If hackers have our credit cards then we need to tell our banks to give us a new card and different number. Either that or monitor the card with email alerts and report it to the bank to dismiss the charges the hackers made and get a new card.

This has happened to me before many times. Web site or network I join gets broken into. Then later my real name, address, phone number, credit cards, and other things gets posted on the Internet with a hacker using my info to buy stuff and fake untrue profiles of me including pictures of me they also stole. I reported Otto the police and FBI but they could not do anything, but the banks can issue new credit cards and the web site with a fake profile of me either deletes it or refuses to delete it based on the terms of service. So some fake profiles I could not get deleted but most I could.

Not knowing who they are, I cannot even file a report on them until I find their real names and addresses to get a search warrant. So the untrue stuff about me and others are in search engines been that way since 1999 as far as I can remember. If they are outside the USA well nothing else to do.

Oh well I guess I got some sort of clones, evil twins, impostors, and the like out there using my name and nothing I can do about. If I try to make it an issue the whole thing would be the stristan effect (sorry unable to spell her name correctly as I am tired and stressed out right now) and it gives those accounts more attention and popularity. Best to ignore it and eventually they will move on to something else. PSN is back up hope it stays up.

ID Theft? Even if a social network or other user steals it, or has legal access to it? Can EULA violate the US Constituion and International laws? If so can the EULA be struck down?

              In these days of changing laws, and changing terms of service that even some of the best lawyers cannot figure out, one cannot always keep their identity safe or prevent it from being stolen.

              Anyone can search for someone on the Internet by name, email address, city, state, zip code, or search public databases. Then they copy the profile picture, create a new profile, pretend to be that person and be an Internet squatter to make a fake profile, web site, and so on of that person. If you keep a watch on Wiki pages you will see the "X is gay" and so on remarks people make and even worse than that. As I edited many Wiki sites I would help out the Wiki by reverting the obvious libel and insults made about people not notable so that these things cannot be seen and ruin the article and person it was written about. If fact back in the BBS days of Fidonet and others, we had to use real names and filter out the profanity and libel about others before it was sent out to the network.

              Today freedom of speech trumps libel laws, as many write untrue statements or create fake profiles on others. I had investigated this for the past decade or two, trying to learn what motivates a person to do such things. Even back in the BBS days people had their identity stolen as a simple OS control characters are used as file names or in a game or chained program to the main BBS, making the BBS drop to a command prompt or do things. Lucky for me I had friends write the mods for the BBSes I was on as a COSYSOP or SYSOP but still some got through.

              Facebook, Twitter, words (or number of characters typed) are too short and people easily make mistakes without knowing that they did until later. Better off not saying anything at all, I tend to think.

Star Trek TOS didn't do too well until it ran as re-runs on other networks. Later it got more popular and man TV networks tried a Sci Fi series. This has become a trend with SpikeTV, and the like to pick up the old TV rerun shows.

              Syfy if they were smart would make a Syfy Movies channel for a premium service included with new movies and reruns of their old shows on it for the fans. Syfy Movies and maybe a Spanish version of Syfy Movies as well, then expand into International cable and satelite as translated to other languages and subtitles. Then maybe movies for the big screen to bring in more money or/and the shows that ended to be a rerun on other networks or released as DVDs, Blueray disks, Netflix/iTunes/Hulu etc video shows, and so on.

Sony once had rootkits in audio CDs, now someone gained control of the psn. Not sure who, so blame the obvious and occaRAM's razor needs sharpening. :)

            But in all seriousness my hopes and prayers go to Sony and Japan for the damage done by tsunamis and other things. This is nationwide and needs to stop these break-ins to web sites.

            Is it anonymous? I am not sure. I am not sure who or what it could be. As zombie botnets dominate the Internet it could be anyone. Even viruses we haven't detected yet or hide from scanners by infecting them. Whomever is doing this, please stop, this is not the way, the truth, and the light.

            Yes I know Slashdot, maybe some disagree maybe some agree. But whomever did it, they will be caught as evil always brags.

Divx "my little pony" video files.

The Koran in LOLCAT.

Elton John MP3 files.

How to form a terrorist network for dummies in ms word 2.0 format.

Bacon, ham, and shellfish recipes.

Nude photos of Bea Authur in Mac paint format.

The plans for a "Death Star" to be put on the Moon to hold the world ransom for one million dollars because the sharks with frigging lasers on their heads plan didn't work. :)

A true "Fisher Price" moment.:)

"Star Wreck: in the Pirkining" Russian built Star Ships with reduced warp drive abilities. :) Chernobyl tech applied to starships. ;)

          I need to say seriously That I apologize for my past, present, and future jokes. My condolences to people suffering because of these conditions and disasters that had friends or/and family members die or get cancer for these disasters.

Netscape was one company claiming antitrust against Microsoft. Anyone remember the Network Computer? Anyone, anyone, anyone? Sun, Oracle, Netscape and so on? The NC was supported to take over Microsoft's market, wasn't it?

          Netscape was not the only web browser, remember Lynx, Spyglass, Mosaic and others. It makes me conCERNed about some people who forget how the WWW (world wide web) and hypertext (Xanadu) came to be developed.

          If Microsoft gives up Internet Explorer, what are the bot nets and spammers going to do for a living? :)

      Competition is a good thing, Microsoft should understand that by now. Other web browsers like Opera, Safari, Chrome/Chromium, and others help compete instead of just Firefox and the Mozilla Foundation.

