Just wanted to get into the blog a little today, but have no deep thoughts. Here are some things Ive been reading about that have triggered thoughts:
Scary Thoughts:
There is an ongoing push by certain factions for national identity cards. Currently, even though we have been coached that our social security cards and numbers are not to be used for personal identification, certain actions in our lives require that we give up those numbers to identify ourselves. At one time the Indiana BMV made our SS numbers our license number, but I believe the federal government got involved in changing that practice. I am still required to give the last four digits of my SS number to identify myself when speaking to someone about my credit cards. That always annoys me. I cant think of any other way to prove that I am me when speaking on the phone, but four digits meant to assure I will have access to my retirement benefits seems to be a very weak method of identification.
The national identity card might solve that, but as an American, I feel very conflicted about being required to carry an ID card that will be used to track my every movement, action and transgression. Carrying such a card will affect mostly law abiding citizens, but I imagine the criminal element meant to be controlled by these IDs will need very little time to establish various ways around the requirements.
Work Related Thoughts:
Maybe related to the previous subject, maybe not, is a recent study done concerning computer support issues. Support Soft, Inc. who does contract computer support for large companies, did a survey of the types of calls they got. Studying calls from 75,000 users over 20 companies, they found that some 20% of their support issues were password related! I can certainly relate to that. Passwords are a constant pain in the computer chair for many of my customers, as well.
Any changes in email setups that require me to ask a customer what their password is or to have them enter it for me, will almost invariably result in a blank stare. As most of the hackers can tell you, if you are sitting at a persons computer and need a password to to something, 5 or 10 minutes of nosing around the desk will result in a handwritten list of passwords you can try.
Security experts say that a perfect password is a random mix of letters and numbers, but the paradox is that any such password must be written down for the user to remember. Passwords are more often chosen for their ease names of pets, spouses, children, birthdays and anniversaries. I remember a TV commercial where the guy at the computer yells to his wife, Honey, whats our password? Her answer, Just type in the date of our anniversary! results in exactly the same type of blank stare I often see on my customers faces!
And a Mac Tip:
If you are using an Apple with OS X, you are likely using Safari to surf the internet. And if you have a broadband connection, you probably leave Safari on most of the time.
The fact is that Safari has a little difficulty releasing the memory it uses, so its a good practice to shut Safari down from time to time maybe every evening when you finish surfing for the day.
An alternative is to download Firefox for OS X and use it, as it is more efficient at handling memory use.