Brendan’s Blog

Everyone has different television viewing habits and preferences. Some don’t have a TV at all and there are times that seems appealing. My viewing habits can be summarized as follows:

• I don’t watch TV every day.
• I only watch TV using a DVR.
• I only watch pre-recorded shows (except occasional sports.)
• I usually skip commercials and sometimes even boring content within a program.
• Most of my TV watching is late, when the kids are asleep.

Last fall I posted about “part 1″ of my search for HDTV service.  Earlier this year I dropped Dish Network due to frequent hardware failures.  I then switchted to Comcast and was happy enough with the service, but the monthly cost was too high after the initial promotions ended so I restarted my quest…

A little bit of research led me back to DirecTV.  Their offerings have improved in a number of ways since I left them last year.  Most importantly since I’m now a “new” customer, they’re offering a reasonable deal on new HDTV/DVR receivers. 

Additionally I discovered that AAA members get additional discounts on top of the regular promotions for new DirecTV customers.   Offer is available only by calling the AAA exclusive DirecTV toll-free number to order services: 1-800-242-9114. Valid AAA membership number needed when calling.

I ordered two HD-DVR systems and two standard (SD, non-DVR) receivers for a total cost of $130 with installation and a two year service agreement.  My monthly cost for TV service will be half of Comcast’s with more programming — even after my initial promotions expire.

I needed a new roof-top dish to receive the newest signals, and the DirecTV installer put the dish right where I wanted it.My only complaint about installation is the installer wanted to charge $80 extra to remove my old roof-top dishes.  I had three, one old DirecTV and two from Dish.  I removed them and patched the screw holes myself.

I am very happy about the following aspects of the DirecTV service so far:

• The picture quality is better than expected.  According to my research, DirecTV’s HD signlas are not technically as complete as cable or over the air HD broadcasts, but I can’t tell the difference.
• The DVR interface is easy to use, and response to the remote.
• The On-Demand service has lots of programming, comperable to what Comcast offered.
• The DirecTV receiver (HR-22) can play audio, video, and photo media through my home network which is stored on my Windows PC.
• The new roof-top dish to receiver wiring is much less complicated than it was previously.  I have only one RG6 cable coming from the dish to a central wiring point.  A non-powered splitter then provides one single cable output to each receiver.  The splitter provided by the installer supports up to 8 receivers.  The new receivers can now provide dual-tuner HD support with a single cable run back to the splitter.

I have the following suggestions for improvement:

• It would be nice to replay a program on a different DVR than it was originally recorded on.
• It would be nice if the DirecTV receivers could act as media sources to Windows Media Center.
• It would be nice to configure the DVR recordings via a web interface instead of the remote control.

In summary, I am now again a happy DirecTV customer.  Your startup and monthly costs are sure to vary from mine, as they are dependent on seasonal promotions.

I first joined Digital Federal Credit Union as an employee of Digital Equipment Corp in 1999.  In the years since I have found DCU to be focused on providing new an innovative services, excellent customer service, and a very convenient place to conduct my day-to-day banking.

Digital Federal Credit Union is a not-for-profit financial cooperative owned by and operated for our members. DCU was chartered in October of 1979. Since then, DCU has been chosen as the credit union for more than 700 companies and organizations. DCU serves more than 350,000 members and their families in all 50 states.

 

DCU is the largest credit union headquartered in New England as measured by assets and among the top 15 nationwide. According to Callahan & Associates, a credit union consulting group, of the top 50 largest, DCU has been the fastest growing credit union in America in the last ten years. That’s thanks in large part to the satisfaction and loyalty of our members and the dedication and commitment of our volunteers and staff.

DCU has several advantages to local area banks that I find very appealing:

• No fee-for-service  Very few kinds of things incur fees at DCU.
• Reimbursed ATM fees  DCU reimburses you for the fees that third-party ATMs charge you (up to $10/month)
• PC Deposit  Deposit paper checks from your PC and scanner – no more mailing!
• Fantastic bill-pay system  Very easy to use, and costs you nothing.  I don’t write & mail checks, and have not for years.
• Free Wireless Access Free account access from your web-enabled phone, PDA, or pager.
• Quicken/Money/Quickbooks Data import functions if you use software to help track spending

Since DCU is a credit union, not a bank, you must be eligible to join by your employer, family relationship to existing members, organization you belong to, or community you live in.  Luckily, anyone can join DCU by first joining a membership organization for as little as $15.  Once a member, always a member.

The only downside to using DCU day-to-day is that they don’t have branches near my home.  This isn’t a show stopper however.  DCU does participate in a CU Service Center Network which does have branches within 30 miles of my home.  With conveniences like ATMs for withdrawals, direct deposit, prepaid envelopes for deposit-by-mail, and now PC deposit via scanner, I rarely need a traditional branch anyway.

I prefer to store documents digitally, rather than with paper in drawers.  I have long sought a way to quickly convert paper documents into digital form for archival and search/retrieval purposes.  I recently found a great product which sits on my desk, and does exactly that.

Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 Instant PDF Sheet-Fed Scanner

Increase productivity in a snap with the Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 Sheet-Fed Scanner. The S510 digitizes both sides of a document in a single pass at up to 18 pages per minute in color, making it ideal for a small office or home office environment.

Changing how documents are managed

• One button scanning to searchable PDF
• Scan directly to Microsoft® applications
• New multifunction Quick Menu feature
• Easily protect, preserve, & share documents
• Business card scanning
• Color Duplex 18 pages per minute
• Adobe® Acrobat® 8.0 Standard

The Fujitsu ScanSnap S510 is around the size of a toaster.  I can put a document in its feeder tray (up to 50 pages at a time) and just hit go to start.  Both sides of each page are scanned simulateously.  When its done, a PDF is created and OCR processes begin.  It sits just to the right of my monitor in prime desktop realestate.  I use the ScanSnap regularly to scan bills, paper correspondence, and even drawings created by my kids.

