balloon wouldn't need as much energy. The quadcopter would only kick in to maintain position every once in awhile.

I'm still waiting for someone to invent a magic bag of holding!

Money controlling governments can be used to control money controlling people.

It sounds that way because it is. Haha...

"They are based on older versions of Microsoft technologies, and your MCITP certification will decline in value as companies move to newer versions of our products. Take advantage of special upgrades to earn a Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE) certification, and protect your investment in certifications.

Most MCITP certifications will be retired by July 31, 2014. Please check the retired certifications and retired exams pages for specific retirement dates. Your retired certification will remain on your transcript."

http://www.microsoft.com/learn...

Allow the software "engineers" and corporate managers that are responsible for deploying these systems to suffer real damages criminal/civil penalties that are responsible for these bugs. If people die due to bug-ridden and faulty software, those responsible should be help accountable. They do the same for real engineers.

Motivate people properly, and you will see a difference.

The automotive industry will pay in the end. Look at the damaged reputation, recall and legal costs. Might as well do it right in the beginning.

A couple of friends and I keep playing solo Wingman amongst ourselves because it lacks an appropriate deathmatch setting. Slow paced, somewhat strategic and at times really suspenseful gameplay. Quite different from the run around and drop dead CoD style play (which is what ruined Judgement.) We'll buy an xBone when the new Gears comes out. Only wish we could create our own maps or at least if they could release some new ones...

Saw this on Suze Orman.

$1 billion in gift cards go unredeemed
http://www.marketwatch.com/sto...

I wonder how much Microsoft makes this way with their Xbox live points.

This is just like the orbs that mapped out the alien space ship in the the movie Prometheus. Just attach one of those suckers on some drones and go looking for some Sasquatch and stuff! Can't wait for the higher resolution versions that can spit out data in realtime.

Us 16%'ers go to great and nerdy lengths to silence our PC's.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/

Some even have their desktop PC located in a different room. There are many ways to skin this cat...

Thanks for the tip. Expensive, but looks worth it.