I'm am currently downloading using Transmission on Ubuntu with Pirate Bay as one of my trackers. It could not find any downloads on my IP. I call this site out, it can't cope with the scale of the issue to actually be doing this. Even it admits that private trackers stop it from picking you up.....

I know these aren't the cheapest, but I can backup claims of what they will do, and that they're good. Not mostly using the mesh network stuff, but they do work nicely, and the centralized key management and easy configuration is a massive advantage.

""They" is about the dumbest son of a bitch I have ever met."

""They" are". Not ""They" is"

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

And yes, I agree, 'they' often are wrong. The wallet is not just for carrying cash in, it carries your identity which many people are not about to hand over to a centralized database of iris scans, and all a credit card along with your signature or pin number is is an identity. Wallets also carry other more personal things safely - like the picture of your wife/girlfriend/child etc, your receipts and even somewhere to put your ultra high capacity super micro usb pen drive.

Magic roundabouts are great fun. Biker gangs are scared of them, and grown men fear driving through them. They make everyone think about things and not drive on autopilot. There's also one in Hemel Hempstead near me, I did it twice as a learner driver. When you have roundabouts on your test, they simply aren't a problem.

Connect to google DNS/open DNS etc and resolve domain
Connect to ISP DNS and resolve domain
Compare 2 results, if 2 do not match, flag up censorship.
Not 100% foolproof yet...but probably simple enough to create a shell script to automatically go through domains checking.
Obviously it will take time, but DNS queries are small, have lots going at a time, bit more programming and suddenly the blacklist is very secret anymore....

This isn't entirely true...BT infrastructure supports FTTC now (in some areas). BTs deal on it is capped at 300GB a month Fair usage policy, but this just throttles your upto 40Mb connection to 2Mb! The 10Mb upload is unaffected I think.

This tech is avalible to other companies via BT wholesale, and Andrews and Arnold offer it, where you simply pay for a bandwidth you use. No caps, no network management, native IPv6, you just buy as much bandwidth as you want for the month, in blocks of 100GB off peak and I think 25GB peak. Massive downloading is fine by them if you pay for what you use!

I find these useful, but for family stuff I can't recommend a simple hard drive crash enough. They will suddenly know where copies of everything important is, and it'll come down to only a few gigabytes....

This is exactly the problem: our genes are like Windows, they just keep adding stuff and patching up the old code, and never start fresh. You never know what you'll break by patching the latest issue...

Really, Sony need to admit that once again they have lost. I keys are on Freenet for anyone willing to spend the time to set it up and wade through the spam and porn (like the normal Internet, just outrageous and in your face). The info will stay there as long as my browser keeps up auto-refreshing the page as if stays in demand, it stays stored within Freenet.

Also, while Sony is out admitting they failed again in a locked down system, maybe they could inform the other major companies still doing this it's an Arms race, and it's always only a matter of time before these keys and details are leaked...

Slightly off topic, but data is easy to recover! The real problem is when old hardware is required for certain things.

For example:
My uncle works for a university in the UK. They have a ~£70K machine for chemical analysis, I forget what exactly now.
It came with a special 8bit ISA interface card, and talks to a DOS program on a nearby PC. But the PC died. Now ISA slots remained common, they thought no problem....but the software refuses to run on computers which have a processor faster than 100MHz.

This time around, we managed to find a old 486 for them, load it up with a new HDD, CD drive and floppy drive, those having had problems. When the computer fails again in 7-10 years time....will we be able to find something old enough again?

Will 2011 be the year Windows kills off OSX and Linux and Microsoft takes control of the mobile market? Oh, the 2nd prompts the original suggestion: year of mobile malware.....

I would certainly have thought that it should be a Fergni tragedy, showing how showing compassion and mercy loses you profit. Bah Humbug.

In the UK it's common to see cigarette vending machines which just state that under 18s don't use them! They're now going to be banned, the ban starts early next year.
Gambling machines are common in bars, which are mostly open to anyone over 14 years old, which also just display no under 18s signs on them.

Used to see loads of these being offered fairly cheaply a few years back. Surely there's someone still making them or 2nd hand via ebay? Then plug in an old joystick, buying one if you have to, but try looking at your local freecycle group and you can probably get a free one! Then simply plug and erm play.

Here in the UK almost all schools have multimedia projectors in all the classrooms. VCRs can be hooked up to show old tapes when needed, but mostly it's either DVD or video files, played via PC or laptop.
If thats the main use, a stack of boxes for the channels back at HQ and a streaming server. Also in most UK schools, most TVs are not connected to any aerial or cable system at all and do not get live TV!

More to the point, a stack of boxes, one per channel, each outputting an analogue feed, tuned to frequencies of your choice. I have a feeling you'll find it's how most hotels do it. It's only cheaper when number of channels is less than number of TVs you're supplying.