I'm the same. The excitement is gone, just more shiney and bling. I changed to Eve Online. At least there's the excitement of losing a ship to some random PvPer.

Well here in the antipodes, our ping times just suck. Lag is ever present.

On the plus side, once you ignore the crocks, stingers, spiders, snakes and sharks, Australia's a great place to live.

I'm constantly getting this effect at work now. My current manager (who has no technology background or experience) is always challenging my 25+ years experience. I've already felt the pain of optimistic estimates and now include everything, requirements, documentation, design, code, integration, test, more documentation, installation, commissioning and support in an estimate.

He comes out with the following gems:

- "I believe your estimates are too high"

- "I've already committed to a delivery schedule with the CEO and Engineering Manager"

- "Well, we'll just have to challenge your assumption"

- "We'll just have to find ways to work smarter"

- "We'll just need to work extra hours then"

- "You're not showing enough committment", when asked to work on the weekend and holidays. This despite being with the same company for my entire working life

It's like I'm in a Dilbert nightmare now.

From the article.

"The good news is that Shodan is almost exclusively used for good. ... Penetration testers, security professionals, academic researchers and law enforcement agencies are the primary users of Shodan. "

Like Law Enforcement can be considered to only use this for good. And whose law enforcement...(USoA, China, UK, France, ....)? Will they follow due process and obtain warrants, where necessary. I think not.

Where do you get your ideas that blowing up a giant rock is a good idea. I'm talking giant, because the smaller ones, while being a problem for whoever's head they land on, don't pose an Extinction Level Event.

If you blow up a big rock, you will end up with a lot of smaller rocks that will still have the same basic trajectory. So we pretty much guarantee that there will be lots of medium to largish impacts and a shitload of smaller ones. These will be spread all over the earth.

Incorrect conclusion there. Size is not the sole determining factor. Pluto was demoted (for want of a better word), because it had not cleared out it's orbit of of other significant bodies. Ie. there's a shit-load of stuff that shares the same orbit as Pluto and some of that stuff is larger than Pluto.

You guys don't know what you're missing. I love Tea'n'crumpet in the morning.

Ha! And I come from a county where only two states are smaller than Texas.

In a lot of Asian cities now, they have LED countdown times for the intersections.

Red Timer, means that's how long you will have a red light

Green Timer, means how long you've got to go, handy if you're a fair few cars back

Amber Timer, means the light's are about to go red, so prepare to stop. If you are in the intersection when the red starts, you'll typically be fined.

Actually, the global corporationss want them kicked out once they learn. This then provides a low cost pool of skilled workers in the "off-shore" countries.

Why would Global-Mega-Corp inc. want those skilled workers to stay, where they'd be subject to better pay and conditions? The corporations aren't interested in helping the US/EU/AU/CA economies, they want cheap labour for the bottom line.

You are incorrect for option 1. You pay a fee to unlock, if you're still under contract. Unlocking, doesn't terminate the contract. I unlock every phone I buy, under subsidy, because I travel overseas a lot. If it wasn't unlocked, I wouldn't be able to purchase local sim cards to put in the phone.

In Australia, the carriers are obliged to provide a service to unlock your phone, regardless of how long your contract has to finish. They can charge a nominal fee, if you're still in contract. The phone's yours regardless of the subsidy. You still have the choice, under the contract, of cancelling it early and then having to pay an early termination fee.

You do realise that one two of the Australian states are actually smaller than Texas. So this backburning you speak of, while is a great idea, is quite impractical.

While we're at it. Why not base speed limits on the Momentum or Potential Energy (eg how much braking distance and potential for damage is involved), that a vehicle has, instead of one speed to rule them all. I'm pretty sick and tired of having 18+ wheeler Juggernauts sitting right up my sweet ass on the freeways and highways. The car I drive was designed to go safely at a much higher speed, in the traffic conditions.

"Papers please!"