As of this post I have 110 different user names and passwords to log into various websites, servers, applications, as well as other non-computer services.  Once upon a time I simplified this by making as many of them the same password as possible.  I found I was accumulating login information in my Outlook notes, random text files on my computer, in OneNote notebooks, and in Firefox’s password system.  Not all of them are for computers (PIN numbers for financial aid, PIN numbers for our cell phones, etc.), so there was not really one place they could all go.

Along comes KeePass, a very simple program that creates a secure place to store all of your login information.  You create one master password to encrypt them all.  While I’m sure there are several programs out there to do this, KeePass seems to be a standard fixture among geeks, and is open source.  I’ve found this cuts a lot of time out of my week, especially when paying bills online, or when logging into a web site that I haven’t logged into for several months/years but I know I have a login for (I don’t know how many times I’ve had to request my login information to be sent to me via email, or have my password reset).

A quick note on security:  it is not a great idea to (1) have the same password for everything, (2) have very simple passwords (such as words that would be found in a dictionary), or (3) have passwords laying around in random folders or emails throughout your computer.  This program assists with all these problems, allowing you to have different passwords (since you don’t have to remember every one off the top of your head), have more complex passwords, and to have one secure repository for all your passwords.

Another minor note on security, if you think the passwords you save in Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Google Chrome are secure, they are not.  I could be wrong about IE and Chrome (but I don’t think so), but by default Firefox passwords are stored as plain text unless you choose to create a master password that will encrypt all your website passwords.  There are many extensions you can get for your browser to integrate with KeePass.

Lastly, I’ve found a handy trick for managing passwords across computers.  If you install Dropbox which synchronizes files across computers, you put the KeePass database in your Dropbox, and have access to your passwords at work and at home.  Using this option, I would recommend using both a master password for KeePass, as well as a “Key File” (basically a small file that is one long password) so that in the event your KeePass database was hacked from Dropbox, your passwords are very protected.

I am part of a student blog team in the OCIS division of Academy of Management.  I recently posted part three of an interview I conducted with Dr. Mike Smith here at Carnegie Mellon.

Check out part three the interview with Dr. Smith here.

I am part of a student blog team in the OCIS division of Academy of Management.  I recently posted part two of an interview I conducted with Dr. Mike Smith here at Carnegie Mellon.

Check out part two the interview with Dr. Smith here.

I am part of a student blog team in the OCIS division of Academy of Management.  I recently posted part one of an interview I conducted with Dr. Mike Smith here at Carnegie Mellon.

Check out part one the interview with Dr. Smith here.

New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users’ Ears

If you work in front of a computer you know the internet can be a distracting place, especially if you are working on something you really don’t want to be doing right now.  I’ve found myself trying to get a project done, and losing several chunks of time throughout the day to pay bills online, check Facebook, or just browse the news.

Someone brilliant soul out there has come up with what I think is a pretty good solution to this problem:  Leechblock.  In short, Leechblock is a plugin for Firefox that can block certain pages so that you cannot visit Facebook, Youtube, or any other distracting site during the business hours of your choice.  It can also limit the amount of time you spend on these sites per day (or week).  For example, if you want to catch up with people on Facebook for 20 minutes, without zoning out and losing two hours chatting and looking at pictures, you set the limit to 20 minutes a day and the plugin will not let you go past that.  You can also set it up so that you cannot change the settings during your business hours, so if you are tempted to turn off the blocker to do some shopping, you are stuck getting your work done.

For my setup, I recommend uninstalling all other web browsers if possible (or at least make them difficult to get to).  If it is too easy to switch to Chrome or Internet Explorer you will find that you just stop using Firefox during business hours.  I have several blocks of programs blocked during business hours:  social networks, news, online video, shopping, financial management, and then a catch all block of “other” sites.

For more information on Leechblock, Lifehacker has a pretty good writeup of the add-on, and you can download the add-on directly from here.

I’ve always complained about printers, somehow in the last 15 years they really haven’t improved much.  They are cheaper, they now use USB instead of the parallel port, and they now have a bunch of features that also don’t work.  However, they are unreliable, contain expensive ink, and did I mention they are just unreliable?

In a recent post at Gizmodo, I found someone who had expressed the same sentiment in a much more detailed and hilarious style than I ever have been able to.  Here are a couple of points I find particularly funny and true:

I will soon be putting together a Windows Home Server from a spare computer and parts, and consolidating hard drives into that, in doing some reading on the new product I came across this ad gimmick from Microsoft, an entire children’s book explaining to children why there is a server in their home.  Apart from laughing historically about this for a few minutes, I feel like there is possibly a market here.  We have children’s books to describe animals, sounds, shapes, and colors, but where are the children’s books to discuss with them the important lessons they will need to know before kindergarten, like when to send a text message vs. an IM vs. an email, or how to configure your firewall?  Perhaps children’s authors should team up with the tech people and educate our children early on about these important issues.

For some reason lately a reoccurring topic of conversation has been when and if the end of POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) will arrive? In talking with people who work in industry the feeling I got was that the end was a long ways away, mostly because land lines are everywhere, in every home, and with technological improvements ISP’s are planning to continue to increase the internet speeds available for serving the internet over DSL.

Part of my interest in this is close to home, I have family that work in the telecomm industry. Other interests arrived from a podcast of one of my favorite NPR programs, On Point, discussing the end of landlines.  I also recently came across this article about AT&T asking the FCC to set a date to end land line service.  I’m sure there is some game theoretical argument about why the FCC should shut down POTS rather than waiting for the market to take care of it, but I fail to see why the government should need to intervene in this case.  I understand their intervention in the recent digital television conversion this year, but why the FCC should shut down POTS is beyond my understanding.  It seems to me there is a great opportunity for someone somewhere to take advantage of this small but significant amount of bandwidth going to every home that will eventually go unused.  Entrepreneurs of the world take note!