As you might be able to tell from looking, something is different around here. So what’s changed?
I’ve switched from WordPress to Octopress, a Jekyll-based blogging platform that generates a completely static site. So there’s no database, no dynamic code (i.e. PHP), minimal memory footprint (which is great, given my recent hosting change) and best of all – it’s fast and secure. Using Octopress, it greatly reduces the security surface of the server, which means I spend less time worrying about updates and more time writing.
Thanks to the completely static nature of the platform, it’s extremely fast – it allows the server software to do what it does best: shove bits down the wire, instead of waiting on a database and parsing and executing dynamic code. In the coming days I’ll be tweaking the server software to optimize for performance, so it should get even faster.
I’m still trying to figure out the ideal workflow, but so far I think it’s the right platform for me. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep the friction low and spend more time writing.
So what about WordPress? I still love the product – in general. It’s not perfect, and while it’s easy to get running, it takes some effort to make it fast and secure – something most people don’t do. If you want a full CMS and you’re willing to do it right, WordPress is a great option.
Personally, there are some frustrations with WordPress that I’m happy to be rid of – not the least of which is fighting the WordPress editor to maintain code formatting. It’s little things like this, that has had me looking for better options.
For your average non-developer, something like Octopress has too much friction – as the tag line says, it’s for hackers. If you aren’t comfortable with Ruby development, this probably isn’t the solution for you. If you are, and you want a lightning fast, flexible, and powerful platform – it’s a great option.
You may have noticed that there isn’t a comment form – I’ve went back to not having comments.
While I do greatly appreciate those that have taken the time to leave a comment, comments make up the vast minority of feedback I receive. Twitter, and Facebook are more common – so instead of slowing the site down and wasting my time fighting spam, I’ll just turn off the comments.
If you have feedback – question, suggestions, anything else – find me on twitter for the quickest response.
ALERT: Julian Assange has requested political asylum and is under the protection of the Ecuadorian embassy in London http://t.co/bz4O9bjF — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 19, 2012 The news that Julian Assange has asked Ecuador for political asylum is flooding twitter as his supporters do their best to attract attention to his cause, and rally everyone they can to contact Ecuador’s embassy in London to urge them to grant Assange’s request. While I’ve watched the Assange case since before the first allegations came out of Sweden – that’s not my interest here, my interest is in what Ecuador could do if they wanted to.
Huge PGP files, an ancient version of PGP, and errors every time they tried to decrypt a file – that was my completely unexpected challenge on Friday. Dealing with file processing issues really isn’t part of my job description, but I’m the closest thing my company has to an expert when it comes to encryption, so the task fell to me.
After looking at the options and issues to get the server upgraded to a non-stone-age version of the PGP software, the easiest answer looked like decrypting the files with GPG – it wasn’t as easy as expected, but I did get some useful information that may help others.
One of the many joys of being human, is that we constantly face questions about our existence, from the seemingly simple (why is the sky blue), to the labyrinthine (what is the meaning of life, does pineapple go on pizza). Thanks to growing up watching Star Trek, one of these that has fascinated me is the question of artificial life. Thanks to a character named Data, a character that’s both relatable and entirely different, many have found themselves wondering if that’s what the future holds.
It has been 20 years since I first used machine learning to solve a complex business problem. The underlying problem was simple: the company was selling a new service and wanted to know who was most likely to buy it. We had millions of records, and each record had hundreds of fields. A vast amount of data, but no idea how to extract insight from it. Countless hours from various data analysts had been invested into finding a pattern, but none was forthcoming.
If you’ve bothered to look at Twitter or any technology news source, you’ve seen that Apple made a major announcement: Expanded Protections for Children. This has been written about by countless outlets, so I’ll assume you’re familiar with the basics.
The announcement covered a few new features being added to the next version of Apple’s operating systems, namely:
Scanning of inbound and outbound messages for sexually explicit images. Scanning images being uploaded to iCloud for CSAM.
