Password Patrol

On Tuesday, I blogged about my WiFi being hijacked and having to change my router's password. That meant updating passwords all around the house on a myriad of devices.

Fortunately, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I have my own personal router that I'd changed all the passwords on the day I bought it and most of my devices were logged in to the WiFi through that device rather than the AT&T router.

There are a few devices, though, that were connected directly to the leased router. Like my iPhone. I have the TV guide for Direct TV on there, and if I want to change channels from the app, I have to be logged on to the same network as my router.

I also logged my dad's iPad through the this router because the password was shorter than on my own router. Luckily, though, my Nest thermostats were through the personal router, the Roku boxes, and my Wii box, too. It minimized the pain.

But the pain was even more minimal than I expected because of Apple. (***This is not an ad for them and heaven knows they're not giving me anything to blog about this. This is my own, personal opinion.***) Apple made everything so easy!

Once I was logged in via the new password on my iPhone, I went to update my dad's iPad. Trust me when I say this was necessary. If he got to his iPad before I updated and couldn't connect to the internet to send emails or message someone, I would hear about it. :-) So, because my password app is on my iPhone, I brought it with me to enter the new password on my dad's iPad. I clicked forget network and then selected it again to login.

Apple popped a message on my phone asking if they should use that password. Not just yes, but hell, yes! I didn't have to enter anything! It just automatically put in the password and the iPad was connected. Brilliant!

Hijacked?

I was working from home last week and my work computer was having a super hard time staying connected to the internet. This isn't a huge shock because this has happened before and I ended up buying a repeater to bridge the WiFi signal over to my office even though my personal equipment has never had an issue.

Today, though, my personal equipment was struggling, too.

I hoped it was merely a glitch that would straighten itself out the next day. Only it didn't. It was the same on Friday, so when I got home from work that afternoon, I ran a scan to see if my computer had malware or a virus.

It scanned clean.

My next step was to download software to scan what devices were on my network. When I ran that, I found a couple of surprises--two devices I didn't recognize. One said Samsung and the only Samsung I own is my refrigerator and I do not have a smart fridge. It appeared as if someone had hacked into my internet and was using my WiFi.

When I had my internet installed after I moved, I was lazy and didn't change the password that came on the AT&T router. I figured why bother? Everyone had their own internet and I was planning to switch to Comcast when my contract was up. (FYI, if you are using the password that came with your router, be it AT&T, Comcast, Charter, or even one you bought in the store, you should change the password. I always have in the past. There are a limited number of passwords they use for these devices and someone who knows what they're doing can hijack your internet. I just figured none of the people around me would know this.)

I shouldn't have been lazy.

After I spotted these rogue devices, I changed the password on my router and updated the devices in my house that were logged in. The two strange items that showed up on my scan? No longer there when I reran the scan.

I don't know why anyone felt the need to use my internet, but my internet speed improved a lot after I changed my password. Lesson learned: Don't be lazy.

Streaming Creativity

***I received no compensation of any kind for this blog post and paid for my membership.***

A little over 2 years ago when my anxiety was out of control, I decided I wanted to see if learning to crochet would help settle me down. I tried to find lessons locally, but there was nothing in the search results of my browser. There was, however, an online site called Craftsy. I decided to give it a try and amazingly enough, I was able to learn crochet. I also learned to knit from that site.

Fast forward and Craftsy was bought out by a big company and started a streaming service where users paid a monthly fee. This wouldn't work for me because I don't have a lot of time. It's different when you buy a class and it's yours forever, but streaming? I wouldn't get my money's worth.

I resisted the lure until January. They offered $10 off the annual subscription price and 12 classes that you could own forever for free. I took the annual price, divided it by 12 classes, and came up with around $6.00 a class. That's cheaper than any sale Craftsy ever had. I caved, deciding that the cost per class was worth it.

And I discovered I want to try all the things. I watched half of the learn to sew class, toyed with actually learning to sew, then slept on it and realized I didn't have the time. Besides, I wanted to so the learn to pencil sketch and learn to draw with colored pencil classes and that desire was stronger than sewing. I've also watched classes on brush lettering, cutting with vinyl on my Silhouette Cameo, and a class on how to arrange flowers.

Yes, I now want to do all the things. I didn't expect Bluprint to be this addictive.

And now I kind of want to stay subscribed even after my year is up. I know, right? This is clearly what they were hoping for when they cast their lure in my email pool. The thing is that I'm normally not crafty and I barely have enough time to knit. Where am I going to find time for the other things, too?

