Author Archives: mhoye

Crypto Is Not A Panacea

June 8, 2013 – 9:36 am

I was going to write this to an internal mailing list, following this week’s PRISM excitement, but I’ve decided to put it here instead. It was written (and cribbed from other stuff I’ve written elsewhere) in response to an argument that encrypting everything would somehow solve a scary-sounding though imprecisely-specified problem, a claim you may [...]

Posted in academic, digital, doom, future, interfaces, science, vendetta, work | Comments (1)

How Does Anyone Work In These Conditions

May 9, 2013 – 10:24 pm

A little while ago, the espresso machine in our office broke down. This doomsday scenario is, and I say this without the least bit of hyperbole, the most catastrophically dire situation that can exist in this or any other possible universe. If the intertubes felt slow for you the last few weeks, that’s probably why. [...]

Posted in awesome, digital, documentation, doom, flickr, food, interfaces, life, lunacy, vendetta, work | Comments Off

Lightweight Notepad In A Bookmark

May 6, 2013 – 12:26 pm

So, this is a cute trick that’s been making the rounds: In Firefox, right-click your bookmarks bar and pick “new bookmark”. Call it “Quick Notepad”, and in the Location box, put: data:text/html,<html contenteditable> and now when you click on that bookmark, your browser window will basically become Notepad, a very light text editor. File -> [...]

Posted in digital, documentation, interfaces, work | Comments Off

Summertime

May 6, 2013 – 10:52 am

Aww yeah.

Posted in awesome, beauty, flickr, future, life, parenting | Comments (1)

All Scrollbars Are Fleeting

April 28, 2013 – 12:47 pm

“For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph – a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking [...]

Posted in arcade, digital, hate, interfaces, losers, vendetta | Comments (1)

Raising A Revolution

April 25, 2013 – 9:39 am

I had a long conversation with the very excellent people of Samantha Blackmon’s “Not Your Mama’s Gamer” podcast the other day; I get rolling at around the half-hour mark. They’re quite flattering about the whole thing; we talk a lot about video games and parenting, and I had a great time doing it. One of [...]

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No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service

April 11, 2013 – 3:52 pm

If you own a public establishment, consider putting one of these near the door. The keynote file it comes from is right here, under a CC-BY-SA 3.0 license, and you’re welcome to use it as often as you feel is necessary.

Posted in business, digital, fail, future, hate, interfaces, life, losers, toys, vendetta | Comments (9)

It’s Not Just For Lolcats

March 20, 2013 – 9:22 pm

So, this is pretty awesome. How does Wells Fargo secure your communications channel? With animated gifs. Ladies and gentlemen, Wells Fargo’s security. And, not to put to fine a point on it, their opinion of how trivially gulled their clients are. Are you a client of Wells Fargo? I’m just asking.

Posted in awesome, digital, fail, hate, interfaces, losers | Comments (3)

Narrative Paralysis

March 8, 2013 – 9:33 am

Yesterday on the subway I watched a man write “KEY INSIGHTS” at the top of a page in his Moleskine, and then just stare at the page unmoving for the next six stops. He hadn’t budged when I stepped off to switch trains; I have to admit that as the minutes ticked by, I struggled [...]

Posted in a/b, interfaces, life | Comments (1)

That’s Too Much Machine For You

February 18, 2013 – 11:10 am

Man, how awful is it to see people broken by the realization that they are no longer young. Why are you being cantankerous, newly-old person? It’s totally OK not to be 17 or 23, things are still amazing! Kids are having fun! You may not really understand it, but just roll with it! The stuff [...]

Posted in awesome, documentation, future, interfaces, irc, linux, science, toys | Comments (4)