First, the article. Check it out before you continue. — To begin, it’s worth nothing that it was a government-run healthcare program that accomplished this. It was smart people looking out for the greater-good of the people, which is what government is supposed to be. I am not a healthcare expert, but I’d say the reason this is…
Archives for 2009
Change Blindness
How to Manage a Cisco Device via Console Using a USB Port in OS X
Problem: you need to manage a Cisco device via console, but the only box you have available is your non-macpro-mac, i.e. you don’t have a console port available. Solution: manage it via USB. Step 1: Procure a USB to Console Cable It should look something like this. You can get them most anywhere. Step 2: Download and Install…
My Only Shot at Immortality
Like my religious friends, I too would like to live forever. The thought of there being an end to my learning–a point at which my lifelong tool sharpening goes to waste–is not a happy one. Here’s the only way I can see it happening (and I don’t think it’s too farfetched, either). We simply have to make it…
Fusion Tables: An Extraordinary Data Sharing and Visualization Tool
This is the type of project you expect to see from Google.
A Few Apache Hardening Basics
Here are a few things you should consider doing immediately after installing and configuring Apache. Not to be confused with an Apache hardening guide, this is just a list of three (3) minimums. Permissions Here’s a script you can run to harden the permissions on your web root. It will make sure ownership is correct (change as needed),…
Installing Apache Modules in Ubuntu
These are the ones I often seem to need. a2enmod headers a2enmod expires a2enmod rewrite Then bounce the service: /etc/init.d/apach2 restart [ If it seems like this post is a note to myself, that’s because it is. :) That’s how the entire site got started, actually. ]
Happiness: Creation vs. Collection
I have an observation that I’ve been mulling for the last few days: unhealthy people collect things. Healthy people create things. Naturally, statements like these always pivot on definitions, so when I say “healthy” here, I mean people who generally like themselves and feel happy about where they are in life. This isn’t to say that all people…
Disk Performance: Slicehost vs. Linode
One of the major performance metrics I looked at when evaluating Linode vs. Slicehost was disk performance. Here are the stats for my two servers as of a few moments ago: [ Performance taken with htparm -tT on both systems at the same time. ] Slicehost Cached Reads: 413.15 MB/sec Buffered Reads: 7.27 MB/sec Linode Cached Reads: 5576.59…
Social Media is Nothing But a Global Interface to You as a Person
The problem newcomers often make when thinking about social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) is thinking about it as some sort of additional thing–as if there’s a separation between you, and it. There isn’t. Social media is nothing disparate or foreign. It’s an arbitrary name we’ve assigned to “using technology to provide an interface to ourselves”. Your blog, or…
My Twitter Infosec List
I am really looking forward to the potential of Twitter Lists. Here’s my Information Security list. Ping me if I’ve overlooked you. [ Daniel Miessler’s Twitter Information Security List | twitter.com ] And here’s my complete list of…lists. ::
DANIELMIESSLER.COM Browser Stats
Interesting stats regarding what browsers are used most on my site over the last month–most notably, Chrome passing Safari and almost catching Internet Explorer. I have known since Chrome came out that it would become dominant, but this is a rapid ascent.
Processed Foods and Depression
Interesting information on the correlation between eating trash and being depressed.
The Best Video You’ve Ever Seen of Water Drops
Stunning.
Vitamins
I take vitamins. As with most things I believe in going with the minimum number of additions, each of maximum quality. As such, I’m currently taking just two supplements. 1. Irwin Naturals: Men’s Living Green Liquid-Gel Multi As far as I can tell, both by research and by feel, this is the multi-vitamin. First, it’s plant-based, which sounds…
The Only Class That Matters
To have “class” means different things to different people. Some think it means having money. Others think it means being able to identify and procure expensive, hard to attain things. Another lot think it means appreciating obscure types of art or music. The key to the word’s meaning, however, always hinges on the concept of refinement or advancement….
Harry Potter and the Extension of Reality
This will be a strange post. I just finished the Harry Potter series, and I’m a bit overwhelmed. I’m quite sure it’s the best series I’ve ever read in many ways. Not in all ways, but in many. Perhaps in most that matter. Anyway, I’ll come back to that later; that’s not the important part. While reading it…
One of Life’s Harshest Realities
There are many harsh things about life. The one people grapple with most is death, of course, but I see another that’s worse in many ways. It’s horribly unfair that we usually cannot live near our friends. When we are children we are stripped from close relationships because our parents had to move, or because their parents had…
SSD is Where it’s At
Like 10 years ago there was a single thing that would help your system most from a performance standpoint–add more memory. This, at the time, meant going from 64MB to 128MB, or maybe from 128MB to 256MB. The analog today, and for the next half decade at least, is switching from disk based storage to SSD based storage….
Removing Files from a Git Repository Without Actually Deleting Them
Sometimes when you first install git you realize you added a bunch of crap to your repository, which makes it bloated. Or maybe you have junk files like .DS_STORE lying around that you want to keep out of your git goodness. Here’s how to delete from your repository without deleting them from your disk. # git rm -rf…
Scientists Enhance Mice Brains
An interesting story on gene manipulation and potential implications for brain growth. via al fin
An Open Letter on Software Patents
My friend Richard is very passionate about software patents, and he’s in the process socializing an open letter he recently wrote to a number of outlets. He asked if I’d post it here as well, so here it is. — 5 Reasons the US Supreme Court should explicitly deny patent protection to software. Software is simply a solution…
Google Voice on a Verizon Android?
So Verizon and Google just announced a strategic partnership. Verizon also stated that they’re embracing openness, which means (among other things) they’re going to allow Google Voice on Android devices on their network. So this solidifies things for me on the mobile device front. At this point I see the comparison like this between iPhone vs. Android: Apple/AT&T…
Daniel Dennett on Free Will
I find this a highly practical argument, but not an absolute or reality-based one. He’s saying that because humans can see things in the future (such as a coming flood due to an oncoming weather pattern) and then take preventative action, we are exercising free will in the most meaningful way possible (harm avoidance)–even if we are actually…
Will Power in Finite Supply
An interesting study has just been published in Psychology and Health that shows that when you restrain yourself emotionally you deplete what seems to be a finite amount of will power you have for the day. I think this has interesting implications for people in certain fields, like day trading, or professional gambling. But I repeat myself. No,…
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