Posts (page 2)
Something essential to getting organized, for me, is the quick reminder. It's an email, IM, or text message that comes at a particular time. Given my not-so-perfect memory this has been an absolute godsend to have around with Backpack. I've used Backpack's built-in reminders every now and then but generally forget about them.
Welcome to the first in a series of Organizational Smackdowns.
Not long ago I posted about my unorganized software dilemma. I needed "junk drawer" and/or organization software at both home and work. I wanted to share my progress thus far.
I was sitting at the laundromat last night, reading a book, when I heard a familiar song over one of the TVs. A nice little acoustic guitar intro... and yeah I recognized it almost right away: Bishop Allen's "Click Click Click Click".
Yesterday morning Wally needed to go outside at 5am. No biggie. I got out of bed slowly, opened his crate, put on my jacket and hat, and collared him up.
I know I've talked about this before but now I'm ready to do something about it: I have too many notes and things in too many places. In my head, in Mail, in Stickies, in my Documents folder, in Backpack... too much stuff in too many places. I'd feel a lot better if I had everything in one place.
- stuff to buy for myself
- stuff to buy for others
- projects around the house
- online projects
- dates to replace little things (Brita filter, etc.)
- cost comparisons for food items (mostly stores v. Costco)
- receipts
- houses and condos
- UPS/FedEx tracking numbers
- BONUS: YouTube videos
- BONUS: delicious links
- Offline access. If I'm on a plane or on the train, I don't want to be tethered to the web.
- Online access. Likewise, if I think of something at work I'd like to tell my machine at home about it with zero fuss and, if possible, zero extra cost.
- Searchable via Spotlight and/or QuickSilver (latter preferred)
- Optional due dates on items
- Non-crappy interface
- Reasonably priced (up to US$40)
- Ability to link stuff would be nice (ie, do X then Y)
- Sure would be nice to have simple math or (!) spreadsheet functionality on board, so I don't have to farm it out to Numbers... but this is a big big stretch.
- Quick, easy way to get information in - don't make me fuss with tags and titles and stuff.
I've got the research for My First DSLR down to two contenders: the Nikon D40, and the Pentax K100D. I'd like to hear some opinions from people who have either one of these bodies (and, probably, the kit lens as well.) I've read quite a bit already but not much from people comparing these two.
Not very long ago Heather Champ started the I'm Feeling Lucky group, wherein she distributed 100 rolls of expired Chinese film for free. I felt really sad to miss the boat on the first 100 but when a second batch of 50 made it I signed up instantly.
It started innocently enough. I wrote a critique of the new Chicago Tribune website and wanted to let the Trib's web staff know about it. So I headed over to their feedback form.
Earlier this morning, it wasn't working. After hitting submit, I was redirected to this URL where I got an XML-based error:
https://www.quickbase.com/db/bcq7ne93t?act=API_AddRecord&username=chiGen3comments@gmail.com&password=
...however, see that "password=" part? The password was in the URL in plain text. I've removed it here because I don't want to be a jerk (but I'll mention that it is a tremendously weak password. Like "password".)
My first instinct was to let them know, so I sent an email to that Gmail address. No reply yet. I then went to quickbase.com to discover it was an Intuit joint. After navigating down to their support section, I fired off an email:
Hi there,
The Chicago Tribune has a feedback form on their site at this URL:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/about/site/chi-feedback,0,5909681.htmlpage
When I was attempting to submit the form earlier, it was erroring out to this URL (a straight XML dump):
https://www.quickbase.com/db/bcq7ne93t?act=API_AddRecord&username=chiGen3comments@gmail.com&password=...
However, you'll note that the username and password are in CLEAR TEXT in the URL. This is a huge, huge security issue. I trust I could have easily just logged in to QuickBase and mucked with the Tribune's account.
That's unacceptable. I wanted to make you aware of this.
Slightly later, I got this reply:
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your concern and for creating this case. I just tried the form on the Chicago Tribune site and it didn't error out on me. They must have fixed it. This form would be set up for an "everyone on the internet" role whereby any anonymous user can write to it. The API call you saw is most likely an account set up for just the anonymous people to add to the form. I don't believe you could have done much to their QuickBase by trying to log in with that. Regardless, I think this was just an error in how they must have had it set up because it appears to be working fine now.
Thank you!
Jeff
QuickBase Support
I'm not at liberty to say if I did in fact log in to QuickBase. However, one could hypothesize that any basic security level would, at least, include the ability to change one's username and password.
This is solely QuickBase's fault. There's no reason a password should ever be shown in clear text on an URL, ever. Shame on them for having lax security (I mean, the password was upchucked by their system - not the Trib's form) and shame on them for their security-free reply.
