Savannah Buzz

I just finished Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and my timing is impeccable again as it’s two months after I visited Savannah, GA; the setting for this nonfiction novel and it’s cast of eccentric personalities.

The Law and I spent 3 days getting and intimate tour of the historic district, staying at a local bed & breakfast and relaxing with a “father’s favorite” beers in the last of the 80 degree weather I’ll get till April-May. Savannah is steeped in mystery, intrigue and history viewable daily around the 22 public squares, old oak trees draped in Spanish moss like forgotten Halloween decor and the memorials for those loved and lost during the War of Aggression from the North. As you walk the eerily quite streets, you can feel the presence of the thousands of unmarked dead laid to rest around the city.

We explored the Mercer House, took lapse around Forsyth Park, had candy apples and beers on the Riverfront, breezed through the touristy City Market, had cocktails at Rocks On the Roof over looking the the largest port in GA, and wondered if it’s art or modern design coming out of SCAD these days.

More or a much needed relaxation trip, the rest was guaranteed after all the fantastic eating we engorged ourselves with. I had two of the best meals of my travels at Mrs Wilkes’ Dining Room for some “down home” cooking (I bought her cookbook so I could make the chicken and biscuits at home!) and The Olde Pink House Restaurant for some contemporary high end southern (the fried green tomatoes and crab cake appetizer is a must). Eating al fresco at B. Matthew’s Eatery a former dirty business brothel and Huey’s On the River with excellent Cajun/Creole dishes were both excellent spots was made better sipping local brews from Moon River and Sweetwater.

Even thought he B&B served custom breakfasts daily, we would eat out most mornings, even if it’s just a good cup of coffee at the Sentient Bean after a morning walk through the Victorian district. Clary’s Cafe was the best morning (and evening served) breakfast meal especially when you feel like a regular, from the first “How ya’ll doing this mornin’?”. After a brunch of sharing both a country fried steak, grits, biscuits, omelet and hash scramble I needed a nap in the near by Colonial Park Cemetery.

Disappointments were few, however, I wasn’t impressed with the BBQ (Angel’s) or the “must have” Leopold’s ice cream. Any mediocre cup of gelato in Little Italy would have been better but Leopold’s has that classic 50’s Pop Parlor feel to it – I saw George McFly working the soda fountain.

Savannah has no open container laws in the historic district or on Tybee Island. I took full advantage of this exploring the Riverfront’s Kevin Barry’s, Molly MacPherson’s, Jen’s and Friends (cheap beers and flavored martini’s for those that like em), Crystal Beer Parlor (mediocre food but great deal on 5 beers for $5 “Old Father’s Favorites” – we chatted Savannah history with locals over a few Ole’ Mickey’s, Ballantine Ale, Old Milwaukee, Schlitz, and Stroh’s), and one of my favorite’s Pinkie Master’s Lounge.

The only activity I didn’t get a chance to do was the Hearse Ghost Tours. As kitschy and touristy is most tours are, I would go back just to take a midnight tour in a hearse of Bonaventure Cemetery. And of course to come back for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and stay in Tybee Island – both event and location revolve around southern hospitality aka boozing – which worked out well for this historic Cotton Exchange Fountain originally erected in 1889, mowed down by a drunk driver in 2008:

The rest of my pictures are still being edited and will be up on the Smugmug in a few days but looking through my shots, I didn’t do the town justice. It was obvious that photography was second thought to just taking in the beauty and genteel nature of the people and this great southern town.

One of my favorite condiments just happens to be Savannah Bee Company honey and to taste straight from the comb was an additional foodie highlight. My picture of the day for day 23 of my 365 project was taken over the summer in my parent’s sunflower garden.

photo365_2010_023

Styleo, the first track from the new Gorillaz album Plastic Beach, has been released. The track features Mos Def and Bobby Womack. The album will be released on March 8th and include artists De La Soul, Little Dragon, Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg & The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and more. Looking forward to it, here’s a taste (credit Giant Step)

Gorillaz featuring Mos Def & Bobby Womack – “Stylo” from Plastic Beach (right click to download)
[audio:http://media.giantstep.net/assets/mp3/Gorillaz/Stylo.mp3]

Passwords – Have you Changed yours lately?



