All posts

I sat down with the new SEC Crypto Task Force, they are legit
After years of silence, a game-changing crypto meeting.
Posted 2025-07-16 #blockchain

Affiliate link anything
Paste any product link here to turn it into an affiliate link that pays me a commission.
Posted 2025-03-03 #my-life

Is half the food you eat illegal in Europe?
I randomly picked up several food products off the shelf in Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s to see if those foods would be banned in Europe. This is way harder than you might think, and you wont believe the results.
Posted 2025-02-04 #research #health #food

Google and Apple's updated default search agreement
United States v. Google, No. 20-cv-3010 (APM) (D.D.C. Aug. 5, 2024).
Posted 2024-09-15 #business #game-theory

Package manager package manager package manager
Let’s pretend I’ve decided to manage my JavaScript projects with package managers.
Posted 2024-09-08 #humor #programming

Firefox zero-day: you can't leave this page (2)
This a 0-day announcement showing web pages can prevent visitors from navigating back away from their website.
Posted 2024-08-16 #zero-day #security

Hey are you open to working on projects right now?
Sharing my experience here with a spearphishing campaign where somebody approached me as a potential client. But their intention was to have me run software on my computer. The goal was assumedly to steal any cryptocurrency I have access to.
Posted 2024-05-05 #scam

How to fully spend AmEx gift cards on Amazon in 2025
Great news! You just got an American Express gift card!
Posted 2024-02-20 #how-to

Numerology for 1 to 10,000 things
Have you ever been staring at a list of things for sale. And they are serial numbered between 1 and 10,000, inclusive, and you wonder which one to buy?
Posted 2023-12-27 #how-to

How to connect Roku to Xfinity Wi-Fi
Connecting your Roku device to Xfinity Wi-Fi can be tricky, especially since Roku devices do not come with any built-in browser. This limitation makes the standard login process through a web page impossible. However, there’s an effective workaround using a computer to spoof your Roku’s MAC address, allowing you to authenticate on the Xfinity Wi-Fi network. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it, specifically tested and confirmed for the Roku 4K version.
Posted 2023-12-18 #how-to

Open letter to American Airlines about also-known-as name policy
Here is an open letter to American Airlines about multiple system failures we found on a recent trip. I hope this letter is helpful, fun and… actionable! Please let’s work together to make flying better in the 21st century. I still have a lot of the world left to see!!!
Posted 2023-10-19 #my-life

IRS proposed regulation for crypto
The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has proposed regulations for how taxes and transaction reporting will apply to crypto and other digital assets.
Posted 2023-10-16 #blockchain

You can break into these dApp admin accounts today
Alternate title: how to properly implement logins with a public-key system
Posted 2023-09-13 #blockchain

What is the worst thing that could happen if I sign a bad message?
Did you ever quickly sign a message and not know what it was?
Posted 2023-08-13 #blockchain #security

RainbowMask, use random accounts to login to Web3
Introducing RainbowMask, login to any Web3 website without making an account
Posted 2023-07-11 #blockchain #dumb-business-idea

The case for war against Canada
I trained a neural network using war-is-always-the-answer articles from Bill Kristol.
Posted 2023-06-29 #neural-network

Which campaign is from a neural network?
In politics, the mechanics of winning relies on getting broad messages delivered in very specific ways to excite people enough to go vote.
Posted 2023-06-13 #neural-network

The European Data Act and regulating calculator.exe
The European Data Act codifies requirements for smart contracts.
Posted 2023-05-31 #blockchain

Quasi fungible token and MiCA
This week, Europe passed legislation regulating markets for crypto tokens. This is the markets in crypto-assets (MiCA) regulation. There’s a few ways to read regulation:
Posted 2023-05-19 #blockchain

What is money, and how is Bitcoin/tokens different?
How well do you kow what money is? We will explore a few intuitive things that money is, break them down, and then see how Bitcoin and tokens on blockchain are so much different.
Posted 2023-05-15 #blockchain

Moon dust: auditable, versioned databases
Blockchain people have been to “the moon” and back down to Earth. We brought back moon dust.
Posted 2023-04-23 #blockchain

OpenSea cooperated transaction with SDN sanctioned entity
This article is a review of facts and is not an allegation of any crime.
Posted 2023-04-11 #nft

The future of Web3 is still custodial
And so was the past. A fairer title here would be “the future of digital-signature-based commerce (or ‘blockchain’) will still rely on custodians”. But we’re writing blog posts here, people, not dissertations!
Posted 2023-03-13 #blockchain

Why Plaid is a scam
Plaid.com is a company that collects bank account logins and passwords to “verify” your login to other quasi-banking institutions. They are a service provider to other companies, and here is what it looks like:
Posted 2023-02-06 #scam

Add your friends to the SDN list with this one weird trick
There is humor in this article title, you do not want to add your friends to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. This list is published by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and is used to enforce economic sanctions and other financial restrictions imposed by the United States government.
Posted 2023-01-28 #nft #zero-day

Does OpenSea Shared Storefront have a backdoor?
This project demonstrates how OpenSea administrators can take any tokens minted on the OpenSea Shared Storefront. This is a previously-undocumented backdoor.
Posted 2022-11-04 #nft

What kinds of things should be standardized?
A standard, in technical settings, is an established specification which allows any compliant thing to work with any compliant user of that thing, also known as cross-connect. It is a set of restrictions, or marketing claims, incumbent upon the standardized product.
Posted 2022-09-30 #coding

NFTs, good or bad for art?
In the beginning there were cats.
Posted 2022-05-05 #my-life #blockchain

My travel intentions
I would love to be on the road all the time meeting the designers and builders that craft the future we all see coming. This future is accountable, transparent, respectful of customers and increasingly built on concepts brought up by blockchain and NFTs.
Posted 2022-04-15 #my-life #blockchain

Monthly updates
Part of my own new year’s plan was to set a professional mission (inspired by Musk’s “Die on Mars”) and organize my time to getting towards that. Here’s the mission:
Posted 2022-04-01 #my-life

Ethics statement on buying NFTs
How can you tell if a blockchain enthusiast is shilling? Their lips are moving.
Posted 2022-03-23 #my-life #blockchain

The Perl script that rewrote Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four
I always dreamed of publishing my first book, a specific project, but it meant waiting for the 70th anniversary of George Orwell’s death.
Posted 2022-02-21 #programming #prediction

Randomization strategies for NFT drops
ℹ️ This article assumes a basic/intermediate understanding of game theory, blockchain transaction settlement, entropy (mathematics) and Solidity. However the conclusions and reasoning are usable to anybody evaluating risks with different NFT drop approaches.
Posted 2022-02-04 #blockchain

Ethics statement
This blog is basically essays I write to myself to reminisce and organize thoughts.
Posted 2022-02-04 #best-practice

Mission
Did you ever sing in the shower just get a few extra bars out while you’re alone?
Posted 2022-01-26 #how-to

Log4j2 more zero days
The log4j2 API is underspecified and still vulnerable to undefined behavior. Affects all versions up to and including the current 2.16.0.
Posted 2021-12-15 #security #zero-day

NPM zero-day: npm installation runs unspecified scripts with shell access
Description
Posted 2021-09-29 #zero-day

There are no NFT contracts before Terra Nullius
I have reviewed every smart contract on Ethereum Mainnet starting from Genesis (actually, the first transaction) up to Terra Nullius.
Posted 2021-09-29 #blockchain

OpenSea "private" token list exploit
Summary
Posted 2021-09-28 #security #blockchain

Number Board marketplace bidding vulnerability
tl;dr
Posted 2021-09-27 #blockchain #security

Whitelist and blacklist
Whitelist and blacklist are very simple words and have an unambiguous meaning. Below is a demonstration.
Posted 2021-07-30 #rant #youhearditherefirst

Mexican federal government COVID vaccination certificates are vulnerable to photo manipulation attack (en/es)
What is the the certificate?
Posted 2021-07-19 #zero-day

Multiqueue data structure
A multiqueue is to a queue as a multisite is to a set. This generic structure might be useful to some programmer somewhere and I haven’t seen it in textbooks, so here is an example in Swift.
Posted 2021-05-08 #math #youhearditherefirst

