Soli

For most of us, exercising, an improved diet, not eating before bed, and not having electronics flashing their lights and sounds in our bedroom will resolve the vast majority of sleep-related issues, but I love hard data and there are always the outliers, so bring it on, Apple.

I even removed the last remaining light from my bedroom by replacing the digital alarm clock with an Echo Dot. Sure, the Dot has lights on it, but they only light up when you activate it.

PS: Until Apple comes out with a solution I prefer this app for my Watch to monitor my sleep quality and habits.

• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sleep-watch-by-bodymatter/id1138066420?mt=8

cgWerks said:

I'm just trying to get people to start using a password manager at all (and a unique password in every place). Even that would be a huge help.

What I call STEP ONE is simply having people save a single username, password, and URL to a password manager each day until they start to run out of new ones to add.

I see people who jump in trying to get them all saved at once and they soon burn out at this. Also, doing just one a day builds that repetition of how the app works and helps those less technical to understand what and why they're doing.

After they get most of their accounts added, STEP TWO would then be to do a single password change per day so something complex, long, and random. This gets them familiar with the password generator.

Months later, after all that is done I have many other steps (that can be done out of order) that involve cleaning up URLs to remove all the irrelevant bits, adding the secret questions and answers, changing those answers, adding enrollment dates, email addresses, and really any other data for each password saved. Additionally, there are STEPS (that can be done out of order) for saving non-internet account data, like WiFI info and backup configurations, data on household items (especially if they have a warranty). Then there is credit and debit card, and auto and mortgage loan info which includes their phone numbers if you have an issue (I also include all my APR data, etc.). Then there's data for your family and pets, and your health data like immunizations with expiry dates, family history, and current and past lists of medications.

All of that seems overwhelming so I just do a single step at a time. Now it's all there and I never have to struggle to remember some detail because I know where to find it.

“Never memorize something that you can look up.” —  Albert Einstein


* The worst part about changing passwords are that most websites aren't very good about telling you what the complete requirement are. They'll give you the minimum, but many won't tell you what the maximums are so you go to change a password and it fails… and it fails again. Or, worse, it takes it without issue but the server cut off the end when it reached the maximum characters allowed so your saved password doesn't work the next time you try to log in. For this reason, I have people logout and then test their password right away as a habit. This way it's fresh in their mind that they saved it and it was fine a minute ago. I also teach them that it's not working because there is at least one character that was removed from the end and to systematically start removing one at a time until they have the magic number. To make this easier I have them copy the password to TextEdit so they can see and edit, and then save it easier.

cgWerks said:

Maybe this was a test for the 'lock you out of your life' system Apple is getting ready to sell the government?

racerhomie3 said:

2 pieces of advice .
1.Use iCloud Keychain to make passwords. Do not try to remember them.
2. Use 2Factor Authentication.

No, use a real password manager. I recommend 1Password or PasswordWallet by Selznick.
The last thing you need is your most important data locked up, corrupted, or lost by the mess that is Apple's 'cloud' stuff.

GeorgeBMac said:
Yes, I have a friend who cannot remember her security questions.   When she initially set up her IDs she saw them as stupid and a nuisance and just rushed through them.  Now, if she ever needs them she'll be in trouble.

I have another friend who sets up long, complicated non-intuitive passwords.  He usually writes them down on a piece of scratch paper -- which he then loses...

Sigh...

Sheesh. They should be called un-security questions. If a company is stupid enough to force you to set them up, the answer you want to something like, 'Where did you go to high school?' should be something like: 4D^qLT6%wl   ... and only be used for that one security question for that one account.

And, yes, they won't be able to remember these, or even keep track of them very well w/o learning to use a password manager. IMO, that is required knowledge to have tech no the Internet these days.

The only problem with that security answer is that many still limit the field to just alphanumerical, and some with just letters and spaces. But you can make this answer long enough that it's also sufficiently complex.

Additionally, they also usually need to know your email address or username to gain access. For the reason, I use random usernames and email aliases whenever possible to make it hard for say, one website to have a breach and then have that cross over to another website where a hacker may hope that my email address or username is the same.  I used to use a standard alias for the email, like soli+appleinsider@me.com*, but now I just use something random, like  soli+E4ru82hxn@me.com*.

I even use random birthdays for the sites that require it, which can also be used for regaining access. Since I store all this data securely in 1Password there's absolutely no reason for me to not to do these simple things once and save it.

Finally, I have a calendar reminder for me to copy my 1Password vault to a flash drive which I save to a safety deposit box 4x a year. At this point I could probably move that to  twice a year since I add so few sites or even change the data too often these days, but every 3 months isn't inconvenience and I do other things whilst at the bank, so it's fine. I don't know if a bank vault and the metal boxes would be a sufficient shield from an EMP, but I figure if that ever happens I'll have bigger things to worry about at that time, and the convenience of burning an optical disc every three months is definitely an inconvenience.

PS: To get friends and family to slowly adopt the seemingly overwhelming task of setting up a password manager to the levels that we have done I have created some easy-to-follow steps in multiple stages that will make it simple and fairly anxiety free, and allow for repetition to create the pathways needed for them to help remember how to do it (and help others).


* If you think that any part of these emails will lead to an account in my name, then you're sorely mistaken. These are just examples.

I can definitely see how she can be charged with impeding an investigation (assuming it can be reasonably proven that she did the remote wipe), but I wonder if there is legal precedence that this would also be tampering with police evidence since it's digital data and there was no direct contact with the device. It is 2018 so I'd expect there is by now, but I've never read about it.

The Gazette is right about the police not properly protecting their evidence. If the courts ultimately throw out the iPhone as evidence it's on them and I hope they learn from their mistakes so that future criminals can be charged and convicted accordingly.

elijahg said:

Here in the UK I see people with Surface tablets more often than iPads, but both are much less common than laptops. How about comparing iPads to the rest of the tablet market, Timmy? Once upon a time Apple was miles out ahead in terms of tablet sales. I do think they have missed the boat a bit with the iPad: iPad is still essentially a giant iPhone, whereas the Surface tablet is a full blown Windows PC.

To be clear, you don't think that the graph showing MS is referring to the Surface? Maybe they really do mean just notebooks, and not notebooks that double as laptops or laptops that are designed to look-like tablets but whose functionality is really only viable as an unpleasant notebook, but I'm not aware that MS has any standard notebooks for sale.