Morgon

@PhoenixDown They're not victims of actual 'break-in' attacks.

This is denial-of-service, which is essentially equivalent of gathering a large number of vehicles to block the streets so that you can't get to the [PlayStation] store.

There's only so much 'bandwidth' that any connected service (and by extension, the routers that serve that service) can have. Fill it with bogus information, and you effectively block anyone else trying to exchange information with that service.

@hiruuamon Actually, the more accurate story is that Network Solutions - the registrar that Stepto registered his domain through - needs to have better fact-checking in place for when someone claims they've misplaced their information.

If you actually read the comment threads (or, you know, the actual story), you'll notice that the issue at hand was that NetSol handed over control of the domain name to the kid, who then essentially controlled every aspect of the domain, including email. Since Stepto's Windows Live ID was on stepto.com (to which the kid then had control over), all it took was a WLID 'Forgot Password' link to generate an email and give direct access.

In many ways, it's akin to someone taking over your telephone number - all incoming calls would be routed to the attacker.

@Joeybeast How is it embarrassing for Xbox? I think you meant to type that it's embarrassing for Network Solutions, which was the root 'controller' of Stepto's hosting environment (Not sure if he had actual hosting with them, or if it was just domain services).

For example, if someone got ahold of your full credit card details from your bank/provider and bought a bunch of stuff from Amazon, is it 'embarrassing' for Amazon? Very similar situation.

It should be noted that the actual algorithm for generating the 25-character ('5 x 5') codes hasn't been compromised, it's only this ridiculously-insecure 'external' system that had the authority to request new codes that was figured out.

This is a very important difference.

Those are all awesome songs, but I absolutely hate how they're mixed. Scratching and audio cut-outs do not belong in trance songs.. to me, the whole idea of trance is for it to be fluid.

In both of those videos, the mixes sound great when they're not being ripped to shreds by pointless effects.

Now is the time for Square[-Enix]'s 3D World Runner to make a comeback!

@ArkAngel [and all]

Xbox, Games for Windows, and Windows Phone 7 all share the same game history and GamerScore - 'Live' is the name of the actual online platform.

BioShock is one of the games you can 'double up' on Achievements - play it on Xbox and PC and both contribute to your GamerScore.

In order to flee the planet? I wonder if sushi would keep any better in zero-g..

@Grey http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=kensington+lock&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai= :)

If you Google some of those lyrics in the screenshots, you'll notice some Genesis love in there (Sussudio) - hell yeah (and 'about time!')