Tech Stuff | Ain't Complicated

(More and Better) Secure Passwords

Long and simple is better and more effective...even than sentence-based with symbols and numbers

So hackers and attackers have been on the loose against self-hosted WordPress installations.

This post applies to you…even if you do not use WordPress!

I’m here with a message for you…not about WordPress…but about practicing safe passwords.

Four years ago I wrote about Pitching Pitiful Passwords.

This morning I was reminded of a simpler, yet more effective, password tactic: Read it all

My Morning Cruise on the Amazon

Deals I saw on Amazon this morning

I launched my cruiser before six this morning by peeking in the Gold Box. The Blue-Ray DVD was nothing I wanted to promote, so I went off to do other stuff while waiting for the new Lightning Deal to arrive in less than 20 minutes.

I forgot to return in a timely fashion! 🙁 Read it all

ThinkVantage Configuration Update Stalls

God (I am persuaded) brought a thought to my mind: Maybe your anti-virus, anti-spam, firewall Zone Alarm is blocking ThinkVantage in that final stage.

I had set out to do an overdue update to the ThinkVantage software on my IBM ThinkPad R51e.

All went well until I tried to install the ThinkPad Configuration Update. Overall progress went to 99%, then backtracked to 98%, then eased back up to 99% again. Back and forth, back and forth.

I tried this installation repeatedly in the course of several days. I tried it as a directly downloaded-and-installed process. I tried it as a deferred update installation. Always the same results.

I searched Google. I searched Lenovo’s forums. I found no help. Read it all

WordPress 3.5

Thank you, WordPress, for not releasing a faulty product, no matter what the production schedule!

As I understood, WordPress aimed to release version 3.5 three days ago.

Nothing yet.

Something must have come up since RC3.

And they’re fixing it.

Good!

Thank you, WordPress, for not releasing a faulty product, no matter what the production schedule!

Blue Host Not for Me

Wherein Mark Roth quizzes Blue Host and decides against Web hosting with them. Their TOS for image use is unrealistically stringent. I'm disappointed.

I’ve heard so many good things about Blue Host that I finally decided I would switch my domains and sites to them.

Several weeks ago I started the registration process to open an account. I got to the end of one form and there sat the empty checkbox in front of a statement saying I’d read and accept their various terms of service.

I hadn’t.

So I put the process on hold and started wading through their long TOS. So many convoluted sentences to struggle through! I took days at it because too much of that kind of tedious, complicated reading at one time is just too much at one time.

Eventually I came to this:

Subscribers may not post or disclose any personal or private information about or images of children or any third party without the consent of said party or a parent’s consent in the case of a minor.

Read it all

Email in Distraction-Free Environment

Using a big-free email service is a gateway-to-the-Web experience with all kinds of distractions and bloat. Enter God's Post for a distraction-free environment.

Using Gmail or Hotmail or YahooMail or AOL is a gateway-to-the-Web experience with all kinds of distractions.

And bloat. Wow! Talk about bloat! 😯 If you use Gmail, you know it isn’t merely about email. You know how you’ve blown so much time “checking my email”! 🙁 Sure, it can be fun and entertaining and helpful and efficient.

But often you want to do your email
in a distraction-free environment.

For over a decade I offered free, web-based email at God’s Post. Read it all