Blue Sky On Mars

Thoughts on Building Software Products
August 13, 2005

PasswordMaker, a very clever password system

by Kevin Dangoor

I’ve tried a couple of different password managers over the years. They all have their shortcomings… these days, since I’m cross platform, my choices are even more limited. Recently, I’ve started using the Java-based Password Manager by Ramesh N. It’s not entirely pleasant, but it does the job fine and is cross-platform.

Lifehacker mentioned a few password managers, including the intriguing PasswordMaker. One Password To Rule Them All.â„¢. PasswordMaker is neat because it’s totally cross-platform (and even has a JavaScript version that you can run in whatever browser you’re using at the time). But, what makes it really cool is the fact that it doesn’t store anything. You use a master password, and it usually a cryptographically secure hashing algorithm against your master password and the URL to determine a password for the site. All you ever need to remember is your master password, and the options you used for the password generation.

This is a most excellent use of the technology. Of course, this will force me to actually change my password everywhere, but that’s not an entirely bad thing.

August 13, 2005

How not to go out of business

by Kevin Dangoor

“Burning bridges” is an expression used when someone leaves a job, situation or some people behind and does so in a way that there is no turning back. I don’t know how long Paul Purdue’s iFulfill blog will remain up, but it’s a living, recent example of bridges being burnt.

It’s a fact that many business go under for many reasons. Lining up all of the variables required to make a business succeed is very difficult. But, very few businesses truly go under overnight. The owners know it’s coming.

The problem with the iFulfill story, as I see it, is that there’s an entry on 7/22 where Paul is talking about new infrastructure they’re developing and has a Dilbert cartoon included to reflect overdoing infrastructure. 7/22 was a Friday. On 7/25, 24 of the company’s 28 employees were let go and 350 merchants had their products stuck in iFulfill’s warehouse and their money stuck in iFulfill’s bank account.

I doubt things really changed that dramatically over the weekend, and I really hope that none of those 350 other small business owners are forced out of business because of delays in getting their products out.

I doubt that everyone else will read the iFulfill story the same way I did. I found out about it via Boing Boing, and there was apparently a BusinessWeek story about it. So, a lot of people are reading this story and making their own opinions. People who read just the topmost entry will appreciate Paul’s candor in what is surely a difficult situation. But, when I got to the 7/22 entry, my opinion changed to one of disbelief that someone who leave their customers in a lurch like that.