Here are 5 things you should know.
1. Salman Khan, founder and CEO of Khan Academy, created over 6,500 videos that can educate you (for most undergrad classes) on almost every topic in physics, math, astrology, history, economics and finance FOR FREE. His videos are great extensions to learning and help fill gaps in knowledge.
You can check his videos out on YouTube and Khan Academy!
2. The Smithsonian Institute has just released 2.8 million images to the public, free to access and use, with more to come. Great news for fans of museums, art, history, and science.
Even if you’ve never been to the Smithsonian museums this is a great deal for free access to information.
All info is available as Creative Commons Zero permits. The next best thing to actually visiting the museums.
The news release:
The open-access website:
3. An 11 digit password that consists of just letters is over 100 times more secure than an 8 digit password with letters, numbers, and characters.
It takes about 57 days for a computer to figure out your password if it’s 8 digits and has numbers, letters and characters. On the other side, it takes 16 years for a computer to crack an 11 digit password that consists of just letters.
For other options:
A 9 digit password with everything takes a computer 12 years
Jumping from an 11 digit password to a 12 digit password that’s just letters gives you 600 years before a computer cracks your case.
4. hulu.com is streaming low-quality content to your desktop PC. They advertise high quality steaming but it only works on a TV or streaming device. They acknowledged the issue over a year ago with no fix.
5. If you opt for TurboTax to deduct their fees from your refund, there’s an additional $40 fee.
At the very end of the process, after you’re sick of looking at numbers and you think you’re just closing out details (and you don’t need to read the prompts very carefully), TurboTax asks if you want to just deduct their fees from your refund. Sounds like a no-brainer right? One less thing… Except they very casually say they’ll deduct their fee of $40 from your return. Never mind that that’s NOT the fee to file your returns – it’s a new fee on top of filing fees for the convenience of this option. It’s taking advantage of people not reading closely. ALWAYS pay by credit card, not by deducting fees from your return.
astronomy*