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User: neminem

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  1. Re:Responses on Ask Slashdot: Dealing With Passwords Transmitted As Cleartext? · · Score: 1

    It is indeed super-helpful to be able to link people to it, thanks for running it! :) (That said, I swear I submitted something a couple weeks ago and haven't seen it yet - how long does it take, generally? :p)

  2. Just turn it off most of the time on Ask Slashdot: Measuring (and Constraining) Mobile Data Use? · · Score: 3, Informative

    Apps can never background update if you have your 3g radio off except when you're using it. As an extra bonus, it also saves you tons of battery (I turn off wifi and gps when I'm not using them, too, even though they don't cost any money to leave on). If I turn my 3g on and immediately notice it start flashing like something is using data, that's a big red flag, then I investigate what's doing it.

    I'm a huge fan of Ting - when it was just me using it by myself (now we've merged several accounts, so bookkeeping would be more complicated), my phone bill was usually an amazingly low ~16 bucks after taxes and fees. I got that because I rarely went above the lowest data bracket of only 100 MB. I used data as much as I needed to - I was just mindful of it. Occasionally I'd go above 100 MB and have to pay an extra ~10 bucks that month for the 500 MB bucket, which I was alright with. I can't even imagine needing 2 GB, though. (Now me and my wife have a combined 500 MB bucket for a couple dollars more each, which is even nicer. We *never* go above that.)

  3. Re:Plot of Sci-Fi on An Organic Computer Using Four Wired-Together Rat Brains · · Score: 1

    It's straight from all sorts of sci-fi - my first thought was Vernor Vinge's Tines from A Fire Upon the Deep (a single Tine has the intelligence of a dog, a half-dozen working together have human-level intelligence, with a spectrum in between), but you could probably find tons of other similar-acting alien life forms in other media, too.

  4. Exactly 8 on Short Sleepers Might Be Benefiting From a DNA Mutation · · Score: 1

    Down to the minute - I find I'm most rested if I sleep *exactly* 8 hours. I can go a long time on 7 before it starts catching up to me (which is good, because that's how much I often get these days, because my brain has now decided that I really want to get up when the sun comes out even though no I totally don't), but I'm happiest if I can consistently get 8, exactly.

  5. Re:Ya but... on Samsung Releases First 2TB Consumer SSD For Laptops · · Score: 1

    I don't even care that much about privacy most of the time.

    I do care a great deal about being able to access my data when I'm not connected to the internet, which if I'm traveling - being, you'll note, the *reason* for using a laptop - is reasonably likely.

  6. Re:Male Hair Removal on Time Warner Cable Owes $229,500 To Woman It Would Not Stop Calling · · Score: 1

    That is *way* better than the problem we faced last year, which took many months of sleuthing to fix: our phone number had somehow gotten wires crossed with an honest to god escort service in Canada somewhere (we live in California, not even the right *country*). Don't ask me how, I don't know, and neither did the phone company when we eventually managed to track down the source of the real number. We would have several calls a week (some weeks several times a day) requesting to know whether specific hooker-sounding female names were "available" right now. And of course it took forever to get any information out of these clients as to who they were trying to call and how they got our number (at first we thought it was just wrong numbers, *eventually* we got enough information from the callers to piece together what was really happening).

    Loads of fun, but not really the same, since the people calling *were* looking for a (I assume?) legitimate business in the location they were calling, and it wasn't at all their fault, nor the fault of the business in question, that it was being mistakenly redirected to our number. Was pretty hilarious, though. When I finally tracked down someone capable of fixing it at the phone company responsible for the mixup, he laughed for like a minute straight.

  7. Re:kessel run on Han Solo To Get His Own Star Wars Movie Prequel · · Score: 1

    Yes it is. Which is why everyone makes fun of it. The out of universe explanation is that the guy who wrote that didn't know what he was talking about, and nobody else did either until it was too late to fix it. The (total retcon) in-universe explanation, which is legit in that it is way super cool, even though it was also very obviously a retroactive ass-pull fix, is: the Kessel Run requires you to weave through a giant pile of black holes and other nasties you wouldn't want to hit. Therefore, in order to optimize time, what you're *really* optimizing is your pathfinding algorithm; thus, smuggers started talking about how fast someone completed said run in units of distance, because that's what they were measuring.

  8. Too bad they already axed the extended universe... on Han Solo To Get His Own Star Wars Movie Prequel · · Score: 1

    Because if I recall (though I haven't read it in forever), the previously-official-but-not-anymore Han Solo prequel story was actually a pretty fun story. It wasn't the Thrawn trilogy, but it was still pretty decent, and I would totally support there being a movie adaptation of it: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki...

