| How to Create a Secure Password Posted: 02 Mar 2017 04:00 PM PST For almost every account that you make online, you are required to make a secure password. Choosing one that's difficult for others to figure out requires the creation of unlikely letter and number combinations. Fortunately, crafting hard-to-crack and easy-to-remember passwords is pretty straightforward. EditApplying Password Basics - Choose a password that no one will easily guess or hack. Don't use a word or phrase of special importance to you—like a birthday or family member. That's the kind of information that can be discovered by someone doing a little digging.
- Do not share passwords. This is an open invitation to your online accounts, and it's often exploited to accomplish online identity theft.
- Make sure your password is long. It should be at least eight-to-10 characters long, and longer passwords are even more secure. Some sites or applications may limit the password length, however.
- Use at least one capital letter and one lowercase letter in your password. The capital and lowercase letters should not be grouped together. Mixing them up makes the password more difficult to predict. This kind of strategy might lead to "JeCaMiJe_22191612" in the first example or "HouseOnSpooner#1500" in the second example.
- Use spaces in your password. Many password systems don't allow actual spaces, but it can be useful to insert one into the middle of a password with systems that do. Alternatively, an underscore "_" or two can serve a similar function.
- Generate similar but distinct passwords for separate accounts. You can use similar base words to help you remember your passwords easily without making them too easy to crack. So "JeCaMiJe_22191612" might be modified as "mykidsJeCaMiJe-90807060," "HouseOnSpooner#1500" might become "1500*myfirstHouseOnSpooner."
- Make sure your password is written down and kept in a safe place. Choose a location away from your computer (and from prying eyes), but make sure you can easily access it. If you forget your password, you can retrieve it without much trouble.
- When writing your password down, consider coding it with an offset pattern to make your password more difficult for others to decipher. Thus ri7%Gi6_ll might be written as 2tk9&Ik8_nn (where the offset for the coding is indicated by the first character, in this case +2). This would mean that each subsequent coded character is two alphabetical letters or numbers greater than the actual password character.
EditCreating a Secure Password - Create a sentence or phrase as the basis for your password. This is a useful starting point for making a password that's complex and difficult to guess while easy for you to remember. Also remember that your password should ultimately be lengthy (at least eight to 10 characters) and include a wide variety of character types (upper and lower case letters, numbers, spaces or underscores, etc.). While you should stay away from personally relevant information that others could easily identify, it's still convenient to create a password that you can recall without much trouble. Crafting a statement or sentence that will stick with you can serve as a useful basis for your password.
- One example of a mnemonic device is the Person-Action-Object (PAO) method developed by Carnegie Mellon computer scientists. Simply select an image or photograph of a memorable person performing an action with or to an object—and then put them all together to construct a phrase (however amusing or nonsensical). By selecting characters (e.g. the first three letters of each word) from said phrase, you can develop a password that's readily recalled.[1]
- Use your sentence or statement to craft an easily memorable password. By taking certain letters from your phrase, you can assemble a password that's easy to remember (e.g. by using the first two or three letters from each word in your phrase and putting them together in order). Make sure your statement or sentence includes upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.
- Create a complex but memorable sequence of words and/or letters. You can use a phrase or series of letters that is seemingly random but nevertheless easy to remember. The easily memorized series of letters can form a "base word" to which you should add symbols or numbers.
- If your children are Jessie, Cassey, Michael and Jenny, your base word might be "jecamije"—the first two letters of each name combined. If your first house was on Spooner Street, a base word might be "houseonspooner."
- Use at least one letter, number and special character in your password. So you could add an underscore (or other random punctuation) and numbers to create "jecamije_22191612." Or you can add a symbol to the word to make "houseonspooner#1500."
- Memorize your secure password. For example, a sentence like "My mother was born in Kansas City, Missouri on January 27th" might become a password like MmwbiKC,MOoJ27. Or a sentence like "The radio show begins at 9:10 AM on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays" could become "Trsb@0910oM,W&F."
