A few months ago I stumbled across an interesting usage of blockchain technology: golem.network . To put it simply, it allows you to rent our your computer to do work for other people in a safe and decentralized way. This means that desktop computer you…
I've ranted about it in many posts before, so I will try to keep this short. Facebook and all the other "free" service providers are basically evil. They are in the business of taking personal and private things from you and in exchange they offer…
Many of the services we use because they are easy to use. And for many of these services, their owners have bad intentions and we know it - but we want what they're offering and we don't know a good alternative. I've written about this…
This is the name given to the services offered by the tech giants: Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, and sometimes Microsoft. Why do these companies get grouped up and named like this? Because they all have a common issue: they trade technology and convenience for their…
It's funny, the idea of going "Off Grid" in the real world often involves moving to the woods, digging a well for a water supply, and other slightly crazy things. Going "Off Grid" in the online world actually makes you go more "On Grid" than…
When I started on this journey, I thought I was going to write a post about how to move Nextcloud from one server to another. I had a few ideas in my head about how I could go about it. In the end, NONE of…
Stegogram is an application that can encode data (text, images, or files) into other images. You can see it here. Because one time I rented a camper van and drove around New Zealand for a week. I had a lot of time to think, and…
I already posted about my move away from WebFaction, so I thought I would give a brief demo of the steps it takes to set up a simple WordPress blog. In my opinion, it's not that hard. There's a hiccup here and there, but it's…
Yes, yes, I know the title is lame. What am I talking about anyway? WebFaction is a hosting provider that targets the "hobbyist" or higher. Someone who wants to feel like they are installing and managing their own applications - like Word Press, etc. Their…
I recently had the task of creating wedding invites I wanted to do something a bit more unique though. Everyone is using QR codes these days. I bet I could make an application for filling handling the RSVPs and give people a fancy unique link…
I've generated a report or two in my day. My usual tools of choice have been C# and a 3rd party (free) Excel library. Some notable 3rd party libraries are EPPlus and NPOI. I've used this approach because I usually had more time than money.
It's been a while since I've written. It's partially because I think most of my thoughts are only amusing to me, but mostly because I've been incredibly busy. A while ago I was talking to my friend Mike about words, and how we need to…
Harbin I recently went to Harbin, China to check out the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival and other attractions. I think snowy & icy landscapes are beautiful and Harbin delivered! I went for about 3 days. I left Dalian by train on a Friday…
This is a small excerpt from a trip I recently took to Harbin. It was a great trip and during it I got to see lots of tigers. While playing with my camera I discovered I could make gates disappear by adjusting the focal length.
Spoiler: don't waste your time or money on this game. The developers clearly aren't interested in supporting anything other than what they consider to be the first priority - which for now is giving away free content while their founder members deal with a buggy…
Here's another one for the "Just Wrong" department. It also makes me think I should add "what is the tech world coming to" tag. Why has it become acceptable for the default state of things to be broken? It's OK though, you can go to…
Everyone probably remembers Sir Newton's 1st law - Inertia. An object at rest stays at rest, an object in motion stays in motion. There must be an outside force to deviate from either of these patterns. I find this exactly parallels the state of many…
I'm writing this because I found ~10 articles on Google with a similar question and I didn't feel like signing up for 10 accounts just to help someone out. I logged in and also saw that it was running some patches - so obviously the…
It's relatively well known that E-Banking in China is a bit like stepping back into the early 2000's. Almost all of the websites look like they're from that time, and they expect you to be running IE6 on Windows XP. Well, now you're stuck. You're…
There have been a number of issues I've encountered recently that make me want to create this new category: That's just wrong. The big one I want to write is about Google, CDNs, and lazy Web Developers. But for now - NVidia. I went to…