My Delayed Migration to Authy (and Google Chrome Password Manager)

July 3, 2022 Daniel1password, authy, google chrome, one-time password, otp

For years I was an enthusiastic 1Password user. Then I became less enthusiastic.

Around the time I decided I wasn’t going to pay for any more 1Password updates, I began to research alternatives. Many shared the aspects with 1Password that made me want to leave it.

I decided to try Google Chrome’s password management. Because it is part of the browser, its browser integration is excellent. And it’s free. But it lacks support for One-time Passwords (OTP). Of course, Google offers the Google Authenticator app, which I used before 1Password added support for it. But Google Authenticator has no cloud syncing.

Authy only stores one-time passwords, and it offers cloud syncing. Perfect, right?

Initially I added my Twitch account — which seems to have a specific integration with Authy — and Twitter. I tried to add my Nintendo account OTP to Authy, but it had two problems:

It never worked. It didn’t match the code in 1Password, which did work.
Depending on the device on which I was using the Authy app, Authy would repeatedly insist that I decrypt it. I’d type in the password I believed was correct, but it wouldn’t work.

The second point scared me: Was this my future if I embraced Authy? Codes that don’t work and failed decryption?

More than seven years after creating an Authy account, I had gotten very tired of needing 1Password on my phone to access my OTPs. I decided:

I wanted to move all my OTPs to Authy and
That meant first I was going to have to sort out the problem with my Nintendo account and Authy.

I again tried to decrypt my Nintendo OTP in Authy; No luck. I could see it on my iPhone, but it never worked. So I decided to delete it. I have cloud sync turned on for Authy. I deleted the account on my iPhone, and Authy told me it would take two days before it was gone for good. The account was still visible — but unusable — on my Windows PC, so after a day I deleted it there, too.

I gave it another day or so. Then I tried to copy the working OTP for my Nintendo account from 1Password to Authy. 1Password allows you to edit an OTP (this is handy; 1Password does have some good features). In 1Password, on the screen for my Nintendo account, I clicked edit and then copied the entire string shown for the OTP field. I pasted this into Authy, but it didn’t match the code in 1Password, and wouldn’t let me log in.

I did some Googling, and found this post on Reddit: Move one-time passwords out. The trick is to grab the value after secret=. I tried it and it worked.

I quickly copied all the OTPs that I could remember needing. I then installed Authy on my devices.

Today I’m much closer to retiring 1Password once and for all. It’s a good feeling.

This is a happy ending, but it’s not perfect. Authy isn’t perfect.

I’m currently forced to use Authy’s Android app on my Chromebook. I don’t like Android apps on ChromeOS, and I avoid them. I spent an hour or so trying to get the Authy’s Linux app installed on my Chromebook, and the install appeared to work, but the only Authy I can find on my machine is the Android app.

Authy’s security measures are confusing. There is a backups password, a master password, and a PIN. This is too much. 1Password has a master password and, if you use it on a mobile device that doesn’t have biometric authentication, a PIN. I can think of no good reason why Authy’s backups password — for attaching the Authy app on a new device to your Authy accoung — and master password — for unlocking the Authy app when you unlock your computer or launch the app — could not be combined.

So there are two things about Authy that annoy me. And if Google every combined Google Authenticator with Google Chrome’s password manager, I’d probably ditch Authy. But for now, it’s a free OTP manager with Cloud syncing, and that’s exactly what I was looking for.

PC Build Diary Day 2

March 13, 2022March 13, 2022 Danielpc build, sliger

I forgot about this yesterday.

The Sliger SM550 manual says it comes with three types of screws. Mine came with four (or five).

Normally I’d say “Extra screws are better than not enough screws.” And maybe Sliger ships the same multi-compartment baggy of screws with all their case models.

But the problem is, there’s at least one screw in the manual that matches no screw in the baggy. And that’s a problem.

Apparently other boutique PC cases have similar problems with incomplete or out of date manuals. If that’s true, Sliger gets no points for standing out from the crowd.

Green M3 Pan Head — matches the manual. 12x. For PCIe cards.

