Yeah... If Overstock.com really wanted to start taking Bitcoin right away, they could just use the Bitpay API and be done with it. I couldn't see setting that up taking more than a few days of development and QA testing.

It's actually a pretty good way of accepting Bitcoin, as the conversion to US dollars is done almost instantly.

Heh... you're assuming that Bitcoin is going to be wildly popular and every person on the friggin planet (even the ones who don't even have electricity now let along stable Internet access) are going to be using it to make ALL of their currency transactions.

I'm sure that's a problem that the Bitcoin Foundation would love to have, but I doubt that it will be something that will happen during our lifetime. I hope that I'm wrong, and that what I just said will make as much sense as a "640k will be enough for everyone" statement 20 years from now... but I doubt it.

They are currently divisible to 8 decimal places, but it shouldn't be that hard to tweak the client software to allow smaller transactions if needed.

That said, it's like a COBOL programmer from the 1970's worrying about a Y2K bug. We're still a long way from needing that kind of precision.

It might not be economically stimulating for the person who has to buy the new computer, but it would certainly be economically stimulating for Dell, HP, Microsoft, McAfee, and Symantec. That was kinda the point.

If anything, bricking a few million old PC's might actually have a stimulating impact on the economy. When the users toss out their 5 year old system that is probably still running Windows XP, they will likely go out and buy a shiny new laptop from Dell or HP that comes with a copy of Windows 8.1 and Office 2012. It will probably come with a "free" trial subscription of McAfee or Symantec virus protection as well. Lots of profit to be had by all in the IT industry.

When you think about it that way, it makes you wonder who paid the Chinese programmers to write this malware.

I'm so glad that the fate of software patents in the US is being left up to a bunch of old geezers who probably can't figure out how to publish their legal opinions online without the help of their IT department.

I agree with you completely.

Let's put it this way... if you were about to start a long term contract for a big project, would you rather get paid in dollars (which will likely be worth at least 95% of what they are now at the end of the contract), or in Bitcoin (which may be worth anywhere from $10 to $10,000 each a year from now, depending on who you talk to)?

Bitcoin might work for buying a bag of weed or some cookies, but you would never use it to do real business until the currency stabilizes.

You're right... after looking at the numbers long enough, you start to see a pattern!

Oh my God... the Russians! :)

I like the part where they said "Depending on the variability of AMD's press and retail samples."

The variability in the results was mostly caused by some last minute driver changes that caused a performance boost in the Radeon 290 and 290X cards, but the submitter seems to make it look some sort of "golden sample" conspiracy from AMD.

The good news is that now that the congresscritters will have Bitcoin of their own, so they'll have a vested interest in helping it become a legal and legitimate currency. That way, they can spend it on attack ads against their opponents in 2016 :)

Don't forget that there are still a lot of banksters out there who are still trying to outlaw Bitcoin transactions in the US, using sites like Silk Road as an example on why it shouldn't be adopted as a mainstream currency. The potential loss of credit card transaction fees if Bitcoin becomes popular is starting to become a big deal for big banks and their lobbyists.

They should throw in some "free" Surface RT tablets while they are at it. It seems that they have a few thousand of them to spare...

At some point, the CPU's built into phones will be powerful enough to handle most desktop applications for businesses without a noticeable performance hit. We're not quite there yet, though. Maybe in three or four more years, perhaps.

Hard core gamers will always want the latest $500 video card from AMD or Nvidia, though... and there will likely continue to be a niche market to support them. Everyone else will continue to buy whatever laptop they can get from their employer or for under $600 from Newegg or Best Buy.