More on passwords

When I went to BJ's  to create an online account, I dutifully created a password with at least eight characters, including at least one letter and one number. As standard practice, I also include a punctuation mark, making password cracking that much more difficult.

99.wharlG

BJ's took exception to my choice. but did so only with a suggestion.

If a password should only contain alphabets (sic) and numerics, (sic+1) etc., then I would still be permitted to use punctuation characters against their advice. Grumble, grumble.

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One of an occasional series.
A bunch of years ago, I worked for a software company. It was hard work for long hours. At one point, senior management made the pronouncement that the development team needed to focus more on a particular aspect of the product. The QA manager and I agreed that we'd be Focused More-ons.

We wish you a Spammy Christmas. Please buy our watch.

It's the first Christmas sale of the the new year. Granted, the offer comes from a suspect source.

But, hey, even spammers need to get an early start.

Fading snow

With temps climbing into the 60s today, I decided to tempt fate and move the snow blower from the front yard to its summer place by the sheds. The last chunk of snow, well, really, ice, is almost gone from our deck.

The corner of our yard, sheltered from the sun, is still snow-covered. At the camp, there's still a foot or more of ice that's been pushed into the cove by the strong northwest winds.

I'm guessing that it will take at least a week, maybe even two, before the cove is open. We're still hoping to open up around the first of May.

Undisturbed

When we worked in cubeland and needed concentrate, we'd often put up a virtual door across the cubicle entrance. The door was a long piece of masking tape with a Do Not Disturb sign stuck to it.
Some people don't even have a cubicle and so must become their own door.

via Boing Boing

Best uses for old tech

You might not think that disk drives are obsolete. Increasingly, though, solid-state drives are replacing the types with spinning disks. The solid-state devices (SSDs) are faster, lighter, and consume less energy. SSDs are more expensive, but the other features outweigh the cost for sleek laptops.
In addition, you might have upgraded a desktop system, replacing an old drive with a higher-capacity one.
So, you've got an old disk drive sitting around. What can you do with it?
Make cotton candy, of course.

Turning an Old Hard Disk Into a Candy Floss Machine

John C. Wharton, a candy maker, and William J. Morrison, a dentist, received a patent in 1899 for "certain new and useful improvements in candy machines." (US Patent # 618,428). This bit of hackery builds on that patent with modern tech and spare parts.
via LifeHacker

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One of an occasional series of best uses and reuses for old computer gear and related stuff.