It’s bill-pay day, so of course I’m confronted once more with several payment portals that have security theater. What do I mean by that? I mean, stuff that looks like it’s some kind of security (preventing theft of personal information, verifying that the actor is the right person, etc.) but which doesn’t actually provide anyContinue reading “Bill Processing”
Author Archives: pirateguillermo
Sketch of a Street Scene
Walking along the street this morning, I saw this: a bearded old man, bundled up in woolen hat and puffy jacket, covered in blankets, surrounded by shapeless lumps of textile – possibly tarps, or sacks – sitting in a wheelchair and parked at the edge of a convenience store parking lot. He had, somewhere, aContinue reading “Sketch of a Street Scene”
Haxor to the Maxor
Today’s entry in the “put a computer on it” dopeslap file comes from Ars Technica. Turns out that ancient IoT devices are actually a giant security risk. If only someone had pointed this out at some time… Okay, so, maybe sticking the Internet into everything isn’t such a great idea? Maybe? Imagine a world whereContinue reading “Haxor to the Maxor”
Capture *This*
You know what’s dumb? Putting a “Prove you aren’t a robot” widget on your invoice payment flow. Imagine for a moment that you’re a service provider and you’ve done some work for someone. You send them an invoice, and now they want to pay you some money. With me on this hypothetical journey? Good. Now.Continue reading “Capture *This*”
You *Are* Traffic
Driving around in traffic, one sees a lot of license plate frames. Most of them are, essentially, advertising flyers for the dealership that sold the car (or the place that last serviced the car). I think this is kind of obnoxious, and so I’m usually very happy to buy a nicely anonymous frame. (Which reminds meContinue reading “You *Are* Traffic”
Why Zero-Sum?
On the easy levels, Civilization teaches you that it’s okay if you’re a pariah state if you’ve got the biggest military. This sort of tracks with realpolitik, but it’s only a partial match. See, this bugs me. Civilization hooks me with its complexity and infrastructure. I love building a complex system. But it fails meContinue reading “Why Zero-Sum?”
I’m Still Doing It Wrong
Let’s talk about Docker.
I Must Be Doing It Wrong
I’ve started this post several times, and still can’t figure out a clear path. I feel frustrated with the situation, and I don’t know enough to be able to make progress. Sometimes, writing a blog post helps me organize my thoughts so that I can see a way forward. So far, no luck. Once more,Continue reading “I Must Be Doing It Wrong”
It Writes Itself
Lotus is making an electric SUV. My mother will probably crack up when (if) she reads that. Ars Technica is kind of excited about it, but man. You know how the Ford Pinto was really well known for exploding when it got rear-ended? So, what if, on the heels of that, Ford was all, “Okay,Continue reading “It Writes Itself”
Mirror, mirror
Today I wrote a simple command line utility to mirror the dependencies for a swift project. And it works! That’s pretty neat, in and of itself. Then, because I could, I built a Docker image that has my utility installed, so I can use that image as the base for all my containerized application development.Continue reading “Mirror, mirror”