Strengthening your passwords

This won’t be new but the detail might be sufficiently interesting to make you do something about it.

There’s no need to re-explain the context in detail. In brief: the passwords we use for our on-line accounts need to be strong. A strong password is one that takes more time to crack using “brute force”.

Location

France

47° 34' 54.6528" N, 2° 39' 31.2876" E

See map: Google Maps

First posted on January 17, 2017

Telephone virus scam - in English, in France

Today I received a call from a guy who said he worked for a Microsoft subsidiary based in Liverpool. His pitch was that their computer systems were laden with emails that had come from my computer and, because his company was in the business of computer security, he could tell that my computer had been compromised and was bulging with viruses.

I asked him to forward me some example emails, but he declined, saying they weren’t allowed to do this.

Location

France

47° 34' 54.6528" N, 2° 39' 31.2876" E

See map: Google Maps

First posted on March 14, 2012

Where does the time go?

Although the websites I build are done at a flat-rate fee agreed in advance, additional work that is subsequently requested is often charged at an hourly rate. This is the norm in the freelance world.

This presents a nice organisational challenge, especially when a working day is diced and sliced between two or three different projects. Not only do I need a method that enables me to track where I’ve spent my time, my clients rightly need to know that when I charge them for x amount of time, then it really was like that.

Location

France

47° 34' 54.6528" N, 2° 39' 31.2876" E

See map: Google Maps

First posted on June 2, 2011

Backup belt and braces

Having suffered hard disk failures in the past and having been responsible for client data (software and websites) for around 17 years I admit to being paranoid about data loss. I try to operate as if all hard disks are bound to fail when you least expect them to and I therefore have in place backup strategies that try to minimise the impact of this when it happens.

Location

France

47° 34' 54.6528" N, 2° 39' 31.2876" E

See map: Google Maps

First posted on March 30, 2011

Technical support: pushing spaghetti through a keyhole

Technical support. Five syllables and a yawning maw of potential frustration!

Here are the two extremes of the technical support spectrum:

Technical support. Five syllables and a yawning maw of potential frustration!

Here are the two extremes of the technical support spectrum:

How it should work:

Location

France

47° 34' 54.6528" N, 2° 39' 31.2876" E

See map: Google Maps

First posted on June 15, 2008

Indispensable backup software

Are there any software packages that I’d recommend to the general computer user (for Windows PCs)? Yes!

Location

France

47° 34' 54.6528" N, 2° 39' 31.2876" E

See map: Google Maps

First posted on June 13, 2008

Software and hardware

Strengthening your passwords

Location

Telephone virus scam - in English, in France

Location

Where does the time go?

Location

Backup belt and braces

Location

Technical support: pushing spaghetti through a keyhole

Location

Indispensable backup software

Location

Blog post categories

Blogs posts