This actually sounds like a decent idea. I mean it could be just a little online shrine to the person with a short bio, and maybe some genealogy stuff in there. If it was tastefully done, it could be o.k. The big thing on this though is setting up something like this in advance of your life or you'd have to depend on others to set up something that you may not think is tasteful.

I'm not big on to the whole on line social life, but I wouldn't mind something like this for friends and family to click on once a year to just remember that person. For a second, I thought that it would be nice if you wanted to set reminders or such so that it would e-mail you just so you wouldn't forget, but that's actually kinda of creepy. O.k. They could also do targeted ads like grave side flowers or such.

I think that's actually a silly custom. Now donating to the deceased favorite charity would be a better form of remembrance. Hey they could provide that kinda of service as well.

To the Catsouras family, I am deeply sorry for your loss, but your score to settle is not with the nebulous force of users that are the internet but with the Orange County Police Department.

I'd say that you are slightly wrong. They are with both. They should report to the Orange County Police Department for every single time some one sends them one of these.

In my opinion, it would be more heroic of you not to spend a second mortgage suing your police department but instead using that money to create awareness of hazardous driving, starting a college fund in her name, donating that money to charity in her name or doing something less destructive with it in her name.

That's not a real human reaction though. It isn't the fact that their daughter died that is the matter. It isn't the matter that the PD took the usual crime scene photos. The issues is that instead of spam, they are getting sent these crime scene photos constantly sent to their e-mail! I'd be fairly sure that those responsible were disciplined or maybe even sacked. That would have been a fine reaction if the images never were sent to the family or friends of the girl. It would be like some one posting links to the images here in this thread. That's just completely unacceptable behavior. The police and the random internet users are at fault.

Finding out the details of the girl and the accident doesn't make me too thrilled, but normally news outlets and such would report something like this in a few paragraphs with a decent picture of the deceased and folks would grieve and go on. How the heck can they grieve or go on if every time they check their e-mail some folks are sending them not just reminders of their daughter, but the most terrible pics that a parent could imagine for their child.

I'm sure these folks are hurting and are going to be lashing out. That's what every law with a some one's name in front of is really about, some one just lashing out. I think that everyone that sent her these imagines needs a $500 dollar fine and/or a week/month in jail.

How would you feel if I sent you terribly dismembered pics of you kid? You'd be upset, angry and want to hurt me in some form or fashion. You'd also want it to stop and to make a way or process so that others can't do the same thing. I understand exactly where these parents are coming from. They won't quiet until they've run out of resources. They won't run out of hurt until long after folks stop sending this stuff. Heck, it could have happened last week or a decade a go, but receiving that stuff in your mail would be just as painful!

A corporation that exists to make profit will use any means available to make those profits. If lobbying and back-room deals pay better than R&D, then that's where the corporation will put its efforts.

I don't like that any more than you, but we have to face the facts: that's how it works.

Why pay billions in R&D when you can spend maybe a few million over several years lobbying and get better results? Damn, I can't even complain about it after thinking about it like that. I mean it's the cheap easy course for large companies to try if they can. Heck, most of them are already paying lobbyist for something anyway. It's jut that its far cheaper to do that than actually develop any thing "new."

devil's advocate mode = ON

The thing is these are unauthorized users, the folks responsible for the satellites should treat all unauthorized use access as enemy agent access unless it is verified that it isn't.

How is it unauthorized if you shoot a pile of hardware into orbit where there is no real "ownership"? If these "folks responsible" can't (or won't) protect and secure it, tough shit.

O.k. if they aren't bothering to secure their stuff at all, it's their own fault. Now, if it was me, I'd aim one of those super secret death lasers at 'em and be done with the problem. Oh, it's a good thing we don't have any of them... we'd find out that's totally unsecured as well. Actually, it sounded like they were using legal methods to go after the folks that they IDed as hacking into their orbiting piece of hardware. So o.k. they may not have secured it IT wise, but they've successfully used the legal system to some what secure it against only those shown to be hacking into it. Let's be honest, the only secured most folks would consider is if it had physical or energy beams shooting back for unauthorized access.

