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.

Has anyone, including some nebulous North Korean hacking team, actually threatened yours?

Someone, identity unknown, claiming to be part of a group that hacked Sony, sent an email saying we'd have another 9/11 if a movie is shown. Call me naive but I don't think anyone should take that seriously. Even Homeland Security, the agency that loves to play up every whisper as ominous, has come out and said there's no credible threat. The President went on TV and his advice to Americans was not "exercise caution," not "if you see something, say something," but "go to the movies." There's every opportunity for the security behemoth to capitalize on this, crank the terror alert color up to fuchsia, and Keep America Fearful. They aren't even bothering. There is no threat.

I'm statistically far more likely to die in a car wreck on the way to a movie theater. That threat is credible, the risk is proven, and it exists every time I get on the road. I still drive every day.

I was right there with you around Thanksgiving, when we heard stories of ominous skulls displaying on Sony workstations, and we saw a huge list of files that the hackers were threatening to release. It all sounded like a Hollywood plot. After they actually started leaking the files? Assuming they're real, there's no way it's a publicity stunt. Sony isn't going to damage itself, its employees, and its reputation just to hype one movie.

That said, I remain unconvinced that North Korea are really the bad actors here. Several articles mentioned that the hack was ongoing for over a year. The movie hadn't even been announced to the public back then, had it? There was supposed to be a press release a few weeks ago squarely and officially blaming NK. If that happened, I didn't see it. I guess tomorrow's scheduled announcement might shed some light.

Are there any Americans currently imprisoned in NK? I get the feeling they're really not going to have a good time soon.

For one, because they believe it allows them to shift liability for fraud onto the consumer. "Oh, your online banking credentials were compromised and your life savings was irrecoverably transferred to Outer Elbonia? And you didn't have our Trusteer software installed, as required by our terms of service? Very sorry to hear that, I guess you're shit out of luck, maybe you can ask the federal government to bail you out (insert raucous laughter here)."

It isn't just slow migration. Yahoo has been contracted to manage email for a lot of older ISPs, they host mail for a whole lot more than just @yahoo.com users. There are millions of people who use the Yahoo Mail interface because that's what their ISP switched to.

For example, 20 years ago I had a dialup internet account through my telco at the time, BellSouth. My email address from that service, which I still have, is @bellsouth.net. BellSouth no longer exists, it was swallowed back into ATT when the government decided that monopolies were a great idea again. For a year or two, the BellSouth webmail interface continued to exist, then it was shuffled over to the att.net domain, and several years ago ATT decided to move all of their users over to Yahoo. If I want to check my @bellsouth.net email through the web, I'm taken to Yahoo Mail. (Yes I'm aware of options like mail2web.)

As far as I know, the same is true for customers from all of the Baby Bells that were re-absorbed back into ATT, and there are plenty of smaller ISPs who gave up on hosting their own mail in favor of paying Yahoo to do it for them. There are many, many people interacting with Yahoo Mail every day who have never had an @yahoo.com email account and probably don't use Yahoo for anything else.

It was the most notorious and publicized narcotics marketplace in the world, open to all comers. I don't think it took much work to figure out that's where they needed to put the mole.

Wish I had mod points for "hexth ass."

In my state it's illegal to operate a motor vehicle without having the physical license with you. They can certainly look you up as you described, but you'd get a ticket for not having your license in addition to whatever infraction got you pulled over. I wonder how long before it becomes a crime in Iowa to be in possession of a smart phone without the state-mandated identification app installed?

Do you or I have access to that database? No. It isn't open to the public, which makes it private.

Not for mathematics, I hope!

I don't think the SJWs could have stated their goal more clearly themselves!