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Comment Why does FB care about write-once run-anywhere? (Score 4, Insightful) 240

They are a multi-billion dollar company dealing with an app running on one of (if not the) most relevant and widely-used smartphones in the market. They should dedicate a team specifically for the iPhone. And if Apple changes the API every week, they would be wise to rewrite the app every week just to maintain that market.

I don't care for Facebook and have my issues with Apple, but this is just a business decision on ROI.

Comment Re:Obligatory xkcd (Score 1) 372

First of all, you're setting yourself up with a massive fail should anything in this chain go wrong as all your eggs are in one basket. I could go on, but it's pointless. You haven't thought this scheme all the way through. What if the hard drive goes bad? What if just one or two sectors on this hard drive go bad? What if you get hit by a bus, have a heart attack, get caught in an act of terrorism or act of God? (just realized there isn't much difference between these, hmmmm) Not only is that bad password security, it's just bad IT practice all around.

The discussion was about password security. There's an entirely different discussion about backups, power of attorney, identity theft, medical advanced directives, catastrophe management, etc. You are correct, though -- these are all considerations that require careful evaluation and recognition that they CAN and DO occur.

Comment Re:Obligatory xkcd (Score 1) 372

The only problem with that system is it makes all of those sites unaccessible from literally any other computer in the world, unless you carry the KeePass file around with you.

To a great extent, that's the point. My feeling is that my stuff should be inaccessible from any other computer in the world unless I trust that computer. And representative of my trust of that computer is that my TrueCrypt (and KeePass) files are on it.

Comment Re:Obligatory xkcd (Score 3, Informative) 372

Well, not exactly applicable but interesting to the discussion.

I think the point is that consideration must be made for the "location" of the access portal. That is, if anyone with an internet connection can try their key in your lock, you probably want a pretty good lock.

But for access to things that have additional security, the lock quality may be reduced in favor of a key that is easy to remember.

1. Keep a good, long, easy-to-remember passphrase for access to your TrueCrypt partition that sits on a private computer inside your house.

2. Store passwords inside this partition in something like KeePass. The KeePass password doesn't need to be industrial. It should be easy to remember, but non-obvious. You type this password a lot.

3. Keep all internet passwords at maximum strength for the site and make them random from your password generator.

Comment Re:Googloid (Score 2) 177

You may be surprised. With the advancements and push they're making on the self-driving car, they're making quite a case to get the captive in-car audience for billions of hours per day. Add HUDs and in-car popups and adverts and you have a whole lot of new advertising revenue.

Top it off with a whole lot of patents because, as far as I know, they're the only ones working on the self-driving car with such ferocity. They'll be the only channel available.

Comment Re:Apple and Foxconn (Score 1) 193

Using incite rather than insight could work ;P

Argh. Hate it when I do that in posts. I also didn't use the possessive form for "business's". Double-argh.

Seriously though, capitalism was never predicated around petitions. If you want "pure capitalism" to work, then the response is to not buy Apple products. ...

Secondly, by focussing on Apple you're giving a free-pass to all the other tech companies who are using the exact same supplier. If you boycott Apple, just to be some other products produced by the exact same factory, you're applying absolutely zero pressure to that factory.

I mostly agree. But the petition is a form of action. It gathers support for the concept and puts Apple on notice. Some folks will choose to boycott others won't. But it sends a message to management, forces consideration and maybe a response, and just plain gets the word out to other customers.

Sure, Foxconn is enormous and has other customers. But that doesn't mean Apple doesn't have a tremendous effect on their business practices. Apple may be the punching bag, but you can bet the other Foxconn customers are taking notice and probably applying pressure, too -- just quietly enough that they don't capture the eye and ire of the customers.

Comment Re:Apple and Foxconn (Score 3, Insightful) 193

Not only is it completely ineffective to hand a signed petitions to some Apple store manager in an attempt to influence the working conditions of an internationally traded public company in China...

Not so. Excuse me, but these are precisely the market forces that are supposed to insight change in "pure capitalism". Pure capitalism and our American brand of government / industry cooperation are essentially bottom-up enterprises where change usually comes from the accumulation of lots of insignificant voices.

I'm curious what alternative you would suggest would insight change? Three chain-wearing ghosts visiting Tim Cook overnight convincing him to change his businesses practices and relationships?

Comment Advancement where, then? (Score 4, Interesting) 165

I'm not clear on exactly where you'd like to advance. You don't want to commit to your employer (and only took a 6-month contract) and you don't want to burden yourself with the risks associated with success (by not wanting to start a company). I assume this also means you don't want to partner with someone.

So you want exactly what out of advancement? No more risk. No more commitment. No more responsibility. Just money? Play the lottery.

Comment Secure password storage and an attorney (Score 4, Insightful) 402

Place your passwords into a secure repository (like KeePass) and keep it updated. Give the password to the repository and other containers (I keep my KeePass in a TrueCrypt container) to someone you trust to execute when you die. An attorney. A trusted friend. Etc.

If required, make the password a two-part thing and give each part to different people.

Comment Re:Can't they get this from the 'handsets?' (Score 3, Interesting) 81

I think what the O.P. meant was that the handsets (millions of them) could be providing this feedback at all times with just small ancillary data on the uplink. Things like SNR, error rates, etc, could be reported in real-time at all times or selectively enabled by the towers when segments are being measured. This would composite all sorts of users, all sorts of chipsets, photes, locations, etc. With location services enabled, the phones can tell the towers where they are when these measurements come through.

Throw it all up on a fancy visualization and you can get a lot of information over different times of day, weather conditions, etc. No need for a bunch of trucks. Sure, the trucks can provide more information with better measurement equipment. But in many cases, lots of cheap devices can produce better data and fewer expensive devices as long as the proper statistical processing is applied.

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