Comment Re:See you on the other side, Egon (Score 1) 136
I have yet to actually see Ramis's death described in print. Just on my screen, here.
The real question is, do you want your children educated through a system designed by majority vote? (and/or designed by people elected by majority vote) Do you really want everyone in your community weighing in on your children's education or not?
If you really believe in democracy, I don't see how anyone can fault this. Personally, I do not believe in democracy, and think it's a terrible way to educate a child. But if you really believe in the whole electoral process, I don't think you have room to complain: you have to take the bad with the good, and vote for someone better next time.
we've all read numerous stories about companies using DRM in stupid ways that harm their customers, and now we can add Adobe to the list
Only now? Adobe was using DRM to harm Dmitry Sklyarov over a decade ago. And in harming one of us, they harmed all of us.
It was BTC's "dirty little secret" that as long as you could buy drugs with it, it had value. Losing SR caused panic on the BTC market for exactly that reason.
The shuttering of silk road caused panic for only a few hours. The value was recovered in less than 1/4 of a day. But for weeks afterward there were misleading headlines about how Bitcoin had lost half its value. Yes, it did lose its value - for a very short while.
Personally, I was very surprised that the value didn't go farther down and stay there much longer.
when you will always benefit from some regulations and services.
Like you said, saying something doesn't make it so.
If your goal is to persuade me to willingly give my allegiance to your system, you're failing.
You exercise that right by choosing where to live
That's just a personal opinion, not something you have the right to enforce on people.
I am fully ready to secede from all of the services you have mentioned as soon as that right is recognized for everybody so that we can work together on a voluntary basis to create our own solutions.
I am not a member of the U.S. Libertarian political Party, but their past platform put it well:
Secession The Issue: People are forced to be subject to governments and to participate in their programs, usually as providers of financial support, regardless of their wishes to the contrary. The Principle: As all political association must be voluntary, we recognize the right to political secession. This includes the right to secession by political entities, private groups or individuals. Exercise of this right, like the exercise of all other rights, does not remove legal and moral obligations not to violate the rights of others. Solutions: We support the right of political entities, private groups and individuals to renounce their affiliation with any government, and to be exempt from the obligations imposed by those governments, while in turn accepting no support from the government from which they seceded. Transitional Action: As a transition step, we support the right of political entities, private groups and individuals to renounce their participation in any government program, and to be exempt from the obligations imposed by that program, while in turn accepting no benefit from the program from which they seceded.
There's a whole lot in the summary that is just wrong or out of date. First off, the energy consumption for bitcoin mining is becoming more and more efficient, especially this year thanks to the addition of ASIC circuits for the job. Also there are several alternative currencies that are trying to address this with alternatives, including Peercoin and Primecoin.
Next, the news of malware for mining Bitcoin is not new at all - it's been happening for well more than a year. And the defense is the same as always. Really this is an issue of malware, not an issue of Bitcoin. There is also malware out there to steal credit card numbers and bank account information - that's not a strike against credit cards or bank accounts.
Finally a lot of this is a matter of opinion. The author thinks a deflationary system would be terrible - many of us think it would be wonderful. This is actually addressed in the Bitcoin FAQ with a link to a real article on the theory so you can consider it and make up your mind rather than starting with a preconception off the bat. If you conclude that a deflationary currency is bad, don't use it - meanwhile let the rest of us use what we think would be best. If you like the cryptocoin concept but don't like deflationary currencies, there are altcoins that do not have a capped supply.
As for other points of the libertarian agenda - again, if you don't like it, don't use it. I support your right to pick the system you think would work best, and I think I should be allowed to do the same. "it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness"
UNIX is hot. It's more than hot. It's steaming. It's quicksilver lightning with a laserbeam kicker. -- Michael Jay Tucker
