Archaea's important role in origins of life finally found

http://www.geologypage.com/2015/05/surprise-from-deep-ocean.html

Allison Randal on the future of Opensource

Here's a good Opensource writeup..

"Over the next 20-50 years, we can expect to see an increasing number of technical innovations released initially as free software and open source. Of the technical innovations that are initially released as proprietary, we can expect an increasing number to be either undercut and sidelined by rapidly innovating open alternatives, or else released later as free software and open source by their creators to avoid being undercut and sidelined. We can’t say proprietary software is dead, and it’s likely to linger in one form or another for decades into the future. But the patterns of significant bits through history brand proprietary software as a less-than-healthy offshoot in the evolution of software business models, and the trend for proprietary software from the 1980’s to today is one of slow decline and increasing dependence on free software and open source to survive. Some companies attribute their success to proprietary software, but a deeper analysis tends to reveal their true success lies in some combination of other business models (support, services, integration, content, or hardware) that are compatible with free software and open source licensing, so the perceived effect of proprietary software licensing is a mirage.."

http://allisonrandal.com/2015/07/22/the-future-of-open-source/

What is the true measure of capital?

I have reserved feelings about Bitcoin being in use internationally. I think the time has come for exchanges to be set up everywhere regionally in democracies to negotiate trade cycles for all local business services & products. More equal representation in both the work and political cycles is wanted! We don’t need the CIA or the NYSE or Microsoft to do this, everyday people with Internet connectivity and personal drive can do it. Change in economic priorities can actually occur with national currency and bank reserves accounting for spillover.

What’s the difference between what could be taking place and what we’re dealing with right now? 1.) The ability to collectively bargain and 2.) Having a many-levels method of gaining interest and achieving assets or shares in company ownership, chiefly. Many democracies are facing an economic morass because of incompetence in politics and skullduggery in finance within state domains and the federal sphere. Things should be simpler, more even and tailored more to the capital needs of the everyday working wo/man. In case you didn’t know I am into sociology, a little.

The real question is how individuals within collectives will represent their trade. Transactions can be on-going with long term order completion times as well as done in seconds from the start time. We need a capitalist/socialist ticket like Bernie Sanders ’16 to make all this plus other things work.

http://cointelegraph.com/news/114782/bitcoin-transactions-surge-to-record-highs-amid-greece-crisis

Notes on OSes

Could most Linux distros go the way of the buffalo, or completely die out? It's getting hard to boot Linux up on modern devices (due to UEFI & secure boot). Ubuntu desktop is encumbered, like Windows 8 desktop which has no Start Menu now: there's only a finder. Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop is better I think, but it all depends on what you're setting out to do.

Improving software

So.. I was trying to get an antique USB wireless device to work on Linux Mint but it required a ton of software dependencies. With no hardline Internet connection nearby, I had to swap USB sticks full of data between my laptop and the older computer running Mint that I mentioned. This process takes too much time so I'm going to get a new USB wireless device at the computer store which Mint should be able to see and utilize right away.

All this activity had me thinking.. Isn't there a better way to externalize support for software repositories? Couldn't the actual dependency or "software component hierarchy" be inside the software utility itself, broken into parts & each part was a modular "fit" for building/putting together your software locally? Why do you have to go online to obtain everything that is to be operational? I think there's a better way to do it, given that there are perhaps fewer architectures today than there were 15 years ago when certain platform architectures were in a way scattered within their realm, some recursively obscure or too open-ended but barely functional, logistically speaking.