General Computing – Page 3

What Is The Golem Network?

What Is The Golem Network?

Simple explanation: Golem is a bunch of connected computers that team up to become a giant rendering Megazord!

This is a really cool project. Recently I have found myself lacking computational power in a professional environment. The client loves this Blender animation, but I’ve got 1/13th of the power I need to render what they want by the time they need it. Traditional render farms are out of the question because on demand render pricing would be enough to just buy a render farm outright. Possible solution? Golem network.

Disclaimer: I have not used Golem in a professional setting. However, that doesn’t mean I’m not very interested in the project. The idea being: you can download a simple client for accessing the network, set up a few ports for your router to forward, and essentially “go online”. There were anywhere between 250-350 computers or “nodes” on the network at any given time (at the time of this writing). You can check this number now at stats.golem.network. It even gives you the collective number of CPU cores, RAM, and disk space available at any given time. Pretty cool!

There are two sides to Golem. First is the side where you can essentially put your computing resources ‘up for rent’. This allows others on the Golem network to use your computer to render projects. The other side is renting computing resources from the network. Got a huge project to render? You can pay to rent resources to finish your project way faster. A huge advantage is that this is much less expensive than using a traditional render farm. Here’s a promotional video that explains it quite well:

My Experience

I ran spent about 2 weeks on the Golem network just renting my unused compute power. Wasn’t sure what to expect. The Golem network is built on the Etherium blockchain and providers are paid in GNT or Golem Network Tokens. If you are buying compute power, you’ll be paying in ETH and also covering any transaction fees. As of now estimating how much you’ll need to render your job is kinda complex. You need to define a specific ‘timeout’ time for your job. So if a weaker node gets your job and takes longer than your ‘timeout’ time, you basically lose your money. In my experience, I rented out my AMD FX 8350 Black Edition and earned about $0.07 worth of GNT. I think it’s because the network is still so new. Even the client to connect to the netowork is still in beta. It could also be that not a lot of people are using the network just because it’s just so new.

Regardless, the Golem Network is an incredibly cool project to keep an eye on. Who knows, it could potentially be the only way we render our complex projects! It is also worth mentioning that Golem is compatable with Blender projects. I have yet to test out the capabilities of the network and discover what is and isn’t possible when rendering Blender projects with certain versions of Blender, different addons, plugins, etc. Will keep you posted! Thanks for reading.

matt

April 2, 2019

3D Animation, Blender, General Computing, Linux

b3d, Blender, computing, decentralization, networking, open source, render, render farm, rendering
What is HTML?
What is HTML? Hypertext Markup Language is the standard way to format text for use on web pages. So if you ever find yourself needing to edit a webpage or create one from scratch, this is the most basic way to display anything on a page.

Basic Structure

HTML is broke up into several different elements, noted by tags. You can write anything you want on your web page, but these tags are at the core of HTML and are used to give your text its structure. Tags are noted with angle brackets <> and wrap around the text that it affects. It should be noted that the tags need to go in a specific order, like so:
```
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
     <head>
          <title>Page Title</title>
     </head>
     <body>
          <h1>Heading</h1>
          <p>Paragraph text.</p>
     </body>
</html>
```
Let’s break that down. The first tag is <!DOCTYPE html> and that’s just a one-time declaration to help the computer understand that it’s about to read an HTML document. That way, it knows what to expect. You don’t need to close this tag.

Next, it’s the <html> tag. Everything, the whole page, is contained inside this tag.

The <head> tag is where you keep file path references associated files, like CSS files for styling, Javascript files for functions, and other page metadata like titles. The <head> tag closes with a forward slash and closes out all the page metadata before the <body> tag begins.

Finally, the <body> tag surrounds the main content of your page. Inside this tag, you’ll find lots of tags like <p> (paragraph text), <h1> (largest header text) through <h6> (smallest header text), <ul> (unordered list AKA bullet points), <ol> (ordered list AKA numbered), <a> (anchor tag, used for making clickable links) and <form> for forms. There are several more, but those are some of the most common tags you’ll find.

Why Tags?

