RHFtech Help Desk

lastpass was recently recommended to my by Ed Bott as a multiplatform password manager. I like lastpass a lot. It does exactly what I wanted and needed and it is free. They have a product LastPass Premium which adds functionality—BlackBerry app and YubiKey multi-factor authentication—that appeals to me. The price is $12 per year for the service and an additional fee for the YubiKey of between $30-$40, depending upon delivery method. I was all set to buy both when I was confronted with a PayPal page.

In the past when I went to a merchant’s PayPal page there was an option to pay with my credit card and not have to login to PayPal. Not this time. This time I had to login to PayPal to make the transaction. They left me no choice since I had a PayPal account. I tried to use a different email address but that didn’t work because PayPal knew my credit card number. Although I could have used a different card I was not interested.

So I logged in. Now PayPal wanted to debit my checking account and offered no option that I could see to use my credit card.

I refuse to allow PayPal to debit my checking account. They are unregulated and, in my opinion, untrustworthy. I don’t let any business debit my account. I prefer to initiate the transaction to retain control over the account. I prefer to use my credit cards. But this time I could not.

Enough of this aggravation! I cancelled my PayPal account. I wrote lastpass.com an email explaining that PayPal debiting my checking account was unacceptable to me and that I was unlikely to buy their premium product or to recommend it since PayPal had become an impediment.

Robert B. of lastpass responded quite quickly suggesting that I could do what I wanted to do with a link to buy by credit card on the PayPal page. Sorry, Robert, that link was not available to me as long as I had a PayPal account.

Yes, I cancelled my PayPal account after this aggravation. Now I am too frustrated to go forward with the LastPass Premium transaction. This is too hard. I wanted something secure and simple. I wanted it on my terms. I did not get that.

When I need to find a graphic image—photo, picture, or drawing— I used to use Google’s Images search. However, there is an alternative interface, Google Image Ripper, that improves on Google.

Google Image Ripper (GIR) saves steps. GIR serves up the images. Google Images search serves up thumbnails with links to the webpages and maybe the image.

The nsfw (not suitable for work) check box on GIR is a content filter. If checked, images that might make you blush or offend you are displayed.

Below are screen shots of my search for small TiVo images on both sites.