That sounds interesting, and would be a wonderful thing to have if one had both a wifi radio and a Dash7 radio, but it's overkill for what I'm trying to do.

Sure, there are historical examples of both utilites and transit systems.  If fact, historicly neither of these services were municipally owned enterprises.  In the modern world, examples of decentralized transit systems include 'jitney' cabs, Flinc (www.flinc.mobi), Avego (avego.com), Zipcar (www.zipcar.com) and RelayRides (www.relayrides.com); in addition to more obvious examples such as Greyhound (www.greyhound.com).

For that matter, the New York subway system was originally built and managed by private enterprises, but was 'nationalized' during the second world war and never given back.

As for decentralized utility services, that is really just you (or your condo association, etc) providing for itself as opposed to relying on the municipal water company or the power company to do it, but it's uncommon because the economies of scale tend to favor those municipal companies.  Even so, a local well for non-potable (i.e. toilet flushwater only) can pay for itself in no time, and there are many building in Downtown Louisville, Kentucky (where I live) that do have their own wells for that as well as for open cycle heat pumps.  I know of no private business that purifies it's own building potable water however, if only because of the liability if the filter should fail unnoticed and some old guy gets something from the water fountain that puts him in the hospital.  The municipal water service is indemnified from such events, so long as they can show that they made a 'reasonable' effort to monitor and prevent such things.

Likewise, anyone can put solar panels on their roof or buy a genset, but neither option compares to the peace and reliablility of the municipal power grid.

That's correct, as the concept of a state is presently known.  However, a state that does not insist on such a monopoly on legitimate use of force is not inconceivable.  Most people don't know this, but once upon a time the United States was one such nation, and there were several (but never all) of the many states that did not insist on such a monopoly either.  Most of the Western territories (i.e. Utah, Wyoming, etc) didn't have a monopoly on force within those areas as a practical matter, and that is why (despite the relative peacefulness of the age as compared to today) history refers to this period as "The Wild West".

Following it's founding of the nation of Switzerland (of the old confederacy, circa 1291), that nation could also lay credible claim to a national government that didn't insist upon a monopoly on the use of force, as such powers rested in the 'cantons' for centuries, and as a matter of practiality, most of those cantons in turn expected the citizens and clans within to participate in the maintaince of the public order.

Even Great Britain can make some claim that their societies were not originally dependent upon a government monopoly on the use of legtimate force.  For starters, the prison known as "Old Bailey" was traditionally managed by a warden and guard force recruited from within the prison population itself; so the "criminal element" (mostly debt prisoners, really) literally policed their own during their sentences.  Also, the British had (at that time) a form of private police force, as anyone could be hired as a 'constable' (as opposed to a sheriff or his deputies) who acted much like how one would expect a private security guard/detective/thug would act.  Of couse, local governments could hire constables as well, and that is exactly how modern urban police forces 'evolved' as well as where we get the word "cop", as it's entomology of the word comes from "constable on patrol".  Where I live that legacy lives on, as while the Chief of Police (sheriff) is appointed by the mayor, there are two elected positions in each county in Kentucky called 'contables' that impose police powers upon the elected individual, but offers no salary.  In practice, the elected constable is just a businessman that runs a private security force and hires off duty or former cops to hang out in banks or hotel lobbies, or serve court summons to civil actions.

So it's not true that we don't have evidence that a state can't function within the NAP, or that a state can't co-exist with private protection services.  It's only in the modern world that most people can no longer imagine such a thing.

I've built a working piratebox from a TP-Link MR-3020 (http://wiki.daviddarts.com/PirateBox_DIY_OpenWrt#Tutorial_A:_TP-Link_MR3020) and now I want to put a small bitcoin 'relay' on the device.  The goal is to have a simple process running on the piratebox that will present itself to connected peers as a bitcoin peer, allow bitcoin clients (on android devices, for example) to connect as normal, and relay transactions, blocks and other messages from one connected peer to all others present, but not to perform checks on the transactions or blocks or to keep a local blockchain.  The idea is to allow two (or more) bitcoin clients to transact in meatspace (within radio range of the piratebox) without either device needing live access to the Internet to do so.  Imagine, as an example, a phone-to-phone bitcoin transaction during a power and/or widespread Internet outage; or alternately, a transaction between two people out camping beyond their service plan's coverage map.  Why two people would want to deal in bitcoin beyond the reach (or observation) of elements of the Internet are beyond the scope of this request.

