I have yet to actually see Ramis's death described in print. Just on my screen, here.

I'd have to agree with that. In particular, I always remember him for the line "Print is dead." It certainly wasn't in 1984, and saying so made a person sound like a lunatic. But look at print today!

I hear there's a filter in Google Glass that fixes Slashdot Beta. I'd go for it.

The real question is, do you want your children educated through a system designed by majority vote? (and/or designed by people elected by majority vote) Do you really want everyone in your community weighing in on your children's education or not?

If you really believe in democracy, I don't see how anyone can fault this. Personally, I do not believe in democracy, and think it's a terrible way to educate a child. But if you really believe in the whole electoral process, I don't think you have room to complain: you have to take the bad with the good, and vote for someone better next time.

Wait, what the heck ... ? Six digit ID's are low now? I'm getting so old....

Just wanted to chime in to say you may be a minority, but you are not alone. These days I'm less interested in a debate on origins and more interested in whether or not people should be creating a compulsory one-size-fits-all educational system, so I don't chime up as much on such topics as I used to. But - still here, still believe in the Bible, still doing engineering/sciency stuff somehow despite my backwardness, and I still see no reason for people to try to force each other to change. I don't know a whole lot about Ken Ham, although there's a chance we might swing through that area this year and take a look.

Only now? Adobe was using DRM to harm Dmitry Sklyarov over a decade ago. And in harming one of us, they harmed all of us.

The Bitcoin FAQ explains why this is not seen as a problem by Bitcoin supporters. But of course this is Slashdot, so I assume nobody has read that.

The shuttering of silk road caused panic for only a few hours. The value was recovered in less than 1/4 of a day. But for weeks afterward there were misleading headlines about how Bitcoin had lost half its value. Yes, it did lose its value - for a very short while.

Personally, I was very surprised that the value didn't go farther down and stay there much longer.

Person who didn't actually harm anyone is prosecuted anyway, news at 11.

Like you said, saying something doesn't make it so.

If your goal is to persuade me to willingly give my allegiance to your system, you're failing.

That's just a personal opinion, not something you have the right to enforce on people.

I am fully ready to secede from all of the services you have mentioned as soon as that right is recognized for everybody so that we can work together on a voluntary basis to create our own solutions.

I am not a member of the U.S. Libertarian political Party, but their past platform put it well:

There's a whole lot in the summary that is just wrong or out of date. First off, the energy consumption for bitcoin mining is becoming more and more efficient, especially this year thanks to the addition of ASIC circuits for the job. Also there are several alternative currencies that are trying to address this with alternatives, including Peercoin and Primecoin.

Next, the news of malware for mining Bitcoin is not new at all - it's been happening for well more than a year. And the defense is the same as always. Really this is an issue of malware, not an issue of Bitcoin. There is also malware out there to steal credit card numbers and bank account information - that's not a strike against credit cards or bank accounts.

Finally a lot of this is a matter of opinion. The author thinks a deflationary system would be terrible - many of us think it would be wonderful. This is actually addressed in the Bitcoin FAQ with a link to a real article on the theory so you can consider it and make up your mind rather than starting with a preconception off the bat. If you conclude that a deflationary currency is bad, don't use it - meanwhile let the rest of us use what we think would be best. If you like the cryptocoin concept but don't like deflationary currencies, there are altcoins that do not have a capped supply.

As for other points of the libertarian agenda - again, if you don't like it, don't use it. I support your right to pick the system you think would work best, and I think I should be allowed to do the same. "it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness"

Isn't it weird how on Slashdot some guys will go ape over the government wiretapping the general public without a warrant, then turn around and defend the need to have the government monitor everybody's economic transactions without probably cause?