To say I'm a man of many hats is an understatement. My friends and family will be the first to say there isn't much I can't do, and do well. Don't be surprised to find me writing about some offbeat or otherwise unexpected subjects.
A quick photo shoot with one of the developers I spend a lot of time with yielded an interestingly washed out photo. The original shot is obvious from the set below, it’s in full colour and trying to focus on subject’s iris; while casting harsh contrasting symmetrical light.
Two LED flood lights were used to light the subjects face on either side, down from a 50 degree angle. These lights provided heavy shadows around the eyes, and mouth while leaving the nose otherwise washed out. In order to bring out the details hidden in the shadows, a lens mounted ring flash was used.
I’ve been dying to get some photoshop compositing practice in, and wanted to share some desktop backgrounds I created during some design exercises. All of the geometric elements in the gallery below were crafted in Adobe Illustrator CC and composited in Photoshop CC.
“We added protections for Facebook’s implementation of OpenSSL before this issue was publicly disclosed. We haven’t detected any signs of suspicious account activity, but we encourage people to … set up a unique password.”
Instagram
Yes
Yes
Yes
“Our security teams worked quickly on a fix and we have no evidence of any accounts being harmed. But because this event impacted many services across the web, we recommend you update your password on Instagram and other sites, particularly if you use the same password on multiple sites.”
LinkedIn
No
No
No
“We didn’t use the offending implementation of OpenSSL in www.linkedin.com or www.slideshare.net. As a result, HeartBleed does not present a risk to these web properties.”
Pinterest
Yes
Yes
Yes
“We fixed the issue on Pinterest.com, and didn’t find any evidence of mischief. To be extra careful, we e-mailed Pinners who may have been impacted, and encouraged them to change their passwords.”
Tumblr
Yes
Yes
Yes
“We have no evidence of any breach and, like most networks, our team took immediate action to fix the issue.”
Twitter
No
Yes
Unclear
Twitter wrote that OpenSSL “is widely used across the internet and at Twitter. We were able to determine that [our] servers were not affected by this vulnerability. We are continuing to monitor the situation.” While reiterating that they were unaffected, Twitter told Mashable that they did apply a patch.
Other Companies
Was it affected?
Is there a patch?
Do you need to change your password?
What did they say?
Apple
No
No
No
“iOS and OS X never incorporated the vulnerable software and key web-based services were not affected.”
Amazon
No
No
No
“Amazon.com is not affected.”
Google
Yes
Yes
Yes*
“We have assessed the SSL vulnerability and applied patches to key Google services.” Search, Gmail, YouTube, Wallet, Play, Apps and App Engine were affected; Google Chrome and Chrome OS were not.
*Google said users do not need to change their passwords, but because of the previous vulnerability, better safe than sorry.
Microsoft
No
No
No
Microsoft services were not running OpenSSL, according to LastPass.
Yahoo
Yes
Yes
Yes
“As soon as we became aware of the issue, we began working to fix it… and we are working to implement the fix across the rest of our sites right now.” Yahoo Homepage, Yahoo Search, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, Yahoo Food, Yahoo Tech, Flickr and Tumblr were patched. More patches to come, Yahoo says.
Email
Was it affected?
Is there a patch?
Do you need to change your password?
What did they say?
AOL
No
No
No
AOL told Mashable it was not running the vulnerable version of the software.
Gmail
Yes
Yes
Yes*
“We have assessed the SSL vulnerability and applied patches to key Google services.”
*Google said users do not need to change their passwords, but because of the previous vulnerability, better safe than sorry.
Hotmail / Outlook
No
No
No
Microsoft services were not running OpenSSL, according to LastPass.
Yahoo Mail
Yes
Yes
Yes
“As soon as we became aware of the issue, we began working to fix it… and we are working to implement the fix across the rest of our sites right now.”
Stores and Commerce
Was it affected?
Is there a patch?
Do you need to change your password?
What did they say?
