A bit of both, I'd imagine. Thank you for reminding us that correlation does not imply causation. There should be an automatic reminder below every /. post containing such studies, so we don't need an obligatory reminder post every time.

And what distance is that, precisely? Shotguns are much more dangerous in real life, contrary to most video game representations. A quick google search turns up about 50 yards for the danger zone, but blindly guessing, it'll still sting a bit a 100 yards, depending on the guage and shot.

Yes. I know all of this. But if you, say, reconstructed a police car on a building outside of MIT, I doubt you'll find the authorities there as accomodating of your technological accomplishments as you'd like. So go "hack the world". Even if you leave no damage and put everything back where it was, you may just find an arrest warrant out for your name.

People are commonly called out for finding exploits and security vulnerabilities. Do you honestly think a practical joke would get away unpunished? It's awesome that MIT promotes this kind of culture, but it's best to keep reality in mind, especially for new graduates.

This is important to keep in mind. As much as I want better Linux support for these things, first and foremost I want stable support, not buggy support as Windows is known for. The proper process reserves RCs for bugfixes, which is something I can stand behind.

Substitute "less" for "worse". I wasn't thinking properly, that's how much parent post's lack of thought angered me.

Do you seriously think just because a prank or practical joke is "clever", "benign", or even "ethical", that it isn't criminal? People have been thrown in jail for worse.

Now you're just twisting the definition of "believe" in this context. People don't "believe" science produces reliable results, they "know" because of the scientific method. That's the key difference between religion and science.

There goes my knife. And my pen. And my glasses. And my belt. And my teeth. And my finger- and toenails. It's been said many, many times, but sooner or later perhaps the TSA will realize that people are potential security risks and ban everyone altogether.

On a less ranting and more constructive note, when were small knives banned? I recall back in the day of airport security small knives with blades less than, oh, I don't know, six inches? were allowed.

I'd mod up, but I used all my points. This is sound advice that should go in those myriad self-help books.

That's nice, but is this kind of blatant self-promotion allowed on /.? This is not your personal blog. Can't we abide by the secondary source rule that Wikipedia has, so that we can guarantee some degree of notability? If you've finished your study and it caught someone else's eye because it's well-written and interesting and they post it here, cool, but "Funding Open Source By Donations: Lighting the Path", really? You are not the first person to do this, sorry to burst your narcissistic bubble.

I hear about these kinds of things all the time. It's utter bullshit; they're literally making it more appealing for people to anonymously sell these exploits on the black market. "No, we don't want to know if our software has an exploit. If you've found one, go ahead and sell it to whoever you want, as long as we don't know, it's cool, we can keep deluding ourselves, thanks."

It reminds me of, among other counterproductive measures, media conglomerates pushing oppressive DRM on consumers as if to drive them toward piracy or forcing drug addicts to carry their criminal status with them as if to force them back toward poverty and drug abuse. If an alien race were to monitor us, they'd probably assume we're running some sort of elaborate self-extermination campaign.

When the summary says "numerous files which constitute child pornography", are we talking about nude photos of kids (e.g., his own, or friends') in the bath or something like that? In that case, I can totally understand them wanting more substantial evidence against him.

Also, is having "an intricate electronic folder structure comprised of approximately 6,712 folders and subfolders" a crime now? Good God. I have over 10,000 in my home directory alone. Looks like I should expect the FBI to come knocking any moment.

Seriously? I know they say, everything seems obvious in hindsight, but they really couldn't figure out squeezing sugar and creamer from one pouch into another coffe pouch? These guys design space ships? Am I the only one who sees something wrong here?

Sorry, didn't see that.

Er, no? Tell me you can buy one copy of SC2 or GW2 or even SC1 or any online game and tell me you can both play online with one copy. You can't (shouldn't be able to, anyway).

Now, certainly, you would be able to play game A online while your buddy plays game B online, but then people'll start pooling Steam accounts to share games, which is bad news for devs. And besides, is it really that bad? Just buy an extra copy for your friend when it's on sale. The point (one of them, anyway) of DRM is to make sure you can't give used games to others. Now, you can disagree with this on principle, but at least the way Steam does it, they don't gouge you for money, plus the DRM doesn't get in the way of you legitimately playing it, does it? Steam gives you two games for the price of one, and now you're asking for the right to share the games with others as well? Check your privileges (not meant condescendingly).

Ah, I get it now! The M in DRM stands for Masochism!