Open Sesame - Password SecurityWritten by Terrence F. Doheny
Open Sesame – Password Security“Open Sesame!” is probably most famous password in literature. It gave Ali Baba access to vast treasure. In realm of technology, computer passwords also give access to valuable treasures: precious business and personal data. Information about your personal life, buying habits, credit quality and life style is valuable to those who can profit from it. For Corporation, information has even greater worth. It is not “Bricks and Mortar” but intangibles such as intellectual property, client lists, market strategies, pricing and compensation that account for over half value of modern enterprise. All of this personal and business data most likely resides on a database somewhere and is available with a password. In fact, passwords are most common means of entry in any system. They are also acknowledged as most vulnerable points for security. “Weak” or compromised passwords are easiest way for hackers to gain entry into a system. Simple or short passwords can be easily discovered through “brute force” or “dictionary” attacks which concentrate intense computer power to crack a password. A two letter password, for example, has only 676 combinations. A password with eight letters offers more safety with 208,000,000 combinations. Ideally, a password should consist of 8 or more characters. They should also contain a mixture of upper and lower case letters, symbols and numbers. “A$d3B5i9X” would be an example. Microsoft security has encouraged concept of “Pass Phrase” as an alternative. A phrase such as,”TheLastGoodBookUBoughtCost$25!” has all of needed elements and is also easy to remember.
| | The history of Printer Ink CartridgesWritten by Keith Kingston
With introduction of inkjet printer and printer ink cartridge in 1984, task of printing your documents and changing printer ink cartridges became more convenient, reliable and cleaner than previous methods of changing ribbons or inserting a toner cartridge. Prior to 1984, ink delivery systems were not as dependable as they are now. The inkjet system replaced old dot matrix method, which required changing a ribbon. It wasn’t long before printer industry began conceptualizing a new ink delivery technique, including drop on demand method. Several companies were driving forces behind developing inkjet technology, and by 1990 method was widely accepted. Today it is method of choice for printing requirements, and will print both black and white documents as well as color graphics and photos. The quality is excellent, thanks to development of printer ink cartridges. It is possible to print on many different sizes and types of paper, fabric, film, etc. These printers are used in businesses, in schools and homes of millions of people worldwide. Each printer uses a specific printer ink cartridge, most often one each of black and color. Each cartridge is given an identifying number and lists model number of each printer in which it can be used. While each printer manufacturer recommends its own brand of printer ink cartridge, it is possible to refill cartridge yourself, or purchase a refilled, remanufactured or a compatible cartridge. There are two types of refilled cartridges: You can do it yourself with a kit that allows you to refill your own cartridge. Refill kits are available at a very low price and are sometimes choice of those who don’t mind doing filling in order to save money. The other alternative is to buy a refilled cartridge from a manufacturer. This method involves drilling, filling and sealing an empty cartridge.
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