Probably it wouldn't, but think a moment. How many thieves with experience picking locks would be wandering around the offices where I work looking for computer passwords? The kind of thief who'd break in would be looking for physical goods, and the kind that'd be looking for access to the computers wouldn't likely be the sort to be physically breaking into the building.

And even if they did get into that drawer, note that I said I wrote down the password. I did not say anything about making any notation that it was the password. And after several years that bit of paper's covered with a lot of passwords, only a few of which work. And of course there's more than a few other scribbles on it that aren't passwords at all. I know which ones are the right ones, but good luck on anyone else finding the right ones. And they don't just have to find the right one, they have to find it in no more than 3 tries. Third failure, my account locks itself and even the right password won't work anymore.

So yeah, I'm more worried about a keylogger arriving attached to an e-mail than I am about someone finding the written-down password in my desk drawer.

I'm not going to have another George W. Bush type president on my conscience,

Then WTF are you doing voting for Obama?

http://nothingchanged.org/

This is my tally on 22 highly important issues:
Worse than Bush: 8
Same as Bush: 9
Better than Bush: 2
Worse than Bush, but not Obama's fault: 1
Better than Bush, but not Obama's accomplishment: 1
Can't make a fair comparison: 1

20 lightyears. So you're in China then? I hear they block Google. That must be horrible.

I would think they should be looking for ion engine signatures. That seems a more likely signal to span the distance.

It is ignoring people like this that are going us to force to leave the planet before we are ready. The Valley is one of the last protected places in Texas, and people flock to the area for beaches and birdwatching.

I assume the main justification for putting it in brownsville is because it is on mainland US and close to the equator. The earth rotates just a bit slower there than Cape Canaveral. If this is the justification, one might propose Douglas Arizona as a better choice. It is near a major interstate, can easily get supplies from California and texas and alabama and is near a major city. Brownsville is near a major city, Monterrey. Is only loses a few percentage points of speed from brownsville. It is also 1000 m higher.

Brownsville has one other advantage that is launch over water, but honestly, there is nothing for miles for 1000 miles east of Douglas. Honestly, what we should do is assemble in the gulf coast and launch from Navassa Island which rotates at 95% of equator velocity.

In the end Texas has a pretty diverse economy. Clear lake is going to suffer with the loss of NASA, but that is not going to be a great loss.

Find a better school.

Yes!

And of course, how many attackers will have access to my desk? For my desk at home I can count them on my fingers and not run out, and I know where they live. For my desk at work, that's why one drawer has a lock on it and the key's on my key-ring. Sure Security or Facilities could open it, but if they're compromised they've got access to far more lucrative places in the building without needing to mess with my desk.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case. I know I use "strong" passwords mainly out of habit, and a bit of laziness (it's easier to get random sequences past password rules). I'm well aware that at best the only protection that gives me is the possibility that whoever compromised the password database will be satisfied with the results of a dictionary attack and not bother doing a brute-force attack on what's left. I'm also aware that I get more protection from a site locking my account out after repeated failures than from the password being hard to guess (the likely failure limit being a lot less than the number needed to guess even a "weak" password). And I find it amusing that a site classifies "kwo5*f(2n" as a weak password (no upper-case letters) (no, that's not one of my actual passwords) while "Jn4thon!" is considered strong (mix of upper-case, lower-case, numbers and symbols, no dictionary words present).

"What is a VPN?"