My only complaint is that the scanner driver is not TWAIN compliant, so applications like PhotoShop, and NeatReceipts don’t recognize it.  The “workaround” is to use the ScanSnap to scan first to PDF for import to other applications.

Update: I should point out that this product is not cheap.  The average price is around $400.  At the moment, a $50 mail-in-rebate is available though October 2008 at Newegg.com.

Once upon a time I frequently reused passwords. So if you knew my dogs name, or what kind of car I drove, you could easily have pretended to be me with just a little extra work. This is obviously a very bad idea, but I’m sure many people struggle with managing passwords for web sites and computer systems you access on a regular basis.

Passwords are keys to your identity.  If a malicious person were to figure out your email password, what harm could they cause?  Could they quickly gather the names and contact information for your friends and family?  Could they figure out where you bank?  Could they reset your bank password by telling your bank that your password was forgotten?

A researcher who examined 10,000 Hotmail, MSN and Live.com passwords that were recently exposed online has published an analysis of the list and found that “123456″ was the most commonly used password, appearing 64 times.
- Wired Magazine

Here are my tips for choosing the best passwords:

• Use different passwords for every site/application.  Do not reuse them.
• Change passwords frequently.  The more you use a password, the more you should change it.
• Keep your passwords secret.  Guard them as if they were keys to your identity — they usually are.
• Consider using a random password generator.
• Consider using passphrases (e.g. Myhouseismadeofwoodandhasyellowsiding!)
• Consider using acronyms (e.g. Mhimowahys!)
• Do not use words, birthdays, family and pet names, addresses, or any other personal information in your passwords.
• Do not use repeat characters such as 111 or sequences like abc, qwerty, or 123 in any part of your password.

I strongly recommend using a password managment tool for three important reasons.

1. Tools remember many passwords so you don’t have to.
2. Tools can type passwords for you.  This makes strong passwords easy to use.
3. Tools can create strong passwords which are complex, unique, and random.

A while back I wrote a post about PasswordSafe, which I used to manage my usernames and passwords.  I later switched to a different tool named KeePass.  KeePass is also free and open source, but I think it is also easier to use.  I now also use LastPass which is a different on-line based password manager.

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish). For more information, see the features page.

The ability to auto-type usernames and passwords is infinately flexible with KeePass.  Auto-type is a very important feature, although I can understand why you may not initially think so.  Think about the strongest types of passwords.  They are long, complex, unique, and full of many different character types.  Do you want to type those in manually each time?  Once I switched to KeePass, my normal password length increased to 20 or more randomized characters wherever possible.  Since I don’t have to remember or type them, I prefer the really long/complex ones.

To manage my password database across several computers, I use FolderShare to synchronize it between systems.  This keeps my database of (as of writing 317) passwords the same across all my systems.  Occasionally I also copy the password database file to a USB flash drive so I can access accounts when I’m not using one of my own computers.

KeePass has many other great features.  The listing of features below links to their website.

Some websites with more complicated authentication schemes will require customization of the auto-type string.  The software “help” references provides details on how to do this.

The small physical size and low cost of USB based flash disk drives, or USB Drives, often exposes confidential information due to theft and loss. The growing memory capacity on these drives increases the problem as more data is stored for longer periods of time.

I use my USB Drives frequently, as do many mobile professionals. I categorize my usage into two basic functions:

• Storage – Storing my files for later reference, often with a PC which is not my own.
• Transfer – As a mechanism to copy files from one PC to another.

When evaluating encryption methods I considered how a given encryption product would impact the use of a USB Drive for both functions. For example, since I frequently use my USB Drive with PCs I do not own, I cannot use a product which requires a typical software installation on a PC to use.

I also sometimes lend my USB Drive to others temporarily – typically when transferring files from one PC to another. The encryption product needs to allow a third party to still use my USB Drive without knowing how to use the encryption software.

Another consideration was cost. A low to no-cost solution is usually preferable, not only because it does not require an initial investment, but it also facilitates easy testing and rapid adoption.

I settled on a product called TrueCrypt which, for now, seems like the best tool suited for my use. Its license provides for free use for both non-commercial and commercial purposes. Version 4.2a for Windows is around 1,388KB in total size which includes documentation.

Main Features:

• Creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk.
• Encrypts an entire hard disk partition or a storage device such as USB flash drive.
• Encryption is automatic, real-time (on-the-fly) and transparent.
• Provides two levels of plausible deniability, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password:
  • Hidden volume (steganography – more information may be found here).
  • No TrueCrypt volume can be identified (volumes cannot be distinguished from random data)
• Encryption algorithms: AES-256, Serpent, and Twofish. Mode of operation: LRW.
• Further information regarding features of the software may be found in the documentation.

I create an encrypted disk volume within my USB Drive, rather than encrypting the entire device. The encrypted volume is used to store all protected data. When the encryption software is not used, the encrypted volume simply appears as a large file which cannot be accessed. Naturally this file can be deleted, however, the data within the file is protected from unauthorized access.

I leave unencrypted free space on the USB Drive for use when transferring files from one PC to another. This allows the USB Drive to be used for file transfers without using the encryption software at all.

TrueCrypt can certainly be used in many other ways and for many other purposes. I simply find the USB Drive to be an easy use-case.