Tag: google

The two step

After the recent news of a reporter having his digital life ransacked as a result of someone applying some social engineering-fu to amazon and apple, I re-enabled Google’s two-step authentication. The pitfall for me last time I tried it was discovering that there was no way to accommodate relaying email through gmail with two-step authentication. It didn’t occur to me or I objected to it on principle but all I needed was an additional gmail account just for that. The username is an md5 hash of…something, as is the password.

Interesting to see how many third parties I have allowed to use my Google ID as a credential. The dilemma there is, do I continue that with any attendant risks of linking them or do I set up accounts with every website that requires authentication? Of course, once Google buys them all it will be moot. But in the meantime…

Yet another tedious iOS vs Android pissing contest

Google+ would be less tedious if the Android fanboyism wasn’t so prevalent. Imagine if Apple built a social media site to promote its brands. Oh, wait, it has the whole world…because it understands branding.

Repurposed from a comment there:

The iPhone is a brand, where Android is…not. The handsets say Samsung or whatever on them. “Companies that are serious about software should make their own hardware,” as someone much smarter than me said. What is Motorola doing if Samsung and ASUS are making the Nexus products?

Ask an Android user what kind of phone they have and I suspect they’ll name the maker or the carrier before they say Android. And you know what? That’s how it works. Do people say they drive a V8 when they drive a Ford or GM car? Do Subaru owners dig the flat four design of their car’s powerplant? I bet a lot of people wouldn’t know if their car is air-cooled or water-cooled.

Dunno why it took so long to think of this.