Why thank you for putting me in the tech industry after twenty in finance. But it is true, before I was in finance I was in "IT" for three years. And now I dabble in app development.

As to women plumbers - virtually any plumber is freakin rich. Have you hired one to do work (most often on the 'omfg get here an hour ago!' basis)? The point was that there are many career tracks available to women which can pay extremely well.

Unfortunately, people seem hell bent on seeing discrimination and other boogie men around every corner. Just as an FYI, when I was in IT, in that Arpanet only age, every boss I had was ... gasp... a woman! And I know this might really throw you for a loop. The next level up (VP that is) were also women.

You are a freakin idiot. Go tell your boss that you are releasing your "patch" into his production system and then plan to submit more "revised" patches when new problems/incompatabilities are found. Please do not ever work for a bank or aerospace company.

You really woke up on the wrong side of the bed today. Crime? There is no obligation by any of these companies to you to repair or replace any of the flaws. You license (or buy outright) the software AS IS. That you may also buy some type of "service contract" that provides for periodic ugrades, updates and fixes does not in any way oblige the software producer to fix any one specific flaw.

You may not like that system and you can certainly chose to go open source... where btw, who is guilty of the "crime" when a flaw is not fixed for months or years?

Hows that hope and change thing feelin on ya right now? You really thought he was different. A civil libertarian. Wow. Talk about gullible.

you know what? most stylists are women or gay men. Oh no, I'm being discriminated against! And women plumbers are totally under represented (though the ones who are doing it are freakin rich).

Perhaps its time to consider whether anyone has asked the question: do women really really want to work in IT? Or do they prefer other professions? Accounting? Sales? Something else?

but in principle I agree with what Google is doing. In effect they are trying to destroy the market for zero day exploits and forcing the companies involved to not site on their hands and hope nobody uses them.. like cybercriminals and the various three letter agencies.

From the description "to migrate my homebrew router/firewall/samba server to one of the BSDs" it sounds like you need/want more than just a straight forward firewall. Based on that observation, I would go with FreeBSD. It has the largest install base, a great handbook, many online guides and a lot of helpful people on irc, etc.

If it were just the firewall alone you could make an argument for OpenBSD and while you can probably still do all the other stuff, you will probably be more frustrated when you run into problems. While I would like to recommend the red headed step child of NetBSD, been there, done that, only FreeBSD now.

Like Charlie Whosit major? We are so weak and pathetic. What was the toll? 10? 15? More people probably choked and died eating fast food that day. And thousands march supposedly to defend "freedom of speech" at the same time their leaders/legislators wish to take as much of it away as possible.

Oh did anybody march in Nigeria this week? Last month? How many world "leaders" showed up there? More died as a result of terrorism there in the past month than probably in the past five years (if not quite a bit more) in Europe.

Terrorism as existed for ages. To get wound up and bent out of shape the way people do now over a handful of deaths is insane and contributes to the continuation of the attacks.. If this is the best that Al or Bob Qaeda and ISIS can manage can't we all just give it a freakin rest? It is one thing to feel some sorrow for the families of those kiled but quite another for whole societies to change their principals and ways of life.

just fucking ignore those people then. Skip the "news" reports. Don't go to those "offensive" websites.

And this idiotic notion of "hate" speech or "hate" crimes. Does it really matter why someone murdered you? Murder is a crime. So is assault. So is battery. And to our German friends - are the printed words of Hitler and associates really that scary? Or are you just pathetically weak of mind that you would fall for that tripe again?

When society gets to the point of legislating "offend no one" we all might as well put a gun to our heads as its just not worth living anymore.

as is its little brothers Australia and NZ. Canada gets a pass since they have hockey.

isn't it hilarious how MI-5 says these attacks show why they need even more super powers... yet forget the fact they had these guys on watch lists for years. I mean, even Santa checks the list twice, right?

you mean.. sue the pants of them, don't you?

He's doing important work explaining science in a comprehensible way to a lot of people who aren't scientists

A lot of people are engaged in public endeavours of all types. Yet few have their own cult followings.

People make important decisions based on whether they understand science.

Some people make such decisions, most do not.

Would you prefer your doctor treat you based on mythology instead of science?

A doctor for all intents is a scientist.

Scientists in general are terrible at public relations so having some guys like NDGT who are actually good at it is hugely beneficial to all of us.

Generally the people who view him (or Cox) as particularly "good" are those who don't need to watch. The Fox only ratings of "Cosmos" were pretty dismal so maybe we should also rethink NDGT's "appeal" to the wider community?

but not ok for anyone else. this is what happens when governments routinely skirt the law.

Why on earth people are so infatuated with Neil DeGrasse Tyson or Brian Cox (UK) is beyond me. What's next? People magazine, science edition?