"Password" What?

September 2, 2014: Had an idea that will replace passwords for log in (permanently) 

September 3, 2014: Mentioned this to Sandeep Kumar and Swati Shah. They are my sounding board but we couldn’t further the discussion beyond me explaining the idea
 
September 9, 2014: Apple releases ios8 and extends a feature that was restricting the implementation

So what is this idea?

The idea is to leverage the iPhone Biometric to replace the use of passwords everywhere. The ios8 now allows other apps on the phone to use the biometric to allow access. My idea includes this and takes it a step further. 

Irrespective of the system – tablets, desktops, laptops running any OS - you are using to login to an account you should be able to authorize yourself using the iPhone biometric. The sequence of operation is:

• You are using  some system – tablets, desktops, laptops running any OS
• You open the login page in a browser
• You place your finger on you iPhone
• The browser page refreshes and you are logged in
• You access, you log out

No more remembering passwords and therefore typing. No more fear of passwords being recorded or stolen when using foreign machines.  This could potentially replace RSA token too.

Androids will have to wait for biometric enablement for enjoying this but won’t be for very long.
 
Technical implementation details will remain undisclosed.
 
What do you think?

Two Sentence Horror Stories

Have you ever read a two sentence horror story? This blog entry has a bunch of such stories. My favorite of the lot is:

Drawing inspiration from this, I have created my own two sentence horror stories:

1. My wife decides to rearrange the toiletries. I learn about this rearrangement only after using my razor for my tongue cleaner.


2. Late one night, as I am backing my car using the backing camera I see an image of a child suddenly appears on the screen. I turn around to look but there is nothing behind and yet he still appears on the screen.


3. My phone rings. It says I am calling, displays my own number and has a picture of me with eyes bleeding blood.


4. Went out for a run with my RunKeeper app on. After a few hours the RunKeeper statistics shows me having run 500miles in 100hours and burning 30,000calories.


5. Went to sleep cuddling Kate Upton. Woke up in the arms of Susan Boyle.


6. Sat with a bottle of beer in front of the evening news. The breaking news showed my wife wanted for my murder.


7. Selected text, hit control c, switched windows, hit control v, it pasted a picture of me taken that very moment. My laptop has no camera.

My editor (my wife) and a few special friends who get a sneak preview before I publish found these stories more humorous than horror.

What’s your opinion?

The Three Surfing Sisters

This is a story of three surfing sisters riding the high waves, just like any other weekend. Overcome by exhaustion one crawls out of the water and on to a rocky shore. As she stands on the shore, she stops to wonder how she has never seen this side of shore before. Without giving it any more thought she walks up to sit on a large stone to rest. The other two follow suit. They crawl out with their boards and sit on the sand next to the first sister.

Trying to catch their breath they observe the waves gaining height. The realization of a possible tsunami is crossing their mind. The mild feeling of fear is crossing their hearts. The obvious course of action is to find and stay on higher grounds. They look over their shoulders and see that not too far away the shore is surrounded by a high wall of black rocks. They think climbing the rock will keep them safe if it really is a tsunami.

They start to walk and then climb the rock wall. The waves get higher and higher. The waves have managed to swallow the shore and the rock they were once sitting on. The sisters keep climbing and the waves are now violently lashing at the base of the rock wall. The waves keep gaining height as the sisters keep climbing the rock.

The sisters reach the pinnacle, looking down and estimating them to be at least 30 feet higher from the base. The waves are at almost 20 feet, 15 feet higher than when they started surfing.

The sisters turned their attention from the waves to the other side of the big black rock wall they just climbed. They see a steep dip into the same bottomless ocean. They weren’t on land; they were on a big rock island in the middle of the ocean. They were lost at sea.
 
It will only be a matter of time before the waves reaches the height of 30 and swallows them and the rock island.

End of simulation. 

A class of students attending a covert course at a covert Chinese University is brought to reality. The course work includes building virtual reality simulations. The three sisters were just a dream one of the students was having while attending class. He dreamt of building this simulation. For what purpose I don’t know, but I do know that I am that student.

Wait!

Where am I and why am I attending a covert course in China on virtual reality?
    
End of dream.

I wake up in the middle of the night wondering if I had just experienced a two level dream. Level 1 is me dreaming of being a student at a covert Chinese University and level 2 is the student dreaming of the three sisters on a rock island.
 
Have you ever had a dream in a dream?