Jake Ludington’s Digital Lifestyle

If your current password management solution looks something like the picture here, it’s quite possible anyone could steal your passwords. The person next to you at Starbucks may appear to be smiling politely in your direction, but they could be using the eye contact to distract you from their effort to copy down your user account information.

I see sticky notes with user data plastered on laptop cases all over the place. Coffee shops and airport gate areas, and the Seattle to Bainbridge ferry are just a few of the places where I see this general lack of security.

Dramatically increasing your password security takes minimal effort. Firefox includes a great password management solution if you only have a few passwords to remember, just be sure to enable the encryption option and protect your passwords with a master password so you aren’t exposing them. I use Roboform for my own password management. If you’re on a Mac keeping your passwords in the Key Chain will do the same service, which might be why I almost never see sticky notes on a Mac. Those are just a few of the options, there are literally dozens of password managers.

Posting your passwords in a public way will get your data stolen. This post was most recently inspired by the woman sitting next to me in coach on my BOS to SEA flight Sunday. Her sticky note password solution looked just like this. My other favorite is the sticky note under the keyboard trick used by several of my co-workers at an insurance company I worked for over 10 years ago. If the goal is to keep administrative level access to those with the appropriate clearance, a sticky note is a lousy security plan.

And while I’d never consider stealing a password from anyone, I do occasionally point out that there might be a safer alternative. How about you? Ever recommend a password manager to replace the sticky note solution?

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If you like the way wild caught salmon and steelhead taste (which is far better than that farm-raised crap), I urge you to use the National Wildlife Federation form to send a message to the Obama administration about Columbia River and Snake River salmon and steelhead populations. Both are seriously endangered to the point commercial fishing is basically no longer viable.

This is the National Wildlife Federation pitch:

I am writing to urge the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to lead an effort with the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to protect and restore the lower Snake River and its legendary wild salmon and steelhead runs.

I ask that the White House, NOAA and CEQ change course on the Bush Administration’s Columbia & Snake River Biological Opinion and provide leadership toward a durable solution on the Snake River that restores salmon and addresses the range of energy, agricultural, and other issues through a collaborative stakeholder solutions process.

Due to the threat posed by four dams on the lower Snake River, the Snake was recently listed as one of our nation’s ‘Most Endangered Rivers’. All four remaining populations of Snake River wild salmon and steelhead are in danger of extinction. A national treasure and tens of thousands of jobs are at serious risk of disappearing forever.

Working together, NOAA and CEQ can help restore the Snake River and its wild salmon fishery by ending the divisive and failed practices of the past, and convene a stakeholder process that brings together fishermen, farmers, and energy users in the West to collaboratively solve this long-running conflict in a way that restores salmon, creates jobs, and invests in our communities and a clean energy economy.

A restored Columbia and Snake River salmon fishery would generate hundreds of millions of dollars per year for the recreational and commercial salmon and steelhead fishing industries. Similarly, a restored lower Snake River would provide an estimated $310 million annually in new non-fishing recreational opportunities such as boating, hiking, hunting, and camping.

There are no other fish in the world like those that return to the Snake River and its tributaries. These unique fish runs migrate nearly 1,000 miles from the ocean, through a desert, and into the high mountains of central Idaho, eastern Oregon, and southeast Washington State. And thanks to their high elevation spawning grounds, Snake River salmon and steelhead are well positioned to thrive in spite of global warming as long as sufficient numbers survive their migration to the ocean and back.

Thank you in advance for your leadership on this important issue.

While I don’t particularly care about the specifics of jobs and the other political wrangling included in that message, I’m sure that just telling NOAA and CEQ that I want to save some fish because they taste amazing wouldn’t hold much political water. I’d hate to see a world where we’re left with antibiotic ingesting, artificially colored salmon as the only viable alternative and as of right now, the Yukon is already stressed in meeting demand for wild fish.

Save the Salmon!

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I’m currently camped out in the Seattle airport preparing for an overnight flight to Boston for the Shareware Industry Conference, where I’ll be speaking on how to use video to reduce support costs. I’m excited to see many of the familiar faces I know from the shareware world, but since this is my first trip to the Boston area, I’m hoping some of you will have some suggestions for things to see or do while I’m in town. Fenway Park would have been near the top of my list, but with the Red Sox on the road I’m not sure that’s worth it. I’m considering making their Pawtucket, RI farm team one of my stops instead, having seen them play the Iowa Cubs a few times when I still lived in Des Moines. I will likely save the historical spots for a summer when we can take the kids, so I’m especially interested in anything that’s unique to Boston.

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Something about the ongoing discussion about bloggers, reviews, and whether or not the FTC should have rules of disclosure for bloggers rubs me the wrong way. I’m a blogger, for lack of a better description, and I do review products. Sometimes those products are sent to me by companies, sometimes I buy them, and for some software products I sometimes use the free trial to assess whether I’d recommend it or not. I disclose where I get products when I review them, but you will rarely see me write a negative review. This isn’t because I care about protecting sponsorships, I’m sure there’s more money to be made in the butt kissing business, but I wouldn’t sleep well at night knowing I became a glorified product pitchman. Almost without exception I only write reviews of products I’d be willing to purchase, because I don’t want to waste your time with junk.

In the New York Times yesterday, Pradna Joshi writes an article titled Approval by a Blogger May Please a Sponsor, where she seems to be criticizing the practice of not writing negative reviews by stating of Classymommy.com author Colleen Padilla:

But unlike postings in most journalism outlets or independent review sites, most companies can be assured that there will not be a negative review: if she does not like a product, she simply does not post anything about it.

Maybe Colleen Padilla is legitimately worried about losing sponsors. Maybe Pradna Joshi hasn’t spoken to fellow New York Times journalist to see the long list of products he’s never written about good or bad, because a reviewer only has so much time in the day for products. And maybe because Pradna Joshi simply writes the stories assigned by an editor, there’s no real understanding of why any reviewer doesn’t bother with a review (positive or negative) for every product they see.

Here are a few of the reasons I don’t waste time on negative reviews:

You have a finite amount of time for what I write. I want to make sure I’m not wasting your time by telling you about stuff that sucks.

I have a limited amount of time to write. While it can feel cathartic to rip apart a lousy product, in general writing a negative review means I spent a bunch of time on something I don’t like. Since I don’t have an editor assigning me articles, I’m going to devote my writing time to things I like.

Negative attention is still attention. This may be the most important reason I don’t write about products I hate. If I think a product is lousy why would I want to draw attention to it? My exception to this last point is writing words of caution about things that might cause harm – I will take the time to issue a warning if I think something might damage your computer.

What’s your take? Should I be writing more negative reviews and spending less time on telling you about cool stuff?

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When I review new computer hardware, I try to first use it “as is” and then make configuration changes based on the way I’d use a computer if it were actually mine. One of the key components of “as is” configuration is the software that comes pre-installed. For instance, on the HP dv2 I received from HP for testing some of the pre-installed software includes a Norton Internet Security trial, a Microsoft Office trial, Slingbox Sling Player, and muvee reveal. Then there are the paid links to services like ebay, a Quicken and Quickbooks trial download, NetZero, and Juno.

Some of these pre-installed features are actually useful and some of them are downright annoying. Take Norton Internet Security for instance. While I’m all for a secure computing experience, I don’t particularly want to use Norton’s products. Everytime I power on the HP dv2, I get nagged to activate the Norton trial. Once I get past the “as-is” experience, Norton will be the first thing on the list to get uninstalled.

Other software I might actually want to try if I knew what to do with it doesn’t ever make itself known. The Microsoft Office trial doesn’t ever do anything unless you open one of the applications. Since I’m not informed of a situation when I’d want to use Office, I don’t ever have a reason to try it out. Of course, I already know what Microsoft Office is for, but that doesn’t mean everyone who gets a new computer does. muvee reveal is a fun application for making quick movies from your video recordings. If I wasn’t already aware of muvee’s software, I would never know that it’s for video from the information provided on by this HP dv2. The Slingbox Sling Player is definitely an advertisement for buying a Slingbox, but it also sits quietly on your computer, so if you never bother to look at it you won’t ever know why you would or wouldn’t want to use it. If you already have a Slingbox, it is nice to already have the software ready to go.

Presumably either the software companies are paying to put this stuff on new computers or HP is paying to have access to the software. In either case, if I never use the software, the financial transaction involved is a waste. Even worse for me as a customer, at retail places like Best Buy encourage me to pay for an optimization service that removes trial software so I lose and so do the software companies. In a better customer experience, I’d get some education about the benefits of the software so that I might make an informed decision about what I want or need.

But my real question is, what do you do with the software that’s pre-installed on your new computer? Do you use it? Do you uninstall it? Is there software listed in your start menu that you’ve never tried? Would you use more of the software on your computer if you knew what it was for?

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Buzz Corps, the company that’s behind some of the amazing giveaways I participate in, like 31 Days of the Dragon and the HP Magic Giveaway, are changing their name. As a result they need a new logo for the new company. They could have hired a designer to do the new logo, but instead they are reaching out to the community that supports them to look for a great design. As they put it:

“We have always been amazed at the level of talent, smarts and expertise that come from engaging with passionate people. In fact, communities and influencers convinced us to start Buzz Corps (our old name) and helped name us and create our first logo. So, in keeping with our business model and our philosophy the only logical thing for us was to once again work with the influencers and their communities to develop our new mark.”

I’ve seen other logo design contests in the past, but most of them are small potatoes when compared to this. The winning designer gets $2500. There are also some great prizes for 2nd and 3rd place. Entry deadline is June 12, which should be plenty of time to create an awesome new logo. Complete Details are available from Ivy Worldwide (the new name for Buzz Corps).

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I keep thinking about ditching cable altogether and using something like PlayOn to get television from the Internet back to my HDTV. So far the steps are still too many to completely kill my cable television service. Couple that with Comcast offering the best high speed data option where I live and I remain a customer. That doesn’t mean I like paying for it. So I called customer service to see what I could do to lower the price.

