Each time this rubric gets spouted, it's a sham trying to hide another attempt to control the public.

So while they're "protecting you from cyber criminals" they'll also be monitoring your driving, your destinations, etc. All the better to protect us from "terrerists or child molesters.

It's just accidental, you know - to verify you're not being hacked they'd need to know what you're doing, right? And you'll buy in and feel so much safer - until the insurance companies start subpoenaing this evidence and the law enforcement people use it to send you tickets in the mail.

This is the road to hell, folks - it's paved with good intentions but the destination remains the same

The BSA is not a police agency; they have no police powers. Keep that firmly in mind as you send them away.

When they say you're in violation, reply that you respectfully disagree - and say nothing more. They're fishing for something to use against you; just refute their claim simply and shut up.

If they want to audit you, refuse. Don't allow them access to your building or network - even if they show up with uniformed "officers". Do they have a valid search warrant? Of course not - send them away and if they are balky, you can physically eject them; they're trespassers.

For those who say "we're legal, we've got nothing to worry about" - you're fools. Do you really believe you can show purchase receipts on demand for each and every piece of licensed software that is installed or running anywhere on your network? Are you willing to bet your business on this? This is their bread and butter; once you let them in the door you're toast.

Remember - firmly disagree with their allegations once. Refuse any and all entry to your premises or network. They'll move on to easier targets; there's always a ready supply of those "sure, take a look around" fools to keep them busy.

Those of us who were around back then remember what the "mass market" stereo systems were like. With famous names like Electrophonic, Soundesign, and even Capehart.

They were terrible. Cheap BSR record changer with a plastic platter and a ceramic cartidge that tracked at seven grams (more or less). I still remember seeing them with pennies taped to the headshell so they wouldn't skip grooves. Bookshelf sized speakers made of 1/4 particle board - and with perforated plastic backs. Awful sound, really awful.

The electronics were awful, too. On a good day, they'd produce 3.5 watts per channel - don't ask about the distortion. This is the kind of system that was common when DSotM came out.

The current "mass market" systems are FAR superior to that old crap; if you compare like to like there's been a lot of improvement.

It might be good if some of the smart people commenting here would become familiar with MAC addresses and what they're used for.

You seem to understand that DNS maps domain names to IP addresses - but what maps that IP address to your specific hardware?

Those who say you can change the MAC address to anything you want - maybe they understand that they're assigned in such a way that duplication is rare to impossible. For extra credit, describe what would happen if two devices shared the same MAC address.

It wasn't enough to have imaginary "property", now we have imaginary "weapons" to defend it with.

This is just more inane posturing by idiots who have no clue as to what they're talking about. Here's an example: they come after me with their "cyber weapons" and I respond with hardware; say .45 caliber hardware. Care to bet on how that exchange would turn out?

By now, the concept of vulnerabilities and how they get exploited should be well established. The bad guys don't always wear uniforms or work for a governmental unit; most of them are just after as much as they can grab for themselves. The solutions are pretty well known, too.

Discussions of how best to secure our end-terminal devices against an ever-more-sophisticated group of black hats is a good thing - but describing cracking tools as "cyber weapons" is a clear sign of someone who has no clue.

There's undoubtedly good reasons for vendors to lock out counterfeit or "used up" batteries. Unfortunately, the average corporation has the moral sense of a 2 year old and will quickly identify this as a revenue opportunity. Just make sure nothing other than the official high priced battery will work, and expire it early just to make the pot sweeter.

Perhaps you could write to a few representatives about this issue and report back to us on the relevance and sincerity of any replies you receive. I suspect it would change your opinion.

You can't have secret police unless you keep their activities secret, right? Close your web browser, citizen - you're not cleared to receive this information.

The tablet wars are already over. The field is littered with the stillborn and ill-conceived competitors which died without honor.

Here comes Amazon with their ill-fated entry. The bar has already been set, and unless their offering is significantly better, they'll get kicked to the curb, too.

There's quite a few wanna-be competitors who have released "tablet" products recently; I've had the dubious honor to handle a few of them. Motorola, Blackberry, Asus, HP - how can they be so blind? They look at the leader and say "we have Flash!" and assume that it makes their missing features irrelevant and their product superior. Nope; it doesn't appear that the market feels the same way.

