Their angle was "in stock and in HAND today". They lost sight of that, their most valuable resource. instant availability. I dropped $300 on dx.com last month in a single order. That gets you a crapton of small electronics. But you have to wait for it. I'm still waiting on one of the packages to get here. Ignoring the fact that 80% of that stuff RS doesn't carry, if they did, it would have cost well over a grand.

I remember them putting out an open invitation for surveys last year, and I tried to explain that to them. But they were asking questions like "do you want more DIY stuff and kits". Those were radio shack's bread and butter earlier that they got rid of over time recently, but those actually needed to go away. I can get arduino clone boards for $16 that cost $65 at the shack. No one in their right mind plans to buy that locally. It costs way too much, and you don't need it today.

The classic view of modern Radio Shack being a battery store is actually quite keen. Batteries are the perfect example of something you need now. If they were to survive, they were going to need to identify and focus on items like that. Small items that they can sell at a modest markup that people need TODAY. Anyone that can wait for something will order it from China. But instead they listened to the people that were reminiscing about how they used to shop at Radio Shack, and though that returning to a 20 yr old business model that they'd left behind was a good idea.

It was not.

The problem wasn't that they weren't following the laws. The problem was what they were doing wasn't illegal in the first place.

It can be difficult to get the cops to follow the law. But it's often impossible to get them to "do the right thing".

So this is definitely a good step in the right direction. Don't complain just because we've gone from "impossible" to merely "difficult". Sometimes these things take awhile to straighten out. Be thankful we made some significant progress today.

Microsoft says there's no evidence these flaws have been successfully exploited.

"...so we're going to wait until the bot herders have sucked in a few million more machines before bothering to patch it."

WHAT is WRONG with you, ms?? If I'm reading that right, google is doing precisely what is necessary to light a fire under MS's ass to get the bugs fixed. It isn't really even that. They're basically telling us they don't consider it to be a big deal until it starts getting exploited. By making that comment, they completely justify (and encourage) Google's actions.

but that means you have to carry more fluid. Unless there's very little fluid normally needed, I don't see how ditching the pumps and motors saved enough weight to put enough additional fluid in the reservoir to matter. I see two lines on a weight graph, a horizontal one for the closed-loop, and a curved line representing the open-loop. At some point these lines cross, and the open-loop becomes a worse option. I'm just surprised that point isn't way earlier for them.

I don't understand how softare that's been around THIS long could still be pumping out "critical" security bugs by the dozen.

It sure is a good thing that players' behavior as modeled in games has no effect whatsoever on their offline behavior,

Considering all the people that play GTA, I'd tend to agree with that. My car insurance is already too high.

I think we're all in agreement that something needs to be done, but the ethics of disrupting a business's capacity for staying in business is shaky ground.

Imagine... a large car rental place in your city rents out cars on the cheap. They're all identical, impossible to tell apart visually. They have very lax security on them, a basic door lock that's easily broken into without damage, no car alarm.

A criminal gang in the city has started targeting these cars, they're being stolen frequently, used as getaway cars for store robberies and even an occasional bank heist. Security foortage is worthless because all the cars look alike. The thieves apparently have realized if they just dump the cars off where they stole them after they're done without really damaging them, nobody cares. Not the rental place, not the customers. The criminals are impossible to identify or prossicute.

The mayer however is getting pissed off that the rental company is refusing to take any action. The rental co simply does not care, because it's not hurting them or upsetting their customers. Why should they spend money to fix someone else's problem?

What does the mayer do about it? What can he do about it?

This is the botnet problem. So, approach it from that perspective.

The rental co already has a few policies in place. They have monitoring software in the car that is used exclusively to watch for road-rage or dangerous driving. If a customer is driving recklessly and risks damaging the car, they may get a warning from the rental co, or even have their rental remotely disabled for a few days. (copyright DMCA letter anyone?)

So.... since they already have this monitoring system in place, and should already be able to tell when a car is stolen and being used in a robbery.... the mayer forces the rental company to use this information to help curb the problem of their cars being used for public harm.

This is how it would work in any other arena. So why does no one take action against the botnets? Does the rental company's right to run their business like they want to outweigh the serious problem they are facillitating? Of course not.

It's trivial to cut off service, yes, but if an ISP and upstream providers to cut off all offending networks from access, the internet would pretty much go silent.

I think that's exactly why it's necessary. Most ISPs take very little notice of an obviously infected customer's machine, unless of course it's trying to pour its spam through their SMTP server. Then they immediately get their panties in a twist and pull your plug until you clean up your machine.

The difference here of course being who is the victim. You or me? Not gonna bother. US? Red Alert Ban Hammer Time!

So, your upstream pulling (or threatening to pull) your plug is precisely what's needed to motivate those ISPs. Some are lazy. Most are just too cheap to invest in fixing the problem and would rather bank the dollars than spend them to fix "someone else's problem". Make it their problem. Light a fire under their seat and watch them redirect a processes they already have in place, to fix the problem.