Like it or not, passwords are now a fact of computer life. They are used to prove your identity on all sorts of websites such as financial sites, shopping pages, social networks, and web email.  An ever increasing amount of information is stored on computer systems, and the only thing you need to view it is a password.  Good password practices are essential for keeping your identity and information safe.  Here are six golden rules you should always follow:

1. Don't share passwords with others

Sharing passwords is risky.  You might think giving out your password to only people you trust is safe, but you cannot control their actions.  By no fault of their own they could use it on an infected computer, or write it down and lose it, and all of a sudden your password is compromised without your knowledge.  If you are the only one who knows your password, only you can compromise it.  Corrective action can be taken immediately.

2. Make passwords hard to guess

Choosing passwords based on your personal information, phone numbers, addresses, names, and other public information is insecure.  Using very simple words is also insecure.  The English dictionary has about 600,000 words, and password cracking programs can try them all in minutes. Not only do they try all the words, they try combinations of numbers too.  If your password is football45, it’s just as insecure as football.

Very large security breaches have happened in the past, exposing the password habits of millions of users. Common passwords are well known. Pick something unique.

3. Use at least 8 characters in the password

Simply put, the longer your password is the longer it takes to crack using password tools.  It’s a very good idea to use a mix of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.  A complex password like $footBALL!45 is much stronger than football45.

4. Change passwords regularly

Get into the habit of changing your password.  It’s possible your password was breached without your knowledge sometime in the past.  Certain types of spyware will record your keystrokes and send them to criminal organizations for fraudulent use.  Changing your passwords protects against someone saving it and using it later.

5. Use different passwords for different accounts

Never use the same password for different logins and websites.  If someone were to get that password they could get access to everything! Using different passwords for different accounts means only that account can be compromised.  If a hacker gets your password they will try it at every bank website, social networking website,and web email they can find in order to get more information.

6. Store passwords securely

Unless you have super human memorization, chances are you will need to keep a record of your passwords.  If you write them down, keep them stored somewhere safe and out of plain sight.  A locked cabinet, purse, or wallet is a good location.  A post-it note on the monitor is not.

If you save them to a computer file make sure it is password protected and encrypted, and choose a filename that makes no reference to passwords.

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You might be wondering how to make a good password that follows these rules.  Choosing random letters and symbols does make strong passwords, but they are not very memorable.  Here is a method you can use to make strong passwords that are also memorable.

Start with a phrase.  A memorable quotation or saying that easily comes to mind: A penny saved is a penny earned.

Take only the first letter of each word inyour phrase: apsiape

Now customize it… let’s say it was for a bank login: apsiapebank

Finally, scramble it a little.  Make sure to mix uppercase, lowercase, symbols and numbers: Apsiape2Bank$

You now have a very complicated password which should be a lot easier for you to remember.  Write it down and store it somewhere safe.

Another similar approach is to just use the phrase including all punctuation and spaces. Most systems allow you to usespaces and punctuation in your passwords. So instead of a password you have a full passphrase.  A penny saved is a penny earned.

The spaces and punctuation count as symbols,which makes your password stronger.

The International Academy of the Visual Arts presented Kukui with a Silver W³ Award for the best “Real Estate” website for 2010, for the recently re-created www.BaliHai.com website. The new website, built for Coldwell Banker Bali Hai Realty, serves the Kauai real estate and Kauai vacation rental markets.

The W³ Award honors creative excellence on the web and recognizes the creative and marketing professionals behind award winning sites, marketing programs, and video work created for the web. 

The University of Hawaii is sponsoring their biennial Education & Government eWaste Days for 2010!

For business or institutional eWaste:

For electronic equipment waste generated by your small to medium-sized business (less than 100 employees), non-profit, or public or private school or university: A representative for your organization is requested to estimate in advance the amount of eWaste to be dropped off.  

For the list of items accepted, drop-off locations, dates, to register, as well as all other details, please visit:  www.hawaii.edu/ewaste

For personal eWaste:

For Hawai‘i household residents who wish to dispose of personal eWaste on Saturday, October 30, from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm:  Hawaii residents may drive in to one of six drop off locations on The Big Island, Kaua‘i, Maui, or Oahu to recycle personal electronics.

By way of Dell Computer, we have just received notice that Microsoft will no longer be making Windows XP available after 10/4/2010. No matter when a system is ordered, if it is not shipped by Oct 4th, Dell reports that the order will be canceled and the OS replaced with Windows 7. 

Many businesses have been relying on Windows XP for the continued support of their legacy applications. For these businesses, this will likely be a major cause for concern. Microsoft has announced phase-out’s of Windows XP in the past, but they have been forced to keep extending its life due to a strong reluctance by IT managers to embrace Windows Vista. However with Windows 7 outperforming Vista's opening sales by a wide margin, it appears that Microsoft has finally decided to let the venerable Windows XP sail into the sunset.

We would not be surprised if this announcement produces a short term surge in demand for PC’s, which in turn could cause a rise in PC prices temporarily, or even shortages of certain PC components.  

Kukui hopes to make searching for real estate easier than ever with the launch of KauaiRealE.com,  a state-of-the-art website created for the Kauai Real Estate Market.  

Developed for Sleeping Giant Sotheby’s International Realty, the new website offers an array of powerful and easy to use features, including expanded listing details, real time market statistics, Kauai real estate news, sales history, expert advice, and much more. 

