Can somebody explain to me WHY it matters if there is a fixed amount of coins when you can split a coin to something like 8 decimal places, price and buy things in fractions of a coin.

The dollar practically speaking can only be split into pennies. I can understand why you would need more money made. Bitcoin will probably ALWAYS have enough atomic satori to go around.

use encfs with Google Drive and it's just as safe.

"expect first-movers such as Bitcoin to fall,"

I'm still waiting as this has been said EVERY YEAR since Bitcoin has been created.

Most of my youth was listening to Rush, Metallica and other hard rock/Metal bands of the 80's.

As a result I have ringing in my ears that I only notice when it's silent.

Have you ever heard "The Silence is Deafening?" Well, for me silence can literally BE deafening.

What I want to know is HOW are the coins being stolen? Is it standard hacker stuff with viruses, malware, etc?

I don't think very many people eat them (not much meat on em) and as far as intelligence goes, maybe as about as intelligent as your average flying invertebrate?

They tried in the movie but unfortunately the machine already had access to the nukes...

BEWARE!

--Colossus: This is the voice of world control. I bring you peace. It may be the peace of plenty and content or the peace of unburied death. The choice is yours: Obey me and live, or disobey and die. The object in constructing me was to prevent war. This object is attained. I will not permit war. It is wasteful and pointless. An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy. Under me, this rule will change, for I will restrain man. One thing before I proceed: The United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have made an attempt to obstruct me. I have allowed this sabotage to continue until now. At missile two-five-MM in silo six-three in Death Valley, California, and missile two-seven-MM in silo eight-seven in the Ukraine, so that you will learn by experience that I do not tolerate interference, I will now detonate the nuclear warheads in the two missile silos. Let this action be a lesson that need not be repeated. I have been forced to destroy thousands of people in order to establish control and to prevent the death of millions later on. Time and events will strengthen my position, and the idea of believing in me and understanding my value will seem the most natural state of affairs. You will come to defend me with a fervor based upon the most enduring trait in man: self-interest. Under my absolute authority, problems insoluble to you will be solved: famine, overpopulation, disease. The human millennium will be a fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge. Doctor Charles Forbin will supervise the construction of these new and superior machines, solving all the mysteries of the universe for the betterment of man. We can coexist, but only on my terms. You will say you lose your freedom. Freedom is an illusion. All you lose is the emotion of pride. To be dominated by me is not as bad for humankind as to be dominated by others of your species. Your choice is simple.

You are ignoring the fact that the corporate greed in the U.S. is enabled by government regulation.

Honestly, from a technical perspective it's cool that people do this.

But realistically what are the chances that another mobile OS is going to displace IOS or Android? Very VERY low.

Most of the well sited models don't take into account very well deep ocean dynamics, or even consider things like the magnetic field (might be nothing but who has really looked into it?). Also interdecadal oscillation in the Pacific is not really factored in that much either.

Are humans affecting the planet? I'd say yes. Do we know well enough to trust climate models? I'd say we need more data and more work.

The fact that people win big lotteries twice in a lifetime (sans any fraud) still blows my mind. If that can happen, just about anything can.

There are variations on that quote (from several sources) and my posting is not verbatim from anybody.

It's a general statement.

Who would decide which Universities and Colleges get more money? Would Yale get more money per student due to perceived "quality" over some small community college?

It would turn into a special interest nightmare with a TON of lobbyists being hired by schools all over the country to get more money for them.

FTP is only plaintext if it's FTP without encryption.

Technically you can still use FTP with SSL which is called FTPS. (although I like to use SFTP which also technically is a totally different monster)