hack « Hot Dorkage

OAuth: Totally!

By Colleen, on May 16th, 2009%

What is OAuth, and why should you care? Here’s the deal: Just like Skynet of Terminator fame, web apps have lately been doing a lot more talking to each other on the “back-end” instead of all web communication being between a human and a web app. This is a GOOD thing as long as the humans control what talks to what and what data is shared. Instead of copying and pasting a whole bunch of data from Web App A into Web App B, you can now just give Web App B permission to go get it. And if you ever change anything on Web App A, you only need to change it there: Web App B will pick it up. This makes things convenient, but in the past it required giving Web App B your password to Web App A! As a developer, I understand why they really do need this info, but you don’t need to be a paranoid security analyst like me to imagine how easily an evil person could promise an app that does something cool, suck up your credentials, and use them for nefarious purposes. And nowhere is this more true than on Twitter.
Continue reading OAuth: Totally!

Booby Trap your Email: catch common snoops

By Colleen, on April 23rd, 2009%

THIS ARTICLE IS NOT SERIOUS DORKAGE. ANYONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO DO IT. You’re probably here because you suspect someone (parent, spouse, sibling, roomate, etc.) is reading your email. That’s the problem. Before I describe the booby-trap I will insert this caveat: Problems like this are best avoided from the get-go. Did you ever consider logging out of your facebook, hotmail, etc., and/or not leaving your computer on all the time? Didn’t think so. Secondly, what kind of a significant other would spy on you? On the other hand, if you act suspicious you deserve it. If it’s parents or your sister who’s graciously letting you sleep on her couch you could move out. That would require you paying your own rent of course and may not be an attractive option for you. Thirdly why are you getting emails that you don’t want your near and dear ones to know about in the first place? OK, I withdraw that question. If you must get dicey emails, it’s not that hard to remove all footprints. That does require a bit of work and we’d all rather not do that. Nah…… these bits of wise living advice are usually ignored. You want to:

continue living with the snoop so you can continue eating their food
continue getting the dirty emails
not clean up after yourself
not get caught.

And besides, you would really like to trap someone in the act of snooping in your email, wouldn’t you?
Continue reading Booby Trap your Email: catch common snoops

New Tweet This Hack but Still no Monkeys

By Colleen, on February 1st, 2009%

monkey I just finished installing the latest version of the Tweet This WordPress Plugin. It renders my Tweet This Hack obsolete. As now you can configure the text that comes out. This is as it should be. I’m so honored! Richard Thripp, the author of Tweet This, even dropped by and made a comment on that post. Since my version is standard again, I feel another hack coming on. However I still have not sensed even one monkey trying to escape from my personal solid waste disposal port yet.

Continue reading New Tweet This Hack but Still no Monkeys

Try my beta Word Press Plugin

By Colleen, on January 15th, 2009%

Well, it had to happen. It is amazing that I’ve been using WordPress so long without getting into its guts. While hacking on the Tweet this plugin ever so gently, I started to get the feel for how WP plugins work. So I wrote a couple myself. The first one is serious old school, as it’s modeled on some older plugins. The second one actually uses more object oriented methodology, and so should be easier to read, maintain, and hack on.

But I’m sure most of you don’t care about that as long as the plugins work. And probably you are wondering what they do. Continue reading Try my beta Word Press Plugin

When Monkeys Fly Out My A$$ OR My TweetThis Hack

By Colleen, on December 9th, 2008%

I was recently reading Guy Kawasaki’s blog post on how he uses Twitter. I was thinking, sure, Twitterfeed is great because it tweets my blog posts as me, but it would be even nicer if my awesome readers had a button to tweet my blog post as them in one click, i.e. without the brain cell killing mousage/keyboardage of 1) shrinking the URL, 2) going to twitter and 3) copy/pasting the title. That’s a good thing in three ways:

More cred for you if someone else besides you tweets your stuff,
more potential reach,
your friend who tweets for you appears magnanimous and with it to all his followers.

It sounded like something that would be easy to automate and useful to a lot of people, so I thought, there has to be a WordPress plugin to do that. Sure enough there is – Tweet This by Richard X Thripp.
Continue reading When Monkeys Fly Out My A$$ OR My TweetThis Hack

A hack for my Hubpages fans

By Colleen, on August 15th, 2008%

This is a prototype expression of thanks in the form of Linky LUV in appreciation of my fans over on Hub Pages It randomly displays one of their widgets right here in an IFRAME. This has been upgraded so it will do anybody’s fans, not just mine. If you don’t . . . → Read More: A hack for my Hubpages fans

Security Articles Growing a Tail!

By Colleen, on August 4th, 2008%

The dork is featured again in Issue #4 (August 1) of Information Security Short Takes that I was in last month. This blog features a monthly blog carnival potpourri webzine of useful selection of security related articles. I know, I know, nobody wants to hear about security. It’s boring as all get out, and it’ll probably not happen to you. Except that it is happening, to more and more of us each year. Knowledge is power in this game. Know how it works, what to do and what not to do, and diminish your chance of being ripped off.
Continue reading Security Articles Growing a Tail!

StumbleAudio: a great way to discover new tracks

By Colleen, on July 29th, 2008%

If you like stumbleupon for discovering websites and blogs, you are gonna love stumbleaudio for discovering new artists and tracks. Warning: it is a flash site but the interface is well-done and intuitive.

Continue reading StumbleAudio: a great way to discover new tracks

Hot Dorkage

OAuth: Totally!

Booby Trap your Email: catch common snoops

New Tweet This Hack but Still no Monkeys

Try my beta Word Press Plugin

When Monkeys Fly Out My A$$ OR My TweetThis Hack

A hack for my Hubpages fans

Security Articles Growing a Tail!

StumbleAudio: a great way to discover new tracks

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