Lockdown.

After reading this article from Lifehacker, I got to thinking that maybe some of my passwords aren't as secure as they should be.  The article basically outlines how lame most people's passwords are and that the security on them is basically nonexistant.  If a villan who wants to get into your online visa account can do it in 2.1 seconds, what's the point of a password?

The article does go on to say that adding just one number and a capital letter can make your password much more secure.  Doing so in a 14-character random password would take forever (not really, but you get the idea) to crack.  Fourteen characters sound like a lot, but it can be done.  There are iPhone apps that will randomly produce passwords for you.


Another crafty way to keep your passwords in order (that I read about on another blog) is to have a password base (for instance, have a 14 character string, with numbers and caps) that you use for everything and then just add the first two letters of the website (or the last two or the first four, or however you do it) to your base.  So if I'm logging into visa.com and my password base is superHum0n99l@dy, I would make my visa one visuperHum0n99l@dy.  Get it?  Then there is only one strange 14-character password to remember, and you just tack some on for each website.  

A breakdown on character security is below, but what do you think?  How do you keep your passwords secure and organized?  If you get a chance, read the article...it's worth it.

If only...

I remember Chemistry class.  Actually I remember signing up for Chemistry class in High School.  I was so excited to take it-all of those labs and doing fun things.  Fast forward about a month into the class.  I was realizing it was basically a math class with a lab once every other week (internal groan). We learned the elements...it was very boring.  


I was pretty excited when I saw this site:  The Periodic Table of Videos.  It would have completely helped in my high school Chemistry class to keep it exciting when not in labs.  The videos are of decent length and are pretty interesting.  The one person in them (with the crazy white hair), definitely kept my interest.


One of the most thrilling ones is Hydrogen (1), which shows what happens when you light a balloon of Hydrogen on fire...Hindenburg anyone?  If I taught Chemistry or any related science, I'd probably use these.  I found them to be engaging and fun AND they have a non-Youtube version if Youtube is forbidden fruit at your site.

Take This.

At our school for the last few years, there has been a huge push to get away from emailing attachments for obvious reasons.  When you're trying to send two or three media-rich powerpoints, your email gets clogged up very quickly.  We link files to a shared network drive, which is great-except when it's not.  If you're trying to open files on your iPhone (which I do) or if you're at home and don't wish to log into VPN, you're out of luck.  Well...you were out of luck.

Crate does essentially the same thing that our network does.  To use it, just drag the file into the crate and Crate generates a link for you.  The link is only valid for 30 minutes.  If you need your file to be available for more than a half hour, sign up for a free account and it's there forever.  


There are other ways of hosting your items, like Dropbox and GoogleDocs, but I do like that you don't need to make an account to use it.  

Will It Work?

I've been a pretty heavy Apple/iOS user for a while now.  On the happy day that I finally got my first iPhone a few years ago, the wheels in my mind began to turn for the many apps that I could develop.  But, the prospect of creating an app seemed overwhelmingly large.  Using the free Apple University 'course', I feel like I'll be able to more effectively master the steps in iOS app creation.  I'll blog here with my progress.  


Any suggestions?  Cautions?  Post them below.

Keeping Perspective...

Not too much focused on tech, but interesting to consider:  http://web20classroom.blogspot.com/2010/12/passion-for-real-education-reform.html