That's one of the reasons for the move away from wood to plastic pallets, I know of no bug that can live inside a plastic pallet. Plastic is also a lot more durable so you can use it a lot more times before it fails and needs to be disposed of.

The difference is that the Internet the Cuban government wants (no doubt censored and highly regulated like in China, Russia etc) is totally different to the internet that the old guy was trying to set up (which wouldn't have had the censorship and regulations)

Anyone who thinks that there will ever be a repeat of the Hollywood anti-trust lawsuits of the late 40s clearly doesn't understand just how much power Hollywood has over the US government.

Scammers aren't going to stop calling you or remove you from their phone list.

Check out this tutorial:
http://www.abc.net.au/abc3/goo...

Good Game Spawn Point is a TV show aimed at younger gamers (like the OP's kid) and the tutorial in question takes you step by step through the production of a simple game.

And once they have done this, they can start playing around with the Scratch! toolkit (a free game design tool produced by the fine folks at the MIT Media Lab aimed at getting kids into game development and coding) and producing their own games.

Ok so the largest theater chains wont show the film (not just because of the threats of physical attack but because of the threats of cyber attack by the same hackers that attacked Sony).

And it doesn't make sense to do a full theatrical release if the biggest chains in the US wont show it (because of all the costs involved with doing a theatrical release like marketing and advertising).

So why doesn't Sony just release it to every digital download store that will take it? (and any increased risk of cyber attack that might come from distributing the film) It wouldn't be the first time that a film originally slated for theatrical release ended up being switched to a direct-to-video release instead.

Are there legal issues in going direct-to-video? (e.g. contracts with the production team) Could Sony have been asked by the government not to go direct-to-video at this point? Are they still considering a theatrical release of some kind at some point in the future? Or are Sony scared that releasing the film in this way will result in further damage? (i.e. the hackers releasing information they copied in the Sony hack and haven't yet released but which, if released, will be even more damaging to Sony than what's released so far)

I see nothing to indicate that the list in that link is significantly different to the export control list that has been in force for years.

Yes it restricts the export of a lot of stuff including nuclear stuff, electronics, computer gear, telecoms gear, aerospace and more but unless there is some big list of "stuff added to the export control list just recently" that I have missed, I dont see all that much that is now export-controlled under this new bill that wasn't export-controlled before.

I see nothing to indicate this region lock stops anyone from buying games from the US Steam store. All it does is stops people who aren't in Russia from buying from the Russian Steam store at Russian prices and people who are in Russia from buying from the Russian Steam store then gifting the game to someone not in Russia.

This is not a new bill, it is an amendment to the "Defence Trade Controls Act 2012".

I see nothing to suggest that, say, exporting open source cryptographic software without a permit is more illegal under this bill than it is as things stand right now. I did 6 months working for Motorola doing software development back in 2005 or so and I remember they had training and stuff regarding export controls including export controls on cryptography.

The actual list of what is export controlled is the same list as used in every other country that is a signatory to the same international export control treaty.

As for the bill itself, if it (or the bill it amends) DOES make exporting cryptography (or other software) illegal (or if that stuff is otherwise illegal) then people should use the public consultation process (or letters to their local MPs and senators) asking for exemptions that cover open source software so that it becomes possible to continue development and use of such software in Australia.

Given the number of people who read Slashdot using old browsers that dont do HTML5 video (like all those people stuck at work on Intercrap Explorer 6) Flash seems like the better choice here.

Too bad the same magic that throws up things like that cant throw up a few hundred of the obsolete Knowles speaker the Neo900 project has been trying to source (or the other hard-to-get components that project has a need for)

The airspace over Sydney isn't closed, nor is its airport. Flights are being diverted around the CBD (both by order from the authorities and voluntarily from the main domestic airlines agreeing to divert).

I flew from Perth to Brisbane last xmas with a desktop tower case PC plus a bunch of peripherals and other stuff in my checked luggage (it was part of a permanent move from Perth to QLD) and there was basically no security checks of my luggage at all (despite the fact that the cardboard boxes or their contents could easily have contained explosives). In the US on a similar domestic flight, I am sure my 2 cardboard boxes and suitcase would have been run through all sorts of scanning machines and possibly opened (they may have even removed the cover off the PC to inspect its inside).

That said, I did learn just what a cross-country flight (and QANTAS baggage handlers) can do to a desktop PC when the only thing protecting it from damage is a layer of bubble wrap and a cardboard moving box...

Why are banks pushing this crap in the first place? I can't see entities like Bank of America spending their own money on security stuff unless its going to cost them more money not to.

All the times I used a taxi (which were because I needed to carry more stuff than it was possible to carry on the bus and was unable to get help from friends/family) I only had to make one phone call, they showed up reasonably quickly and got me and my stuff where I needed to go without any problems. As for costs, the costs for those taxis were quite reasonable (although you better carry cash or else they will sting you with a ridiculous 10% surcharge for card payment)