Kibbles & Bytes Blog

I’m never one for encouraging or promoting New Year’s resolutions unless it’s something practical and attainable. Ok, and something that you know you can follow through with! We talk a lot about data security in terms of backups here at Small Dog Electronics, but we do not talk a lot about password security. Passwords can feel like the bane of our existence some days! We need passwords for just about everything we want to do on the internet, we need them for gaming, online purchases, our banking and more. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen users keeping their usernames and passwords written directly on their computers, sticky notes taped to the underside of their computer, a file right on their desktop called “passwords” and more. I think I’ve probably seen every possible WRONG way you can store your usernames and passwords. I get it, it’s frustrating to forget this information and even worse when it’s a login you have to change every 3-4 months.

To make dealing with passwords a little easier and more secure, using password management software can be crucial in organization and security. We use a service at Small Dog called 1Password, There is also another service called LastPass. that works just as well. Your keychain through your iCloud account can also be used, but, if you need to securely share information with others using one of these other services can be a better solution. We like 1Password and with the frequent need to update passwords and usernames on different sites, it’s extremely functional to ensure that we don’t get locked out of accounts.

I am sure that some of you have seen Safari suggest a random and impossible to remember password suggestion when you need to reset a password, another reason for secure password storage. As crooks and scammers get smarter, we have to get smarter about our passwords. We might prefer to use a near to your heart password combination that you know you won’t forget, but those are often the most easily hacked.

With password management software you will still need to remember a few key passwords and usernames. Afterall, you do have to use a secure password to get into your password filing system. When you are creating passwords, always try and use a combination of numbers, letters and even characters when the sites permit it. Random and longer passwords are always recommended. You might try what I call the sentence trick when creating a new password. This is where you could have a favorite movie line or excerpt from a poem and use that as the base for your password. For example “Now is the time for more fun!” This could turn into a password “N1tt4mf!” I took the first letter of each word and changed some letters for numbers with a special character at the end.

Just as important as tips for what to do to keep your passwords secure is what NOT to do! Always enable two-step verification whenever possible. It’s a bit frustrating at times but is one tip you won’t regret for account security. When using two-step authentication and password management systems keep in mind you can still be vulnerable. You will want to avoid common habits like using the same password on multiple sites. One major benefit of password management software is it remembers your account information, so it eliminates the urge to use common passwords across multiple sites. Once you have filed your account information, discard those old sticky notes! You do not want to keep those lying around anymore.

Now, get organizing and start off 2018 a little more secure than you were!

I got the Magic 8 ball and gave it some upgrades so I am ready for my annual predictions:

Apple

Apple will become a $1 trillion dollar company in 2018 by market capitalization Apple will bring back its $200 billion from overseas and make an out-of-character acquisition Apple HomePod will ship and will make Alexa seem like a “Chatty Cathy“

Politics

• Donald Trump will not be President by the end of the year
• Dems will regain control of both the House and Senate
• A bi-partisan infrastructure bill will pass
• Some prominent Republicans will publicly break from supporting the President

Weather

• Vermont will get a lot of snow and have a horrible mud season but a wonderfully hot summer
• No hurricanes will touch the Florida Keys
• More words like bombogenesis will be created to name weather phenomena

Sports

The Boston Celtics will win the NBA championship over the Warriors when Gordon Hayward returns to play the 6th man for the playoffs The Chicago Cubs rebound from the World Series hangover and win it again The North Koreans will win a gold medal at the Olympics The USA women’s hockey team will win an Olympic medal The Patriots will lose, please Hockey? Who cares? Okay, I’m going for the Detroit Red Wings because they toss octopuses on the ice!

Space

Yes, folks this WILL be the year for confirm alien contact (see the politics section) Elon Musk’s Falcon Heavy will launch gigantic payloads as the most powerful rocket ever There will be one death from space debris

Since my Chevy Volt has Apple CarPlay I usually use my iPhone and the Apple Maps App for navigation. Lately I have noticed that every time I launch Maps it wants to take me to the location “Key West Personal Chef” which happened to be the first entry in my destinations and a random pin that I had dropped on the map. This was frustrating to me and, try as I might, I was not able to delete that pin. Grace said that might be an interesting Kibbles article so here we go.

Tip 1 – Removing a Pin from Apple Maps

This has changed when Apple improved and updated the iOS. It is not as easy as I thought it would be, swiping on it didn’t work, hitting the info button didn’t work and 3D touch was not effective. I did some research, and found to remove a pin or previous destination simply swipe up to see the list of destinations and swipe left to remove. This is different if it is a previous destination or a pin that came from a search. Previous destinations can just be swiped away but those from a search have another step. You must first click into the search box and then you can swipe to remove the pin.

Tip 2 – How to Find Where you Parked

I actually have several parking applications. Some pay for meters and some remember where the car is parked (if you’ve remembered to mark the location). But, to make things easier, if you have paired your iPhone with your car via Bluetooth or through CarPlay it will remember where you parked. You will have to make sure some things are enabled for this to work. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services to make sure it is turned on. While in Location Services, go to System Services, and turn on Significant Locations. When your phone disconnects from your car, you will receive a notification and now Parked Car will show up on your map.

Tip 3- Turn on Compass Mode

It has taken me some time to get used to looking at maps where north is not up. I used to participate in these really tricky map rallies called the St. Valentines Day Massacre and that set my compass with north up! But with Apple Maps, because you may not know which way is up, you can activate “compass mode” easily. Simply tap the blue location arrow to find your current location and then tap it again and you will see a little compass showing your orientation. If you don’t want to see the compass, simply tap on it and it will go away.

Tip 4 – Clear your Location History

Let’s just say you search for directions to some places you don’t want anyone to know about, like the gift shop for your wife or you are a secret agent and want to cover your tracks. Apple Maps will keep track of where you have been, but you can clear that history easily if you want to. Go to Settings, select Privacy, and then Location Services. Tap on System Services, which can be found at the bottom of the list, and then tap on Significant Locations to see your travel history. You can clear your location history by tapping on Clear History at the bottom or selectively edit your locations by selecting that location and swiping left.