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User: MichaelSmith

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Comments · 11,670

  1. Re:I'll see your SFTP and raise you... on Dreamhost FTP/Shell Password Database Breached · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'll see your SFTP and raise you disabling password authentication entirely, and using SSH public key authentication only.

    I do this on my own servers but I don't use plain file transfer at all. Instead I use a distributed version control system (mercurial) and I push to the server. Mercurial lets me define a hook to update the remote copy to the repository tip when new changesets are pushed to it. Working this way I have a full version history at the local and remote end. Additionally I only have to manage the directory tree locally. The remote end is taken care of.

    Another advantage is that mercurial hashes the whole repository so if anybody does fiddle with any files, I hear about it as soon as I touch the repository.

  2. FTP? on Dreamhost FTP/Shell Password Database Breached · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the passwords are used for FTP they should be considered comprimised anyway.

  3. Re:Once You Pigeonhole Them It's Easy, Right? on Microsoft Pushes For Gay Marriage In Washington State · · Score: 1

    an organism designed for a specific purpose

    Nope.

  4. Re:I get so tired of this..... on Microsoft Pushes For Gay Marriage In Washington State · · Score: 1

    We are supposed to be believers in evolution, right? If you don't like my term of 'defect' for someone who takes themselves out of the gene pool please supply a better term.

    Evolution doesn't require belief. It works regardless, for our whole species including gay people. So if a theory doesn't fit the facts, its the theory which needs to change. Homosexuality must be consistent with evolution, otherwise it would not exist.

  5. Re:First Bing, now this? on Microsoft Pushes For Gay Marriage In Washington State · · Score: 1

    They are trying to offset the Balmer effect. Balmer being a one man argument aginst gay marriage.

  6. Re:I'd start by shooting the Captain.... on What To Do With a 1,000 Foot Wrecked Cruise Ship? · · Score: 1

    Those who did earned instant infamy, like the captain of the Greek luxury liner Oceanos, which sank in rough seas off South Africa in 1991.Those who did earned instant infamy, like the captain of the Greek luxury liner Oceanos, which sank in rough seas off South Africa in 1991.

    Ha! I was on the Australis (the sister ship of the Oceanos) in 1975, going from Australia to the UK. We hit a force 11 gale in the north atlantic. This gives me a new perspective on the situation.

  7. Re:I'd start by shooting the Captain.... on What To Do With a 1,000 Foot Wrecked Cruise Ship? · · Score: 1

    The difference is that the fire brigade gets paid for regardless of how much publicity they get so there is no reason not to engage people who can do the job. Cruise ships rely on publicity so naturally salesmen get put in charge of important parts of the operation, like steering the ships around the rocks.

  8. Re:I'd start by shooting the Captain.... on What To Do With a 1,000 Foot Wrecked Cruise Ship? · · Score: 1

    Part of the job of a captain is to see to the safety of the crew and passengers. He failed at that.

    failed at saving less than 1% of the occupants of the vessel..

    Err, how would he know? He apparently bailed before even 1% of the passengers were safely off the ship.

    I read that they were down to about 300 passengers when he bailed.

  9. Re:I'd start by shooting the Captain.... on What To Do With a 1,000 Foot Wrecked Cruise Ship? · · Score: 1

    Doesn't seem relevant because this guy says the ship was where he wanted it to be when it ht the rock. Just that the rock wasn't meant to be there.

  10. Re:U.S. law is the new international law on Megaupload.com Shut Down, Founder Charged With Piracy · · Score: 1

    NZ is a bad place to hide because even a small shift in US trade regulations would seriously damage theirn economy. The let the rainbow warrior bombers go because of a trade deal for butter with the European Union.

  11. Re:Screenshots on SOPA and PIPA So Far · · Score: 1

    No I think they just crashed again.

  12. Re:Foul Ball... on Samsung Reinvents Windows (Not the OS) With Touchscreen Display · · Score: 1

    I do my best. Mainly we go out to do ball games and fly our remote controlled aircraft. Yesterday we attached an action cam to my son's remote controlled car and drove it around. That was pretty good. But they always want to get back to their games.

  13. Re:Foul Ball... on Samsung Reinvents Windows (Not the OS) With Touchscreen Display · · Score: 1

    I did, and I could put the resulting two second flight on line if anybody is interested, but the result was not good. All my remote controlled helicopters are out of operation at the moment so I can't do it that way.

  14. Re:Why hasn't Slashdot gone dark? on Samsung Reinvents Windows (Not the OS) With Touchscreen Display · · Score: 1

    Refugees from reddit may slashdot slashdot.

  15. Re:Foul Ball... on Samsung Reinvents Windows (Not the OS) With Touchscreen Display · · Score: 2

    No kidding. I took my nine year old son and his 11 year old friend out to fly a kite yesterday. It wasn't good. They just wanted to get back to their DSs.

  16. Re:More importantly on June 6 Is World IPv6 Day 2012: This Time For Keeps · · Score: 1

    Sad for the guy who lost his body but not really important for me given that I live on the other side of the world.

  17. Re:Not News on New Mexico Is Stretching, GPS Reveals · · Score: 2

    And then there is the expansion of the universe to consider. Whats's the red shift of Mexico City right now?

  18. Re:Nevada too? on New Mexico Is Stretching, GPS Reveals · · Score: 1

    Stretch marks?

  19. Re:You expose your DB server? on Serious Oracle Flaw Revealed; Patch Coming · · Score: 1

    Yeah like slashdot's 24 bit post number.

  20. Re:NTP instead of SCN? on Serious Oracle Flaw Revealed; Patch Coming · · Score: 1

    Ha! GPS has been known to slew by a whole second on the first of january. Not nice in real time systems which rely on precise timing across a distributed system.

  21. Re:Obligatory XKCD on Apple Intends To 'Digitally Destroy' Textbook Publishing · · Score: 1

    If every text book is an internet connected device, where will the addresses come from?

  22. Re:Oracle matters less thank you'd think on Oracle and the Java Ecosystem · · Score: 1

    Yeah good idea ;)

  23. Re:Oracle matters less thank you'd think on Oracle and the Java Ecosystem · · Score: 1

    All I mean is:

    Object a = new Object();
    Object b = a;
    a = null; // Michael expects a to be freed now but he has forgotten about b. So instead I want this:
    free a; // Sets a to null and throws an exception if the object it pointed to has more references

    Its because I am stupid and I forgot about b. This is important in non-trivial cases where humungus data structure schemes are used and references can be hard to track down.

  24. Re:Oracle matters less thank you'd think on Oracle and the Java Ecosystem · · Score: 1

    I might care about that for operational reasons. For example I don't want a bunch of objects to be collected when my application is otherwise busy, but that wasn't the point. I might have references to objects which I expect to be freed up. I would like to say "this object should be free now" so the VM can say "so, it won't".

  25. Re:Oracle matters less thank you'd think on Oracle and the Java Ecosystem · · Score: 1

    I see too many memory leaks in complex java code where references are kept to unwanted objects. I would prefer to see something like an assert_free(object) to make it easier to track when an object should be free.