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kikepa

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Posts posted by kikepa

  1. "It's really important for comfortable and sexy to work together."

    Dolly Singh is the founder and CEO of Thesis Couture, a fashion-technology company working to reinvent the stiletto. She spoke with Bloomberg about the benefits of hiring astronauts and rocket scientists to create the world’s first “high performance, high fashion” high heels. Singh was a speaker at the Bloomberg Businessweek Design Conference and is featured in Bloomberg Businessweek's 2015 Design Issue. (Video by Jennafer Savino, Amy Marino)

    https://youtu.be/gNQDx59c7Uk
     

    • Like 2
  2. Outstanding!  And your Google Translate is working perfectly.  Totally understand.

     

    A proposito, ho trascorso i primi tre anni della mia vita a Napoli. Ho imparato a parlare italiano correntemente, per un bambino di tre anni. Fino ad oggi, posso rilassarmi, bere un bicchiere di vino o tre, ascoltare un film italiano e capire abbastanza per seguire la trama.
    
    Quello che stai leggendo, qui, tuttavia, è anche Google Translate. :)
  3. On 10/31/2018 at 8:20 AM, SF said:

    Yes, like all my other avatars, it is me - and time for an update.  The previous avatar had been up of more than six months.  The current pic is a pair of sandals that I have had for several years now.  I forgot the style name but they are made by VanEli, one of my favorite brands.  The shoes are a low heel, 2 inch strappy thong wedge that is very comfortable.  These sandals get a fair amount of wear and I enjoy being out in them.  Here is a pic with higher resolution.  Have fun all....   sf

    Excellent sandals.  I have a pair from Val Eli, though not so similar to yours.

    I do have a pair of Clark's low-heeled (no-heeled, is more like it) sandals that I've worn pretty much ever day for something like 8 years.  I cannot believe how durable they've been, not to mention comfortable.  I've only worn them on my own carpeted floors (except the kitchen and BA), so the soul is mostly there, and the leather foot bed remains in astonishingly good shape, as well.

  4. Thanks, HappyinHeels!  Aye, yes.  Just finished moving, the last move for a very long time, I hope.  Everything ached for a week!  At my age (mid-50's) moving yourself isn't well-advised.

    Well, it looks like I'm back again, as I figure out some next steps in life...

  5. Not really "new" shoes, but I recently moved to a much nicer place than my old apartment.  It was a bit of a dive, a stop-gap measure.

    Anyway, digging shoes out of storage I found a number of "old" booties that don't have much wear -- hardly any at at all.  It's like opening a box and finding a bunch of stuff you'd forgotten you had! 

    In fact, it's EXACTLY like that.  

    Most of them are 10+ years old, and as feet continue to grow very slowly, they're all a bit more snug.  Some are uncomfortably tight.  "One of these days..." (I've been saying that for a decade) when I lose more weight, I'll be able to wear some of them around the house in comfort.

    Cheer me on!  I need all the weight-loss encouragement I can get...

    Bambam:  "New sandal, really starting to love sandals. Any advice on how to wear them? I'm a tall skinny guy, usually only wear boots out and about."

    Have you considered wearing them on your feet?  Lol, sorry, I couldn't resist.  :)

    I think they would look peachy with a mid-calf light brown linen skirt, but that's just my humble opinion.

  6. On 5/10/2019 at 5:03 PM, Arctic said:

    Hi All

    I got an email from hhplace.org reminding me I haven't logged in since March 2012. It feels like yesterday. So why not come take a peek.

    It seems that not much has changed here. Same problems, new people. I hope some of the old timers have "graduated".

    While I had some self imposed restraints way back when - one of the reasons why I ended up on this forum in the first place, in the meantime I've been totally freed from any self imposed constraints. Nowadays I wear whatever I want, every day. 5 days a week or so  that means 4-5" stilettos. I haven't had a single negative experience for many, many years, so why wouldn't I? We all should.

    If there's someone that still remembers me, give a shout.

     

    Good to see you back!  Yes, I remember you.  I've been gone for quite a while, too.  I posed once or thrice way back when, but have been largely absent for several years, myself.  

    Good to hear you're free of constraints!

  7. I've worked with blockchain and dozens of other means of encrypting and authenticating information and transactions.  With all due respect to Marc Andreessen, who is quite adept at programming in communication environments while maintaining information integrity, he is nevertheless not an expert on information and transaction security. 

    For example, "Andreessen is a proponent of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency[ and has described the technology as "innovative and radical"."

    I do not agree.  

    Wikipedia states the issue clearly:  "Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires consensus of the network majority. Although blockchain records are not unalterable, blockchains may be considered 
    secure by design and exemplify a distributed computing system with high Byzantine fault tolerance. Decentralized consensus has therefore been claimed with a blockchain."

    The key here is the term "resistant."  Blockchain requires a lot of computing power to verify each transaction.  But that doesn't make it hack-proof, and the computing power required is a serious if not severe impediment to its use in commercial endeavors, particularly when infinitely less power-hungry means of providing both information and transaction security are available.  In fact, there are a number of hacks out there right now.

