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June 27, 2006
KeePass Password Safe - Manage all of your passwords easily.
When it comes to passwords, most people only have one, which they use for a multitude of machines and websites. The problem with this is that anyone who finds out that one password now has your password to everything. In addition, if you ever decide to change that password, it would be very time-consuming and you probably would not be able to remember all the places that you need to change.
Enter KeePass Password Safe. KeePass is a password manager and secure password generator that allows you to have a different password for each website you frequent. In fact, I don't even know any of my passwords except for the one password needed to get into KeePass. All I know is that they are all different and they are all a jumbled mix of letters, numbers, and other characters.
Now, if someone hacks a website I frequent and gets access to my password, they will not be able to log on to anywhere else because all my passwords are different.
Some other features include an optional key-disk (so even if someone steals my password file and knows the master password, they still won't be able to access anything without the key-disk), a secure password generator, the ability to export the database, and support for multiple languages. The program also allows you to categorize your passwords into different groups (shopping, discussion boards, etc.) and can put an expiration date on passwords that need to be changed after a certain length of time.
Of course, KeePass is open-source so if there is a feature you want, you can always add it (the program is written in C++). There is also a plug-in architecture that you can take advantage of to extend the program even more.
The core KeePass program is only for Windows, but there are ports to Linux, Mac OS X, PalmOS, and Pocket PC so it can be used pretty much anywhere. I would recommend keeping your password file on a USB drive or FTP site so that you can easily access it from anywhere.
Give it a try. I am sure that once you do, you will wonder how you functioned without it.
Posted by Chuck at 04:50 PM | Comments (1)
June 19, 2006
In the Trenches – J2EE Software Developer
The technology job search-engine Dice.com recently published an article in their Career Resources section that I wrote about getting a job as a Java Developer. The article explains what beginning Java programmers should know about interviews, what companies are looking for, what skills they should have, etc.
Posted by Chuck at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2006
Survivor
I'd like to veer away from my usual technical posts and instead post an abbreviated conversation that happened recently between myself and a friend:
Friend: Hey Chuck, have you read any good books lately?
Me: Well actually, I am reading Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk right now.
Friend: That's cool. How many pages is it?
Me: Around 290.
Friend: Nice. And what page are you on?
Me: 275.
Friend: So you are almost done?!
Me: Well, no...
Posted by Chuck at 11:48 AM | Comments (1)
June 05, 2006
JavaOne 2006
Last month I was sent to Sun's JavaOne Developer Conference. It was held in San Francisco's Moscone Center and had several hundred Java-related sessions and labs. I took some pictures and also uploaded a summary PowerPoint presentation of everything I saw that I made for work. Check it out.
In addition, PDF's of all of the technical sessions have been posted online.
The catalog to search for specific sessions is here.
Posted by Chuck at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)