Just one thing, you don't need them to change their password. Upon login, if the password they provide checks out and if it's still using the older algorithm, hash it with the new one and store it. That way, you can transfer accounts to the new hashing algorithm on the fly without your users ever needing to do anything or even notice.

So where does that anti-US sentiment come from... I wonder...

I'm in Syria, and they said 'security reasons', actually, they were quite forthcoming with this. People know what's happening and they're not dumb, the government knows this too and it doesn't try to fool them on these issues. Instead, they're betting on people being too scared of the crackdown and/or being too scared of the country turning into Iraq or Egypt so they'll not ask for change.

So far, this approach is working in Aleppo(which is where I am) which is mainly why this city has remained calm. Aleppo's economy is mainly one of trading and industry(As it's close to the border of Turkey). It is also home to the Sunni elites who are allied with the government. The recent events have hurt its economy really badly as trade routes are closed off and people and companies have cut back spending on almost everything while things unfold. Thus, people here are scared of change and instability so, so far, they haven't joined into the protests.

It may repeat but it's highly unlikely. Right now the two cities that were involved in the 1979-1982 unrest, namely, Hama and Aleppo have been mostly calm(Hama only yesterday started to figure in the news). Victims usually have good memories.

If Aleppo and Hama do rise up however, chances are that the regime will fall apart but it will not be able to repeat its 1982 massacre. In '82 the world was still bipolar with Syria firmly in the USSR's sphere of influence, also, 1982 was a year of considerable unrest in the whole region and mainly in Lebanon to the south-west(with Israel invading 4 month later in June and getting entangled with the Syrian military there). Hafez was much freer to do as he pleased, Bashar(and it's not Bashir btw, just a small correction) is definitely not as free. Currently, the US is seizing this as a chance to force him to weaken or break his alliance with Iran on the one hand and Hezbollah on the other. As Syria provides the crucial link between those two this could be a major win for the US and it is definitely seizing this opportunity to pressure Bashar and it will not allow him to put down large scale demonstrations. Despite what people watching the western news may think, those have not happened yet. In a country of 22million ~10~50k demonstrators simply isn't much(Lebanon's 4~5mil pulled of >1mil demonstrations in 2005 to demand the departure of the Syrian military).

The routers were physically unplugged, I think. At first I could connect over DSL but couldn't even ping the gateway. However, later on, all I got from my DSL modem was 'link down' and that was that. It's working again today, as of about 4hrs ago.

I'm Lebanese but currently residing in Syria, so I can tell you that yes, they're doing quite a bit of those.

Border controls have really been tightened, you are searched more than once. You could probably smuggle microsd cards, but you probably won't be able to travel back and forth without much delay and arousing a lot of suspicion(which means thorougher searching). Also, the whole point of things like tweets and the like is the fast access to information and ability to coordinate which is more than offset in this case. Also, there's the issue of disseminating the data once it's in the country. We weren't just cut off from the internet, all local routes were down as well. My DSL router would connect but I couldn't even ping the gateway.

As for international calling I'm not 100% sure about this but I strongly suspect that *all* international calls are listened in on. This suspicion is due to the fact that there are way too few international lines available at any point in time, calling home in the late afternoon is almost impossible, I sometimes need to re-try as much as 50 or 60 times for my call to connect. Also, there have been several cases of somebody's relatives calling to warn of trouble in a certain area and the call suddenly cutting off.

The only source of news right now appears to be satellite TV, which is very popular around here(one look at the roofs of any major city will confirm, I've even seen receivers mounted on A/C exhaust fans on the side of buildings because the roof couldn't fit any more). However, if need be, these can be jammed, Iran has already done this in similar situations. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_jamming

As for satellite phones, yes, those do exist and are used in the country but they are illegal to own and you could face charges of spying and treason if found in possession of one, and as I said, border controls are tight(I've had my laptop turned on and searched several times at the border as well my phone checked and being asked about books in my possession).

PS: In case you were wondering, as of about 4 hours ago the internet has been working again.

It's interesting that you simply prove the GP's point about having a very poor caricature of Christianity when basing your refutation of what he says on said caricature.

When discussing "Death" or "Hell" in the Christian sense one needs to understand that this stands not for non-(or un-)existence, but rather "existence separate from God". So yes, it is easy to see that any person who does something wrong deserves to be separated from God, that is, Death.

He never did change his mind. A sinner still deserves death. However, being a loving God he can choose to give Life as a gift. (And again here, Life not as 'existence' but rather as 'existence with God'. God can choose to be with a person who doesn't deserve it)

One last thing, when discussing things like 'before' and 'after' or God 'suddenly [anything]' one must realize that any God that is omnipotent and omniscient stands outside of time. Anyone who insists on discussing God as being within time misunderstands the natures of both God(if he exists) and the Universe. Reading 'A Brief History of Time' by Stephen Hawking is particularly enlightening on the nature of the Universe and of time. Reading 'Mere Christianity' by C.S. Lewis is very useful on understanding what Christians believe. If you're going to have any success in discussing anything with anyone, it is very important to understand their world view, even if you think it all nonsense.