These tags server two main purposes. The first and primary purpose is to tell your web browser how to interpret all the text coming from a web page. Is it a title? A paragraph? A list? Table? This provides the overall structure of the page. HTML is often referred to as the “skeleton” of the web page. It’s functional, but not necessarily the most beautiful thing out there.

Additionally, tags provide a great element that CSS files can use to apply style. So instead of applying a style to ALL text in an HTML document, CSS can select just the headings (<h1> tags) and apply styles to just the text inside those element tags.

That’s it for the basics! There are tons of free online courses and videos out on the web to help help get to grips with the basics of web design and development. In this day and age with so much of our lives existing on the internet, it definitely doesn’t hurt to know some of the basics of how the web works.
matt

March 5, 2019

General Computing, Linux, Web Design, Web Development

computing, internet, linux, portfolio, web design, web development, website, wordpress
Swap Memory: It’s Like Downloading More RAM
How Do I Download More RAM?

It’s kinda like changing the blinker fluid in your car. You can’t. You shouldn’t. I mean… stuff like that doesn’t exist. But, if you’re finding yourself in a situation where you are running shy on your current installed amount of RAM, is there anything you can do without hitting up Newegg for a few more RAM sticks? Luckily, you can! Read on to learn how to add swap memory in Ubuntu 18.04.

Just recently, I tried rendering a complex Blender scene on my computer. Unfortunately it crashed before I ever saw the first tile start to render. Blender was all like, “ERROR: Out of Memory”. I tried rendering again, but this time I opened my system resources window and monitored the RAM usage. I have 16GB of RAM installed, and 2GB of swap. As the scene loaded, the RAM started climbing up to the top of the usage graph, hit the top, then the swap started filling up. They both hit the top, and Blender crashed again.

Fortunately, there’s a somewhat hacky thing called swap memory. So instead of purchasing extra RAM for your machine and going through all the trouble of installing it, you can add “virtual RAM” with just a few lines of code. This swap memory is designed as a sort of fail-safe should your machine demand more RAM memory than is physically installed. My problem was I was exceeding both my physical and my swap memory limitations. By default, Ubuntu was giving me 2GB of swap memory, and I had 16GB of RAM installed, but the Blender scene I was trying to render required more than my physical plus swap total of 18GB.

Step One: Check If You Have Swap Enabled

I’m using Ubuntu 18.04, so I can check my swap status by running this in the terminal:
```
sudo swapon --show
```
If there’s no output after running that command, you don’t have any swap memory enabled. If you do have swap enabled, you should get something like this:
```
NAME      TYPE      SIZE USED PRIO
/dev/sda2 partition 1.9G   0B   -2
```
The swap information in Ubuntu (size and settings and all that) can be found in /swapfile. To enable the swap file, you’d run:
```
sudo swapon /swapfile
```
To learn more about the ‘swapon’ and ‘swapoff’ command, you can check out:
```
man swapon
```
Step Two: Disable Your Swapfile

Before you edit your swapfile, you need to disable it, otherwise you’ll get an error that’s something like “ERROR: file in use”. To do this, disable your swap file by running:
```
sudo swapoff /swapfile
```
Step Three: Edit Your Swapfile

You can edit your current swapfile (or add a new swapfile if you don’t have one) using the fallocate command. You can learn more by running “man fallocate”. To increase your swap memory, run the following command (and change the number of GB to your preference):
```
sudo fallocate -l 50GB /swapfile
```
Step Four: Re-Enable Your Swapfile

The -l flag stands for ‘length’ which essentially adjusts how much swap you’ve got. Next, you’ll need to reactivate your swap file by running
```
sudo swapon /swapfile 
```
Step Five: Confirm Changes Were Applied

That should give your as many GB of swap as you need! You can double check your swap memory by running the Ubuntu System monitor by running:
```
gnome-system-monitor
```
and click the Resources tab at the top. You should see your swap memory reflect (not exactly, but pretty close) the amount of swap that you set using the fallocate command.

Swap = 46.6 GB

Now you should be able to render huge scenes in Blender without buying more RAM! Woot!

Just a disclaimer: This is more of a note for myself so I can go back and visit this later. If you spot anything wrong or catch some mistakes, feel free to let me know! Thanks.
matt

February 19, 2019

3D Animation, General Computing, Linux, Ubuntu

animation, Blender, blender 3d, computing, general computing, hack, memory, RAM
Review: Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X Joystick

Wait, How Old?

