Monday, August 17, 2009
The Internet makes it possible to check our bank balances at midnight or talk to a friend across the globe via Twitter. But the explosion in high-tech tools also means we need a passel of passwords - and strong ones at that, because hackers get more sophisticated all the time.
If you're still logging in to all your accounts with your kid's name or your birthday as a password, CJ Romberger and Michael Fertik have some alternatives that will help keep your accounts safer.
Romberger is the founder and co-owner of Wildwood Interactive, an Internet, database and software company. She's known as Gadget Girl and writes a column of the same name for austinwoman magazine. Michael Fertik is the CEO of reputationdefender.com, a Silicon Valley-based business that offers services to help protect your reputation and privacy online.
• The longer your password, the more secure it is. Eight to 10 characters is a good range, Romberger says.
• If a word is in the dictionary, it shouldn't be part of your password, Fertik and Romberger agree. Hackers can run programs that repeatedly try to log in to your account using words from the dictionary.
• Fertik and Romberger also say to avoid the names of your spouse, child or pet in your passwords. With many of us revealing so many details of our lives on social media, these details are easier than ever for a hacker to figure out.
The availability of this information also makes it easier for hackers to guess your security question and reset your e-mail password.
• Your user name shouldn't also be part of your password, Romberger says, and Fertik points out that you should also avoid your nicknames or variations on your own name, such as adding an extra letter ("Michaell").
• So how can you create a secure password that's still memorable? Come up with a phrase, Romberger says, and use the first letters of each word in your password. For example, "Why has this summer been so hot?" becomes "whtsbsh" in your password. Capitalize every other letter to make the password even stronger.
• Another tip from Romberger is to use password combos that are easy to type but don't mean anything. Avoid something like "qwerty," but with an example like "qsefth," your fingers might remember what your password is even if your brain doesn't, as Romberger says (try the combo on your keyboard to see what she means).
• Now make your password even stronger by adding some numbers. But avoid sequential number ("123" or "321," for example), Fertik says. He adds that it's also better to intermingle numbers and letters: In other words, i0l3m1g9h7j0 is a better password than ilmghj031970.
Romberger points out that you should avoid obvious numbers in your password, such as your house number or the last four digits of your phone number. "Or if you're going to do something like that, transpose them," she says.
• Are you using a password like "wh33l" that replaces letters with the numbers that look like them? "You still have to be careful even with those, because those are common substitutions," Romberger says. It's not a big stretch for a hacker to run the program with dictionary words again and replace the e's in words with 3's, for example.
• If you're looking for an online password manager to store, secure and organize your passwords, Romberger recommends Passpack (passpack.com). Such sites and software are only as good as the company behind them, she cautions, and she likes Passpack's track record.
Market uncertainties linger, though, as building of multifamily units stalls.
By Alan Zibel
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
WASHINGTON - Construction of single-family homes rose in July for the fifth straight month, edging up almost 2 percent to the highest level since last October, the government said Tuesday. Building permits climbed nearly 6 percent.
Each new home built creates about three jobs on average and generates about $90,000 in taxes paid to local and federal authorities, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
With new construction up 37 percent from its low point this winter, the industry is expected to help the overall economy this quarter for the first time in 3½ years.
"Housing is no longer a drag," said Mark Vitner, a senior economist with Wells Fargo & Co. "That's a good thing."
Of course, the housing industry is mired in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and construction is still more than 70 percent from its 2006 peak, making the impact from hiring and spending on materials such as wood and concrete somewhat modest.
In addition, hammers are silent at construction sites for apartment buildings. For developers, it makes little sense to build with many vacant homes and condominiums available for rent. Apartment construction fell 13 percent from June to July.
That pulled the combined construction rate for homes and apartments down 1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 581,000 units, from 587,000 in June. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expected 600,000.
There are still several threats to the recovery of the U.S. housing market.