At least they'll be able to jockey for second place with the not-quite-competitive competitors. These second-rate offerings might be compelling when offered in a McFrugal's discount bin, but not in the primary market.

You who is just itching to hit the "reply" button and make the "fanboi" accusation - you're dead wrong. Try using the various offerings in the tablet market and you'll understand what I've been saying. Is the leader perfect? Hell, no - but what's coming from other companies isn't even in the same league. What a bunch of junk!

After being called a "Apple Fanboi" several times here, I guess it's time to show my true colors. Yes, I like my iPad; it's a great piece of hardware and I use it frequently.

But I do not own a Mac - and wouldn't own one. They're OK in their way, but they're a PC with training wheels that you can't take off.

Is the popularity of the iPad leading to increased Mac sales? Maybe; if so, I hope the new owners are happy with what they bought.

Me, I'm using a Windows desktop and a Windows laptop - and an iPad. Each serves its purpose; why do people here bicker about "who made it" instead of "how well does it do its job?"

I was a loyal Netflix subscriber for years. They offered good value and even though they were secretly throttling shipments it didn't affect me.

I purchased a Blu-Ray player and enjoyed seeing movies in (sorta) high-definition. Most of the Blu-Ray selections were no more hi-def than the DVD version was.

When they decided to charge an extra fee for Blu-Ray, it changed the relationship. Now they want to charge extra but provide nothing more. Sure, it's not their fault that the studios release DVDs on Blu-Ray disk without remastering.

Now, they want to essentially raise their rates 400% and provide nothing more. That's just plain greedy and after their previous actions, I've decided that they're not worth wasting my time on. Account cancelled, I'll get my entertainment elsewhere..

Of course, enough sheeple will just pay the additional cost and the beancounters at netflix will say "see, it increased our revenue". So they'll be back again in a while to get even more.

Much of the access to these protected records come from minimum-wage (or slightly better) data entry workers. There's a huge amount of paperwork generated for each hospital patient and they handle it all.

Imagine if you're one of these people; working long days at a keyboard for barely enough to live on - and someone offers you a significant "bonus" for giving them a copy of this or that file.

This goes on every day at your hospital, your motor vehicle licensing and driver's licensing department, etc. There's a booming market for private information; lawyers, collection agents, skip tracers, etc, etc. Each of them cultivates their own sources of inside information and pays them well.

Security theater doesn't only go on at the airport...

People here are getting confused about the public or private status of an Apple Store. It's not an either / or question; there's a third category for places like an Apple Store where they invite the general public to enter; by doing so, they give up some of their private property rights.

The computers on display are demonstration units and the general public is invited to use them. No limits are placed upon that use, and as long as you don't destroy or steal the computer the store has lost nothing.

Was photographing people in the store illegal? Not really; they are in a public place and have no expectation of privacy. And that security guard is presumably employed by Apple - and that makes him an agent of the corporation and his assurance that photography was OK can be treated as if it came from Apple corporate.

What it looks like is someone didn't like their picture being taken and complained; somehow the Secret Service got involved and they just faked a complaint so they could arrest the artist. Typical police state stuff; identify the culprit then find a law to charge him under.

What would be really interesting would be to know who actually called the Secret Service, and what they told them. The real criminals here are yet to be identified.

Politicians do not like web sites exposing their activities, they've been wanting to shut this down for years. By using "the four horsemen of the Internet" they've managed to convince people that making sites disappear is to "protect the children".

The big clue: the secrecy surrounding the list of blocked sites. If they know which sites source child porn then they would be using existing criminal law to deal with them. No, it's other kinds of information they want to censor.

The recent media hyperventilation over "indestructible" malware that hides in the master boot record and requires a wipe and reload of the OS to fix - who writes this stuff, and did they ask anyone who knows anything about it? Apparently not.

:

Oh noes; I've got a bad thing in my MBR; what shall I do? Tip: boot to command line (F8 at boot time) and a quick FDISK /MBR will take care of it. So much for that indestructible bullshit...