So yes, Americans are paranoid. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not after you. This wasn't a generic comment like "oh I just hate him so much I could kill him." This was very specific: day, time, place, weapon of choice, target. I'd be a little concerned too. We do this all the time. There's a threat, no one takes action, people die, people kick themselves for not heeding the warning. But kicking yourself can't undo the tragedy. Preventative action can make sure it doesn't happen. And I find most people are a little too moronic to use Facebook. I mean seriously, you post your business all over the internet. That's pretty dangerous.

Stephen Hawking is still around. In fact, he has written two children's books George's Secret Key to the Universe and George and the Cosmic Treasure Hunt. I think that's the type of things that would hook kids on science pretty young. Other than that I would say maybe Richard Dawkins if we're talking about current living scientists and to a lesser extent and on a different level (maybe controversially) Ray Kurzweil. As far as all time heroes who are still influential to this day, of course Albert Einstein, and I personally like Oppenheimer and Feynman.

Windows 7 is going to be the "reassuring" Windows. I believe this is Microsoft's business plan: release something good, hook the people. Release something crappy, the hooked people will buy it, then pay for the tons of tech support they will need. Release something good to remind the people why they got hooked in the first place. Release something crappy to make money off tech support, etc, etc, etc. I just don't think Windows users will ever catch the dragon.

That's right. IMHO, the reason some companies, such as in this case, suddenly decide to fix something after 8 months is because they are about to lose face. I think it must be a vulnerability that allows the hacker to obtain sensitive information about innocent people, as opposed to the company losing money directly. If the company was losing money, it would've been fixed 8 months ago. However, once it comes out that the company knew about it for 8 months and hasn't fixed it, the company will lose face and lose contracts because of that. That would explain the company's lackadaisical attitude in all of this. I miss the old days. This would've been posted on a BBS 7 months and 29 days ago.

I whole-heartedly agree with this. Especially when it comes to email; as we all know this is like sending a postcard. The more encrypted email out there, the less suspicious they become, seeing as how most people probably don't want their business out there anyway.

The point of Kurzweil's singularity would make sense to me. Machine upgrades in our heads. Although if William Gibson's novels are correct, we'd still be considered human at that point too. Technically, doesn't robotic prosthesis make those people who have it cyborgs?

Certain penguins and computer security should be taught in the same class.

I think a better answer to this is education. In grade school computer classes children should be learning about the dangers of the internet, not playing Oregon Trail. Computers have become such a big part of everyday life, yet parents and teachers neglect to teach kids about them. Kids have myspace accounts and buy stuff off ebay but aren't taught about privacy and security. You wouldn't send your kid to the store alone and forget to tell them not to talk to strangers, look both ways before crossing the street, and not to walk around flashing their money. The reason behind this may be that adults are just as ignorant. Which is why schools are just as much to blame. They should hire computer teachers that are a bit more than babysitters.

The robbers never would've escaped if the clerks' phasers weren't just set to stun.

I was hoping to make a big impact when I start robbing stores with my lightsaber, but it looks like some trekkies stole my thunder.

I'm not even joking, I couldn't get through the infomerical without throwing up a little in my mouth.

"It seems like a straghtforward process since the number of primes is essentially fixed." Only in the sense that infinity is a fixed number.

The economic downturn certainly won't kill open source. Like everyone else here has said, some people just don't do it for the money. If anything, I could see an economic downturn to boost open source. Supposedly more businesses are being turned on to the idea of open source, which is going to increase IT professionals' interest in it. In addition, we may see an increase in donations from businesses into open source projects.
Aside from all that, the article cites unemployment as a reason for the downturn. I could see these unemployed people spending more time on open source projects. Plus layoffs = unemployment = gov't paycheck.