With all this information about "Monitoring" I know the NSA needs more people to "Monitor" the internets.

  I need to look into that USAjob.gov website and look for specifics like "Reading Slashdot, Reddit, 9gag all day long for entry level government salary" I would totally rock that in a suit and tie.

We could save so much money by cutting the Military's budget by a third. I'm not talking about the War Budget, I'm talking about the DoD budget, which a whole section of it is absolutely unaccounted for (Sept 10th 2001, Donald Rumsfield, White House Press Conference)

With recent "leaks" of 50 billion for NSA, I could easily see cutting a few billion from random "Secret" budgets would help Education, Healthcare, and NASA. Withhold payments to Government Contractors who are behind or over budget on projects would save the US a buck or two. Withhold those payments and put those payments into Escrow, which would earn interest. Banks would have more happy money in the long run. Because IF or WHEN those late contractors fullfil their obligations would Government be allowed to pay up.

  Don't they write contracts better than I do?

  My contracts state I don't get the rest of my pay unless I deliver my completed project. Down payment helps pay for the costs, and partial payments tend to go towards operating costs. Final payment is the Icing on the cake. Where as the owners of Private Corps already have plenty in the bank to fullfil thier oblgations, why is the Government required to keep paying for unfinished/shitty/halfassed projects.

  Damnit, I think i just thought about "Dave" that movie where the President is in a Coma, so the VP hires a Double to pay President until they figure shit out. But the Double is a regular "Joe", who sees the bullshit. What are they gonna to the fake President? shoot him, in public?
 

I'm waiting to see this all unfold.

  WHat is going to happen is. Pissed off IT people leaving problems for the next guy. The Next guy is from India, so getting that guy to fix it is going to be a nightmare. THEN, after months, maybe years of total upswing in costs to keep the fires at bay, the company will say they are insecure. So very insecure, that politicians will use NU to show how America needs to spend so much more money on Private utility due to insecurities. (As if they were not already saying this)

  After NU succums to failure, it will be bought and sold. We'll hear about the same problems as before, and the blame will be all about foreign cyberwar.

  I could write the book on this, but I think a Tom Clancy book has me beat.

All them Sys Admins now have a private job waiting.

Reminds me of the old " The solution to pollution is through dilution"

  mix it all up with sea water, and no one will ever notice... well maybe the three eyed fish. but those are just perks.

  I voted for Obama, because McCain was just one hardcore fuck away from a heart attack or death. GOP party picked Sarah Palin as a VP, and that cemented why I wouldn't pick McCain. From the word "lets go", McCain is a bullshitter in the public's eye. Being that I was young 18yr old when I voted for Bush Jr, his first time in office, I regret for falling into the Family Dynasty Politics. Again I was young, and I followed what was taught to me throughout Regan, Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr. When I grew up going from Middle class Family to Poverty, all because Politics, broke promises.

  So I voted for Obama, because McCain was full of shit even during Nixon days. Sarah, really? VP of the US is a Barbie Republican who barely has two brain-cells able to rub together to tell her, "being on TV is a GOOD Idea".

  Then we have Obama, and Mittins. As being a person who grew up Mormon (LDS) same as Mittins. I grew to the age of Reasoning (at 13yrs) and came to the conclusion people use Religion for personal gains, and Religion is full of bullshit too. However, Mittins was not the man Politics was playing the man to be. Even from certain realms of the Mormon church, Mormons don't like Mittins because Mittins was a silver-spoon twat. And his family history wasn't pristine, it was TOO pristine. just screaming "someone just AJAXed this profile" bullshit is somewhere.

  Anywho, Mitt Romney or Barrack Obama?

  Mitt being the Business Man of the late 20th Century, only has a history that shows he will sell out to make the top end of the dollar, while whatever is left barely gets divided up among those who got the shaft end of the deal. With a shady family history, and a business ethics/morals conflict. Mitt was not a viable candidate for Presidency. Just on obvious grounds that voting people in to Presidency is all about how we really "Perceive the Candidate", The problem with Romney is that no matter how the media portrayed him, he just had too much bullshit hanging over him. Obama, promised us change, and he took a while to accomplish some of his goals. But he showed promise, just like Clinton, things didn't REALLY start to improve until Clinton had his second term. We all knew he lied about getting blow jobs. Clinton just knew how to bullshit the public better. We now know that during Clinton times, Republicans and Democrats worked together, very well.

    Obama's problem is that now that he is in his second term, he didn't change his "charge FOR change". He has kept on trucking with the Republicans playing Politics as usual. Obama could have right from the start of his second term, told the Republican side to go fuck themselves, while he took Political charge from high up. However if you know nothing about politics, you will have to learn this; "you scratch my back, Ill scratch yours, but if I catch wind of any flack for our deals, I'll out you in a heartbeat". Obama already let the cat out of the bag for the past 5 years, I can't imagine a scenario where he can get the cat back in the bag.

  But that isn't what we see, Obama is pointless. His first term was about trying to open the door for bi-partisan negotiations. We never saw that ever happen. always some minority or majority filibuster --- WTF is this bullshit. I have heard filibusters used to stop things as long as it was a certain majority who agree, but when minor filibusters started occurring because some of those pricks in office made new rules. I don't give a flying fuck what Obama promises.

    So in essence, I voted for the better looking guy. Because all our problems stem from fuckers in the House and Senate. States that are Red states, have their own fuckers that cause their own problems because their own House and Senates are corrupt or useless. Texas, we have Lamar Smith... We also have redistricting in such manners that Lamar could never get voted out. It is shit like this that makes Politics corrupt. When the Rule Makers make rules that benefit themselves, in the short term no one cares, but in the long run the rules made the difference.

  I hate both parties. and I'm a Registered Republican, Agnostic

My question is... Do I have to keep paying my Electric bill if the power is out for nearly a year. I surely would SAVE A TON! in not paying for electricity.

Xerxes was a pushover.

    Shodan was floating around space for a long time before Xerxes was given a shinking ship. Rickenbocker... Sheeesh.. and it couldn't even FTL

I miss running around the Citadel Station. Trying to survive and destroy the mining station from destroying mankind. And they NAME this search engine Shodan? Where is Edward Diago? and can I get my military spec hardware installed if I take out the ethical constraints of Shodan. Maybe I can get her to rapidly deploy herself into every device still using default passwords.

Most people don't comprehend the difference at all.

  WAR, the last actual WAR the USA was involved in was things like the "Korean Wars" or Vetnam. However, as noted by others, these "wars" we keep claiming to have, are in fact called... Operations.

  We redifined what War is, by calling it Operations we have change the way battles are handled, We no longer send in waves after waves of soldiers to fight on a battlefield with death as a certainty. Today, we send in specialized units, platoons, or groups of equipment to get the job done in as quick of timeframe as possible.

    When we(USA) wen't back to War with Iraq during Bush Jr's term, Americans were told this would nearly be a one week War. and technically, our invasion wen't so well we actually did have Iraqi forces taken over within the first week. The second week, was finish off, and clean up the remaining hold outs. Until we found Saddam in a hole, the Operation was completed. However, following the additional 5+ years of being in Iraq, we have since had two or three Operations since.

  Do we call all of these multiple operations under the one idenifying term "War" because when you put them all together, is pretty much adds up to one?

I agree, the United States hasn't really been AT war since 1945. And people today really don't understand the details regarding such. It is just easy for the media, and for most people to just call it a war, because Terrorism is War, and War is Terrorism.

My very point of view as well.

    I ran should have the right to 'talk back' to the localized powers that be. When someone refers to Israel as a sane democratic state, the first thing that comes to mind is how Palestinians have been forcefully removed from their homes over the past 70 years. When we talk about Peace talks, Israel has always been the first party to flip the middle finger at negotiations. Then later on return to the UN tables to ask for Peace once more without any intention on following through. Bill Clinton stated it very clearly when he was President, and even recently when the subject matter came back up.

    When you have a people who are willing to go ahead and sign their land away only to be equally recognized as such by Jews. Only to be told. "fuck off", we will remove you from the OUR land. Gaza strip anyone? A bit of recent history where Jews have been actively sabotaging all efforts at doing anything fairly.

