I've noticed that a lot of online banking sites are now switching from typed passwords to "keypad" buttons that you have to click with a mouse. The order of the buttons changes every time the page is loaded, so sniffing the mouse position won't help. This seems like a good basic security measure and I'm a bit surprised it hasn't been universally adopted.
Just wondering, from those who know about such things - Short of doing a realtime screen capture and sending the video of the mouse moving over the buttons back to the bot controller, how could a login like this be intercepted?
I got a spam call 2 days ago. It was a recorded message saying I "could have won" a car and to call a 1-900 number (charged at $5/minute) to find out. I'd be very surprised if spam calls aren't all automated like this.
I'm really surprised about this bundling. I used to work for Macromedia and keeping the file size for the Flash player to a minimum has always been a sacred tenet. Downloading a 300K plugin is trivial for most users, even on dial-up. It's the main reason Flash beat Java applets in the browser.
Recently Macromedia actually experimented with the player, to see what effect increasing the size of the plugin would have on downloads. They found that once it got past a certain size (which wasn't revealed), downloads dropped off dramatically.
So I'm really surprised that they're bundling other software in the download now. I've no doubt that the total size is still below that threshold they found. But there's always a constant battle at MM to add features to Flash whilst keeping the player small. This ain't gonna make that easier and any bundling that alienates the user base is pretty self defeating IMHO.
I like the approach they've taken, but machine translation can only ever go so far.
A friend of mine was trying to translate an English novel into German a while back. She had to work out a replacement for a sentance where the word 'therapist' was construed as 'the rapist'. Hell of a job and she's a professional translator.
Automatic translation looks pretty good for technical documents, news and anything completely literal. When you get writing with double meanings, humour and plays on words it gets way harder - often to the point where there is no correct translation.
BMW already has something similar in the 5 and 7 series - active cruise control. Only controls the car speed, but basically ensures that you keep an even distance away from the car in front.
It's a shame this hasn't been more widely adopted because it has major benefits on conjested freeways. They did a study in the UK a few years ago that showed why conjestion occurred on the M25 - a notoriously busy ring road around London. When a road starts to get crowded, anyone who overreacts when breaking causes a chain reaction behind them. So one vehicle slowing down a bit too much causes the next to do the same and so on until traffic stops completely. Active cruise control should stop this because cars on a freeway will space themselves out evenly and not overcompensate when they slow down.
That PDF article's pretty good, but I think they've got it wrong about burn-in problems with CRTs and the FE displays. Burn-in has always been a problem with CRTs. Just look at any old ATM or information kiosk. Phosphor coatings have well known burn-in issues. Surely FE displays, with effectively the same technology at the glass side would have the same problems.
All the posts about prevention being better than cure miss the point. There are already millions of compromised systems out there. Sorry to break the/. code of compulsory MS bashing, but any initiative that could help reduce the number of spam bots out there is a good thing.
MS needs to fix and upgrade IE as part of any attempt to fix the problem. No question. But the need for spyware removal tools is still there.
If you have not experimented and studied it yourself, how can you dismiss it?
Oh man! As a qualified physicist you should understand better than most the value of comprehensive, peer reviewed experimentation. No serious scientific method supports anecdotal evidence as proof of anything.
There's no doubt that there are alternative therapies that work. However, they should be subject to exactly the same process of double blind clinical trials that regular medicine has to go through before they're allowed to be sold. There's always a lot of resistance to this of course. Nobody wants their "miracle cures" to be exposed as overpriced snake oil. But without clinical trials, the alternative therapies that actually work won't get exposed.
I'm always amazed by the number of otherwise intelligent people who have such incredible faith in alternative therapies with no proof whatsoever that they work.
Even worse, Qantas didn't add the levy to the price of the ticket, they added it to the "tax". So it's not reflected in published prices and you have to pay it even if you're flying on ff points.
