July 31, 2011

Password Rant

I hate sites that put in all these stupid restrictions when it comes to password creation. It's my password for login. Why do you care if I want to exceed 20 characters? Why must I have at least 1 "special" character, at least 4 alpha characters, 1 capitalized, 1 numeric character, 3-20 characters long? What difference does it make to you? It would be my fault for using an easy-to-crack password like "1234" and have my account hacked. My fault. Really, I should be able to pick whatever password I want without having you dictate how "complicated" my password should be.

Now every time I visit your site I have to click your "forgot password?" link. It's your fault for putting all these stupid restrictions on my password. You send me a temporary password email and have me create a new password, except you don't let me create a password that matches my old forgotten password. I make up a new password and the cycle starts again. I exhaust all my potential passwords until I don't give an eff about it. Everyone loses. Time is wasted. Nothing good comes out of it.

Stop putting restrictions on my passwords. Let me have control over my privacy. Is that too much to ask?

(I'm looking at you, DMV. You prompted this post.)

July 20, 2011

How To Sign In To Multiple Gmail Accounts In The Same Browser

Google recently migrated all accounts to their new Google Apps service. If your work email is powered by Google, prior to the change, you were able to sign into your personal Gmail and your work email at the same time in the same browser. Now in order to do that, simply follow these few steps to prevent one account from logging you out of the other.

1. Sign into your personal or primary Google account like you normally would. This would be the account you'd use for G+, Reader, Blogger etc.

2. Go to http://www.google.com/accounts and click Edit under Multiple sign-in.

3. Select On and check all the boxes, then click Save.

4. Refresh or sign back into your primary account, click your user picture and click on Switch Account.

5. Click Sign in to another account..., then sign into your other (work) email. Done.

July 15, 2011


Why do Americans append "-s" to everything? It's Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time. It's Stephen Hawking, not Stephen Hawkings. It's Nordstrom, not Nordstroms!

Stop adding s'es to everything. It is not cute.

July 13, 2011

Basic Waffle Recipe

Dry ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt

Wet ingredients:

1 3/4 cups milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix wet ingredients into combined dry ingredients. Waffle machine time.

Yields 8 waffles.

July 7, 2011

Just Cause It's Called a Salad

... doesn't mean it's all that healthy.

Tortilla chips, shredded cheese, crispy chicken, bacon, and candied walnuts on top of a little bit of mixed greens, served with buttermilk ranch dressing. That's called a salad too. And it's easily 1000+ calories.

A lot of things sound good but are not necessarily good for you. The converse is also true. You can have healthy pizza - it's all about using the right ingredients.

Don't be fooled by seemingly healthy labels: fat-free, organic, no sugar added, low sodium, etc. Yes, these labels all make a product sound like they're better for you, but some might still contain a lot of other less-desirable substances. For example, nonfat frozen yogurt could still contains a ton of sugar. Organic potato chips are still soaked in oil and fried. Just because something is organic doesn't mean there are fewer calories. Seems so obvious, but people subconsciously think otherwise.

Be aware of what you consume. Don't let gimmicky marketing fool you. Don't go having a tub of organic ice-cream and think good things will come of it.