I was recently informed by one of my professors just how insecure the password system is for the national voting machines.  You can read the entire paper by Professor Duncan Buell right here.

Apparently, there is a set of three passwords, each of them three characters long, that stand between the user and administrator access to the machine.  It gets even more ridiculously simple, but the point is – it’s not secure.  At all.

Essentially, setting up a GMAIL account would be more secure.

This entry is short and not very insightful, but I hope the warning will prove useful.  I’m positive that in your day to day life, you use several passwords to access private information:  email, facebook, personal computer, school computer, online banking, etc.  Please, please, please make these passwords complex, consisting of letters (both capitalized and non-capitalized), and numbers.

If you have trouble creating passwords, use tips like these or free generators like this one.  If you have trouble remembering passwords, use a protected manager like this.

A novice hacker can generally hack into a “secure” Windows machine with a Knoppix cd and some time, and so passwords are obviously not all there is to having a secure tech life.  However, by protecting your online accounts, you can save a lot of frustration, embarrasment, and MONEY.

I use ObjectDock Plus, Cover Art Display, MiniLyrics, and Rainlendar.

Ok, so before I start, I’m going to go ahead and give thanks to LifeHacker, and especially Adam Pash for this one.  His article can be found here on the “Self-Sustaining iPod”.

For anyone who uses multiple computers per day, or even per week, running applications and saving data to your iPod can be very useful.  First, it gives you comfort with any computer you’re on, because instead of using their outdated (or, sadly, very updated) Internet Explorer, you can use your own customized Firefox with your own plugins, etc.  Also, you don’t have to worry about not having the tools you need installed on the specific computer, because you can carry them all around with you wherever you go.

Also, the iPod acts as a flash drive, and since you most likely haven’t filled up your entire device, the storage capacity can be huge.  So, essentially, your iPod serves as a complete computer and mp3 player throughout the day.

Right now, in fact, I am writing this on a Firefox window that is running from a folder on my iPod hard disk, and I was able to use GIMP to create a quick wallpaper for my account here at the university.

To get tons of free, portable apps that you can run from your iPod, check out PortableApps.  You might also find this interesting about how to run Skype from your player (Thanks again to Adam Pash, Lifehacker, and MakeZine).

I recently discovered a neat thing called Evernote.  As the name suggests, Evernote is a note-taking tool, used to help you organize thoughts, pictures, etc, and to have them always readily available to you.

To get started with Evernote, you first download their software from here.  When you first run it, you will have to create a free online account to manage your notes on the web.  This program will allow you to type your notes, tag them, email, print, etc.  Once you’re finished writing your note, you just click “Synchronize”, and it will sync your computer’s notes to those on the ‘net.

This program has come in very handy because I don’t have to be on the internet to write a note (which beats out the current Google Docs stable version), I can organize them quickly and easily, and I can sync them at my convenience to the internet.

This way, I can keep a constantly updated to-do list with me all day.  Well, ok, so I don’t actually do that, but it sounds nice.

Ok, so I wanted to incorporate this information in the website (and hopefully I still will), but I thought I’d just go ahead and blog about it in the meantime.

Essentially, this is a list of things that I use on my site and server, things that I find nifty, visually appealing, or just plain cool.

Web Site Stuff

• Godaddy – Let’s just say it – I LOVE GODADDY!  I use them to purchase all my domain names, hosting, email plans, etc.  They have fantastic customer support (and I should know, seeing how much I call them), great prices, and who doesn’t like Bob Parsons?  Well, actually, a lot of people don’t, but we don’t talk about them.

• Linux Host – Yes, I have Linux hosting through Godaddy.  If you aren’t a Linux junkie, there’s really only one difference – you have to watch your capitilization.  With Linux servers, “atree.png” and “atree.PNG” are NOT the same thing.  Other than that, Linux allows you to run more things…plus, you can call yourself a geek.

• Apache Server – I’m actually not this technical, but I can tell you that I run on an Apache server, and Apache is the most popular software for servers out there.

• MySQL – I have MySQL databases on all my sites.  It allows me to run my forums, blog, etc.  The databases are easily backed up, accessed, and modified.

• WordPress – WordPress is absolutely amazing.  I use WP as a CMS now instead of strictly for blogging purposes, though I use it for that as well.  WordPress is unbelievably customizable, user-friendly, plug-in supported, and FREE!

My Computer

• HP Pavilion dv6000 – I recently purchased an HP laptop for school, and I am extemely satisfied.  I was able to get it for well under $700, and it has 3G RAM, 160HD, a 2.0GHz AMD TURION 64×2 processor, 3 USB ports, an SD-MS-Pro-MMC-XD memory card slot, external remote, etc.  The reviews are good, and I am very pleased.

Software

• Wubi – This is basically Ubuntu without the partition.  At startup, I can choose to either boot Vista or Ubuntu.  Now, admittedly, I choose Vista 95% of the time, because it’s what I’m used to.  Sue me.

