... you are, by and large, listening to a bunch of strident and semi-anonymous malcontents who get their kicks by harassing people on the Internet (yes, Jesse Noller HAS received death threats). Most of the people commenting on this situation have never been to PyCon, and probably wouldn't much like its open and egalitarian ethos. If, on the other hand, you want to actually see what PyCon is like then you might try, you know, actually going. Except you had better look sharp about it, because it was a sell-out this year and next year is probably only going to be in greater demand no matter what the dongleberries say. 2,500 people already know what a great conference it is.

You do realize, I suppose, that by "switching the server to single-user mode" you destroy valuable forensic data? The correct procedure in such forensic investigations is to first capture all the non-volatile data (primarily RAM-based), then to REMOVE POWER (pull the plug from a server, remove the battery from a laptop). Only that way can you avoid shut-down procedures deleting further valuable information from the disk. Then you image the disk, take the original drive as evidence and (assuming you give a shit about the continued operation of the system, which the FBI clearly don't) leave the system with the copy. This assumes, of course, that you have the legal right to sieze property. This should require a warrant, which is supposed to allow judicial supervision. Sadly the judiciary are closely aligned with law-enforcement and extremely badly informed about IT, so a warrant isn't difficult to obtain.

The point of the action wasn't necessarily to gain intelligence from a forensic analysis, but to inconvenience a perceived "enemy of the state" and serve as a warning to others who are contemplating similar activities.

OK, so you're a geek guy who never had a girlfriend? Or you only had one and you haven't broken up yet? Or you just don't like the way that kind of remark can suddenly head off towards sexism when geeks are conversing? Or did you just not think the original was very, well, original? Or maybe you just like expressing disapproval?

"""But if you look as far back as the dawn of civilization..."""

I'm still waiting for the dawn of civilization. Are we there yet?

"""I work with 4 other Perl programmers. Because we all follow a simple set of coding standards and design patterns, no one has any problems understanding anyone else's code."""

I'm a Python user myself, just because the language happens to fit better with my temperament and preconceptions, but I used Perl fairly extensively in the early days of the wild, wild web, and I do get a little tired of the users of one language knocking other languages unnecessarily.

In Iceland this week, a Python User Group member who has a large web site written in Perl asked me "Why should I rewrite my web site in Python?". I couldn't think of a single reason, as long as the site is doing what it needs to. Perl is a workhorse language, and will likely continue to be so.

I *do* think Python has advantages as a first programming language but, as Tassach observes, an experienced programmer will get the best out of whatever language they use by adopting disciplines that make up for its shortcomings. We sometimes jokingly refer to Perl as a "write-only" language, but that could also be construed as a compliment about its terseness. A good Perl programmer with a familiar toolkit at their fingertips can cut code at high speed, and the problem of understanding six months later what it does is eased by simple documentary comments.