Heh, it just got to -1 with 100% overrated. They should make overrated an option only for comments which are at +2 or more, that way it actually makes sense to say it's "over rated"

Don't usually like to reply to myself, but seriously, "-1 overrated" for a score:1 post that hadn't been rated? Is that a "-1 I don't like this guy's opinion" or something or a "-1 censor" or something?

The classification of "moderate" is a US pat on the back to states that play nice with Israel. However, due to the fact that most of the population doesn't usually want to play nice with Israel you'll only get despots who don't listen to their populations who do and are thus classified as "moderate".

"A lot of different factors"... it's true that they're not that many but it isn't: 'we hate the jews, and everyone will die for the cause!' . I'll come back to that point after a bit of a history lesson.

About the Lebanese war:

At its root, Lebanon's war(and its ongoing troubles) is an identity crisis. Lebanon, initially, used to be just Mount Lebanon, a predominantly Maronite Christian governorate under ottoman rule. Most of the coastal areas, as well as the Bekaa valley were part of Syria(or Syria in it form then) and were predominantly Sunni Muslim. When the French and British divided the spoils of the first world war, Lebanon was placed under French mandate and enlarged to "Greater Lebanon" or Lebanon in its modern form. What you got was a country with two very different populations with very different outlooks on the world living in one country. The Christians wanted Lebanon to be a western-looking country, the Muslims, an Arab one. The difference was so clear that in 1943 when the country achieved independence the foundation of the resulting democracy was the National Pact which basically stated that the Maronites were not to seek foreign(western) support and the Sunnis should give up their demands of uniting Lebanon to Syria.

This all might actually have worked, if the inherent tensions in such cohabitation of two radically different communities wasn't stressed to such a great extent and so repeatedly by the creation of the state of Israel in the south and all the problems that this caused.

Iran, the muslim brotherhood, and all that other stuff was a much more recent development in Lebanon, mostly a byproduct of the war than anything else. It's funny how you pin the blame on Iran for example, when its foothold in Lebanon's south through Hizbullah was born out of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon by non other than Israel. The Shiite population of the south, which until then had been simple farmers and mostly absent from local politics decided to resist the invader. And out of the chaos that ensued, Hizbullah was born through Iranian intervention.

'we hate the jews, and everyone will die for the cause!' . Arabs don't(or at least didn't use to) hate jews. Now get that through your thick skull. Israel's constant whining as an oppressed state, surrounded by enemies is sickening. Like a bully after having beaten up all the other kids whines about how nobody likes him.

In the early 1900s there was barely any jewish population anywhere in the middle east. Definitely less than 10%. When jews from all over the world decide to migrate 'en masse' to a certain region of the world, then forcefully push out the initial occupants you can be sure that those occupants are going to hate them. It's quite natural, it's human. When millions of Palestinans, to this day, live in refugee camps in sub-human conditions with nothing to do except think about how they were robbed of their lands you can be damned sure that they're going to hate the jews. It's natural.

"Global Terrorism" and "Militant Islam" as they exist in their recent form were born of Israel's actions, their repeated disregard for the humanity of anyone non-jewish and their bullying of neighbor states.

"even if the occupants are unhurt" I think that's the main safety concern whenever designing a car. The most important thing is for the occupants not to be hurt. Cars which are "solid" are actually worse for the safety of their occupants in case of an accident. See: Crumple Zone

So why are people sent to prison? Is it some form of torture? Society exacting revenge? Or is it supposed to correct those that can be correct it and at least remove from society those that can't?

Because if it's the latter, then banning games makes no sense. Having something to occupy their time with can greatly reduce prison violence not the other way around. Too many people with too few things to do all in one place isn't usually ideal as far as not having trouble is concerned.

True, however this particular sample is all people who were kids in 1970, so they're all in the same age bracket(no elderly or non-working youth). I think average income is a good measure in such a case.

Key sentence in the GP's post: "Dont you believe that US citizens have a right to know when killing is being done in their name?"

It's not about Americans being put in danger or not. It's about the world's image of America going further and further down the shithole while an ignorant american public complains about "Terrorism".

When american citizens are targeted in terrorist attacks, they have a right to know, and potentially prevent, their government from taking actions that can put them further in danger as they become more and more hated around the world. If it is their decision that the US's foreign policy and the resulting "attacks on freedom" should go on, then so be it. It should at least be with their knowledge and consent, not hidden and lied about yet perpetrated in their name.