“Please to call it… research”

Man, I love Google.  It’s fabulous to live in an era where just about any silly question I want to ask can be answered in moments.

• Who was that amazing, skinny-waisted, tap-dancing sister who played opposite Rosemary Clooney in White Christmas?
  
• How do HTML table styles work, again?
  
• What could I make for lunch with kale and tahini?
  
• Are there any new virus removal programs?
  
• Who wrote Le Grande Maunes?
  
• What good shielded outdoor lights are available?

Of course, there’s a downside.  If you’ve got the discipline to find your answer and then get off the web and move on, you’re good.   I don’t seem to have it.  So many of my Google searches turn up all sorts of interesting things that I want to explore.  Often they spawn more Google searches (I’d love to blame this all on a nefarious plot by Google).  Articles have links to other articles.  

I mostly ignore videos on the grounds that they take too long (unless I’m trying to learn something and so far the written answers aren’t helping). But that's probably a false economy.  I can get lost for big chunks of time reading stuff that, eventually, is not even related to my original question.  Is it fun? Sure.  Does it help me get my work done?  Well…

In this age of infinite information, it’s very easy to get lost in it, especially if you enjoy reading and the process of learning like I do.  How do you decide when you’ve had enough?  For me, it depends – on how black-and-white the question is, how comfortable I am that I know what I’m doing right now and don’t need much input from an expert.  And how much I’m enjoying the task at hand.  If I’d really rather not be doing what I’m doing, it’s easy to rationalize that a differently-worded search might come up with better info, or that these 4 related articles might be useful before I get back to work.  All in the name of …research, of course.  

I already set a timer for Facebook because aside from keeping in touch with friends, the thing’s a time sink.  Maybe I should do that before I type something into that search box, too.  

What do you do to keep from endlessly wandering around in all that delicious information out there?

Garden dreams in progress

Finally, finally, FINALLY there are signs of spring in ChicagoLand.  It’s been a long, tough winter.  This post is primarily to share the eye candy coming up in my yard; it's been a delight this month to watch it begin to happen.

My potted plants have managed to survive on the back porch (which long ago was turned into an extra little room off the kitchen).  It was sometimes chilly but nobody died.  I’ve also tried to keep some sort of bloom going.  I plant a few paperwhite bulbs at a time.  And I’ve bought hyacinths from Trader Joe's.  The fragrance is so intoxicating.  There’s nothing I like better in my office to lighten the gloom of winter.  

And now, finally, my yard is beginning to wake up.  First there were the crocus: 

 Then, the delicious little blue Scilla (siberica) in the back:

And then my newly planted Fritillaria (michailovskyi).  

And then, surprisingly, the tulips.  I expect daffodils first, but not this year.  At this point the daffodils are up too, but the tulips are still ahead and will probably bloom first.  Neither is quite there yet, though:

This morning my rhododendron popped into bloom.  Last year, the tulips and daffodils were blooming first.  This year, it’s the other way around.  

Coco and I watch for flowers in other yards as we walk, and there are now spring bulbs up everywhere.  My next door neighbor’s front is gorgeous, so I can enjoy that until my own blooms appear.

Half of the hyacinths, the ones I planted by the back steps, are coming up (they were a mixture; they’re not all supposed to be pink!  But I guess I don’t really care as long as they smell good).  The ones planted close to the patio have not appeared.  It’s probably colder over there.  I shall sit on the bottom step, though, and drink in that fragrance.  

It’s time – past time – to get going on the spring work of the garden.  The soil is warming up very slowly, but it might be OK to plant snow peas, spinach, lettuce, and other early vegetables.  I did not start tomatoes or peppers from seed this year, so will need to buy plants from my CSA farmer or a farmer’s market.  But at the rate we’re going, it won’t be time to put those plants outside until June.  

That’s OK.  Every day in the garden is a good one.  I will enjoy both the work and the results in my yard.  I spent 16 years in Maryland turning my lot into something beautiful.  Now I’m starting over with a new project.  It’s exciting.

Security: HeartBleed aftermath

Well, it was fun, wasn’t it?  The panic, the flying rumors, the denials.  “Massive vulnerability” in a protocol we use EVERYWHERE.  What is an ordinary person supposed to think when told your passwords could have been compromised?

As I've said before, this is the way of the world and you just have to plan to do your part to keep the bad guys at bay.  In my mind changing passwords should be easy.  It IS easy, if you have set up a data base.  See my prior post about how to create good passwords and manage them: http://lifecommaspiceof.blogspot.com/2014/02/security-password-basics.html

So, when word comes that a password might be compromised, you do the following:

1.  Log in to your password db and find the site/account’s record
2.  Open your browser and log into the site/account in question
3.  Navigate to your account preferences or find the change password link
4.  Enter your old password  (assuming you’re using your data base, this is a copy/paste operation from the db)
5. As a short-term protection from problems, copy your old password into the notes field of the record.
6. Tell the db to generate a new password.  In KeePass 2, there’s a button for this at the end of the PW repeat line.  I randomly choose one of the generation algorithm options that button gives me, on the grounds that almost anything it generates is going to be reasonably secure.    For high-stakes accounts like my bank account, I use the highest hex key.  Sometimes I look at the password and add symbols to the numbers and letters.    But I admit that probably isn’t really necessary most of the time.
   
