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Many Password Strength Meters Are Downright Weak, Researchers Say 159

alphadogg writes "Website password strength meters often tell you only what you want to hear rather than what you need to hear. That's the finding from researchers at Concordia University in Montreal, who examined the usefulness of those ubiquitous red-yellow-green password strength testers on websites run by big names such as Google, Yahoo, Twitter and Microsoft/Skype. The researchers used algorithms to send millions of 'not-so-good' passwords through these meters, as well as through the meters of password management services such as LastPass and 1Password, and were largely underwhelmed by what they termed wildly inconsistent results. Inconsistent can go both directions: I've seen password-strength meters that balked at absolutely everything (accepting weak passwords as good, after calling wildly long and random ones poor).

Comment Re:Maybe it's for the same reason (Score 3, Funny) 184

oh dont get me wrong, I do love apple. It takes a large number of people who i used to fix their things for free to telling them to talk to apple because i dont do it.

  but as a power user, and i think thats who makes up the majority of this site, in no way does taking away functionality = an upgrade

You're being far too reasonable. Where's the inchoate rage at the existence of any product not tailor-made for linux geeks? Where's the cognitive dissonance caused by other people liking something that you yourself do not approve of?

Comment Re:The moan of sour grapes (Score 1) 450

Rolex, Piaget, Cartier, Breitling, Panerai, Hublot, Armand Nicolet, Audemars, Tag Heuer, Zenith, IWC, Jaeger LeCoultre, Ulysse Nardin, Salvatore Ferragamo, Corum, Patek Phillipe, Omega, Blancpain, Gerard Perregaux, and Montblanc all sell watches that cost more than $20,000 according to Amazon -- the most expensive one is over $75,000 -- no that is not a typo.

Oh, they go higher than $75,000. A lot higher. Patek Phillipe in particular.

Comment Re:Apple pay at Coke machines and apps for diabete (Score 1) 529

I don't know a whole lot about luxury watches, so forgive the mistake about the battery.

But if you (by your own admission) don't know much about luxury watches, then why spout off about the comparison between the Edition watch and luxury watches?

Oh, right. This is slashdot. Smart people have this blind spot about what they actually know vs. what they think they're qualified to speak about.

I know there are "automatic" watches as well as ones that you still use the crown to wind, but was unaware that was what the super high end was about.

As a rule, there are no quartz (battery) watches in the stratosphere of luxury watches. As a general rule, there are no luxury watches worth talking about below the $5000 mark, though that is obviously very subjective. Gold versions of Rolex and Breitling start in the several tens of thousands range.

Also, I'm sure that having it cleaned every 5 years is still orders of magnitude cheaper than COMPLETELY REPLACING IT EVERY TWO.

Well, there's the problem of finding a qualified watchmaker, which is becoming increasingly difficult because most of the watchmakers are old and generally succumbing to the effects of age. And then there's the problem of finding replacement parts for in-house mechanisms, which (surprise!) obey the same laws of scarcity seen in long-obsolete tech components.

So, to summarize: you don't really know much about watches, your comparison is riddled with unintended problems, and you should at least consider not spouting off in anger about that which you don't know, lest someone call you on it.

Comment Re:Apple pay at Coke machines and apps for diabete (Score 1) 529

And this can be done by any number of watchmakers who have been plying their trade for over 100 years, and will still be doing so in another 100. Good luck getting parts for your iToy in even 10 years time...

You might be surprised to find out that owners of mechanical watches are lately having a bit of trouble finding qualified watchmakers to service their watches. This isn't uniformly true, some cities are better represented than others with appropriately skilled people. But they're also finding it difficult to get parts for in-house mechanisms (i.e. very custom) from a few years back, which is awfully reminiscent of the problem you're pointing out in tech.

Mechanical watches were, after all, one of the original consumer tech products.

Comment Re:Apple pay at Coke machines and apps for diabete (Score 1) 529

Only if it's a shitty watch. I have a Zodiac that was made in the 70s that still works perfectly to this day. It's not once ever been disassembled, ultrasonically cleaned or relubed.

Nope. The very best watches all recommend approximately the same service regimen. The fact that you have an old watch that still runs does not in fact mean that it doesn't need to be cleaned -- it means you are not taking good care of it.

Cars will run without oil for a while, too. Doesn't mean that cars don't need oil.

Comment Re:Scrapping DST worldwide for 24 time zones (Score 1) 277

In case you still think I'm a shitty programmer by the way, I invite you to try the Opalcalc software in my link. There's nothing else like it, and it's not hard to see why.

Congratulations. You have succeeded in changing my opinion of you. I no longer think you are a shitty programmer. I think you're a shitty programmer that can't even properly edit a sig line.

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