Author Archives: Stephan Sokolow

A Quick “Contact Me” Fix

Posted on 2012-07-01 by Stephan Sokolow

Apparently, the CGI script powering my mail form slipped through the cracks when I was setting up health monitoring for this site and had been giving error 500 for an unknown period of time. It’s now fixed and I’ve rewritten … Continue reading →

Posted in Site Updates | Leave a comment

GitHub vs. BitBucket: Shifting Value Propositions

Posted on 2012-06-13 by Stephan Sokolow

It used to be that GitHub vs. BitBucket was a no-brainer. GitHub was sleek, featureful, popular, and supported git, the godsend. BitBucket was clunky, buggy, comparatively little-known, and required you to use that hg thing with the annoying workflow. However, … Continue reading →

Posted in Web Wandering & Opinion | 4 Comments

Open Source for MBAs: A Primer

Posted on 2012-06-11 by Stephan Sokolow

If you’re neither a scientist, nor active in the open-source community, it can be difficult to properly understand why people write open-source software. Why would people just give away the products of so much hard work? I fully understand why … Continue reading →

Posted in Geek Stuff | 3 Comments

Controlling OpenPandora LEDs in Python

Posted on 2012-06-10 by Stephan Sokolow

For those who don’t know me, I don’t like cell phones for a variety of reasons… but I do want a pocket computer, so I picked up what is essentially a pocket laptop made of cellphone parts named the OpenPandora. … Continue reading →

Posted in Geek Stuff | 1 Comment

Treating The Symptom: A Privacy Law Story

Posted on 2012-05-18 by Stephan Sokolow

In May 2011, new legislation was passed in the EU (directive 2009/136/EC) which was intended to require opt-in for tracking cookies. It comes into effect on May 26, 2012. Next Saturday. While people are agonizing over how compliance will gut … Continue reading →

Posted in Web Wandering & Opinion | Leave a comment

The State of Digital Distribution on Linux

Posted on 2012-04-26 by Stephan Sokolow

Note: This is cross-posted from the blog in my Desura account to ensure my backup system catches it. After one of my previous posts, showing off my obsession with flowcharts and how much I overthink buying new games, it occurred … Continue reading →

Posted in Geek Stuff, Lair Improvement | 5 Comments

Secure Cloud Backup/Sync

Posted on 2012-04-24 by Stephan Sokolow

Given the mounting concerns over cloud storage offerings and the increasing occurrence of bills like ACTA and CISPA, it’s becoming increasingly important to find alternatives to US-based, un-encrypted cloud storage services like Dropbox. The question for poor saps like me … Continue reading →

Posted in Geek Stuff | 3 Comments