I remember when I was a kid we had two basset hounds, mother and son. The son wasn't too bright. They would both get a bone, the mother would eat hers quickly and the son would doddle. She would then rush at the gate, barking furiously (at no one). The son would run up and start barking too. The mum would then double back and get his bone.

Fair enough, she wasn't using sonar but it was "competitive interference among individuals of the same species."

Not the point. Nothing to do with competition. With competition there would more likely be provision for people with low paying jobs or none through lower prices.

malwarebytes (imply that they) reported this on 30 August. Did they report it to Google?

Nearly 3 weeks till it was shutdown on the 19th. That's a hell of a lot of malware getting dished out.

Why aren't they going after terrorists? We all need to sacrifice to defeat terrorism, and if it means compromised systems and stripped bank accounts, well, that is the price we all have to pay.

OK, I'll bite - so just because other countries abuse people's rights, that makes the abuse of the US courts and government OK? The point is: most other countries abusing such rights don't hypocritically pretend to be "the land of the free." Except the UK, of course. Once this may have been true for the US but that time has long gone.

That is fine once or twice but you can't keep bothering them. Also some can be pretty unreliable ;-)

Well, I did refrain for some obvious analogies in respect of the law but in vain.

Not always. We once lived in an inner-city neighbourhood with a high cockroach population. Didn't matter how clean we were (and we were clean, plugged holes in walls, made sure there was no water, etc) they still came in just from population pressure. Not much you can do if they crawl up through the drains.

According to the Japan Times, the Japan Atomic Energy Agency runs the site. Well done for not allowing them to get away with the same old practices.

This happens all the time. Not so much selling the info to competitors but sales people taking their client's info when they leave the company, often to go work for a competitor. There is also people losing their phones along with corporate data. Best that data never leave the premises.

I was being facetious - every government wants to control whatever they can. While I would rather no one controls the Internet, and having Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Iran guiding matters would be disastrous, it is probably only a matter of time when the game will be over, the Internet becomes just another tool of governments and corporations, and we'll all have to go home. I do despair....

The only thing they are worried about is that the US would not control it.

They have some really good ideas for rack/server design - eg they reckon they are getting 34% power saving by supplying 12V DC to buses in the racks so servers don't need individual power supplies and with improved cooling paths.

Manufacturers won't standardise unless they are pushed like rackspace is doing. This is a big advance.

Really? You think all these pro-*AA comments are genuinely held views? And knowing the pathetic efforts the *AAs make to twist the debate? It makes a lot of sense to me astroturfing would be their next attack point. Though I agree, /. is an unlikely venue, but they are so clueless, they could easily waste effort here. Though not money, apparently. ;-)

Funds dried up since Microsoft has pulled out of the astroturf market? Want penalty rates for having to endorse such appalling subjects? Join the AWU, the Astroturf Workers Union, and at least get decent pay for your perfidy. Our charter: "We're not doing it for the money, we're doing it for a shitload of money!" (apologies to Mel Brooks)