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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 226 responses total. |
popcorn
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response 175 of 226:
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May 25 12:12 UTC 1995 |
In other words, Arnold, a conference is made up of items, which
are where the actual conferring really occurs.
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gregc
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response 176 of 226:
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May 25 13:21 UTC 1995 |
Arnold, It's not a UNIX thing. It's part of the way Picospan is structured.
Picospan is a piece of software that just happens to run under UNIX, it
could be ported to OS/2 and you would still have the same thing, independent
of the underlying operating system.
Picospan is the conferencing system.
Under Picospan you can have many different conferences. Agora, coop, films,
scifi, hardware, software, kitchen, etc,etc are all conferences. You get
to them with the "join" command. "join coop" for example.
Under each conference, you can have many items. The items are numbered
starting with 1. We are currently in item 30 which is titled:
"FORCED Password changes".
Under each item, you can have many responses to the item. The reponses are
numbered starting with 1. This is response 176 to item 30.
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adbarr
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response 177 of 226:
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May 25 23:22 UTC 1995 |
re: 174:176 - Many thanks to you all. <adbarr secretly thinks this
is really a UNIX thing, but classified> :) I do apprec
appreciate the hi correction - help I gues guess I have
to fix something here.
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davel
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response 178 of 226:
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May 26 01:19 UTC 1995 |
(Some features in their design definitely reflect the underlying OS. It
would be rather harder to maintain linked items with an OS which didn't
support links of some kind, for example. Nonetheless, I find it hard
to see Unix in the conference/item/response structure. That seems to
be rooted in ideas about how discussions can be carried on - ideas which
arguably didn't take quite enough account of the existence of drift, or
should have involved tree-structured instead of linear items, etc., but
which still don't seem determined by the Unix file system as such.)
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remmers
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response 179 of 226:
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May 26 08:59 UTC 1995 |
(In fact, the conferencing model on which Picospan is based was first
developed on a non-Unix system. I'm referring to the Confer program
on UM/MTS.)
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mdw
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response 180 of 226:
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May 26 22:16 UTC 1995 |
Better examples of unixisms in PicoSpan are pager support, ! escapes,
the use of system editor & mail facilities, and chat/who.
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adbarr
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response 181 of 226:
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May 26 22:33 UTC 1995 |
<classified - "DBR" Destroy before reading!">
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curby
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response 182 of 226:
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May 28 23:00 UTC 1995 |
Please, lets keep this conversation at a respectable level. There is
no reason to bring in dirty words like "um/mts". That word brings up
dreaded memories of horrid editors. Please let it stay buried in the
past...
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selena
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response 183 of 226:
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May 29 06:10 UTC 1995 |
Okay, like I said a while ago, I don't want anyone else coming
on here as me, so, yes, passwords are fine. I'm with sidhe and ajax, though-
forcing the change is bad.
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sidhe
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response 184 of 226:
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Jun 21 11:47 UTC 1995 |
Well, dead items become quiet, yet don't decompose? Facinating.
The concept of the forcedness of it is repulsive. _That_, adbarr,
is why I object.
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rcurl
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response 185 of 226:
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Jun 21 15:35 UTC 1995 |
Shall we complete the circle? You are *forced* to enter an ID and PW
to log on. Do you object to that? You are *forced* to acquire a
computer (beg, borrow, buy or steal) to log on. You are *forced*
to hit return if you don't want your lines shorter than the word wrap.
If the system is set to expire all PWs annually, you would be *forced*
to reenter a new PW annually. These are all features inherent in the
system designed for the purpose of having the system function (well, or
at all). I do not see the distinction that is being made between
these different things one is forced to do. I suppose it is that you
accepted being forced to do hundreds of them in *order to reach the
point* where you can object to doing another.