Guess I'll be figuring out what to do and what to drop over the next few months.

Where Did You Attend Grade School?

A lot of websites want you to answer security questions before you can login to their site from a new location. New location means same old computer on a different browser too, which is a pain. But the security questions are even a bigger pain.

I had one recently where before it would accept my login, I had to answer this question: Who is your favorite actress?

Hmm. I don't have a favorite actress and I certainly don't remember choosing one as an answer to a security question. I thought long and hard. It must be Jennifer Lawrence. I typed in her name. Incorrect answer. I tried just her last name. Incorrect answer. I thought about some more actresses, but I'm really not into this fame thing at all and couldn't come up with another answer. I refreshed the page. Who is your favorite actress? Gah!

I did eventually gain access to this site because after I refreshed the screen again, I received a security question that I could answer, but really? Why was this question considered a good one? Don't people change their minds all the time about who their favorite actors or actresses are?

Most security questions are just plain problematic. What's your favorite pet's name? That means I can't ever blog about or talk about any of my pets. Same thing for What was the make and model of your first car? What was the first concert you saw? Where did you attend grade school? Where were you born?

I've yet to see something as a security question that isn't either impossible to remember (i.e. who's your favorite actress) or difficult to remember to never talk about online (i.e. the list in the paragraph above.)

It seems to me that a much smarter way to handle this would be two factor authentication rather than stupid security questions. Even if I'm wrong about two-factor, there just plain has to be a better way than these questions.

User Names

Picking a user name is hard online and becomes harder every day as more and more names get taken. In the beginning, I tried to use Patti everywhere, but someone else always had it already and I was on the internet earlier than the majority of people. PattiO was usually a no-go too.

I ended up using my full name on Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook, which ended up working out with the writing thing. I kind of stumbled into FB by accident and was on there--again--earlier than a lot of people. At least a lot of people that weren't part of the original college group that had FB to themselves for a while. You used to need a .edu email address to register.

Adding extra difficulty to the question is that you want a user name you can tell people. If someone you work with asks for your Twitter name, you don't want to tell them it's Studmuffin or anything else embarrassing in real life.

What if you really dig the user name and want a website for it? Now it's time to worry about who's registered what web domain name. It's daunting.

There used to be a website that would look at available names across multiple platforms, but I forget what it was called. I also read stories in the news about parents who would register their kids' names for websites and social media so that when they were old enough to use it, it would be there for them and not taken by anyone else.

It's really a hard thing. It becomes an identity the same way a name does, and what's available and sounds cool when you're 20 might not be that cool when you're 40. Then the question becomes do I really want to start over with a new user name? Better to get it right the first time.

Yep, a truly daunting problem.

No Cookies

One of my huge pet peeves is websites that demand the user have cookies turned on for their site. No. I will not turn my cookies on for your site. This is especially annoying on retail sites that presumably would like me to buy something. But no, I'm not allowed to even browse their site because my cookies are turned off. If I want to order, I will turn my cookies on.

Even worse than retail sites who won't allow me to browse are the ones that insist I register for their stie before I can look around. What? How many people do you want to discourage from looking around? Do they not realize that causal lookers can become shoppers?

If I really want to see a site and it insists I register, I usually go to bugmenot.com and get the anyone can use it login. Most of the time, though, I don't bother. I just write that site off my list and never visit it again.

These two items sound like huge fails to me. I understand why they do it. Analytics, mailing lists, etc, but is it really worth the customers that feel disenfranchised? And really, allowing people like me in isn't that big a deal because most people don't bother to turn off their cookies. Besides, if I turn on my cookies, I'll probably get ad-stalked on Facebook. (I'm looking at you Overstock and Wayfair.) Is there anything creepier than seeing a product you looked at in your FB feed?

I can't really say I'm more apt to buy from a site that doesn't lock me out because of cookies, but I can guarantee that I'm not turning cookies on to browse a site. So yeah, I'll be buying what I'm looking for elsewhere.

The First Time I've Kickstarted

I've been over to visit Kickstarter a few times, mostly when other writers tweeted about projects for books or magazine issues. I've thought about investing, but never felt compelled. Until recently.

I backed The Stupendous Splendiferous ButterUp.

A group of Australian guys invented a knife that will actually spread butter without ripping up your bread--if the video is accurate. I'm making an effort to get back to more natural foods, but I've hesitated on butter because it's such a PITA to spread.

