I might be naive in believing that this second "extended random' was covert, rather than the EC weakening that the NSA bought.

Well, the fifth amendment to the US constitution ends with

nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Seems like a clear case of "private property being taken for public use." Possibly even "deprived of property".

EMC paid $2.6B for RSA. Could they sue the NSA for destroying the value of their property? What would be just compensation?

Close, but you described San Francisco. We have some of those loons too down here in the Valley, but we also have real stuff.

The out of town reporters are up in the city too, and don’t know the difference, but frankly it’s easier to get work done with them not around as well.

So true.

Interestingly House of Cards which includes a character who is a cracker and hacker (appears to have good hacking skills which he uses to break into systems). It appeared that the writers had actually made an effort to learn about the culture(s). For example there was a well done attack that combined social engineering and sleight of hand to defeat two factor authentication.

Unfortunately his lines still made it clear that the writers didn’t really understand what those words really meant (sorta like when the marketing department uses the word “cloud”). And the set department still made the usual nonsensical computer displays. As for the character himself. well he was hardly glorified. In fact if I ever met a person like that my overshelming desire would be to smite him with a copy of the V7 manual. Twice, if he kept moving.

Then I shall glorify the fast-acting AC.

(take only as directed).

At least he is getting attention. It is far worse to be ignored than to be feared or hated. I don't even encounter microsoft in my daily life any more -- I'm sure it's in that ATM or airport kiosk, but I don't notice it. Other than that, it's rare to even see a 'winders' machine at a coffee shop or around town. Even my kid's school is all mac & iPad.

They're still minting money. But think about it: they are still minting money even though everything they've tried to do post W&O has failed[*]. Their cash cow is on autopilot -- not only within the company but outside too. Which means it has no mindshare, any more than the company that makes the concrete in my house foundation has mindshare. That's a pretty sucky place to be.

[*] when I mean failed I mean accumulated profits/losses are in negative territory for all other meaningful segments (bing, xbox, azure, surface). Keyboards and mice are profitable but don't move the needle on a company the size of MS.

I used to think so too, then they reduced the highlighting of the ads that surround the search results (so that people are more likely to click on them), then started pushing people to G+...

I do think they still try not to be evil, but as Upton Sinclair pointed out, when your salary depends on something you tend to start to decide it's OK .

You can easily implement this kind of thing if by running your own server. Google is quite unlikely to implement complicated features that few people would actually use.

OK, admittedly they implemented Google+ which is complicated and which O(0) people actually use, but I claim that’s the exception not the rule.

Or what about when Google steps the “unsubscribe” feature to 2.0, in which the marketer can bid on being able to send 1, 2, 3, n more messages before the “unsubscribe” takes effect?

Or v3.0 in which the sender can pay to have unsubscribe NOT appear or to have their mail “opt out” of any spam filtering?

You know it’s coming...

Apparently he is still the president of norks: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E...

Once again the government acts like they're supposed to copy Terry Gilliam.

In this age of rent-seeking monopolies and cartels at least we can be sure that there is healthy competition for the title of "Worst Company in America".

That doesn’t sound very practical. Sure, it can help with your hydration issues, but how did you fit it in your wallet?

640K ought to be enough for anybody