Too old for technology… NOT!

You are never too old to learn a new skill or hobby.

This winter, I had one of my computer students attempt to teach me to knit. Needless to say, I was dropping stitches, pulling the yarn too tight… it windows was an absolute nightmare. I was frustrated that I could not master the simple skill of a basic knitting stitch. It definitely humbled me and made me think of how many of my students get frustrated in class with computers. Do I left click or right click? How many times do I click? It enlightened me to be more patient when the same student asks the same question over and over and over. The statement “I’m too old to learn” is hogwash!! Help is out there! I can attest, I love working with my senior citizen students more than any other demographic.

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via Too old for technology… NOT!.

Create a Secret Hiding Space in Windows

How to create a secret hiding space for your data within Windows.
by The Windows Club

The Windows operating system offers many tweaks and tricks. If you are aware of these, then you can complete your tasks quickly and in a simple way. You may never need to use any third-party software, if you are good at using those tricks. Among those many tweaks available, I will let you know, how to hide data in a secret text file compartment, created using a Notepad in Windows 8 / 7.

We normally save our bank account numbers, credit card numbers, important passwords and so on, in text files and place them on our desktop to access them easily. But, if your system is being shared with others, then there is chance of this information being compromised.

What I suggest is, follow this method of hiding data whenever necessary and remove those text files immediately once you are done with your work, as once anything is made, there are many ways to break it. This method makes use of the Alternate Data Streams of the NTFS file system, which Windows supports.

Article Continued Here

What are the 5 tips of a productive developer?

1) Don’t optimize.
The impulse to optimise is usually premature. Clever solutions to squeeze performance increase complexity and undermine the end goal. Get the code working. Optimise just that code that needs it, at the end.

2) Do optimize for simplicity
You can optimise for execution speed. You can optimise for space. But the most precious thing you should optimise for is your own time. Optimise for readability, and understandability. If you have to stop and ask yourself, “how does this work?” or “why isn’t this doing what it should do?” – you have just wasted your time.

3) Much fancy academic CS is bogus
Some college based computer science methods should be used with care. Many papers describe methods which are super optimised around one case. Not all are bogus, but the benefits in many papers are often over-stated. And if you adopt the solution, you may find the benefits do not justify the costs.

4) The simplest abstractions are usually best
The real enemy in being productive is the mind of the programmer. The more “cognitive load” you place in your head, the less productive you become. So complexity is the enemy. Whenever possible, adopt simple dumb solutions. He talks a lot about iterating through arrays, rather than smarter data structures. If you can keep it all in your head, you will be faster. You can’t keep it all in your head if there is this ton of complexity.

With each new class/method added to your code, the complexity can increase not linearly but exponentially. Deleting code is therefore always better than adding code. Don’t put stuff into functions when it could be inline.

5) Don’t write generalised code
Over generalised super flexible code is often a waste of time. It’s usually harder to maintain and a source of potential bugs. Hard coding isn’t bad if your code is doing one thing.

Ref.: http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-5-tips-of-a-productive-developer

Tell Everyone to BackUp

By Leo Notenboom

In an editorial post a few years ago, I bemoaned the state of backing up. The post, entitled “Why don’t people back up?” discussed the many varied (and somewhat reasonable) reasons individuals might not be backing up their precious data.

I also discussed many scenarios in which people lose that precious data completely and forever… scenarios in which a backup solution would have protected them in some way. In fact, almost any backup solution would have helped. As I say in What backup program should I use?, “Asking what backup program to use is very much like asking, ‘What’s the best exercise program?’ The best program for exercise or backup is whichever one you’ll actually do.”

Anything is better than nothing.

The good news is that more people are backing up – or at least attempting to.

The bad news is that we still have a long way to go to get more people to back up. I know this by the number of panic-stricken emails I receive.

Article continued here

Is Extortionware the Next Big Threat?

By Stu Sjouwerman, for KnowBe4.com Security Awareness Training

TK Keanini, CTO, Lancope wrote a 2015 Predictions editorial over at SC Magazine. He said he expects more malware like CryptoLocker and CryptoWall over the next 12 months, but also something new called “extortionware”.

I wholeheartedly agree what he said: “Ransomware remains profitable, and cybercriminals are always looking for areas to grow their business. To date, victims have mainly been individuals with data from their computers or smartphones being held for ransom. But the one industry at great risk here is health care. Three factors make it a highly attractive target for ransomware expansion in 2015 – the mandate to move to electronic records, the sensitive nature of health care data, and the immaturity of the information security practices that exist in the health care industry today. This is a scary notion because we rely so heavily on the availability and accuracy of patient records. The cost of a compromise could range from an inconvenience to loss of life.”

But then he predicts something else for 2015 and that I do not agree with so much: “Extortionware is an expansion on ransomware whereby unless you pay a certain amount to the attacker, the data will be made public for all to see (or for more targeted disclosure). What if the data contains evidence of infidelity, for example? The list of possible incriminating data goes on and on, but you can see how this differs from ransomware. Much like spear phishing, this attack will be much more targeted, but attackers will yield a higher take per victim, and those victims are less likely to involve law enforcement due to the sensitive nature of the data.

Is this very likely? Article continued here.