GitHub Pages zero day with wildcard subdomains allows anyone to publish on your site
Summary
Posted 2021-05-01 #zero-day

Upcoming event: Zero Day Live 2021-05-01 2PM New York Time
Zero Day Live
Posted 2021-04-30 #zero-day

The ethics of oot disclosing vulnerabilities
From Moxie Marlinspike in the Signal blog:
Posted 2021-04-24 #security #best-practice

Poker players getting scammed by Venmo password reset/instant withdraw
This article is being written based on evidence I reviewed from Russell Thomas and similar anecdotes he has heard as a pattern among professional poker players. I cannot confirm this is a trend, so I’m putting it out there and hoping you can share your experiences. If it’s a trend let’s make it expensive for Venmo to ignore!
Posted 2021-04-12 #security

Tesla announces the new model T
UPDATE 2021-04-05: Added some notes and caveats, thanks to a discussion with Russell Thomas
Posted 2021-03-24 #blockchain #government

Google Apps publishes administrator contact information
Summary
Posted 2020-08-13 #privacy #security #zero-day

Biosample permission token with non-fungible tokens
A new model for tracking permissions using established blockchain standards, and an application for biosample data, is introduced.
Posted 2020-07-15 #blockchain #business #privacy

WeWorked 0-day: unauthorized users can gain admin access and change their own pay rate
Summary
Posted 2020-05-17 #privacy #security #zero-day

The second SHA collision
These are two small files which are different but have the same SHA-1 sum. And we’re breaking the news here on Privacy Log.
Posted 2019-12-30 #security #zero-day

Compound Finance zero-day: prices can move faster than advertised
SUBJECT: BUG: Automated price oracle can violate guaranteed max swing without human intervention
Posted 2019-10-21 #blockchain #security #zero-day

Will's ZKSNARKS bibliography
Cryptology ePrint Archive: Report 2013/879 - Succinct Non-Interactive Zero Knowledge for a von Neumann Architecture
Posted 2019-10-19 #blockchain #list

Penna Turnpike Commission overbills ~$40M per year on turnpike violation notices, successfully avoids public disclosure
I have been sending Right To Know requests to the PA Turnpike to expose how much they are collecting by overbilling drivers that exit the turnpike with a ticket.
Posted 2019-10-10 #civics #investigation

IPv6 hurts your privacy, removes plausible deniability and is on by default
IPv6 is a privacy joke for consumer devices.
Posted 2019-09-27 #privacy

Zno customer uploaded photos are public, again
This is a 0-day announcement showing how photos that are presumably private and uploaded to Zno for printing can be publicly accessed.
Posted 2019-09-21 #security #zero-day

Safari zero-day: any website can request your admin password through indistinguishable popup
If you enable two-factor authentication on your Apple account and do not use fingerprints then Safari will ask for your admin account password when you visit websites. This happens at least once per day. This popup request occurs entirely inside the browser web chrome.
Posted 2019-06-24 #security #zero-day

Security flaws with Apple's two-factor authentication
Background
Posted 2019-05-05 #security

Live testing deployed Ethereum contracts with estimateGas
In this article, we will introduce a technique that allows you to test any deployed contract in arbitrary ways, without spending gas. It works on Ethereum Mainnet, Wanchain, Ethereum Ropsten, Hyperledger Burrow, Proof of Authority Network, private chains, and every other network based on Ethereum Virtual Machine.
Posted 2019-04-14 #blockchain

What is ethical hacking?
Ethics and hacking. These are two fringe topics that people get interested in, they affect a lot of people, but few entities invest in understanding the intersection. Here are a few articles and news sources (all support RSS) to whet the appetite.
Posted 2019-03-08 #security

American Express prepaid holiday cards vulnerable to enumeration attack
This a 0-day bug announcing a vulnerability with certain prepaid credit cards distributed by American Express.
Posted 2019-01-30 #security #zero-day

Mac software worth getting, free and paid
Here are the best Mac software that I have seen work well. First the paid ones:
Posted 2018-12-22 #list

Security vulnerability with United's ticketing system (0-day)
Nature of bug
Posted 2018-11-19 #privacy #security #zero-day

Storing arbitrary-length data in a Merkle tree
A hash tree, or a Merkle tree, is a data structure that allows you to take a lot of information and summarize it together in such a way that you (the “prover”) can succinctly prove to somebody else (the “skeptic”) that certain data is included.
Posted 2018-11-15 #math #blockchain

Weird data in Apple's systems about you
Recently, Apple quietly made available on its privacy website a place for you to download information that Apple has on file for you.
Posted 2018-10-26 #privacy

99% of Pennsylvania parents give newborn DNA to state database
Pennsylvania Code Chapter 28 provides that newborns will be screened and have their blood collected for testing various diseases. These blood samples include DNA information and these can be stored indefinitely in the state database. The chapter has explicit provisions in § 28.5 which say the information must not be shared with unauthorized parties. However no consequences exist for when this information is “accidentally” lost. Nor are any limits placed on state use of this database for law enforcement purposes.
Posted 2018-08-01 #security

Algorand white paper review
This article briefly reviews the Algorand [technical paper](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1607.01341.pdf as well as their white paper for investors. I don’t know if the investor paper is public, so I wont link to it. But if you have seen you then you will know you have the right on if:
Posted 2018-07-21 #blockchain

Nontechnical: what is ERC-721?
This post explains how ERC-721 works and does not require any prior knowledge of Ethereum or blockchain.
Posted 2018-06-24 #blockchain

Pennsylvania corporate tax records were available to public
I work for a company where we recently applied for a grant through the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. At some point in the application process you need to upload tax records and other documents. However, I learned that anybody could download all the records. DCED administers [over 100 different funding programs](https://dced.pa.gov/program/ and so many tax records for businesses (mostly small businesses) in Pennsylvania were affected.
Posted 2018-06-10 #investigation #civics

Token-curated registries, the uses and exploits
What are they, and are they useful?
Posted 2018-06-09 #blockchain

The timeline of ERC-20 approval
In Ethereum, the EIP process tracks standards, which are improvements to the state of affairs. Usually these standards affect interoperability of systems.
Posted 2018-06-09 #blockchain

The blockchain and know your customer (KYC) laws
Right now Web 3.0, “the blockchain”, the decentralized web, etc. are making a lot of people rich. People will seemingly do anything to get a few Ether so they can spend it on pictures of kitties. Here is the current best practice of how you can get Ether:
Posted 2018-03-27 #blockchain #business-plans

Martin Fluss "businesses" for sale
A man named Martin listed an “established” distance learning education business for sale. In actuality, no such business exists, as evidenced by a successful lawsuit against him, warnings published about him by others, and documents he himself has published.
Posted 2018-03-09 #business #scam

I was kidnapped in Manila and lived to tell about it
Other potential titles:
Posted 2017-08-09 #eastwest #my-life #youhearditherefirst

What happens when you send a zero-day to a bank?
UPDATE 2017-04-22: Corrected confusing wording, thank you Sujan. Fixed typos, thank you jacquesm, komali2, LanceH.
Posted 2017-04-20 #security

New questions for socialist thinkers: a 1950s view of socialism and capitalism on the modern US economy
(I originally presented this to Monthly Review for publication, but their review department is unresponsive.)
Posted 2017-02-18 #politics

Trump has turned media into liars
This is just one example of the continual stream of poor journalism related to US presidential candidate Donald Trump. I do not have an opinion on Trump and I do not defend him. However, when I dig a little deeper than just skimming the news, I consistently find that journalists are unethical or extremely incompetent when reporting him. And nearly every time this results painting a more damning picture of him.
Posted 2016-09-30 #civics

Password strength meter
This post is a reply to https://x.com/18F/status/778637006075154432 it shows two great user interfaces you can use on your website to show the visitor how strong their password is.
Posted 2016-09-23 #security #best-practice

Measuring economic growth over generations
Berkshire Hathaway’s 2015 annual report was released last week and it of course includes another letter written by Warren Buffet. There are always nuggets in there to help understand our world, business management, and even obligatory diet advice (burgers and cola all the way down). But in this issue I found a theme on measuring “economic growth” over time.
Posted 2016-03-08 #good-find #politics

Introducing System Bus Radio
This new project transmits radio on computers without radio transmitting hardware.
Posted 2016-02-29 #security

Trust is the biggest threat to privacy & security
Part of the reason I trust Google is because I assume that people who work there have values like me. If unethical marching orders came in one day then engineers might resist them or one person might leak it. It took just one technician to blow the lid off of Room 641A. Google’s past record of exiting mainland China because of Chinese spying should illustrate the commitment of Google to its users. This serves as an effective deterrent to people that might think of coercing Google to abuse its power. (Let’s ignore the fact that Google did NOT leave the US market when the NSA tapped its server room interlinks.)
Posted 2016-02-25 #security

Internet Marketing Ninjas client report vulnerability
EMBARGO: THIS ARTICLE IS HELD FOR RELEASE ON 2016-02-11
Posted 2016-02-11 #privacy #security

Poor security at OPM
And OPM wonders how the classified records of ALL their security personnel were lost…
Posted 2016-01-29 #security

Apple leaking private customer information over insecure HTTP
EMBARGO: This article was written 2015-10-26 and immediately reported to Apple. Actually published 2017-09-06.
Posted 2015-10-26 #privacy

Generic process to unroll any recursive algorithm
In computer programming, you run into recursive algorithms when dealing with a problem that exhibits similar substructure. Recursion will apply the exact algorithm to a subset of the problem and then combine the result in some way with the remainder of the problem. Using recursion can be very readable and elegant. You are not likely to come across a contrived usage of a recursive algorithm.
Posted 2015-10-12 #how-to #technical #youhearditherefirst

ProDPI ordering system leaking private customer information
UPDATES
Posted 2015-07-04 #security

Chase credit card privacy fail—email with transaction details
If you still use email, you are surely pinged with countless messages to notify you of updated activity on a website that it would like you to come see. Some of them are shameless clickbait, like Slashdot (“Bob sent you a message and you can’t see it unless you click here.”) Others are classy clickbait, like Facebook (“Sarah told you ‘Thanks for the present’, click here to see Sarah’s page.”) These messages are inconsequential and there is minimal privacy risk of sending those message over email, which is usually insecure.
Posted 2015-06-12 #security

All Zno customer photos are publicly accessible
Update 2015-05-15: It appears this one specific issue has been fixed as of today. Update 2016-10-09: Renamed title to Zno (formerly Artisan State).
Posted 2015-05-12 #security #data-leak

Practical dreams about saving the human race
Among the things that have kept me up at night:
Posted 2015-02-06 #riddle

Best radio shows from from 1940s to the end of the 20th century
UPDATE 2019-08-05: Added links to for shows to archive.org
Posted 2015-01-02 #list

Page One Power—SEO services billed hourly, plagiarism, claiming others' work, no accountability
I have been a customer of Page One Power for 12 months and after a failure to glean results from the campaign have cancelled the campaign.
Posted 2014-09-26 #scam

Look up social security numbers for living people
This website allows you to look up the last four digits of a social security number for living people if you provide their name and street address. Definitely no problem that they have this.
Posted 2014-09-09 #security

How to make the best out of jury duty
Su just got her third notice today about needing to reply to a jury duty summons.
Posted 2014-08-10 #eastwest #humor

Is Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) a registered nonprofit? Are donations tax deductible?
I have been trying to get involved in the FICS project, the largest and oldest free online chess server. After playing for many years there, maybe there is something I can give back.
Posted 2014-08-03 #investigation

Top stand-up comedy acts in the 20th century
Stand-up comedy is usually a one-person act presenting a story, analysis of a situation, or short jokes following some theme. I have reviewed myriad comedy acts from the 1900s and helped to distill for your listening pleasure.
Posted 2014-06-25 #list

Language difference between men and women
This post stolen directly from Cruciverb mailing list with credit to John Farmer and research from the team led by Marc Brysbaert. Cruciverb is the forum for people that design crossword puzzles for the big newspapers. The possies I roll with, you don’t even want to know…
Posted 2014-06-21 #good-find #math #technical

How to quality for Comcast Internet Essentials and Freedom Pop's reduced rates
Freedom Pop has cheaper rates for economically disadvantaged (“poor”) subscribers. Additionally they have will allow you turn off the “Auto Top-Off” option. This stops you from getting daily $10 fees while using the internet.
Posted 2014-06-20 #how-to

Black vs. African American—inaccuracies in medical publication
In an embarrassing echo of “politically correct” language from the 1990’s, a scientific press release illustrates why black people should be called black people:
Posted 2014-06-20 #rant

Book review: Duty by Robert Gates

Posted 2014-06-03 #book-review

Antidotes for salespeople / best techniques for selling
When is the last time you heard a TV commercial to drink more water? How about a radio ad to eat more fruit? Have you ever seen a pop-up banner telling you to turn the computer off and spend more time with the family?
Posted 2014-06-03 #best-practice #business

Google misappropriating use of social security numbers
Google does many good things for privacy of its customers, including leading a fight against the US government to disclose its gag-order-suppressed subpoenas and auditing security of its networks to fight against US government hackers gaining unauthorized access to exfiltrate client data.
Posted 2014-04-21 #privacy

Upper bound on number of diagrams in Chinese chess
After some work on the number of reachable positions for chess, I turned some attention to Chinese chess. Here is proof of an upper bound for the number of reachable diagrams, I am using the François Labelle from statistics on chess positions.
Posted 2014-04-19 #math

Update to 19 Questions
Just made an update to our online guessing game.
Posted 2014-04-06 #open-source

Banks are training you to be dumb
How many places that you do business require your social security number and/or a copy of your government issued ID?
Posted 2014-03-06 #security

Google can spell like a champ
Remember in the eighties when voice recognition was targeted as one of the “technologies of the future”. Maybe years now every device has crude speech recognition but only Google and Apple have gotten to the level where this is usable. (Does anyone remember trying to command your Motorola Razr by voice?) History of error rates of speech transcription.
Posted 2014-02-06 #good-find

Street tips that might save your life, and other advice right now
Happy New Year, and good luck on having a safe and happy 2014.
Posted 2014-01-02 #how-to

Ten things you can only do without Facebook
Starting the 2014 New Year’s resolution early, deleting Facebook now.
Posted 2013-12-17 #how-to

A big "fuck yo" from Obamacare
Q: What’s the best part about Obamacare?
Posted 2013-10-07 #humor

Hotpot only
This person tells you exactly what is on-topic and what is not. Stap focused.
Posted 2013-08-05 #my-life

Google compliance with CAN-SPAM act -- 0%
A majority (all?) of emails that Google sends are not compliant with CAN-SPAM legislature in the United States. Following are some examples. I have mailed a letter to the legal department and my direct legal contacts at Google and have no response. Is this the class-action lawsuit we need to make the big players out there take responsible email sending seriously?
Posted 2013-04-08 #rant

iPad apps to control desktop apps ("companion apps")
Following are some apps that you use as a companion to apps running on a laptop/desktop computer. Companion… as in the same way you use a mouse, keyboard and monitor to use an app. No one else seems to be tracking these, so here is my list, please share if you know any more.
Posted 2013-04-07 #list

Analyzing your customer data
This is the first part in a series about analyzing your customer data.
Posted 2013-04-04 #how-to

HSBC—"In the future campaign" taken a little too seriously
HSBC’s latest marketing campaign includes a list of things that are going to change in the future… with the idea being that they will help you make investment decisions to benefit from these changes. The only this is… all of these predictions are wrong. For posterity, I’m documenting it here with HSBC’s original marketing story.
Posted 2012-12-31 #humor

The vast majority of Philadelphia Parking Authority tickets are invalid?
Claim:
Posted 2012-12-23 #investigation #civics

Excel bug/feature: recursive VLOOKUP for hierarchy calculations
There’s lots of Q&A websites out there talking about Excel bugs that are actually formula errors, and others that talk about recursive VLOOKUPs when they really mean iterative. But when I say this, I mean it:
Posted 2012-10-24 #how-to

