It's time to change the passwords!

If you've been looking at the news recently, you know about the fact that Gawker Media was recently hacked and a number of usernames and passwords were exposed. Gawker contains sites I love like io9, Lifehacker, Consumerist, and others so I was very mindful of this.

Especially since I tend to break the cardinal rules of passwords.

• Use a different password for every site
• Use a password that contains letters, numbers, caps, lowercase and a special character
• Use a different username for every site

While I don't publize my usernames/passwords, one good hack in one place would leave me vulnerable.

This raises the question, "How can I fix this?" Any solution I come up with needs to fit the following criteria:

1. Access everywhere
2. Very complex passwords that I don't have remember
3. Facilitate remembering username

I did some research and come up with what I consider to be a rather nifty solution.

First, the password/username manager.

After doing some research on Lifehacker and watching Tekzilla I stumbled over Keepass.

Keepass is a wonderful username/password manager that is available on Windows, Linux, Mac, iPhone, Android, and more. It allows you to create special password generation rules, saves different usernames, AND even has an "autotype" feature. You can read a full list of it's features here. There are even versions you can save and run off of an USB drive. The Android version provides a simple method to place the username and password to the various applets on the system. If they don't support it, you can copy/paste.

After using Keepass on a system you find you have a database FILLED with passwords and userids that are encrypted. Now what? You need to keep the version on your PC and the version on your phone (I use the Android version too) and other platforms in sync.

If you have an Android phone, it's trivial to copy the datafile from the computer you are on to the exact directory on the phone.

What if you don't have a smartphone or you don't want to copy files the hard way?

Look to tools like "Dropbox". You can place the password database on a tool like this and it will ALWAYS be in sync between different systems. Alternatively, you can save the DB in Google Docs. Just be sure you have a hardcore password! These solutions also allow you to sync the DB to your phone as well.

I always have an up-to-date version of the password DB whereever I need.

I hope this helps everyone to keep their online identies safer and hacker resistant...

How I use my tech: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.

Have you noticed recently a change in the way you relate to your tech?

With the advent of super-smartphones (iPhone/Android) and the further increase in power of technology, I've noticed that how I enjoy my technology has been changing. Leo Laporte has chatted about this on his various podcasts, and I've noticed that it has become more pervasive in my life.

Here are some examples:

Three years ago:

• 90% of what I watched was on Cable.
• My phone was a pay-as-you go phone with minimal functionality.
• Most of what I needed to do online involved me pulling out my laptop (including sending email).
• I couldn't manage my schedule.
• I kinda liked KGSR.
• I had to call someone I knew for directions.

Today:

• I don't have cable. I either watch online streaming TV or iTunes shows. I have my most powerful computer hooked up to my TV. I'm still keeping up to date on Dr. Who, Futurama, and NCIS. My PC tells me when I have new show available to consume.
• My phone is my main entertainment platform: Audiobooks (Audible.com app), Audio and Video netcasts (Doggcatcher downloads stuff directly to my phone) , written word (Kindle/Nook apps), and more to come.
• 90% of what I do online, I do on my phone. I usually dictate emails to my phone for sending. Keeping in touch with friends and family is TRIVIAL now.
• I don't forget appointments nor important dates. Furthermore, I have an automated todo list to remind me to do tasks I could barely manage to keep track of (chores, exercise, and such).
• KGSR isn't as Austiny as it used to be, so my favorite radio station (since dropping satellite radio) is a public radio 24/7 Blues station out of Chicago. Of course, my entire music library is IN my car right now.
• I'm NEVER lost.
• I learn something new everyday.

Realize also, that I use automated tasks on my PC to do preprocessing: I have it downloading and "speeding up" audio podcasts before sending to my phone, because Podshifter.com didn't work well for me. sure I had to write some code to do that, but still. Furthermore, my PC downloads and keeps a local backup of my e-mail in case the cloud fails. I can log into that computer from my phone.

IN THE FUTURE:

• I will learn new skills by playing games.
• I will work with my computer, not only by touching my screen, but similar to Tom Cruise in Minority Report.
• I will be able to make my gadgets do some of my housekeeping tasks (not just housework).
• The human race may not have a strong foothold in space yet, but we will be living "La Vida Star Trek".
• My tech will further inspire and unleash my creativity.

