I was talking to my friend Teo on Friday and I ended up telling him about Password Safe.  I found out about Password Safe from Bruce Schneier's blog, see the entry here - http://www.schneier.com/passsafe.html.  Basically Password Safe is a secure way to keep track of all of your passwords.  It stores the passwords in an encrypted file on your computer and has tons of features making it really easy to use (like double clicking to copy the password to the clipboard).  I love it because before I used the same one or two passwords for all websites, now I have different passwords for everything.  It can randomly generates passwords for you, and you can specify the length and character types to use.

This is really cool, but if you use three different computers on a regular basis like I do (work PC, home PC, work laptop), using a program like this can make your life a pain in the ass.  That's where Folder Share comes in.  Before Folder Share I never would have used this program because limiting yourself to 1 computer to be able to access these accounts would suck. 

I've been using Folder Share for a long time, it automatically synchronizes folders across computers (with encryption) and allows you to share folders with others.  I have it to the point where all my files are synchronized between all my computers.  For Password Safe, I have a folder called 'Personal' that syncs between all my computers and the Password Safe database file is in that folder.  So now no matter which computer I'm at I can open and save passwords. 

Folder Share has also given me piece of mind that if any one of my computers gets totally fried I won't loose any data (imagine the nightmare of loosing your Password Safe database).  All my files for work sync between the two work computers, my music library and photos between my laptop and home PC, and my IE Favorites and Personal folder between all computers.  Combining these two tools to makes managing passwords super easy.

I went to Craig Terrill's MySpace page to check out his new CD and found some interesting pictures, I put some inline below. 

I've been riding the Microsoft Connector for a few weeks now and I absolutely love it.  It's free, there's plenty of room, Wi-Fi, and power in every seat.  Even the site used to reserve your seat works well.  I ride three days a week (I have physical therapy the other two) and as far as I'm concerned my commute on those days is 20 minutes, 10 minutes each way to the bus stop.  This is a win for everyone, I'm happier, Microsoft gets more work out of me, and there are less cars on the road for everyone else. 

(http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/eastsidenews/2003900596_microsoftbus25e.html)

John got tickets to tonight's M's game, in the Diamond Club, and took me. It's been incredible, it's an experience in luxury that happens to include a baseball game.  The only problem was the most annoying person in the whole world is sitting behind us. When she's not taunting our own players, or giving the people around us her play-by-play analysis, she's talking into her cell phone at 90db. She has to be a miserable unhappy person.  I snapped a picture of her by acting like I was showing John something on the back of the phone.

These seats were unreal:

I wrote a post for The Spacecraft, our team Space, on Custom Domains.  Check it out here -http://thespacecraft.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!8AA773FE0A12B9E3!38767.entry.  This is one of the projects I've worked on lately. 

It may seem like I've fallen off the planet, with my lack of updates on my blog and twitter.  Looking at my blog you would think we're still in Scotland.  Here's one of those big updates that people who only update their blog about four times a year post.

• We got back from Europe two weeks ago.  After a few days Edinburgh we flew back to London and the train to Paris through the Chunnel.  We spent 6 nights in Paris then continued on to Normandy.  We spent 3 nights in Normandy then came home, back the way we came through Paris and flying out of London.  We got so lucky, we were upgraded to business class on the way back.
• I need to post the pictures from our trip, we took about 800. I need to narrow that down and post them here.  I might do a video using Movie Maker like I did for our cruise.
• In Windows Live news, the Skydrive Beta has been released, check it out here - http://get.live.com/betas/skydrive_betas.  I've been waiting for this one for a while, it's free storage for your files so you can access them anywhere.  You can also share them on your space, check out the details on that here.  We have many more cool things in the works over here too.
• Yesterday I saw my Pain Management specialist for the last time.  My back has gotten soooo much better, and it's all thanks to Olympic Physical Therapy in Kirkland. I left Dr. B's office with my last prescription, enough medication to taper off and be drug free by the first week of October. I reduce my daily dosage by 10% (of the starting amount) every 4 days until I'm done.  I've really been looking forward to this!
• There has been heartbreaking infidelity and divorce in my extended family.  It's really unbelievable what's happened, two families have been ripped apart and the people around them are collateral damage.  I'm so far away from it though, I'm sure I don't know the half of it. 
• Work and life in general have been very busy.  I've gotten tired of saying that, I'm tired of living in that mentality. I think I'm going to do something about it (not drastic).
• Melissa and I have some other news but I can't post it here just yet.  If you know me and don't know what I'm talking about feel free to ask.

I think this says it all, we're babysitting three dogs now, so this is feeding time, 4 dogs and a cat.  Thankfully non of them are over 25 lbs.

How am I supposed to sign-up for Friendster if their HIP (Human Interactive Proof) check is broken?  It's broken like this on both of my computers after a few refreshes, guess I won't know the joys of Friendster.

Waiting for our plane at Boston's Logan Airport we were walking between sections of the terminal and saw this (pic below).  I took a picture of it with my phone's camera, it's hard to see, but that's someone's carry-on size bag laying on the tarmac.  In the pouring rain, it was raining buckets.  Ouch, glad that wasn't my bag, not only did it miss the flight but this was like throwing it in a swimming pool. The airline was US Airways and the workers on the tarmac didn't seem to care about this lone bag getting soaked.

We've spent the last few days of our Boston vacation in Sandwich, MA out on Cape Cod.  We're staying at the Isaiah Jones Homestead Bed and Breakfast, which is nothing short of fabulous.  Our room is beautiful and every morning we're treated to a fantastic three course breakfast. 

The only thing that isn't fabulous is the weather.  We got really lucky with the weather in Boston, no complaints there, but now that we're out in Cape Cod it's been raining like crazy.  Friday we drove out to Provincetown, stopping at the Salt Pond Visitor Center on the way, they have great exhibits on the history of the seashore and the fishing industry.  We drove around looking for a lighthouse in the area and found a parking lot for a beach where we could see the ocean.  It was great storm watching, the weather was severe as the pictures show.  Once we got to Provincetown we just drove around and had lunch at the Lobster Pot, a famous old waterfront restaurant.  That night we had dinner at Hemispheres in Sandwich, another great waterfront place where we watched the storm. 

National Seashore Storm Watching:

Lighthouse:

Saturday was our last full day in Cape Cod.  We pretty much took it easy.  We went to the Sandwich Glass Museum, which is a must-do if you come to this area.  We got to see a glass making demonstration and a film on the history of the area and the town's glass factory.  It was fascinating.   We skipped lunch because we had a big dinner planned, as part of our package at the B&B we got dinner at the Bistro down the street, the best restaurant in the area.  It was wonderful, I had the filet mignon and Melissa had the Lobster.  Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast, packed up, and came back to Boston.  We're at the airport now waiting for our flight.  I highly recommend Boston and Cape Cod for a vacation, we really had a great time.

I had been blogging every day about our Boston vacation, but the last few days I've slipped into that great relaxation you get a few days into a vacation. 

Day 4 (Tuesday) we went and saw the USS Constitution and took the T out to Cambridge for lunch and a walk around Harvard.  We did a lot more relaxing and since we had a late lunch for dinner we had dinner in the hotel Sushi bar.  Some of the best sushi we've ever had, which is saying something.

USS Constitution:

Harvard:

Day 5 (Wednesday) was relaxing as well.  We got a late start so we went to lunch first at KO Steakhouse.  I had a fabulous Mediterranean salad and filet mignon, Melissa had lobster bisque and a 'goddess' salad.  The salads were to die for. After lunch we toured the Gibson House, which is a preserved Victorian era house with most of the original furniture. For dinner we at at Legal Sea Foods, an east coast chain restaurant that started in Boston. 

Today (Day 6) was our day to leave Boston and go to Cape Cod.  We packed up and rolled our luggage across the street to Enterprise and rented a car.  We got out of town and stopped at Plymouth to see Plymouth rock of course.  We continued on to Sandwich, where we had lunch and walked on the Sandwich Boardwalk out to the beach.  After that we found the bed and breakfast and checked in.  The Isaiah Jones Homestead Bed and Breakfast is beautiful and the owners are soooo nice.  It's a really lovely place, A+ to Melissa for finding it and making reservations. We're really going to enjoy the next few days.

Plymouth Rock:

Sandwich Boardwalk:

Today was a busy day but it didn't seem too rushed.  We started the day by going to Trinity Church, the Boston Public Library and the State House.  After that we walked around the Beacon Hill neighborhood (very different from Seattle's Beacon Hill) then went to afternoon tea at the Four Seasons.  We came back to the room to relax for a while then went to the Red Sox game.

Trinity Church, it's impossible to describe this place.  It's a combination of art and architecture that's amazing, you can spend hours staring at all the little details.

Boston Public Library is another beautiful building inside and out.  They had a few exhibits to tour as well. 

State House - we took the tour here, it was really interesting.  We got to see the house and senate, the Governor's office is in this building too.

Finally the Red Sox game.  The electricity and energy was great, they're really passionate about their team here.  My first impression of Fenway was that it's a total dump that needed to be leveled so a modern facility could be built.  By the end of the game though I got a sense of what makes it so special, and how any major retrofitting or rebuilding would take that away.  They need to leave it the way it is.  We were in the cheap seats so we saw plenty of action with rowdy people getting kicked out.  My advice is to leave before about the middle of the 8th, the alcohol has really taken effect by then and the fans are getting out of control. All in all it was a great experience.

Tomorrow we're planning on seeing the USS Construction and going to Bunker Hill. 

Today we did the Freedom Trail and the JFK Library and Museum.  We had lunch at the Union Oyster House, America's oldest restaurant.  For dinner we went to Little Italy and ate at a great little Italian restaurant.  We're figuring out the subway system more and more, I'm sure we'll be experts by Thursday when it's time to leave for Cape Cod.  Boston is a really cool town, we're having a great time here. So what have we learned today?