- Consider using your computer's Character Map/Character Palette to (optionally) insert special characters into your password. Windows can find these options under the Start Menu by clicking All Programs, clicking Accessories, clicking System Tools and finally selecting Character Map. Mac users simply need to select Edit at the top of their browser menu and subsequently select Special Characters at the bottom of the Edit menu. You can then replace some of your letters with special symbols to make your password more difficult to guess.
- These symbols can replace more commonly used characters, but it's worth noting that some sites' password system won't accept all of the available symbols. By way of example, "ЅϋΠЅЂιηξ" could be used to replace "Sunshine."
- Remember that you'll have to actually re-enter this password when attempting to access a website or application, so consider the difficulty associated with repeatedly accessing your character map when entering passwords. You may decide it's too much of a hassle.
- Remember to update and vary passwords. You shouldn't be using the same passwords across your various logins, and you shouldn't use the same password for more than a few months at a time.
EditUsing Password Software - Select a password management program. This software will generally allow you to automatically handle a wide variety of passwords (for applications and websites) by simply entering one "master" password—significantly simplifying your memorization and organization responsibilities. Password managers will generate, remember and audit a variety of distinct, complex and secure passwords for each of your requested logins while allowing you to simply remember that one master password. Some of the most popular options include LastPass, Dashlane, KeePass, 1Password and RoboForm. A number of articles and websites offer thorough reviews of these and other programs.
- Download and install a password manager. Specific instructions will vary depending on which program you select, so be sure to follow instructions carefully. Generally speaking, you'll need to visit the appropriate vendor website and click a "download" button before following the installation instructions associated with your operating system.
- Set up your password manager. Again, the process will vary depending on the specific program. But the basic idea is to set up a complex master password that allows the production and/or maintenance of multiple, site and application-specific passwords to access their destinations. Most popular programs are pretty user-friendly when it comes to core functionality.
- Customize your preferences. Most of the best password managers will give you the option to either use your master password locally or synced across a variety of devices, so be prepared to determine what works best for you. You can also generally decide whether you wish the program to automatically log you in to sites and whether it audits your distinct passwords to ensure they're sufficiently different and changed on a regular basis.
- Change your passwords periodically or whenever you believe it may have become compromised and avoid reusing an expired password. Changing passwords regularly is required by company policy or federal law in some businesses.
- Accented letters may make your password more difficult to predict.
- Begin with a word (for example, "money"), spell it backwards (yenom) and put your birthdate in between. So if you were born February 5, 1974, the resulting password would be "yfebe5n19o74m." Though that may be difficult to remember, it's also nearly impossibly to crack.
- Choose a separate, secure password for each type of account. ISP, email clients and social media (etc.) should all have different passwords. Don't use the same password for your banking and email that you use for your ISP logon.
- You should never use your name, or the username for your account in a password.
- Don't use obvious base words like a name, birthday or personally significant date. These are much easier to crack than more complicated and impersonal phrases.
- For even more security, try using nonsensical words or phrasing. Combine these with numbers to make memorable, secure passwords like "brickbeak9468."
- Hackers usually use a brute force tool that tries every single letter, number and symbol combination there is.
The more complex password, the longer it will take to crack. - Don't forget where you store your password if you're writing them down.
- Do not tell anyone your password. Someone could overhear you, or the person you told could let it slip intentionally or accidentally.
- Do not use any passwords that appear on this page. They are now openly known and easy to find.
- Do not write your password in a location where it might be seen or found.
- Avoid web services that send you your original password, rather than a temporary password or password reset link, via email when you press a "forgot password" button. This behaviour indicates the web service in question is storing passwords using two-way encryption or even plaintext; in layman's terms, it means that the web service's password storage isn't safe.
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| How to Develop Insight Into Your Own Life Posted: 02 Mar 2017 08:00 AM PST Developing insight into your own life can make your life more meaningful. It can also help you better understand yourself as a person and others. By studying yourself as well as the world around you, you can discover new truths about your life and identity. Such an endeavor may take a great deal of time and energy, but it will be worth it. EditKnowing Yourself - Practice mindfulness. Studies demonstrate that most people have huge blind spots about themselves, their behaviors, and their desires. It is easy to paint yourself as the hero of your own story, but consider what it is that you might be ignoring about yourself. By practicing mindfulness, you can take a look at yourself and your life more objectively.[1] Mindfulness involves two components:
- Paying attention to yourself.[2] Think about who you are in this moment. What are you thinking about? What are you feeling? How would you describe your behaviors? Learning to pay attention to who you are and what you are thinking at each moment can make you more aware of your emotions and reactions.
