First let’s download Keepass. For you Windows users out there head over to the following link…

http://keepass.info/

Once you have download the app, go ahead and create a new password database. You can do this by clicking the first icon on the toolbar in the Keepass window (See the orange arrow in the Window dialog image below). Choose a password you will remember!!! When we are done with this process you will only need to remember this one password. For extra security you can create a key file that you can store on a USB drive. This will prevent access to your new password database unless the user has the master password and the key file. I’ll let you decide if you think you need this.

After you have chosen your master password create an entry in the database by clicking the “New Entry” icon on the toolbar (See the red arrow in the Window dialog image above). Here’s where Dropbox comes into play. Select -> File -> Save As… from the file menu and then give your database a name. I suggest something inconspicuous like RefData.kdb or Clients.kdb anything but “passwords.kdb”. Browse to your Dropbox folder and save it to a folder there. This will sync it across all your computers with Dropbox installed as well as give you access to the file from any where as long as you have access to the internet and a web browser. Any changes to the database, ie. add/change/delete a password, are automatically synced across all your desktops. This means you only have to worry about this one file and it updates pretty much instantly across all your desktops.

For you Mac users the process is pretty much the same. You download a program called KeepassX which is virtually identical in every way.

You can download the application from the following URL…

http://www.keepassx.org/

Once downloaded follow the steps outlined above for Windows users. Remember to save your newly created password database to your Dropbox folder so you will have one database that you can access from all of your computers. That’s it. One password to remember. One database that syncs across all your desktops. Doesn’t get much easier than that.

So, someone spilled what looked to be coke on one of the Apple keyboards in one of my labs on campus. There may be a way to take these keyboards apart but after about five minutes of looking for a way to do that I decided to give a rumor I heard a go. Washing the keyboard in a dishwasher.

With the keyboard already written off, I had spares, I didn’t prep it in any way. I just placed it on the top shelf of the dish washer, added a little soap, and ran the dishwasher on the “Normal” setting. I stopped the dishwasher before it got to the heat cycle as I was fairly sure that if the keyboard made it through the wash the plastic used on the keyboard most assuredly would not survive the heat cycle the washer uses to the dry dishes.

After I took it out of the dishwasher I shook as much water out of it as I could and then I put the keyboard out in the sun for a day to dry. The next day I plugged it back in and it works perfectly. Keys no longer stick and every key input works. Just to be sure this wasn’t a fluke, I did the process all over again with a second keyboard that had sticky keys. The second keyboard works as well.

So, if you have a sticky keyboard and have nothing left to lose, give it a shot. It worked for me.

I picked up a new toy this week. It’s basically an open external hard drive enclosure for your SATA hard drives. Now I have tons of ATA drives lying around, so this is very handy for me but when I saw it I also saw the potential for it’s use as a tech head. With this device you could mount the hard drive from your computer, as long a it’s an SATA drive, and retrieve your files should something go wrong with your system. Now, if your computer is less than 3 years old then chances are you have a SATA drive as your computer’s hard drive. The device connects to your computer via a USB cable, you drop your SATA drive into it and power it on and it mounts the drive on your desktop or in Windows Explorer if you are on a PC. It also has applications as a security device. You can transfer your sensitive files to it and then stick the drive in a safe once you have ejected the drive from the the device. You could also very easily send the hard drive, I’m thinking of the smaller size here that you find in your notebook computers, via UPS or standard mail if you had a project that was larger than 8GB. Think video projects.

It will mount all SATA drives, 2.5 and 3.5 drives and will transfer files at the rate of a standard USB 2.0 connection. (480/mb) I haven’t tried mounting a laptop SATA drive yet, I don’t have a 2.5 drive here at the house at the moment, but I am sure it will work just as well as the three larger drives I have tried. I’m very happy with it and at just over $30 dollars, you can beat the value.

One of the images below you can see that the drive it sitting next to my Mac but I also hooked it up to my Windows box and it worked as advertised there as well.

IronKey: Meet The IronKey Secure Flash Drive

If you want some serious protection for your USB key, this thing is worth a look. The price is a little steep but I guess you are paying for all the tech that went into it.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Obviously, if you would like to keep people from using the USB ports on your computer to prevent them from doing this to your machine or copying data from your hard drive, well, that works too!

USB Port Blocker – Pack of 4, Colour Code: Blue | USB Light, Fan & Security Locks | USB & FireWire | LINDY UK

The simple and effective tool for blocking access to a computer’s USB port!

USB Port Blocker – Pack of 4, Colour Code: Blue
With this neat little device, system administrators can physically prevent users from connecting Pen Drives, MP3 Players and other USB Mass Storage Devices to their computers to copy data, introduce viruses etc.

The USB Port Blocker is made up of a combined ‘key’ and ‘lock’ assembly which plugs into the USB port. To use, simply plug the ‘keylock’ into the port and release the latch – the lock remains in place! Plug the key back into the lock to remove. Easy!

* Physically blocks access to a USB port
* Quick and easy to use
* Consists of 4 locks and 1 key

* 5 different colour code versions available: Pink, Green, Blue, Orange, White
* Each key only works with a lock of the same colour
* Also available in packs of 10 (without key)