So firstly, by tying the hot wire first does that mean there's no return path/path to ground, so any current flow could go anywhere, particularly through the person who's plugging in some equipment?

And does the second part mean not assuming that neutral/ground wires are labeled correctly? And if it is wrong and you connect it anyway what happens?

This is currently modded funny, but that might actually work. Even if it's just an interim step to generate a little income.

I wonder if flying the probe between Jupiter and Io would be enough to sterilize the probe? Of course, the radiation and magnetic field might be enough to ruin the probe as well...

Even better, make them self assemble from raw materials found in the Solar System.

This is not the first time they've done stuff like this.

If you update your JDK using Software Update, it overwrites all previous versions and turns them into symbolic links to the current version. You then receive an unpleasant surprise when software which relies on a particular JDK breaks for no apparent reason.

The problem is not the changes themselves, but just unilaterally making these decisions and then not telling anyone. If I was working in an enterprise environment and this happened, I too would be incandescent with rage.

It will be 2 million people needing food, shelter, and likely medical attention. In one place, at the same time. I'd expect that it would test the logistics of any well organised country.

First Stromlo, now Coonabarabran.

Coonabarabran is a nice little town for active geeks - great hiking during the day, actual starlight at night. I can't wait to visit in the Wintertime.

Seriously, what is it about the Attorney General's department that turns ordinary politicians into authoritarian arseholes?

Interestingly enough, this exact state of affairs was predicted by Cliff in "Silicon Snake Oil", having seen the same thing happen with CB, and in Usenet and the fledging web.

His previous book lamented the sad state of computer security at the time, and if anything it's gotten worse.

It's a sort of threat, you see.

This objection makes no sense. Why would someone in South Africa be privy to this conversation anyway? What you label a specific instant in time does not change the underlying instant, merely how people feel about it.

In your example above, in either time scheme, without knowing My Busy's locale, the South African has no way of knowing how late the dinner was (relative to Mr Busy's normal dinner time). But in Zulu time, the South African knows precisely when dinner was eventually eaten (13:00 Zulu).

Your user exceeded his quota today. No more light cycling until the account is back within limits.

Good Horse.

(I don't claim credit for this; It's just such a useful retort to the whole "language evolves" excuse for poor spelling and grammar.)