Comment Similar to what happened 30 years ago... (Score 4, Interesting) 106
... and very timely of The Register to bring it up: http://www.reghardware.com/2011/08/18/heroes_of_tech_david_may/
Comment Re:PITA (Score 1) 119
I take it then that you've never actually been to Mongolia?
Comment Re:Spideroak? (Score 1) 188
YMMV I guess. What was wrong with it?
It's always worked a charm for me. I wouldn't post a referral link to a broken product! Well not purposefully anyway.
Comment Re:Spideroak? (Score 1) 188
From https://spideroak.com/referral/
When you refer a friend to SpiderOak then you and your friend get an additional free GB of space.
Is this not correct then?
Comment Re:Spideroak? (Score 1) 188
"instead its more a backup tool - just like Spideroak."
Well spideroak allows syncing of different folders on different machines, so in that respect it's more like dropbox on steroids than mozy.
Additionally Spideroak has standard backup features that numerous providers give (including mozy) but gives you up to 50GB storage free.
Comment Spideroak? (Score 2) 188
Why not use Spideroak instead of dropbox. Spideroak have a zero-knowledge privacy policy. I'd say it's not quite as polished a product as dropbox, but everything is encrypted before it leaves my computer (come on spideroak open source your client so we can check!) and stored encrypted, so NO ONE can read it. I have access to files from android to. (I am not affiliated with Spideroak in away way.)
Join via this link and we both get an extra 1GB (I believe you start with 2GB free):
https://spideroak.com/signup/referral/dd998cb68d2fba5eb916a000411c2263/
Submission + - Company stores password in plaintext - help!
jimwormold writes: We have seen the dangers of storing the passwords of online user accounts in plaintext on databases (Sony, I'm looking at you).
I have recently discovered that an ISP here in the UK does the same. I have pointed out the inherent riskiness of plaintext passwords to their Technical Support team, but they don't seem to appreciate it.
Yes, I could just up and leave, but that doesn't help all of their other customers.
What would the erudite slashdot reader suggest it the best approach here to get the company to adopt a secure policy?
I have recently discovered that an ISP here in the UK does the same. I have pointed out the inherent riskiness of plaintext passwords to their Technical Support team, but they don't seem to appreciate it.
Yes, I could just up and leave, but that doesn't help all of their other customers.
What would the erudite slashdot reader suggest it the best approach here to get the company to adopt a secure policy?
Comment Using words with spaces... (Score 1) 340
... allows potentially very long passwords, are easy to remember and you can always swap out vowels for digits or symbols. If the site doesn't permit spaces then swap them out for asterisks/underlines/a different character/omit the space
http://www.baekdal.com/tips/password-security-usability?
Apparently
"It is 10 times more secure to use "this is fun" as your password, than "J4fS
Comment How does this fit with the recent EU ruling (Score 1) 184
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/04/14/1718258/European-Court-of-Justice-To-Outlaw-Net-Filtering#
I though this implies that NO ISP can be forced to filter the internet. Surely parts of the DEA require exactly that (IP blocking for example).
Comment Re:What? (Score 1) 128
'...what do you think they'd do if they thought for a second their tax was going to help write computer video games?'
I think they would be angry.
Let's hope they don't think that as it would be incorrect.
They are not receiving public money, they are (were) just not being taxed on all their earnings. There's a difference here which you may have missed.
Submission + - Found lung cancer genes, blood test may be next (alphagalileo.org)
Stoobalou writes: Norwegian researchers have discovered genes that increase not only one’s risk of lung cancer, but perhaps one’s urge to smoke as well. Now these researchers are working on developing a blood test for lung cancer.
“Smoking is by far the largest risk factor for developing lung cancer,” says Professor Frank Skorpen of the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Children’s and Women’s Health at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. Professor Skorpen is among the researchers in a project studying genetic factors and treatments for lung cancer. The project receives funding under the National Programme for Research in Functional Genomics in Norway (FUGE), one of the Research Council’s seven Large-scale Programmes. Genetic factor doubles the risk.
“Smoking is by far the largest risk factor for developing lung cancer,” says Professor Frank Skorpen of the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Children’s and Women’s Health at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. Professor Skorpen is among the researchers in a project studying genetic factors and treatments for lung cancer. The project receives funding under the National Programme for Research in Functional Genomics in Norway (FUGE), one of the Research Council’s seven Large-scale Programmes. Genetic factor doubles the risk.
Submission + - Doom creator: Direct3D is now better than OpenGL (bit-tech.net)
arcticstoat writes: First person shooter godfather and OpenGL stickler John Carmack has revealed that he now prefers DirectX to OpenGL, saying that 'inertia' is the main reason why id Software has stuck by the cross-platform 3D graphics API for years. In a recent interview, the co-founder of id Software said "I actually think that Direct3D is a rather better API today." He also added that "Microsoft had the courage to continue making significant incompatible changes to improve the API, while OpenGL has been held back by compatibility concerns. Direct3D handles multi-threading better, and newer versions manage state better."
Submission + - Euler's formula in five minutes (ignitebristol.net)
jimwormold writes: Ignite started in Seattle as a way for geeks to share ideas over a beer. It has since spread around the world and here is one of the most entertaining presentations explaining the beauty of e^(pi*i)+1=0 in 20 slides, each timed for 15 seconds. This might hurt a little.
Submission + - UK union boss proposes email tax (telegraph.co.uk)
Squiff writes: We've heard of initiatives like this before, but surely this one takes some beating: Hard left UK rail union leader Bob Crow has proposed a penny tax on every email in an effort to reduce the UK national debt. Despite his comments apparently being made on a comedy show, we understand that he was not joking. This may be a development of Mr Crow's proposal last year for a similar tax on SMS text messages (http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/19/bob-crow-rmt-tax-text-messages)- which was quickly shown to be inadequate to address the size of the deficit. Maybe someone should tell him about UK uncut (http://www.ukuncut.org.uk/)?
Submission + - Man Pays $200,000 To Save Fake Girlfriend (techspot.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A 48-year-old Illinois man has experienced an online scam that was particularly devastating, both financially and emotionally. A woman he believed to be his online girlfriend turned out to be a fake, and his money has disappeared with her.
The scam was recently revealed because he went to the police asking for help to rescue the woman, insisting that she had been kidnapped in London. The online "relationship" between the two began over two years ago, during which he wired about $200,000 to several different bank accounts in Nigeria, Malaysia, England, and the US.
The scam was recently revealed because he went to the police asking for help to rescue the woman, insisting that she had been kidnapped in London. The online "relationship" between the two began over two years ago, during which he wired about $200,000 to several different bank accounts in Nigeria, Malaysia, England, and the US.
