This post is cross-posted from my personal business Pittsburgh Computing Blog. That blog is intended to communicate important technical and security issues to  a non-technical public.  I posted this here to share with my teaching colleagues.

Learn more at PittsburghComputing.com.

Probably not strong enough.

Two things are most important when choosing a password.  The length and variety of characters used in the password.  The third thing to consider is whether or not your password appears on a hacker’s dictionary list.  Password-based hacking can come in a  number of forms.  This post is to make you re-think the security of your passwords.

Consider the 20 most common passwords

Test your password on GRC’s secure password haystacks tester.  (Steve Gibson is one of the few people on the web I would trust with this kind of test.  However, substitute characters in your password if you feel unsafe.)

The lesson

Size matters.  Every character you add multiplies the number of possible combinations that are possible by the size of the available alphabet.  The more character types that you include the better.

There are other important password tips, including the dangers of using the same password on different sites, not writing down your password, and otheres that I will leave for another blog post.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/james_lumb/3921968993/

Password list published by: Imperva Application Defense Center (ADC)

Unfortunately, part of the cost of doing business anything on the internet today is the risk of being scammed by sleazy corporations that rely trickery to lure in unsuspecting customers victims into terrible situations. It seems that the veil of anonymity and the distance that online services offer is often an excuse for sleazy business practices.

Take for instance the letter I received this afternoon from the Domain Registry of America alerting me that one of the educational sites that I maintain is due for renewal.  Two things stood out when I looked over the letter. First, the prices were way higher than what I normally pay for a domain, and I realized that I had registered this domain under a different registrar.  A quick Google search confirmed my suspicion that DROA is a scam site which would not only overcharge for the domain, but also worked by adding fees and increasing the price on unsuspecting users.  Fortunately I have a keen eye for a scam, but how many others have fallen for it?

When doing business, I couldn’t imagine using such sleazy tactics to capture new customers.  The goal of Pittsburgh Computing is to act with integrity,  protect consumers from these types of scams and to make sure that we build brand recognition through superior customer experiences and word of mouth rather than trickery.

This post is cross-posted from my Pittsburgh Computing Blog. That blog is intended to communicate important technical and security issues to  a non-technical public.   Learn more at PittsburghComputing.com.

Oh, but they do.

Although the folks in Cupertino have long enjoyed the common myth that Apple’s operating system is somehow immune to the virus and malware-ridden woes of the PC world, there isn’t anything fundamentally programmed into OS X that makes it virus proof.  In fact, a quick Google search shows that a few times a year a big Mac-virus story floats to the technology headlines, along with the same quips about the supposed invulnerability of the Mac platform.  The Mac’s rising market share makes it a more and more enticing target for bad-guys in coming years.

Today’s news about a social engineering-based exploit reaffirms yesterday’s three simple rules for keeping yourself safe online, with one big addition: never download and install something that you didn’t specifically ask for.

Mac Defender

Sounds harmless, right? What could possibly go wrong.  This ingenious attack fooled thousands of Mac Users into downloading AND installing a malicious piece of software that posed as a virus scanner, offered to fix discovered problems, asked for credit card information, and then faked virus-like behavior (pornographic pop-ups) until you relented and shared your information with criminals.

Here’s how it worked:

The social engineering aspect here is remarkable, bad-guys preyed upon the curiosity of the millions of people searching for Bin Laden after the recent events.  Got an image in the top of Google’s image search and then set up an impressive fake Anti-virus that tricked you into downloading and installing this malicious file.

If you (or your Mac) have been infected with something nasty and you need help getting it cleaned up without losing your data, click contact and drop a note to set up an appointment including free training on how to avoid getting tricked in the future.

This past week I had the opportunity to take part in a great fundraiser that was organized by the aforementioned Mr. Brad Wilson to raise money for a Miracle Field in Upper St. Clair.  The event was a fundraiser basketball game featuring teachers from Boyce Middle School (Grades 5 & 6) vs. Fort Couch Middle School (Grades 7 & 8).  All in all we raised over $6,000 for Casey’s Clubhouse, a fundraising organization set up by Upper St. Clair native and former Major League first baseman Sean Casey for the cause.

In addition to the basketball game, 50-50 and signed Pirate Jersey, another draw was the opportunity to buy a raffle ticket for a chance to pie your teacher in the face! A huge seller.

