Break

• aww, my freakin arm #
• my wife says I complain too much #

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• girls woke us up early :< #
• Anyone seen my phone, I’ve lost it again! #
• Congrats IndyHall, sorry I couldn’t make it. #
• 37 yr old guys shouldn’t be on a skateboard unless they are Tony Hawk #

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When you create an website account and give someone your password you are entering into an unwritten agreement with them that says they will keep your password safe and their network secure. This includes encrypting the password in their database so that if a breach occurs, the passwords are still protected. With the most recent examples of poor security on commercial websites I decided it was time to revisit my password scheme.

I treat passwords differently depending on the website I’m using. Some passwords are for websites that I don’t necessarily care about, others like banking and financial sites I use a stock set of unguessable passwords. The throwaway passwords are fairly unique but follow the same algorithm so once someone guessed one it wouldn’t be difficult for them to go around to other sites, guessing others. The important passwords I generated years ago and only are used on sites where it’s critical for me to keep my private information safe. The problem with my super secret passwords is I only have a few I can remember. If their is a security breach on a website than these passwords I am opening myself to potential theft.

The key for me was finding a way to creating unique secure passwords. I googled and came across three great tools for helping me with this.

The first, SuperGenPass, is a password generator that works inside your browser via a bookmarket. With it, you only have to remember one password. It will use that one password to generate unique passwords on each website you visit. It uses a mathematical formula to generate the password. However, it’s one-way so that someone can’t apply an inverse equation to get your original password. I’ve tested this on the three major browser (IE, Firefox, Safari) and it works great.

The second, Passpack, is an online password manager. Sometimes it is necessary to generate passwords that SuperGenPass can’t handle such as PC logins, bank PINs, etc. Passpack allows you to store them safely in an online vault so that you can retreive them from any PC.

Finally, the third is not so much of a tool as a methodology. You must have a great unguessable password in order to protect your identity. Most people can’t create their own unique password. Using computer based random password generators are ineffective because computers are deterministic and can’t really generate true random numbers. Diceware is a website that shows you a process to follow to create truly unique passwords.

All of these tools will help you get a handle on securing your digital identity. At a minimum, a combination of SuperPassGen and a password generated via Diceware will offer more protection than most people have.

• Checking out Orbius #

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I hate throwing out books. My wife says it’s like throwing out knowledge. I can’t agree more. Consequently, I have accumlated a large pile of books which if put in order would allow an anthropologist to track my career and life.

Recently, I decided to start decluttering my office. Of course this meant doing something with all of those books. I made a conscious decision to get rid of any book I haven’t looked at in the last year. The challenge became finding out *how* to get rid of them.

I started on Half.com but the hassle of putting them on Half.com, figuring out pricing then waiting until someone buys them didn’t seem that fulfilling. Anyway, I wasn’t getting rid of these books for the money.

It was then I stumbled across Book Mooch. Book Mooch is a service that allows users to swap books. It works like this:

I have a pile of books I put into the Book Mooch inventory, if someone a copy of a book, they ask me for it. I then ship it to them. This in turn earns me credits that I can use to mooch a book from someone else. The book owners pay the shipping cost and no money changes hands.

I may still go the Half.com route but Book Mooch appeals more to my altruistic nature. If you have a pile of books accumulating in your house, Book Mooch ‘em.

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”

Remember this quote whenever you are debugging software.

I haven’t posted any django information in a while because I haven’t had any time to mess with it. Today, I dove back in.

I wanted to get a fresh start with the project I’m working on so I thought I’d clear out the database. Why for the life of me I couldn’t find the proper incantation to make this happen I’ll never know.

After searching for about 10 minutes I found it. I’m posting it here so I can reference it the next time I have a brain lapse.

Are you ready? Here it is…
manage.py flush

This will reset the database to the state immediately after it was created.

To the superdelegates either supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton or who are undecided:

I have looked at the two candidates as equals for most of this race. They are of the same party and, as such, have policies that align with my political viewpoint. Recent comments by Sen. Clinton have changed my opinion.

Politics is a bloody game, and I realize that if you wish to play you might get bruised. In that spirit, I realize that much of Sen. Clinton’s behavior in recent weeks can be dismissed as typical campaigning. Her recent endorsement of Sen. McCain was a serious breach of protocol that crossed the line from politics to outright betrayal of her party’s beliefs.

Her comments remind me of what has been so wrong about our country over the last eight-plus years. It is time to say “no” to any politician who puts self-interest over the needs of the country or their party.

John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were bitter political rivals. When Adams lost the election to Jefferson, some wondered if he would leave office. This was the first time that a president had lost an election. His decision to leave or stay was an early test of our new republic. On the eve of Jefferson’s inauguration, Adams got in a carriage and rode away. In that single act he showed just what kind of man he was. He had faith in the system, and despite his differences with Jefferson, he did what was right.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Is Sen. Clinton really putting the country’s needs above her own?

Please reconsider your endorsement of Sen. Clinton. Do not disenfranchise the majority of people who support Sen. Obama.

Joseph Cotellese
New Britain Township

The flow of blood may be ebbing, but the flood of money into the Iraq war is steadily rising, new analyses show. In 2008, its sixth year, the war will cost approximately $12 billion a month, triple the “burn” rate of its earliest years, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz and co-author Linda J. Bilmes report in a new book.

Anyone remember these statement by Paul Wolfowitz:
On the cost of rebuilding Iraq

“There’s a lot of money to pay for this that doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money…We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.” (3/27/2003, House Committee on Appropriations testimony)

“The oil revenues of Iraq could bring between $50 and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years…We’re dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.” (3/27/2003, House Budget Committee testimony)

“Fundamentally, we have no idea what is needed unless and until we get there on the ground. This delicate moment—when we are assembling a coalition, when we are mobilizing people inside Iraq and throughout the region to help us in the event of war, and when we are still trying, through the United Nations and by other means, to achieve a peaceful solution without war—is not a good time to publish highly suspect numerical estimates and have them drive our declaratory policy.” (3/27/2003, House Budget Committee testimony)

Regarding getting other countries to help fund reconstruction after the war: “I expect we will get a lot of mitigation, but it will be easier after the fact than before the fact.” (3/27/2003, House Budget Committee testimony)

Last week Hillary Clinton release a fear mongering ad that I would typically associate with Karl Rove and some in the Republican party. Here it is:

Here is Bill Clinton’s response: