Kind of sounds like Red Dwarf.

Maybe they plan on stealing the Red Dwarf episodes, then using CGI to cover the Red Dwarf ship with the American stars and stripes and to replace the faces of the characters with something more pro-American, like the face of Tom Cruise (for Lister), the face of some Silicon Valley engineer (for Rimmer) and the face of Vin Diesel for "the Rottweiler" (formally "the Cat", but "the Cat" just isn't "American" enough). They could call the show "Red, White and Blue Dwarf", or the "Star Spangled Dwarf", or "Shock and Awe Dwarf" or something. I think it would be funny if their budget ran out before they had a chance to dub the voices over with something more American sounding. In my opinion, Vin Diesel would sound better as a British Rasta than he does now...

That is exactly what I was thinking when I read that title. I expect the next slashdot story to be about a Columbus mom who is hated by computer anti-virus experts because she discovered one simple trick to rid your computer of viruses (with shocking results!!!).

Interesting. I just checked them out (http://www.code42.com/crashplan/) and the home service appears to be free. What's the catch? I noticed that the home plan uses weaker encryption (128-bit vs 448-bit), but is that all?

at least it wasn't a failure of the space suit's urine collection system...

This is my conspiracy theorist side talking, but I wonder if the heist was actually state sponsored (as opposed to being done by "criminals"). What better way to destroy a currency than to completely erode any public trust in it? And what better way to do that than to orchestrate one or more "epic fails" like this one, that have people talking and questioning the security of bitcoin. Maybe it wasn't so much about stealing the money as it was to undermine the currency itself.

Now please excuse me while I go polish my tinfoil hat...

I have to admit, I don't get "a**e". Is that supposed to mean "arse" or something? If so, why the self-censorship for such a benign word?

FTFA:

That's a little more "muscle"-like than your average spring, I'd say.

"Shi-fu" are what Kung-fu black-belts are called. Similar to "sensei" for karate, I think. I don't think the use of 'shi-fu' was incorrect or un-intended; it's what they meant to say.

I think I agree with this. If the big picture is having humans become space faring (in a meaningful way; not just doing a handfull of short visits to a nearby lifeless rock), then having the Chinese be successful at their space endeavours should be as important to us as it is to them. In the big picture, we are all human, and if the Chinese are successful of conquering space (in a way that the US, Russia, Europe, etc., haven't been able to do), then we all win. Also, if they fail, then so too do we.

Gook luck, Chinese comrades indeed.

Maybe we should just use "hear here", just to cover all of our bases. That's what I do, anyway.

Oooooh! That's exactly the kind of excuse/veiled accusation the Chinese government would make. Brilliant! I love it.

...but you'd probably just forget it. So why bother?...

Actually, for most individual peons like you or me, I don't think that's technically correct. For us, the only warning we're likely to get is the flash of light that burns out our retinas moments before the fireball burns us to ash. The time between the "warning" and our actual annihilation probably isn't affected all that much by these faster payload delivery systems.

Personally, I'm going to save my complaints for the day when they announce that they are working on warheads that explode more quickly, as that's something that could affect me personally. The loss of a few ms of reaction time might make the difference between being able to say "Oh shit..." vs only being able to say "Oh sh...". I find that in times of distress, being able to successfully complete a curse can make a big difference in one's well-being and piece of mind...

What a great idea. In my dictatorship, as punishment, I'd make each of them spend 250 hours -- nay, 750 hours -- hand-carving identical flutes to the ones they destroyed (off the clock and unpaid, of course). By my count, that's about 6 months of solid work, if they put in 4 hours every single day (probably still a fraction of the time Razgui put into making his own instruments). After they were done, their work (regardless of quality) would be thoroughly destroyed right in front of them. It would be both a punishment and a lesson in appreciating other peoples' passions and work, all rolled into one.

That sounds scary as shit. Sounds like something Magneto would do. I don't know about you guys, but I'm sure glad the NSA is on my side. Keep up the good work, boys!