I apologize to all. Long ago we had BASIC for 8 BIT computers and each system had to modify it. BASIC was not an OS but a system language shared by many computers, designed to be easy to use (a programming language for the rest of us *grin*) and portable (if you don't mind the peeks and poke changing to convert from one system to another (3D0G *grin* 8EON for Epson printers) and hope it works.

    Apple had a BASIC standard different from IBM, Commodore, Atari and others. Apple was used because it was hackable (back then hacking was a good thing to use double high rez and other tricks of the trade), affordable, and expandable.

    Now we have Java, Python, Shockwave Flash and others. Is that enough? Not quite. If Apple wants to get back to it's roots then it needs to give the customers what they want and need. Have an ability for customers to unlock their iPhone for a small fee to change mobile companies. That would help drop these charges against Apple.

    The iPod, iPhone are small tablet computers, the iPad is a larger tablet computer.

Agreed. The iPod, iPhone, and iPad can install apps on them to purchase media. The only thing is that Apple controls the app store.

    When Microsoft faced the DOJ it had the bundled software of IE and Media Player. I believe that the same argument was made, but I could be wrong.

    Apple is a top contender for the tablet computers. Apple should know that price, legacy software, quality, marketing, promotion and other factors like word of mouth helps sell products.

    Before Microsoft became big each PC had a different operating system based on CP/M, and other systems. IBM saw the threat of Apple. IBM decided to cater to small businesses with the IBM PC to beat Apple, but Microsoft licensed DOS to other companies and alternative BIOS to IBM BIOS to run MS-DOS and later Windows to counter Apple's Macintosh.

    If Apple lawyers are smart they will reference the MS DOJ case. Basically (BASIC ally *grin*) standards sell better when OEM companies licence them.

    So the tablet standard that has the most OEMs bundle it via a license will create the next standard. Apple hasn't done that since the Mac clones. I doubt they will, but hope they might. Apple iOS is a great OS so far, however, Droid, Blackberry, Linux, Windows Smart phones are innovating to compete. But I could be wrong.

Windows is bundled with new computer systems. Most people use Windows because it came with their computer or they use Windows at school or work.

Is Windows a good OS? That depends on how one defines a good OS. Ubuntu is a good OS, but only a select few out of the masses (we computer hobbyists, geeks, nerds, gurus, the GNU dirty hippies) use it or install it for others.

Back on a related topic, Apple does not have a monopoly on music or videos. Apple has a lot of competition. For example Amazon.com MP3 and audio CD MP3 files import into the iPod and iPhone and one can synch those up.

I used to be a big critic of Apple, but now I love my iPod and buy music from iTunes, Amazon.com, audio CDs and the like.

Emperor Norton the first, of the USA and Mexico would be proud.

              Not Peter Norton, he ran out of ideas and sold his company to pay for freezing himself in suspended animation until the economy of the world got better.

              So far Peter Norton is still frozen. Needs his girlfriend to dress up as a bounty hunter, and her brother the farmboy who wants to be a pilot/Jedi to rescue him with his Wookie first mate and two (not Google) androids and his old friend who sold him out and feels sorry for that.

HaikuOS and ReactOS are great. Don't forget AROS and others as well.

Many people pirate Windows not knowing of alternatives that are free and open source. Why pirate Windows when HaikuOS and ReactOS are available? FreeDOS and Linux are great as well for free and open source alteratives.

did good enough technology get us to the Moon or win World War II? Did good enough laws and policies and economic plans get us out of The Great Depression? No and we deserve better than just good enough. The problem with the USA and products and services is the level of quality. That is why companies are bleeding money because they sell good enough products and services.

You see when you have a high level of quality you end up with fewer expenses because of the support costs of the higher quality products and services cause less troubles and thus cut support costs, warranty works, and drive more customers to your business.

Now when a company does good enough products and services, the quality is so bad that support costs rise throu8gh the roof, help desks and support desks are flooded with issues and complaints, refunds are given, warranty work goes up and products are exchanged for another, and customers go to your competitors hoping to find a better deal.

In the case of Microsoft they use vendor lock in to keep customers loyal by pre-installing the Windows OS to each OEM PC sold.

A lot of companies stuck with legacy software than is DOS based, 16 bit Windows based, or runs on Windows 2000/98/95/NT4.0 because it won't run on modern operating systems because the legacy software is of a better quality and the cost of upgrading to new hardware and a new operating system is not worth the cost.

During a good economy people usually buy superior goods that cost more and are of a better quality, but during a bad economy people settle for good enough inferior goods that barely work or work good enough but are so cheap they can easily replace it with another cheap one.

As US jobs got offshored to China, Russia, India, etc the products and services became poor quality or good enough quality. But they also got cheaper in price. So you get what you paid for. During the offshoring moves, many companies forgot to put in a decent quality control program to save on more costs.

The Internet is all about free access to information and news. The BBC, PBS, NPR, etc are all public organizations that give out free information anyway and usually funded by the government and donations.

News Media Corp is a private corporation and doesn't seem to get the free news and free information philosophy of the Internet. If they charge for access to news and information they will suffer for it. Then only the wealthy will be able to access it, and some of the wealthy will refuse to pay and go to free sources instead.

Also when a news or information source is pay only and private, it cannot be used for citations anymore as a professor cannot log on to verify the source because they cannot afford the fees to every pay source of news and information and usually require the student to use the sources that the college provides for peer reviewed news articles and papers.

Murdoch is shooting himself in the foot with such a move.