June 2008 Archives
In this futuristic era, the Persona Century Corporation has taken over most of earth lead by these people whom watch from above in a satellite orbiting. Many are cyborgs, enhanced with armaments or have extremely fast movements. In this case, they are lead by one that only dons a golden mask whom is trying to quell the rebellious faction called Messiah whom is based in Kabuki-cho.
Darkside Blues
What I found is that this camera actually has a whole bunch of really great features. One of my favorites is that every picture I've taken yet has been clear. This probably is due to the Steadyshot stabilization. It's probably from the built-in gyro and the electronic stabilization called Double Antiblur, but it's one of the things that is missing from most cameras on the lower-end. And if you hand moves the slightest in the shot, then the picture ends up terrible.
The other great feature is the Smile shutter feature. You can set it up to automatically take pictures when it detects a smile. What's interesting about this, is that this actually means that the camera itself can detect faces and smiling. Facial recognition by cameras isn't something new, but it's always been a more high-end feature. I haven't had a chance to test the flash yet nor actually set it up for night shots but so far I am definitely impressed what the camera's performance.
You can also set it to take pictures for display in 1080HD, and set up a slideshow directly from the camera if it's plugged into the television with music and everything. You can also print from it, but I haven't tested this feature yet so I don't know how it works. Also, this camera uses nine different points for focusing instead of the five point focus system that most cameras use.
Overall, in the short time period I've had to play with this camera, I have to say that it's definitely worth a little bit of extra for optical viewfinder and the features but it's also a great camera for between the $150USD to $200USD price point.
It's a conflict within the Gates of Hell, where an offspring of the the Prince of Darkness takes on the Prince on in an all out war in Hell. The overall movie itself is done in a very 1990s fashion which is surprising considering when it came out. Obviously the budget for this film was low too since there are a lot of cheesy lines and the voice acting is pretty terrible in my opinion. It's almost like a B-rated film in animated form.
While the comic book art is actually pretty amazing, the animated form is a bit lacking. Not exactly my cup of tea, but if there are those that are fans of Lady Death then there might be some nostalgic value in this film.
Sometimes there comes a need to actually automatically ftp things. But usually when you automatically ftp things, you have to enter in a password. The way around this is to use the .netrc file.
The .netrc file stores the machine name, the login, and the password for the ftp. This allows you to set up ftp actions without having to mess with the interactive parts and do everything else directly from a shell script.
Not exactly something that you'd want to always do for everything, but now and again behind a firewalled network, isn't a bad idea for automated backups. Even if your passwords change constantly through a time seeded hardware device, you can set it up so that everything is still running from a shell script and the only thing you would have to do is type in the password. Beats doing things manually, eh?
In an age where there are multiple devices, and multiple Internet connections, it's tough to sync up all of your devices at all times. And truthfully, there shouldn't be a need for sync your devices every single time.
What Weave does is very similar to the now discontinued Google Browser Sync. Given a database area to store preferences, passwords, history, bookmarks, and other customizations, you can basically load whatever browser preferences are to any device. Currently, this is a closed beta service that will be hosted by Mozilla and if it works out, it'll definitely be a great replacement for browser services.
The beauty of Prizm is that it's basically something that a lot of applications have been doing but on a bigger scale.
Prizm from Mozilla Labs, used to be called Webrunner, which basically was to take web based applications and make them desktop applications. This means that any sort of web application such as Google Gmail, or Mint, or anything else would basically be viewed as a desktop application without the web browser interface.
As the web and regular desktop applications start blurring the lines that separate them, we'll start to see a lot more interactive desktop applications. Strangely enough, Microsoft might have been ahead of its time when it brought Active Desktop and merged it into their operating system. But regardless, what's beautiful about Prizm is that it's not proprietary and thus while similar to Adobe Air and Microsoft Silverlight, it's open source.
One of the more interesting things that you can do with ssh is set up public and private keys and make it so that transactions between systems require no passwords. The bad thing about this is the obvious. If one of your systems inside get compromised, then your internal network is compromised without any work necessary.
The good thing though is that you can then set up automatic transfers through shell scripts or perl scripts. Either way, it's definitely has its useful sides too. While this howto is for a Debian installation, it's really no different at all when it comes to configurations.
Crude oil prices keep flirting $140USD and gas prices are now close to averaging around $4.00USD a gallon. As nothing is being done of any significance on the national level to regulate their resource, the only talk there is comes from the White House on drilling in ANWR. But as with anything, if you allow people to take advantage of the system, then it only takes one bad apple to abuse the loophole.
