The flaw in password lockout schemes that lack a timeout is that anyone can lock out anyone's account. I can imagine someone hammering every member of "Domain Admins", "Helpdesk Staff", etc with three fake attempts, and by the time anyone has realized it, it will be difficult to even find someone who can unlock the accounts.
It's possible to take this too far though. Some work accounts I have require a 30 day minimum before you are allowed to change the password, to prevent people from rotating through them at password change time. So, if you suspect your password is compromised (either by accidentally typing it in the username field or a focus-stealing chat window, or noticing a security camera pointed right at your keyboard at a coffee shop somewhere), not only are you not able to change it, but whoever has it knows you can't change it for at least a little while...
True, but that only works in environments where the bootloader is not configured to require a password to edit the kernel parameters...
He told one of my co-workers that if the root password was lost, he'd need to boot with a rescue disk and do some trickery with
While it is a strange thing to say, what is incorrect about it? If:
1. you've lost the root password
2. sudo is not configured (disappointingly common)
3. single user mode is configured to require entering the root password
The fastest way to regain root access is to blank it in
The comments section of the beta is absolutely terrible, horribly unusable. The way it is now, the day beta's comment section is the only option, would be the last day I come here. I cannot begin to think of how it could be fixed without a complete rewrite or a kluge that puts classic's comment section in its stead. The two biggest problems:
1. The comment boxes NEED to span the full width of the page.
2. Every little feature in the classic comment boxes (UID #, moderation breakdown, parent post link, etc) MUST be retained.
3. Changing view thresholds needs to be easy, persistent, and actually work.
That having been said, I actually don't mind the beta's main page. As it is right now, it is at least usable and visually appealing. Helpful improvements:
1. Some more customization (font sizes and maybe an option for the green and white bar for the headlines).
2. If they want to keep the giant picture next to each story, the picture should be directly related to the thing being discussed. A picture next to a story about a fire at Iron Mountain should show the actual fire at iron mountain. If no picture on that level is available, stick with the small generic graphics.
You love to put words in peoples mouths. I never said Japanese businessmen were wonderful, I said it was not in their culture and cultural pressure would prevent abuses like this from going on for very long. Example: A company tied their timecard system such that you had to smile for a camera in order to clock in (and a note would be sent to the supervisor if the smile wasn't good enough). The press got wind of it and they quickly shitcanned that idea. A similar situation would occur with abuse of this technology. Might I also inform you that Japan is a country that has unions, and while patronage is down now (because they are currently unnecessary), should companies start abusing their workers you can bet they will return in force.
You make so many assumptions in your posts, including ones about me, that it seems you are only talking to hear yourself speak. I will make one about you: you have not yet graduated college and have never left your continent of origin. You have no concept of people from different cultures having different values and that they would view and use the same tools differently. Continuing to argue with you would be pointless because you aren't even dimly aware of this basic fact of society, and seem to have no interest in exploring it. Your "humans are humans" approach is flawed because humans have created society to suppress the basic urge to take and exploit. In the west we lean towards laws and regulations, in the east they lean towards social pressure. For crying out loud you are lumping a culture where CEOs will kill themselves for tanking a company, with one where CEOs walk away with golden parachutes!
For the record, I am absolutely NOT a surveillance nut who espouses "if you've done nothing wrong you've nothing to hide". I once had that ignorant attitude in college, and I grew out of it shortly afterward. Hopefully once you finish college your ignorant attitudes will change as well.
At what point in any of my posts did I say the corporate culture was better? I was stating it is different, and in the specific context of the culture and technology discussed here, I pointed out how a device capable of tracking communication patterns would be helpful in fixing the deficiencies. In my original post I provided other examples of culturally dependent technology.
Your posts however have been a long list of reasons why the technology is bad, but they are founded in the assumption that the employer is out to screw the employee. That isn't the case in Japan, just like it wasn't the case in the US from the 50s-80s. Your reasoning also seems to be founded in the assumption that the problems it is attempting to address are not important. I suggested preventing suicide as a counter to that. How is my arguing that "this device could help prevent suicide" translate into me stating that suicide is a good thing? The fact is whenever people fail hard enough at *anything* in Japan (education, work, love, family, or reputation) suicide is seen by many as a respectable out. It is not unique to work, and they are trying different things but reversing over a millenia of tradition is difficult.
You still need to fill out the forms to prove that you do not earn 6 figures and therefore should not be taxed. Your bank and employer still need to provide information to the U.S. government that they may not want to disclose (and thus it is easier for them to say "you can't bank here" or "you can't work here"). This continues *even after renouncing your citizenship*. The forms are both more complex than the domestic version, *and* you're in a country where 99.9% of tax preparers have no experience with them.
