Three strikes is usually enough to stop a brute force attack. That and a list of super-common passwords that you can't use "querty", "password", "trustno1", etc. And if something does get through, they could just disable the account.
I signed up for a forum a couple of weeks ago. I used the same generic password that I use for every other throw-away site out there, so it's easy to remember the damn thing. When I clicked submit, I got an error message telling me that my password needs a number in it. So I append a '1' on the end to satisfy the filter, and click submit again. I get *another* error message telling me that it needs to be mixed case, so I capitalized the first letter. Now I'll forget the password and never be able to guess the damn thing again, so the next time I want to log in to whatever forum this was, I'll need it to send me an email with a reminder.
It would be really nice if they'd just turn those damn filters off. This forum site isn't a bank. I couldn't give two shits if someone hacks my account there, not that my regular password is particularly guessable anyway. Seriously, I my password to your dipshit forum shouldn't have to contain mixed case, three numbers, nine punctuation marks, Egyptian fucking hieroglyphs, and that goddamn symbol the artist formerly known as Prince uses. Failing that, it would be nice if they at least provided some instructions with the password box that say something to the point of "Capitalize the first letter of your generic password and append a 1."
Black suits with a white shirt, sure. If you wear a bold color underneath, though, particularly blue, red, or burgundy, it's more of a party look. Sometimes you might want to omit the tie and unbutton the collar of the shirt.
* Check your area for various clubs and activities, of the sort where you can meet geeky girls. Ren faires, anime clubs and conventions, gaming clubs, steampunk conventions (seriously, the geeky goth chicks love them), etc. * If you can get away with it without looking horribly overdressed, wear a suit (maybe tell people you just got off of work). Preferably black, with a colored shirt. It makes you look alpha, but not overly serious. Chicks dig guys in a suit. * Internet dating works. Be honest about being a geek, but understand that you also need other interests. Sometimes it helps to cultivate an interest in classical music, art, and plays. * If you normally have confidence issues, the best time to meet women is when there's some other factor in your life that's making you feel particularly good about yourself. Go out and schmooze after you just got a new job or a big promotion. You'll find you have better luck. * Along the same vein, accept that you're single. Ironically, it makes it easier to meet women. * If you're some girl's cuddle bitch, break things off with her. It's bad for your confidence, and providing affection without sex is about as far from an alpha behavior as you can get. It won't get you any women, particularly not the one who's using you.
That's all I can come up with at the moment. Looks like there are actually a lot of good tips on here, though. Go out, meet new people, and give it a shot. Good luck!:)
At no point in my post did I ever attempt to justify anything. In fact, I specifically pointed out that there's a chance you may have otherwise purchased the product, thus depriving the IP holder of revenue.
Regardless of whether it's right or wrong (and I'd argue that pirating a copyrighted work is wrong), it's not the same as walking off with someone's purse or taking their car. Using physical objects as an analogy is disingenuous, and you know it.
At one point, a copyright cartel bigwig said that "file sharing" isn't really sharing because when you share something with someone, you don't have it any more. And sure, I'll give him that. But, by the same token, it's not stealing either, because when you steal something from someone, they don't have it any more.
Honestly, the reason the whole "piracy is stealing" but will never sink in is because piracy isn't really stealing and people know it.
If I walk off with someone's handbag, that handbag is gone. The fact is, with a digital copy, there's no real life analogy. If I go up to someone's handbag, make an exact copy of it, and walk off with the copy, the owner of the handbag probably won't care (nor would I have done anything illegal anyway).
The only thing you're depriving the IP owner of when you copy their IP is the chance that you'll purchase their product. Even then, if you purchase the product because you pirated it and liked it, then the IP owner actually gets additional revenue from your piracy (although it's unlikely that this quite adds up to the lost revenue).
I can't justify everything I've downloaded from the pirate bay, however, there are certain instances where I don't feel the least bit sorry:
* I purchased Spore and then downloaded the cracked version, which I installed on my computer, and then edited the system registry to give myself a the key. Sorry, if I purchased a piece of software, I deserve to get at least as good an experience as the pirates do, which means no rootkits. * Several years ago, I purchased RPG Maker XP. I've gone through several computers since the purchase, and it no longer allows me to activate the software. I'd like to continue using the software that I legitimately paid for, and my only option is to download a cracked, pirated version. * On many occasions, I've downloaded no-CD cracks for games I've purchased legitimately.
