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When you browse Instagram and find Tony Abbott's passport number

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Re: When you browse Instagram and find Tony Abbott's passport number

#161

Post by dorkwood »

jhealy wrote: post #138
tomerico wrote: post #95

I found his advice to Tony on how to get better with computers remarkably insightful: > I said there probably was a book out there about “the basics of IT”, but it wouldn’t help much. I didn’t learn from a book. 13 year old TikTok influencers don’t learn from a book. They just vibe. > My mum always said when I was growing up that: > There were “too many buttons” She was afraid to press the buttons, because she didn’t…

A similar anecdote from my family. My uncle (a sheep farmer) and I discovered that: 1. I was afraid to touch anything in a car engine, but happy to muddle through unfamiliar computer issues 2. He was afraid to click unknown buttons on a computer screen, but comfortable pulling apart and rebuilding an unfamiliar car engine. In both cases, we were confident because we knew whatever mistake we made we'd be able to rever…

That's basically how I taught my father to use a computer. It came down to two things:

1. He was terrified of breaking it, so I told him that there was nothing he could possibly do to it that I couldn't fix. I made sure to sound overly confident -- almost like I was challenging him to break it. That gave him the confidence to do whatever.

2. Every time there was a problem with it, I would Google the answer in front of him, and he'd watch me figure it out in real time. Eventually, he got the confidence to start Googling things himself. The tech support calls dropped off pretty steeply after that.

Re: When you browse Instagram and find Tony Abbott's passport number

#162

Post by undebuggable »

kccqzy wrote: post #26

Nice. Here's a similar personal story with a PSA that sometimes blurring is NOT sufficient. A friend of mine posted on Instagram a picture of a U.S. visa (or something similar; it was probably five years ago) to announce her trip to the U.S., and she took care to blur out sensitive information such as her passport number. But a Gaussian blur is easy to reverse and I successfully unblurred it and told her my discovery…

> I personally recommend blacking out (add a black rectangle) instead of blurring

Real life document workflows can be really tricky. What if one is required to print or photocopy the obscured document? Devastating for printer's toner or cartridge lifetime... In some cases opaque grayish rectangle does the job.

Re: When you browse Instagram and find Tony Abbott's passport number

#163

Post by techdragon »

Someone1234 wrote: post #57
Namidairo wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and if it is a PDF, convert to an image afterwards because too many PDF editors use non-destructive operations to add a new object instead of changing what's underneath. You'd be surprised at how many times this happens on Government documents with redaction. :S

That's why some even departments now have policies of printing and re-scanning retracted documents. It is dumb, but yet pretty hard to get wrong. Both MS Word and PDF have leaked redacted/removed information in the past. Wasting paper given the severity of some of these leaks is minimal cost.

Then they use the big multifunction networked printer’s built in scanner, which saves a copy to the “little” hard drive they all tend to have in them now, and forget to ensure these things get wiped/destroyed... years later they sell the printer once the lease ends and the surprise inside is months to years of raw scanned documents the new owner gets access to with very little effort.

Re: When you browse Instagram and find Tony Abbott's passport number

#164

Post by strken »

chris_wot wrote: post #27
aahortwwy wrote: post #6

> “You could drop me in the bush and I’d feel perfectly confident navigating my way out, looking at the sun and direction of rivers and figuring out where to go, but this! Hah!” I mean not to call him out but this did happen and he didn't navigate his way out (although that says nothing about his confidence). https://www.smh.com.au/national/tony-abbott-lost-in-the-outb... EDIT: To be fair, it's been a decade. Maybe h…

Sure, this is the guy who knighted a prince and ate a raw onion. What did you expect? Abbott was Australia's Trump. Thankfully he lasted in office an even shorter time than the people he replaced.

Prior to becoming prime minister, he was a Rhodes Scholar and then a Master of Arts at Oxford, a journalist for multiple papers, and a fairly effective lobbyist and politician.

His policies were regressive even for the liberal party's right, he was needlessly belligerent as PM, and I didn't like him or vote for his party. However, he wasn't an uneducated or stupid man, and he wasn't an inexperienced political outsider like Trump.

Re: When you browse Instagram and find Tony Abbott's passport number

#165

Post by fnord123 »

zwayhowder wrote: post #130
function_seven wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your advice is good, and I agree that you didn't use specialized software to reverse the blur, but this > I didn't use any specialized software; it was just Mathematica with its built-in ImageDeconvolve function with guessed parameters for the Gaussian kernel. is one of the most HN comments I've come across recently :)

Reminds me of the Simpson's 3D episode. Professor Frink's >"Well, it should be obvious to even the most dimwitted individual, who holds an advanced degree in hyperbolic topology..."

Such an underrated character. Thank god for Futurama.

Re: When you browse Instagram and find Tony Abbott's passport number

#166

Post by nullsense »

pmiller2 wrote: post #87
jtchang wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That answer is absurd yet awe inspiring what Mathematica can do.

Yeah, TIL Mathematica knows what a goat is, and can recognize one on sight.

TIL Mathematica is the GOAT.

Re: When you browse Instagram and find Tony Abbott's passport number

#167

Post by 1f60c »

function_seven wrote: post #37
kccqzy wrote: post #26

Nice. Here's a similar personal story with a PSA that sometimes blurring is NOT sufficient. A friend of mine posted on Instagram a picture of a U.S. visa (or something similar; it was probably five years ago) to announce her trip to the U.S., and she took care to blur out sensitive information such as her passport number. But a Gaussian blur is easy to reverse and I successfully unblurred it and told her my discovery…

Your advice is good, and I agree that you didn't use specialized software to reverse the blur, but this > I didn't use any specialized software; it was just Mathematica with its built-in ImageDeconvolve function with guessed parameters for the Gaussian kernel. is one of the most HN comments I've come across recently :)

That reminds me of this legendary comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

Re: When you browse Instagram and find Tony Abbott's passport number

#168

Post by function_seven »

1f60c wrote: post #167
function_seven wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your advice is good, and I agree that you didn't use specialized software to reverse the blur, but this > I didn't use any specialized software; it was just Mathematica with its built-in ImageDeconvolve function with guessed parameters for the Gaussian kernel. is one of the most HN comments I've come across recently :)

That reminds me of this legendary comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

Ha, I knew what that comment was before I clicked. (“Is it that rsync/ftp comment? Yup.”) ((EDIT: but it was curlftpfs, not rsync))

Re: When you browse Instagram and find Tony Abbott's passport number

#170

Post by iso947 »

coagmano wrote: post #73
sellyme wrote: post #8

The contact form on Abbott's website 403ing is impressively on-brand.

I wouldn't be surprised if the staff deliberately sabotaged it. I've worked for a party before and the emails are horrendous

My MP had several death threats last year - including in the post to her home address inside an otherwise normal looking birthday card.
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