They don’t make things like they used to

Last year, I stayed with a friend in north Austin during SXSW. A bike was the best way to make the three-mile journey downtown. I had a few options: Renting I called Bicycle Sport Shop and a couple other stores. The problem is that people rent bicycles as entertainment, not transportation, and they’re priced accordingly. …

Talks

October 20, 2022 Consumer Reports Multifactor authentication Best practices on how to use MFA and enable it across your devices and accounts. video slides March 18, 2021 Brooklyn SoloistsNew York, NY Personal digital security Learn the basics of personal digital security to keep your accounts and devices safe. video slides June 11, 2019 BigWPNew York, …

Awesome healthcare roundup: lower costs, better quality

Health Beat has a terrific roundup of health care new: Physicians and hospital leaders in Cedar Rapids began by counting how many CAT scans they were doing, only to find that in just one year 52,000 scans were done in a community of 300,000 people. “I was embarrassed for us,” confides Jim Levett, a cardiac …

Credit card companies whine to press

Yesterday’s New York Times covers changes to credit cards. They spoke with David Robertson, publisher of the Nilson Report, which tracks the credit card business. Robertston lays it on thick: People who routinely pay off their credit card balances have been enjoying the equivalent of a free ride, he said, because many have not had …

HOWTO deploy PHP sites with Capistrano 2

When I learned Ruby on Rails, I found out about Capistrano. This whole automated deployment thing seemed pretty neat. But then my Rails project finished, and I was back to working on a PHP site. There I was, coding along in naive bliss. Then I started working on voteforchange.com for the Obama Campaign. Nick and …

Stop FISA “compromise” sham and telecom immunity

Please call today and oppose the FISA Amendments Act (HR 6304). It is not acceptable to give away our civil liberties. Granting retroactive immunity to telecom companies is wrong. This bill is not a “compromise.” It is a get-out-of-jail-free card bought by lobbyists for large phone companies. No matter how illegal, offensive or intrusive a …