Did I violate the DMCA in these cases? Probably. Do I feel justified in doing so? Absolutely. I shouldn't be locked out of software that I purchase, and when I buy software legitimately, I shouldn't be punished for it with shitty DRM.
Let's say, hypothetically, that you walk into a comic book store. There are five people in there browsing comics. Four of those people are fairly normal looking folks who are just there to buy comics and leave. The fifth one is a large guy with poor hygiene who corners you and talks to you incessantly about whether or not Captain Kirk could have single-handedly taken out the Death Star, and seems oblivious to the not-so-subtle signals you're giving off as you try to back away.
Who are you going to remember? The four normal people, or the smelly dude who wouldn't leave you alone? Hell, *I* stereotype comic book geeks, and I *am* one. When I see them portrayed that way on TV, I usually get a laugh out of it, because I've met the exact sort of person they're portraying.
That said, I think the classic HOLY CRAP IT'S A HOT CHICK IN MY COMIC BOOK STORE thing is a bit overdone. There are plenty of hot chicks, my fiancee included, who like comics. (Oh yeah, there's another stereotype -- Slashdot readers are all single, right?)
Eugene Izhikevitch [a mathematician at the Neurosciences Institute] and I have made a model with a million simulated neurons and almost half a billion synapses, all connected through neuronal anatomy equivalent to that of a cat brain. What we find, to our delight, is that it has intrinsic activity. Up until now our BBDs had activity only when they confronted the world, when they saw input signals. In between signals, they went dark. But this damn thing now fires on its own continually. The second thing is, it has beta waves and gamma waves just like the regular cortexâ"what you would see if you did an electroencephalogram. Third of all, it has a rest state. That is, when you donâ(TM)t stimulate it, the whole population of neurons stray back and forth, as has been described by scientists in human beings who arenâ(TM)t thinking of anything.
On the other hand, you can sustain a steady run for longer than any other animal in existence. Being a biped also frees up your other appendages for tool use and manipulation of your environment, a further advantage over quadrupeds. Don't let this insensitive clod get you down, and keep practicing climbing those stairs. You'll get it eventually!
I tend to agree with you. That said, I've seen a lot of projects make a big decision like this in the name of usability and then make it impossible to disable whatever they did. (Remember the GNOME spatial file browsing fiasco? I finally dumped GNOME for KDE after I read an article telling me that the only reason I liked to see my files in an alphabetized list with detail information was that I was using my computer wrong.)
There will always be room for innovation, provided that people can disable the new features that they don't like.
...provided the box could be shut off permanently. If it pops up for every site and I can't turn it off, I'll just find another ad blocker.
That said, there are some sites where I leave ad blocking on -- generally, they're sites that I want to support, and that don't serve up ads that jiggle or flash obnoxious colors. If I see an ad like that, I just turn ads right back off for that site and forget about it.
It's too late for that now. I've entered some incomplete C code in a text editor and pressed Enter, and now there's a progress bar on my screen that says "UPLOADING VIRUS". You're screwed.
After all, Greenlight, being government-run, is by very definition grossly inefficient. Time Warner ought to be able to beat them on both performance and price and still have a wide profit margin.
Either that or maybe sometimes the government can actually provide decent, efficient services...
Hahah, nope. At least not in the version that was shipped (and made default!) with Ubuntu 8.10. From what I've heard, Fedora's version isn't any better off. Either the distros are fucking things up big time, or this dude's vastly overestimating the completeness of his software. Or both.
They're referring to Flash 10 Beta, which I've found to be pretty usable. Certainly way better than previous versions, which mucked up my sound output.
If someone is used to RedHat and wants a free version of it, they ought to be using Centos, which is pretty much an exact duplicate of RedHat Enterprise, except rebranded and free.
If robots are ever more intelligent than us, they'll also be intelligent enough to make good decisions. Frankly, I'd rather have the more intelligent beings in charge. They would actually make more intelligent decisions!
So what you're saying is that you, for one, welcome our robotic overlords?
Slashdot Mirror
Three strikes is usually enough to stop a brute force attack. That and a list of super-common passwords that you can't use "querty", "password", "trustno1", etc. And if something does get through, they could just disable the account.
