Tagged: password
Sites of the Week: September 29, 2013
“Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies.”
Voltaire (when asked by a priest to renounce Satan)
Factoid: “When we design routes, as we put them together, we want to try to design it where the drivers are taking as many right-hand turns as possible.” The company has found that right-hand turns are not only safer, but they’re also more efficient. It’s a tip that AAA agrees with. By using routing technology and avoiding idling at lights for left-hand turns, UPS was able to avoid 98 million minutes of idle time in a year.”
UPS dispatch supervisor Matthew Frost, WAGA Fox 5 News interview
Now on to this week’s sites. This week, I’m sending out three ‘Site of the Week’ recommendations.
namebench
https://code.google.com/p/namebench/
In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, DNS stands for “Domain Name Service”. It’s a service normally provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). When you enter a site name such as http://www.google.com into your browser, it connects to a DNS server to convert that site name into an IP address. Do you want a faster internet experience? namebench searches for the fastest DNS servers available for your use. namebench is a free open source DNS benchmark utility. namebench runs on Mac OS X, Windows and UNIX.
The State of Women in America
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2013/09/25/75188/mapping-the-state-of-women-in-america/
This site features a report on the state of women in America. The sites includes an interactive map that so the grade and rankings of each state for factors within three categories: economics, leadership and health.
PasswordBox
https://www.passwordbox.com/
In the past, I’ve written about Dashlane and RoboForm. PasswordBox is a similar password manager utility. I’m a huge fan of this type of solution because you can have much stronger passwords that are unique for each site and change them regularly without the typical headaches of manually implementing such a security plan. PasswordBox has legacy and share password one time features which are nice. PC Magazine gave it a score of 4 out of 5 and CNET gave it 4.5. It’s free, but only for 25 passwords.
Ernie Orr sez “Check em out!”
Sites of Week: July 28, 2013
“A pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises.”
Rex Stout, author
Factoid: Despite new technology to increase productivity, the average number of hours worked per worker has dropped by just 200 hours in the U.S. since 1950, compared with drops of 991 hours in Germany, 684 hours in France and 540 hours in the U.K.
The Atlantic
Now on to this week’s sites. This week, I’m sending out three ‘Site of the Week’ recommendations.
Adrift
http://vimeo.com/simonchristen/adrift
This short time-lapse video was created by Simon Christen from the Marin Headlands near San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. The fog rushing in from the Pacific Ocean into San Francisco Bay and the surrounding areas is beautiful and resembles the sea itself.
Dashlane
https://www.dashlane.com/
Dashlane is a FREE password manager and form auto-fill that saves and generates secure passwords and automatically fills online forms. Dashlane also offers Android and iPhone clients. With a paid premium subscription, you also have automatic cloud backups, syncing of passwords across all your devices, Web access to your passwords and priority support. (Alternatively, you can install the free copy on each of your devices and just export your passwords from one computer, tablet or phone to the other devices. The Dashlane site even includes instructions.) If you share your PC, Dashlane can store multiple name/password combinations for each site. A master password secures all of your passwords. If your device is lost or stolen, you can also remotely disable your copy of Dashlane at Dashlane.com. Any access to your data from that device will then be denied.
National Motor Vehicle Title Information System
http://vehiclehistory.gov
The National Motor Vehicle Title Information System provides consumers with information about a vehicle’s condition and history. Prior to purchasing a vehicle, NMVTIS allows consumers to obtain information on the vehicle’s title, most recent odometer reading, brand history (i.e. the vehicle’s current or prior condition, such as “junk,” “salvage,” “flood,” or another designation), and theft data.
Ernie Orr sez “Check em out!”
Sites of the Week: December 8, 2012
“Diplomacy is the art of telling plain truths without giving offense.”
Winston Churchill
Factoid: Just 2.8% of bills introduced in this Congress have been passed.
Los Angeles Times
Chag Hanukkah sameach!
I received the following earlier this week from my sister, Cathy:
An old man in Miami calls up his son in New York and says, “Listen, your mother and I are getting divorced. Forty-five years of misery is enough.”
“Dad, what are you talking about?” the son screams.
“We can’t stand the sight of each other any longer,” he says. “I’m sick of her face, and I’m sick of talking about this, so call your sister in Chicago and tell her,” and he hangs up.
