I’ve been a daily user of YubiKeys since 2018. These little devices pack a hefty security punch with a number of useful features, including universal second factor (U2F), time-based one-time passwords (TOTP), static passwords, and personal identity verification (PIV).
This article contains an excellent overview of all the functions and how to use them. If you’re at all interesting in beefing up your security posture, I can’t recommend it highly enough.
According to the behind the scenes documentaries, the designers working on The Lord of the Rings trilogy spent countless hours adding details to the various costumes, weapons, and other props used on the film, including details that were on the inside of garments or other places that would never be seen on the screen. They wanted these items to feel real to the actors, but I also imagine there was a simple love of craft that drove them to put their absolute best into their work.
This same attention to detail is applicable to software development. Rarely will an end user ever see the source code that runs her favorite app, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth making just as beautiful as what ends up in the interface. Beauty inspires quality, and there’s some things worth doing well even if just for yourself.
Of course one must balance this against deadlines and the needs of the customer, but whenever possible, pay attention to the details.
As I get older, the more I’ve reflected on ways I can give back to organizations and communities that have had a big influence in my life. It’s why I contribute to open source projects. It’s why I respond to Stack Overflow posts (or at least try to periodically). And it’s why I give to the Wikimedia Foundation.
Despite it’s quirks and occasional inaccuracies, Wikipedia is a modern miracle of information that has shaped countless lives in inestimable ways. I find their mission statement a beautiful ideal: “a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.” Knowledge isn’t everything, but it’s a significant something; a necessary ingredient to human flourishing. And I’m happy to do my part to increase its presence in the world.
Decent lighting is essential when wanting to exude professionalism in a video call. But sometimes you either don’t have equipment at hand or don’t want to mess with it. As a stopgap, I’ve discovered that if I open up a few browser windows with light backgrounds they can help illuminate my face, but the results are a bit bluer than I’d otherwise prefer.
It got me thinking if I could build a simple website that would be nothing but an adjustable color background. Behold, the webcam light tool. Not only is the color adjustable via HSL (hue, saturation, lightness) sliders, there’s also a slider in Kelvin if you want to pick a color temperature instead. Color values are saved to browser local storage and remember on subsequent visits, and automatically synchronize in real-time if you open multiple windows.
With a pair of tall and narrow windows, one on either edge of my ultrawide monitor, the results are pretty good. Chalk one up for creative solutions!
I write this blog post sitting in my favorite coffee shop having begun yesterday a nearly three week micro-sabbatical. Not since I was laid off in early 2019 have I taken more than a few days of time off that didn’t involve travel or other busy-ness. I’m looking forward to spending some time relaxing, some time away from technology, and some time purposefully pursuing activities I haven’t had time to otherwise accomplish.
What sorts of activities? Well, for one I want to publish a new CDK construct, which I’ll talk about here once it’s published. Another is recording a podcast, which I’m happy to announce now has a brief trailer. Mostly it’s going to be similar to material covered on this blog, but perhaps with some conversations also. I’ve no idea if I’ll be able to keep it up, but I’m starting nonetheless.
I’ll also be reading quite a bit. Finished a book this morning, and started a second, the appropriately titled How To Do Nothing.
Finally, I’ll be drinking copious flat whites with the above view from my corner table. Life is good.
Have a large CSV file and want a quick way to query it? Consider transforming it into a SQLite database. It’s easy! One command will do it:
$ sqlite3 "$sqlite_filename" ".import $csv_filename $table_name --csv"Here’s a concrete example using airtravel.csv:
$ sqlite3 air.db ".import airtravel.csv air --csv"
$ sqlite3 air.db "SELECT * FROM air WHERE air.Month = 'JAN'"
JAN| 340| 360| 417Neato! Admittedly the handling of headers and column names isn’t great, but that can be solved with a bit more script-fu (which I’ll leave as an exercise for the reader).