I signed up for a forum a couple of weeks ago. I used the same generic password that I use for every other throw-away site out there, so it's easy to remember the damn thing. When I clicked submit, I got an error message telling me that my password needs a number in it. So I append a '1' on the end to satisfy the filter, and click submit again. I get *another* error message telling me that it needs to be mixed case, so I capitalized the first letter. Now I'll forget the password and never be able to guess the damn thing again, so the next time I want to log in to whatever forum this was, I'll need it to send me an email with a reminder.
It would be really nice if they'd just turn those damn filters off. This forum site isn't a bank. I couldn't give two shits if someone hacks my account there, not that my regular password is particularly guessable anyway. Seriously, I my password to your dipshit forum shouldn't have to contain mixed case, three numbers, nine punctuation marks, Egyptian fucking hieroglyphs, and that goddamn symbol the artist formerly known as Prince uses. Failing that, it would be nice if they at least provided some instructions with the password box that say something to the point of "Capitalize the first letter of your generic password and append a 1."
[/rant]
Black suits with a white shirt, sure. If you wear a bold color underneath, though, particularly blue, red, or burgundy, it's more of a party look. Sometimes you might want to omit the tie and unbutton the collar of the shirt.
* Check your area for various clubs and activities, of the sort where you can meet geeky girls. Ren faires, anime clubs and conventions, gaming clubs, steampunk conventions (seriously, the geeky goth chicks love them), etc.
* If you can get away with it without looking horribly overdressed, wear a suit (maybe tell people you just got off of work). Preferably black, with a colored shirt. It makes you look alpha, but not overly serious. Chicks dig guys in a suit.
* Internet dating works. Be honest about being a geek, but understand that you also need other interests. Sometimes it helps to cultivate an interest in classical music, art, and plays.
* If you normally have confidence issues, the best time to meet women is when there's some other factor in your life that's making you feel particularly good about yourself. Go out and schmooze after you just got a new job or a big promotion. You'll find you have better luck.
* Along the same vein, accept that you're single. Ironically, it makes it easier to meet women.
* If you're some girl's cuddle bitch, break things off with her. It's bad for your confidence, and providing affection without sex is about as far from an alpha behavior as you can get. It won't get you any women, particularly not the one who's using you.
That's all I can come up with at the moment. Looks like there are actually a lot of good tips on here, though. Go out, meet new people, and give it a shot. Good luck! :)
At no point in my post did I ever attempt to justify anything. In fact, I specifically pointed out that there's a chance you may have otherwise purchased the product, thus depriving the IP holder of revenue.
Regardless of whether it's right or wrong (and I'd argue that pirating a copyrighted work is wrong), it's not the same as walking off with someone's purse or taking their car. Using physical objects as an analogy is disingenuous, and you know it.
At one point, a copyright cartel bigwig said that "file sharing" isn't really sharing because when you share something with someone, you don't have it any more. And sure, I'll give him that. But, by the same token, it's not stealing either, because when you steal something from someone, they don't have it any more.
Honestly, the reason the whole "piracy is stealing" but will never sink in is because piracy isn't really stealing and people know it.
If I walk off with someone's handbag, that handbag is gone. The fact is, with a digital copy, there's no real life analogy. If I go up to someone's handbag, make an exact copy of it, and walk off with the copy, the owner of the handbag probably won't care (nor would I have done anything illegal anyway).
The only thing you're depriving the IP owner of when you copy their IP is the chance that you'll purchase their product. Even then, if you purchase the product because you pirated it and liked it, then the IP owner actually gets additional revenue from your piracy (although it's unlikely that this quite adds up to the lost revenue).
Go figure.
I can't justify everything I've downloaded from the pirate bay, however, there are certain instances where I don't feel the least bit sorry:
* I purchased Spore and then downloaded the cracked version, which I installed on my computer, and then edited the system registry to give myself a the key. Sorry, if I purchased a piece of software, I deserve to get at least as good an experience as the pirates do, which means no rootkits.
* Several years ago, I purchased RPG Maker XP. I've gone through several computers since the purchase, and it no longer allows me to activate the software. I'd like to continue using the software that I legitimately paid for, and my only option is to download a cracked, pirated version.
* On many occasions, I've downloaded no-CD cracks for games I've purchased legitimately.
Did I violate the DMCA in these cases? Probably. Do I feel justified in doing so? Absolutely. I shouldn't be locked out of software that I purchase, and when I buy software legitimately, I shouldn't be punished for it with shitty DRM.
Madness?
THIS IS FEDORAAAAAA!
*kicks you into a hole*
Nintendo...
Just when I think you couldn't be any dumber, you go and do something like this...
