There are tons of good reasons why so-called “security question” are terrible. As long ago as 2005, Bruce Schneier, for example, wrote about what a stupid idea they are. I’ve resisted setting them as much as I can, but sometimes the dumb site just won’t let you get by without setting them. Ironically, they say the questions make my account MORE secure. But if my password is “8ycAMKin34pNL253″ and my high school mascot was a “hornet,” which is easier to guess? If a would-be impersonator wants to hijack my account and they don’t know my password, they can just stroll over to Facebook and try to figure it out from either my own profile, or one of my friends’ profiles. Figure out which of my friends went to high school with me, and bang, you’ve got it. Figure out that I went to high school in Virginia Beach (by reading my blog, for example) at a time when there were about 12 high schools, and you’ve only got 12 things to try. That’s stupid. That’s the weakest link to taking over my account, not my very secure password. Read more…
Rants, Technical, iPhone
I got an iPhone 3GS recently. That, plus iPhone software 3.0, gives me a lot of new features. I’m still surprised at the things that Nokia had years ago, but Apple still hasn’t adopted. Read more…
iPhone
bluetooth, iPhone, sms
I am at STAR West this week and I met someone in person who I had only met online. Cool. We’re both standing there holding iPhones and I want to exchange contact info with him. Impossible.
There are at least 3 possible networks available to me: Bluetooth, wifi, and edge. There’s at least a few good methods, too: beam by Bluetooth, SMS, email, bonjour, or even some apple proprietary way. Nothing actually works.
My Treo 650 with goodlink software had this same limitation. My old nokia 6230 from 4 years ago has at least 3 different ways to accomplish it. Have we come so far forward as to go backward?
Rants, Technical, iPhone
I gave my wife an iHome iH36 under-cabinet iPod Stereo for Christmas. It’s got issues. Generally speaking, it’s a pretty decent little system. But I’m annoyed a few little things that I can’t fix (or that it just plain does wrong). Read more…
Hobbies, Rants, iPhone
I subscribe to Netflix and I use a mac and an iPhone. I want to watch some of my “Instant Viewing” content on my iPhone. This process isn’t for the faint of heart, and it isn’t for Windows users (I don’t have instructions for Windows). By following a series of steps I can:
- Download the whole movie content without watching it. (Therefore I don’t use up all my Instant Viewing minutes for the month)
- Remove the DRM from the content, so that I can watch it offline.
- Convert the WMV crap to MP4, which is more compatible
- Drop it into iTunes and sync it to my iPhone.
Read more…
Technical, dvdcam, iPhone