If you set the root password to 'password' and allow root login via ssh, attackers could compromise your system.

And what if this leads to this person having to go out of business? Is it still worth boycotting BP then? If it starts to substantially negatively impact your life.

Funny story, back when I as a young-mid teen, I made a simple little phishing site aimed at habbo. Made accounts, told people to visit it. Filled rooms with furniture, used the acquired accounts to tell all their friends... I'm sure I could've worked out how much it was all worth, but who's stupid enough to spend money on virtual furniture anyway?

Are you implying I don't live at 123 Fake Street, Fakesville, Hertfordshire (this changes depending on mood)?

WPA2 with a well-chosen password (ie, not vulnerable to a dictionary attack) is more than trivial to break and so probably not worth it just for 'cred'. If someone has to get into a network like that, they're probably going to be up to something. And if someone breaks in just for cred anyway, they're not going to do any damage. So I guess you could say the *only* people that matter are people who intend to do something malicious/illegal, not the ones just looking for a challenge.

Will this be covered by our railcards?

Actually, the best way to fight piracy is to make a product pirates aren't interested in.

Yes, but if you can't communicate your results, what good are they to the rest of us?

I voted for communication because the state of science journalism compelled me to.

So it's a bad thing that people enjoy Blumps? And Peggle? These 'dumb' games? Get down off your high-horse. Mindless games are sometimes the best kind of games. One of the reasons being people like you don't appear half as often in multiplayer.

While market share might be a factor (infact almost definitely IS a factor) in the security of Windows vs OS X/Linux, IE vs Firefox, etc, it's more likely the architecture.

The architecture of Unix systems (running as root, user permissions, etc) makes/made it very hard for malware to be written for it. At least, to cause any significant damage.

Though in the case of Firefox vs IE, I'm not so sure. I know little about either browser's architecture. But it might not be just market share that's the reason for the huge number of sploits for IE as opposed to firefox.

Well sure, let's invent a product and THEN come up with ideas for how to use it. That seems like a cool idea! It worked with the Wii after all...
remind me again, what market does the iPad fill? Oh thats right, the 'I'll buy anything with an apple logo on it' market.

But we've always been at war with eurasia.

However, if you did it, you'd be able to do it privately, without all the beaurocracy that the police would likely have to go through. I bet getting an arrest warrant takes a few days. Mere speculation, though. I don't really know anything about police protocol.
but they'd have to:
1) establish that it's a threat
2) do the actual tracking down
3) get a warrant for his arrest
4) ???????????? 5) PROFIT erm, I mean LOOKING LIKE FOOLS

I think you're missing the point. If he knew this would happen, he probably wouldn't've done it at all. It was just him venting in a moment of frustration. How the police responded so quickly is beyond me, though...

It could still have a good market though. Remember those books you used to be able to get, where you could put your kid's name in it? Now imagine taking a 3D scan of your face, and putting it in your favourite $this_technologys_name-ready film. It might detract from the craftmanship, but the entertainment factor would be increased (if only for the gimmick of it). I'm sure 'real' cinema will coexist though. People still paying to see live action cinema where only the special effects are CGI. After all, theatre still exists.