7.  Save the db record, then copy/paste the new password into the password and repeat password fields in the account.  Save changes.
8. Log out of the account and log back in.
9.  Assuming the password change worked, open the db record again and erase the old password from the notes field.
10. Save the new version of the db.

Keepass2 entry with Generate Password Button Circled

 

All this actually takes a lot less time than it took to write up the steps.  Of course, that’s for one account.  If you have lots of accounts you need to change, the time it takes multiplies.  Do it anyway.  It would take a LOT more time to repair the damage if your passwords have been compromised anywhere.

Which accounts do you need to fix?  CNET has a list here, which they keep updating:
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/which-sites-have-patched-the-heartbleed-bug/

The list is not in alphabetical order but that’s only a minor inconvenience.  You need to scan the whole list anyway; it might trigger action on an account you haven’t thought about in a while.  

I had to create and memorize a new mail password by hand.  That always takes a few minutes of concentration and a few days until I have it fully memorized and in my fingers.  Still worth it.  And now done.  

One thought worth repeating from my prior Security post: whatever you do, use a different password for every account.  You can’t control when vulnerabilities will happen.  But you CAN control the extent of potential damage done to you.  Use a data base, which will generate a different password for every account.  

You are responsible for your own data.  Do what you need to do.

Slideshows – articles for dummies

I really, really hate it when online sources turn lists into slideshows.  Maybe they think the pictures will make the list more memorable, but mostly it makes it a waste of time and bandwidth as the photos – or now, gifs! – load. 

To me, things are done as a slide show for one or more of the following reasons:

• The writer doesn’t have enough information to write a real article of substance, so is taking something short and making it long 
• The writer doesn’t really know how to write.  The pause of page reloads makes it less obvious that there's no flow.  Or even, no content of value. 
• The website wants every reader to have to click 5, or 8, or 10, or 50! times so that the page reloads and new ads can be presented along with the next photo
•  As above, the writer thinks the pictures will make the list more memorable.  But this implies that the list doesn’t stand on its own
• The writer thinks the article is funnier with the pictures

It’s not that I mind pictures as part of an article.  Even I do it occasionally.  See? 

Here’s the Brookfield Zoo’s new baby gorilla, Nora, with her mom, Koola.  It has nothing whatsoever to do with this article, except that I have significant respect for our gorilla cousins.  I doubt they’d communicate with slideshows.

What I mind is an article that essentially consists of One. Picture. At. A. Time. Each with a one-liner (the “list”) or possibly a short explanation along with it.  No matter how much the title intrigued me, I am very likely to X the browser tab and move on.  A picture is NOT worth a thousand words when it’s just a representation for a sentence of six.  

There are also “fake slideshows” showing up.  This is only slightly better.  You don’t have to click to see the next picture, but for every sentence there’s a picture.  Or two.  This morning I clicked on something and it took FOREVER to load.  It turned out to be because essentially for every 1-2 sentence “paragraph”, there were, side-by-side, one photo and one gif.  I didn’t even let it finish loading.  I no longer remember what the topic was. 

Boys and girls, when I just want to look at photos for fun, I’ll visit the Cheezburger network.  When I want information, I want to read it (okay, exceptions for TED talks, about which more in a future post).  If you don’t have enough to say, don’t go looking for pictures and then publish them.  Please. 

Gratitude part 1 of N

I’ve mentioned the word in posts before. Without being terribly formal about it, gratitude is probably my top spiritual practice. It keeps me grounded, fixes my attitude. I am convinced it makes me happier because it helps me realize I have so many reasons to be happy.

And I do.  Fundamentally, I am grateful to be living when and where I am living. In any other age, and even in this age in many other places, I could not have the life I have. I could have been dependent on the kindness of others and probably close to impoverished for the past 9 years. Instead, I have control over my life, a wonderful house,  many friends, opportunities for learning, growth, and interesting work.  

I am grateful to be living in in a time and place where I can live alone, choose my activities, ride a bike, re-invent myself professionally, make a living, own property, and many, many other things as a woman in her middle years. There are, in fact, very few constraints on me that I don’t place on myself.  

I look around the room, and interests tug at me – music, books, knitting, the garden (in the form of seed catalogs). There’s not enough time for them all. How lucky I am to be able to indulge in all these and more. Maybe I’ll talk about them, one at a time, in future posts. Each time I will remember to be grateful.    

My favorite information sources

I’m one of those obnoxious facebook friends who tends to look things up before I repost, and when I discover something is incorrect, or only partially correct, I don’t hesitate to post additional information in a comment.  I’d say about 70% of my friends are glad to learn more.  The rest, well….have you ever heard of “don’t confuse me with the facts”?  It’s really more like “don’t annoy me with the facts”.  

