Edit to above: I got a quick history lesson. I didn't realize that Scotland re-joined the UK willingly. My knowledge is mostly in medieval/renaissance and back then, they hadn't joined by choice.

Addendum to the above: I got a quick history lesson. I didn't realize that Scotland re-joined the UK willingly. My knowledge is mostly in medieval/renaissance and back then, they hadn't joined by choice.

There's actually no legal way that I know of for the british to say "YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO USE POUNDS ANYMORE! TURN THEM OVER NOW!" So, if people want to use pounds, there's not really a reason they couldn't do it. Especially since it is fiat currency, and not backed by a hard asset.

And only that way due to the other country invading, raping, pillaging, and asserting their dominance.

You forgot that the turn signal will default to on at all times, except in the case of number 5.

LOL, i wonder if the password at sears is still "sears" for their display computers? They probably changed that one years ago :)

I miss phrack!! 2600 is a bit of a hollow shell compared to what it was once - a quarterly mag just can't keep up with the rate that zero-days are released and patched these days. I used to write BASIC programs that would lock up machines and block out all keyboard input (including break sequences) to drive librarians batty. In high school AOL Instant Messenger was installed on several machines, and folks would forget to remove their login info. So I used to use snadboy revelation to find out usernames and passwords and raised hell that way. Coincidentally and on an entirely unrelated note, several jerky meathead guys in my class came out of the closet to their best friends - it was all quite progressive really for such a conservative school. Such strength! So brave! Much courage! Wow! It's sad how quickly the popular quarterback becomes unpopular when no one is willing to be in the shower with him.

I never once got caught, and I admit nothing.

You cannot permanently defend technology with more technology, just add timesinks. If you create a killswitch, you add multiple attack vectors - either the people who control access to the killswitch themselves, the people who designed the killswitch, or the possibility of brute forcing or exploiting that killswitch.

You are 100% correct. This is yet another place where the victims (and they ARE victims), in their move to try and stop the information from spreading, completely ignored that the Streisand Effect is a very real and powerful thing. Honestly, a better approach would have been the Paris Hilton/Kim Kardashian approach, "Ok, I can't get rid of this, may as well make an official distribution channel and make money off of it." But obviously, given the personal nature of the leak, they'd have to be ok with that decision and its moral implications. It's a shitty way to make lemonade out of lemons though, but lawsuits and DMCA notices will almost always backfire on the internet.

Well, to be fair he landed a spot in Yeltsin's inner circle for a reason. I have a feeling that isn't a club you just walk into, you know? I don't know what his actual position was, but I know that's where he first started getting the limelight. At that point, his ascendency really took off. But I totally agree - that KGB experience probably helped launch him forward.

Except you would never nuke Mexico if you were the US, especially if you were trying to protect the northern Mexican states. Wind patterns would keep a nuclear blast MOSTLY centralized, but there is still enough northbound wind to irradiate those states, and also very likely large portions of Texas, NM, and probably Mississippi. Check the wind patterns yourself here.

You know, I wish I could mod you up for that. I never once thought about the "God of War" as a living thing as you describe it, but you are totally right. Emotionally, what's actually happening is likely based on polarization (where two social groups with slightly differing views tend to become more and more extreme in those views in an effort to distance themselves from "the other") and group polarization where members of a group allow themselves to become more and more socially extreme in the name of the group.

This is very much true. He's intelligent enough to work not only as a highly decorated KGB serviceman, but also to quickly climb the rungs of power in what is most certainly a very corrupt country. Don't underestimate the gamesmanship involved with either one of those achievements. That alone should give you pause before calling him irrational. He is likely very rational - and cold, and calculating, and ruthless.

No jury will ever have the chance to tell us because the DA declined to pursue it. He also probably just got a new house courtesy of the police officers' union.