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Comment Different wavelengths (Score 1) 712

by Snorfalorpagus (#28117579) Attached to: Painting The World's Roofs White Could Slow Climate Change

The climate science in that makes me want to throw up.

From what I understand:

Yes. Black absorbs solar radiation. But then it re-emits it, at a different wavelength. Greenhouse gases aren't sensitive to solar radiation, but they are sensitive to terrestrial radiation â" due to the wavelengths corresponding to bond energies in the compounds. White will reflect the solar radiation, without changing it's wavelength. Thus, net albedo increase = net temperature decrease.

Comment Re:Reset Safari (Score 1) 200

by Snorfalorpagus (#28069721) Attached to: Safari 4's Messy Trail
Equally, turn "Private browsing" on (found in the main Safari menu), when you want to browse privately.

When private browsing is turned on, webpages are not added to the history, items are automatically removed from the Downloads window, information isn't saved for AutoFill (including names and passwords), and searches are not added to the pop-up menu in the Google search box. Until you close the window, you can still click the Back and Forward buttons to return to webpages you have opened.

Comment Essays/reports vs code (Score 1) 233

by Snorfalorpagus (#28004521) Attached to: Why Programming Rituals Work
Over the last few years I've found that I can't write reports (i.e., those requiring full-English sentences) when listening to music with lyrics. I'm fine with some post-rock (Stars Of The Lid being a personal favourite), but if the song has words I get distracted very quickly. This doesn't seem to happen when writing codeâ"I can listen to whatever I want, and still perform well (at least by my standards). I'm not sure how to explain this, other than that my brain thinks in stepwise procedure, rather than sentences.
Media

Dutch Study Says Filesharing Has Positive Economic Effects 336

Posted by CmdrTaco from the like-helping-kids-save-money-for-college dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In a study conducted by TNO for the Dutch government the economic effects of filesharing are found to be positive. According to the 146 page report (available for download, but in Dutch) filesharing is good for the prosperity of the Dutch: with filesharing more media are available, even though this costs the media industry some profit. One of the most noticeable conclusions is that downloading and buying are not mutually exclusive: downloaders on average buy just as much music as non-downloaders, but they buy more DVDs and games then people who don't download. They also tend to visit more concerts and buy more merchandise."
Biotech

My Genome, My Self? 194

Posted by timothy from the nope-ain't-got-no-genome dept.
theodp writes "After baring his DNA for the world to see, Steven Pinker follows up in the NYT Magazine with his take on the coming era of consumer genetics. Pinker comes away less wide-eyed than Time Magazine about the current predictive ability of $399 genetic tests, but is convinced enough to opt out of learning whether he has a gene that increases the risk of Alzheimer's and believes that genetic-testing-for-the-masses may hasten the arrival of national health insurance ('piecemeal insurance is not viable in a world in which insurers can cherry-pick the most risk-free customers'). Pinker believes that personal genomics is just too much fun to ban, but for now suggests: 'if you want to know whether you are at risk for high cholesterol, have your cholesterol measured; if you want to know whether you are good at math, take a math test.'"

Comment Re:Compromise One Password, Compromise Them All (Score 1, Informative) 222

by Snorfalorpagus (#26374801) Attached to: Twitter Hack Details Revealed

Do you know anyone who uses the same password for everything?

Do you think Britney Spears might be one of those people? What about the President-Elect?

Bad security practices glom together and eventually snowball. In this particular case, the harm was likely de minimus but do you think the individuals whose accounts have been compromised thought to go change their password at their bank, or their email, or whatever?

You don't (probably) use the same key for your house and your care and your safety deposit box, but on the internet that's what a lot, maybe most, people do. It's a bad security practice. And if you can discover someone's password on one site due to that site's bad security practices, the security of other, responsible sites is moot.

It should be noted that, for the most part, sites will encode the users password with a salt/hash of some form. From the article:

After resetting the password for the account, he gave the credentials to five people.

So, for this level of attack, using the same password isn't so much an issue. You'd need a more involved level of access to get the unencrypted password and do some *real* damage.
Earth

Space Is Just a Little Bit Closer Than Expected 130

Posted by timothy from the winter-shrinkage dept.
SpuriousLogic points out a BBC story which begins "The upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere are much lower than expected, a US Air Force satellite has found. Currently, the ionosphere — a layer of charged particles that envelopes the planet — is at an altitude of about 420km, some 200km lower than expected. The behaviour of the ionosphere is important because disturbances in its structure can upset satellite communications and radar."

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