    But again, not as much as I wanted to see Thrawn on the big screen. Star Wars the no-longer-extended-universe-that-has-no-Timothy-Zahn-in-it-anywhere is dead to me.

  9. Heh, GrowWise on Philips Is Revolutionizing Urban Farming With New GrowWise Indoor Farm · · Score: 1

    Urban farming, "GrowWise", definitely doesn't sound like "pots of *basil*" is exactly the right market for it. More like something else that also starts the same way, but has two fewer words.

    Great timing for it, too, what with the burgeoning legalization movement all across the country (but, often, only for personal use, not for sale, making logistics difficult unless you are actually growing it yourself).

  10. Re:Marketing on Why Electric Vehicles Aren't More Popular · · Score: 1

    That's silly. I would *love* an electric car. I'd absolutely love to fix our reliance on gas, and to never have to visit a gas station. That would be great. But not until a. the infrastructure is there, b. electric cars don't cost waaaay more up-front, and c. the range issue has been fixed. All of these issues I absolutely believe will be fixed in my lifetime, but they aren't there yet.

  11. Re:Microsoft is not trustworthy for a rolling rele on First Windows 10 RTM Candidate Appears · · Score: 1

    It leaves Windows 7. Just because they've made a newer one doesn't mean the existing one will suddenly stop working...? (Well, at least it didn't used to mean that; no guarantees going forward...)

  12. Where's the app appers guy? on Google: Stop Making Apps! (A Love Letter) · · Score: 0

    Finally a thread where his gibberish is absolutely 100% relevant, and there *isn't* a post about how app appers app apps yet? Come on! It's practically *begging* you to write about apping apps so you can app apps while you app, or whatever the crap. That'd be like a thread that's actually about using hosts file with no hosts file gibberish guy.

    Seriously, though, this is dumb. Why the heck would google want to stop writing apps for their own ecosystem, and why would we want them to? I mean, we want them to stop *sucking*, like maps totally does and always has, and it would also be nice if we could uninstall the ones we don't ever feel we'll use, but that doesn't mean Google shouldn't make them...

  13. Re:Obfuscation by Social Engineering on Ask Slashdot: Dealing With Passwords Transmitted As Cleartext? · · Score: 2

    The best password: ********

  14. Responses on Ask Slashdot: Dealing With Passwords Transmitted As Cleartext? · · Score: 5, Informative

    "How frequently have people run into companies sending sensitive information (like passwords) in cleartext via e-mail?"

    Not *that* often, but more often than you would think. (See plaintextoffenders.com - they've got hundreds of examples.)

    "What would you do if this type of situation happened to you?"
    What I do when this happens:
    1. Take a screencap of the email, black out the username and password, and send it to plaintextoffenders.com
    2. Contact the site admin, let them know that you just did that, and why it's such a bad idea. Link them to http://plaintextoffenders.com/...
    3. Immediately change your password on the site to something stupid that would definitely not even *remotely* help an attacker guess what sort of passwords you might use on other sites, since if their password security is that awful, chances are their security is awful in other ways too.

  15. Re:You clicked on the wrong button on Pew Survey Documents Gaps Between Public and Scientists · · Score: 2

    Agree complete: I *would* agree with the phrasing "The earth is getting warmer because of human activity" (i.e. it's a contributing factor). I would even agree with the phrasing "The earth is getting warmer primarily because of human activity" (i.e. it's the *biggest* factor). Saying it's getting warmer "mostly" because of human activity means there's very little *else* contributing to the trend, which I'm not at all sure we have proof of, nor is it even particularly relevant. I caught that right away. I'm surprised that high a percentage of liberals/democrats agreed anyway, given it's not really true as stated.

  16. Presumably because they need the money, and as was pointed out by the OP, it's easier to break back into a field you were already in, than a new one. Breaking into a totally new field not right out of college *is* kind of difficult, after all, especially if you've been totally out of the workforce for 3 years (but even if you haven't).

    My wife is also looking towards completely changing career paths entirely out of IT (where she's been for a few years). I totally wish her luck, but it's not the easiest thing to do, and she knows it.

    That said, yes, it is kind of silly that it was the husband posting this to /., and not the person who is actually looking for advice.

