Issues – Page 9 – Thoughts | Life

Safety on the Mail front

August 7, 2015 by Jide Ajayi • Issues, Thoughts • Tags: internet safety, mail •

I read an interesting post today that demonstrated a method of sending sensitive information to people in a reasonably safe way to ensure that the information does not fall into the wrong hands especially when the hands are not trying hard enough.

This method of passing important information moves away from the simple reply-and-attach model we routinely use to information to something that protects us at some extra level by using some of the internet services that have become ubiquitous and we are very familiar with like Dropbox and Evernote and zip utilities.

This matters a lot when your are sending stuff across the internet and most times to people you don’t know. May not apply in corporate environments but then those may have internal systems for dealing with sensitive information outside the email system.

The conclusion of the post is below which show why Merlin Mann makes sense.

Like anything that touches an open network–and most especially anything that touches email–it’s a solution that’s far from perfect. But, to my mind, it feels a little safer than crap like sending plaintext via email.

Seriously. My mind is boggled by how many people throw sensitive stuff around in email to complete strangers—the equivalent of writing a password on a postcard. Then pinning it to the corkboard in the laundromat. Insane.

Handoff Compatible Devices

October 24, 2014 by Jide Ajayi • Issues, Thoughts • Tags: iOS 8.1, Yosemite 10.10 •

Apple just released the new operating system Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite for the Mac a few days ago with a major functionality that makes it well connected to the portable devices, the Handoff service and on Monday released iOS 8.1 for the iPad and iPhone. The main point of interest in today’s release is the commencement of the Apple Pay service in the US.
Handoff looks very promising but it can only be experienced if you have the right devices.
MacBook Pros, Macbook Air, iMacs and Mac minis made before 2012 may not support Handoff even if they support the installation of Yosemite. Older iOS devices that can run iOS 8 may also not support the Handoff functionality for example the iPad 2 and iPhone 4.
It is such a beautiful functionality and the range of its potential can only be imagined.

Brute Force

July 23, 2014 by Jide Ajayi • Issues, Life, Thoughts •

I have always had nice thoughts about how good it would be to have your own website and run it. The only thing is that Brute force was not one of those thoughts.

The idea of having an address where your voice could be heard and you could share those things that have added value to you and are still adding value to you was just exhilarating.

There are a lot of people out there who are ready to encourage you to take the plunge and even give you ideas on how to quickly setup your very own shop to display your talent.

The one thing that is not mentioned during this wooing stage is the danger that lurks out there in the name of spammers and phishers and all the other names that people who attack websites with malicious intents are called.

There are bad people out there and they want to take over your website to display their wares from infection for other systems, stealing of important information and selling of products that do more damage than good.

Brute force is someone or some computer run by someone trying to gain access to your website by trying different usernames that are common and rapidly trying different passwords that are equally common to gain access to the website so that it can be injected with code and will compromise the integrity of the website. These attacks are usually made from some IP address to the website of interest.

I have only two questions I hope you can answer for me
First how do they determine which website to attack that is what attracts them to the website.
Second, who provides the IP addresses that are used for these attacks or are they weaknesses inherent in my host service provider?

Happy New Year

January 15, 2014 by Jide Ajayi • Issues, Life •

It is a new year. I wish you all a happy new year. I know by now the greeting is a bit stale for most people but there are people who are yet to wish friends and loved one the joy and pleasantness of the new year.
I hope to post more this year and not just more but with more value. Links from websites I find valuable, books that help become better at managing the days we have next. Also there may be the reflection on some odd apps here and there that I find extremely useful but I probably will focus more on the spiritual side of things. It helps but everything in its proper perspective.
I also hope to do all these because I have a new tool which I believe will make a big difference in the way I work especially with offline writing and posting.
This tool is currently in the beta version but from what I can see so far, it looks like it is going be my new best friend when it comes to posting on the site.

Last year was filled with its challenges while this year has started rolling its own. I planned to write a minimum of one post per month last year and I skipped on one month and had technical issues another month. This year I hop to post twice a month. That will definitely be more challenging considering all things but not impossible.

I am thankful to all of you that took out time last year to read the blog and I hope it will be worth your time even more this year.

Happy New Year!