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User: RabidChipmunk

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  1. Gandi's bank and those 3 digits on Slashback: Deception, Fusion, Membership · · Score: 1

    Someone had posted about online banks requesting those last three digits on the back of your credit card.

    I looked at Gandi, and they looked good. Totally automated.

    I signed up, and the bank they used to handle the credit payment wanted those three digits. http://www.creditmutuel.fr/

    They had a little radio button to select "There is no 3 digit code." However, it isn't an actual radio button; It just pops up a window, with a picture of where to find the three numbers. You can't continue without typing some numbers in the box.

    So, I called CitiBank. They said the number was internal and I should never be needed, and never given out. (It is apparently on the magnetic strip though, so...) The operator at Citibank thought it was fishy.

    I did want to complete the transaction. I just didn't want to give out those three numbers. Mozilla claimed the encryption was valid, and the key proper from Verisign. So I used my credit card, but filled the last 4 numbers of the card in instead of the "verification code." Low and behold it works fine. I didn't try again with a random number.

    Before anyone coments, the card is set to be canceled next month.

    Do credit cards in Europe have some use for this number? Is this normal for a French bank? They can't have used it during the validation. It didn't even complain that I gave them 4 numbers.

    Any thoughts from the Europeans?

  2. LinuxNT on RMS Says Hurd Could Be Loosed in 2002 · · Score: 1


    Hurd can be the New Technology that allows Linux to enter the server space....

    LinuXP...?

    Seriously though, it would a similar transition.

  3. Always hit "yes" Re:So what? on Bill Joy's Takes on C# · · Score: 1
    But I don't know if you understood me, I was commenting:

    Just like a Word file that asks if you want to run macros. How many users always know when they should say yes?


    Did I mix my threads? I thought I read earlier:

    How many users know they should always say yes?


    Which is closer to what most of the users I know have learned. "Just click 'OK'"
  4. Re:Given enough motivation on Satellite Command Security? · · Score: 1

    Accepted.

    However, if we define this degredation as a necessary property of blackholes, then we've another ball of wax.

    If a security measure has a built in time limit, do we count waiting until the limit is over?

    This does bring up a discussion of entropy, and the relevance of degredation. We usually think of time as increasing the ability of a secret to be discovered because of two things: The agregation of attacks, and improvements in technology. We think in terms of implementing stronger defences. However, over time things break down on their own. If we're dealing with satelites, then there is a lot of radiation, which can flip a lot of bits. More importantly, it's very hard to swap in new parts.

    The thing is that this isn't solely an issue with satelites and similar "distant" resources. The tech mindset is based in a replacement mentality; Supplacement is assumed and possibly necessary for the current growth of our abilities. We need to keep everthing on a time scale. How long does this need to survive? How long might it last? What do we do when it fails? What do we do when it doesn't fail? What do we do with the residue (space junk/computer landfills)?

    Time is an issue we rarely incorporate in our designs.

  5. Re:Given enough motivation on Satellite Command Security? · · Score: 1
    it's along the same lines of 'anything that can be made can be unmade'. It's just one of those natural laws...

    It is possible to make a black hole. The ability to "unmake" one is left as a exercise for the student.

  6. Re:Faster, smaller, cheaper? on 20 Factors That Will Change PCs In 2002 · · Score: 1


    Demanding WinTel ties you to a lot of extra costs. You can't sell a $200 PC that comes with a $100 OS.

    Similarly, backward compatibility is a major cost issue. For people with old equipment, doing away with it will cost them. For the manufacturer keeping it adds a lot to the cost, and degrades performance.

    If you want small, fast, and cheep you're better off looking at a beefed up embeded system. Note that you can keep Intel, if you want.

  7. less than NP crypto on Consequences of a Solution to NP Complete Problems? · · Score: 1

    ROT13 !!!!

    Hey if the DMCA says it's crypto....

  8. Re:Just waiting for someone to... on Another Gaping Microsoft Security Hole Goes Unpatched · · Score: 1

    http://goatse.cx/

    I apologize in advance.

  9. Re:Linux Killer App - HP 3000 Emulator on HP To Kill 3000 System After 30 years · · Score: 1

    If they have piles of cash, why don't they hire a programmer with it? Each company with old 3000's can support one member of the development team, and call it a support contract.

    Software support is a human resources issue.

  10. Re:A Computer Shop's point of view on The Report of My Thermal Death Have Been... · · Score: 1


    Wouldn't the adhesive barcode obstruct the motherboards thermal sensor, thus increasing the likelyhood of frying the CPU?

  11. Question: on Rambus to Attempt to Collect Royalties on Chipsets · · Score: 1
    Can the courts invalidate the patents as a ruling?


    How high a court would be needed to order a review of the USPO?


    ----

  12. ADD is input specific on Video Games and ADD · · Score: 1

    Ever notice that "hyperactive" kids will stare at a screen non-stop for hours? Maybe they'll draw for hours; or read SF, or code. It is only when you point them at a textbook that they have an attention defficit.


    ADD people can't pay attention to boring stuff. It's a matter of stimulus level and skill training. Games are easy to progress at so kids become experts and addicts. Usefull skills have a hard initial learning curve but once you get past it they can be as addictive as games.


    ADD is only a disorder if you haven't learned to cope with your brain emersed in the world.


    My ADD is bad, but my hands are worse.
    ----

  13. Space x Time on Encryption Debate at Mitnick Trial · · Score: 1

    > A day to encrypt one doc? Think about this.
    > I can encrypt a doc in 5 seconds.
    > For it to take a day, say, half a day, 12 hours, I would have to say... computers would
    > have to be 8640 times faster today than they were in 1994.

    Actually no. Because you can trade some of the
    time for space. So, assuming that you can
    design the alg to use all of your space,
    My 64Meg P233, has >20,000 times the
    SpaceTime capacity of a C64 with a 10mhz
    (that's a guess) chip and 64k RAM.
    I would suspect the Gov can do the equivalent for
    any hardware commonly available in 1994.


    -sh
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  14. Why they couldn't decrypt it. on Encryption Debate at Mitnick Trial · · Score: 1

    The files aren't actually that well
    encrypted, it just that they stored
    the harddrive on top of some speakers
    and randomized it.




    "Truely complicated noise is indistinguishable
    from random information."




    -sh

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  15. Re:Is this news? - Typo on Windows NT 4.0 C2 Evaluation finished · · Score: 1

    MSweb obviously made a typo.

    The index page is labled Dec 2, 1998.
    The NT4 page is labled Dec 2, 1999.

    -sh

  16. FBI shuts down NBC on FBI Shuts Down Website · · Score: 2

    Video about rioting on NewYears?

    So when does NBC go off the air?

    -sh

  17. Its funny actually..(sigh) on ESR and the MindCraft Fiasco · · Score: 1

    You benchmark a server by setting it up on a network, and connecting many clients to it. The clients all run exactly the same stuff. The clients collect the data.
    The reason that these tests are expensive is that it takes a lot of clients to load down a large server.

    The entire point of benchmarks is to determine if one machine (or OS on the same hardware) is significantly faster than the other. The tests under discusion are run on the same hardware.

    On a desktop machine, what works is what you are most comfortable with as a user. On a server what works is not having your clients call you on the phone.

    -sh