Security Stuff
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Learn How to Redacted Drive! Part 1
If you already know what an acceleration lane is, don’t go ahead and skip this. I’ve been behind you and I know damn well you have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. Why am I the authority on driving? Let me share my credentials: Now that we got that out of the way,…
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Manufacturing an Atari Gamepad, Part 1
If you’ve played the 2600, you probably thought it was the greatest thing in the world, but those rose colored glasses likely fell the first time you picked up something even as simple as an original NES controller. The joysticks that come with the Atari have this large rubber boot on the bottom: When you…
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Fixing an Atari 2600 Cartridge
One of my sons are homeschooled, and while he’s a bit young to understand assembly, or building his own computer, or writing his own Atari games — I can start with the fundamentals. What a better system to learn about computers than a game system, and one so simple that the component count is incredibly…
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My Most Useful Blog
I didn’t come up with this, I read it somewhere or seen it in a video. Regardless, more people need to do this. If you drop small stuff on the floor constantly like I do, don’t look around and the floor OR shine a flashlight directly away from your eyes — instead, sweep the beam…
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Arduino as a Clock Source
Quite some time ago, I built a Ben Eater 6502 computer. It was fun but frankly I’m too nervous to do anything cool with it but follow his tutorials. I wanted to take the clock circuit and order a PCB and 3d print a case that allowed me to switch from stepping, astable, bistable, and…
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Powering Up Christmas: A Creeper Clock Makeover
If you aren’t comfortable around electricity, don’t attempt this. Consult a professional. Make sure nothing is plugged in. Doing this may impact the warranty of the device or prevent the resale of the device. It feels like the plethora of garbage you can buy on Amazon is just designed to sell more USB power bricks…
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3D Printing a Microphone
A few weeks back, a friend was over for some prison wine. We decided we’d karaoke and have a good time, but I was having an issue finding a microphone. I had casually remarked “Well, I’ll just go 3d Print one”, and he said “There’s no way, right?” and I replied “Of course not!” Challenge…
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Wordfence and a Secure wp-admin
I use WordFence to protect my site from attacks, many years ago I helped a Redditor secure his site (maybe I’ll blog about it one day). He was using WordFence and it found a nasty local file. I’ve enjoyed it enough to where I spoke about it at a security conference a few years ago.…
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Using AI to Secure Legacy Software
In 2006, I made the decision to stop writing software for Windows (as much as I did at the time), and move to building web applications. The idea was that, unlike desktop applications where I don’t see my users and can’t do updates easily, in a web app I can. I spoke with my brother,…
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The Saga of Aldi Pruno
This is part two, for the recipe and story, check out this blog. Update: My Friend from the Midwest tried it, said 2.5 out of 5! It’s been several weeks since I made the Aldi Pruno (Prison Wine) — I followed some best practices, such as a proper airlock and sanitation procedures, aerating the wine,…
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Prison Wine: Why Some Laws are Dumb
It’s August here in Texas, and I decided to write a blog that shouldn’t come out for another few months. I wanted this to come out around a significant date for prohibition, but I don’t have the patience. I got to reckoning with an old Midwestern pal about some good ol’ moonshinin’. The story started…
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How to Read Resistor Color Codes