Bitcoin creates so many innovative business opportunities. Knowing that your government is acknowledging it as a legal currency means there is a little bit less risk for running such a business. Which means that there is going to be more innovation.

The bugs fixed in the Oracle JRE are most probably also present (and have also been fixed) in the OpenJDK version, which is GPL-licensed. I don't know what all the Oracle bashing is all about. That's almost like blaming Red Hat every time a bug is found in a Linux device driver.

Java is a popular platform, and it is also a big platform. There will always be bugs, just like in every large piece of software. It has become a critical piece of infrastructure for many businesses. Being popular makes it a preferred target for attackers.

It is very cheap to put the blame on Oracle just at the time they're releasing bug fixes. But we shouldn't forget that they are not the only ones making profit from Java. And instead of crying for alternatives (which are probably less stable and have more undiscovered security holes), we shouldn't forget that most of Java is Open Source and that the Open Source community can actually work on fixing the problems.

Mining wasn't meant to be the biggest business in the world of Bitcoin. It will never be the type of "work" that can feed the masses, just like in the real world, only a few people are miners. But that doesn't make the idea of donating your computing/networking/whatever resources to some crowdsourcing mechanism in exchange for micro-payment invalid. Here is a couple of services that your computer could provide to others in an automated, peer-to-peer fashion for a couple of 'toshis:

• Provide internet proxying/tunneling/anonymity.
• Perform scientific calculations, simulations, SETI@home-like challenges.
• Compile source code.
• Render images for graphics artists.
• Brute-force crack crypto keys.
• Perform DDOS attacks.
• Send spam.

I guess there might be some real economic potential for the last couple of items on the list.
Has anyone attempted to write some kind of service-for-bitcoin software?

Why should the military only act in its own interest? It should act in the interest of the people it serves and who pay for it.