- Observing non-judgmentally.[3] When you have a strong emotional reaction, it can be useful to act as an objective observer of your own behaviors. Is your emotional reaction worth it? Rather than letting your feelings drive your life thoughtlessly, take a few moments to consider where these feelings are coming from and how you should be reacting to them.
- Consider how your actions live up to your values. People who are introspective are more likely to behave morally and empathetically. The key is to compare how your behaviors measure up to your core principles. Are you meeting the standards you believe everyone should hold for themselves? Make a list of the qualities that are most important to you in others; then ask yourself how you might be able to embody these qualities.
- Resist escapist activities. Many people who are uncomfortable with how they live their lives seek to escape from introspection and self-knowledge. They do this through alcohol, drugs, mindless entertainment, or other problematic behaviors. Don't give in to these temptations. Tell yourself that getting to know yourself is hard work that you must not try to shirk or escape.
- Consider who you compare yourself to. When people are trying to learn more about themselves, they instinctively begin to compare themselves with others. For example, someone who has recently changed jobs will likely compare herself both to her new colleagues and to her old colleagues in order to figure out how competent she is. Understand that these comparisons are a normal way for people to develop insight into who they are. However, rather than becoming blindly jealous of those who are superior to you or becoming smug about those who are inferior to you, be mindful about the instinctive comparisons you make. Tell yourself that these comparisons are a more useful barometer of what is important to you than about your actual skillsets.
- For example, if you find yourself constantly comparing your smaller home to the larger homes of your friends, resist the urge to be jealous. Instead, understand that this instinctive comparison is giving you information about your priorities in life. Ask yourself why you care about the size of your home: do you wish to be more financially secure? Are you interested in growing your family? Or do you wish to be respected by your community? Use comparisons as a source of information about your priorities, not as fuel for jealousy.
- Watch a video of yourself. Studies show that the way we think about our internal selves does not always match up with our external selves.[4] As a tool to develop insight into your own life, record yourself speaking or interacting with someone else, such as through a vlog or video diary. Pay attention to your voice, your body language, your intonations, your facial expressions. Ask yourself whether what you see in the video matches your self-conception.
- Remember that your life is not static. There is no such thing as a single, unchanging self. Your life will involve experimentation, change, and dynamic interactions with others. Try to keep a healthy balance between staying true to your own values and desires and admitting when these values and desires must change. Try to view personal development not as an obstacle to your awareness of a single truth but rather as a journey to multiple truths and insights about who you are.[5]
- Take a personality test. Personality tests help test-takers determine their personality types, desires, and skillsets. There are many different kinds of personality test, though the Myers-Briggs inventory is one of the most widely used.[6] The science of personality tests and inventories is shaky, and you should take the results with a grain of salt. However, it is also likely that the results of your personality test will allow you to consider whether your self-perception lines up with the test's evaluation. Did anything unexpected turn up? Have you learned something new about your personality or your self-perception? You can take a personality test for free at many websites.
- Meditate. Studies show that persons who train in meditation techniques are more likely to know themselves in a thorough, objective way.[7] Take a meditation course or learn meditation techniques in order to train yourself in self-awareness. If you are not comfortable with traditional meditation, you might also experience a similar benefit from engaging in focused, repetitive activities such as running, biking, or knitting.[8] When you meditate, it is helpful to:[9]
- Maintain a routine. Meditate at the same time in the same place each day.
- Keep good posture.
- Breathe deeply.
- Shut out distractions, worries, and nagging thoughts.
- Use mantras in order to keep yourself focused.
