The Technology Vent and Rant Thread

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Or a whiteboard if more than one brain doing the thinking, preferably one that can print or store what's drawn/written thereupon.

If it can't store and phone camera capture isn't sufficient, then a giant flip chart is good. Also works without electricity or Internet.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

The downfall of Palm began with Palm OS 4. They moved to a new processor, and due to that it rendered all of the previous Palm apps (which numbered in the hundreds) obsolete.

Oh, right! The switch from the DragonBall processor (Motorola 68K-something-something) to ARM. Also the whole Palm hardware/software split.

Still glad I went for Newton instead of Palm back then. While the v1 handwriting recognition had problems, it was usable with training. The v2 HWR neural network was a big improvement. The Tungsten T3 I got to replace my MP2100 was all around an inferior product.

Oh, yeah. Neural network AI in a handheld device. Newton had it 30 years ago.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Because the seller will lie.

Then couldn't legal action be taken against the Seller for false advertising?

[ownedbycats]

Predefined security questions for password recovery. Especially when a) none of them apply or b) they're easily figured out through social media.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Predefined security questions for password recovery. Especially when a) none of them apply or b) they're easily figured out through social media.

That's why I always pick something stupid and answer something stupider. Of course I have to write it down afterwards.

Q: Where were you born?

A: Wankel rotary engine

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Renate

That's why I always pick something stupid and answer something stupider. Of course I have to write it down afterwards.

Q: Where were you born?

A: Wankel rotary engine

lol, I do the same.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

Rather than that, why not just have an indicator to let you know that the book is AI generated? Then, it comes a matter of "let the buyer beware."

Because the books won't sell if we know they are AI generated.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Predefined security questions for password recovery. Especially when a) none of them apply or b) they're easily figured out through social media.

Went setting up these questions, just don't give accurate information. Then the answers cannot be found out.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by Renate

That's why I always pick something stupid and answer something stupider. Of course I have to write it down afterwards.

Funny thing about this is... if you need to write down the answers then you already have a reliable place to keep your passwords. No, seriously. Anyone who says "don't write down your passwords" is wrong. Do write them down. The "don't write down passwords" advice is in the context of insecure storage. Don't write your passwords on sticky notes tacked to your monitor. Do write them down in for example a small notebook which you keep with things like your driving license or passport.

[jbjb]

Originally Posted by Renate

That's why I always pick something stupid and answer something stupider. Of course I have to write it down afterwards.

Q: Where were you born?

A: Wankel rotary engine

The best security question I've come across is "What's my favourite security question?", the answer to which is, of course, "What's my favourite security question?".

[jbjb]

Originally Posted by ratinox

Funny thing about this is... if you need to write down the answers then you already have a reliable place to keep your passwords. No, seriously. Anyone who says "don't write down your passwords" is wrong. Do write them down. The "don't write down passwords" advice is in the context of insecure storage. Don't write your passwords on sticky notes tacked to your monitor. Do write them down in for example a small notebook which you keep with things like your driving license or passport.

Or you can just keep your passwords in a file encrypted with one (strong) password that you can remember.

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by jbjb

Or you can just keep your passwords in a file encrypted with one (strong) password that you can remember.

I hope your encrypted file is at least a vault or something, ala KeePass. I have seen far too many coworkers who have been sharing their screen on Teams/Zoom and betray the fact that all of their passwords are in a "very secure" Notepad file that they keep minimized on the taskbar at all times.

[jbjb]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

I hope your encrypted file is at least a vault or something, ala KeePass. I have seen far too many coworkers who have been sharing their screen on Teams/Zoom and betray the fact that all of their passwords are in a "very secure" Notepad file that they keep minimized on the taskbar at all times.

It's just a file, but its contents are never displayed on my screen. The file is never opened in any viewing app. I have a little home-brew app that I ask for a particular password - it decrypts the file (temporarily, in memory, doesn't write it to the file system), gets the requested password, and copies it to the clipboard.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by jbjb

Or you can just keep your passwords in a file encrypted with one (strong) password that you can remember.

Password vaults like Password Safe and KeePass are good. I advise caution about anything built into a browser or which stores passwords in "the cloud" since these are high value targets and are relatively easy to attack (LastPass has suffered three database breaches to date, for example, with the most recent in 2022 leading to significant fraud).

Still, we humans have millenniums of practice at keeping small, valuable or important pieces of paper and the like safe and secure. Treating your paper password vault the same way can go a long way towards avoiding future problems.

[jbjb]

Originally Posted by ratinox

Password vaults like Password Safe and KeePass are good. I advise caution about anything built into a browser or which stores passwords in "the cloud" since these are high value targets and are relatively easy to attack (LastPass has suffered three database breaches to date, for example, with the most recent in 2022 leading to significant fraud).

That's why I like my home-brew approach. I'm the only one who uses it, so it's not a high value target, is very unlikely to be vulnerable to any exploits of known commercial systems, and nothing is stored in the cloud.