You are not such an administrator, are you mraymer?
Nope... I'm not even an admin of any sort. Just a nerd from Wisconsin, thank-you-very-much.;)
And "impossible to remember garbage" is a relative term. While passwords in the format you mention would be confusing to most users, having to type it out every day would likely result in eventual memorization.
I still say it is one of the easiest skills... how many of you could probably write out the entire script to your favorite movie without double checking? I know I'd be pretty accurate with LOTR and Matrix... and that's a lot more to remember than a few alphanumeric characters.
I think this would bring down a network quicker than the worst Slashdotting. My favorite is the powered hub, but I think the hard drive killer is nice, too.
Actually, I heard a story about an employee who was required to change passwords regularly. Instead, he would just add a letter to his password. After working at the place for years, his password was hundreds of characters long, but he had it memorized since it had increased gradually.
Memorization is one of the easiest skills that the human brain is capable of. I think a lot of the frustration with passwords (and computers in general) is simply due to users lacking confidence.
Ever notice that the people who always forget passwords are the same ones that, when presented with one, will say "I'll never remember that!"
Granted, some people have better memories than others, but a little more confidence couldn't hurt. When a person says "I'll never remember that" they're basically choosing not to.
"Yeah, and make sure you get the Jeffries Tubes in balance while boundcing an inverse tachyon beam off the target. Then Q will show up and make sure you don't cause an inverse graviton time distortion and suck us all into anti-nowhere."
How about getting a life that is remotely possible, like writing cheap knock-offs of Windoze viruses.
Hello, toxic666. I thought I'd just point out the irony in demonstrating more than passing knowledge of Star Trek while you insult a post that referenced Star Trek...
It's amazing how a little OpenGL in the right places can make an old game look so much better.
What's even more amazing is how well DOOM has aged. I can't think of any other game from its era that I can sit down and play for a while, and end up totally forgetting that I am playing a retro game.
Trivia: DOOM got its name from the movie "The Color of Money" when Tom Cruise is about to open a pool stick case, and someone asks what is in there... his reply? "Doom."
Oh, more trivia... DOOM was originally going to be a game based on the movie Aliens, but that idea was scrapped since the developers wanted total creative control over the project. Likely a very good choice, since we're still talking about DOOM today, and it's still on the charts over at download.com.
One of the reasons that Go is so much harder to do with AI is that the number of possible moves is no where near as limited as Chess. Thus we can't just "brute force" the AI like we do with Chess.
Yeah... let's find some new technology to blame. Technology is the devil! Can't blame the movies that suck!
So, if they banned texting, what next? Will they ban the act of, say, telling someone if a movie was good or bad? Or how about they ban reviewing of movies, too? Because that probably accounts for at least some of the Gigli disaster.
But, whatever you do, don't ever, ever, EVER blame the shitty movies themselves!
Fascinating... Shadowed craters would probably be something that they would look into, then, if a Moon Telescope were a real project and not just a dream here on Slashdot.
You mention the IR-band... well, I would hope that whatever scope sat there could match the Hubble in terms of visible light... if not, the Hubble will still be a rather large loss for astronomy in general, and specifically, in making pretty pictures for nerds.;)
Lunar telescopes would be great, and it may even give us a reason to send humans there again (though that is unlikely).
One thing to remember about the moon, though, is that lunar days are very warm, and lunar nights are very cold. About 400F difference, IIRC.
Another thing to keep in mind, too, is that the surface of the moon is so bright, I would suspect that the best astronomy would only be possible during the lunar night.
All things considered, though, I'm sure NASA could build a device suited for this environment. If done right, it could indeed be a much more long term telescope than anything in orbit could.
Actually, according to the Bad Astronomer, the Hubble is sometimes pointed at Earth, for some sort of calibration tests. The images it returns are utterly useless, though. The Earth moves so fast relative to Hubble that all the images consist of is a mess of blurry colors.
I would agree with that logic for only a handful of applications that take a long time to load. And loading times are relative... it makes no sense for someone with a high end system.
