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Windows, Mac, Linux: YAWN

Paul Theodoropoulos — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 05:16:23 +0000

I’ve had it. I’m done. Can we please stop talking about computer operating systems as if they were Burger King versus McDonalds, the Dodgers versus the Giants, or Coke versus Pepsi? Never mind that there are three ostensible contenders to the crown. Never mind that there is no crown to wear. Never mind that what we are talking about is what amounts to utter, incomprehensible gibberish consisting of sequences of ones and zeroes that together are intended to do nothing more than make those ones and zeroes appear comprehensible to us humans.

Read more on Windows, Mac, Linux: YAWN…

Small Town News

Paul Theodoropoulos — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 23:17:27 +0000

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, on the Peninsula – Redwood City. As a child, our family watched the local news broadcasts, coming over the air from transmitters on Mount San Bruno, just south of San Francisco. In glorious Black and White, we watched Terry Lowry in front of a whiteboard map of the U.S., placing little magnet-backed clouds over California, and a little magnet-backed sun over the midwest. We watched Van Amburg report on the latest apartment fire in the Tenderloin, and we watched Wayne Walker report on the latest San Francisco 49ers Superbowl Win.

But When You Do Need Higher Security…

Paul Theodoropoulos — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 08:04:37 +0000

Continuing on the theme of passwords and security—and I promise this will be my last on the matter, as I’m getting sick of it too—I’d like to make a software recommendation.

But What I Really Meant To Write Was…

Paul Theodoropoulos — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 08:36:42 +0000

In the aftermath of the controversy that erupted concerning my article yesterday regarding passwords, it seems—from the repeated comments misconstruing the idea—that I should write this followup, and clarify things a bit.

Mistake #1: A less catchy title might have helped, along with a less aggressive photo. In going for something attention-getting, I immediately set a tone that apparently a great many people took literally—that one should just feel free to write their [minimally modified] password on a Post-it, include what the password was intended for ("Desktop password", "root", etc), and stick it on your monitor.

“When Ants Look As Big As Cars…”

Paul Theodoropoulos — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 03:22:14 +0000

Much to my surprise, the article I published yesterday—regarding a nifty, simple trick for adding a measure of security to passwords that have been written down—was submitted to digg.com, and even more surprisingly, it turned out to be very popular. Or rather I should say, it was very popular on digg.com, but was a nightmare for me, scrambling to keep my server going under the crushing load.