Every so often, people compare programming to something like buildinga house and ask why software projects can't be half as well estimatedas physical engineering projects typically are. One of the many reasonsthat this is a bad comparison is that physical engineering is differentfrom software engineering in a crucial respect.

The process of getting something physical constructed is generallydivided into two phases: design, the intellectual engineering work, andconstruction, which is theoretically mere unintelligent physical labour.Thus, once you've finished the design work

Recently, I read yet another article that asked people how many oftheir accounts would be compromised if someone got their password ona non-critical website. My answer is simple: none. And I think thatthis should be the answer for most everyone, to the point where itirritates me that it isn't.

I always use unique passwords for each website, generally a strongrandom one . For non-critical websites,I have my browser memorize them for me (and I get irate when this is