Hmm I suggest the following starting point for an introduction to DDoS and even possible solutions. You should also know that the Microsoft network access was also impacted as well so it was not just Sony.

Wow the troll is strong with this one. I wonder if he (could be a she but I doubt it) has a PS3 or PS4? I do agree with "This is the same idiocy that made paying to receive a phone call a marketable thing" although thankfully I live in a country were this is not allowed.

I never had any problems playing single player games as well and there is usually allot more of them than on-line or on-line only games. Of course playing games like Demon's Souls or Dark Souls with an unpredictable network is actually quite good for the beginner since it means you have a smaller chance of getting invaded although you probably won't get much help either. Still those games I have mentioned are fully playable unlike on-line only games.

For people who only like on-line only games (PC or console) you always have to put up with what can be an unpredictable internet and the possibly of server outage.

You are right someone has to pay but why should a person who gets unsolicited SMS's or phone calls have to pay?

I can understand and accept a "call collect" option but paying for receiving unsolicited SMS and phone calls is IMHO open to abuse by those sending said messages/calls to you.

You are quite correct with regard to send and receive traffic however that is not the issue here if someone sends me an SMS unsolicited or otherwise why should I have pay for it?

Please explain to me how paying to receive a call makes sense unless you are given a "call collect" option?

The article would be a less onerous read if the web designer had a basic understanding of typesetting. I will give him a hint.

1. Use a serif font. Sans serif fonts are ok for captions not sentences.
2. Make your writing black on white since it's easier to read. Not grey on white
3. Have white space margins to the left and right of your web page. Again easier to read.
4. The PDF and Digital copies are ok but a little thought could make them much more readable. As an example do one column or if you really need columns then two. Having three columns smacks of trying to be "arty" or "newspaperish" and not in a good way.

To me it appears that the writer has gone out of his way to make the article difficult to read. However I do find the article an interesting read.

Ah you mean the 2^31 problem. Well in-case you have not noticed we do have 64 bit systems now so maybe in about 300 million years from now we may have another problem although I would assume by then we will have at the very least 128 bit machines and by the time we have a 2^127 problem our sun will be a while dwarf.

Well actually there is. It's called a non-online game and they have been around since the advent of computer/console games and there are more of them than on-line games.

Actually some on-line games may not require Microsoft or Sony systems however you are still dependent on your ISP and the site(s) that host the particular on-line game you want to play.

Actually you can add the USA to that list as well since around 65% of ISP's (a quick search will confirm this) do have caps or the service is expensive. Actually in Australia you can get unlimited bandwidth relatively cheaply however unless you are close to the exchange then it won't do you much good since the speed of the network is allot slower than broadband and fibre.

Of course the bottom line is how much do you pay for the service and what does that service provide? A bit like all ISP's throughout the world.

IMHO what a waste but after-all it is his money. I can understand one bathroom per bedroom (aka en-suite) and possibly one or two bathrooms for guest access although even that is excessive. Still saying that he could save lives with his money is stupid since that could be applied to people just above the poverty line or even wealthy nations.

Ah the life-styles of the rich and famous. :)

My son got caught with the front wheel of my car just over the first white line (he was breaking at the time) the second picture showed the front wheels just over the second white line and he had stopped. The traffic lights where actually green although there was a red right hand turn arrow and he was not turning right. From the pictures it was a rather confusing intersection and what I can gather is he should have cleared the intersection before he could have his picture taken.

Unfortunately for him he will have to take this matter to court or face a $400 fine and three points off his license.

So I fully agree with you and the Governments counter to all this is "Think of the children" or some such trivial excuse. As for the "Children" we have school zones which require motorists to travel at 40 kph which is fine if you know when school times are active but up until a few years ago there were no flashing lights which basically meant you could be travelling in an 80 kph zone and be booked for exceeding 30 kph which in Australia you could loose your license and have to pay a fairly steep fine. Thankfully we now have school zone lights but this was only after lobby groups pushed for them.

You have heard of the Feudal System ? Well think of an extreme version of one and North Korea comes to mind. Basically in systems like this the Peasants always are the ones who suffer, the nobles or those further up the pyramid suffer the least, in fact they can live quite comfortably providing they don't question their supreme ruler.

These highly educated elites that are trained in IT and cyber warfare are capable of instigating cyber attacks and providing they tow the party line and basically worship their leader they will live very comfortably even if most of the population starves.

Lets be honest here who really needed that feature? Sure it was nice if you wanted to say I have got Linux running on my PS3 but there were much better machines you could run Linux on that would work better.

I actually do have a FAT PS3 (still working) and even though I do like Linux and am writing this in Google Chrome running under Fedora 21 to put Linux on my PS3 was the last thing I was interested in doing, hence I was not worried abut removing the feature. In case you are wondering the "Other OS" feature was the only thing Sony actually removed via a software update. All other features such as PS2 backwards compatibility still work on the early release machines. In fact if you care to investigate the PS2 backwards compatibility was not made available in later release machines which were cheaper, but all PS3 will still play PS1 games.

BTW You did not need to remove the Other OS feature if you did not want to but you could not connect to the Sony network until you did. You could still play all your games although you would run into trouble getting network access for updates if any were needed.

Most RPG's do allow you to be male or female. black or white and pretty much any colour you want, not only that but you can be non-human as well which makes for interesting talk from some of the NPC's you come across as you either help or slaughter them. In Skyrim as an example you can do this.

In games like the "Souls" series you can help, hinder or fight players without any regard to their colour, race or sex.

In Sydney it has become a media circus since the start of the siege. Just that alone has pandered to the terrorist(s). It must be very frustrating for the police.