• ObjectDock – I don’t like the look of Vista, so I decided to use a Mac-styled dock.  Well, actually, I use 3 separate docks, but ObjectDock is my favorite.

• Firefox – DUHHHHHHH.

• Thunderbird – This is a very efficient email client alternative to Outlook.  The neatest thing is that I can have separate accounts all organized in one place, so my university, google, and website mail all comes to one location, separated into different folders.

These are just a few favorites.  More will follow.

Yes, I have waited a few weeks to write my Firefox 3 review.  However, this has kept me from what would be my initial gush over the cool features, smooth interface, and smart url bar.  Firefox 3 is indeed an improvement on the best web browser in many ways, though it falls short in places as well.

First let’s talk about the good things.  In just the few weeks I have been using FF3, I am already dependant on some features.  One of these is the smart url bar.

While most browsers bring up your recently vistited URL’s when you type, the FF3 bar will bring up recently visted sites with the same address, key words in the site’s description, etc.  For example, if I were to type “ryan bowen” into the address bar, i get a dropdown list of sites that I’ve visited with that keyword (FaceBook, SpreadFirefox, NBA, CockyTalk, etc).  This makes it much easier to find sites, and you will no longer have to search through the web history.

Another new feature that I absolutely LOVE is a little harder to explain.  It also may have gone unnoticed to you thusfar, though it is very neat, even though not incredibly useful.  Let’s say you want to add cover art to one of your iTunes albums.  Generally speaking, you probably Google Image search the coverart, then drag and drop it into the “Get Info” -> “Album Art” box.  With FF3, it drags a slightly dulled image of whatever you are dragging with the mouse.  As I said, this is difficult to explain, but it is a nifty feature indeed.

The last feature I’ll talk about has come in really useful to me.  Many times, I’ll have 5 or 6 tabs open, and I’ll get called away from my computer for a while.  I don’t want to leave a window open since I don’t know when I’ll get back to it, but then again I don’t want to bookmark all my tabs before I quit.  Thanks to FF3, I don’t have to.  Now, when you try to close a window with multiple tabs, it gives you an option to “Save and Quit”, so when you re-open, all your tabs come back!  Ingenious!

Now, I do have a few issues with Firefox 3.  For one, although it doesn’t do it as much now, Firefox would crash constantly when I first go it – I’m talking 3 or 4 times a day.  I have a brand new computer, it runs multiple apps flawlessly, but Firefox would crash ALL THE TIME.

Another problem I have is with the Add-Ons.  Some of my favorite extensions aren’t compatible with FF3.  I know that isn’t Mozilla’s fault, but still.

I also think there should be a way to add a FaviCon to your favorites for sites that don’t automatically have one.  For half of my favorites, I have to look at a yellow star.  It’s much easier to navigate through my favorites by looking at icons rather than reading.  That sounds incredibly lazy, but it’s true.

So, the bottom line is, I like Firefox.  I think security will be an issue in the months to come, because as it gets more popular, more hackers will target it.  However, it remains the most secure, customizable browser out there, and I highly recommend it.

For those who don’t know, Linux comes in many different flavors, as well as Live CD’s and full operating systems.  Live CD’s are really neat, and they allow you to get a full feel of Linux before installing it on your hard drive.  As I recently learned, they also make a nice recovery tool for any system.

Recently, my parents computer started to act up.  It is an HP Pavilion laptop running Windows XP, and it’s about 4 years old.  I have been extremely satisfied with the computer, and it has served us well throughout the last years.  However, it is on the verge of a crash.

Needless to say, I wanted to back up all of our music, videos, photos, and documents before it passes.  However, when Windows boots up (after about 10 minutes), and you click on ANYTHING, it freezes up.  This is where Slax comes in.

I remembered I had a Live CD version of Slackware Linux, Slax, on a disc somewhere in my room.  I hadn’t booted it in several months – first because I saw no purpose to it, and second because I wasn’t very familiar with Linux.  However, Slax is amazing.  It is a fully independant bootable operating system, complete with web browser, music jukebox, games, file manager, etc – all contained in 189MB.

Now, at first, it may seem very cool, yet useless.  However, it makes an incredibly effective and smooth recovery tool.  I simply popped it in, logged in with “root” and “toor”, and plugged in my portable hard drive.  From there, I could back up all the files on my XP hard drive without ever entering Windows!

Another neat thing is that Slax doesn’t necessarily require any type of Linux skill!  Sure, if you know Linux commands, you can do a lot more with it, but version 6.0.7 is SO easy to use, even at boot up.

So, if you’re looking for a simple, fast, clean recovery tool or just something to play around with, check out Slax Live Linux.  It has saved my families precious documents, pictures, and videos, and it has appealed to the geek in me to experiment with linux.  Check it out!

