PASSWORDS

Back in 1995, when the “Internet” was a thing that mostly university students used, I had perhaps two online accounts. The first one was for a UBC-wide e-mail address. The second one was for an electrical engineering account that allowed me access to their UNIX systems. Two accounts meant, at the very most, two different passwords to remember. It was easy to keep track of all my online credentials.

Fast forward to the present. I now have more digital and online accounts that I can count. In fact, I have never counted how many accounts I currently have. It’s probably well over two dozen if not more. You can now access almost all personal information online. That’s very convenient and saves time. The downside is that with every new account means a new set of credentials to remember. In the last two weeks, I’ve signed up for three different accounts: one to access my medical lab tests, one to access my pay stubs online, and one to become a member of the HTC support forums.

I believe I’ve gotten to the point where I can no longer store all these credentials in my head. There’s actually one account where I don’t even try to remember the password. I just get the system to send me a new password each and every single time I need to get into the account. Last week, I signed up to get my pay stubs online and promptly forgot my userID. From what I can tell, the system doesn’t even let you retrieve a forgotten userID.

I can do one of several things at this juncture. First, I can start to use the same password for all my accounts. I’ve tried really hard not to do this from the onset as this can severely compromise all your accounts. If someone steals the password for just one account, they essentially have a good chance of getting into all your stuff online. Second, I can start writing down all my information down on a plain, old, low-tech piece of paper. This is proven method  but it too has drawbacks. It’s not very portable as you’ll need to carry this around with you. I possibly could store this in my wallet but that seems kinda lame. It’s also not very secure. If you lose the paper, you’ll be in big trouble (you won’t remember your info and someone else might pick it up). Third, I can use a software password manager. These type of programs can live either on your own computer or online. These too are not perfect. If someone gets your master password, all your passwords are now vulnerable. If you use a desktop one, then it’s not portable. If you use an online one, it’s susceptible to being hacked.

How do you keep track of all your accounts?

ODD

When I was returning home this evening from work, I noticed an older Asian man sitting on the edge of one of the planters outside the front of my apartment building. I didn’t recognize him as a resident and he had white gauze bandage on one of his hands. As I passed him, he casually mentioned to me:

“North Korea is number one.”

Ok then. I didn’t know if he meant that the DPRK was number one in general amongst all countries or if it was specific to a certain category. I’m certain that the man wasn’t from North Korea himself. As I understand it, it’s virtually impossible from people from North Korea to leave their country. Also, had he actually escaped from North Korea, I highly doubt he’d be a big supporter of that country.

You know, he might have been just a little bit off.

DECKED OUT

After the original skate was published, the team all received skateboard decks featuring all the characters from the first game and our names silkscreened on the deck itself. For skate 2, we were awarded the regular the plaque with the covert art and the disc. For skate 3, we got a hybrid of both the deck and the plaque. What you see above is a skateboard deck with a namebar and the disc glued directly onto the deck. It is the best of both worlds. The deck art is a Sunday newspaper cartoons theme, specifically from the newspaper of the fictional city of Port Carverton, where skate 3 takes place. This deck is the best momento I’ve ever received for working on a game.

Click here to see the whole board up close. If you’re just interested in seeing the disc detail, click here. While you’re at it, why don’t you check out Cuz’s Circus and Haslam and Hobbes?

JUST WONDERIN’

So I assume that a few of you, my loyal readers, are on the social networking web site Facebook. One of the things I like about that site is the ease in which you can post pictures online and have people look at them. For the most part, it appears that people post photos from events fairly soon after they happen. I’m wondering, why don’t you see more people posting photos from events that occurred several months ago? I have photos from the Olympics that I still haven’t posted. I also have picture from my trip to Washington, DC that haven’t made it to my Facebook account. Am the only lazy one?

Who’d be interested in seeing my photos from the Olympics… even if they were several months old?

OH REALLY?

In a previous post, I mentioned how I’m using a program that prevents spam comments from making it to my blog. Suspected spam comments are actually quarantined in area that none of you can see. I can review these comments and delete them all, if warranted. This is to prevent a legitimate comment from being deleted automatically if it somehow slipped through.

What you see above is a screenshot from the spam control panel that shows one of comments that was suspected of being spam. I have to admit, it’s one of the best spam comments I’ve seen in a long, long time. I wonder if there really are Russian mafia groups who force people to spam blogs about penis enlargement. What a crazy way to run a crime syndicate.

WHAT I’M WORKING ON

Though I perhaps shouldn’t have mentioned I was working on the Fight Night team in previous posts, the point is now moot (or moo for Joey) as EA has now officially announced Fight Night Champion. As always, EA has left a lot under wraps so there are lots of features that the public doesn’t even know about yet. I will say that there will be a lot more realistic damage done to the boxers for Champion. If people were disappointed in the lack of blood in the game, that won’t be an issue this time around.

NO TIME

For reasons I cannot currently go into, I have no time tonight for a proper post. There’s a chance I can explain it to everyone later but then again there’s a chance I’ll have to keep it private. How’s that for cryptic?!?!!?!?!

SO THIS IS WHAT THE YEAR 2000 IS LIKE

Despite a previous post that claimed I was going to use my old cell phone into 2013, I broke down and bought one of them new “smartphones” over the weekend. I guess those phones are indeed pretty smart if they can coerce people to spend over $300 on them. My first ever cell phone was free and the one I was using until recently cost me about $50 off Ebay. The HTC Legend, which I decided to buy, is a supercomputer compared to my old phones. I’m not sure if you realize this or not, but cell phones now have cameras in them. You can take not only still photos but it actually records video as well.

There is a crazy amount of functionality and technology in these phones which, if I didn’t know better, I would attribute mostly to witchcraft. I look forward to receiving “text messages” from a few of you once I figure out how to raise the antenna.