Enforcing Strong Passwords in Django Admin

After googling the subject for hours and getting nowhere I decided to turn to the #django channel on freenode. If you'd like to enforce a minimum password strength in the Django Admin app you're in the right place.

On Startups and Starting Your Own Business

Other than having a child, little is as difficult and fulfilling as starting your own business.  I haven't posted lately because I've been preparing for my first attempt, and there is plenty to do.

Export Notes from Ipod Touch or Iphone / Ipad

Here's how I exported the notes from the Notes app on my Ipod Touch.  Unfortunately this time you'll have to be a pro to follow along.

Understanding Free Software Licenses

If you're like me software licenses bore you to tears.  No really, I can barely get to the second paragraph before my eyes glaze over and start to droop.  As such, a reasonable business idea might be to gather them all together into a book and market them as a cure for insomnia.  ;)

Handling Unicode in a Nutshell

As a "global citizen in a worldwide economy," (groan) it can only make sense to properly handle multiple languages in the software you develop.  That is, unless you'd prefer to ignore what might be the majority of potential users and/or profits.  Accordingly, for many years I've done my best to accommodate that goal in the programs I write or contribute to.

Creating a Hashed Password for VNC

For an automated installation project at work I needed to set the password to an UltraVNC server running on Windows.  VNC is a remote desktop protocol and very handy.  For good reason the server's password is not stored in the clear, but rather a (now weakly) encrypted version.

Why don’t my floating-point numbers add up?

Recently happened upon this friendly site explaining the issues regarding floating-point math on binary computers and thought it useful.  As I'm sure you're aware it takes special talent to take a complicated subject and present it in an easy to understand fashion.

Hacking the Commodore 64 in Realtime

Just came across this fun geeky video of hacking the Commodore 64 in realtime.  I have a soft-spot for these old computers since I played with them as a kid.  Did you know they are still useful to students, even in this day and age?

Specialization: Risks & Rewards

So you are getting into technology.  Obviously if you weren't sharp enough for the challenges of myriad disciplines, software, and hardware you'd be off getting a job for a lesser mind and reading some other blog.  However your strengths set up a question which has ramifications for your career: do you focus on a specific skill/technology or instead stay current in as many facets as possible?  Geekademy has some ideas.

Indispensable Software

Below is a list of some of the best free and open source software available.  Software that has become indispensable in professional life.  I've chosen those that are cross-platform; learn them well, and you can use them on every PC (w/ Win/Mac/Lin) you come across.

For students, these are an amazing set of resources and tools to learn, use, experiment on, hack, disassemble, and contribute to.  Anyone with determination can be come an expert in any of the areas below and many, many more.  It's sure a great time to be a geek.

Why, back in my day, free(dom) software was almost unknown and there were no tools that made experimentation and research as straightforward as today.  ((shakes cane))