Password Tips.

So in my System Administration class we discussed how to crate good passwords, so I'm going to pass on some tips on how to make a secure password.

NOTE: These tips are not perfect, if you see a problem please tell me and I will correct it. The examples may not be strong they are simple to give you a feel of what I'm talking about.

1) Don't use passwords use passphrases. Passphrases are passwords that contain more then one word. Say that you like Star Wars so you make your password "Lightsaber" instead make it into a passphrase like "Yoda has a green light saber".

2) Use "shocking nonsense" (Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook 4th edition) which is to use phrases that make no sense and they are shocking (things that a normal person will not say out loud). Example "Walking in the forest and supporting wood" take the Star Wars from before, a fellow student came up with "Suck by saber master Vader" which is not that shocking but you get the point. If your password is to long you can just take the first letters of each word and throw in some numbers or special charters.

3) Throw some random Capitals, numbers and symbols in the mix.

4) Don't make it to complex. Sure making your password/phrase complex will make it more secure but what good is it when it is to complex for you to remember.

5) If you have to have multiple passwords write each one down and place them their own sealed envelope and place the envelopes in a very secure place such as a vault, no really. If you need it or if anything happens to you a trusted friend or family member can access it and do what is needed, plus when the you find the seal broken you know someone has your passwords and you know to change it.

6) Change your passwords when you suspect someone other then you knows it.

7) Use common sense, don't use your birthday, social security number, abc123 (my mother was using that as her email password for years), and other simple ones that people can figure out just by knowing you.

Senior Project

Almost about to graduate from UNR and we all know that that means.....that's right Senior projects. For the CS 426 Senior Project class my team is working on a RNA sequence matching program. The program is being made for researchers that need a better way of finding where the a sequence of RNA is found inside of a sequence of DNA, if it even is in the DNA sequence.  It is a really cool project to be working on and my team mates are amazing and very good at what they can do. Currently the project is still in development, there is still a lot to be done. Currently we are working on optimizing the search and coming up with the graphical representation that will be used to show data gathered. For more information please visit our project site: RNA Project. It is really exciting working on a project that can help find causes for medical issues and even be used to find new ways of treating cancer. It is a beautiful thing when programmers and biologists come together to try and make the world a better place.

Cs447

I'm taking CS 447 SysAdmin. Here is a link to the class website http://www.cse.unr.edu/~dahl/sysadmin/ . If you are student at UNR and in the CSE, or any other version of computer science you should really take this class. If you don't like Linux you should still take this class because a lot of jobs will find it as a plus if you know Linux an these days anything that gives you the edge over other people could be the difference between job or broke. Come on what other class has a homework assignment that asks you to create a twitter account and a blog? Rarely gets better then that.