Fun On Friday #149: Passwords

I've been thinking about passwords. In particular, how can I help eleven year-olds to choose secure passwords that they won't have forgotten a week later?

Thanks to a suggestion from Mr Jones, I was tempted to go for the xkcd approach:

Password Strength - xkcd
...but I think may be too abstract for younger children.

Mr McSwan suggested Dinopass. Child friendly and "good enough" security for now... as long as I remember to revisit password security every year as they get older and discuss how they can make them even better.

Do you have a fun password utility/site you can recommend?

Fun On Friday #141: Nerd Humour

Apologies in advance for this because a) it's very late an b) it's even more niche than usual.
I came across this joke recently and it occurred to me that its main appeal is to nerdy computer types... like me!

82/366: Bender, a photo
by DavidDMuir on Flickr.

A wife asks her husband, a programmer, "Could you go to the shops and buy one carton of milk, and if they have eggs, get six!"

A short time later the husband comes back with six cartons of milk. The wife asks him, "Why did you buy six cartons of milk?"

He replied, "Well, they had eggs."

So this started me thinking of other computer nerd friendly jokes. Here are the three that came to mind:

There are 10 types of people in the world. Those that get binary and those that don't.

Which reminded me of this one:

Why do Computing Scientists get confused between Halloween and Christmas?

Because 31Oct = 25Dec

And finally, on an unrelated theme:

Helvetica and Times New Roman walk into a bar in the Wild West. The barman shouts, "Hey! I've told you before. We don't serve your type here!"

To which Times New Roman replies, "Oh yeah? How would you like to tell that to the Serif?"

On a scale of one to ten, how bad are they? And more to the point, can you do better? Leave your computer nerd jokes in a comments.

Lateral Promotion

I should probably have kept this for a fun on Friday...

Reminds me of something, but I can't think what.

Fun On Friday #113: Cup Of Brown Joy

An extraordinarily late Fun On Friday again and one that's slightly self indulgent since I was originally just going to send this to Daughter Number 1. I hope, however, that this rap from Professor Elemental on the joy of tea will appeal to some of you:


If you enjoyed that, there is a Professor Elemental website where you can access more in the same vein as well as details on how to purchase polyphonic recordings of his material. Or you could head to YouTube where you'll find many more videos including Fighting Trousers, which is Professor Elemental's dis tune aimed at Chap Hop practitioner Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer.

And talking of Mr B, why not try Straight Out Of Surrey:


What do you think of steampunk rap Or chap hop? It has opened a whole new world of musical fun for me!
P.S. I should say thank you to Mitch Benn and his wonderful comedy music podcast for introducing me to Professor Elemental and to Dave Major, a chap I met at the Apple Distinguished Educators' conference for telling me about Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer.

"I've got a new job..." Jokes

This is how we have spent the weekend. Making up "I've got a new job..." jokes. Have you come across this idea yet?

Knockers
Originally uploaded by robpatrick

It's a simple idea. The jokes have a common format of question and response format - a bit like knock-knock jokes. Also, like knock-knock jokes there seems to be an almost infinite variety of responses and puns are often at the root of the humour (assuming you find the concept humorous).

The baseline joke, the one that defined it for us and sets the standard that the other jokes will hopefully exceed, is as follows:

Person 1: I've got a new job.
Person 2: What is it?
Person 1: I'm a dustman.
Person 2: How's that going for you?
Person 1: It's rubbish!

See how it works? Some of our favourites so far are:

Person 1: I've got a new job.
Person 2: What is it?
Person 1: I'm a tailor.
Person 2: How's that going for you?
Person 1: So-so.

Person 1: I've got a new job.
Person 2: What is it?
Person 1: I work in a laundry.
Person 2: How's that going for you?
Person 1: I'm cleaning up.

Person 1: I've got a new job.
Person 2: What is it?
Person 1: I'm a miner.
Person 2: How's that going for you?
Person 1: It's the pits!

Surely you can do better than that. Leave your New Job jokes in a comment and a special Perrier no-prize will be awarded to the best.

I hate marking!

While I fully understand the importance of assessment and how valuable it is in learning, simply knowing this doesn't make the process of marking any more pleasant.

Free Manure
Originally uploaded by slimmer_jimmer

Right now, I am knee deep in a pile of 3,500 word essays. Perhaps I'm getting punchy, I'm definitely getting tired, but I find myself grasping at any passing straw to make the process less painful. A recent exchange described by a History student will show you what I mean.

The student was introducing a topic on the Norman Conquests. Apparently (and I didn't know this) one of the reasons the Normans won was because they brought horses with them and therefore had a very effective cavalry. The student wanted the pupils to appreciate what a feat this was and to see just how difficult it would be to transport horses in the small ships they used at that time. The student was therefore pleased when a pupil said something like:

"The boat would be full of poo... unless they could train the horses to do it over the side!"

I was very amused by the mental picture this conjured up. I can just see the horses all lined up, with their hind quarters sticking out over the edge of the ship, while a trainer stands in front of them shouting: "Un... deux... trois... Poo!"

As I say, I have to take what small amusements I can as I continue the painful process of marking. :-)

Fun On Friday #50: New Moon Trailer... sort of!

If you have teenage daughters, you cannot have failed to notice that the second film in the Twilight series was released this week. New Moon will have girls squeaking with delight in cinemas up and down the country. It seemed appropriate therefore to post this trailer which also involves squeaking:



In my opinion (for what it's worth) this trailer beats the film hands down.

Fun on Friday #37: Folding Fun

The new school term has started in Scotland, so I guess it's time for the return of Fun On Friday.

I thought this site was great when it was first brought to my attention. Have a look at Kemp Folds.

Now, see if you asked yourself the same questions that I did:

1. Why Ross Kemp?
2. Would it work with any head?
3. Does it work best with baldy blokes?
4. Does it work best with Ross Kemp?
5. Seriously... Why Ross Kemp?
6. In fact... just why? :-)

I think I can answer the last question. It's because it made me laugh out loud the first time I visited the site! (My favourite is this one.)

How did your set of questions go?

Thanks to bobbyllew for bringing this site to my attention.

Calculator Poetry

Proof, if proof were needed, of the persistence of your web presence comes through to me periodically. It is good to be reminded of the importance of being careful what you write on the web because it can come back to haunt you!

Little Professor Hand-held Calculator
Originally uploaded by draggin

My reminder of this often comes in the shape of an email that comments on some half forgotten page I'd created years before. Once Google has found it, it seems that a page can be thrown up in answer to a search no matter how old it is. The most recent specific example of this is two emails I received about the calculator word pages I created in December 2000. (My definition of a calculator word is a word made up of numbers typed on a calculator that can be read when the calculator is turned upside down. I will not link to the pages because they are on a part of the university's server that I thought had been taken down, however, I might transfer the pages to the new homepages section of the university's server... if I get time. I've already written about these pages (almost four years ago) so you can read about them in Count On Me.

The emails I received were both from a poet called Winston Plowes who wrote to tell me of two calculator word poems he had created - the second of which even rhymes. Brilliant. :-) Look them up yourself. The first is called Sozzle and the second Googlize. I hope you enjoy them - I think they are brilliant.

If you feel inspired, you can download my Calculator Quiz sheet at Scribd... although it's a bit late for Christmas. I'd be interested in hearing from you if you do anything with calculator words.

Update: Minutes after posting this, I came across two calculator word haikus. :-)