It's a small program that requires only one executable, and the DB file. I put it on my USB thumbdrive and have it wherever I go. It's really not that difficult.
I recently started using Keepass, an open source, encrypted database for storing all your login/password information. Keepass uses AES and Twofish for encryption, and also gives you the ability to generate passwords, based on several criteria (upper/lowercase, special characters, extended ascii characters, etc.) All you need to remember is a "master" key that unlocks the DB.
My Slashdot password (as if it needed much security), is 101 bits, and I couldn't tell you what it was if I wanted to. I just open up keepass, select "copy to clipboard", and paste the password when prompted for login info. Keepass clears the clipboard after 10 seconds, and stops functioning if you haven't used the program in 30 (?) seconds.
I think it's great. Up until now, I had four fairly insecure passwords that I rotated among dozens of accounts/sites. This is much easier, and MUCH more secure.
Ever eager to hop on the next technological bandwagon, upon reading the article,
I went to this Accoona.com and tried a few searches. The results shocked me. None
of the four items I searched for were even on the first page! (except for AOL
and Slate, which were found as a sponsored link). Most of the results were not
even close to what I was looking for.
Very, very different. After searching with these very common, popular queries,
I've come to the conclusion that this new Accoona search engine isn't worth
it's weight in salt. Really, it's a great testimony to how good Google really
is.
Of lesser importance, the time it takes to obtain said search results is significantly
longer than for Google.
"Hotard said the problem was purely technological."
Oh, what a relief!
That reminds me of the Seinfeld episode "The Betrayal" where the gang goes to India and George finds out Jerry slept with Nina: JERRY: Alright, I admit it. I slept with Nina, but that's all.
GEORGE: (Outraged) "That's all"?! That's everything! I don't know what all the rest of it is for anyway!
After reading some of the website, I predict that this will never happen, at least not in any meaningful way.
This looks entirely like a publicity stunt. It looks like the commercial aspects are driving it, instead of the technical ones. For example, they appear to plan to have a robot that is in the car. That is purely for marketing reasons - you want an anthropomorphic robot that can capture the imagination of the public and which you can sell dolls of.
In fact, it's crazy to put the computer in the car. Race cars crash. You can't put your Supercomputer at risk like that.
Also, they are outsourcing everything. That is guaranteed to multiply the difficulties. They are planning separate computer hardware, software, and robotics companies. Yeah, right. That's going to work!
And they've already announced a completion date, 2003. I would like this project a whole lot better if it was being done by an established institute (MIT, SRI, PARC) or a supercomputer company (IBM, HP, Compaq) and if it was being done in a low-key, almost invisible way. If this was real, the public wouldn't hear about it until there was a working prototype.
In any event, if I was the world champion F1 driver, I would welcome their efforts to beat my time on a given track. But I wouldn't get on the track at the same time as the robot. No way.
On a similar vein, somebody (I don't know who) said that computers will have as many internal connections as the human brain has synapses in 19 years. I think this comes from extrapolating "Moore's Law" (computer power doubles every 18 months).
I wonder at what stage of complexity self-awareness begins. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave."
Slashdot Mirror
Steps to generate a 101 bit password:
Key length: 16 characters
Include:
Upper alphabetic characters (A, B, C, D)
Lower alphabetic characters (a, b, c, d)
Numerical characters (1,2,3,4... )
Special characters (!, $, %, ^, etc.)
Voila! 101 bit password.
You can further increase it to 117 bits if you include: underline character, minus, space, higher ansi characters, and special brackets.
It's a small program that requires only one executable, and the DB file. I put it on my USB thumbdrive and have it wherever I go. It's really not that difficult.
I recently started using Keepass, an open source, encrypted database for storing all your login/password information. Keepass uses AES and Twofish for encryption, and also gives you the ability to generate passwords, based on several criteria (upper/lowercase, special characters, extended ascii characters, etc.) All you need to remember is a "master" key that unlocks the DB.
http://keepass.sourceforge.net/features.php/
My Slashdot password (as if it needed much security), is 101 bits, and I couldn't tell you what it was if I wanted to. I just open up keepass, select "copy to clipboard", and paste the password when prompted for login info. Keepass clears the clipboard after 10 seconds, and stops functioning if you haven't used the program in 30 (?) seconds.
I think it's great. Up until now, I had four fairly insecure passwords that I rotated among dozens of accounts/sites. This is much easier, and MUCH more secure.
What about that small African tribe that communicates by clacking their tongue? Will it translate that?
Here are the first four Accoona searches I did:
MSN
SLATE
AOL
BAY AREA RIDERS FORUM (this is a very popular bay area-centric motorcycle forum that I regularly visit)
Compare and contrast this with the results I received from Google:
MSN
SLATE
AOL
BAY AREA RIDERS FORUM
Very, very different. After searching with these very common, popular queries, I've come to the conclusion that this new Accoona search engine isn't worth it's weight in salt. Really, it's a great testimony to how good Google really is.
Of lesser importance, the time it takes to obtain said search results is significantly longer than for Google.
"Hotard said the problem was purely technological."
Oh, what a relief!
That reminds me of the Seinfeld episode "The Betrayal" where the gang goes to India and George finds out Jerry slept with Nina:
JERRY: Alright, I admit it. I slept with Nina, but that's all.
GEORGE: (Outraged) "That's all"?! That's everything! I don't know what all the rest of it is for anyway!
For almost $8,000, give me a used Yamaha R1. 150 HP, 450lbs, 0-130 MPH in Ten Seconds. Hovercraft? Bah. -Cereb
After reading some of the website, I predict that this will never happen, at least not in any meaningful way.
This looks entirely like a publicity stunt. It looks like the commercial aspects are driving it, instead of the technical ones. For example, they appear to plan to have a robot that is in the car. That is purely for marketing reasons - you want an anthropomorphic robot that can capture the imagination of the public and which you can sell dolls of.
In fact, it's crazy to put the computer in the car. Race cars crash. You can't put your Supercomputer at risk like that.
Also, they are outsourcing everything. That is guaranteed to multiply the difficulties. They are planning separate computer hardware, software, and robotics companies. Yeah, right. That's going to work!
And they've already announced a completion date, 2003. I would like this project a whole lot better if it was being done by an established institute (MIT, SRI, PARC) or a supercomputer company (IBM, HP, Compaq) and if it was being done in a low-key, almost invisible way. If this was real, the public wouldn't hear about it until there was a working prototype.
In any event, if I was the world champion F1 driver, I would welcome their efforts to beat my time on a given track. But I wouldn't get on the track at the same time as the robot. No way.
On a similar vein, somebody (I don't know who) said that computers will have as many internal connections as the human brain has synapses in 19 years. I think this comes from extrapolating "Moore's Law" (computer power doubles every 18 months).
I wonder at what stage of complexity self-awareness begins. "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave."