I purposely didn’t go out of my way to pick up the new iPad. I figured lots of people would be interested in it, and it may have even been unavailable if I went to make a move. But today, I was introduced to it by a friend of a workmate… and well, it wasn’t love at first sight.

Don’t get me wrong, the iPad seems pretty awesome. It’s cute, it’s smart, and it’s there whenever you need it. When I overheard the word ‘iPad’ in a conversation at work today, I didn’t need any more convincing. I inquired, was told it was sitting in the car, and moments later it was brought in for me to inspect.

It was smaller than I thought. Which is good, because I had visions of trying to carry around this weight-of-a-laptop object in one hand and have it crash down to the floor with the slipperiness I once thought my iPhone had (until I started using it without protection). The iPad is really a petite little thing, alot like one of those mini-DVD players – but with so much more functionality.

This particular iPad was the wifi+3G model, so it had Internet access wherever it went. The person who already owned it was a pastor, and he used it for the first time to preach this last Sunday. With a special case (protection), it stands up like one of those digital photo frames (another role which it performs with ease) and for this pastor, it provided a parallel Bible and his verse bookmarks at a finger’s touch.

The iPad’s web browsing capabilities make it almost as good as a laptop – in fact, for a fleeting moment I thought perhaps there’s really not much difference between a laptop and an iPad at all. The only problem with the iPhone is that it’s too small, right? The iPad attacks this limitation head on.

Perhaps the best thing about the iPad is it really is somewhere between an iPhone and a laptop. You can use the web browser – or any other app that you could load your own propaganda in – to present full screen presentations to a small group of people: incredibly useful – and snazzy! – for a sales rep.

You can basically use the iPad to do anything you’d use your iPhone or your laptop to do, with huge benefits:
- you save time and frustration by not scrolling around a tiny screen
- you save time and frustration by not waiting 5-10 minutes to boot up, log on, connect to the Internet, and load an application

I was skeptical about the usefulness of an iPad – and I always assumed that people would buy it just because it’s Apple – but you know what? I think it actually has a purpose. I’m not the first to rush out and get new technology – I generally wait until it comes to me some way or another, and then I’m pretty quick on the uptake after that. And today, seeing was believing.

But at $629 for the entry model 16GB WIFI … extending all the way to $1049 for the 64GB 3G+WIFI model – I can get a laptop for the same price. It’s slightly less convenient, but it does a heck of a lot more.

So pretty iPad, the cost is too great. I will continue to admire you from afar.

Photo credit: ivyfield on Flickr

Cooking is honestly the hardest thing about living without a mum in the house. After many months (I’ve stopped counting now), we still really don’t know how to do it. It’s not the cooking per se, but the organisation of it all. For instance, right now, there’s not much in the fridge. So we need to go shopping. Then we all have such busy lives that we’re often only all here on about one night a fortnight. Most nights there’ll only be one of us at home – and that doesn’t give much inspiration to cook.

It’s not hard, and it’s not one thing that is stopping us, but rather everything coming together that makes it much easier to eat out, heat up something simple, or just decide one is not hungry (which unfortunately happens quite a lot…).

Now I got a book for Christmas called 4 Ingredients. This could revolutionise cooking in our household. I say could, because it depends on me taking the book as a hit of inspiration, holding that inspiration, and just pushing ahead even though every thing else makes it hard. As you’ve probably guessed, the book is filled with recipes that only need four ingredients. It also has a list of what your pantry should always have in it. Now that solves the shopping problem. As long as we can keep the pantry stocked according to this list, then we can plan out the meals for the week and just drop past the shops on the way home from work to pick up the fresh ingredients – and, because only four ingredients are needed, chances are we’ll have them (and they won’t be hard to find in the shops).

Easy in principle.

I need to take the inspiration and hold it… and just make everything else a non issue. For example, if I know I’m going to be the only one home, I just need to cook anyway and save the leftovers. My body will thank me for the more healthy meal.

Now that I’ve written that here, maybe I’ll actually do it!

I also got $100 worth of these for Christmas:

They’ll come in very handy for about a month… or maybe less now, considering petrol yesterday was $1.45. $1.45!!!

I also got a Bocce set:

And these very cool USB rechargable batteries:

A great idea, but not just for the cool factor – they can be very well applied with a wireless keyboard and mouse!

Oh, and Telstra also finally performed a port change for our ADSL connection just before Christmas – it was a very appreciated present!

I’m talking about the new Westpac internet banking sign in screen.

Westpac say they have professionals who advise them on issues such as this, but if these are security professionals, then I personally think they’re short sighted.

The sign in for Westpac’s online banking service has recently been replaced by an on screen virtual keyboard. Instead of entering both your customer ID and password by typing with the keyboard, you now enter the password by clicking on these keyboard buttons on the screen.

It looks like this:

So, this is more secure, as Westpac says, because it effectively means that key loggers won’t work. True, but it also opens up the possibility of other security problems – and this is where the short sightedness comes into it.

• Screen shot grabbers can steal your password, whereas they would have had no luck before. With the new system, the keys you click on stay highlighted giving the screen shot grabbers even more chance to take a snap.
• Someone can watch you from behind, or even from the other side of the room. You can now only log in when you’re the only one in the room.
• Mouse movement macro recorders will work without a hitch because the keyboard letters don’t move around or change order randomly.
• Computer savvy people can no longer protect themselves from key loggers by typing their password in random order and masquerading it with arrow key movements, or by copying and pasting letters from random places on web pages (I often did this at insecure locations just in case – I now no longer have any way of protecting myself).

Westpac also continue to employ another insecure measure: forcing all customers to use passwords exactly six characters long, made up of numbers and upper case letters only.

That seriously limits the number of possible passwords someone would need to guess.

They block account account access after four incorrect attempts, but if someone catches you entering your password using the new sign in screen and is keeping a close eye on it, it’s not very hard to get in with one or two tries. Plus, if you get locked out, all you need to do is call Westpac, give them the same customer ID you’re using to log in to online banking, as well as your three digit phone access code, and it’s unlocked for you.

Aside from all this, I can type relatively fast (and can, by the way, shield the keyboard from prying eyes by leaning over it as I type), so using this new online keypad just plain takes longer – considering I usually log in at least twice a day.

I called and wrote in to Westpac about all this, explaining everything as I saw it. It seems, however, that they have no intention of doing anything about it – even making the old sign in screen available to people who ask for it, but having the new screen as the default. I got a written response from them, in part saying “Software has been developed by fraudsters to track keystrokes made on your computer’s keyboard. This software is called a ‘keylogging Trojan’ and can be installed onto your computer without your knowledge”. It seems like they never really read what I was telling them, or else they would have figured out that I knew very well what a ‘keylogging Trojan’ is, and that they don’t need to speak to me like I know nothing…

I also read here that Westpac’s head of channels and systems has said: “Most fraud is committed via keystroke loggers (so the length of the password makes no difference)”. It seems that they are also interested in putting all their effort into protecting the areas where “most fraud is committed”, and neglecting every single other way passwords can be compromised.

So, as a result of this change, I’m going to change banks if I can find a similar fee structure elsewhere. It’s not just the fact that they’ve short sightedly made things more secure, but because of the fact that they have no intention of listening to and responding to their customer’s concerns, even by making an exception for those customers that ask for it.

What do you think?

Other sources:

• Computer World
• ZDNet
• FlamingSpork
• CoreSight
• Whirlpool