Being a cryptocurrency rather than a physical one also means that they can vanish your money with the click of a button instead of having to personally visit you.

So, tell me again, how is this different from most money these days?

Anything you have on deposit is pretty much just electrons. The vast majority of 'real' money is pretty much just as virtual these days.

With the inherent irony that you can then use that hidden data specifically to find "sensitive" areas you might not have known about

People have been using the internet to find out more about 'sensitive areas' for a long time now. ;-)

By treating it like currency and passing laws about what you can do it?

They make not be able to regulate the entire currency, but they can certainly pass laws regarding their own people and what they are required to do.

Did anybody really think that you could simply say you have a form of currency which isn't regulated and expect governments to just say "well, they've beaten us"?

That would be a neat trick.

no, it's because most of them crack their nuts with their beaks.

LOL, once again, I am going to have to invoke rule #34.

Somewhere, in a dark and nasty corner of the interwebs is the human analog to this.

Now, excuse my, I have to go apply brain bleach.

Nowhere did they say they had a battery ready for market. Moron.

No, but the GPs point remains valid -- we keep hearing about all of these breakthroughs in batteries, but they don't ever actually ever seem to materialize.

It certainly seems like all of this research never actually turns into anything you can actually buy.

So either these advances aren't trickling down to consumer stuff, or companies are doing a lousy job of telling us about it. If they're not trickling down to consumers, why?

Except, I'm pretty sure there are plenty of places which are also censored or blurred from Google maps and the like.

India is hardly the first country to do this, and there's a few US installations which are blurred out.

Governments censor data, film at 11.

Right, because no technology is good or useful until it has been perfected and extended to all possible corner cases.

Or, when you're rattling your saber over ownership of a bunch of islands, maybe you figure you need some amphibious capability?

China hasn't exactly been quiet about claiming ownership of stuff lately.

Your job (most jobs anyway) includes working with others. Yes, fucking up too often will ultimately get you fired, but if you think a sterling reputation as a coder will let you get away with being an a-hole, think again. Abrasive personalities and prima-donna attitudes can ruin a team just as badly as a poor coder, and if you regularly rip into other developers in public for making mistakes, you will likely be the one being called in for a serious conversation with your manager.

In case of Linux kernel development, Linus doesn't have one of course, he pretty much is the CEO on that endeavor.

This has nothing to do with political correctness; this has to do with being polite and professional. A useful attitude when dealing with other people, and that goes double when you are a public figure whose word carries a lot of weight. You and he may think being abusive is fine and gets results, well, more power to you. But it also means people will simply start avoiding you and your projects.

6 years ago I set myself a goal that I have reached since: to never work for any asshole again, and to set myself up so that I can comfortably walk away from any job. Now I know I can walk away, and it makes a world of difference in the way I approach my work. My managers also know it, and it makes a difference there too, and in my view I enjoy an altogether healthier working relationship with them. The world needs Linus more than it needs most of us, but that doesn't mean any of us have to stand there and take his abuse while kowtowing to him. The guy needs a good dose of humility.

At the risk of being modded troll I'll ask if anyone knows the TCO on these Linux roll outs. If Spain has lower tech wages it might be much lower than Windows, but in the United States at least there's tonnes of cheap Windows IT gurus but if you want someone that can admin your Linux boxes you'll pay through the nose. Google Docs and other web apps might be changing that though, at least until you hit college.

If a broadband provider were to approach one of these hyper-giants and threaten to block or degrade access to its site if it refused to pay a significant fee, such a strategy almost certainly would be self-defeating, in light of the immediately hostile reaction of consumers to such conduct

Translation: We'd do this to a small company in a heartbeat, and we're really disappointed we didn't kill net neutrality before there were enough big players to fight us on this. Unfortunately we have to make ourselves out as the victims, again.

These guys will do anything to keep their monopolies, and want to be sure they can do anything they want to milk customers.

As usual, this is lobbyists and lawyers and PR people making their clients out to be the poor downtrodden victim here.

And, of course, the FCC being totally sympathetic to the plight of these poor, downtrodden monopolies, I'll be surprised if they don't give it to them.

I find this a little creepy ... the study to tell us how much they're violating our privacy and civil rights is now a secret.

Which I'm going to have to assume they're pretty much doing everything they're not supposed to.

When government will no longer tell you what they're doing, you have to assume they're doing the worst.

I bet in Australia they wore bathing suits.

And that multi-color sun screen stuff on their noses.

I'm going to do the smart thing and give my money to that Asian guy who comes on my TV at about 2 AM every morning, and tells me that if I give him my money, he'll teach me to get as rich as he is.

I'll give you a hint and spare you the money.

You get a TV commercial, which says if people will send you money, you'll tell them how to be rich. ;-)