Where I work we have to change our passwords every 6 weeks. Microsoft even encourages draconian practices like this. Even though research shows that enforcing changing of passwords frequently leads to people using bad passwords, and quite frequently writing them down and leaving the written down copy at their computer.

What really frustrates me is that our IT knows this, they wave it off as everyone uses bad passwords anyways. I try to use good passwords, but coming up with a new one every 6 weeks is difficult.

That isn't to say that having a forced password change every blue moon is a bad idea, but more than twice a year for most people is too much. For quite a few companies twice a year might be too much.

As with previous posters, I love how some sites only allow alphanumeric passwords, where others require special characters and you have the different minimums and maximums. Really drives me nuts how some sites have a maximum of 8 characters.

They have such a backlog of patents that the USPO basically has decided that it is up to the courts to decide if a patent is valid or not. I cannot find the exact article that states this, but I did find this one in a past /. article. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100819/12015210689.shtml

The USTR has stated time and again why we are on this list. It comes down to the business laws of Canada. When you pay for something, you get something in return. That thing in return is either a product, a license, or in some very controlled circumstances a limited license which is what renting falls under.

Under Canadian law when you buy a product, you can do anything you want with it and cannot be restricted by the creator except to void the warranty, though there are some restrictions there as well. If you sell a license to something, then you can put restrictions on how that license can be used, to an extent. When you give something, you have to get something in return. This giving and getting does not have to involve currency.

The CMPDA and CRIA had movies and music classified as licenses instead of as a product. This allowed them to restricts you from public showings or broadcast of their media. You do not own the media, you own a license to that performance. It doesn't matter how you got that performance, thus why downloading content isn't illegal in Canada. It is only illegal if you watch, or listen to something you don't have a license for. If you download something you don't have a license for and use it, that is illegal.

This does not fit the US laws very well, as right now if you "buy" a DVD in stores in the US, you do not own the media, or have the right to view what you just bought. You have paid for nothing. There is only the possibility that the MPAA will allow you to watch that video. They have no obligation to allow you to watch what you paid for, they can actually say, no, we will not allow you to watch that and it is then illegal for you to watch it, and they don't have to reimburse you.

That is illegal in Canada and always will be as giving and receiving are part of the fundamental laws in Canada that all business law is predicated on. Furthermore, our founders made it unconstitutional for any future government to try to change this and any law passed should be tossed out by the courts.

Basically the US has a problem with our laws that require getting something when you give something.

Ever wondered why when you "win" a contest you have to answer a stupidly easy skill testing question in Canada? It is because that skill testing questing counts as a form of work that you are giving, to receive what ever the prize is.

While it is true that many of the assets are developed on the PC, the games code is mostly developed on the special dev kit hardware that interfaces with the PC, or is a PC/Console hybrid. It is easy to find pictures of the development kits by using a search engine.

Thus it doesn't ever run on a stock PC. There are exceptions to this like anything made in XNA. Also I understand that early versions of the Xbox360 dev hardware were just Mac computers running emulation software, but the code ran at something like 1/10th the speed of the final system.

Hackers were having fun playing around in Sony's little Other OS sandbox. There were a few that weren't happy with 2 SPUs being disabled in the sandbox, so they were looking for a ways to access all the hardware, which they found and lead to the disabling of the Other OS. For the most part everyone was happy.

This gave them basically 4 years where hackers were not trying to break the security. Then they disabled the Other OS functionality not allowing the hackers to play. If you make hackers unhappy, they will find a flaw in your system and exploit it to give them full access to the system and they now had a relatively large number of hackers testing the armor. If they had just left it alone they probably wouldn't have the problem they have now.

If they didn't have the Other OS option from the start, the dent in the armor most likely would have been found not to long after launch, so the last 4 years the key would have probably been out in the open.

A simple Wikipedia search shows that "The last US MPEG LA patents for H.264 may not expire until 2028."

I don't know about you, but I consider 17 years a little more than a few years.

Canada looked at joining it's patent system with the US only to conclude that the US patent system is a joke. Yes, the official report used the word joke. The US patent system has since gotten worse

Obvious according to the US system is something that isn't already covered by another patent. Thus the person that got the patent for emoticons represented by graphics on mobile devices was not obvious since there wasn't already a patent for it. Where in the Canadian system it would have been considered obvious because doing something on a mobile device that is already done on a desktop is not considered to take much thought. Also in the Canadian system you can only patent an implementation of an idea, not the idea. If someone else came up with the implementation, you cannot patent it, this does not hold true in the US, you just have to be first to the patent office.

I mentioned about the US system getting worse, this is in response to the US Patent Office announcing that to speed up patent approval they are mostly only checking if the patent applications are correctly done as opposed to making sure they meet the requirements. They let the courts decide if the patent is valid. While this may seem immoral and subject to abuse, it is perfectly legal according to the US system.

I am running Windows 7 64-bit and have IE9 Platform Preview 7.
Note: This code is 2 releases after the Beta

On the second test it crashes.

While I agree that Amazon does have the right not sell certain eBooks, they have also removed it from people's devices with no refund. Yes I RTFA.

This would be the equivalent of you bought Twinkies at Whole Foods Market and then they decided they were no longer going to sell them, so they sent people around to all the houses that bought the Twinkies and took them back with out repayment.

Fortunately in Canada this is illegal.

Unfortunately our judges don't always uphold our laws. Just look at how Sony somehow won illegally taking the Other OS option away form us. They advertised the PS3 as a computer and you can run another OS, but their false advertising is for some reason acceptable because they are a big company.

When Clinton took office they had 5 bombs that individually each one could destroy the planet. He had 3 of them dismantled and had the other 2 on orders to be dismantled. Bush came into office and stopped that silliness instead ordering 9 more to be built. Thus we can assume right now that the US has at least 11 bombs that if they work according to theory would completely destroy this planet.

YAY

This kind of reminds me of what Monty Python creating their own YouTube channel and their sales going up 23,000%. http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kit-eaton/technomix/monty-python-youtube-move-boosts-dvd-sales-23000

We were having a BBQ and I was having a grand old time watching these people try to start the fire. They were using coal (probably face coal, but still not easy to get going) and they had this solid, kind of waxy fire starter substance as well as a lighter. I think 7 different people failed to getting the fire started. The problem is they would light the fire starter on top of the coals. Then someone came along that knew what they were doing, they layered a paper plate with fire started, then shoved it underneath the coals and lit the paper plate.

Eventually I was going to go over and show them how to do it, but it was fascinating me too much that so many people didn't know that you want to generally start a fire from the bottom.

I'm serious. I just tried clicking print from Chrome and it said "No printer found. Please install a printer."

Maybe it doesn't work with network printers? Or maybe it just doesn't work in 7. I don't know. Here at work all I have is a network printer. At home I have a printer attached to a central server. I'll have to try that when I get home.

Yes, the printer works in every other program I've tried. I print Google Maps directions every once in a while from Seamonkey.

It is time for us (Canada) to enact our world domination plan starting by politely asking the US to surrender as they have proven incapable of governing themselves.

For full information on our plan go here:
http://www.standingonguard.com/index2.html

goatse

It determined that everything in the world lead to goatse because of all the links to it and figured that might happen to it.