Tag: password

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Umum

Bye LastPass, Hello Bitwarden

Photo by Anete Lusina from Pexels

After using Bitwarden for about a month, I could say that Bitwarden works for me and has a big chance to replace LastPass as my current password manager.

I have all the features I need. The initial migration to move all my LastPass data to Bitwarden was also easy. After that I did not save any new data to LastPass.

LastPass is a good product. It increases its subscription price time to time. In 2017 — when I subscribed to it — I needed to pay $12. A year later, the subscription fee was $24. And lastly in 2019, LastPass increased the subscription fee to $36/a year. The price is for the annual billing cycle. For monthly subscription, the price will be a little bit higher.

The price above actually almost in the same price range like what other password manager services. So, during the time period, it was more about choosing which service to be used. Thank you, Last Pass for making my digital life become easier in the last four years.

Deleting LastPass account

Now, it’s Bitwarden time. I started by using the basic free account. Yes, it’s a free account. It offers the core features for a good password manager. Basically, it should be enough for those who start to use password manager.

If I need more features, for a single-user account, its Premium Account is $10/year. It’s in a good price range, I think.

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Umum

Password Manager: Let’s Give Bitwarden a Chance!

I have been using password manager since 2017 since I think there should be an easy, secure, and handy mechanism to deal with passwords. Of course, by using password manager, life is a little bit easier.

And, I chose LastPass. Last year, I still renewed my premium subscription for US$36 per year. LastPass works really well, but at the same time I am sure other password manager applications — like 1Password, DashLane, Keeper — share similar quality of features. But, it’s about choice.

Most “popular” password manager applications also offer similar subscription price, around US$36/year. My LastPass subscription will end next April, and I am thinking of moving to other application that does its basic jobs like storing password (of course!), generating good passwords, and managing credentials in categories/folders. Also, it should be also work on multiple devices and browsers.

After reading many articles, I decided to give Bitwarden a try. And, I read pretty much information about Bitwarden. One of the big differences with other password managers is that Bitwarden is open source. The other reason is on the pricing. It’s only US$10/year for personal use, or US$40/year for personal (family/organization).

My decision is not related to LastPass’ upcoming plan regarding the limitation for the free account since I was a paying customer since day one. According to a blog post:

We’re making changes to how Free users access LastPass across device types. LastPass offers access across two device types – computers (including all browsers running on desktops and laptops) or mobile devices (including mobile phones, smart watches, and tablets). Starting March 16th, 2021, LastPass Free will only include access on unlimited devices of one type

LastPass blog: Changes to LastPass Free

From the interface point of view, it’s not that beautiful — at least compared to LastPass. But hey, it’s about the features. As long as it works for me, I am fine with the interface.

About Bitwarden:

  1. Bitwarden official site
  2. Bitwarden on GitHub
  3. Bitwarden apps (desktop, mobile, including CLI)
  4. A detailed review about Bitwarden. CNET has some basic comparisons of multiple password managers.
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General

Fourth year: LastPass

This month, I renewed my LastPass subscription for the next twelve months. This time, LastPass does not increase its subscription price. It’s still US$36/year.

I am still pretty happy with it. I was thinking of cheaper solution that offers similar features, but for know, I could not find one.

So, let’s stick to it for now.

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General

Third year: LastPass

I started using LastPass for my password manager application in March 2017. So, this year, it’s my third year now. Before LastPass, I used 1Password. I didn’t remember the exact reasons why I switched to LassPass, but I think it was about the integration with applications in mobile devices.

I am satisfied with LassPass features. For some people, Google’s Password Manager will work. But, when it comes to more complex password and identity management, I think LassPass fits me more.

Is LassPass free? Unfortunately, not. I started my subscription for US $12/year (for Premium package). A year later, LassPass increased its pricing to US $24/year. And, this year, they increased the subscription pricing again to US $36/year.

Hat tip: LassPass was acquired by LogMeIn back in 2015.

