About

I'm Mike Pope. I live in the Seattle area. I've been a technical writer and editor for over 35 years. I'm interested in software, language, music, movies, books, motorcycles, travel, and ... well, lots of stuff.

Read more ...

Blog Search


(Supports AND)

Feed

Subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog.

See this post for info on full versus truncated feeds.

Quote

I would have to say that most instructions I come across are unimportant and some are harmful. Most instructions I get about software development process, I would say, would be harmful if I believed them and followed them. Most software process instructions I encounter are fairy tales, both in the sense of being made up and in the sense of being cartoonish. Some things that look like instructions, such as "do not try this at home" or "take out the safety card and follow along," are not properly instructions at all, they are really just ritual phrases uttered to dispel the evil spirits of legal liability.

James Bach



Navigation





<February 2025>
SMTWTFS
2627282930311
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
2324252627281
2345678

Categories

  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  
  RSS  

Contact Me

Email me

Blog Statistics

Dates
First entry - 6/27/2003
Most recent entry - 9/4/2024

Totals
Posts - 2655
Comments - 2677
Hits - 2,725,349

Averages
Entries/day - 0.34
Comments/entry - 1.01
Hits/day - 345

Updated every 30 minutes. Last: 9:58 AM Pacific


  03:48 PM

During vacation I ended up using the Web interface to Comcast's email system, which really highlighted (to me) that their idea of login security is a little off.[1]

When you log into email, you enter your credentials and there is, as usual, the "Remember me" option:



(Incidentally, the rounded corners on the box tell you that Comcast is hip and with it.)

Now, what does "Remember me" mean to you? Perhaps I have overly ambitious expectations for this, because I think it means that Comcast will, you know, remember my creds on this computer that I am already authenticated. That's what it means on Gmail. For example.

But no. Click yon [?] link for to find out what Comcast means by this:
If you select the checkbox that says "Remember me on this computer," your Comcast.net account will remain accessible each time you visit the site; however, due to additional security, we will still ask you to confirm your password to access your account after you have closed your browser or after a period of inactivity.
IOW, your login is good for this session. So Comcast is providing a convenient feature by which you don't have to log in again each and every time you look at your Inbox. Oh. Unless your session ends or times out, of course. Which essentially means that you log in every flippin' time you check your email. Am I the only one who thinks that this is aggravating? (Not even the Remember me setting is persisted, sheesh.)

Coming up soon, a rant on how it takes multiple clicks and four -- count 'em, four -- screens to get to your Inbox. (Comcast home, login, "message center", and then, finally, the stupid Inbox.)

Ok, then. That's off my chest.

[1] I realize that there are better clients for email than sucky Web interfaces. Different topic.

[categories]  

[2] |