It’s Easier Than You Think
One Man’s Blog has written an enlightening post about how easy it easy to crack passwords. I never realized how much a difference a single letter (and using upper and lower case) can make.
Here’s a table from his post reflecting how much (or little) time it takes to crack your password. It looks like I’ll start using 7 character passwords with both upper and lower case characters. And I’d definitely think twice about using a pin number for anything!
And if you use 14 characters, only Q would have the time to crack it.
| Password Length | All Characters | Only Lowercase |
|---|---|---|
| 3 characters 4 characters 5 characters 6 characters 7 characters 8 characters 9 characters 10 characters 11 characters 12 characters 13 characters 14 characters |
0.86 seconds 1.36 minutes 2.15 hours 8.51 days 2.21 years 2.10 centuries 20 millennia 1,899 millennia 180,365 millennia 17,184,705 millennia 1,627,797,068 millennia 154,640,721,434 millennia |
0.02 seconds .046 seconds 11.9 seconds 5.15 minutes 2.23 hours 2.42 days 2.07 months 4.48 years 1.16 centuries 3.03 millennia 78.7 millennia 2,046 millennia |
I encourage you to read the entire post, but he makes one very important point:
If you use the same username and/or password for several different sites, (like most of us), you’re at greater risk, because a hacker won’t try for your bank account first (since it’s probably the most secure). Instead, he’ll try to hack your info from say, an e-card account. And since your browser’s cache will contain info about the sites you visit (you can prevent this), he’ll have a convenient way to find out that you have an e-card account. Since this type of site might be easier to hack, he can use a brute force attack to obtain your username/password. And once he has it, chances are he’ll be able to use the same username and password for your credit card and bank accounts.
So you might want to revisit your passwords; I know I am.
Thanks One Man’s Blog and Lifehacker.
And the Oscar Goes To…
I’m not really into following the Oscars thing, but one overlooked category I always love to check out is the animated and short films. Atomfilms has a “Hall of Fame” featuring Oscar-nominated shorts. If you’re into design and especially animation, check these out. Here’s the most recent nominee, “The Cathedral”, which is computer graphics based and is reminiscent of the “movies” between gameplay in most video games. Although this is by far better quality.
The (Oval) Office
If you’ve ever seen “The Office”, and you’re not a fan of the Bush administration, you’ll love this. However, if you ARE a fan of the Bush administration, then what the heck are you doing here?
Men are Crotch-Watchers
A recent study by the Annenberg Center for Communication at USC has revealed some interesting habits of the human male. Eye tracking technology tracks where the participant’s eyes spend more time on a particular image. It’s interesting to see how adding a little white space and organizing information helps the user navigate a page more effectively.
Another perhaps even more interesting find of the study is that men are apparently crotch-watchers. Participants were presented with a photo of George Brett, and while both men and women focused on the face, men were also apparently interested in George’s little George. And these men aren’t particularly gay.
This is the gayest thing I’ve heard since Ryan Seacrest’s exchange with Simon Cowell. Apparently, men are just like dogs sniffing each other’s crotch; sizing up the competition.
Thanks, Towleroad
That’s Good Poulton
Here’s another great drawing from Eric Poulton, the re-imagined Death Star from Star Wars. I guess I just like this style so much I had to share. As I’ve said, it’s so reminiscent of the Myst style of Robyn Miller.
And I love this footnote from Eric’s post:
“[1]As it has not yet been discovered a way for machines to directly generate Force energy, it must be supplied by a powerful Force user. The user conjures the energy inside of a specially designed resonance chamber which amplifies the energy before directing it through a series of lenses to produce a powerful coherent beam of unimaginably destructive energy.”
Eric Poulton’s Re-Imagined Star Wars
Stumbled across a very cool series of drawings by Eric Poulton of Star Wars in the “Steam Punk” style. Now, being neophyte that I am to the Steam Punk style, I had never even heard the term before. But seeing the drawings, I realize I’ve seen it many times, and it apparently is one of my favorites. It reminds me a bit darker twist on the design of the Myst series.
Also check out his additional posts which include a very good Jabba the Hut complete with feathered hat.
Very cool, indeed.
Thanks, Bonnie and Boing Boing.
