I mod a worryingly growing list of communities. Ask away if you have any questions or issues with any of the communities.

I also run the hobby and nerd interest website scratch-that.org.

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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • While being aware that leaking passwords and reusing them is a major risk, I was just asking about the construction of the password as it relates to being attacked directly.

    But also, no one wants to try to remember a hundred different unique passwords so it’s also a good idea to use a password manager.

    Absolutely. I recommended the notebook approach only because I think people of a certain mindset would be more open to it than a password manager, even if it isn’t as elegant of a solution. At the end of the day it still diversifies passwords. I’m vividly picturing my mom throwing a fit any time a doctor or other office wants her to fill out a form on a tablet instead of paper.


  • I’m going to be real. I was part way through an explanation before I deleted it. What you are dealing with sounds like a situation where you simply won’t win by using logic. To continue to labor under the presumption that a good and logical reasoning will have an effect is just going to stress you out and achieve nothing.

    Google password because I recommended against it being a word.

    IT nerds help me out here, but I’ve been under the impression that the best defense against brute force attacks is a very long password, and the idea of sprinkling in special characters or numbers is outdated. Something like “iwenttothestoreandboughtabirthdaycake” is a more secure password than “$6jds_*WghP6”.

    edit: Also the mantra to never write down any passwords is more of a workplace piece of advice. I personally think, and this would probably be helpful for older people, that writing down passwords in a notebook which is kept secure in their home is pretty safe. Short of a home invasion, that notebook is safe, and having it can encourage them to diversify their passwords on different accounts. So, if you are going to keep at the issue, taking an angle of using something they are more comfortable with like a paper notebook is going to be accepted more easily than trying to sell them on a password manager or something.









  • ‘History That Doesn’t Suck’ by Prof. Greg Jackson. It is a history of the U.S., told in a flowing narrative type format that’s easy to listen to. I like it because it counteracts my biggest peeve in the presentation of history where it is taught as discreet chunks that are seemingly disconnected. In this podcast, it follows the flow of historical figures and events as they naturally lead to new things rather than talking about each section in a vacuum.

    ‘HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast’/‘Strange Studies of Strange Stories’. A podcast with two hosts and normally a guest reader. The hosts talk about the relevant real life history of the story, as well as talking about the story itself, edited in between a reading of some or all of the story (depending on story length). It gives a good overview of the works and is tightly edited so that the host banter never rambles off topic. The podcast changed names when they ran out of HPL stories and fully branched out into other authors.








  • but they all seem to be countered with “but that’s expensive”

    And time consuming and more difficult to assess, maintain, modify, and install. While increasing the underground footprint which makes it more difficult for other underground utilities and construction.

    Well there are many compelling reasons

    And when the reasons are good enough the lines go underground. Otherwise yes the cheap and easy way is better as the baseline, because paying ~10x more and taking much longer to install a system that is harder to work with for no good reason is stupid.



  • In a dense urban environment you are wanting retrofitted lines run through terrain already full of concrete, water lines, and other urban features. That would take a lot of coordination in design and still likely miss things (which means more time and money on redesigns). It also means a long installation time which means extended disruption to the area.

    These sorts of underground lines are easier to run in totally fresh new construction, but then again, it runs into servicing issues and extra expense.

    is expensive to fix after a storm

    Assessing and fixing underground lines is much harder, more expensive, and disruptive.


  • Maintenance, modification, assessment, and initial installation are all more difficult. And yes that means more expensive, and yes the cost difference is significant. It is more resource and personnel intense to work underground lines than overhead.

    When it comes to damage from weather, while underground lines can be slightly more resilient they are much, much more of a pain to assess and and fix. A good line crew can put up a new pole in about an hour. It takes a lot longer to run underground digging equipment.

    In some places underground lines are run, of course, because for various reasons the associated downsides are deemed worth it. However when you’re looking at a whole infrastructure, you want easy to service, fast to install, and cost efficient.