Posts

Flock Camera Theft Prevention

The Winona Police Department just lost its entire network of Flock cameras in one go,every single one sawed off and stolen, leaving a $24,000 hole in their public safety budget and a gaping blind spot in their surveillance coverage. It’s not just the cash value that stings; it’s the irony of a system built to track others suddenly being dismantled without a trace. License plate readers aren’t exactly subtle tech, so the idea that a thief,or thieves,could walk away with an entire city’s worth of them without getting caught feels almost too neat to be real. What makes this weirder is that Flock’s cameras aren’t cheap consumer gadgets. They’re purpose-built systems designed to log passing vehicles with enough detail to help police track hit-and-runs or find missing persons. Lose that many at once, and you’re not just down a few tools,you’re back to patrolling blind. The question isn’t whether this matters; it’s how it even happened. Incident Overview The incident in question involve...
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Xbox Outage and Digital Ownership

I've got to say, the recent Xbox outage that left gamers unable to play games they own on disc really got under my skin. It's not just that people were locked out of their games - it's what this says about the state of digital ownership. When you buy a disc, you expect to be able to play it whenever you want, without needing to check in with some distant server. But as we're seeing more and more, that's just not how it works anymore. What's interesting is that this issue isn't unique to Xbox, or even to the gaming world. We've seen similar problems crop up in other areas of digital media, where the lines between ownership and licensing get blurry. I remember when Sony announced that they were discontinuing physical discs for PlayStation, and I was less outraged than many of my friends. Not because I loved what Sony was doing, but because I've been watching this trend unfold for a while now, and I know it's not just about one company or one ind...
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Math Advances Inform New Computer Science Models

I've been following recent breakthroughs in mathematics and theoretical computer science, and I have to say, they're transforming our understanding of complex systems in some pretty remarkable ways. It's not often that you see math making headlines, but these developments are enabling new technologies that have the potential to impact a wide range of fields. What's more, I think these advancements are actually making math more mainstream, rather than inducing existential dread in mathematicians. As I've been reading about these breakthroughs, I've noticed that the superstars in the field are the ones benefiting from the increased attention. It's not entirely surprising, but it does make me wonder about the less established mathematicians who aren't sharing in the spotlight. I've been enjoying learning about these hard problems, though, and the discussions around their significance are really what draw me in. The fact that human mathematicians are ...
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LLMs Prioritize Expertise

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I've been playing around with large language models for a while now, and I've noticed something interesting - they're being fine-tuned to prioritize expertise in their responses. What does this mean, exactly? On the surface, it sounds like a great idea: who wouldn't want more accurate, informed answers to their questions? But as I've dug deeper, I've started to wonder if this shift towards expertise is going to change the way we interact with these models, and what we can realistically expect from them. Take CSS, for example. In the 2010s, if you had technical gaps - say, you couldn't write CSS to save your life - you had to either rely on a skilled colleague or just hope that the answer to your exact problem was out there on the internet. Today, everyone can write sort-of-okay CSS by delegating the task to a large language model. It's not perfect, but it gets the job done. However, as I've seen with some of the more advanced users, like Tao,...
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AI Agents Shift Software to Open Source as Only Option

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Five years ago, most software engineers I spoke to had no programs they had written for themselves. All day, every day, they used programs written by others to write programs for others. That observation, from David Crawshaw, has stuck with me because it says something uncomfortable about how we work. We've built an entire ecosystem of tooling, databases, and frameworks where the cost of customizing something to fit your own workflow has always exceeded the benefit. An AI agent that can sync your custom code with upstream releases changes that math. It's not just another code generator. The agent can maintain the tricky part: merging your local changes with a changing codebase, handling rebases, conflicts, and dependency updates. That's the part that makes software customization expensive. And when agents can do that automatically, the cost-benefit equation for closed-source software collapses. Why pay for a black box when you can fork the source, shape it to your e...
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Prevent Proxy Abuse

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I've lost count of how many times I've been told to avoid using my device as a proxy for various activities. It usually starts with a well-meaning warning from a friend or a colleague, saying something like, "don't do this, it's not secure." But what does that even mean? I've been guilty of using my device as a proxy, ignoring the warnings, and hoping for the best. The truth is, I didn't really understand the risks, and I'm guessing I'm not alone. The thing is, our devices can be used as proxies for all sorts of malicious activities, compromising our security and privacy in the process. It's not just about someone using your device to hide their IP address; it's about your device being used to carry out attacks, spread malware, or even steal sensitive information. I've seen it happen to friends, and I've even had it happen to me. It's a scary thought, and it's something we should all be taking seriously. So, how ...
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Isopolis Map: San Francisco

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Isopolis isn’t just another map of San Francisco—it’s the city flattened into a single, meticulous isometric plane where every block tilts forward like a game board. You can trace the dip of Twin Peaks in the center or follow the jagged spine of the Mission District’s rooftops, all rendered in pixelated pink and purple. It’s the kind of project that makes you wonder why we don’t navigate cities this way more often. The best part? No one’s trying to sell you anything. No ads, no sponsored pins, just a clean, interactive grid you can zoom into block by block. The data comes from OpenStreetMap and DataSF, stripped of the usual noise, and the whole thing feels oddly personal—the "made with ♥" tag at the bottom feels like a quiet rebellion against the sterile precision of modern cartography. Try it and you might end up feeling like you’ve glimpsed the city in a way Google Maps never intended. Introduction to Isopolis Isopolis is a mapped environment with some interestin...
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