Category: Computers


  • Fun With Regex

    We replaced the old ticketing system with a new one. Naturally there are people who are concerned about losing access to old tickets. So we looked at exporting all the tickets. My coworker had the better method of getting out the data with one issue. Because the old sytem used an HTML editor for a…

  • There is no enforced standard for passwords for a web site, so they can be all over the place for requirements. Nor do sites typically explain what are the exact standards before a failure. And then most will state the minimum and types of characters. But, too many leave out the maximum number of characters allowed so…

  • For a while my self-hosted WordPress has been a royal pain in the ass. Trying to compose through the WordPress.com interface through Jetpack would show occasional errors that “Saving of draft failed” or an inability to communicate. Sometimes it was usable, sometimes there were so many errors I gave up and used the site. The…

  • Ran across a site where if one changes the email address associated with the account, it sends the confirmation email to the new address. Say, I am a Blackhat and used a phishing attack to get the password for the account. Having legitimately logged in, I then change the email address associated with it from victim@outlook.com…

  • Well, it came true for me. Facebook pushed to me the new feature of comment threads appearing in a chat box. I hate the chat box on Facebook. I keep an open tab for messages for ongoing conversations specifically because that seems to suppress the chat box. I do not mind the notifications at the top…

  • I love Michael Lopp’s writing in Rands In Repose. His entry The Likeability Feedback Loop captures why I still have my RSS reader and try to comment on posts that engage me. Social media gleefully feeds a post-truth society and it does so by design, but social media is not the problem. Fake news is…

  • Zittrain’s set of tweets was interesting reading. 23/ There's more beyond "like" and "share" to help people looking more for information than fun help examine their own assumptions. — Jonathan Zittrain (@zittrain) November 15, 2016 Lots more on it: best, 1, 2, 3. There is an interesting plug-in called Media Bias/Fact Check which will help show…

  • Mental note for the next time I take my laptop to a meeting. Undocking the laptop will gray out the headphone. This makes sense because the headphones are plugged into the dock jack. Putting it back in the dock will not restore it. You will need to go into Sounds > Playback. Enable the Headphone option.…

  • Friends of Friends

    Occasionally friends will see something they like and tag another friend in a comment. In general, I have a privacy level of Friends on my posts. Non-mutual friends are not able to see these tags. I knew about and disliked these options: Leave it alone. The friend’s friend has no idea the post exists unless someone…