[2013-12-29] New York Times (Paul Krugman's blog) : I was joking + ubernerd

[Peter R]

I'm quite fascinated by the attention that Nobel laureate Dr. Krugman has been giving to bitcoin.  His two posts today are about bitcoin too:

The Humor Test (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/the-humor-test/)
An Ubernerd Weighs In (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/an-ubernerd-weighs-in/)

In the first post (The Humor Test), he claims that he was joking when he said bitcoin was evil.   He uses the fact that some commenters called him on it, explaining that bitcoin was just a technology and was neither good nor evil, as "an indicator of intellectual insecurity" on their part.

To me, it was not a joke: it was a "half joke."  You say something inline with what you really mean, but add enough hyperbole so that people can't tell for sure, and back-peddle if the trial balloon pops.  I think we've all done it, I know I have: come on man, I was just joking! I'm not into your sister!

The second post (An Ubernerd Weighs In) I think is more intellectually honest.  His "friend" explains how bitcoin supporters see that bitcoin solves a technical problem and therefore assume that it must also solve an economic one.  His friend argues that that is likely not the case, and that bitcoin will collapse.  

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[Lethn]

This reminds me of fox news being apologetic over their comments about Santa Claus being white LOL

[Mike Christ]

I don't understand sociopath humor

[cr1776]

And yet his "research" is so thorough that he still calls it "BitCoin" in his new posts.  I guess Krug PaulMan is just a fool.  He not only misses the details, but he misses the big picture even more.  

He doesn't get that the legacy currencies are on the decline due to continual mismanagement by the central banks, which, too, are legacy institutions once people understand the value that inflation sucks etc away.

I don't think that the legacy currencies have been EOL'd yet, but without reforms in the Fed and its ilk, they will be.

[marcus_of_augustus]

I don't understand sociopath humor

... sociopathic dinosaur humour ...

[bitbouillion]

How convenient. If you recognize, you were wrong, you call it a joke and you are automatically right. I wonder if this is the way to win a Nobel prize.

[melvster]

How convenient. If you recognize, you were wrong, you call it a joke and you are automatically right. I wonder if this is the way to win a Nobel prize.

There is no nobel prize for economics.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/there-no-nobel-prize-economics

The guy would be slightly more credible if he knew how to spell the thing he was talking about.

Another of his insights:

http://imgur.com/B9oMzZd

[bitbouillion]

...that the Bitcoin bubble will collapse when there is some bad news, e.g., a regulator demands registration of Bitcoin wallets...

Why he thinks Bitcoin users are all evil criminals? Personally I had no issues registering my wallet, since I have to report it anyway when I pay taxes on Bitcoin gains.

[TraderTimm]

Krugman is a bottom-feeding media attention-whore who has no business distributing his fetid little "gems" of thought and expositions on technology. But the media cater to him, because he's one of the "old boys" that fights every possible advance with his rank coffee-halitosis exhalations, backpedaling like a passive-aggressive office snitch when he gets caught out in a fabrication.

He's the epitome of the backstabbing office drone, the kind that will kiss up to the boss - making sure to schedule synchronous lunchtimes so he can brief his superior on all the trivial goings-on in the workplace. He's the guy who would make note of you being three minutes late, smile and shake your hand, then go behind your back to sabotage your performance review.

Every smarmy smile, clammy handshake, hey-I'm-just-kidding-but-no-not-really utterance underlines the falsity of his entire being. He's the culmination of every failed business policy that encourages psychopathic behavior, distancing ones self from the feelings of others, in order to make a buck, or step on the face of someone else to just get ahead.

He's the embodiment of what is wrong with our "profit over all" society, and when I hear him speak, all I hear is the hollow lies of all the tyrants, billionaires, politicians and other jaded seekers of power who have no other identity than the title they hold, and the ability to inflict suffering on those they deem less worthy.


Or I'm just "joking", you decide.

[Lethn]

lol TraderTimm you sound like you're speaking from experience

[cr1776]

TraderTimm - love the message, whether you were joking or not.  lol.


(And check this out today - I'm sure Krugman will LOVE these since we need to be "monitored", no doubt "for our own safety":  

NSA can hack wifi devices from eight miles away:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/30/nsa-can-hack-wifi-devices-from-eight-miles-away/


And
NSA has nearly complete backdoor access to Apple's iPhone (guess it was good they removed CoinBase's App) - and probably Android, Blackberry etc:

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/nsa-backdoor-iphone-access-camera-mic-appelbaum/

)

[ArticMine]

TraderTimm - love the message, whether you were joking or not.  lol.


(And check this out today - I'm sure Krugman will LOVE these since we need to be "monitored", no doubt "for our own safety":  

NSA can hack wifi devices from eight miles away:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/30/nsa-can-hack-wifi-devices-from-eight-miles-away/


And
NSA has nearly complete backdoor access to Apple's iPhone (guess it was good they removed CoinBase's App) - and probably Android, Blackberry etc:

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/nsa-backdoor-iphone-access-camera-mic-appelbaum/

)

... The Linux-powered device can exploit Windows systems from up to eight miles away; ...

... and of course he will also hate GNU/Linux since the NSA Windows only exploit will not work. The concept of storing Bitcoin on a 100% Free Software GNU/Linux distribution such as Trisquel must be truly satanic to the man.

[TraderTimm]

NSA has nearly complete backdoor access to Apple's iPhone (guess it was good they removed CoinBase's App) - and probably Android, Blackberry etc:

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/nsa-backdoor-iphone-access-camera-mic-appelbaum/

You should read this:

http://www.osnews.com/story/27416/The_second_operating_system_hiding_in_every_mobile_phone

I suspect what they really compromised is the baseband OS, which sits below the phone OS. It would explain why it would have persistence qualities, stashing some binary where the OS can't even see it. We need open-source hardware verification and open OSes on our phones. Its becoming insane trying to trust any commercial hardware/software company now.

[ArticMine]

NSA has nearly complete backdoor access to Apple's iPhone (guess it was good they removed CoinBase's App) - and probably Android, Blackberry etc:

http://www.dailydot.com/politics/nsa-backdoor-iphone-access-camera-mic-appelbaum/

You should read this:

http://www.osnews.com/story/27416/The_second_operating_system_hiding_in_every_mobile_phone

I suspect what they really compromised is the baseband OS, which sits below the phone OS. It would explain why it would have persistence qualities, stashing some binary where the OS can't even see it. We need open-source hardware verification and open OSes on our phones. Its becoming insane trying to trust any commercial hardware/software company now.

Yes the propriety baseband OS is also a risk; however the NSA back door applies to all IOS devices not just iPhones, so an iPad that does not have a cellular internet connection and consequently no baseband OS also has the same NSA back door. This would indicate that, this particular backdoor is IOS specific and that an Android device, particularly one that is rooted and has CyanogenMod http://www.cyanogenmod.org/ or Replicant http://replicant.us/ installed is going to way more resistant to NSA penetration. One free OS and one propriety OS is always going to be safer than two propriety OSs.

Edit: Blackberry being a Canadian company may not have an arrangement directly with the NSA, as has being suspected in the case of Apple; however it could have an arrangement with the Communications and Security Establishment Canada (CSEC). The latter agency shares data with the NSA as part of the "Five Eyes" co-operation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Technical_Cooperation_Program