But in doing some straight mathematics, we find that while traveling is a fixed necessity (you have to take your kids to school, go to work, or buy groceries), the lower on the societal totempole you are, the harder hit you have to take.
Let's first make some assumptions. If we assume that the vehicle gets on average about 25 miles to the gallon, and that you drive about 300 miles a week. If that 300 miles takes up about 12 gallons (an average full-sized car given the circumstances) then that also means that every week you're spending $4.00USD times 12 gallons. That would equate to $60USD a week. Given that there are fifty-two weeks in a year, $60 x 52 is $3120.00USD.
Now this estimate is probably a bit low, but let's just use that number for now. If you're a NC teacher with a Bachelor's degree and certified in teaching with one year of experience, the salary is approximately $30,000USD. That means that even before taxes, you spend more than 10% of your income for gas. If that's not ridiculous, I don't know what is.
As you shift this fixed necessity above or below that salary scale, then you can see that it definitely impacts a lot more people a lot faster. You either have to make cuts in other necessities or find a job that pays better. Even cost-of-living increases can't adjust quickly enough to rising gas prices. Thus, the social class shifts. Everyone takes a step downward and feels the pressure involved from these price hikes while the rich just keep talking about how we need to go drilling domestically. I'm not saying that wouldn't help. I'm saying without regulation, who's to say that we're not going just delay the inevitable of greedy corporate executives looking to line their pockets with the most profitable quarters year after year on the backs of everyone else that do not make seven figures in compensation?
The rich get richer, as the gap grows between the top and the middle. As everyone starts taking the heat more seriously as it starts effecting their pocketbooks, you have to wonder when people will finally backlash and say, "No more."
Photo Credit: (aaron@digitalcole)
There's a good reason why you should use GFCI (ground-fault circuit interrupter) outlets, and if you don't it's probably worthwhile to switch out the outlets with some.
Usually GFCI outlets look like the ones with three holes, with the left hole a bit bigger than the right. Usually these days, they have the little test and reset buttons in the middle of the outlets. As electricity flows from the right to left (hot to neutral), this is monitored by the GFCI outlet. If there is any changes at all, then the outlet turns off the hot. The reason is that if you happen to have a bare wire and have water leaking onto it, the reaction of the GFCI is not only much quicker but it is localized. It can prevent the flow of electricity at a faster rate since it can shut off at around 1/30 of a second.
Thus, this is great for water pumps with aquariums, or why most bathrooms in houses these days are outfitted with these particular outlets. So if you don't have in your home, it's probably a good idea to take a look at doing some outlet replacements just to increase a bit of safety factor.
Photo Credit: (iceplee)
If you're downloading files, then you know that sometimes corrupt transfers can totally ruin your day, especially if they are large files. Using a hash tool can help you make sure that the files got through okay. That's where HashMyFiles comes in. This freeware tool from Nirsoft basically can generate the MD5 or SHA-1 hashes that you need to make sure that it's consistent before and after the transfer. This application works for anything from Windows 2000 to Vista.
No more. Bundled with Hideo Kojima's latest creation, Metal Gear Solid 4
This bundle deal is not only worth your while, but getting the system with the new DualShock 3 controller (all previous SixAxis controllers didn't have the old Playstation shock vibration function) and a game that has been rated perfect scores in both Japan, Europe, and the United States, has got to be worth it. It's actually more buying each separately, but we won't go into that. It was a brilliant move to package it in limited release with one of the greatest series games. Sony XMB interfacing has also come a long ways, by copying the PSP interface and enhancing it further.
So what are you waiting for? You have got to be feeling that nostalgic want to start screaming: Snake? Snake!? SNAAAAAAAKKKKEE!
One of the most basic things to learn outside of manipulating text in css, is manipulation of tables. There is always a need to know how to place something in the right place with the right margins.
Thankfully, the World Wide Web Consortium has a page that helps you understand not only how tables work in HTML, but their respective counterparts in css. This gives you the chance to set up the css version of a table.
It's always good to know the basics. While css isn't rocket science, it does tend to become a bit convoluted when you're just starting out and there's a whole lot of things in a stylesheet that you've never tinkered with before. Just take one thing at a time and master one at a time. It doesn't take too long to fly around in css otherwise.
And boy was I not disappointed. This was a great children's movie in a world of magic and technology. In fact, while the film's technology in the make-believe world was a bit off, it did remind me of steampunk. Which is "oh-so-cool".
