I remember punching the side of 360K floppies to get another 360K on the other side.

Now you can buy a couple of gigs of USB drive next to the gum in the express lane at Wal Mart.

This stuff is awesome and all, but sometimes it's hard to really wrap my head around that pretty much everything about computers (except for physical size) is a billion times bigger than when I started using computers.

It really is hard to explain to people that at one point your entire digital life was about 20 floppy disks in a plastic case, and that what was once a completely hypothetical amount of storage is commonplace.

Well, it's kind of like Snowden. Everybody knew they were doing something wrong. The sheer magnitude of it is slowly coming to light. Nobody started off with the illusion they were innocent before this.

I'm torn, I really am. On the one hand, yes, hacking and extortion bad.

On the other hand, I find multinational corporations like Sony to be complete douchebags, who will do anything to advance their own goals, at the expense of everyone else on the planet, and with the assistance of governments who have been willing to stick it to their citizens to protect corporate interests, largely because the politicians are on the fucking payroll.

And then I want to go all Tyler Durden on them because I'm getting tired of the oligarchy and the asshole politicians enabling it.

You don't keep a free society by making it beholden to corporations who tell us what we can and can't do.

There should be plenty of ways to deal with hosted content on someone's server without resorting to breaking core functionality of Internet services like DNS!

Unfortunately, to the asshole lawyers these companies employ ... the core functionality of the internet be damned.

They simply don't care about anything but their own profits. They just want to be in charge of how all technology is used.

"A takedown notice program, therefore, could threaten ISPs with potential secondary liability in the event that they do not cease connecting users to known infringing material through their own DNS servers,"

What they want is pretty much the nuclear option. Because they say so, something needs to be removed from the internet, and anybody who doesn't gets squashed like a bug.

Who gives a crap about analogies? The MPAA have one goal here: to make every piece of digital technology on the planet be only usable in ways defined and approved by them.

Fuck that. Having media companies in charge of this crap is a terrible idea.

This is why ISPs need to be classed as a common carrier .. what happens on their network is none of their business, and they don't have liability for it. This takes away the bullshit ability of corporations like Sony from being able to dictate how technology is used.

This whole notion of secondary liability is crap.

But for any Anonymous hackers out there, maybe all executives at the MPAA or any of their law firms ... they now have secondary liability for being douchebags and assholes, and have forfeited their right to privacy.

This is just corporate control of way too many aspects of the internet. So fuck Sony and the other guys in the MPAA. I sincerely hope they all get this treatment.

The idiotic DMCA was a terribly written piece of legislation which put far too much power in the hands of multinational corporations. And idiot governments around the world have been entrenching it in law.

At this point, I think Sony has more rights than I do.

So to hell with them. I say start punishing them, and cause as much economic damage to them as can be done.

The goals of the MPAA et al do not coincide with the goals of the rest of society. And they shouldn't be having their business model entrenched in law. They're just a bunch of parasites who feel entitled to revenue.

The MPAA et al feel they have the right to undermine every bit of technology to server their purposes. They want veto over all new technology to ensure that it aligns with their goals, and makes sure their rent seeking is entrenched in law.

Sony was more than willing to spread malware, and as a cartel these clowns have way too much sway over governments, and seem to think they can act with impunity.

Want the sure file way to the shitty oligarchy of the future? Keep letting these bastards call the shots.

I don't know who actually is behind this attack, but I'm starting to applaud them.

Sony and the other members of the MPAA are out of control, and pretty much deserve to be burned to the ground for the crap they do.

Airships? Floating cities?

Hell yeah!! Space exploration has needed to take a steampunk turn for a while now. We totally need more brass goggles and leather aviator jackets.

I for one welcome our new Cloud City overlords.

So, why all of a sudden are we taking input from Microsoft and Google on the education system?

These are companies, with their own agendas, and who only see the world through their own myopic view of making money with technology.

In what way do we consider either Google or Microsoft to be qualified to be involved in education?

The same clowns who are driving usage of foreign workers are suddenly going to cure the world by making sure more girls know how to code? Why, so they can not get hired because they expect a higher wage than someone in Mumbai?

