Blog posts from 2007
-
vim google
Ben: http://www.google.com/experimental/ you can now enable google vim like bindings on web searches via cookie Grant: awesome Ben: you can join whichever experiment you want Ben: cool stuff Grant:…
-
The second disk of In Rainbows
I’m enjoying the first track of In Rainbows , Mk 1 , and it has a nice callback to the first disc over a gradual fade-in. Down Is The New Up has a nice start, and what could be more refreshing than a…
-
The Hard Sell
I just picked up 2 tickets for DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist’s current tour, called “The Hard Sell”. I’m seeing them at Sonar in Baltimore on Wed, Jan 23, 2008 at 08:00 PM! A lot of the show is broken…
-
Sparklines and data trending
I keep going on about Tufte stuff . I find sparklines really really amazingly cool. I currently use them in my weekly reports for management thanks to some software from Bizzantz and a spreadsheet I…
-
Conway's Law
Tufte finds Conway’s law frequently rearing it’s ugly head. If you’ve worked on engineering projects, or taken over for someone else’s engineering project, you’ll recognize it immediately. Any piece…
-
Tufte - Presenting Data and Information
I had the pleasure of attending a one day course on the presentation of data and information given by Edward Tufte in Washington DC. I already owned copies of The Visual Display of Quantitative…
-
Eternal bash history
Debian Administration has great advice for requesting that bash keep a history of all commands recorded. Add this to your .bashrc! export HISTTIMEFORMAT="%s "…
-
Damon Runyon and fall of the Republic
I’m poking my way through The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century ; a collection of short stories that looks a bit like an unabridged dictionary. I read Damon Runyon’s short story Sense of…
-
[Seasonal|Harvest|Solstice] Family Gatherings
While there is still time to debate it all: my wife and I are probably bailing on all the usual holidays this winter. How controversial is it to just not show up for Thanksgiving or Christmas? In our…
-
Chevy Chase
Chase did not enter medical school ; instead he played drums for a time with the college band The Leather Canary, headed by school chums Walter Becker and Donald Fagen . At the time, Chase called the…
-
Making Plans for Nigel
At work, Making Plans for Nigel came up on the ipod, which I blast through a Tivoli Model Two in our six-cube windowless office with the overhead flourescent’s off because we are all nerds. Queue it…
-
Beer Labels
We went down early January before the wedding to scope out the area and to meet with the folks at Weeping Radish . They just happened to not only be happy to provide us with kegs but also to print…
-
The Tower
An eight year old picture I took as part of a portfolio review requirement for UMBC. It’s the bell tower in Baker Park in Frederick, MD. I had no idea what I was doing. My dad’s Nikon happened to…
-
The Throne
In my basement: Note the seat is about mid-way between the floor and the 7’ ceiling.
-
BUSTER-NO!
Amanda wants a puppy in a few years. As much as I yell at my cat when he jumps on her cats with claws out, biting for their necks, it is nothing compared to the amount of yelling “NO!” it takes to…
-
keep your eyes open
A book of Fugazi photographs by Glen Friedman is available for pre-order for $30. Updated “keep” has asked for a review. Here goes: Keep Your Eyes Open ’s official release date is September 3, 2007,…
-
The Olympics
The Hipster Olympics .
-
DynDNS Mailhops will no longer send NDR's
Emphasis mine. Dynamic Network Services, Incorporated has come to a difficult decision regarding the handling of locally-generated non-delivery reports (NDR), also known as “undeliverable mail” or…
-
DGM Live
King Crimson (and more) live shows . Some at a price, some free. I’m listening to a show from 1982 that was a free download. Matte Kudasai I think is my current favorite tune of theirs, but I’m just…
-
What the fuck do we know?
