In a capitalist system, money is power. Handing over Bitcoins would be transferring power from one person to another. For the anti-capitalist, Bitcoin is not ideal. Freicoin would be better-suited for participating in an anarchistic community. I confess, I have not yet contributed hash-power to that alt-coin. I have also failed to set up a testnet server for darkwallet testing.


I vaguely recall believing I "owned" my ideas. I don't know if that was nature or nurture. I have since realized that ideas do not happen in isolation. Independent co-invention is common when conditions are just right. There was I time when was about 5 that I thought I invented the word "okey-dokey." It turns out that when trying to come up with a non-sense word, I simply came up with one I had probably heard about once or twice before.

Patents scare me because independent co-invention is not a defense. Violence is clearly implied when people are prevented from using their own inventions for a period of up to 20 years. For example, GM was not able to use the battery technology developed for the EV1 in the Chevy volt. They sold the patents to an oil company that went on to restrict high-capacity NiMH batteries (over 3 Amp-hours (AA size)). It took me a while to figure out how Toyota was able to use NiMH batteries, and still offer a "plug-in" hybrid. The answer: the "plug-in" model uses the more expensive Lithium-ion battery chemistry.

I recently had my bike helmet stolen. It is a nice helmet, worth about $70 new. I realized that used helmets have no resale value. I hope somebody is making good use of it, rather than it sitting in the trash somewhere. I am a pack-rat, so I have a spare I can use until I can buy a replacement.