Sounds like a deuce-dropper chopper. A pooey huey. Whirlybirds full of turds.

wParam's at VT, those were the days...

Hasn't he shown a propensity to do just that? He got caught carding food at DEF CON in 2013. More recently he spent three months in a detention facility for that bomb threat against a Sony executive's airplane; he even joked about his haircut looking bad because they shaved it for him in jail. He got out, went home, and proceeded to step up his game by DDOSing the hell out of PSN and XBL. There does seem to be a pattern of continuing and escalating criminal activity.

I'm not arguing that he's dangerous or that he needs to be locked up for 5 years, but if he's guilty, I do believe there has to be some sort of punishment. Make him pick up litter every weekend until he's 18, or something productive that benefits society.

Lack of partitions is a dealbreaker for me. I will not work in a space where everyone sees everyone all the time and there is no private space. Period. I will not work on an open floor plan.

I'm not asking for my own office with a door that closes. I've never had that, and I don't expect it. I understand that I'm at work and that I have no real expectation of privacy. But we're all human, and I'm not comfortable sitting around where anyone can see what I'm doing at all times. Maybe I'm reading Slashdot for a few minutes, maybe I'm on StackExchange asking or answering something work-related, maybe I'm checking my personal email. Maybe I'm reading a white paper from a vendor, with my arm propped up on the desk while I gradually scroll through. As long as my work is being done and my employer is happy, there's no reason the rest of the floor should have a view of me, or vice versa.

Believe it or not, there's a happy medium. Partitions. Cubicles. They were implemented for a reason. I need some walls that extend several feet above my seated position and on all sides, which give me enough privacy to disregard the rest of the office for awhile. I'm never going to absorb a 30-page protocol spec if I'm exposed to every motion of everyone else around me. That's distracting. I have to have a bit of isolation in order to concentrate. I can mentally tune out things like telephones ringing, coworkers talking, etc. but in order to be truly productive, I need my cube partitions. I don't work in a restaurant, I don't want my workplace to resemble a restaurant.

This isn't about browsing porn at work, or spending all day on social media. I have no trouble with my company logging everything I do; I'm at work, after all. I just need some personal space to do what I'm paid for. I will not work on a big glass floor.

Is there any reason to believe that Pidgin with OTR is not reasonably secure? Competition is always a good thing, so the more services the merrier, but I'm curious what others think about existing offerings.

Why? Honest question.

No one seems to be up in arms over women being underrepresented as, say, firefighters or airline pilots. No one's pushing men to become hair stylists or librarians. Yet millions and millions of dollars are being spent on exclusionary girls-only events like this, telling girls that they must learn to code. I don't get it. What's wrong with just encouraging kids, whatever genitalia they have, to follow their interests, whatever those may be? If a girl is into tech, or a boy is into makeup, encourage them to pursue those careers and bust up the stereotypes. I don't find sense in telling girls they need to be in the tech field, any more than telling boys they need to grow up and be cosmetologists.

Thanks for the list. This is a good counter to the people who say "if you aren't doing something wrong, what do you have to hide?"

I'd say it's worse than "batteries not included." If I give or receive a gizmo that needs batteries, and I didn't get them ahead of time, even on Christmas morning there were several options. Walgreens, CVS, and most gas stations were open and they all sell batteries, so I could go remedy the problem if need be. With this DRM always-online nonsense, there aren't any options.

I'm not even sure how to react to this. Why is it that Sony, a private company, feels that the White House, the executive branch of the United States federal government, should help them seek out a technology partner? This bothers me on multiple levels. One, that Sony would feel it appropriate to ask the White House for help conducting their private corporate business. Two, that Sony expects the White House to have that level of influence over Apple, another private company.

I understand that money buys influence, and that Hollywood and Silicon Valley both historically have Democrats in their pockets (full disclosure, I voted for Obama twice, I'm not attacking Democrats). That said, I don't understand how Sony is so brazen as to assume that they can just call up the White House, ask for help, and suddenly Apple is going to capitulate to their demands. Their line of thinking goes in this direction for a reason. Either Sony has successfully coerced companies into similar relations in the past, with the White House as a mediator, or vice versa.

Sony is a corporation. Apple is a corporation. In my own experience, executives have each others' contact information and can get in touch with one another directly. I guarantee you that Sony executives have the private numbers to Apple executives, and it's up to them to work out a deal. There is absolutely no reason for Sony to involve the government in their appeals to establish a business relationship. It's corporate prostitution at the highest and most obvious level. Government "transparency," indeed.

The entire premise is disgusting to me. I for one will not be paying to see this movie on any medium.

Were they allowing Slashdot?

Those who wish to impose further regulations and control upon the Internet. With the flurry of news surrounding all things Sony, you might have missed it, but yesterday Obama came out with this gem:

"We need more rules about how the internet should operate."

So, cui bono? The US Government, that's cui.

You don't have to be lonely, at Left Feet Only dot com.

Face-sitting?

While North Korea is hardly a beacon of consumerism, there are plenty of TVs and DVD players in the country. It's not even forbidden to own them. While it's illegal to modify them to receive anything other than state-sponsored broadcasts, in some areas homes will even have two TVs, one official (for receiving propaganda) and one bootleg (to pick up South Korean broadcasts). DVD smuggling is common. If DVDs came raining down from the heavens, especially closer to the border regions, the people would be able to use them.