If they were doing nothing wrong, they shouldn't have had anything to hide. At least, that's how we are told to treat citizens of this country, right? Why shouldn't the government abide by the same rules that it expects its citizens to abide by?

Oh wait, they need an exemption because government. Because "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others"

I am sorry, I was going to continue, but now I feel like I am giving a book report on Animal Farm.

You should research history. If you did, you would find out that a lot of these people in power now are either Vietnam vets or hippies from the same era. The Vietnam youth were far more radical and active than the counter-culture that exists in the youth today. Many of these people managed to get old and get into politics or become politically active, but seemed to lose that train of thought of peace, love, and freedom. Apparently as you get old, you get senile and go into this phase of trusting the government to do what is right. This is a sad thing really.

Only the highly intelligent people can think that for forward as well as that far backward. Others seem to whitewash their history and remember everything as the "Good Ole Days."

We are a foolish nation of consumers who can't seem to think past tomorrow. I can't wait for the economic collapse that follows.

People are going to lock themselves into large vehicles again, and when the prices adjust accordingly, they won't be able to pay their bills and we will see 2008/2009 all over again on a smaller scale. Please oh please, let people not be shocked by this. I know I won't be.

This is exactly right. I was going to dumb it down to, "If you're not for us, you're against us" mentality. You can only provide secure communications or insecure communications. Any backdoor given to outsiders automatically becomes insecure communications. This includes law enforcement of any kind at any level.

Last I checked, Intel had a fabrication plant and an assembly plant in China. Perhaps they don't actually assemble or fabricate Xeons there, but way to not think things all the way through there Intel.

In other news, AMD stock goes through the roof.

This!

Even in IT, I have a backup of all email files, and daily backups. Sadly, if I leave, we will have issues. I do control the backups, but so much data has been moved to tape that recovery is possible, even after a lengthy period of time.

User accounts are expected to expire when they expire and there are secondary administrator accounts that set off any IPS flags if they are used. Key administrative accounts are to be controlled anyway and unless you are talking about senior IT, they should have full access anyway.

Mostly this is the same commonsense that you should expect with any user.

I hate to throw conspiracy theory out there, but if the Pilot had made intentions to do dastardly deeds with the plane, perhaps this was a co-pilot trying to save lives at the sacrifice of 150. While I know this is unlikely, but there is the potential for this to be a thing.

Still, the Co-pilot would have probably said something on the flight recorder, so who really knows. Odds are in the favor that the co-pilot was an undiscovered nutter.

I know I am obese, and way a far bit more than Jeff does, but what what was his initial height because that does factor into weight loss.

Apparently you missed the part where he worked out as well.

I think the thing that many of us have trouble with is wanting to change the overall processes to how we live. Sure, I can live without a computer for a day, but that second day I am going to want to have a all day gaming session.

Strangely enough, I seem to be open to some of these changes now that I am older. I don't care to game as much anymore and I do enjoy going for a walk every night when the weather doesn't completely suck.

I know, Syrian, but still. I always knew he was going to be the death of Apple.

Especially when considering the security company.

Or does the Heisenberg principle not apply on treadmills?

The thought of getting a heuristic AI far enough along to draw some sort of concept of consciousness is amazing, but then some idiot the trying to code religion into would probably end any intelligence to such AI. Congrats on being an AI developer though. Pretty cool if you ask me.

I threw my hat into the political ring at the local level and started sparing by email with my local congressman. I found out he is in fact more interested in collecting his corporate donations and dismantling the EPA than anything else. I should ask him his thoughts on ruining business's opportunity to secure data? And if he is interested in securing a back door into encrypted data, that his emails and text messages between his interns that resulted in the dissolution of his marriage would likely be exposed to the public.

You mean the same guy who was selling weapons during the Iran-Contra scandal and then threw a future Fox News Corespondent, Oliver North under the bus.

Yes, he would never abuse power. He is all righteous.

Here's the thing, Orwell's main point still applies. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.