Category: Uncategorized

In the past I posted about how to create strong passwords (and passphrases) in six easy steps. Here’s more info from PC World on MSN Tech & Gadgets on how to “protect your privacy and your data with strong passwords–plus some ideas for tormenting squirrels.”

(Please note I have no involvement with the squirrel reference.)

Here are a few of the author’s suggestions for creating passwords for web sites… and even one for storing all your user ID and password data:

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  WinGuides’ Web-based tool that helps you create good passwords.


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  Also see Steve Gibson’s Perfect Passwords.


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  And RoboForm – this program also remembers the passwords for you and has a handy connection to a Pass2Go USB key for keeping your passowords available.

Some of the best web sites will ask if you want to update and change your password regularly – I wish more presented this as an option. Some regularly change their on-line access navigation, the series of pages you have to go through to access your account or recover a password or account information (as we recently found out when accessing a bank site today).

Whatever you do, change your passwords regularly and make them strong!

As they said on Hill Street Blues: “Remember… let’s be careful out there.” (Gee, I’m showing my age…)

Tags: Microsoft, passwords, password, passphrase, security.

If you’re looking for the highest rated look no further than the Top 10 Webcast page:

“Fast and easy access to on-demand webcasts – what could be better? After selecting your webcast, simply enter your name, e-mail address, and company name to start watching, or you can download the webcasts to view when you’re offline. We’ve selected the 10 highest-rated Microsoft webcasts, as chosen by customers like you. And, as always, these webcasts are free.

“For a richer experience, make sure you’ve first downloaded the Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2005 Replay Wrapper. It allows you to explore webcasts and complete the evaluations, and it’s something you only have to do once.”

Bonus: If you’re a US or Canadian resident, watch one Top 10 webcast by June 30 and you’ll get a chance to win a Palm Treo smart phone (click here for official rules).

Today Reuters reported that free, streaming web-based TV is a hit with viewers and advertisers. This from the same network that sold a huge number of shows over iTunes, more than 6 million at last count. It appears that Disney found a good balance, offering two choices to viewers: watch for free with interstitial ads, or pay for an ad-free experience (at least, through June 30th – no word on an extension).

Although I’m being humourous on improving your memory, there were interesting findings on the free episodes offered: more that twice as many people reported that they remembered the advertisers than those viewers watching regular broadcast TV…

“An [ABC] online exit survey posted the first week of the two-month trial showed that 87 percent of respondents could recall the advertisers that sponsored the episodes they watched. That compares with typical ad recall of about 40 percent for commercials viewed on television, industry sources said.”

I’ll guess that if people watch a show on a broadband connection they’re (currently) viewing it right on the PC, and as such the traditional TV viewing experience and environment changes. I wonder if they were the same national ads? As noted previously, TV viewing is changing. And I’ll also guess that ABC extends the free, commercial-supported viewing through the summer.

If the ads are interesting, I’m more inclined to watch: the technology is such that Internet broadcasters can use dynamic ad placement systems available in IPTV to provide more targeted commercials to the viewer.

Next: allow viewers to me download the episodes, ads and all, and view them where I want.

Tags: microsoft, dvr, iptv, iTunes.

A couple of articles this weekend on the changes last week at Microsoft…

“As Gates announced his plans Thursday to begin the process that will see him eventually cease full-time work at Microsoft, he also announced that he was dividing much of his technical leadership responsibility among the two software veterans, both of whom have been serving as chief technical officers.

“Craig Mundie, a longtime Microsoft veteran, will now handle the company’s research units and will serve as Microsoft’s external voice on technology.”

The Seattle Times’ article on “A conversation with Bill Gates: Reflecting on where he’s been, where he’s going”

CNET News‘ on how “Ozzie, Mundie pick up tech mantle at Microsoft.”

And this one from the Seattle Times on “driving the Windows Live initiative.”

Last week, my wife’s Dell laptop hard drive crashed, with a thud. There was no bringing it back from the edge: all the recovery tools I had at my disposal couldn’t get the drive to mount, and a scan with a low-level tool from the drive OEM showed multiple bad sectors.

OK, first good news… the laptop is covered by an extended warranty. Normally, I don’t believe in such things, but this one was too good to pass up: Dell said that they would cover anything that happened to the computer, even if our kids caused a hardware crash that resulted in a cracked LCD. Dell’s online and email customer service made it easy to get a replacement drive: after a simple email exchange, in two days I had a new drive courtesy of DHL. (Note: this is my home machine that I purchased, not in association with my employer, so it’s a real consumer experience.) I popped it in and reinstalled the OS and apps that came with the CDs when I first purchased the PC.

A note to OEMs: you know what OS I purchased for my PC under warranty, so why not ship a fully configured HDD with all the drivers and software I had when I purchased it originally, along with the latest drivers and OS updates? Instead, I spent the better part of two hours hunting down the drivers and updates on Dell.com (note that Dell does make it easy with the ability to search for teh latest files for your model – but you still have to read through and identify the various drivers specific to your configuration), then burning a CD to install the basic drivers. Then, I reinstalled Microsoft Office and updated the OS and Office on http://www.microsoft.com. In the end, I had her PC up and running in a few hours, minus her files and email.

That last part was easiest part of restoring my wife’s laptop: I took the OneCare back up CD we’d made when we last went yellow and inserted it into the CD drive, and it promptly took me through the file recovery wizard. A few minutes later, all the files up to the restore point were on the PC. OneCare made for a painless recovery. Thank you Ryan, Girish, Brian and team!

My project later tonight? Get the home server back on-line and set up hew Dell to back up over the network regularly. Better? Give me a file share in the cloud where I can regularly back up critical files (photos, email and contacts) off-site… and make the files (or at least the recoverable image) accessible over the Internet as well should the whole PC disappear.

Tags: microsoft, customer satisfaction, Onecare.