I find facts to be very handy things.  They are, however, tough to find on the internet sometimes.  The web is the ultimate democracy – anyone can post anything.   There is no Fact Police.  There can be plenty of pushback for a post, but there’s no guarantee the pushback has anything to do with actual facts.  

I tend to stay away from most news sites, especially the ones connected to television stations.  The ones with obvious political biases – BOTH left and right – are, to me, pretty transparently off base.  The only newspaper I read regularly is The Economist.  If you usually get your news from a US source of any kind, I encourage you to give it a try.  It’s very enlightening to read about us from a point of view outside the country.  And I also like learning about other parts of the world.  One of the things I really hate about American media is the apparent assumption that if it didn’t happen in the US or directly affect Americans, it isn’t really important.  The other source I trust for news is NPR.  Folks on the far right seem to think it’s very left leaning, but I find it pretty balanced, and it often has the detail I crave on a topic that interests me.  

For many other things, I might read them but unless an article feels solid and I can corroborate it with other sources, I usually won’t repost it.  Snopes.com and Politifact.com are good friends.  I love that Politifact pulls no punches: you’ll find “pants-on-fire” labels on untrue statements no matter who made them.

As a geek, I do my best to keep up with what’s happening in IT.  It’s tough. There are so many subspecialties that no one person can possibly stay current on everything.  Fortunately, there are lots of good blogs and news sites.  Here are some of my favorites:

• Sophos’ NakedSecurity keeps me up to date on what to watch and I find them mostly written in English rather than tech-ese.  I repost their articles a lot. 
• InfoWorld has several interesting blogs, especially Tech Watch
• TechRepublic’s multi-topic site
• Gizmo’s reviews of freeware, known as techsupportalert.com
• Wall Street Journal’s CIO Report
• My friend John Ahlberg’s blog at Waident.com, which also tends to cover many IT-related topics.  

Then there are the sites for cycling, for knitting, for gardening, for fun, and for inspiration.  Just having that list might make you think I couldn’t keep up with them ALL, all the time.  And you’d be right.  Still, I imagine there are good ones out there that I don’t know anything about.  What are some of your favorite sources? 

Happy Birthday, Mr. Handel

George Frederick Handel was born on this date (more or less – it was pre-conversion to the Gregorian Calendar in most of Protestant Europe) in 1685.  Famous for his Oratorio Messiah and his Water Music, he in fact composed hundreds of works in a wide variety of genres over his 74 year lifetime.  He lived in Germany, Italy, and England and traveled extensively.  He was revered by later famous composers – notably Mozart and Beethoven – and is generally considered one of the greatest composers of the Baroque era.

Prior to 3½  years ago, though, I would not have placed Handel in my top 5 even if asked to confine consideration to the Baroque.  I revere Bach and his mathematical precision, love the passion of Vivaldi and the brilliance of Purcell, and think Scarlatti’s sonatas are fun.  My long-ago pretense at being an organist included Buxtehude and Telemann.  Oh, I loved singing the Messiah and enjoyed hearing Music for the Royal Fireworks and had a passing acquaintance with parts of a few other oratorios.  But somehow Handel escaped my getting to know him well.

Then Mr. Handel’s legacy and my life crossed paths unexpectedly, in the guise of the Handel Week Festival (www.handelweek.com).  The festival, directed by Dr. Dennis Northway, was planning to present Handel’s oratorio Israel & Egypt. It requires a good-sized double chorus, and Dr. Northway was looking for an additional mezzo soprano.  I am grateful to Dr. Wilbert Watkins for the introduction.  The rehearsals and performance of Israel & Egypt, coupled with Dr. Northway’s enthusiastic, entertaining and enlightening stories about Mr. Handel and the work, opened my eyes to a whole new world. 

I have had the amazing fortune to remain with the Handel Week chorus since then.  I continue to learn about the man and his music and to learn to be a better singer and musician. I’ve made terrific friends in that chorus, even as I remain astonished that I am allowed to sing with musicians of this caliber.  And now I count Dennis as a friend as well as a teacher.

This season the Handel Week Chorus prepared two concerts.  Last Sunday we presented the famous Messiah as is traditional every 5 years of the Festival's life.  Dr. Northway chose Mozart’s 1789 orchestration of the work this time.  In addition to discovering there was much I still could learn about such a familiar piece, the orchestra accompaniment was refreshing and occasionally hilarious. You can feel the movement toward the Classical Period.  You can also catch Mr. Mozart’s sense of humor.  My new favorite aria is in Part III, just before the end: “If God be for us, Who can be Against us?”, for Soprano – and bassoon. 

Next Sunday, March 2, we will present a concert titled The Celebratory Handel. It includes two Coronation Anthems (including Zadoc the Priest, which is still performed at every British Coronation), Music for the Royal Fireworks, and The Te Deum for the Peace of Dettingden.  The choral music was all new to me.  The joy of the journey continues.  Happy Birthday, Mr. Handel – I am very selfishly glad you existed and were such a musical genius.  I am one of millions, perhaps, whose lives you have enhanced in unexpected ways