You are missing the point. Being triggered by sound or light means the malware can be activate by a global hack on the world's TV stations, just like happens on bad sci-fi series.

Android devices world wide will rise up and take over when the call to arms comes over the airwaves. I'm imagining a nightmarishly robotic and shadowy figure flickering across billions of TV screens, screaming "ACTIVATE! ACTIVATE!"

At that point the malware Android army will simultaneously post inane and vague status updates onto everyone's Facebook, then self destruct. No-one will be able to reply except for users of Apple and Windows, and all Android users will wither and die alone in a desert of dis-communication.

That's the nightmare scenario the writers of this dumb study had in mind, isn't it?

The only justification I can see for hunting is that you are exhibiting a skill. You may have stacked things in your favor by using a gun rather than running up and attacking with your teeth, but there is still, I suppose, some sense of satisfaction in perfecting your shooting skills. The same satisfaction a craftsman gets in perfecting use of their tools.

But this just removes even this. There is no satisfaction to be had here. You are simply killing something.

Yes, from the prey's point of view it's an irrelevant distinction how they were killed. By a skilled marksman, or a noob with a lot of tech. But I'm thinking about the person at the trigger here. What possible satisfaction is there to be had using this device other than "Cool, I just killed something" ? Is that really the kind of gratification this is marketed at?

That doesn't negate its use for hunting for food, or even military or criminal use, where the whole purpose is to kill. But most hunters who are ever likely to afford this kit are not hunting for food. It's a leisure pursuit and that's just sick.

There are also issues that arise when using small screens. Some developers assume your screen will be of a certain dimension, and therefore do not add scroll bars to their windows. You need to tab through the window as there is no other way to get to the items off screen. If they haven't implemented tabbing correctly then you're at an impasse.

But seriously, this is trivial detail in comparison to the core fact; iTunes on Windows is total crap, always has been. The fact that it installs needless CPU hogging services should come as no surprise to anyone. It's one of those applications that installs with the self-important expectation that it can take over your OS for its own purposes, screw any other software you might want to use.

If I wanted to scan screens worth of colored squares to find things, I'd put everything on the desktop as an icon. I don't because there is no hierarchical structure to it.

And what would that achieve?

If she didn't read it out, it would not stop the Government setting out to do it. It would just ensure that next year one of the things on the list would be; put a stop to "Queen opens parliament" tradition.

Yeah, cos no-one else would dream of infecting the community members of Demonoid. And every single person who wandered within snatching distance of that data, as it was pushed from one backstreet ISP to another, all have impeccably highest of high morals. It must be the feds or the evil record companies. No doubt.

I don't know its name. I can't remember. I'm not even sure this program exists. I'll know it when I see/find it. All situations where this method totally fails to be any use.

No it hasn't. I have a logical mind. I like to gather related applications together in groups so I know where I'm likely to find things when I next need them. Search just bungs into a big pile that I need to know exactly what I'm looking for before I even start looking. Ordering things this way also introduces me to new stuff I see in my start menu. I am not going to search for things I don't know about and don't even know I might find useful.

Charms bar, don't make me laugh. That'll be the fugly bar that appears from the side when you position your cursor in the corner. Very intuitive. Not a charm.

Windows 8 totally hides everything from sight, with the exception of the damn metro crap, which we all know is simply there to scream "Come to our app shop and buy stuff!"

QFT.

I have no problems with passwords and encryption keys on a keyboard. But entering them on a touch screen (especially if the input is hidden) is a slow, tedious and error-strewn process.

You seem oblivious to the value of misinformation. You may be, but I doubt the FBI are.

A FBI agent may have many reasons for publicising misleading information. Some of them may even be morally justifiable. A former FBI agent with a NDA and a job/book to publicise has even more reasons. Some of them may also be morally justifiable.

You also don't seem to know how to differentiate between known secrets and unknown secrets (known knowns, and unknowns knowns, if you like). Everyone knows there is an Airforce One. Everyone knows it has a pilot. Those who do know his name are generally agreed on the reasons for keeping it secret. Those who don't know, understand why they don't.

These are totally different to secrets where it isn't publicly known there is a secret being kept, and where the reasons for keeping it are likely to be disputed.

I'm sure that will come as a great comfort to those at the business end of those couple of times.

You like having armed criminals come into your house and rob you? Then live in an armed area. Prefer they don't have to fear getting shot, and so don't arm themselves as nervy trigger happy maniacs? Then live in a disarmed area.

You seem to advocate the former where it becomes a escalation of who has the better armoury. I hope you don't have a family.

If I'm dead, why do I care?

Those who inherit from you won't ever listen to most of your music. There might be a areas where your tastes coincide, and there might be a few tracks that they particularly remember you by. But if they cared enough about they music they'd already have a copy (legally or otherwise). If they cared enough about remembering you they'd go purchase a copy.

And failing that, who's going to stop you taking a copy off your Mom's iPod after the funeral? We don't (yet) have trojans that wipe devices when the user dies.

Thanks. I'm guessing the blog has a few allegations that The Register weren't prepared to repeat for legal reasons.

Usual rule applies; be wary of assigning to conspiracy that which could be simple incompetence.

" keeping the guns in the hands of only the police, army, and the criminals well-connected enough to access a shadowy underworld of illegal imports and stolen guns."

Why would anyone else need or want one? Apart from the psychos and criminals not well-connected enough? This is not a "gun-hobby" item. Not even the most fanatic of gun owners has any use for a gun that lasts just a couple of firings. This is either the ultimate disposable crime tool, or a poor and unreliable gun for people that regulations have already decided (usually for good reason) are not to be trusted with a gun.

"and download a model file."

Possession of which can just as easily be made illegal without the proper permit. It is possible to make owning a collection of computer bits arranged in a particular way illegal. We have laws like this already.

Well that's kind of the point. If they were obvious fakes he maybe wouldn't be so concerned. If you want to pose as someone else in facebook and lace it with false statements, you don't go full out and put a stupid profile photo up and lead with the description "i am a moron".