PC Build Diary Day 1

March 11, 2022March 13, 2022 Danielnoctua, pc build, sliger

My Sliger SM550 case arrived today. All that’s left is the processor, but I finally have enough parts that I can do step one of the build.

Step 1 is: install fans in the case.

I got two Noctua NF-A12x25 PWM chromax.Black.swap case fans. Research indicates that the A12x25 is the Rolls Royce of PC case fans. And I like black. After installing these in the SM550, I’ve decided the thin version of the A12 — the Noctua NF-A12x15 PWM chromax.Black.swap (15mm thick rather than 25mm) might have made more sense in this case. And I say that even though Sliger shows 25mm fans in their gallery and the manual — and will sell you two NF-A12x25 fans (in traditional Noctua brown) to go along with your SM550.

I also purchased two fan grills, but they’re not attached right now. If I do end up putting them in, they’ll be a tight fit. They form a concave — probably to keep wires even farther away from the fan blades. They won’t fit in the SM550 like that — at least not under the motherboard. If I flip the grills they might fit. I tested and it looks like I can install them later without taking the fans out, so I’ve got that in my back pocket.

When I screwed the fans into the bottom of the case, I stripped the hell out of one of the screw holes on one of the fans. (Lotta plastic shavings on my table.) The problem was that the screws were catching on both the case and the fan. I believe this could have been prevented if the case’s holes were just a bit larger — still small enough to hold the screw head, but not so small that the screw catches the case.

Finally, I’m confused about the routing of the PCIE riser cable. At the bottom of the metal sheet that divides the motherboard side of the case from the graphics card side of the case, there’s a cutout that’s just about the perfect width for the riser cable. But the riser cable starts on the graphics card side and stays there (at least until it gets to the top of the case).

There’s also a lip on the graphics card side of the divider sheet that the riser card has to press up against.

I checked several sources, and my case is not the only one with the riser cable routed this way.

PCIE riser cable in Sliger SM550 case — Why not route the riser cable to this side of the case?

Routing the riser cable on this side makes for a tight fit, and pushes it against the lip.

Why do it this way? Is there concern that the riser cable will jut out and put pressure on the bottom of the motherboard? (Edit: Maybe the concern is the CPU cooler’s hardware that mounts on the back of the motherboard.) Or maybe it’s more important to insulate the back of the graphics card from the metal divider than it is to insulate the motherboard. (The motherboard does have standoffs. And a thick video card might be pushed in by the outer wall of the case.)

So maybe that’s it. To insulate the graphics card. But why leave the cutout at the bottom of the divider?

For now I’m leaving the riser where it is. I assume it was done this way for a reason. And for me to move it now I’d either have to unscrew 8 fan screws and then re-screw 8 fan screws, or try unscrewing two screws between the graphics card “platform” and the fan under it — and I’m not certain that would let me make the move.

As for other aspects of my first impression of the SM550, it wobbles a bit — the way a table in a restaurant might. The legs can be unscrewed and I assume it’s to resolve this issue. But it’s a little disappointing for such an expensive case.

And the piece of metal the power supply will screw into is a bit warped. I’m guessing once I’ve got the power supply attached to it, it will straighten out, and the power supply will be straight. But I won’t know until I get there.

That’s probably all I’ll do on the build until the processor gets here. I plan on writing at least one more post on the process.

Wemo and a New Router

December 1, 2019March 6, 2020 Danieltechnology, wemo, wifi

Cliffs Notes: Delete the Wemo app. Reboot your iPhone. Reinstall the app and go from there.

I got my first Wemo devices at least as far back as 2015. I’ve been happy with them. They work. Yes, they can be occasionally stubborn — but I think that’s mostly due to wifi dead spots in my home. A built-in ethernet port would be a nice option. And yes, the Mini Smart Plugs that never stop broadcasting their setup wifi network? Also annoying, but hardly a dealbreaker.

Today I considered getting rid of all my Wemo devices in favor of a competitor. It didn’t matter which competitor. I was frustrated. I couldn’t get any of my Wemo devices to connect to my new wifi network. (I have entered the world of mesh wifi with a pair of Nest Wifi routers.)

