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by Matt Jenkins

Password Management – why I love LastPass

November 9, 2010 in miscellaneous

A few months ago my life became easier. I used to have dozens, maybe hundreds of passwords, which I remembered with a simple phrase based system to generate unforgettable but unique passwords or phrases for all the sites and services I use. I had a password safe (I don’t use the browser pwd manager), just in case, but only had to delve into it when logging into rarely visited or always authenticated sites.

Then I discovered LastPass and decided to give it a try.

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by Matt Jenkins

Google Wave and the future of email.

September 9, 2010 in miscellaneous

A year ago I explained that Google wave was the future of online communication.  I said that combining IM, email and collaboration, while adding functionality for embedding video, translating text and managing threads would change the way we communicate online for good.

Since Google announced that they are ceasing development on wave at the end of this year, I have received a few choice comments about my ridiculous suggestion that it was going to be the future of Email and IM.

Which, is a bit unfair.

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by Matt Jenkins

The Cloud, The Hype, The Problems

June 1, 2010 in infrastructure management

This quote from OmniIT is spot on:

Deploying 50 new instances in a cloud is easier than 50 new physical machines. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. If it takes hours to install new machines, then you are doing your job wrong. If it takes weeks to get your machines, then you are using the wrong vendor. And most importantly if you suddenly realize that you need 50 new machines, then you simply didn’t do your job well. The cloud is not an excuse to avoid a business model. A business model includes a budget and a solid, implementable plan for growth based on thorough capacity planning. With that, you should see it coming.

source: http://omniti.com/seeds/the-cloud-is-great-stop-the-hype

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by Matt Jenkins

Facebook Privacy

May 28, 2010 in miscellaneous

I was writing a post about the new facebook privacy settings, but then I saw Rafe Needlemans post – which says everything I had and more.

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by Matt Jenkins

Laptop Advice

January 27, 2010 in miscellaneous

You want a laptop huh?  Well you have 2 basic choices, netbook or notebook.

A netbook is a cheap (around £300) small laptop that is good for basic web browsing and low power apps.  The benefit with this is you can replace it every couple of years and it wont break the bank.
If you choose a netbook, you should go for either a Samsung N110 or Asus Eee PC 1005HA

A notebook is all other laptops.  You can have a bigger screen, bigger hard drive, more performance, better graphics, etc and all for just more money!
If you choose a notebook, I would recommend:
- either a Intel Pentium Core Duo 2, or an Intel i3 or i5
- at least 3GB RAM (more = better)
- at least 250gb Hard drive
- dedicated graphics card (not integrated)
- At least 1440×900 screen resolution (assuming a 15″ screen)
- Windows 7

HP make some nice laptops around the 750GBP mark.

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Avatar of Matt Jenkins

by Matt Jenkins

Photo Caching on Social Sites

May 21, 2009 in infrastructure management, miscellaneous, monitoring

I read the bbc news story today – which reports that a group at Cambridge University found that the direct URL to uploaded photos on various sites continued to exist 30 days after they deleted them.

Is this news?  These sites have several hosting challenges, one key area is caching.

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