Now, the son is worried. So he calls up his sister. She says, “Like hell they’re getting divorced!” and calls her father immediately. “You’re not getting divorced! Don’t do another thing, the two of us are flying home tomorrow to talk about this. Until then, don’t call a lawyer, don’t file a paper, DO YOU HEAR ME?” and she hangs up.
The old man turns to his wife and says “Okay, they’re coming for Christmas and paying their own airfares.”
I think you’ll enjoy this short video my wife shared with me:
Now on to this week’s sites. This week, I’m sending out three ‘Site of the Week’ recommendations.
OneSimpleWish
Over 500,000 children live in the foster care system in the U.S. Foster care often includes multiple home and institution placements–sometimes within the same year or even month. One Simple Wish is a nonprofit organization founded four years ago. Their goal is to brighten the lives of abused, neglected and homeless foster children by fulfilling their wishes. They do this by connecting these foster children people with people like us. Their site features wishes from these children who make their wishes through One Simple Wish’s network of partners and organizations. Wishes can be clothing, school supplies, music lessons, etc. with most wishes ranging from $5 to $100. If you wish to help, just search their wish database. After finding a wish you’d like to grant, click on [Grant Wish]. You can then either pay for the wish online or send a check for the wish value shown. Once payment is received, One Simple Wish will purchase the wish on your behalf and arrange delivery.
RoboForm
I’ve written in the past about the importance of online security. The Username for many sites is your e-mail address which can easily be uncovered. This means nothing stands between you and a hacker other than your password. Strong passwords are critical and if 2-step verification is available, you should take advantage of it. Those of you who know me won’t be surprised when I say that I take security seriously. In spite of this, in the past 6 months two of my online accounts were compromised even though both accounts had passwords that were upper/lower-case, alphanumeric and 8 characters. Fortunately, I discovered the intrusion and quickly changed my password before any damage could be done.
Your best protection is:
- Create strong passwords consisting of 8+ characters consisting of upper/lower-case, alphanumeric, special characters that can’t be found in a dictionary such as Z*dkdLbx2X.
- Use unique passwords (i.e. do not use the same password on multiple sites).
- Update your passwords regularly.
The problem with the above guidelines is how do you remember your passwords. I’ve mentioned RoboForm in the past. It is a leading password management program that automatically generates strong passwords, securely remembers them, automatically logs you into Web sites and auto-fills online forms with one-click ease. I purchased RoboForm Desktop over 6 years ago and absolutely love it. However, with the even stronger passwords I recently implemented, I needed a way to sync my passwords on my home and work notebooks, iPad and iPhone so I upgraded to RoboForm Everywhere. The cost of the RoboForm Desktop license is a 1-time $29.95 while the RoboForm Everywhere license is subscription-based with an introductory 1 year license price of only $9.95. Warning: Shameless self-promotion. If you decide to purchase RoboForm Everywhere, please click here and I will receive a 3-month extension to my RoboForm Everywhere subscription.
Every Apple TV Ad Ever Made
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UUKB83fAKU3YoXXuGDH5B1YA&page=1
This site comes to you by way of my wife Betty and is a compilation of every Apple TV ad ever broadcast.
Ernie Orr sez “Check em out!”
Sites of the Week: July 14, 2012
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
Abraham Lincoln
Now on to this week’s sites. This week, I’m sending out three ‘Site of the Week’ recommendations.
HowToCallAbroad.com
http://www.howtocallabroad.com/
One of the sites cited (say that fast 5 times) in the April 14 “Sites of the Week” was World Meeting Planner which is designed to make scheduling meetings with international business partners easier by allowing you to select your meeting date and the locations of attendees and then displays the local times. HowToCallAbroad.com could be considered a companion site because it clearly and simply provides information on how to place international phone calls. Telephone country codes and international area codes are displayed by country, with additional information such as city and cellular codes, calling tips and an FAQ page. Of course, this site could appeal to everyone who has family or friends in other countries.
Last Pass
I’ve written several times about the security risks associated with weak passwords. Perhaps as great is risk is using the same password for multiple sites. But how can you remember multiple, strong passwords. LastPass may be the answer. LastPass offers both free and premium versions. The premium version is $12/mo. Check out the list of features and a comparison chart here.
Vacations To Go
If you enjoy cruises or have always want to go on an ocean or river cruise but haven’t, this site may be for you. For almost 30 years, Vacations To Go has worked with the best tour operators in the world to offer up to 75% discounts on cruises and up to 50% discounts on hotels and resorts.
Ernie Orr sez “Check em out!”
Sites of the Week 