Monthly Archives: April 2014

LastPass Now Tells You Which Heartbleed-Affected Passwords to Change

 

This week, a giant security hole came to lightthat affects a large portion of the internet. As different sites recover, you’ll need to change your passwords, and now LastPass tells you when to do so.P

Due to the nature of the Heartbleed bug (read more here), you’ll need to wait until affected sites update their infrastructure before you change your passwords. LastPass’ ever-useful Security Check tool now includes recommendations for Heartbleed, letting you know which sites have closed the hole, when, and if you should update yet.P

To run the tool, just click on the LastPass extension and head to Tools > Security Check. After running the tool, you’ll get the results (shown above) so you know what passwords to change. Hit the link to read more.P

LastPass Now Tells You Which Heartbleed-Affected Passwords to Change.

English teacher answers student poison pen letter with spelling and grammar corrections | Metro News

‘Please use your education appropriately. Proofreading takes five minutes and keeps you from looking stupid.’

English teacher answers student poison pen letter with spelling and grammar corrections | Metro News.

Weight Loss (Humour)

A guy calls a company and orders their 5-day, 5lbs weight loss program.

The next day, there’s a knock on the door and there stands before him a voluptuous, athletic, 19 year old babe dressed in nothing but a pair of Nike running shoes and a sign around her neck..

She introduces herself as a representative of the weight loss company. The sign reads, “If you can catch me, you can have me.”

Without a second thought, he takes off after her. A few miles later puffing and puffing, he finally gives up. The same girl shows up for the next four days and the same thing happens. On the fifth day, he weighs himself and is delighted to find he has lost 5lbs as promised.

He calls the company and orders their 5-day/10lbs program. The next day there’s a knock at the door and there stands the most stunning, beautiful, sexy woman he has ever seen in his life. She is wearing nothing but Reebok running shoes and a sign around her neck that reads, “If you catch me you can have me”.

Well, he’s out the door after her like a shot. This girl is in excellent shape and he does his best, but no such luck. So for the next four days, the same routine happens with him gradually getting in better and better shape.

Much to his delight on the fifth day when he weighs himself, he discovers that he has lost another 10lbs as promised. He decides to go for broke and calls the company to order the 7-day/25 lbs program.

“Are you sure?” asks the representative on the phone. “This is our most rigorous program.” “Absolutely,” he replies, “I haven’t felt this good in years.”

The next day there’s a knock at the door; and when he opens it he finds a huge muscular guy standing there wearing nothing but pink running shoes and a sign around his neck that reads, “If I catch you, you are mine.”

He lost 33 lbs that week…

Widespread Encryption Bug, Heartbleed, Can Capture Your Passwords

Some websites running SSL encryption, such as Airbnb, Pinterest, USMagazine.com, NASA, and Creative Commons, among others, were exposed to a major security bug called Heartbleed on Monday.

The bug was reportedly discovered by a member of Google’s security team and a software security firm called Codenomicon.

A number of other websites may, according to a list being distributed on GitHub, be vulnerable to the bug as well.

The bug affects web servers running Apache and Nginx software, and it has the potential to expose private information users enter into websites, applications, web email and even instant messages.

And while most security experts advise that you always use websites and services offering SSL security encryption whenever possible, the Heartbleed bug has the ability to allow malicious operators to defeat this security layer and capture passwords as well as forge authentication cookies and obtain other private information.

security patch for the bug was announced on Monday, but many websites are still playing catch up. That’s why websites like the Tor Project are, only somewhat tongue-in-cheek, advising that you stay off the Internet this week if you really care about your security.

Widespread Encryption Bug, Heartbleed, Can Capture Your Passwords.

Weekday Run #6

Today’s weekday run. Target 8K. Achieved 4.61K

Broke another record today, and got a sub-5 minute 1K :-)

Selection_001

Tracks: Endomondo, ZR, Nike+

Sintel Restored on YouTube Editorial | BlenderNation

It looks like the message came through – as of 9am this morning (CET), Sintel is available on YouTube again. In case you missed it, there was an outcry on the internet this weekend as it was pulled by Sony after alleged copyright infringement.

To put things into perspective, these YouTube takedowns are massively automated. Software scans all the uploaded media and flags any material where they detect copyrighted material. Large corporations such as Sony have enough traction with YouTube that they can then also automatically take down these media (smaller companies have to manually submit a DMCA takedown notice).

So is there still a problem? You bet there is – we’re lucky to have a huge and vocal community behind us, that spread this story over the web in a couple of hours. The story was featured on Cartoon BrewBoing BoingSlashdot and Reddit (which nuked the BlenderNation server for a few hours). This helped revert the takedown. If you’re a small publisher however, you will find it nearly impossible to talk to anyone and get your video back up. These automated takedowns can destroy your project and leave you powerless.

Boing Boing hits the nail on the head with their comment:

While it’s probably a mistake, because this is so brain-meltingly obviously wrong, it’s also a very stark example of how sloppy, over-broad, and consequence-free enforcement of copyright can damage culture.

I don’t think there was any intent behind this particular takedown – just an unfair, unaccountable system. I’m glad we got Sintel back.

Sintel Restored on YouTube Editorial | BlenderNation.

Sheffield Half Marathon somehow still a roaring success despite chaotic cancellation | Metro News

 

Despite the Sheffield Half Marathon being cancelled moments before the start, thousands of runners disobeyed orders and decided to complete the race anyway.

In heart-warming and sometimes amusing scenes, the people of the Sheffield rallied behind the ‘rebel runners’ – handing out bottles of water and offering loud cheers and applause.

Organisers were ‘very reluctantly’ forced to cancel the race before its 9am start time because of ‘insufficient water’ being delivered by suppliers and a subsequent safety risk to runners.

Sheffield Half Marathon somehow still a roaring success despite chaotic cancellation | Metro News.

There’s going to be a reboot of 1980s film favourite Police Academy. Yes, we are being serious | Metro News

Oh, God no. Rebooting all the 80s classics? Sounds like Hollywood are running out of ideas, so are destroying the childhoods of people who were kids in the 80s.

There’s going to be a reboot of 1980s film favourite Police Academy. Yes, we are being serious | Metro News.