Author Archives: DocDock

bash – More powerful than a speeding locomotive

(flashback) Our project was inching closer and closer to going live.  On the evening before the Easter break some clod started a massive report which tried to process all the data since the beginning of time. My colleague’s inefficient program gathered … Continue reading

Posted in programming | Tagged , | Comments Off on bash – More powerful than a speeding locomotive

facial scans coming to an airport near you

We want to protect you from the world. I think that a lot of people want to do the right thing and protect others from bad things. Sometimes this takes shape in the form of a law or a rule that … Continue reading

Posted in Soapbox | Tagged , | Comments Off on facial scans coming to an airport near you

From computers to microcontrollers

I kept telling Mikhail that the big advantage to using the Raspberry Pi was no matter what project I put it into I could set it on the window sill and ssh to it.  It was a fast small and … Continue reading

Posted in programming, Setup From Scratch | Tagged , | Comments Off on From computers to microcontrollers

enhancing the privacy we still have

Is privacy is simply too much work? The problem is not that technology cannot help out but in my case it seems that I am constantly installing or setting up new computers or virtual machines and there is never the … Continue reading

Posted in security | Tagged , | Comments Off on enhancing the privacy we still have

security in obscurity

It didn’t make all that much sense to me. Why did the team write their own bug tracking application when they could have either purchased one or used an open source solution.  I guess the team felt that only they … Continue reading

Posted in security | Tagged , | Comments Off on security in obscurity

Reuse a Pi – Air printing

When the Raspberry Pi came out I went a but nuts and ended up getting a few of them.  I did give some away and did create some projects but unfortunately not all of my RasPi devices were a complete … Continue reading

Posted in programming | Comments Off on Reuse a Pi – Air printing

safe computing – weak case for weakening encryption

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. William J. H. Boetcker This quote has been often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln.  This is actually a very relevant thought with the respect to economics.  Indeed you cannot improve everybody’s lot … Continue reading

Posted in Soapbox | Tagged , , | Comments Off on safe computing – weak case for weakening encryption

just making it – revisiting my cube

Some time back, I had a fair amount lot of free time.  I spent the time working with a friend Mikhail in the evenings to create my own LED cube from scratch.  It was actually quite a bit of fun, the … Continue reading

Posted in programming | Comments Off on just making it – revisiting my cube

interrogating your code – dipping your toes into java’s reflection

Perhaps the coolest programming language ability that I was never allowed to use was reflection in Java. Why? Well, thats another story. What exactly is reflection? Well, reflection is a set of low level methods that can be used to … Continue reading

Posted in programming | Tagged | Comments Off on interrogating your code – dipping your toes into java’s reflection

Security in homogeneous systems

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been quite industrious in creating a new way[1] of tracking documents that could be “borrowed” from a person, business or government against the will of of that entity. This new document protection is the … Continue reading

Posted in security | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Security in homogeneous systems