A common flaw in the version detection code used in windows software looks for Windows 95 and 98 as 'Windows 9". Since the software is still widely in use, MS had to change their name for the next Windows version.
A logical-sounding excuse, except that stuff that ran under 95 or 98 doesn't run under 64-bit versions of Windows 8. Who's buying 32-bit machines nowadays?
/. are you fucking kidding me? This is every single fucking day now we have another story about gender this-or-that in tech. Give it a fucking rest.
Diversity is fine. Let people do whatever the hell they want to do. But shut the fuck up about it already. Constantly harping on the same shit over and over again. Just like a woman, my god...
Oh, the irony... Oh, the humanity...
The same complaint could be said about linux, systemd, bitcoin, privacy, government snooping, social media...
If you;re so upset, you can always wait until Bennett Hazelton writes about it.
We can pretty much all agree that the study's methodology absolutely sucks so it has no value. Perhaps it's good that such studies get some "air time" so they can be debunked rather than being accepted as the new "textus receptus". Maybe then, more reasonable arguments that aren't biased by a need for political correctness will prevail:-)
"we're connecting community colleges with local employers to train workers to fill high-paying jobs like coding
... while industry imports even more H1Bs to drive wages down, and offshores more and more of their development work offshore and parks the additional profits in tax havens? How is that going to work>
In what universe does a government website selling personal info to advertisers count as even remotely fucking acceptable???
This doesn't "raise significant privacy concerns", it sends a great big middle finger to the American public from its own elected officials. I don't care about the "potential" for misuse - I care that someone even considered the possibility of using healthcare.gov to siphon off PII.
Uncle Sam needs to retire.
There is zero evidence that this data is being used for advertising purposes - the article makes a lot of speculation. For example:
to private companies that specialize in advertising and analyzing Internet data for performance and marketing,
For example, IBM does both - but they also do pretty good data analysis. Would you rather it goes to some 3rd-world country for analysis (because you can be pretty sure it will be sold)?
Now, I'm not saying there's nothing to see here - but is it just fog that will dissipate in the morning sun or smoke that indicates a fire? Can't tell from the article, because it's almost al speculation and what-ifs.
Posting this to the front page really isn't supporting them if the tone of the comments is anything to go by. People of all stripes are fed up with both sides of the "debate". Consider this your opportunity to add your voice to those who are fed up with SJWs stirring up the pot and manipulating people to get attention.
It might be an interesting idea, but Ms. Quinn seems to be prone to exaggeration - as anyone who actually goes and plays "Depression Quest" will see - it's something I'd expect from a kid in high school who decided to "mess around with computers" - not a game developer. I'm not saying it's bad... bad would be an improvement.
So when she claims to have "experts in information security, white hat hacking, PR, law enforcement, legal, threat monitoring, and counseling to help people after they've been swatted", without names I'd take that with a whole box of salt.
It's one thing to play a turn-based game with everyone gathered around the table, so you can talk to each other while waiting for it to be your turn again, and quite something else to just be staring at a screen doing nothing except waiting for your next turn. Only one of them is actually fun.
The BASIC he was talking about was the line numbered, unstructured distant ancestor of VB. VB.NET is mostly just a different flavor of C#. The quote doesn't apply any more.
Unfortunately, he was referring to Visual Basic, not VB.NET, in both the article and in replying to others in the comments section:
There are a number of reasons why I have chosen Visual Basic as a programming language for GCSE and A-level and I hope the following justifies my choice.
Visual Basic is used as an introduction to programming and is frequently used as a teaching language in a number of schools and universities across the country.
Now maybe he just doesn't know the difference between Visual Basic and VB.NET, but that would be yet another reason to not have confidence in him making informed choices.
Just don't go all Bassett Houndleton on us and start posting long, tedious opinion pieces.
The latest weather
report from hell
forecasts "it be hot"
the next millennium as well
If stupid stories
you wish to peruse
there's my journal
for all to abuse.
