Knowing where the problems lie helps to formulate solutions, does it not ?

Yes, isolation has helped

dunno if it's true, but we are certainly more vocal in the last couple years!

so an unconstitutional law trumps the constitution. And you are changing your arguments. Thank you, you have clarified your position. Here's a quote from another "traitor". It was written long before either of us were born (or hatched, as may be your case), but it was aimed directly at you.

FTFY

Wait, wait, wait. Full stop.

What WAR? The United States is not at war. Yes, they are actively murdering people in foreign lands, but ONLY Congress can declare war. Wartime rules DO NOT apply to this case absent that declaration.

If you deny this, then you are saying the Constitution is invalid (as opposed to useless, which it demonstrably is.). If you say the Constitution is VALID, then EVERY SINGLE BELLIGERENT ACT committed by the United States since 1945 has been demonstrably illegal. If you deny THIS, then you are back to the first part. A lawless government has no validity. Either the Constitution says what it means, or it means nothing.

In order to prove treason, even absent the above, you would have to demonstrate SUBSTANTIALLY that Manning gave aid and comfort to the enemy, since he in fact did the very opposite of making war against the States in pointing out to their alleged citizens that the people in charge were engaging in criminal activity under the color of law. Whistleblowers are not traitors. I would argue that they are patriots.

I again refer you to Thomas Jefferson. Since you've already outed yourself as a Tory sympathizer, you probably don't care.

you just indicted every single politician in the world.

Thanks.

I have a lot to say on this, but now is unfortunately not the time. Because I'm in the process of moving more than halfway across the country and already wasted too much time on this forum I'll try to get a lot more detailed in a couple of weeks.

But yes, that's why I said general COMPETENT armament. Any damn fool can lay their hands on a gun. And most damn fools aren't any better off than empty handed. There is a significant amount of training involved in being competently armed. The most important weapon a man can possess is the one that lies dormant between the ears of the vast majority.

I could dispute this a great deal. But following on your logic, what about Federal Reserve Notes? If you follow their history from their first issuance in 1913 through today, they cannot be called anything BUT counterfeit. Originally, they were a warehouse receipt. Then through quasi-legal subterfuge and outright theft in 1937, they were made to be promissory notes. Then the original intent was sacrificed on the altar of the great god Keynes. Now they are LITERALLY worth less than the special paper they are printed on.

They are made without industry regulations (because the manufacturers are illegal in the first place{No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.}).

What I NEVER see pointed out in these threads, even by people on my side of the argument, is something that should be trumpeted from the rooftops. DHS and KGB have the same meaning, and the same function. There was never any purpose behind DHS EXCEPT to spy on and control the subjects of the Empire. If they are involved, it's dirty. Period. These are people who view honesty and integrity as swear words.

I have lived in the Empire for 44 years. In my youth it was a relatively pleasant and relatively free place. Now, in just a couple of decades, it has turned into something beyond the Checka's wildest dreams. Hitler would be jealous and Mussolini proud.

News flash. The difference between a "terrorist" and a "soldier" is who's telling the story.

Short form, no, not really.

Slightly longer possible yes?

seasteading.

I agree. But I'm a geek. You still have to overcome the perception by rather a lot of rubes morons citizens suckers people that national Fiat is real money. Even Gold has SOME abstraction to it, though it physically exists.

Don't get me wrong. I'm in favor of this. I intend to promote it. I just think it's too early to call.

Nice! 

I'm still kicking myself for not getting in on it when it launched. I think it has good prospects for long term success.

That being said, it is still an abstract currency, even less backing it than fiat. I like what it's doing, I'm surprised by it's current valuation, and I think it has great potential. But it's far too early to tell. Makes for great poker, though.

What sort of gauge are we using?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I've spent a lot of time in Berkeley. Kinda proves my point about morons...