I did some research before I created the new network. Based on what I found, I would have to factory reset each Wemo device in order to get it onto the new wifi network. Fine. Not ideal, but fine.

Wemo devices, like many smart devices, broadcast their own wifi network in order to perform initial setup with help from another device like a phone or tablet. It makes a lot of sense — modern phones have a screen. Things like light switches or doorbells or speakers tend not to.

I was able to get each of my Wemo devices to broadcast its setup wifi network. I was able to get my iPhone to connect to each of these devices (though not always on the first try). But that was where my progress stopped. For each smart plug, I was prompted to use my phone’s camera to snap/scan the plug’s Homekit code, or type in the code manually. But none of my plugs are new enough to have Homekit codes printed on them. For the light switch, I was just shown basic instructions about installing the hardware in wall. Not what I was looking for.

I gave up and moved on. I got every non-Wemo smart device in my house connected to the new wifi network. Then I did some more Googling, and found this on Reddit: Wemo Smart Plugs do not play well with SSID name change The crucial advice? Delete the Wemo app from you iPhone. Reboot your phone. Go from there.

What do you know? It worked. For devices that I didn’t factory reset, the name and ID photo were still stored. So the factory reset didn’t help anything, and actually lost my customization.

You would think a line of devices that depend on wifi would walk users through the process of moving devices to a new wifi network. For contrast, the Ring Doorbell app has a Device Health screen with an action called “Change Wi-Fi Network.” In the Alexa app, the screen for each Echo device shows the wifi network it is currently connected to, and a “Change” action.

User flow shouldn’t lead to a dead end. Users shouldn’t have to delete and reinstall an app to get back to a setup phase. And an ecosystem like Wemo shouldn’t have a massive blind spot for moving devices to a new network.

iTunes, Movies Anywhere, and SD

April 4, 2018April 5, 2018 Daniel

There was a time when I had not yet embraced our digital-only future.

I still bought Blu-ray discs. Like a caveman, I would search through my mostly organized Blu-ray and DVD jewel cases, find a movie I wanted to watch, open the case, take the disc out, open the Blu-ray player, put the disc in the tray, close the tray, and wait.

When I put The Bourne Legacy’s disc into our Blu-ray player, it didn’t work. It wouldn’t play.

My wife wanted to watch The Bourne Legacy.

The disc wasn’t playing.

I grabbed the jewel case, walked to the basement, opened iTunes or whatever obscure URL the coupon in The Bourne Legacy’s jewel case wanted me to open, and redeemed the code for the digital copy of The Bourne Legacy.

Then I walked back upstairs, changed the TV input to the Apple TV, and played the movie.

It was as if the disc worked.

But I could watch it on my phone. I could watch it in the basement without lugging the disc around (like a caveman).

A short time later, I went through all my DVDs and Blu-rays, looking for digital codes to redeem. Some had expired. Some had expired but worked anyway.

As I looked over my new iTunes movie library, I noticed that some of the films were HD and some were not. This was annoying and disappointing and would cause me to re-purchase some films in HD.

I believe I owned the following films on iTunes in SD format:

Now, as of April 2018, I can only find the following SD films ~~in my iTunes library~~ on my up-to-date gen 3 Apple TV and on my up-to-date iPhone 7:

In iTunes on an up-to-date Mac, these films appear to be SD:

The fact that two films are HD on two devices and SD on one seems like a bug to me.

(Technically I can find Inception in SD, but I later purchased it in HD. It appears twice in my library. I upgraded Prometheus, too, but the SD copy is no longer in my library.)

Limitless was distributed by Relativity Media. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Super 8 were both distributed by Paramount. What do these two film studios have in common? In what way would they be linked that is relevant in the 2018 digital film library landscape?

Movies Anywhere.

Name two film studios that aren’t participating in the Movies Anywhere initiative as of April 2018. Relativity and Paramount. Sure, there are others. I just don’t own any of their movies.

This makes me extremely curious. This is too much to be a coincidence.

The first thing I wonder is: If I were to buy an SD film on iTunes that is available in Movies Anywhere, would it show up in Movies Anywhere? Would it upgrade to HD in my iTunes library? Seems unlikely. Apple wouldn’t leave a loophole that big.