Most of the Comcast advertisements are for deals aimed at new customers. If you’ve been with them a long time, you generally don’t qualify. That doesn’t mean you can’t lower your cable bill. I had several components of my bill that were more expensive due to the length of time I’d been a customer. The cost of DVR service dropped in the 4+ years since I subscribed. The level of high speed Internet I currently subscribe to was on sale. New channel bundling drove down the price. By the end of the phone call, my cable television plus Internet bill was less than 50% of what it was before the call.

A couple of the price drops are only for a few months, so I’ll be closer to 50% in about 6 months, but I may call in again and see if there are any other specials. Bottom line here is Comcast will offer you deals on service, but only if you take the time to call and ask.

How about you? Got any tips on lowering your cable bill?

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We lost the keys to our riding lawn mower – not just one, both of them. While it crossed my mind that hot-wiring the lawn mower should be fairly easy, for the long haul, replacing the key makes more sense. The question becomes, where do you get a replacement lawn mower key? Direct from the manufacturer? If they sell one, sure. Maybe I can buy a lawn mower key from Home Depot where I bought the mower – not according to employees at two different stores I checked. If you can find a lawn mower repair shop in your area, call them and they may have a lawn mower key in stock. The keys are universal across most brands and even extend to snow blowers. My solution turned out to be the Arnold #1K-100 Universal Ignition Key. Problem solved for under $2.00. I’m expecting to find the original key any day now after finding a replacement.

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Somewhere in the midst of all the excitement around having a new baby arrive, I missed the memo that I was supposed to be announcing another giveaway yesterday. This time around the giveaway is a brand new Pantech Matrix Pro cell phone (pictured below) paired with a $100 gift card to ATT Wireless, which happens to be the carrier associated with the phone. If you live outside the U.S., you’ll likely want to skip this one, since the phone is locked and the gift card won’t be particularly useful to you either.

I’ve had a review unit of the Pantech Matrix Pro at my house for a couple of months and found the dual slide keyboard to be quite handy. The Matrix Pro does not have a touch screen, but I honestly didn’t miss it, which could be due to my years of using other Windows Mobile phones. I definitely find it easier to enter phone numbers (especially alphanumeric ones) on a traditional telephone keypad rather than attempting to dial from a QWERTY keyboard.

How to enter the giveaway? I’ll keep this one simple – all you have to do is be a fan of my Facebook page (which is different than being a friend on Facebook). I’m doing a talk on Facebook for businesses on May 15 and this will help me with some additional research. The recipient of the phone will be selected at random from all fans (which are listed in the sidebar on the Facebook page) who live in the United States. Be a fan to qualify.

I was originally supposed to announce the conclusion of the giveaway on 1 May 2009, but I’m extending it by 24 hours since I got a late start. You have until 7pm Pacific on 2 May 2009 to qualify. The lucky person who gets the phone will be announced on Facebook, on my blog, on Twitter and in my email newsletter shortly after that.

If you aren’t lucky enough to get the Pantech Matrix Pro I’m giving away, Smart Phone Thoughts, Mobility Minded, The Gadgeteer, Geekzone, Techie Diva, Boston Pocket PC, Gear Diary, MobilitySite, Absolute Windows, Mobilejaw, Experience Mobility, Hack College, and Gear Live will be announcing a new contest each day (in that order) starting today as well.

As part of the promotion, there’s also some special pricing on a Jabra BT4051 headset package not available anywhere else.

UPDATE: Katie Yang was announced to all Facebook fan participants on May 2, 2009

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I placed a 911 call from my house last week (don’t worry, everything is fine now). Nothing unusual about that except that I’m in my 5th year as a Vonage customer. As a VoIP service, Vonage has the advantage of allowing me to connect the hardware to any broadband Internet connection and place or receive calls to the same number. In theory, I could take my Vonage hardware to China, connect it, and receive local Seattle area calls with no one on the other end being wise to my location. The downside to this mobility is needing to manually enter your location into the Vonage system for the purpose of 911 call routing. I had entered the correct address for our old residence, back when 911 support first became available, but hadn’t updated it when we moved to Bainbridge Island in 2008.

This illustrates an important difference between landline phone service and VoIP. With the landline service, the phone carrier knows the exact physical location of call routing because the phone carrier owns the network from their central office all the way up to the point of demarcation on the side of your residence. With a VoIP service like Vonage, all they know is that somewhere out on the Internet there’s a box with a specific IP address and MAC address combination associated with your phone number. When a call comes in to Vonage for your, it routes that call out to your box.

For purposes of 911 service, the phone company provides location information for phone numbers, so the 911 operator can use caller ID functions to identify your location. I believe they still verify this data when you call them, but it is seldom wrong for traditional phone service. With VoIP, the providers rely on you to keep accurate data in the system. Failure to provide accurate data may slow down the ability of the emergency services to respond to your call.

In my case, this simply meant a transfer I barely noticed while on the phone to the Bainbridge Island 911 operator, which translated to quick service in a small community setting. For places with traffic congestion and greater geographic spread, it could be more serious.

Bottom line: take my failure to update the 911 address in my Vonage service as an opportunity to make sure your VoIP phone service is updated with the correct physical address for your location, so that when you need to call 911 they know where to find you.

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