http://blog.fourpettys.com Controversial and Exclusive! ('cos that makes it better) Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:18:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's National Procrastination Week.  Seriously, it's real. Actually, it was last week and I just didn't get around to publishing this. I saw it on Lifehacker, where you can find some tips for dealing with your ... issue. http://blog.fourpettys.com/2010/03/10/national-procrastination-week/ Ever since the dawn of email, there have been issues with email distribution lists and users who do not understand the difference between reply and reply-to-all ('r' vs. 'R' in the old days) .  It is always amusing to watch an incident unfold, because it's always the same - the ... http://blog.fourpettys.com/2010/03/09/do-not-reply-all/ I found a new blog today. I passed over this entry about a dozen times before it clicked. http://blog.fourpettys.com/2010/03/05/how-genetics-works/  March forth on March fourth in support of National Grammar Day.  Really. There's even a society with a website -- The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, "An online journal in which members of The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar document their noble efforts. " -- and a ... http://blog.fourpettys.com/2010/03/04/its-national-grammar-day/ My account is being threatened because of a complaint received by "the Administration".  I'm honored at the attention. Your profile will be locked in response to a complaint received by the Administration From: Administration hotpop.com <support-148@hotpop.com> Date: Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 8:02 AM Subject: Your profile will be locked in response to a ... http://blog.fourpettys.com/2010/02/28/president-obama-has-taken-a-personal-interest-in-my-email-account/ I work on a product line strongly focused on security implications of virtual environments - virtual machines with virtualized storage on virtual networks.  Cloud computing is an extreme example of this. That said, I can't believe we didn't make this (and I wouldn't be shocked to find out this is an ... http://blog.fourpettys.com/2010/02/25/hitler-learns-a-painful-lesson-about-cloud-computing-security/ http://blog.fourpettys.com/2010/02/24/the-difference/ Jeff Atwood over at Coding Horror wrote an article that got me thinking.  Apparently there are hordes of people applying for programming jobs who can't even pretend to write a program. I wrote that article in 2007, and I am stunned, but not entirely surprised, to hear that three years later ... http://blog.fourpettys.com/2010/02/24/the-dunning%e2%80%93kruger-effect/ Why does my bank require me to answer a “security verification question?”  Alex Papadimoulis runs what boils down to a humor site for computer geeks.  He addresses this security phenomenon, and its worst failings, in “Wish-It-Was Two-Factor” It all started way back in the year 2005, when the Federal Financial Institutions ... http://blog.fourpettys.com/2010/02/20/why-does-my-bank-require-me-to-answer-a-%e2%80%9csecurity-verification-question%e2%80%9d/ I came across a couple of advertisements this week I thought were clever. I have been doing a bit of running at the gym, so I'm getting an unaccustomed taste of TV advertisements.  This one keeps catching my eye.  I like the way it starts with something ordinary, then builds and ... http://blog.fourpettys.com/2010/02/18/a-couple-of-ads/