Microsoft Says Reusing Weak Passwords Is a Good Idea; Congress Passes Permanent Ban on Internet Access Taxes

Pseudonyms Now Allowed on Google+ | Blogger Fined for Negative Restaurant Review To view a web version of this message, click here Send this message to a friend Microsoft Says Reusing Weak Passwords Is a Good Idea Pseudonyms Now Allowed on Google+ Congress Passes Permanent Ban on Internet Access Taxes Blogger Fined for Negative Restaurant Review Comcast Customer Service Cancellation Call from Hell Hot Comment: "The industry does not want independent software developers. The industry wants.." From the Vault: Google Engineer Blasts Complexity of Java, C++ Watch It: Why Google's New Cardboard Is Significant Poll Booth: The debate over climate change is... Sponsored Resource: Security in a Faster Forward World Microsoft Says Reusing Weak Passwords Is a Good Idea Microsoft researchers have determined that reuse of the same password for low security services is safer than generating a unique password for each service. Not only do they recommend reusing passwords, but reusing bad passwords for low risks sites to minimize recall difficulty. Sound Off>> Pseudonyms Now Allowed on Google+ When Google+ launched, it received criticism for requiring that users register with their real names. Now, Google has finally relented and removed all restrictions on what usernames people are allowed to use. The company said, "We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users." Sound Off>> Congress Passes Permanent Ban on Internet Access Taxes In 1998, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a law that temporarily banned all taxes imposed by federal, state, and local governments on Internet access and Internet-only services, a ban that has been faithfully renewed every year since. Now the U.S. House has passed a permanent version of the ban. Sound Off>> Blogger Fined for Negative Restaurant Review In another case in which a business who received a negative review online decided to retaliate with legal complaints, a French food blogger has been fined $2,040 in addition to $1,360 for court costs. The blogger said, "Recently several writers in France were sentenced in similar proceedings for defamation, invasion of privacy, and so on. ... I don't see the point of criticism if it's only positive." Sound Off>> Comcast Customer Service Cancellation Call from Hell The Verge and other sources report on how AOL's Ryan Block ultimately succeeded in cancelling his Comcast account over the phone, but not before the customer service representative pressed him for eight solid minutes to explain his reasoning for leaving "the number one provider of TV and Internet service in the country." Comcast has since issued an apology. Sound Off>> Re: Slew of missing business applications "The industry does not want independent software developers. The industry wants teams of full-time employees. Software suffers from the smartest cow problem (it only takes one cow to figure out how to open the gate in order for all the other cows to pass through). For example, once one company creates a really good word processor, we don't need ten more to compete with them. The result is..." --by Anonymous Coward Read More>>   Google Engineer Blasts Complexity of Java, C++ Four years ago, Google distinguished engineer Rob Pike ripped the use of Java and C++ during his keynote at OSCON, saying that these "industrial programming languages" are way too complex and not adequately suited for today's computing environments. Read More>> Why Google's New Cardboard Is Significant Google has introduced Cardboard, its cheap-and-cheerful (it's made of cardboard, after all) approach to nearly instant VR viewing. As noted by commenters, there are older, slicker, and cheaper options. The Google person behind Cardboard VP Clay Bavor, whose day job is overseeing Google apps, says you are welcome to make your own Cardboard from scratch instead of buying one (or a kit) from someone else, and of course you can write all the software for it you like. Timothy Lord caught up with Clay at the recent Google I/O. Watch the Video>>   The debate over climate change is... Entirely scientific Mostly scientific and partly political Evenly scientific and political Mostly political and partly scientific Entirely political Mostly idiots yelling Debate? I hadn't noticed... Cast Your Vote>>   Security in a Faster Forward World The online security threat landscape has dramatically evolved -- starting at the network layer and moving to applications. As organizations increasingly move their operations online, they need a Web site protection service that can safeguard their Web sites and applications, business or customer data, and brand image. Find out how you can protect your organizations' Web presence. Learn More>> Follow Slashdot on Twitter and Facebook. To unsubscribe, click here or send an email to: unsubscribe-213087@elabs10.com To ensure delivery of this newsletter to your inbox and to enable images, please add slashdot@newsletters.slashdot.org to your e-mail address book or safe senders list. Slashdot | 594 Howard Street, Suite 300 | San Francisco, CA 94105 To view our Privacy Policy click here.