Automatic lover (pickup lines in Chinese)
From Jiayuan, the number one dating website in China (and maybe the world). When you try to reach out to someone new, you can type a message, or you can let it suggest one for you. Following are the most popular suggestions. These pickup lines apply for guys seeking girls:
Posted 2012-09-25 #humor #list

Restricting user content—case study jiayuan.com
Today we are looking at 世纪佳缘 (jiayuan.com), the largest friend match making website in China with 40 million users. Their revenue model is to allow paid users to send letters, but to read a letter you must also pay a monthly amount. You can send or receive a few letters for free and set up a profile for free.
Posted 2012-09-15 #security #best-practice

Why is it called ID theft?
This is the best explanation on the topic I’ve seen yet:
Posted 2012-09-09 #rant

Primal foods available on Amazon

Posted 2012-05-30 #my-life

Beards over time, facial hair and the economy
Research starts with a question. Here’s the question:
Posted 2012-04-25 #youhearditherefirst

Google prejudice
All of this data was produced 100% automatically by Google Suggest on this Google Docs spreadsheet, which you can edit to make your own funny blog posts.
Posted 2012-04-24 #eastwest

Stealing a bridge
This is one of the headlines in this week’s Economist:
Posted 2012-03-06 #eastwest #good-find #scam

The funniest and best ICD-10 codes
Situation: You’ve been involved in a water-skiing accident where your skis have caught fire and now you are being rushed to the emergency room.
Posted 2012-02-28 #politics #youhearditherefirst

Classic and modern job searching tips
ORIGINAL POST: 2010-10-04 UPDATES: New links at the bottom
Posted 2012-02-15 #bonus #finance #how-to #my-life #politics #scam #technical #youhearditherefirst

Axiom of choice [MATH]
I always thought mathematicians were stupid because something like the Axiom of Choice came out years after ZFC set theory, and it is still not universally accepted. But maybe those old skeptics foresaw something like what just happened to me…
Posted 2012-02-09 #bonus #humor #math #youhearditherefirst

Run an Excel macro on any file using drag and drop
Create an Excel macro, put that macro in a .BAS file and then use this script to apply that macro to any Excel file.
Posted 2012-01-20 #how-to

How to learn Chinese in 52 weeks without taking class or visiting China
You can learn to speak and read Chinese in 52 weeks without any classes. I did it in 100, but with the full roadmap you can do better. All items here were tested and 100% approved.
Posted 2012-01-12 #bonus #eastwest #youhearditherefirst

Visa payment processing case study: network flaws
On July 20, 2011, I went to purchase the new Macbook Air in Delaware—the home of tax free shopping. My Visa card was declined and I called to confirm the purchase. After returning home, I investigated the matter and found that my account had been put on hold due to suspicious activity. (They could have called me first, but problems with calling credit card customers to confirm purchases is already a documented problem.)
Posted 2011-12-30 #security

How to delete friends on Facebook (UPDATED FOR THE LATEST VERSION)
There’s two ways to delete or “unfriend” friends on Facebook.
Posted 2011-12-28 #how-to

Businessweek reports on race between second and third place candidates in Iowa primaries, completely ignores first place
Because the way our presidential voting is set up, only two candidates can have a chance. Getting points on the board for the first state is a big advantage. Following is the situation today in Iowa.
Posted 2011-12-27 #politics

iCloud interface case study: how to only show reminders
Stop using Google Tasks, switch to Apple Reminders
Posted 2011-12-01 #user-interface

这就是桃园吗？ Trip to Taiwan
So we got to Taiwan, which is a total of 22 hours of travel from Philadelphia.
Posted 2011-11-06 #my-life #travel

Sean Connery, Steve Jobs and Louis Vuitton
Sean Connery then and now:
Posted 2011-11-03 #good-find #rant

Directions to parallel park a car perfectly
Step one: practice
Posted 2011-11-03 #my-life

Which people on US currency owned slaves?
Just the facts:
Posted 2011-11-02 #youhearditherefirst

How to tell if you're dreaming
What do these 5 high budget movies have in common:
Posted 2011-09-07 #how-to #youhearditherefirst

Resumes in the East and West
Looking for a job is an involved process everywhere in the world, lots of applications, lots of interviews, and if you meet the employer’s expectations, lots of offers.
Posted 2011-08-27 #eastwest #youhearditherefirst

East/west PIN numbers
A PIN number is used with your debit card so that if someone else gets access to your card they cannot withdraw money from your account.
Posted 2011-08-27 #eastwest

Paying the bill at a restaurant
I went to the art store, and then painted this picture in the amount of time it took the people I was dining with to figure out how to pay the bill.
Posted 2011-08-19 #eastwest

112 is the new 911
Fact: 112 is the new 911
Posted 2011-06-08 #good-find

Quotable in Atlas Shrugged
Just finished reading Atlas Shrugged—what a find! This is only the fifth fiction book I’ve read (see my full list), and it was absolutely worth it. Even if you haven’t read the book, you can still enjoy these thought-provoking quotes and use them in everyday conversation:
Posted 2011-06-07 #good-find

Rock 'n' roll
Fact: until today, I thought the rock in Rock ‘n’ Roll was a noun… as in a geological feature.
Posted 2011-06-05 #my-life

Introducing Anasquare
Download the puzzle: Download PDF
Posted 2011-05-13 #youhearditherefirst

Your salary over the years
Here is the salary calculator:
Posted 2011-03-26 #finance #youhearditherefirst

US government spending
Question: Does the US government spend money on causes that the population supports?
Posted 2011-02-27 #politics

Goals update
Just an update, here are the latest goals:
Posted 2011-02-26 #my-life

Calling all alcoholics, sexaholics, gamblers, drug addicts
This is the official program for Alcoholics Anonymous:
Posted 2011-02-26 #rant

Surveys and statistics quiz
Today at the office, I am working on a survey of our franchises and compiling the data into something meaningful—about 40 pages of analysis. For inspiration, I am seeking other reports that describe the responses of large surveys (please let me know if you can recommend any good ones). I am particularly interested in the format that information is presented. In the midst of this, I present:
Posted 2011-02-02 #good-find #youhearditherefirst

Two out of 3 aint bad
Here is Will’s goal recap for the end of the year:
Posted 2010-12-21 #my-life

iPhone/Exchange/Gmail how to delete messages instead of archiving
When I was a kid, “delete” meant you were going to get rid of something… as in it would be gone after that. Google changes this definition. If you configured Gmail on your iPhone using Exchange with push support, the delete paradigm breaks down and instead your messages are “archived”.
Posted 2010-12-04 #user-interface

Review of Inception (2010)
Summary
Posted 2010-12-02 #youhearditherefirst

Buffer underflow
Found this comic I made in high school.
Posted 2010-11-21 #youhearditherefirst

19 Questions game
20 Questions is a game of deductive reasoning that gained popularity in the 1940s, notably through a successful radio show of the same name.
Posted 2010-11-20 #math #youhearditherefirst

Giving away all your customer details because of a checksum
The Philadelphia Parking Authority is often criticized for being one of the most taxing entities on everyday people in Philadelphia. In 2007, they reported a revenue of $192 million. Additionally, their expansion results in $11 million in annual red-light camera revenue. This indicates that they collect on average $212 per local driver per year. To understand this better, consider the number of licensed drivers and the population of Philadelphia.
Posted 2010-11-16 #privacy

Hallwatch 2
The Philadelphia government watchdog website hallwatch.org, maintained by Ed Goppelt, was shut down in February 2009. A new website, Hallwatch 2, looks to take its place. Hallwatch 2 aspires to make it easy to stay informed about Philadelphia civics by bringing visitors to the latest information. There is also a subscription service for Philadelphia tax records, deed information, and other real estate records, but information about that is scarce at this time. It will be a long time before Hallwatch 2 reaches its stated goal of becoming “the new Hallwatch,” especially in terms of Ed Goppelt’s success in suing and getting records from the city and bringing the whole community together.
Posted 2010-11-07 #good-find

Protip for eating
PROTIP: Close your mouth while eating, you sound like a horse!
Posted 2010-10-27 #eastwest

