That means the builder deviated from the design and has shoddy construction practices. The builder would be fired from the job and back charged for the work that has to be ripped out. The employees would not be punished by the owner/architect/engineer or CM.

Very simple difference:

In construction the design is cheap (5-10% of the building cost) and the compiling is expensive. In construction you only get to compile once. In addition anything that leaves an engineers or architect's office that has been stamped and signed is certified to provide a working structure, building or system; assuming the builder follows the plans correctly. Everything must be installed in the correct order and location. Deviations from the plan (we are assuming the plans and specs are good) involves and expensive reworking, redesign and law suits.

In programming, the expense is in the design of the system, compiling is cheap. In computer programming you compile as often as you need. One can test run sections of the code as needed to see what works and how it interacts.

The labor requirements are flipped between the two industries. Trying to compare the two can lead to some poor analogies quickly.

People can tell the difference between the $1 burger and the $15 burger. Can that person tell the difference between the $5 burger, $10 burger and $15 burger, and is the improvement in taste/texture worth the cost increase? I will bet that most people cannot tell the difference between the $5 burger and the $15 burger.

That is the issue the music industry is facing: while a lot of people can tell the $1 burger from everything else they cannot tell the difference between the $5 burger and the $15 burger. Because of that they are not willing to pay the difference for something they do not appreciate.

I can see this type of technology being used for foundation work first. I expect that there will be some trial and error (like the toy building being designed above). The moment someone has a working system where you can feed concrete into an auto printed an it spits out a complete foundation in less time than it takes to lay out the forms and pour concrete and strip the forms then you have a winner. I expect some fierce competition from the pre-insulated forms companies where the form becomes the insulation for the foundation.

Let me know if you need people to help chip in on the cost of that ticket. I'm sure there are people around who would help. - Like me.

No, no one is forcing me onto that boat. And I have no intention of getting on it.

The environment on the ship has to be such that it is more attractive than being on shore in San Fransisco. Here are the pros and cons that I see:

Pros:

No oversight from uncle sam
Can hire anyone you want from anywhere in the world.
Cons:

Subject to a local government (ie the ship captain) that is not responsible to the people living on the ship, the local government is responsible to the ship owners.
Complex taxation issues when re-entering the country you are a citizen of.
Contract dispute is based on 1400 century law -"Lex mercatoria". This does not address criminal law or if people want to bring in the lawyers.
All physical goods will cost more aboard ship. That is because all goods have to be imported from shore to ship.
Remote access to physical goods. You can't just run out for material stock if you need something.
Corporate town issues - The company renting you space also owns the barber shop, ferry service, grocery store, and the internet service.
Going ashore means constant scrutiny by customs and immigration.
The assumption the the ship will be allowed to anchor twelve miles offshore is laughable. The US doesn't recognize the twelve mile limit. The coast guard will push them off to the 200 mile limit.
Because of the limited space on the ship you have to live within the society the ship sets up. It's not like you can go to a different cafe if you don't like the mocha-chino.
Observations:
The ship is trying to set up its own miniaturized uptopian society of happy workers while trying to ignore the reality of what people do when they aren't working: Drink, fight, get laid, have babies, make messes, casually destroy property, join clubs, explore behind locked doors, get bored, go for walks, fall in love, pay bills, litter, join crusades, paint the apartment, get sick, etc etc etc.
Start up companies have little no assets or capital. Being a start up on a ship like that is an extravagance I don't see many companies springing for. Why pay extra to be anchored off shore when you can get similar office space on shore?
I don't know about you, but I'm done with the shared dorm room atmosphere. Sharing a room with three other people gets old fast.
Blueseed gets partial ownership of each start-up. For getting the opportunity to be a start up on their ship, they get to own part of you.

All of the questions that you marked up as "Straw man" are the important questions that will arise when the rubber hits the road (or the ship leaves port as it were).
The questions were:
Dispute resolution - The disputes can be as simple as "Who gets to use the bathroom first" and "Who has to wash the dishes" to " He hacked my server" to "assault"
External threats - Who decides what is an external threat? Are there guards? Do the people on the boat have to double as militia in the time of threat?
Entry restriction - Sure you can pay to enter. Will there be health and welfare checks? What happens if someone is carrying hepatitis, smallpox or something nasty? Who is going to say that that person cannot enter?
Health and Safety rules - Yup, I want to work someplace where I can be made to work 60-80 hours a week because I can't leave the ship. Will there be a doctor onboard? How about emergency services?

Other questions:
Food production/import: I don't see any detail on food production. Will it all have to be imported?
Drinking water: Are they going to produce all of their own drinking water?
Waste control and sanitation: Are they going just dump all of their garbage overboard along with their black water? The coast guard may have word with them on that.

These items are very important. Unlike your American dream scenario, the US was self sufficient when it broke away from the UK. Any ship would be dependent upon the mainland for food, water, fuel, parts, health care and defense to maintain its standard of living. All of these things will have to be barged out to the ship.

You can bet anyone coming ashore from that boat will be subject to immigration control and the customs service.

I don't think vlm was espousing the list as his opinion, he was just summarizing.
Reality is going to work like this (assuming the boat ever leaves port):
At some point the ship needs to come into port for maintenance, repairs, you name it. DHS and Customs decides on a "Health and Welfare" inspection of a ship entering a US controlled port. At that point the cramped conditions, poor maintenance, foul sanitation, etc etc etc will be found out and the ship will not be allowed to leave port until it cleans up its act. Anybody who has been effectively shang-hai'd into working because they cannot afford to get off will be allowed to escape.
Welcome to Rapture.

It will be interesting to see what the ship will do when it has to dock for maintenance. Or are we going to end up with "The Raft" from Snow Crash?

I normally set my monitor higher than the picture because I have the tendency to hunch if the monitor is lower than me. Once I have hunched over I have to tip my head up to look at the screen. These days I elevate my monitor so it is level with my eye-line.

I did not intend to imply that modern mining practice uses nitro anymore. I was just using it as an example of how unstable nitro is. My fear is that the guy was making his own and had it in storage in the house. That would convert the house into a death trap very quickly.

If he had home made nitroglycerin (the article only said "home made explosives") I can understand why the cops want nothing to do with it. Nitro can be manufactured at home with a minimum of difficulty. Nitro also has the property where physical shocks can detonate it. This property is great in small quantities like flash power and bang snaps. This is also a good property for remote mining: You plant your explosive charge and then bury a string of explosives 10 feet apart apart to the staging area. When the first charge in the string is detonated the rest of the string detonates because of the vibration, which in turn detonates the main charge at the mine.

Having a house with this kind of sensitivity to vibration is asking for someone to drop/knock over a bottle of something sensitive and have it detonate. And then have that explosion trigger a sympathetic explosion, etc etc etc.

Unfortunately the Hirsch report (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirsch_report) has been out for 5 years and people still ignore it.

It was not my intent to imply that the Left or the Right (and their related Whacko squads) are more or less guilty than the other.

The complaint I have is that the burying groups leave a very stilted set of articles remaining to read. It's like a book with two editors. I'm surprised that there is anything left to read.

The Bury Brigade is effectively bumping anything they don't bury. As a result the entire site appears to lean in the direction that they desire. It is much more insidious than bumping because after the Bury brigade has been through, new viewers don't know that there were alternate choices/view points available.