Author: rlerner
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How to Cyberstalk – A Conversation about Adversarial Stylometry
I’ve been sent bomb threats, had family called from people abroad, and been threatened to have my wife told absolute misinformation about my “criminal history”. This is the reality of having an internet presence when it goes beyond “casual Reddit troll” and “I run meme websites and shit post on it”. The reality is, it’s…
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Antique Kit: Priam Model 510 Hard Disk
I don’t have a massive amount to say about this, except for, DAMN. This is a 20MB hard drive. I’m talking a couple of songs, unless you’re a hipster, then one FLAC. Maybe one or two good RAW pictures, and that’s assuming you have another disk with the OS on it already. Let me know…
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Antique Kit: The IBM 5161 ISA Extender
Back in the 80s, you could buy a new computer. What would that get you? A few common things it could do out of the box: That’s…it. No, I’m not talking “BOOT TO WINDOZE” or “DOS” or anything else. No monitor, no sound card (tho there is a built in speaker). Just the above. So…
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Secret… Agent Man (DMCA)
Over the years, I’ve chased various certifications and licenses to be able to flex into different roles, learn new skills, and sometimes just because it’s hilarious. A few of these are Montana Black Bear certification, NWS Spotter Certification for hazardous weather, and maybe 15 or so others. Occasionally, I come across some that are useful…
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Some of my Projects
I’ve been building personal web applications since 2005. I have a long history of avoiding tracking / spyware / ads… and also making money. I’ve built forum software and image boards from scratch, photography sites, and a lot more. But I want to share a few of my current sites that I run, as I…
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Hundreds of Cameras Bears the Lolaroid
My wife and I spent the first few years of our time together traveling around the United States and Canada, stopping in antique stores and thrift stores and finding various cameras. We shared many of them (106 actually) on our site Camera History Project. Together, we learned about various lens types, SLR vs. TLR, How…
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Phantom of the Opera Ornament Repair Part 2
This is crazy. Most of the blogs I post with “parts” never see a final “part” because I get bored, go to another task, etc and backburner it. Finally, this one is “done”. That said, most of the meat here is over in Part 1… So read that first. The goal I left off on…
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Phantom of the Opera Ornament Repair Part 1
My mother in law was in town and took my wife shopping for her birthday at an antique mall here in town. They stumbled upon a Carolton Cards Phantom of the Opera ornament from 1999 that my wife loved. Other ones were selling for $300 (note there are a few different years and styles, and…
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Jailhouse Wine Time
Why Jailhouse wine? Without being to either, I would imagine jail is an upgrade from prison, and while I made prison wine using just grape juice and bread yeast, I think that the folks who are in temporary custody might have access to better ingredients, like aging oak, specialty strains of yeast, and better juice…
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Overcomplicating Atari Quality Assurance
Atari 2600’s are pretty impressive systems when you consider how many XBox 360’s are RROD’d right now and how many 2600’s are still running. That might be down to simplicity, or maybe engineering! For those of you that don’t know, I’m actively working on building an Atari gamepad with my oldest son. Recently, we took…
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A Dunce Cap for your Home
This is going to be a bit inflammatory. It’s a different tone than my other blogs. I chose Texas and love living here. But damn y’all. I grew up in the Midwestern United States, lots of agriculture and factories and figuring things out for yourself. The people back home generally view Texans the way Marlboro…
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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,…