LassPass offers competitive pricing compared to its competitor like DashLane (US $40/year), 1Password (US $36/year), and Keeper (US $30/year). Since LassPass works for me (until today), I think I will keep my subscription.

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General

Upgrading to macOS Sierra

macOS Sierra

I love keeping everything updated on my Mac, from the operating system, and also the applications. I just updated to macOS Sierra — the latest operating system by Apple. I upgraded from OS X El Capitan. This post is posted after the upgrade.

Preparation

On my Mac, I installed all upgraded applications. Some applications already released the update to make them work with macOS Sierra. About my Mac, it’s 15″ MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) with 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 processor and 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 of memory.

It’s highly recommended to backup everything. The simplest way is probably using Time Machine. But, I decided not to backup using Time Machine. I copied the important files to my external drive. It takes time, but having everything backed up is a good scenario.
Before hitting the download button, this was my setup:

Continue reading “Upgrading to macOS Sierra”
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General

Google Offers Free 2GB Extra for Google Drive

Screen Shot 2015-02-10 at 11.43.52 PM

Google offers 2GB of storage for Google Drive for those who completes Google’s security checkup process. This offer ends on February 17, 2015. It’s also to celebrate Safer Internet Day. Right now, I have 15 GB of storage for my Google Drive and use around 5 GB of it). There are still plenty of room for my storage, but 2 GB of free upgrade is too good to be skipped.

The security checkup is a simple and straight forward. It’s to make sure that your Google account is safe by doing some checking on these areas:

  • Recovery information. Make sure you to have an active phone number and alternative email for account recovery.
  • Recent activities. Review the recent login activities using Google account.
  • Account permission. Check the services, or apps you give permission to use or connect to Google account.
  • App password. You can use specific password for logins. So, using Google, you don’t always supply your primary password. If you’re not sure or find the applications you don’t recognize, remove them.
  • 2-step verification. I use this security method. Just make sure to have backup phone number there, including the backup codes.

Even this offer does not apply to Google Apps for Work and Google Apps for Education, but it’s recommended that Google account owners should review the security checkup. After completing the security review checkup, the additional storage will be automatically added at the end of February 2015.

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General

1Password-ed

There are many services on the internet. It means there are many accounts (if you’re registering to those services) to remember. Some services offers login using popular “connect” feature. For example you can login using Facebook, Gmail, or Twitter for some specific services. This is a good scenario since we only need to remember password for those services.
But, I personally likes the “native registration” process. Meaning that I have to register manually and using a specific password each service. The consequence is that I have many passwords. I mean many. Of course, it might be easier I use the same password for multiple services. But, it’s not a recommended workflow. Anyway, if a service provides a 2-step authentication process e.g. Google, I will be using it.
1Password 50% OFF
I’m an Apple customer. So, I work most of the time on my MacBook and iPhone. There should be an easy way to manage these passwords. There is a popular application called 1Password by AgileBits Inc. I’ve heard about the application, but I didn’t buy it until yesterday. 1Password gets 50% discount. I decided to buy 1Password for Mac and iOS. I got my Mac version for $24.99 or IDR 289,000.00 (regular price: $49.99), and iOS version for $8.99 or IDR 99,000.00.

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General

WordPress 3.7 with Background Updates

WordPress is actively being developed by great developers. I always tried to keep my WordPress installation updated by running update process — which is very easy. But, right now, I want to write down about the latest release. Not that every update provides an improvement, new features, or bug fixes, but this version 3.7 (codename: Basie) has few good things offered.
The first useful feature is the background updates. It means that you do not need to worry about having an outdated installation when a new release is available. So, if your self-hosted WordPress-powered blog is not yet upgraded to 3.7, it’s a perfect time.
WordPress 3.7 Updates
Having an automatic upgrade is good, it’s a worry-free situation. Of course, there might be some bugs or features that you will not be familiar with. But for me, having everything updated is a good thing. If you’re using some plugins, they might not compatible with the latest updates. Not always, but it might happen. Since I don’t have critical plugins installed, having some broken plugins should not be an issue. I just simply disabled them.

