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Comment Been Here Too . . . (Score 3, Insightful) 172

Add to this the lack of incentive to save money and you've got a right good mess. After spending time and effort to save funds on a program (government in this case), we ended the year with a surplus of funds (in the 10x of 1,000's range, I know it's a drop in the bucket but, we were quite proud at the time). When next year rolled around we were suddenly "poor estimators" and had "poor financial management", so our budget was cut by several times over our savings from last year.

That was many years ago but, since then I experienced a similar mentality in the private sector, especially when dealing with government contracts.

Also, our parent company recently took over management of our capital purchases. We have the money, we have the need, we have reviewed the data but, now it takes and extra 4-6 months to purchase something (e.g. a upgraded SAN). It seems that another subsidiary had some issue with their purchasing process, so rather than deal with the problem, Mother (our loving term for our parent company), created several more.

Comment Re:Dogs have been able to do this forever (Score 1) 22

I've seen demos (albeit on TV documentations) of dogs having been trained for cancer detection. While I can see it might be a boon in third world countries, where folks tend not be to as uptight as most are on this side of the pond, I don't see it catching on in the U.S. I just can't imagine folks laying on a table (the kind where each arm and leg is supported separately) in their skivvies and letting Toto go for a bit of a walk while he sniffs your wobbly bits.

Comment Re:Call me paranoid... (Score 1) 305

Can't saw I'm a big fan of adding cellular or WiFi to a car for this purpose but, how hard would it be to "have an app for that" connect your phone via USB and wala you have control and choice. The app notifies you of an update, etc. Of course you'd also incur the liability for having not installed a software update that has been made available.

Granted no matter what method is chosen, there will be risks and issues. Pretty sure their is something better than what we are doing or not doing now.

Comment Re:Space 1999, Sorta (Score 1) 251

And now I know, and knowledge is power!

Sorta figured with Moon's smaller mass and the fact that we would be removing that mass some sort of effect might occur. Just didn't expect the impact to be that trivial. Factor in that while the mine may process 63K tonnes/day, we wouldn't be shipping ore only the cracked, smelted, processed material and it becomes even more so.

Comment Space 1999, Sorta (Score 4, Interesting) 251

Okay, am I the only one have flashbacks to 13 September 1999, when the nuclear storage facility on Moonbase Alpha exploded sending the Moon hurtling out of orbit?

So, mine the Moon, ship the material to Earth... Um, won't this change it's mass and as a consequence, it's amount of gravity in generates and then it's orbit? Sorry for being all Doom & Gloom here.

Comment Re:Utilitarianism is correct (Score 3, Interesting) 146

In the various versions of the train dilemma, you have two options 1) don't act and five people will die; or 2) act and only one person will die. While I see the logic of your argument, and tend to agree that it is the best overall or numerical result. It does seem to be a rather chilling choice. It avoids the premise that by taking action the actor becomes a murderer; having taken action that directly resulted in the death of another. In the other case the actor is only a witness to a tragic event.

Comment Re:For consumers (Score 1) 146

You only have to worry amount the monthly fees and losing your money. While YMMV, I don't have to worry about losing funds (the pre-paids I've used don't offer refunds of lost/stolen funds) and the monthly fees (pay your CC off monthly and no interest, again YMMV) seem to be high. It's also still connected to you and your connected to your accounts, so it's only disconnected in the sense that it doesn't directly contain you other account information. Seems the costs are borne by the issuer and vendors (which of course are passed on...) so it more a concern for them than me. It's just not that big a hassle from my POV.

Comment Re:We needed a study for this?!? (Score 1) 299

I'd start, with "I think you need a new sheriff". User behavior in many of my examples is wrong, sharing passwords (would you give someone your social security card or drivers license), sticky notes on monitors (a physically secure note would be a better option) are poor ways to deal with the issues.

There are better ways for a user to deal with the strictures placed upon them than what is frequently seen in the wild. If you can remember a phone number, address, URL, what someone else wore, etc. you can remember a password. I believe on of the major issues is that users were one day given a computer and expected to know how to behave, without guidance or expectations.

Please don't take this to mean that frequent password changes, complexity requirements, etc. aren't bad policy, and seem to lack all consideration for the human part of the equation. The broader point is that fixing the user choose poor passwords problem won't fix anything, if we don't fix the underlying culture and behaviors.

Comment We needed a study for this?!? (Score 4, Insightful) 299

Please tell me no one is surprised by the general conclusion (haven't we been here a time or ten before?) of these studies. Add to this the corporate or government attitude demonstrated so equivalently here, the lack of effective computer security training, including a complete failing of organizations to have or heaven forbid enforce policies about password practices and you've got a pretty pickle.

Sadly, it took the recent Adobe compromise, to get me to finally start using a password wallet and use different passwords for each Internet service I use. Have to admit I was stunned, by the number of accounts I had when I got through most of the sites I access.

After hearing a few disturbing stories from my wife, about how computer security and passwords are treated at her place of work, I stepped up my training for her and her co-workers that will listen. Based on what I've heard from her the choice of poor passwords is the least of our troubles.

  • Passwords on sticky notes on monitors.
  • Passwords shared with co-workers, that have not been granted access.
  • System does not require default password to be changed.
  • Default password is a known pattern.
  • Techs routinely ask users for passwords
  • Co-workers say, "Just give them your password".
  • And so on . . .

Unless the underlying problem of poor culture surrounding computer security is changed and an understanding of the associated risks is cultivated, it won't matter one whip whether users can choose "Good Passwords TM".

Comment Seems Follow-up is Warranted (Score 2) 361

Possibly related case:

During a review my boss remarked that my appearance was not entirely up to snuff (my words, not hers). I immediately asked for clarification and got a less than specific answer along the lines of you're usually very put together but, some days you're not, which didn't help much. Months later I was witness to a comment she made about another employees scruffiness. Note to self, she doesn't like 5 o'clock, or in my case 3rd day shadow.

More to the point, did you ask for clarification, examples, guidance? Going about this, in a "flailing in the dark" manner is unlikely to produce the desired results. Social skills covers a wide range of material.

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