  17. Re:Think business, not technology on Stanford Starts the 'Secure Internet of Things Project' · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Then somebody hacks into a thermostat, uses it to burn somebody's house down for luls. The couple whose house was burned down tries to sue, loses due to the contract that says their only recourse is a refund of the 50$ even though WTF, it makes all the news everywhere, and the device is forever known as "that device that burned some guy's house down and they gave him a whopping 50 bucks". They're now out 50 bucks in direct cost, and a jillion dollars in lost sales.

    We sometimes forget the economics side of things, but companies *often* forget the social side of things (i.e. if you treat people like crap, they'll tell their friends, who will tell their friends, and eventually you'll be "that company that treats people like crap". Unless, of course, you're a monopoly, or if all your competition is equally terrible, in which case do what you like.)

  18. Re:Free Speech vs. Vigilantism on 8 Yelp Reviewers Hit With $1.2 Million Defamation Suits · · Score: 1

    Except in this particular case, it sounds like the reviews are super fake. Not just super fake, but also insulting (to and at least borderline offensive. *Either* of those would be enough to get the reviews pulled completely (not just hidden). So it's strange they'd go straight to the courthouse, instead of just flagging the reviews for deletion? I flag reviews all the time (usually by people who don't know how to use yelp and have posted reviews to the wrong place, but occasionally also for other reasons), then they get deleted.

    I would have a huge problem with requiring reviewers to check in at the business, because a. not everyone always has a smartphone, b. not everyone always has their smartphone *with* them and charged, and c. even when I do, I'd say my rate of actually being allowed to check in is about 50% (the other half the time, it says the GPS couldn't get an exact enough fix on my location).

  19. Not the best title on SpaceX Breaks Down Its Rocket Landing Attempts · · Score: 2

    SpaceX Breaks Down... (crap, what happened now?)

    its rocket landing attempts. Ah, alright then, never mind. Got me worried for nothing.

  20. Re:16:10 on Lenovo Could Remake the ThinkPad X300 With Current Technologies · · Score: 1

    4:3 really wouldn't be that much of an improvement, either. A small one, but I remember the jump from 4:3 to 16:10 *very* fondly. I'm not against change, just against *stupid* change. 16:10 is optimal for just about everything. (Yes, even playing 16:9 media: in that specific use case, it leaves just enough space for controls. ;))

  21. 16:10 on Lenovo Could Remake the ThinkPad X300 With Current Technologies · · Score: 1

    16:10 again? Yes please very much.

    None of those things sound like 1992... I don't think there even *were* widescreen laptops in 1992? I certainly never saw them, at least - was all 4:3 back then. I don't remember seeing too many 16:10 laptop screens until the mid-2000s?

    16:10 is definitely my preferred aspect ratio, so if this were to happen, and I could get it with everything else I would want in a laptop (17" screen, decent graphics card, SSD primary and large HDD secondary drive) for a reasonable price, I would absolutely jump on that. My laptop is getting kinda old, but I haven't upgraded in years because we're stuck on 16:9.

  22. I love Cloud to Butt on Put Your Enterprise Financial Data In the Cloud? Sure, Why Not · · Score: 1

    Title: "Put Your Enterprise Financial Data In my Butt? Sure, Why Not"

    The tag-line to the dullest porn *ever*.

  23. Re:Which OEM has the best track record on this? on Samsung Cripples Windows Update To Prevent Incompatible Drivers · · Score: 1

    I agree, the HP machine I had years back was decent. Their tech support, on the other hand, is hilariously incompetent to the point of negligence, by which I mean, something broke under warranty, I called them, they insisted not only that I didn't have a warranty, but that the machine (which I purchased directly from them not a year earlier) didn't exist and never had. Took hours on calls (mostly on hold) to get them to admit otherwise. Never buying an HP consumer machine ever again. (And the machine wasn't even amazing, just decent, given as mentioned, something broke and required repair about a year in, and it finally died permanently after about 4 years. My new machine, an MSI, is going strong almost 5 years after purchase; the only thing I've had to replace was a keyboard, which was a 10 buck self-install.)

  24. How long is your warranty good for? on When Will Your Hard Drive Fail? · · Score: 2

    Check how long your warranty is good for. It'll fail about a week after that.

  25. Great misread title on General Mills To Drop Artificial Ingredients In Cereal · · Score: 1

    I read the title, I imagined them doing experiments where they had bowls of cereal lined up, then they took various artificial ingredients and dropped them into the bowls to see what would happen. So basically, research for their next cereal, what additional artificial crap can we add that we haven't already tried?

    I'm glad to see exactly the opposite was actually the case (supposedly. I'll believe it when it actually happens.)