6061

Suggestions & Concerns / Re: Remember login broken

« on: September 13, 2014, 08:51:21 PM »

Its your choice! You can provide the forum with any software you want - you run the site. YOU chose SMF. If you hate it, choose something better.

It's an awkward situation. We put enough work into making SMF work they way we like it that dealing with it now feels like less work than redoing everything.

Plus, it's not like we're struggling. We just enjoy complaining about how shit SMF is - it's our idea of entertainment.

6062

Suggestions & Concerns / Re: Remember login broken

« on: September 13, 2014, 05:34:18 PM »

And it now expires in 2020. That seems correct to me.

I dunno, bro. "Expires in 2020" and "always stay logged in" are not one and the same.

6063

Suggestions & Concerns / Re: Remember login broken

« on: September 13, 2014, 04:41:07 PM »

Vauxy, since Thork isn't willing to give a good description of the problem, could you do this:

Meanwhile, what is the expiry on the cookie your browser gets after logging in? In Firefox, this is visible under Preferences -> Privacy -> Show Cookies; I don't know about other browsers.

6064

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Sid Meier's Civilization

« on: September 12, 2014, 12:28:08 PM »

This just in:



Shit was kinda brutal. Ended up in a space race with 2 other nations. Nuked their shit because that's how I roll :^)

6065

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Sid Meier's Civilization

« on: September 12, 2014, 01:04:04 AM »

I generally play on normal (or standard or whatever it is they call it). Not for any particular strategic reason, but just because that's the pace that feels "right" to me. It's long enough that I can really get a good feel of my civilisation and the region I'm in and form a long-term strategy, but short enough for me not to get bored. With that speed, I find that war can be very profitable even if it's long, but only if you make sure it's not your sole focus.

Make sure you're defensive enough that you can hold out if things take a turn for the worse, advance slowly and steadily taking care not to make any losses, occasionally build up units, but generally try to carry on playing as usual and developing in other areas. It won't always work, but that's why you've got good defences to begin with. If it ends up not working, you can just outlast the enemy and peace out when they get tired. Usually, you'll find yourself winning anyway.

6066

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Celebrity picture scandal

« on: September 11, 2014, 10:57:58 PM »

There's a lot of speculation around the subject, but according to AnonIB, it was a dictionary attack.

6067

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Celebrity picture scandal

« on: September 11, 2014, 06:41:52 PM »

That sounds just a tad easier than buying a 999 key and bumping a lock to me.

Yes, which is why I insist on rejecting your lock analogy in favour of my "shitty plastic padlock" one. Mine is simply closer to the truth.

But you finally conceded in that they're not at fault but they could've taken more responsibility which I will agree with.

I never claimed they're at fault. I misspoke in my recent message and corrected myself shortly afterwards (If you look at the timestamps, I actually edited my post to replace the word "fault" before you posted your reply). Consult my first post here:

Yes, the thief is the one guilty of committing a crime. There's no denying that. However, it's naive to say that you take no responsibility for the security of your home/data/hot hot porn pix.

6068

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Celebrity picture scandal

« on: September 11, 2014, 06:12:08 PM »

Well, that's because we literally need to start teaching kids to use Google. These things are trivial and basic. That they're not commonly known is exactly my problem.

6069

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Celebrity picture scandal

« on: September 11, 2014, 05:45:19 PM »

To say a password is like a plastic pink padlock is to say that anyone, even those of less than average computer literacy should be able to crack the password extremely easily.  This is simply not the case.  I am of average computer literacy, and would not know the first thing about cracking a password.

You download a piece of software and press "go". Not exaggerating. No knowledge required. Just like a pink plastic MLP lock, you may need to spend a very short period of time planning and applying your approach, but there is no higher knowledge to obtain on the subject.

6070

Flat Earth Theory / Re: Questions from a skeptical scientist

« on: September 11, 2014, 05:43:18 PM »

Because you are asking me not to challenge obviously dubious claims.

He's asking you to post on topic and start a new thread if you want to discuss a new topic. I'd say that's sensible. Gulliver and you are rendering this thread virtually unusable for anyone. Regardless of how right/righteous/just/heroic you are, you're actually shooting yourselves in the feet.

6071

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Celebrity picture scandal

« on: September 11, 2014, 05:22:28 PM »

Definitely not. It's really easy to bump a lock. Seatbelts are more useful.

We won't make any progress on that front until you become computer-literate, so I think it's best we drop that.

Being in a car wreck means you didn't pay attention to something happening. You are an activate participant. If someone rear ends you hard enough and you're not wearing a seatbelt, you fly through the window, and die then it's not your fault. The driver of the car that didn't stop would be charged.

Yes, I made the mistake of using the word "fault". I meant to say "responsibility". You take responsibility for your own security. If you don't and just expect big bad meanies to go away, well, I'll gloat when something bad happens to you.

It's possible to be in a dangerous situation and not receive any blame.

Sure, if you don't do anything that directly puts you in it (getting rear-ended is a great example of that). Now, setting a password is a conscious action. It's one that usually comes with plenty of warnings. If you ignore those warnings and opt for a terrible password, you actively put yourself in a dangerous situation. You are an active participant, by virtue of the fact that you became a participant through your action - that is a logical tautology. Just because it's not as severe as falling for a phishing scam doesn't make it not an action, or not your responsibility.

6072

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Celebrity picture scandal

« on: September 11, 2014, 05:07:36 PM »

Fine, it's more like a deadbolt lock then.

No, now you're even more wrong. It's a shitty plastic padlock at best. A pink, heart-shaped one, with a My Little Pony logo right on it. And yet people think it'll do the trick.

