Category Archives: user interface

Looking Back at Microsoft Bob

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Every industry has at least one. Automobiles had the Edsel. PC Hardware had the IBM PCJr and the Microchannel bus. In the software world, there’s Bob. If you don’t remember him, Bob was Microsoft’s 1995 answer to why computers were so darn hard to use. [LGR] gives us a nostalgic look back at Bob and concludes that we hardly knew him.

Bob altered your desktop to be a house instead of a desk. He also had helpers including the infamous talking paper clip that suffered slings and arrows inside Microsoft Office long after Bob had been put to rest.

Microsoft …read more

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Easier End-User Setup for ESP32 Projects

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As hackers, we occasionally forget that not everyone is enamored with the same nerdy minutia that we are. Configuring hardware by changing some lines in the code and compiling a new firmware doesn’t sound like that big of a deal to those of us who’ve been around the block a few times, but might as well be ancient Sanskrit to the average person. As long as your projects are for personal use this isn’t really a concern, but what if you plan on distributing the code for a project or perhaps even selling finished products? Shipping it out with hard-coded …read more

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5 Things We Need from ACL in 2018

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Here’s the 5 things I’m hoping will change in 2018 regarding ACL. They are all related to each other and feed off each other… Interesting. One) The ACL Analytics user interface (UI) finds a good plastic surgeon. While I have crit… Continue reading 5 Things We Need from ACL in 2018→

Quick Introduction to ACL

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If you’ve every wondered what Audit Command Language (ACL) is, here’s a quick way to find out. ACL has provided a quick, one-page introduction to ACL. And I mean quick. It doesn’t explain a lot, but it gives you a … Continue rea… Continue reading Quick Introduction to ACL→

New Brain for Smart Vacuum

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The ESP8266 has found its way into almost everything now. With its tiny size, low price tag, and accessible programmer, it’s perfect for almost any application that requires WiFi. [HawtDogFlvrWtr] decided that will all of the perks of the platform, an ESP8266 was practically begging to be shoehorned into his automatic vacuum cleaner. This isn’t a Roomba, though, it’s a Neato that now has a custom WiFi interface.

The new WiFi modification comes with some additional features as well. First of all, it ditches the poorly designed default user interface (often the most annoying proprietary component of any consumer product). …read more

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Explain to non tech savvy person how to check that your connection to mybank.com is safe?

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I was reading the security advice given by the Swedish Bankers’ Association. They included these two pieces of advice (my translation), that I assume is to teach the user to check for SSL/TLS and protect from SSL-strip:

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