5 best foods
Here is my top 5 foods list in no particular order, this is a life-long work in progress.
Posted 2010-10-27 #good-find

How to export your Gmail account (or any other email account) to a ZIP file
You can save all your emails to a single ZIP file using Mac, Windows, or Linux (30 minutes set up max).
Posted 2010-10-18 #user-interface

Comcast internet FAQ communication case study
The Comcast High-Speed Internet website lists top customer questions as:
Posted 2010-09-29 #user-interface

Inefficiencies in the football betting market
Is there an opportunity to systematically win in the NFL betting market?
Posted 2010-09-27 #finance #technical #youhearditherefirst

The Mexicans are taking all our jobs, kick them out
Posting for a friend without a blog
Posted 2010-09-24 #youhearditherefirst

Reference for Chris—dupe merge
Posting this for reference, for Chris, and for anyone else who manages LARGE sets of media files. I’ve been using this script for 10 years, here is the latest version:
Posted 2010-09-14 #good-find

Buy no questions asked
Sometimes I have communications problems with Su:
Posted 2010-09-13 #youhearditherefirst

Free project idea—TXT auto-responder for train lateness
I’m clearing off my list of cool computer projects to do. This was a good one, but I’m going to pass on it, so you can have this one for free.
Posted 2010-09-12 #technical #youhearditherefirst

Convert FEN strings to HTML
Introducing the FEN to HTML converter. Paste FEN in, view the board and get HTML out. Does not use any images.
Posted 2010-08-30 #youhearditherefirst

Technical notes about KDE ksmserver
Hello all, here are some notes from working on KDE bugs 60894 and 62157 on contract with Google. ksmserver is an important part of KDE software currently maintained by Lubos Lunak and that made it difficult for me as an outsider to make large changes. I am including here notes regarding code I wrote in branches/work/kdebase_appgroups and branches/work/soc_ksm/ while working under Lubos.
Posted 2010-08-26 #technical

The 80s
What’s the difference between smoking and rubbing roadkill all over your face and clothing? At least the roadkill doesn’t make you look like an idiot.
Posted 2010-08-26 #rant

Mac OS X privacy case study: automatic, non-cancelable crash reports?
On Mac OS X 10.6.4. That’s a huge privacy no-no.
Posted 2010-08-23 #privacy

Epic: you are not prepared
If you haven’t seen this yet, there is 5 minutes of your recent life that was COMPLETELY WASTED.
Posted 2010-08-13 #good-find

Bank security case study: why is financial fraud so easy in America?
Because legitimate telephone transactions with a bank can be 100% indistinguishable from fraudulent transactions with scammers.
Posted 2010-08-12 #privacy #security

A comparison of Bush and Obama
I have been collecting notes that compare Bush and Obama while hoping, one day, to write a witty blog post about how in fact they are identical, but I never could reconcile their differences in speaking ability.
Posted 2010-08-11 #politics

Get this—language progress update
So I got this Chinese newspaper delivered to my house, 人民日报, $26 per year, delivered daily, yes really.
Posted 2010-08-10 #learning

English quiz
Please interpret this letter from PECO, quoted below:
Posted 2010-08-09 #youhearditherefirst

Firefox security case study: Mozilla's CSS :visited solution is still vulnerable
Javascript running on browsers that implement W3C standards today can allow the present page to find pages the user has previously visited. This would be very useful as part of a XSS attack where you needed to know if the user has already authenticated against a login system.
Posted 2010-08-02 #security

Is there a crack?

Posted 2010-08-02 #humor

Religious tolerance
I recently began rereading all the notes that I took during college, to keep the mind fresh while I’m waiting for SunGard to decide when the best time is for them to call me and offer me that job as a financial analyst…
Posted 2010-07-30 #good-find #politics #rant

Don't steal my Mac
Mac OS X 10.6 comes with CoreLocatation. Which is implemented as a command line program in CoreLocationCLI.
Posted 2010-07-30 #bonus

Why does e^(pi*i) = -1?
This cannot be stressed enough:
Posted 2010-07-28 #math

Google Tasks interface case study
Here is the API for Google Tasks. It only supports your default list and it’s read-only. And for free, it emails your task list to you. (This mail WILL go to your spam folder)
Posted 2010-07-28 #user-interface

Gun control
Even though I have never heard a legitimate argument for gun control, I beat the dead horse with one more example against it.
Posted 2010-07-14 #humor

TI copyright
From the BA II Plus calculator manual:
Posted 2010-07-13 #good-find

Are you fit enough to be an FBI special agent?
Test one: sit-ups (in one minute)
Posted 2010-07-13 #good-find

Revenues down?
One of the top grossing iPhone apps is free. Hmmm
Posted 2010-07-11 #good-find

The ultimate voicemail system ("the Voicemail Remote")
In the past when you called my voicemail, it would say:
Posted 2010-07-07 #how-to

New efforts in voyeurism and backlash
Normally, I keep the window in my room open from the top. But in an effort to hear my hot neighbors from across the street (I think they’re hot—I can’t really see them, but since everyone else in this building and neighborhood is male, they pretty much win by default), I tried opening it from the bottom at ear level.
Posted 2010-06-09 #humor

The most pathetic attack on western Europe in history

Posted 2010-06-09 #my-life

Health care reform—doctor shortage to expand the role of registered nurses
I’m a fan of nurse practitioners replacing the vast majority of doctors.
Posted 2010-05-28 #government

The thirdworld-ification of the United States
Anonymous post for a friend without a blog.
Posted 2010-05-20 #government

The shocker for computers
CTRL-A, S, CTRL-S, ALT-F4.
Posted 2010-05-19 #humor

Bathroom humor
Here’s the type of jokes I get at work:
Posted 2010-05-19 #humor

Finding good topics for discussion with normal people
Quote of the week 2010-05-04
Posted 2010-05-04 #my-life

Advanced and basic use of expletives
Quote of the week 2010-04-25
Posted 2010-04-25 #eastwest

How to increase advertising revenues with limited ad space
Problem: advertising revenues are down
Posted 2010-04-17 #good-find

Sexiest non-human characters in Disney movies
Quote of the week 2010-03-29
Posted 2010-03-29 #funny

Differences in study habits / east versus west
English-language test preparation books usually have a sample test and always tell you how to grade the sample test to measure your progress against the population of test takers, e.g. percentiles and a pass/fail level.
Posted 2010-03-26 #eastwest

Does automation lead to higher unemployment?
Here’s a comment to a blog post at:
Posted 2010-03-23 #politics #youhearditherefirst

How to play strip poker in Asia [pics]
A another post in the culture series.
Posted 2010-03-13 #eastwest

The looming healthcare bubble
Begin forwarded message:
Posted 2010-03-01 #government

Quote of the week 2010-02-05
Yes indeed, today’s quote of the day goes to baby girl:
Posted 2010-02-05 #my-life

Cute girl on the train
So there’s a cute girl I usually see on the train when I go to work…
Posted 2010-01-14 #my-life

Study advice for foreign students studying accounting in the United States
To all you foreign accounting students studying in the U.S.:
Posted 2010-01-04 #politics #youhearditherefirst

Alternative to antivirus software on computers
Quote of the week 2010-01-03
Posted 2010-01-03 #humor

All time in-flight best movie choices for international flight
You’re on an international flight traveling 12000 miles around the world over about 13 hours. You forgot to bring one of those neck things that the person next to you has and you can’t fall asleep. You walk around, pee (even if you don’t have to), talk to the attendants and finally return to your seat. What’s on the in-flight entertainment center?
Posted 2010-01-02 #best-practice

Why are people attracted to religion?
Quote of the week 2009-12-19
Posted 2009-12-19 #my-life

Problems using iPhone in NYC
What NYC lacks in iPhone connectivity it makes up for in sexy women.
Posted 2009-12-03 #my-life

Interesting properties of the entropy function
This may not be the first time someone recognized this, but I have recently discovered some interesting and useful properties of the entropy function and now share them.
Posted 2009-12-02 #math #youhearditherefirst

Developing advanced weapons capabilities in Iraq
I recently came across this job posting for the DHS:
Posted 2009-11-28 #youhearditherefirst

