That's what I was thinking. I've seen this headline on a few sites in the last few days and the commenters all seem to be talking about Linux in the past tense. Apparently I didn't get the memo because my laptop with Ubuntu on it is still working fine and the projects that I make use of haven't missed a beat. That's some kind of "dead".
"Android as model of a free OS is just a tribute to the organizers methinks."
Yeah, I'm sure the fact that you can download the source code to it, make any changes you want, and redistribute that source code or that you can install any app you want on an Android handset whether it's in the blessed market or not has nothing to do with it being open. Nothing at all.
Well, it's pretty obvious this isn't Slashdot but I'm curious, where did you get your psychology degree because without it your analysis rings pretty hollow. Oh, and the affected ellipsis at the end of your drivel... What does that imply about your psyche? That you like to wrap your trollish sniping in a little pretentious veneer? Thought so.
No, it means I don't want to read adverts disguised as content. But you're too busy with the psychoanalysis to figure it out. How are you connected to the slashvertisers?
"but I thought it was well-accepted that at "small scales", the universe is very non-continuous and chaotic?"
It is and the funny thing is this guy has a funny definition of "now" considering Max Planck discovered light travels in discrete quanta. In 1900. Around the time of Einstein submitting his first paper and before his paper on Special Relativity. I would imagine whoever signed off on the PR copy is aware of this as well as other inconsistencies. Makes you wonder.
"If the press passes on a breathless press release that turns out to be false, they just point the finger at somebody else, but in the meantime, they've driven traffic to whatever organization they're working for."
I think this is overwhelmingly the toughest problem to solve here for any mainstream rag. Take the Sydney newspaper mentioned in the article for example. If their competitors publish the more dramatic version of the story replete with the sensationalist headline while the Sydney Morning Herald in an attempt to maintain some semblance of journalistic integrity don't, guess which papers the public are going to buy. It's obvious where the incentive lies.
Unfortunately the reality is the public isn't going to change as it is in human nature to pay attention to the more "surprising" news (Tiger! in caveman days). So if the public isn't going to change and the market rewards yellow journalism what's left? Regulation? I don't know.
You had me up until the "very little regulation and no legal recourse" part at the end. Theft is theft and believe me, there are regulations against that.
There is regulation against theft( though does any legal authority investigate bitcoin thefts?) . I meant regulations dealing what bitcoin exchanges can do with your money or what steps they have to take to protect it. For example, although I don't think any bitcoin exchanges loan out money yet, if they did, there is no amount they are required to keep as a minimum balance to cover withdrawals (unless the government legally deems them a bank, in which case my entire post is irrelevant)
... You use the exchange for exactly that, exchanging bitcoins, not holding them. Yes an exchange may possess your coins right after you convert your dollars to BTC, but you can just put them in your own account to be held for free.... That wouldn't give the exchange much time to do anything with your money.
I would imagine that even if for some strange reason the Secret Service (who likely would investigate something like this) didn't pick up your claim you would still have grounds for a civil suit. Just insert sympathetic jury!
