The cost/difficulty of mining is not constant, but adjusts in response to the number of nodes mining at any given moment. If the value of Bitcoins go down and people stop mining, the network responds by making it easier to mine so people start mining again. That way, Bitcoins are created at a predictable rate, whether Bitcoins are valued at $100 or $0.01. The price floor effect you're talking about won't happen.

The point is that you have to remember to compare those devices with the iPod of the same era, which was the 1G. And the 1G wasn't that much better, especially when you take the price into account. I think people have a tendency to recall what the iPod later became, not what it was at launch.

The 1G didn't achieve mass-market success. It was a very expensive product that couldn't work with 98% of computers.

Whatever currency your money is denominated in, at some point you have to transfer it out of a bank account regulated by the government to an entity that is not regulated by the government.

The tighter they are, the less likely you are to be in the path of the transmission. Plus, the Earth is a moving target, so you might only cross the path of the transmission for an instant... while your antenna is pointed in the wrong direction.

Did you look at the list? They're the same top companies from every list of tech companies: Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, etc. They're not looking for mindless grunts. They're all very aggressive about recruiting top talent, which often leads to them competing against each other. The wages reflect that.

The standards for interns are lower because they're not done with school yet. If you're not in school, you'd be expected to apply as a regular employee and already have skills comparable to someone with a degree. Theoretically, you can do this without a degree from a top university, but in practice recruiters use the university as a first line filter, particularly if you have no experience.

Internships are usually in the summer when students wouldn't be in school anyway. There are some longer co-op programs where you take time off from classes but still remain enrolled and even get credit for working. Considering tech internships tend to pay better than a summer job and greatly improve your chances of getting hired after graduation, you'd be stupid not to do it if you can.

The fact that she's making chicken scratch is a price signal indicating that the world has more cellists than it realistically needs or wants. If more of them would quit and seek more profitable employment, the ones who are left would make more money.

I think you're confused about why they bought it. We call them "smartphones" but their primary purpose these days is browsing the web, not making phone calls.

It's just a matter of which device is the one you use most and carry with you all the time and which device is the optional accessory you only carry when you need it. We call them "smartphones" but increasingly they're portable computers that are only occasionally used to make phone calls.

If you spend most of your time browsing the web and watching cat videos, it makes sense to put the connection in the device so you don't have to carry around a hotspot too. Then you have a Bluetooth headset -- which is basically what the HTC Mini is -- for those infrequent occasions when you need to have a long phone conversation. If you're not expecting any calls, you leave the headset at home.

It only uses NFC to initialize the connection. After that, it uses Bluetooth. It shouldn't be any more or less of a drain on your battery than a Bluetooth headset.

He very clearly struggled with depression for a long time. After he got fired from Wired, he made a blog post about someone committing suicide. He changed the person's name to "Alex" later, but it said Aaron when he wrote it. His friends took this to be a suicide note and called the cops to intervene. Afterwards, he denied that it was a suicide note, but admitted he wasn't in a good state of mind at the time.

He also posted an online 'will' of sorts back in 2002 when he was only 16. For a 16 year old kid to be making such concrete plans in case of his death speaks to his own expectations about his life.

I just got a Nexus 4 and signed up for a $30/month plan with T-Mobile. It comes with 100 minutes and a soft cap of 5gb at 4G speeds. I use my phone more as a portable computer than a phone, so the low minutes are fine by me. For long calls, I use Google Voice for free with GrooVeIP.

The two year cost including the phone is $300 + $30*24 = $1020. A high-end phone with 5gb of 4G data on contract with one of the other carriers would be about twice that.

And kids growing up today will have nostalgia for the iPads of their childhood.

People forget what the first generation iPod was like. It wasn't the instant hit that Apple is now know for. It was clunky, expensive, and Mac only. It was only in later generations that Apple improved the design, cut the price, and sold a lot of units.

The GAO is predicting that the rate in the US will be about 1.5 coins for every bill.