To myself, this story was one of a little girl that was searching for answers in the world and trying to save her friends. She has the naivety that only child can get away with and boldness to question that only a child would. In fact, personally I found that if there was any film that would make Christian groups mad, it would have been Da Vinci Code (of which they did) but this movie was nothing more than something similar to Harry Potter.
Of course, if you don't believe me, then go rent it for yourself. If you aren't convinced that there is nothing there but to entertain children and adults alike, then there are more things that are concerning you than The Golden Compass
Believe me. I didn't know the answer to this either. A few of my friends during different conversations have asked about this so for clarification for anyone else that might have second thoughts about it.
Yes, in February of 2009, your analog televisions will not work. But with some caveats. This only effects over-the-air signals. That means, if you've been using "rabbit ears" (antennas) this whole time, then those won't work anymore unless you get a digital tuner box. That's why dtv2009.gov was created.
Now, if you use cable or satellite television, there shouldn't be any changes. If you provider is telling you that you have to switch to "digital television" by 2009, then that's actually wrong. I've actually had a couple friends come up and tell me that this is what they've been told by their friendly local cable provider's customer service reps. If so, that's extremely naughty to prey on people that thought they needed to change to digital television for "cable".
So, if you didn't know, now you know. If in doubt, go to the government website and take a looksie. And be reminded that it's actually the air signals that are changing (the stuff you can get for free) and not any actual service providers.
From another contributor at 8A, Joz gives us, Two Chinese Characters, with John B. Weinstein and Carsey Yee.
I have got to say that on one level, it's very amusing to see people take a different approach at teaching Mandarin. A quick look shows that Weinstein is actually not only a professor of Chinese but he is also fond of Asian theater. Ah ha! Probably thus the entertaining video on Youtube!
Definitely has peaked my interest. I'd also be interested to see if they teach in the simplified version, or the traditional version (since I was raised under traditional) and if there eventually would be spin-offs for different dialects. Hate to say it, but I've been putting off learning Cantonese even though I have a whole bunch of movies on my shelf. Give the love to subtitles.
Good stuff, eh? Good stuff.
Every so often, you'll run into a Unix box somewhere that has the editor defaulted to sed. Yes, you heard me. sed.
Don't ask me why. While sed is pretty powerful, it's a lot easier to mess with vi, isn't it. Well what's missing is the change in the .profile. You need to edit the .profile so that there is the following commands:
EDITOR=vi
export EDITOR
That's it. But these two commands will set it up so that your environment defaults to vi when you relogin or you re-launch the .profile.
One of the most incredibly annoying things about Windows is the USB write protection that some drives use. Incredibly silly for a portable device type hardware product unless it's a lock on the drive itself. But, apparently people do use the software lock since there is the USB Write Protector.
I can attest to feeling like I want to pull my hair out whenever I actually run across a USB drive that has this function turned on. This requires Windows XP SP2, so obviously it's a function that came after SP2. Either way? Truly annoying. But if you need it, have fun.
Videos like this are very amusing because it not only are they believable, but for those that don't understand the science or technology behind the every-day gadgets, it's makes it even harder to convince people otherwise because they "see it for their own eyes".
Mobile phone cooking has already been disproved a number of times but process is pretty simple. If you think about the difference between your microwave and a cell phone in RF power, there's almost a 50-80 times difference. The amount of energy required to generate heat to bring popcorn to actually pop is significant compared to what is actually generated by the phone. In fact, the amount of heat would make it so that your phone would probably not be able to be held. On top of that, if the RF was generating this type of heat signature, the air around the popcorn would actually be hot and there would have to be excess heat since it's not in an enclosed area. This would mean that you need even more power.
Finally, if you notice from most of these hoaxes, the tables all have some sort of table cloth covering the bottom. While the American one shown above doesn't look quite that off since tables usually have tablecloths, the Japanese one below is just strange. Maybe it's just me, but the cloth seems to be longer than the actual table height which would mean it's not for aesthetics. My initial thought is that there is a heating element beneath the table itself.
It definitely is an interesting viral video, and who knows what exactly it's supposed to prove, but it does lend itself to one of the more realistic videos of the time.
Got the player yesterday and opened the box.
Have to say that it's super easy setup. The three minutes setup? Definitely exactly what it says. The setup starts out with you choosing wired or wireless setup. Now what's interesting part. Ran into a little of trouble because of my Netgear FVG318. It's always had an issue the Vonage ATA, and the technical support could never figure out that an ATA was a hardware device and not a "Windows control panel" issue.