Since their goal of $38,000 Australian Dollars was surpassed by nearly 10x, it appears that I'm not the only one who hates spreading butter.

My Stupendous Splendiferous ButterUp is supposed to arrive in December. I'll try to remember to write a review after I've had a chance to use it.

When Did You Lose Your Compassion?

There's a thing that's been going on for a while online that bothers me. A lot. Sites like The People of Walmart and others like them--and the people who share these pictures on Facebook, Twitter, etc--make me want to cry for humanity.

You see, when I see someone who's wearing a pair of underwear cut up to make a shirt, I don't think OMG, that's so funny. Instead, I think, that poor woman is so broke, that she's struggling to keep herself and her family clothed.

When I see someone post a picture of a naked overweight woman outside in a clear plastic rain slicker, I don't think, Oh, gross. I think that poor woman is mentally ill and needs help.

I addressed this back in my 2010 release, In the Darkest Night. Farran is working at a discount store when some college-aged girl takes a picture of her with a scar on her face. The purpose was to laugh at Farran--cruelly laugh--and to get other people to laugh at the disfigurement, too. It devastated my heroine, and if these people have seen the mean-spirited and hateful comments on their photos, they're probably devastated, too.

I see this online time and again and it makes me angry at the people who think it's okay to laugh at someone else's misfortune--whether it be mental illness or fashion faux pas--or laughing at another person for looking different, for example like the stereotype of a nerd.

It also makes me hugely sad. When did we lose our compassion for our fellow human beings? People who've done nothing to us, but who appeared in public wearing something that others found worth mocking. So many of those pictures clearly show the person is probably mentally ill or so poor that they can't afford to buy better clothes. Don't even get me started about laughing at someone simply because of how they look.

I stopped going to places like Fail Blog because they became meaner and meaner and meaner about people. I even sent a comment to the site saying that I hated what they were becoming. When nothing changed, I stopped visiting.

Life is hard for a lot of people--why do some people think it's okay to laugh at the expense of others? Do they have to tear someone else down to feel okay about themselves? Because that's a pretty sad reason.

My wish for the world is that more people practice compassion and empathy for their fellow human beings. Life is about helping others, not mocking them.

Life Without Internet

Another blog written in Minnesota: It's really kind of amazing how dependent I am on the internet. I've jokingly called it Life Support, but it's become such a part of everyday life. I don't have internet while I'm in Minnesota. My parents don't need it and I gave it up when I moved to Atlanta. None of my neighbors were kind enough to leave their networks unsecured.

One of the things I need to do while I'm home is get my taxes done. I thought I'd copied all the information I needed to my computer only to discover I'd forgotten all about the information I had saved on my online email account. Oops.

Today I was getting my hair cut and I used the time at the salon to get that information written down. I didn't have time, though, to do everything else I needed to do and that was so frustrating. And with so much to do on my house, it's not like I can park my butt there and keep using it until I finished.

The other thing that's frustrating is I need to buy a few things for the house—namely new curtains for my bedroom and some new towels to put out in the master bathroom. I shop online all the time. I hate real, go-to-the-store shopping unless I have no other choice. I didn't have time to look at curtains or towels online either. Now I either have to bite the bullet and go to a store or hope the tax guy will let me use his wifi.

It's kind of amazing to realize that in 1999, I was one of the first people I knew to hop online. I remember how frustrated I was over how few businesses—no matter how big they were—had a web presence. I got coffee mugs from Amazon every year in the beginning because I was a good online customer. Among the earliest.

I'm feeling so cutoff right now. I think I need internet anonymous.

The Social Networks

I'm on far too many social networks, but being signed up for them and actually using them are two different things. I have a very different level of participation.

Twitter - This is my favorite and where you're most likely to find me. I love chatting with people here and wish more of my followers would start conversations. Sometimes it takes me a while to answer, especially if I'm writing or at the day job, but I do reply most of the time. (There are occasions when I can't think of anything to say in return.) I especially enjoy saying good morning.

Facebook - I'm on here and check in a few times a day, but I mostly forget to comment back to stuff on my wall. I mean to, but it's just too easy to space it out. I also mostly forget to update my status (that's what Twitter is for!) despite having multiple ways to post to FB at the same time I post to Twitter.