Amazon
No
No
No
“Amazon.com is not affected.”
Amazon Web Services (for website operators)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Most services were unaffected or Amazon was already able to apply mitigations (see advisory note here). Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon EC2, Amazon Linux AMI, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, AWS OpsWorks, AWS Elastic Beanstalk and Amazon CloudFront were patched.
eBay
No
No
No
“eBay.com was never vulnerable to this bug because we were never running a vulnerable version of OpenSSL.”
Etsy
Yes*
Yes
Yes
Etsy said that only a small part of its infrastructure was vulnerable, and they have patched it.
GoDaddy
Yes
Yes
Yes
“We’ve been updating GoDaddy services that use the affected OpenSSL version.” Full Statement
Groupon
No
No
No
“Groupon.com does not utilize a version of the OpenSSL library that is susceptible to the Heartbleed bug.”
Nordstrom
No
No
No
“Nordstrom websites do not use OpenSSL encryption.”
PayPal
No
No
No
“Your PayPal account details were not exposed in the past and remain secure.” Full Statement
Target
No
No
No
“[We] launched a comprehensive review of all external facing aspects of Target.com… and do not currently believe that any external-facing aspects of our sites are impacted by the OpenSSL vulnerability.”
Walmart
No
No
No
“We do not use that technology so we have not been impacted by this particular breach.”
Videos, Photos, Games & Entertainment
Was it affected?
Is there a patch?
Do you need to change your password?
What did they say?
Flickr
Yes
Yes
Yes
“As soon as we became aware of the issue, we began working to fix it… and we are working to implement the fix across the rest of our sites right now.”
Hulu
No
No
No
No comment provided.
Minecraft
Yes
Yes
Yes
“We were forced to temporary suspend all of our services. … The exploit has been fixed. We can not guarantee that your information wasn’t compromised.” More Information
Netflix
Yes
Yes
Yes
“Like many companies, we took immediate action to assess the vulnerability and address it. We are not aware of any customer impact. It’s a good practice to change passwords from time to time, now would be a good time to think about doing so. “
SoundCloud
Yes
Yes
Yes
SoundCloud emphasized that there were no indications of any foul play and that the company’s actions were simply precautionary.
YouTube
Yes
Yes
Yes*
“We have assessed the SSL vulnerability and applied patches to key Google services.”
*Google said users do not need to change their passwords, but because of the previous vulnerability, better safe than sorry.
Banks and Brokerages
All the banks we contacted (see below) said they were unaffected by Heartbleed, but U.S. regulators have warned banks to patch their systems.
Was it affected?
Is there a patch?
Do you need to change your password?
What did they say?
Bank of America
No
No
No
“A majority of our platforms do NOT use OpenSSL, and the ones that do, we have confirmed no vulnerabilities.”
Barclays
No
No
No
No comment provided.
Capital One
No
No
No
“Capital One uses a version of encryption that is not vulnerable to Heartbleed.”
Chase
No
No
No
“These sites don’t use the encryption software that is vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug.”
Citigroup
No
No
No
Citigroup does not use Open SSL in “customer-facing retail banking and credit card sites and mobile apps”
E*Trade
No
No
No
E*Trade is still investigating.
Fidelity
No
No
No
“We have multiple layers of security in place to protect our customer sites and services.”
PNC
No
No
No
“We have tested our online and mobile banking systems and confirmed that they are not vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug.”
Schwab
No
No
No
“Efforts to date have not detected this vulnerability on Schwab.com or any of our online channels.”
Scottrade
No
No
No
“Scottrade does not use the affected version of OpenSSL on any of our client-facing platforms.”
TD Ameritrade
No
No
No
TD Ameritrade “doesn’t use the versions of openSSL that were vulnerable.”
TD Bank
No
No
No
“We’re currently taking precautions and steps to protect customer data from this threat and have no reason to believe any customer data has been compromised in the past.”