AND TOTALLY REDEEM YOURSELF!
Wow, and to think I'd pretty much given up on anything good ever coming out for the Wii. Glad to see I was wrong. :)
Thanks, that really helped me see past my stereotype of Slashdot readers. :)
Let's say, hypothetically, that you walk into a comic book store. There are five people in there browsing comics. Four of those people are fairly normal looking folks who are just there to buy comics and leave. The fifth one is a large guy with poor hygiene who corners you and talks to you incessantly about whether or not Captain Kirk could have single-handedly taken out the Death Star, and seems oblivious to the not-so-subtle signals you're giving off as you try to back away.
Who are you going to remember? The four normal people, or the smelly dude who wouldn't leave you alone? Hell, *I* stereotype comic book geeks, and I *am* one. When I see them portrayed that way on TV, I usually get a laugh out of it, because I've met the exact sort of person they're portraying.
That said, I think the classic HOLY CRAP IT'S A HOT CHICK IN MY COMIC BOOK STORE thing is a bit overdone. There are plenty of hot chicks, my fiancee included, who like comics. (Oh yeah, there's another stereotype -- Slashdot readers are all single, right?)
Eugene Izhikevitch [a mathematician at the Neurosciences Institute] and I have made a model with a million simulated neurons and almost half a billion synapses, all connected through neuronal anatomy equivalent to that of a cat brain. What we find, to our delight, is that it has intrinsic activity. Up until now our BBDs had activity only when they confronted the world, when they saw input signals. In between signals, they went dark. But this damn thing now fires on its own continually. The second thing is, it has beta waves and gamma waves just like the regular cortexâ"what you would see if you did an electroencephalogram. Third of all, it has a rest state. That is, when you donâ(TM)t stimulate it, the whole population of neurons stray back and forth, as has been described by scientists in human beings who arenâ(TM)t thinking of anything.
SKYCAT became self-aware on August 29th, 2009.
On the other hand, you can sustain a steady run for longer than any other animal in existence. Being a biped also frees up your other appendages for tool use and manipulation of your environment, a further advantage over quadrupeds. Don't let this insensitive clod get you down, and keep practicing climbing those stairs. You'll get it eventually!
I tend to agree with you. That said, I've seen a lot of projects make a big decision like this in the name of usability and then make it impossible to disable whatever they did. (Remember the GNOME spatial file browsing fiasco? I finally dumped GNOME for KDE after I read an article telling me that the only reason I liked to see my files in an alphabetized list with detail information was that I was using my computer wrong.)
There will always be room for innovation, provided that people can disable the new features that they don't like.
So what you're saying is that tab-less Firefox is just a ploy to replace the sugar with high fructose corn syrup?
When I hear "X is broken", I typically assume it's a problem with 3D acceleration and display drivers.
...provided the box could be shut off permanently. If it pops up for every site and I can't turn it off, I'll just find another ad blocker.
That said, there are some sites where I leave ad blocking on -- generally, they're sites that I want to support, and that don't serve up ads that jiggle or flash obnoxious colors. If I see an ad like that, I just turn ads right back off for that site and forget about it.
Seems like they deserve the bad publicity.
It's too late for that now. I've entered some incomplete C code in a text editor and pressed Enter, and now there's a progress bar on my screen that says "UPLOADING VIRUS". You're screwed.
After all, Greenlight, being government-run, is by very definition grossly inefficient. Time Warner ought to be able to beat them on both performance and price and still have a wide profit margin.
Either that or maybe sometimes the government can actually provide decent, efficient services...
jQuery is what JavaScript *should* have been all along.
They accidentally the sentence.
Hahah, nope. At least not in the version that was shipped (and made default!) with Ubuntu 8.10. From what I've heard, Fedora's version isn't any better off. Either the distros are fucking things up big time, or this dude's vastly overestimating the completeness of his software. Or both.
They're referring to Flash 10 Beta, which I've found to be pretty usable. Certainly way better than previous versions, which mucked up my sound output.
If someone is used to RedHat and wants a free version of it, they ought to be using Centos, which is pretty much an exact duplicate of RedHat Enterprise, except rebranded and free.
If robots are ever more intelligent than us, they'll also be intelligent enough to make good decisions. Frankly, I'd rather have the more intelligent beings in charge. They would actually make more intelligent decisions!
So what you're saying is that you, for one, welcome our robotic overlords?