If you find someone's wallet, there's a reasonable chance that the phone list or calendar has their PIN listed in it. Every time we talk about hiding a PIN, at least one person offers this as their ingenious solution.
I have no idea why more people have not posted similar ideas.
I have loose formulas for creating strong passwords and methods for obfuscating them when I write them down. I deliberately don't tell anyone.
But in general, my passwords are effectively random mixed case alpha/numeric sequences generated and obfuscated using techniques similar to those described above, and seeded by a selection of text sources. While the password itself is saved somewhere secure, I can usually rememebr how I derived the password rather than digging up the stored version.
I also keep a tray of useless decoy keys and gibberish Post-It notes in my desk drawer at work.
Another neat tr1ck is to us3 th3 l3tt3rz "e",and "i" no-one suspects that!
Our public broadcaster has a show calledMedia Watch that routinely busts journalists for plagiarising press releases. Not to mention even more forward things like running advrtisements as news.
On average, I get to fix up at least one project every year that has been fscked up because people have decided that spreadsheets are the only tool for storing and manipulating numbers or data.\
Most recently, we got to spend over a month repeating work because it had been fscked up in a spreadsheet. The biggest problem with spreadsheets is that the same flexibility that lets you drag numbers around anywhere you want, also lets you drag numbers into to wrong places with little or no warning.
Normalisation? 1st, 2nd and 3rd normal form? People need to know when to use FileMaker Pro instead, at least it warns you. Spreadsheets don't.
The problem with a spreadsheet is that the numbers never have any context, they are always just numbers. I'd love Open Office to offer something like FileMaker Pro, and tools to migrate spreadsheets into it.
From TFA: "A lack of commitment to testing by the Linux community may ultimately threaten the stability..."
The content of the article is much better than the headlines and excerpts being quoted. I was there and felt that what he was geting at was that we need to start thinking about updating QA procedures. The ratio of bugs to features is decreasing, but the rate of features is (maybe?) growing that much faster. The point of his talk was to outline a number of options for improving QA, thre are issues, but the sky certinly isn't falling either. It was an excellent follow on from Tridge's keynote the previous day on how to do quality system programming (overshadowed by his very brief coverage of the BK thing).
I use a dual PII 300 MHz system at work, and even though other people also uss it as a dev server, it is still much snappier that most desktops this side of 1 GHz.
Dual core CPUs ought to be an easy way to put cheap SMP on everybody's desktop. As well as that, the connectivity between them ought to be much better than having the CPUs on two differemt chips.
I hope they actually bother paying attention to my mouse preferences. Version 5 ignores my scroll wheel and it uses clunky Motif widgets (bleagh).
More likely they'll only use the opportunity include some of the more unpleasant misfeatures like spying.
Xix.
Thanks to CAD, new "factory" homes are very customisable. All the roof truss shops in our town use CAD, the broad design is done and the software does all the fiddly stuff and spews out a cutting list which gets fed to automated cutting and assembly equipment). My uncle (who works in construction) hates it because the designs get more and more complex each year, and he sometimes thinks that the designers are "playing video games" rather making simple, solid weather proof roofs.
As for walls, he's more impressed with the lightweight foam modules. Rather than lugging and lifting heavy, potentially dangerous stuff around, you build something from large foam blocks and then pump it full of concrete.
Both methods will (for a long while I'll bet) be more practical and of higher quality than on-site methods like the wall builder: Builder assemble light weight foam foundations that are then filled with concrete (pumped in), then an automated crane (think those log harvesters) lifts in and secures prefab sections.
If binary drivers are OK, why would a company bother releasing source? If one company can release binary only, why not the other? Under the current attitude, companies stand to gain a lot more than they would with binary only.
Billions of bilious blue blistering barbequed barnacles! I'm sure Tin Tin has prior art over shark subs. Or maybe Cousteau read too much Herge as a lad.
Anybody have any software that would take a large image file and apply a google-map-like interface to it?
We use Mapserver using the GDAL/OGR and GeoTIFF libraries (and ECW wavelet images when I get some time). Using GeoTIFF alone (which provides image indexing and pyramiding), I have 10,000 x 15,000 pixel, 4 Gb images that render in a fraction of a second. Mapserver includes tools for image tiling as you describe, but we only bothered with that when we hit filesystem file size limits for individual images. ECW will giv us much smller file sizes, and the EPPL7 format supported in GDAL apparently has some good performance features.
