I’m losing Sandy

I don’t know what I’m going to do without Sandy. She has been the most loyal administrative assistant I’ve every had, but as of Dec 8th 2008 she will be resigning. Nay, dying.

That’s what I get for relying on free web services. I kept begging for Sandy to send me ads or to somehow monetize http://iwantsandy.com. Alas twas not to be. Good bye Sandy I’ve already shed many a tear wondering how I’ll get along without you.

I know there are alternatives, like Remember the Milk, but I live in my email and Sandy was the best at getting me info I needed in my in-box. Luckily there might be some spin offs. Twitter bought the intellectual property behind Sandy and there is an Open Source movement to recreate Sandy over at http://sandysback.blogspot.com/.

Technorati : iwantsandy.com, sandy, software, tasks, web
Del.icio.us : iwantsandy.com, sandy, software, tasks, web

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Proof that Microsoft works for the Devil.

I always thought that Microsoft might be secretly pursuing the Devil’s agenda.  All those conspiricy nuts are right, and I have the proof.

I was signing up for a Windows Live account and I got this.

Whew I’m glad I caught it before completing the registration.  Who knows what bad things might have befallen me.  Notice how the 666 is carefully inserted into the middle so as not to draw attention?  The middle six being lower then the rest seem very menacing as well.  Surely if they weren’t working for the Devil they would have algorithms to avoid the combination of 3 sixes in a row.

Technorati Tags: 666, bill gates, devil, microsoft

Online Financal Software

Yehaw!  I’ve been using Quicken Online for a few months and it’s a fine service except that I have to pay for it.  Ok $2.99 per month isn’t much but still that’s $36 a year basically and I’m cheap.

I tried and tried other online financial software like Mint.com and Wesabe.com and while they provide some neat services (see previous article) they were missing one thing, adding upcoming transactions manually, and that was a deal breaker.

Well I tried out Buxfer.com again.  Buxfer.com had the ability to add a transaction but it wouldn’t reconcile it with my bank so I’d end up with duplicate transactions.  Now it does the reconciliation.  I’ve tested it on two transactions and they both reconciled perfectly without any adjustment from me.

So buxfer.com will be my new money management software.  I’ll keep Quicken Online for the next couple of weeks but hopefully I’ll be able to save myself $36 a year.  Hmm, I know Wesabe was working on manually added transactions, I wonder if they ever did it.  I’ll get back about that.

Technorati Tags: buxfer.com, mint.com, online financial software, quicken online, wesabe.com

Keyboard Pattern Theory to Password Management.

I’m starting to think that passwords are more effective in patterns.  What I mean is it’s better to have a pattern to develop passwords than to use the same one for everything or some program to track passwords.  I have a lot of passwords on the web and I think I’ve finally figured out a system for managing them all.

Years ago I learned about keyboard pattern passwords because I had to change my work password every three months.  To make a keyboard pattern just pick a pattern on the keyboard and that becomes the password.  For instance, check out the pattern xsw2cde3.  The password itself is fairly complex but when typed out on a standard qwerty keyboard it becomes a simple pattern to remember.

With a keyboard pattern like xsw2cde3 it became easy for me to change my password every three months.  I would just move the pattern over one to the left or right.  So my next password would be cde3vfr4.  Of course this can be made more complicated if one so desired.  Try these out: 2w3ehnjm or zaq1XSW@ or 1q2wHNJM or even 1q2w#E$RHNJM.  There is one downside to the keyboard pattern password theory.  How does one use it on a Mobile phone?

So for years I had a password that changed easily but that did not help much for websites because I would just use one keyboard pattern for all my logins.  Supposedly this is not a good security practice (although lets face it for most websites we could care less if somebody got into them).  Then I read the “one rule set” theory on LifeHacker.com.  A very similar theory to keyboard pattern theory (ok almost exactly) except Gina Trapani added the idea of incorporating the URL.  So now I have my own rule set.  I use a keyboard pattern combined with the first 3 letters of a URL.