Are SD films upgraded to HD only if they were in a user’s iTunes library before Movies Anywhere started?

Here’s what I think is most likely: Apple/iTunes keeps track of which films a customer purchased on iTunes and which films a customer redeemed with a code. If a code redeemed an SD copy and that film becomes available in Movies Anywhere, it is upgraded to an HD copy.

If my theory is correct, the moment that Paramount or Relativity join into Movies Anywhere, I should have fewer SD films in my iTunes library.

Windows 10 Creators Update Disabled My Touchscreen

April 16, 2017February 18, 2020 Daniel

Really strange.

I’ve had my Lenovo Yoga 11e for about eight months. It’s not a powerhouse, but it’s a really great couch laptop. And it has a touchscreen that can swivel all the way around to make it a bulky tablet.

When I got it everything worked, but there was some bloatware. So I formatted the hard drive and did a clean Windows 10 install. The touchscreen was not recognized by the OS. After reading a lot of Lenovo forum posts, I found an Intel driver, installed it, and voilà.

Then Microsoft released the Windows 10 Creators Update. I initiated the update rather than wait for it. Booted up and … the touchscreen was not recognized by the OS. I ran the Intel driver that worked before. It had two choices: remove or repair. I chose repair. It didn’t work.

I read some Lenovo forums — probably forums I already read eight months ago. I tried one other driver but no improvement (Windows said I already had the latest driver).

I decided to try the driver installer that worked before, except I’d try the remove option and then run it again to install. I did it, along with a reboot in between for good measure.

The touchscreen works! Strange. Maybe this is a fluke?

PS – I can’t find the driver anywhere online that I describe above. I’ve had it in my Dropbox since I discovered that it fixed my problem, but what about other people who might need it? The filename is IO_Win10_99.16.55518.zip and I’m considering posting it here. But would I want to download my touchscreen driver from some random guy’s blog?

[Update 2018/02/07] I decided to create a download link for the driver. I did a few minutes of research to find a site to host it.

http://www.filehosting.org/file/details/723813/IO_Win10_99.16.55518.zip

Don’t Use jquery-latest.js!!!!!!!1

July 7, 2014July 7, 2014 Danieljavascript, jquery, php

I’m guilty.

So guilty.

For years I have pointed pages to jquery-latest.js. Of course, I don’t think anyone would classify hack.premo.biz as a “production site.” I just want the latest damn version of code. I like to experiment with new features.

But I hate babysitting blogs, downloading point releases, and uploading them to my web server. So I used jquery-latest.js.

But now jQuery has taken this away. Sort of. jquery-latest.js is now frozen in time at version 1.11.1.

Well that’s no good. I can’t putter around on an old version for the rest of my life. But I hate babysitting blogs. And downloading point releases. And uploading them to my web server.

What’s a modern coder to do?

Scrape that s.

I made a two part solution. Part one scans the file structure on includes.premo.biz for files that look like jquery 2.x and returns the ~~newest~~ one it finds. It also sends a custom header so the browser reads it as JavaScript. I’m not going to give the URL here because I don’t want to be the next jquery-latest.js. But here’s the (PHP) code:

header( 'Content-Type: application/javascript' ); $contents = scandir( './' ); foreach ($contents as $file) { if ($file !== '.' && $file !== '..') { $ext = ''; $parts = explode('.', $file); $ext = $parts[count($parts) - 1]; if ($ext == 'js') { if ($parts[0] == 'jquery-2') { include $file; } } } }

The second part is more complicated. It pulls in the jQuery Blog RSS feed, looks for a post about a new release, reads the version number, determines if it is newer than the version my server already has and if so pulls it down, then archives the older version. Here’s the PHP for that:

