Well, typically, you start by grabbing the file by its strings, give 'em a twist and get it on its back. Then you lift the tail[*] such that all the loose bits run off onto the floor as you make your first pass. Some prefer Occam's Razor when shearing data, but I find Hanlon's Razor works, too.

-----------
[*] I find that tail -n 100 is enough to get a decent grip, but it really depends on the size of the RAM....

I remember back in 2008, when the Debian OpenSSL package was found to have a gaping hole in it. I was fascinated at the fact that it had been able to lie their, dormant, until it was discovered and immediately fixed. By rights, the damage should have been widespread.

Back then, I wrote:

So, perversely, yeah: The fact that the GnuTLS hole remained unnoticed for yonks is -weirdly- an argument for using open source libraries. Notwithstanding the fact that the vulnerability remained unpatched for years, it appears to have remained pretty much unexploited for the same period of time.

When processes are perceived to be robust, by black hat and white hat alike, then the mere presence of trust in the system makes them more trust-able. (I won't say trustworthy, because hindsight shows us that they're not.)

What are they going to do, delete Eric Holder's account?

-jcr

I don't think anyone was expecting the iPhone to be the staggering sensation it became.

I was wildly optimistic: I expected to see the iPhone get 25% of the smartphone market within five years. ;-)

-jcr

Yeah, first thing I thought was chats like this:

SPARTACUS19982: YO!

SPARTACUS4x9: 'Sup?

SPARTACUS12: U rite?

SPARTACUS19982: Wait, who said that?

SPARTACUS4x9: Said what?

SPARTACUS12: What?

SPARTACUS19982: That!

SPARTACUS12: What?

SPARTACUS19982: Yeah, what!

SPARTACUS12: Wait - which what?

SPARTACUS4x9: Dude, being Spartacus is starting to suck, ya know..?

SPARTACUS4x9: I mean, I don't even know who I am any more...

SPARTACUS@X0®: DISREGARD THAT I SUCK C0CKS!!!!

Just because occupations have popped up to replace these lost jobs in the past doesn't mean that they will in the future.

Any job that can be done by a machine should be done by a machine. The upshot of labor-saving technology is lower costs of whatever goods or services are produced.

I see no reason to eschew technology because of your fear of your impending incompetence.

-jcr

and what about the welfare for the people automated out of there jobs?

In 1900, about 80% of the people in the USA worked on farms. Today, it's more like 4% or less. They found other work.

-jcr

As an American with some familiarity with history, it doesn't surprise me at all. Rulers and would-be rulers have always held the people in contempt, and you can see plenty of examples of it all around you there in Europe under the Fourth Reich.

-jcr

What the court did, was provide a pretext for the government to pretend that the fourth amendment doesn't say what it says. A right remains a right, even when it is violated.

-jcr

Krugman actually doesn't prove himself wrong at "every opportunity",

He called for a housing bubble as a remedy for the dot com bubble. He said that the internet would have no more impact than the fax machine. I could go on, but the point is proven.

Your top "thinkers" maintain that it is foolish to pay attention to mere evidence

Evidence abounds to support free markets. If you're too stupid to see it, that's your own problem.

a former libertarian

Bullshit. You were never a libertarian.

-jcr

NYC public transit is the one thing most New Yorkers have in common and it makes for better citizens here.

My first impression was that you are an idiot, but I see now that you're actually a brilliant satirist. Well done!

-jcr

Apparatchik from a tax-dependent transit agency is bad-mouthing private alternatives. HIs approval is neither sought nor required.

-jcr

I sympathise, but as an old Canadian geezer, I always felt that by the time the US audience finally heard about them, the SCTV alumni had already done their best work. That troupe - and their cheezy, low-budget show - formed my sense of humour more than anything else. Dave Thomas, Harold Ramis, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara... all of them went on to make memorable comedy in the US. I think Joe Flaherty was the only one who didn't make a big splash. (Which is America's loss, not his.)

But there was a time when all of them were callow, reckless youths with nothing to lose by making asses of themselves week after week on a second-rate Toronto-based network that was so small (it had only 13 stations at the start) it too had nothing to lose.

Back in junior high school, my week was centred around that blessed moment when the Indian-head test pattern would appear and the announcer would say, 'Don't touch that dial. Don't touch that one either. And stop touching yourself.' I still remember the intonation....

(... I never did stop touching myself, but that's another story.)

Helping us understand, even from beyond the grave: Moe Green: So you're dead; now what?

The guy had so much class, he could even use a semicolon and still be funny.

Nobody said it was. The issue here is that Comcast subscribers are not getting what they paid for, unless NetFlix pays again for the bandwidth. This is bandwidth for which NetFlix has already paid, and for which Comcast has already been paid by its customers.

You're dead wrong on this count. Comcast is arguing (speciously) that traffic to and from a particular destination doesn't deserve the same service as traffic to and from other destinations - unless the destination pays an additional toll. The fact that this is a popular destination is only relevant inasmuch as this increases Comcast's ability to extort payment for something which has already been paid for.

This is straight-up anti-competitive behaviour. If the US telecommunications regulatory environment made any sense at all, Comcast would be slapped down hard for doing this.