Showing posts with label design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label design. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Passwords - Humor and a gripe

I picked this up from Stephen Abram (always has good "stuff"). It is about choosing a password. He picked it up from newsbiscuit.com which seems to be like the Onion, but British.

Their humorous post begins "Popular pet names Rover, Cheryl and Kate could be a thing of the past. Banks are now advising parents to think carefully before naming their child’s first pet. For security reasons, the chosen name should have at least eight characters, a capital letter and a digit."

Which gets to my gripe. It is a two part gripe. First is about passwords. If you are going to let me choose a password, let me choos it! Yes, tell me if it is strong or not, but don't require things like at least one capital letter, one special character, and one number ... and if you do, tell me BEFORE I try to create it the first time! My second gripe is this: If you want me to use my email to identify my account, DO NOT CALL IT A "USERNAME"!! A "username" is just that. The name of the user, and one which I can choose. (With an unusual last name, I don't have too much trouble getting what I want.) If you want me to use my email address, TELL ME THAT!!

OK, I'll get off my soapbox now!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Links - January

Walt Crawford asks about data on libraries (as institutions) using social networking.

The inimitable Jessamyn West calls one of her posts Blogging Alone – Social Isolation and New Technology from Pew. It is thoughtful and related to the question above (at least a little). She has also posted about a term new to me (but which makes sense): search neutrality.

Aaron Tay wonders about the effect on libraries of Delicious closing down (or not). [Note to self: Get work-related issue back on the discussion table.]

There is a thoughtful piece in American Libraries Online about outsourcing, from a consultant who helps libraries get through the process of becoming efficient without outsourcing.

I don't usually get to teach in a formal setting, but there are occasions in my new job where I will. I pay attention to what Iris Jastram says about what she figures out about teaching and learning. As an academic setting, her teaching takes place in a very different setting. She is teaching part of a structured, formal, semester-long course. When I teach it is a 90-minute web course, or maybe a half or full day, skills-based focused course. I found a great deal to glean from her post on specialization.

Iris also wrote a paen to the "reference interview" which took the conceptual issue further and applies its principles to broader issues in her work community.

I have not read much about the "generational divide" recently, however, Librarian Kate gave her reaction to an article on KPBS which came out of the recent ALA Midwinter meeting in San Diego. (Original post here.) As a boomer living with a NextGen librarian, I am not sure I agree about any of the generalizations, but the view is important.

And on a totally unrelated topic Fonts. Salon recently had an article on fonts. Wired also had an article on fonts. Both are drawn from the original Princeton study (which....attention Dorothea Salo seems to be OA article!.)