Ok - looks like we're getting into the familiar/. routine here. All the alternative energy options are reduced to solar, wind and nuclear power - maybe biomass too.
Now check this out. Hot Dry Rock geothermal power looks promising. Basically you drill down around 3-5 kms, well within the "oil and gas window" of current drilling technology. At this depth, across large amounts of the Earth there's very hot beds of granite. You inject water down the hole and it fractures the rock. Then, drill another hole and build a closed loop system where water's injected down, heated and brought back up. You then use the heat to generate power via a conventional turbine.
This looks like a great technology. There's none of the varying supply and storage issues of wind and solar. None of the waste of nuclear. So why is it so obscure?
Re:My Retake on the Segway
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Segway Polo
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· Score: 1
Agreed. The Segway is a joke.
I saw a very self conscious nerd "segway" past a pub in East Sydney the other day. He was accompanied by a very embarassed looking wife/girlfriend. She was on foot and trying to keep up. Not a good look for anyone involved.
But hey, at least there's now a $5000 alternative to wearing a propellor hat!
Surely it's now obvious that governments and their citizens aren't going to make the changes necessary to stop global warming.
Even if Kyoto was signed and enforced today, it's just a pebble in the (rising) ocean of what's needed to prevent massive climate changes.
I don't think this means the end of humanity, but we're probably looking at the death of 10's to 100's of millions through flooding, starvation and most probably civil conflict caused by shrinking land resources.
So it's now time to start looking at what we might do in terms of food production, flood protection and mass migration strategies. Is building cities underwater an option? How can we save the species from countries that will be completely submerged? It's time to start this conversation, because nobody's listening to the warnings.
Not meaning to troll, but what's the attraction with wireless mice and keyboards anyway?
I can see the advantage for couch surfing and boardroom presentations, but why bother with desktops? A company I did some contracting for just moved offices and to look "funky" put wireless mice and keyboards on every desk. What a disaster! The batteries on all the mice started running out in a couple of weeks and the ctrl keys on the keyboards only worked half the time 'cause the signal was flakey.
Guess this product would fix the problem for the mice at least but really, why bother for a machine that you always sit at?
I've been contracting for the last 3 years and haven't looked back. Some points from my experience:
Get legal advice on the contract. Every single employer I've had has 'tried it on' in one way or another. From a miserly 3 hour notice period, to outrageous restraint of trade clauses. Most are bullshit and will be waived as soon as you raise them. So make sure you do!
Most modern workplace contracts for full timers really don't give you a lot more job stability than contracting. Just make sure you negotiate a reasonable notice period (eg. 4 weeks or better) before you sign.
If possible, charge by the hour. My hours are much more reasonable now that my employers know that the meter's running. That's great for families and you're not working overtime without pay
ALWAYS get your timesheet signed off. Add a reference to your contract with the agreed rate and something to the affect of "he did this work AND we're happy with it" on the timesheet. In the worst case scenario of a dispute over pay or a bankruptcy dispute, timesheets are your legal record and they have a lot of clout
One of the benefits of being full time is getting training. So factor in that you'll have to pay for this yourself and remember you won't be paid whilst you're getting trained
Enjoy the extra holidays! I'm taking Christmas and all of January off to take a round the world trip. Try doing that full time! Again, remember you're not paid for holidays (or your 401K or medical, insurance etc) so factor that into your rate
This announcement's a disgrace. Blatant move to force users to buy the 'premium' service. I work contracts all over the place and I've had a Hotmail account for years - for the simple reason that WebDAV's great when you're working behind a corporate firewall. A lot of companies block access to external POP3 or IMAP accounts and even more block SMTP out (as they should). WebDAV, which uses good old HTTP port 80 is usually fine.
Haven't used GMail yet, but I'd always prefer to have a local email client anyway. More features, local storage and offline access.
Guess it's finally goodbye to Hotmail. Any other mail services out there that use WebDAV?
