Computers SUCK!!!

All of my passwords are gone from google chrome, and when I try tio re-set them I get no response from the web site. I hate computers.

I had similar trouble when Firefox updated itself.
I had to resort to my folder full of scraps of paper and start from scratch.
Sense of humour failure ensued.

fargon;1024684 wrote:
All of my passwords are gone from google chrome, and when I try tio re-set them I get no response from the web site. I hate computers.

Try a System Restore to a date before the passwords were lost.

I thank Big V for saving me once with that piece of advice.:notworthy

FF updating itself...I've never found automatic anything to be of help.

Carruthers;1024686 wrote:
I had similar trouble when Firefox updated itself.
I had to resort to my folder full of scraps of paper and start from scratch.
Sense of humour failure ensued.

This has happened to me (and everyone, I imagine) far more times than it should. A few months ago, when it happened yet again, I got fed up and wrote out a sheet with all my login/password info for every damned site I've ever visited, plus the date of the most recent password change. I keep a hard copy by my desktop and my laptop stations.

Yeah, they say don't do that, but fuck that shit. My brain isn't what it used to be and if someone really wants to drive through the backwoods to break into my house and then into my computer using my nifty (but well hidden) cheat sheets, I guess they're just gonna have to bring it.

Until then, I'm cheat-sheetin' it without apology. :p:

A piece of paper is a fine method.

Here's what the pros do... it's inferior to paper, in a lot of ways.

Use the Keepass password manager

This manager uses a secure database file; you enter one password to be able to read that database file. So, instead of having 50 passwords, you have one password to remember, the password to that database file.

Problem: if you lose that database file, you lose all your passwords.

Solution: put the file on a cloud drive.*

Then, you can install the iPhone/Android Keepass port, and tell the app to use the database file from the cloud**. At that point, you have your passwords available on desktop and on your phone, and you can update the database from either location. (Just remember to hit SAVE.)

*You should probably back up the database file locally anyway, in case you don't trust your cloud provider or, more likely, you manage to mungle the file in some other way.

One good way to back up the file is to just print all your passwords. Put the printout wherever you used to keep the paper with all your passwords on it.

**I'm not sure all apps work with all cloud drive providers. Check with your app to see what it supports.

I have that folder full of scraps of paper and I keep it right on the table right next to my monitor/keyboard.
The outside of the folder is a useful place, too.
I let IE keep most of the non-financial ones on automatic.

Undertoad;1024750 wrote:
A piece of paper is a fine method.

Here's what the pros do... it's inferior to paper, in a lot of ways.

Use the Keepass password manager

This manager uses a secure database file; you enter one password to be able to read that database file. So, instead of having 50 passwords, you have one password to remember, the password to that database file.

Problem: if you lose that database file, you lose all your passwords.

Solution: put the file on a cloud drive.*

Then, you can install the iPhone/Android Keepass port, and tell the app to use the database file from the cloud**. At that point, you have your passwords available on desktop and on your phone, and you can update the database from either location. (Just remember to hit SAVE.)

*You should probably back up the database file locally anyway, in case you don't trust your cloud provider or, more likely, you manage to mungle the file in some other way.

One good way to back up the file is to just print all your passwords. Put the printout wherever you used to keep the paper with all your passwords on it.

**I'm not sure all apps work with all cloud drive providers. Check with your app to see what it supports.

So complicated! :D

As for the cloud - I don't trust that shit as far as I can throw it. I put NOTHING on the cloud. I don't understand all the techno stuff to start with, so I have tons of questions.

Where is this cloud exactly? Who controls it? Who has access to my personal shit? If they break my personal shit, do they guarantee repairs or compensation? Doesn't the cloud work by sharing internet resources? Do I want my shit shared? Do I NEED my shit shared? And what about hacking or phishing or whatever? Big companies that use the cloud have data breaches all the freakin' time. My computer/data has never been breached, as far as I can tell. And aren't there viruses roaming around out there in the ether? :eek:

You know, I know precisely where my shit is at all times - behind firewalls and encrypted and virus protected and securely sealed and Lifelocked in a computer in a little house in the woods in butthole Washington. And that's where I'm gonna keep it. They'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands!