Timeless investing advice
Quote of the week 2009-11-24
Posted 2009-11-24 #finance

A look at primary sources from the Great Depression
Many people have forgotten about the Great Depression. This is unfortunate because the lost arts of modesty, saving and skepticism have passed with the last generation. A time has gone in America since great strides have been made. Now, since 2001, there is question of when America will again make progress. Please consider the Tytler Cycle:
Posted 2009-11-23 #finance #youhearditherefirst

Recessions make people smart
Recessions make people smart… the hard way. This concept really permeated my head recently when I saw two poster advertisements:
Posted 2009-11-17 #finance

Seeking books supporting US aid for Israel
Hello all, I am seeking a book recommendation in support (from an American’s perspective) of US direct aid to Israel. The ideal book would argue that support for Israel has a positive, measurable effect on United States interests. A lame book would talk about a moral or religious case for the existence for Israel (since this is orthogonal to US national interests, and a little thing we call the First Amendment).
Posted 2009-11-15 #government

Security case study: hashes for popular router passwords
The full list is here.
Posted 2009-11-07 #security

Low calorie diet in a bar
Quote of the week 2009-11-01
Posted 2009-11-01 #humor

Memoirs of a trip to China (东游记)
Here is a record of my recent trip to China, traveling alone. FYI, 7元 is about USD $1.
Posted 2009-10-30 #eastwest

Will's China travel plans
I will travel to China from 2009-09-26 to 2009-10-17.
Posted 2009-09-17 #eastwest

Who is taller, Chinese girls or American girls?
Look it up on Wikipedia
Posted 2009-09-08 #eastwest #youhearditherefirst

Funding the social safety net and deportation
Quote of the week 2009-09-02
Posted 2009-09-02 #eastwest #quote-of-the-week

Contents may settle during packaging AND OTHER HUMOR
Which one is 24oz and which one is 14oz. Zoom in to find out!
Posted 2009-08-29 #humor

Obscenity in Thailand
Geography for a day
Posted 2009-08-22 #eastwest

Fashion kills
Quote of the week 2009-08-21
Posted 2009-08-21 #eastwest #quote-of-the-week

Watch out from behind
Also, an English lesson: butt is usually singular.
Posted 2009-08-16 #eastwest

A list of all numbers on Google Voice
Update 2017-10-20: If you just want a good vanity number and don’t want to spend 1-2 days setting up Unix, contact me with your area code(s). I ask $30 for this service in BTC or PayPal.
Posted 2009-08-16 #user-interface

New Chevy Volt about as powerful as a lawnmower
I read about the new GM Volt and needed to inform you, loyal reader, about the numbers that are driving around. Please excuse my brevity as
Posted 2009-08-11 #math

The best number on Google Voice
I got a Google Voice invite today and had to choose which number I want. Of course all the repeated digits are gone (215-777-7772, …) are gone. Google provides a simple interface to find a good number, but this is the interface I like, grep:
Posted 2009-07-11 #youhearditherefirst

Security case study: Google Voice
Posted at best number on Google Voice we see a enumeration script run against Google Voice. This method uses multiple requests to acquire all phone numbers available on the Google Voice service. Probably not an intended use of the system.
Posted 2009-07-10 #security

GM bankruptcy plan approved: U.S. bankruptcy judge Robert E. Gerber fails
A federal bankruptcy judge in New York, Robert E. Gerber, has approved a reorganization plan from General Motors Inc. despite some outcry from dealers in Florida and other states. Part of his opinion follows:
Posted 2009-07-06 #government

Where's Waldo for Min
Min is very petite. Watch her hide behind this lamp.
Posted 2009-07-04 #humor

Snack food Friday
Another good day to get mail. This is my snack drawer. If you haven’t already, you cam follow me in the enlightened path to not being hungry at work by visiting pick me ups at work.
Posted 2009-06-19 #my-life #good-find

SEPTA R3 train catches fire
AT 17:38 today, the SEPTA R3 West Trenton train 371 traveling inbound caught fire at the Neshaminy Falls stop after running over an ATV. The engineer explained that one passenger driving an off road vehicle was crossing the tracks and had become stuck as the train was approaching the station. The engineer honked the horn and the rider fled the scene, abandoning the ATV. The train was unable to stop in time and collided with the ATV, completely driving over it. This immediately caught fire with smoke visible from inside the train.
Posted 2009-06-11 #my-life

Being a nerd is almost cool
Here is a chain mail I got in 2000 which will tell you if you are “Addicted to AOL”, or as we now say: are a nerd. Well, according to this list, being a nerd is now a lot more popular. I highlighted things which are now common/not ridiculous anymore.
Posted 2009-06-09 #humor

Q: How many continents are there?
A: Seven.
Posted 2009-06-07 #my-life

The new sobriety test
When police pull over a driver, they need an efficient way to ascertain whether that person is drunk or not. Here is the new test:
Posted 2009-06-06 #how-to

Pennsylvania use tax, do you pay all your taxes?
From the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue:
Posted 2009-06-05 #finance

Smaller discs to cover the unit circle
Here is a paper I wrote a while back in 2003 and wanted to publish to a math magazine:
Posted 2009-06-02 #my-life

Independent review of SEPTA performance
Here is a website I wrote that provides an independent analysis of SEPTA’s regional rail performance.
Posted 2009-05-15 #best-practice #research

You've got something on your face, left or right?
Somebody walks up to you and tells you that you have something on your face. They make a gesture on their left cheek to show you where the thing is on your face.
Posted 2009-05-11 #eastwest #youhearditherefirst

Zecco case study: how to enable cash account sweeps
This also serves as a short lesson in client-side validation/server-side validation. I could write a lot more on that topic, but not today.
Posted 2009-05-06 #security

Mismash of blog posts: Jehovas flying butter converting virus
Usually you should blog with one topic per post. But I am just so excited with news today that I am going to burst!
Posted 2009-04-25 #my-life

Grandmom bakes virus bread
I thought chain mail was a recent phenomenon. Meet friendship bread.
Posted 2009-04-24 #my-life

The best temperature to serve ahi tuna
Will: I’ll have the Ahi Tuna, please. Waiter: How would you like that cooked? Will: Um, no?
Posted 2009-04-20 #my-life #quote-of-the-week

Tee shirt
I didn’t slap you… I high-fived you in your face.
Posted 2009-04-11 #my-life

Real-time UPS/FEDEX tracking with GPS
Here’s an email…
Posted 2009-04-08 #how-to

FASB failure in mark-to-market accounting
The FASB today demonstrated its complete lack of backbone by suspending mark-to-market valuation for banks’ assets. This undermines the relevance of financial accounting altogether. In other words: banks and politicians win; “independent” accounts lose.
Posted 2009-04-02 #rant

ING Direct prevents millions from properly filing taxes
Here is the letter to The Ombudsman.
Posted 2009-03-11 #user-interface

Riddle: 5 lights
Here’s the new profile riddle:
Posted 2009-01-30 #riddle

You'll get older when I SAY you get older

Posted 2009-01-29 #humor #my-life

Best Craigslist prank involving puppies
Back in June 2008, someone posted this advertisement on Craigslist:
Posted 2009-01-29 #how-to #humor

Instant makeover techniques
I’m getting tired of your face, you should shave your beard. Miss Wang
Posted 2009-01-17 #humor #my-life #quote-of-the-week

Security hole: charge money to any mobile number
Web 2.0 Programming Model and Security Concerns
Posted 2009-01-17 #security #zero-day

ING Direct communication case study: how to successfully implement paperless billing
I have seen paperless billing implemented poorly many times… which is a shame because a little time invested in the IT department could save a lot of time and money in the mailing department.
Posted 2009-01-12 #user-interface

Peter Schiff feedback - 2008-12-31
I listen to Peter’s Schiff’s weekly podcast and there is usually a lot of good information there. Sometime I hear ridiculous things, so here’s my feedback.
Posted 2009-01-03 #finance #youhearditherefirst

LinkedIn privacy case study: stealing private data from your address book
IF you give LinkedIn access to your Gmail account in order to find contacts on the site, you may be getting more than you bargained for.
Posted 2008-12-23 #privacy