Talk about a deathtrap! What happens if you lose power? Without the inherant gliding ability of a fixed wing, or the auto-rotate ability of a chopper you've got next to no chance. Forget parachutes - even the rocket powered ones need a good 500ft to deploy.
Holy Grail? Give me an African sparrow anyday. I mean European sparrow. Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!
It could help, but any delay in relaying the video from outside would probably make things worse. I remember reading years ago that people using VR headsets experienced 'simulator sickness' because of delays between position changes and updates on the image.
I always find the best remedy for motion sickness in boats and light planes is still:
- get some fresh air
- look at the horizon
- (if safe/possible) take the wheel/yoke
Yet another solar power project that's converting the DC output to mains voltage AC and then back again.
Wouldn't it be better just to charge up a big array of car batteries and then feed the power directly to the motherboards (after a bit of voltage conversion etc)? There's no need to use AC power unless you're transmitting it over long distances. Right Mr Tesla?
Payroll software without the current tax formulas?
Legal software without the latest laws and precedents?
"Glass cockpit" avionics without current traffic info, frequencies, weather etc?
Anything that requires regular updates lends itself to a rental model. Doesn't mean you have to ASP the whole thing. And btw, what's new here? Who would want to rent an app like Excel that's used frequently but rarely changes? Whatever Microsoft might want, there's still enough competition from previous versions and OSS to stop that from happening.
zero tv cameras broadcasting in HD and/or widescreen. At least that's what we're getting in Australia. The coverage will all be in Standard Definition at a 4:3 aspect ratio.
Considering all the money that's been spent on the Olympics I find this a bit disappointing. Anyone getting HD or 16:9 coverage outside of Aus?
Slashdot Mirror
Just wondering, from those who know about such things - Short of doing a realtime screen capture and sending the video of the mouse moving over the buttons back to the bot controller, how could a login like this be intercepted?
I got a spam call 2 days ago. It was a recorded message saying I "could have won" a car and to call a 1-900 number (charged at $5/minute) to find out. I'd be very surprised if spam calls aren't all automated like this.
Recently Macromedia actually experimented with the player, to see what effect increasing the size of the plugin would have on downloads. They found that once it got past a certain size (which wasn't revealed), downloads dropped off dramatically.
So I'm really surprised that they're bundling other software in the download now. I've no doubt that the total size is still below that threshold they found. But there's always a constant battle at MM to add features to Flash whilst keeping the player small. This ain't gonna make that easier and any bundling that alienates the user base is pretty self defeating IMHO.
A friend of mine was trying to translate an English novel into German a while back. She had to work out a replacement for a sentance where the word 'therapist' was construed as 'the rapist'. Hell of a job and she's a professional translator.
Automatic translation looks pretty good for technical documents, news and anything completely literal. When you get writing with double meanings, humour and plays on words it gets way harder - often to the point where there is no correct translation.
It's a shame this hasn't been more widely adopted because it has major benefits on conjested freeways. They did a study in the UK a few years ago that showed why conjestion occurred on the M25 - a notoriously busy ring road around London. When a road starts to get crowded, anyone who overreacts when breaking causes a chain reaction behind them. So one vehicle slowing down a bit too much causes the next to do the same and so on until traffic stops completely. Active cruise control should stop this because cars on a freeway will space themselves out evenly and not overcompensate when they slow down.
That PDF article's pretty good, but I think they've got it wrong about burn-in problems with CRTs and the FE displays. Burn-in has always been a problem with CRTs. Just look at any old ATM or information kiosk. Phosphor coatings have well known burn-in issues. Surely FE displays, with effectively the same technology at the glass side would have the same problems.
MS needs to fix and upgrade IE as part of any attempt to fix the problem. No question. But the need for spyware removal tools is still there.
Oh man! As a qualified physicist you should understand better than most the value of comprehensive, peer reviewed experimentation. No serious scientific method supports anecdotal evidence as proof of anything.
