0.01 minimum fee will be changed over time.
ok .. I understand that .. but what about SMALLER payments .. micro-payments of LESS then 0.01 .. do you still pay 0.01 for a 0.00001 payment .. that's just stupid!
Presently yes, but not in the future. Transactions have a cost (in disk space for participating nodes), so they have to have a cost. When the value of a bitcoin increses, the fee rules will be changed so they make sense for the amounts being worked with.