Computers IRL #7
As seen on Antwerp's Tram #1: the screens showing route and upcoming stops is in a startup loop. ERROR: SIM not inserted. Repeated every ten seconds. Guessing the SIM card…
Weinberg’s Second Law
If builders constructed buildings the way programmers write software, the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization. Gerald Weinberg, an early computer science professor and practitioner, may have made…
The Importance of Computer Security
In The Cuckoo's Egg, Cliff Stoll recounts the true story of how a $0.75 billing discrepancy ultimately uncovered a German spy ring selling US military secrets to the KGB. Stoll's…
KCDC 2025
You would have found me last week at the Kansas City Convention Center for my first KCDC, as an attendee and a speaker. This year's conference is their sixteenth edition…
OPNSense Port Forwarding
I recently replaced my home router with a device running OPNSense. Very successful production deployment. I deployed a Navidrome server for streaming my personal music collection to Subsonic-supported clients. I…
OPNSense on Protectli Vault 1610
Overview A Cisco LRT224 Dual WAN router has been the cornerstone of my home network for over a decade: solid, easy to configure, above-average performance, VPN server, and other prosumer…
API Standards ARE Data Standards
"Amelia in Code" by donnierayjones is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Aside from those whom have ignored technology trends for the last twenty years, everyone else is aware of -…
Maintainable Code #1
This code snippet (FirJvmStaticChecker.kt:72) caught my eye while digging into Kotlin codebase: if ( container !is FirClassSymbol || container.classKind != ClassKind.OBJECT || !container.isCompanion() && containerIsAnonymous ) { ... } else…
NDC Oslo 2025
NDC Oslo is a software development conference in Oslo, Norway, part of the NDC Conferences portfolio. Originally focused on Microsoft technologies - I believe NDC stands (stood?) for Dot Net…
Computers IRL #6
As a user of Microsoft Windows - whether software developer, business user, or generic web browser - it's inevitable that you'll see this dialog, usually at a most inopportune time.…