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User: tomsomething

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  1. Re:Phantom power draw isn't worth worrying about on Cable Management To Defeat Clutter? · · Score: 1

    I heard someone say "Watts per hour" on the news a few days ago. I'm still recovering.

  2. How about "Date Modified"? on Choosing Better-Quality JPEG Images With Software? · · Score: 1

    If by "near-duplicate" you mean different files that were actually once the same image, sorting by "date modified" might give you satisfactory results. Of course, I'm making certain assumtions here about how the images were acquired and why there are multiple versions, and only you will know if this applies to your situation, but I would suspect that the older files would be of better quality.

  3. Re:Awesome! on India To Issue Over a Billion Biometric ID Cards · · Score: 1

    I think the ideal result--and I'm not saying we're ready to do this--would be to have a secure, reliable "something you are" that would just work for everything.

  4. Re:News at 11 on Strong Passwords Not As Good As You Think · · Score: 1

    So, you're suggesting to _deliberately_ type the wrong password? Are we to assume, then that you already know your correct password, but to make a point that it's IMPOSSIBLE to remember, you're going to temporarily disable your own access to a service AND add unnecessary work to someone else's day? You should suggest your "big idea" to your superiors. They'll love it.

  5. Re:News at 11 on Strong Passwords Not As Good As You Think · · Score: 1

    I think that's the premise of the original post. A secure password is only secure if you can keep your yap shut and make sure no one is watching you. This doesn't seem like some new "holy crap" revelation, really. Phishing is a great way to steal credentials. IT does what it can to protect passwords from being guessed and to protect users from being convinced to reveal their passwords. Fun fact: IT people often have more passwords to remember than other users do. Why not ask how they keep track of their passwords? You'd be surprised how many of them can actually speak "human", and would likely be eager to provide a solution other than sticky notes.

  6. Re:entropy is winning on The Incredible Shrinking Genome · · Score: 1

    "Devolution" is like "reverse racism". Really just evolution and racism (respectively).

  7. Re:Competition? on NASA Requests Help With Von Braun's Notes · · Score: 1

    Problem with that is, underground Russian coders seem to be the best at making robots that bypass CAPTCHAs, and this would be a similar project. If Russians solve a U.S. space-related problem, JFK would roll over in his grave.

  8. Re:Nonsense on NASA Requests Help With Von Braun's Notes · · Score: 1

    Okay, smart guy. Then we just shatter the window. Perhaps with a loose knob of some sort. There's gotta be a way to get that window open!

  9. Re:Contact MIT and their archival department on NASA Requests Help With Von Braun's Notes · · Score: 1

    I agree. Usually, what works for search engine optimization works well for storing a bunch of records for easy retrieval. Many folks in web dev believe that PDFs are not the most search-engine-friendly things in the world. Basically, you'd want something texty and meta-y and semantic for easy searches. I'm glad you beat me to it, because you obviously have real experience doing this. Doesn't sound very fun, but hey, wodder interns for?

  10. Underwhelming Response on Text Comments Out In YouTube "National Discussion" of Health Care · · Score: 1

    I checked out some of the video responses. The OP's description of the collection as "a mixed-bag, including a one-finger salute, a talking butt, a woman 'Showing my Apples', and other off-topic rants and unrelated videos" neglects to acknowledge that there ARE legitimate responses. That description also seems to suggest that the Obama administration is to blame for losers and sociopaths on YouTube (I always wondered who let them in!). If they were allowing text-based comments, they would probably be expected to read every last one of them. I'm guessing there would be a lot of them, and I wouldn't expect the quality of the responses to take a sudden leap when they only require half a second of forethought. It seems at some point that this turned into a discussion of dishonesty in the Obama administration. I don't see how that applies here. They're not exactly "pulling a fast one on us" by disabling comments. Most people would catch on when they try to reply and the form isn't there.

  11. Re:IMHO on Domain-Name Wars, Rise of the Cybersquatters · · Score: 1

    A problem with the name "FreeLegoPorn" is that it isn't immediately clear whether the content is provided by Lego. I know I wouldn't want my company name to have an implied relationship with pornography (unless I had a porn company).

