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A review from astronaut and engineer. Basically the artistic effect was great, but physics wrong.

...or were the Russians simply nimble enough on their feet to exploit an incredible opportunity when it fell into their lap? ...

I think you answered your own question there. It literally fell into their lap. The US has done the same.

I'm with the GOP - repeal it entirely or I'll hold my breath until I pass out. Or something like that.

I hadn't heard the GOP was calling for the repeal of the Patriot Act. I googled "repeal patriot act" and all I got was a democrat from NJ. I did some more searching and found about a vote to extend it:

The House measure, which was sponsored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and required a two-thirds majority for passage, failed on a 277-to-148 vote. Twenty-six Republicans voted with 122 Democrats to oppose the measure, while 67 Democrats voted with 210 Republicans to back it. Ten members did not vote.

I've looked at a number of similar votes and every single time, the GOP has shown more support for the Patriot Act than the Democrats. Every time.

If the GOP has finally flipped on this issue, I'd love to see an official statement about it (aka link please).

The system wasn't overloaded from people trying to sign up. That's government propaganda for you.

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-california-health-exchange-glitches-20131001,0,7108713.story

"State officials said the Covered California website got 645,000 hits during the first day of enrollment, far fewer than the 5 million it reported Tuesday."

And that's just hits. The government refuses to say how many people have actually registered accounts and how many have actually bought insurance.

The web-site not only can't handle a moderate amount of traffic, people aren't interested in signing up or buying the product even if they can get through.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/03/a-trickle-not-a-wave-what-insurers-are-seeing-in-obamacare-enrollment/

"After two days without any word on sign-ups, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana received some reassuring news Wednesday night: Seven people had signed up for its plan on the marketplace that day."

Because everything the government does it does badly. That's the nature of government. If you want "good" government, you whittle it down to just those activities which history has shown aren't credibly done outside government -- military, justice system (police and courts), funding basic scientific research (not technology research!), and so on.

I agree. One such area is health care.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/26/charts-health-care-costs-americans_n_2957266.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/26/21-graphs-that-show-americas-health-care-prices-are-ludicrous/

Here's a nice overview of just what's going on with the ACA website. The chart from Xerox illustrates why the system is a just a teensy bit more complicated than Facebook. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/10/09/heres-everything-you-need-to-know-about-obamacares-error-plagued-web-sites/

The typical approach is "we need more time/money". And Nancy Pelooney says that the cupboards are dry and there are no more cuts to make. Because obviously the government does not wast money.

Riiiiiiiiight...

I'd venture to say 95% of politicians have lost complete respect for taxpayers' money.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505269_162-57606633/obamacare-website-looks-like-nobody-tested-it-programmer-says/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/some-say-health-care-sites-problems-highlight-flawed-federal-it-policies/2013/10/09/d558da42-30fe-11e3-8627-c5d7de0a046b_story.html?hpid=z3

http://www.elpasotimes.com/politics-national/?third_party=many-tried-to-warn-officials-of-obamacare-website-jam

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/10/09/3-million-obamacare-website-may-face-months-glitches-experts-warn/

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/debbie-wasserman-schultzs-shocking-insufficient-rambling-response-to-msnbc-on-obamacare-enrollees/

Well, the house voted 407-0 to approve back pay, so it will be either Harry Reid's or Obama's fault if they do not get paid. Simple as that. But no one really believes they won't be paid. They got back pay the last time this happened (see last paragraph). And many times before that. And both Harry Reid and Obama have publically supported the house bill.

Everyone in the lapdog press is running around crying Oh No'es but NOTHING bad is happening.

Well, nothing bad other than millions of Americans suddenly becoming essentially unemployed, even if temporarily, for which I can see no possible negative effect. /sarc

Apparently you haven't heard!
They are all going to get paid

House came together in a moment of rare bipartisanship to pass a bill, by a vote of 407 to 0, approving back pay for furloughed government workers.

President Obama has expressed his support for the measure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid supports the measure, but said Saturday that if furloughed workers are guaranteed back pay, there’s no reason to keep them out of work.

They should be working, since they will be getting back pay.
Why does Obama keep them home?