How to turn off automatic updates?

You can, but you have to maintain your updates. Or, if you don’t care about this updates (or worse, you don’t care about your blog), you can just ignore it. The easiest solution to disable the core updates is by modifying your wp-config.php file. It’s located at the main root directory. Add these following lines:

# Disables all core updates:
define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', false );
# Enables all core updates, including minor and major:
define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', true );
# Enables core updates for minor releases (default):
define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', 'minor' );

If you want to for some details, go to Make WordPress Core website.
Some others features introduced in this updates includes the password strength checker. Do you always have a not-easy-to-guess password? The other one is about a better search. Since I’m maintaining some WordPress-powered sites, I think I will update them all right now.

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General

How To: Install Opera Mobile on Nokia N9

Nokia N9 already has a built-in internet browser. It’s not the best, but it works. I like having some browsers for my Nokia N9, and currently I have Firefox Mobile and Opera Mobile installed. Both browsers (Firefox Mobile and Opera Mobile) are not available from Ovi Store. If you’re using Symbian for your Nokia, you can download Opera Mini. Firefox is not yet supported.
I’m not considering the installation process as something difficult. Yes, it’s not like the regular installation procedures. It’s my first-time experience too. So far, everything works without any issue at the moment. For Opera Mobile installation, I just follow the installation tutorial from Nokia N9 Fans Club. It’s an unofficial site, not maintained by Nokia.

Now, let me share a bit about how I installed Opera Mobile. Anyway, my N9 is running MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan with software version PR1.1 (20.2011.40-2_PR_005). And, if you’re not familiar with command line, you can continue reading.

Continue reading “How To: Install Opera Mobile on Nokia N9”
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General

Instagram and how Instagram works with its users

Yes, I’m joining Instagram under @thomasarie username. Having a desired username for Instagram username is easy and should be painless. But, that didn’t happen to me at first. I wanted to have @thomasarie as my username, but I was a little bit unlucky. I contacted Instagram support team after doing some attempts to get my username — yes, I want to have same username for some services :)
Here’s a little bit story.
I created an Instagram account before I bought an iPhone just to secure my username. Then, after I bought myself an iPhone 4, I tried to login to my Instagram account. Nothing special, except I have to deal with my password. Yes, I forgot my password! Okey, you can laugh now. :D
So, I used the forgot password feature. I waited for few minutes and no reset password instruction being delivered. Maybe something was broken. I tried it again next day, and I still didn’t have any instructions to reset my password. I jumped to the Instagram Support Center to find out a solution. There are some details about account troubleshooting including account password, username and email address.

To reset your password:

  • Follow the link above and enter the email address you used to sign up for Instagram
  • Click on the link in the email
  • Reset your password and login with your username and new password

Please email [email protected] if you are not receiving the password reset email in your inbox or cannot remember what username or email address you used to sign up for an account (as many details about the account as you can provide are appreciated!).


At that time, it didn’t work. So, I pushed my luck by sending a support ticket. During the period, I played with Instagram under another username. Lucky Instagram has feature to change username. So, when I’m able to have my desired username, I can move to it. I sent my last support ticket on August 11,2011. And, Instagram team replied my ticket on August 16, 2011! You know what the best part was? They gave me my username with a new password! Whooa! I logged in to my account, and changed the password right away into something I-will-not-forget-again!
After that, I did few things to move my active Instagram account under this username. Great! Thank you Instagram!
I know the fact that Instagram team is busy and keep its service up and running without any issues. I’m not blaming them for my issue. It was completely my mistake. But, having my problem solved less than a week is still really great for huge and busy service like this. Do I have a happy Instagram experience? I do.

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General

SSH login without password using OS X

KeysLately, I need to deal with more login combinations. And, most of them are about logging in to server via SSH. I decided to create a simple mechanism rather than having some login combinations written somewhere. Why not remember those logins? Well, too many things to remember.
So, I tried to create an automated system to servers and found this useful tutorial. I tried it on my Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and it works. I put it here for my reference:

  • From Terminal, run: ssh-keygen -t rsa
  • Copy/add ~/.ssh/authorized_keys:

Done!

