We’re nearly 2/3 of the way from Y2K to Y2K38.
That thing you’d been putting off fixing? This would be a great time to start thinking about it again.
I have a shoulder dog.
When a coworker forwards you an email to ask if it looks like phishing, take a moment to publicly praise them for it. “Jane sent me an example of a new phishing campaign going around. Her instinct to let us know about it was exactly right. Thanks, Jane!” Reinforce the idea that Security has their back and will be pleasant to interact with. That’s how you get them to want to report things.
I told Keeva a funny joke.
If you’re writing an SDK, don’t include a section on how to fetch all the pages of chunked results. That’s your job, not theirs. Make that the default interface and provide advanced methods to fetch a page at a time if your user specifically needs to for whatever reason.
Don’t make users write this:
all_results = []
results = sdk.get_items()
all_results.extend(results.items)
while results.has_more:
results = sdk.get_more_items(results.next)
all_results.extend(results.items)
Let them write this:
all_results = sdk.get_all_items()
Looking at you, AWS and Dropbox.
I’m testing a new writing workflow to prepare for DEF CON. It looks like:
- Type something on my Freewrite Alpha.
- It shows up on my blog.
The advantage is that publishing is about as quick and seamless as it can possibly be. The disadvantage is that the published content is raw, first-draft quality. That’s a motivation to write it right the first time.
Scientists Discover a Cause of Lupus and a Possible Way to Reverse It - News Center:
Northwestern Medicine and Brigham and Women’s Hospital scientists have discovered a molecular defect that promotes the pathologic immune response in systemic lupus erythematosus (known as lupus) and in a study published in Nature, show that reversing this defect may potentially reverse the disease.
Please let this be true, even if it’s too late for some. Please.
Hack the Planet.
My Freewrite Alpha just arrived. While I’ve barely started using it, these are my first impressions.
Cool
- The device is even lighter than it looks.
- The keys are really nice. That’s one of the main reasons I got it, so yay!
- Cloud sync is quick.
Uncool
- I see why other complain about the unlit LCD display. It needs a fair amount of light to be remotely legible. I’d be nervous typing in the dark and worrying that it has turned off or other otherwise stopped accepting my words.
- It only allows 31 character WiFi passwords. That’s shorter than our home’s. That’s… fun.
- It only remembers the password of the last WiFi network you connected to. No quick bouncing between home (actually our guest network; see above) and phone hotspot.
- It can only connect to my iPhone if I put the phone in slower Maximize Compatibility mode.
The WiFi annoyances are my biggest gripes at the moment. Most of those can be fixed in software though. It’s a neat little device overall and I’m excited to put it to use!
I’m going to DEF CON next month. I’ll be live-blogging my way through it to give a peek inside wherever and whenever I have permission from the people around me to do so. If I hear a great story that can be shared, so will you.
This is an experiment. I’ll knock it off if someone tells me I’m being annoying. I’m there as an attendee, not as a journalist (which I’m not). It’s just that every year there are tales that need to be told. I’d like to help tell them.