SF television programs have never been treated seriously by the television stations here in Australia. Babylon 5 was initially shown *out* *of* *order* and the "Footy Show" would routinely displace following SF shows by up to half an hour because the show was running over time. When I was a kid, it took several summer holidays to *never* see the entire television adaptation of "The Tripods" because the station would just pull the series when regular programming returned. Even now, any SF series that do screen are on late at night, and delays of more than a season are common (i.e. Buffy, Ange, X-Files). This delay means the Internet is loaded with spoilers.
For these reasons, we would originally get friends to send video tapes from the USA. For these reasons, a lot of people now use the file transfer technology du-jour (Napseter, BitTorrent, Direct Connect, whatever) to grab shows.
As the networks have for a very long time shown that they do not value SF programming, they have absolutely no sympathy from me. If the shows had screened in a timely manner, not been relegated to graveyard slots and not been chopped and changed, people would have not bothered with all this effort and just watched live to air. And I'd get cable TV if it was any good, try getting a cable package that *doesn't* include sport and a bunch of other junk I don't want). If we got to keep SBS and ABC, I'd gladly sacrifice the lot to the FTA as I am bloody well sick of lifestyle and reality shows.
The first will be more common but limit the data theft to only a single person
Or how about a new virulent exploit means that in the space of an afternoon, data is stolen from thousands of individuals. Remember that we are talking about a pretty homogenous environment, spreading the data may not offer much protection.
Big deal, my copy of Internet Explorer has been sharing my bookmarks with everyone for years. It can even share my passswords, cookies and credit card numbers!
What makes you think Mac hardware is expensive? For many years (until we were "normalised"), we had Mac desktops, and dollar for dollar, they were always comparable[1] to other brand-name hardware. While the margins on PCs are thinner than ever, the mini-Mac is pretty damn cheap, and the iBook comparable very well too. Unlike PCs, I have *never* needed to support the Macs I have supplied to friends and relatives.
I pay a bit more for engineered hardware (mostly Sun and HP) where reliability is important (my servers, machines built for relatives). We came close to DIY PPC hardware with the CHRP platform, but I can't see it making a whole lot of sense for Apple just now, a return to the clones would be more likely to hurt their growth than improve it.
Xix.
[1] Except for the very first PCI PoserMacs, if I ever see a 7100 again, it will be too soon! Bleah!
Introducing Blescrab, the dylexic scrabble game. Immune from trademark disputes everywhere! (thankyou Andrew Denton)
The copyright aspects are a bit harder to dodge. According to the letter, the rules and board are subject to copyright. According to Wikipedia, the current rules and board were created in 1948. While this means that Scrabble is copyrighted for a long while yet, however the rules are simple to memorise and the board and pieces are also very simple. How much different would a derivative need to be to pass muster?
I'd like to see the site promote a free and open word tile game that is remarkably like Scrabble, to the point that people play that rather than one person's proprietary version. The inceident and resulting potential for publicity could be a great opportinity for e-scrabble to promote and give away the new game (ala Lindows).
(please ignore my other un-edited, ambiguous comment)
I could see Adaptec going out of their way if there was a Linux issue, because Linux has more mindshare. Even then, I wouldn't bet on a different response. They'd probably take notice of Microsoft timelines, my guess is that MS brings them a lot of income, probably still more than Linux. My guess is that they don't see BSD as a big part of their immediate future, and unless they OpenBSD guys convince them otherwise, it'll remain that way. It's Adaptec's choice to make, and time will tell if the ultimately lose anything from seeing their priorities as being elsewhere.
I could see Adaptec going out of their way if there was a Linux issue, because Linux has more mindshare. Even then, I wouldn't bet on a different response unless it was Microsoft making the demand. My guess is that they don't see BSD as a big part of their immediate future, and unless they OpenBSD guys convince them otherwise, it'll remain that way. It's Adaptec's choice to make, and time will tell if the ultimately lose anything from seeing their priorities as being elsewhere.
Slashdot Mirror
If you find someone's wallet, there's a reasonable chance that the phone list or calendar has their PIN listed in it. Every time we talk about hiding a PIN, at least one person offers this as their ingenious solution.
