Comments on: 11 Dumb Things Almost Everyone Does With Their Mac but Won’t Admit.

By: David Balogh

David Balogh — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:52:04 +0000

@Paul – Interesting article on the password length, however the key to it is having a “three strikes” rule to keep out the automated attacks. But that won’t do you any good if you downloaded/sniffed the hash and ran it through an offline cracker. Or used a botnet to weasel around the 3 strikes policy.

I definitely agree that social engineering is a much easier way for someone to get your password, you don’t even need to be a “hacker” to do it.

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:12:33 +0000

I forgot to mention, there was a recent article that said that longer passwords aren’t actually more secure. 6 characters is sufficient to deter hackers (and no, they take longer than a “few minutes” to crack by brute force). By that point, they just go with social engineering instead of brute force attacks.

Check out:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/07/strong_web_pass.html

By: Paul

Paul — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:05:57 +0000

In regards to the battery, you should run it to the ground at least once a month to maintain the capacity of the battery. ie. Despite what many claim, lithium ion batteries *do* have memory. Just not as bad as the old Ni-Cad batteries.

Check out Apple’s support article for instructions on how to do this:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

Also, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with keeping your Mac up and running. Yes, periodically reboot (I usually do this after a software update), but one of the biggest advantages of a Mac over a PC is that sleep actually works! And works well. There has been many times where I’ve kept the computer running for a month without rebooting without any issues at all.

The one application that I do find that you have to quit and restart on occasion are web browsers. (side rant: Can *anyone* make a browser that doesn’t leak memory all over the place?? There’s this huge race for the fastest web browser when I’d rather have one that doesn’t gobble memory!) Occasionally restarting Mail also helps if you have a lot of emails. Otherwise, there is little reason to reboot.