To me, it seems that the only other logical explanation is that software companies want to be certain they have as much control of the machine as possible.
My math might be a little rusty... and NO I haven't read the article! I mean c'mon, this is Slashdot. Don't be silly. Reading the article is like backing up data. I'll do that "later" of course.;)
This is good news, though. The discovery of life in extreme conditions always raises the possibility of discovering life somewhere besides planet Earth.
I read that there were some sort of organisms on the outside of the command module that actually survived the trip to and back on Apollo 11. That means surviving re-entry... that's pretty incredible.
Also, didn't some of the creatures on board Columbia survive the disaster?
All things considered, extra-terrestrial life doesn't look that far-fetched...
Are you saying Windows programs that fight for control of the system tray are an issue with today's average end-user? I would tend to agree with that; I've seen machines with 50+ processes going since every installer these days defaults to throwing an icon in the system tray.
I don't know why developers insist upon doing that. Computer resources will never be infinite. It must be a control issue... if you have your software running whenever Windows runs, you have the users right where you want them.
First, let me say that in Soviet Russia, the file sends YOU to have MY advice!
Yeah that sucked. Anyway, I find it interesting to note the common public reactions to these outbreaks of exploits.
For example, this link shows a CNN poll where "Doing Nothing" about the worm is tied with "already downloaded a patch" -- this is kind of interesting, since CNN would be a more "general user" audience than tech savvy folk here.
I wonder why no one seems to really care about computer security until it hits them with data loss, or worse.
Patches and backups are things people always promise to do "later" -- and, luckily for data recovery companies, later seldom comes.
I'm sure many people here have done voluntary tech support for friends and family. What do you find to be the most frequent problems? Would you trace them to user negligence, or Microsoft software, or perhaps a combination of the two? Perhaps it's some other factor, such as the "dumbing-down" of computers by the media leading to common misconceptions?
Sometimes, as reports of Windows exploits become a daily news item, I often wonder when people will, en masse, decide they've simply had enough and switch?
ATI is better for raw power, which is probably what MS wants to brag about with their next console.
nVidia's strong point has always been their continued driver development (yes, I know the Linux driver is not open. Yes, I know about the 3Dmark controversy), and since updating drivers on a console is not something people would be used to doing, or even allowed to do, ATI's raw speed bonus seems logical.
Slashdot Mirror
Not all of us have to...
Nope... I'm not even an admin of any sort. Just a nerd from Wisconsin, thank-you-very-much. ;)
And "impossible to remember garbage" is a relative term. While passwords in the format you mention would be confusing to most users, having to type it out every day would likely result in eventual memorization.
I still say it is one of the easiest skills... how many of you could probably write out the entire script to your favorite movie without double checking? I know I'd be pretty accurate with LOTR and Matrix... and that's a lot more to remember than a few alphanumeric characters.
It's all relative, I guess.
I think this would bring down a network quicker than the worst Slashdotting. My favorite is the powered hub, but I think the hard drive killer is nice, too.
I think this is appropriate: http://feinorgh.homelinux.org/pictures/funny/despa ir/despair-poster-blame.jpg
A classic comic on video game violence: http://home.centurytel.net/mraymer/19981209l.jpg
So, why hell didn't anyone tell me about Google in 1998?! God damn... back then I was using HotBot... oh the pain... the horror.
Actually, I heard a story about an employee who was required to change passwords regularly. Instead, he would just add a letter to his password. After working at the place for years, his password was hundreds of characters long, but he had it memorized since it had increased gradually.
Ever notice that the people who always forget passwords are the same ones that, when presented with one, will say "I'll never remember that!"
Granted, some people have better memories than others, but a little more confidence couldn't hurt. When a person says "I'll never remember that" they're basically choosing not to.
Yeah, you're special. That much is certain. ;)
Hello, toxic666. I thought I'd just point out the irony in demonstrating more than passing knowledge of Star Trek while you insult a post that referenced Star Trek...