Sorry, but taken as a whole, Microsoft is doing as much to undermine the point of getting an education in CS .. because they're actively part of the bits of using H1Bs, colluding to keep wages down, and making it more difficult for workers to be mobile.

So you'll excuse me if I see this as little more than some self serving PR.

Hysteria, eh? Well, let's just drag a few facts out. Here we go:

o Straight-up misconduct

o Botched paramilitary police raid data

o Judge, jury and executioners in blue: The death penalty -- without a court

o Warrants "not required" data

o Seizure of property without warrants details

o $2.02 billion dollars in cash and property seizures for/in which no indictment was ever filed

o Other illegal horrors

Just a little information -- what we know -- showing our government at work, cavreader. Now, I don't know how you will characterize this information, but I know how I do: Directly and unequivocally indicative of a systemic breakdown of respect, regard, and understanding of liberty and justice that extends broadly across all areas of law enforcement.

Now, you want to talk nonsense about legal protections in a system where the vast majority of defendants are pressured into plea bargains against a completely uneven scale full of extra charges, almost certain financial ruin, threats of extended incarceration, and outright lies from the police and prosecutor, where the police don't have to defend anything in court -- and which can be, and at times have been, followed up by ex post facto laws increasing punishment after conviction -- fine. But don't expect me to take you seriously, because you obviously don't have even the slightest idea what you're talking about.

In this context a legitimate law enforcement reason means a warrant would indeed be needed.

Are you mad? They don't even insist on warrants when they can't meet the requirements of the 4th amendment, preferring to focus cluelessly upon the word "unreasonable" and ignoring the litany of probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation that were put there to explicitly define what "reasonable" is. They just break your door down, and shoot you -- and your pets.

And you think a law that doesn't even say a warrant is required will somehow stumble in its application on needing them?

I don't think you understand how the justice system works here. Or perhaps you're not from here.

What makes you think the government has a polynomial prime factoring algorithm?

What makes you think they don't? What makes you think they even need one? What makes you think they don't hire, and utilize, some of the most powerful math-heads out there? What makes you think that something that can't be broken today won't bring you to the vale of tears days, months, even years later, if that's what it takes? What makes you think they don't have, or won't have, some kind of quantum computing device that obviates encryption entirely? What makes you think they didn't log every keystroke you typed, thus making encryption a complete non-issue? Wait, what, your system is "pure"? You know they can tell what you're typing by the sound, right? Finally, what makes you think they won't come right to your home or place of business or your favorite club, hustle you into a dank basement somewhere, and waterboard you or pound your toes to mush with a hammer or actually, eventually, read your mind electronically and get what they want that way? Got any relatives you treasure? What about the recipient(s)? Now there are (at least) two points of human weakness.

And... you do know that "they" have access to quite a few technologies that "we" do not, right?

I would seriously bet on the idea that if you demonstrate you think you need to encrypt your stuff by simply doing so, all you've managed to accomplish is get on a list of "we'll get back to this suspicious character later."

Right now, if you've got something secret that you don't want the government to become aware of, just don't say it or otherwise communicate it. That's your very best chance of actually keeping it a secret. It may be your only chance.

Further, the presumption that because it falls under the umbrella of law, it is somehow made "ok", is utter nonsense from word one.

hey y'all, watch this... gimme my transcranial magnetic stimulator -- you can have my beer.

You want to be found dull-eyed, emaciated, sitting in a disheveled heap, squishing around on your own excrement? The three seashells ensure that you'll only be found dull-eyed, emaciated, sitting in a disheveled heap -- clean as a whistle. :)

Take advantage of the system

(1) Find the best college or community college that'll have you as an English teacher
(2) Teach English for small $
(3) Take advantage of the perquisite that you get to take some amount of free classes because you are faculty
(4) Finish an associates in a STEM field. An associates is transferrable, even if credits are not (I suggest microbiology)
(5) Either transfer as a student, or, if it's a good college, finish your bachelors degree there
(6) ...While still teaching, if you can; 1-2 years experience teaching at a college level puts you higher on the hire list

NB: "Good college" is relative; you will generally get out of any program what you put into it.

Begun, the water wars have.

And what is going to happen when California doesn't get 11 trillion gallons of water?

Things go to hell quickly when you start running out of water.