So let me get this straight. The House of Representatives has not voted to pass a budget or even CR for this year. And it's Obama's fault? I, for one, am amazed by your blinding logic! (or when did Obama become Speaker of the House?)

Everyone in the lapdog press is running around crying Oh No'es but NOTHING bad is happening.

Well, nothing bad other than millions of Americans suddenly becoming essentially unemployed, even if temporarily, for which I can see no possible negative effect. /sarc

Apparently you haven't heard!
They are all going to get paid

Yes, well, unless grocery stores and gas stations have suddenly started to accept IOU's in lieu of payment, that does them fuck-all worth of good right now, doesn't it?

House came together in a moment of rare bipartisanship to pass a bill, by a vote of 407 to 0, approving back pay for furloughed government workers.

President Obama has expressed his support for the measure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid supports the measure, but said Saturday that if furloughed workers are guaranteed back pay, there’s no reason to keep them out of work.

They should be working, since they will be getting back pay.
Why does Obama keep them home?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antideficiency_Act

Now, how this applies to, say, air traffic controllers, but not worthless-ass congresspeople and their equally-worthless staffers is beyond me.

So?
By the time one of those incidents happen, they can be ordered back to work.
The idea that if some bureaucrat isn't around that you can't even safety a reactor is preposterously stupid.

You do realize that a bill has already passed to guarantee back pay for these workers right? So why aren't they at work?

Everyone in the lapdog press is running around crying Oh No'es but NOTHING bad is happening.

Well, nothing bad other than millions of Americans suddenly becoming essentially unemployed, even if temporarily, for which I can see no possible negative effect. /sarc

Apparently you haven't heard!
They are all going to get paid

House came together in a moment of rare bipartisanship to pass a bill, by a vote of 407 to 0, approving back pay for furloughed government workers.

President Obama has expressed his support for the measure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid supports the measure, but said Saturday that if furloughed workers are guaranteed back pay, there’s no reason to keep them out of work.

They should be working, since they will be getting back pay.
Why does Obama keep them home?
 

You need teachers that can teach the old fashioned way to accomplish something.

Old fashion or new fashion, teachers' teaching styles are not the problem. The problem is that while they still teach facts, the often discourage actually thinking. The incessant attacks by both parties upon the idea that children can think are making it so that by the time they are out of school, they can't think.

Twenty years ago the idea that having an obviously-fake gun in school would get you in trouble, let alone kicked out or arrested, would be considered completely ludicrous. Be it anti-gun, anti-evolution, anti-whatever, schools have shifted their focus from teaching kids critical thinking and teaching them to question the world around them. Now they teach toeing the line, doing what they're told, and never questioning authority. Zero-tolerance policies are at the apex of this trend; it institutionalizes the concept of not thinking when a situation comes up, but instead doing exactly what you have been told to do. When you tell children that even teachers and school administrators are not allowed to use their judgment, why would kids ever think they should? Add to this the terror-inducing effects of zero-tolerance policies (i.e. "If someone would use a nerf gun, they'd probably also shoot you with a real one!"), and you reinforce the idea that you need to be terrified of everything, and trying to use your own judgment is a bad idea.

You want to improve things, it's not by going back to old teaching methods, it's by allowing teachers to teach thinking again and not by forcing them to be pawns in the organized "sheltering of young minds" that the administrations seem to be all too happy to go along with.

Tesla Motors hopes to open Va. dealership http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/tesla-motors-plans-to-open-tysons-corner-dealership/2013/10/08/03547620-3020-11e3-9ccc-2252bdb14df5_story.html Bonus Nikola Tesla link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131003-nikola-tesla-surprising-facts-statue-museum-science/

Currently around 10 million shipping containers arrive in the USA every year. So how many of these devices do you think you need in order to make an impact? Not only do you have that volume to deal with, but given the throughput at a multi-modal shipping port, you'll need to be scanning a container pretty damn quick in order not to impeded operations.

In addition the gubmint is already behind in scanning all shipping containers for radio-active materials. They are supposed to be checking 100% of inbound containers, but that has been costed in the order of $16 billion (with a pinkie finger, and a B), and there doesn't seem to be money for it.

