Parent should be modded up.

Also, what is this "plans to accept" BS. There are heaps of online retailers who take bitcoin, and if they were serious they would have just used someone like coinjar.io to do the merchant service for them and convert it back to USD on the fly.

Slashdot - stuff that matters.... It will be news when Overstock.com ACCEPT bitcoin, not when they do nothing more than release a press release that they PLAN TO ACCEPT bitcoin some day in the future.

Thanks Slashdot for your thinly veiled Christmas advertising. Anyone wanna buy some Viagra?

This whole article is interesting, but so not news.

I'm surprised that Microsoft is spending *any* time trying to fix this issue, given that the whole windows update process will be replaced in 4 months with the following:

if( operatingSystemVersion 6)
            return(-1);
else
          return(do_updates());

Very good point. I'd just like to clarify two minor things...

1. I agree with you, that it is very easy to start a business putting stuff into space that makes money from the outset. There are plenty of real-life examples where real innovation is achieved without any requirement for up-front capital (loss-making business models), usually it's funded from initial sales.

I forget the example business models and companies.... can you remind me of them?

2. Prior to getting "poached" by SpaceX, which "really had nothing meritocratic to bring to the table.", there have been DECADES of intense innovation in the space industry thanks to an overwhelming support and encouragement from government. This intense innovation has been _so succesful_ that NASA have recently retired their last government owned space shuttles.

Elon Musk was just standing on the shoulders of giants by proposing the incremental innovation of having rockets land intact...

Wikipedia has let me down... are you able to point me in the direction of the space innovation that's recently come out of the US government organisations, making Space-X's work redundant?

(sarcasm is often lost in text, so let me be direct: IMHO, private companies like Space-X are facilitating innovation in space travel. This is their contribution to society. You can piss & moan because private people are making money out of it, but it's better than government money being wasted on useless bureaucracy supporting (or causing) scientists resting on their laurels.)

If you import something for $999 USD today, it would be assessed as a $1,056.25 AUD import.

This would probably attract and additional:
$55 Customs Processing Fee
$50 Import Duty (assuming the standard 2.5% import duties)
$105.63 GST

It needs to be less than $1,000 AUD per shipment.

In Australia we legislate it.

If you are on a road signposted at 80kph (50mph) or more, and you're not passing or in congested traffic - and in the right lane... You can enjoy a hefty fine from the police.

Drive its self.

Okay, I'll bite (because I might learn something).

What are the flaws that need to be fixed in bitcoin, and given the world adopted democracy, Microsoft windows, and Keynesian economics despite their flaws, what makes you think bitcoin won't be accepted despite its flaws?

Actually, there are numerous scientific studies that prove that a placebos improve medical outcomes (compared with not administering any drug).

Here are some cool facts* about the effectiveness of placebos: http://listverse.com/2013/02/16/10-crazy-facts-about-the-placebo-effect/

This is why you can actually say [homeopathy/snake oil/Magnet Therapy] etc. all are "scientifically proven to improve your outcomes" and be telling the truth.
The real question is if [homeopathy/snake oil/Magnet Therapy] is any "more effective than a similarly administered placebo".

Wow, that sucks.

IIRC, Zuk didn't get just sit at home all day playing computer games, he also went to Harvard Business School.

Bill Gates didn't go to school, but he also didn't sit at home all day and play computer games.

Neither of them had a mobile phone at age 4, both of them didn't come from broken families.

Steve Jobs on the other hand, was adopted, didn't go to college, and got insanely rich. I think he even played computer games as a kid. But he died at age 37.

Hi, I have kids. I agree with GP. Sure, you can't be responsible for all instances of your kids growing up "fucked up", but generally speaking, doing stuff like divorcing the child's mother, giving them a phone at age 4, giving them games consoles and buying their love - it ain't exactly giving your kid the best start at life is it?

"Life Happens", but when you have kids, you can either say "it's the influence of society, things don't always work as planned, its not my fault you're fucked up", or you take control, be a f*cking man, and work that shit out for the sake of giving your kids the best start in life.

Agreed - you suck as a parent.

But to answer the original question: piss off all the requirements for video games, the only thing worse than not being with your child is letting him play video games all day.

Then buy one of these phones, so they can call you, mom, and nobody else: http://www.gps-practice-and-fun.com/kid-phones.html

Best thing is, with the GPS you'll be able to see where your other half is taking him.

"LLVM's Libc++ Now Has C++1Y Standard Library Support"

Seriously, is that a real headline, or did your cat just walk across the keyboard?!

If you think about it critically, these aircraft have onboard radar (and other combat sensors), and a flight log.

So, it would know where it last was, how far and in which direction it has traveled since loosing GPS, and what the wind-speed was on the way to where it is.

It would likely also have contour maps of the terrain it is flying over, and ground sensors.

So, with a modest bit of on-board computer power you could have it hit a high altitude and head home via the least-risk path, execute a long list of pre-determined evasive makeovers, have it open fire at anything it has a 99% confidence is an enemy entity - or for some real fun, have it work out where it is on the map, then fly about 30 ft above the terrain at mach 1.6 in the general direction of home.

Since they still know their speed, bearing, altitude and attitude, they wouldn't necessarily crash.

If I were programming the logic with very little on-board processing power, I would have them automatically ascend to a set altitude then fly straight and level until they regain consciousness.

If you had a fair-bit of on-board processing power, you might look at flying them up to a random high altitude, then execute a quasi-random set of evasive maneuvers while heading along a bearing that was set at the beginning of the mission - ie. towards friendly territory - in an effort to regain consciousness.

Either way, it would make it a much easier target and far less of a threat.