I don't know how different Java is to .NET in terms of exceptions, but with .NET you get an SQLException thrown, but the Message property would just contain something succinct like "Incorrect username or password". There are also a properties giving you access to the actual error codes from the SQL Server. You can also still look at the StackTrace property to get the full stack trace if you want.

The problem with OpenSSL Rampage is that a major part of their approach is basically to rip everything out of OpenSSL that isn't relevant to OpenBSD, which is generally the code relevant to platforms OpenSSL supports but OpenBSD doesn't.

Access to space has always been a pissing contest. You would even be in space if it wasn't.

Chapter 23 of the Swedish Penal Code is titled "On Attempt, Preparation, Conspiracy and Complicity".

They're SO-15, they're a specialist armed unit (formed when they combined SO-13 with Special Branch). They only get deployed when they explicitly need armed officers.

Also we don't have "metro police", that would British Transport Police, who are responsible for policing railways nationally, railway property, London Underground, and various other things. They're not routinely armed.

Alternatively they're really good programmers who got explicitly told "make this run like shit off a shovel and don't worry about portability - this will only ever be on PS3". You can say "but we should really write portable code", but if SMT still tell you to ignore portability then you're left with either doing what you're told or quitting.

It rarely happens. A beat officer is unlikely to ever find themselves facing a suspect armed with a firearm in the UK. Most gun crime in the UK is gang-on-gang, they seldom use guns against the police. Which isn't to say that it never happens, but when it does it's noteworthy simply because of its rarity. The other times you get armed suspect will be hostage type situations, at which point armed officers automatically get deployed anyway.

The only place you'll find routinely armed police officers in the UK are at airports, MOD plods (civilian police responsible for policing MOD property), and the CNC (Civil Nuclear Constabulary - responsible for policing nuclear establishments in the UK).

Only if their machine was part of the University's Active Directory infrastructure, as far as I know. Just being on the same network wouldn't be enough.

Extremely hard, actually; it gives me an anxiety attack (things my mobile phone is never used for: making phone calls). My phone at work is on DND on the time for a reason.

I'll actually just switch if I do get round to doing it. I'm not interesting in playing their games. If they have a better tariff they should have moved me to it in the first place.

It's usually an option in the UK, not across the board on all contracts. Mine gives me 100 minutes and 500 text for £22.50 and I have 1GB of data on top of that which costs another £10. I can almost certainly get it cheaper, but it would take effort and mean switching provider. I probably should do it at some point.

He's the CIO for a county council, when he says "staff" he means office staff and he's talking about Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows for the desktop. His entire IT department probably fits in one fairly small room. I'm frankly impressed they haven't just outsourced the whole of their IT management; it's how councils here usually seem to work. Come to think of it's it's quite possible they have and he's actually the only person who works for the council directly.

I know people love car analogies, so that is a little like people suing Ford for no-longer making parts for their Model T. You have to stop supporting legacy products at some point; madness lies down the alternative route.

I don't see how. It's always been possible to buy and view comics via the Comixology website. All they've done is remove the ability to buy via the app.

In-App purchases for Comixology haven't worked properly for me for ages, so I've always tended to buy via the website anyway.

What I'd really like them to do is automatically download subscriptions when my iPad is plugged in and on WiFi. And also keep downloading when the screen turns itself off, under the same conditions.