I fixed it Keryx bought me a new laptop for my birthday, problem solved. And all my passwords came back.

That's an expensive fix.

Wait.

Chrome don't store the passwords on the computer?

Nah, buddy. How else could they import them over to your smartphone?

I don't know how it works, but everything came back.

fargon wrote:
All of my passwords are gone from google chrome, and when I try tio re-set them I get no response from the web site. I hate computers.

Im so sorry Fargon..... My browser (MyIE2) has a password system also (It stores login info in local files in its folder which are encrypted) but I havent ever used it.....

I hope you can get things back soon :)

Glinda;1024760 wrote:

Where is this cloud exactly? Who controls it? Who has access to my personal shit?

Cloud = Somebody else's computer.
Cloud = The thing that rains on your parade.
;)

Answers! I got answers!

Where is this cloud exactly?

In data centers around the world, usually located where there is cheap reliable power, decent cooling, or both.

Who controls it?

The employees of major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple.

Who has access to my personal shit?

Nobody; it's entirely encrypted, even when it's stored.

If they break my personal shit, do they guarantee repairs or compensation?

It doesn't break. Famous last words, but everything's backed up and redundant.

The whole thing is, they do a better job at managing data than we do. If your personal shit breaks at home, you have no recourse either -- and because nobody manages their data well, everybody's shit breaks at home. Watch this:

Hands up, everyone with offsite backups and your data in a RAID?

Nobody's hand went up! Of course not, we're all just putting everything on our hard drive, and hoping for the best. That's not really working for us. Hard drives die at a rate of apx. 2% per year. That's terrible odds! But Google has offsite backups and RAIDs and professionals managing all of it. When their hard drives die, they hot-swap them and rebuild the data. Everything stays online and nobody even realizes it happened.

Big companies that use the cloud have data breaches all the freakin' time.
My computer/data has never been breached, as far as I can tell. And aren't there viruses roaming around out there in the ether?

I haven't heard of a cloud breach yet.

Undertoad wrote:
Hard drives die at a rate of apx. 2% per year. That's terrible odds! But Google has offsite backups and RAIDs and professionals managing all of it. When their hard drives die, they hot-swap them and rebuild the data.

Can confirm. Mr. Clod has worked at two different "cloud"-sized companies, though personal data storage didn't happen to be their business model. They had so many hard drives that one died roughly once a week. He says it's a little better now with solid state drives, but still--sending someone out to the data center to replace a dead drive is a standard maintenance chore, not an emergency.

(nods) Where places have really serious storage needs, big IT uses refrigerator-sized units with many many hard drives in them. The biggest HP unit can hold 15 Petabytes.

A Petabyte is 1000 Terabytes. (A Terabyte is 1000 Gigabytes.) So one of these babies can hold like a couple thousand of our datas. It's configured by top pros and managed by top technicians. Connected with 10GB Ethernet across fiber switches.

When a hard drive dies, a notification goes out and someone just pulls out the bad drive and puts a new one in there, and the system senses the new drive and rebuilds the storage array automatically.

I'm pretty sure at least 10% of usage of this type of storage is for porn. When I worked for a company that used them (for audio), the sales guys from HP said their biggest customer was the big porn website in town.

[youtube]LTJvdGcb7Fs[/youtube]

Undertoad;1024823 wrote:

Who controls it?

The employees of major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple.

Who has access to my personal shit?

Nobody; it's entirely encrypted, even when it's stored.

It's difficult for some doo-mass like me to be credibly skeptical compared all your skills and experience.

I don't trust them though. Sure, I don't know how the system works. As we move forward and learn through leaks what's actually happening behind the curtain, it seems to me that even the pros don't completely understand the technical limits and capabilities.

Or maybe the limits and capabilities of those who desire to have access to all this "personal" info.

Having said that, didja miss me? :D

slang;1024928 wrote:
Having said that, didja miss me? :D

I did.