Look for me at the very end of the clip!

I’m thrilled that one of my colleagues is so willing to share his expertise in using technology tools in the classroom with our school and beyond.  Brad Wilson’s wiki is a great resource for anyone who uses the blackboard portal with students in high school.  He always brings out the best in students and having him as part of a teaching team that promotes the appropriate and ethical use of online tools is awesome for the students of Fort Couch Middle School (and beyond)

Check out his teacher tools wiki!

Our students and colleagues never knew us as children. What were you like at the grade you teach? What were your interests? Did you like school?

Middle school . . . well, really it was a Junior High.  What was I like when I was in 7th or 8th grade?  This is a question that we never spend enough time reflecting on.  I think that if more teachers (myself included) took time to seriously reflect on what they were like many moons ago there would be much less frustration!  Briefly put, middle school was one of the most challenging transitional times in my life.

In third grade my family made a temporary move to the USA, 23 years ago.  Today it is not so temporary, but in middle school my family was in the middle of a a huge decision, whether to return home to England where our entire family was, or to take up an offered opportunity to permanently relocate to the states.  If there is one thing that does not help a middle schooler, it is uncertainty.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of school during this time, which stemmed from everything else going on.  In English class I was reprimanded for reading ahead of the class assignments, and in others I wasn’t really all that motivated.  Frankly I think that I must have been one of those kids that plodded through each day without really taking notice of the world around me, I didn’t really become all that aware until later.

During this time I did find comfort in a group.  Back then, but not so much any more, I was a singer.  As a member of The Pittsburgh Boychoir I was part of a group with opportunities that many of my classmates never even knew about.  (I didn’t exactly announce that I was in a boychoir.) We traveled around the country, went to a summer camp with the choir and even had an opportunity to travel to Russia.  At that time, it was Russia and the former Soviet Union . . . but, my parents wouldn’t send me thousands of miles around the globe when, as my dad put it “[I] never looked out of the window when we drove across town.”  I was pretty miffed, but we did get to travel to England to visit Family (and I’m pretty sure I didn’t look out of the window there either.) Dad was right, it would have been a stamp in my passport, but little else.

So, what was it that fired me up?  What changed my mind to look at the world around me, to soak it in and make something of myself.  Partly it was just maturity, partly inspiration and some great teachers leading the way.  Today i find myself constantly pointing out the window saying to my kids, “Hey, look at that . . .”  I wonder if one day I will complain that they don’t even pay attention at home, asking “what will they get out of it?” . . . I hope not, but I suspect that this is pretty normal.

This post is part of the Fall Blog Challenge 2010 posed by Melanie Holtsman on her Once Upon a Teacher blog.  To Participate visit the challenge post and find the topics.

But who is?  In an effort to spark some thought on what they view as the typical person in the world, today my 8th grade students reflected on that question before I showed them the recently released video clip from the National Geographic Series on Global Population.  I’ve found the clips produced with this series to be entertaining, concise and highly informative.

Students had a few minutes to get their heads around the question — I posed it from the point of view of if a completely alien craft was to appear in orbit right now, who would they pick from the global population that was the most average representative.  The responses are great.  Some clearly understand the world perspective and others are still working to expand their view, the vital point is that they are thinking about these issues.

Some examples:

The typical human has a job that brings income into their family’s. The person is involved in their government to describe what they want in their government. The person is probably with the race of Chinese because that is the most populated country in the world. The person may be educated but did not go to college to receive the rest of his education. The person had a family so works long hours to bring in income. The person stays in touch with his friends using social networks or a cell phone. That is what i think the the typical person is.

I think that Americans can’t be considered a typical person on Earth. In America we all eat so much to the point that we weigh like over 9,000 pounds. When I look at other countries I see most people acting in different ways. I think that Americans just take what they have as if they deserve it. In other countries, like South Africa, I see that a lot of people can’t even afford to buy shoes. This shows how much of a difference there is between where you live.

The average person in the world does not have the life of an average American. America is a very stable country, unlike other countries. People in unstable countries have to worry about major rebellions and anti-capitalist takeovers. When anti-capitalists take over the, country never grows or succeeds. If rebellions occurs that means a lot of violence and protesting and that is not fun. I’m glad I have the luxury of living in America.