// run on cron. // check jquery blog rss for updated version news // http://blog.jquery.com/feed/ header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8'); // what's the latest version we've got? (current?) $ourVersion = '0'; $contents = scandir( './' ); foreach ($contents as $file) { //if( strpos( $file,'.' ) !== 0 ) { if ($file !== '.' && $file !== '..') { $ext = ''; $parts = explode('.', $file); $ext = $parts[count($parts) - 1]; if ($ext == 'js') { if ($parts[0] == 'jquery-2') { //include $file; $ver = $file; $ver = str_ireplace('jquery-', '', $ver); $ver = str_ireplace('.min.js', '', $ver); $ver = str_ireplace('.js', '', $ver); $ourVersion = $ver; } } } } echo 'ourVersion : ' . $ourVersion; $rssString = file_get_contents('http://blog.jquery.com/feed/'); $xmle = simplexml_load_string($rssString); //print_r($xmle); $articles = $xmle->channel->item; foreach ($articles as $article) { $titleLength = strlen($article->title); $check = trim(substr($article->title, (strlen($article->title) - 8))); if (trim(substr($article->title, (strlen($article->title) - 8))) == 'Released') { if (strstr($article->title, 'RC')) { continue; echo 'release candidate. BOO!'; } if (stristr($article->title, 'beta')) { continue; echo 'beta. BOO!'; } echo 'RELEASE POST'; echo $article->title; // find '2.' $words = explode(' ', $article->title); $ver = '0'; foreach ($words as $word) { if (substr($word, 0, 2) == '2.') { $ver = $word; if (strlen($ver) == 3) { $ver = $ver . '.0'; } echo 'version : ' . $ver; if ($ver > $ourVersion) { echo $ver . ' is greater than ' . $ourVersion . '!'; $jqFilename = 'jquery-' . $ver . '.min.js'; $jqUrl = 'http://code.jquery.com/' . $jqFilename; echo $jqUrl; // http://code.jquery.com/jquery-2.1.1.js $jqueryContents = file_get_contents($jqUrl); file_put_contents($jqFilename, $jqueryContents); // move old version rename('jquery-' . $ourVersion . '.min.js', './jquery_archive/jquery-' . $ourVersion . '.min.js'); break 2; } else { echo $ver . ' is NOT greater than ' . $ourVersion . '!'; } } } echo '----------'; } }

And that’s that. My very own jquery-latest.js.

iOS 7 and the Death of the Button

September 19, 2013April 8, 2016 Danielapple, buttons, ios, ios7, iphone, mac, mavericks, os x, os x mavericks, osx, osx mavericks, ui

If you were to log into the dashboard of this blog and look through the drafts — posts that I haven’t published yet — you’d find one from January 31, 2013 — about nine months ago — titled “Buttons Should Look Like Buttons.” And if you looked at the body of that draft post, you’d see a big blank space.

Well, buttons should look like buttons.

A great example of buttons failing to look like buttons — right next to buttons succeeding at looking like buttons — is Firefox. Let’s just focus on the reload button and the home button. When I am moving the mouse pointer on the screen, it’s very easy for me to tell where I have to click in order to trigger the home button. It looks like a button. It has clearly defined edges.

When I want to click the reload button, it’s very hard for me to tell where I have to click. I know the white area inside the black arrow/line/loop would almost certainly register. But what about the white space outside the arrow/line/loop? Can I click all the way out to the edge of the white area? Where is the border between the reload button and the button to the left of it (the menu dropdown)? Is there dead space between the reload button and the menu button? Do they butt up against each other?

It’s impossible to tell by looking.

Firefox is particularly infuriating because there are buttons with precisely defined edges immediately next to buttons with no button edges at all.

With iOS 7, Apple has done away with some clearly defined buttons. I believe that button borders are only gone in places where the button contained only text. In this respect, the button has been replaced — at least visually — by the equivalent of a hyperlink. And we’re all used to text hyperlinks.

I believe there’s one othe reason Apple can get away with that. Fingers are imprecise. And because we know that when we tap on a screen we don’t have single pixel precision, we know that there is compensation for imprecision. We are not anal about our precision, or lack thereof.

Looking ahead, I have seen screenshots of OS X Mavericks. It looks a lot like iOS 7. I am hoping Apple does not do away with button borders in the desktop OS, because when I use a mouse, I want clearly defined buttons.