- Make a list of your life goals. Goals are one of the keys to living a happy, satisfied life. People who work hard to achieve goals that are important to them report feeling more content with their lives and are more confident in who they are.[10] It helps to set goals that are positive (such as learning a new skill) instead of negative (such as not failing calculus).[11] In order to make sense of your life goals, do the following:
 - Make sure your goals are achievable and reasonable. Do not make your goal to "become a trillionaire": instead, have your goal be something you can attain in your lifetime, such as to "become more effective at my job."[12]
- Set a goal that you can control. There are many things in life that are great but also totally outside of our control. For example, a life goal of winning the lottery is not something you can ever control.[13]
- Think about where you want to be in 5 years. How about 10 years? 20? Feel free to daydream about where you want your life to be headed. Daydreaming is one of the most important tools to reaching a bright future in your life.[14]
- Think about all aspects of your life. How do you want your career to look? Your family? Your social life? Your personal development? Your hobbies? Don't limit yourself to one particular area of life: think about all of your most important activities.
- Break large goals down into smaller, achievable tasks. It can be difficult to work toward a vague, large goal such as "becoming my own boss." However, if you break a large goal down into its component parts, you might find that the goal is easily achievable. For example, the first step to becoming your own boss might be to expand your social network in order to develop a potential client base, which is something you can do right now.
- Develop an action plan. Once you have a sense of the large goals you are working toward as well as the small tasks involved to get there, you can begin to work towards them one-by-one. Challenge yourself to achieve great things, and reward yourself whenever you achieve one of your goals.[15]
EditExpressing Yourself - Keep a journal. Daily journaling can allow you to consider your deepest desires, darkest secrets, and outlook on life. Get to know yourself better by writing your thoughts down every day. Set a timer for 15 minutes, and make sure that you write throughout the entire period. Your journal will be a valuable tool to allow you to develop insight into your current self as well as how you develop over the course of many years.[16] If you find that you have writer's block, consider using a journaling prompt such as:
- What is the most interesting thing that happened to me today?
- What did I daydream about?
- What topics make me uncomfortable to write about?
- Who are the 10 people I care about the most?
- Tell your life story. Our memories often take the shape of a narrative or story, in much the same way that memoirs and autobiographies do. Articulating this life story can allow you to process these memories and make sense out of a great deal of chaotic information.[17] Take a few minutes to think about how you might tell the story of your own life. What memories are the most significant? What life events have shaped the person you are today? What arc has your life taken? Simply thinking about your life story or talking about it with friends is beneficial. However, you might also consider more formal ways to communicate your life story, such as through:
- A memoir or autobiography
- A photo album
- A short film
- A graphic novel
- Experiment with your appearance. Your appearance is one of the first ways that you communicate yourself to others. At the same time, your appearance also allows you to gain a better handle on yourself. Indeed, many introspective, reflective people take some time to consider how their self-presentation is related to their values, likes, and tastes.[18] Consider experimenting with how you look in order to understand your own tastes and, by extension, your own life. You can:
- Wear a color you've never worn before
- Experiment with a new hairstyle
- Consider getting a tattoo or piercing
- Try to find a fashion or accessory designer you admire
- Remember to take standards of professionalism into account when you experiment. Some workplaces forbid visible tattoos and facial piercings for example.[19]
- Learn an art form. Many people are able to learn about themselves by engaging in some kind of creative activity. By making beautiful works of art, you come to know your own preferences. At the same time, you are honing a skill that might allow you to tell your own story more effectively.[20] Consider taking a class at a local arts studio if you are a novice. If you already practice a craft, be sure to take time to work on it every day. Some arts and crafts you might consider are:
- Sculpting
- Painting
- Creative writing (poetry, fiction, or non-fiction)
- Blogging
- Photography
- Dance
- Woodworking
- Pottery-throwing
- Gardening
EditReaching Out to Others - Cultivate strong relationships. You do not exist in isolation: who you are as a person depends in large part on how you interact with other persons, especially those who are closest to you.[21] In order to get to know yourself better, get to know your loved ones better. Not only will you discover surprising things about yourself, but your loved ones might be able to assist you during confusing or troubling times in your life. In order to cultivate strong relationships with others, you must:
- Be empathetic
- Practice forgiveness
- Demonstrate active listening skills
- Be willing to initiate conversations and activities
- Find an objective listener. In order to develop insight into your life, you have to admit that sometimes you might be deceiving yourself. Perhaps you are blind to your own prejudices, or perhaps you sometimes think that you are a more generous person than your actions demonstrate. In order to be able to work through your blind spots and pernicious patterns, you will need to find a smart, objective person who can help reveal the darkest corners of your life to you.[22]
- Pay attention to the behavior of others. One key tool of self-knowledge is the information we get from observing the behaviors of those we interact with.[23] Think about the cues you are being sent when you talk to old friends and to new acquaintances. Consider whether you can interpret them in order to develop insight into your life, behaviors, and values.
