http://www.tlarson.com/blog What's Tyler Larson stumbled into today? Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:55:53 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en My recent post on creating and using bump keys generated a respectable amount of buzz, and I'll like to say a few more words on the subject. First of all, a few people have responded to me saying that I'm educating the criminals. That response was, of course, to be expected; ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2006/09/08/bump-key-follow-up/ Edit: 7/7/08: Two years ago I posted this article with the intention of fueling the fire of public discontent with the existing lock technology, with the hopes that it would drive the lock makers to respond with better, more secure technology. I've recently learned that the companies that make these products ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2006/08/16/bump-keying-howto/ I Need a New Blog. This one is largely an unfocused repository for whatever I happen to have to say at the moment. And while that was the original intention, it's not an optimal solution. So, I've decided to break my writings up into the following categories: Technical articles - How-to's, explanations, ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2006/06/24/i-need-a-new-blog/ I just started a technology podcast I'm calling the "Tech Tricks Podcast." The first show was posted yesterday the 21st, and runs about 35 minutes. Blogs are great, but podcasts are audio, adding a certain extra bit of interesting-ness. I'll, of course, continue to post content here, but please have a ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2006/02/22/tech-tricks-podcast/ I hadn't realized just how much your day-to-day experience colors your overall perception. For example, listen to this little (absolutely true) story. Last night, my wife and I decided to go to the store to get some food. It's been fairly cold recently, so we decided to have a quick look ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2006/02/21/all-about-perception/ I noticed my computer exhibiting a strange sort of behavior today. I recognized exactly what was going on, but I decided to take a few screenshots and write about it because most people are unaware that this happens. Here's how it goes: Confusion in the Task Manager You notice that your computer ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2006/02/17/tracking-the-lost-cpu-cycles/ My wife asked for an Xbox for her birthday this year. I would imagine that most of you won't get past that first line; particularly the men, who are wondering how I managed to find such a girl. But stay with me: this is a very serious essay about video games ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2006/02/12/playing-games/ I like RSS; I use it extensively to track intersting blogs, product releases, and now podcasts all using Thunderbird's RSS feed manager. It quickly became obvious to me that an email client really is the perfect match for RSS feeds, since the content so closely resembles an email message to ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2006/02/12/using-rss-bookmarks-with-delicious/ As a follow-up to my previous entry about flying cars, I'd like to take a little time to point out where, I believe, this technology has a future, and where it doesn't. Flying Without a License The first observation I'd like to make pertains to the popular concept of air travel for ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2005/10/26/flying-car-part-2/ Last week, I went to Boulder, CO, with my wife. Boulder has an airport. I have an airplane. I drove. The flight time from Colorado Springs is about 30 minutes in my plane. The drive time is about 2 hours--more than that in heavy traffic: the quickest route takes you through ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2005/10/21/flying-car-part-1/ Dictatorships are bad. Capitalism is good. We learned all that back in 4th grade after reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag in the back of the schoolroom. God bless America, and pass me a sparkler. The world is not so simple anymore. Guiding Principles The truth is, a dictatorship, if run ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2005/10/19/time-to-learn-chinese/ I was reading a newspaper article off some Arab site, when I came across this ad. This is a real adversitement. It's not at all photoshopped. Looks like you really can find anything online. Click for a larger version. http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2005/10/01/email-order-bride/ So, as you know, I recently upgraded to DSL from Cable. The Actiontec DSL modem provided by Qwest is really cool and provides quite a few features, but the firmware upgrade provided at the company website makes the thing stop responding. My self-assigned quest was to figure out exactly what was ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2005/09/24/actiontec-dsl-modem-hacking/ If you've ever had cable, you know that after your new-customer promotion is done, they about triple your monthly rate, that goes for both cable TV and Internet service. So once we had to start paying around $100/month for our basic service, we shopped around for other offers. Thank heavens for ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2005/09/19/new-isp/ I'm working on a user-friendly content management system (Wiki-based, for those who care), and I wanted to add a WYSIWIG editor interface, like HTMLArea has, for example. So, I dug through the javascript source code to find out how they do it. Obviously there's some real deep magic involved, right? After ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2005/09/11/editable-web-pages/ http://www.livejournal.com/users/nugget/97081.html A good communicator is one who can get you up in arms about an issue you previously didn't know existed. This article does exactly that. An absolute pleasure to read. http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2005/08/29/gtalk-critical-flaw/ http://www.flounder.com/bridge.htm Here's an interesting essay describing a particular type of problem we often run into when maintaing other people's work. There are certain decisions about a project which must be made, but which are not directly related to the technology or design of the underlying archetecture. While this fact is entirely ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2005/08/29/the-bridge-color-problem/ http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz How to make high-gain antennas out of cheap cookware. These examples exhibit much better results than some of the more complicated models that were popular in the past. http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2005/08/05/cheap-antennas/ Seen on Slashdot: Unix programmers like their code like the old legos. Each piece might be a different size or shape, but the bottom of one snaps onto the top of another and the ordering and number of pieces used is left as an excercise for the reader. With experience, anything ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2005/07/20/unix-tools/ Nearly every organization has a technology department these days. Some deal in nothing but IT, while still others outsource their IT needs to an independent contractor. Whatever your personal needs, you'll probably need to find an IT guy at some point. The field has seen so much demand that now ... http://www.tlarson.com/blog/2005/07/15/how-to-pick-an-it-guy/