Yes, Thrustmster released the T-Flight HOTAS X Joystick way back in 2008, over 10 years ago. By technology’s standards, this thing is a relic! But can the HOTAS X stand up to the true test of time? Well… it seems it can. The fact that this thing is still readily available is a testament to how much staying power this hardware has.

First Impressions

The build quality of this joystick is impressive for its price range. For $50 (even less if you can find it on sale) you get a great entry level stick and throttle. At first, the sheer number of buttons overwhelmed me. As a casual gamer, I’m only used to about 4-6 buttons and a D-pad. However, once I counted the sort of “secret” buttons like R3 and L3, I had 11 buttons plus a D-pad. So the 12 buttons on the HOTAS X isn’t THAT much different. I suppose the brand new hand placement takes a bit of getting used to.

Default Configuration

Having the ability to manually configure the buttons however you want is awesome. There are a few default configurations that come built into the firmware which is convenient. That makes it super convenient for certain game titles. Unfortunately, there is no default configuration for X-Plane 11. Not a deal-breaker, but an X-Plane 11 default would have been nice. That would have made playing X-Plane 11 a breeze out-of-the-box. Regardless, I would likely be setting my own custom configuration anyway.

Ergonomics

From the moment I first put my hand on the stick, it felt great. I purchased the Thrustmaster HOTAS X joystick with the intention to log many hours in X-Plane 11. That said, I need my stick and throttle to be as comfortable as possible for when I settle in to those long flights. And the same level of comfort goes for the throttle as does the main flight stick. Both elements are a pleasure to operate and my fingers fall perfectly where they need to in order to reach all the buttons. Another great feature is that the HOTAS has the ability to be separated or joined. Depending on your desk size and comfort level, you can operate the throttle and joystick up to a shoulder’s length apart, or even farther. Please note this flight stick is designed for right-handed players.

Overall Experience

Full disclosure: I’ve only put 17 hours on this joystick and this has been my first experience with a HOTAS setup. However, in that 17 hours, I’ve had absolutely no problems with this stick and throttle. I love the fact that you can attach the throttle to the stick for small desktops and pull them apart for when you have more space. The throttle and stick even comes with its own Alan key built into the base so you can quickly and easily combine and separate the stick and throttle. I look forward to putting more hours on the Thrustmaster HOTAS X Joystick as it is a superbly built piece of hardware.

matt

January 22, 2019

Aviation, General Computing

aviation, computer games, controller, flight simulator, gaming, general aviation, hardware, HOTAS, review
Review: X-Plane 11

I recently came across the opportunity to make my first decision toward my sport aviation journey. I had about $100 to spend, so I had a choice: I could book a discovery flight at my local airport, or I could get a flight simulator and a joystick. One experience would be real and over in an hour, the other would simulate reality, but I could play forever!

Why Not FSX?

If I were making this choice in late 2006, I’d probably go with Microsoft Flight Simulator X, just because they have dominated the flight simulator market for so long. Microsoft hasn’t updated their flight sim in several years, and I chose between FSX (released in 2006) and X-Plane 11 (released in 2017).

First Impressions

“Woah, that’s a massive download.” was my earliest impression. The core game and the included free DLC is pushing 60GB! Once I downloaded and launched, X-Plane 11 greeted with a basic, no-nonsense menu with a handful of options. I started my first flight, and promptly crashed. My joystick wasn’t working properly.

X-Plane Flight Configuration Screen

Joystick Configuration

It was unfortunate that my joystick didn’t load into a default configuration for X-plane, considering its popularity. Overall, not a huge deal. I would have been configuring my joystick anyway, but it’s more likely I would have done it later if I wasn’t satisfied with the default. As a total non-pilot civilian, I was (and still am) struggling with what specifically all the hundreds of commands are, and which ones I should map where. Despite being unclear on the commands, mapping the buttons is very straightforward.

Graphics

Woah. These are some of the cleanest graphics I’ve seen in a game. Runs well enough on my old GTX 970. It hangs up every now and again, but it’s barely worth mentioning. Only a 1 second hang every 30 minutes or so. X-Plane 11 is extremely stable running on Windows 10. I’ve not had a single crash (knock on wood).

