INN OF LOST SOULS: general chit-chat thread

[beowuuf]

I've ben so focusd on work, I lost sight of something important that only just struck me.

DOCTOR WHO IS BACK IN ONLY TWO EVENING'S TIME! Also, Nerdist podcast with the cast and Steven Moffatt is out tomorrow too. Woot.

[Ameena]

Lol yeah I was gonna say something about that in the Doctor Who thread when I made that post the other day, but I forgot. Wooooooooooooot .
I suppose this means we'll both be AFK from our DnD game for an extra 45 mins (+more if they do a Doctor Who Confidential this year) every Saturday for the next six or seven weeks then .

[Gambit37]

Blimey, that's a year already!?!??

[Ameena]

What is? Doctor Who being away? Well, I suppose it's technically less than a year, since a series is 13 episodes long and therefore lasts just over three months. And this series will last even longer 'cause there's gonna be a break after the first six or seven episodes (and no doubt some kind of eeeevil omg wtf cliffhanger) and then the series'll continue in the summer some time.

[Gambit37]

And I thought *I* was pedantic ! Yes, a year since the last series started obviously.

Not that bothered this time around to be honest. The first episode of Matt Smith's reign was pretty good, but I found the rest of it all a bit *meh* to be honest. I just didn't really care enough and Karen Gillan is not a very good actress (even though she's easy on the eye.) Still, the geek in me will likely still check it out..., it's almost a given, isn't it?

[Leslie]

Uhm, I hope this is the correct thread to say "hello"

I was playing DM on Amiga from the very first days, and now I found this community. Great that the game still has so many fans I'm really looking forward to read what other people have to tell about the game and it's sequels.
I started with the German version, and then later got an English CSB. Sadly, I never finished CSB on Amiga, because my disks broke some days after purchasing the game.

[Gambit37]

Hi Leslie, welcome on board We use this thread for general chit chat so saying helloo is fine You might also want want to put an introduction on the So tell us about yourself thread in the General forum.

[Jan]

Hello, Leslie, and welcome to the forums! Herzlich wilkommen!

I'm really looking forward to read what other people have to tell about the game and it's sequels.

And we are looking forward to hearing your experiences!

[beowuuf]

Welcome!

[oh_brother]

Sadly, I never finished CSB on Amiga, because my disks broke some days after purchasing the game.

They "broke"? Are you sure that Chaos's riddles were not too much for you, and you took out your frustrations on a poor, defenceless floppy disk?

[Ameena]

Hey, welcome to the forum . Hope you manage to finish CSB some day if you never managed to do so back then. There's plenty of custom dungeons to keep you busy once you get done with that as well .

[Leslie]

There's plenty of custom dungeons to keep you busy once you get done with that as well .

Oh, yes! I already tried one called "Tower of Champions" and was totally overhelmed by the game complexity (and the power of RTC ).

[Jan]

You started with one of the most difficult ones! But never mind! It's an excellent dungeon.

[Leslie]

I found the start quite easy (love the nice rat!), then tried the dragon race about ten times before I could solve it and then... bang! So many places to explore! I kept a savegame right after the dragon, and I feel that I restarted from this point a hundred times. Then, after reading some posts about the dungeon, I got a little further. Unfortunately, I "lost" the mummy in the priest's guild, it ran away and I can't find it now - maybe it got killed somewhere...?

[Jan]

How much sarcams would you expect from an Australian?

One of my foreign students (she's from Australia) wrote me:

(last week) "Yes, you're right, the paper would undoubtedly have been better if I had made more effort to seek your input."

(this week) "Your criticism is both constructive and valid."

Now, if a Czech student wrote me something like this (in Czech, of course), I'd be very very sure that he or she was being sarcastic (I can just see his or her face when pushing the "send" button: ). The same applies to Britons. But an Australian?

[oh_brother]

The Australians I know mostly have a similar sarcastic type of humour to the British. But to be honest I would say that it was not a sarcastic comment. When people are writing formal or semi-formal emails they tend to write in a more stilted fashion, and use words or phrases they would never use in normal conversation.

That said you know her, would she feel confident enough around you to make those kinds of comments? Unless you think so, I would say assume she is being genuine!

[Jan]

it could be a large fallace with open sores too..

Err, I'm guessing you mean "phallus" there, Cows . But yeah, that one does look a bit...wrong, somehow . I like the good old hole-topped mushroom-tree thingys anyway .