- Be aware that not everybody can (or should) get along with everybody else. Pay particular attention to the reactions of those whom you respect, care for, and admire.
EditExploring the World - Be aware of the world around you. People can be affected by their surroundings in many subtle, subconscious, yet significant ways. Do not tell yourself that you are immune to the world around you: your life has been irrevocably shaped by the world you live in. While you cannot (and should not) escape the world, what you can do is learn more about the world in which you find yourself. You might be able to understand more clearly how the world has shaped your life.
- Recognize that culture affects the self. Studies show that some cultures value speech as a tool of self-knowledge, while others value silence.[24] Consider whether your own native culture has shaped how you view yourself and what you prioritize in life. Read about your own culture as well as other cultures in order to begin to understand how culture has impacted you.
- Broaden your horizons. Routines can be important and healthy in everyday life. But sometimes they can leave us stuck in a rut, unwilling to discover new places and ideas. Shake up your routine by actively seeking new and different opportunities. Some great ways to broaden your horizons include:
- Taking a class in a new topic
- Reading about a brand-new idea
- Visiting a place you've never seen before
- Have conversations with strangers
- Volunteer. Think of the causes you care about the most, and devote several hours each week to helping that cause. You will learn about your own potential as well as about the world around you. You will meet people who share your ideals and vision as well as people who might come from a completely different background. You might even discover a new career pathway by helping others.[25]
- Inform yourself on the "goings-ons" of the world. Read the news daily. Be sure that you turn to reputable journalists and news agencies so that you are getting the most accurate, up-to-date information about local, national, and international events. Take a few minutes each day to react to these events. What are your thoughts on how the world is moving? What can you do to help or change things? What is most important to you right now?
- Find a balance between looking inward for insight into your own life (such as through meditation) and looking outward (such as through reading about the world). Your life is a combination of internal and external factors, and you must know about both in order to know yourself.
- Talk to your friends and family members about your goal of developing insight into your own life. They might be able to provide you with guidance or necessary objectivity.
- Don't be single-minded. Insight into your life can emerge through social interactions, hobbies, creativity, and volunteering: it does not happen from you forcing it. Live a normal, healthy life, and be patient. The insights will develop naturally.
- Many people are afraid or unwilling to confront some of the less likeable or less moral parts of themselves. Remember that everybody has flaws, including you. Be honest about your own faults so that you can work to fix them: do not run away from yourself.
- Do not resort to mind-altering substances in order to develop insight into your life. These substances are escapist: they will not provide you with the answers you need, and many mind-altering substances have negative consequences on your health.
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| How to Tell if Chicken Is Bad Posted: 02 Mar 2017 12:00 AM PST Consuming chicken that has gone bad can make you extremely ill, regardless of whether it's raw or cooked. This wikiHow will show you how to tell if raw, frozen, or cooked chicken is bad. It will also give you tips on proper storage. EditKey Points - Raw Chicken: The chicken is bad if it starts to look grey, have a sour smell, or feel slimy or sticky. More ↓
- Frozen Chicken: The chicken is bad if there is an ice crust or freezer burn. A dark grey color also indicates spoilage. ↓
- Cooked Chicken: The chicken is bad if it smells like sulfur or starts to look grey. Check for mold or a bad taste. ↓
EditChecking Raw Chicken - Look for a change in color.[1] When fresh, raw chicken has a pink, fleshy color. As it starts to spoil, the color fades to grey. If the color of the chicken begins to look duller, you should use it soon before it goes bad. Once it looks more grey than pink, it is already too late.