Port security: U.S. fails to meet deadline for scanning of cargo containers

Which is a good reason to call it "anti-terrorism". Because if there is anything that's getting assigned extra budget these days without considering actual effectiveness, it's that.

Currently around 10 million shipping containers arrive in the USA every year. So how many of these devices do you think you need in order to make an impact? Not only do you have that volume to deal with, but given the throughput at a multi-modal shipping port, you'll need to be scanning a container pretty damn quick in order not to impeded operations.

In addition the gubmint is already behind in scanning all shipping containers for radio-active materials. They are supposed to be checking 100% of inbound containers, but that has been costed in the order of $16 billion (with a pinkie finger, and a B), and there doesn't seem to be money for it.

Port security: U.S. fails to meet deadline for scanning of cargo containers

> Oh, let me add, that this is not the minority. This is now the majority party of the house of commons.

Republicans are the majority PARTY, but it is just a slim margin on that party that is preventing the vote. The majority of the MEMBERS of the House would support a CR at current levels.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/10/02/the-fixs-clean-cr-whip-count/

That's disingenuous seeing as only one party has publicly claimed to want a shutdown.

“We’re very excited,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.). “It’s exactly what we wanted, and we got it.”

I think we have the answer to a lot of questions here:

Two years after Libya’s revolution, government struggles to control hundreds of armed militias

Two years after the Arab Spring revolution that toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gaddafi, and one year after the assault on a U.S. compound in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three others, Libya’s fragile government has little control over the nation’s security.

Even minor disputes escalate into frequent gun violence on the streets. Kidnappings and armed robberies are increasing, and government officials and others have been assassinated with guns and bombs. Militants and arms smugglers easily cross poorly protected borders shared with Niger and Chad.

The Libyan government doesn't in fact have anything like full control over the country of Libya. If a senior al Qaida member was living openly, he probably had militias around to protect him. It is doubtful that the Libyan government would have been able to do much. He probably would have either had warning in time to flee, or the government would have had a real battle on its hands.

The forces that captured him would have done so under the authority of the Authorization for Use of Military Force passed by the US Congress. The US is at war with al Qaida, and the Libyan government doesn't have control over its territory. So it is probably better to say he is captured rather than kidnapped. Being held under the Law of War would mean he isn't in the judicial system, but can be held as a Prisoner of War. To qualify for all the rights, privileges, and protections of the Geneva Convention, such as preparing your own food and not be subject to interrogation, you have to conduct war in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. Al Qaida doesn't do that.

Now it is only a question of time till protesters start claiming he is innocent and should be released.

Well AC the 'shocked' aspect is the formation of the domestic locked box, the soon to be "life" long phone records and use in domestic courts via concepts like "parallel construction".
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/08/05/the-nsa-is-giving-your-phone-records-to-the-dea-and-the-dea-is-covering-it-up/
The US civil libertarians do have an idea where a legal systems ends up with no digital privacy.

Not what I just read.

Both Reid and the President both support the measure. Where do you get your news from, or are you just making shit up?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/house-and-senate-bills-would-pay-federal-workers-for-shutdown-furloughs/2013/10/03/d2fc8096-2c58-11e3-97a3-ff2758228523_story.html

"Clean" in this case means "nothing added to make sure some things are funded while others aren't." It's pretty clear from context, and any Congressperson understands it means everything gets funded rather than picking and choosing what gets funded. If they want to pick and choose, they should perform their Constitutional duty and pass a real budget instead of a CR.

By the way, the Senate CR is a huge compromise by Democrats because it drastically reduces spending. See figure in link below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/10/03/how-the-white-house-sees-the-shutdown-and-debt-ceiling-fight/

From which Hastert wants to distance himself...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/10/03/former-speaker-hastert-calls-the-hastert-rule-a-misnomer/

You have absolutely no idea what happens when a budget doesn't get approved in time, do you? Here's some education for you: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/30/absolutely-everything-you-need-to-know-about-how-the-government-shutdown-will-work/

Happy to reply to you, AC to AC. You should probably learn the actual budget process as you've got it wrong.

A Guide to the federal budget process

You're also mistaken about who owns what in regard to the shutdown. I'm sure you've read plenty of opinion in line with your views, want to try some from another perspective?

