...that's at least what the guy from Military Intelligence told us in a crash course on counter espionage in the middle of the cold war one long and grey german winter evenig. Somewhere somebody draws a big picture from all the minute details form hundreds of conversations: Troop displacement, how many sick, morale, comabt readiness and so on and so forth.Sounded a bit over the top, but made sense. What cost the KGB during the cold war at least a couple of drinks you can have today for a few lines of code. I have not made the experiment myself, but I'll bet that you can create a pretty acurate picture about which american or british unit operates where in Afghanistan and Irak. I think it makes sense: Do not blog, while in combat. Come home healthy and alive, write memoirs, bore your grandkids.

I have to disagree: There is a difference between talking on the transit radio band and (according to TFA) impersonating the control center, telling a driver to disregard a stop signal. Which proud owner of a model railway has not enjoyed the mayhem now and again while playing "train crash" like Gomez Adams but it is not funny, when playing with a real subway. The "prankster" was 20 years old btw. (not 12) so felony, indeed and good to know that subway drivers are well trained and capable of independent thought.

This device is awesome and gives you a glimpse what the "Ancients" ("Stargate" pun intended) already knew and how much of our history is lost. Imagine for a moment if there had been an uninterrupted development from the knowledge that went into this little box for 2000 years. Makes Steling/Gibbons tale of "The Difference Engine" pale by comparison. I read a fascinating book about the discovery and science of this mechanism ("Decoding the Heavens": http://www.decodingtheheavens.com/) and it ist is truly mind boggling how much skill went into this box, 1500 years before we "modern" people build anything remotely as sophisticated. While reading the book I had some trouble to imagine all the wheels and gears described and the full res video is very helpful (can be found here: http://www.mogi-vice.com/Antikythera/Antikythera-it.html (italian)). Very well done, indeed, Signore!.

Or you might end up with Bruce Campbell (uncredited) wielding a chain saw/shotgun/battle axe in an orc/elf/dwarf costume. (With and without a shirt)

when you can live it...

... just add Tofu.

They have a homepage with a bio of Dr. Gudkov (look under "Board of Directors" http://www.cbiolabs.com/ and they obviously have been working on this for some time and are now in clinical trials: 2007: http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/811854/cleveland_biolabs_chief_scientist_andrei_gudkov_discusses_recent_stem_cell/index.html

Around the Campfire and no paper available?

"the firm's managing director, told heise online that following a voltage drop, something happened in D-Trust's "Trustcenter" that does occasionally occur" You cannot even say what's worse: A voltage drop even reaching the HSM or the HSM going suicidal and loosing the key. And all of that "occasionally"? Everytime they make popcorn in the microwave? As a german I am quite flabbergasted by this lack of german engineering, in one of the countries largest trust-centers.

trust the terrain. GPS is very helpful but I am sure everybody else also had strange experiences where the stubborn lady on the dasboard had a very exotic ideas about routes and directions, especially in the less explored countryside. I never fully trust GPS but in the car more than while hiking or being on the boat. In the latter cases I always have another means of verifying my position and one of them is a paper map (and a compass and sometimes even a sextant (boat)). For one navigation (nautic or otherwise) is an interesting hobby (even some math in there too) and it will help you survive the next robotic uprising (or failing GPS satellites)...

judging from the mood of the public transport people that I see every day, this gadget must have an additional "mean" and "grumpy" mode for export models.

Swords to mutitools :-)

Interesting Idea. How do you handle the drag? Doesn't pulling a couple of meters of fiber (or worse: copper) require quite a lot of power? How do you navigate?.

Why not simply change factions, with whatever character you have? It is a bit pointless to change character (or morph into another). The real social interaction (or call it Paranoia) would start, if - with the click of a mouse - yesterday's enemy could be today's friend and vice versa. Whole guilds changing sides would also be a nice touch especially in PvP mode. Again: With the click of a mouse, in the middle of a battle. All the cold-war amneties in mercenary heaven. "You do not pay me enough and I'll go rogue" is a whole new business model, a whole new industry waiting to be born. "Realpolitik" in the virtual world. Bliss :-)