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Comment Re:Why wouldn't they? (Score 1) 67

No, they accept USD, or whatever fiat currency they specify, with a transaction processor like Bitpay converting BTC to fiat on the spot.

I think you missunderstand the meaning of the word 'accept'. From merriam-webster dictionary:

accept
verb \ik-sept, ak- also ek-\

: to receive or take (something offered)

: to take (something) as payment

: to be able or designed to take or hold (something)

I think that it is clear that to 'accept' something as payment you don't need to hold it afterwars. You are free to convert it to something else or use it in any other way you see fit. To give you some example, few people would argue that steam, google play or blizzard online store is not accepting euros because they convert it to dollars after the purchase.

Comment Re:Why wouldn't they? (Score 2) 67

I can think of one downside: People might be less willing to pay with Bitcoin if they don't get the protections that they'd get from their bank's credit or debit card

Accepting bitcoins doesn't mean that you stop taking other forms of payments so this is no valid downside for merchant who start to accept bitcoins in addition to existing forms of payments.

Comment Re:And this is the same for copyrights. (Score 1) 240

For copyrights, the content creator's remaining natural life plus ten years, or 40 years total, which ever is longer.

Reasonable limit would be 10 years initialy + 10 year extension if the creator wishes so. The best solution would be to abolish copyright completely and provide money for creators in some other way without artificial limits on content distribution. Current copyright doesn't help creators, it is tailored for the needs of distributors because it is a mean to control distribution. Creators don't need distribution limits (it is actualy bad for them as it lowers their exposure to potential audience), they need money.

Patent law is more complex and i think that the current model is not so bad, the problem is the patent office which is not competent in patent aplication review and juridical system which makes invalidation of bogus patents expensive and lengthy and which enables patent trolls to thrive.

Comment Re:Certainly yes (Score 1) 225

Gravitational lensing does not require either dark matter or dark energy. I find it odd that the NASA link discusses Einstein as the person that came up with the theory, yet fails to mention that Einstein did not theorize these two "dark" things. Gravitational lensing is a result of having curved space and obviously gravity. Dark * is not required nor expected..

Einsteins theory doesn't use gravity at all. It works with mass and energy which cause curved spacetime which then causes gravitational lensing. The dark matter is predicted by this effect because we can't detect enough normal matter to justify the level of light-bending we can observe. Dark matter is also predicted by several other observable phenomena like the speed galaxies rotate around each other or cosmic microwave background.

Comment Re:So? (Score 1) 101

It's a blockchain. It's know what portions were stolen. Send a message out to all people involved in this scheme to not accept them.
Oh right - that would undermine the illusion of "freedom".

Please try to send the message and let us know how it worked. I think that you'll discover that your "illusion of freedom" is very far from actual reality.

Comment Re:Advantages? (Score 0) 146

The big advantage is that all my computers are reachable through the internet

Depending on your point of view, that may also be considered as a down-side.

With IPv4 you have only one option - hide your network behind nat and be unreachable from internet.
With IPv6 you can choose between your network being reachable from internet and your network protected by firewall from outside connections.

I fail to see how IPv6 which gives you more freedom can be considered down-side from any reasonable point of view.

Comment Re:04.10.2010 (Score 1) 503

Russia already has a history of, at the very least, being a prime suspect for taking down a plane. The only difference now is that the world is actually watching this show more carefully.

Our local Czech news reported yesterday about Putin saying that Ukrainian government is responsible for the accident because it happened in their territory. I wonder if it means that he has taken responsibility for all aircraft shootings which happened previously in the russian/soviet territory:)

Comment Re:Anonymity makes sense for special cases. (Score 1) 238

Whistleblowing, witness protection, for example. For most other cases anonymity degenerates into a cesspool of behavior that is not accepted in normal society. See every unmoderated anonymous internet forum ever.

We are talking about pseudoanonymity here, not anonymity. And we are talking about moderated discussion. I disagree that it is only usefull in special circumstances. Using real name is big security risk for anyone. Internet is vast and you never know what deranged individual will take interest in your person. If you provide your real name, you are opening yourself to several identity theft related attacks which can be very nasty. This is very old topic which was perfectly explored for example in this article Anonymity and privacy on the network from 1992.

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