Setup a New Computer – Six Steps

Posted on April 18, 2019 by Alvin Trusty

Here are the first six things I do any time I get a new computer.

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Creating Contrast

Posted on March 16, 2019 by Alvin Trusty

This tutorial shows how contrast can be created for a presentation using simple tools available in PowerPoint.

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Morph Transition – PowerPoint 365’s Killer Feature

Posted on November 19, 2018 by Alvin Trusty

Last year I switched from Office Pro 2016 to Office 365. The products are nearly identical except for one feature in PowerPoint. That feature is the morph transition and it was enough to get me to uninstall Office Pro 2016 and install Office 365. The video below shows how the morph transition works.

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I use the same password everywhere

Posted on September 3, 2018 by Alvin Trusty

I am surprised by the number of people who tell me they use the same password for nearly everything. Even if the password is a strong password this is still incredibly insecure and most people do not realize why.

If I reuse a password on multiple sites and just one of those sites is compromised, my one password is known by a bad actor.  If that password is used for an email account or online storage, all my data could be deleted.  If I use the same password for anything that has money attached to it, Amazon, iTunes, bank account, etc., it could be a costly mistake.

I have used the same password on most of my sites for many years, but that password is altered so that each site appears to have a unique password.  Let me explain how it works by showing how my password at Yahoo compares with my password at Google.

For this example, let us make my password

Secret1

If I mix my password with the site I am logging into in such a way that I can reproduce the process in the future, I can come up with a unique password for each site I login to. Here is a simple “hash” of the site and my password.  Take the first letter of the site followed by the first letter of my password, and continue to alternate letters from site and password until a “hash” is created.

For Yahoo my password would be

YSaehcoroet1

For Google my password would be

GSoeocgrleet1

This is called a hash.  A hash is a combination of two pieces of data that always produces the same final string of characters.  This example alternates letters from the site and letters of my password.

My example hash is simple and someone who has access to my final password would be able to reverse engineer it to determine the master password component of my hash.  Then they would be able to use this hash anywhere I use it.

Fortunately, there are many cryptographically strong hash functions available.  A strong cryptographic hash cannot be reverse engineered to come up with the original master password.

Here is an example that can be embedded into a web site.

https://gist.github.com/windows98SE/cc024ffb4cf501358edc

I have embedded this hash algorithm into this page.

https://www.trustyetc.com/password

When I use Yahoo for the Site URL and Secret1 for the Master Password, the resulting hashed password is

6D97cDf17270

Try it yourself.  You will get the same hash as I did with this combination.  Keep in mind, both the URL and the password are case sensitive.  Now compare the hashed password for Yahoo and Google

6D97cDf17270
62C36b6F50f1

Other than the first digit being the same, there is no similarity in the two hashes.  Look at this string of password hashes for Yahoo where Secret1, Secret2, Secret3, Secret4 and Secret5 are used respectively.

6D97cDf17270
692BeDc3Af30
65D98a7D9bF3
48F486d92533
70328C6c69Ba

Even though only one letter is changed in my master password, each hash is completely unique.  This is a property of a good cryptographic algorithm.

So it is safe to use one password on all your sites, as long as you run that password through a good hash beforehand.

 

 

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Contrast Contrast Contrast

Posted on January 20, 2018 by Alvin Trusty

CRAP.  Every great PowerPoint has lots of CRAP.

Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity

All four elements are important in a great PowerPoint, but contrast is far and above the most important component of any single slide.  Without contrast there is no way to distinguish between the message and the background.  You do not want your message to be lost in the background.

In an ideal world everything would be black and white.  These colors have the most contrast.  But the world has all colors and people like to use different colors in presentations.  Below is a series of pictures showing different color combinations, starting with the generic black and white.

The picture above alternates between white on black and black on white.  Depending on the display environment and the other slides in the deck, one of these combinations is usually easiest to read.  I prefer a black background with white text because the focus is on the brightness of the text.  In a dark room, a white background can cause the audience to squint which makes the text more difficult to read.

Our school colors are blue and red.  Below are two versions of a slide using these colors.  

The first color combination is the default blue and red.  The colors have the same value and because of this, they lack contrast.  The edges around the words almost glow and it makes the text difficult to see. The second version is dark blue and light red.  The color combination is similar to the first slide, but with greater contrast.  It makes the words easier to read.

With solid colors, select a light and dark combination for better contrast.  If a picture is in the background, it gets more complicated.  We use the eagle logo as the background on many slides.

This logo has dark and light colors.  If text is placed over the logo, areas will have poor contrast no matter what color is used for the text.  The solution is to layer a slightly transparent dark rectangle between the logo and the text.  Below are three slides showing the different combinations.

The initial slide has the text directly on top of the logo.  The next slide has a transparent layer covering half of the logo.  The final slide has the transparent layer covering all of the logo.  The transparent layer is a black rectangle with 50% transparency.  Using this simple technique, the logo is visible with good contrast between the text and the background.

If you drive past the school, you will see this very slide at the end of each day’s schedule.  The message is clearly visible and the school logo ties it all together.  Good contrast is the key.

 

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