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I'm the one being accused of "ludicrous conspiracy theories" by those who would suggest that "Israel and the U.S. want to keep this secret because they're the ones who engineered an aerosol communicable avian flu"?!?

So let me just be clear, Ansu - you are suggesting, straight-faced - that this is all probably somehow a "Zionist conspiracy in collaboration with the imperialistic American lapdogs that the Zionists control"?

*smirk* Oh PLEASE say that is EXACTLY what you mean.

Do you guys even !@#*in' HEAR yourselves?!? It is amazing that the irony is so consistently lost on you guys. And MY nerves are cauterized? My hat is off to you few who I can so consistently rely on to respond as you have here.

The great puzzle is that you're all intelligent guys - no doubt far more educated and with better reasoning skills than I in a great many topics. Yet you've all got a persistent blind spot in your field of vision right... about... here. This very topic, you all become myopic in a singular way.

Let me address your points, Ansu - as they relate to FOSS...

I linked originally in the post to a link that elaborated that the water pump was NOT related to code. Unfortunately that link didn't work, and it being New Years, I was busy and haven't had a chance yet to provide a corrected link to my editor. So - I attempted, in good faith, to illustrate that my example used in the post was most likely *already* discredited. As far as I'm concerned in response to your questions above - I'm not concerned with if plausible attacks against our infrastructure IS are against software systems designed on open-source *or* closed source code. I actually don't have a horse in that race. My opinion is that it is a 6 of one/half a dozen of the other argument. Information systems are inherently vulnerable to malicious exploits and I think there are compelling arguments that either Open or Closed can be as weak or as strongly secured as the people managing those systems.

You - and a select group of vocal, passionate, and vocal FOSS advocates here disagree - and believe that the FOSS model is inherently *superior* to closed source, and will accept nothing less than complete submission to that point of view. It makes for a consistently entertaining and amusing course of academic debate here - one that illustrates some of my *other* strongly held opinions about (some members of) the FOSS community.

Therefore I don't think it is necessary that I address your questions point by point - as they're not issues I ever actually suggested were (or, conversely are NOT) the case. I know you WANT to take the conversation in that direction - because it is a direction you feel very comfortable in your ability to defend your perspective. But that wasn't ever really my point.

My point then, stated clearly, is that building your infrastructure on information systems that are open source or closed source doesn't actually matter. That your dedication to security and best practices is what counts - and that even with a FOSS based system constantly evaluated by the "many eyes" security model - that - to borrow a phrase - "nature will find a way".

For example, I'm guessing that the infected systems in Iran's reactor system (bringing this back around to your US/Israel conspiracy theory) probably aren't running on platforms built on Microsoft or Apple technology. But I bet that whatever they ARE running on, it isn't one we're going to see the FOSS/*nix community claiming as an example of how the most robust, mission critical systems in the world are built on FOSS/*nix platforms - regardless of how likely it is that this is case.