Chris Pirillo » passwords

How are You Carving Your Pumpkin?

Chris — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:26:32 +0000

How are You Carving Your Pumpkin? is a post from Chris Pirillo

It’s that time of year again… the time when my dogs like to play dress-up. I have to sit around looking like a normal dude, handing out candy and entertaining the masses on the live stream. Meanwhile, Wicket and Pixie get to have all the fun! How is that even right?

I love Halloween. It’s just a fun holiday, and a great way to be creative! I’ve been pondering how I’m going to carve my pumpkins. Should I go with something spooky, or something Geeky? Would I be better off trying to get super creative, or do you think I should stick with something simpler? How do you plan to decorate your pumpkins – and your house – this year?

I’ve noticed a lot of people in our community are already gearing up for ALL of the upcoming holidays. People are already talking about not only Halloween, but Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well! Can you believe it’s that late in the year already? I swear it was only a few weeks ago I was happy that summer was finally here. sighhhhhhhh…..

In any case, the end of the year is coming near! Let us know what kinds of plans you’re working on, and check out what others are doing to get some more inspiration.

As always, you can check out our downloads page to see what programs and apps are hot, fresh and (in some cases) even free! We are working hard to find excellent discounts and deals for you, so you won’t want to miss out.

Managing your Passwords: Protection from Phishing / Identity Theft

Chris — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:04:08 +0000

Managing your Passwords: Protection from Phishing / Identity Theft is a post from Chris Pirillo

It is baffling when some people put their passwords on a sticky note and leave it on the edge of their monitor. Yes, that really happens. There are other things that people do with passwords that would make your jaw drop. Do you use a universal password for numerous sites? Is your password really your cat’s name or your dog’s name? Please tell me you don’t use your birthdate, or that of your daughter?

These are just some of the horrors that people do with passwords. Recently, for example, some people on Twitter were entering their password to gain a bit of data. People simply do not seem to recognize the implications of being lax with one’s password. Not only are finances at risk with a breach of privacy and security, but one’s reputation can be trashed, if someone breaches your personal accounts.

One of the prime reasons for a password manager is that it guards your online identity and protects you from identity theft. There are some websites that you might visit regularly. For the sake of an example, let’s use PayPal. Imagine the damage that an identity thief can do with your PayPal data.

You say that you are careful, but the hackers / criminals who spoof websites such as PayPal are experts at what they do. Regardless of how careful you are, there are times when you are rushed or tired or distracted. Identity thieves bank on these lapses. And some of the phishing websites are identical to the genuine sites. At a quick glance, it becomes impossible to tell the difference from spoofing sites and the genuine sites. Gone are the days of sloppy coding and spelling errors.

What an excellent password manager should do is protect you from phishing sites. The password manager should NOT release your personal data if the site is not legitimate and has been spoofed.

Password Manager from Large Software does just that. It secures your logins, hides your keystrokes and encrypts your passwords. Password Manager protects your identity and is an added layer of security from phishing attempts. It is a guard from identity theft.

Large Software is giving our visitors a special offer. Until May 14th, 2009, Large Software is offering a ten dollar ($10.00) discount on Password Manager. This is a third off their regular price and an exceptional price for this outstanding security product.

“Password Manager operates with ALL programs and web browsers, including Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox…”. With the security issues with browsers, it is simply too risky to allow a browser to hold your confidential password information. Phishing, spoofing and other identity theft methods are becoming much more sophisticated in separating you from your password information. Protect yourself. Keep your passwords safe with Password Manager. This program works exceptionally well.

Password Manager is portable and ideal for laptops too. If, for example, your government agency or business requires this program in high volume, we will try to make large purchases financially viable.

How to Keep from Getting Bored if the Internet Goes Down

Chris — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 06:45:35 +0000

How to Keep from Getting Bored if the Internet Goes Down is a post from Chris Pirillo

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*GASP* What? The Internet could go down? What will we do? How will we survive? Unfortunately, it happens to all of us at some point. Here are some interesting ideas to keep yourself busy during the “Intarweb’s” downtimes.

