Shock Notes

Authentication is the process of verifying your identification.  Entering your password into a system is authentication.  Showing a cashier your driver’s license when buying alcohol is authentication.  Typing in your PIN number at the ATM is authentication. A traditional method of authentication is two-factor authentication (2FA).  Typically, 2FA involves 1) something you know, and 2) something […]

  IMDb maintains a list of the top 250 movies of all time, as rated by its users.  Movies have been around for about 100 years.  Using IMDb’s top movies data, I made a playlist of the best film from each decade.  So far, Inception is the best-rated movie of the current decade, though that […]

  The caipirinha is Brazil’s most famous cocktail.  Caipirinha is pronounced ky-pee-REEN-ya, where the “R” sounds more like a soft “L.”  It is cachaça (Brazilian rum, pronounced ka-SHA-sa) mixed with a bed of crushed limes and sugar. To make it, 1) Slice up a lime and place the pieces at the bottom of an old-fashioned […]

  I used to pride myself on juggling several diverse interests, hobbies, and projects.  From kendo to board games, cooking to writing in Chinese, or computer programming to intellectual property law, I tried to learn everything.  Although I have gotten quite adept at some things, I never truly mastered anything. Then I read The ONE […]

  Television is no longer what it was in the 20th century.  The Internet changes everything. As television as we know it slowly goes extinct, it is being replaced with Internet video.  Here are some of my favorite “channels”.  Most are free or at least have free content. Netflix Amazon Instant Video YouTube TED iTunes […]

  I used to use a website called Delicious to store all of my Internet bookmarks so that I could access them from any computer. Delicious was a social bookmarking website started in 2003 that allowed users to store, share, and discover web links.  Yahoo! bought it in 2005, then it went through a series of sales and […]

  It’s the new things that matter most.  All knowledge builds upon past knowledge.  You can either build on old knowledge and stay low, or you can build upon the new knowledge and soar to new heights. Think of it like building pyramids in the desert.  You can start building upon a foundation.  Without the […]

  Sometimes you want to accentuate the contrasts between light and dark.  Photographers like to take black and white photographs in scenes where light plays with the shadows.  Traditional artists can capture the same effects without a camera using charcoal. Charcoal on newsprint is a favorite medium for quickly sketching black and white scenes.  Charcoal […]

In 2014, I had three small children.  The youngest was an infant.  As you probably know, young children sleep a lot. Now imagine that your baby is ready to nap.  You put the kid down to sleep, then carefully tip-toe out of the room and shut the door.  At that moment, the doorbell rings.  The […]

  I’ve never been a big fan of poetry.  I think it’s because poems tend to be abstract, and people tend to read too deeply into lousy poetry to find deep meanings the author never intended. Good poetry, however, can be helpful in introspection.  Poetry is abstract enough that it forces you to interpret.  That […]