T. Rowe Price
No
No
No
“The T. Rowe Price websites are not vulnerable to the “Heartbleed” SSL bug nor were they vulnerable in the past.”
U.S. Bank
No
No
No
“We do not use OpenSSL for customer-facing, Internet banking channels, so U.S. Bank customer data is NOT at risk.”
Vanguard
No
No
No
“We are not using, and have not used, the vulnerable version of OpenSSL.”
Wells Fargo
No
No
No
No reason provided.
Government and Taxes
Was it affected?
Is there a patch?
Do you need to change your password?
What did they say?
1040.com
No
No
No
“We’re not vulnerable to the Heartbleed bug, as we do not use OpenSSL.”
FileYour Taxes.com
No
No
No
“We continuously patch our servers to keep them updated. However, the version we use was not affected by the issue, so no action was taken.”
H&R Block
No
No
No
“We are reviewing our systems and currently have found no risk to client data from this issue.”
Healthcare .gov
No
No
No
“Healthcare.gov consumer accounts are not affected by this vulnerability.”
Intuit (TurboTax)
No
No
No
Turbotax wrote that “engineers have verified TurboTax is not affected by Heartbleed.” The company has issued new certificates anyway, and said it’s not “proactively advising” users to change their passwords.
IRS
No
No
No
“The IRS continues to accept tax returns as normal … and systems continue operating and are not affected by this bug. We are not aware of any security vulnerabilities related to this situation.”
TaxACT
No
No
No
“Customers can update their passwords at any time, although we are not proactively advising them to do so at this time.”
USAA
Yes
Yes
Yes
USAA said that it has “already taken measures to help prevent a data breach and implemented a patch earlier this week.”
Other
WordPress
Unclear
Unclear
Unclear
WordPress tweeted that it has taken “immediate steps” and “addressed the Heartbleed OpenSSL exploit,” but it’s unclear if the issue is completely solder. When someone asked Matt Mullenweg, WordPress’ founding developer, when the site’s SSL certificates will be replaced and when users will be able to reset passwords, he simply answered: “soon.”
Was it affected?
Is there a patch?
Do you need to change your password?
What did they say?
Box
Yes
Yes
Yes
“We’re currently working with our customers to proactively reset passwords and are also reissuing new SSL certificates for added protection.”
Dropbox
Yes
Yes
Yes
On Twitter: “We’ve patched all of our user-facing services & will continue to work to make sure your stuff is always safe.”
Evernote
No
No
No
“Evernote’s service, Evernote apps, and Evernote websites … all use non-OpenSSL implementations of SSL/TLS to encrypt network communications.” Full Statement
GitHub
Yes
Yes
Yes
GitHub said it has patched all its systems, deployed new SSL certificates and revoked old ones. GitHub is asking all users to change password, enable two-factor authentication and “revoke and recreate personal access and application tokens.”
IFTTT
Yes
Yes
Yes
IFTTT emailed all its users and logged them out, prompting them to change their password on the site.
OKCupid
Yes
Yes
Yes
“We, like most of the Internet, were stunned that such a serious bug has existed for so long and was so widespread.”
Spark Networks (JDate, Christian Mingle)
No
No
No
Sites do not use OpenSSL.
SpiderOak
Yes
Yes
No
Spideroak said it patched its servers, but the desktop client doesn’t use a vulnerable version of OpenSSL, so “customers do not need to take any special action.”
Wunderlist
Yes
Yes
Yes
“You’ll have to simply log back into Wunderlist. We also strongly recommend that you reset your password for Wunderlist.” Full Statement
Password Managers
Was it affected?
Is there a patch?
Do you need to change your password?
What did they say?
1Password
No
No
No
1Password said in a blog post that its technology “is not built upon SSL/TLS in general, and not upon OpenSSL in particular.” So users don’t need to change their master password.