Apparently you can't connect to the local network regardless if you tried to do it via a wired network or a wireless. I called Roku technical support and they told me that they had some issues with Netgear before, and also Belkin. They wanted me to connect it directly to the modem to get the latest firmware to see if that would work.
Thankfully I could bypass this by connecting it wirelessly through another router that I had on the network behind the Netgear. Yeah, go figure that I bypassed through another device that was behind the Netgear. In any case, it worked like a flash and the activation tied to the account by sending a five letter code that was linked directly to the Netflix account.
Then it downloaded the instant queue, and off you go. The controls are very quick reacting, and easy to use. And you're off and running with your Netflix account.
This is great since the streaming movies are quick at buffering and it seems to do really well. There are a number of older movies as well as some newer ones and the library keeps getting larger. You can pause, and there is a timer skip. Unfortunately, there isn't a chapter skip yet, and one of the bad things is that if you want to watch a movie that is in another language with subtitles, that isn't possible. Now why couldn't they create another stream with the language track and subtitles? There is a lot of things that could be done to make this product a lot better.
That's part of the Netflix product. The hardware firmware seems to be supported decently by Roku, which means that there will definitely be new features that come to these boxes in the future. Hopefully, we'll see Netflix
only in the beginning stages of this new venture with Roku. If so, this gadget was well worth the one-time fee. Especially since the streaming audio and video part of it is doing splendidly.
Uninstall Cleaner actually cleans up after the uninstallers. While you would think that Windows doesn't need a cleaner for the uninstaller (well, maybe you would think so), it does. Sometimes uninstallers fail to clean up certain parts and thus bomb out. They do remove the application, but fail to do the remaining part which is remove the entry from the registry. This cleaner will go and find the dangling registry entries and remove them. Pretty nifty and very much a directed product specific to one purpose.
Technology is wonderful isn't it. Now, we can work with portability from laptops, be connected to the Internet through EVDO, and be called anywhere on mobile phones.
In fact, as innovations for communications gets driven smaller and more portable, the more likelihood of flexible work but longer hours. More and more workers are opting to going hybrid or full-time telecommuters and working from home. Corporations are succeeding in saving some money from changing the technologies from the high rent of office buildings, to paying for VPNs and mobile phones.
Telecommuting might sound like a golden opportunity for those that have families and want to be home in time to take their kids to soccer practice, but it also involves a lot of long hours where your manager knows exactly where you are and what you're doing due to the project task sheets. Most telecommuters are often given more workload due to the fact that they aren't burdened by commute times and they're always available.
Soon, with holographic imaging and better telecommunications such as Cisco TelePresence, there will be less likelihood of conference calls, and more such users actually meeting face-to-face. This will bring the last of the working force into the telecommuting realm... management and sales. What's interesting due to this, is the fact that you'll be able to not only project yourself into a meeting, but you will always be able to do it from home or a mobile environment.
Interestingly enough, it shows how times have changed in the working environment. It wasn't but decades ago, that much of the work force was based out of cottage industries. As the industrial revolution changed where workers had to be, the workforce started dominating the office buildings like bees in a hive. Much of the work could not be done in a home environment at the time.
But little by little, we've again shifted. With social networking tools, and collaboration advancements, it is possible to operate in one's home to work, without leaving the home. And second by second, the industry is shifting back to something it used to be.
Photo Credit: (FallenPegasus)
System Cleaner does exactly what it sounds like. It cleans the system up of useless garbage files. Basically, there are a whole bunch of applications that create pretty useless things in Windows, such as Internet Explorer's temporary files, the Recent documents, and a whole bunch more. While these files are necessary during the use of the application, afterwards they just take up space and gunk of the works. System Cleaner cleans up after those applications to make sure that your system can work smoothly for at least a little longer than usual.
I'm glad I've never been suckered in with Amy Winehouse's addict ridden music. Never did understand why someone that couldn't carry a tune held such high regard in so much of the world. Maybe it's because a lot of people seem to understand the whole getting high bit? Who knows.
She's never hit it off with the music with me in any case. Now tabloid News of the World has the singer singing racist lyrics to the children's song, "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes." Don't believe it? Just check out the NSFW video. Turn down that volume too while you gawk.
Me? I'll go back to listening to Barry.