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General

Dear Flickr, I just want to buy a Flickr gift

But, it seems that something is broken.
Today, a friend contacted me to help him getting a Flickr Pro by activating a Flickr gift. This is not the first time for me purchasing Flickr gifts. Everything worked. Just worked. But, not today.

So, I wanted to buy my 11th Flickr gift — yes, 11th!. I went into what Flickr called “Place your order” page. I hit that blue “OK, I’M READY TO PAY” button. After that I was redirected to another login form for another authentication process. Sure, part of the security checking processes, right? I gave my password and nothing happened. Okey, may be it’s my web browser — even I was sure that nothing was wrong with my browser. The other browsers gave me the same results. It didn’t work. Okey, I waited.
Then, I tried again. But, I got a another respond. It was a message like this:

Sorry, Unable to process request at this time — error 999.
Unfortunately we are unable to process your request at this time. This error is usually temporary. Please try again later.
If you continue to experience this error, it may be caused by one of the following:

  • You may want to scan your system for spyware and viruses, as they may interfere with your ability to connect to Yahoo!. For detailed information on spyware and virus protection, please visit the Yahoo! Security Center.
  • This problem may be due to unusual network activity coming from your Internet Service Provider. We recommend that you report this problem to them.

While this error is usually temporary, if it continues and the above solutions don’t resolve your problem, please let us know.

Okey. I’ll wait. Yes, it’s weekend, and it was midnight. Dear Yahoo! — or Flickr — could you please fix that? My friend just want to have his Flickr account upgraded. Thank you.
[Added later]: This issue had been solved. It seemed that there was something wrong with the payment gateway issue. My friend bought a Flickr Pro gift for himself. :)

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General

Flickr says Hello to Google Account!


Oke, this is what you need to know right now: You don’t need to have/use Yahoo! ID to join Flickr. That’s right. Today, Flickr allows new signup using Google Account.

With dozens of different login usernames and passwords out there on the Interwebs, who needs to add yet another one to the list? To help solve this, Flickr is rolling out a new feature to make it easier than ever for new users to join our community. We’re introducing OpenID on Flickr, a service that makes it faster and easier to sign-up for new accounts by letting you use one identity across multiple websites. So starting today, you’ll be able to use a Google account to sign-up for a new Flickr account. [source]

I just tried it, and it works. Also, Flickr simplifies the login process. Previously, if you’re on a single photo page, and you want to give comment, clicking the “Sign-in” link will bring to to another page. Now, you can sign-in without leaving the page. Yahoo! works really hard these days. :D
Anyway, I’m on Flickr too of course. :D

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General

Twitter's List Of 370 Banned Passwords

Twitter’s List Of 370 Banned Passwords. “Why ban them? They’re very easy for humans and brute-force hacking scripts to figure out, making it easier for people to get access to your account. On Twitter, this can be embarrassing. On other sites, this can be very costly.”

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General

WordPress 3.0 Installation Process

Today, I tried the upcoming WordPress 3.0 distribution. It’s not yet released. I installed WordPress 3.0 Beta 2. I do this because I want to know whether I will have some WordPress installations upgraded or not, to find the possibilities and considerations.
The installation process is similar to the previous versions, but I think it’s improved now. After you fill in the database information, usually you will need to provide website name/title, and email address. The installation process will create “admin” as the first user, with randomly generated password. Here are some new fields during the installation process.

Better? Better. Previously, I usually modify the “admin” username directly from database manager — I’m using phpMyAdmin. Some people think that it’s a good practice to remove/change the default administrator login in the system. Now, you can have whatever username for the administrator.
Previously, the first thing you will need to do after you have your WordPress installed is changing the randomly generated password, since it’s not easy to remember. Setting up password during installation should be a time saver.
I haven’t dug any other features like the multi-site, custom menus, and other things offered in this distribution. Later.