We are adults, we don’t have to BLEEP. Wired news picked up an article from the Huffington Post (which is running a where-are-we-now update on a two-year-old Salon article about a stupid movie ),…
-
House Miscelany
Ken and Erica had an old Kenwood combo amplifier to get rid of, I had a a home theater system powering my living room audio kitchen audio and and the TV powering the TV audio. Great upgrade, Amanda…
-
Coke Cans
I knew I wasn’t the only person to dig the new coke can : I had a can collection in middle-school that got tossed in a move due to poor packing choice: I put them all in a large lawn bag instead of…
-
Haunted Armoire
I love craigslist . (not my craigslist posting, no idea who posted it) My wife and I found an armoire in an alley behind our church last weekend. Being an antique lover, she immediately fell for it.…
-
Threat Analysis
Wikipedia: Ford faced two assassination attempts during his presidency, occurring within three weeks of each other: while in Sacramento, California on September 5 , 1975 , Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme ,…
- J-Roddy Walston and the Business @ Artscape
-
Baltimore Artscape 2007
Artscape is this weekend in Bolton Hill. I’m going to definitely make the Saturday 5PM J Roddy Walston and The Business show, then maybe try to get over to the DJ booth for DJ Vadim , then back to…
-
Fast-flux Service Networks
Thorsten Holz of the German Honeynet Project has posted a very interesting article describing the methods used by botnet owners to hide command and control servers. I’ve seen much of it in the wild…
-
I am Obliged
I am obliged to record the things that I am told, but I am certainly not required to believe them–this remark may be taken to apply to the whole of my account. Herodotus
-
Dictionary Attacks
We’ve all been asked to use passwords that are more than just a word that could be found in the dictionary… Waiting for a conference call to start I took a look at a dictionary attack in a live…
-
Petey News
On Nat and Will’s dog Petey : Will: we bought Petey a stuffed Platypus that makes a weird squeek noise Will: when we gave it to him, he bit it and it made the noise, and he got all scared and…
-
FREE - to a good home
A large starbucks box on the kitchen table at work proclaimed in magic marker: FREE TO A GOOD HOME I peeked in the box to see what was being given away, expecting some vendor swag or gadgets. Inside…
-
Moving Again (last time for a long time I promise!)
From: We have a lot of practice, all in the last five years and not counting helping friends move: Moving to Columbia Moving Ben in from Ohio to MD Moving within Columbia Moving to DC Moving within…
-
There will always be doubters
And sometimes, they are even right … Date: March 5, 1974 To: Bob Metcalf and Dave Boggs From: R. T. Bachrach Location: PARC - Bldg. 31 Organization: GSL - 44 Subject: Comments on “Draft Ethernet…
-
Gimme Some Money
American Express is using Spinal Tap’s first single in a commercial.
-
Why even have Wikipedia anymore?
Truthiness really jumped the shark with this compendium of knowledge and answers . The mind simply REELS. On logic: A young man approached me at a seminar and stated, ‘Well, I still believe in the…
-
From the Block
Mashups? No, I want northern-skiffle covers of R&B; tunes. g-form - From the Block Brilliant.
-
Bloomberg on Terrorism
“There are lots of threats to you in the world. There’s the threat of a heart attack for genetic reasons. You can’t sit there and worry about everything. Get a life…. You have a much greater danger…
-
McSweeney's Sale
Checking out McSweeney’s was on my some-day-maybe list for a few years, and I finally got around to buying The Better of McSweeney’s, Volume 1 in BWI airport this winter. Great stuff. I’ve since…
-
Month of Random Hashes
Dear list, You asked for it, and we delivered! Due to the increased demand for more “Month of” projects, and the growing popularity of posting hashes to this list, we proudly present… THE MONTH OF…
-
Creation Museum
Ars visits the new creation museum . In popular mythology, the Ostrich is famous for hiding its head in the sand at the first sign of danger. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder is noted for his…
-
Shmoocon OLPC talk
This has been available for a while but I forgot to link to it: The Shmoocon talks on the One Laptop per Child project. The discussion has a bit of an information security leaning to it given the…
-
Plans this weekend - J-Roddy
This Saturday. J Roddy Walston and The Business Ottobar . Doors open at 9pm/ Show at 10pm - ALL AGES I’m hoping to make it after my step-brother Pete’s wedding, which is that afternoon.
-
Sgt. Pepper's
Happy 40th Sgt. Peppers ! In another innovation, non-US pressings of the album (in its original LP form that was later released on CD) end in an unusual way, beginning with a 15-kilohertz…
-
Gartner 2007
Slightly last minute tickets to the Gartner IT Security Summit just fell in my lap. Know Security 3.0 4-6 June 2007 Washington, DC Marriott Wardman Park Hotel See you there! I know, I know . I’m…
-
No-tech security
Via funsec : Software controls at the Carson, CA treasurer’s office failed to prevent the installation of a keylogger on a laptop. Theives used the keylogger to acquire the username and password of…
-
Frozen action
One of my current favorite photography techniques, or ‘hacks’, to use the parlance of our times, is to capture slices of time which cannot easily be appreciated otherwise. Mostly because it is easy…
-
Flavius Belisarius
Wow .
