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Helpful Articles

Understanding BMI: What Your Number Means

Last updated: June 15, 2023
Healthy food

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a widely used tool to assess whether a person has a healthy body weight for their height. But what does your BMI number actually mean, and how should you interpret it?

BMI Categories:

  • Underweight: BMI less than 18.5
  • Normal weight: BMI 18.5 to 24.9
  • Overweight: BMI 25 to 29.9
  • Obese: BMI 30 or greater

Limitations of BMI

While BMI is a useful screening tool, it doesn't directly measure body fat and doesn't account for factors like muscle mass, bone density, or overall body composition. Athletes with high muscle mass may have a high BMI without excess body fat.

Using BMI Effectively

For most people, BMI provides a reasonable estimate of body fat. However, it should be used as just one indicator of health, along with other measurements like waist circumference and overall lifestyle factors.

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Creating Strong Passwords: Best Practices

Last updated: July 2, 2023
Password security

In today's digital world, strong passwords are your first line of defense against cyber threats. Here's how to create and manage passwords that keep your accounts secure.

Password Do's

  • Use at least 12 characters
  • Include numbers, symbols, and mixed case letters
  • Create unique passwords for each account
  • Consider using a passphrase (e.g., "CorrectHorseBatteryStaple")

Password Don'ts

  • Don't use personal information (names, birthdays)
  • Avoid common words or sequences ("password", "123456")
  • Don't reuse passwords across multiple sites

Password Managers

Consider using a password manager to securely store and generate strong passwords. These tools can help you maintain unique, complex passwords for all your accounts without having to remember them all.

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Understanding Mortgage Payments

Last updated: May 20, 2023
House keys

When buying a home, understanding how mortgage payments work is crucial for budgeting and financial planning. Here's what goes into your monthly payment.

Components of a Mortgage Payment

  • Principal: The amount borrowed to buy the home
  • Interest: The cost of borrowing the money
  • Taxes: Property taxes (often escrowed)
  • Insurance: Homeowners insurance (and possibly PMI)

Factors Affecting Your Payment

Your monthly payment is primarily determined by the loan amount, interest rate, and loan term. A higher down payment reduces your loan amount and may eliminate the need for private mortgage insurance (PMI).

Fixed vs. Adjustable Rates

Fixed-rate mortgages maintain the same interest rate (and typically payment) for the life of the loan. Adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) may start with lower rates but can change over time, affecting your payment.

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What Are UUIDs and When to Use Them

Last updated: August 10, 2023
Code on screen

Universally Unique Identifiers (UUIDs) are 128-bit numbers used to uniquely identify information in computer systems. Here's what developers should know about them.

UUID Versions

  • Version 1: Time-based with MAC address
  • Version 3/5: Namespace-based with MD5/SHA-1
  • Version 4: Random (most commonly used)

When to Use UUIDs

UUIDs are ideal when you need unique identifiers without a central authority to coordinate their generation. Common use cases include database keys, distributed systems, and when merging data from different sources.

Advantages

  • Uniqueness across space and time
  • No coordination needed between systems
  • Hard to guess (security benefit)

Disadvantages

UUIDs are larger than sequential IDs (16 bytes vs 4 bytes for a typical integer), which can impact storage and indexing performance if used excessively.

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