Category: Uncategorized

  • The Case of the Secret Compartment in the plain-text file

    Hidden data somewhere in a big opaque file? Nobody would be surprised. But hiding in a very short plain-text file? It sounds impossible until you use Amazon’s AWS tools: % echo hello > hello % aws s3 cp hello s3://indiecomp-test/hello > out % cat out upload: ./hello to s3://indiecomp-test/hello Seems all very straightforward, right? The […]

  • In praise of commons-based development

    Let’s say you run into an operating system bug on a Friday afternoon. You post it on a user forum. You ask around on IRC, and you find somebody who can reproduce your problem on a different system architecture. (Ha, I’m not crazy!) You investigate a bit, but nothing obvious shows up. Monday morning, you […]

  • Thesis: What blockchain is for

    Last night I went to a blockchain meetup. Some presenter in particular enthused about applying blockchain to a problem where using it has no advantage whatsoever. Like almost everybody else these days I’m tempted to say. No wonder many dismiss blockchain as a complete fad. That got me thinking. What is the general pattern where […]

  • Indie Tech Rocks

    You didn’t know? In which case I have just the website for you: indietech.rocks On this site, we collect products that don’t screw you, the user. Eventually this will include all sorts of things, from social networking tools to toaster ovens. While there are plenty of lists for, say, open-software software, or privacy-protecting technologies, as […]

  • Reactions to Trump: which movie are we in?

    If alarmed reactions to Trump were movies, here are the plots: “Let’s focus, focus, focus, on the 2018 elections and wrestle power back from this pack of thieves at the next opportunity”. Starring: a posse of Young Democrats. “This is the fight of our lives to protect the republic. The shining city on a hill […]