My girlfriend once asked me why I don't use a password manager like LastPass. A week later she got locked out of her LastPass account because she was inadvertently using an enterprise account that one of her clients forced her to use while on a project. And even though she was paying for her own premium LastPass subscription, the support experience had was terrible. Issue was resolved when the client was able to unlock the account for her, but it was a pain because it was during the holidays. I would avoid a password management software because of her experience.
Your friend used a commercial service under contract for someone else for private purposes, and you conclude that therefore all password management software must be bad? This is definitely not what I have in mind when I recommend people to use a password manager.
And regardless, people should finally take this to heart:
If something is important to you, back it up in a format that you can read with offline software. I don't care if you store it on punch cards under your pillow or in The Cloud, so long as it's independent of the primary copy (such that you can access it regardless of access to the primary copy, and such that you don't need the original service to load the data in order to read it). It doesn't sound like that was the case for your friend.
This is like saying that you should never store anything on a computer because you know someone who got locked out of their work laptop with important documents on it after they were let go.
The real lesson here is to never put anything sensitive or personal on corporate devices/services.
So what do you do to remember passwords? Do you write them down on paper, or maybe save in browser? I'm curious, I've pondered writing down my pivotal passwords on paper and hiding in a book or something.
Personally I combine a hash of something site-specific, eg. name, purpose etc and a base alphanumeric string. Allows each account have their own specific credentials while not being overly burdensome to remember.
> requiring you to use a very specific set of special characters?
Stupid requirements don't matter. If you have a secure password, e.g. a passphrase consisting of 7 random words (diceware) and the service complains that you're missing digits, uppercase, and symbols, then adding A0! to the passphrase does not make it less secure. Appending anything never makes it less secure. You can also write down in plain text and store on pastebin what you added per site because it's not part of the secret anyway. (Okay okay, might as well keep it private rather than pastebin; it's about the general point.)
> like 12 character max
This is not that common anymore, most services have reasonable limits. If you do run into one and it's too important not to use, then you don't have a choice anyway: you'll have to make an exception to the scheme and memorize or store an actual password for once. Doesn't mean you have to design all your other passwords for one exceptional case.
Ah, must've missed that you have an alphanumeric string. Mine had a couple symbols in it. I personally really like diceware passwords but the guesswork of "oh does this system have a 24 char max, does this one require special chars, etc" just got to be too much effort.
And while the 12 char max is (mostly) a thing of the past, I run into max char issues (usually around 24) far more than I should in 2021.
At least consider an offline manager, one where you control updates and backups. Either way, even using a dodgy solution (like LastPass) is probably statistically better than not using a manager at all…
Internet in Chicago is unregulated; it's a completely open market.
Many years ago, people got really tired of companies digging up roads, putting in utilities and then repaving the road, only to have some other company come in and dig up the road again a few weeks later. So the city now has an ordinance - if you are going to dig up the road, there has to be an advance public notice, and anyone can lay utilities once you are done but before you've repaved. And once you've repaved, there is some time limit before anyone is allowed to dig up the road again. This makes it pretty cheap to lay dark fiber that will someday get lit up, and now Chicago is reaping the benefits.
Yes, the HOA signs a contract and makes the payment, and then adds the per-unit fee to the monthly assessments.
These small local ISPs are super efficient - they concentrate on infrastructure and support, with 1 or 2 people for sales and billing: one sale equals hundreds of customers, and hundreds of customers equals a single payment.
Thanks. I looked at doing the same but got scared off as I wasn't sure about how practical it would be to keep up and running. Maybe I should try harder again. :)
I live in downtown Chicago. I'm one block away from Trader Joe's and Osco Jewel. Cost of living in downtown Chicago is cheaper than NYC/SF and maybe even LA.
Within 20 minutes of walking, I can get to two separate Targets, Whole Foods and even a Home Depot.
Simply because you're not the clientele, doesn't mean this is a bad idea. The CTA Blue Line is uncomfortable during rush hour traffic while carrying your luggage. This is probably geared towards tourist/Loop workers who would have paid for a $50-80 Uber/Taxi ride anyways.
I would agree with what the author has said. That being said, I believe it takes a certain individual to grow inside a bank (because I'm one of them) and I think it is different between teams. If you are not smart (but hardworking and willing to learn), you will thrive inside a bank.
I have a liberal arts major at a large-public university and have a minor in computer science. My offer at a large bank was the best offer I got and I got placed in an operation/support role. I have been in my current role for over two years and this is my first "real job" outside of college.
Even though it is not Google/Microsoft/Amazon, I am extremely happy in the position I am in. The first two years were difficult and it is not the type of role I want to do for the rest of my life, but working at the bank had some benefits. I get paid overtime hours and get to work remotely whenever I want. If I had a family or significant other I would be miserable. Recently there has been a mass exodus and layoffs in our team (due to a "location strategy"). I am able to do the work that used to take 4-5 people and there is only one other person in the Western Hemisphere that does my job.
I support what the bank calls a "critical application". There's very high probability that your money has moved through this application. There has been a lot of work for me to do and have been given flexibility because I work hard and get the job done. I get paid overtime (100 hours of overtime this past month). Even though I am happy at the moment, I know my current role is unsustainable and I intend on moving to another team within the bank or externally (at the end of the year where I will probably lose my overtime eligibility).
Our company provides services for self-learning (which usually costs hundreds of dollars a year) and bi-annual hackathons which gives me an outlet for actually programming. A project I worked on in one of these hackathons got patented recently. I live in a major US city which has two major hackerspaces and a plethora of jobs and career networking events/MeetUps. Since I am doing so much overtime, I make more than my salary capped associates and application developers (who are my age) and my mortgage will be paid off by the end of this year. I think my next career move will be in application development with one of the many teams I support at the moment or move into consulting.
If this is your only programming job then there's a good chance you're oblivious to a lot of problems and at that level of experience you shouldn't be expected to know better.
One of those red flags is having junior Devs working unsupervised on critical stuff.
I don't mean to sound rude or condescending, just that you have a lot to learn and I very much doubt you're learning good lessons there.
I know I have a lot to learn. I am not a programmer for my job role. I program has a hobby. I run the operations side: support, deployments, and business analyst type work. I am not oblivious to the problems because I see all the problems when I am facing the product side of the business.
I use Instacart because I don't own a car and convenience. When I'm making $60 an hour overtime during the weekend for a 12-14 hour shift, you bet I'm going to be using Instacart for a nominal 10% markup for groceries from Costco.
