kenthorvath

The two aren't mutually exclusive. You can both invest in yourself, while investing in other opportunities. The problem is how to allocate your resources optimally.

Having early access to motivated and talented programmers that may have a good idea for a disruptive product or technology seems like a potential advantage for a venture fund.

Particularly if those seeking funding are also seeking training and career advice.

It's not procrastination - it's just lazy evaluation.

Unbreakable crypto is a genie long out of the bottle.

No amount of wishing, legislating, or fear-mongering is going to prevent terrorist organizations from implementing these well-described, mathematically sound, publicly available algorithms.

Since we cannot prevent terrorists from using crypto, the only ones without crypto will be non-terrorists.

This proposal only serves to enshrine within the government the chilling capability and authority to surveil its citizens.

This is great. I started watching pretty late into the stream, though. Will the videos be archived and available after the event?

Yes. We can generally all agree that ISPs in the United States are effectively monopolists with no incentive to do what's right for their customers.

Now, let's talk solutions.

Or you could pay an additional $5/month for a decent VPN. In fact, I have a number of close contacts who work in the industry who tell me that this type of practice is of heavy interest and routine on the wireless end of things. Companies are tracking not just your browsing habits but your location data based on cell tower triangulation.

This is why we need to decentralize the ISPs and move to local mesh networks.

I suspect this is a distraction to direct the public's attention away from PRISM and the NSA controversy.

The article slams Alito, but the judgment was 5-4. Whenever rulings are this close, it suggests that there are nuances and rationale arguments on both sides.

As disconcerting as this ruling is, there is likely more to this than the headline. For example, it seems that one's 5th ammendment right against self-incrimination is preserved in this ruling so long as one verbally invokes it, i.e., "I plead the fifth".

No, it's not ideal, and it gives a great deal of power to law enforcement, which will sometimes be wielded irresponsibly. But, destroyed? - that's a bit hyperbolic.

Completely agreed - plaigiarism is rampant because collaboration is so natural and doing work for its own sake does nothing to advance one's understanding of the material.

All subjects, to the greatest extent possible, should be heavily based on collaborative projects that give back to society. Demonstrate your knowledge by contributing original research and ideas to Wikipedia. Contribute to an open source project on github using algorithms and methods you've learned in the classroom.

Society should benefit from the education system, not just through run-of-the-mill degree programs, but from the fruits of the labors of its students.

There is so much untapped potential.

Using Bitcoin is like paying for goods with shares of company stock... stock that can be broken down into almost arbitrarily small subunits... and which are immune to SEC regulation.

There's nothing wrong with the bitcoin economy - it's just very different than anything that's ever existed before. If it were just like fiat money, there'd be little use for it and no economy to speak of.

Now worries - I didn't mean to sound argumentative and I agree with you that in the short run bubbles form. ^_^

Though, I would say freedom is not just _hard_ to control - it's impossible by definition. Freedom is not a short term thing, it's a long term outcome - it's the low energy state that's thermodynamically favored. Eventually the world will be a truly efficient, democratic, free society. But, it takes time and catalysis to get there.

Bitcoin is a catalyst for freedom. It or something like it will be adopted.

My gut tells me bitcoins are here to stay.

Is freedom a bubble? There is tremendous value in freedom. Bitcoin provides this in abundance. Like P2P filesharing, no amount of legislation and regulation will wrest control of it back into the hands of the government and financial institutions - it will only continue to be embraced as public awareness grows.

It's not a bubble, it's a snowball - at least in the long run.