There's no doubt that there are alternative therapies that work. However, they should be subject to exactly the same process of double blind clinical trials that regular medicine has to go through before they're allowed to be sold. There's always a lot of resistance to this of course. Nobody wants their "miracle cures" to be exposed as overpriced snake oil. But without clinical trials, the alternative therapies that actually work won't get exposed.
I'm always amazed by the number of otherwise intelligent people who have such incredible faith in alternative therapies with no proof whatsoever that they work.
Even worse, Qantas didn't add the levy to the price of the ticket, they added it to the "tax". So it's not reflected in published prices and you have to pay it even if you're flying on ff points.
In Korea, only old people watch TV on their mobiles...
Now check this out. Hot Dry Rock geothermal power looks promising. Basically you drill down around 3-5 kms, well within the "oil and gas window" of current drilling technology. At this depth, across large amounts of the Earth there's very hot beds of granite. You inject water down the hole and it fractures the rock. Then, drill another hole and build a closed loop system where water's injected down, heated and brought back up. You then use the heat to generate power via a conventional turbine.
This looks like a great technology. There's none of the varying supply and storage issues of wind and solar. None of the waste of nuclear. So why is it so obscure?
I saw a very self conscious nerd "segway" past a pub in East Sydney the other day. He was accompanied by a very embarassed looking wife/girlfriend. She was on foot and trying to keep up. Not a good look for anyone involved.
But hey, at least there's now a $5000 alternative to wearing a propellor hat!
Even if Kyoto was signed and enforced today, it's just a pebble in the (rising) ocean of what's needed to prevent massive climate changes.
I don't think this means the end of humanity, but we're probably looking at the death of 10's to 100's of millions through flooding, starvation and most probably civil conflict caused by shrinking land resources.
So it's now time to start looking at what we might do in terms of food production, flood protection and mass migration strategies. Is building cities underwater an option? How can we save the species from countries that will be completely submerged? It's time to start this conversation, because nobody's listening to the warnings.
I can see the advantage for couch surfing and boardroom presentations, but why bother with desktops? A company I did some contracting for just moved offices and to look "funky" put wireless mice and keyboards on every desk. What a disaster! The batteries on all the mice started running out in a couple of weeks and the ctrl keys on the keyboards only worked half the time 'cause the signal was flakey.
Guess this product would fix the problem for the mice at least but really, why bother for a machine that you always sit at?
I can see it now - "Excuse me Dr Turing what's that little stop sign you've drawn on the tape?"
The water's been recycled so many times it's beginning to taste like Dutch Lager!
Haven't used GMail yet, but I'd always prefer to have a local email client anyway. More features, local storage and offline access.
Guess it's finally goodbye to Hotmail. Any other mail services out there that use WebDAV?
Holy Grail? Give me an African sparrow anyday. I mean European sparrow. Waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!
I always find the best remedy for motion sickness in boats and light planes is still:
- get some fresh air
- look at the horizon
- (if safe/possible) take the wheel/yoke
Wouldn't it be better just to charge up a big array of car batteries and then feed the power directly to the motherboards (after a bit of voltage conversion etc)? There's no need to use AC power unless you're transmitting it over long distances. Right Mr Tesla?
- A virus scanner without regular updates?
- Payroll software without the current tax formulas?
- Legal software without the latest laws and precedents?
- "Glass cockpit" avionics without current traffic info, frequencies, weather etc?
Anything that requires regular updates lends itself to a rental model. Doesn't mean you have to ASP the whole thing. And btw, what's new here? Who would want to rent an app like Excel that's used frequently but rarely changes? Whatever Microsoft might want, there's still enough competition from previous versions and OSS to stop that from happening.Considering all the money that's been spent on the Olympics I find this a bit disappointing. Anyone getting HD or 16:9 coverage outside of Aus?
...but I need it to run Doom3 in "Ultra". Sorry.
...when the BBC agreed not to put any stairs in the new episodes.