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User: fastgood

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  1. Spammers trick - REuseable captcha on Understanding How CAPTCHA Is Broken · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Find somewhere with 1000s of pageviews (eg. pr0n site)
    Present Captcha image to 2 users (agreement = correct)

    So the monkeys pull the right lever and get the reward
    of viewing the next adult video, and the spammer gets
    a near-realtime solution to even the best of captchas.

  2. Re:Hmmm. on A Walk Through the Hard Drive Recovery Process · · Score: 1

    That's the geekiest thing I've read today. ;)
    2 + 2 = 5 for large values of 2
  3. It's the kiss of death on MPAA Touts Record Year For Hollywood · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Five years ago this month, a consortium of VHS tape producers touted a "ticker tape" Christmas season for all-time sales, and DVD have outsold tapes for every single month since March 2003.

    Fifteen years before that, the RIAA leaders touted their "record year" for album sales, and CDs immediately supplanted records in 1988 and never looked back.


    And thirty years ago in 1978 when Tomita released the final quad 8-track tape, the industry said it was "on track" for the best year ever as it instead saw the multi-track format slip into oblivion.

    So when the MPAA touts a shiny year for DVDs, Blu-Ray is probably poised to make them eat their words.

  4. At a "fraction of their former salary" on IBM to Lay Off Half of Global Services Division · · Score: 1

    When I leave a salaried position with a company to contract for them, it is usually for forty to fifty percent more pay to cover lost benefits. My fraction is 7/5 or 3/2 of previous pay levels if they want to get me out of bed the day after they "fire" me.

  5. Re:I coulda used someone with that cert on CompTIA Certifies Home Network Integrators · · Score: 3, Funny

    One cert makes you an "Agent" at the Best Buy store, and I actually got a phone call from someone who identified themselves as a "double Agent" ... I never figured out if it meant they worked on Macs too, or something else.

  6. Re:Free parking? on NASA Optimistic About Fuel Tank Repairs · · Score: 1

    Maybe they can sell a couple extra units to the public to defray the cost of repairs? I know that every time it hails here, Crazy Bob's Ford sells dozens more vehicles to people just waiting for such an act of God. So what if it's a little beat up, and of course it is still 10% over invoice sticker, and you gotta sign a waiver, and the insurance company makes sure you never file a silver paint claim ... but your neighbors will be so jealous when you're the first on your block.

  7. Re:This is one of the reasons I prefer Debian. on Microsoft Quietly Releases Windows 2003 SP2 · · Score: 2, Informative
    -

    Another point to big service packs is that once SP(n) is released, marketing can admit SP(n-1)
    is really quite insecure on WIN(r-3) and how WIN(r) is now strongly recommended for your shop

  8. Re:Proving once again that PC World has no shame on PC World's 20 Most Innovative Products of 2006 · · Score: 1
    I don't ever read ads. It looks like 10 companies, well-represented at the mall:

    Microsoft
    Intel
    Samsung
    Sony
    Dell
    Seagate
    Sony
    T-Mobile
    Sony
    Logitech

    Aren't they just guilty of being rich consumer electronics companies?

  9. Re:Duplication of Effort on Microsoft Releases Book Search · · Score: 1
    Double your pleasure, double your fun, with double the DRM.

    Give away something for free that everyone wants, so you can install a piece of software on machines for other ventures.
    (I'll never buy another Microsoft product if they ever install DRM that can't be removed via System Restore the next day)

  10. Re:That's a bad idea... on First Company Logo Visible From Space · · Score: 1
    The word "fried" disappeard from the human race back in the 1990s.

    Churches Fried Chicken became Churches Chicken, Kentucky Fried became KFC, Popeyes ...

    Even Google has an alien search results page for the subject.

  11. Re:Item #51 on Scientific American's Top 50 · · Score: 1
    Another nominee:

    Slippery Internet Pipes without using PTFE

    --
    Why Senator Stevens (R-AK)
    can't send email for days:
    http://senate.gov/~stevens

  12. Re:i remember when.... on Hell.com Domain Name Up For Sale · · Score: 1
    a lifetime @hell.com address seems like a poor life choice

    And the big boss there would be rush@limbaugh.com whose in-progress auction
    nearly doubled (a whopping $1500) since kicking Michael J. Fox earlier this week.

    Ends in 3 days, for those who haven't decided on the scariest person they can be for Halloween.

  13. Re:Beige Alert! Beige Alert in terminal B! on Laptops Searched and Confiscated at U.S. Border · · Score: 1
    If it doesn't look like a duck, doesn't sound like a duck, and doesn't SMELL like a duck ... it isn't a duck.

    Every time I've had special laptop checks at the International terminals, it has been with snug fitting cases.

    Shoes don't come off until the second check -- makes me think the puffer machine has a little man inside.

  14. Re:For the same reason it's always happened... on Finger Pointing Over iPod Windows Virus · · Score: 1
    Microsoft ends up releasing low-quality software that has serious security glitches.

    Not anymore. Microsoft announced it will fully spend 4 years on its next XP Service Pack to make it really safe and secure.

    Hmmm, SP1 in no longer supported and 2008 is an awful long time from now to still run SP2 ... maybe we should just get Vista in 2006!

  15. Re:For those of you wondering on Listening for Cancer Cells · · Score: 1
    Couldn't another searchpoint for cancer cells be
    that they are the only cell types that do not die
    off regularly and naturally in the human body?

    No death, grow endlessly without aim or purpose:
    it also seems like a good definition of nihilism.

  16. Gives new meaning to on McDonalds Japan Distributes Infected MP3 Players · · Score: 1

    McDonalds jingle You Deserve a Break Today done by American Idol Judge, Barry Manilow.

  17. Re:And then.... on Vista Licenses Limit OS Transfers, Ban VM Use · · Score: 1
    Windows has become a self maintaining, DRM-delivery system.

    "A security issue has been identified that could
    allow Microsoft to compromise your Windows-based
    system and gain control over it. You can help
    protect your computer by installing this update"

    Recent events allow the swap of "an attacker" and "Microsoft".

  18. Death and Taxes on Indian ISPs Taxed for Generating "Light Energy" · · Score: 1
    The State of New Jersey used similar means a while back to answer the age-old question of whether professional wrestling is real or not:

    Since sporting events got taxed at nearly 3 times the rate of entertainment venues, the promoters quickly admitted to "Pro Wrestling is fake!

  19. Re:Hmm... on Private Data Sold From Indian Call Center · · Score: 1
    They never followed-up on the call.

    It's a good bet that your call was "recorded for training purposes."

    Training is usually non-existant, managers referring back to past recorded calls is non-existant, but you know that someone has saved all the provided names, numbers, and financial information.

  20. No more typewriters on Bloggers or High Schoolers, Where is the Literary Talent? · · Score: 1
    Things were clearly in decline by 1957 when tens of millions of Underwoods. were beginning to be replaced by the new Smith-Corona electric portables.

    Particularly devastating was their carriage return invention three years later. In between, the IBM Selectric introduced the "golf ball" electric type. The writer was taken out of the process by making things too easy!

    So in just four short years that shook the literary world, the unfortunate Class of '61 saw the demise of pushing down manual keys, that pushed manual bars up, with a manual level you pushed to advanced lines.

  21. When a HD warranty *is* a sham on Are Hard Disk Warranties Worthless? · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Nobody knows better than the engineers what their MTTF rate is, and they should set time limits on the known data.

    Western Digital put out a 12 month drive (they best know their own product quality) plus an optional $15 insurance plan.

    You either build a more expensive, higher quality unit that can stand on its merits for 3 years, or you decide to build junk.
    But don't let Marketing dictate quality, where 12-36 months out, you pray for less than one in six returns for a break-even.

  22. Re:Tabbed Browsing anyone? on Your 'Clickprint' Gives Away Your Identity Online · · Score: 1
    You can turn off Javascript so the server end doesn't pull your local IP address behind the $39 Netgear or Linksys router. A pretty dead-giveaway for environments with a 1:1 correspondence between users and machines.

    And I can pretty easily imagine some of the bad guys not showing their hand with new exploits until they start seeing big ol' ripe, leaking internal IP addresses like 172.31.1.155 or 10.10.1.180 (as opposed to 192.168.1.3 or 192.168.2.2)

  23. Re:My service is better than thiers on Untraceable Messaging Service Raises a Few Eyebrows · · Score: 1
    called walking up to the person and wispering

    That lip thing was bypassed around '69 (or was it 2001) by a pre-HAL9500 series with 32K of RAM

  24. Re:Go On! on Yahoo Tries to Woo Facebook With $900 Million · · Score: 1
    As the original push technology web site, Pointcast finally sold for just $7 million, less than eighteen months after turning down very close to half a billion dollars from Rupert Murdoch.

  25. Re:Why is this so surprising??? on Nintendo Keeps Wits and Reflexes Sharp · · Score: 1
    Tht prgrm rlly hlpd -- My mnd dsn't nd vwls nw.

    Nxt stp, pncttn wn't b ncssry.