The Rietta Blog
05/11/2021
Lava lamps providing randomness for security!
by Frank Rietta
Lava Lamps as a security tool is an old idea, once covered by a patent. This is why I proudly display a Lava Lamp in my office within my web cam shot.
04/27/2021
Testing: Your Future Self Will Thank You
by Wren Steitle
Testing, while not always glorious, is a vital part of a good code base. Tests and code should go hand in hand.
02/09/2021
Streamlining Workflows With Docker
by Wren Steitle
Working on numerous projects can require significant time to set up locally. With Docker, we have streamlined this process to mere minutes.
02/04/2021
Practical APPSEC starts with people first, processes second, and technology last
by Frank Rietta
Technology purchases cannot solve application security. Improving security is a matter of people, processes, and technology. Here's how to invest developer education and processes first.
01/28/2021
Brad Cox has died
by Frank Rietta
Dr. Brad J. Cox Ph.D., influential computer scientist, co-inventor of the Objective C object oriented programming language, influencer of modern programming based on reusability of software components, has died.
01/14/2021
Disable Low Quality Webcam Microphone in Ubuntu Linux 20.04
by Frank Rietta
How to ensure your high quality microphone is always used and not the low quality USB webcam audio when joining Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other video calls. Block list the webcam sound with udev and use it only for video, not audio.
01/12/2021
How to Set Up and Encrypt an External SSD and Run Docker Images Externally
by Jack Cullen
Running multiple Docker images locally can eat up a lot of disk space. Computers with smaller hard drives will have a problem keeping up. We can mitigate this issue by setting up an encrypted external ssd to run our Docker images and free up local disk space
01/09/2021
Leading a Distributed Team with Productive
by Lore Hamilton
As a distributed agency, we have to make sure everyone is working on budgeted client priorities across more applications than we have people. Traditional time tracking tooling doesn't cut it. We've found Productive.io to be the best so far.
12/31/2020
Financial Plan for a New Computer Under Warranty
by Frank Rietta
As a computing professional, top end computers are a necessity for your livelihood. Here's how setting aside just $69/month will ensure you can buy a new computer at any time and have the funds for guilt free technology splurges.
12/24/2020
Development time is money, therefore I RAID
by Frank Rietta
Why I optimize for redundancy via RAID and multiple computers as a developer for whom development time is money instead of relying on a single high end laptop.