It may be a completely psychological thing, but Vista’s look holds bad “memories” for me. The first time I used Vista, it was on a Toshiba Satellite that either had 512MB or 1GB of RAM. Needless to say, it was SLOW.

Surprisingly, I have been pleased with Vista thus far. It runs fast with 3GB memory and devoid of Microsoft Office, the search features are addictive, and the speech recognition is a nice bonus. However, because of my first experience, I have never cared for Vista’s “look”. Thankfully, due to some flippin’ sweet (free!) software, I am incredibly happy, as you can see by the snapshot of my desktop below.

Probably the biggest thing I have enjoyed is RocketDock. I’ve mentioned it once or twice in a previous entry, but words cannot describe RocketDock, except to say that it’s MacOSX navigation on a Vista machine. Plus, it’s easy to use. Just drag icons onto the dock to add them, or drag them off to remove them. The one thing you may need to change is the icon of the shortcut you’re trying to add. You will want to find a .PNG file that has a transparent background. I’ve had great success simply searching for, say, “FireFox .png”.

You can also customize your Vista log-in screen.  The green and blue modern Vista background can get really old, really fast, but with a thing called StarDock, you can change this.   Just download their LogOnStudio and install.  This nifty piece of software allows you to create your own screens, upload them, or download user-submitted screens from their site.  While I’m generally very into originality, some of the user-submitted screens are downright cool.

The Vista Sidebar is surprisingly useful. In fact, I can truly say that I enjoy it more than Yahoo Widgets, and even, though it pains me to say it, Google Desktop. They gadgets are clean, polished, and simple to use. Plus, you can download tons of gadgets to suit your needsfrom the Microsoft Gallery.

Next, I’ve found it helpful to auto-hide the Windows taskbar. Though this can sometimes get annoying, and I may soon change it back, it adds visual appeal to the desktop. Also, I have chosen to NOT hide the inactive icons in the “Notification Area”.

Don’t want to be a flower, robot, or kitten? Simply change your logon picture. Vista makes this easy. All you have to do is go to the Control Panel, click on “User Accounts”, then your name, then “Change your picture”. There should be a link underneath the selection of icons that says “Browse for more pictures…”. Click this, select a photo, and voila!

Now, all you have to do is find a cool wallpaper, keep your desktop clean, and you have a nice looking, hopefully smooth running, Vista machine!

So, I’ve recently been re-designing the site, both the blog portion in WordPress, and the normal site in KompoZer.  While both of these tools have been instrumental in designing cool, user-friendly features, I have one problem.  After spending several hours coding, drawing, and writing for the release of RyboMedia 2.0, I published the site.  And it looked great…well, at least it did on my browser, FireFox.

I did not take into account the fact that Internet Explorer reads tables and layouts differently than FireFox.  So when I checked the site later on IE 6, I was alarmed to see that the tables were misconstrued, and that my WordPress banner was not transparent, though the .PNG file was.

So, quickly, I just wanted to remind all web-designers to test your sites on multiple browsers before release, and to suggest that everyone get FireFox.   Also, if anyone from Mozilla, or anyone interesting in making some sort of plug-in for FireFox or KompoZer, is reading, I have an idea.  What about incorporating a preview of how the site will look in multiple browsers, say, IE, FireFox, Opera, and Safari?  That way, without opening any actual browsers, we can be assure that the layout will stay consistent.

Any way, just thought I’d alert and suggest…

Ok, so I cannot stand Norton software anymore. The thing is, the software itself isn’t that bad, though it is extremely annoying. The problem I have is with the difficulty and downright deception of the product.

So first, I decided to let Norton run for the free 60 days after getting my new laptop. The next day, Norton informed me (with a dialog box in the middle of the window I was working on), that it needed an update installed. I decided not to install at the moment, since I was, after all, in the mid of something.

So what did Norton do after I clicked “Do Not Install”? It said that it was closing, and after a few minutes, informed me that the update was installed and that I needed to now reboot my computer. What?! Why would I trust you to protect me from viruses? I guess the idea is that I can’t protect myself from you, so I should pay you to protect me from people like you. I’m confused already.

Ok, so obviously, I wanted this thing off my computer. Should be easy, right? Wrong. So I went to “Uninstall Norton”. But wait…apparently I have a browser window open, so I am unable to uninstall. Hmmm. So I then have to close my browser and re-open Norton Uninstaller, then wait 5 minutes for the software to completely uninstall from the system. Wait…no…there’s still a Norton file in my Start menu! In 5 minutes, you can’t uninstall a DEMO version of a product, and maybe remove the folder from my computer? Or is this because I haven’t restarted Windows, and may therefore encounter “errors”. Errors in what? Obviously, I’m not going to try and run your “Anti-Virus” software after I UN-INSTALLED it!

So my advice: get FireFox, don’t open email attachments from people you don’t know, and forget about this so-called “Internet Security”.