I'm guessing part of their security comes from not being connected to the 'net. Hell, DOS and Windows 3.1 machines were some of the most secure machines in the past 25 years history of computers, assuming you secured them physically - because by and large they didn't have dedicated connections to other (external) machines. I'm guessing if you didn't plug it in to an Ethernet connection and physically secured the machine, even an unpatched XP box is pretty secure.

How about through shared interests, say a running club, hiking... basically anything but ideally something with wide general interest.

Go outside and talk to real people? Fuck that. Try Craigslist.

I answered one ad seven months ago, spent a few days establishing a rapport via email, met in person over a nice non-committal dinner, established a nice rapport in person, started dating in earnest over the last few months. We're getting engaged on Valentine's Day.

Seriously, first and only hit on Craigslist was a grand slam. It's not just for pervs and fat girls anymore.

He was referring to a few ships full of mercs under Lafayette that sailed out from France to help the American Colonies fight against the British during the American Revolutionary War. I only know about it because that's my great great great ^ (1..n) grandfather was on one of those ships, came here as one of those mercs.

France in the American Revolutionary War

It's "1337" hacker. Just sayin'.

And seriously, ... the incident cost the company between $400,000 and $1 million in salaries, consultant expenses and other costs. ???
That's got to be the craziest application of 'cop math' I've seen in a non-drug related case ever.

Silly question, but assuming that the minuscule mass of objects in low Earth orbit still contribute to the Earth's overall mass with respect to the inertia and centripetal acceleration that keeps us in orbit around the sun. If we were to start ejecting tons of crap from LEO and sending it towards the sun, however minute the volume, couldn't we potentially alter the balance slightly and possibly even impact our orbit (duration / trajectory / stability) ?

I'm guessing no, but that assumes everything in moderation.

It'd be a good place to listen to Rasta dub music, mon. Not to mention the occasional need to move stuff around Freeside.

My mod points just ran out so I will just say it - that's the most informative and insightful thing I've read all week.
As a professional software engineer with a masters degree in software engineering and twenty years of professional experience, the question literally offended me.

Quick, Easy, Make a lot of money. Pick two.

Agreed.

The sacrifices you made ten years ago, no matter how bad they sucked ... they are behind you.
The gains you made as a benefit of those sacrifices ... they are with you today, and will be with you tomorrow.

I'd rather be me now, than have been the quarterback in high school. What most people would call the greatest day of their life, I call Wednesday.

Get back to us when you kill an IBM Model M keyboard. It's like the Tonka Truck of keyboards. You hit someone with a Model M, they're going down.

Hackers write code. Professional software engineers deliver business solutions.
For the beginning professional software engineers out there, here's a tip : comment your code (and comment it correctly.)

Code tell you what.
Comments tell you why.