I think Microsoft is starting a trend that Sony and Nintendo will continue as the market is ready for this. As consumers we've been programmed to accept that you can't trade anything digital. Buying anything on itunes, google play, or steam is a one time purchase, can't trade or even give away. Kindle lets you loan books - if the publisher allows - for a single short period. Get a book loaned to you but something comes up and can't read it in that window? Oh well out of luck!

It's simplier to launder coins. You move them to one of the many exchanges that keep coins in a common pool. Then you withdraw coins to a new address - chain is broken. Bounce around to a few exchanges in different countries. That's the easy way, there are even services specifically designed for laundering.

I don't think a kid on a lemonade stand can officially accept paypal, isn't it 18 and older? Same with any merchant account which would let a kid mow a lawn or do all the normal things that kids can do for cash.

I've noticed the local comedy clubs have closed down. South Bend, IN Funny bone closed then Kalamazoo Michigan had a smaller club downtown that closed. Is this a national problem or just the bad economy in the area?

I saw Dunham at a local club before he got big, twice. He was a regular on the tour of local clubs I believe. I guess it was part of the right of passage for that job? Saw a stage hypnotist - with a member of our group getting hypnotized to have an orgasm with a tap on the forehead. Absolutely hilarious evening. Shame that entertainment option isn't around anymore.

But geeks everywhere actually liked snarfquest

Like getting in early to any company stock early adopters will usually benefit.

1) Hahahahaha. I hope Google does drive them out. The same companies that had higher "wholesale" DSL rates than they were offering retail to end users direct? The ones that have government mandated monopolies for regions where they can set any price they want for interconnect fees? There's a reason thousands of ISPs closed up shop in the early 2000s, they simply could not gain access to lines at anywhere near competitive rates because the incumbents got the FCC to undo the reform that forced them to share. The baby bells have received hundreds of billions of tax breaks and monies they got to roll out uprgades that never appeared (Google 200 billion broadband scandal) so I hope they do lose out. Now a few independent ISPs that are around, the few that have survived, I do hope they keep surviving.

2) Some areas have municipal fiber where anyone can connect. If an area wants this they should go for it and start the bond process. I don't think many do as they're rather rare.

The Wired Article : Anthrax Redux: Did the Feds Nab the Wrong Guy? makes me wonder if the anthrax mailer got away with it. Also the Wiki article says one of the 19 involved in 9/11 may have had anthrax based on a doctor which I had never heard before.

So the ATF is after adult cam friends too?

You're right, off the cuff I'm going to say the typical skilled tradesman will have better financial success than a typical college grad.

Master plumber in my state requires 5 years apprenticeship with mandated tests to be licensed. I wouldn't compare it to a 5 year engineering program but it sure the hell beats the pants off of a typical management or lib arts class load. Although there are a lot of people who call themselves plumbers or engineers who aren't really those things.

Deregulation like the 1996 telco reform act helped spawn the ISP industry and is responsible for making the 'net ubiquitous. Then telecom firms got rid of the pesky rules requiring them to provide open access to competitors when the FCC was ran by Powel's son under Bush Jr. The thousands of ISPs across the country died because wholesale costs to lines were more expensive as the telcos were charging for retail. Kill the competition and force the clients back to the monopolies all through regulation. Corporatism is bad for consumers.

FIOS is halted because the large telcos made deals worth hundreds of billions and then realized they could keep their money without rolling it out. Although states like NJ are supposed to have 45Meg to every household by now - it's in the contracts the telcos signed. Sadly no politician has the gumption to go against such big companies.

How many people got fined, or did jailtime for the economic collapse and the era of too big to fail? If you're a small time crook it's called a crime. If you have the government bail you out and the DOJ gives up even investigating what happened it's called business as usual.

I like how the values haven't changed with the times. I don't know when the 10K rule went in but I wonder what it'd be today with inflation.

I would like to see anyone try to take on such a huge network. A bank couldn't afford to do it. Perhaps with the NSA's budget they may have some crypto chip that could outhash anything out there. Otherwise I simply don't see how to take over 51%.

Right now the bitcoin network is using 58.710 T/hashes. Everything is gauged in Mhashes so that is 58 billion 710 million M hashes. Top GPU does 1200 Mhash so you'd need about 49 million in GPUs of them running. At $777 each that's 38 billion to duplicate the network, doubling it. Not including anything else on a computer.. no boards, no CPUs, no electric to run them. I think my math is right.

Total value of all bitcoins if bought outright is 10,936,000 BTC * $72 = 787 million. Sure an entity could try to buy every coin out there. That'd be interesting to see if that would shoot the price even higher. I'm not sure how that would play out. But BTC can go 8 decimal places so even if they get very expensive people can use small portions of them.

Shutting down the peer to peer network is about the best that would be doable. Outlaw bitcoin, shut off anyone using it, and perhaps. But there is an estimated $2 million USD done on the silk road every month so people are fine doing illegal things.

This is all about control. Bitcoin was created to avoid the banks. There is no way to "print" more USD to buy treasury bonds like we're doing now. The banks with direct ties with the government is probably fearful this idea of being able to avoid banks entirely actually catches on. That would not be good for business.