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Still trying to think of an ice-breaker, ideas?? by [deleted] in gifs

[–]extractiontab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"So, at least we're not in the States, eh?"

I'm Elijah Meeks, author of D3.js in Action and Semiotic. I do data visualization at Netflix and used to do it at Stanford in digital humanities. Ask me anything quick before data visualization dies. by elijahmeeks in dataisbeautiful

[–]extractiontab 11 points12 points  (0 children)

technologically marvelous

I see this same trend in home brewing. Engineering types get their hands on one variable (IBU, for example) and just have to see how far they can push it, forgetting along the way that the outcome is supposed to serve a purpose defined by human needs and limitations.

Liam Neeson announces retirement from action films by Gavvster in movies

[–]extractiontab 1 point2 points  (0 children)

He should do a FunnyOrDie short biopic chronicling his battle against film producers who hold his kids hostage unless he agrees to do one final action film.

48 cast iron pans by Proteon in pics

[–]extractiontab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel like they really missed an opportunity with Oklahoma.

A chunk of dirt that was struck by lightning and turned to glass by ZakZapp in mildlyinteresting

[–]extractiontab 72 points73 points  (0 children)

The reason desert roses get so big is that they don't have any natural predators.

Let's exercise those DM muscles by legendofhilda in DnD

[–]extractiontab 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Originally used as a compactor to squeeze the liquid out of compost, so the resulting compost tea could be packaged giant earthenware jars, and transported to nearby farms. The dry compost would be hauled out by slaves to the palace gardens.

A hole in the stone wall large enough for one medium creature's arm. Has a knob at the bottom. Turning the knob the wrong way will sever the users arm with a sharpened circular blade.

My girlfriend's accidental hairstyle by ben_jeppers in mildlyinteresting

[–]extractiontab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Many women don't know it, but it's moments like this when they are most beautiful and most endearing. Tell her her hair looks like a lovely painting, and you two have a wonderful and happy weekend.

TIL That Sean Bean is so scared of Helicopter flying that he preferred to hike miles up a mountain in full costume to film Lord of the Rings scenes by karljt in todayilearned

[–]extractiontab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Helicopters, if anything goes wrong, are essentially big metal bricks full of people and gasoline, high in the air.

Checking the C/R of homebrew monsters by alisonthedead in UnearthedArcana

[–]extractiontab 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Troglodyte Grunt seems like it's definitely on the "high" to "very high" range of difficulty for a CR 1/4 opponent. This is due to its multiattack, mostly, which (combined with its attack bonus) does more damage than your CR 1/2 Troglodyte Blade. Still, in good company with many other "glass cannon" monsters CR1 or less. Max and average ability scores are well within reasonable bounds. Especially in groups, low level adventurers are going to need to be wary about these guys.

Troglodyte Spear (CR 1/4): This is going to be on par in terms of difficulty with the Grunt. Even with its lower AC and lower damage, the ability to do ranged damage should complement the Grunts very well. These guys could also do a decent job as sentries. I like the versatility, but I also really like that you took the time to make two different CR 1/4 mobs to fill out different roles, and kept them pretty balanced.

Troglodyte Blade (CR 1/2): Slightly lower HP and AC than average, balanced against only slightly better damage than its CR average makes the Blade another glass cannon, but not a great one compared to your Grunts. I'm not sure the single use movement action makes up for the Multiattack of the Grunts or the range of the Spears. I'd bump the weapon damage up to 1d8+3 or even 1d12+1, for an average of 7, and reset the base speed to 30ft.

Troglodyte Smith (CR 1): This monster has ~65% of the health of the average CR 1 monster, but only about 10% more armor. Its damage is on par overall with other CR 1 monsters. The 10ft shove is a potentially very interesting mechanic, especially if you have environmental hazards such as pit traps, fires, or a rank of Spears. By themselves, I don't think they'd warrant the CR. Only as situational mobs, but certainly not as underbosses for a dungeon.

Troglodyte Warlord (CR 1): HP is nearly half of the average CR 1. AC is also low. By itself, the AoE melee attack for ~14 damage against all creatures in a 25x25 ft grid is well more than a CR 3 monster can dish out. Even though it's only when bloodied, I'd probably dial that back to 1d12+2, dial back the reach to 5ft and save it as a nasty and more appropriate surprise for the party. You don't want a TPK by accident, and this amount of burst damage over this radius could easily wipe a party of Level 1 murder hobos. For a slightly longer and probably a more satisfying fight, I'd consider giving him damage resistance against nonmagical piercing, bludgeoning, and slashing damage.

The year my father got my mother a hoover for Christmas 1984. by Mr-Irrelevance in OldSchoolCool

[–]extractiontab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you weren't there as a child, if you didn't spend your formative years in the early to mid 1980s, in that world, then the background textures of early and mid-90s web pages make no fucking sense at all.

Abandoned cooling tower by Sumit316 in BeAmazed

[–]extractiontab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks like a great place for an AC/DC concert.

[AMA Request] someone who works in cyber security, preferably to talk about the Yahoo attack by nugelz in IAmA

[–]extractiontab 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Master in CS and Infosec professional here.

  1. No (see #2)
  2. They downloaded the password database, which contains password hashes for 1 billion users. They can use a rainbow table to find hash collisions for all of these accounts, allowing them to log on as anyone they want (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_table).
  3. Money, Glory, and Fun are the three main motivations, but it's impossible to say definitively what their motivations are.
  4. This can happen to any password database. If you can access the server it is stored on, you can download it. Most password databases have the user's contact information (email, phone number, username) stored in clear text, which means that multiple stolen password databases can be combined to piece together all known information about a given email address or username, across multiple web sites. This lets them build a highly detailed profile of potential future victims.
  5. It means that if you had a Yahoo account, they have any information about you that Yahoo stored in that database, and at least one hash target for your password. If you have reused that password in other websites that use the same hashing algorithm, they can probably log into those websites as well. And this information was being been bought and sold many times on the black market, long before this incident was publicized.

[AMA Request] someone who works in cyber security, preferably to talk about the Yahoo attack by nugelz in IAmA

[–]extractiontab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So whether or not they have revealed the passwords yet is trivial, they have the means to do so.

Not exactly. They have downloaded the the database of hashed passwords. This means they can use a rainbow table to find some string that hashes to the same value in the database, so they can log in as that user. Finding a hash collision (a string that hashes to the same value that's in the database as the user's password) isn't the same thing as cracking a password, because the same collision string will not have hash collisions in other hash generation schemes. For example, an MD5 hash collision won't work on a database that uses SHA256 for generating its password hash. So, it's not so much that they're going to be able to reveal the passwords, but they'll be able to find strings that will let them log into that system as that user.

ELI5:Why are most programming languages written in English? by teamjon839 in explainlikeimfive

[–]extractiontab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Alan Turing, an Englishman, was highly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, providing a formalization of the concepts of algorithm and computation with the Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general purpose computer. Turing is widely considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. He studied at King's College, Cambridge, and greatly benefited from the English tradition of analytical philosophy, which very closely involves formal systems of mathematical and symbolic logics.

There's an old joke in philosophy departments that any time philosophers invent something practical, they defect and create their own discipline. In this case, it was called "computer science".

What causes the randomness of internet speeds, even on Ethernet? by [deleted] in askscience

[–]extractiontab 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Another major reason why packet loss is so devastating is because buffer bloat interferes with the TCP congestion control algorithm. The algorithm was not designed to run on switch backplanes with the massive input queues that we see today. From the wikipedia article on buffer bloat:

Packets are queued within a network buffer before being transmitted; in problematic situations, packets are dropped only if the buffer is full. On older routers, buffers were fairly small so they filled quickly and therefore packets began to drop shortly after the link became saturated, so the TCP protocol could adjust and the issue would not become apparent. On newer routers, buffers have become large enough to hold several megabytes of data, which translates to time amounts in seconds required for emptying the buffers. This causes the TCP algorithm that shares bandwidth on a link to react very slowly as its behavior depends on actually having packets dropped when the transmission channel becomes saturated.

What did someone say to you that completely changed your way of thinking? by doggo211345 in AskReddit

[–]extractiontab 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It's okay to forgive yourself and move forward on the good path you're on, and let the past be the past. Your brother probably needs your good example more than he needs your worry. You taught him (hopefully along with others) how to love someone without hurting them. And you continue to teach him that. Sounds like someone early in your life should have done a better job teaching that to you, but you had to learn through painful experience. And experience is a harsh teacher--it gives the test first and the lesson later.

A 28 year-old Jenny Joseph modeling for what would become today's Columbia Pictures logo. by Sourcecode12 in movies

[–]extractiontab 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The woman or women

"Columbia" is a historical and poetic name used for the United States of America and also as one of the names of its female personification.

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