Seraphina

[stratamania]

I'm not sure if I can get that oil here, anyway I took a look at the link and it seems very pure and apparently doesn't go rancid.

 

[DavyDave53]

I use beeswax to clean guitars.  Smear on and rub off with a clean cloth.  The dirt lifts right off.  On unfinished wood, the residue disappears in about a week.

 

[Cagey]

Is it just me or does this ebony board look like molten chocolate ?

No, it's not just you. It's a reflection of the background on a superbly finished fretboard. Very nice work. You rarely see such finery. Kudos to Mr. Prometheus!

 

[Prometheus]

Croquet, "molten chocolate"... ha! Only one thing more yummy than fine wood, and that's chocolate. No, wait I can think of another... (Hmmm. Never mind)

Thanks Cagey. I've seen your work here (exemplary, literally), so coming from you, that means a lot.

I might look into some image hosting. It's just that I've got so darned many different kinds of accounts for so many different kinds of things, I've had to get a "login manager" to avoid have to write 'em all down (which of course is inadvisable). I've posted some of my photography to various places before, only to have it turn up in surprising places. But I s'pose this is a different sort of thing, and besides I'm just throwing all this out there for the good of newbies (like me) everywhere.

I didn't know that beeswax could be used like that. Now what sort of thing around here could I use as a test for that?

 

[Cagey]

I didn't know that beeswax could be used like that. Now what sort of thing around here could I use as a test for that?

Beeswax is very good for one thing on guitars - lubricating screws so you don't twist their little heads off driving them into hardwoods. It doesn't harden or rot or turn rancid or affect the wood. As a finish? No. It will look good at first - it's actually very luscious. But, it's also very fragile. It won't last on anything you're going to handle.

 

[Prometheus]

:cool01: Woohoo ! :cool01:

Somewhere along the way yesterday I graduated to "Full Member" (no jokes, please!). So is there a party? Do I get cake ???? I want cake !    :blob7:

 

[stratamania]

Try Keepass for a secure way of keeping your logins. Free and very good.

And just for you...

ccasion14:

Doesn't appear to be any cake icons so will these do

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

That's a textbook fingerboard treatment right there, custom shop grade work!!!

 

[Cagey]

I might look into some image hosting. It's just that I've got so darned many different kinds of accounts for so many different kinds of things, I've had to get a "login manager" to avoid have to write 'em all down (which of course is inadvisable).

One of the more secure and memorable ways to deal with passwords is to use phrases. For instance, something like "I had lunch with Cagey for the 1st time yesterday and it was great" turns into IhlwC4t1sttyaiwgr8

It's not in any dictionary in any language, it has letters, numbers, upper/lower case, it's long, and easier to remember than some obscure series are. Very tough to beat.

Length is most important, though, even if you just use regular words. Things get out of hand mathematically pretty fast.

 

[Prometheus]

XKCD ! I love that guy. Too many similarities to what I affectionately refer to as "my real life".

Yeah, I use mnemonics for many of my personal passwords. Because I work in a pretty secured environment, I've been trained not to use the same password over and over. So pretty much every one is different. And the ones related to work are generally assigned (I assign them to others for some of our servers), and those are all completely strong (aka incomprehensible).

So without them all written down on Post-Its stuck to my monitor (when I find others with that, I bring down the wrath), I'd be hooped without some manager. Yes, it's defeating the purpose somewhat. But the old grey cells aren't what they used to be, and their population is dwindling.

Irony .... I had a password manager on one of my old iPhones, but never used it much, and eventually forgot the password to it! Hoist by my own petard.

"Keepass", huh? Cool name. A lotta fun to be had with that.

 

[Cagey]

I'm a huge fan of XKCD as well. One of my fears is he'll run out of steam like Gary Larson (The Far Side) did, and stop doing his thing.

I don't use password managers because I'm afraid of putting too many eggs in one basket. I run Linux with lotsa protection on top of it, so I'm probably a little safer than some operating systems I could mention, but still. You never know. Lotta clever little rascals out there.

 

[bagman67]

The bad news is even with "correcthorsebatterystaple" style passwords, you're still screwed if the site to which your password goes doesn't encrypt using appropriately strong algorithms.


http://arstechnica.com/security/2013/05/how-crackers-make-minced-meat-out-of-your-passwords/




When do we get to see you try out that blue dye, O Stealer of Fire?

 

[bagman67]

Oh, and processing the brute-force way is getting cheaper and more powerful.  Yay.


https://securityledger.com/2012/12/new-25-gpu-monster-devours-passwords-in-seconds/

 

[Cagey]

The bad news is even with "correcthorsebatterystaple" style passwords, you're still screwed if the site to which your password goes doesn't encrypt using appropriately strong algorithms.

That's true. But, length is still a good defense even with nominal encryption. As the article you linked pointed out, most of the super-fast cracking took place on relatively short (6 to 11 character) passwords, regardless of construction. If on top of length you also have obscurity, all the better. The last line of defense is frequent changes, but almost nobody does that. Coming up with a secure password is already a big enough pain in the shorts that most folks just blow it off so they're certainly not going to do it on a regular basis.

 

[Cagey]

Oh, and processing the brute-force way is getting cheaper and more powerful.  Yay.

Hehe! Yeah. But, what's even more frightening is that there are already HUGE pre-cracked lists out there. Don't need any more processing power than a cheap iPod to do a simple look-up.

 

[Prometheus]

A cool solution - not for your average joe - is one we use at work. Fobs (sorta like a keychain) generate numeric codes, once per 30 or 60 seconds. The numbers depend upon algorithms that use ID and clock time. This is entered along with username and regular password. Only if the server accepts all three can you get in.

But for regular logon stuff, some long-ish random scramble of upper/lower alpha, numbers and characters is more than sufficient. Plenty secure. Especially (bringing this full circle) when I can't remember the darned thing.

 

[Prometheus]

Bagman, thanks for (sort of) steering us back on topic. Yeah, that blue dye is one of the "upcoming topics" I hinted towards at the top of this page.

I got sorta sidetracked with neck burnishing/dressing. The dye's now moved up the priority list again.