However, none of the blame is on the victims just because they didn't protect their stuff as you said they should have. It's not their fault in the slightest.

If a person dies in a car accident (which they didn't cause) because they didn't wear a seatbelt, it's partially their responsibility that they died. They put themselves in a dangerous situation purely by their own choice.

6073

Arts & Entertainment / Re: Sid Meier's Civilization

« on: September 11, 2014, 04:58:51 PM »

Well the AI is dumb as bricks

Play on a higher difficulty. Most of the complaints here become invalid once you reach Emperor. The problem with that is that it requires you to actually be decent at the game.

the combat sucks

Eh.

and it takes forever to play a fucking match

Right. Well, if you don't enjoy a game you can get invested in, you won't enjoy Civ. Fair enough. Some people like long books that take weeks or months to churn through, others prefer short pieces of writing (and others, like myself, simply don't enjoy reading). That's not a "deep rooted flaw", it's your preference.

Is it supposed to be fun? Because I'm not having any.

Why not play a match or two with us? Shit's pretty hilarious. When we played with beardo we just kept making fun of how retarded he was (e.g. when he accidentally declared war on Parsifal, somehow). It was just like FES all over again.

6074

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Celebrity picture scandal

« on: September 11, 2014, 04:54:48 PM »

These people had passwords which I see as akin to wearing a seatbelt (the very basic in safety).

No. And the reason we need education is so that people stop thinking that bullshit like this is correct.

6075

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Celebrity picture scandal

« on: September 11, 2014, 03:29:28 PM »

Computer Literacy is not the same thing as Computer Engineering or Software Development.  I think in the analogy being tossed around with cars, what PP is talking about is more like getting a driver's license than becoming a mechanic.

Yes, exactly. Most of us, at least in the western world, use computers in our everyday lives. It's not just becoming inescapable, it already has become inescapable. I'd actually venture to say that they're more prevalent than cars at this point, and if that's not the case yet, it very soon will be.

Most of those who own or otherwise use a car know how to drive one well enough not to cause frequent accidents. Most will have the sense to wear a seatbelt (and, in fact, it's the law in many places to wear one). Most of those who have a bank account understand the concept of an overdraft limit and know better than to cross it. They also know not to write their PIN right on the surface of their debit/credit cards. For some reason, the same does not apply to computer users.

This doesn't mean you should know every single thing about computers, or cars. It doesn't mean you should be an expert, a programmer, or anything like that. The sad reality we're facing right now is that many people think that some very basic computer-related tasks require said expertise. In the least serious of cases, this means that someone will pay me a disproportionate amount of money for half an hour of my time. In more serious cases, computer-illiterate people will go to www.bankofamerica.com.freepornsite.ru/moneystealingpage.asp and find themselves robbed blind.

Back in high school, I held a small talk about phishing and tried to explain to people how a little bit of basic scrutiny can protect you from most attacks. While some people appreciated it, I ended up being heckled by a few people in the room, who felt it was appropriate to tell me that this kind of knowledge is reserved for nerds with no lives. I asked one of them if knowing how to avoid an obvious scam is really something that only boring nerds should know. His response? "No, but that's not what you're talking about. You're talking about boring programming stuff". Needless to say, I didn't mention programming throughout the talk at all.

6076

Flat Earth Theory / Re: Questions from a skeptical scientist

« on: September 11, 2014, 03:06:29 PM »

Since when is a "commonly accepted explanation" not part of the theory?

Congratulations, you've resorted to Young Earth Creationist rhetoric - a new personal low for you if I've ever seen one. I'm not even exaggerating - YECs really enjoy claiming that the Big Bang is part of the theory of evolution, for example.

Gulliver, face it. You post more often than you should. Due to that, your responses become increasingly poorly thought out. You focus on grammar and semantics (of which you have a very poor understanding) and attempt to nitpick other people's arguments without investing the time and energy required to nitpick them effectively. Take my honest advice and just slow down a bit.

6077

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Ask a Jew anything.

« on: September 11, 2014, 04:40:05 AM »

English to this day contains the largest vocabulary of pretty much any language in existence. Denying this is plain stupid.

Well... "denying" this would be acknowledging simple facts.

6078

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Ask a Jew anything.

« on: September 10, 2014, 10:01:59 PM »

As to the "bastardization" of English I daresay that the flexibility it employs and has always employed is what allowed it to become so prevalent.

Uh, no. English is actually a relatively poor language as long as flexibility and communicative power goes. The British Empire is what allowed English to become prevalent:



Compare with the modern Anglosphere:

6079

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Celebrity picture scandal

« on: September 10, 2014, 04:29:28 AM »

Mine aren't. Yaaaayayayaya someone's gonna hack me and it's all my fault!!!!!!

I'm uploading them to imgur as we speak.

6080

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Celebrity picture scandal

« on: September 10, 2014, 02:12:15 AM »

Again, it's easy to bitch about computer illiteracy when it's something you love. I think knowing history is extremely important when it comes to government but governments don't give a damn about historians.

The difference here is that history didn't suddenly (over the last 50 years or so) become a major and inseparable factor in every aspect of society. Technology did. Not having a basic understanding of technology is crippling, history - not so much. Meanwhile, history is quite prominent in (European) school curricula, while technology is largely ignored (although this is now slowly changing, thank fuck).

We don't even know if password strength was a factor in this case. It's possible that the victims' credentials were intercepted when they used them while connected to a public network, in which case it wouldn't matter what the password actually was.

Nevermind, maybe. A few sources claim that the passwords were indeed brute forced.

Yeah, I admit, I'm working with the assumptions that these sources are correct. If they're not, a large chunk of my argument is moot; but not the bit about encryption. All my saucy nudes are encrypted, you see.