If I'm right about who that is, then "Fascist Utopia" is a deliberately ironic nickname. If not, then... I'm just wrong about who that is.

It wasn't. 

Bill Gates is a patent monopolist; a beneficiary of the ruling elite, and hence a member of the political class. Bad example. 

In general, I am a big fan of Agorist Class Theory and recommend it often.

Relevant quote:

"Man is a being capable of subduing his instincts. A man does not ravish every female that stirs his senses; he does not devour every piece of food that entices him; he does not knock down every fellow he would like to kill . . . man rationalizes the satisfaction of his sexual appetites. Their satisfaction is the outcome of a weighing of pros and cons. Man does not blindly submit to a sexual stimulation like a bull; he refrains from copulation if he deems the costs—the anticipated disadvantages—too high. In this sense we may apply the term moral restraint. "--Ludwig von Mises

Tools are always and totally amoral. Bitcoin is a tool.

However, given the utter corruption of the system we now have, and given bitcoin's disruptive potential, I would consider it to be more likely to yield moral results than immoral ones.

In the end, freedom means being able to say "no" and act upon your declension. Democracies give the illusion of freedom by giving a person the "right" to say no (usually only on a small scale, or with the proper permit), but show themselves false on that point by not recognizing a person's right to act upon his conviction. In the end, the individual must go the way of the herd, or be trampled, no matter how loudly he protests.

Welcome to sanity, friend.

OT: I voted "anarcho-capitalist", but I don't really like the term, and I have no ideological attachment to capitalism; just a personal preference which I would expect to be able to entertain in a stateless society.

Is that you, Fascist Utopia?

Yes to the first question, no to the second.

I'll have to deal with this tomorrow. Bedtime now.

Blah. Using all 8 connect switches and I'm only getting 5 connections.

Doesn't appear to be working. Should I just keep adding more nodes?

Any clues why this might be?

What has changed since then is that I uninstalled Bitcoin and reinstalled it in a new location (USB drive). But Bitcoin has been running for several minutes since then without a single (re)confirmation, and only 1 connection. What gives?

...Except as I just found out, that requires running bitcoin.exe with cmd with modifying instructions to relocate the data directory to the USB dongle, which is a real bitch. Average Joe doesn't even know what the F cmd is, much less how to use it.

I don't think it would be hard* to add something onto the client that will do that for the user automatically (on install have an option to run it from C:/ or elsewhere), and it would go MILES towards helping Average Joes and Janes use bitcoin securely more easily. Without ease of use, bitcoin will remain a niche commodity - and bitcoin needs greater market depth more than anything else.

*Note: I say this as a non-programmer. I have no idea how hard it would actually be. But I can't see why it would be hard.

Ok, thanks guys! Now will this work every time I run bitcoin from here on, or do I need to use the same process/shortcut for it to work? The shortcut wouldn't be a problem except for the possibility of the drive letter changing.

...¿Que?

I installed bitcoin on an encrypted flash drive, but the folder in Windows's Application Data still exists. Is there any way to run it entirely from a flash drive so that my wallet doesn't ever appear on my hard drive? Keep in mind that I'm sort of tech retarded so if it involves hacking the source code or recompiling kernels or anything like that, it's out of my reach.

Make sure to let tech retards like me know what you find.

The state doesn't have to legally recognize and regulate bitcoin in order to keep it in the province of "law-abiding citizens". All it has to do is not make it illegal. Only in totalitarian societies are activities considered to be forbidden until the state decides otherwise. And regulating it will have the same effect as outlawing it in the long run, as regulation is nothing more than a slow constriction of the ability of people to act while remaining within the law. The only difference is that more people will be fooled along the way.

"Most of us" must refer to the majority of your multiple personalities, right? Because it certainly doesn't refer to me or anyone else I know well enough to be aware of their motivations for supporting bitcoin.

Then apparently you lack the ability to understand it. It was coherent enough for me.