by srhuston

Overzealous Much?

To go along with my password article, here’s one showing the bad side of passwords.  This is a copy of the “password rules” for Intel’s website, which I use for getting access to their licensed compilers.  Before 1Password, the rules here were so draconian that I took to writing the password down on a piece of paper (yes, a sysadmin doing exactly what he tells people not to do!)  There was no way I could follow their rules and remember a password when I only use it maybe twice a year; especially since they require it be changed every couple months, so every time I’d use it I’d have to change it!  This proves that a password policy can be too “secure” – so much so that it drives security all the way back to the point where you might as well not ask for a password at all, since they no longer hold any meaning (or real security).

Password Rules:

  • The password must be at least eight characters long, and can contain letters, numbers, and punctuation.
  • It must not exceed fourteen (14) characters.
  • It must contain at least one alpha character [a-z; A-Z], one numeric [0-9] and one special character [`! @$%^&*()-_=+[];:'”,<.>/?].
  • It cannot contain spaces.
  • The password cannot be the same as any of your previous eight (8) passwords.
  • It cannot contain your login id.
  • It may not contain any of the following special characters: Asterisk (*) Comma (,) Backslash ( /) Forward Slash (\).

It must not:

  • Be a name (your own, family members, pets, or famous people)
  • Be your social security number, driver’s license number, passport number or some other identification number.
  • Be repeating numbers, letters or characters (111111, aaaaaa, !!!!!!)
  • Be a number or character combinations that are next to each other on the keyboard (123456, asdfgh)
  • Be a dictionary word of any language
  • Begin with an exclamation point (!) or question mark (?)
  • Contain your IDSID or WWID
  • Have the same first three characters.
by srhuston

Password Extravaganza

For some time now, I’ve been thinking that I needed to start changing passwords. Though I’m a sysadmin by trade, and therefore security is a very important aspect of everything I do, I too had fallen into a rut of using too few passwords and too little security for things. Not that I would use one password for everything, but I had about five or six passwords, with a few variations, that I would use everywhere. The passwords were ranked in order of security, so one was used for very high security things, another for less secure things, all the way down to an almost throw-away password for sites where I didn’t really care. But having the iPhone I figured I should be able to find something that would help me keep track of more than just a few passwords. A few applications came into view, but one seemed to have the best features for me: 1Password.
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by srhuston

PECO: More Suck, Less Lawfulness!

I didn’t mention it when it happened – in part because I was too pissed to write anything more coherent than a string of obscenities – but PECO turned off our power again a little while ago.  This time the overdue amount was just under $200, and again there was no contact made to Stephanie or I about turning it off.  Of course, like last time if you asked them about that, they’d say of course they contacted us, and provide dates and times when they talked to someone on the phone.  Mysteriously though, the recordings of those conversations would not be available, so there would be no proof that they actually talked to someone – just a line on a computer screen with a date and time.  Well, I did a little poking around last night, and found some interesting information.. while it’s hard to prove a negative (that they didn’t actually contact us this time, or the last time) there’s one thing that is easy to prove: This last time, they turned off the power on a Friday (October 30th 2009, I paid on my credit card so the date is easily verifiable too).  Now according to Pa. Code § 56.82, “Except in emergencies—which include unauthorized use of utility service—service shall not be terminated, for nonpayment of charges or for any other reason, during the following periods: (1)  On Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.”  So now I contacted the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission to find out what can be done to make sure PECO stops breaking the law.

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by srhuston

Is Verizon Scamming People Into FiOS?

When I got home from work yesterday, Stephanie told me there was a message on the answering machine from Verizon, calling to confirm our “recent order”. She left it, because it mentioned a phone number, and she didn’t know if I had changed our phone or DSL service and just not mentioned it. I listened to the message, and while the computer’s voice sounded kinda like the Verizon voice mail tree, something seemed odd. A quick look up of the 1-800 number did show it was really them (1-800-VERIZON, or 1-800-837-4966, is their new all-in-one support phone number) so I called them back. Took a little while to get through voice mail since the system had no idea where to send me, but eventually I got someone who sent me to a CSR to answer my questions. After a little digging they figured out what the mysterious call was about. Somehow an order to upgrade us to FiOS was placed, and the call was to confirm it. Interesting since we can’t really do that; my job pays fo my DSL access so I can work from home if needed (to fix things on off-hours without having to get to the office) but I don’t think they’d want to pay for my landline and TV service too. Plus I’m quite happy with DirecTV, not to mention we’re constantly debating getting rid of the landline and either using our cells or getting VoIP. So this person sent me over to “the elite team” to cancel the order. I explained to her what happened, she offered to see if a TV and phone bundle was available, and when I said we were happy with our TV service she put in the cancellation right away, no questions asked. Everyone was very friendly and helpful.

