No, it proves that the network you are connected to is braindead because it still allows IP spoofing.

It used to be really easy to knock someone off the Internet. It's not so easy anymore. For some of the really big targets, being able to muster the bandwidth alone would be an impressive demonstration of power. Keeping them offline for more than a few seconds while their Anti-DDoS countermeasures deploy would be something that few players smaller than a nation state level can pull off.

Not really. I hate them as much as most people with three working brain cells, but they've both done quite a lot about security. It's just not enough and - like every company - they make decisions to not invest in some security measures because the ROI simply isn't there.

Nonsense. On their gaming systems you are unlikely to find any data that the companies would consider valuable. And 10+ years of experience show that "oops, we leaked customer data" isn't really a game-changer.

But cries from customers can be. Denying them the joy of their freshly gifted gaming console can be very powerful. It's not the nice way, definitely not, but it makes headlines.

I doubt it's going to change anything, because customers are too used to computers not working. That is the real damage that 30 years of Microsoft dominance have done to the world.

If I didn't know that, I'd give back my nerd credentials.

But there's a difference between making a prequel movie and a story that is set before. The Hobbit tried too hard to get as much from the LOTR movies into it as possible. For example, WTF is Legolas doing in the movie? He's not even mentioned in the book.

Your emphasis on a *NIX-style environment variable is a highly exclusive move, and marks you an -ite with strong -ism tendencies.
You may schedule several minutes of shame for yourself in the next several months to cover over your micro-aggression.

Ghost writers in the sky.

Duke Nukem because BFG.

Yuhv gut ta buh-LEEV

FM is now an analog/digital mix. They broadcast the analog channel with two digital channels piggybacked on the signal. They don't call it digital, they call it "High Def".

And if they're too broke to pay the fees, they must have trouble selling ads. KSHE has no problem, but they're probably the most popular station in St Louis.

I certainly agree that copyright lengths are way too long, and that the extreme lengths hinder creative expression. I ran across it with Random Scribblings; I had to change Dork Side of the Moon, reducing the lyrics of the two songs to "fair use" snippets, since I can find no way to contact Roger Waters for usage permission. That album is four decades old and should not be under copyright.

You are right, copyright is supposed to encourage creators so their work will belong to everyone after the copyright lapses. How is anyone supposed to get Hendrix or Cocker to perform again?

It does add challenges to creativity.

And at no point did he have the option to say "no" and walk away, I'm sure. Because he's not living in a free country and he is so poor that he would starve if he did that.

No, when you burn out in life you walk away from everything that causes you trouble and find a place where you are safe and can recover.

I've seen the first two so far and they didn't convince me for the 3rd. I'll probably go because my GF wants to.

The problem is that The Hobbit is an entirely different book compared to LOTR. It's a childrens book, a soft introduction to Middle Earth, not an epic fantasy tale. It should've been dealt with in a different way, not as a "we made a shitload of money, so let's make more LOTR movies" prequel. It basically fell into the same trap as the Star Wars prequels - the attempt to replicate a success by doing more of the same, completely missing the idea that maybe the first was a success exactly because it was not more of the same, but stood out from what else was on offer at the time.

And omg were they filled with crap that had nothing to do with story or book and was only added to complete some Hollywood recipe.

They should've made it one move, for a younger audience, made by a different director, without trying to make it a prequel and "foreshadowing" everything we've already seen.

Especially when anti-Fascism Architecture ensures that the left hand knoweth not what the right hand doeth.

Same laid back security with an Aussie cruise (2012), but the fuckers at Broome airport took my fishing lures off me last october, the same lures that sailed through Melbourne's high security airport without question on the way into Broome. He let me take the telescopic fishing rod and reel on board, I tried to explain it would be easier to beat him to death with my rod and reel than it would to attack him with a fishing lure but he just mumbled the "rules are rules" platitude while staring at his shoes.