The fact that Botswana's issues are caused by politics does not change that they are on a knife's edge.

Look, this is great and all, but if I see some ugly polyester costumes, 1970s hair, and giant pneumatic tubes that carry people to and fro on that base, i'm going to seriously consider researching sustainable and well-lit subterranean shelter to ride out the impending lunar nuclear disaster.

...this line:

"This is not a joke, it's true!"

...in the OP makes my bogometer go to eleven.

I work in technical support for an ISP. One of the things I must know, natch, is what OS they're using. In cases where it's XP, I will inform (or, as the case is sometimes, remind) them that Microsoft will be ending all support for their OS of choice, and that now is the time to upgrade. My one regret is that these users have waited so long, resulting in that they must now upgrade to Windows 8.1.

Well, OK, they can probably get a copy of Win 7 from Newegg or somesuch.

In future revisions to this, they may have their entire work crews living underground with shaved heads and all white clothing, enforce drug usage, and forbid sexual activity. "What's wrong?"

...because Halloween. Of course, I dress myself funny all the time, anyway.

That's nothing. Here on Mars, I have to wait for the window, and latency is two hours if I'm lucky!

What you said, DragonWriter. I have my doubts that this is a lazy way out - more a way of stopping it until a better answer is found.

Header check, maybe? The best way to confirm it is to look at the headers and find out where it came from - most people on the 'net these days who know their stuff can read that.

I'll be frank, I've never fully understood the basic concept of a flu vaccine.

Sure, flu season comes around, and a lot of people come down with the $animal plague. A few die from complications, but by and large, we get over it.

Enter into it, here, the current vaccine. It protects against a prior strain, but that leaves any new strain open to attack without reprisal. People get the flu, accordingly.

It's not to say it isn't completely without benefit, as I do know a few people who take it to keep from getting ill, and it's mostly because they have respiratory issues. But really, aren't we just protecting ourselves from something that really is more of a bogeyman that makes us miserable for a few weeks out of the year?

I suppose this would assume that waves have some intelligence, and are attacking these ships. I'm of the opinion that these waves are more like the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, where you would be better off covering your eyes with a towel to fool them into thinking the ship - or at least, the crew - are invisible.

Well, it would probably just do as much good.

I live in apartments in the Seattle area - in fact, I'm a few miles out from the Microsoft campus. We get people who don't use the ILEC or incumbent cable co, the latter whose name sounds like "bombast" - because they're cheapskates ,so they filch off of others' open wifi.

This includes the front office. Which they used for sharing, and that includes file sharing - which poses a risk, in this day and age, for cancelling all internet service for the front office, something they rely on.

Personally, I need to have a notice eating at my mail like I need a hole in my head. It might push security by the openness, but I don't need to be spending too long setting this stuff up - I have homework.

Gonna reinforce here.

PEX tubing for your plumbing is pretty damn cool, and pretty cheap. No worries at all about pipe corrosion if you have funky water, and they tend not to burst. Moreover, the right kind of box can set your valves for all fixtures in one central location. The bad news, however, is that you can't just cut the valve if you're on the commode and the commode suddenly springs a leak on the intake.

As for hardline networking, just do it. Have a wifi spot for guests and laptops, but for desktop boxes, well, wifi never really made sense to me - and besides, it's hard to beat the reliability of a copper CAT6E line, or fiber, or....

Perhaps this is going to be ready when the IPv6 flag day is?