I know (hope) this comment was made in jest, and I don't have an interest in starting up a "women in tech" flamewar, but this kind of comment really gets me. XKCD (http://xkcd.com/322/) has a good comic about this, as usual.
"Joking" about how there are not any women who enjoy your hobbies just perpetuates the stereotype. And once learning about how awesome this woman is, what is the follow up comment? Wondering if she has any sisters, presumably so you can marry someone who looks like her.
Wouldn't a much better comment be "Wow, someone who codes SVMs, listens to Ulver, and reads 18th century literature? Sounds like my ideal girlfriend."
I Am Not A Cryptographer, so take this with a grain of salt. Using a unique salt for each user "helps", but is still insecure. The problem is that hash functions such as SHA or MD5 are designed to be very fast. This means that even with unique salts it is still fairly trivial to try a large number of passwords on a large number of users and crack many or them.
The parent poster has the right idea. For passwords, use bcrypt, scrypt, PBKDF, or a stretched hash.
Oh, come on. Are people really taking this article seriously? Look, it would be interesting to read an academic analysis of possible differences in how the sexes both produce and perceive entertainment. That is not what this article is. It is about pushing a gender war, where men are battling against a female gay alliance for control of the media.
From the article:
Men, young and old, find gays and bisexuality (among men at least) about as attractive as a “fabulous” Broadway show followed by a viewing of all three of the “High School the Musical” movies. In fact, the more “gay” Broadway has become, (and the more technically excellent), the more repellent it has become to men and boys. Indeed, metal and rap’s popularity stem from the hostility both have to gays, making male sexuality not “questionable” the way the love for Broadway showtunes would be.Women generally like gays, and find gay sex fascinating the way men do lesbian sex. However, men know well that most young women, if presented a magic button that would make most men (average joes) “gay” they’d break their fingers pushing it. The chief objective of attractive young women being turning off male desire of all but the most Alpha of men.
This is so wrong I don't know where to start. The author misrepresents men who like musicals, gay men, rap music, and women all in one paragraph. The article he is responding to, "The War on Science Fiction and Marvin Minsky" is just as bad.
As a final note, some of the recent television shows the author uses to support his conclusion that women are ruining science fiction are "Battlestar Galactica", the new "Dr. Who", "Buffy", and "Firefly". It has not been my experience that any of these shows have succeeded in repulsing a male audience, although perhaps that's just my group of friends.