Month: February 2016

Do you think I am an idiot? Who uses those passwords?

I use a plugin on this site that tracks hack attempts and I just checked it and there were some odd attempts.

Attempted Usernames: admin, jasonlamb, jasonlamb.me, test, username

Attempted Passwords: 12345, 112233, 123456, 147852, 445566, 778899, 123456789, 123456jasonlamb, 123jasonlamb, 1q2w3e, 1q2w3e4r, 1q2w3e4r5t, a1234456, adi, admadm, admin123, Admin321, admin333, adminadmin, administrator, asdasd, batman, easytocrack1, freedom, genius, jasonlamb, jasonlamb.me, jasonlamb1, jasonlamb123, jasonlamb1234, jasonlamb123456, jasonlamb-2014, jasonlamb321, parola, pass, password, password123456, Q12345, qazxsw2, qwertyuiop, test, yankees, zasxdc, zasxdcfv, zxcvbnm

I laugh at these people and their lame attempts at hacking my site. Here is an example of a password that I use: G8!5TB2Kdbnru3n#Avx@pHA
That is 24 characters using CAPS, lowercase, numbers, and symbols.

howsecureismypasswordFrom howsecureismypassword.net you can see it would take 14 OCTILLION YEARS to crack at 4 million per second!

 

passwordmeter

The Password Meter has it at “very strong.”

 

passwordstrengthtestrumkin.com says, “This password is typically good enough to safely guard sensitive information like financial records. Well, yeah…duh!

 

I started using LastPass a while ago and it has changed how I now use passwords. I am constantly auditing myself on what passwords I use and often change from an older password to one as seen above. I just think it’s funny what people try as possibly passwords for my site. I also work in IT so I know how silly and too often simple passwords are, for most people. It’s no wonder the amount of data that stolen just by simple passwords.

I know it is sometimes a pain to have a difficult password but it could be the difference between thinking you have information store safe and secure and identity theft. Think about it, and take note. The best thing you can do is NOT use the same password for two different sites. Yes, I know it’s easier. But so is it for the bad guys. If they get an email and password for one account you better believe they will try it on another account.

Stay safe friends.

nar·cis·sis·tic

…Speaking of Narcissism, check out my About page

numerous app is gone

UPDATE: The Numerous Blog (and iOS app) that I reference below is officially gone. 

I wrote this on Facebook. To save time and not have to repeat my words I am going to copy and paste it here:

I think I have a serious problem when people have a problem with Facebook. I think I take it personal, truly. Once upon a time, before Facebook, I created my own website to keep in touch with friends and family. You may have heard of it (indycrewworld . com) which was quickly turned into icwnow.com because 14 characters was too long to type. I now mostly focus on myself [at] jasonlamb.me because I am narcissistic, at least that is what I am told. Long story short, facebook is my touch to many people in my life and when you leave it you are in a sense leaving my contact with you….to be continued.

This is the continuation…

pay phone still exists?
narcissistic

I don’t think I am narcissistic but then again people with problems rarely think they have a problem. Google defines it as:  “having an excessive or erotic interest in oneself and one’s physical appearance“. Merriam-Webster says: “love of or sexual desire for one’s own body“. I surely don’t “love” my body. I don’t hate it but am not in love with my body. This picture from a year ago, well, ok…maybe I do look good. But who doesn’t look good talking on a public pay phone that doesn’t work any more outside a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, Los Angeles, CA? I digress. My mother would argue in favor of my narcissistic behavior because I may or may not have taken a ton of selfies as a kid back when disposable cameras we a big hit. For each camera roll I had at least one selfie. I even did a project last year that I took a selfie a day to show my beard growth.

facebook friends
screen shot from my numerous app

I have an app called Numerous that keeps track of how many friends I have on Facebook. Not that I want a big number I just want to know when I lose a friend. Right now I am at 421fb friends 421and on my birthday I had 426. I don’t want or need a large number of friends. I think quality over quantity is the key. I just wonder who it is when I that number drops. Is that somebody un-friending me or are they deactivating their account? I will truly not know. The app doesn’t tell me who I lost, just that the number dropped.

Now that I re-read this whole mumbo jumbo I am not sure that me worrying about my number of friends is so much the same as being narcissistic.

Side note: The Numerous app is shutting down its services on May 1st, 2016 due to lack of funding. So no more Facebook friends tracker.

mumbo jumbo
Mumbo Jumbo

Side side note: ‘mumbo” is not a valid word according to my spell check. But according to a Google search it is a cool looking character.

I don’t think I am quite done pondering this topic.

I do want to give a shout out to my anonymous friend who has silently encouraged me to start writing on my blog more. Thanks Friend.