• Paul Revere didn't say "The British are coming", everyone was British then. That would be like us saying "The Americans are coming."  He probably said "The Regulars are coming", referring to the Regulars in the British Army.
• Sam Adams isn't on the logo for Sam Adams beer, it's actually Paul Revere with lighter hair.
• Speaking so much of Paul Revere, he is most known for having a foundry and doing metal work in Boston.
• People married in the 1700s mostly for economics.  It didn't cost much more for two people to live together so people were quick to marry.  Only in the 19th century when people started marrying for love did the divorce rate go up so much.
• There are a lot of myths out there about the American Revolution.  The Americans didn't hide and fight while the British stood in rows, the American fought that way too but the Americans targeted officers and non-combatants which was never done before.  The solders wore bright coats (red for the British) so you could tell who was a combatant and who wasn't.
• A lot of what is Boston today is landfill.  The place where the Boston Tea Party happened is now filled in, we saw a lot of buildings that used to be waterfront property that now are in the middle of the city.
• This is a huge baseball town, as you can imagine.  I never realized it was to this level though, everyone is wearing Red Sox gear.

Melissa in front of the JFK Library and Museum:

Kennedy Library and Museum looking at downtown Boston:
 

We've arrived in Boston.  It was an early morning this morning but everything went smoothly getting to the airport, going through security and getting on the plane.  We returned the rental car and will pickup another one when we get back.  Melissa's car is scheduled to be fixed from the hit and run around June 1st.  It worked out well dropping off the rental and picking up another one, we don't have to pay for parking.

We bought week passes for the T (subway/mass transit) and took it from the airport to our hotel.  The transit in this city rocks.  We checked into our hotel then walked around a bit.  Boston is so beautiful, here are some pictures.  The plan for tomorrow is to do the freedom trail, a three and a half mile historical tour of Boston.  So far Boston is everything we thought it would be, what a great city.

View from our hotel room:

Back Bay neighborhood buildings:

Charles River looking at Cambridge:

Charles River looking at Boston:

Just a reminder (assuming anyone besides my mother reads my space) about The Space Craft, our official team Space.  Lots of good info posted here each week and we welcome your feedback.  You might not always hear back from us when you leave feedback, but we do read it and take it seriously, the good and the bad.     

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Welcome home – more about your Windows Live Spaces personalized home page

Almost two weeks ago, Chris blogged about the new features in our latest release.  In the next few weeks, some of the team members who worked on these new features will have the chance to tell their stories and talk about the features they worked-on. 

I’m excited to get the opportunity to kick this off by talking about our new “Spaces home.”  Our goal for this page was to give you a personalized starting place to explore Spaces, including recent updates from your contacts, recent comments on your blog, entry points to customize your space, and tips on how to get the most out of Windows Live Spaces.

We’re continuing to improve the “Spaces home” so please leave a comment if you have a suggestion for how we could make this even better.

As you probably know, you can get to the “Spaces home” by going to http://spaces.live.com and clicking “sign in” in the top right.  When you get there, you’ll see a number of modules with different information:

Mirror module

The mirror module is all about you.  At the top, it shows your profile picture and display name.  Below is a link to edit these; and below that is a link to go to your space in edit mode.  The next section is for “Pending Requests” and “Messages.”  Below that is a quick summary of your statistics showing how many page views there were on your space today and in the past hour.  You can click these to go to the full page view of statistics.  Finally, there are entry points to edit the content on your space and Add friends. 

 

Welcome module

Since this new “home” page was a pretty big change from how Spaces previously worked, where users were take straight to their space in author mode, we thought it would be good to temporarily have a “welcome” module that explained the page and suggested some things you can do with your space.  At some point over the next few weeks, this module will disappear and the What’s New feed will move up to the top of the page.

 

What’s new module

IMHO, this is really where the action is.  One of the reasons I personally use social networking, blogging, and RSS readers is to stay in touch with people close to me (family, friends, even an occasional co-worker J)  This module shows up to 10 of your Messenger contacts who recently updated their spaces.  You can hover on someone to quickly see their two most recent updates (and have an entry point to send them a message) or click on them to navigate to their space.  There’s also a link in the lower left to add contacts and a link in the lower right to go to the "What's new" page (see below).  

BTW, the little yellow stars (“gleams”) indicate if you’ve visited that person’s space (or viewed their contact card) since they made their last update.

What’s new page

If you have more than 10 friends who frequently update their Space (and hopefully you do J) you can click the “More” link in the lower right to see up to 100 recently updated Spaces from your Messenger contacts:

 

Recent comments module

Back on the Spaces home, below the What’s New module is the Recent comments module.  Here you can see up to 10 recent comments on your blog (instead of just the 5 you see on the blog module.)  You also get the first ~30 characters of the comment.  You can click on a person’s name to go directly to their space and click on the comment to go to that comment. 

Education module

Finally, there’s the product education module where you can learn more about Spaces features and also click the header (“Spaces Central”) to get back to the non-personalized home page with tons of general Spaces info, featured spaces, and more.  This module rotates through information about new features and contests.  Below are some screenshots of what you might see: