"People now expect that you should be able to expect to speak ordinary English" ?

Agreed. I've been boycotting since the rootkits on CDs. Pulling stunts like this is just more ammo for my cannon when I explain to others why I boycott Sony, and they should too.

Though to be fair, the reasons are getting so numerous now its hard to pick the most evil ones from the pile..

Thanks for the good times. This is still THE site I rely on for my daily dose of nerd news. Don't know how I could ever manage without it.

MAC filtering to keep the casual public away (and to stop well meaning neighbours from accidentally latching onto my network). Absolutely do not use encryption though. I've been doing this for years in the hope that if it comes down to it, I have a loophole from any legal issues that land on my doorstep.

To my memory l33t speak has its roots in the 'hacker' (or more correctly 'cracker') subculture. First started appearing on warez releases which would advertise BBS numbers, sometimes listing the numbers in plain text (for anyone to access) and sometimes listing as 'elite only' (meaning private access)

As time passed 'l33t' started appearing when refering to those with access to the private numbers. It was used sincerely for a short period, but soon turned into a term solely for mockery. 'l33t speak' followed soon after, which as everyone knows is where numbers replace l3tt3r5. l33t speak was to my memory only ever used in mockery, frequently in scorn either by those with access refering to 'lamers' without access, or vice-versa.

When they hijack a domain like that, I presume they could then read the cookies of the visitors and from that potentially identify users? All this without any judicial oversight at all? Scary stuff.

Why don't they just make the 6970 better and make 6970 be the top number, and make that a little better?

That would be a fantastic story. I wish it were true. Sadly the origin of 'surfing' the internet is much more mundane. It was just a comparison to channel surfing, when you watch TV.

http://www.netmom.com/about-net-mom/23-who-invented-surfing-the-internet.html

Isn't one solution just to take two photos a split second apart (one pre-flash and one with flash), then blend the two images together, using the region of the 'flash' photo that the user selected as the 'flash region'. If its not doing that, then where do I make a patent application? :)

Doesn't work for weirdos like me who use non-proportional fonts (Verdana is my favourite). Alignment of any sort is just not going to work.

On Google she's still in beta

Thats exactly what I do. And I dont even spoof my MAC, I just ensure that the router is configured to only accept connections from my MAC, which I realise is pretty flimsy security. It means that the bad guys are *forced* to spoof my MAC for their illegal torrenting needs - and therefore it would be hard to prove WHO is doing the illegal torrenting (though of course I probably become suspect #1)

I love reading things like this, but the article desperately needed more photos in my opinion. This is a nice page regarding the older Atlas launch silos, which are now decommissioned and (in this case) have private owners. This page is a nice view of a Minuteman III launch facility, which are expected to be in operation until 2025.

No, this is Sparta

Be aware that if you have Windows 'system restore' enabled, then no matter how many times you securely erase - the file could still be in the shadow copy (which is completely untouchable). http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/12/the_security_im.html