20 October 2009

Security and Me

So, I try to be good with passwords. I don't make them particularly easy to guess, and even try to use special characters (#$&%^ and the like) when I can. While I'm not the best when it comes to computer security, I want to make it difficult enough for hackers to force-hack my stuff.

You might expect that your employer, who has a vested interest in strong passwords, would ensure that such nontraditional passwords were supported. You'd be half right.

I changed a password recently, one that links to other functions on my employer's intranet site. Let's say for fun that that password is "doug'spassword". That apostrophe is a special character, and the computer accepted that password. My intranet password then became "doug'spassword."

The only problem with that is that there was an application that wasn't updated with the latest and greatest security options, and when I tried to type in "username" and "doug'spassword" I was informed that the ' was an invalid character.

Calling our help desk, I explained the situation, which was met with some mirth. "Yeah, we've seen that problem a couple times. You have to go and change your intranet password in order to get to that application. Sorry, but we haven't updated all our systems yet."

I made sure that he understood my joy at creating a password too complicated for our multi-million dollar security system to handle, and then went and changed my password to something simpler.

Hey, at least I tried to take security seriously.

02 October 2009

Unemployment . . . Again . . .

So, the last time unemployment numbers came out, I described how I was shocked, shocked to see that unemployment was up again after the Great Obamomessiah's Grand Stimulus that put the US in hock for somewhere upwards of a trillion dollars.

Well, unemployment numbers were released today.
Yes, when government increases spending, and everyone with half a brain knows that government gets their money from taxing people, the end result is that businesses are not really looking to expand their operations and grow revenue.

Why should they? It's just going to be taken away from them by the parasites who demand health care, or retirement, or any number of other entitlements we Americans have been suckered into demanding.

Guess what? It's only going to get worse. We have a childish president who demands others sacrifice while he attends cocktail parties serving wagyu beef (at $150/lb) and flies off to Copenhagen to try to get the Olympics to select Chicago as the site of the 2016 games (despite that several of his associates stand to make millions on real estate deals should that happen). Thank goodness the Olympic Committee saw through at least some of the BS being hurled their way and told Obama to stuff it. Guess Obama's Chicago cronies got out-cronied by the IOC cronies.

My Son Was Born Today.

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