MySpace - Has gone from very active to next to zero. I would delete my account if I still wasn't getting so many views on my blog over here. I wish MySpace, though, would let me feed in my blog the way that Amazon and Goodreads do because cutting and pasting gets old. Barring that, I wish they would let me preschedule posts the way WordPress and Blogger do. I don't use the feature that often, but there are definitely times it comes in handy.

Goodreads - I had good intentions here, but basically my blog just auto feeds in to the site. I think I would be more active if I could have uploaded the books I own to the site. (My fiction collection alone is 5000+.) But Goodreads wouldn't upload from my spreadsheet because I didn't record the ISBN numbers of the books and I don't have near enough time to even consider entering the titles individually.

Shelfari - I was active here very briefly. Now, I can't tell you the last time I visited. I should see if I can auto feed a blog in here, too. :-)

Library Thing - I joined this back before it was social. Big drawback here is the number of books you can list before you have to go to a paid account. I mostly forget to visit.

Bebo - I haven't visited here regularly since In the Midnight Hour was releasing back in what? 2007? I'm still shocked when I get friend requests or notices that someone has made me their top friend because of how long it's been since I was over there. This site is one from which I do need to delete myself. If I can ever remember to get over there.

Some Pages thing - I can't remember if it's Yahoo or Microsoft or if it's someone else all together, but you can tell how long it's been since I did anything with that site since I can't even remember who runs it or what the exact name of it is. If I didn't bookmark this site, there won't be anyway to even get over here to delete myself.

Music Hunt

One really great thing about the internet is the ability to track down information quickly and easily. As a writer, being able to get an answer to a research point for a book almost instantly and being able to get right back to the story is a blessing. It's proven to be handy, though, in other ways.

There has been some really great use of music in television commercials lately. It started with Geico using Let Me Be Myself by 3 Doors Down. Geico nicely put the name of the group and the song title at the bottom of the screen so I was able to jump over to iTunes and buy a copy for myself. Most advertisers haven't been so helpful and this is where the internet comes into play.

There are two other songs I've been grooving on. One of them, Build Me Up Buttercup by the Foundations wasn't too hard to figure out. One Google search gave me the name of the group (I only had the song title from the lyrics of the ad) and it was painless.

The other ad music I've been loving wasn't easy to track down. Oh, I could guess at the song title from the lyrics. That was easy. The hard part was figuring out which version was the right one. I wanted the same one used in the commercial.

What ad was it? The one for the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The ad is awesome by itself. A bunch of ballplayers suddenly inundated with sand, another player jumps at the outfield wall to catch a ball and falls through it onto the beach, and a giant sandcastle in the form of Angels Stadium. It's just a fun commercial. The music made it even more fun.

But the song, California Sun was covered by about a million different bands/singers. I looked at the list and was like, wow, which version?

Google didn't exactly help me here, but it led me to YouTube and some kind soul posted the name of the band. Thank you, sir, whoever you are! The version I wanted was by The Dictators. I bought it and have been grooving ever since.

Once, before the internet, getting the name of the band for California Sun would have been a futile effort. Now, it's as easy as heading to YouTube. Awesome!

Watch the fabulous and fun commercial (complete with awesome song) below.

In Search Of a Home Page

Once, a long, long time ago, I used to have Prodigy as my ISP. And even longer ago than that, they had a great home page. It was affiliated with Excite for a while. When Prodigy moved to something else as the home page screen, I stayed with Excite, but lost the special Prodigy setup they had. It was never the same after that, and when they were bought out, it became worse, IMO. Since this time, I've been in search of a new home page to greet me when I log on to the internet.

I tried the Prodigy home page when I was with them and Earthlink, who I moved to next, and I've tried my current ISP's home page, too. I've tried Yahoo and iGoogle and PageFlakes and didn't like any of them. I stayed with My Way as my home page longer than most, but even they got annoying. I hung with them because I didn't know where else to try next.

This weekend, I decided to try NetVibes. The jury's still out on what I think about them.

I like that it's customizable and that there are modules I can plug in to customize it. I like that I can create as many different tabs as I want for my data. Like the General page only has my local weather, a quote of the day thing, and a image search box. I have all my writing blogs on one tab, my non-writing blogs on another, a tab for tech news and a tab for regular news. A tab for cartoons and other fun stuff. It's nice to have it all organized, but....