Star Trek Into Darkness and Physical Media

August 22, 2013August 22, 2013 Danielblu-ray, bluray, into darkness, itunes, star trek, star trek into darkness

I really liked Star Trek Into Darkness.

For some reason I had middling expectations going in. It didn’t do quite as well as its predecessor, 2009’s Star Trek, in North America. This informed my opinion. I really liked the 2009 film, and had expected a Pirates of the Caribbean style “box office take of each movie reflects audience appreciation of previous film in franchise” explosion. It didn’t happen. I concluded that Into Darkness must have had something wrong with it.

I saw the previews. It looked like the USS Enterprise got destroyed. My brain replayed a remembered or imagined fanboy’s voice: “How many times can you destroy the Enterprise?” Another question, too dark even for my inner dialogue to whisper: “Is this the film that ends the new Star Trek franchise?”

No, it’s not. Into Darkness is really good. I don’t know why more people didn’t go to see it. I need to watch it a couple more times, but currently I believe I like it better than the previous film. And I really liked the previous film!

Okay, time for side note/personal trivia/minutia that no one except me cares about. The previous film — 2009’s Star Trek — was the first movie I bought on Blu-ray. For years I had held out. I had decided that it wasn’t a big enough jump from DVD, and the next format I was going to adopt was digital download. I had already gone digital with music; I hadn’t bought a CD in years.

Then I bought a PS3. In 2009, when Sony released the Slim model. Suddenly I had a Blu-ray player. Then I saw Star Trek for sale at Walmart … and the Blu-ray was less expensive than the DVD.

My theory is that the some industry was trying to push consumers toward the bright Blu-ray future. Maybe it was the Blu-ray consortium. Maybe it was retailers. Maybe it was both. I went for it hook, line, and sinker.

Somehow I had never redeemed a digital copy of a movie. Today, I can’t remember what my reasoning for this was. After Christmas of 2012, sitting in my basement, I decided to redeem all of the digital copies I had previously ignored. Some had expired. Some I was able to redeem despite their expiration date having passed.

Several weeks later, my wife and I were going to watch The Bourne Legacy. I took the Blu-ray disc out of its case and pushed it into our Blu-ray player. No dice. It wouldn’t play. I took the disc out and looked at it, then put it away. I took the HDMI cable out of our Blu-ray player and put it into our Apple TV. We then watched the film with no issue. That was the moment I decided I don’t need media anymore.

Steam. Digital PC games. It’s great. There are no boxes to take up space. There are no discs to take up space. I rearranged the media center in our basement about a month ago, and now I have all these DVDs and Blu-rays with no place to put them. I already sold the majority of my Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii games — but I still own the games I purchased digitally. I’ll probably hold onto my 360 and PS3 because I have digital libraries. I can store those systems with very little footprint, and bring them out if I feel nostalgic. (This is a hypothetical future. I own several 360 and PS3 games that I haven’t finished yet.)

So I had made the decision to go digital only. Then Star Trek Into Darkness came out on iTunes before DVD and Blu-ray. And I missed this film — the first film I was really looking forward to that I missed because my wife was very pregnant and didn’t want to do much of anything (I still love you Julie). So I bought it. On iTunes.

So 2009’s Star Trek was the first film I purchased on Blu-ray, and 2013’s Star Trek Into Darkness was the first film I purchased digitally, on iTunes. They’re sci-fi movies set in the future.

Now I plan on buying or receiving as gifts two more Apple TVs — one for each remaining TV in our home. I wouldn’t mind if Apple announces a new model next month. I’ve got to sell off these DVDs, Blu-rays … and CDs? Digital — I’m in!

Windows 8 First Impressions

October 26, 2012October 27, 2012 Daniel

Last night at midnight (all time zones), Windows 8 became available. I downloaded the $39.99 Windows 8 Pro version.

I installed it on my Dell laptop. I’ve been running Windows 7 on this laptop since I got it. It does not have a touchscreen.