This screengrab doesn’t even do it justice.

Simulation (Gameplay?)

Like I mentioned earlier, I’m not yet a pilot, so I can’t yet speak to the realism of the flight dynamics. However, the fact that X-Plane 11 comes with an airfoil maker leads me to believe the dynamics are pretty darn accurate. The airfoil maker allows users to design and test their own custom wing shapes, which is perfect for those interested in designing and building their own planes from scratch, plans, or kits!

X-Plane 11 also comes with a plane maker application that allows users to create and test their own full aircraft from scratch. You can create your design in plane maker, or even import your own .obj 3D files.

My only minor complaint is the radio communication within the sim. The speech isn’t the most realistic and comes off feeling very robotic, but it is great to help me get a better idea of how aviation radio communication is supposed to work.

Weather System

Okay, this thing is awesome. You can program every possible weather scenario at virtually any airport in the world. There are options to set custom cloud cover and wind conditions ever 10,000 feet. Perfect for practicing the most difficult crosswind landings.

Custom Weather Options Page

My personal favorite option is downloading live weather conditions at the location where you’ll be taking off. That way it keeps things interesting while also providing the most realistic flying conditions.

Time of day and live weather conditions matched to the real world

Community

Despite this game being nearly 2 years old, it doesn’t feel old at all. I think the biggest reason being the community behind this software. I feel bad calling it a game! And after buying the simulator, X-Plane even offers users the opportunity to upgrade their license for professional use.

The base game comes with 11 default aircraft, which is plenty in my opinion, to learn the basic mechanics of flight. However, there is a massive community on xplane.org who generously provide a vast library of new content. There you can download new planes, airports, and even plugins. (Hopefully there will soon be a plugin that will improve radio communication!) All-in-all, X-Plane 11 has proven to be an excellent simulator and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

Full disclosure: at the time of this writing, I’ve logged 19 hours on X-Plane 11. I have every intention to keep flying and customizing for the many years that it will take me to make a fortune, get my pilot’s license, and rent a plane on a regular basis. But until then… X-Plane 11 is awesome.

matt

January 15, 2019

Aviation, General Computing, Lifestyle

aviation, flight simulator, flying, games, gaming, simulator, sport aviation, x-plane, x-plane 11
How to Access Your Desktop When You’re Away
We’ve all been in a situation where a client calls you in a panic and they need something right away. Only problem is, the file they need is on your desktop at work or at home or… basically somewhere you’re not. Remote access can save you from trouble and offer a level of convenience like few other apps can.

Where To Start

There are tons of remote access applications out there, some free, some paid, closed source and open source. Previously, I used the free version of TeamViewer. That is, until they were hacked. So are there any decent applications that can just connect you without having to give up your email address? Thankfully, yes.

Remmina

Remmina is awesome. However, it can be terrible if it’s not set up properly, or if you’re not quite sure exactly how to use it. I’ve learned the hard way, and hopefully I can share enough info to get you up and running in no time!

Install Remmina

If you’re running Ubuntu, Remmina comes in the box. If not, you can grab the snap version by running this in the terminal:
```
sudo snap install remmina
```
Alternatively, you can grab the PPA like so:
```
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:remmina-ppa-team/remmina-next
```
```
sudo apt-get update
```
```
sudo apt-get install remmina remmina-plugin-* libfreerdp-plugins-standard
```
Uninstall Remmina

If later on, you feel like this wasn’t working for you, or you just want to uninstall everything, just run:
```
sudo apt-get install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:remmina-ppa-team/remmina-next
```
Once you’ve got Remmina on your machine, you should see a window that looks kinda like this:

So fresh and so clean

Set up the Computer You Want To Access Remotely

On the computer you want to access remotely, your first step is to enable screen sharing.

Linux was hitting up that dark theme about 35 years before Apple. Just sayin

By default, screen sharing is disabled, but for this to work, you’re gonna want to turn that on.

Clickity click

Now you should see the screen sharing options. You’ll want to allow others to access the screen, and prompt them with a password upon logging in.