Democrats Chose the Shutdown
The Intransigents
Blame the Shutdown on James Madison
The Origins of the Origination Clause
When Tip Did It

Schumer: Democrats Won't Accept a Clean C.R. through 2014
Senior Admin. Official: 'We Are Winning...It Doesn't Really Matter to Us' When Shutdown Ends
Schumer: No Funding for Veterans and NIH 'Because We Have a Tea Party'
Reid: Senate Democrats Won't Fund Programs for Kids with Cancer Until the Entire Government Is Funded

My bad, it was the Austrailians that shut down. My first holy cup of java is yet not imbibed. The sentiment stands, such self correction is the way of cybernetics.

The Senate produces a budget that has to be reconciled with the House version. You may want to educate yourself since it seems what you think you know is wrong. I notice you are liberal in passing out insults. Ironic, given the state of your knowledge.

A Guide to the federal budget process

Are you suggesting that healthcare.gov is more secure than the federal sites that were shut down?

It's not arbitrary, it's calculated to cause pain as a political move.

Obama Forcing Shut Down of Parks the Feds Don't Even Fund

Private Air Show Stopped Due to Government Shutdown

Obama Illegally Furloughing Civilian Defense Employees at STRATCOM

PRUDEN: The cheap tricks of the game

Monuments and memorials remained open during previous shutdown

Republicans press Obama to back FEMA funding bill as storm nears

There is plenty more.

The Senate isn't being useful, but at least they did vote on something today: "... the Senate also unanimously approved a measure deeming next week as National Chess Week."

"Our goal was to analyse Tor source code and determine any vulnerabilities in the system. We set up an internal Tor network to analyze..." http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/world/nsa-research-report-on-the-tor-encryption-program/501/

What a moronic strawman. Just because you might be able to point to some x percent that might have been higher paying does not diminish his point which is that many if not a majority or more of them are lower paying.

For example, while not technically related to technology replaced jobs, here is a great example of mid-wage jobs from before the 2008 recession have been overwhelmingly replaced with low-wage jobs. Only 1/3 of all the mid-wage jobs were replaced by something of equal value whereas the low-wage jobs increased 300%.

Well, the current word is that it was a dental hygienist from Connecticut. Looks to me like the people saying it was a police overreaction are right this time.

"This is crack cocaine," Bush solemnly announced, holding up a plastic bag filled with a white chunky substance in his Sept. 5 speech on drug policy. It was "seized a few days ago in a park across the street from the White House . . . . It could easily have been heroin or PCP."

These where drugs he asked them to buy for a prop in a speech. There is clearly illegal. The president can't just ask for coke, but he did and and bragged about it on national TV. Can you imagine if Obama tried that!

Hitler would be proud.

Yes but a eugenic Hitner would knock those kids into next Tuesday.

Wait, so after all the NSA bullshit, he was caught by Canada? Oh, the irony.

Welllll, maybe...

Do you remember the recent stories about the DEA and "parallel construction," where the DEA was getting phone records from the NSA and then using them to identify suspects from which they could reverse engineer a false "lead" to let the police just happen to find other incriminating evidence to build a case on?

I'm not saying that's clearly what happened here, but as others have pointed out, it's a distinct possibility given that drugs are involved.

Yeah, except gerrymandering is the real reason why the GOP held the house. Dems actually got more votes nationwide for Congress in 2012. Even so, the Dems still held the Senate, and gained eight seats in the House... hardly a "resounding mandate" for the GOP's crusade against Obamacare.

There is no equivalent trademark on record at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Maybe that's because their office is closed.

Not quite.

Scroll down a bit, it's still open.

On the other hand, Snowden didn't know he'd be able to get asylum, and the death penalty was only taken off the table in an attempt to keep the Russians from giving it to him.

It's funny but we haven't had a budget since 2009. Blame Harry Reid and the rest of his cronies for that one. The endless Continuing Funding Resolutions and stop-gap appropriation bills are what's been keeping things afloat, that and endless spending. It's impossible to be fiscally responsible without a budget, therefore every member of congress should be fired because they're not working off of a plan other than to get re-elected and run up record deficits. Raising the debt limit needs to be done, but not without a budget and a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget to be submitted to the states for ratification. That's the only way to force these fucktards to actually start doing their jobs and stop blaming each other for the mess we have. They're both to blame and continue to fiddle while Rome burns.

