There has never really been a compelling scheme for a flat tax that solves the problem inherent to it -- that a flat tax hurts those with a lower ability-to-pay.
It's not really proportional, which is why it hurts the most. Wealthy people (who don't buy extravagant things) have most of the same basic expenses as the poor, and the sales tax can really be seen as a regressive income tax that eats up a larger portion of the income of the poor.
A simple flat tax, yes -- not arguing with that. But your statement here is incorrect, because negative income tax variants certainly are not the same:
> There has never really been a compelling scheme for a flat tax that solves the problem inherent to it
> I'd argue that having a 'war chest' is actually detrimental to agility [...]
I believe that's what the parent is saying as well. I read it as saying that larger companies with a 'war chest' are able to weather the problems caused by reacting more slowly, and so agility is not as highly prioritized, while smaller, newer companies have to react quickly or die.
Networks, by and large, do not intercept messages like this. The only reason someone running an IRC network would see your messages is if they are in the same channel as you.
This really is an interesting story, but I wish he'd taken it to a journalist instead of writing it himself. The narrative is choppy and has a lot of holes in it. I would have loved to see this done as a feature from someone with a lot of experience writing about technology. That might also have given some extra credibility and context to things.
Ha. I was going to write a very similar comment. It's a really interesting situation, but the story as told is incomplete and lacking in really obvious parts, such throwing out "30 FBI agents kicking down the door" but not giving anything concrete. Was he there at the time? Was he even still living there? If so, it seems to go directly against his lawyer's "[you will] never hear from the FBI".
Now it's out there, though. This can be the V1.0 of the story and although it won't be breaking news if written professionally, it can be a great investigative piece still!
Really? I actually like it this way. Journalist tries to make it intriguing and longer. But that doesn't change the events or make them more interesting. I guess I just like simple and straightforward.
Except for the fact that he was working on data sets of oil pressure and speed sensors, but somehow that was for silk road.... maybe I didn't follow it, but I don't understand what he was doing.
Sounds like he was told that's where the data was coming from, but his tool could have been used to visualize totally different data. I don't see anything in the design he posted that would limit it's usefulness to sensor data.
It was exactly the opposite of simple and straightforward. I had to read it several times to ever understand what was happening and there is still giant pieces missing. One thing doesn't follow from the next and the whole thing is just confusing and disjointed.
Normally I wouldn't waste my time on such nonsense but it was an interesting story so I really wanted to understand it. It's a great story.
He also didn't mention that it wasn't the original Silk Road, which is pretty significant information.
But this story wasn't simple or straight forward. If someone challenged me to draw up a simple timeline of events, I wouldn't be able to. I'm not even sure who he was directly reporting to while doing the work for Silk Road, or to whom he sent the final "I quit" email, or what he was doing for them at all.
I agree. This would be awesome if it was written up like the Paul le Roux story on The Atavist [0]. That was gripping. I'd be so excited to read the next piece each week. I want to hear the rest of this story.
I thought you were just being petty until I tried to read it. There is so just much context switching without any clues at all to the reader, it is really jarring.
I assume you mean about the credibility? We don't know those e-mails are real. A journalist handling the story would contact the relevant parties to confirm the account given.
I assume they meant that it was seriously confusing to read an email without context, only to find the context in an earlier email after reading another full page of content.
- Downloadable Content, the Penny Arcade Podcast
- The West Wing Weekly
- GovLove (from ELGL, about local government)
- Pod Save America
- Main Engine Cut Off (about launch vehicles)
- Are We There Yet? (general news about space exploration)
- Orbital Path with Michelle Thaler (recent space/astrophysics news)
- Skytalk with Dave Heller and Derrick Pitts (astronomy news)