our Constitution was written to keep these guys in power. That's why we have a senate & house instead of a parliament. But good luck changing that. Lots of people will agree with you until you suggest scraping the Constitution. They've had it pounded into them while they were young and defenseless that it's a sacred document and if only we just followed it none of this would happen. Nobody questions whether the deck was stacked from the get go...

Lots of thinking goes on at think tanks. It's just not the sort any decent person wants going on. You shouldn't underestimate your enemy. They are well organized, highly motivated and well funded. They're fighting the best kind of war: one where the other side doesn't know there's a war on.

Fact: Putting the word "fact" before your sentence does not absolve you of the need to back it up with actual evidence.

The pool of people who are knowledgeable about the practices, challenges, and daily business realities of the telecommunications industry (or any industry for that matter) is a small one indeed; good luck finding someone in that pool with the experience necessary to lead an agency the size of the FCC who hasn't worked for the industry at one time in his or her life.

That's a matter of perspective. I've been there numerous times and have found that the Canadian side has the best views but the American side is less of a tourist trap. The Canadians have done a piss poor job of keeping development in check, in fact, there's a school of thought saying that the Horseshoe Falls are perpetually mist covered (historically they weren't) because of changes in the local wind currents brought about by development on the Canadian side.

Besides, the coolest thing there is the Cave of the Winds, and that's in good ole USA. No trip would be complete without seeing both sides, but there are plenty of people (myself included, obviously) that think the American side is at least the equal of the Canadian side.

I think it's a rich person who has nothing better to do with his money.

Niagara Falls is in Ontario. You're not making it to Quebec unless you swim across Lake Ontario, into the St. Lawrence River, and downriver for 50 miles or so. If you can do that learning French should be easy.....

and, and, and... and the cell companies have to build in rural areas, the cost of which gets subsidized by customers in more densely populated areas. One reason the U.S. will never have the fastest/best/cheapest internet or cell phone service (on average).

Yeah, it's like three or four whole mouse clicks to make it happen....

C'Mon people, Microsoft does enough shit wrong, we don't need to make crap up.

???

The giveaway was probably when the blue screen was replaced with CIA's logo and the text "All your base are belong to us."

Ask Siemens. They designed the equipment the Iranians are using and wrote most of the control software to operate in a Windows environment. Not that it would have mattered, once you've got an agency with the resources of CIA or Mossad after you it's only a matter of time before they find a way in. Linux is not proof against malware delivered via HUMINT assets.

Dude, it's the Government. That $5 wrench cost at least $25,000.

We do. So what? Ubuntu has a server distribution... it works great, is easy to maintain, and we use it for internal (behind firewall) use. And?

but every single crack and hack has been because the hardware manufactures cut corners because the hardware wasn't fast enough. It gets faster every year ya know? Maybe this won't be the year, but give it 5, 10 more and it'll be cheaper to secure the content than not.