    The most widely known such method uses TLS (transport layer security) by employing third-party certificate authorities whose number and credentials are tightly controlled.  You experience this every time you visit a website beginning with https, including hhplace and your bank.  Although some people claim "TLS can be hacked," the reality is that it securely handles billions of dollars of transactions each day.  See the comment here for TLS 1.2 details.  While TLS provides browser to server security, however, you're trusting your bank, Amazon, and others to perform transactions properly.  Nothing beats a printed statement and meticulous check/transaction records.  I stopped using credit cards altogether because there's no third-party verification of the bank's records except my own records.  I use a debt card and manually transfer funds as required.  But I haven't trusted any financial institution with any line of credit since 2011, when my credit card account at my now former bank jumped from a balance of $0 to more than $3,500 in three days and my bank refused to acknowledge the security breach, much less return my illegally obtained i.e. stolen funds.  Throughout the lawsuit, the bank routinely sent bad credit information to the credit bureaus.  I won the lawsuit in 2013 and they returned the funds, but they refused to lift a finger to help me repair my credit.  That took another four years.

    So you see, in addition to my background in information/computer/networking security, I have just a *bit* of a personal perspective.  

    Back to transactional security...  

    Providing security for transactions, financial or otherwise, requires both parties have access to a second and secure avenue of communication, and for really important transactions, a third means, as well.  It also requires the ability to record and store all steps of the transaction with a trusted third party, one beyond influence by either party.

    Consider the following hypothetical:

    You're buying a used car.  Eight months ago you signed up with Consortium IV, a fictional third-party transaction security group comprised of 56 members.  Your bank also uses Consortium IV, but the seller and his bank use e-Verify IX, another fictional third-party transaction security group.

    After all the legal paperwork is done, you need to pay for the car.  The seller posts the car for sale on Amazon but with a private buyer, you, as identified by your Amazon username.  You log in, verify the VIN matches the one on the car and the paperwork, as well as the negotiated sales price.  You hit buy, then confirm.  

    Because the price of $15,000 is more than the maximum $2,000 limit you set months ago, the system kicks it over to Consortium IV for authentication/verification/validation.  You receive an e-mail, click the link, and type in the 12-digit alphanumeric code that was sent in a second e-mail.  

    But you're REALLY careful, so you signed up for additional authentication on any purchases over $5,000...  You receive a phone call and the robocaller describes the item and the price, then asks you to press 1 to confirm the transaction and 9 to cancel it.  You press 1 and the transaction is primed to go.

    Meanwhile, the seller goes through the same process through his e-Verify IX, and when he completes his phone call, his side of the transaction is primed, as well.

    Since both e-Verify IX and Consortium IV are members of a larger, world-wide group of such services, they "trust" each other, but no further than they can spit.  Since both sides have provided the necessary information and multiple confirmations of the order, it goes through.  Both companies record the transaction, to which both parties have access and to both companies, but the transaction is encrypted and also stored with all companies party to this group for "distributed safe-keeping."  Only the two parties and their respective companies can unlock the encrypted copy, which is kept on everyone's servers, along with various transaction verification codes.

    This sounds like a long process, but both users completed it in less than 60 seconds and the computers involved completed it in a microsecond, using less than one-millionth the electrical power of blockchain, which is WHY blockchain will never become any sort of widespread hit in the corporate world.

    It's the same concept -- decentralized consensus -- with the same if not greater security, but without all the hype.

    • Like 1
  8. 22 hours ago, JeffB said:

    A more female persona? Well, I don't know about that, still, for me, it's all about dressing like a woman.

    I find that longer skirts like what I've worn the last couple of outings lends me an elegant air as I enjoy dressing my age, and I like that particular look. But, I won't give up on shorter skirts as I do like them. As for shorter hair, perhaps I'll get a haircut before the week closes.

    My eight-year rut is largely very non-descript heels in public or the occasional mannerrock (German for "men's skirt" usually worn with boots).

    At home, though, I'm usually in a sarong and loose, long shirt and sandals.  

    Society still isn't ready to both see me and employ me.

  9. On 8/21/2016 at 10:33 PM, Rick24 said:

    I wonder have all the guys here came across women who treat you like your one of them, or your in their little club, and this situation happens time and time again with every woman you meet as friends, and its a little funny for straight heel wearing guys, because these women would never give you the time of the day if you where wearing your male flats, I mean its like, I can not believe that women would fuss over us just because we wear a style of shoe on are feet, I mean we guys who wear are heels have came across situations and then we pinched ourselves and said, did that happen.

    No.  They treat me like a guy who wears heels.

  10. I have observed that our world has evolved to two (bimodal) areas of response:  "Ok" and "WTF."  If you're anywhere in the city, chances are you'll encounter an "Ok."  The WTF category is far less common no matter where you go these days than it was when I began heeling fifteen years ago.

  11. On 8/24/2016 at 3:16 PM, Dougal said:

    I can't believe how time flies! I didn't realise it had been so long since i was here! Hope everyone is well, Obviously I've got some new boots and shoes, so I'll have to update. Love the new look of the site!

    Hi, Dougal - welcome back!  I've been off-site for well over a year.  Perhaps two?

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