Posts Tagged ‘Open Source’

KeePass Password Keeper

KeePass Logo

Do you have little sheets of paper and post-it notes hanging around with all your passwords to the various sites you manage? Then this little gem of software will help you keep them all in order, in one place, safe and secure from prying eyes.

Plus, it’ll even help you automatically log in to those sites once you get there.

Yes, I can hear you saying “But I already have that built into my web browser.” Sort of. But what you have built into your browser is nowhere near as secure as this! In fact, if you store your passwords in your browser, even a guy like me, with almost no ‘hacking’ experience, can have access to all your passwords with just a little effort.

If you have to keep a LOT of password and login information around, I’ve found this tool to be quite useful. I like the way I can categorize things, store additional information and comments, color code my listing, give each listing it’s own icon (I use the favicon from the site itself) and quickly copy and paste login information.

KeePass Main Screen

To get you started, KeePass will import your existing password information from your browser.  In my case, it took a little extra effort. I first had to export my password information from Firefox and then use an add-on tool to KeePass to import the data in.  It was a slight inconvenience for someone with my experience.

But if you don’t feel like ANY hassle, you can just start by entering all those little scraps of paper into KeePass and just enter the new information for existing sites as you visit them.  Before long, KeePass will have everything it needs to make your life easier and it will become a trusted friend.  As a web developer and someone who manages many websites for clients as well, having this little tool around is nothing short of outstanding!

Clicking on the screen image above will take you to the site.  It will open in a new window.

UPDATE: 12-25-2009 There is a new Plugin available which lets you automatically grab the favicon for a site. I suggest you download it to make things a lot easier for you.  Up until this morning, I had been collecting my icons manually.  You can download my icons here.

Open Office – The FREE and Open Productivity Suite

I began using Open Office around 2004 and have been an avid supporter of the AWESOME OFFERING at a most AWESOME PRICE ($0.00).  That’s right, it’s FREE for the download thanks to thousands of software developers worldwide who have contributed to making it an incredibly robust offering.

It has all the critical components you’ll find in that giant offering from Microsoft called Microsoft Office.

• Word Processing
• Spreadsheet
• Graphics
• Presentations
• Database

All there – fully functional and FREE.  The best part is that it will read and write the various Microsoft Office formats for each of its most popular components.

Check it out:  Open Office