Because admins who care about security either leave due to frustration or get fired because they get into too many arguments with stupid management types over these issues. So you're left with all the idiots who know how to get along and play the game.
And why do similar comments like "security through obscurity" come up here as criticism when little or no real examples are shown via the article?
Is this place (and the web) being used for a FUD campaign?
I suspect it has more to do with some people's masochistic desire to make themselves look idiotic by bandying about terminology they obviously don't understand. Apparently "security through obscurity" now means things like not providing the world with step-by-step instructions for accessing your machine. I guess keeping your passwords secret is also "security through obscurity" now too.
I'm sure it's waaaay too much to ask all these parroting dumbasses to actually read a book on security. So let's just make fun of them.
Have you actually talked to some art students lately? Aside from people that are actually doing computer graphics work, their computer skills (in general) are pitiful. Having a Mac does not help this - in fact, it gives them even less incentive to actually learn how their computer works beyond "double-click the cute little icon to open IE/AIM/Photoshop/etc.".
Have you actually talked to some computer people lately? Their agriculture and animal husbandry skills are (in general) pitiful. Having modern supermarkets does not help this - in fact, it gives them even less incentive to actually learn how their food is produced beyond "go to the meat counter for some hamburger and stop by the produce section for some lettuce/onions/tomatoes/etc."
And whoever modded you "Informative" should have followed your links.
The "white spots" problem is old news and doesn't affect the current line of powerbooks or the previous line either (which I own one of). It's like saying MS has jumped the shark in 2004 because Windows 95 came out so late.
Thanks for playing, Fonzie.
Also, even if we did have a set of features that could at least severely limit who could use your card without a great deal of practice, what on earth makes them think that it will be possible to do that kind of detailed spectrographic analysis on a voice sample taken in a noisy environment?
These people either believe that all credit card transactions take place in soundproof rooms or they haven't thought this through. The voice recognition/identification would have to be pretty forgiving to accept your spoken password at the supermarket with people talking all around, a baby crying next to you, and lite jazz blaring from the speakers overhead along with the occasional "Price check on register three" squawk. I seriously doubt you could even limit it to a particular word ("password", "bastard", "faster"... You could probably get the vowels, stress placement and maybe some of the continuant consonants like s.), much less a particular voice.
Simple voice-recognition systems are already used in cellphones to provide voice dialling. The challenge for Beepcard has been to develop voice-recognition and audio circuitry that can be powered by a diminutive battery embedded in a credit card.
No, the challenge for Beepcard has been and apparently continues to be knowing the difference between voice recognition and voice identification. Yes, the phones have to learn to recognize your voice but that's not because your voice is a beautiful and unique snowflake; it's because the parameters that make up voices are widely varying and we haven't figured out exactly how brains turn streams of voice into words. So-called "voiceprints" are a myth. Google for forensic phonetics if you don't believe me. IANAPhonetician but I am a linguistics grad student and I've had enough grad level phonetics to know that spectrographic analysis of a voice does not provide any kind of unique identification the way fingerprinting does (or is supposed to at least).
Stupid idea, waste of R&D money, and a poor solution to a problem that has many better solutions that credit card companies are not interested in because it involves them changing the way they do things. Whoever's financing this obviously needs to enroll in an introductory phonetics class at the local university before they lose their shirts on a dumb, unworkable idea.
Yeah, and then there's all that music in space. I mean, Hello??? Do people actually believe there are orchestras on every asteroid or something!? Jeesh!
I keep trying to educate people at the movie theater about this issue but Hollywood has the ignorant masses so well trained that they'd rather beat me up, dump nachos on my head, and leave me for dead in the parking lot than listen to reason. You have to be really brave to challenge people's ignorance.
Well, this long-time Unix user hasn't really had a problem with that, but maybe my superior keyboard flexibility is from the days of having to use about sixty jillion different types of text terminals.
Granted, the Ctrl key is located in a pretty sucky place on the Powerbook, but I've yet to see a laptop keyboard that didn't suck in some way or another. However, I think the real culprit here is the computer industry in general, which for no reason anyone can fathom insists on locating Caps Lock, the least used and most annoying key ever, in a very prominent position on the keyboard instead of where it belongs--in a distant city on another continent.
