Guy I know is a builder. Has a closet on the top floor of his house that opens into a crawlway [lighted with LED lamps] leading to each room on the top floor. There are 2 large pieces of PVC pipe with wiring running in and out. One is to the 1st floor room below and the other is to the 2d story room beneath. There is a set of 2 larger PVC pipes that lead to the basement and electrical switching and panels. He has a strand of fish tape [http://www.harborfreight.com/50-ft-fish-tape-38156.html] in each to facilitate pulling wires.

He said it doubled the cost of wiring the house, but it has future proofed any wiring or room access needs.

He is a guy with a lot of money and WAY too much time on his hands, but I thought it was cool. He shows it off at cocktail parties. 7,000 sq. ft. house, sold it for 4 times the cost to build it 6 years earlier.

I have 2 strands of Cat-5e into every room [I use one for 2 telephone lines], a strand of coax and 4 "2-gang" electrical sockets in each room, one on each wall. Try to put the RJ-45, RJ-15 and coax away from the wall with the window or heater. Most likely not where you will put the TV or computer.

Tell the electrician you want each strand to be an "end run" with no splices. Have them all terminate in a room ["the nerve center"] that is not the boiler room nor contains electrical panels, but preferably where your telephone, fiber and cable come into the house. My good friend was the electrician and cut me a real deal.

Label each of the strands coming into the nerve center and your patch panel and then use a gigabit switch and/or wireless throughout.

Cost me a fortune 15 years ago. Still works great. With wireless phones, cell phones and wi/fi, none of it was so vital.

Someone wrote with the idea for conduit between rooms in the walls for future wiring. I like it. Aircraft carriers are built that way.

One non-automation note: radiant floor heat. Best investment in the house I ever made.

I've fallen, and I can't get up! [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQlpDiXPZHQ ]

Boy, I'm old.

This is the equivalent of certain other counties in State courts where class actions were being filed, courts that were VERY friendly to the plaintiff's bar.

CAFA [the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, 28 U.S.C. ss 1332(d), 1453, and 1711–1715] stopped hometown litigation. It brought any action under FRCP 23 [Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (deals with class actions)] into federal court and brought a level playing field to the area of the law.

Since there is so much money involved in patents, having a separate court system [like the bankruptcy court] might make that area of the law more fair.

But where's the incentive for the creative mind to write the software, bring it to market, support it, etc.? It looks like pretty hard work that isn't certain to pay off.

I understand free as in speech and free as in beer, but there is no free as in groceries. Even coders need to pay rent.

If you want to make the life of the patent shorter or non-renewable, with the goal to not stifle innovation on top of older patents, maybe. But everyone should have a shot at the brass ring.

The generic is Modafinil (http://www.provigil.com/) Not a stimulant but "an aid to wakefulness." If you have a sleep disorder, get the usual sleep apnea, CPAP and the rest, but Provigil works wonders, YMMV.

Good luck with school.

70 million names, addresses, emails, and other personal information data sets we're also stolen.

I'm not sure, but I don't think black boxes at credit card terminals would have solved that problem.

I think Target was data mining, and their database got hacked.

Under various state laws, companies that hold personal private information have a responsibility to notify people when that information is no longer in their control.

Some are statutory periods of time, like 60 days. Others are more nebulous. ("As soon as possible reasonably practicable.")

The longer they wait to report, the more liable to make themselves under the laws.

Fresh fruit? That's some pretty fucking expensive bananas.

How much to put a piece of fruit into orbit?

I mean, I could wait a month to have an apple if I was an astronaut.

That's cause they shopped online. They NEVER deliver by the Christmas deadline when you shop online.

Is this why my lights are off? Got an email that said unless I forked over some serious Bitcoin, my X10 system would be hacked.

That and the coffee maker won't turn on, the lights are out and the TV ... damn, just a blown fuse.

Never mind.

That's pretty funny. I really have to read the subtitles under the subject lines on \.

High-sterical. Literal LOL.

You may well be correct and I should not have conjectured. Truly, I have never run Hadoop or any relational data set of any size. Maybe it's something that wouldn't make a dent in bandwidth or come up on some sys admin's radar.

It is indeed more the question that the data wasn't properly secured that allowed for the loss.

That's a lot of data, though....

Web site overdue for an update? Guilty. On my to do list for years [and probably years from now].

Krebs On Security [http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/12/sources-target-investigating-data-breach/] says Target was informed of the breach by Visa and Master Card. Target wouldn't have caught it as soon as they did unless they were told.

Negligent? Er, uh, yup.

But banks and credit card companies don't sue vendors, their customers. If they did, they would lose customers. Thus, they eat the losses.

It's the person who just got $900 from their debit card spent fraudulently online that spends hours upon hours plugging the holes and righting the wrongs.

[See? Lousy HTML skills. Sorry.]