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ajax
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response 186 of 226:
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Jun 21 16:50 UTC 1995 |
The distinction I would make is that some things are obviously necessary
(being at a computer), some things are agreed to almost everybody to be
beneficial to all users (ids), while annual passwords changes primarily
benefit the individual. Some people argue that it helps everyone, by having
fewer account breakins, but there certainly isn't the concensus that there is
for having ids. One can imagine things that almost everybody would agree
should *not* be required (say, having to type your credit card number each
time you log in). Just because some things *are* required to use Grex doesn't
mean any requirement is an acceptable idea. I think the argument in #185
fails to consider that. You need to look at the merits of the particular
issue, not treat all requirements as being of equal merit or necessity.
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rcurl
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response 187 of 226:
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Jun 21 17:02 UTC 1995 |
It is widely believed by sysops that regular PW changes are desirable.
I suppose it would be fair to have some documentation that leads
sysops to this conclusion.
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ajax
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response 188 of 226:
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Jun 22 03:47 UTC 1995 |
Indeed, many people seem to accept as a fact that the benefits
of regular PW changes outweigh the costs, without any studies on
the issue. Of course it varies from system to system; some need
more security than others. And the tradeoffs aren't easy to compare.
But there can be drawbacks to regular changes, most obviously that
people tend to forget new passwords. There are classic tales of
office workers who have accounts on a few systems, each requiring a
new password monthly, so they write the password to each account
on a post-it attached to their monitors.
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sidhe
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response 189 of 226:
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Jun 25 19:49 UTC 1995 |
Precisely the point that there is no concensus among the people
who must change their pw's, as to if it is desireable to be forced to
do so.
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steve
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response 190 of 226:
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Jul 7 07:11 UTC 1995 |
But there is consensus among the people who have to deal with
the problems of guessed passwords after the fact. I'm not saying
that this particular group of people are more important than regular
users are, but they have a perspective that the typical user doesn't.
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nephi
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response 191 of 226:
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Jul 14 14:13 UTC 1995 |
(Boy, this is starting to sound like the typical liberal vs. conservative
fight! Should we idiot-proof the world for everyone, or should we let people
take responsibility for their own lives?)
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rcurl
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response 192 of 226:
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Jul 14 14:43 UTC 1995 |
Lets add a third question to that: should we protect ourselves against
the idiots?
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tsty
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response 193 of 226:
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Jul 15 18:33 UTC 1995 |
who are the idiots?
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nephi
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response 194 of 226:
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Jul 16 08:04 UTC 1995 |
Well, if people who won't change their passwords are the idiots, then can
they hurt anyone other than themselves by not changing their passwords? I
don't think I would be hurt if (say) TS didn't change his password, and
someone broke into his account and sent death threats to the President. TS
could get hurt, but it would be a result of his own decisions.
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robh
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response 195 of 226:
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Jul 16 09:22 UTC 1995 |
Sure, and when the FBI came by and confiscated Grex for a year
as evidence in the impending court case, I'll wager you'd
be hurt. I know I'd be hurt. And several thousand other folks.
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mdw
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response 196 of 226:
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Jul 16 10:04 UTC 1995 |
Actually, it would be the secret service.
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tsty
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response 197 of 226:
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Jul 16 13:50 UTC 1995 |
the directions and extents to which the federal authorities are going
and the blatent stupidity inherent therein would seem to make typed
words the greatest evil extant.
And, guessing that the FEderal authorities will do +everything+ within
their power to keep and increase their power, the words, "[W]hen in the
Course of human events, it becomes necessary ....." will probably
be construed to +be+ a "death threat" in my lifetime.
If the repeat should come from Grex ..... good for us.
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robh
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response 198 of 226:
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Jul 16 19:01 UTC 1995 |
Re 196 - Oops, you're absolutely right, of course. I wouldn't
want to make the problem worse by referring to the Secret Service
agents as the FBI. >8)
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sidhe
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response 199 of 226:
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Jul 18 00:54 UTC 1995 |
Excuse me. You want to know why there is a sense of elitism?
This is one of these things. The "oh, we know better" part of this
whole situation.
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