short takes

[cellio]

Our landlord has installed combination locks on the restroom doors, as a security measure. Um. You already have to pass a security guard, or swipe a card, to get into the building. And if they were going to use locks anyway, wouldn't it be more secure to use those same cards instead of distributing a combination by word of mouth? (Every sys-admin known to man knows how well the shared password works over time.) Eh, whatever -- my memory for short sequences of otherwise-useless numbers is pretty good, so it doesn't harm me personally. It just seems a little odd to do it that way.

Was the Nick Berg video a fabrication? (Link from metahacker.) I can't tell if this is a case of conspiracy theories gone wild or something real, and I'm not qualified to evaluate things like Jordanian accents, but the point about the blood could be telling. (I have only second-hand information on the amount of blood, having neither the stomach nor the inclination to watch the video.)

The fine art of systems development (largish cartoon), courtesy of ommkarja.

Fun quotes from a chemistry class focusing on explosives, from anisodragnfly. My favorite: "This [fireball] should be four times bigger, but you should be okay where you are."

Seen on CNN:

Comments

[miz-hatbox.livejournal.com]

Hey, I love the new icon! It's a very nice picture of you!

[cellio]

Thanks! lefkowitzga took it a few months ago. I needed a recent photo for the application packet for sh'liach k'hilah, and she said she didn't mind if I massively shrunk it down (and cropped) for a user pic.

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

Yes, excellent user icon

[rectangularcat]

I agree, really nice pic. That colour looks great on you!

[cafemusique.livejournal.com]

I liked the picture I saw on CNN a few days ago, very similar except the prices listed were:

ARM - Regular
LEG - Plus
FIRST BORN - Premium

but they were just taped over the real prices and on normal paper.

[cellio]

:-)

Of course, some of us might quibble with the implied priorities. First-born? Sure, all yours -- but stay away from my arms and legs!

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Depending on interpretation, they might not give you gas until you have a first-born to trade them. :)

[cellio]

Oh. That does put a damper on things.

[vonstrassburg.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of one I saw outside a petrol station in Melbourne some years ago.

Regular: 19.1c/Litre
plus tax.

[cellio]

plus tax.

Heh. I guess massive taxes (as a proportion of cost) are pretty much universal, aren't they?

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

We have the same sort of combination locks on our doors in our offices. Truth be told it's not that hard to get past the security guard in our building, and you only have to swipe a security card to get in if it's after hours. All the cypher locks do for us, really, is minimize the number of people who randomly walk in the building to use the bathroom. It's just not necessary that a bathroom be more secure than that. You wouldn't want them to be controlled by your electronic security card because then if you had a professional visitor to your building, they wouldn't be able to get into the bathroom.

It's not really meant to keep every single person that doesn't work there out of your bathroom. It's just meant to minimize the stragglers.

[cellio]

Our building has two entrances. At the main one you have to walk past a security guard all the time. The other requires a card swipe (all the time) and also has a camera by the elevator. (You can't walk up the stairs -- or rather, you can, but the door at the top is locked so you can't get out of the stairwell.) I don't know how easy it is to get past the guard, and I haven't noticed if the elevators by the main door also have cameras.

You wouldn't want them to be controlled by your electronic security card because then if you had a professional visitor to your building, they wouldn't be able to get into the bathroom.

As it stands we tell guests the combination. I'm not sure that's better.

It's just meant to minimize the stragglers.

Good point. And while stragglers are more likely to be a problem on the lower floors than for us (on the top floor), I suppose whatever they do has to be done everywhere.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

As it stands we tell guests the combination. I'm not sure that's better.

Presumably, your professional visitors are not a concern for you. It's therefore not a problem to give them the combination. I've been given the combination to 7 or 8 cypher locks for bathrooms and I remember maybe 2 of them.

The cyper lock is actually better than having a key in this case. Keys get lost and cost money to be replaced. Anyone you give the combination to is not going to be a concern. And if the combination gets spread too far and wide, it doesn't cost anything to change the combination (most have programmable combinations on them)

[cellio]

Ah, ok. I thought you were talking about hassle (giving cards to visitors) rather than trust. Yes, anyone we trust to be in the office is certainly trust-worthy enough to use the restroom, and good point about cards being losable and expensive.

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

Considering that there's a psychiatric facility on the second floor of our building, and it is that floor's bathrooms in particular that had the incident that prompted the combination locks, I'm going to bet that the guard at the front door is not an effective screen against those who might molest our bathrooms merely because a lot of them will have legitimate business in the building.

Also as a note, the stairwell door on our floor isn't locked.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Is that a new picture of you? It's nifty.

I feel dreadful for Mr. Berg's family. Whether or not the video is a fabrication, he's dead and a national debate is going on about him wherever they look.

[cellio]

Is that a new picture of you? It's nifty.

Thanks. Yes, it's new -- taken a few months ago, and I finally got around to scanning and iconifying it.

I feel dreadful for Mr. Berg's family.

So do I. A way-premature death is bad enough. Murder by thugs is even worse. And having the whole thing turn into an international spectacle must be horrendous.