The article mentions this is based on sites compromised, I wonder if this list isn't to some extent self-selecting towards bad passwords. Lower value sites are more likely to be compromised than high value sites like Amazon or Google, and on low value sites people are much more likely to use garbage. Personally I use a pw database but still use junk passwords on sites when its irrelevant if the account were to be compromised.
Do you really want to be low-hanging fruit anywhere on the net for an account whose creation can be traced back to you? Seems to me that having the DHS or FBI seizing your computers because some jerk used your account to post death threats in the name of Islamic Jihad for the lulz is not worth the ease of using a simple, throw-away password,
"darkHelmet": password hint "Vader"
"usetheschwartz", hint:"Use The Force"
"gone_plaid": hint: "Past Ludicrous Speed"
"Perri-Aire", : hint "More refreshing than Perrier"
"ImSurroundedByAsshoes" : hint: "management"
"goodisdumb" hint "goodisdumb" (think for a second:-),
See - plenty of password fun left for spaceballs fans.
I can think of a few ways that people leak their own passwords. Emails to a co-worker when you're sick or away, chat or IM logs, picking an easy password so that if they forget it they can just try a few easy ones at random, being in a rush to change it because "here is your temporary password. You may only use it to change your password, after which you can use your new account" (a security practice that in practice causes the human elephant to fail).
While storing passwords as a hash offers some defense, even that doesn't work for common passwords where the hash value is known - just look at the stored hash and use the corresponding password. And then their's rainbow tables... get access to the server involved and you can quickly match a password for every account.
And none of this includes the "password on a post-it under the keyboard." Go through any office and you'll find at least one (if the post-it isn't just stuck to the corner of the screen).
I'm sure in 5 minutes you can think of more ways to leak passwords:-)
I don't know of any bank that would allow any of the passwords listed. Most (perhaps all) financial institutions will reject any password containing all digits, all letters, or any standard dictionary word (even if written in "L337 Speak").
Then I guess you don't know enough banks. Some definitely do, as well as passwords less than 8 characters.
I don't think too many devices have "696969" as a default password (customers would complain); the same applies to "superman" and "batman" except this time it would be the trademark holders who would be doing the complaining.
And if they had revealed what web sites or devices used these passwords the most, everyone would be complaining about how they're making the net "less secure", same as when someone reveals a zero-day defect, instead of maybe just changing their password because "well, I use 'password' as my password, but I'm not on that site / own that device, so I'm pretty safe.
Well, you know the saying - "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. And those who can't teach become administrators."
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
Actually, there is a way to "fight back" to help fix the moderation system. Meta-moderation (aka M2). You'll see the offer to meta-mod pretty much daily (at least) if you post enough, and you'll get a chance to fix bad moderations on other people's accounts, and hopefully they will on some of yours.
My advice - post a lot, if you can be both informative and funny you'll get up-modded to +5 pretty quickly (if you can't do both, take one or the other), and as long as your karma is excellent, who cares? I would encourage you to participate more, because by showing we don't care about people who manipulate their posts' karma, we give them that much less of an incentive to do so. After all, browsing at -1, all posts are visible so up- and down-mods don't matter:-)
Oh, and thanks for replying, and hope to see more of you:-)
If you had read the article, you would know that until now, they had to sift through old data to find these things, so they couldn't ask other radio-telescopes to look at it. This time the data was analyzed in real time and triggered an alarm so other radio-telescopes could look at it in other wavelengths, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
A common flaw in the version detection code used in windows software looks for Windows 95 and 98 as 'Windows 9". Since the software is still widely in use, MS had to change their name for the next Windows version.
A logical-sounding excuse, except that stuff that ran under 95 or 98 doesn't run under 64-bit versions of Windows 8. Who's buying 32-bit machines nowadays?
So what happens when your hard drive goes? That's the "end of the lifetime of your device?"
