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User: pdbogen

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Comments · 273

  1. Re:So on Where Have All The Cycles Gone? · · Score: 1

    You can't eat your cake and have it too.

    You can with..er.. open..source.. cake...

    /nothin'

  2. Re:Decisions, decisions on How to Take Over a Train Station · · Score: 1

    We all know they drive black lincol!@#NO CARRIER

  3. Re:I have to give them credit for originality. on Romeo and Juliet Game Post-Mortem · · Score: 1

    It's a good point, but here's why I don't like games about maintaining a romance:

    You can do it in real life.

    And, of course, doing it in a video game is a whole lot worse, because not only does it (a) make you realize what you don't have in real life, it (b) periodically makes you realize that you're playing a game about what you don't have in real life.

    But maybe that's just me...

  4. Re:He's right. on Password Security Panned · · Score: 1

    johnnyb brings up an interesting point in security. Many systems assume that the user won't have that kind of unlimited access to a system.. I.e., on most/all x86 platforms, you can just open it up, reset the bios, pop in a linux boot disc/floppy (plugging in the drive you carry around with you, if need be), and get any information you need off the system, no matter how good the software security is.
    (Of course, there are ways around this- real encrypted filesystems, for one.. like Linux's cryptoloop)

    Also, to nitpick a bit on his point, to be able to replay the bits, you first do have to record them, which equates to a man-in-the-middle attack. This should be able to be avoided by some simple public/private cryptography built in to the device.

  5. Re:Password Lockout on Password Security Panned · · Score: 1

    This sounds like a (no offense) poorly implemented encrypted hardware key. Although I suppose the concept is useful in that it allows them to use passwords on things that don't normally support "good" hardware security solutions, what's to stop them from caching their password anyway. To prevent user annoyance, the device would probably cache the password for a set period of time.. Someone could walk by with their camera phone and suddenly have ALL of a user's passwords.

  6. Suspicion Engine on Password Security Panned · · Score: 1

    I don't know about you, but what I infer from the tidbits given, this sounds pretty useless. Here's my understanding, and why I think the way I do:

    Assumably, the suspicion engine compares normal patterns of activity with the current patterns. Now, there's two things about this that strike me as not too good... First, a pattern is a given set of occurences in a span of time. That span of time has to be small enough to catch and stop harmful activity, but large enough to be useful. Second, "normal" varies for each user, and so would probably have to be learned (bayesian-style?) by the software.

    Experience with Bayesian Spam filters have taught us that they need a lot of user intervention at first, and reduced (but non-zero) amounts later on. You have to train it, basically, explicitly saying what's good and what's bad. Since we're talking about security vulnerabilities, what's to stop Joe Hacker from just running the little script or program that validates the current activity as valid? A password?

    I think the best security available right now is biometrics, but I don't know that's been implemented in an affordable, relatively easy-to-use, and generic format.

    Also, if anybody knows of any affordable (Say, $75) biometric (probably thumb) solutions that work under Linux with PAM, give me a shout.

  7. Re:Newton - PalmPilot - iPod on PDA Sales Fall for Third Year in Row · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Interestingly enough, you just indicated that your iPod only does 72-81% of what your Newton did...

  8. Re:my PDA is still better but... on PDA Sales Fall for Third Year in Row · · Score: 1

    What, have you not heard about the new iSockKnocker?
    ...I've got nothing. But anyway, if you have a PDA, you don't need extra functionality to make it an MP3 player. Just a good, readily available player, plenty of memory, and good battery life.

  9. Re:Logical on PDA Sales Fall for Third Year in Row · · Score: 1

    So... you can edit a decently sized Excel sheet on your iPod? /just sayin'

  10. Re:Why iPod anyway? on iPod Most Popular Music Player on Microsoft Campus · · Score: 1

    It was actually about $170. I have a 40GB iPod. I got a 20GB free, which I traded in for a refund at an apple store and paid the difference for a 40GB and a wired remote kit.

  11. Re:Why iPod anyway? on iPod Most Popular Music Player on Microsoft Campus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Interestingly enough: The lack of a good player, no worthwhile eyes-off interface, and battery life. My iPod lasts a lot longer than my PDA would, if my PDA were playing music (empirical evidence)

    That, and a 1GB SD card comes up on Froogle for $54. This is a third the price of the 1GB iPod shuffle, but does not include the cost of the playing device, which is almost certainly at least $100.

