Branches as separate file system directories really do suck when you're switching between quite a few. Just because you like it doesn't mean it's the right idea.

And any VCS that touts explicit move/rename as a *positive* will never be able to track bits of code across refactor boundaries (think of a critical 100-line function moving from foo.c to bar.c 3 months ago. Now tell me how a new project dev would find the history of that chunk of code before the refactor).

try ranger instead of mc. It doesn't have VFSs but it is much faster and nicer. I especially like the tree traversal key strokes, and the fact that each directory remembers marked (tagged) files separately, so you don't lose your Ctrl-T tags just because you temporarily dipped into a subdir to see what it contains.

And the multiple tab feature is very nice too...

Ashraya,

I live in Hyderabad, and I install Linux for a lot of people (friends, relatives, etc) around the place. I don't do windows, but if they're willing to spend a wee bit of time with me showing them the basics I'm sure they'll manage pretty well. Maybe not a scratch+install, but a dual boot would be fine.

Contact me at sitaramc -at- gmail -dot- com if you're interested. I live in the Srinagar Colony area but within reason, I'll go anywhere to help.

Oh, just in case you were wondering: no strings attached. None. (I have a very nice day job thank you! I do this for fun :-)

so one day this will be in a laptop form factor. You have a visitor who comes in, plugs his laptop into a power socket (our security policy doesn't prevent that; it only prevents network access), and bam he's sniffing keyboards from yards away.

Cool!

exactly, which is why they don't like full disclosure.

As someone said somewhere else, this is a group of people whose revenue source is drying up because too many people (on all 3 sides of the fence -- user/luser/victim, whitehat, skiddie) are finding out what previously only they knew.

They're just protecting a failed business model. ...sort of like the RIAA, if you don't take the analogy too far :-)

We had an ancient printer (line printer, actually more precisely a band printer I guess). From outside the computer room, listening to the sound pattern of the printer, you could tell what job was printing -- the checks for customer X's brokerage house, the statements for some other customer bank Y's customers, the bills for utility Z, etc (outsourcing during those days meant the computer as well, not just the people!).

Another funny one. The Burroughs B-1200 had hard disks the size of washing machines. When the job went into the sort phase, the entire disk would start shaking like any top loading washing machine doing the spin cycle, from the rapid and almost random head seeks or something I guess.

Someone asked my boss why it did that, and he said: oh this is how we sort -- we shake the disk and all the heavy records fall to the bottom.

I had goosebumps and moist eyes, and thought it was just me being a sentimental idiot...

Nice to know there're others!

Pakistan denies role in terrorist attacks in India

I was looking for some cheap schadenfreude...

from tfa: the spokesman, Wenqi Gao, said. "The Chinese government is opposed to and strictly forbids any cybercrime."

yup -- just like the Pakistan government is opposed to and strictly forbids terrorism...

jokes apart, you should read the "Barry Trotter" spoofs. Voldemort is called Valuemart, and makes millions selling Barry Trotter merchandise, among other weirdnesses.

I have a job that sometimes involves talking about security in some general terms.

One thing I always say (and I'm not very popular for saying it) is that most security -- information or otherwise -- is more about the job security of the person in charge of the security. He has to keep doing *something*. As long as no bad stuff happens, he gets to say "see, we did all of this, so nothing happened". If something bad happens, he says "look we did **ALL** of this, and still something happened; how could I have prevented it/foreseen it?", possibly followed by "clearly I need more budget!" if he's sure he can get out of that job before the next attack of any kind.

Anyway, this wifi thing is bullshit. It's a just a stupid show of strength by the terrorists ("look we can get into your network"), even if a 14-year old with Kismet can do the same. And the idiot cops are falling for it. What difference does it make who sends what email, when you know where the bullets and the bombs are coming from?

You wouldn't believe how that fellow who "hacked" Heywood got talked up about -- how and where he learned hacking, who taught him, the "ethical hacking" school he enrolled in (the Ankit Faudia type stuff) -- you'd think the guy was Mitnick or something, the way the local lay media went on.

from the last link in TFS: "too weak to be felt by humans for the most part but picked up by the seismometers at the University of Utah", and "the giant caldera we affectionately call Yellowstone has blown every 600,000 years or so..."

Slashdotters, I'm disappointed you didn't make the connection yet...