Lead me, Herdmaster!

[rolls over onto his back]

I see what you're trying to accomplish here but I think you fail to understand that by picking such an inflammatory comparison, you're likely to lose your audience and leave your attempted point lost in the negative response and bad connotations.

(I find it important to state at this point that I am not addressing whether I agree with the point or the approach)

That being the case, I would have to call this whole approach flamebait, whether or not you are doing it intentionally.

I believe the interesting part of that article was this:

Space Travel, though it made a very attractive game, served mainly as an introduction to the clumsy technology of preparing programs for the PDP-7. Soon Thompson began implementing the paper file system (perhaps `chalk file system' would be more accurate) that had been designed earlier. A file system without a way to exercise it is a sterile proposition, so he proceeded to flesh it out with the other requirements for a working operating system, in particular the notion of processes. Then came a small set of user-level utilities: the means to copy, print, delete, and edit files, and of course a simple command interpreter (shell). Up to this time all the programs were written using GECOS and files were transferred to the PDP-7 on paper tape; but once an assembler was completed the system was able to support itself. Although it was not until well into 1970 that Brian Kernighan suggested the name `Unix,' in a somewhat treacherous pun on `Multics,' the operating system we know today was born.

...this came after descriptions of how the original authors tried to get permission from Bell Labs to construct this thing. Instead, they built it on discarded hardware. This origin was not exactly company sanctioned.

...

begins crying because you are so...damn...right

I have to agree with arth1. I had a very similar experience with the ball-playing, PE type activities. I wish I could have those hours back to work on the 2 things I love: Bicycling and System Administration/Amateur Programming.

In response to your question about fitness levels, there are loads of physical activities that don't require one to submit to the hierarchy of the Jock-enabled elite and get your ass pounded by bullies. Even after having destroyed my right knee, I still came back to bicycling because it provides much needed exercise, convenient transportation, a decompression break between my work and home lives and, finally, a physical activity I can perform while thinking. Overall, for being in my mid 30's and a domestic and generally sedentary person, I'm in damn good shape.

Powered Over Ethernet? I don't see how that is relevant.

If I had control of this, I'd make a convenient script that gets run at some interval. It doesn't take much to provide someone with a quick-and-dirty script with a desktop icon.

In the case of rsync.net, the message is also signed. I have to assume the key is password protected so the script would include a prompt to enter the password, as well.

With X-Forwarding, SSH and other tools, having the interface to the switch be remote isn't even that difficult anymore. Hell, if the person responsible isn't the least bit tech savvy, you don't even have to rely on the CLI -- PyQT4 can create the UI. I'm sure there are other tools that are cross platform for performing these actions.

I know my reason for being interested in this kind of flag is that the current use of power looks more like abuse of power and until I feel that it is reigned in to a level I'm comfortable with, I want to undermine the (ab)use of that power.

I would rather err on the side of never penalizing the innocent rather than err on the side of always penalizing the guilty if it means that the innocent may be swept up in the dragnet.

Yes it would, as the Python interpreter is open source: Python License & History

Dear girlintraining: You made my day. Love, lightBearer.

Wrong. On an individual scale, it's called "stalking". On a grand scale, it's called surveillance.

In thinking about this, I believe that both should apply here, both rein and reign. Seriously, I'd rather the American people rule OVER the NSA than the other way around, wouldn't you?

Because you made me curious...

What3Words: NSA

Whoosh!

It's only murder if it doesn't look self-inflicted.