Asking me what I’m thinking about runs the risk of me actually answering with. . . what I am thinking about.
“Zombie elves from the North Pole” was one recent answer.
Nothing to See Here; Move Along
Just a passing shot. . .
Reading a bio of Lance Armstrong and ran across:
“. . .diagnosis of his symptoms, including coughing up blood and a swollen testicle.”
Coughing up a swollen testicle?!? THAT’S SERIOUS!
*heh*
OK, so Armstrong’s cancer was serious, but that lack of a comma was amusing.
Once More Into the Breach
. . .or not.
I see articles occasionally about the death of passwords, creating effective passwords, blah-blah. Well, passwords and the insecurities created by stupid (or lazy. . . or more like both) people and their password habits aren’t going away any time soon, and most of the articles suggesting improvements are seriously lacking in effective counsel. Most now suggest pass phrases with common substitutions of symbols and numbers for letters, but really, how many folks will do that? Others suggest using password managers (I often suggest this, myself, but even users who have PAID me for consulting rarely make even the exceptionally minimal effort to effect this change in their behavior *sigh*).
So, what’s a solution? When it comes to ID10T errors like lazy or stupid (or both) password behavior, the only solutions seem to be either eliminating the users or letting them reap the effects of their bad behaviors.
*meh*
Now, I’ll admit that my own normative password policies would definitely not appeal to most users, although it baffles me why that case is, save for excessive laziness on their part. OK, so here’s a loose outline of a process that’s super simple and easier than most pass phrase processes. That it is similar to my own is purely coincidental. 😉
Select a song from childhood or early youth that can you reliably “sing” mentally. Or choose a memory shared only with people you have not seen for many years.
Extract an inner verse from the song or a visual from the selected memory.
Using the verse as a passphrase, extract ONLY the first letter of each word in the verse; using the visual of the memory, create a passphrase and do the same thing.
Now, with those passwords extracted from the passphrases, make your substitutions of symbols and numbers, as appropriate.
There. Relatively long, complex, fairly uncrackasble (in any reasonable amount ot time), easy to remember passwords. I have a couple passwords created by means similar to this that are 60-some-odd characters long, though most websites don’t allow passwords that are really all that long. No problem typing such passwords, because the pass phrases they are built on are extremely memorable, and I really don’t have problem typing long passwords.
Of course, for non-critical sites, I go ahead and use LastPass. *shrugs* I only allow it to autologon to sites that have no (genuine) PII for me and where I DGARA about some bad actor getting in, but I still use strong passwords, anyway. Oh, and a good VPN ALWAYS when online.
As for my devices, a good firewall (actually, firewalls on the devices that do not conflict with a hardware firewall for the network), strong passwords, encrypted PII, solid backups of data, and physical control of access will have to suffice.
Still, I cannot recall the number of calls (OK, I could go back on my records, but that’s where I will pead laziness *heh*) I have had from folks who “forgot” (or worse, “mislaid”–which means they had it written down somewhere) the passwords for their computers. *smh* Baffles me. It truly does.
Looking to Ease Meal Prep for Holidays
The ingredients even look like they’d work for keto-maintenance. . .
(But this year, for Xmas, I’ll probably just go with Xmas Chili, otherwise known as “Green Chicken Stew with Rotel™’s”.)
Just Wanna Know
Is a bishop who does not wear a mitre a butt joint bishop?
*sigh* Why do I never get to be in the control group?
Important Question
If a cow delivered milk to your door, would you tip it?
No Names (In Order to “Shield” the Guilty)
. . .but either someone(s?) in the turnpike authority of a certain state (again, no names, but the relevant initials are O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A) has a macabre sense of humor, or the turnpike authority needs a literate adult on staff, because signs in construction zones read:
“Don’t hit our workers
Pay $10,000 fine”
I tell ya, I don’t have the $10,000 to spare. I started thinking I should look for a worker to hit so I could avoid the fine. . . *heh*
Though I Probably Should Not Say This. . .
I find my lips moving anyway.
Not to in any way belittle the suffering in SoCal, but the fires are almost as if California, the land, is saying, “Get off my lawn!”
The Proper Use of a “Splainsit Stick”
Any time I see “[Whatever]-splaining” used by someone to dismiss an argument, I know the person using the term is really saying, “I don’t have an argument, and I just don’t want to listen, so I’ll use this nonsense term instead of putting my fingers in my ears and chanting, ‘la-la-la-la. . .’ and maybe the horrible person using facts and reason will just go away and leave me with my chosen, ignorant opinions.”
At that point, I realize that the only proper response is raucous mocking.
And that, dear reader, is how one uses a “Splainsit Stick.”