We are leaving ourselves open to identity fraud online because of the passwords we use, says a campaign group. Passwords that are easy to remember often means easy to guess and hard to guess often means hard to remember. Problems include using passwords that are easy to guess and using the same one all the time. So what makes a good password? It’s all about having a difficult word and a good system, say experts. Never use a word that is in the dictionary, says Ken Munro, managing director of SecureTest. Online fraudsters have written programs that can try thousands of different passwords and try every word in the dictionary. You can mix upper and lower case and throw in random symbols, like a dollar sign. A good suggestion is to use a phrase you can easily remember. A good password will mix letters, numbers and punctuation, but the strongest contain non-alphanumeric characters or symbols. The longer a password is the harder it is to crack, not the consecutive keys on the keyboard. QWERTY is a regular on lists of most-popular passwords, just look at your keyboard to find out why. The other essential when it comes to protecting your personal details is also having a good user name. People tend to just use their names, which is leaves them vulnerable.
The cellphone technicians
I went downtown today and I thought it funny observing cellphone technicians I encountered in the mall. There were about five of them. One could do something, the other couldn’t do anything with it, the others of different reactions, you would obviously see who knows the particular job. It was just kind of amusing. It was just a facade. They were runners for the real ones who could do them all.
The weather
It has been getting colder when I left the US. All the sweats, it is so hot in here. Well, it has always been around this range, it is just a bit warmer this time. We got quick heavy downpour with tumultuous thunders. Just still thankful that we were not hit by the storm that plague northern Europe this week. Hope they’ll recover soon.
Technology roundup
Key iPhone rivals
Nokia N95
Sony Ericsson W960
LG LGKS20
HTC Touch
Palm Centro
Blackberry Pearl
Samsung Blackjack
T-Mobile Sidekick Slide
Nokia’s answer to the iPhone
The world is getting smaller, the competition is getting stiffer. Nokia’s answer to the iPhone: N810. Nokia’s latest handheld Internet access device browses the Web, runs Flash and has GPS. It’ll sell for $479 when it comes out in November. The downside: it has no cellular modem built in, so you have to use Wi-Fi or reach the Net via a Bluetooth link to your phone, that is, the N810 is a pure Internet-only device, relying only on Wi-Fi and cellular Bluetooth to get online.
$100 laptop’ production
‘$100 laptop’ production begins
Five years after the concept was first proposed, the so-called $100 laptop is poised to go into mass production with the government of Uruguay being the first country to take concrete actions to provide laptops to all its children and teachers ordering some 100,000 of the machines for schoolchildren aged six to 12, and a 300,000 may be purchased to provide a machine for every child in the country by 2009.
$100 Laptop’s chief software engineer Chris Blizzard on how the innovative memory and screen save energy.
Let’s eat Durian!
We went to Davao, my sisters, cousin and my uncle for some business, and we just stopped in the sidewalk to eat my missed fruit – Durian. Let’s eat!
Mega music
One thing I like about India is the music. Though I don’t understand the lyrics of its local songs, the sound is universal, and I like their style, their rhythm. Hubby used to play the TV for their music every morning to awake him when he is alone, not when I was there, I love sleep, silence please.
Frontier trivia the day:
literacy in India is 79.9%.
Google PR
I see reent updates with Google PageRank today, or maybe yesterday? The result is positive as the PR is increasing, and what other better things than your website has now higher PR? I have read alot about page ranks of bloggers decreasing on the last update, going back point or two and so reduced. I see mine much better today, I wish it will stay better here and there.