This creates the insanity where a U.S. law is causing citizens of the US who work in foreign countries to have greater difficulty than citizens of foreign countries working in the US have.
?? Where did I say anything pro-Japanese business practices?? In any case I will spell it out for you: the purpose of this technology has NOTHING TO DO WITH LACK OF TRUST. And while a safe westerner assumption *would* be abuse of such technology, it is far less likely to occur in Japan due to general cultural differences. You know how some cultures find it normal to stone a woman for adultery and we think it's crazy? A Japanese employer treating his employees like prisoners is equally as crazy.
The business model / culture is *very* relevant. One of the problems Japan has in business is actually communication: they are afraid to embarass people through direct confrontation (it is actually considered impolite to do so), a tool like this can help a management team identify communication issues where the subtle hints of "actually that's a terrible idea" are getting missed. There is also another beneficial use; there is a suicide problem there, and this could be used to help find suicidal employees and refer them to psychologists before it is too late.
As for potential abuse, Japanese are by and large more responsible than many other cultures, pretty much across the board. It really is unlikely to be abused there. Other technology people enjoy in Japan that wouldn't work elsewhere:
-Public toilets with toilet seat warmers (because men can both lift the seat and aim)
-laundromats with washing machines that provide the soap and also dry the clothes (because people don't put stupid things in washing machines)
-Vending machines everywhere, even in public streets and alleyways (because no one is going to try and break them to steal goods / cash)
-High speed escalators (because less able or clumsy people know their own limitations)
-Trains that run almost perfectly on time (because no one holds train doors for the ass who shouted "hold the door"... or rather, no one would even be arrogant enough to make such a request in the first place)
Yeah, over forty people could be killed and half of downtown destroyed! Oh wait, that wasn't a pipeline.
What rock didn't get that news?
Even so, in what world is transporting oil in vehicles safer? Is your heart at ease when an SUV drives around crossing gates, barely clearing the tracks before a 40 car train of tankers moving at 70MPH rolls through? Do you live for the moments when you're driving among several of these tankers on the interstate? Or behind one at a railroad crossing (while it was a gasoline truck, I can't imagine the effect of oil being much better).
It's not just that. Think of these four statements:
Don't drink the bleach, it's dangerous.
Don't cross the street, it's dangerous.
Don't climb the tree/fence/on top of cars, it's dangerous.
Don't run on the pavement, it's dangerous (real rule instituted at my grade school after I had graduated, where recess was held in the parking lot).
Too many rules closes too many doors. Kids will then decide on their own which rule is ok to break, and their safety now completely depends on their ability to assess which of the abovementioned activities is least dangerous. If *some* stuff they want to do (ie: climbing trees and fences) is allowed and some isn't, they'll probably take the path of least resistance.
Nobody should be surprised at this decision, Obama stated that nothing would change except for who is holding the data that is collected. The solution is to vote out every career politician and elect people of high moral character.
Except by default someone has to be a career politician to get anywhere. To get from "mayor of small town" to "US Senate" you need to win a series of progressively more aggressive elections (effectively making a career out of it). The best solution to this is to decentralize power to the point where the decisions made by people closer to the "mayor of a small town" level are more important in your day-to-day life than those made by "US Senator".
Barring that, I think something crazy like this would work: randomly select 9 registered voters as candidates for each electable position (from the pool of people eligible to vote for that position). Fund their campaigns, and disallow anyone outside that pool from campaigning. Think of it as a political version of the draft or jury duty. As seemingly bad as this scheme sounds, I find it hard to imagine the end result being any worse than what we have right now.
As it should be. In theory, states with crappier records should look to Massachusetts to fix their system. In the process they may find themselves outperforming Massachusetts.
How are taxes a company's fault? They're the government's and no one else.
In response to this the city government decided to impose a $1 fee for every individual occurrence of a private bus stopping at a city bus stop. It's estimated to cost each bus company $100,000/year (which if they're locked into a contract with Google, Apple, et al will in the short term punish the bus company rather than the company they're taking people to). That seems like a pretty fair arrangement (and they could raise the fee later, after giving the bus companies time to renegotiate), yet the people are still screaming that it's not enough. If the fees get too high the bus companies will either go bankrupt (if locked into their current contract) or will find it cost effective to pool their resources to purchase some buildings, knock them down, and build off street bus stops (which will turn a few precious parking spaces into driveways in the process).
The protesters are as fanatical and illogical as PETA and should best be ignored at this point...
"It is better for civilization to be going down the drain than to be coming up it." -- Henry Allen
