> My system can't be beat. It is the most infallible and secure of any system.
>
> Then it gets beat.

..except we're not talking about that. we're talking about one peer having orders of magnitude more processing that most other nodes combined and the laws of hyper-distant/tail probability.

the principles of bitcoin security and decentralization are comparable to probabilities in the world of quantum mechanics, where the things that are 'possible' and dramatic (such as winning the state lottery 10 times in a row with picks P1, P2, ..., P10) are so vanishingly small that it's best modeled as noise ('noise' because of the volume of outcomes also with probability on that order of magnitude). yet making the statement that 'the state lottery will be won ten times (with any number)' is analogously the compliment of the earlier 10 times statement -- and THAT's what makes bitcoin and a world built from QM work in highly predictable ways (that the union of so many interdependent events collapse the macro outcomes to very narrow bands of outcomes, relatively speaking).

So, the programming problem posed in the article is:

"Given a data file describing a maze with diagonal walls, count the number of enclosed areas, and measure the size of the largest one."

Who wants to take a stab at an algorithm for that?

I got a kick out of the rule that you can have one golf club, or two clubs, but the golf clubs is right out.

Cause, you know, more than one club per hand is just too dangerous.

Just FYI, as you get older, it gets harder and harder to see things that are close to your eyes, leading you to hold things you want to read further and further away from your face, not closer.

An iPad is a poor PC replacement for most old folks. They don't need to be doing tasks like email on a small screen with a touch "keyboard".

At what point do you realize that if you're going to use it as a PC, you should just buy a PC?

The article might as well be me... except it's 270 miles, and my dad does provide some front-line tech support. But my mom is still on AOL.

This Christmas we had her try various tech devices from smart phones to tablets (Android and iOS); the end verdict was she is still most comfortable in front of a monitor with a keyboard and mouse. Tablets worked OK for some of the things she wanted to do, but the lack of physical keyboard was problematic, esp. when it came to email. And it's also more comfortable for her to be sitting in a chair NOT having to hold the screen. Tablet screens also suffer compared to larger monitors when you're old and want a large font.

So while mom might end up with a tablet as an accessory, they are NOT desktop replacements. And don't solve the AOL problem either.

To the article submitter, what does your mom use AOL for? The AOL experience isn't necessarily much different than the browser experience, for certain activities, so you might want to try setting up Windows 7 and then seeing if the browser is "close enough".

Ultimately I got my mom a new PC (her old one was OLD and took days to boot (ok, 20 minutes)) and put windows XP on it. Fortunately she doesn't feel the need to download the screensaver du jour, so with virus software XP is OK and what she's familiar with. Did end up having to put AOL back on it but dad is working on weaning her over to a browser. If she makes that transition probably on to Windows 7.

Two people can't use the same IP address at the same time either - your packets are interleaved.

It just so happens that your packets are interleaved on the microsecond scale while gun use is interleaved on the order of hours/days/weeks.

If you are shipping items from country to country, in addition to the time it takes the postal systems to move your package, there is also the time it spends in customs. Lots of packages sail right through, but some get "stuck", and when they get through customs is up to customs.

So your package could have spent weeks in customs somewhere.

"Dusting off" a ten-year-old computer? Pah. Wake me when you get the latest Linux kernel running on a Mac IIfx.

...don't let people have access to the hashed passwords for your system.

From the user's perspective, it's don't use the same password in more than one place, so that if one place does let its hashed passwords loose, it can't be used against you.

...I got this bug on a website I do *NOT* use Facebook to log into, so the Facebook statement appears incorrect in that regard. (I was logged into Facebook in that browser though.)

GLaDOS is already in the upcoming Pacific Rim. http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/12/13/yes-that-actually-is-glados-in-the-pacific-rim-trailer/ Way looking forward to seeing that.

The policies did originate in the legislative process.

The issue is that some people are claiming the legislation says something different than other people claim it says.

And that's a very common occurrence in our government - the executive always attempting to take the broadest interpretation of executive power as possible.

It's a big reason we have that whole judicial branch.

The answer is, it depends. My current answer is wait for other elected US officials to act. That's worked pretty well for hundreds of years. Somebody acts outside the bounds of the law, they eventually get removed from office, possibly put in jail, etc.

The nice thing about democracy is it's a structure that resists consolidation of power. If one person starts getting too much power, other people will use democratic mechanisms to reduce that power. It's not like the Republicans would allow George Bush to become a dictator, or the Democrats would allow Obama to become one, because then no one else gets their turn in 4 or 8 years. And consolidation of power means a Senator who used to be able to leverage his vote for consideration of his pet projects (or donors or whatever) doesn't want to find himself where he's only leveraging his vote to not get arrested. And all those corporations who finance political campaigns don't want to be in a position where a dictator can come seize their assets either.

And even the President himself doesn't have a whole lot of incentive to become a dictator - he's going to be rich whether he stays in power or not, so best not to get in a position where the only option people have of getting rid of you is killing you.

The idea that any single entity is going to consolidate power across 50 states, each with their own military and police apparatus, and with the cooperation of the members of our volunteer military, is just plain ridiculous.

What we're talking about here is a very sensational, but very minor, topic. More American citizens live or die on changes in DUI laws than the drone use policies. George Ryan (former Illinois Governor) killed more American citizens as a result of taking a single bribe than Obama has killed with drones.

Like all issues with what should, and should not, be legal actions by the government, this one will get settled through legislative or judicial process. We're not talking about the arrest, jailing, or killing of political opponents. These are people who have specifically declared a desire to destroy the political process entirely.