I know this was intended as a joke, but it does prove something about the 'heat ray' that is rather important: the military-industrial PR machine is operational and effective. This weapon is not a 'heat ray' at all; it is a _pain_ ray. The microwaves emitted by this device may cause some incidental heating of the skin, but that is not the intent at all. The microwaves emitted are of the precise frequency used by pain-emitting neurons. The goal is to have to pain neuron fire at full capacity regardless of the actual level of damage being caused. An article from 2007 ( http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-482560/Run-away-ray-gun-coming--We-test-US-armys-new-secret-weapon.html ) describes this and introduces the idea of a pain ray... 3 years later the military is celebrating its 'heat ray,' a term which is less associated with the evils that can be caused by a 'pain ray.'

The reason that some people give 'cyberwar' more thought than that is that it's not as simple as you make it out to be. I'm a coauthor on a DOE sponsored paper (under security review, so no citation for now) that covers some more subtle aspects of the problem. The electrical grid can be attacked by compromising the control system if that system is internet connected, true. However, if a significant proportion of the electrical load for any one generator can be controlled via the internet, then that generator can be attacked via the internet without requiring any direct internet contact. Case in point, X10, Google, Microsoft, and many other companies are currently looking into home automation and controlling the home's electrical system via the computer. So, what happens the next time there's a runaway MS worm, but instead of just sending spam it gives control of the home automation system to the attacker? Simply by turning the power off in enough houses in an area, an attacker could actually cause physical damage to the power plant.

That's why we can't just dismiss the problem as "unhook the power plants from the internet." In a world that's increasingly hooked to the internet, we can't afford to overlook how the internet-connected components can possibly have an effect on the non-connected components.

This is possibly the most dangerous attitude for people to have. The 'magic' of data mining is that it relies on probabilities that are learned from populations as a whole. Knowing how millions of people who do have cellphones behave can, and will, give data miners valuable (or dangerous...) insight about how people in general will behave. Don't think for a second that, because you personally do not have a cell phone, you don't stand to lose some privacy with the rest of us.

Uhh.. perhaps you'd call those people 'Jews'?

The thing that floored me (and was an iconic example of Ubuntu being willing to 'play nice' when Windows doesn't) is that if you install Ubuntu onto a computer with a pre-existing Windows install then Ubuntu will offer to move your personal files over to the Ubuntu install. Compare that to the fact that even booting from the Windows install CD will cause a Linux system to fail to boot (it wipes out the MBR and kills Grub) and it's a testament to the Linux mindset...

I too would be skeptical of any scientist claiming that climate change is going to cause the end of the world. However, the fact that the planet still exists will be of little comfort to the human beings who can no longer easily live in the climate there...