Xix.
I have loose formulas for creating strong passwords and methods for obfuscating them when I write them down. I deliberately don't tell anyone.
But in general, my passwords are effectively random mixed case alpha/numeric sequences generated and obfuscated using techniques similar to those described above, and seeded by a selection of text sources. While the password itself is saved somewhere secure, I can usually rememebr how I derived the password rather than digging up the stored version.
I also keep a tray of useless decoy keys and gibberish Post-It notes in my desk drawer at work.
Another neat tr1ck is to us3 th3 l3tt3rz "e",and "i" no-one suspects that!
Xix.
Wouldn't the fish be crumbed or battered?
Xix.
On average, I get to fix up at least one project every year that has been fscked up because people have decided that spreadsheets are the only tool for storing and manipulating numbers or data.\
Most recently, we got to spend over a month repeating work because it had been fscked up in a spreadsheet. The biggest problem with spreadsheets is that the same flexibility that lets you drag numbers around anywhere you want, also lets you drag numbers into to wrong places with little or no warning.
Normalisation? 1st, 2nd and 3rd normal form? People need to know when to use FileMaker Pro instead, at least it warns you. Spreadsheets don't.
The problem with a spreadsheet is that the numbers never have any context, they are always just numbers. I'd love Open Office to offer something like FileMaker Pro, and tools to migrate spreadsheets into it.
Xix.
From TFA:
"A lack of commitment to testing by the Linux community may ultimately threaten the stability..."
The content of the article is much better than the headlines and excerpts being quoted. I was there and felt that what he was geting at was that we need to start thinking about updating QA procedures. The ratio of bugs to features is decreasing, but the rate of features is (maybe?) growing that much faster. The point of his talk was to outline a number of options for improving QA, thre are issues, but the sky certinly isn't falling either. It was an excellent follow on from Tridge's keynote the previous day on how to do quality system programming (overshadowed by his very brief coverage of the BK thing).
Xix.
It was Windows 3.x "Unrecoverable Application Error" before that.
"Unrecoverable Application Error:
Truck/camel network sharing collision!"
I use a dual PII 300 MHz system at work, and even though other people also uss it as a dev server, it is still much snappier that most desktops this side of 1 GHz.
Dual core CPUs ought to be an easy way to put cheap SMP on everybody's desktop. As well as that, the connectivity between them ought to be much better than having the CPUs on two differemt chips.
Xix.
More likely they'll only use the opportunity include some of the more unpleasant misfeatures like spying.
Xix.
(damn mouse button!)
I hope they actually bother paying attention to my mouse preferences. Version 5 ignores my scroll wheel and it uses clunky Motif widgets (bleagh). More likely they'll only use the opportunity include some of the more unpleasant misfeatures like spying. Xix.
Thanks to CAD, new "factory" homes are very customisable. All the roof truss shops in our town use CAD, the broad design is done and the software does all the fiddly stuff and spews out a cutting list which gets fed to automated cutting and assembly equipment). My uncle (who works in construction) hates it because the designs get more and more complex each year, and he sometimes thinks that the designers are "playing video games" rather making simple, solid weather proof roofs.
As for walls, he's more impressed with the lightweight foam modules. Rather than lugging and lifting heavy, potentially dangerous stuff around, you build something from large foam blocks and then pump it full of concrete.
Both methods will (for a long while I'll bet) be more practical and of higher quality than on-site methods like the wall builder: Builder assemble light weight foam foundations that are then filled with concrete (pumped in), then an automated crane (think those log harvesters) lifts in and secures prefab sections.
Xix.
If binary drivers are OK, why would a company bother releasing source? If one company can release binary only, why not the other? Under the current attitude, companies stand to gain a lot more than they would with binary only.
Xix.
Billions of bilious blue blistering barbequed barnacles! I'm sure Tin Tin has prior art over shark subs. Or maybe Cousteau read too much Herge as a lad.
They must have been to one of Rasmus Ledorf's PHP workshops and seem the libGD demo!
Xix.
We use Mapserver using the GDAL/OGR and GeoTIFF libraries (and ECW wavelet images when I get some time). Using GeoTIFF alone (which provides image indexing and pyramiding), I have 10,000 x 15,000 pixel, 4 Gb images that render in a fraction of a second. Mapserver includes tools for image tiling as you describe, but we only bothered with that when we hit filesystem file size limits for individual images. ECW will giv us much smller file sizes, and the EPPL7 format supported in GDAL apparently has some good performance features.
