I’ve preached in the past about disconnecting from technology to spend more time with your family, and it’s something that I truly believed I was doing. But the truth of the matter is—I wasn’t, and it took yet another health scare to prove it to me.
I know you've been listening to me right? After LinkedIN was hacked you heeded my wisdom and changed your password right?
Well, guess what, it's another day, another password breach. This time over 400,000 accounts from the freelance writing consortium Yahoo! Voices have been leaked, and are floating around the internet in clear text. Yes, I said cleartext.
Various media outlets are reporting that DagenisIT has discovered that nearly 6.5 million encrypted LinkedIn passwords have been leaked to a Russian hacker group, and at least 300 thousand of those have been decrypted.
While the file reportedly doesn't include usernames, I think it's always safer to assume that if the bad guy has access to your password, he probably has access to your username as well.
I am an audiophile. It’s no secret that the reason our YMC music blogger Consuelo and I became friends is because of our shared passion for all things musical.
“Hey Ma, Alex went to see the Avengers, can we go too?”
Cringe. While the idea of sitting and watching Paul Bettany for two hours sounds great to me, I have no idea if the movie is appropriate for my little guy to watch. I mean, I know it’s rated PG-13, but all the ‘other’ kids are watching it. Is there swearing? Sex? Violence?
The last few months have been tough here in the Ottawa area. Friends and family in the government circles have lost their jobs, or gotten notices that they will soon. Others have been restructured or laid off and are struggling to find work now that the market is even more flooded with summer students.
Maybe it’s Earth Day, or maybe it’s spring cleaning, but questions to my inbox have shifted lately from ‘what should we buy?’ to ‘how do we dispose of our electronics?’
Did you know that every year, 20 to 50 million metric tons of E-waste are disposed of worldwide?
A little over a month ago I gave up something near and dear to my heart. Something that I woke up to, something that I carried with me for the better part of the day. It was highly addictive, and a staple for IT workers all over North America. I know what you’re thinking, but it wasn’t my BlackBerry. Nope, my addiction was Diet Coke.
My relationship with every piece of software/hardware ever:
MONDAY
Wow, you’re perfect for us. I love that you totally get me and everything I need. What’s that? You think I’m amazing and don’t really need you but you’ll try and find a way to help me? No, stop it! You’re embarrassing me! This is a match made in heaven! I can only imagine how much better my life will be with you in it. I’ll have more time to relax—maybe I’ll learn to play tennis, or bridge. Wow, just wow.
There are certain things you hear in your life that stick with you. For me, one of the great life changers was hearing the great Homer Simpson say: “I am so smart, S-M-R-T, I mean S-M-A-R-T.”
Ok, maybe that was a ridiculous quote, but I know the key to growing and improving my mind is to learn. With this knowledge in hand (see what I did there?), I signed up for a robotics course at Stanford, ‘Physics III’ at MIT and ‘Roy’s writing tools’ at Poynter.
My friend asked me if it was possible that her daughter was sexting. Gulp.
Like many of you, she bought her two tween daughters iPhones for Christmas. Like many of you, she hadn’t set rules for what the phone is ‘supposed’ to be used for, but she also hadn’t really thought about the real implications of her daughters being fully connected to a network of friends when the parental units are not around.
You better watch out, you better not cry …. SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN!
It’s here! It’s finally here! Santa is coming, and if you want to know exactly where he is on Christmas Eve, NORAD has the tool for you.
For more than 50 years, NORAD and its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) have tracked Santa’s flight using sophisticated radar, satellites, Santa Cams and fighter jets.
When I turned 30 I wrote a letter to myself. I had completely forgotten about it until I sat and read every line (with a glass of red wine in hand) on my 32nd birthday last week. I'm proud to say I've started some of these, but embarassed to say I haven't made a dent in others...here's what I told myself my 30s would look like.
The Letter
Ok, I’ll admit it I’m scared. There is something about being “in my thirties” that just scares the crap out of me. I’m not sure what it is.
When I learned to drive, the instructor gave me a little pocket card and told me to keep it with me in case of an accident. The card sat in my glove compartment, but when I was rear-ended it never crossed my mind to use it. Too much happened too quickly and there were so many accident details to remember.
Imagine your teenagers out on the roads this winter and ends up in the same situation. Will they remember to ask the important questions? Will they remember to write down the exact location of the accident? Will they know the right people to call?
Angus Reid recently did a survey for Best Buy which said most Moms enjoy shopping for consumer technology, and that moms are largely responsible for purchasing tech gifts this season. This is the time of year I totally prove this to be true. In the past two months, I've received more calls from friends, family and neighbours to answer questions about tech gifts than ever before.
I'll give you one guess as to where I am seeking out gift ideas for myself for Christmas – and it's not a decorating store. My favourite things usually require an outlet, and a manual (which always gets discarded, because let’s face it, half of the fun of electronics is learning as you play with them right?)
