And you know, to not use wireless keyboards in any environment that could be compromised.

I work in a facotry and we still run Windows NT 4 on a couple hundred machines. Because the equipment interface for the tools these machines control requires it.
The tool manufacturer isn't going to invest money in upgrading 20 year old equipment, they want us to buy new tools.
As does every vendor we deal with in any kind of tool support role.

At $2M per replacement tool, even if we only need 1/4 as many new tools due to throughput inprovements on the new platform, we'd have to spend over $100M to acheive what we do now.

so I get to keep supporting NT4.

Don't ask about the win98 controlled tools. Or the half-dozen DOS tools that have to connect to the network. It's like I live in medievel times.

And few will remember how secret communications used to be done before the days of the Internet.
But for those who do, the world will be their oyster.

Too many of us have "gone to the backup tapes" and found them to be corrupted.

I'm not saying "don't use tape" but I've been burned too many times with only having tape backups (and these were expensive enterprise systems) in the past. If you use tape, also use something else. Belt & suspenders.

France: 3.01 gun deaths per 100,000
USA: 10.3 gun deaths per 100,000

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

So according to you, if their gun laws weren't so restrictive they could have had over three times as many deaths!

And before you flip out and call me a "gun grabber" I happen to own about 8 guns. Which admittedly is a ridiculous amount. Though I have grabbed them on occasion.

This is directly related to a story about people who want to censor certain information.

Freedom of speech is as important to geeks as it is to journalists. We design, build and maintain the code and the hardware that journalists use to put out the stories to the public. Back in the print days most people didn't give a crap about what was printed in one country, or even in the next town over. Now we, the computer nerds of the world, have enabled a huge revolution in communication that is affecting entire countries, societies and religions. And we keep creating new ways to share information every day. Control of information, censorship, freedom of speech and the press are hugely intertwined with our nerd lives and livelihoods.

Remember when anti-free-speech advocates tried to censor music lyrics? I do. Remember when they tried to ban many video games? I do. Remember wen they started shooting people who published satirical cartoons? Computer nerds like us are all about moving bits of information around. We thrive on information, data and ideas. It's what we're all about. And these shootings are a direct result of people trying to restrict the free exchange of ideas, which is the foundation of modern society.

Any computer nerd, in fact anyone who appreciates their modern life, should want to know about anyone who is threatening the free flow of information.

Of course, it works two ways.

Someone who knows what data is collected and sent can easily spoof the gadgetry. In fact, I can see a business model for this.
Have people pay you to take their phones, cars, etc. to the library or church while they go to the strip club, bar, brothel, etc.

Then when discovery is done in the divorce case all they can get is "Well ma'am, it looks like your husband spent a lot of time studying and praying when you said he was out whoring."

It just means smart people won't get caught. The usual idiots will continue to be busted. Much like every time in history.

Infidel. Only my invisible tyrant is valid! YOU WILL BE PUNISHED!

I remember this Nancy Reagan talking point. Proved to be 100% bullshit.

Look, I believed all the BS I was taught in my childhood as well. I believed it until I was in my late 40's. Then I finally tried the devil weed.
My life has improved greatly since I became a regular "pothead" at age 48 ( I'm now 51). I'm happier, I sleep better, I get more things done, I'm a nicer person. I smoke weed almost every evening after work.

You should try it.

I remember this Nancy Reagan talking point. Proved to be 100% bullshit.

Look, I believed all the BS I was taught in my childhood as well. I believed it until I was in my late 40's. Then I finally tried the devil weed.
My life has improved greatly since I became a regular "pothead" at age 48 ( I'm now 51). I'm happier, I sleep better, I get more things done, I'm a nicer person. I smoke weed almost every evening after work.

You should try it.

These "terrorist" fellows seem to know how to get the US to do what they want!

They've got moxie, I'd like to be one of those guys!

No one is accusing you of oppression or repression, they are only stating that you have privileges that you don't see. You just can't see your privilege because like everyone, you only live in your viewpoint.

I am a straight, white male raised by two educated, middle-class parents who valued education. This gives me an ENORMOUS advantage over 95% of the population. I work hard, but honestly I have NOT had to bust my ass too hard to become a successful, upper-income, white male. I get out of bad situations easily merely because I am not seen as a threat by anyone in power, but rather an ally, just because of the color of my skin.

You have to realize that the reason that YOU think your life is not privileged is because you live in the middle of it. You think that if you have problems you are not privileged, but even the 1% has problems. I have only in the past few years come to realize the advantages I have had all my life, and when you get older you will hopefully see the same thing.

So no one is accusing you of anything, they are just letting you know that you have it better than you realize.

Yep, I work for a company that actually makes flash memory and a lot of it is sold to Samsung. This gives Samsung a second source if they need increased volume without investing in another flash fab, and some of our product types (yes, there are many types of flash memory and implementations of it) are not made by Samsung so it's cheaper for them to buy it from us.

Interesting reports like this can be rare as hens teeth.

My neice tried to load a thumb drive of MP3's from my music library into her Ipod a couple years back. Itunes instead reformatted the thumb drive. I thought she just screwed up, so I reloaded the thumb drive from my PC and we tried again. Itunes gave some message about "scanning media" and reformatted the thumb drive again.

I said then that I would probably never buy another Apple product. I still feel that way.