After the analysis of millions of stolen passwords that end up posted online, SplashData has created a rankings of the worst passwords of 2011. SplashData specializes on password management and security solution.

According to the list, the worst password of all is “password” itself followed by 123456.  Some of the common phrases like “letmein” and “iloveyou” also rank 8th and 13th in the list.

1. password
2. 123456
3. 2345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

The worst are listed. But, what about the best or the strongest passwords? The company has three suggestions to make it difficult for intruders to guess your passwords:

• include numbers, letters and special characters whenever possible.
• choose password that has 8 characters or more.
• It’s bad idea to use use the same passwords in multiple websites or accounts. Password managers can be used to keep track of various passwords (this is SplashData’s main business)

Personally, I don’t believe in password managers. I would prefer the difficulty of password depending on the importance of the account and use a pattern of passwords so that they are easier to remember. Even if I forget a password I can get to the right one after a couple of tries. In almost every websites, there are options to reset password, in worst case.

The Trick-or-Treaters in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada wrote a letter in response to a homeowner’s decision of not handing out Halloween candies. The kids calling themselves “Children of the Hood” also told about the previous owner Miss Toby who was generous enough to hand out candy apples.

The kids told that it was a mistake not to hand out candies in Halloween so they should correct it next year.

The homeowner posted the letter in Kijiji, a classified advertisement site with the title, “Looking for the author of this letter (see image)”.

Smart kids!

It’s sad to hear about the untimely death of NDP leader and the leader of the Opposition in Canadian parliament. R.I.P Jack Layton!

I am not a political animal but, as the leader of the New Democratic Party,  Jack Layton(July 18, 1950 – August 22, 2011) had proved that he was not to be taken lightly by leading NDP to a historic total of 103 seats (that was 60 seats more than previous all-time-high of NDP seat count) and forming the Official Opposition in the 2011 election.

On February 5, 2010, Layton announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. He also told that his father Robert Layton had suffered from the same type of cancer 17 years before and recovered from it. On July 25, 2011 Layton announced that he would be taking a temporary leave from his post to fight an unspecified, newly diagnosed cancer.

Jack Layton died at 4:45 a.m. ET on August 22, 2011, at his Toronto, Ontario, home. A state funeral is planned for August 27, 2011 at the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto. Jack Layton is the first opposition leader to die in office.

After Layton’s death, his family released an open letter, written by Layton two days before his death. In the letter, he expressed his wishes regarding the NDP’s leadership in the event of his death, and addressed various segments of the Canadian population. (Photo credits – Wikipedia)

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RIP Jack Layton – last words to Canadians

The Bank of Canada has decided to stop producing paper money and start issuing high-tech plastic money. The money will feature transparent maple leaf window to help reduce currency counterfeiting.

The first polymer bank notes $100 bills will arrive in November. The $50 notes are scheduled to be released in March.

Remaining notes like $20, $10 and $5 will gradually be introduced by the end of 2013.

After the spectacular marriage ceremony in London on April 29, Prince William and his new bride, Kate Middleton are in their first international tour together as husband and wife. On the way they will spend nine days in Canada to visit seven cities across five provinces in Canada.

While some are concerned on the government spending tax-payer’s money on the royal couple, the government is hoping to bring-in tourist and journalists from all over the world.

This will be the third Canadian tour of Prince William, and Kate’s first visit. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will start their Canadian tour on June 30 from the National Capital Region, and then visit Montreal (Quebec), PEI (Charlottetown and Summerside), Northwest Territories (Yellowknife) and Calgary (Alberta).

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Prince William and Kate to arrive in Canada on June 30

The initial response to Canada’s wedding gift of $50,000 to Prince William and Kate Middleton was not that pleasant.

Many believed – with all the current financial mess, wasting money on gift to the Royal wedding is the least expected expenditure of the government. Some also argued that the Royals should have acted decent enough by not accepting such unnecessary gifts. But, these people also ignore the fact that the gift goes to a Canadian charitable organization, the Canadian Coast Guard Auxiliary.

The Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, said the government of Canada offered this gift on behalf of all Canadians. He added, the gift will be sued to help fund the search-and-rescue program, and to help prevent injuries or loss of life at sea.

The royal couple’s one of the honeymoon destination will be Canada. The June 30-July 8 visit will cover areas in Alberta, the Northwest Territories, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Ottawa.

Some say, Wikileaks has has changed the world.

Others say, if Wikileaks hadn’t happened, something else like that would have happened. It is the beginning of the evolution.

Thom Hartmann, host of The Big Picture, looks at what WikiLeaks has revealed to the world, and looks at whether Julian Assange is a new kind of revolutionary, reading quotes from Assange’s book, "The United What of America?"

Properties of a corporation as a nation state:

• Suffrage (the right to vote) does not exist except for land holders ("share holders") and even there voting power is in proportion to land ownership.
• All executive power flows from a central committee. Female representation is almost unknown.
• There is no division of powers. There is no forth estate. There are no juries and innocence is not presumed.
• Failure to submit to any order can result in instant exile.
• There is no freedom of speech. There is no right of association. Love is forbidden without state approval.
• The economy is centrally planned.
• There is pervasive surveillance of movement and electronic communication.
• The society is heavily regulated and this regulation is enforced, to the degree many employees are told when, where and how many times a day they can go to the toilet.
• There is almost no transparency and something like the FOIA is unimaginable.
• The state has one party. Opposition groups (unions) are banned, surveilled or marginalized whenever and wherever possible.

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Wikileaks, Julian Assange, The United What of America?

WikeLeaks founder Julian Assange with 382,026 public votes and average rating of 92 leads the Time magazine public poll. But, the winner is somebody else – ranking 10 in the list Mark Zuckerburg with rating of 52 with only 18,353 votes.

It was Julian Assange who shook the world with Iraq Apache helicopter attack, Guantanamo Bay  leaks, Scientology and Climate Reasearch e-mail leaks, and the world diplomacy earthquake – Cablegate. 2010 was the year when WikiLeaks had shocked the world. These releases have created ground-breaking impact in the world in 2010, and many think Assange is much deserving person in the list. Some argue, Facebook and Zuckerberg has done nothing in the year 2010 as most of the things are unchanged from the year 2009.

But, Time officials don’t think so. Many suspect Uncle Sam was acting behind the scene.

It has been twelve years since Larry Page and Sergey Brin registered the domain Google.com, the search synonym of today. In that 12 years, Google has transformed itself into a multi-billion dollar company based in Mountain View, Calif. It’s 12th birthday is being celebrated with a American painter Wayne Thiebaud design – a big, digitized birthday cake logo.

The cake doodle confirms that Google celebrates its birthday on September 27, 2010. Whois lookup however, shows that Google was first registered on 15 sep, 1997.

   Updated Date: 15-sep-2010
   Creation Date: 15-sep-1997
   Expiration Date: 14-sep-2011

On it’s birthday, let’s look at some of the milestones in its history:

• In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords.
• In 2001, Google launched Image Search.
• In 2002, it released Google Labs and Google News.
• In 2003, Google acquired Pyra Labs, owner of Blogger (in February)
• In 2005, Google Maps (in February) and Google Talk (in August). Other features released were- Google Reader, Google Analytics, and Gmail for mobile.
• In 2006, the verb, "to google", was officially added to Webster and Oxford Dictionary (in July), Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion (in October)
• 2007, Gmail released for public.
• 2008, Android mobile operating system,
• In 2009 and 2010 – Google Voice, Google Buzz were the buzz words.

That was a short and incomplete history of Google. A full and official history can be accessed here.

Happy Birthday Google !

Microsoft tried to show it’s confidence on its upcoming Windows Phone 7 operating system by hosting a mock funeral ceremony of it’s rival phones including Apple’s iPhone and RIM’s Blackberry.

In the ceremony, hearses for the iPhone and the BlackBerry were carried along with Microsoft employees dressed up in Windows Phone 7 garb. The Microsoft employees even performed the "Thriller Dance" (see video, below) hoping the Windows Phone 7 to bury the competition.

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Microsoft’s Funeral Ceremony for Windows Phone Rivals