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Based on concerns expressed here, I have investigated traffic coming across my desk directed to the www.nsa.gov IP address, and found innocent explanations for it. Are there examples anywhere of syslog records for traffic confirmed as being generated by compromised equipment?

...change the number of photons impinging on the asteroid, or increase their effect?

We have an example in the UK of a comparably embarrassing prediction. On Oct 15th, 1987, the BBC weather forecaster, Michael Fish, stated: "Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way; well, if you're watching, don't worry, there isn't..." . It is a matter of record that later that night winds of hurricane force lashed the southern UK, killing 18 people. The difference is that we didn't find Michael Fish guilty of manslaughter. We laughed at him. We laughed at him because even the worst-educated person in the UK can see that with the best will in the world, predictions (even assuming that prediction is the right word for what the geologists did) can go wrong. In whatever God-forsaken part of the world I might have imagined that this earthquake episode might have taken place, I could scarcely have imagined a Western European country. To imagine that all, or indeed any, of the deaths that occurred could be laid directly at the door of these geologists is beyond insane. It's positively Neolithic.

"Pastime with Good Company" is a lot older than 200 years. It's attributed to King Henry VIII (which could well mean that one of his court musicians n2helped" him with it).

But why are they shipping with 9.04???

And what is the root of the OP's problems? Answer: Windows. I certainly wouldn't recommend the ECDL as a qualification to be used in job-hunting. However, the syllabus does appear to address basic desktop PC security issues, so could be valuable for in-service training.

The European Computer Driving License may be helpful here. See http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=nav.5829 for a syllabus.

No, stealing is not the act of depriving someone of the thing's economic value, it is depriving someone of the thing itself. If I want to deprive someone of the economic value, I can do so, for instance, by destroying the thing: this is called "criminal damage" in the UK, and is not theft.

I find it absolutely amazing that, 17 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the word "communist" still constitutes an effective slur in arguments involving US citizens and organizations. Wake up and smell the coffee - Kerala's political leanings are not an issue here: lots of us with very un-Communist political leanings are quite in sympathy with its decision to distance itself from MS' monopolistic practices.