A visualization of the organizational charts for some companies.
Shortly after buying my first Macintosh computers in January 2003 (a 17" G4 iMac and a 15" Titanium PowerBook G4), I downloaded a password management application called PasswordMaster by Maury McCown of RAILhead Design. PasswordMaster created a simple database on my computer which has grown over the years to hold some 286 accounts, serial numbers, and passwords. I’ve always like that it was local to my machine, and never minded that I had to copy and paste or retype passwords it stored into various web forms over the years.
When I switched from the PowerBook to the MacBook Pro nearly two years I migrated this PowerPC app along with the rest of my stuff. It runs well enough inside of Rosetta that I have kept on using it. However, it appears that Mac OS X Lion (10.7) will no longer provide Rosetta support thereby ending my ability to run PasswordMaster.
Losing PasswordMaster (which hasn’t been supported in years to my knowledge), coupled with an increasing awareness of the fragility of my password process (one really good password that gets used in far too many places) has prompted me to start looking at some modern password managers.
The two password management solutions that I was aware of are 1Password and LastPast. The two accomplish the same task in different manners. LastPass uses browser add-ons or plugins to facilitate capturing and managing passwords. That the application is free is a plus in its favor. However, I found the ribbon that appeared at the top of pages with logon forms to be annoying rather than helpful. I typically sign out of Facebook at the end of using it, which results in the sign in page being displayed. LastPass interprets this re-display of the sign in page as a trigger to display the “do you want to sign in?” banner. I’m sure this behavior is configurable, but I didn’t take the time to figure it out.
My other, larger, beef with LastPass is having my, albeit encrypted, information stored in the cloud. Just as switching from programs stored on punch cards to programs stored in disk drives was unsettling in the early 1980s, switching from having a database on my machine to one stored in the cloud is unsettling.
1Password is an application that works with your browsers and is far less obtrusive. It isn’t free ($39.99), but it is more to my liking. Within minutes of installing the 30-day free trial I had captured several of my frequently visited accounts, and changed the password on Facebook from a fairly weak 7-character string to a 14-character string with lots of entropy. That I no longer know my Facebook password is a bit unsettling, but I like that the odds of someone cracking it just got much, much longer.
The 1Password name refers to the one password you have to remember – the master password needed to unlock your 1Password repository. The default configuration locks the repository after only 20 minutes of no activity; meaning that since I only check Facebook two or three times a day, that my effective password length for Facebook is 23 characters, as my master password has 9 all by itself. Facebook, and indeed any other account I add to 1Password, is very safe.
There is a free (for now) 1Password app that works on my Android phone. By storing the 1Password repository in my Dropbox account, the phone app can give me the same security I have on my laptop. Of course this exposes my repository to the cloud. However, it somehow feels more under my control that having it stored at LastPass. Yes I know that Dropbox has had some security gaffes lately, but not every Dropbox account will contain a 1Password repository to be potentially attacked. Every LastPass account is guaranteed to have a password repository. (Actually I doubt anyone today has the resources to break the encryption on either of these repositories. But I don’t know that we can say that will still be true in 10 or 20 years.)
I’m still getting used to having this new wrinkle in my sign on processes, but I am slowly growing to like it. And I am ready to start updating my venerable (and vulnerable) passwords to something more substantial cryptologically. I am not, however, looking forward to the potentially tedious process of capturing all the information in PasswordMaster before I lose the ability to run it.
This lengthy article is well worth reading. Michele Bachmann’s fringe status is the very reason she may be a contender for the White House.
Hilarious. If someone were to answer a question like any of these, I’d hire them.
Yay for the Netherlands as they are about to make net neutrality a law.
Using OpenStreetMap and computers the puzzle posed by James Joyce in Ulysses has been solved.
Disclaimer: I am an introvert.
Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk. This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.
Myth #2 – Introverts are shy. Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.
Myth #3 – Introverts are rude. Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.
Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people. On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.
Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public. Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.
Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone. Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.
Myth #7 – Introverts are weird. Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.
Myth #8 – Introverts are aloof nerds. Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.
Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun. Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.
Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts. A world without Introverts would be a world with few scientists, musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers, doctors, mathematicians, writers, and philosophers. That being said, there are still plenty of techniques an Extrovert can learn in order to interact with Introverts. (Yes, I reversed these two terms on purpose to show you how biased our society is.) Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ.
(From: Carl King Creative)
A New York Times op-ed well worth reading. Just when you think the level of discourse can’t go any lower, the next election cycle comes around.
I love the passion and excitement and wonder that Han Na Chang brings to her playing. She’s having a blast.
Yesterday, after weeks of thinking about it, I finally rooted and flashed my HTC Droid Incredible phone. It was relatively simple and straightforward. I’ve had my phone for a year now and I strongly suspect that neither HTC nor Verizon has any plans to update the OS beyond Android 2.2, so I took matters in to my own hands and did the necessary.
Both rooting and flashing void the warranty on your device. Both have the potential to turn your shiny Android phone into an expensive paperweight. If you read through the directions on how to accomplish rooting or flashing a ROM and say to yourself, “gee, that sounds hard” or “I don’t thing the Ranger is gonna like this, Yogi”, then you shouldn’t do it. Every single site that I read which explained the process said the same thing. You do this at your own risk. Your carrier will not help you out if you destroy your phone. I am not responsible if you try to follow my footsteps and brick your phone.
I’m not going to explain step by step what I did. I will, however, link to the articles that I used to complete this process.
Start by reading everything you can find in the search results for “rooting <your phone type>” and “rom flashing <your phone type>”. Then read Why Should I Root My Phone, How Do I Root My Phone, and Okay, I Rooted My Phone, Now What. Read them twice.
In the case of my Droid Incredible I was able to use Unrevoked to root the phone. This was simple, painless and quick. You download the appropriate unrevoked package for your device, connect your phone via the USB cable, and run the package.
From there I followed directions in How to Fully Backup and Restore Your Android Phone Using Nandroid Backup to make a backup copy of my phone. Then I copied that back up off the phone and on to my computer. Next I followed the instructions in How to Flash a Custom ROM to Your Android Phone with ROM Manager + Full Backup and Restore.
In my case I decided to use CyanogenMod 7 as the custom ROM. It works for the Droid Incredible and it is the one I have read the most about. There are many custom ROMS to choose from. Try searching for “<your phone type> custom ROM” and perusing the results to find one you like. With a back up in hand you can always restore and start over if you don’t care for a particular ROM.
After completing the rooting and flashing process on my phone I spent the rest of the day configuring and setting up the phone. Due to licensing restrictions CyanogenMod cannot include the Google applications. In order to get the Android Market, Maps, Google Voice and others, I downloaded the “gapps” package from CyanogenMod and flashed it to my phone.
One thing that helped tremendously in getting my phone setup again was using AppBrain. Because I had synchronized my phone with AppBrain prior to rooting and flashing I was able to re-install all my apps, including my lone paid app. Similarly, once I installed Amazon’s AppStore again I was able to reload the free apps I’ve collected from there - saving me the cost of purchasing them for the new setup.
While it has only been one day (actually part of a day) since I’ve completed the rooting, flashing, and setup of my phone, I am very pleased with the result. I basically have a new phone. Part of the joy of software and electronics for me is in the configuring, setting up, and figuring out. By flashing a new ROM to my phone I get to do all these things all over again. Eventually I’ll explore tethering and hotspots, and I’ll want to install a screen shot app, and probably a wireless ADB (Android Debug Bridge). For now, I’m enjoying the fresh layer of shininess on my phone.