Rather than call it pure coincidence, which I deliberately and knowingly stopped short of saying, I was implying that it is not. I simply didn't care to get into the minutia of precisely how that happened and what the exact sequence of events were, since my point did not depend on the details, only on the truth that things happened in this manner.

Not in any services I subscribe to.

What does "password strength" really mean?

If people used a textual representation of number obtained from a reliable hardware random number generator then the meaning would be unambiguous. It's the number of digits in that number. But most people don't do that (perhaps more should).

So what does it mean to say that a password has so many bits of entropy? Well, I guess it means how many truly random bits it would take to index their password from the universe of passwords the user considered. This is more an exercise in psychology than it is in mathematics. You have to figure out how users generate passwords or discount passwords. For example requiring a mix of upper and lower case letters doesn't add as much entropy as you'd think, because most users are mediocre typists who'll avoid using the shift key too often. Requiring digits means that many people will just "0" for "o" and "1" for "L".

So it's really easy to concoct passwords which you know are bad, because you know the methods used to select which passwords you'd consider; if the developers of the strength meter don't take your particular generation algorithm into account the meter will show the password to be stronger than you know it to be.

I'm imagining a kind of competitive tomboy/sibling rivalry thing, with the girl not always winning, but showing she can give as good as she gets. It'd put a "new" (ish) spin on the old Top Gear formula.

Seriously, an exotic woman driving exotic cars too fast? Who'd watch that?

I would, because I'm a man and I'm not afraid to admit that on some level I'm a pig. Ideally she'd be smart and funny too, because I don't like to think of myself as being a total pig, but either way I'm in.

Nailed it. It's like the old saw about the Chinese character for "crisis" being made up of characters for "danger" and "opportunity". No matter what happens now they're going to lose some of their long-term fans. But at some point young people aren't going to be so keen on watching some ancient codger behaving like an ass.

If they play this right it could become like Dr. Who, with a reboot every few years to bring in fresh blood.

Sure. But the man verbally abused and bullied a subordinate. Then he physically assaulted him -- or perhaps by that point the physical altercation was mutual.

At some point you have to ask yourself whether you have your priorities straight. As a fan of the show I'm sorry to the big ape gone. As a fan of civilized behavior I'm happy to see at least a minimum standard of decency in behavior getting enforced.

Blah Blah Blah Blah

More dribble, little understanding and a continued insistence that you know it all.

The facts seem pretty clear here, and the fact is that it cost $3k for a random individual to hire a contractor, who in turn got all the necessary permits and permissions and ran the line. Therefore in the absolute worst case, it would have cost Comcast... $3k to run the line.

Said random individual hired a fly-by night contractor to install said line for $3K has very little bearing on what it would cost Comcast. You have no idea if the contractor followed any of the requirements or received any of the required permits or performed the required studies or even installed it properly (such as the pull weight limits for the type of cable installed). I would in fact wager against it having been done properly because the guy probably hired the contractor that gave him the cheapest price without any regard to following the rules.

Of course the beauty of doing what he did is that he now owns the entire thing. That contractor nicked a water line that's now leaking and will end up causing frost heave that ends up destroying the roadway, it's all on the homeowner. Or the water line nick floods his neighbor's basement, guess who pays to replace the neighbors antique furniture that's now ruined. He improperly trenched the roadway and replaced the pavement with inadequate drainage and improper material which causes the roadway to fail, it's all on the homeowner. There are a million things the contractor could have done wrong, all of which that could have catastrophic consequences. The first and foremost is that if that was installed without a right-of-way permit the local jurisdiction is probably going to make him remove that line in the future, or they will remove it and charge him for the removal.

Or even the simple problem of his internet connection stops working, Comcast will deny it's on their end and will suggest he replace that line he just installed and Comcast will likely refuse to do any troubleshooting because it's not their line and not their problem. Or some other company installs a Utility in the area and cuts his line because it's not properly marked, identified or in the one call system, all the liability is on the homeowner.

That homeowner took on some big liability by installing something into the public right-of-way. I hope it doesn't come back to bite him in the ass and end up bankrupting him and ruining his life.

Russian made cars might get 13,000 miles to a tank of gas, but us capitalist pigs have to stop every 400 miles for gas. Even if it was a train tunnel, no train on this planet can go 13,000 miles on one load of fuel. Then you have the pesky problem of ventilation.

"hat are we left with? keep the door open and we have murderous hijacking? "

Yes we have to accept that 0.001% risk of a MURDEROUS HIJACKING

You have a better chance of dying in your bathtub at home by a terrorist hiding behind your shampoo.

"Any method of getting in from the passenger compartment would be vulnerable to coercion."

not if you have an air marshall with an AA12 shotgun full of beanbag rounds right there. There are very simple answers, the airlines are whiny bitches that claim they cant afford it, and that is the center of the problem.

3 crew on flight deck for all aircraft, Let the pilots rest and get good sleep, and2 very well armed angry air marshalls on every flight. Solves 100% of all "terrorisim" problems.

Sadly the people in charge of security that have zero clue as to what to do, and the airlines whiny executives disallow the correct answer.

Ot that they haven't slept. I know several airline pilots, they are told to fly even when they are very tired or when sick.

It's a single switch. Dont make it sound like he pushed a dresser in front of the door.

So.. they should learn from the dutch and build a series of walls?