Lottery Post Journal

Holy mackerel, I just installed a new piece of hardware which is WAY too cool.

My wireless Microsoft mouse broke, so I had to buy a new one.  (If you're not using a Microsoft wireless mouse, you are missing out on the best mouse out there.)

Anyway, I was just about to buy a replacement of exactly the same thing (Wireless Intellimouse Explorer 2.0) when I noticed that Microsoft now sells that same mouse with a "fingerprint reader".

I started doing some more reading and discovered that the fingerprint reader is encased in the same USB dongle that a regular wireless mouse requires, except that it has a small oval-shaped glass sensor on the top.  It takes up the same space that a regular dongle takes up.

The device is designed to use your fingerprint instead of using a username and password everywhere you go on the Internet.  It comes with special software that stores all your passwords for you.

A side track here: my first worry was that I don't want something storing all my passwords on my hard disk for someone to hack.  So I did some research.  It turns out that all the passwords are stored with a double non-reversible encryption technique, using a key that is based on random elements, plus your password.  Meaning that it is a very unique key that is as hard to break as any SSL connection on the Internet.  Plenty safe for me.

Getting back to the story, For an extra $20 over the cost of my regular replacement mouse, I bought the fingerprint reader/wireless mouse.  Installation was very easy, but I think it's important to install the software before plugging the new hardware in.

The first thing I noticed is that it asks you for your login password into Windows.  Once it learns your password, every time you restart your PC and come to the login screen, you just touch your finger on the sensor and you are instantly logged in.  I am totally amazed at how FAST it reads your finger and logs you in.  Plus it makes a cool subtle beep noise through your speakers to let you know you're recognized.

If you have multiple people using the PC, it recognizes every individual person, and logs into the correct account.

Then, when you're surfing the Internet and create a username and password somewhere, you tell the fingerprint reader to remember your login credentials for that page, and every time you come back, just a touch of the finger logs you in.  Plus, like everything else, it recognizes different people using the same computer - for that one page.  Really cool!

The first site I tried it with -- of course -- was Lottery Post.  I logged off, and went back to the login page.  Then I touched the sensor to let it know I wanted to remember my credentials, and it popped up a window asking for my Username and Password.  I entered them, and that's all I had to do.  Now, when I click Login and go to that page, I touch my finger on the sensor, and it instantly logs me in like magic.

The cool factor from 1 to 10 is an 11.

The real up-side to this, as I see it, is that I can now create longer and more complex passwords, because I no longer have to remember them.  By doing so, I will have increased my personal security greatly.  What a great thing that I can increase my security level, while making logins happen instantly.

The only downside that I have heard so far is that it doesn't currently work with the Firefox browser - just Microsoft IE.  However, I have no doubt they'll ad support in the future, when the outcry gets loud.

Highly recommended.

Here's a link to Microsoft's product page for the fingerprint reader/wireless mouse:

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/productdetails.aspx?pid=035