For many months I’ve been using a Yubikey as a staple of my cyber security plan. It makes me exponentially more secure and at the same time makes it easier for me to stay secure. The only part of it that isn’t drop-dead simple is the configuration, though even that isn’t very difficult. I’m going to show you step by step how to configure your Yubikey to get the most out of it and set yourself up for success.
After the bulb sockets in my car’s corner lights and the turn signal socket in one of my tail lights went bad, I decided it was time to replace a number of the exterior lights on her. I replaced everything except the headlights, which are the OEM units from the factory (I really like the OEM HIDs, so I see no need to swap them out). The first thing I replaced was my corner lights.
As of yesterday, I have a new callsign: W3RTX. My original callsign, KB3MMY, is no longer in use. You’ll notice that all amateur radio content on this site now falls under W3RTX. Why the change? Perhaps the biggest reason was that I just wanted a vanity callsign. It’s goofy, I know, but I thought it would be cool to pick my own callsign. I also wanted one that wouldn’t indicate when I got licensed, and that I’m relatively new to ham radio.
My office ordered a Kindle Fire for me to use, and it just arrived! Being an Amazon product, it arrived in what they call “frustration-free packaging” with which I would agree. All I had to do was pull a rip tab to open the box, and there was my Kindle. Below the device itself was the charging cable, and inside the lid was a small card introducing the user to the Kindle Fire.
Just a quick post to note that at the exact moment this post is published it’s 11:11am on November 11, 2011. In other words, 11-11-11-11-11. Carry on.
LastPass, my password manager of choice, has added support for Google Authenticator as a method of two-factor authentication. For those unfamiliar, Google added two factor authentication support earlier this year, a component of which is a mobile app that generates a random 6 digit string that refreshes every 30 seconds. The app is free, and you simply scan a QR code to configure it. While I use Google Authenticator with my Google accounts, I haven’t yet tried it with LastPass since I use a Yubikey.
In case you haven’t heard yet, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are conducting a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System on November 9th, 2011. Why does this matter? It’s the first time it’s being done across the entire country, all at once, initiated by a federal agency. Up until now this system has been activated by local and state emergency management agencies, and if the federal government wanted to have a message disseminated it would have to request each state to activate it.
It’s finally here! Google+ for Google Apps accounts is a reality! I’ve been a Google+ user since it first launched, and I really like it. The only issue I had with it was that I couldn’t use my Apps account (which is the only Google account I use on a regular basis), and had to use a standard Gmail account instead. Big bummer, and it ended up keeping me from being very active on the service.
This past Saturday I worked a public service event with my club, Anne Arundel Radio Club, in conjunction with Calvert Amateur Radio Association. The event was a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Cycle for Life bike event, and this particular one in Calvert County was a first time event. We were first informed of the event about 2 weeks in advance, so we had very little time to go from nothing to up and running.
I got a tweet this morning from a Twitter account I didn’t even know existed called TwBirthday. The service apparently tracks when you signed up for Twitter, and messages you on your Twitter “birthday” - kind of a neat idea. @cconover Happy 4th TwBirthday! You've been around since 21 October 2007! http://t.co/tf5ugZgL — TwBirthday (@TwBirthday) October 21, 2011 Does this give me free reign to be a precocious and finicky toddler on the Internet?
