How DARE you break the terms of your agreement! Have we stooped so low? What next? Downloading of Movies, Music, etc?

The problem I have with Googling technical problems is that the 10 sites that do show up often have all the wrong information.

I was searching for info on converting latin1 to utf8 to make a similar point, and I went through almost all the top 100 results before I got to a post that mentioned you needed to convert the content INSIDE the database as well...and that post didn't even mention how. There are about 20 Wordpress scripts that convert the databases from latin1 to utf8, but do so by converting the database itself. There is only one, and not popular, that converts the string types to binary first to save the content (special characters, etc), then converts the tables and database, then converts the string types back. I can't believe how much misinformation there is floating around. One person posts something and 100 people take it as gospel and post it on their blogs, while the technically correct info is posted on a website deep in the Google index because it hasn't been updated!

Sites that were hacked were done using an .htaccess user agent redirect. In a strange twist, IIS' web.config does not have that particular feature (well, with plugins, but not by default) so IIS is by-and-large not affected by this hack. Most of the sites had an .htaccess file that was writeable, in fact, many were chmod 777. Many CMS auto-upgrade scripts and url-rewrite plugins require a chmod 755 using apache's .htaccess file, but so many people just 777 it.

Nothing yet on the website. Only 8 rc3 released on November 12th.

But on the FTP there is something on Nov. 22 labelled as 8.0

ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ISO-IMAGES-i386/8.0/

I can relate to this. Around 2002 I received notice over a few files that a website had on one of my servers. I talked it over with the individual (owner) and he agreed it wasn't worth the effort and removed them. Everyone was happy.

I know /. regularly crucifies people who comply with these notices as wimps, corporate sellouts, etc, but when someone has to put food on the table, and really does not care about the content more than their own livelihood, then there really is no issue. This is why we have wikileaks, etc, so that individuals do not have to bear the brunt of responsibility for hosting these leaked files or other sensitive info.

In the case of COFEE, it was a 'stealing software' issue, and not a 'this is my right to leak this program' issue. Or maybe it is...maybe some reverse engineers can find out COFEE is putting innocent people beind bars?

We're talking about Michelle Obama, so compare it to Laura Bush.

If it was President Obama himself, it may be a hotter topic, but more acceptable as critisism or free speech. Michelle, seemingly, has done nothing to provoke the "attack."

It is similar to the Clinton's request that Chelsea be removed from the crosshairs of social scrutiny.

How would this shake out if it was the Obama's children that were subject to it?

Typical, the weatherman *always* says a 50% chance...of course it is...chaos theory. Wait a minute, was I just advertised to?

Yes, it is vi.

I had an alternate take on things. I am one of the lucky few that has kept their job and has not suffered any cutbacks in wage. I see this happening all around me, and as such I have began to save more. I eat out less, I buy fewer things and try to fix more, I better schedule shopping trips, etc. Because of the small changes I am making to my everyday lifestyle, I find I also have far less "free" time. I am cooking at home, so I have 30 minutes less to browse the Internet. I think many contributors may be in the same situation, and perhaps have less free time as a result of now being required to work longer hours to maintain the same lifestyle, or cut back and sacrifice free time do save money. Spouses are working too now, which reduces free time at home for both as well.

A lot of blogs have gone dead...but this is a good thing.

This will be incredibly abused. Not to mention the ability for virus/malware to disable the panic button or abuse it (cry-wolf).

I imagine it would go something like this:

You: Hi Interweb Police?
The I-Pol: I see you have an emergency, how can I help?
You: Some noob on /. said vii was better than emacs.
The I-Pol: I see, this is an issue, when in fact, Notepad is better than both.
You: WTF? BOB?!

Osama uses Tor.

Linus is the last person to get it...he started a WAR. Windows vs. Linux.

He single-handidly created an excuse for millions of trolls worldwide.

Without Linus, there would be no slashdot, without slashdot, 90% of all Internet-related trolling and asshat posts would never have happened. ...j/k...Stallman would be better suited as he created the philosophy behind the free software movement.

So this story will likely never affect anyone on slashdot.

Unless that information was travelling faster than light to begin with.

And on the same day that 2012 was released...it's also Friday 13th. WTF?

What next, Linus stars in an "I'm a PC" commercial?