One problem I have with the finder is there is no "loading files" animation when browsing through folders. So if open a folder and it looks empty, its not clear if it is really empty, or if the finder is still trying to get a folder listing. Hard to look through and organize/delete files on external and network drives.
Were you burning CDs with enough contents to get close to the capacity of the disk? (~650mb-700mb?)
I had a similar issue, also in the late 1990s, so I understand the stress around wasting those $20 blanks. Found out a few years later that the drives were defective, and would often (but not always!) have buffer errors when burning discs close to capacity. (something that you'd often WANT to do, to maximize the value you're getting from those $20 blanks!)
There was a class action lawsuit, and I eventually got a replacement drive (no relief for those wasted expensive, blanks). But the vindication that it was defective hardware, and nothing I did wrong helps. The manufacturer of the drive was Philips/Magnavox, but there were some other brands that were all linked back to this same defect that the class action lawsuit covered.
(disclosure - I've had conversations with the author of this tool)
I'd say that it's HashKnownHosts that is impractical, not the attack. One of the reasons someone would publish a tool like this is to raise awareness of the brittle security HashKnownHosts offers vs. modern GPUs.
"We are planning to roll out this system more broadly and will share how we did it in an upcoming publication, so that other data centre and industrial system operators -- and ultimately the environment -- can benefit from this major step forward."
Please do, I am hungry for details here. The one chart they put in has no scale on it's axis, and as another comment pointed out, they didn't give any details about what recommendations were followed to achieve the improvements.
I see cloudflare proudly displaying this page often, claiming that they are working fine, it's the 'host' that's the issue. This one makes me suspicious.