If there was only one program that could display object files, it could be done. But any number of programs can display object files, including plain hex editors. If every single hex editor would have been compromised, we would have noticed by now. And a compiler that can detect "oh, this code is a hex editor, I'd better patch it to make it hide the nasty stuff when it's run" is way beyond what can currently be created, certainly not running fast enough on an ordinary PC to avoid detection.

Besides, it's not the question of whether the NSA can access your files if they consider it their highest priority. The problem is that if there is an easy, low-cost way to access your files, an individual rogue agent might do it and hand your files to your competitor (a favor for a friend or for a little extra cash) without the rest of the NSA even knowing about it, or finding out only after the fact.

If an encrypted file system is mounted, the key is somewhere in memory. If it's mounted in a VM and you have access to the host machine, you can easily create a snapshot of the VM's memory. I don't think it would be all that much work for a person familiar with the internals of the OS kernel in question to figure out where the key is stored in memory. Another thing they could do with a VM snapshot is patch the authentication functions, so any login is accepted. There are countless ways of gaining entry into a system if you can freely examine and change its memory.

You assume this would be too much work, but while the research to find a successful attack is non-trivial, repeating that attack is not that difficult and could be fully automated for popular OSes.

Handing over the key to the attacker and hoping it's well hidden enough that it won't be extracted is pretty much what DRM does. And this is not even as obfuscated as the average DRM, since most operating systems are either open source or at least offer their source code for inspection.

I am curious why you would volunteer to step into the lion's den.

Now we know what Slashdot editors do all day ;)

Obviously it must be the parents' fault.

I think I would have been sleep deprived as well if I had had a portable computer or game console as a child. Without those to pass the time when I wasn't ready to sleep, I used to read books, but somehow reading a book doesn't make you less sleepy. I mean, if you're really into the story you can stay awake for just one more chapter, but it takes some effort. With computers, it's very easy to lose track of time. Maybe it's the light coming from the monitor or maybe it's the increased interaction, but there is a difference in my experience.

Let's say this medium skilled IT guy gets a €3000/month salary, that's €36,000/year. There will be other costs, but it won't come anywhere near the number you assumed. Also, dealing with malware is a standard task when managing Windows desktop PCs, no matter whether you blame it on market share or on Microsoft. So if it requires a staffing change, then they didn't have the right staff to begin with.

An admin responsible for over 100 desktops should have set up an infrastructure for re-imaging so that it doesn't take 1 day per machine. It's not exactly zero effort like the GP said: you'll still have to warn people that anything they saved on the local hard disk will be lost, for example, but the required effort is in the order of days, not months.

I wonder where that huge cost estimate came from. Did they need justification to buy the new PCs that they wanted for a while but couldn't get the budget for? Was someone really not looking forward to cleaning the PCs and therefore inflated the cost of doing so? Was it just a made-up number that no-one looked at critically? Because it sounds unlikely to me that the actual costs would be that high.

It's all rumors at this point, so we could be wrong. But the rumors are about an always-online requirement. The features you mention don't require the console to be permanently connected to the internet; they just reduce waiting time if the console can download stuff in advance overnight.

It's far more than just the "technical requirement" of having a working internet connection. What they require is that the console phones home to a Microsoft server to check if you're allowed to play the game. It means that if the server side is unavailable due to an outage, a DDoS attack or is simply turned off, you can no longer play your games. It makes the system fragile (more points of failure) and it gives Microsoft the ability to decide when the console you bought will be effectively bricked (no longer usable as a game console).

Some people may not care that they buy a console and games that will only work for 5-10 years. But personally I like the ability to replay games that I played long ago. Even though I only do that occasionally, knowing that I can is a good feeling in itself.

Depends on what you call "much power": it uses about 10W in "online" standby mode. That might not seem like a lot, but it draws that 24 hours a day, so it adds up over the years.

In addition, I prefer to do firmware updates only when I buy a new game that needs one, rather than every time a firmware is released. There have been firmware releases with serious bugs in them; why run the risk?

The numbers I found in a quick search suggest that EU-wide there is still a small population growth, but pretty close to zero. The import/export balance (PDF, see graphs on page 2) for raw and processed products combined seems to be roughly zero as well, but in terms of raw materials the EU is still net importing agricultural products. To say Europe is going to "become almost entirely dependent on the outside world" doesn't match these figures though.

You're forgetting what might be the most important step:

Set strict rules for campaign contributions, to make sure that corporate "donations" are not a deciding factor in who gets elected. Like other humans, politicians often carry out the orders from the one who pays them.

That sounds like a large earthquake would be a humanitarian disaster followed by a financial disaster. Someone will have to absorb the amount not paid out in case of a bankruptcy. Whether it's the insurance companies, the citizens of California or the government, it's going to be painful, since they will all be short in cash after a large earthquake.

The argument only works if there are enough alternatives available. For web mail, that is the case. For printers it's quite possible that all of them had closed source drivers at that time, so switching suppliers would not have helped.

From the start, GMail offered a lot of storage space in exchange for the ad bots looking at your mail to provide context sensitive ads. If people are not OK with their mail being scanned by the ad bots, why did they create a GMail account in the first place? I can imagine an outrage if the terms and conditions were changed after people signed up, but that is not the case here.

T-Mobile is part of Deutsche Telekom: Germany is where they started from.