security now

Well… to be honest, not really hacks, I installed a plugin that (in theory) will seamlessly migrate the RSS feed to the blog through a feedburner feed.

If you don’t know what that is don’t worry about it. I just like to play with addons for the site once in a while, although this one shouldn’t really be visible.

While I am thinking of technical things, have I mentioned Lastpass?

It is a password management tool, that is frankly amazing. I was getting really uncomfortable with the number of passwords I was trying to remember, and getting more and more lazy about using the same password for “unimportant” logins. I knew that was a bad situation but I didn’t really trust a plugin to deal with that kind of thing.

Then the Security Now podcast that I try and keep up with, did an episode on Lastpass. I was really excited. I installed it, really with the idea that I could offer to to Heather as a way to help her beef up her password system. (side note, Heather HATES the Security Now podcast. Her life usually gets more complicated after I learn something new and terrifying on the podcast) So far I love Lastpass, but I don’t know if it is really something Heather is going to put up with. The fiddle-factor seems just a tiny bit too high. Also from what I can tell it would be a little hard to share a computer with the plugin running, unless I suppose you both knew the master password… I am not saying I wouldn’t tell Heather what mine is, I just don’t think she would be crazy about a 15 character password. 🙂

-Jordan

oh! I almost forgot, if you happen to be interested, the plugin I used is here: http://flagrantdisregard.com/feedburner/

And a big hat tip to my sister, who actually told me about this four months ago, and I never got around to setting it up.

I have been thinking about the podcasts I listen too quite a bit as of late.

I managed to find a few I really enjoyed over the past few months. During the Atlantic drive, “a few” just wasn’t enough. I branched out, listening to others that weren’t really what I was looking for, but at least they filled the time.

As of right now, I have about a 30 min each way drive. That creates an interesting problem, in that I now have more podcasts minutes in a week coming in than I can keep up with if I only listen while I drive. I have thought about doing podcasts while in the gym, but I haven’t made that leap.

The podcasts I want to listen to:

Security Now. An information security / internet privacy focused show. The two guys doing this both know a lot about the subject and manage to explain things really well. I like this podcast a lot, although Heather says it makes me annoyingly paranoid (I frequently admonish her to never ever use public wi-fi). I feel like I have to keep listening to this, as I have learned so much already.

The Instance. A World of Warcraft show. I am not really an active WoW player these days, but I like the chance to keep up with game news… keeps me somewhat up to date when talking to people who are playing more frequently. That fact alone would not even begin to keep me subscribed though, this show has some really good production quality. Unlike a lot of podcasts, the host actually owns a radio-grade mic, and knows how to post-edit. Add in a sense of humor and you have a pretty solid podcast.

Extra Life Radio. Done by the same main host from The Instance, it’s a group of guys who get together and talk about sci-fi, video games, and movies. A fun listen, but I think this may get cut.

Gamers With Jobs. I was really taken with the concept of GWJ, guys who still like video games, but are married with jobs so they don’t have the unlimited time some people seem to have for games. As it turns out, they have a lot more game time than I have. They are also active and former journalists in the game industry. This means they know a ton of people actually making games, and as much as it frustrates me to hear them talking about loving every minute of a game I know I don’t have time to touch, I am so captivated by them getting into the nuts and bolts of game design with the actual game designers as guests I can’t stop listening.

Gun Dudes. A few guys talking about guns. I started on this podcast expecting a more informative show. Really, it’s just 3-5 guys (depending on the week) shooting the breeze… more or less on the topic of guns. I find it pretty entertaining. I think it might have something to do with my envy over their ability to drive 10 minutes and be out in the desert and able to shoot. I guess that’s and advantage of living in rural Utah.

To sum all that up…

Other than Security Now, I didn’t really manage to find podcast that really taught me much, I was hoping to use my drive in a beneficial way, but it turns out it’s a lot easier to just find a way to stay entertained as you slog out the drive. I tried out a few other podcasts, but nothing I am even going to bother to mention here.

And… that whole thing is probably the last thing you wanted to read about, but not much else is going on 🙂

-Jordan

RSS Hax!

Podcast Recap