    So, you've got a comparably priced solution, with a worse interface, and shorter battery life. Of course, a PDA is still a PDA, in the end.. So it really depends on what feature set you are most interested in.

    Anyway, I have a 40GB iPod, which would be about $2,200 in SD cards, and it cost me less than $200 (thanks, freeipods.com)

  12. Re:Hmmm, go wired! on Multi-Room Wireless Sound System? · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm going to have to agree. Wireless is all well and good, but don't use it if you don't bloody have to. Wireless is for laptops, so you can walk around with internet. Are you going to wander around with a speaker in your hand? Anyway, I can't see a hacked-together wireless sound solution with P3 laptops and whatnot being nearly as good as a few well-placed wired speakers.

  13. Re:5 keys? on Banks Begin To Use RSA Keys · · Score: 1

    Hm, looks like Tepples beat me to this staggering flash of insight.

  14. 5 keys? on Banks Begin To Use RSA Keys · · Score: 0

    How long before everyone needs to carry around 5 different RSA keys just to perform daily task?

    I have five real keys that I use on a daily basis (house, office, building master, car, garage)- If I replaced a couple of these with RSA keys and added some more, I personally think it'd be really cool.

  15. Re:For starters.. on Boot Process Visualization · · Score: 1

    Can linux hibernate?

    Yes. I use software suspend regularly on my laptop. The only downside is that the software clock doesn't re-sync to the hardware clock when it comes back up, leaving the time as the same as when I put it into hibernate.. Annoying.

  16. Re:Is it a myth on FIA On3 Networked Multimedia System Reviewed · · Score: 1

    Freevo, as well. Freevo also just uses the FS as a backend, meaning it can access anything Linux can access (samba, etc.)

  17. Linux-based? on FIA On3 Networked Multimedia System Reviewed · · Score: 0

    If it's linux-based, it ought to be fairly easy to hack to fix this shortcomings.. Which means someone could do it and release a public fix, ja?

    (Obligatory, "imagine a beowulf cluster of these!")

  18. Re:Heck, join the military on What is the Tech Jobs Situation in Late 2004? · · Score: 1

    It's definitely not like the commercials on TV with soldiers jet skiing and playing golf

    Whoa, what TV station are you watching?

  19. Re:Don't mean to sound negative on Art Tips For Programmers? · · Score: 1

    Mod parent down. Way down; Poster was saying he wants to develop artistic skills for creating, e.g., icons for applications that he writes.

  20. Re:Please explain for us foreigners ... on Working iPod Halloween Costume · · Score: 1

    The candy is supposed to be offerings to the spirits so that they won't terrorize the occupants of the home. As for the costumes, well.. It started as skeletons and ghosts, then went on to monsters (e.g., Frankenstein), and probably from there became just other people figures, and then just costumes.

  21. Re:your code should read like a novel on Programming Assignment Guide For CS Students · · Score: 1

    So, wait... Did you overload the '+' operator here to do something else? For I know, without my mortgage, I always end up with less money.. And I'm pretty sure my pay is positive.

  22. Re:An alternate approach on U.S. Government Wants June Passenger Records · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't that make us terrorists?

  23. Re:The interesting question is who invented it fir on The Secret Behind the iPod Scroll Wheel · · Score: 1

    RTFA. Synaptics made the touch wheel on the iPod.

  24. Re:VGA in via USB on Uncompressed TV Video Over USB 2.0 from ATI · · Score: 1

    Our nicer Dell servers have this feature. I, however, would like to find an external box that does this- I.e., a little beige box with VGA, and a pair of PS/2 ports on one side and an ethernet jack on the other side. Now, I know they make KVMs that use ethernet lines as the transmission medium, but this isn't the same (especially since we don't run our own network, and there's no way to make sure that this raw signal will be able to go through the various switches and such that may or may not be in the way.)

  25. Re:linux pirating? on TransGaming Tagging Downloads to Combat Piracy · · Score: 1

    Just to clarify a bit, it's $5 a month for subscriptions to download the prebuilt binaries. Once you have them, you don't need to pay. Once you want new ones, you get to pay again. So, there's really no reason to pay for it for four years straight. I really wish they didn't have the three month minimum, though. Are you listening, Gavriel State?