You've obviously never been 'ramp checked'

ROUGH numbers (and yes, I know GPH not MPG).

Typical Cessna 172 flown by a decent pilot, not a speed-demon, will see a burn of about 10-12 gallons per hour in calm skies. 100LL (avgas) is running here at Montgomery Field in San Diego (Gibbs FBO) $6.19/gallon. Assume a full 56-gallon fill ($346), you are are looking at 5-hours runtime @ 105kts, or about 500 miles before refueling.

Not the cheapest way to get there, your plane/burnrate/mileage WILL vary.

True story: My CEO (US company, California) tasked me to install 3 motion-detection CCTV cameras at all of our remote staff locations (3 part timers, in their homes, in eastern Europe), and then review the footage daily to determine if they 'were at their posts' during working hours (and did not take 'too many' breaks during the day). Of course, the reason for this was to 'make sure we are getting what we paid for.' I'm glad this device was not around last year (or will be very expensive THIS year).

No, I did not install the cameras, I just let the issue die. (still have a job, too).

those high-powered NSA satellites can do this from orbit. No, this is NOT meant to be a troll post. I wonder if a country could actually orbit a satellite with enough power and a spot beam to stop cars in an entire city... in the name of anti-terrorism, of course.

Hell, bust him at the federal level for use of an uncertified intentional radiator (jammers).

(this is NOT a troll)

As a person (senior management) who has been told by his CEO "I don't care about what happens to the employees, I care about my company making money," I don't see there is anything you can do to get 'companies' to recognize the value of vacations... other than quitting and making them scramble to find someone else they can screw over. Sadly, the perception of vacations, much like IT and paid training in general, is that it is a drain on the company (doesn't produce IMMEDIATE revenue but DOES result in IMMEDIATE costs), and if it was possible to run the company without it, most companies would do so in a heart beat. Of course, those companies are often hell-holes to work in and fail on a regular basis.

There is always a chance. if....
      you never get hit with the non-existent age bias in the tech industry
      you like the smell of curry and noodles
      you don't mind ramping up on a skill set and then seeing your job get outsourced
      you hit the lottery
      you work AT the office
      you can hide your grey hair (or if you have no hair, keep the dome waxed)

Life may suck, but if you enjoy what you do, you will always have something to fall back on, even if that something doesn't pay the bills.

Wait a second. You mean that despite this company's security and operational protocols and supposed firewalls, they found that they had a server compromised by a SQL injection in 2012, took it offline, and then BROUGHT IT BACK ONLINE in 2013 w/o wiping it???

OR

They had a SQL injection on a server in 2012, never saw it but turned off the system anyway, and then brought the SAME system back up in 2013?

wow.

FYI, this is what their notices look like (cut/paste, left the speling errers in place)

---CUT---

We are in receipt of a takedown notice affecting the following public link in your account:

(link removed)

Please be reminded that MEGA respects the copyrights of others and requires that users of the MEGA cloud service comply with the laws of copyright. You are strictly prohibited from using the MEGA cloud service to infringe copyrights. You may not upload, download, store, share, display, stream, distribute, e-mail, link to, transmit or otherwise make available any files, data, or content that infringes any copyright or other proprietary rights of any person or entity.

Furthermore, please be reminded that, pursuant to our Terms of Service, accounts found to be repeat infringers are subject to termination.

For further enquiries or to file a counter notice, please do not hestitate to contact us by replying to this e-mail.

Best regards,

Team MEGA

---CUT---

I sent the reply to their message at 7:00pm last night (Pacific, GMT-8) but as of 1:00pm pacific today, have not heard anything back.

(watching for replies, black helicopters...)

I've already filed a counter. I'm waiting to see what happens next.

Mega cannot see the contents of files. The DMCA notices are simply based on the filenames when linked through search engines.

I created an 80 byte text file that contained the words "star" and "wars" in the FILE NAME, with the actual content being "This is a text file..." with no internal links or other content. Using the mega-&&&.me search engine, I posted the link NAME.

Not surprisingly, I received a DMCA notice within 10 hours of uploading, SOLEY based on the file name.

No big surprise here. I expected the result from the test.

With drones in the air, the access to crime scenes by news helicopters and planes will be a thing of the past. The neat thing about this issue is that the gov. can say "I didn't pass any laws restricting news access to sites, it was the feds!" since the FAA will have final determination regarding access to the airspace.

Niiiiice.

That would also need to be banned, under the same set of rules. Kites are a security threat and must be stopped.

And while we're at calling people names, I'll add:

hot air balloons
blimps/lighter-than-air ships
paper airplanes
ski flying/jumping (and all other winter 'off the ground' sports)
skeet shooting (if the clay pigeons go higher than 50' above the nearest obstacle)
motocross
extreme pogo-sticking
trolling

Since such actions may affect national security, we better redefine controlled airspace as anything "50 or more feet above the average natural or man-made object height within in any 250' radius from the device in question." By doing this we can eliminate: uncontrolled private aircraft (ie; Cessna fuel bombs), terrorist-centered high-powered rocketry (why would any 'normal' citizen need to launch any device over 250' in the air), surveillance drones (including all forms of remote-controlled aircraft, again, why would any 'normal' citizen need to pilot a 1/24th scale flying model for ANY reason, other than terrorism training), parachuting, etc..

Of course, there will be law enforcement exceptions.