My Motorola Droid

As previously mentioned, I got so frustrated with AT&T Wireless, that I moved over to Verizon and gave up my iPhone. To this end, in April I got a Shiney new Motorola Droid. There are newer Android phones out there, but so far I've been pretty happy with this phone and I don't regret my choice. I guess part of that is that I'm now using a linux phone.

So, for my smart phone friends, here is a list of the various applications I've installed on my phone in case you are curious and want to either install them (if you are an Android user) or find the iPhone equivalent (if you are an iPhone user).

• Aldiko Book Reader
• ASTRO File Manager
• DockRunner (DROID)
• Google Goggles
• Facebook for Android
• AppBrain App Market
• LauncherPro Beta
• DroidFit - Workout,Fitness,Gym
• N-Back - (My brain trainer)
• Blogaway
• App manager
• Kindle for Android
• DoggCatcher Podcast Player
• Shopper
• Google Maps
• Talk To Me Classic
• Locale
• Google Sky Map
• Urbanspoon
• Places Directory
• Classic Text To Speech Engine
• Text-To-Speech Extended
• iTriage Mobile Health
• Pandora Radio
• Opera Mini 5 browser
• Calorie Counter by FatSecret
• twidroid for twitter
• My Tracks
• Sudoku
• Dial Zero v1.04
• AK Notepad
• GPS Status
• SpeakWrite Recorder
• USAA Mobile
• MemoryForLemmings
• OpenTable
• Advanced Task Killer
• MySettings
• KUT 90.5 Music, News, & NPR
• Google Earth
• Palringo Instant Messaging
• Amazon.com
• Ringdroid
• Fandango Movies
• Star Wars Light Saber
• Shazam
• Remember The Milk

I hope, dear reader, you phind this usephul phor your phone.

Linux Update

When I moved what was my monster work PC into the living room to act as a media center PC, I lost the system to drive my printer. This meant that it was very difficult for me to print anything. I would often need to drag a laptop into the office and hook it up to the printer on an ad-hoc basis. I didn't want to move the printer into the living room, so I had to think how I was going to handle this. I decided to rebuild my old work PC that had been disassembled and reconstitute it as a Linux box/print server. So, I downloaded the Lucid Lynx (the most recent Ubuntu release) and went to work.

Oh my goodness!

I was first introduced to Linux back in 1995 with the Slackware distro. This was extremely rough around the edges and installation would take a very long time. I've tried several other distros since then and while I could do them, I found them rough enough that it was hard to recommend.

The most recent Ubuntu release changes that.

The installation was arguably easier and faster than Windows 7 was. Starting out, I provided a few details (password, Timezone, etc) that I would provide to Windows and clicked "Install". Thirty minutes later, I had a fully working Linux system that had recognized my immense HD monitor over a VGA connection and found my printer with no prompting from me.

This intrigued me, so I stuck the live CD into my Vaio laptop and booted. Much to my surprise, it had FOUND the RAID configuration and easily read the disk array.

I would say that (except for how to reset the sudo password) that Ubuntu's Lucid Lynx is ready for primetime. It is a powerful and simple to use OS that I could recommend to anyone, regardless of skill.

If you want to try it out (and are running either a PC or Intel Mac), grab the Lucid Lynx LiveCD and boot it up. You can try it out WITHOUT changing anything on your system. If you don't like it, extract the CD and reboot back into your OS of choice. Its safe, secure, easy, and incredibly fast (Bender boots in about 20 seconds instead of the 1-2 minutes it did in Windows XP). Unless you need iTunes because of DRM (DoubleTwist works if you don't have DRM content) or Windows for Computer Games, its an OS you should look at.

Fresh Blog Paint

With the coming of new games in which I'm interested (hopefully more grabbing than Champions was), new paint at home, and a slightly improving life balance, I decided to do some blog tweaking. Some of this is experimenting with new blogger features and some compensating for poor posting habits.