Dashlane
Yes
Yes
No
Dashlane said in a blog post users’ accounts were not impacted and the master password is safe as it is never transmitted. The site does use OpenSSL when syncing data with its servers but Dashlane said it has patched the bug, issued new SSL certificates and revoked previous ones.
LastPass
Yes
Yes
No
“Though LastPass employs OpenSSL, we have multiple layers of encryption to protect our users and never have access to those encryption keys.” Users don’t need to change their master passwords because they’re never sent to the server. But passwords for other sites stored in LastPass might need to be changed.
Researchers at Google and a private security firm Codenomicon have a revealed a new vulnerability in the OpenSSL security used by Apache and nginx Web servers. These technologies are so popular, that this issue – dubbed the Heartbleed Bug – has potentially compromised up to 66% of web servers. Noting that these vulnerabilities have been gaping open for nearly two years, as of the 1.0.1g release of OpenSSL. This has left many websites vulnerable, with no way of knowing whether their private keys were compromised during this window.
The Heartbleed bug is not a man-in-the-middle attack. It exploit’s OpenSSL’s handling of TLS’s heartbeat, which is an encrypted portion of the connection. The reason it leaves no traces is not because it can’t be detected, but because it’s just not logged by OpenSSL. Theoretically it could be logged, though there may be too many false positives that diminish any usefulness logging would have.
Attackers apparently also have control (or at least influence) over what 64KB of memory they can capture, and can keep requesting more memory with each heartbeat (so the 64KB limit isn’t that limiting).
Without using any privileged information or credentials we were able steal from ourselves the secret keys used for our X.509 certificates, user names and passwords, instant messages, emails and business critical documents and communication. -Codenomicon
Heartbeat can be disabled in OpenSSL, but only via a recompile – in which case you might as well apply the new patch anyways.
This is an off-beat post, and has nothing to do with websites or the digital world for that matter. I’ll be going through the steps I used to fix a broken pocket scale that was gifted to me – I get a lot of, “If you can fix, it it’s yours” gifts.
This 50.00g digital scale stopped working for an unknown reason, and the top suggestion for fixing these scales is a re-calibration. Unfortunately, this digital scale could not be calibrated – likely a result of the problems it was already having. After further inspection I realized the scale still accurately measured negative values. At this point the, “if it’s broken and destined for the garbage, I had might as well see how it works.” Was running through the back of my head.
Check the video out for a quick little tutorial and walkthrough of how I got my scale back in mostly working order. Step-by-step below.
Remove the top plate of your scale to gain access to the mounting points of the weight surface.
In my case there were two Phillips screws
Flip the scale and remove the battery cover to reveal the second mount point
Remove that pair of screws and set them aside as well
Under where the weigh platform was, flip the sensor bar
Re-attach all components
The kicker is, now when I lift the weighing platform, it shows me a proper positive number – reversing the fix brings the problems back. Does anyone with more knowledge of digital circuitry have an explanation for this rogue resistor?
I have never understood carpet bombing applications, why not go talk to managers and see what thy want to hear before applying? I’ve always had much better success when I go out of my way to see the needs of a company and tailor my applications/resume to their needs.
Fortunately I haven’t had to do this since my teenage years.
Once you have enough industry work under your belt, and a few good connections – you can typically traverse an industry with a good word and strong portfolio.
UPDATE: Unfortunately, this doesn’t quite work anymore.
So you’re sick and tired of Youtube’s popup asking, “Do you want to use your real name with your Youtube channel?” No? How about the part where when you check ‘no’ and are greeted with, “Okay, we’ll ask you again later.”
Here’s my quick tip to keeping your Google account separate from your otherwise anonymous Youtube account.
For this you will need a modern browser like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc. (which you should have anyways… please?) and the Ad-Block Plus Extension. It’s simple as far as implementation and will only take a minute after you’ve installed the extension.
How To
Going into your Ad Block Plus settings by right clicking on icon will open a dialog.
