I don't know about trust. Bitcoin is a speculative market, and it will probably always be like that, because the characteristics of bitcoin make it a commodity and not money. I can't see it ever being used directly as money (i.e., without going through a "real" currency such as dollars).

If one side argues concept and the other argues implementation issues, they can easily both be right. Stross was wrong on several levels, but saying that he misses the point of the concept is the stupidest rebuttal one can make.

Right (and wrong, see below). This is a bad article by Network World, trying to frame this as crowdfunding, and bundling it with other crowdfunding news. It's possible that this is how IBM presented the subject to them, but I'd have liked a bit more critical thinking from the reporter.

The result is that most comments here make it clear that people didn't get what IBM did. To quote the relevant part of the article: "they were able to propose and fund projects designed to improve corporate culture and staff morale".

Where you're wrong is that it's not a survey or poll, because the suggestions come from the employees. That's where this scheme is better, because the company is saying "we're giving you a maximum of $50,000, what would you do with it?" rather than the higher ups providing the suggestions.

Googling for AMD dropping XP I found posts from October 2012 claiming the same thing: a driver came out with no XP support, end of the world is coming. I haven't been able to find anything official about AMD discontinuing XP support. Doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but I feel that a post will at least have a link to relevant proof. Linking to a beta driver as a form of proof just doesn't cut it IMO.

I haven't had problems with Windows for a long while (I'm on 7 now, but it was true for Vista too). It has the software I want and I'm used to using it.

I haven't tried Linux lately. When I did, it was a little bit of hell, closest in my experience to a beta of Vista. It didn't like my hardware, I had to edit text files to get it to work correctly on a second drive, installing a display driver was a bit of hell and killed the display, GUI programs silently failed, printing their errors only to a console, ...

That was maybe 3 years ago. I tried again later, and at least hardware-wise it was better, but the OS was still a little too rough. Perhaps these days the experience will be better, but I just don't have the time to waste on trying to get a non-Windows system to work just for the hell of it. Sure, I like alternative OS's, but I see no practical benefit for the switch and enough drawbacks.

Few people completely focus on driving. It's nearly impossible to drive for long periods and not think of anything else.

The phone conversation distraction is precisely why something like Siri would be a good alternative. Texting isn't immediate, so there's less pressure to respond immediately or someone who continuously hammers at your ears.

"Most of us writers aren't petty jerks who enjoy tearing other people down undeservedly."

Speak for yourself. :)

More seriously, consider your use of "undeservedly".

Writers are a lot more critical of writing than the average reading public. Any good writer has some experience with critiquing other work and getting her own work critiqued. Any good writer will have an eye for what she considers errors in the way sentences are strung, scenes are described, point of view, etc., etc. I've been in critique groups. A lot of writers slam things just because they would write them differently.

I said "any good writer" because these days it's easy to publish books without going through and editor, and this means people who think their writing is perfect and can't benefit from comments are out there, and they will likely slam other books with less of a rational basis.

Either way, writers aren't to be trusted when it comes to how enjoyable the book is to the less discerning non-writers.

The blockbuster games are fun. That's why people play them, and they make a gazillion dollars on the first day of sales. To claim that somehow indies know better flies in the face of reality. Sure occasionally some indies make a decent amount of money, but it still pales in comparison to what the AAA games make.

It's okay to claim that these big budget games are holding the art of games back, or that they don't always succeed in getting the formula perfect, but claiming they're not fun? Maybe they're not fun to a subset of people. But most indie games are not fun for a larger subset of people.

Donations can help to continue the development of a free project, which is why a lot of free projects ask for them. There's nothing bad in that, and occasionally if I use a free piece of software a lot I will pay its developer some money, because this kind of thing does encourage a developer to continue.

That's how I understand "economically sustainable". Dan Spalding wants to create more free books, but working on them at his own expense is not practical. Enough donations could help sustain this idea indefinitely.

I think you shouldn't put a price on the book, but do mention the possibility of donation in the book (in the preface and possibly elsewhere). Write something like "if you enjoy this book or find it useful, please consider donating a small sum at my web page http://.../ to help me create more free books."

If it's space ships for tourists vs. no space ships at all, I'm definitely all for the tourists.

Using your full name will enable people to easily guess (though they may be wrong) your gender and ethnicity. That's great trolling material.

White and blue, with some orange. A lot more interesting than the drab ZX81.

That's exactly the ownership that Microsoft is writing about. Do you want Facebook to be able to publish your photos even after you've deleted them (and possibly deleted your account)? The article also mentions Amazon's Kindle lending. Buyers of e-books want to be able to lend and resell their books, they want ownership.

Sure, all these things require DRM, but just because it can be used in annoying manners doesn't mean it's not useful for people in general.