Orbus @593: actually, I think Disemvowelling is aggressive, not P-A. As in "We are treating you as a troll because you're behaving like a troll, TTYF*!"

P-A behaviour would be posting "Wow - That's an amazingly passive-agressive term..." in parentheses while ostensibly making a constructive comment.

The above paragraph defines itself.

*Take That You Fiend!

Geekgasm. That is all.

"However, when there are so many islands of information and so many data transfers going on, and while simple guidance is not available to staff, further data loss nonetheless remains a distinct possibility and more needs to be done."

Hmm... does it sound to you like the solution is probably going to be "transfer everything onto one big cracktastic database"?

Rather than "get some security protocols NOW".

It's like the seats you get in UK bus stations now, specifically designed to "discourage vagrants"... which mean you get a bus station, where the passengers are often elderly, having to sit on seats that are designed to be uncomfortable to rest on (and to rest you shopping, drink or children on too).

arkizzle: mutual survivors of costumed gropage: she was Jerry, I was Tom, we have a FANTASTIC story for the grandkids (pending, since our kids are 6 and 9)

Having worked as a costumed character... everybody in a costume gets hit on.

Hell, I was dressed as Tom (from Tom & Jerry) on an Irish Sea Ferry, and I got groped... as did the girl who was playing Jerry.

Then again, kids, that *was* how I met your mother...

Chaff would help a GREAT deal along with encryption, especially encrypted chaff as well. Ensures that not only do you have an unreadable signal, but the signal is also inside a lot of noise.

Could help a lot with disguising torrenting, etc.

File this under "things I learnt while reading Little Brother".

Point of order sir: the redoubtable Mr Searle was merely the illustrator of the grate Molesworth books, the author was the late, great Geoffrey Willans...

... as any fule kno.

Dammit Cory, you posted the link right after I used the Build A Data Breach Bear case to develop my own data analogy:

*Darby's first rule of data: Personal data is like glitter in a kids craft box. It WILL leak, it WILL get into places you don't want it, and you can NEVER get it all back in the container.

...thinking it was familiar and annoying to a large part of my readership.

Maybe I ought to liken data to the contents of a newborn's nappy: Despite your best efforts at containment, it WILL leak into places you don't want it and cause an almighty stink.

Are both links supposed to go back to the BB article? Do we have Danny's report online yet?

#2 - current media industry lobbyists are made of fail, though. We are all teh winnar.

#3 - tell me about it: having headed off government oversight of home ed in the UK, they've just tried sneaking it in again under cover of health education...

Anyone else find it odd that, apparently, without human activity, rivers will become unsafe to drink when sewage treatment plants go offline...

All I want to do is pass on my colleague's comment that Gay Bowel Syndrome should be the opposite of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

It's where you spontaneously fart jaunty show tunes.

More CD-rom magazine goodness: http://www.forteantimes.com/front_website/cdrom/

Pretty much the whole of the Fortean Times, IIRC, Searchable, indexed PDF's.

http://www.amazon.com/Victor-Technologies-2021139-Magazine-Archive/dp/B00002EIWS

Dragon Magazine, up to about five years ago.