Rant Time: Network Neutrality

I’ve steered pretty clear on the network neutrality front but I’ve found myself with a bit of a time, so that can only mean it’s time for an opinionated rant. That’s really what the Internets is all about right? Briefly, for those not following this topic, network neutrality relates to the major telcos in that [...]

Microsoft Desktop of the Future Tour

The day consisted of four 1.5 hour sessions; I’ll break them down a bit over the next few days. But first, my overall thoughts, the whole event wasn’t really a sales pitch – which I thought it was going to be. I would have thought that this was the perfect time to market to people [...]

Word 2007 Beta Review

For many, Word is their go to application in the Microsoft Office Suite. Many of us have been using Word for so long that when people come along and don’t know how to change things like Margins, it boggles are our minds. If you know Word like the back of your hand, prepare to have [...]

A Wee Bit Anal Over Strong Passwords?

I’d just like to say that as a sysadmin, I’m all for strong passwords and enforcement thereof, but this is a guaranteed way to have your users use sticky notes cheat-sheets:

* The password must contain at least one (1) UPPER CASE letter.
* The password must contain at least one (1) LOWER CASE letter.
* The password must contain at least one (1) numeric digit: (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9).
* The password cannot contain any four (4) consecutive characters of your username
* The password must be at least eight (8) characters long.
* The password cannot be changed to any of your three (3) previous passwords.
* The minimum user-defined password life is one (1) day.
* The password cannot contain any dictionary word greater than or equal to four (4) characters.
* The password will expire annually.

How Gmail Killed the Thunderbird

I’d just like to say that by now, everyone that has wanted to toy around with Gmail already have and the rest continue to have some strange attachment to Hotmail. The hype has dissipated; mainly because all its competitors have copied the copious amounts of storage space previously unheard of until Mr. Google decided it should be so. If for no other reason than this, Google has redefined the world’s expectations of what a free webmail service must offer.

I keep all my email, always have. It’s amazing when some seemingly random and unimportant email becomes anything but seven months later. I don’t proclaim to be special but over the decade I have accumulated tens of thousands of email. Searching for that one address or phone number of a long lost contact took awhile in Mozilla Thunderbird, a long long while. Gmail accomplishes this same feat in 2.3 pico-seconds. I timed it – I wouldn’t lie to you.