All good

Establishing A Remote Connection

Now, all you need to do is open Remmina on the computer you’ll be accessing FROM, and enter the IP address of your remote computer. This can be tricky if you’ve never done this before. If you’re at home and the computer you want to control is also at home, you’re more than likely on the same network. This is known as a local network connection. You can access your machine easily just by typing in its local IP address. However, if you try this from your local coffee shop wifi, it won’t work.

What’s My IP Address?

As mentioned earlier, there’s your public (external) IP address, and your private (internal) IP address. Which is which, and why does it matter? Your internal IP is used for local networks, like your home wifi that’s connecting your laptop, desktop, Chromecast, AppleTV, Roku, your friend’s phone, and your Alexa. All those devices have their own individual IP addresses, and are connected to your wireless router (wifi), that has its own public IP address, which is accessable over the internet.

Use your PUBLIC IP Address

The point of remote access is… being remote, AKA outside the network where your other computer is. So before you leave the house, go to whatsmyip.com and copy that address to your clipboard. This is your public IP address (hence, why you can just hit that website and it displays it to you).

Set Up Your Router

Paste the IP address you got from whatsmyip.com into your favorite browser. This will bring up the login page to your home router. If you’ve never seen this before, the username and password is typically printed on a sticker on the side or bottom of your router. Look for a button that says “Port Forwarding”. Find the computer that you want to connect to and create a new rule for it. Set your port number to 5900 and save.

Set Up the Remote Computer

You need to install a VNC server that will allow your remote computer to listen for incomming connections. You can do this by running:
```
sudo apt install vnc4server
```
Connect

Okay, back to Remmina. In the main window, select VNC from the dropdown at the top.

RDP is only for connecting to Windows, and SSH is just terminal access

Next, type your IP from whatsmyip.com into the bar, and ending it with :5900. So, for example, yours might look something like this:
```
65.88.88.127:5900
```
Next, you’ll be prompted for that password you set up earlier.

Tales from the Encrypt

Then, badda bing, you’re looking at your remote desktop! You did it!

such linux. much awesome.

Did I miss a step? Having trouble? If you had any questions or ran into any issues while trying to set up your connection, feel free to reach out! Drop a comment below, or hit me up on Twitter.
matt

November 28, 2018

General Computing, Lifestyle, Linux, Ubuntu

desktop, networking, remmina, remote, remote access, remote desktop, remote work, ubuntu
How to Clean Your Computer Without Compressed Air

So, my computer is starting to show its age a little bit after being built a few years ago. Now it’s time to clean out all the dust bunnies. The only problem is… I don’t have a can of compressed air lying around. Who wants to make a trip to the store just for that? So what are my options? Luckily, there are a few.

Let’s do this

First, you’ll want to clean out your filters and fans. Fans typically get gross faster than anything else. Good news: they’re also the easiest to clean. This all depends on the make/model of your computer case and how it’s built, but most filters can be popped out or slid out for easy cleaning. I usually just run my filters through some water in the sink. I’ve done this for years and it’s never hurt anything. Just be sure that your air filters are completely dry before you stick them back into your computer case.

Photo courtesy of Nick Ares on Flickr

Now is when it starts getting tricky. If you don’t clean your fans and filters often, or at all… you may have dust that makes its way deep into your machine and starts to cover all your components. You know… the ones you can’t clean with water. There are a few approaches you can take.

Method 1

First, if you have some plastic drinking straws lying around, you can grab one of them and just blow through it to clean out the particularly dirty parts of your machine. This is a totally viable option, and can work, but it does take a considerable amount of time, and you have to be careful not to breathe in all the dust you stir up into the air.

If you don’t have any straws at your disposal, you could do this just by blowing with your mouth. It’s not as effective as a straw, and you may find it difficult to reach tighter areas inside the case.

Method 2

Another method, arguably more effective than both the mouth and the straw methods, would be to use a bicycle tire pump, or a sports ball pump. Most of these pumps come with a general purpose plastic tip that can be used to blow concentrated streams of air into tight places. One, technical note, this does require exact positioning of your pump and your computer case. With one foot to keep the pump on the floor and one hand to push the plunger, that only leaves you one hand to direct the air stream.