Every time I install Windows — and I do it every six months or so — I format the hard drive first. When I started up the Windows 8 installer (running from a USB stick), I backed out twice because I didn’t think I was going to be given the option to format first. Turns out the option is there. I think there’s a trend in all software to make crucial processes — like OS installation — less intimidating to novice users. Unfortunately this also gives advanced users the impression that high-level options are missing even when they’re not. This is a very small gripe, but one that’s really an improvement for the group of users I like to generically refer to “people like my dad.” I’ll get back to Dad.

Windows 8 is the first version of Windows to tightly integrate a user’s online Microsoft/Live.com account. I appreciate this. Also, Apple’s been doing it for a while. One thing I don’t like about it is that in order to log into my computer, I need to use my Live.com password. For most people this probably wouldn’t be an issue, but I use a password manager (1Password) and therefore a long, cryptic, hard-to-remember, hell-even-hard-to-type-in password. That’s annoying, and I was not given the option to use a different (simpler) password to log into my machine. I’m still acclimating to the new OS, so I’m certain there’s a place to change my password. I hope that I will be able to have one password to log into my machine while maintaining my long and cryptic password for Live.com. I will update this post when I find out.

[UPDATE] If your PC’s account is tied to your online Microsoft account, the two accounts will necessarily share the same password. Making your PC’s account a separate account allows for a different password, but stops synching. However, there’s a pretty good third option. You can create a PIN number for logging into your PC. I kind of wonder if this isn’t designed for people like me. I’d rather have an alphanumeric password, but a PIN is tolerable.

I like the look and feel of Windows 8. It leans heavily on the Metro visual style (I refuse to refer to it by its proper name, “Windows 8 Style.”), and that’s a good thing. I would describe Metro as ultra modern. Again, good.

A quirk of Windows 8 is that it’s kind of running two operating systems simultaneously. On one hand, it runs more or less Windows 7, with a desktop, a task bar, Windows Explorer (called something else now), etc. On the other hand, it’s got the Metro UI, which will run all Windows RT applications. I consider this analagous to a hypothetical future version of Mac OS X that also runs all iOS apps.

The first installer I ran after booting into Windows 8 was Google Chrome. I didn’t even launch IE to download the installer — I have a copy on another USB stick. It installed with no issue, and as Chrome does the first time it runs, it asked me to type in my credentials so that it would sync all my bookmarks and extensions. This proceeded as it has every time I’ve installed Chrome on any machine. The 1Password browser extension is quirky and doesn’t sync like other exensions, so I installed it as I always do. It didn’t work the first time I tried it, so I decided to reboot the machine.

When I got to the Metro Start Screen, I clicked on the Google Chrome tile. Chrome launched and … prompted me to type in my credentials so it could sync all my bookmarks and extensions — as if I had never run it before. But I had run it only moments earlier! I looked around the screen, and noticed that there was no taskbar. Also, there was no button to change the size of the Window.

This was the Metro version of the Chrome browser.

I summoned the Start Screen and clicked on the Desktop tile. From there I launched Chrome, which had the 1Password extension installed (working normally now). I switched between the two versions of Chrome, nearly identical, running simultaneously. It appears that Desktop mode uses one user profile, and Metro mode uses another.

This is where I come back to users like my dad. I can’t imagine explaining this scenario to my dad, let alone telling him how to resolve it. Some quick Googling indicates that you can force Chrome to always run in the desktop mode, but it requires a registry hack. Facepalm.

Maybe Google will update Chrome with a checkbox in the settings screen to force Desktop mode at all times. Maybe Microsoft will patch Windows 8 so that each application to be forced to run in Desktop mode. In fairness, maybe there are updates available to Windows 8 that I simply haven’t installed yet.

But this is a problem. In an hour of use I encountered an annoyance clearly directed at making the experience better for novice users, then encountered what could be a serious problem — and I don’t know how I would explain it to users like my dad.

I’m curious about how IE handles the Metro/Desktop issue, but I doubt that I will suggest my dad run IE full time.

I anticipate that Google will work out a resolution to this problem — and I feel comfortable using the word “problem” rather than “issue” — but Windows 8 has been available in its final form for several months and as a full-functional beta for over a year. Why hasn’t this been sorted out already? I will monitor updates to the OS and to Chrome, and update this post as appropriate.

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