I agree. I was speaking more of ASICMiner and Avalon. BFL is a wildcard. They are advertising what I'm talking about, but they have screwed the pooch so badly that I have extreme doubts that they can ever recover. Which is really too bad, because if the could deliver they would cause the other vendors to adjust. Not to mention they appear to have a really cool product.

Ah well. We'll see what happens. If they can actually get seriously to market before August, it'll change the game. If they can't, the game will still change. They just won't be leading the change. If they even survive.

You would have if there was only one or two options available. Early graphics cards were ridiculously expensive for what they did when they DIDN'T have any other purpose. (I mean way back, early 80's. A 16 color graphics adapter frequently cost more than the IBM PC you were putting it in). But as soon as Hercules got competition, the prices became reasonable very quickly.

I really don't think he will, because he's been quite up front about it. And, given that half of the profits go back to Bitfountain, He is probably using it for R&D for smaller more badass chips. When he has serious competition, I suspect he'll be able to play the undercutting game and gain bonus points because of his reputation. Plus, his initial model was more about the profits to the shareholders than dissemination to the general public. Gen 2 chips, as I understand it, should have immensely more hashing power and be cheaper to produce (excluding the cost of the mask), so he could be positioning himself long and short rather well.

BFL isn't likely to deliver. Despite having had a civil argument with Inaba (which surprised the hell out of me) I've just seen too much hype without enough substantiation. Sure, they have developed the machines. I just don't think they have what it takes to actually take them to serious production in time to be relevant. I could be wrong, of course, but I will be very surprised if they hit the market before at least one competitor hits with better chips, cheaper. We already know there is a lot of interest in this, and there are rich men interested in it. Despite the scams out there, the odds are very good that some VC group is working quietly and has been for some time. They could easily come out of left field and change the whole game. As Yifu said, if his group could do it in four months, then a well funded group could EASILY do it.

I have seen production figures suggesting that the chips themselves will cost in the neighbourhood of .50 to 2.00 USD each to produce after initial cost, so there is a lot of margin for undercutting the market when someone is ready.

It's a hell of a game. I'm late to the party, but I'm enjoying the ride

While from a personal perspective, I agree, from a business one I don't. The USB is a novelty item, really. But you don't see any gathering dust, do you?

If people are willing to pay outrageous prices, the producer is a fool to NOT offer outrageous prices while he has a defacto monopoly. When somebody credible comes to market at lower prices, ASICMiner products will lower theirs to something more reasonable. Right now they are mining fools as much as bitcoins. And if you have ever studied the history of gold rushes, mining fools is often initially much more profitable. Friedcat isn't screwing anyone. He's just allowing fools to screw themselves. And he IS delivering the product.

Me, I'm waiting till he has some competition. I still might buy his devices, when the price comes down. Or I might go with the competition. These things are going to have a short lifespan unless somebody figures out a way to repurpose an application SPECIFIC integrated circuit. ASIC mining will be immensely profitable for a minute, fairly profitable for a little while, and a note in history a bit after that.

I actually rather like Windows, for a number of reasons. I also like Linux, for different reasons (some overlap).

Which one is superior depends on what you are doing. When it comes to security, Sorry, OP, Windows loses. Badly. If you can't hack Windows, you shouldn't bother trying.

OTOH, the money behind it attracts more talent, and more specificity in a lot of ways. Digital music is one of those boundary areas where it could go both ways, but right now the best DAW's between the two platforms are definitely windows based. (there is some hope on that front, thankfully)

I have long said that open source has one major strength and one major weakness: Anyone can participate.

One of the things that I have seen happening over the last decade, however, is the open source model participants learning how to monetize their efforts without killing the openness. Some in good ways, some in ugly ways. But it has improved things as "revenge against microsoft" is much less of a motivation in modern OSS circles than it used to be.

All of the above being said, Script kiddies are annoying, but every programmer probably was one once. Me, I'm not a programmer. Tried it, ain't got the juice and I admit it. But my programmer friends started off doing k0o1 L33t scripts back in the day. Eventually they get good, grow up, or go away. Let 'em play.