So why does the title of this article ask if Verizon is scamming people? Because about two weeks ago, in the rain, some guy was coming door to door trying to sell FiOS service. Of course he knocked on our door too, and doing so woke up Emily – therefore Stephanie already wasn’t happy when she opened the door. When he started the pitch, she said no and started to close the door. He then tried to keep selling to her, and argued when she said we couldn’t bundle our Internet service with phone and TV (her and I had just talked about the problem a couple days before when a mailed postcard from Verizon gave her the idea). She just about had to slam the door in his face to get him to leave. Then a week or so later we’re magically signed up for FiOS? Sounds quite a bit fishy to me; wonder if anyone else in the area had similar experiences – if they even know that they are signed up for it, or will find out before a tech shows up with the equipment to start the changeover. Now I’m debating if I want to spend the probably close to an hour on the phone to find out where that order originated, and bring to the attention of someone with firing power that it didn’t come from us.

by srhuston

Even More iPhone Apps

So a combination of having had the iPhone for a while longer, and at least one friend who now has an iPod touch (and therefore asked me about which apps I have on my phone) has prompted me to revisit the list of apps I posted here before. As a side note, I started typing this up using the WordPress app on the phone, keeping it as a local draft until I was ready to add HTML elements and such – once I flip to landscape mode, my twin thumbs of fury can whip out text pretty quick :> As for the apps on my phone, I’ve finally bought some, even more than I’d anticipated I would. But most of the apps I install are still free.  Initially I planned to do this as a plain list of the new apps, but I think I’ll retouch on the ones mentioned before as well since my opinion has changed on a couple (and so I don’t have to keep looking back to see if I mentioned it before :> )
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by srhuston

Dear Verizon, Plz Don’t Suck Too

As I sit here watching my network connection go up and down, like it did a few days ago, I’m reminded of a problem I have with Verizon any time I have problems with my DSL (which I’ll happily admit is very infrequently, so kudos for that).  And that is, there is nowhere.. NOWHERE.. that I can go on their website to file a problem report.  No, call their 888 number, it’s “faster”!  Yeah, except when I don’t have time to call and wait on hold for a half hour for the next available representative.  I know they’ve got a trouble ticketing system in there somewhere, because once you’ve called and reported a problem you can track its status online.  But a company that deals heavily in Internet products having no way on the Internet to report problems?  Don’t suck.

I’ve had this conversation with people there every time I’ve had a problem with their service (since the first time I ever did when I asked, “Where do I go to file a ticket online, I couldn’t find it?”) and every time I’ve been told they’ll forward my request “up the chain” to someone else.  So I can only guess that there’s someone there who thinks end-users are either too stupid or otherwise undeserving of the ability to type in what their problem is and click submit.  At least calling the business DSL office, when you can get in touch with someone, usually doesn’t result in a comment about rebooting Windows…

by srhuston

Let’s Get Analytical

I don’t know what prompted me to check it out, but I had a look at Google Analytics not that long ago and thought it might be neat.  One thing I like to do now and then is browse the stats of my website; see how people got here, what they looked at, where they came from.  Maybe it’s voyeuristic, but it’s kinda nice to know that if you search for “peco sucks” you get an article I wrote some time ago when I was rather incensed at them (hey, I’m even the top search result!) and nicer to know that it’s one of the top search results that get people here.  I setup an account for the radio club too, so I can watch the traffic coming to that site.  But so far I think the most interesting bit I’ve found is that the most popular article I have written (and didn’t write with that in mind, more of a journalling and getting the ideas down so I remembered) is the one on installing Linux on my PS3.  Shame that it might be lost on folks picking up the PS3 slim, since that new model won’t include the ability to install Linux – which I think is completely rediculous to remove such functionality, especially since I don’t know that there’s any hardware change involved that breaks compatibility.  Oh well, Sony’s shot themselves in the foot enough other times too (hello, PS2 compatibility!)

by srhuston

Concerts A-Z

Here’s a neat one. Copy down the letters A through Z, and name all the bands you’ve seen in concert that start with that letter. The garage band down the street doesn’t count, but that concert you hope nobody finds out you went to most certainly does!

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by srhuston

Can You See The Real Me, Doctor?

If you’ve been tagged or you are reading this, you have the honor of copying all these goofy questions, writing your own response, and tagging 25 other victims. You have to tag me so really you just need 24 more people. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you – but not in a creepy stalker kind of way.  (Since I rarely tag people, I’ll decide as time goes on if I bother with that step or not, and if I tag 25 people or just work this via the honor system)
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by srhuston

Shuffle Along

One of those Facebook-y notes that doesn’t require a lot of thought!

  1. Turn on your MP3 player.
  2. Go to SHUFFLE songs mode.
  3. Write down the first 15 songs that come up–song title and artist–NO editing/cheating, please.
  4. Choose 25 people to be tagged. It is generally considered to be in good taste to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I’m betting that your musical selection is entertaining, or at least amusing.(To do this, go to “NOTES” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, enter your 15 Shuffle Songs, Click ‘Preview’ below to tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click Publish, the little blue box at the bottom of your screen).

I tend to make the “tag someone” part optional, though that’s usually out of sheer laziness.
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