- Raw chicken colors can range from appearing grey to having yellow spots that aren't skin.
- If you begin to cook bad chicken it may continue to look dull and not become as white.
- Smell the chicken. Raw chicken that has gone bad has a very potent odor. Some describe it as a "sour" smell, while others liken it to the scent of ammonia. If the chicken has begun to take on an unpleasant or strong odor of any sort, it is best to discard it.
- Chicken can start to smell bad while cooking, it is best to discard it if it starts to smell less appealing.
- Feel the chicken. Is it slimy? The touch test is a little more difficult than the color or smell test because chicken naturally has a glossy, somewhat slimy feeling to it. If this slime remains even after rinsing the chicken under water, however, there is a good chance that the chicken has spoiled. If the chicken feels unusually sticky, it has almost certainly gone bad.
EditScrutinizing Frozen Chicken - Look for an ice crust. If there is a thick layer of ice around your chicken then it is no longer good. The ice crust will be thick like the ice on a freezer hasn't been thawed in a while. A flash-frozen chicken will not have a thick crust if done properly. If the ice is white it could be a issue with freezer burn.
- Check for freezer burn. Freezer burn looks like a white rash or mark on the chicken that isn't fat. It is rougher than the skin around it and raised slightly.
- While it won't hurt you it will make your chicken less enjoyable.
- Analyze the color. A frozen chicken is harder to check for color. It will be off color, similar to the raw or cooked chicken, a slight grey or yellowing of fat. If it is darker than grey, that chicken belongs in the trash bin.
EditInvestigating Cooked Chicken - Smell the chicken. The smell test can work for cooked chicken as well as it can for raw chicken, but it is sometimes more difficult to distinguish the smell of bad chicken if spices and other seasonings are masking the odor.
- If the chicken smells like rotten eggs or sulfur, it is bad.
- Check for changes in color, if possible. Sometimes this is not possible if the chicken has been breaded or if the color was altered by a glaze or marinade. If chicken that cooked white begins to look grey, it is no longer safe to eat.
- Look for mold. Mold is one of the most obvious signs of rotten, decaying, bad chicken. If green, or black fuzz, or any organic growth of any kind has begun to form on the chicken, it has gone very bad and should be discarded immediately. Even the smell of chicken this 'off' may make you ill.
- Taste the chicken before you swallow it. If you feel uncertain about whether or not cooked chicken is still good, but do not want to waste it if it still is, you can cautiously take a bite. Instead of chewing and swallowing the chicken immediately, though, you should pause and carefully analyze the flavor.
- If it tastes "off" or seems a little sour, spit it out and discard the rest.
EditReviewing Storage of Chicken - Check the "Sell By" date. This alone is not always a good indication of whether or not raw chicken is still good because the "Sell By" date only dictates at which point chicken can no longer be sold to consumers. Instead of relying on the "Sell By" date, it is best to use it as a means of confirming whether or not chicken you suspect has gone bad is actually past its prime.
- If you purchase fresh, refrigerated chicken from a store and freeze it, it can last up to nine months past this date, as long as it was fresh when purchased.[2]
- Check into how thoroughly the chicken was stored. Cooked chicken goes bad faster if it is exposed to air, and improperly stored chicken is more likely to be bad.
- Chicken should be stored in shallow, airtight containers or heavy-duty freezer bags.
- It could also be wrapped tightly in aluminum foil or plastic wrap.
- Example: In order to remain safe to eat, whole chicken should be cut into smaller portions and any stuffing should be removed prior to refrigeration or freezing.
- Find out where and for how long the chicken was stored.[3] It depends also depends on how you stored the chicken. After these time periods elapse, there is a higher chance that the chicken will have gone bad.
- In the refrigerator, raw chicken should be used in one or two days, while cooked chicken stays good for about three to four days.
- In the freezer, cooked chicken can remain good and safe to eat for up to four months while raw chicken can be good for up to a year.
- If there is any question if your chicken is "grey enough" or "slimy enough", it is and you should toss it.
- If your chicken has been thawing on the counter, toss it.
- If it was frozen, thawed, and then frozen again, throw it away.
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