By ASHLEE VANCE
Published: January 20, 2010

Back at the dawn of the Web, the most popular account password was “12345.”

Today, it’s one digit longer but hardly safer: “123456.”

Despite all the reports of Internet security breaches over the years, including the recent attacks on Google’s e-mail service, many people have reacted to the break-ins with a shrug.

According to a new analysis, one out of five Web users still decides to leave the digital equivalent of a key under the doormat: they choose a simple, easily guessed password like “abc123,” “iloveyou” or even “password” to protect their data.

“I guess it’s just a genetic flaw in humans,” said Amichai Shulman, the chief technology officer at Imperva, which makes software for blocking hackers. “We’ve been following the same patterns since the 1990s.”

Mr. Shulman and his company examined a list of 32 million passwords that an unknown hacker stole last month from RockYou, a company that makes software for users of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. The list was briefly posted on the Web, and hackers and security researchers downloaded it. (RockYou, which had already been widely criticized for lax privacy practices, has advised its customers to change their passwords, as the hacker gained information about their e-mail accounts as well.)

The trove provided an unusually detailed window into computer users’ password habits. Typically, only government agencies like the F.B.I. or the National Security Agency have had access to such a large password list.

“This was the mother lode,” said Matt Weir, a doctoral candidate in the e-crimes and investigation technology lab at Florida State University, where researchers are also examining the data.

Imperva found that nearly 1 percent of the 32 million people it studied had used “123456” as a password. The second-most-popular password was “12345.” Others in the top 20 included “qwerty,” “abc123” and “princess.”

More disturbing, said Mr. Shulman, was that about 20 percent of people on the RockYou list picked from the same, relatively small pool of 5,000 passwords.

That suggests that hackers could easily break into many accounts just by trying the most common passwords. Because of the prevalence of fast computers and speedy networks, hackers can fire off thousands of password guesses per minute.

“We tend to think of password guessing as a very time-consuming attack in which I take each account and try a large number of name-and-password combinations,” Mr. Shulman said. “The reality is that you can be very effective by choosing a small number of common passwords.”

Some Web sites try to thwart the attackers by freezing an account for a certain period of time if too many incorrect passwords are typed. But experts say that the hackers simply learn to trick the system, by making guesses at an acceptable rate, for instance.

To improve security, some Web sites are forcing users to mix letters, numbers and even symbols in their passwords. Others, like Twitter, prevent people from picking common passwords.

Still, researchers say, social networking and entertainment Web sites often try to make life simpler for their users and are reluctant to put too many controls in place.

Even commercial sites like eBay must weigh the consequences of freezing accounts, since a hacker could, say, try to win an auction by freezing the accounts of other bidders.

Overusing simple passwords is not a new phenomenon. A similar survey examined computer passwords used in the mid-1990s and found that the most popular ones at that time were “12345,” “abc123” and “password.”

Why do so many people continue to choose easy-to-guess passwords, despite so many warnings about the risks?

Security experts suggest that we are simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of things we have to remember in this digital age.

“Nowadays, we have to keep probably 10 times as many passwords in our head as we did 10 years ago,” said Jeff Moss, who founded a popular hacking conference and is now on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. “Voice mail passwords, A.T.M. PINs and Internet passwords — it’s so hard to keep track of.”

In the idealized world championed by security specialists, people would have different passwords for every Web site they visit and store them in their head or, if absolutely necessary, on a piece of paper.

But bowing to the reality of our overcrowded brains, the experts suggest that everyone choose at least two different passwords — a complex one for Web sites were security is vital, such as banks and e-mail, and a simpler one for places where the stakes are lower, such as social networking and entertainment sites.

Mr. Moss relies on passwords at least 12 characters long, figuring that those make him a more difficult target than the millions of people who choose five- and six-character passwords.

“It’s like the joke where the hikers run into a bear in the forest, and the hiker that survives is the one who outruns his buddy,” Mr. Moss said. “You just want to run that bit faster.”

http://lifehacker.com/5445101/your-passwords-arent-as-secure-as-you-think-heres-how-to-fix-that?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+lifehacker/full+(Lifehacker)&utm_content=Google+Reader