The unemployment rate, now 9.4 percent, could surpass 10 percent, leaving more homeowners unable to pay their mortgages. Interest rates are still near historic lows but could rise, making homes less affordable. Foreclosures are still at record highs.
And July was the last month that most builders could start new homes and have them ready for buyers to qualify for a new tax credit. Buyers can save 10 percent on the price of a home, up to $8,000, if they complete the purchase by the end of November.
Builders and real estate agents are pressing in Congress for that credit to be extended. If it isn't, sales could easily slump again.
"I'm not seeing a tremendous amount of good news on the job or economic front, so I do think it's important that the credit get extended," said Richard Dugas Jr., CEO of Pulte Homes Inc.
On Tuesday, Pulte completed its acquisition of Centex Corp. for $1.53 billion in stock, becoming the largest homebuilder in the country.
One of the reasons for the purchase was Centex's focus on more affordable homes.
Since the housing bubble burst, many builders have shifted to smaller houses that can be sold at lower prices to woo first-time homebuyers. The median sale price for a new home was $206,200 in June, almost $30,000 cheaper than a year earlier.
More homebuyers also means more business to retailers like the Home Depot Inc., which Tuesday posted its first annual increase in quarterly sales in five years. Better still, the retailer saw improvements in Florida and California, two of its most important - and troubled - markets.
By Sarah Coppola | Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 10:17 AM
Austin residents might have lower property tax bills and electric and trash bills than originally planned for the 2009-2010 budget year, which begins Oct. 1.
The City of Austin has $644,000 more to work with in next year's budget, according to newly certified property values from the Travis Central Appraisal District. At a meeting this morning, city budget officials proposed a lower tax rate for 2009-10 than they had proposed back in July: 42.09 cents per $100 of property value instead of 43.28 cents. For a home with an average taxable value of $261,452, that would mean a bill of $1,110 instead of $1,132.
Austin Energy also has collected $1 million more in revenue than expected this summer because people are using more power to cool down their homes, officials said. That money and the $644,000 will be used to pay "longevity pay" to city employees and avert a mandatory furlough program.
In July, City Manager Marc Ott had proposed cutting longevity pay - a lump sum given each December to all employees who have worked at the city at least five years - and requiring all employees to take one to three days off without pay. Council members and city employees criticized both ideas, and for now, they've both been nixed. Ott said the budget staff will re-evaluate sales tax revenue after six months and, if the revenue is not high enough, consider enacting mandatory furlough days for employees with salaries of $40,000 or greater.
Ott and city-run utility departments also proposed reducing increases they had proposed last month to customers' electric and trash bills. A proposed fee of 60 cents from Austin Energy, to help the state pay to install new powers lines, will be deferred until later years. And instead of increasing most trash pickup rates, only homeowners who have the biggest garbage cart, 90 gallons, will pay an extra 65 cents a month.
Cities adding to, expanding area skate parks
By Miguel Liscano
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, July 31, 2009
This isn't your grandfather's idea of a city park.
Communities from San Marcos to Georgetown are building or have recently completed facilities for skateboarding, a decades-old sport whose enthusiasts have sometimes turned to school railings or concrete drainage ditches for practice.
By the end of the year, Cedar Park and Leander will be the latest Central Texas cities to add skate parks - a mix of large concrete bowls and rails - to about 50 maintained parks, which include the traditional array of soccer fields, baseball diamonds and tennis courts.
"It took a while for skate parks to catch on in the state of Texas," said Jamie Curtis , part owner of Austin-based SPA Skate Parks, which is building Cedar Park's facility. "Now that word is spreading through Texas cities, it's becoming more and more common."
Construction on Cedar Park's skate park is expected to begin in September in the Brushy Creek Sports Park, at 2310 Brushy Creek Road. It will cost about $550,000, most of which will be paid for through sales tax revenue, said Curt Randa, parks and recreation director in Cedar Park.
The park will have two bowls - one 6 to 9 feet deep, and another 4 to 6 feet deep - along with such features as rails and ledges.