-
Fake Military
From Emergent Chaos : the TSA behavior detection team had the state boys in Florida lock up a gentleman in an irregular army uniform. The acronym for this magic (you knew it was coming) is “Screening…
-
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Rodrigo y Gabriela - 6/30/2007, 9:00 pm @ Rams Head Live! I just ordered tickets. Rodrigo y Gabriela are two fast-fingered, Dublin-based, Mexicans with a unique sound created on acoustic guitars.…
-
Schneier: Rare Risks Breed Irrational Responses
Bruce Schneier’s latest wired.com commentar is excellent. People tend to base risk analysis more on personal story than on data, despite the old joke that “the plural of anecdote is not data.” While…
-
Wedding Pics
Echard Wheeler, the photographer we had at our wedding, has posted a selection on his blog if you’d like a quick peek. If you’d like to see a bunch more, or buy prints: Pictage . The event key is…
-
Platypus
Creating applications with applescript is really easy but every time I use it I want to think like a shell or perl scripter and end up bailing. This has been especially annoying with the screenshot…
-
Mice Parade - May 27
Would anyone be interested in a Sunday night show in DC ? Would Pizza Paradiso in Georgetown be a good enough bribe? I caught this on my last.fm recommended events RSS . I’ve never been to the venue.…
-
Social engineering, tigers, and bears
Cross-posted from somewhere awful and edited to make sense as a stand alone: To paraphrase number 5 : Social engineering as a security audit tool, if actually providing any valuable information to…
- Yikes
-
DEAR RICHARD
The SomethingAwful forums have changed their privacy policy after a third-party IP sharing incident went public . If you are a member, check this thread for more whining. The old one: “We may share…
-
TV-B-Gone
Some folks were playing with a TV-B-Gone at the Shmoocon after-party at Adams Mill. Why do people think this shit is clever? I reached past them and turned the basketball game commercials back on.…
-
Wedding Vows
Amanda and I are mashing google-found vows with vows that our good friends have used, for our wedding . Aaron and Kathy filled in the gaps with our first effort, I rearranged some stuff. Here they…
-
Hi!
The site has been hosted on my powerbook at home for a while. Hopefully not for long.
-
Making Enchiladas
ProTip: Do not. I repeat. DO NOT use the oil that the ancho’s soaked in to rinse the seeds off the inside because it looks like water in a dark bowl. That water is full of chili oil. Chili oil…
- Erkghmph
-
The Eraser
Hardware failure took the site offline for a while. I’m hosting from my powerbook for now until we put the new server in place. Thom Yorke’s The Eraser is great for noodling along to for guitarists…
-
My Great-Grandfather's Record
Thomas Oriani was a police Washington DC Patrolman from August 1, 1888 through June 30, 1931. A photocopy of a photocopy of his policy record is in the family history I’m documenting, and it is…
-
Migrating this site
Textpattern is pretty rad and Wordpress seems to be large target for malware, so I have abandonded ship. That means I’ll lose some of the music sidebar trickery, so I logged into the last.fm account…
-
Eschatology
A bumper sticker seen in traffic: WARNING : In case of RAPTURE this car will be unmanned! Me: Ha. In-case-of-rapture-this-car-will-be-unmanned. Nice. Her: What? Me: The bumper sticker on that car.…
-
Family trees
A family history of the Italian side of my Mom’s family was assembled in the 1970’s. Aunts and Great Aunts of mine got copies of it at some time between now and then and fleshed out their…
-
New Server
Aaron put me in charge of setting up the new server that will replace the server on which this site and about 20 other domains w/ mail and websites, databases, and so on are hosted. We are using…
-
No
<p><strong>Deep Thought</strong>: Alright. The answer to everything&#8230;<br /> Two : …yes… [Fanfare starts up.] Deep Thought : …Life, the Universe and Everything… One :…
-
New business cards
Grant Stavely Information Security Management Engineering and Forensics Constellation Energy Neat-o.
-
Canon EOS Rebel XTi
The Sony F717 I’ve enjoyed for the past four years has been great to me. My only lingering gripe with the camera has been how slow it is between and leading up to each picture. As a combination 27th…
-
A Confederacy of Dunces
It isn’t very often that I stray from technical reference books and SF short stories and novels. I grabbed A Confederacy of Dunces after it came up in the a book forum I read and was universally…
-
Shmoocon 2007
The DC nerd convention I’ve attended the past two years is in March this year. Ben snagged tickets on New Year’s day for all of us. Neato .