The thing is supposed to be a military piece of hardware. I'd think that they'd have those things very locked down. Anything incoming from unauthorized users here would be physically traced back as an exercise. You know one day enemy troops would be doing this. You might as well get your side used to IDing and removing unauthorized users. O.k. I'm assuming basic abilities to trace back and ID IT threats to the military. I may be overestimating their admins.

When will people learn that you go to college to prepare for life, not just a job or career. You go to learn how to be self sufficient, to go to bed so you're not dead for classes, to show up, and generally learn to be an adult. College is an environment where a lot of people fail at that at first, but most, by the time they graduate, are capable of living on their own and holding some sort of job. College isn't just basic engineering or english or math, its basic life. If their parents can afford it, kids need to be out on their own in a forgiving environment like a dorm or college community where they do their own laundry and feed themselves.

Um, O.k. I made it through college with a BS in CS. Now, let me tell you a secret about all those friends of mine that didn't bother or dropped out of college instead. Here it's a little secret that you may not know. They all have jobs, pay rent or a mortgage, have the same bills that I do, and usually a bit more just due to be being at their place of employment longer.

You'll be highly upset about this next secret. I had a few friends go this other route. It's called the military. That environment is more physically demanding only at first. After boot camp, it stops being physically challenging and becomes as demanding as college does now on the mental level while teaching all these other life skills.

There are many times that I think our entire educational out look is messed up. It should be about teaching those kids, how to clean their homes, shop for the best products, buy food and cook or pick the best deals in fast food, how to manage rent/mortgage and other bills. All these "life skills" that you think college is for should be taught in elementary school.

Systems like the PS3 and Xbox360 have learned from this but it is arguable that soon (if not already) that will be cracked and emulated. The military should take note of this battle as now that communication with satellites has become cheap, they are facing the same cat and mouse game. So they have two options: either attempt to crush it politically (like Brazil's Operation Satellite) or live with it and prepare mitigation plan.

Um, the point of military secured communications satellites are to provide only your side communication. You don't want to provide your enemies communications. Now, allies and neutrals are an entire another question. The thing is these are unauthorized users, the folks responsible for the satellites should treat all unauthorized use access as enemy agent access unless it is verified that it isn't.

If they've got enough info on these users, and can just have the allied/neutral government lock 'em up, that's fine for today. If we are ever at war with that currently allied/neutral country, what makes you think that those individuals wouldn't suddenly be used to hack our satellites? The way that we should be trying to deal with this is to lock them out of satellites. Yes, it's a hard and constantly changing task, but that's just part of the project.

Probably the same as a 'no burn' policy put in place in most forests a century ago. Eventually the dry stuff builds up to the point where when it does catch fire, you're fucked.

Imagine a hurricane formed with the energy from 5-10 damped out storms.

Oh, you are underestimating things. Imagine it "working" for 5-10 years or decades and then all the sudden new hurricanes are 50-100 times more powerful for a few years.

I suppose. Really though I was just shocked that 11% of IT managers stated they "hate the Earth" as their reason for not powering down...

Actually, I'd think it would be much higher than that as well. Are you sure it wasn't only 11% that didn't hate the Earth?

I write this comment and still think it was absolutely retarded, but those poor bastards that were actually doing the work couldn't do 'the right thing' because it would only screw them within a couple of years because managers and politicians up stream are so broken and stupid that they reward wastefulness and punish efficiency.

You act like this happens only with the government. It happens every where. I saw it tons in school. You'd have teachers bitch about not having enough salary 24x7, but as soon as they had any money; they'd spend it on weird stupid stuff. Just so they might have the same amount budgeted for next year. In college you had department secretaries with awesome 2-3 gigs of RAM back in 96-98 because that was about the only place they could come up with to half way usefully throw money at.

Small businesses are fairly efficient if they aren't part of a chain. Chains can be efficient if they are left to live and die on their own. Some chains can subsidize entire stores. They are different though because any given store can't be wasting more than all the other stores. If an entire area wastes money, you'd get some one coming in from higher to fix things.

It's large business, education and government where this spend all the budget or you won't get it for next year really comes in though.

Americans in general are not unwilling to pay for government... they just want less of it.
Unfortunately, I think it's more like Americans in general are not unwilling to have government... they just want someone else to pay for it.

