So, pray tell, if writing your representative is worse than useless, what's the action that would actually work?

Working to obsolete that system.

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

- R. Buckminster Fuller

Politics is an enormous opportunity cost that ought to be left to people who cannot participate in society in a more meaningful way. e.g. Libertarianism is an abject failure by every conceivable measure. Intent isn't important, it's results, and things have *not* gotten better. Yeah, 1 out of 10 battles are won, but any General can tell you how that war will go.

Right. See if it meets PCI requirements (you need to at least be able to reference them if you're in this line of work). If so, leave a note with the employer as to what might (will) happen and move on.

If every port on the VLAN is 802.1x certificate-authenticated you might not need to actually worry. Hahahaha, yeah, I'm sure it is....

- another type of Milky Way?

I build and supply retail chain management systems and part of the platform is a store management system, which communicates with POS machines (in most cases via a share). So our solution to what you are describing (a common problem with POS systems) is to put our store management system on a Linux machine that has 2 network cards in it, one is the Internet connection and the other is LAN, this Linux machine runs the store management system and it becomes local network manager and a firewall.

The POS machines are on the LAN only, no Internet connection for them, the store management system connects to the retail management system that is external to the store (controls the entire chain). This way we can avoid this huge security breach.

Well, whether this practice is common or not is probably irrelevant, it is still not a prudent thing to do.

I build and supply retail chain management software to a number of chains, there are dozens of stores that use it, we switch at least one computer in a store to a Linux machine that runs the store management software (the chain management software is a central system and it doesn't run in a store, but all stores talk to it.)

Store management system is on the Linux machine that faces the Internet, it has 2 network cards, one is the Internet and the other is LAN (the same machine controls the LAN). Since this is Linux, iptables is used to filter out any unnecessary traffic.

I think there should be some sort of packet filter on Internet facing equipment, POS or anything else.

It's the inflation in play here, just like in the economy, the units of measurement are being stretched now, so the same mass measured in different units gives a nominally different answer ;)

Edit: I ment to say their modem wasn't in bridge mode and needed to be.

So a client of mine uses Comcast Business as their ISP. I drove on-site to configure a SonicWALL. Their modem was in bridge mode with the only option of turning into "pseudo bridge mode" (something like a DMZ). Also, the modem wasn't yet provisioned for their assigned static IP pool. Only Tier 1 answers the phone. If you require Tier 2, a call-back within 24 period IS THE ONLY OPTION! And most of the Tier 1 guys don't know how to do anything other than provision modem, basic reboot troubleshooting, and scheduling a truck roll for physical coax connectivity problems. Or put it another way, I can't schedule in advance (proactively) to setup a business gateway firewall. You have to wait and be reactive, then drive X amount of mile on-site all while the customer is left offline with a business that can't function (IE losing money!!!). But it gets better; Tier 2 will configure the modem and reboot the unit without calling first. Epic fail!

Problem 1: I can't get a modem that will drop down to true bridge mode

Problem 2: Business class support is inharently reactive and not proactive with regards to scheduling downtime.

Problem 3: Tier support of all levels wildly range in competency.

Problem 4: -fill in the blank because I'm sure I missed something here-

We haven't had an election since the spying scandal broke. We haven't seen what kind of impact candidates' stances on spying will have on their electability. We also haven't seen the resolution of the EFF and ACLU lawsuits now that the leaks have provided standing.

There are four boxes to use in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Right now we're still on soap. That's what we're doing right now. Bitching about it on the internet is our duty. We'll find out how well ballot works with regards to this legislation and the 2014 and 2016 elections. Jury is just getting ramped up. Patience. The system is supposed to work slowly.

I'm pretty sure that GM, Ford, Chrysler, and all the Japanese automakers will team up for this one, simply because they're not using the same system in the JP models, doesn't mean they won't in the future.

I have no idea, so I'm totally speaking out of my ass here, but I suspect there is a reason Europe does it that way. In the US there are a few credit rating companies who have data on the entire population of the US, thus creating a de-facto system for determining credit. I'd bet dollars to donuts that Europe has a far more Balkanized collection of credit agencies.

When a group fires from the grounds of a hospital, religious building, or homes, under the geneva convention those buildings automatically become military targets. There is no ignoring the geneva convention, what you've just posted is that hamas is committing war crimes in order to try and sway opinion.

If you're asking about the Philippines, Japan and S.Korea they'd all answer with yes.

You're now welcome to live out your life being less ignorant of the world.