Hacker hack hack

We had our gmail account hacked recently, they also tried hacking Jbird's fb account and our ebay account.  I don't know what all else.  It's a frightening experience, to be locked out of your email account and told you will receive a verification sms to a phone number ending in digits that you are not familiar with.  Thankfully, I found out just twenty minutes after it happened and was able to have gmail revert the verification sms back to our phone number (the previous one attached to the account).  It's definitely time to change our passwords.  We've also had credit card fraud before.  I couldn't believe it when I saw someone was buying CDs and other items from somewhere in Switzerland.  How does this happen? Do you have any further tips for internet security? 

Disqus? for better or for worse

Quite a few people have told me this space is sometimes resistant to letting them comment.  They try signing in with a google username and are denied.  Then they try to comment anonymously and it still doesn't work.  So they give up.  

I tried to get to the bottom of this.  Searching on blogger help, I found out it's  a common problem with blogspot. Why hasn't someone fixed it!?  I was referred to something called Disqus for all my commenting needs.  I didn't know what this was - would I be moving away from blogger?  Would my blog be somehow...different?  Worst of all...would I be allowing a virus into the folds of my computer?  That's the ever present fear of any un-tech savvy gal such as myself.  I decided that the best case scenario was that the program...or software...whatever it is, might help people who are frightened to comment, <clears throat no naming of names>, find it easier and jump right in there.

Blindly, I hit the download and install now buttons requested and something happened, I wasn't exactly sure what.  Things looked great.  There was a new feature to like or dislike the different posts, I was excited for that.  Excited to see who might be the first to dislike me.  But somehow, nothing quite worked properly. Worst of all, the program recognised me as Jbird when I tried to reply to comments.  I don't have the patience to really get in there and fix it.

Now it's been uninstalled/removed, hopefully to never cross my path again.  Come on blogspot, fix your commenting problem, it's your job.

Please read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Diaries for an excellent philosophical outline conveying why we really shouldn't try just to give up like I did, why we should get to the bottom of such annoyances in life.  It's also an alluring story about a long motorcycle road trip, and one of those books which I always find reasons to recommend.

Taking a step back

I closed my facebook account the other day.  I'm not really sure why as I don't hold any malice against it, I was just feeling a bit...uninspired by it.  I don't create anything through it, I no longer play any of the games, have whittled down the friends whose posts appear on my feed to a pretty small handful, and it sometimes makes me feel less connected to people than I want it to.   

When I clicked on the 'deactivate' button, I was informed of a few people that would miss me while I was gone.  My niece was listed in the top five.  She's five.  She doesn't even know she has a facebook account.  Did you notice I was gone?  Because I've been away a few days now and I don't think you did.  I think, and this is just a theory mind, maybe quite an obvious one, that it's merely an addiction.  Click click click, I've observed, commented, and visited, and perhaps written something that I want to sound clever.  How many times an hour would I check it, to see if anything had changed?  It's mind numbing to think about.  I'm going old school, reading the paper.  And well-written blogs.  And talking to people. 

I may return. It depends how bored I get, whether I can keep myself occupied.

As a very brief tangent, but something I feel you ought to know, I just saw The Iron Lady so I'm typing this in a posh British accent.  Can you tell?

Zotero

My professor wanted me to pay for and download a particular bibliography/referencing software which was linked to the university's online resources and heavily discounted for students - Endnote.  I wanted to yell at somebody: please stop taking my money and decided I would create my own table system within Mword.  It looked really lame.  Endnote sounded like it'd take all the thinking out of creating an APA style bibliography as required for all classes in my program but lets be honest, my bibliographies have always been fine and they don't take all that much thinking.

A few days later, someone from the university suggested downloading the free program: Zotero.  I did.  It works!  I input the data and click on some buttons, finally pasting directly onto my Mword document and voila, a lovely bibliography appears.  All italics, punctuation, line spacing and positioning of data in its correct place.  Loverly.

Bejewelled Fingers

For my birthday (last week), my parents-in-law gave me cash and instructions to buy something for myself.  The possibilities were endless.  After much debate, Jbird and I decided I should find a ring.  I had been given one for my 21st by my sister and brother-in-law.  Sadly, the gold holding the amethyst had worn away, causing the amethyst itself to chip and crack.  

The stores here are limited to Sears, Zales, and Kay - I didn't find anything much there but did learn a bit about gold quality, sizing, and stones - so I started shopping online.  I soon found myself entrenched in so many decisions.  Ebay seemed to be the cheapest option, if I could win an auction.  I lost a beauty because I didn't realise someone would outbid me right in the last second of the auction.  I had bid 5 minutes too early.  It was 14k yellow gold (I'm a yellow gold gal) with a nice sized sapphire and two little diamond chips.  

Tonight I managed to win an auction!  I would have preferred a higher quality gold but it should be an every day wear as my old one was.  It was a good price, 10k yellow gold band, with 8 small sapphires in a swirly pattern.  We'll have to wait to see it before we know if the picture holds up to its true self.

Smarty Pants

Recently I started an online discussion with a couple of friends.  Jbird and I were talking about how it would work and we decided it would have to be through a thread of emails.  I wasn't entirely happy with this as the discussion can become hard to follow.  

When I got around to starting the discussion, I had the idea that I could share it as a google doc.  If the other members of the discussion can work out how to use, it will be like working on microsoft word, on the same computer.  Jbird thinks we will even be able to view others editing if two of us happen to have it open at the same time.  I think it's ingenious!  I feel pretty chuffed that I knew how to do it, too.