Author: Daniel

Daniel https://turnings.phrasewise.com/ In the 4th grade Daniel was asked to step in into the hall because he was coaching fellow students on a similarity assignment he provided the class. Since then, Daniel’s passion for helping people has propelled him to be a creative developer of software and systems, and a team coach who excels at successfully delivering business value. Daniel founded QuietlyHelping in 2009 in order to have a direct hand in helping families with the struggles of debilitating disease. QuietlyHelping is an organization of compassion and empathy that brings ease, comfort, smiles, laughter, healing, and love to people battling cancer and other diseases. Spare time activities include cycling, occasional work as a musician, woodworking, photography, and reading books he never got around to in school. Unsurprisingly, Daniel is able to cook minute rice in just under thirty seconds.
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WordPress To Disable Remote Access

WordPress To Disable Remote Access: If this sounds like a pipe dream, it’s worth pointing out that one very popular web service is already employing this strategy, and it works brilliantly. Flickr, Yahoo’s incredibly popular photo sharing site, is built on the very same APIs it makes available to clients. This results in some truly incredible Flickr-enabled applications and web services. And you don’t see any sign of Flickr disabling access to their API, because there’s too much at stake.

If your web service only provides one, first-class API through which all access flows, then you’ve only got one point to secure, you’re likely to have feature parity across interfaces, and the risk of marginalizing one interface is dramatically decreased. [Well put Daniel!]

Nuclear Elephant: iPhone Wipe

Nuclear Elephant: iPhone Wipe: Since my posts regarding the iPhone restore mode being insufficient for wiping data (and Apple’s own refurbishing process also being insufficient), many have emailed me asking for instructions on how to properly wipe personal data off of the iPhone. I’ve been very quiet about how to properly lift data in a forensic manner, as my goal is to avoid seeing a bunch of evidence erasers pop up in the wild (I’ve already been approached by Symantec about this). What I will share, however, is the way in which I wipe my own devices before I resell them, which I believe the consumer has a right to do. Mind you, I make no guarantees about this and accept no responsibility for you hosing your iPhone. This is what works for me. [Anyone try this?]

Title Case for Ruby

Title Case for Ruby:

There’s been a great response to my request to convert Title Case, Gruber’s nifty perl-based title-casing tool into Ruby so the rest of the world (just kidding, Perl people!) can make use of it.

Here are the initial responders:

Source: The Hivelogic Narrative

Jack Brown Green’s… a little Hampsten for my commute

jack_brown_green.jpgAmongst my other chores today was replacing the skinny, fast, tires on the fixie with something a bit more plush. Now there’s lot’s more cush and they’re smooth rolling. It’s a commute, not a race (mostly :~)

I love that the tire dimensions are listed on the package as 622 x 33.33333… you can see the continuation line on the tire itself (below). They make a “Brown” version that is slightly heavier and reinforced.

On the right is my Salsa Casserole in it’s current minimalist config, now with the JB Greens. I got mine through Rivendell, a bastion of practical cycling.

Below is Andy Hampsten’s Strada Bianca Ti. Same tires… but I’ve never won the Giro. Make of that what you will. Credit for the picture of Andy’s bike credit goes to the irrepressible James Huang of Cyclingnews.com.

Andy_Hampstens_Hampsten_Strada_Bianca_Ti_tire.jpg

[Update: I did 15 miles on this setup. As nice as I could hope for. Onward!]

Snowy Mountains

There’ll come a time when the pictures friends send me from their epic vacations (mountain climbing, skiing, frozen biking) will once again appeal. Their crisp blue skies, the carapaces and undulations of the mountain wearing a mantle of whitest snow, the gray, almost smoky clouds hovering low over a brilliant orange or yellow tent, bike wheels packed with snow, and water bottles frozen solid all meant to inspire a longing for a road less traveled. But for now even the notion of cold is entirely lacking in merit in my eyes.

Seriously. I get up fairly early every day. Generally 5AM somethin’. And all autumn, winter and through most of spring that means it’s at least chilly outside if not cold as a witches elbow. It makes it hard to get up, hard to get out, and it’s really demotivating when what you have to do is not fun. Getting up that early in the cold to go skiing? Doable. Getting up that early to get ready for work and take out the garbage? An effort of will. I rode my bike throughout the winter regardless of temperature or precipitation. I hustled my little family out the door t the ridiculous hour we leave for jobs and school. But I’ve kinda had it with the cold for now.

So for the time being, if you live in Alaska, or climb in the Himalayas, or are running some program in the Arctic, or Antarctica, please spare the snowy, cold pictures. No matter how beautiful. Wait ’till maybe the end of August or September when the oppressing humidity of a New York summer has kicked in with sufficient strength to cause even the staunchest of summer folks to wilt. By then I’ll be toast. Then bring them on!

As always your support is appreciated. (wink)