I also predict a massive PR push by various Linux groups starting about 300 days in.
I predict a massive PR push by Apple starting in even sooner. After all, people do NOT like the idea that their computer won't work after a year.
Just give people a "Hate" button ... or if hate is too strong a word, "Not!"
It's not a question of faith in the government so much as wanting to see some substance instead of if rumor and speculation.
/. are you fucking kidding me? This is every single fucking day now we have another story about gender this-or-that in tech. Give it a fucking rest.
Diversity is fine. Let people do whatever the hell they want to do. But shut the fuck up about it already. Constantly harping on the same shit over and over again. Just like a woman, my god...
Oh, the irony... Oh, the humanity ...
...
The same complaint could be said about linux, systemd, bitcoin, privacy, government snooping, social media
If you;re so upset, you can always wait until Bennett Hazelton writes about it.
We can pretty much all agree that the study's methodology absolutely sucks so it has no value. Perhaps it's good that such studies get some "air time" so they can be debunked rather than being accepted as the new "textus receptus". Maybe then, more reasonable arguments that aren't biased by a need for political correctness will prevail :-)
"we're connecting community colleges with local employers to train workers to fill high-paying jobs like coding
In what universe does a government website selling personal info to advertisers count as even remotely fucking acceptable??? This doesn't "raise significant privacy concerns", it sends a great big middle finger to the American public from its own elected officials. I don't care about the "potential" for misuse - I care that someone even considered the possibility of using healthcare.gov to siphon off PII. Uncle Sam needs to retire.
There is zero evidence that this data is being used for advertising purposes - the article makes a lot of speculation. For example:
to private companies that specialize in advertising and analyzing Internet data for performance and marketing,
For example, IBM does both - but they also do pretty good data analysis. Would you rather it goes to some 3rd-world country for analysis (because you can be pretty sure it will be sold)?
Now, I'm not saying there's nothing to see here - but is it just fog that will dissipate in the morning sun or smoke that indicates a fire? Can't tell from the article, because it's almost al speculation and what-ifs.
Posting this to the front page really isn't supporting them if the tone of the comments is anything to go by. People of all stripes are fed up with both sides of the "debate". Consider this your opportunity to add your voice to those who are fed up with SJWs stirring up the pot and manipulating people to get attention.
It might be an interesting idea, but Ms. Quinn seems to be prone to exaggeration - as anyone who actually goes and plays "Depression Quest" will see - it's something I'd expect from a kid in high school who decided to "mess around with computers" - not a game developer. I'm not saying it's bad ... bad would be an improvement.
So when she claims to have "experts in information security, white hat hacking, PR, law enforcement, legal, threat monitoring, and counseling to help people after they've been swatted", without names I'd take that with a whole box of salt.
What does frequent contributor Bennett Hasleton think of this laptop?
Does it run Windows?
It's one thing to play a turn-based game with everyone gathered around the table, so you can talk to each other while waiting for it to be your turn again, and quite something else to just be staring at a screen doing nothing except waiting for your next turn. Only one of them is actually fun.
"I'll create a GUI interface using Visual Basic. See if I can track an IP address." :-)
Though if that was funny or just painful to see is open for debate
The BASIC he was talking about was the line numbered, unstructured distant ancestor of VB. VB.NET is mostly just a different flavor of C#. The quote doesn't apply any more.
Unfortunately, he was referring to Visual Basic, not VB.NET, in both the article and in replying to others in the comments section:
There are a number of reasons why I have chosen Visual Basic as a programming language for GCSE and A-level and I hope the following justifies my choice.
Visual Basic is used as an introduction to programming and is frequently used as a teaching language in a number of schools and universities across the country.
Now maybe he just doesn't know the difference between Visual Basic and VB.NET, but that would be yet another reason to not have confidence in him making informed choices.
Geez, Babs, look at you all submitting and stuff.
That's several stories in the last few days.
Just don't go all Bassett Houndleton on us and start posting long, tedious opinion pieces.
