Young people can't operate a radio

[Xan]

hmm, good point. I suppose you can't guarantee that it won't be crackable in the future. Unless you encrypt with a one-time pad, of course, which is unbreakable even in theory.

[dualstow]

hmm, good point. I suppose you can't guarantee that it won't be crackable in the future. Unless you encrypt with a one-time pad, of course, which is unbreakable even in theory.

I'm off to wikipedia...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad
Because for me, it's something I buy for my wife about every 3 1/2 weeks at the drugstore.

[WiseOne]

The NSA is welcome to enjoy my photo collection and the science-geek papers, grants and figures.

I have Veracrypt and should probably use it for sensitive stuff like tax records, but what's the point? My SSN and other personal data have been circulating around the nether regions of the world for years, and I'm sure there have been many more breaches than the 4 or 5 I've been told about. A hacker who can get past Dropbox's and Amazon's security layers almost certainly has all my personal data already. Like it or not, there is no such thing as online privacy, and you can't do anything about the fact that all your data are online. Credit freezing & monitoring is about as good as it gets.

[dualstow]

The NSA is welcome to enjoy my photo collection and the science-geek papers, grants and figures.

I have Veracrypt and should probably use it for sensitive stuff like tax records, but what's the point? My SSN and other personal data have been circulating around the nether regions of the world for years

True, but Veracrypt is not for your SSN. It's for protecting your tell-all memoir until it's posthumously published.

[Maddy]

For anybody who's interested, a little nosing around the internet landed me on a site that explained the phenomenon of ceramic mugs suddenly becoming dangerously hot in the microwave. It seems that microwave energy affects only certain kinds of molecules, one of which is water. Ordinarily, dishware stays cool, or becomes only moderately hot as a result of heat transfer from the food being heated, because the material of which it is composed does not absorb microwave energy. But occasionally moisture enters a ceramic piece through a small crack or from repeated wear in the dishwasher, and when the piece is subjected to microwave energy, it "cooks." This, apparently, accounts for the vast majority of instances in which a piece of dishware that has been used for years in the microwave without any problem suddenly becomes branding-iron hot.

Live and learn.

[dualstow]

Interesting.

[WiseOne]

Interesting Maddy!

Microwaves are the most annoying useful item ever. I will have to remember that about ceramic mugs.

[Libertarian666]

I use Veracrypt. Works great. I couldn't get my dad into it, so I bought him the same USB key with a numeric keypad that I told craigr about and which he ended up buying. (Apricorn Aegis)

Xan: the WSJ mentions this morning quantum computers that will be able to crack encryption on "classical" computers. I guess we have a few years though. (?)

That has happened to me occasionally with my cherished old Correlle mug. Be careful!

For God's sake, don't send the social workers!

Microsoft is spending a lot of money on developing quantum computers.

Of course that doesn't mean that they will succeed, but it won't be due to lack of trying.

Needless to say, they have other uses than just for decryption.

[bedraggled]

Update on my possible defective DVD-Rs.

Appears it's the DVD player. The blasted things kicks out store-bought Casablanca and Scent of A Woman with the same enthusiasm toward my home-burned DVD-Rs. I'll toss the villainous DVD player and hook up one of the remaining two. This may be easy. I will report back soon.

[bedraggled]

Reporting back.

My home-burned DVD-Rs are performing flawlessly on another DVD player.

Since my home-burned discs are more than 10 Years old, should I recopy them all from the master copies. Does their sitting for a decade push my good luck?

Thanks.