TECH: VANGARD changes its logon!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

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Protecting your information is very important to Vanguard. Over the next few months, we’ll be introducing significant security enhancements to better safeguard your information on Vanguard.com®. These changes will help ensure that only you—or those you’ve designated to act on your behalf—can access your information online.
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They’re basically splitting the  logon and password screens and putting a user selectable picture on the second page. I guess if you don’t see your animal, then you’re not supposed to put in your password. I don’t understand how this prevents a man-in-the-middle attack. It does prevent a dumb phishing but not a sophisticated one. If you present yourself at the phish site, it can quickly open a connect to Vangard, present you credential, take the screen, show it to you, and you’ll give them your password. It’ll probably take a day of a good coder’s time to beat that one. And, it breaks all teh login tools that people, like me, currently use. ARGHH!

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: “CARDSCAN” … a great tool … is acquired by Rubbermaid. What will change?!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Dear F,

Did you ever hear the expression, “The more things change, the more they stay the same?” Well, once again I am delighted to deliver great news about the exciting changes that are happening at CardScan – and to reassure you that CardScan will remain the company you’ve come to know and trust.

CardScan joins DYMO as part of Sanford Brands, the office products division of Newell Rubbermaid.
After 13 years as an independently owned company, CardScan has been acquired by Newell Rubbermaid, a giant in the field of consumer products and owner of some of the best known brands in the world. As the newest member of its Office Products division, Sanford Brands, CardScan becomes a part of DYMO and joins such famous brands as Sharpie, Waterman, Papermate and Expo.

Greater opportunity for us to deliver even greater products and services for you.
While we are proud of what we’ve accomplished as an independent company, we believe that becoming part of Newell Rubbermaid will give us the best of all possible worlds – the continued freedom to develop better products for our customers and the much larger resources to bring those products to market more quickly and support them more thoroughly. As always, innovation will continue to drive us to break new ground in contact management as we continue to provide our usual high standards of technical support and service.

Thank you for your past and continuing support.
I hope you join us in celebrating our exciting news and that you will continue to turn to CardScan for superior contact management products. As a thank you and a welcome to the Sanford Brands family, we invite you to a special offer from DYMO to CardScan customers. And, as always, if you have comments or suggestions about CardScan, feel free to contact me directly at pweyman@cardscan.com.

Sincerely,

Peter Weyman
President
CardScan, Inc.

Please don’t reply to this email. The mailbox is not attended. To reach me, please send an email to pweyman@cardscan.com.

CardScan, Inc. 25 First Street Suite 107 Cambridge, MA 02141

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Posted by reinkefj

TECH: Changing the model. Change the tech. Change our thinking!

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

The Journalist Dilemma

July 23, 2006
The Journalist Dilemma
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I definitely agree with the absurdity of having thousands of journalists all covering one single-dateline story, whether it’s a convention or a Michael Jackson trial. But I wonder, too, how this obsession with new approaches to media — citizen journalism, community interaction, local coverage vs non-local — is going to look a few years down the track. For sure, there’s a lot to be said for breaking down the barriers between newspaper and community between professional and amateur reporter/photographer/editor. But this movement will also have some heavy long term effects that aren’t really discussed in this blogocratic world.

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I find little that is truly “local”. I find a lot of tech that is all over the field. I find little that changes my thinking. That’s the most valuable. In the DIKW scale, I get a ton of D and very little W. But I guess that is to be expected.

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Posted by reinkefj