The latest weather
report from hell
forecasts "it be hot"
the next millennium as well
If stupid stories
you wish to peruse
there's my journal
for all to abuse.
Burma Shave
Short enough? :-)
The article mentions this is based on sites compromised, I wonder if this list isn't to some extent self-selecting towards bad passwords. Lower value sites are more likely to be compromised than high value sites like Amazon or Google, and on low value sites people are much more likely to use garbage. Personally I use a pw database but still use junk passwords on sites when its irrelevant if the account were to be compromised.
Do you really want to be low-hanging fruit anywhere on the net for an account whose creation can be traced back to you? Seems to me that having the DHS or FBI seizing your computers because some jerk used your account to post death threats in the name of Islamic Jihad for the lulz is not worth the ease of using a simple, throw-away password,
But no Marvel characters?
I've looked everywhere on my keyboard and I can't find anything about using any Marvel character set. Is this some sort of unicode thingee?
"darkHelmet": password hint "Vader" :-),
"usetheschwartz", hint:"Use The Force"
"gone_plaid": hint: "Past Ludicrous Speed"
"Perri-Aire", : hint "More refreshing than Perrier"
"ImSurroundedByAsshoes" : hint: "management"
"goodisdumb" hint "goodisdumb" (think for a second
See - plenty of password fun left for spaceballs fans.
I can think of a few ways that people leak their own passwords. Emails to a co-worker when you're sick or away, chat or IM logs, picking an easy password so that if they forget it they can just try a few easy ones at random, being in a rush to change it because "here is your temporary password. You may only use it to change your password, after which you can use your new account" (a security practice that in practice causes the human elephant to fail).
While storing passwords as a hash offers some defense, even that doesn't work for common passwords where the hash value is known - just look at the stored hash and use the corresponding password. And then their's rainbow tables ... get access to the server involved and you can quickly match a password for every account.
And none of this includes the "password on a post-it under the keyboard." Go through any office and you'll find at least one (if the post-it isn't just stuck to the corner of the screen).
I'm sure in 5 minutes you can think of more ways to leak passwords :-)
I don't know of any bank that would allow any of the passwords listed. Most (perhaps all) financial institutions will reject any password containing all digits, all letters, or any standard dictionary word (even if written in "L337 Speak").
Then I guess you don't know enough banks. Some definitely do, as well as passwords less than 8 characters.
I don't think too many devices have "696969" as a default password (customers would complain); the same applies to "superman" and "batman" except this time it would be the trademark holders who would be doing the complaining.
And if they had revealed what web sites or devices used these passwords the most, everyone would be complaining about how they're making the net "less secure", same as when someone reveals a zero-day defect, instead of maybe just changing their password because "well, I use 'password' as my password, but I'm not on that site / own that device, so I'm pretty safe.
Well, you know the saying - "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach. And those who can't teach become administrators."
It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.
-- Edsger Dijkstra
Actually, there is a way to "fight back" to help fix the moderation system. Meta-moderation (aka M2). You'll see the offer to meta-mod pretty much daily (at least) if you post enough, and you'll get a chance to fix bad moderations on other people's accounts, and hopefully they will on some of yours.
My advice - post a lot, if you can be both informative and funny you'll get up-modded to +5 pretty quickly (if you can't do both, take one or the other), and as long as your karma is excellent, who cares? I would encourage you to participate more, because by showing we don't care about people who manipulate their posts' karma, we give them that much less of an incentive to do so. After all, browsing at -1, all posts are visible so up- and down-mods don't matter :-)
Oh, and thanks for replying, and hope to see more of you :-)
A turn-based game? Flaw number 1.
If you had read the article, you would know that until now, they had to sift through old data to find these things, so they couldn't ask other radio-telescopes to look at it. This time the data was analyzed in real time and triggered an alarm so other radio-telescopes could look at it in other wavelengths, etc.