The centerpiece of the new website is a next generation, interactive map based search. The new search interface, which Kukui.com refers to as IDX², gives real estate buyers a commanding birds-eye view of all the listings in their search, along with each listings price and exact location on a large interactive Google map. The new site is further enhanced with a ground breaking detail view that presents buyers with complete property details for every listing on Kauai, a slideshow, recent sales history, lot outlines, previous pricing, and much more.

 

1) Download the amazing 'Hope For Haiti Now' album from iTunes. Its only $7.99 and 100% of proceeds go to help Haiti through the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, The Red Cross, UNICEF, The United Nations Food Programme, and many others. The album includes 20 songs from artists like Madonna, Sting, Dave Matthews, Cold Play, Shakira, Jay-Z, Christina Aguilera, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Key's, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, and more.

2) Text "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross. 91% of money donated to the Red Cross goes to help people in need.

3) Donate via the web. Food For The Poor is a great organization that has been on the ground in Haiti helping some of the poorest people in the world there since well before the current crises.  97.7% of the money donated to Food For The Poor goes to helping people in need, making them one of the most efficient charities. Royal Caribbean is currently dropping off enormous amounts of food & supplies to be delivered by Food For The Poor as their ships cruise by Haiti. They've already delivered 120 palettes of food, water and supplies so far.  So we believe monetary donations will go particularly far with them.  Because of that, we have decided to commit a portion of our profits over the next year to support our brothers and sisters in Haiti through Food For the Poor. Please Click Here to donate via their website.

If you have any suggestions,  please add a comment below. 

Finding a great, free anti–virus program for Windows has been a challenge in the past, especially for a new version of Windows.  This time however, Google and PC Tools have come to our rescue with 'Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus', bundled as part of the new Google Pack. Google Pack is a bundle of popular, free apps provided by Google and its partners. It includes Adobe Acrobat, Firefox, Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus, Picasa and several other apps.   If you are just looking to protect your new home PC or laptop from viruses, then you’ll probably just want to download Firefox and Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus. These two apps together with the new and improved security built into Windows 7 will go a long way to help keep your PC safe on the net.
 
In our testing, we’ve found that Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus does a good job of protecting your PC from new viruses. However, if your PC is already infected with a virus, then you’ll probably want to pay for the full version which offers more powerful removal tools. Aside from the fact it’s free, Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus has also recently received the prestigious PC Magazine Editors Choice award.

So this is our top pick for the Best Free Anti Virus Program currently available: http://pack.google.com/ 

Note: Don't have Windows 7? The Google Pack also supports Windows XP and Vista.

Just in time for Christmas, Dragon Dictation for the iPhone has arrived. And not only is it free, it actually works!

After using it for a day, it appears even more powerful than the PC version. For starters, It doesn't require a bulky headset. Dragon Dictation simply uses the iPhone's built in microphone. But even more impressive, the accuracy appears to be near 100% with absolutely no training.

To use it you open the Dragon Dictation app, press the red button to record, and then click the stop button when you are finished. Within a few seconds your speech will be magically converted into text and displayed on your screen. From there you can copy and paste the text into any iPhone app.

The only drawback appears to be the fault of Apple's iPhone OS. The iPhone only allows one third-party app to be running at a time. So you'll have to open the Dragon Dictation app each time you want to dictate something which can really slow you down, especially if you're trying to chat using a program like Skype.

To get it, just pull up the app store on your iPhone and search for "dragon dictation".

 

 

The best free way to speed up your computer has to be by removing unnecessary startup items using System Configuration Utility. When you log into windows, many programs can start themselves automatically. Some of these are helpful while others just take up precious computer resources. You can easily see a list of these programs using the System Configuration Utility.

The quickest way to access this valuable tool is by going to the Start Menu and clicking Run. In the Run box, type in “msconfig” (without the quotes) and press OK. If you are using Windows Vista, you may not see Run listed on the Start Menu. Instead, type “msconfig” in the search bar at the bottom of the Start Menu and press enter.

 

Once you have the System Configuration window open, click the Startup tab. All of the items listed here are small programs or helper applications that are set to run as soon as you log into Windows. It may be hard to decipher what some of these programs are, but a quick Google search should provide more than enough information.

Each item has a checkbox on the left which determines whether or not it will run when the computer is logged on. Go through the list and clear the checkbox for any unnecessary programs. Be careful not to disable anything that may be related to anti-virus software or the computer hardware. Click OK and restart the computer.

After restarting, a pop up window will appear with the message “You have used the System Configuration Utility to make changes to the way Windows starts.” Put a check in the box at the bottom next to “Don’t show this message or launch the System Configuration Utility when Windows starts” and click OK.

If you were able to remove a lot of programs form the startup list, you may immediately notice a dramatic improvement in your computer’s performance.

 

Digg is a website that allows people to share interesting content found on other websites. Unlike a typical blog or news site, you won’t find any original content on Digg. Instead, you’ll see links to articles on other sites along with brief descriptions about those articles.

So Digg is just a bunch of links with no actual content? What’s the big deal? The wonderful thing about Digg is that thousands of users rate the submitted links. The end result is a high quality list of interesting websites.

There are several ways to submit a link to Digg. Many websites have Digg icons built in.

If you click the Digg icon and the story has not yet been submitted to Digg, you will arrive at the “Submit a New Link” page.

Enter a title for your Digg and add a brief description about the article. Next, choose which topic best describes your story and make sure everything looks okay in the preview.

Finally, enter the text from the image into the space to the left and click “Submit Story”.

If you are not the first person to submit the link to Digg, all you have to do is click “digg” and your vote will be counted.