An open response to President Bush
On Dec 18, 2008, President Bush, referring to GM and Chrysler, said:
Posted 2008-12-19 #politics #rant

How to delete multiple posts in blogger
Use blogger draft
Posted 2008-12-13 #how-to

Q: how do you know you're getting old?
A: there a PBS documentary on Wu-Tang Clan
Posted 2008-12-03 #rant

You have a Bacon number of 5
(This is old news for me, but it may be new news for you)
Posted 2008-11-15 #youhearditherefirst

Chinese dictionary
The Chinese dictionary can get ridiculous:
Posted 2008-11-03 #eastwest #rant

Chinese books don't have roman numerals
In English books, the preface, introduction, et al. live on pages numbered with lower case roman numerals.
Posted 2008-11-01 #eastwest #humor

Q: what's worse than leaving your window open
Q: What’s worse than leaving your car window open on a rainy day?
Posted 2008-10-28 #humor

Stock markets have gone down over the last 10-year period
I’m surprised no newspapers have picked up on this, so I’ll post it myself. Many people have talked about risk in the stock market and have used this phrase to sum it up:
Posted 2008-10-22 #finance

Unlimited free money from the US Mint
Order $2,500 in $1 coins, free shipping (order 5 different coins in $500 quantity) Receive coins, deposit to bank, pay credit card bill Get 1% cash back from your credit card
Posted 2008-10-15 #good-find

Maximizing your clean with Old Spice or other alternatives

Posted 2008-10-11 #humor

Protein bars and whey protein, which ones have melamine?
Optimum Nutrition
Posted 2008-10-08 #scam

Pre-announcement, investment banks security flaw
I have found a pretty big security flaw affecting multiple online investment banks. I’m in talks with them now, then I’ll post it here after a while. Just so you know where you heard it first, I’m posting an encrypted message here. When this goes public, I’ll post the unencrypted message.
Posted 2008-10-02 #security

Q: how do you pass a $700B bailout bill?
A: You don’t, you pass a $900B bailout bill
Posted 2008-10-02 #how-to #government

Oil prices and election years regression analysis
I have heard that oil prices are affected by an election year. After some analysis, this is clearly not the case. Here’s the data, relative oil prices on election years and non-election years:
Posted 2008-10-01 #finance

110th congress H.R. 1424, votes by people up for reelection
Regarding: H.R. 1424 - Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
Posted 2008-10-01 #finance

Where do you get your finance news, why the DOW sucks
Here’s one of those “real content” posts.
Posted 2008-09-30 #finance

High volatility in the NASDAQ
Today is the third worst day for the NASDAQ, if anyone was watching…
Posted 2008-09-29 #finance

TD Ameritrade privacy case study: selling your position information to a third party
Here is some pretty conclusive evidence that TD Ameritrade is sharing your account positions information to News Corporation for profit…
Posted 2008-09-19 #privacy

How to read multi-lingual exit signs
How do you get out?
Posted 2008-09-08 #humor #my-life

Quarter life crisis
John: lol John: so what is new Will: just working now Will: waiting to see what it feels like when theres no school in september John: yea John: quarter life crisis Will: lol John: biggest jump in happiness from money John: already happened John: now u are just work work work John: for marginal gains
Posted 2008-08-25 #quote-of-the-week

Expense receipts for past food purchases
This is how much Chinese food I eat at work.
Posted 2008-08-07 #eastwest #humor

Review: Ralph's Italian Restaurant in south Philadelphia
Ralph’s [restaurant] is Italian; the veal parmigian was so good that I think I got sexually excited (sorry if that’s too much info but it was that good). MW
Posted 2008-07-08 #quote-of-the-week

Perceptions of foreigners and the US drinking culture
I’m glad I’m from Taiwan, so I don’t have to play drinking games every weekend. WY
Posted 2008-06-10 #humor #quote-of-the-week

ING Direct communication case study: improving eStatements
eStatements are a great proposition for companies: save money on a low-value service provided to clients that is legally required. Making eStatements more usable will reduce banks’ postage costs and save customers money. Unfortunately, banks focus on revenue, not customer service or saving cost. Let’s look at ING’s execution:
Posted 2008-06-08 #user-interface

ING Direct communication case study: account sweep user interface
ING Direct does not include an account sweep function. There is an HTML hack possible to do this but I will not discuss. Following is the feature users would expect on the site:
Posted 2008-06-08 #user-interface #how-to

How to add iPhone presence indicator on your website
You can add presence indication to your website, i.e. it tells people whether your phone is on or not. This works for any phone that can check mail on a automatically.
Posted 2008-06-08 #how-to

Illegal photo you shouldn't be able to take from LeBow
Me and AD
Posted 2008-06-02 #my-life

LAN party, now and then
I remember when having a lan party was just for nerds…
Posted 2008-05-19 #my-life

Baby Girl does not like wasabi peas

Posted 2008-05-10 #humor

ING Direct communication case study: failure in customer communication
On Tue, Apr 8, 2008 at 10:21 AM, ING DIRECT saver@ingdirect.com wrote:
Posted 2008-04-08 #user-interface

SanDisk privacy case study: do not click accept
Here is a scan of SanDisk’s end user license agreement
Posted 2008-04-07 #user-interface

How to host a theme party
This is a theme party, the theme is drinking.
Posted 2008-04-03 #how-to

What Firefox really needs
Firefox has been lying to you. They keep increasing their version numbers… but nothing is happening. The main selling point for Firefox 3 is “it’s fast… just like we used to be”. Here’s a table:
Posted 2008-03-28 #rant

Are you looking for a rhino thimble?
Are you Looking for a Rhino Thimble? One of the original eBay magazine advertisements.
Posted 2008-03-23 #youhearditherefirst

Munich and Prague trip
Here are the photos from my trip to Munich and Prague:
Posted 2008-03-15 #photo #travel

Motorola "unauthorized charger" error
Unauthorized charger
Posted 2008-02-11 #rant

Alternate methods of horses and water
Today is another quote from the internet…
Posted 2008-02-11 #quote-of-the-week

Phone, email, TXT battle
There are a lot of ways to communicate in this day and age. I have found that some communication channels consistently produce better news than others…
Posted 2008-02-09 #my-life

I calculated how much it costs to have a serious relationship
John’s wisdom never goes out of style:
Posted 2008-01-30 #quote-of-the-week

Engineers vs. baseline humans
Q: How is being an Engineer different than being a baseline human?
Posted 2008-01-29 #humor #quote-of-the-week

I'm not a poet
I wish I could write interesting and funny things for you to read. Unfortunately, I can’t. Instead, here’s some photos for you to enjoy.
Posted 2008-01-27 #photo

Quote of the week 2008-01-11
I have sex with farm animals, especially sheep. Juan, under duress
Posted 2008-01-12 #humor

As old as me
These are really old… like from back when I was born. Baby Girl (examining dinosaur fossils at the Academy of Natural Sciences)
Posted 2007-12-30 #my-life #quote-of-the-week

800-527-7415
800-527-7415 is a phone number for the Chase new credit cards dept.
Posted 2007-12-10 #research

XKCD ignores warming and velociraptors
In response to https://xkcd.com/164/
Posted 2007-12-08 #humor

MBA starting salaries
This is for the people who keep asking me what they should make after graduating:
Posted 2007-12-06 #my-life #research

This is why you dont start a conversation with "sup"

Posted 2007-12-03 #rant

Bake-off smack talk!