SW?

I doubt I used the word "lied", I believe that Krugman does actually think that he's correct in most of what he says, although sometimes I have to wonder if he says some of these things knowing he's likely wrong.  I don't remember the Icelandic debate, but I don't make a habit of trying to disprove those who disagree with me with facts.  I find that most people on the Internet don't actually believe in facts, and in the end I just waste my efforts.

I can point to quotes by Krugman and others that imply exactly the opposite.  krugman is and was a prolific writer, and was bound to get a win every now and again.  Paul, by comparison, hasn't changed his views since 1971, as you mentioned.  And yes, eventually he was bound to be correct, but not because the end results were unavoidable.  But because his warnings were not considered at all.

Krugman, like many politicos, has changed his position on such matters on several occasions.  I challenge you to find variation in Paul's own written or spoken words.  Any variation at all.

I don't think you're wrong, per se; but you are seeing the community through colored glasses.  The dominate ideology among the early bitcoin users (myself included) is strongly libertarian.  The US, (for example) is not a free market anymore; and hasn't been since 1913.  It's literally impossible for a free market to exist if the monetary system's value is 'regulated' (price controlled) by a central bank; because the monetary system in use is half of all the transactions.  Whether or not the monetary system is well managed or not is irrelevent.

It's not a real time, but an estimate of the time that it takes to browse.  Keep moving around, but not so fast as to indicate that you aren't actually reading *any* of the threads.

Then put the thing on silence and don't pay any attention to it till you want it.  That's what I do.  My android cell is just a portable internet and computing device, as far as I'm concerned.

You could, actually.  A donation to the operating costs of this forum is a fine way to prove that you're not a bot, but it presumes that you, as a newbie, actually have any bitcoins to donate.

1) email confirmations can be automated, so they no longer prevent bots.

2) the culture of this forum is one that favors high degrees of personal privacy, so an email address is not really required.

Almost certainly, but that's not a common topic of conversation in this forum.  Please save that for the 'off-topic' section.

Nope, that's a recent phenom.  I came here (about two years ago now) trying to figure out the "scam", because the idea of it was eating away at me.  I just knew it had to be some kind of scam, but the idea was so compelling I couldn't stay away.  About two weeks in, while reading the white paper for the fourth or fifth time, suddenly I "grokked" it.  And I've been here ever since.  I'm a mod mostly because I'm here just about everyday and I'm not skilled enough to help development.

You just did, but worry not, we are aware of his crimes.

Although it's possible, that isn't the most likely explaination.  There is a 'dark pool' at MtGox, that allows major speculators to have standing orders that are not visable until they are in play, under the logic that a major speculator could shift the mood of the rest of the market and potentially trigger a panic.  We can argue whether or not such a panic would occur regardless, but the pool exists nontheless.

Bitcoin seems to go through cycles of calm puctuated by weeks of mad movements.  I have no idea why this is, but it might end up with a 10% range for weeks or months before the next big breakout.  It's happened before.  This is generally a good thing, and as the currency matures the volatilty should quieten down more like the forex trading rather then the current pattern which is more like commodities trading.

You can read all of the forum except the staff section, you just can't post anywhere else but the newbie section.  The best way to set up with pool mining is to go to one of the websites operated by one of the pools.  Use your google-fu with "bitcoin mining pool" and you will find a number of them.  Their own FAQs are the most relevant to your goal.

Not quite correct.  The pools are comprised of voluntary membership, that can leave at any time.  If there is any kind of split, those pool operators cannot count upon maintaining their leveraged position longer than it takes for the news to spread across the community.  At most, a pool operator would have three days before the majority of his membership heard about the split, and then decided for themselves whether or not they agreed with their chosen pool's direction.  To be a pool operator is a position of temporary power.

Not really, just common sense.  Don't be rude.  Don't advertise in other people's threads.  Don't spam the forum with too many of your own threads.  Those kind of things.