BASIC on a Sinclair ZX81, followed by Z80, 6502 on a Commodore 16 (they were cheap), then 68000 on an Amiga. From there it was C/C++, Perl, Java, Javascript, Python, C#, bunch-of-other-stuff. Best days? 68000 assembly on the Amiga - translating C into assembler as the C compiler was too darn expensive.

Yep, there's a whole lot of backyard bias here.

I wouldn't say I'm a huge gaming fan, but I've played Halo. Wasn't the flaw with Cortana that she/it would degrade over time and eventually go mad? If so, good choice Microsoft. Good choice.

... or is someone reading too much Mark Russinovich?

It's maybe complicated unless forensics are capturing a memory image... which they should be these days.

It's because it's being used in the context of a simple XOR-based encryption scheme -- very common in malware, actually.

Same here... replaced all my home Solaris gear with NetBSD on the same hardware. Runs like a champ!