Monthly Archives: July 2009

All my passwords…

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In the spirit of openness on the web I thought I’d reveal something interesting about the passwords I use on the web.  Just like everyone else now-a-days, I have tons of accounts on all sorts of websites, and my usernames tend to be fairly similar.

My passwords for email, social networking sites, twitter, my blog, and every place are …

different.

Okay, it’s not an astonishing reveal, but admit it – you have like 3 passwords, and you use them everyplace.  This is a terrible practice.  Stop it.

Now I would hope anyplace you’ve created an account with isn’t actually storing your password anywhere (they should just have a hash of your password) but anything can happen while data is in transit.

With recent headlines like, Network Solutions breach exposes nearly 600,000, and a new identity theft story popping up every day, it’s pretty clear that nobody is safe.  The least you can do to protect yourself is use different passwords.

It’s a pain, I know.  But there are a lot different ways to handle it.  There’s software like RoboForm and Password Safe, random password generators like GRC’s Perfect Passwords, scripts to calculate reusable passwords like SuperGenPass, decentralized authentication services like OpenID, and even sophisticated hardware like the Yubikey and SecurID.

There are tons of different ways to manage all the passwords we have to deal with on a daily basis – but one way which simply isn’t acceptable is to use the same password everywhere.  Use good, long, preferably highly random passwords.  And change them!

Maker of Stuff

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In Why Gunsmithing (And Why Not?) I said,

I’ve always wanted to do something with my hands. To directly create something, and be able to step back from it and say, “my hands created that.” I credit this with a construction job I briefly held as a teenager. The work was horribly taxing, but in the end the whole crew could step back and look at what we made. Then we cleaned up and left. Glory, however short-lived. One giant deck on the Chesapeake Bay in particular really comes to mind.

Chrissy, who recently acquired a sewing machine, followed an Instructable and made the “Fastest Recycled T-shirt Tote Bag.”  It’s very exciting!

Pattern Recognition

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You know how when you buy a new car, even one you weren’t previously familiar with, you suddenly see them every where you go?  I wonder if there’s a term for that.  Last week Chrissy and I were on the highway and I noticed a truck in the next lane equipped to drive on railroad tracks.  I’ve seen them before, but not in a very long time.  Since then I’ve seen 3 such trucks.

I understand the human brain is an amazing pattern recognition machine, even better than current computers, but I wonder what triggers that subconscious search for things we really don’t care about.

When Steve Fossett went missing I spent a few hours on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk looking for planes in the desert.  It was mind-numbing and I didn’t find anything noteworthy, but it was sort of interesting to be involved in the search.

I’ve also spent a little bit of time on Galaxy Zoo trying to classify galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.  That’s surprisingly hard.

Maybe I’m wrong about not caring about these things.  On some level we’re just wired for pattern searching.   I say I don’t care how many other people are driving Saturns, yet I’ll stay up in the middle of the night searching for gray, plane-shaped specks in the sand.

Best of Podiobooks, Part 1

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Podiobooks are free serialized audiobooks distributed as podcasts.  For more information on exactly what they are and how they work you should check out their FAQ.

I’m calling this “Part 1″ because I’m only listing Completed books, I haven’t listened to all of the Podiobooks, and because they add new content every day.  I’ve mentioned most of these before but I wanted to get them all together in one place.

Singularity by Bill DeSmedt – Science Fiction
One of my all-time favorite books, a fictional exploration of the Tunguska explosion of 1908.  Great physics, great story.  This book has it all, and it’s a excellent production.

Doctor Jack’s Soapbox Seminars by John C. Adler, Ph.D., as told to Bill DeSmedt – Non-Fiction
If you enjoy Singularity you should listen to this, too.  It will help you understand some of the physics of Singularity, and kill some time while you wait for Bill DeSmedt to finish Dualism.

7th Son: Book One – Descent by J.C. Hutchins – Science Fiction
7th Son: Book Two – Deceit by J.C. Hutchins – Science Fiction
7th Son: Book Three – Destruction by J. C. Hutchins – Science Fiction
This is one amazing trilogy. I’ve ranted before about how great it is, so I won’t go on and on again.  Just listen to it.  It moves at a frantic pace.

Infected by Scott Sigler – Horror/Dark Fantasy
Contagious by Scott Sigler – Horror/Dark Fantasy
This is a really cool story. I listen to or read everything by Scott Sigler, which is pretty amazing because horror is not my thing.  I can’t wait for Pandemic!

BloodCast, Season 1 by Scott Sigler – Horror/Dark Fantasy
BloodCast, Season 2 by Scott Sigler – Horror/Dark Fantasy
Two collections of short stories by Scott Sigler.  Be sure to check out “Chuckles Mulrooney, Attorney for the Damned.”

The Rookie by Scott Sigler – Science Fiction
I’m sorry to keep recommending books with forthcoming sequels, but after you listen to this story about football 700 years in the future you’re going to find yourself waiting for Sigler to release The Starter.

Earthcore by Scott Sigler – Science Fiction
Mark your calendar for February of 2012, when Mt. Fitzroy, the follow-up to Earthcore comes out.  Okay, sorry, that’s the last time I’ll do that in this post.

Kronos by Jeremy Robinson – Science Fiction
I thought I blogged about this but I can’t find an entry.  Any way, it’s a good story, even if a bit odd.

Number One with a Bullet by Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff – Fiction
A sort of modern-day Highlander story that I had a hard time taking seriously, but plenty of violence and a fairly interesting story kept me in it until the end.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - by Cory Doctorow – Science Fiction
If you like this (I did) you might want to check out Little Brother.  You can read it free in a bunch of different formats. The unabridged audio edition is $20.

Hunting Elf by Dave Donelson – Humor
I mentioned this one here recently.

Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena by Brian Dunning – Non-Fiction
Skeptoid podcaster Brian Dunning explores topics from Bigfoot to bible codes.

The Silk Code by Paul Levinson – Science Fiction
This is quite a ride. It treats DNA the way Singularity handled physics.  Several interesting stories weave together. I’d like to see more from Paul Levinson.

If you enjoy these books support the author and keep a good thing going by donating through the Podiobooks page. The author gets 75%.