Example: if my keyboard pattern was xsw2cde3 and I’m creating one for my Google Account then my final password would be xsw2cde3gmi.  Lets tackle Chase.com:  my final password would be xsw2cde3cha. 

Now if I decided to change my passwords I could move one row over on the keyboard.  So chase.com would become cde3vfr4cha.

I’ve found that a keyboard pattern consisting of 8 characters including numbers works well.  The final password is 11 characters with numbers and works on most websites.  There are exceptions however, like mycheckfree.com.  Mycheckfree.com passwords can only be 8 characters long and have to have a number.  I seriously think they’re should be a web standard in place for passwords.  Something like 6-32 characters and it must contain at least 1 number.  That should be secure enough and long enough to come up with clever passwords.

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The Website is Down

Embedded Video

Tags: funny, video

mEgo

Since Amber Mac recommended Beema on net@night (on the Twit network) I’ve been obsessed with finding a cool avatar creation application. mEgo seems like it might fit the bill. I won’t ramble too much but it has some pretty neat features.

With mEgo you can add in cool things. Firstly you get to pick your Avatars look. There are “bodies” to pick from, a variety of animations, and background from which to choose or upload your own. Also you can add content to your avatar. This content can include your del.icio.us bookmarks, twitter updates, rss feeds, plus many more. mEgo also allows you to easily share your avatar on a variety of services including: Myspace, Facebook, iGoogle, embeded in a website or blog, and many more (something I wished beema.com made it easier to do).

Here is the avatar I created:

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: avatar, free, Software, Web

Technology related financial stuff, sort of…

I’ve found myself, as of late, trying a bunch of online money management software.  I’ve tried Mint, Wesabe, Quicken Online, and Buxfer one other (that I thought started with a B and was owned by Google, anyone?).  All of them except Quicken Online have one major feature missing that stopped me from using the site.  There is no way to add in an upcoming transaction and have it reconcile when the transaction posts.  Without that feature the web application is virtually useless to me.  My bank’s website actually gives me a better up to the minute view of what’s available in my account because it shows what transactions are pending but haven’t posted.  So the problem with all of these is if I have an outstanding check that is neither pending or posted then I’ll think I have more money than I really do.  But who writes checks anyway?

Well sometimes I just have to don’t I.  At any rate, call me old school, I like to enter in my transactions and then have the software reconcile them once they are posted.  The problem with Quicken and Microsoft Money is using them on only one computer.  I wanted to accewss account information from anywhere and enter transactions while at work for instance.  So began my quest for an online money management program.

Mint and Wesabe offer some cool features.  Mint has offers that are intended to save you money.  Mint will take a look at your accounts and make recommendations.  Like a credit card with a lower interest rate or savings accounts with higher interest rates.  Wesabe is almost a social networking site for money.  With Wesabe users can make suggestions about things.  For instance, if Wesabe sees that you spend money at Starbucks it will offer “tips” suggesting using a prepaid Starbucks card to control you coffee drinking spending.  Which in my case is totally out of control.


I must say that the buzz around Mint also solidified my resolve to find online money management, but in the end I sticking with Quicken Online.  Which really stinks because it costs $2.99 a month.  While it offers adding a transaction the reconciling process misses quite a few.  Thus I end up with duplicate transactions.  That did not occur too frequently with the desktop version of Quicken or Microsoft Money.  Overall though Quicken Online is a good web application.  The graphs, charts, and budgeting systems are on par with the other contenders plus it has my holy grail of upcoming transaction additions.  While having all your accounts online is a security risk it is nice to know I don’t have to worry about backing up my financial data.

I should mention that all of these sites allow you to see all of your accounts in one place.  Also in the Wesabe forums they promise to deliver upcoming transactions that reconcile.  I’ll be saying bye bye to Quicken Online if that ever happens.  If anyone knows of a free site that offer upcoming transactions please let me know.

Technorati Tags: finances, Software, Web