Clean out and categorize your bookmarks. I don’t know about you, but I tend to just click ‘bookmark this page’ and call it good. Yesterday, when I hit the little ‘down arrow’ on Firefox to let the bookmark list scroll down I counted. I didn’t count sites, I counted seconds. 11 seconds worth of scrolling bookmarks is way too many. If you haven’t visited a site in a month it’s not important. Create categories and organize the list of bookmarks after you’ve eliminated all those links you don’t need. Do not create a miscellaneous category. Catch-all categories do exactly that and soon become difficult to use.
Uninstall programs you don’t use. Why delete them when you have plenty of space on the drive? Because it makes things like Scandisk and Defrag run faster. It might not make your PC run any smoother, but you’ll feel good knowing you aren’t wasting space.
Unplug your PC, take the cover off and clean out the dust. Invest in some canned air. Heat is a PC’s enemy and even in a clean environment, cooling fans suck dust through every opening and it builds up fast. If you have pets, do it once a month. I cleaned out enough dust to build a rabbit hutch to keep all the dust bunnies in.
Write your next blog post. If you use a blog client like BlogDesk just write and save. If not, write to a text file and format it after your connection is live. Not being connected may force you to write about something different, like say, five things to do when you have no Internet connection.
Run any maintenance programs you don’t have auto-scheduled. Reclaim your drive space and allow your PC to run smoother.

And now for number six, the bonus item. This is something I put off for a long time because it’s time consuming and no one really likes to think about what happens to the ones we love should something happen to us. You may need connectivity to accomplish this one, which is why the title isn’t six things to do with a PC when you have no Internet connection, but this one is important.

Write down your logins and passwords for all your sites, blogs, email accounts, Adsense, affiliate programs, where you purchased your domain names, etc. All that information is the key to your business. If something should happen to you your spouse or significant other will need that information. When you’re done, put the information in a safety deposit box or keep it in a fire resistant safe at the house and let the people that may need that information know where it is kept.

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Google Calendar Security Notice

Chris — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 01:10:46 +0000

Google Calendar Security Notice is a post from Chris Pirillo

Uh, guys… y’all gotta tell your friends not to store usernames and passwords in public documents – at least, not without protecting them with passwords themselves. More importantly, the last thing you want to do is set a reminder for yourself in Google Calendar and leave the login credentials in the reminder AND set it for public viewing. Dude. Seriously. Lockergnomie Michael Kuhn sent this to me on Friday:

Google has just created an enormous security problem.
Go to your Google calendar web page.
Enter “user password” in the search box.
Click the Search Public Events button.
Scroll down to find many user id’s and passwords for every imaginable thing.

It’s not so much a “security problem” as much as it is “the user isn’t being educated” problem. And believe me, there are plenty of results in the public listings that should not be there.

Managing Passwords Online

Chris — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 21:26:40 +0000

Managing Passwords Online is a post from Chris Pirillo

Okay, well… I can’t say that my search has ended, but I think I found something that’ll be “good enough” until something better comes along. As I noted in my original post, I was looking for an ASP model for password management (although I suppose a “private” Web-based solution would likely be better). I don’t want a single binary, because I’m trying to share account information with Ponzi – which can’t be done effectively through anything other than a Web-based solution. Someone had commented on my blog about his new password storage tool, but that apparently disappeared into the ethernet – so I hope he comes back and comments in this thread. Here’s the winner: Password Safe. If you search for “manage passwords online,” it’s the number one result on Google. Seems like the perfect solution for me, though its interface is a bit tricky to navigate at first. I can’t find any competition to the product – at least one that’s easy to set up and get going for free. I hadn’t really heard of these guys before, but can’t find anything negative about them on the Web (at least, as far as security and password problems are concerned). Y’all asked for an update, so here you go. Oh – and I realized another thing: I’m far more forgiving with lackluster Web page UI than I am with desktop binary UI (don’t ask me why).

Password Management

Chris — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 01:42:42 +0000

Password Management is a post from Chris Pirillo

Ponzi and I are at our wit’s end. We have a lot of passwords to keep between each other, for both personal and business accounts. Initially, a single password-protected spreadsheet did the trick. However, she saw it fit to add an additional tab with her own account information to the same file – and then we were messing with two versions and (in some cases) two different authentication sets. She’d scream bloody murder whenever a password would change, and I would remind her that I only wanted to keep a single master document between us. “I don’t want to do that” was always her answer, though this response provided no alternative solution (and tech decisions are “always” my responsibility, natch). Started looking around the Web for a password management system today – found a few promising resources, mostly Web-based (for universal access between the two of us and others). I really don’t wanna fuss with desktop binaries anymore.

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.