First, notice that I added a Twitter gadget. I use Twitter to update Facebook and Google Buzz, so you wont see anything new there if you follow me on Facebook or Buzz. Another interesting social networking tidbit, is that about a day after I post on this blog, a notification will show up on my Twitter/Facebook/Buzz feed.

Secondly, I updated the listing of RSS posts. I put in more links to Star Wars: The Old Republic, and removed other links to make the site more gamey (ha!).

These changes should make the blog a little more interesting to visit even if I've not posted in a while.

I've done a few other tweaks including adding a series of links about SW:tOR (no, this isn't becoming an Old Republic blog, I'm just really excited), removing ads (they were an experiment too), adding a dynamic list of the many podcasts to which I listen, and general shuffling of stuffs.

Like the look? Let me know what you think - comments are eternally welcome!

Are these the "droid"s I'm looking for?

Verizon Confirms Droid Tethering, Announces Pricing

The trophy fiancee uses Verizon. If the phone is as good as it looks, maybe I should switch...

AT&T?!!?! ARE YOU F***ING LISTENING?

Apple, would you please drop your exclusivity with this backwards company? Please stop working with a company that not only doesn't care about it's customers but actively works to screw it's employees.

In honor of Windows 7 coming out yesterday...

Proof that Microsoft has ALWAYS been cool



It starts getting good at the 2:16 mark...

I'm a....Mac?

It's AMAZING what you find on the interwebs.

Yes, as an exercise to decide which platform I like, I managed to get my system to boot OSX and work as a "Mac Pro". Now, while I LIKE Windows 7 (and I do), I've wanted to look for a viable alternative OS to Micro$oft.

Linux would have been my real preference, but I need 3 things that Linux doesn't have...
1. Yahoo Instant Messenger (the real thing, not a client that works with it).
2. Exchange Support (I want a SINGLE email client in a non-virtual environtment).
3. iTunes (I have an iPhone, I have an iPod - I don't want to change that).

So, I wanted to try out OSX, but I wasn't able to throw down the cash for the system. Part of my reason for selecting the hardware I did, was that its popular with the "hackintosh" crowd. I figured, if the switch didn't work, I'd still have a hardcore system that would make Windows fly.

Now, there IS a problem with this. You are only supposed to install OSX on "Mac" hardware. So, I cannot recommend this solution.

Well...

Its a nice OS. It's a REALLY nice OS. Remember, I've only really had experience with Windows. I'm going to try to post some observations of "switching" in the future, but I just had to share.

About Win 7

I know I've not posted. I've no excuse other than being uber busy with work.

I still don't have much time, but I wanted to make a "tech" post.

I just upgraded my system from the Opteron to an Intel Core i7 920 system with 12 (yes TWELVE) gigs of Ram.

While I'm trying to experiment with OSX (yes, really), I did install Windows 7, Home Premium 64-bit (Home Premium is the one I'm going to be recommending to 95% of the people I know who use Windows).

What Cali Lewis says about Windows 7.

MY ADVICE ABOUT WINDOWS:

If you are using Windows XP, stick with it until your next hardware upgrade. Next upgrade, Windows 7 is the way to go.

If you are using Windows 2000 and Earlier OR Windows Vista, Consider upgrading if your hardware meets the reqs. Windows 7 runs in 1 Gig of RAM and is faster than Vista.

Here is hoping that I'll be able to get back to posting soon.

Yes, there is still the Champions Contest winner to post, and I shall when I choose from the submissions.

Where have I been?

I got SERIOUSLY burned out with work and everything else. I ended up taking a short vacation to renew and recenter. When it gets to the point that you start biting off people's heads for asking simple questions, screaming at misbehaving routers, and getting toasted regularly, you KNOW something is VERY wrong.

So I spent the last couple weeks trying to catch up and focus on life, the universe, and everything.

I'm back into it now, so its back to posting and complaining that my PC is starting to seem VERY slow of late. I think it's getting close to the time that I need to start collecting parts for a new system. Sadly, It doesn't look like I'll be able to swing even a base-line Mac Pro, so I'm looking at piecing together a new PC (mainly because I can reuse my video card and power supply)...bleh. Well, my company IS a Windows based software company, so I don't have much choice, now do I?

On a lighter note, starting on Wednesday, I'm going to start accepting posts for Rachael's Nemesis in Champions Online.

