What's your password?

We all have passwords. I believe, most of us enter at least one password a day anywhere on a computer. Be it for online-banking, email-accounts or just simply our favourite newsgroup or forum. There's nothing really about that, it's normal for us, daily life.

How do we chose these passwords? I have several email-accounts, of which I use one for personal contacts, another one for online-shopping. Further accounts are used for trash, registering software where I expect spam mail sent to. For the latter of course I don't use high-security passwords, these are the simple ones. For my homepage, personal email-account and financial stuff I have a set of passwords that I've created for high security.

But here comes the point I actually wanted to get to today: PC Magazine recently published the hitlist of the most commonly used passwords in the internet. If you are using any of these log off the internet immediately, go take two Aspirins and use the site linked further down or install this addon for Firefox.

1. password
2. 123456
3. qwerty
4. abc123
5. letmein
6. monkey
7. myspace1
8. password1
9. blink182
10. (your first name)

It's hard to believe, but it's true: Number One is the word 'password'. I never thought there are so many pitiable fellas around that actually follow every word on the screen: 'Enter password' - so they enter 'password'... ;-)

It's no surprise then that number two and three are '123456' and 'qwerty'. The first real surprise comes further down: I didn't think (your first name) is ranked higher than the name of the partner/girlfriend/boyfriend or family members. And by the way: 'password1' is ranked quite high as well. A free lesson for all hackers then: When you cracked one site with (username) and 'password', try the next one with (same username) and 'password1', 'password2', 'password3'.

Just in case I've worried you now: Here are some links for a password-generator (in best German language...) and a password-checker, and that's all for free. I know, the checker-tool is from Microsoft, but don't we all trust Mr. Gates' concern for internet security? ;-)))

And tomorrow morning I request a new password for my pc at work. ;-)

Flying the Maddog - MD-83 Simulator

How does an aircraft fly that’s called Mad Dog? Just a small example: Aviation staff members at Zurich Airport know a very distinctive story about this particular airplane:

Tower:
Alitalia 194 - taxi to rwy 28, hold short

AZ194:
Ahhh, yes, taxi to rwy 28

Tower:
AZ194, cleared for take-off

AZ194:
Ahhh, two minutes, need preflight (checks)
30 seconds later:

Tower:
Alitalia 194, YOU ARE CLEARED FOR TAKE OFF NOW.

AZ194:
Ehmmm, yes, yes, take off in two minutes
…In the mean time: Rwy16 was blocked by a B737 with a flat tire, Rwy14 was overloaded, so Tower decided to take a Delta B767 from Cincinnati in on Rwy28. Its crew was exhausted after 8 hours in the cockpit…
Tower
Alitalia 194, expedite take-off, we have Delta 767 final on 28 2 miles!

AZ194:
Ahhh, we need 30 more seconds...

DL104:
Hey Spaghetti, take-off or I'll fuck you from behind!
Alitalia 194 took off like a rocket...

It’s not reported if this really happened. But still it’s a funny story. By the way: The MD-80 series has very powerful engines, so 'taking off like a rocket' is nothing special for these birds.

About a month ago I had the chance to fly such a plane at and around Zurich Airport. Well, not the real plane, but we rented a full-motion simulator at Swiss Aviation Training Center (SAT) in Zurich-Kloten. This simulator is the device they train the real pilots with. It’s basically a real MD-83 cockpit that’s mounted on a very powerful hydraulic platform. Through the windows the pilots can see the environment moving around. Of course, since the emphasis of the device is to train procedures, the graphics visible through the windows are not very good.

Here are my pictures:

Pilot in command:

Take-off:

Inflight:

Landing:

Sorry for the bad quality of the images. Obviously I wasn't able to take teh pictures myself, also it's very dark in the simulator (no windows) and the hydraulic-plattform keeps the whole thing rocking.

I had the chance to fly an Airbus A330 about 2 years ago, also at SAT. But since an Airbus is more or less a flying computer the difference to the Flight Simulator 2004 on my pc isn’t too big. But the MD83 really gets you working: No computer is helping you keeping the plane airborne. No TV-screens are providing all vital flight data at a glance. All ‘steam-gauges’, and pulling the yoke moves oil through 150 meters of hydraulic tubes. This bird really gets you working. You need to stem all your weight into the brakes to get the plane to stop at the end of the runway – even with full reverse thrust. Pulling the yoke to rotate the plane at take-off almost lifts you off the seat. There is no servo-system like in every average car today. I can only laugh at these silly movies where a child as the only survivor lands such a plane – or even a bigger one – since a 10 year old couldn’t even move the yoke or even reach the pedals…

I hope I die before I get old

Who's the oldest rock singer in the world? Well, it's definitely not Mick Jagger, since Alf Carretta could even be Mick's dad - he's 90 years old! And here's the story:

Alf likes to play Bingo. But the city council of London decided to shut down Alf's favourite bingo hall. So he turned to BBC and asked them to do something about it. But instead of making a documentation about how badly old people get treated in the UK they invited the whole old people's home where Alf lives and recorded a hard rock album. They're first single 'My Generation' - originally by The Who - has just reached the Top 30 of the British Single Charts, and the video clip has reached top scores at youtube.

Together the 40 members of the band are over 3'000 years old, with an average age of 78. You GOT to watch this - especially the old bloke at the end of the clip!!!



You have to agree with me: These are angry old people! They don't like being treated like they have been treated. And the line 'I hope I die before I get old' just becomes something else when 90 years old Alf sings it.

If you want to find out more about The Zimmers, check out these sites:

http://www.thezimmersonline.com/
http://www.myspace.com/thezimmersband

Have fun!