Actually, when there are money on the table, the gap closes.

Basically, the gap perceived is to further the agenda and to identify members of the group.

It requires insurance companies to accept people with pre-existing conditions (which can include mere weight), which is a major problem for anyone trying to buy individual coverage.

And accepting pre-existing conditions means that insurance is no longer insurance, it's a discount healthcare plan subsidized by those who are stupid enough to think it is insurance.

It also provides rebates for people who make under a certain threshold, reducing costs.

No, it just moves the costs off to other people. The costs will increase because we'll need more providers and those we currently have will be stretched thinner. People with pre-existing conditions will appear on the "insurance" rolls needing expensive treatments from day one, never paying more than their care costs. You think those costs will magically disappear? This is how you make costs lower?

It's not perfect by a long shot, but it's better than what we had.

Not so good for those who have lost their coverage because their hours were cut and now have to pay for their own. Trader Joe's for one, who now feels that they don't need to pay for so many part timer's health care, so they won't.

There's a lot of companies who are cutting hours. They're not admitting that it is because of ACA, so of course the polls that try to prove that ACA isn't hurting people don't count them. It's like the unemployment numbers aren't sky high because they don't count people who have given up looking. (And even so, the magic number we were never going to go above didn't turn out to be so magic after all.) Nobody is crowing "Hey, thanks Mr. Obama for letting me toss my employees out into the street as far as health care is concerned. Saves me a bundle of money." So those jobs aren't counted against ACA. They are just short term adjustments to the employment levels due to, umm, unicorns buying less pixie dust. (The unicorn and pixie dust market should be holding steady based on advertising running in Oregon for 'Cover Oregon' which for the last few months has been nothing but pushing unicorns and pixie dust on the public, spending taxpayer dollars to do it.)

The blogs that tout the ACA are putting all kinds of spin on the issue so that ACA doesn't look so bad. They even claim that Trader Joe's is proof that ACA is working, not that it is hurting people. Trader Joe's is not paying for as many people's health care, and that is a Good Thing, they say. "Here's $500, go find your own insurance." This guy is claiming that of course small companies won't cut hours because that would mean they have to manage how many hours a week the employees work, and nobody does that now. Huh? Here's the quote, it's magical and naive at best:

In that case there would be a new roll for supervisors, too, who would likely need to manage their workers' hours more closely to ensure they don't go over the 30-hour threshold. That's not a function that supervisors in restaurants and retail typically provide right now, Ryan adds.

So we're supposed to believe that supervisors aren't already responsible for scheduling their employees? I was a supervisor for a summer while going to college, and you bet I was responsible for schedules, and responsible to make sure nobody went over 40 hours without a good reason. It's a big deal to change that limit to 30 instead of 40? Sure. Right.

Yeah - no reason to get outraged. The NSA uses our tax dollars to inject weaknesses in applications, encryption techniques, and devices which make it easier to be a victim of identity theft. Worse, after we completed exporting our manufacturing economy during the 80s and 90s in favor of "knowledge jobs", the NSA makes it obvious that doing business with American companies is unwise at best, though moronic is a better descriptor. And if that's not enough, all those aforementioned weaknesses make it easier to hack into businesses and steal their work or otherwise damage them.

So we're talking something like $54 billion a year for ID theft (1), $35 billion for the cloud crap in the next three years (2), and $100 billion and 500k jobs or so due to industrial espionage (3).

What the NSA is doing to undermine security is costing Americans and American businesses billions every year, and harming employment to boot. The NSA is much more akin to a co-conspirator in a Russian computer crime gang than to some run of the mill spy who "always did this" because those others didn't screw with NIST, or use the force of the US Gov't to require backdoors. And worse, we have to pay for it with our tax dollars -- we're paying to get fucked by an agency that destroys American values and then turns around damages our economy. It's like paying to get robbed.

So you know what, you can just take a flying fuck with your idiotic "everyone does it" crap. Your complacency is allowing the NSA to continue directly harming America and Americans.

(1) http://www.westfieldinsurance.com/personal/pg.jsp?page=identity_theft_protection
(2) http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/08/07/nsa-snooping-could-cost-u-s-tech-companies-35-billion-over-three-years/
(3) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/25/hackers-jobs_n_3652893.html

NOTE: certainly the NSA isn't responsible for the entire $160ish billion per year, but it is doing it's darndest to get there.

So if I'm concerned about security, I should switch over to an OS that I know even less about, and will probably blindly follow guides on the internet about how to configure it and get it working for what I want.

That's a good way to start. Obviously when learning a new OS, you won't be an expert right away.
I'm not convinced that a lack of complete mastery in a subject is a good reason to avoid gaining any experience whatsoever.

Telling people to not use Windows.... ever, doesn't really tell us the reasons why we should never use windows,

Well, here are two reasons-
Proven: The NSA operates a botnet called Genie that runs on Windows, mostly on machines overseas. http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-spy-agencies-mounted-231-offensive-cyber-operations-in-2011-documents-show/2013/08/30/d090a6ae-119e-11e3-b4cb-fd7ce041d814_story.html

Somewhat more speculative: The German govt believes the NSA has backdoors in the trusted computing modules in Windows 8. http://techrights.org/2013/08/22/nsa-back-doors-blowback/

Good point. Tropical storm vs. hurricane, or hurricane category, is based only on wind speed. That gives a fair idea of the wind damage caused, but in many cases, and certainly Sandy, most of the damage is caused by the storm surge. That's more a function of the total energy of the storm, which for Sandy was the second highest on record, due to the large area it covered.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/sandy-packed-more-total-energy-than-katrina-at-landfall/2012/11/02/baa4e3c4-24f4-11e2-ac85-e669876c6a24_blog.html

According to the article posted elsewhere on slashdot about this:

Somebody placed massive orders for gold futures contracts betting on exactly that outcome within a millisecond or two of 2 p.m. that day -- before the seven milliseconds had passed that would allow the transmission of the information from the Fed's "lock-up" of media organizations who get an early look at the data and the arrival of that information at Chicago's futures markets

"within a millisecond or two" is still physically impossible given the 3.2 millisecond bound implied by the speed of light in a vacuum, but even the 2-3 millisecond figure quoted in your other article is much less than the actual fiber latency of about 6.5 milliseconds between Chicago and NYC (presumably similar between Chicago and DC), and is still somewhat less than the fastest microwave links available between NYC and Chicago, which come in at about 4.1 milliseconds. (I'm not sure there are any microwave links operational between Chicago and DC as of yet.) These figures are somewhat worse than physical speed of light bounds because they include actual geographical routes and hops, and an index of refraction in the fiber case.

Which is why there should be an investigation - it certainly looks like someone was sitting on the news beforehand and traded on it as soon as 2PM rolled around. But it could also be that a local news organization broke the news embargo ahead of Washington DC. If I understand the article, it seems like news organizations have access to such announcements beforehand so they can prepare ahead of time release their canned articles at the same time. That would be interesting to find out too - I can see local newsmen tipping off their trading buddies where/what to look at precisely 2PM, or just inaccurate network time synchronization.

The Post glories in pun-based headlines. Witness today:

Rebooting the reputation of computer legend who helped defeat Hitler

For a story on a posthumous pardon for Alan Turing.

At some point, hacker ideals can become very profitable. Cydia started as an alternative to the App Store and some estimates place revenues now as high as $10 million a year. More power to these guys!

At least they are trying to do something in that (and others) respect.

This Washington Post bit (hopefully you don't need to sign on to your Amazon account to get access to it :-)) says

But while the spy chief seemed to enjoy a Captain Kirk-worthy facility at Fort Belvoir, Va., which was reportedly the creation of a Hollywood set designer, it turns out that the command center was already in place when he took the job. It was built, sources tell our colleague Ellen Nakashima, in 1998. Alexander took over the post in 2001.

assuming the "sources" are actually telling the truth.

Still a bit WTF, however.

They imposed a sales tax on "computer services" that created such outrage, it was repealed before it even went into effect.