    But I digress, In regards to Iran what other nation is surrounding Iran with ever increasing military assets, and is in a continued war mongering path to enact war on a moments notice if Israel decides to fire first? .USA. The most updated military layout map I saw from CNN was a little over six months ago. American military bases surround Iran, thanks to our involvement in the Middle East. Do we see any military assets of Iran surrounding USA today? Does Iran have assets in foreign countries surrounding America with the active Political threat of attacking USA with WMDs? No and No.

  Does Iran have a nutty neighbor who violates just as much of any UN laws that are enforced/sanctioned against Iran? Yes. Does this neighbor actively garner support from its allies to "war with us if we goto war with Iran?", Yes. So I would say Iran has every right to build up its defenses when it has active aggressors who are publicly announcing they will go to war with them.

    As for Nuclear power. Why wouldn't we as a world power, allow them access to Nuclear energy when we could provide them access to those resources that wouldn't result in weapons grade materials. Why prevent a country from using cleaner energies, and rely less on foreign resources. Isn't that what the United States has been bitching about for the past 50 years? Getting away from the foreign dependency of resources.

    Iran doesn't necessarily have a unstable government. They just happen to have a government that has a higher authority of Clerics who can dictate the rules of how government acts towards its society. The government is strong in Iran. It was able to subdue the rising power of the Green Party, which was attempting to change the way the Iran government was heading. Even the United States wanted to help out in defeating the oppression Iran was having against Green Party supporters. USA couldn't intervene because of our foreign policy towards Iran. If USA were to have helped influence the Green Party in Iran, the Religious Clerics would have used that movement to give themselves more power to oppress. Instead the green part lost the elections, and the Iranian government has held steady to its power. Howe is that an unstable government?

    American's used the same excuse when we went back to Iraq to remove Saddam. "Saddam allowed Terrorists to roam his country", when in fact Saddam was a ruthless dictator who would never allow any rebel type group to succeed in Iraq, it could impose a risky behavior of rebellion. Allow a small group of rebels to use your land to fight a foreign country, and you open your country to all sorts of hell in retaliation. Saddam wasn't a dumb person.

    What we have here is a nation full of one sided story telling. If I truly wanted to visit Iran as an American, Iran would allow me to visit. If I were to go on a pilgrimage to visit holy cities located within Iran's borders I would be allowed to do so. Albeit through a few additional hoops and rings to get through customs. Americans are allowed to visit China, and Russia, and we were nearly mortal enemies with those nations during the cold war era. Why is it Iran is still such an enemy when in 1974 they used to be one of our best friends? Because America hates Muslims. that is what we are told to feel about a nation.

    I believe Pakistan hates America more... and yet USA still sends over billions in support money to a country that doesn't like us anymore because we found out Osama Bin Laden was living there for a while.

Same here,

    I've had my Sprint service back when "PCS" meant "Professional Customer Service". The Sprint/Nextel buyout, then up to recent history, the T-Mobile attempt, only to be foiled by AT&T making a slightly higher bid.

  I''ve had my phone number from sprint (never ported) for 15 years. Its funny when people ask me today whats my phone number, meanwhile most people around me change cell phone carriers including phone numbers like they do changing underwear. It just appalls me how often I have to update people's contact numbers because they changed carriers three times in one year. (Prepay made this worse)

  I can't really fault/blame Sprint for the apparent drop in speeds throughout the years. I was also one of those users who used Unlimited 3G Data-cards, then WiMax, and now kicked off of the data-card situation because Sprint no longer offers "Unlimited Data" to data devices. (I've argued with better people who were proven wrong, Sprint's Unlimited Data is strictly limited to just the handset) Otherwise, an additional fee for tethering is now the thing. (Recently with Verizon losing a Supreme Court case, Tethering can't be charged anymore. So lets wait to see the rest of the carriers debate the differences between Data use of handset versus a connected device. (Net Neutrality)

