Techno babel, decoded.

http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html Steve, Thank you for your creativity and inspiration. Sadly, I never got to meet you in person. But you touched so many lives and changed the way many of us go about ours. You will be missed and remembered. Thank you for living your life!

For those who have not yet heard anything about the occupy wall street movement I would suggest visiting here: http://occupywallst.org/ The group seems to be getting more organized and it is scaring the bankers. So for those of you with the time and ability to join the protest go for it. I may join one of the local events but I'm busy working a full time job and freelancing on the side to save money for a baby on the way. I personally feel that the 1% doesn't understand how to give back to the community. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htX2usfqMEs The above post sums up the way I feel. That's all for the off topic post. Next one will be back to my irregularly scheduled technical jargon.

Android Apps, (Warning, this post not edited by my wife, read at your own risk.) As the university (where I work) is moving away from departmentally issued cell phone’s to the new stipend plan, many of you will end up with either an iPhone or android phone. Personally I turned in my iPhone for a Droid 2 (The R2D2 version since I am geeky like that!) I don’t miss my iPhone. Anyway I wanted to list some of the more useful FREE Apps I have found so far that I think every phone owner would benefit from. 1.) Lookout Mobile Security! MUST HAVE! - This app is amazing for multiple reasons, first it is a virus scanner that checks all apps on your phone. Second it back’s up your phone on a regular basis. Third it can activate the GPS on your phone and locate it remotely from any computer. It can even show on a map within about 200 feet where it is. Last you can remotely sound an alarm to help you locate the phone when you misplace it, and then if you discover your phon

Okay, so being an IT tech I should know better! Seriously I should. I take security very seriously. However this week I discovered, too seriously. I had an app on my android phone I used to store all my passwords. Android pushed out an OS update for my phone and what did I do? I installed it, I mean most updates are really good and offer new features and better security. I didn't think that it may break my most crucial application. Guess what? IT BROKE MY PASSWORD APP! I spent the last 4 hours trying to undo this change to get my password database back. It’s not life critical because they can all be reset, but it is EXTREMELY ANNOYING! I’ve spent the last 6 months creating this master database and I even backed up the database into an encrypted password file on my computer. But guess what, the password to get into the encrypted file on my computer, was stored in the database. DOH! I thought I had it memorized, but with so much going on day to day, and

I know it has been a while since I've posted anything and I should probably begin with another PC post but that will have to wait for a few days. I'm posting about what inspire's me and what my help inspire you. With that said, here I go. Happy Sunday Everyone, Today I'm going to share a tidbit about why I am going back to school. I have been a computer tech for 20 years now and I am very good at what I do. But I am also a little (okay a lot) bored. About a year ago my brain began to feel like it was stagnating. I’ve managed to keep the stagnation at bay by getting security certifications, becoming more familiar with Mac OS and Linux, but it’s still really just the same principles over and over. I fix things when they break. So about 9 months ago my wife and I were talking about vacations and where we wanted to go, when somehow we got onto the subject of there being only 2 shuttle launches left at the time and she had never been to see one. I watched

*Note: This was originally written for a newsletter at UNC-Chapel Hill. As such, there are many references to university-specific issues and solutions. Even if you ignore those bits, I feel many readers can glean something useful from this, which is why I'm posting it here. ---------------- It doesn’t matter where I am, what time of day it is, or who I’m talking to; once someone finds out I work in IT security, the first words out of his or her mouth are, “Hey, I’ve got a quick question for you…” Most people would find this irritating. As my wife can attest to, I simply smile and say, “What’s on your mind?” More often than not, the question is, “I’m using XYZ program to keep my data secure. Is it as good as advertised?” The short answer is, “No, not really.” The less cryptic, but more depressing comeback is, “No computer is ever really secure,” and the long, informative explanation is…somewhat more complicated. There are many factors that go into the long, complicated answer, an