You know what we call it when someone "eggs you on" and you assault them? Assault.
You know what we call it when someone "eggs you on" and you murder them? Murder.

Newsflash! No amount of "egging on" makes it acceptable to break the law. And if the police are doing so, they should be held to the highest standards.

Heh, that's particularly funny that you called a 'False dichotomy alert', then posted a false dichotomy.

Hackers break into websites and publicly deface them, or they grab stuff just to prove they got inside and show it around, letting people know these places are not secure. Meanwhile, in most cases the real criminals have been able to use the same security holes to steal and defraud and otherwise do damage that really affects people. The hackers are the ones we should congratulate because they bring these holes to our attention.

It's as if the shoplifters/wife beaters were POINTING OUT and giving evidence against the mafia, drug lords and crazy dictators.

I wonder how many other minor 'afflictions' from space travel are ignored/explained away that we haven't heard about for the exact same fear of being grounded...

Screenshot from the game http://steamcommunity.com/id/apc17/screenshot/540651622691231829

In the new Deus Ex game, set in 2052, as you are infiltrating a rogue Chinese company the main character discovers that the Chinese company hired a 'penetration expert' named Kevin Mitnick? The expert does not appear in the game, but you are able to read emails from 'Kevin Mitnick'. How do you feel knowing you'll be successfully hacking for pay 40 years from now? Or more seriously, how do you feel about being included in the game this way?

2) OMG! CmdrTaco is Steve Jobs!

I have a personal Kevin Bacon number of 4. I worked on a student film with a friend who later did costuming on a movie featuring Dan Aykroyd. Aykroyd was in 'Chaplin' with Laurel Whitsett, and Laurel Whitsett was in 'Super' with Kevin Bacon.

Yay! Cheap knock-off stealth choppers for everyone!!

When Egypt shut down their network to deal with protesters, the west was quick to say that's the response of a dictatorship and that it was morally wrong. Likewise when other countries shut down their social media to deal with protests.

And yet, a few rioters in London and suddenly we're more than happy to do exactly the same thing. I saw a headline where Iran was asking the UN to intercede on behalf of the UK rioters. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/10/uk-riots-iran-un-mahmoud-ahmadinejad Isn't this hilarious how we were angry at how Iran cracked down on protesters during their election, but we are more than happy to do exactly the same thing for a few looters. Ahmadinejad must be laughing like a madman.

So let me get this straight... If we remove anonymity, we potentially put the life of people fighting for freedom in Egypt, Iran, even China at risk. And what do we gain? Aww, now no one will offend your delicate sensibilities with their trash talking?

Does NOT seem like a fair trade. Toughen up, buttercup, and realize that the anonymity that's making your life a TINY bit uncomfortable is essential for the lives of others.

Because I keep getting 'identified' as female. It's really annoying when I browse a site and obviously female oriented ads keep popping up. Google identifies me as female and that made no sense to me. 95% of my browsing is to IT/Tech/Computer sites, why would that identify as female? But now I realize they must be identifying me via my gmail account and other written text. The confusion likely stems from the fact I'm an exceptionally verbose male, predisposed towards descriptive language and precise grammar. That and I've always used emoticons as part of my attempt to overcome the lack of expression available in written text.

I would bet any amount my twitter also identifies as female. My wife is likely going to find this very amusing...

I think it's pretty obvious. There's a lot of PC gamers who grew up with games very much like indie RPGs. Whereas the average console gamer grew up with twitch games. Does it really surprise anyone which platform will be superior for that genre?

NO HARM?! In case you missed the details of the original case that started the whole firestorm...
In 2002, Milly Dowler was kidnapped, then murdered later. When she went missing, News of the World hacked her phone. Seeing her voice mailbox was full, they deleted some messages (deleting potential evidence) so they could maybe get some new information. Meanwhile, the police saw that 'Milly' accessed her phone mailbox, so they downgraded her case, treating her as a low priority runaway. That meant that critical time tracking her was lost that could've got the police to her sooner and potentially saved her life.

No harm indeed...

I can answer that. The problem is the quantity of information. You crack a huge amount of email, but it takes some real 'boots on the ground' to go through it all and figure out what's signal and what's noise. And even if you do go through it all, you might not have the background knowledge to make sense of it.

So the idea then becomes to post the email and passwords and crowdsource it. Let everyone hold things up to the light and see what they can find. 90,000 emails is a lot for one person to go through, but trivial for 90,000 people to go through.

Something my grandfather knew and my great-grandfather... Many crimes are crimes of opportunity, usually linked to boredom. There have long been clear statistics that kids who play sports, play an instrument, or have dedication to a hobby are far less likely to be involved in crime. If someone is playing video games... They're not bored, and they're not out finding crimes of opportunity. Keep kids busy and they stay out of trouble.