From the archive

Posts

Small observations on making things, wandering outside, and noticing what usually slips past.

  3. 1 min read

    Jake's URL Tool

    I have hundreds of scripts that I use to automate frequent tasks as a network security engineer. While I’ve posted some of them to public GitHub repositories, I haven’t actively promoted them. I realize that not everyone has the skills to download Python scripts from Git repositories and install dependencies. Therefore, I’m starting to present these as simple web applications. Here’s the first public one: Jake’s URL Tool. This tool lets you paste a URL and receive a detailed breakdown. It’s especially useful for researching malicious URLs, such as from phishing attempts.

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  5. 1 min read

    Oblique Hallucinations

    Tonight, I coded up a quick project called Oblique Hallucinations. It uses LLMs to generate phrases inspired by Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies card deck. See it here. If you don’t “get it”, it’s probably not for you.

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  6. 5 min read

    What I Use (November 2023 Edition)

    I use a MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max at home. At work, it’s a 16" M2 Pro. My workflow is typically the Firefox web browser, Obsidian Notes, plus several terminals with zsh or bash. I use macOS for my desktops. For me, it’s the least worst option currently available. For most of the 1990s and some of the early 2000s, I primarily used Linux on the desktop. I had some short jaunts with FreeBSD and OpenBSD. I loved all the window managers and all the tweaking. Now, I just want things to stay relatively sane and stable. I’m not so much into the tinkering anymore.

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  7. 1 min read

    Action Jackson

    An iOS Shortcut for your Action Button to either silence the phone or launch the camera app based on its orientation.

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  8. 4 min read

    What I Use (August 2023 Edition)

    Operating Systems My workflow is typically the Firefox web browser, Obsidian Notes, plus several terminals with zsh or bash. I use macOS for my desktops. For me, it’s the least worst option currently available. For most of the 1990s and some of the early 2000s, I primarily used Linux on the desktop. I had some short jaunts with FreeBSD and OpenBSD. I loved all the window managers and all the tweaking. Now, I just want things to stay relatively sane and stable. I’m not so much into the tinkering anymore.

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  15. 1 min read

    The Items In @richroll's "VEGAN ON $25" YouTube Video

    Rich Roll (@richroll) recently posted a great YouTube video called “VEGAN ON $25”. In the video, he visits various stores and shows you what $25 will buy in plant-based groceries. I was curious and had some time to blow, so I documented the purchases below. Shoot me any corrections with any corrections. The less-than-economical trips: EREWHON EREWHON Organic Just Greens Smoothie EREWHON Vanilla Coconute Chia Smoothie Gelson’s 3 Bottles of Suja Twelve Essentials Juices Whole Foods Bag of Navitas Sun-Dried Goji Berries And now the more-economical trips: Trader Joe’s Bananas Two Bags of Trader Joe’s Russet Potatoes Pineapple Bag of Trader Joe’s Pears Bag of Trader Joe’s Kale Bag of Trader Joe’s Carrots Bunch of Apples 3 Stalks of Celery Bunch of Tomatoes India Sweets & Spices 20lbs Bag of Malabar Sona Masoori Rice 4lbs Bag of Red Kidney Beans (Shah Distributors) Vallarta 2.85lbs Navel Oranges 2.07lbs Bananas Pineapple 5lbs Carrots Bunch of Beets Grapefruit Green Bell Pepper 10lbs bag of Potatoes Kale Collard Greens 2.78lbs Large Red Apples 2.1lbs Roma Tomatoes 2.08lbs Fuji Apples And one or two more things Any Amazon links above are affiliate links. They are with Rich Roll’s affiliate ID. He did not ask me to do this.

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  17. 2 min read

    GQRX and RTL-SDR on Mac OS X El Capitan Quick Start Guide

    If you do a Google search for something like “gqrx el capitan”, you’ll find a few guides on using Homebrew to install a bunch of packages that’ll fetch you an old version of GQRX. It turns out there’s a much easier way with the latest version (2.4.1, at the time of this writing). Just download the app bundle directly from the developer. It’s as simple as an app you drag to /Applications and run.

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  23. 2 min read

    The NSA and Compartmentalization

    This week, the NSA has found itself in the middle of a couple of scandals. What people are not realizing is that the NSA exploits compartmentalization quite well. On one hand, it’s used to restrict classified information to individuals or teams on a need-to-know basis. On the other hand, the NSA uses compartmentalization to counter oversight and limit the visible scope of a goal. Take the call metadata program, for example. I’m not sure whether the program name has been leaked (PRISM is another program entirely), but let’s call it “HORSESHIT”.

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  24. 1 min read

    Macbook Pro Retina For Sale

    I have a Macbook Pro Retina (MC975LL/A) for sale. It is in excellent condition and has seen little use. It still has the new Mac smell. I can provide the original sales receipt to prove that I am the legitimate owner :).

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  25. 1 min read

    Lockheed's New Mystery Drone

    The DEW Line finds a new mystery drone at the Skunk Works facility. Update: (Maps link broken, included an image). I found the Google Maps link: http://goo.gl/RxgHo. Same image, same shadows, different bearing. So, this is probably their source.

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  26. 1 min read

    Fix for iOS 6 activation problems

    This only applies to legitimate iOS developers. I have no clue nor desire to help pirates. I assume you’re familiar with stuff like iTunes, DFU mode, etc. No warranties, etc etc. Update: This procedure probably won’t work on Hackintosh configurations. I’m getting reports of failures with 2500-something-or-other error codes on them. If you’re one of the iOS developers who installed iOS 6 Beta 1 only to be stuck in activation hell, there is a fix:

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  27. 1 min read

    Stop putting sensitive URLs in your robots.txt file!

    Webmasters, the robots.txt does not provide any security. It merely provides hints to search engines about what they should include in their search indexes, and search engines don’t even have to listen to them. Stop putting sensitive URLs in your robots.txt file. Even better, keep the URLS in there but tighten the access controls on them, so nobody can actually access them. The robots.txt file is one of the first things an attacker will examine for useful intelligence.

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  28. 1 min read

    Calculating Speed using a Webcam

    A cool project right up my alley using Python and the Python Imaging Library. This fellow is using motion detection + PIL + rough calculations to estimate vehicle speed using a webcam.

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  29. 2 min read

    Sort Of Unlock Your Verizon iPhone 4S For Free

    Update: I have confirmed this will not work fully with T-Mobile USA (and presumably other US carriers, such as AT&T) SIM cards. You may get it to connect to a tower, but it will not place a call. So it’s not a true unlock like what AT&T offers (yes, that’s a jab at VZW), but it’s still quite handy if you’re heading out of the country and want to use a local prepaid SIM, instead of Verizon’s pricey international plans.

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