Daily Archives: December 5, 2015

replying on my ipad

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I “lost” my iPad two days before Thanksgiving. I went to mentor at Stuyvesant High School and forgot it there. I knew exactly where it was (in the teacher’s closet), but wasn’t going 9 days to retrieve it. This meant I didn’t have an iPad for a little over a week. It was interesting to see what I missed it for.

2 factor
This was the big one. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to log into something without a big hassle due to not having Google Authenticator on my app. I have an alternate factor set up for some services, but not all. Luckily, many services remember you on the same computer.  It wasn’t bad at all:

  • Amazon: I wanted to set up two factor on Amazon now that they offer it. Not a big deal. I just did it now that I have my iPad back.
  • Github: I was going to look up something in the browser, but needed the second factor. I was able to get the info at the command line though so it was ok.

Reading on the couch

I usually use my iPad when I want internet on the couch. Especially for reading RSS feeds; which I decided to wait until I had my iPad back. This is something I only do once or twice a week anyway.

Note taking
If I had my iPad, I would have used it to take notes at the JavaSIG. Not a big deal. It is easy enough to replace this step with paper.

There are other things I use it for. Luckily none of them came up in the week.

two factor on amazon

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I enabled two factor on many sites last year. Amazon is a bit late to the party, but they finally have two factor support. While they waited a long time, they did a good job with it.

Sign up was easy. They give you a choice of an authenticator app including scanning with your device to connect. Or you can use a mobile phone number for voice or text. Or you can use a landline with voice. You can set a second of these options as a backup. I like that there were choices.

You are also asked if the current device is trusted. Which is good as you don’t get prompted repeatedly from your main/home computer.

I also took this opportunity to check on twofactorauth.org to see if any other sites I use have added support. I was disappointed by how many banks don’t support two factor. I tweeted at four of them with the link on the page. (I don’t have accounts at all four).