Photo courtesy of Your Best Digs on Flickr

Once you blow out all your components, your machine should be running much cooler. That’s all the computer cleaning methods I have at the moment; if I missed anything, or if you found this post helpful, drop a comment below!

matt

November 1, 2018

General Computing, Lifestyle

cleaning, computing, lifestyle, maintainence
Free Software That Could Replace Your Adobe Subscription

If you’re like me, you’ve probably second-guessed how much you’ve shelled out to companies like Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and others. It costs a great deal to be on the cutting edge of technology, and some software can set you back literally thousands of dollars. Seriously. Have you tried licensing a copy of Maya lately? Let’s check out some free software that could make you money.

It took me a bit of testing out different software, but I think I’ve compiled a pretty decent list that, I’m personally convinced, with enough skill and creativity could completely replace Adobe Creative Cloud.

Operating System

First up, I’m going to start with the most basic. The operating system. Most people think computers fall into 2 categories: Mac vs PC. Well, PC just means ‘personal computer’ so… every consumer computer falls into this category, but- I digress. A great open source alternative to Mac and/or Windows is Ubuntu Linux. There’s TONs of documentation out there and a mega community who supports it.

Update January 2020: I’ve been using Manjaro on both my work and home machines, and I find it much easier to set up out-of-the-box, and there’s much more support for my video editing applications. I write more about that here.

Photoshop

Photoshop is no doubt the industry standard when it comes to image retouching and manipulation. But few people know of a great open source alternative to Photoshop called GIMP. GIMP is an acronym that stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program. Kind of an unusual name, but a stellar piece of software available for free. An excellent choice for users who only need to do minor editing and retouching every now and again.

Premiere Pro

This one is a tough one, I’m not going to lie. Depending on how much video you need to edit, how big the project is, and how often you need reliable editing tools, there may not be much of a choice here. Just to be fair, this comment is coming from someone who makes his living and supports his family editing video. If that’s not you, Kdenlive is an excellent choice to edit just about any video you might need.

Another piece of software on this list is Shotcut. It’s a little more scaled back as far as the technical capabilities, but it’s still able to do some basic edits. I haven’t logged more than a few hours in Shotcut, but it can handle basic edits for small applications like vlogs and home movies. If you need more technical control, I’d check out Davinci Resolve, or Kdenlive.

Also, this one’s kind of an honorable mention, but just to be clear, this is NOT open source software, but it is excellent (the Hollywood gold standard) software in color correction, and more recently, video editing. It’s now available as free software that can be used with Mac, Windows, and Linux. That of course, is DaVinci Resovle. Definitely worth checking out.

After Effects

Again, another toughie, because of the way that this program operates. After Effects is a layer-based compositor, which is the only compositor that I am aware of that operates in this fashion. It makes sense when you view it as a part of Adobe CC as a whole, because Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Lightroom, and others are all layer-based. However, there are a few node-based compositors that are open source that I can suggest. The first, and definitely the most battle-tested is Blender. Easily the most powerful software I’ve ever come across. Another option would be Natron. Natron is more up-and-coming than Blender, but still something to keep an eye on.

If you’re already checking out Davinci Resolve, then you’ll already have Blackmagic Fusion which comes bundled with Resolve. Admittedly, I have limited experience in Fusion, but from what I gather from coworkers and others who have used it, it’s more than capable for graphics and VFX. It’s a node-based platform much like Blender, Natron, and Nuke, so if you’re coming from a node-based platform, you should feel comfortable pretty quickly!

Illustrator

Illustrator is a great platform for creating vector art for use in large-format work like billboard design or design works that require your images to be flexible, such as a web environment. It’s is included in Adobe CC, but there’s also a great open source alternative called Inkscape. An amazing tool for creating vector art and logos, and available for Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Audition

Again, if you’re checking out Davinci Resolve, you’ll get another built-in program called Fairlight. My experience at the time of this writing is zero with Fairlight, but from my brief glances at the interface, it looks absolutely capable.

Another powerful option is Ardour. Conveniently enough, Ardour is available to download and install via the Ubuntu Software Center.

Missed Something?

