Random thoughts: computers, Internet, security and privacy

[Sophia]

That's an awful practice of Apple!
Large companies can really do almost anything and they are immune to legislation to a large degree, because it is they who create it. That's why I'm so afraid of TTIP, but that's another topic that probably shouldn't be discussed here.

By the way, do you guys use long impossible-to-guess passwords, or are you one those who use passwords such as "password"?
I only have long ones on my Internet banking, email and Facebook which I consider the most sensitive sites I use. I have also sms notification for those sites. My passwords there are not random strings of numbers and letters, as those would be difficult to remember and write. They are combination of words which make sense with small and capital letters, numbers and special characters.
Than I confess that for all other sites including this one, I use the same simple pasword that anyone who knows me personally could easily guess.
On my phone I use app locker with simple pattern instead of password. It also takes a picture of intruder who had 3 wrong attempts. At first I found it annoying but since there was a situation when it was useful and saved me from a problem I don't even think about disabling it :-)

 

[jim hardy]

By the way, do you guys use long impossible-to-guess passwords, or are you one those who use passwords such as "password"?
I only have long ones on my Internet banking, email and Facebook

I keep them short and easy to remember.

I told my bank and ira institution to disallow internet access to my accounts. So if there's any hanky-panky it is not because i failed to protect a nonexistent password .

Faceboook i consider a detraction not an enhancement to life. They snoop and sell your info to marketeers so i dumped them.

Grumpy Old Man , here.

 

[Sophia]

I keep them short and easy to remember.

I told my bank and ira institution to disallow internet access to my accounts. So if there's any hanky-panky it is not because i failed to protect a nonexistent password .

Faceboook i consider a detraction not an enhancement to life. They snoop and sell your info to marketeers so i dumped them.

Grumpy Old Man , here.

Yes, disabling Internet banking is definitely the best thing you can do. I'm just too lazy to go to the bank personally... Terrible, I know

I wouldn't have Facebook if that wasn't the only way to keep in touch with some people who don't use a normal email address (yes, people like that exist) I also used it to access a classmate group at school and at one course I attended. In fact, having a fb account was the only way to gain access to study materials. Yes, I could ask some classmate to send them to my email but since i didn't know those people well I didn't want to annoy anyone with such a request.
So I keep the account only for cases like that.

 

[collinsmark]

By the way, do you guys use long impossible-to-guess passwords, or are you one those who use passwords such as "password"?

I use passwords that are long and easy to remember.

Password Strength

 

[Pepper Mint]

crazy sensitivity! is my password.

 

[Psinter]

I once made a password 20 or 21 characters long and forgot it despite having written it correctly time and time again over months in my everyday life. It was all giberrish. Composed of small case, upper case, numbers, and symbols. What I remembered was the movements of my fingers over the keyboard. By memory I could not speak it out loud or think of it. All there was were the movement of my fingers. But something happened one day that I forgot the movement of my fingers because I memorized other finger movements for another 20 or 21 character long password and could never remember the old one. I lost big.

 

[Sophia]

I once made a password 20 or 21 characters long and forgot it despite having written it correctly time and time again over months in my everyday life. It was all giberrish. Composed of small case, upper case, numbers, and symbols. What I remembered was the movements of my fingers over the keyboard. By memory I could not speak it out loud or think of it. All there was were the movement of my fingers. But something happened one day that I forgot the movement of my fingers because I memorized other finger movements for another 20 or 21 character long password and could never remember the old one. I lost big.

That's horrible and annoying. Human memory is so weak!
I usually use something that makes sense so it's easier to remember but I still write it down.
Yesterday I watched a video with an interesting tip on how to make long and unique passwords for each site that are easy to remember.
Just combine the same short sentence with lower and upper case, numbers and special characters and than add something unique to the site. This way you get something very easy to remember but difficult to crack

Eg.
IL0veMyCuteGoldF1sh!1987*(gmail)
IL0veMyCuteGoldF1sh!1987*(facebook) IL0veMyCuteGoldF1sh!1987*(twitter)

 

[Psinter]

/\/\/\Ilik3Ch0colateM1lk/\/\/\

 

[Sophia]

I almost got a heart attack today when I saw that my laptop doesn't work at all.
It worked normally when I got up and after browsing for a while, I carried it to another room and went away to eat breakfast. When I returned, the screen looked strange and nothing worked. I couldn't click anywhere nor could I turn it off in a normal way. So I turned it off by unplugging the cable and removing the battery. What did I see after restart? BIOS screen. And the only boot option was DVD drive. After that, only black screen with "Insert correct booting media" message.
I went so nervous because I really can't afford a new laptop now!
But then I got an idea- what if SSD drive has moved? And really. I opened the machine and SSD was indeed slightly unplugged. It must have moved when I carried the laptop between the rooms. I pushed it to proper position and voila- it booted normally