This seems like a GREAT way to lose all your money quickly.

I guess after it happens, you'll at least have something to really tweet about (as opposed to the fact you bought the new Brittney Spears album - no one cares!).

The article linked in the topic doesn't have very many details about who or what these companies are.
I imagine that the majority of Malware sources are from some overseas nation (Russian derivatives most likely) and that filing these suits probably will go no where.

It is possible this is just a Microsoft publicity stunt designed to deter these kinds of businesses from propagating.

This system provides no real benefit to the American populace other than to instill fear.

I don't stop what I'm doing because for some reason or another, the day has been ranked a "red" terrorist day.

Really, all it does (besides instilling fear) is give news sources something to talk about briefly.

I imagine there might be some of that Placebo effect taking place.

They did a study a while back where they gave cheap wine to ordinary people and labeled it as expensive wine. Then they did the opposite, labeling the expensive wine as cheap wine. When people were asked which wine they liked better, guess what? they liked the "cheap" wine labeled as expensive wine the best.

While I don't doubt that the Stradivari violins may be top notch, I doubt there is that much variance between a "modern" top notch violin and what he created.

Is this the Matrix? Cuz if it is, we're a virus too. And I'm pretty sure that I'm alive...

While you are arguing semantics (symantecs, lol) between hackers and crackers, I think you strongly, strongly overestimate the ability of the general populace to rise to this specific occasion.

Technology has developed at such an accelerated rate that there are few, at the least, who really know how things work. I think I've stated this before in another article, but to most people, computers are virtually magic. The level of understanding and specific knowledge required to do so is so in-depth that really, the only people who do so are those in the computer field. While that is a generalization, it also happens to be a fairly accurate one.

On to your politics argument: this is not a life or death scenario where the driving force is necessitated by a resolution. I'm not sure that the internet has reached a specific state of critical mass that requires the general populace to solve this issue. And as such, the majority of people will remain ignorant so long as they can check their email and post their tweets.

As I said, it is a novel idea to be proactive, but the suggested method is akin to trying to catch the wind with your bare hands.

I think, ultimately, that the internet will never be cleaned up. It is very idealistic to think there are a finite number of hackers and that their methods will not become more and more sophisticated as time goes by.

The kind of "cleaned up" internet that these companies talk about requires STRICT regulation and STRICT monitoring. It is very apparent, from just the audience that posts on Slashdot, that regulation is the exact opposite of what people want.

As far as the approach, the idea of a proactive anti-virus is novel, but I think the idea of recruiting novices to help hunt expert hackers is ludicrous. All it would take is a couple of reprisals from the hackers to permanently deter the said novice from going after a hacker.

Hate speech, especially published hate speech, serves no purpose other than to degrade, criminalize or deter a particular person, race, or gender.

The real issue is people worrying about giving censorship a foot and they'll take a mile.

He's not saying the future shouldn't have conflict, he's saying that future doesn't need to always emphasize how horrible EVERYTHING will turn out to be.

That's why people like Star Trek movies, they have conflict, but at the same time, they point out that the future can be bright, technology can be helpful, people can be happy and life is worth living.

Back to the main topic, corridors - they are cheap for filming. That probably influenced the reason to use them more than a necessity in "Sci-Fi" films. I recommend Cube if you'd like to see the minimalist set (hint: it's a cube and not a corridor).

The sun don't shine.

I don't think this is really that outlandish. Considering that the Obama administration has recently appointed new chairs for the Internet or the number of posts, on Slashdot alone, that talk about how internet security is the new method for waging wars, what about this is surprising people?

No one likes the idea of losing freedoms during peace times, but the second something terrible happens, people will throw it away for a blanket.

Let's face it, the majority of people out there have no idea how a computer works. It is essentially magic to them. They don't know what a "Zombie" computer is or that they are possibly assisting in a DDOS attack. The government may need to act and unfortunately they won't be able to discern who is a good computer user and who is not, so everyone is going to get cut.