Comment OMG (Score 0) 274
OMFG! (tm)
Comment Horseless cariage, oh noes (Score 0) 388
In related news, the last surviving member of the Blacksmither's Union, now 104-years-old, is still bemoaning the horseless carriage and wondering what the hell happened to the industry.
Submission + - The Root of the Botnet Epidemic (threatpost.com) 2
Trailrunner7 writes: Over the course of a few days in February 2000, a lone hacker was able to bring some of the Web's larger sites to their knees, using just a few dozen machines and some relatively primitive software to cripple Yahoo, eBay, E*trade, Amazon, ZDnet and others for hours at a time. No one knew it at the time, but these attacks would come to be seen in later years as some of the earlier outbreaks of what has become a massive online pandemic. Now, nearly 10 years after those attacks, botnets are not just weapons of mass disruption for hacktivists and bored script kiddies, but serve as the foundation for the worldwide cybercrime underground and are at the heart of the massive rise in malware in recent years as well as the wave of SQL injections attacks against legitimate Web sites. "It's a huge, huge problem and it's one that has a lot of different components," said Joe Stewart, senior security researcher at SecureWorks, and an authority on botnets and online crime. "There's plenty more going on than just SQL injection and DDoS attacks that people just don't know about."
Submission + - LHC Reaches Over One Trillion Electron Volts (bbc.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes: "The LHC pushed the energy of its particle beams beyond one trillion electron volts, making it the world's highest energy particle accelerator."
Comment Re:Extraordinary claims... (Score 1) 822
Too anecdotal. There's all kinds of reasons that story may exist, beyond the obvious politically motivated one. Was the data obtained in a controlled, scientific manner? Are we sure about that?
I'd just like to see a stronger consensus. As it is today, the whole thing is just way too polarized. I mean, I doubt anyone denies that people (along with any other organisms put into an environment) do have some effect. That's simple action/reaction stuff. I think the argument gets heated when scientists, politicians, Al Gores, etc. showcase humans as the chief cause of widespread destruction. There's an obvious money-trail here and a lot of people smell a skunk.
So, yeah.. I need some extraordinary evidence to back up all those extraordinary claims.
Comment Extraordinary claims... (Score 4, Insightful) 822
... require extraordinary evidence.
The global-warmists, or climate change proponents need to pony-up some real evidence for all the wild, alarmist claims about doomsday they've been making for the past 20 years... not just anecdotal bunk like misc. ice sleets falling off Antarctica, etc.
Comment Obsolete (Score 1) 420
In related news, blacksmithing has posted yet another year of steadily declining sales.
Comment WOW (Score 2, Informative) 375
...and the problem with that is.... WHAT?
Comment Monopoles (Score 2, Funny) 256
...therefore, God exists.
Comment Re:Amazing (Score 1) 119
There's a rich market on eBay for Atari 2600's.
Comment Oops... (Score 1) 2
Wrong SCO. Did you actually read the story?
Comment Hooray! (Score 1) 1088
Thanks goodness. The Telcos had no choice when the US Gov't, right or wrong, came knocking and basically demanded they help avoid another 9-11 style attack. The executive branch has broad powers, especially in time of war as stipulated in the Constitution, so it would be a matter of years of legal battles to decide the ultimate legal outcome of Bush's program.
The Telcos could suffer real damage if they weren't given immunity. They would be put in a terrible position of either helping the exec branch and facing billions in lawsuits as a result, or not help the exec and face all kinds of wrath from the exec branch, who rattles sabers at the drop of a hat during this "time of war", etc.
And if they didn't help and there WAS another attack? They would probably be scapegoated like no one has ever seen before. I'm glad for the passing of the new bill that gives them retroactive immunity. They were and still are pawns. The battle needs to be between the branches of gov't.
This is a great development for another reason too. It clearly demonstrates that the democrats are as spineless as ever and certainly not the prince charming they were touted to be for the nutcase left.