Nah, we are perfectly happy paying our local sales taxes. Everything else we will bitch and complain about endlessly though. I'm of the mind to remove all taxes except sales taxes and have the government come down like the wrath of god on any business that doesn't properly collect it. I'd also want sales tax added into the price of the products/services so that you only have the price. Everyone loves to bitch that's bad for poor. Well so freaking what it's the only one that's sane to collect from everyone. If you are an illegal immigrant or foreign tourist, you'd be paying sales tax if you are here. All other taxes seem to be avoidable in one form or another.

I don't think that the government should be giving out money to individuals per se. The government just needs to stick to infrastructure. Everything else it screws up anyway.

Defense is really the only place where we spend enough money for cutting to make a big difference. Care to raffle off a B-2 bomber?

http://www.federalbudget.com/

This is the scariest website that I've ever seen. If I could, I'd want all of those major government departments to be limited to $1 billion usually year to year, and $10 billion absolute max. All the rest of the "income" would go to "the debt." Yes let's sell china a fleet of anything that they want. Enough of this warmongering making like they are evil. China is our best trading partner and owns a good chuck of the US already. There would be no reason for China to declare war on us. They just need to call in our debts. What do we need to cut? The entire Dod, Health and Human Services, Department of Agriculture, Office of Personnel Management, and heck any federal department that spends more than $10 billion a year. I'd make all those programs bleed.

If I could, I'd get a few billion spent on wind, solar, geothermal and other energy sources based in the US, but that's the only place that I'd go wild with spending. All the rest would be trying to get the federal government back in the black. Then I'd start a program of using taxes to buy annuities and using only the income from the annuities to fund various government projects. The goal would be to long term reduce the needed tax income that would be needed to be zero and have the government just run off investments.

However, Social Security was not conceived as a retirement program, it was conceived as an anti-poverty program for the elderly and unable to work. Looked at in that light, it makes a lot more sense: we (the citizens of the U.S.) achieve a jointly decided on societal goal of trying to keep penniless elderly and disabled fellow citizens from literally starving to death due to hunger.

There are real problems with Social Security as it currently exists, but its very existence is not one of them.

Um, if it was about just keeping "starving" folks from dieing, I don't think anyone would complain about it. It's turned into having those that have retired have a higher standard of living than working college students. Or where a good slice of that college kids income is going to support some one else's grandpa who is surviving better than he is. That's what's wrong with it. If SS was like $50 a year and only going to really starving folks, no one would complain about it. It should also have this big social stigma against anyone actually using it. It doesn't have that though.

I'd much rather see sales taxes abolished since they complicate retail and hurt the poorest people the most (they have to spend most of their income to live and hence proportionally pay way more sales tax).

I'd rather see every tax other than sales tax abolished. My family can control our spending. We are poor due to federal standards and our state standards. I don't actually paying the taxes on stuff upfront or not buying things. That's a simple concept. I hate the government taking money from my check only to give it back in April. That doesn't make sense. Just because I'm poor doesn't mean that I should get out of paying taxes. Sales tax is the most honest tax that we have!

The only place that sales tax is some what complicated is internet/mail sales. If you really want to make it simple, you've got one of two choices, use the tax of where the business is located or use the tax of the ship to address. It would be easier for businesses to just keep track of their local taxes. You know that's not what other states/cities would want though.

I'm just waiting for the day that scientists are startled when they prove "prayer" works on either a quantum or string level.

We spend a lot of our time and money simply moving heat around (which is what they're doing in the article). This would be less of a problem if we were better at insulating things, there's actually no reason that the nearby houses should even need this heat, it's simply poor design.

True, we've had the tech and abilities to build homes with out electricity for oh two thousand years. It takes properly designing your house to make use of all resources though. Something that I didn't know, was that even ancient Romans and Greeks tended to design and build their homes/buildings to make the most of solar heating/lighting. That was the cheapest heating/lighting resource that they had access to.

Electricity, A/C, and refrigeration in all forms has seriously spoiled us. I've read stuff where your average home could reduce yearly electricity costs by about 60% just by being better designed/built.