Posted 2007-11-09 #my-life

Older people using Linux
The new Greenspan book mentions Linux, just so you know.
Posted 2007-11-07 #youhearditherefirst

How to properly indent paragraphs (Mac + Windows)
Quote of the week 2007-10-21
Posted 2007-10-21 #humor #quote-of-the-week

LeBow Preston and Steve food drive details
Hi Will, I don't want to get involved in censoring, however I'm having trouble finding an appropriate relationship between a food drive and handguns. Are you able to replace the Preston and Steve image with one that is more appropriate? Thanks! Dan
Posted 2007-10-13 #humor

Religious proof of a flat Earth
Quote of the week 2007-10-13
Posted 2007-10-13 #humor #quote-of-the-week

How to avoid smearing nail polish
Quote of the Week 2007-09-09
Posted 2007-09-09 #humor #quote-of-the-week

Fashion advice for business and casual settings
Quote of the week 2007-08-27
Posted 2007-08-27 #humor #quote-of-the-week

Choosing the best roommates for a new apartment
Christopher Nolan: i got an apartment today Christopher Nolan: moving on saturday William Entriken: roommates? Christopher Nolan: no William Entriken: boring Christopher Nolan: noone to live with William Entriken: you smell that bad? Christopher Nolan: no, i hate my friends
Posted 2007-08-19 #humor #quote-of-the-week

Everything tastes like mint
I walked into my room today and found baby girl. She was in my bathroom making a huge mess. There was toothpaste on my sink, Polident tabs everywhere (for my retainer… I dont have dentures), and about a mile of floss strung out on the floor.
Posted 2007-08-10 #my-life #quote-of-the-week

How to get banned from Google
This is what happens when you are a hacker…
Posted 2007-06-12 #my-life

How to open SealedMedia files on Mac with Adobe Acrobat
UPDATE 2013-12-16. If you are still using spdf files, please contact me so I can update these instructions.
Posted 2007-04-10 #how-to

Superbowl 2007 XLI cybersquatting advice
I saw the Super Bowl this weekend and I know some people tape the game so they can watch it when they get home, so I’m writing a quick spoiler to make those people upset.
Posted 2007-02-05 #good-find

LeBow College of business billing
(This post has been edited. This is the original text, the revision follows.)
Posted 2007-01-26 #scam

Bad day
So yesterday:
Posted 2007-01-26 #rant #my-life

Erin Quinlan is the Prom Queen!
That’s right… Erin Quinlan (the tea cup) is Prom Queen. Just though you’d like to know.
Posted 2006-12-31 #youhearditherefirst

Never use BCC
First, what is BCC?
Posted 2006-12-11 #how-to

Not everyone looks their best all the time
The least flattering photo of anyone ever
Posted 2006-11-29 #humor

Just like a babby seal
I shaved my beard today. And I got a lot of reactions, so I’ll tell you about them.
Posted 2006-11-28 #my-life

Always use adblock
Just making sure you have adblock installed:
Posted 2006-11-11 #scam

World Affairs Council—net neutrality
I am attending the World Affairs Council session this Thursday 2006-10-05 to see David Cohen, the Executive Vice President for Comcast Corporation speak about net neutrality. They will likely support their opinion that they should have the power to charge for “guaranteed delivery of their services”. I think that this extreme and unchecked power is unwarranted, especially with their history of anti-competitive behavior towards Vonage.
Posted 2006-10-02 #rant

What happened in class today
What happened in class today? I heard presentations from every person in the LeBow program and got to meet fellow students, faculty and staff.
Posted 2006-09-22 #my-life

"Free beer" a flawed analogy
Please use the terms “Joe Sixpack” and “free beer” in a sentence that explains how Joe righteously denounces the giveaway to seek something even freer.
Posted 2006-09-11 #youhearditherefirst

Riddle: two coins
I have two coins.
Posted 2006-08-17 #riddle

DRM: controlling what you buy
There is an important issue affecting the consumer electronics world. New devices that are made and sold to the consumer will be unilaterally controlled by the creators of the device. What this means is that the next wave of products will not allow you to do things that they don’t want you to do.
Posted 2006-07-31 #rant

907068073421
907068073421
Posted 2006-07-27 #my-life

1,190,845 people had this in their profile
Of the 1,190,845 people I checked*, this many people have this in their profile:
Posted 2006-07-19 #my-life

Bicameral programming
You’re writing software and do the interface part first:
Posted 2006-07-12 #programming

Sing a song
Sing a new song a nice big songI got one in mine for youSo tell me what to do-oo
Posted 2006-07-11 #my-life

Why FairTax is stupid
Below are some basic notes against the book The FairTax Book by Neal Boortz and John Linder.
Posted 2006-07-07 #government

Hey we got ur thank you
Erin Quinlan: hey we got ur thank you card Full Decent: did you see on the back where i wrote I hate hannah? Erin Quinlan: nah lol Erin Quinlan: let me go see Erin Quinlan: no you didn’t Full Decent: madeya look
Posted 2006-07-07 #humor #my-life

Current notes patches diff kdesm
Current notes
Posted 2006-07-06 #my-life #programming

I got ksmserver compiled
I got ksmserver compiled, thanks to a few changes by Lubos! And the advice here http://kopete-qq.blogspot.com/2006/06/howto-upgrade-to-head-kdelibs4.html helped me get rid of my segfault.
Posted 2006-06-28 #my-life #programming

Some notes about my Google SOC project
Here's some notes I'm made about my Google SOC project.
Posted 2006-06-23 #my-life

Collatz research
When I was looking into the Collatz conjecture, I ran into this sequence:
Posted 2006-06-14 #math

Google SoC
I have been accepted into the Google SOC program. I will be working on session management for KDE. If those words don’t mean anything to you, it is unfortunate because there will now be technical content in my blog.
Posted 2006-05-24 #coding

Is it OK to skip wearing your retainer for a few weeks?
Do you know what it’s like to wear a retainer after you haven’t worn it in a long time? It’s like putting a fist in your mouth.
Posted 2006-03-14 #my-life

The molecular origin of hunger
the hunger molecules are accumulating in my stomach
Posted 2006-02-20 #my-life

Whammy pod
Mom: Are you saying that your friends are staying in that apartment past senior year? Full Decent <AUTO-REPLY>: Will, If you come home this weekend, perhaps you could give me some advanced I Pod lessons. Like, how to turn it on. What it does. How to wear the earphones. I haven’t used this thing at all. Love, Mom Mom: Hey, how did you get my email into the IM. Manually, or some type of hacker trick that automatically converts emails to IMs? Full Decent: No, when you get something funny you want to tell everyone, you put it as your away message - then everyone can see it Mom: So, I’m a laughing stock. I see how it works now. Careful, or I’ll put your nude baby photos on my website. Full Decent: ulth Full Decent: you have a website? Mom: Ha! Ha! Ha! No, that was just a joke. I can’t even turn on the Ipod, remember?
Posted 2006-02-16 #my-life #humor

Standards for online etiquette
I have been told several times that I have the absolute worst etiquette online. Well you know what? If you don’t have to wear pants to use instant messenger, isn’t it quite obvious that any other formalities do not apply?
Posted 2005-12-15 #my-life

Firefusk
Includes spyware! Phones home on each use.
Posted 2005-12-15 #privacy

Riddle: beakers
The AIM profile riddles are back! The old rankings are still in effect. The current riddle is:
Posted 2005-10-18 #my-life #riddle

Best language for illicit code
So public safety comes into my room last night while I’m sleeping with a fanfare of the head of public safety, head of network security and 10+ other people. One is standing by to turn off the circuit breaker, and they’re ready to seize my computer. So I sat with them in the living room to answer some questions. Here is the conversation between the network security guy (herein: NSG) and myself:
Posted 2005-03-05 #my-life

School is canceled
In the middle of the night, I learned about a mysterious and FAKE message canceling class for all Villanovans:
Posted 2004-09-19 #my-life

C++ STL set functions… and liquids that can write code
Are you badass with C++ STL? Then fix this…
Posted 2004-06-13 #coding

Bad phone sex (that used to be good)
Is it possible to ruin sex with a phone call, if the person who called you is the person you’re sleeping with?
Posted 2004-06-06 #my-life

The special ingredient for growing young trees
Kristin Quinlan: the tree to which you feed BEER was STOLEN from an ARBORETUM!? Kristin Quinlan: I legitimately purchased my tree, feed it water, and now it’s dying. Hmmmpppphhh.
Posted 2004-06-04 #my-life

10 weird things you can do on a couch
Ode to a couch
Posted 2004-06-04 #my-life

Riddle: answers to the coconut millionaire question
The last profile riddle:
Posted 2004-02-03 #riddle #my-life #funny