Are you trying to imply that people using these exploits are street gangs? Or drug suppliers? :-P

I was more thinking about mob justice - sometimes, the people who were hanged really were innocent.

In a "darker" way, this could start an arms race, with scammers trying to take down machines and hitting innocent people and/or cyberwar getting started because of attacks on scammers and counter-attacks from the scammers tripping automated defense systems due to spiraling conflicts and increasingly sophisticated tools being employed by all sides. Collateral damage and all that. Not a pretty sight.

Wouldn't you prefer a nice game of chess?

... Depends if your IP address is dynamic or not. In my case, all I have to do is reset the DSL modem/router and, presto ! New IP!

I am more concerned about the legality of it. Running a live exploit on their network may make some ISPs fidgety. Also not sure about the position of law enforcement agencies...

A server is just a bigger laptop. Don't laugh: technologies such as virtualization, para-virtualization, SSD, dual-type disk drive HDD+SSD, low-power CPUs, multiple high-density CPU cores and even high-end graphical cards can be found in both types of PC (Think OpenCL on the server, and Unreal Tournament -- or whatever the shoot'em up du jour is -- on the laptop for that last one).

Linux and BSDs make this possible, even trivial. Heck, these days, a lot of people even test entire server platforms or AJAX applications on virtual machines on their laptop - I know I do. Ideally, all machine should be both servers and personal machine.

I want my operating system to be flexible and able to adapt to different computing platforms. I want something smart enough not to push a GUI down my throat if I don't need it. Improvements on one platform will also be a benefit to the other. Having a laptop with 24 to 48 CPU cores may still be science-fiction today. But it won't be tomorrow. On the other hand, building a fast SSD-only Petabyte server using nothing but laptop SSDs would allow you to cram way more data... for less price than those slow SATA disks.

In other words: splitting Linux is simply a bad idea. Thanks, but no thanks.

Read them and weep: http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/...

TL;DR? Essentially, KDE may end up switching to systemd. Because Gnome (and every other Linux fan-boi) does it.

Thank you, you have just summed up the abomination that is systemd for all of us.

Go tell that to the GNOME dev, who adopted systemd and now require it on all platforms running Gnome.

I don't run that piece of crap myself, but it has been ported under OpenBSD, and some people want to keep using it on OpenBSD.

Again, this an emulation of systemd - not the real ugly mess.

This means that the normal configuration files will probably stay, but will probably be parsed on-the-fly (smartly, one hope) to provide some emulation.

The reason this is interesting is that it may prove an escape hatch not just for OpenBSD, the other BSDs, but also for some (sane) Linux distributions that refuse to adopt systemd such as Slackware.

Because bloody systemd will be needed if you want to run some brain-dead Linux-only piece of crap software. That's why.

Emulating systemd allows that software to work on OpenBSD. On the other hand, emulating it means that (a) its working may remain somewhat on the sane side and (b) that emulation will only be installed if the port requires it, therefore limiting the damage.

And, FYI, OpenBSD could not care less about Poettering and his evil gaze.

Research the S.T.E.P. options. Hydro power storage can be scaled, too. Other possbilities are molten salt and compressed air storage for instance.

Yes, there are losses to all these systems, but the ability to store 50% to 90% of electricity produced through renewables makes them well worth considering.

This might be part of an answer to your question: "Ohio lawmakers want to limit the teaching of the scientific process".

In other words, you live in a country where being an ''egghead'' (your term - not mine) is not respected. As a matter of fact, you live in a country where a large percentage of the population still thinks some invisble man in the sky has created the entire Uinverse in 6 days, and the Earth itself might well be 6000+ years old (instead of 4+ billion years old).

Need I say more? Case closed.

If you are a Tor programmer, and if there are really NSA/GCHQ insiders who actually help you to correct bugs... For Pete sake, just keep quiet about it!!!

Now, both agencies will have to initiate a mole-hunting operation, and you will lose these valuable insiders!

On the other hand, it may paralyze these agencies for months, maybe even years, while they try to figure out who has been leaking invaluable bug information back to the Tor project.

So it might be a wash. Either way, it also probably means that people inside the Puzzle Palace and the Donut are beginning to realize that enough is enough, so that is also encouraging.

Instead of potentially dangerous experiments, may I suggest the oldest known and proven solution to global warming?

This is extremely complicated, so please bear with me for a minute or two:

Plant. More. Trees.

Don't believe me? Fine, don't take my word for it. Heck, even that bastion of free enterprise, The Economist got behind that idea!

So, why is not implemented on a large scale? Because planting trees is not techonologically "sexy" - it is well known, has been well known for centuries, and, for maximum effect, would require rich countries to invest serious money in poorer countries, to save the rainforest (which is where tree-planting would have maximum impact). And we cannot allow these natives to get money to do something as simple as plant a tree, right?

In other words, the wealthiest have decided it is a lot more fun to throw money at dangerous or even foolish and ineffectual solutions rather than provide for jobs and development in the poorest countries of the world -- precisely the countries that will suffer the most due to global warming. Make of that what you will.

Newsflash! Slashdot already has been targeted by NSA!!

Don't take my word for it: Link 1 and Link 2.

Typical conservative knee-jerk selfish ego-centric reaction right here.

What is wrong with serving one's own country and being concerned when a shadowy agency deploys a digital net over everything?