Today I dedicated some time to teaching myself the ins and outs of the ActiVote handsets since we are expecting to get a fairly large number of these in the building sometime soon (At least one per four-teacher team and then some. . .)

Unboxing

The box I was working with today included:

• 32 ActiVote Devices
• ActivHub USC Dongle (6′ extension and stand)
• Torx Wrench for opening battery compartment
• Quick Start Guide and Inspire CD
• All contained in a nice, solid hard-shell case (with key) .

Each of these egg-shaped devices can communicate back to the ActivHub through questions that are created and managed in the ActivInspire product.  These devices can respond to multiple choice type questions up to 6 choices or true/false questions.  There is another type of input device called the ActivExpression that mimics a “texting” input interface that kids can answer in more detail.

• Some specs: (from Promethean)
• 500 Voters per ActivHub
• Range:  ~240 ft of free line of sight space
• Typical battery life: 18 months.

Registering devices

When I first set up the ActiVotes I had to go through the manual process of registering the devices to the ActivHub, the USB dongle that ‘talks’ via 2.4Ghz radio signal to the voters.  I found myself wondering if everyone would have to go through this every time, but after a bit of research it appears that the ActiVotes register to the memory on-board the ActivHub itself and not the computer, so when another teacher plugs it into their computer the registration process will already be complete.  I will verify this later.

Registering the devices wasn’t difficult, just a bit cumbersome because you have to get each “egg” out of the box, hold down the center button until the two top lights are lit, and enter the same three letter pin, 32 times.  Fortunately this appears to be a one-time process for the most part to pair the “egg” with the ActivHub that belongs with that kit.

The only time that I would anticipate having to re-do this would be if a team wanted to use multiple sets of ActiVotes with more than one set of “Eggs”. I believe each Hub can handle up to 500 Voters.

You will be asked what type of device to register and how many you are adding. Then, just follow the directions.

This got tricky for me when I missed a device, or thought I did.  Anyway I started over and re-did the whole set to be sure.  I would recommend renaming the devices and applying a corresponding sticker to the device itself.  This way you could actually track down the device if it becomes unpaired.  The box came with some tiny stickers, but I might be tempted to use more robust and visible markings.

I had a chance to sit in on a training with our Director of Technology, Ray Berrott and our High School World Language department where we piped in Jana Baxter and Kevin Conner from the Allegheny Intermediate Unit 3 (aiu3.net).   The session focused, correctly I think, on the places to go for making online connections with students, and as a secondary step (the easiest part, according to Ray) using the technology itself.

The resources we focused on were:

Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC)
Video Content Providers Database
Collaborations Around the Planet

I was pretty impressed at the setup of the room that we have at our high school.  I hadn’t had a chance to take a look in there before now.  We use that room to teach other classes in  We teach Chinese and German classes to students in other districts from a small room near the deans’ offices (assistant principals to the rest of you).  This room is set up for classes to participate in virtual field trip and teleconference experiences.  Mounted microphones, cameras and projectors really made the guests that we connected with seem like they were right there (especially as I sat right beneath a speaker. . .)

CILC – VC Providers – Polycom

We focused more on the Virtual field trip aspect of the site than on how to find other classrooms to work with.  I think there are some great benefits to this type of application of videoconferencing.  There were some good resources that they showed, mainly through the Cleveland museum, which has really gone all out on their offerings of virtual field trips, this is not the first time I’ve heard their name thrown around.

CAPSpace

Although I like the idea of the virtual field trips they are really hard to imagine me doing within my own 20 minutes (don’t ask) classes.  What I’m really interested in is the connection of one classroom to another, getting kids to collaborate, communicate with one another and build knowledge and understanding that we otherwise miss.

CAPSPace is a Michigan-based network that tries to do the same thing that a million other sites are doing in isolation, build a social network of teachers around the concept of collaborating between classrooms. This looked great at first blush, I like the concept — we get a paid membership through our intermediate unit, so the price is right.   Although they have a cool “Reading Around the Planet” program the offerings seem mainly US-based, which makes sense for a pay service based out of Michigan.  I was hoping for a great reasource of teachers from around the world, but it seemed like a familiar story, lots of US teachers looking for international connections.  I’ll keep an eye out and am happy to be proven wrong.