Fact: Putting the word "fact" before your sentence does not absolve you of the need to back it up with actual evidence.

The pool of people who are knowledgeable about the practices, challenges, and daily business realities of the telecommunications industry (or any industry for that matter) is a small one indeed; good luck finding someone in that pool with the experience necessary to lead an agency the size of the FCC who hasn't worked for the industry at one time in his or her life.

That's a matter of perspective. I've been there numerous times and have found that the Canadian side has the best views but the American side is less of a tourist trap. The Canadians have done a piss poor job of keeping development in check, in fact, there's a school of thought saying that the Horseshoe Falls are perpetually mist covered (historically they weren't) because of changes in the local wind currents brought about by development on the Canadian side.

Besides, the coolest thing there is the Cave of the Winds, and that's in good ole USA. No trip would be complete without seeing both sides, but there are plenty of people (myself included, obviously) that think the American side is at least the equal of the Canadian side.

I'm not sure what's up with the trend of people proudly proclaiming they can't notice the difference between different resolutions. Um, good for you? Me, I could see individual pixels in my old 15 inch 1024x768 monitor from 2.5 feet away. I'm not a freak of nature. I have slightly worse than 20/20 vision. But going from 480i to 1080i (CRT in both cases) with the same 34" screen size and the same 6 foot (more or less) viewing distance was a earthshaking difference noticeable not just to me, but to almost everyone who saw it.

Hell, I remember when the argument was that HD sucks (particularly for porn, but also in general) because you could easily see skin imperfections, the cheap props used in Star Trek, etc. Too much detail was supposedly ruining things... but now the argument is the exact opposite? And some people have even started pulling pseudo-scientific charts out of their asses showing the supposed screen sizes and viewing distances at which different resolutions become indistinguishable (the first thing you notice is the proscribed viewing distances are completely insane, like 11+ feet for a modest screen size.)

My current theory about all of this is that the compression used in online streaming video has you all extremely confused. Or possibly it's because most LCD screens still tend to look weird and indescribably shitty compared to 1080i CRT or 1080p plasma. Or perhaps the upscaling algorithms have become too good--to claim that 4k or HD is a waste, you have to compare 480p native to 1080p native, not 1080p (480p upscaled) to 1080p native.

High bitrate 1080p at 34" should be appear as an instant and impressive improvement over high bitrate, non-upscaled 480p even at 10 feet.

Please find an ophthalmologist before it's too late. That goes for everyone who modded this up, too.

I think it's a rich person who has nothing better to do with his money.

Niagara Falls is in Ontario. You're not making it to Quebec unless you swim across Lake Ontario, into the St. Lawrence River, and downriver for 50 miles or so. If you can do that learning French should be easy.....

Did Guistra get the contracts?

Duh.

Duress passwords are fine for stuff that the adversary doesn't know about. If three letter agents bust in on you and they have network logs or other surveillance showing what you've been up to then no, the duress password is not going to get you anywhere.

On the other hand, if you had a laptop with some Tienanmen square videos on it that you wanted to bring to China, I think it's perfectly viable approach to simply load up the dummy container with videos of yourself doing a little soft S&M or something, just in case. Really, I would like to hear your explain why you think showing some slightly annoyed (but not suspicious of anything in particular) Chinese officers videos of tanks rolling around in Tienanmen would be safer and preferable to showing them your wife tying you to a bedpost. I would say that the latter approach is at least worth a shot.

Of course, it's usually better to go the extra mile and use headerless solutions in such a way that it would take someone with a fair bit of expertise to notice even the possibility of encrypted material, with no way to conclusively prove whether it's there or not. I mean, if the phrase "please enter your password" appears at any point, you have already done something extremely stupid and lazy. The criminal or cop who has just busted in and is holding the gun to your head almost certainly does not have the knowledge or tools necessary to realize that the device might not be fully decrypted.

If you're worried about getting "killed or worse" by an adversary who is going to first detain you for days while the device is subject to extensive forensic analysis then you're a terrorist and/or you plan on visiting some rather unpleasant countries and doing some fantastically stupid things.

Yeah, it's like three or four whole mouse clicks to make it happen....

C'Mon people, Microsoft does enough shit wrong, we don't need to make crap up.

???

The giveaway was probably when the blue screen was replaced with CIA's logo and the text "All your base are belong to us."

Ask Siemens. They designed the equipment the Iranians are using and wrote most of the control software to operate in a Windows environment. Not that it would have mattered, once you've got an agency with the resources of CIA or Mossad after you it's only a matter of time before they find a way in. Linux is not proof against malware delivered via HUMINT assets.

Dude, it's the Government. That $5 wrench cost at least $25,000.

Where I live they haven't bothered to make any provision for back up power to the repeaters on their coax plant. Power goes out? Kiss your phone service goodbye, even if you've got the battery in your modem. They finally did upgrade us to DOCSIS 3, about eight months ago, so now our peak hour speeds have gone from atrocious to tolerable FWIW.

They're not. The GP obviously doesn't realize that Time Warner spun off Time Warner Cable quite some time ago.