Hmmm, so the 15" PB I'm using right now ran out of power almost an hour ago and I never noticed it. Oh, wait, it must be the way Mac users ignore reality that makes me believe the computer is still on and that I am somehow posting to slashdot.
Slashdot Mirror
The IT industry in America deserves itself.
--recovered (but still bitter) sysadmin
What? You get modded up for being a spelling and grammar nazi? Wooooo, neat!
I suspect it has more to do with some people's masochistic desire to make themselves look idiotic by bandying about terminology they obviously don't understand. Apparently "security through obscurity" now means things like not providing the world with step-by-step instructions for accessing your machine. I guess keeping your passwords secret is also "security through obscurity" now too.
I'm sure it's waaaay too much to ask all these parroting dumbasses to actually read a book on security. So let's just make fun of them.
Have you actually talked to some computer people lately? Their agriculture and animal husbandry skills are (in general) pitiful. Having modern supermarkets does not help this - in fact, it gives them even less incentive to actually learn how their food is produced beyond "go to the meat counter for some hamburger and stop by the produce section for some lettuce/onions/tomatoes/etc."
And whoever modded you "Informative" should have followed your links. The "white spots" problem is old news and doesn't affect the current line of powerbooks or the previous line either (which I own one of). It's like saying MS has jumped the shark in 2004 because Windows 95 came out so late. Thanks for playing, Fonzie.
These people either believe that all credit card transactions take place in soundproof rooms or they haven't thought this through. The voice recognition/identification would have to be pretty forgiving to accept your spoken password at the supermarket with people talking all around, a baby crying next to you, and lite jazz blaring from the speakers overhead along with the occasional "Price check on register three" squawk. I seriously doubt you could even limit it to a particular word ("password", "bastard", "faster"... You could probably get the vowels, stress placement and maybe some of the continuant consonants like s.), much less a particular voice.
No, the challenge for Beepcard has been and apparently continues to be knowing the difference between voice recognition and voice identification. Yes, the phones have to learn to recognize your voice but that's not because your voice is a beautiful and unique snowflake; it's because the parameters that make up voices are widely varying and we haven't figured out exactly how brains turn streams of voice into words. So-called "voiceprints" are a myth. Google for forensic phonetics if you don't believe me. IANAPhonetician but I am a linguistics grad student and I've had enough grad level phonetics to know that spectrographic analysis of a voice does not provide any kind of unique identification the way fingerprinting does (or is supposed to at least).
Stupid idea, waste of R&D money, and a poor solution to a problem that has many better solutions that credit card companies are not interested in because it involves them changing the way they do things. Whoever's financing this obviously needs to enroll in an introductory phonetics class at the local university before they lose their shirts on a dumb, unworkable idea.
Yeah, and then there's all that music in space. I mean, Hello??? Do people actually believe there are orchestras on every asteroid or something!? Jeesh!
I keep trying to educate people at the movie theater about this issue but Hollywood has the ignorant masses so well trained that they'd rather beat me up, dump nachos on my head, and leave me for dead in the parking lot than listen to reason. You have to be really brave to challenge people's ignorance.
Let's not forget NeXTStep either! (And yes, it's more than your AfterStep window manager, n00b!)
Maybe they think they know VMS. Now that would be funny!
Be ready to want one for yourself. Especially for a laptop.
At times a bit heavy handed but saved by a few flashes of brilliance like "an Enterprise Server boxen." Damn! That slays me!
Granted, the Ctrl key is located in a pretty sucky place on the Powerbook, but I've yet to see a laptop keyboard that didn't suck in some way or another. However, I think the real culprit here is the computer industry in general, which for no reason anyone can fathom insists on locating Caps Lock, the least used and most annoying key ever, in a very prominent position on the keyboard instead of where it belongs--in a distant city on another continent.
Hmmm, so the 15" PB I'm using right now ran out of power almost an hour ago and I never noticed it. Oh, wait, it must be the way Mac users ignore reality that makes me believe the computer is still on and that I am somehow posting to slashdot.