The best way to explain how to choose a good password is to explain how they're broken. The general attack model is what’s known as an offline password-guessing attack. In this scenario, the attacker gets a file of encrypted passwords from somewhere people want to authenticate to. His goal is to turn that encrypted file into unencrypted passwords he can use to authenticate himself. He does this by guessing passwords, and then seeing if they’re correct. He can try guesses as fast as his computer will process them – and he can parallelize the attack – and gets immediate confirmation if he guesses correctly. Yes, there are ways to foil this attack, and that's why we can still have four-digit PINs on ATM cards, but it's the correct model for breaking passwords.

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Sunday, February 23, 2014

Lion King at First Presbyterian Church in Albany, Sunday, March 2

So far, the only "Christian adaptation" I've seen is the song He Lives In You will be God Lives In You. There are Equity (professional) actors playing Scar and another role.

Albany Public Library Expands Museum Pass Program

Albany Public Library is proud to offer a newly expanded museum pass program that provides cardholders with free admission to 20 different museums and historic sites in Albany, the greater Capital Region, and beyond.

APL cardholders can visit these participating sites using museum passes borrowed from the library:

Albany Institute of History and Art (Albany, NY)
Arkell Museum (Canajoharie, NY)
Bennington Museum (Bennington, VT)
Berkshire Botanical Garden (Stockbridge, MA)
Berkshire Museum (Pittsfield, MA)
Chesterwood National Trust Historic Site (Stockbridge, MA)
Children’s Museum at Saratoga (Saratoga, NY)
Clark Museum (Williamstown, MA)
Crailo State Historic Site (Rensselaer, NY)
Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (Amherst, MA)
Hancock Shaker Village (Pittsfield, MA)
Historic Cherry Hill (Albany, NY)
Hyde Collection (Glens Falls, NY)
Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art – Mass MOCA (North Adams, MA)
Museum of Innovation and Science – miSci (Schenectady, NY)
Norman Rockwell Museum (Stockbridge, MA)
Old Stone Fort Museum (Schoharie, NY)
Schuyler Mansion (Albany, NY)
Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery (Saratoga, NY)
USS Slater (Albany, NY)

Museum passes may be borrowed for seven days and there are no renewals. The passes must be borrowed, and returned, at the same APL location. All of APL’s seven locations have a selection of museum passes, but availability varies by library. Please note that some of the museums/historic sites participating in the program are not yet open for the season.

For more information about Albany Public Library’s museum pass program, please call the Main Library at 427-4349.

CITY OF ALBANY SNOW EMERGENCY starts 2/14 at 8 pm

Please be advised that the City of Albany has issued a SNOW EMERGENCY that will begin at 8 pm on Friday, February 14, at which time all normal parking rules and regulations are temporarily suspended. 

During the first 24 hours of the snow emergency all vehicles must be parked on the even numbered side of the street. 

Then at 8 pm on Saturday, February 15, all vehicles must be parked on the odd numbered side of the street for the next 24-hour period. 

If you are parked on the wrong side of the street during the snow emergency your car will be ticketed and may result in it being towed. 

After the second 24-hour period please stay tuned for further announcements. For SNOW EMERGENCY information, call 476-SNOW or log into the city of Albany’s website at www.ALBANYNY.GOV. 

If your vehicle has been towed, call Albany Police Department at 438-4000 for information on how to retrieve your vehicle. Snow emergency brochures, which outline all of the Snow Emergency procedures, are available on the city’s website at www.albanyny.gov or can be picked up at any City firehouse, police station or branches of the Albany Public Library. 

Albany Public Library closing at 4 p.m. 2/13

All sites of the APL closing at 4 p.m. today, Thursday, February 13th,  due to inclement weather.
Check back tomorrow morning about possible delayed openings due to weather conditions.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR SEARCH, Albany Public Library

Application Deadline Extended and Residency Requirement Updated – 2/12/2104 

Albany Public Library Board of Trustees is seeking a dynamic, forward-thinking, experienced professional who possesses a proven track record in building partnerships, managing budgets, and leading change to be its new Executive Director.

RESPONSIBILITIES: This is an executive leadership position as top library administrator of an urban library system consisting of one Main Library and six community branches in surrounding city neighborhoods. The library serves the 98,000 residents of the city of Albany, NY as well as 350,000 more customers as the central library in the Upper Hudson Library System, a consortium of 29 member libraries in Albany and Rensselaer counties. The position is appointed by the Albany Public Library Board of Trustees, a nine-member elected body that is responsible for library funding, policies, services and programs, and facilities.

Parent workshop to focus on ADHD, Tuesday 2/11 in Albany, NY

The City School District of Albany's Special Education Department will offer a Feb. 11 parent workshop on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, better known as ADHD.

The event, "Strategies for Supporting a Child with ADHD," will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. in the media center at the Harriet Gibbons Building, located at 75 Watervliet Avenue.

Parents will learn about the characteristics of ADHD and how they can affect a child's learning at home or in school. The workshop also will feature a discussion of strategies to support children with ADHD and effective goals for their individual education plans, or IEPs.

The workshop is free and refreshments will be served. Transportation assistance also is available. For more information, contact Debby Sharpe at 475-6140 or dsharpe@albany.k12.ny.us.

The Special Education Department will hold additional workshops on a range of topics on March 11, April 8 and May 13.

Snow Emergency in Albany, NY starts Th 2/6 at 8 pm

Please be advised that the City of Albany has issued a SNOW EMERGENCY that will begin at 8:00 PM on Thursday, February 6, 2014 at which time all normal parking rules and regulations are temporarily suspended.

During the first 24 hours of the snow emergency all vehicles must be parked on the even numbered side of the street.

Beginning at 8:00 P.M. Friday, February 7, 2014 all vehicles must be parked on the odd numbered side of the street for the next 24-hour period.

If you are parked on the wrong side of the street during the snow emergency your car will be ticketed and may result in it being towed.
After the second 24-hour period please stay tuned for further announcements. For SNOW EMERGENCY information, call 476-SNOW or log into the city of Albany’s website at www.ALBANYNY.GOV.

If your vehicle has been towed, call Albany Police Department at 438-4000 for information on how to retrieve your vehicle. Snow emergency brochures, which outline all of the Snow Emergency procedures, are available on the city’s website at www.albanyny.gov or can be picked up at any City firehouse, police station or branches of the Albany Public Library.

Don't return calls from these area codes -- it's a scam!

A scam that repeats itself in modified forms every few years is once again spreading throughout the United Sates. Don’t be a victim!

Criminals target people simply by calling them. Intended victims receive a call on their phones from area code 473 which rings once and then disconnects, thereby arousing the call-recipient’s natural curiosity – “who just called me and from where?” Sometimes the caller actually allows the phone to ring long enough for the victim to answer -- after which the caller (or the caller’s robocaller system) makes groaning sounds or otherwise indicates that he or she is in distress and then hangs up, enticing the victim to wonder what is going on and call back.

If either of these happens to you – don’t call back....