What is a bridge-tap?

A Bridge Tap

Its also something which if you have a 324 ft. long one will turn your U-Verse Broadband to crap...

As of today, I still have one, and I've requested it be removed 3 times (third time was yesterday).

If I still have one on Friday, I may need to drop AT&T U-Verse and go back to Time-Warner.


Are you listening AT&T?

ADDENDUM:
Immediately after posting this, someone came out to deal with the noise on the line. This appears to have improved the connection. However, they will be coming out again either later this week, or early next week to dig a pit to remove the "Bridge Tap".

AT&T

Like the format?

I figured out how to alter the template to allow me to post widescreen stuffs that won't break my blog. The trick was to change the "width" tags from pixels to percent!

What is your problem AT&T?

Really?

State of my Tech

So what did I end up doing with all those drives?

My main desktop now has 5 HDDs! Two Terabyte HDDs, one 400GB drive, and two 250 GB drives. So, "Bender" has almost 3 Terabytes of Storage! The other cool thing is the way I've set it up. For my Mac/Unix buddies who dont' know, Windows drives are generally assigned a letter of the alphabet.

The C: drive - This is the main drive Windows and other applications are installed on. It's one of the TB SATA drives.

The D: drive - This drive is where I put my "My Documents" directory. It makes backing up easier and helps keep my data and my software segregated. This is the other TB SATA Drive. Also, I have my VM HDDs living there.

E is a DVD Writer, and F is a virtual drive that I can mount "iso" files to and my system will think they are CD-ROMS.

The G: Drive - this is the 400 Gig drive. Every day at 7pm, a batch file runs that copies the contents of my D: drive over. So, now I have a backup!

The H: Drive - this is one of the 250 GB drives. I generally don't use it at this time, but I keep it just in case.

The I: Drive - the other 250 GB drive. I actually put work files here to share between my systems.

Currently, all of my systems are set up such that D:, G:, H:, and I: are available as network shares. Furthermore, I mapped them so that the I: drive on my desktop is located at "I:" on all of my other systems, real and virtual.

Neat huh?

OH! One other thing...

This past weekend, I picked up an Airport Express - Apple Wireless Router. I hooked this up behind the TV in the living room. This is uber cool because it has iTunes integration with an audio output. It can accept iTunes streams wirelessly. So, I connected it to the surround sound stereo. Now I can listen to my MP3s and podcasts on the living room stereo!

Liver and iPhone

First of all, sorry Steve, I still worship Apple tech from afar....

But...


Me: Steve Jobs liver is replaceable...but the battery on the iphone isn't
Chris: it is replaceable just like the liver it requires a very technical procedure
Me: ahh, true
Chris: using specialty tools and
Chris: liberal use of medications
Me: the liver or the iphone?
Chris: yes

Back up and running

Fry's accepted the return on the defective HDD, and I was able to replace it. For good measure, I picked up a second drive to use for storage so that I have a place to back up to. Everything is reinstalled that needs reinstalling (except Firefox, more on that Monday).

As you may recall previously, when I moved to the new digs, the C drive on Hermes went out, and I had to start relying on my main desktop for everything. Thanks to an Ubuntu LiveCD, I was able to pull all of my data off Hermes. It was here that I found a backup of Bender dated at the end of March, so I do have most of the data I was missing.

So, at this point, I have Bender up and going and a 2nd PC with a bunch of HDDs. Now, previously, I'd've rebuilt this and re-Christened this "Hermes". However, I'm not going to do that this time. I put in all my spare HDDs, my oldest video card, and my PCI WiFi card. My intent? I'm looking at FreeNAS and I'm going to try to set this up as TRUE network attached storage (until I can get a drobo) to throw backup images on.

FreeNAS has a JBOD solution which will make all those cheap discs seem like one large/huge disc. I'll be sure to post my results!

A disk read error occurred

Nothing like "The volume appears to contain one or more uncoverable problems" when trying to boot.

At least the HDD is within the 30 day return period. However, this means I'll be somewhat distracted for the next few days while I TOTALLY REBUILD MY SYSTEM FROM SCRATCH!

