Your "oops" probably speaks more truth about what happened to a lot of MtGox victims than you realize. In the US, at least, we've grown accustomed to the nanny state with the government always promising to protect us from fraud. So I have to assume that, although there were plenty of warning signs that MtGox was seriously flawed and unwilling to correct their issues, people assumed they would be protected in some manner *other than the security they gave up that was built into the bitcoin design).

His statement makes sense. Learn the difference between the dollar and the NYSE and you might begin to understand his statement.

Wrong. BC can act very effectively as digital currency without any legal tender being introduced into the system. There are plenty of non-tangible information and services that are available that can be exchanged through a commonly agreed upon crytpo-currency. That anyone should decide to also exchange a digital currency for government backed currency is hardly a necessity and does not make it a pyramid scheme. Your argument applies just as effectively to the stock market as it does to BC. i.e, it doesn't apply.

Your personally smug generational bias only diminishes any points you have hoped to make.

Most of our GA aircraft are based on designs that haven't changed in 50 years or more. There is an aircraft in development aimed squarely at many of the shortcomings of the old designs, flying 5-7 with the space and comfort of an automobile, at higher speeds than typical GA aircraft (200+kts) and with fuel economy better than most cars on the road (40mpg): http://www.synergyaircraft.com/technical.html

In each of these scenarios, what regulations do you expect, specifically, and for what purpose? Please explain as you offer nothing but your expectation as opinion. Regulation is not the default expectation any of us should have. It must be justified in all cases.

when you make so much more money when it is fat?

Do this but first, eliminate the minimum wage. Then start with universities, medical professionals, lawyers, and civil employees, making the ratio adjusted by some index, so that it can increase as the economy becomes robust and contract as the economy weakens. Let that percolate a few years and see how it goes.

I concur. My '64 Falcon's rear wheel dropped in a drainage ditch while I was turning onto a road and the car bottomed out. I didn't know I busted the gas tank until I got to the store a half mile away. Gas leaking into a big puddle. No kaboom. Was probably more dangerous sitting in the puddle of gas at the grocery store. Should have called the fire dept, but instead got the kitty litter, pushed the car away from the big puddle and was able to drive it back home on what gas remained.

This is going to be tough for Tesla now that the feds are involved, and I can relate. My alternative fuel car, based on a glyceryl trinitrate fuel, would be blowing the Tesla off the road if it weren't for a minor fuel storage and shock absorber problem. Damn feds with their quibbly little safety regulations won't even let me drive the prototype on public roads. Progress is not about perfection.

The scope of the screw ups on this is so big that new vernacular and laws will be coined. College courses will be created solely focusing on the screw ups involved in this system. Many of epic software disasters of the past will be forgotten because of how they fade in comparison.

The problems:

o $5B estimate to produce the site (WTF!) but only a $1B budget granted to create the site (still, WTF! )
o Hofstadter’s Law
o 55 contractors and Conway's law
o 2 weeks of integration testing before going live (seriously? a thousand WTF!)
o Unknown size of the Cone of Uncertainty at launch
o Failure to adopt 'Worse is Better' OR 'The Right Thing'

The solution involves a heavy dose of outside programmer's thus invoking Brook's Law.

The $5B estimate is nealry 24,000 man-years of effort at $100/hr. So, congress said, 'no way', we think it is only 5,000 man-years. Yeah. Congress is overseeing a software project.

On all other points you've made, kudos. However, Space Camp does not operate within the budget of NASA. It is part of the United State Space and Rocket Center Museum. Having developed and sold a simulator to Space Camp, I wish they had part of NASA's budget. Museums are not deep pocket customers.

I don't believe the value of the current simulators (none of which I worked on, btw) is diminished in the least by being reflective of the last 32 years of manned flight. The important parts of what is being taught is not about specific flight hardware as much as it is about planning and teamwork in the adverse conditions that space provides.