I see your point, but I take issue that violations of economic liberty are not egregious. One might argue that if you're unable to make a living without being strangled by red tape, no other issue is more important. Uber is too big to garner sympathy, but the average person who faces losing their livelihood to bureaucracy doesn't look all that different from Rosa Parks. E.g.: http://ij.org/issues/economic-...

Maliciously cracking into systems so you can violated the privacy of rich, powerful and/or famous people is, well, still wrong, but not really much more wrong than papparazzi-ism in general. People who resent those higher on the social ladder are gonna have sympathy with--even if not outright endorsing--anyone who makes trouble for those on the top. Those on the top are going to be absolutely enraged by them. Thus you have internet commenters who glorify hackers, and government leaders and the wealthy who absolutely crucify them in response. I don't know what will happen to Guccifer in Romania, but if he were arrested in America he'd probably be looking at decades of time--for a 42-year, probably a life-sentence. What he did was wrong, but he doesn't deserve to lose his freedom for the rest of his life.

I read a comment from political scientist Ray Laraja that I thought was interesting: "It doesn't sound like [the FEC commissioners] are going to do this, but if they allow bitcoins to remain anonymous then politicians actually wouldn't know who's giving to them. And so at least in theory, that could cut off this corrupt exchange." I don't know how feasible that really is, but would it improve things if all political contribution were required to be made anonymously via bitcoin.

There's nothing more frightening than seeing financial software source code, unless it's being told you have to maintain it...

I used to be called "Colonel Panic." Then I took an arrow in my knee and got demoted...

Hello, Mr. False Analogy, it's been a while since I've heard from you!

I flew from DFW to Reagan National with my iPad accidently left turned on in my backpack. The plan didn't so much as wobble in turbulence, much less crash or fly off course do to "interference."

It's the old trade-off: Fast, cheap, good, pick two.

Do we really need that many more sophisticated RC rovers, let's start planning how to use what we've already learned...

Nah, it's a "Big Bagel

Actually DejaNews was the first to index Usenet, which persuaded Google to engulf/devour them.

Actually no, it was the "Tycho Magnetic Anomaly 1", which was underneath the crater called Tycho, which is the brightest crater on this side of the Moon. It has very large "rays" of lighter ejecta all around it, which makes it perfect for drawing attention to something inside the crater. Once the curious ape descendants decide to poke around the big shiny, they're bound to discover that the magnetic field there is screwing up their toys. But Tycho is definitely a near-side area.

My home wiffy is "Venture Labs", and my portable hotspot is "Central Dogma". Kind of sad, really...