Drop a comment below, or shoot me a message, and I’ll add to this list!

matt

October 7, 2018

3D Animation, 3D Modeling, Compositing, General Computing, Motion Graphics, Photo Editing, Video Editing

3d animation, 3d modeling, compositing, computing, motion graphics, photo editing, video editing
Master Password Management With One Tool

So if you’re like me, you’ve probably reached the limit of the number of unique passwords that you can 1.) come up with on your own, while still matching all the requirements like total character length, using capitals, using lower case, using special characters, using at least one or two numbers… oh, and it can’t be a password that you’ve used in the past. It’s a lot, but it is a great idea to have unique passwords for every site you need to log into on the interwebz. So how do I master password management?

The issue:

The biggest issue is… how do you avoid using the same one or two or three passwords for every single site? I recently took a little inventory of my digital life. Before the inventory, I thought I was doing pretty good. I usually keep 5-7 unique, at least 50-100 bit strong passwords just on the top of my head, and I figure that was better than most who use maybe one or two passwords across all the sites they use, right? Well, comparing the number of unique passwords I kept in my head to the number of unique websites I use on a daily basis, suddenly I wasn’t doing so hot.

In just a typical week, I use at least 50 different websites that either required a user/password authentication, or were sites that I had already had accounts for. Suddenly my 5-7 unique passwords weren’t so strong. I knew I had recycled a handful of passwords across sites, but I had no idea how bad it was. When I actually took the time to note how many sites I was logging into with the same password, it was very surprising. Proper password management was now essential.

The sub-issue:

So how do you solve this problem? Nobody has time or willpower to suddenly become some cryptographic expert and just generate insanely strong passwords every single time you log into a new site, or create a new account. And sure, I could easily just make up a bunch of random numbers, letters, and symbols to get a super strong password, but how on earth can I remember or manage all that random stuff?

Most people use password management tools like LastPass or Dashlane. A lot of these services have a free version, and most at least offer paid upgrades. But in today’s internet, hardly anything is safe. Companies like this are huge targets for hackers because all it would take is one data breach and you have one of the world’s largest databases of username/password combos on the planet.

There’s been a lot of talk going around on privacy, especially online, and some tech giants like Facebook and Google are being heavily criticized for their use.. and misuse of other people’s sensitive information. So yeah, we get it, big corporations are evil. But that still leaves us with this whole password management issue. If I can’t remember ten thousand unique and strong passwords, and I can’t store them with a giant, hack-able company, what do I do?

The solution:

Enter KeePass. KeePass is one of the best password management tools I’ve ever come across. It’s technically a Windows-native program (.exe), but it can easily be run on any machine using a tool called Mono. I use this tool on my Chromebook (running Gallium OS) every day. What makes this tool awesome is that there is no managed database. There is no company. And best of all, there is no fee.

KeePass is a completely free tool to manage all your passwords across all sites and even desktop applications and anything else you may need to log into. Unlike LastPass or Dashlane which are designed around managing your online accounts, KeePass manages your login credentials for anything. So instead of being limited to online accounts, you can simply generate insanely strong passwords and customize the number and type of characters used to match any password requirements, and paste them anywhere.

I use BitBucket to backup code that I’m working on, and before I can push code up to that repository, I need to provide my password… in the terminal. With LastPass, you’d have to log in to your LastPass account, scroll until you find the account you’re looking for, reveal passwords, copy… it’s a lot. And it requires you to be online. What if you need to log into a local network or a piece of software that’s offline? What if you need to unlock an encrypted file? KeePass has you covered.

Even more features:

KeePass also has a ‘notes’ section for each entry. This allows you can add required information in addition to your username/email and password. Some accounts, especially banking or loan servicing sites, require things like security questions, additional account PIN numbers that are different from your password, and any other pertinent information associated with your account. The ‘notes’ section is a great tool to keep track of all that extra information.

KeePass keeps all your login credentials in a single, encrypted database file. And even better, you can back up this file anywhere. Publicly, privately, whatever. You only need one password to unlock your own personal database. And KeePass is so flexible you can run it from a USB stick. Just plug it into the computer you’re using, run KeePass, unlock your database file, and boom. There’s your credentials library. Close it down, eject the drive, and leave no trace that you were ever there.

matt

October 7, 2018

General Computing, Lifestyle

cybercrime, cybersecurity, hack, hackers, organization, passwords, privacy, security