Wednesday, May 22, 2002
The Hidden World of Unix
Brent Simmons
Idea for an app. It would be an exploration and learning tool. A browser like the Finder's column view. The root objects would be directories—such as /bin, /usr/bin, and /usr/sbin—where lots of Unix tools live. When you click on a tool then in the right-most column is displayed the results of whatis and the man page for that tool.
labs.google.com
Google labs showcases a few of our favorite ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time. Your feedback can help us improve them. Please play with these prototypes and send your comments directly to the Googlers who developed them.
Discussion at Slashdot.
Psst... I know your password
Robert Lemos
The only defense is to make passwords nearly impossible to guess, but such strength requires that the password be selected in a totally random fashion.
This comment at Slashdot pretty much sums up my view...
Did anybody think that passwords wouldn't be the weakest link in security? Remember that, in general, "easy-to-remember" and "secure" are mutually exclusive. And if we forgo "easy-to-remember" for "secure", we will have people writing their passwords on a piece of paper on their desk. There's security for you.
Personal RSS aggregators
Jon Udell
In addition to Radio's built-in aggregator, I'm aware of: What did I miss?
Leaky Cyber Borders
Simson Garfinkel
And that's probably where the world is headed. Just as nations now regulate their physical frontiers, so too will they regulate their electronic ones—using computer security rather than objectionable ideas as their justification.
Some ideas are better than others
Megan McArdle
America is the idea that if you leave people alone to get on with things, they get it right most of the time.
