slightlyodd » hacking

stupid tvs in pubs

cam — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:33:42 +0000

I got on a really good rant on Friday night about how distracting televisions are in pubs. I’m not talking about TVs showing a football game that everyone’s into and getting rowdy about. I mean those terrible little ones, tucked away in a corner with the sound turned down having no effect other than to distract you with moving images.

I’m not sure if this is a problem you’re faced with, but I’m really distracted by moving pictures. Maybe it’s a short attention span, or maybe it’s a natural magnetism to anything technological but having a TV in eyeshot really ruins my conversational abilities.

In a fit of pique, I tracked down this cool little toy called a TV-B-Gone and ordered it. In about a week or two, I’ll be sure to carry this keychain size toy with me to the pub to turn the goddamn televisions off. I’ll let you know how it goes. I don’t reckon anyone will even notice me turning them off, though I do plan to be discreet enough to avoid getting beaten up. You just never know how turning off music video clips that have no sound might enrage people.

regularly changing your password won’t change a thing

cam — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 08:06:14 +0000

I was sitting there musing about the fact that of the 40 odd work systems with separate passwords I have access to, about half of them have to be changed regularly. A couple of them offend me particularly greatly by expiring after just 30 days. After giving it some thought, I couldn’t actually understand what additional security would be conferred by changing passwords regularly. Funnily enough, Gene Spafford from CERIAS at Purdue agrees – check out some of the myths about security and passwords these days.

lockpicking

cam — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 09:32:10 +0000

6 different high security locks opened in under 10 minutes each. Oh, and one of them bumped open in 8 seconds. Locks certainly do make you feel safe though.