Go to the custom filter list in the options panel and select, “Manually edit filters” and add the line: ||s.ytimg.com/yts/jsbin/www-linkgplusdialog*
Click for a larger view.
Don’t forget to add the “||” as they act as a catch all for http://, https://, and www prefix, which saves you from making three or four rules for one blocking.
Bonus: Block Video Annotations
||youtube.com/annotations_invideo*
Adding the line above to your custom filters will hide annotations in all Youtube videos, even while logged out.
I was contracted to do a logo design job for a company I signed to keep quite about while it is still building itself up. This was my first logo design job (typically I do painting) and the gentleman ended up using one of his own designs. I have another logo job prospect in the works and I have some questions because I feel as though I was stooped last time.
Should I be copy writing or watermarking the designs I present? (sounds like a dumb question, but its serious)
Should I be compensated for the time and designs that I did come up with even though they weren’t chosen? (I put a lot of time into them and have nothing to show for it!)
I know how to factor pricing for my paintings, but I’m at a loss as how to price graphic work. Suggestions?
Here is my response:
I will bill regardless of my design being their final choice. Most clients we deal with in design industry aren’t art directors or designers themselves. Don’t feel rejected or put down when a Joe comes in and snuffs your hard work, they just don’t know the field. Ask a client about brand identity, target demographic, palette, etc. and chances are they’ll draw a blank.
“Should I be copy writing or watermarking the designs I present?”
No need to watermark, but never send out vector or hi-res work without payment. Working out a budget before-hand and receiving a down payment will let the client see you are serious about the project.
“Should I be compensated for the time and designs…”
You worked – you get paid, it’s how it goes. My down-payment ensure the meetings and prelim stages aren’t wasted on a client who doesn’t know what they want or need. If they bail we both walk away with something in our pockets.
“I know how to factor pricing for my paintings, but I’m at a loss as how to price graphic work.”
Graphic work is billed by the hour for myself and most of my peers. Most of the early billable hours comes in on research and identity for your client. Depending on budget, one could spend hours upon hours fitting a logo’s lines to the perfect ratio, sit into a golden curve, or drip with double entendre. A logo isn’t about creating a nice looking design, it’s about capturing and showing that brand’s identity in one fell swoop – I’m working on this myself. A good logo requires great client cooperation without being overbearing.
As an aside; Asking a client about their business’ traits, goals, and target market will get you further than asking to see logos and color palettes they like.
http://www.thelogofactory.com/[1] has been cranking out logos for years, not all of them are great but the blog posts on the site are phenomenal. They will make you see the error of your ways pretty damn quickly
update: The link in my article still works. Subtle Patterns has changed it’s format to a paid plugin, individual patterns are still available. Due to the pay to play nature of the photoshop plugin, they’ve removed links to the collection download.
I wanted to share a resource I’m completely infatuated with: Subtle Patterns. This website aggregates free to use subtle patterns, and shares user contributions to the rest of the community.
The best part of this website? They don’t make you jump through hoops to get their files! No sign-up, emails, or other crap no one really wants to deal with (why do you think my comments are registration free?). Even better, they have every pattern available for free, in a master pattern file. The default photoshop patterns suck (pardon me), and loading up this free subtle patterns download really gives you a great choice of patterns to integrate into your design work.
I had a user email me with some questions on installing subtle patterns into Photoshop. It’s really simple, just follow these steps:
Follow the link above and download the subtle-patterns SubtlePatterns.pat.zip file
Open the archive (zip) and extract (drag/drop) the SubtlePatterns.pat file into your file system
Note: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CSX\Presets\Patterns is ideal
Open Photoshop and click ‘S’ to open your stamp tool
Switch to the pattern stamp tool if Clone Stamp is active by holding your mouse button down on the Stamp tool icon
Activate the pattern dropdown in the top ribbon, usually below the help menu
In the top right corner of the window, there is a gear icon – clicky clicky
Pressing load patterns will open one final dialog
Locate your pattern files and load them through this dialog