The things I don't like about NetVibes is all the different tabs. Instead of just one home page where I can see everything in a glance, I now have 8 home pages and I have to click the tab for each one of them. The modules with the news/sports/entertainment stuff updates constantly and those little red numbers telling me how many unread stories I have is annoying. I think I turned them off somehow on some tabs, but it doesn't work for all tabs and I don't know why.

But I'm going to give them a month or two, maybe more because I just can't find a good home page. I don't think what I'm looking for is that unrealistic. I mean, hey, it existed in 2002 or whenever it was that Prodigy was affiliated with the old Excite.com. In the meantime, I'll keep experimenting and hoping I find something, somewhere that works for me.

Wooting!

Welcome to the new look for my blog. It matches my new website and I think it turned out great! And I can say that because I'm not the person who did it. :-)

This week, there was a Woot-off on Woot.com. I can't remember how I found out about this site, but usually they do one deal a day. Every couple of months, though, they hold a Woot-off and then it's item after item until whatever they put up sells out. Woot-offs normally last two days, but occasionally go three.

Some of it takes a long time to go because it's, well, junk. The used DVDs of three incredibly lame comedies are one item that came up today that I thought were never going to sell out! Other items are just things most people will never need. There's a lot of tech stuff, like HD video cards. Great if you're someone who likes to assemble your own system, not so great for those of us who aren't. There's a lot of refurbished stuff and then there are some really good deals.

Today, I wooted and bought coffee! Five 1 pound bags. It was actually a good deal if you happen to like the expensive coffee, and thanks to a friend of mine, I'm now hooked on the stuff.

But the highlight of every Woot-off is the Bag of Crap. Yep, Bag of Crap.

When I first got on Woot, I ignored them. I imagined that it would be some pretty lame stuff that they couldn't sell. Like the mini kites or the bag of charades game. Then I was told, no, it's not always junk. Sometimes it includes good things like televisions or other electronics.

Well, heck, if there was a chance to get something that might actually be useful, I had to try, right? It's like buying the occasional lottery ticket--you just might get lucky.

So I tried and tried on earlier Woot-offs to get a Bag of Crap, but I had no luck. One time, they put it up while I was driving home from work. The others? Well, I just couldn't get through. The server would crash and by the time I got back on Woot, some other item would be up.

I didn't think today would be any different. For one thing, I was on my laptop which is four years old and is hooked to the internet via a wireless router. Not exactly as fast as if I were on my newish desktop hooked directly into the cable modem. And then the item that was up sold out and I kept pressing F5. And I saw the picture for a Bag of Crap!

Immediately, I hit the "I want one" button, and while it was slow, I actually got to the order screen. Nervously, sure that it would sell out before I could get through, I typed my password. Wrong. I had to backup and retype it. I'm going to be too late now, I knew it. I hit the button that all my information was right. And waited.

And waited.

I was getting more nervous. Bags of Crap sell out in less than a minute. I didn't want to be sitting on this screen while it sold out. Then the order button screen showed up. My hands were nearly shaking as I clicked to submit my order. Again, I waited.

Would I be thwarted this close to my goal?

Then I got it, the screen that said they'd reserved my Bag of Crap and were processing my order. If I wanted to make sure it went through, I could wait till the confirmation screen came up. Like I was going to click away without that! So I waited, but my email came through first--I had successfully wooted my first ever Bag of Crap!

Whoo hooo!!!

Like a hunter bringing down the woolly mammoth, I had succeeded in bagging the prize!

So now I wait for my Bag of Crap to arrive and hope that I get something I can use and not three used DVDs of some lame comedies or a mini kite.

Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Day to Stop Drinking Coffee

Last night, I decided I needed to kick the coffee habit. I usually only drink one cup a day, but I desperately need that caffeine kick. This isn't the first time I've tried to quit, but I was on deadline when I made the other attempts and I quickly resumed the coffee, needing to meet my deadline.

Now, though, my next book is due March 1 and I don't have revisions yet on the last book, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Um, yeah, while I'm still having insomnia issues. I had a grand total of 3 hours of sleep last night. Maybe.

I popped a vitamin B. That got me through my morning routine and to my car. It's not helping at the Evil Day Job (EDJ). I'm sitting here, fighting to keep my eyes open. I've done a lot of walking around the office, on the theory that humans don't sleep on their feet.

So far, I'm holding out, but if this is what it feels like to be without coffee, I don't know how I'm going to make it.

Last night, my internet connection went down which is why I'm blogging from the EDJ today. It's also why I didn't get a chance to answer comments yet. I'll do that as soon as I can.