  12. Re:LSD and Weed on How To Get Out of Developer's Block? · · Score: 1

    I'll have to add "boioioioing" to my signature... purely for scientific purposes. Let's tell no one of your discovery.

  13. Re:LSD and Weed on How To Get Out of Developer's Block? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Love the "Insightful" mod! What if I said "ba-ZING!"

  14. Re:This guy .. on Nielsen Recommends Not Masking Passwords · · Score: 1

    As you say, Nielson has earned himself a reputation as a preeminent authority on the subject, but the decades of actual user experience data we can collect from the long-standing practice of password masking might serve as the grain of salt with which we take his observation. How many people have actually complained about password masking over the years? There are some users with less-than-ideal security practices, and masking is one small but significant way that an access credential can be protected. The user isn't the only one who stands to lose something if his or her password is compromised, and optional masking is likely to be disabled primarily by the very users who unknowingly benefit from it in the first place.

  15. Re:Let's Geto to Work on Has Google Broken JavaScript Spam Munging? · · Score: 1

    Dangit, I misspelled "ghetto" in my own post title. No, wait...

  16. Let's Geto to Work on Has Google Broken JavaScript Spam Munging? · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yay, Google. Judging by the responses I've seen so far, it seems most of us think this is a step forward for the search engine. That said, why don't we use this story as an opportunity to have a productive conversation about e-mail address security in a world where JavaScript's effectiveness is dwindling? Here's one from A List Apart that uses some fancy mod_rewrite stuff. http://www.alistapart.com/articles/gracefulemailobfuscation/ I know we've got a lot of geniuses and experts in here. Don't be modest! Show off how smart you are! And yes, the next brilliant security measure will someday be pummeled by a robot that some spammer puts together, but hell if that ain't just exciting! We're helping people build better, "smarter" robots, and criminals are some of society's greatest innovators.

  17. Re:Unfortunate on Buying a Domain From a Cybersquatter · · Score: 1

    I think the best thing for the community would be to acquire the domain and use it for a purpose that is relevant to its name. Cybersquatting is, in my opinion, downright deplorable for two reasons: it turns the internet into a field of "Your Ad Here" bus-stop bench ads, and it makes a disgustingly unnecessary contribution to the cost of starting a business. I hope that someday we can put an end to this nasty "business".

  18. Business Listings on Google Considers Taking Beta Tag Off Gmail · · Score: 1

    As long as they'll have an extra "beta" tag lying around ready for use, why don't they slap it onto their local business listing robots. If you represent an organization and need to change your listing(s)(s)(s)(s), it can be a disaster. Gmail FTW.

  19. List Lacks Consistency on Top 10 Disappointing Technologies · · Score: 1

    The list bounces from specific product initiatives to new technologies that have yet to come of age. What is "virtual reality"? I was unaware that there was a universally agreed-upon definition for this. Some people may even say that modern video games demonstrate virtual reality. Others may even say that Pong is a form of VR. I also doubt that we've seen the end of biometrics and voice recognition. If they can be made to work reliably, a lot of folks stand to benefit.

  20. Do we know who the target market is? on Does Dell Know What Women Want In a Laptop? · · Score: 1

    I can't find the part of the main dell.com site that points to Della. I was hoping I would find something so I could see what Dell's angle really is. There seems to be this assumption in the community that this section is being marketed to "Jane Everywoman". What if the purpose of this site is to entice, specifically, the sort of women who read the fashion magazines, love to shop, and love to turn heads? How could the internet possibly be so boring that we're looking for reasons to be outraged? If you ask me, I blame those damn cats that have Twitter accounts.

  21. The Bright Side on Brain Scanning May Be Used In EU Security Checks · · Score: 1

    The positive thing about this is that people are trying to develop more reliable biometric technology. It could be argued that an ID card, passport, employee badge, credit card, wrist band, or door key is an item used to prove identity and entitlement. Biometrics are a form of identification that comes closer to proving that you _are_ who you're supposed to be, not just that you have what you're supposed to have. Now, I'm not saying that this kind of technology couldn't be used invasively, but there are potential benefits to our own security as well.