Leander's 4,800 square foot park in Benbrook Ranch Park, at 1100 Halsey Drive, is under construction and will include a 1- to 2-foot-deep bowl and such other features as stairs and ramps. The park will cost about $90,000 and will be paid for with money from state park grants, Leander parks department director Stephen Bosak said.
"Kids have needed a place to go for years, and now we're just putting the infrastructure in place to give them places where they can go," Bosak said.
Round Rock, Georgetown and San Marcos all opened skate parks in 2007. Austin opened its first skate park in 2006.
"We were surprised at how popular it was," said Austin Assistant Parks Director Stuart Strong. "It's just a large crowd out there."
Austin is planning a new 30,000 square foot facility at House Park, at 1213 Shoal Creek Blvd., which is scheduled to open next summer and cost about $900,000. It also will include an area specifically for BMX cyclists.
And, in a couple of weeks, San Marcos will begin construction on a 10,000 square foot expansion of its skate park, which will double the size with the addition of two bowls. The project is expected to cost $210,800.
Curtis, of SPA Skate Parks, said his company has also built several public parks in the past couple of years in cities from Victoria to New Braunfels.
City officials from across the Austin area say they hope the parks will give skateboarders an alternative to dangerous drainage ditches.
"If you've got concrete, they're there," Cedar Park council member Scott Mitchell said. "They find those places."
In addition to skateboard facilities, most of the cities also have each built disc golf courses. Leander is planning to add a BMX park to Benbrook Park. And Round Rock has designated an area for cricket enthusiasts, and has built a 40-foot runway for remote control airplanes.
City, county looking at ways to compress budget adoption schedules.
By Sarah Coppola
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, July 31, 2009
Local cities, schools and the county could be forced to delay adopting tax rates and budgets for the upcoming fiscal year as they await this year's certified tax roll from the Travis Central Appraisal District.
A certified tax roll allows 140 jurisdictions to set their tax rates based on taxable property values.
The appraisal district was required by state law to certify the tax roll by July 25, but officials said this week that it might not be certified until late August. They have blamed the delay on a calculation error and trying to resolve a record 90,000 appraisal protests. About 51,600 protests have not yet been resolved.
This week, the appraisal district announced it had certified the roll. But officials sent the City of Austin a letter Wednesday saying they in fact had not.
The district discovered that it had miscalculated the number of property appraisals that are still under protest. For the district to certify the total taxable value of local properties, 90 percent of properties can no longer be under protest, chief appraiser Patrick Brown said. That figure is at about 85 percent currently, he said.
The appraisal district resolves protests for the highest-valued properties first, so the total taxable property figures provided this week to local cities and counties are likely to change little by late August, Brown said.
A spokesman for the state comptroller's office said that state law gives taxing jurisdictions until Sept. 30 or until 60 days after they receive a certified roll to set a tax rate for the upcoming year.
The City of Austin usually votes on a maximum property tax rate in early August, holds a few public hearings related to the tax rate and adopts a final tax rate and budget in mid-September. The budget then takes effect Oct. 1. Some of the timing of those steps is dictated by state law. Also, the city can't set a tax rate until it gets a certified roll.
The city's budget office and law department are trying to determine the most compressed schedule Austin could use to adopt a budget and tax rate by mid-September, city budget officer Ed Van Eenoo said. The city probably will still hold public hearings about the budget in August but push public hearings about the tax rate to September, he said.
For the 2009-10 budget year, the city has proposed the rollback rate, the highest the city can charge without having to get voters' approval. It would increase to 43.28 cents per $100 of assessed property value from 40.12 cents per $100 of value.
"We'll have the certified tax roll before (mid-September), and we'll know what the rollback rate will look like. It's just a matter of fitting in the process of adopting it," Van Eenoo said.
Under the city charter, the local version of a constitution, the city must pass a budget by Sept. 27, Van Eenoo said. And passing a budget any later than mid-September is not practical because logistical and payroll matters need to be finished before the budget takes effect Oct. 1.
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