Disqus - Latest Comments for Mike Koss

Re: Using Digg & The Wall Street Journal Together: Review with Screenshots

Mike Koss — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:52:43 -0000

The Wall Street Journal web site looks at the "referer" header to determine where the link the user is requesting came from (the previous web site). If it begins with "http://digg.com", then they show the page for free - even if it's part of the paid content.

It's a very week form of security that can be easily spoofed. It seems that the WSJ is pretty close to giving up on a subscribers only area.

Re: Bad Form: Companies Still Send Passwords via Email

Mike Koss — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:19:53 -0000

I agree, what Mahalo is doing is NOT a best practice. Web sites should:

a) Never stored your password in the clear (just a hash of the password than can be used to verify login).
b) Never send a password in email or display it on any web page.
c) The user password should only ever be sent over an SSL (secure) connection when logging in (WiFi connections are too easy to sniff).
d) Provide a "Reset Password" page so people can get a link sent to their email account to re-create a forgotten password.

Re: 2008/05/27/microsoft-social-bookmarks/

Mike Koss — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:04:38 -0000

I wonder how this compares to last year's Microsoft Bookmarking system, Listas (http://listas.labs.live.com/)? That product was pretty underwhelming when I last looked at it, and has not seemed to penetrate the consciousness of the masses yet.

Re: Dear Jeff Bezos (one-week Kindle review)

Mike Koss — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:51:23 -0000

Robert,

Wow. Never seen you get so worked up - it was entertaining!

I get my Kindle on Thursday - so I'll see if I agree with you. Seems like your main complaint is the next/prev button placement. Is it a fatal flaw, or an annoyance that is worth dealing with for the devices other benefits? Time will tell.

I'm hoping that Kindle is a great book reader - and great replacement for carrying books around. I think all agree that the service behind Kindle is very smooth. Yes, some social networking/recommendations/gifting services would be nice - but I totally disagree that Amazon could come out with a dedicated device that was NOT for reading, and instead just focused on recommending books to friends.

I hope this is a device my mom would love - an avid reader, and only occasional computer user.

Re: Faves.com has a new mission

Mike Koss — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 02:39:00 -0000

Thanks for the coverage about our plans for this year. Your readers may be interested in some more behind the scenes info about Faves, motivated by the recent catastrophic data loss at ma.gnolia.com:

http://blog.faves.com

- Mike

Re: Emptyspaceads attracts cash to fill Web site margins with ads

Mike Koss — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:55:00 -0000

I think this is a creative idea. David's claim that this strikes a fair balance between a site's design aesthetic, and the publisher's need to generate ad revenue seems very rational to me.

It's a cool idea - I think the web only stay's "fresh" as long as people like David are out there trying something new. Who says that the only ad models there can ever be were invented in 1998?