Xix.
SF television programs have never been treated seriously by the television stations here in Australia. Babylon 5 was initially shown *out* *of* *order* and the "Footy Show" would routinely displace following SF shows by up to half an hour because the show was running over time. When I was a kid, it took several summer holidays to *never* see the entire television adaptation of "The Tripods" because the station would just pull the series when regular programming returned. Even now, any SF series that do screen are on late at night, and delays of more than a season are common (i.e. Buffy, Ange, X-Files). This delay means the Internet is loaded with spoilers.
For these reasons, we would originally get friends to send video tapes from the USA. For these reasons, a lot of people now use the file transfer technology du-jour (Napseter, BitTorrent, Direct Connect, whatever) to grab shows.
As the networks have for a very long time shown that they do not value SF programming, they have absolutely no sympathy from me. If the shows had screened in a timely manner, not been relegated to graveyard slots and not been chopped and changed, people would have not bothered with all this effort and just watched live to air. And I'd get cable TV if it was any good, try getting a cable package that *doesn't* include sport and a bunch of other junk I don't want). If we got to keep SBS and ABC, I'd gladly sacrifice the lot to the FTA as I am bloody well sick of lifestyle and reality shows.
Or how about a new virulent exploit means that in the space of an afternoon, data is stolen from thousands of individuals. Remember that we are talking about a pretty homogenous environment, spreading the data may not offer much protection.
Xix.
Big deal, my copy of Internet Explorer has been sharing my bookmarks with everyone for years. It can even share my passswords, cookies and credit card numbers!
Now there's a Freudian slip! Reminds me of my boss who got a Quadra 700 for email while we had to put up with Mac IIs.
What makes you think Mac hardware is expensive? For many years (until we were "normalised"), we had Mac desktops, and dollar for dollar, they were always comparable[1] to other brand-name hardware. While the margins on PCs are thinner than ever, the mini-Mac is pretty damn cheap, and the iBook comparable very well too. Unlike PCs, I have *never* needed to support the Macs I have supplied to friends and relatives.
I pay a bit more for engineered hardware (mostly Sun and HP) where reliability is important (my servers, machines built for relatives). We came close to DIY PPC hardware with the CHRP platform, but I can't see it making a whole lot of sense for Apple just now, a return to the clones would be more likely to hurt their growth than improve it.
Xix.
[1] Except for the very first PCI PoserMacs, if I ever see a 7100 again, it will be too soon! Bleah!
Introducing Blescrab, the dylexic scrabble game. Immune from trademark disputes everywhere!
(thankyou Andrew Denton)
The copyright aspects are a bit harder to dodge. According to the letter, the rules and board are subject to copyright. According to Wikipedia, the current rules and board were created in 1948. While this means that Scrabble is copyrighted for a long while yet, however the rules are simple to memorise and the board and pieces are also very simple. How much different would a derivative need to be to pass muster?
I'd like to see the site promote a free and open word tile game that is remarkably like Scrabble, to the point that people play that rather than one person's proprietary version. The inceident and resulting potential for publicity could be a great opportinity for e-scrabble to promote and give away the new game (ala Lindows).
Xix.
(please ignore my other un-edited, ambiguous comment)
I could see Adaptec going out of their way if there was a Linux issue, because Linux has more mindshare. Even then, I wouldn't bet on a different response. They'd probably take notice of Microsoft timelines, my guess is that MS brings them a lot of income, probably still more than Linux. My guess is that they don't see BSD as a big part of their immediate future, and unless they OpenBSD guys convince them otherwise, it'll remain that way. It's Adaptec's choice to make, and time will tell if the ultimately lose anything from seeing their priorities as being elsewhere.
I could see Adaptec going out of their way if there was a Linux issue, because Linux has more mindshare. Even then, I wouldn't bet on a different response unless it was Microsoft making the demand. My guess is that they don't see BSD as a big part of their immediate future, and unless they OpenBSD guys convince them otherwise, it'll remain that way. It's Adaptec's choice to make, and time will tell if the ultimately lose anything from seeing their priorities as being elsewhere.