> Politics remains the entertainment arm of the military-industrial complex. After all, people would be
> mildly non-plussed to learn that they were secretly ruled by spooks and banksters.

It is all Bread and Circuses. The whole system is really great in a way. We have a diffuse democracy at all the low levels, feeding up in a pyramid scheme to a few people at the top. The total resources of 300 million people is taxed and at the disposal of under 1000 elected people...

You almost couldn't ask for a better situation for playing global games for profit.

Oh I don't think any amount of carnage will ever be what prevents war. People have an amazing capacity to ignore it, that part is easy, there is a reason reporters became "embedded".

What I do think is that anyone capable of actually building and fielding a truely modern army in a major engagement capacity is capable of doing the math and realizing what a stupid idea it is for him. I also think those same people can do the math and realize how insanely profitable the status quo is for everyone involved on a broad range of issues.

I honestly don't think a real "organized" war of that kind is likely to ever happen again. We have long since passed the point where the major actors are just too big and powerful to risk war with eachother, so they engage in little more than proxy wars against eachother's minor interests.

Even that doesn't really seem to describe the present day since the major powers major interests are so aligned they don't even proxy war with eachother so much as with the fallout from the decades worth of mess they made with their proxy wars.

Maybe some small time actors will have "real wars" with each other, or maybe we will have one against a small time actor, but, I suspect anything even as large as a US/Iran war is all but impossible at this point.

That's not the new Microsoft, that's the Microsoft of the last decade.

Also consider that in most markets, Windows Phone is closer in phone marketshare to iOS than iOS is to Android. That's not saying a lot. But WP is definitely at the #3 spot, and the way this market is... if they can find that itch to scratch, things could change within the course of two or three years.

Which is like bragging about Pluto because it's closer to the Sun than to Proxima Centauri.

Third place in the mobile market is a dubious distinction, at best. In reality, Windows phones are irrelevant, but only slightly less irrelevant than, say, BlackBerry.

In general nothing. However, in this particular case the implications are amusing.

Note he very specifically said:

Now, it is true that some of my reporting has been based on hacked cybercrime forums and hacked cybercriminals, but I can't recall an instance wherein I was the one responsible for the hacking

Now..... I would believe a hacker who was breaking into forums and stealing data might forget who he hacked and when. Similarly, if Magic Johnson told me "I don't recall sleeping with that woman", I might believe he doesn't remember THAT woman.

However the thing I have trouble with is the idea of seeing that line between investigating and actively attacking a host. You know, that line where the port scans end and the nop slides begin.....its a pretty bright line. The only way I feel he "doesn't recall" writing about his exploits is, by having so many exploits of his own he can't recall which ones he may have written about.

Thats what I find funny.

Great answers but, when I got to this: "Now, it is true that some of my reporting has been based on hacked cybercrime forums and hacked cybercriminals, but I can't recall an instance wherein I was the one responsible for the hacking."

I couldn't help but laugh at the lack of a true denial. I have trouble imagining not being able to recall something like this. Hell, I can recall times I was tempted to put on a dark hat and attack someone's box (I was pretty sure he was the guilty party I was helping track down as a favor for someone....pro-tip: if you are going to engage in cybercrime, don't use the same screen name known to your victims to post youtube videos showing your IP address ... best part is, I didn't even know the screen name until I told them who I thought it was, and they said I just named one of their suspects)

Which is part of the point of getting more developers to move into managerial roles ;)

-Rick

I find this notion interesting.

I am a manager. I have hired people over 50. On my team right now I have 3 people within 3 years of full retirement. One of whom I hired within the last year. I also have two that are within spitting range of 50, one of who I hired less than 6 months ago.

When I'm bringing someone on board in the 40+ category with 20+ years of professional experience, I have drastically different expectations than what I'm looking for in a 24 year old kid who's on his first salary gig out of college.

I'm looking for someone who understands corporate structures, workflow analysis, generalization. I'm looking for someone who says, "When you boil this down, it's an asset management system, and I've worked with half a dozen different vendors and 4 different home grown systems that do the same thing". I want someone who can sit down with users, look at what their doing and not just imagine up a new piece of software, but understand the business process to the point where they can make truly business impacting recommendations with a realistic grasp of what it would take to accomplish. I want someone who will pull the young bucks aside and explain to them the merits of simplicity and maintainability, someone who can do code reviews without being a pretentious dick, someone who can help guide that next generation of developers into the future engineers and architects I need.

People over 50 absolutely have a place in the development arena. But if you're 50 years old and still expect to have the same responsibilities as a 24 year old kid, you will be sorely disappointed.

-Rick

Actually, I am pretty sure you are right but for the wrong reasons.

As I recall the existing protocols were basically finding and manufacturing specific phages for each case, which makes for a bit of a labor intensive protocol. There is probably room to profit off that but its going to be in running a clinical lab itself or supply of specialized equipment.

Its not about cheap, its about where the cost is and what it is on.

I AM American and live here, and I don't even care. Big deal, a bunch of aristocrats declared independance and now we have an abusive empire....swell, totally worth celebrating.

I am a non-native Australian and hence things like a 'Fair Go' http://www.theage.com.au/news/..., supporting the 'Battler' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., cause me some problem with regard to the treatment of the 'adjective' people of Australia (adjective as the Australian government refers to them via an adjective rather than the names of their appropriate nations) and just like other countries their culture and religion are somehow considered foreign to Australian religion and culture. So it is not the question of a particular cultural or religious element but how it is refereed to as not being part of that countries culture and religious elements.

You are being purposefully obtuse. They are American hence their culture and religions are also American, not my definition of what is or is not American culture, theirs. They are American hence their culture and religions as also American. It is obvious that the only American culture celebrated in America is immigrant culture and native culture is excluded from public recognition and celebration. Every time they challenge actions based upon their native culture and religion, it is emphatically rejected by the majority of Americans and the American government as not being American. Nothing to do with what I define as being elements of American but everything to do with 'ALL' immigrant nations and how native culture, religion and history are not accepted as being the countries culture, religion and history but being separate from it.

So you could demand clarification in the article and request an image of the person described be included. What you are really asking for is the exact opposite of the right to be forgotten ie the right for others to ensure the individual is accurately identified and not confused with others.

From the article the grandparent obviously did not read "Glantz showed a simple one-line Linux command and then jokingly walked away from the podium stating "That's it, thanks for coming," as the audience erupted into boisterous applause.". So in fact top notch people skills.