Me starting roborooter.com
My new job has me tired but excited. It's got me up at 6am and and working all day long. It's a wonderful feeling.
Of course it doesn't have me posting on my blog during the day either.
I was recently asked for some podcast recomendations. I listen to a bunch of them.
This Week in Tech
http://twit.tv/ (You might also like This week in Google)
Planet Money
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/
All Songs Considered
http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/
You can listen on the website or just search on iTunes. There’s also Google’s “Listen” app for the droid that auto downloads podcasts on your droid. Search for it in the market place or scan the QR code. I love this app, it makes my morning commutes disappear. (iTunes works on the iPhone/iPod/iPad, but it doesn't auto sync or auto download directly onto your phone.)
Lastly I continually change what I listen to, I add new podcasts and drop old ones. The latest version of "Listen" can integrate with Google Reader so I can share all the items I listen to.
$array[0] # First element of @array
@array[0] # Slice of only the First element of @array
%array[0] # Syntax error
$array->[0] # First element of an array referenced by $array
@array->[0] # Deprecated first element of @array
%array->[0] # Invalid reference
$array{0} # Element of %array referenced by string '0'
@array{0} # Slice of only one element of %array referenced by string '0'
%array{0} # Syntax error
$array->{0} # Element of a hash referenced by $array
@array->{0} # Invalid reference
%array->{0} # Deprecated Element of %array referenced by string '0'
I went looking for balsa wood planes but Neargaurd pharmacy's toy shop only had Gayla styrofoam and sticker planes. As much as I love the powered balsa wing gliders these are top notch!
I stumbled upon this discussion today where someone brings up the difference between people raised in an "Ask Culture" or a "Guess Culture". I like this thought it explains behavior that cause most roommate fights. I also think that regardless of if a person is an asker or a guesser, people will be in different places in their personality and will be more or less amenable to the two different forms of behavior.
It was written in response to someone who really didn't want a friend of a friend staying at their house, but didn't want to be rude and say no.
This is a classic case of Ask Culture meets Guess Culture.
In some families, you grow up with the expectation that it's OK to ask for anything at all, but you gotta realize you might get no for an answer. This is Ask Culture.
In Guess Culture, you avoid putting a request into words unless you're pretty sure the answer will be yes. Guess Culture depends on a tight net of shared expectations. A key skill is putting out delicate feelers. If you do this with enough subtlety, you won't even have to make the request directly; you'll get an offer. Even then, the offer may be genuine or pro forma; it takes yet more skill and delicacy to discern whether you should accept.
All kinds of problems spring up around the edges. If you're a Guess Culture person — and you obviously are — then unwelcome requests from Ask Culture people seem presumptuous and out of line, and you're likely to feel angry, uncomfortable, and manipulated.
If you're an Ask Culture person, Guess Culture behavior can seem incomprehensible, inconsistent, and rife with passive aggression.
Obviously she's an Ask and you're a Guess. (I'm a Guess too. Let me tell you, it's great for, say, reading nuanced and subtle novels; not so great for, say, dating and getting raises.)
Thing is, Guess behaviors only work among a subset of other Guess people — ones who share a fairly specific set of expectations and signalling techniques. The farther you get from your own family and friends and subculture, the more you'll have to embrace Ask behavior. Otherwise you'll spend your life in a cloud of mild outrage at (pace Moomin fans) the Cluelessness of Everyone.
As you read through the responses to this question, you can easily see who the Guess and the Ask commenters are. It's an interesting exercise.
I also think people, even worthwhile people can be dicks sometimes regardless of why.
Gource output of one of my latest projects from reconbot on Vimeo.
I was reading this http://grahamweldon.com/blog/cakephp-a-visual-history-0–1-3–0 and got inspired to try it out on my own code. This is me (and my laptop who didn't have the user correctly set) working on a project for work here and there for a few weeks.
"You must be the change you want to see in this world." — Gandhi
I found a video worthy of updating my very popular post on the White Stripes song, The Union Forever.
This originally started as an email to some coworkers, but I think people here might find it more interesting.
If you have an amex online account they limit your password to 8 characters and you can only use numbers and letters. That’s not very secure (I could write a program to guess every password in those restraints in a matter of minutes.). So someone complained. (Note: I’ve complained by phone myself and got no response.)
I wish that I could use a stronger password for this site. 8 characters are NOT enough.
Response (Gaurav Sharma) 02/06/2010 05:53 AM
And the response.
Thank you for your email regarding your online password.
I would like to inform you that our website has a 128 bit encryption. With this base, passwords that comprise only of letters and alphabets create an algorithm that is difficult to crack. We discourage the use of special characters because hacking softwares can recognize them very easily.
The length of the password is limited to 8 characters to reduce keyboard contact. Some softwares can decipher a password based on the information of “most common keys pressed”.
Therefore, lesser keys punched in a given frame of time lessen the possibility of the password being cracked.
Moreover, American Express is committed to protecting the privacy and security of all of our Cardmembers, both on-line and off-line. We believe that our current security measures, which include our sophisticated monitoring systems to detect unusual or fraudulent card activity, provide strong, ongoing protections for our Cardmembers.
Rest assured, I have forwarded your comments to our webmaster for review. During this review, we may contact you if additional information is required.
We value your membership and wish goodness and health to you and your family.
Sincerely,
Gaurav Sharma
Email Servicing Team
American Express Interactive Services
Eight characters makes a pretty weak password. The rationalization is twofold. First, when looking though a keylogger's output the password will be hard to identify, and if it was really long and random it would be easy to pick out. (Think the output of virus that is reporting back thousands of people's keystrokes.)
Secondly when a password is stolen or guessed that they can detect the fraud with their "special sauce" monitoring and take care of things after the fact.
I'll assume that the credit card companies want to protect themselves from losses of which fraudulent charges are a large part. I can attest to credit card companies alerting me my number was stolen way before I noticed it. (It's happened a couple times, I even had my card copied by a cashier once.) So I figure they must have run tests and figured out this was the best way to protect their money.
The problem is I think they're wrong and the limitation is part of a hold over from old computer systems. They wouldn't lie would they?
