MARA 01-02-2013

There are some excellent posts today on the SLC Foothill Net blog.  Scroll down to see the 26 lessons learned from hurricane Sandy.  Excellent info.  Here is the link:  http://www.slcfoothillnet.blogspot.com/

There is also some good information on one of Dave's other blogs, http://slcfoothillnetham.blogspot.com/
There is an excellent write up on there about a book called "Radio To Go" that is an excellent resource for new hams as well as experienced hams.

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More and more of the things in our lives involve passwords.  Here are some facts that were published today by Avast AntiVirus software.


Time required to hack your password

myThomas987654321 .. 3.6 seconds
Martin8569  .. 12.01 seconds
21Everest  .. 2 minutes
mammamia  .. 3 minutes
896rUU          .. 2 hours

The 7 most used passwords

welcome
password
Welcome1
welcome1
Password2
123456
Password01

The anti-hacker guys ALL tell us to NEVER use any word that is found in a dictionary as part of a password.  Of course, if you are using a tool like KeePass (free) to generate your passwords, then no problem.  KeePass and similar products generate passwords that would take centuries to crack.  Personally, I use KeePass because it is simple to operate and is an Open Source product.  This means that the source code to the program is in the public domain and anybody can look at the source code and determine that there are no trojans in the password generator itself.  

Here's the KeePass link:  http://keepass.info/

NEVER use a "proprietary" password safe or password generator.  Proprietary means that the source code is secret and you have no way to find out if the program is "clean" or if it sends a copy of your login, password and URL to hackers in Russia every time you generate a new password.  

One security expert says that the best password is a sentence.  It's a fascinating concept and very similar to one I have been using for years.  The details are here:  http://tinyurl.com/5su4xbc

Also, here is an excellent article on how to easily generate your own passwords that can take eons to crack.  

Secure Password Generator

http://www.packetizer.com/security/pwgen/

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The Utah VHF Society swap meet is in a diferent location this year.  Here is the info.  You can use MapQuest or Google Maps to build a map from your house to the actual location.


Utah VHF Society Swap meet
February 23, 2013 at 9am
Davis County Fairgrounds
151 S 1100 West
Farmington, UT

Vendors get in an hour before visitors so that the vendors have time to get set up.  Wear something with your call sign if possible.  You'll find people coming up to introduce themselves whom you have only talked to on the radio and never in person.  Stay till the end (about 11 AM) and you may win a ham radio or other great prize.  Members of our group have been winners in the past.

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Congress has decided to raise taxes now and cut spending, well, maybe later or some other time.  We don't have a tax problem, we have a spending problem.  The government refuses to live within its means.  Several financial analysts have pointed out that NO country has ever recovered from the level of debt that the US now has.  (Debt as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product).  The next disaster might not be an earthquake or a flood or a storm, it may be hyper-inflation like Germany had just before World War II.  We live in interesting times.  The best advise, I think, is to batten down the hatches and make sure that you have an emergency supply of the things you would need to sustain yourself in ANY situation.

See you on the net!
N7OZH
-O. D. Williams-