As I wrote earlier today, I just changed my password on over 300 Web sites. In the process, I encountered a large number of sites which simply don’t know how to do password security properly. Some of these sites are operated by major corporations which are entrusted by their users with confidential and sensitive personal… Read More: Password security hall of shame »
In June, I wrote about Sam Yoon’s unfortunate habit of adding people without their consent to his campaign’s spam distribution lists. I’ve complained to Yoon’s office twice about the spamming — once in August 2006 and once in March 2009. Yoon did not have the courtesy to respond to either of my complaints. I thought… Read More: Spam Yoon, Round 2 »
“Hi, my name is jik, and I’m a password reuser.” “Hi, jik!” If there isn’t a “Password Reusers Anonymous”, there probably should be. By “password reuse,” I mean using the same password over and over on multiple Web sites. It’s a really bad idea, and I should know that better than most, since I’ve worked… Read More: Why I just spent three days changing my passwords on… »
My blog postings about the DMA (initial and followup) got picked up at The Consumerist and got over 5,200 views, which is a respectable take, but not nearly as good as when Continental lost my daughter :-). You will also find on The Consumerist a rebuttal from the DMA which doesn’t actually respond substantively to… Read More: More on the DMAchoice.org debacle »
Well, she made it sound like I’m the only King Richard’s Faire patron who ever complained about it, said nothing about the fact that more importantly than the Kosher thing, the Faire’s policies discriminate painfully (literally) against people with medical conditions, let stand unchallenged a statement from the owner of the Faire that her policies… Read More: King Richard’s Faire in the news »
Earlier today, I wrote about the many ways in which the DMA’s MPS Web site is broken and about the fact that the people who run the site don’t really seem to care all that much. I forwarded a link to my article to the DMA’s consumer affairs email address. To their credit, they responded… Read More: DMA site is not only broken, but insecure »
Since 1971, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has offered a service called the Mail Preference Service (MPS). The alleged purpose of the MPS is to allow consumers to register which kinds of direct marketing mail they want, or to opt out completely. DMA members are then supposed to scrub their mailing lists against the MPS… Read More: DMA’s Mail Preference Service: Once a fraud, always a fraud »
(Simulblogged on universalhub.com.) Long-time readers of my blog know that I have been trying, for almost two years, to eliminate junk mail — the paper kind — from my mailbox. I’ve registered everyone in my family with the DMA’s MPS, tried out various Web sites that purport to help you stop junk mail, and most… Read More: Where all those Boston real-estate agents get your name and… »
For those of you who use Cygwin to make Windows slightly more bearable… Suppose you’re happily working in a Cygwin window, and you need to load one of the files you’re working on into a Windows app. You could select File > Open… in the app and then browse to the ten-levels-deep Cygwin folder to… Read More: Neat little Cygwin / Windows interoperability hack »
I’m responsible for coordinating weekly new-functionality demos for my company’s R&D organization. Each week, a developer or product manager presents a half-hour demo of some new functionality to a local audience in one of our offices, using a big 1920×1080 digital TV as the local display, with a GoToMeeting session set up so that people… Read More: Script for using ffmpeg to crop, pan and scale WMV… »