What's the really fun part? I didn't have a drive big enough to backup to....so, no backups right now.

Ah well, guess it was time for a good spring cleaning anyway.

What are your favorite QoL apps?

With the move, I've been forced to rework my way of interacting with my computers. I was hitting my limits previously with my other setup, but I finally hit the wall and needed a solution. So, here is a short list of applications I use to make my life easier. Best of all, they are FREE!

SYNERGY
Got multiple computers? Got a Windows PC sitting next to a Mac with a Linux box near by but you don't want to deal with 3 or more keyboard mouse combos? Check this out. It lets you use your keyboard/mouse on one system and move your mouse to the computer right next to it, as if it was a single desktop spanning multiple monitors. Right now, I have it set up so that my Vaio is sitting to the left of my desktop, but I can copy paste between them and just use my main keyboard that is on my desktop.

Sun Virtual Box
I ranted about this WONDERFUL piece of software previously, but it is fast approaching the top of my indispensable apps. Today, I took its usage a step further an started working with "seamless" mode. In other words, I have my Windows 7 IE8 running on my XP Pro system and you don't have to juggle desktops.

MSDVM
Those who know me, know that I'm a big Unix fan. One of the things I love (that windows doesn't natively have) is Virtual Desktops. The idea is that you can have multiple workspaces on a single system. If you run a lot of apps, its nice to have. Linux and Macintosh also have them. Well, if you dig through the MS website, you can find an implementation of it for Windows. When you start working in Virtualbox it really unlocks the power of your system.

Magic ISO
A "virtual CD Rom" that allows you to just point at an ISO file and mount it like a CD. Saves lots of money on blank CDs.

Google Reader
This is the main Google App I actually use. I channel all my RSS subs through it and use that as a primary news source. It has a nice iPhone interface as well.

Trillian
I can't get my friends to agree on IM software. So, I need a singular solution to keep up with all my friends. Enter Trillian. If you are familiar with Pidgin/Gaim then you get the idea. I wish they'd include GoogleTalk support.

iTunes
Not something I was planning to include as it's not a "QoL" app per se. However, I use iTunes as my "Radio" when I'm working. I have a list of several Podcasts I download.

What apps do YOU use?

Primitive Internet and Big Disks

The new home does have DSL. This makes it possible to work and do light surfing...VERY light. According to speedtest.net: Download: 2.58 Megabit, Upload: 0.39 Megabit. In my previous location, I was using Time-Warner's RoadRunner Turbo. I rather consistently got about 20 down and 2 up. This, coupled with the fact that my connection tends to drop 4 to 5 times a day for about 5 minutes, makes this really painful. Its no good to have a conference call drop part way through when you are getting critical information.

This means a slight bit of a change in my plans for Internet. Instead of having my friend run the wires for me, I'm biting the bullet and having AT&T add the drops I need so that I can have the fat data pipe. Here is hoping it goes well. I'm told that unlike Time-Warner which overloads their routers meaning that during peak times you aren't getting full advertised bandwidth, AT&T DOES give you the same pipe all the time. If that is so, then the "Max18" will be very nice watching Internet TV and not having problems downloading.

I've also made a bit of a change in my LAN setup. As previously mentioned, "Hermes" boot drive went kaput. I was able to recover my iTunes library off of it and it wasn't used for much beyond that and Instant Messaging, so I've decided to make a bit of an infrastructure change. On Monday, I went by Fry's and picked up a 1 Terabyte HDD for $92, an amazing price. I installed that on my MAIN desktop (Bender) and made that my primary drive. Because of the prevalence of Virtual Machines and the CPU I have (Opteron 185 - a little old, but still somewhat peppy) I could reduce my hardware needs to a single desktop and single laptop. It seemed to me that this would make my network easier to manage and cheaper as I wouldn't need to be keeping up with 2 systems worth of hardware needs and reduce the amount of heat produced by my "Data Center". With this, my next task will be to attempt to balance two network cards and set it so that iTunes doesn't accidentally try to download data over my work's VPN.

It seemed to me that as I did this I would be able to test the setup I'm eventually wanting in the event I can get the MacPro that I want as it wouldn't be terribly dissimilar.