Photo Credit: (NRK P3)
If you're looking to only wipe directories or files away without killing the entire drive, then Wipe File is for you. Incorporating the same fourteen different methods of wiping, it rewrites sector by sector only the files and directories that you designate to get rid of securely.
If you're looking for a small footprint feed reader, then NFReader will fit the bill nicely. It supports RSS, Atom, and RDF feeds and can export opml files just like every other reader. Weighing in at only a third of a megabyte, it's probably one of the few lightweights in feed readers that you'll be able to find. Especially in Windows. Candidate for USB key and portable applications? You bet.
In fact, the entire movie is a "documentary" style film where there's no music, but it's based off of a tape in a video camera about what people had witnessed after the destruction of Manhattan. The entire film was done in this fashion and the first twenty minutes or so was sort of a yawn. I had figured that if the rest of the film was like this, that this was going to be entirely lame just as Blairwitch was when it came out.
But twenty minutes later, I was at the edge of my seat. Once the action starts going, it doesn't stop until the very end. What's also interesting is that being that the film was done in the whole "shaky first person handycam" perspective, it actually caused nausea and vertigo for some.
All in all, this was a superb film. Definitely would watch it again if given the chance, especially on a big screen. It's one of those monster films that didn't go cheesy due to the way it was presented. And sometimes, that's just splendid to see a movie created outside of the usual Hollywood magic mumbo jumbo.
If you're looking for something to wipe those hard drives of all your personal information, look no further than WipeDisk. This baby can wipe logical or physical drives without breaking a sweat. And with fourteen different methods to choose from, who could ask for anything more? They even abide by DoD standard, which isn't all that but following standards is a good thing.
Word of caution. This does a sector by sector rewrite of the entire drive. Let me highlight the word "entire". So remember that once it's gone, it's going to be one painful, and expensive thing to try to get back any data that's on there. Otherwise? Feel free to go nuts if wiping a drive is what you're trying to do with this freeware for Windows.
Never did I ever think about actually pouring salt on spilled raw egg yolk. Apparently this works really well since it changes the texture of the egg itself and makes it solidify more and makes for an easier clean up.
Still doesn't get rid of the fact that you would have to Clorox wipe and at the very least soap and water and dry that spot on the floor so that it's not sticky or gross, but the it definitely helps with the initial spill. Very cool.
Polaroid has come out with a new portable printer for those that are always on the go. And this one uses ZINK (Zero Ink) technology and Bluetooth. Basically, hook this baby up to your cell phone, and transfer over the pictures, and voila! You're printing these tiny sticker pictures right from your phone! Nice part about this, is that ZINK uses color heat crystals so no smudges, no yuckies and no ink cartridges to change in the printer.
For $149USD, it's a little pricey, but being that it's available at Target and Best Buy, I would imagine that it'll actually drop in price at some point. What's more interesting is that the whole sticker-picture thing is very similar to a thing Polaroid did a while ago called the Polaroid i-Zone Pocket Instant Camera
Only had this once, and it was definitely a weird case... but sometimes your disc gets stuck in your Superdrive. It's gone from the mount, but the disc is still in there. And you're sitting there thinking... what am I going to do now?
Here's an easy way to get the disc out. Reboot your MacOSX system and hold down the mouse button. The disc should pop out. Just keep that finger on the mouse button until it does.
Pretty neat eh? There's a whole bunch of other ways to eject media. Obviously this is only for emergencies or if you just can't get that CD out by regular means. But good thing there are other ways.
While everyone is focused on the fact that Time Warner is testing metered bandwidth in Beaumont, Texas this Thursday, I see another fun thing coming down the pipe.
I believe that if TWC does actually go through and make this test an actual reality, then they'll actually play into competitor hands. Here's the thing. In the recent past, the United States has always had the whole DSL versus cable war. While the rest of the world moved to fiber, we're still wondering if our copper lines can take on coax. Well, now AT&T is slowly moving into cable's realm by providing television through their FiOS network and also providing a lot more bandwidth. There's a lot of talk here locally about AT&T (what used to be BellSouth) laying down lines for FiOS.
So if TWC does try this a la carte style of payment, while it sounds great at the beginning, you have to realize that you're dealing with profit grubbing executives. At some point those prices will rise due to "whatever excuse" to put more money in their pockets. So the savings will be short-lived and you're out of the unlimited bandwidth.
But the beauty of this, is that it opens up all sorts of opportunities to those competitors that do offer unlimited. I would imagine that customers would be switching in droves since no one would want to be stuck with less, and not more. Don't forget that we're the society of super-sizing, not downsizing.
