Geek Security - Lock down your devices
If you haven’t noticed by now, the world (wide web) can be a scary place. Not a week passes without news of some kind of security breach at a major website or celebrity. Everything from credit card info to “personal photos” can get leaked to the public on the whim of hackers who do it “for teh lulz”. The cloud has made life more convenient, but it’s made us much more vulnerable. A recent example would be Mat Honan, current writer for Wired, formerly of Gizmodo. In short, the hackers breached his Amazon account, his Gmail, and his Apple ID, deleting his mail and erasing his devices and computer of data that wasn’t backed up anywhere else. Having access to his personal Twitter, they hijacked Gizmodo’s official Twitter to unleash a PR nightmare. Why did they ruin his life? Because they wanted his highly coveted three-letter Twitter handle “mat”. If that isn’t enough to make you paranoid, Dropbox, Steam, LinkedIn, and Yahoo have all reported breaches this year.
So, what do you do to protect yourself against this kind of nightmare? Sadly, the solutions won’t be convenient. The first step is not using the same password for multiple accounts, at least the valuable ones. Long, simple passwords are more secure than short, complex passwords. Too hard to remember? Store them in a password protected vault somewhere, even KeePass Portable in Dropbox will do. But the kicker is two factor authentication. Prevent unauthorized access to your accounts by requiring unrecognized devices to trigger an email alert or use an authenticator app to get a PIN, similar to a keyfob you may use for work. Google has an authenticator for iOS and Android, which keeps that PIN easily accessible. Do yourself a favor and lock down your accounts and devices with unique passwords and require two factor authentication.
==
written by Robert Anhalt - Director of Content at Geek Speak Forum - @ranhalt
Geek Fashion - Smartwatches
What is this, 2005? Put away that Bluetooth headset, you’re not impressing anyone. What was once a status symbol of geek chic is now a cliché. Headsets are often mocked as a symbol of the corporate lifestyle and not being able to escape work or making people look like they’re talking to themselves. So, what we need is less Mission Impossible and more Dick Tracy. Something discreet, yet embraces the traditional sense of fashion. That’s where smartwatches come into play. Instead of strapping a Borg implant to your face and looking like the recipient of a practical joke, smartwatches disguise themselves as something we already wear (or wore) and connect to your phone to display info and let you control your music. Is there a market for such gadgets? Pebble’s Kickstarter pulled in over $10 million and proved that there’s a market for a new wearable device, with a dozen more competitors on the horizon. Backers of the original fundraiser should expect their units by the end of year, but what can we expect to do with them? Initial demos are showing use cases for fitness, syncing with your phone’s fitness apps like RunKeeper (already confirmed) and pushing email/SMS to the watch’s display. After years of carrying gadgets in our pockets, we’re just now perfecting wearing them. But what comes next? if scifi stories are to be believed, it shouldn’t be long until we’re implanting devices that augment our natural abilities. Wear contacts to correct your vision? How about contacts that not only improve your vision, but also give you a heads up display to annotate the world around you? While putting this into contact lenses seems far fetched, wearable glasses with superimposed augmented reality projections are already generating buzz following Google’s Project Glass demonstration this summer. How much longer until we’re routinely looking at a bar and knowing how many people are checked in and talking about it?
==
written by Robert Anhalt - Director of Content at Geek Speak Forum - @ranhalt
Star Trek: TNG Screening Event
Thursday, November 29, 2012
6pm - Cityview pregame
7pm - Presentation
Century 20 Theater in Jordan Creek Town Center, in partnership with Fathom Events, will be hosting a screening a one night only event promoting the release of Star Trek The Next Generation Season 2 on Blu-ray.
Meet up at the mall in front of the theater at 6pm for Trek talk and a photoshoot with Des Moines Cityview! Bring those costumes, er, uniforms, because we want to see some die hard fans show some Trek spirit! *Red shirts not-included.
Event Details/Tickets: here.
Join the Des Moines Chapter of Geek Speak Forum here.
What is Geek Speak Forum?
I define a geek as someone who is passionate about something. Someone who has a desire to never stop learning. Not just the guy who fixes your computer.
For a long time I have wanted to have a “geek hangout.” A place where fellow geeks could just relax in-person and decompress. A place where people around you are of like mind and love learning. My hope is many different groups of passionate people will grow up around this idea. And hopefully the community that is created is valuable to the local community and city at large, as well as, the host businesses.
Now I realize there are many online venues for this sort of discussion. That is not what Geek Speak Form is about. I think that in-person conversation is becoming somewhat extinct in the internet age. My hope is to rectify that impersonal trend. Geek Speak Forum can be defined as the following:
We are about in-person learning and discussion.
Our culture revolves around continuous learning and discussion. That doesn’t mean we only talk about technology or comic books, but it means discussing: art, architecture, design, film, food, programming, health, books, writing, how to run a business, cybernetics, photography, wellness of the internet, and many, many more.
All in your local community, and all in-person. One big happy Geek Family.
My initial vision was broken into two parts.
- A hosted talk at a local business in the community about a “geek topic.” It can be about anything people are passionate about like running a winery for example.
- A discussion would follow the talk and could be general or continue the conversation previous. (And hopefully some good food and drink too.)
The rule set I had in mind went like this:
- The group must meet in person
- This isn’t “networking” event it is a learning event
- The topics must be varied and well thought out
- The host should be a local business if at all possible
- The event must be affordable or be made affordable through subscription or sponsorship
- Learn and Discuss
Des Moines, Iowa has a wonderful startup community thanks in part to companies like Dwolla, Silicon Prairie News, BitMethod and organizations like StartupCity. You truly inspire me everyday.
I want the first Geek Speak Forum to be right here in this great Des Moines community!
Please sign up for our newsletter. And get your geeky friends to sign up!
Contact us here.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
v1.0
