Death Star PR: FLOWCHART: How to Deal With Your Impending Doom

Death Star PR: FLOWCHART: How to Deal With Your Impending Doom: "FORM 2B/N07-2B: NOTIFICATION OF IMPENDING DOOM Dear Citizen of Planet ________________________, It has come to our attention that you..."

Zombie Dice

Zombie Dice is a great dice game from Steve Jackson Games. According to the dice cup, the game is for 2 or more players, will take 10-20 minutes, and is recommended for ages 10 and up. Caution: it's not for children under 3. So what about the 4-9 year olds, eh? Should they be cheated of the glamour and honour of being a zombie?! I guess that's up to their parents to decide.

The game comes in a cool dice cup, and has 13 dice (6 green, 4 yellow, and 3 red) that represent your human victims. The goal is to eat 13 brains without getting shotgunned 3 times.

The gameplay is pretty straight forward:

- shake the dice in the attractive and functional dice cup
- choose 3 dice without looking (no cheating now, I'm watching you!)
- roll the aforementioned 3 dice
- move any dice that came up brains to your left (mmm...brains...) Brains are good.
- move any dice that come up shotguns to your right (BANG! owie...) Shotguns are bad.
- any footprints? Those are the ones that got away. That means you don't get to eat them this time. Leave these dice in front of you.

So, unless you rolled 3 shotguns you get to make a decision - stop and score, or play on. I recommend playing on, what are the chances you will roll shotgun? Besides, you are already undead, what do you have to lose!?

If you choose to stop and score, you get 1 point for each brain you rolled (write this down somewhere - I recommend using your opponent's forehead). Remember the goal is to consume 13 delicious squishy brains (say it with me: mmm...brains...) Put all the dice in the attractive and functional dice cup and pass to the next player.

If you decide to play on, well then you are pretty damn cool in my books! Did you roll any footprints last time? If so, you get to re-roll those dice and add additional dice from the cup to total 3 dice. So if you rolled 3 foot prints last time, then just re-roll those 3. If you rolled 2 footprints last time, pick another die from the cup so you are rolling 3 dice. Got it? Need me to explain further?

Lather, rinse, repeat as above - moving brains to the left, shotguns to the right, and footprints in the middle. But beware - if you are up to 3 shotguns then your turn is over and you score NO POINTS! That is bad - it means the humans won, and we can't let the damn humans win!

But wait, there's more! Remember the dice colours I mentioned above? Did you think those were just for aesthetic pleasantness?! Well, guess again bucko, it's way more nefarious than that! You see, there are a different number of each type of symbol on the different colour dice:

Green: 3 brains, 2 footprints, 1 shotgun
Yellow: 2 brains, 2 footprints, 2 shotguns
Red: 1 brain, 2 footprints, 3 shotguns

Pretty damn clever of you, Steve Jackson Games...

I recommend you pick yourself up a set of Zombie Dice, it's a fast and easy game you can play pretty much anywhere. Waiting for your dinner to arrive? Play some Zombie Dice! Waiting for your evening gaming session to start? Play some Zombie Dice! Waiting in a lineup at PAX? Play some Zombie Dice!

Originally published at Pretty Gamer.

It LIVES!!!!

I am bringing this blog back to life. I took a break and was writing for Pretty Gamer, but that has sadly petered out. I will be re-posting a number of my articles from Pretty Gamer here, as well as new things that catch my interest.

Is Twitter tweeting without your knowledge?

So there has been an ongoing issue with people's Twitter accounts posting various things without their knowledge - usually advertising links ("I lost 20 lbs in two weeks, click here to find out how!") As usual, NEVER EVER CLICK THE LINKS! I cannot stress that enough - chances are it will take you to a site that will try and install malware on your computer without your knowledge, or will ask you for some sort of login credentials.

So what do you do if this happens to your account? Follow these simple steps:
1) Login to your account on Twitter.com
2) Click "Settings"

3) Click "Connections"

4) Revoke access to everything listed here unless you are 100% sure you want it to have access to your account.

5) Click "Password"

6) Change your password - choose a complex password!

7) as a courtesy to your followers, send a quick tweet letting them know NOT to click on the links you had sent out.

Always be aware of what sites and applications are asking for you to log in with your Twitter username and password - be very clear on why that site wants it and what it will do. The only authorized connection I have is TwitterFeed - this service will automatically post a pre-formatted tweet when I have updated this blog. When the Shorty Awards were happening, I granted them access for a day or so, and then revoked it. Sometimes you may not realize that you have granted access to your twitter feed - go in every once in a while and see what is listed under Connections.

Info Security Basics: Complex Passwords

I will soon be teaching a bunch of “Information Security Basics” courses at work, and that gave me the idea for a few blog posts.

So children, today we will learn about Complex Passwords!

Passwords – they are everywhere!Love ’em or hate ‘em, you probably use them often, if not daily. Passwords are one of the most basic types of authentication used – your basic Who You Are (user id) combined with What You Know (password).

Do your best to NOT use the same password for everything – your online banking password should not be the same as your Facebook login password. Ideally every password you use should be unique, but realistically that would be a nightmare to maintain – but do the best you can. I tend to group in terms of importance/risk:

1) High (e.g. banking) – unique, very complex passwords
2) Medium (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) – unique-ish, complex passwords
3) Low (e.g. web forums) – I have a few passwords I tend to use

Also, don’t use common words or proper names of people/pets. Common words are easily guessed using a dictionary attack, and proper names are easily guessed by doing a bit of research on people.

Most websites give you a “forgot your password?” link if you are having problems. Be careful of the standard security questions they use – the answers tend to be common things that are easily guessed or researched. You know those online quizzes and Facebook “25 things you didn’t know about me” type things? Did you know the name of my first pet was Snowball? Oddly enough that’s also one of the common security questions used when you forget your password!

Basic Rules for Complex Passwords:

• Minimum of 8 characters
• Use both upper (A to Z) and lower case (a to z) letters
• Use numbers (0 to 9)
• Use at least ONE symbol (e.g. , ! $ & % #)

One of the most common complaints about complex passwords is that they are hard to remember. A good suggestion is to use the first letters from an 8 word (or more) sentence or catch phrase, replacing some letters with numbers or symbols:

We work hard so you don’t have to” becomes WwH$ydh2

Oh, and one other thing: please don't write your password on the under side of your keyboard, or on a sticky note by your monitor, etc! That sort of thing really makes that vein in my forehead throb....