Don't forget that there are other choices now. Clearwire is a great example. You can guarantee that Google and the rest of the corporations such as Microsoft and other major players would also throw their weight at this. Why? Eventually, this is the slippery slope from another angle that goes back to the tiered Internet philosophy. Guaranteed, if this was finalized, we won't hear the last of tiered Internet at some point.
But my hopes are that the whole "playing with fire" will burn TWC and other ISPs that try to limit their users. In the age where there are a lot of things that stream, and where the technology just keeps advancing with most of the information traffic on the Internet, there just can't be limitations such as this to stunt the growth.
So all I can hope is... burn, baby, burn.
Well, I have to admit that the kitties definitely do drink a lot more water. And there's enough fresh water that if we're gone for a couple days, that the kitties will be okay for water. This particular one runs over 200 ounces and keeps it continuously flowing. The pump is pretty quiet, and one of the kitties like to drink from the stream, while the other likes to drink from the pool.
While it hasn't stopped them from being curious about the toilet at all unlike the owner reviews, I still can recommend the Petmate Deluxe Fresh Flow Pet Fountain
If you're looking for an easier way to eject your media, say via a menu bar item, just double click on Eject.menu.It's located in /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/ along with a bunch of other Menu fun items that you don't have to have.
Basically puts an eject button on your menu bar that allows you to eject things, just the same as your F12 button, or Command-E. I guess some people really want a menu eject.
So you've noted that there are other ways to get to it, and you realized... whoa, I don't want that weird thing in my menu bar anymore? No problem. Just hold command and click and drag that menu item out of the menu bar. It'll just go poof and you'll be good to go again.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, Revision3 was brought down by MediaDefender due to an open BitTorrent tracker, that according to MD, was seeding illegal copyrighted content.
Now here's the rub. MD usually just seeds the target trackers with corrupted files and collects data on whom could be downloading the copyrighted property. But R3 claims to have found an open security hole in their tracker (used to distribute their legitimate content) and closed it over that weekend. From there on, MD servers took drastic measures and sent over 8,000 SYN packets a second trying to reach the tracker instead of just shutting down. MD obviously defends their actions, while R3 speaks against it.
Question is, were any laws broken?
While I'm no attorney, any sort of DoS attack is a violation of IAB proper use policy. On top of that, this there's a question of whether or not any computer crime laws were broken. On a federal level, it seems pretty gray area since most of it deals with actual damages of copyright or intrusion based on commerce and fraud. What is interesting to note however is California actually has code specifically for computer crimes.
While much of it seem to apply such as civil damages and such, here's the one thing that I found rather fascinating. In Section 1 of Stats.1987, c. 1499, under 8c:
(c) Any person who maliciously accesses, alters, deletes, damages, destroys or disrupts the operation of any computer system, computer network, computer program, or data is guilty of a public offense.
The reason why this is interesting is because from the interview, MD was saying that their actions were legit due to the fact that there was copyrighted materials. But even law enforcement have specific procedures that they have to follow and can't go guns a-blazing and MD doesn't constitute as law enforcement. On top of that, DoS attacks clog the networks that route them, meaning that an attack launched as such would not only effect R3 itself but would create a major load on the Tier 1 routers pushing the traffic and any routers down the stream. For most DDoS attackers, this isn't an issue due to the fact that they're knowingly committing a crime. But for MD? Having servers set up in this fashion couldn't be good by any means. Either way, one thing is extremely clear. There definitely was a disruption of a computer network.
There's a lot more to go over in the California State Penal Code, but overall being that both corporations are in California state, I personally think that MD would be fighting an uphill battle with the comments already made and having read some of the attorney speak. It's obviously based on my interpretations of the code (which doesn't mean squat in a court of law, but it is my opinion nonetheless). I'll leave the whole federal law thing to the FBI who's sorting out the matter in itself. I would be curious to know if the copyrighted materials found within the R3 tracker was indeed an exploit, or if an employee or what not was involved in those materials. It still doesn't legitimize MD's attack, but it would put R3 in deeper water than it is currently.
If MD should change their tune and say that it was a misconfiguration or what not and take back what the CEO said to Wired, then I would be curious how that works out since then it becomes pretty gray area of who's at fault. That's one for judge or jury and not I or anyone else.
Should be interesting to see what outcome is from this event. Word to the wise. It's not always prudent to fight fire with fire. Especially if your "fire" c