I wonder if these are new vulnerabilities or if the maybe existed all along? Would an adapted exploit work against Java 5?

Maybe java security research just had a breakthrough and they found some new attack vector/methodology which uncovers all these vulnerabilites?

I heard the microsoft mobile store works the same way? Like ebay? And what about Amazon, is their app store in any ways like their "seller central"?

I don't remember where I read it, but it's good advice:

Copy the first time, only start refactoring if you need the code a third time.

I'm all for fighting the system and stuff. But in which country of the world, doesn't the system fight back?

Omg, I knew there was a secret ingredient!

Oh yes The Register, please tell us about the enormous number of people who went to Mint? Hmmmm, not a single number in the whole article?

Oh please! You may dismiss Distrowatch, but then you have to provide some better alternative metric. There isn't one. It is plain to anyone who checks the site regularly that although Ubuntu has more installations, Mint surpassed it in mindshare last year, closely followed by (gasp) Mageia! And I'm happy to see Puppy continuing to do well. It must be so boring to be a WinAppleSerf.

So. Your updating your parents to a now obsolete operating system? Why not Windows 8?

Windows 7 will be supported for years (probably past the lifetime of many of the machines it's running on), and is well understood, and builds on years of similar previous versions.

Windows 8 is different enough that it's reasonable to watch from the sidelines for awhile.

Not new is hardly obsolete. It's an operating system that works and will continue to work for many years to come.

Windows 7 is more like Windows XP/Vista than Windows 8 is so it is more likely easier to just drop them back to what they probably already know.

Also Windows 8 is brand new and while it works just fine upgrading to it isn't really something that needs too be done just yet. Windows 7 is still a great OS.

For what I've read Windows 8 flourishes on tablets but can be a bit annoying/split minded when controlled by a mouse. This combined with the fact that most businesses will probably skip Windows 8 and stay with/move to 7 gives me the trust it will be maintained for a while.

That is a pretty spot on summary of Windows 8. I use it on a laptop (no touch screen) and really like it but it can be a little bit disjointed to use. Saying that I never use any of the Metro (Modern UI) apps and uninstalled them all as soon as I installed Windows 8. They are not the kind of applications I want to use on a general purpose computer. A tablet? Yeah ok but not with a mouse. The 'old' desktop way of doing things is far better than the new way for 'old' input devices.

Windows 7 is not obsolete. It works, new hardware for many years will have Windows 7 drivers, and new games will work in Windows 7.

Unless you are a MS salesman trying to pitch WindowsRT...

The linked Wiki article is about 4 years old. The section about (inofficial) native clients, on distributions other than Ubuntu, was added.

Ah, if you can unsubscribe with one click, maybe even without logging in. What stops evil Bert over there from unsubscribing you? Sure, there might be some (session) token involved, but that could have been sniffed or brute-forced.

Actually mailing lists do it right, have the subscriber confirm his action by clicking a link in a confirmation mail or such. I think that's called double confirmation.

Generally when I unsubscribe from a newsletter they send me a message saying they are sorry to see me go, with a 1 click link to subscribe again ...

If "evil Bert" has access to my inbox, the jig is up anyway.

Pointless rant by some math student, or some programmer who feels he is missing out on math. Unclear on demands, probably wants to teach more math to kids.