Always informative and often hilarious... check it out!
Doomsday Engine - Windows only, but my personal favorite.
It's amazing how a little OpenGL in the right places can make an old game look so much better.
What's even more amazing is how well DOOM has aged. I can't think of any other game from its era that I can sit down and play for a while, and end up totally forgetting that I am playing a retro game.
Trivia: DOOM got its name from the movie "The Color of Money" when Tom Cruise is about to open a pool stick case, and someone asks what is in there... his reply? "Doom."
Oh, more trivia... DOOM was originally going to be a game based on the movie Aliens, but that idea was scrapped since the developers wanted total creative control over the project. Likely a very good choice, since we're still talking about DOOM today, and it's still on the charts over at download.com.
Trivia source: mobygames
I think she certainly beats this guy's run for governor. Too bad I'm not in California.
http://www.villagenet.com/users/bradleym/Compare.h tml
One of the reasons that Go is so much harder to do with AI is that the number of possible moves is no where near as limited as Chess. Thus we can't just "brute force" the AI like we do with Chess.
So, if they banned texting, what next? Will they ban the act of, say, telling someone if a movie was good or bad? Or how about they ban reviewing of movies, too? Because that probably accounts for at least some of the Gigli disaster.
But, whatever you do, don't ever, ever, EVER blame the shitty movies themselves!
You mention the IR-band... well, I would hope that whatever scope sat there could match the Hubble in terms of visible light... if not, the Hubble will still be a rather large loss for astronomy in general, and specifically, in making pretty pictures for nerds. ;)
One thing to remember about the moon, though, is that lunar days are very warm, and lunar nights are very cold. About 400F difference, IIRC.
Another thing to keep in mind, too, is that the surface of the moon is so bright, I would suspect that the best astronomy would only be possible during the lunar night.
All things considered, though, I'm sure NASA could build a device suited for this environment. If done right, it could indeed be a much more long term telescope than anything in orbit could.
Actually, according to the Bad Astronomer, the Hubble is sometimes pointed at Earth, for some sort of calibration tests. The images it returns are utterly useless, though. The Earth moves so fast relative to Hubble that all the images consist of is a mess of blurry colors.
To me, it seems that the only other logical explanation is that software companies want to be certain they have as much control of the machine as possible.
This is good news, though. The discovery of life in extreme conditions always raises the possibility of discovering life somewhere besides planet Earth.
I read that there were some sort of organisms on the outside of the command module that actually survived the trip to and back on Apollo 11. That means surviving re-entry... that's pretty incredible.
Also, didn't some of the creatures on board Columbia survive the disaster?
All things considered, extra-terrestrial life doesn't look that far-fetched...
I don't know why developers insist upon doing that. Computer resources will never be infinite. It must be a control issue... if you have your software running whenever Windows runs, you have the users right where you want them.
Yeah that sucked. Anyway, I find it interesting to note the common public reactions to these outbreaks of exploits.
For example, this link shows a CNN poll where "Doing Nothing" about the worm is tied with "already downloaded a patch" -- this is kind of interesting, since CNN would be a more "general user" audience than tech savvy folk here.
I wonder why no one seems to really care about computer security until it hits them with data loss, or worse.
Patches and backups are things people always promise to do "later" -- and, luckily for data recovery companies, later seldom comes.
I'm sure many people here have done voluntary tech support for friends and family. What do you find to be the most frequent problems? Would you trace them to user negligence, or Microsoft software, or perhaps a combination of the two? Perhaps it's some other factor, such as the "dumbing-down" of computers by the media leading to common misconceptions?
Sometimes, as reports of Windows exploits become a daily news item, I often wonder when people will, en masse, decide they've simply had enough and switch?
If power plants ran Windows, I think we'd see outages every few hours at least.
nVidia's strong point has always been their continued driver development (yes, I know the Linux driver is not open. Yes, I know about the 3Dmark controversy), and since updating drivers on a console is not something people would be used to doing, or even allowed to do, ATI's raw speed bonus seems logical.