    I wasn't mad when Sprint kicked my Unlimited Data Plan (Sierra Wireless Overdrive Pro), they were literally stuck between a rock and a hard place. I had a signed contract legally binding Sprint to offer me Unlimited Data, but Sprint's systems no longer had the unlimited data-plan in billing. So I was let out of my contract, and given refunds. However as for my phones, I never renew my plan. I've been month to month for so long now Sprint has to really jump through their own mess to make exceptions for me. You see, I pay for my phones outright. I'll walk into a Sprint store, and drop $600~800 for a new Smartphone, then perform a manual upgrade, to which exceptions have to be made in billing to add $10 fee to a plan that doesn't support it. (During the time when I added WiMAX to my services we had to debate the $10 fee situation. "Was this fee actually for the Newness of the device, or was it literally a added on fee for those who have Unlimited 3G, and want 4G added to the account.")

With my previous experience, THIS is exactly what pisses me off about Government contracting.

    I applied for specific positions before whereas I was over qualified for the job listed. First interview, I nail it, with comments like, you are just too qualified for the position, however your the best candidate I've interviewed. With comments like that, I constantly fall into the trap of the followup comment. "However, government requires me to interview two other candidates for the position." This is the kicker right there. The interviewer can just say anything at this point about my qualifications and even on the basis, that I'm more qualified than the person they already have in mind. But the last comment is what gives them the escape clause of why they didn't hire me on the spot.

    I never got offended over not being the pick of a job listing, knowing the overwhelming support I received in the interview process. No what pisses me off, is finding out the person they DID hire, happens to be incompetent and lied through their teeth in order to qualfy for the postion.

    My first experience at being told the lie 'You are the best candidate I've have come across, and I definitely like you as choice..." Only to discover later on, I was passed over, was at a private company named Affiliated Computer Services. I had worked for the company as a data entry person for 12 months, during that time I also assisted the Local Administrator of the building. When the Admin was up for promotion, he gave me three months notice before the company even knew he was accepting the promotion. So I was prepared for the advancement. With two extra months of lead time, I was also able to befriend the management, and ensure I was the 'go to' guy for IT needs when the Admin wasn't around. I even saved the weekend once by stopping the MSBlaster32.worm from spreading at our building because i had read up on the issue weeks beforehand. When it happened, the Admin was away, and the building supervisor literally yanked me away from my data entry computer to see what was happening, and let me guide the process to prevent it from spreading like worm did with ALL the other ACS buildings. As in, our building was the only building of the ACS corporation, that did not go down. I received recommendations, etc for a job well done when no one else could figure out WTF happened.

  Come day of my interview, the office manager explains the promotion process, and tells me I'll be waiting for a response within 1 week of my interview. A week goes by, and I'm told of the 4 candidates, I was the promoted winner. (You'd think that would be cause for celebration), 6 weeks later I'm still waiting on HR to finalize my promotion, only to find the manager walking a 'new guy' around my server room. (Which was a BIG NO), when it comes to people who are NOT the IT Admin straff are not allowed into those rooms. Not even the manager was specifically allowed to go into the server rooms without a admin escorting. Low and behold, the reason why HR never finalized my paperwork, was because a second ACS building was being shut down. The tech they brought in to take my promoted postion was with the company for 2 more years than me.

    From that day forward it was downhill from there.

  Later on I find out, they never intended on me to become Admin, they just allowed me to fill the gap until they closed down the second ACS building then to transfer the admin (who failed at his job multiple times) to manage. I quicky left the company because of the ethical delimas. Along with 1 year later the ACS building I worked at was closed down.

    The best week ever when I heard the news.

I do nearly exactly what you recommend.

  I have VMWare workstations running RHEL, all running SMBs so files can be shared across the networks. I eventually ended up customizing my favorite VM RHEL, running rtorrent, shared the files and torrents folders over the network, and whenever I want to download anything, I save the torrent to the network folder.

basic, and I don't need no stinking features. I accidently updated my utorrent in a Win7 to utorrent 3.1.x, while I do like it, and I can configure out everything down to just basics, I still don't enjoy the idea of ads (whether related or not ads of torrents) I already filter ALL ad content from the websites I frequent. I don't need another aspect to filter.

  Thanks to suggestions above, I can downgrade.