I knew by the little red underline that it was incorrectly spelled.. but knew people would get my meaning rather than run around and figure out the spelling just be glad I'm not an english teacher

This reminded me somehow my favourite "incorrect expressions" of my students / colleagues. A few examples (well - not that my English would be perfect ):

"Best regrets" instead of "Best regards" (that was quite appropriate because the Portuguese student in question must have regretted signing up for the course)

"Thank you for your attachment" instead of "Thank you for your attention"

"the Iron Weapon" instead of "the Iron Curtain" (I don't know what the American students thought when my boss started talking about "the Iron Weapon" - perhaps about something from a Jules Verne's novel?)

"preservativation" instead of "preservation" (with "preservativ" being used in Czech for "a condom")

"I must go - my dog is getting married." (when my boss was trying to explain to a few stunned American students that he must take his she-dog to his friend's he-dog in order to... kind of... you know... have little-dogs)

[MasterWuuf]

Yipes! Looks like some of them were 'mispronounciating' some words.

[Gambit37]

My current employer is very silly. They use the same password for pretty much everything. I've highlighted the issue several times, but they don't care. They're "too busy to change them and besides it's easy to remember". I'm almost inclined to wreak some havoc just to prove a point (obviously I wouldn't).

It's so frustrating sitting by and watching people make stupid mistakes, and continue to do so, even after you've shown them there's a better way.

[Jan]

Funny that you mention it because today I found that my university has a similar or even more silly problem:

We have an e-mail system (which is not so important) with a very complicated password system, where you have to change your password every 3 months and the password must be very complex etc.

On the other hand, we have this "Student Information System" which is much more important (with exam results, students' theses, etc.), where the default password is extremely simple (based on a combination of 3 letters from the user's surname, and 3 numbers derived from an internal labelling of departments, and 2 more letters that are always the same) and cannot be changed. If any of the tens of thousands of our students revealed this, he could create a complete chaos accross the university in a few minutes. Actually, I'm stunned that apparently nobody has ever tried it so far. I just cannot belive this stupidity. I found it only today when I wanted to change the silly password to something more complex and found that there is no such an option (!). I've urged the IT department to implement it, apparently they're aware of the problem but... you know the universities... it will take some time. Incredible!

[Gambit37]

It's crazy that people aren't more careful about security. So many points of failure it's untru -- and people still regularly use passwords like "qwerty" or "12345", or worse still, "password"!

At work, everyone has the same email password! So I can get into anyone's email! The company is tiny, and I don't think anyone uses work email for anything personl, so it doesn't really matter so much, but it's still crazy.

[ChristopheF]

Most people never take IT security seriously until they have been hacked or infected by malware or they lose valuable data. I've seen large companies with lots of resources and even people dedicated to security using utterly stupid security policies. Just silly, as you say!
Hack into the CEO's mailbox or data, and soon there will be a budget for security projects

[Jan]

I've urged the IT department to implement it, apparently they're aware of the problem but... you know the universities... it will take some time. Incredible!

Alright, so today the IT department informed me that they're "workin' on it" and the option to change the password shall be implemented from January 1, 2012. Oh, my! It's obviously more complex than to build a spaceship.

[Gambit37]

6 months! That sounds fairly normal for such a routine request

[MasterWuuf]

I went through the 'log in' problem again. How could I have forgotten the sentence (again) to get back on? Oh well, thanks for helping me out

Spoiler

Jan

.

P.S. Jan Vasely

Spoiler

I believe that's how it's spelled?

is a name all our Czech Republic friends can say 'stands tall' for now. HA1

[Jan]

Vasely

That's definitely not my surname!

Anyway, I'm glad you're back and sorted out the log in problems.

[cowsmanaut]

the funny thing is when people who have bad memories, and are faced with constantly making new complex passwords which can never be reused.. they then tend to copy them to text files on their computers.. meaning now anyone who uses that station would be able to easily get their password. especially as in windows you can check recent documents

[Gambit37]

There are lots of ways of making memorable and secure passwords. I use a combination of:

nameofsite[subcipher]myspecialkey

have a substitution mechanism for letters , and I use that to replace letters in the name of the site I'm logging in to. Then I add a special memorable key to the end that only I know. This makes all passwords easy to remember, and unique for every site.

For example, I might sub all letter A with @ and all letter O with a zero. Amazon would therefore be @m@z0n. Adding my unique key on the end makes it secure and unique. I also have rules for which letters get capitalised (although some sites pay not attention to that!)

[Jan]

I store all my passwords in my e-mail box. If I forgot the password to my e-mail, I'd be completely lost.

[cowsmanaut]

yeah, or if someone guesses your password to your email they get all your passwords

I have a password I use for any site I don't care about people breaking into, and a set of other passwords that I can variate and remember within 2 tries usually..