Export Keychain, Safari, Chrome Passwords to CSV for 1Password Import

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Thanks to a dedicated community of enthusiastic users, there is a relatively straight-forward process to get all your saved login information out of the OS X Keychain and into Agile Bits’s awesome 1Password application. Browsers like Safari and Chrome store their saved usernames and passwords in the Keychain as well so that means it’s one-stop shopping for all exporting all your saved data. Unfortunately, of all the user-friendly aspects of Apple’s OS, migrating keychain data is not among them. I couldn’t stand the idea of manually moving a few hundred saved passwords, so I scoured the web for a better way.

I found my way to an unsuspecting GitHub page by way of the Agile Bits user forum. I’ll be the first to admit this process is not for novices. It requires use of the terminal and depending on your machine, you may also have to install a Ruby update and get into your .bash_profile for good measure. If any of these steps make you nervous, then manual may be your best option. If you’re feeling adventurous or these tasks are already in your repertoire, then here we go.

GitHub Link to Keychain Export process – This creates a .csv file that 1Password’s built-in Import feature can process. All the Terminal commands are included, as well as a custom script that will save you from having to click “Allow” on the Security dialog box a few hundred times. The instructions are very thorough–I just had to update my Ruby install and the next utility helped with that.

JewelryBox UI for Ruby – This is a free download that provides a simple-to-use UI for managing the Ruby version currently on your machine. NOTE – The script above has been updated to work with Ruby 1.8.7 which is preinstalled on Macs running Lion.

All told, even with the rabbit hole I went down refreshing myself on the Terminal and a crash course on Ruby, I still got all my passwords moved over in about an hour. It would have taken me at least three to do it manually.

I Win!

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On October 31st, I posted that I would be spending November focusing on a different writing project, National Novel Writing Month. 30 days later, I’m proud to say I hit the goal of 50,000 words which makes me a:

My story isn’t finished yet, but I averaged just under 1700 words a day to get to this point, and even slowing my pace a bit, I expect to have the rest of the book finished by the end of my vacation week that is scheduled at the beginning of January.

Amazon’s Profit Plunge

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Amazon’s Profit Plunge

Amazon released their latest quarterly results and ReadWriteWeb was kind enough to summarize it for us.

I work for a publicly traded company, and my immediate reaction to this release was serious concern for Amazon’s fiscal health. Then, I realized I was reacting based on how my own company would be viewed when taking a profit dip like this. I realized that for Amazon this isn’t as dire as some might think.

This is just Amazon showing once again they aren’t afraid to invest in growing their business, especially when they have a clear vision in mind for the future. Building a competitive offering of e-readers and a brand new tablet isn’t cheap. Building a library of digital video content isn’t cheap. Sticking to their guns on price leadership while everyone else in retail also cuts prices isn’t cheap.

Amazon isn’t in this for the current quarter. They are in it for the long haul. They are making a serious bet on housing and delivering our digital content. They realized a while back that the retail operation can pay the bills and generate enough return to provide the capital they need to do the really awesome stuff.

I think former startups like Amazon who ran in the red for so long have an advantage over old school companies who sacrifice vision for current quarter returns and pleasing analysts.

Marvel Layoffs or Ike Perlmutter: Last of the Mohicans

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A couple years ago, a friend lent me the book Comic Wars. It helped me understand exactly what Marvel went through in the 1990′s. I had no idea back then when I was first getting into comics that Marvel came so close to oblivion.

Fast forward to present day and a Marvel that Disney paid big bucks for. Isaac (Ike) Perlmutter was the unlikely victor in the late 90′s when everybody (including Carl Icahn and Ron Perelman) tried to make a play for the House of Ideas. Perlmutter’s victory made him the CEO of Marvel, and the Disney takeover in 2009 left it that way. Unfortunately, the only way Ike appears to know how to run a business is to squeeze blood from the turnip.

A great post at The Beat seems to strike at the heart of the matter. As he once parlayed his little toy company into ownership of Marvel, Perlmutter seems to think he can trade in control of Marvel to run Disney. He seems to be using cost-cutting at Marvel to showcase his skills with the balance sheet to Disney’s Board of Directors.

If this theory is true, I just hope someone at Disney sees the way Marvel is being ruined by a hatchet man who thinks reducing the number of on-site bathrooms is the best way to respond to digital distribution and DC’s New 52.

I think it’s time for Ike to retire his hatchet before he does any more damage to a great company.

Even Muammar Gaddafi Deserved a Private Death

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Mark Lawson with The Guardian wrote a great piece that summarizes my feelings about the media’s handling of Gaddafi’s death. The torture porn that pawns itself off as horror film these days is bad enough. At least I can choose to skip that. Images of Gaddafi’s corpse are all over the web, print and tv as well, mostly without warning.

An excerpt from Lawson’s article:

But the risk is the development of a culture of death porn. For me, as a simple moral position, Gaddafi merits as much privacy in his final extremities as did his victims in the Lockerbie bombing: a germane example from the past of a time when the media by common consent suppressed horrific images in the cause of taste and privacy.

The issue is most acute for newspapers because a front page (either paper or online) is designed to take readers unawares and attract the curiosity of passing trade. Unlike in television, no warning can be given of what is about to be seen, although, for me, the standard warnings given by broadcasters yesterday (“images which some viewers may find offensive”) were inadequate for the leap in morbid detail that some of these pictures represented.

Down with Boss’s Day

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Boss’s Day is absurd. The idea that lower-paid workers should set aside money to recognize their manager is just plain silly. I’m all for people who are friendly with the boss doing things on their own, but I think making it a national holiday is moronic.

I get along with my boss just fine, but I’m not getting her a gift just for keeping me employed. I participated in the office food day to avoid awkwardness with the team, and I signed the card somebody else bought, but that’s where I draw the line.

Thanks to Wikipedia, I now know that this holiday was dreamed up by a lady who worked for her father and thought he deserved special recognition. Talk about daddy issues.