Comics aggregator: GoComics integration was broken, is now fixed
GoComics just rolled out a completely new web site, which broke the integration with my comics aggregator. I’ve fixed it.
Category Archives: Computers
“Phoebe and her Unicorn” is, alas, now Sunday-only
As of March 30, 2025, the Phoebe and her Unicorn comic strip has transitioned from daily to Sundays-only. See what the creator of the strip, Dana Simpson has to say about it here. The comics aggregator has been updated to reflect this.
I see that Verizon’s customer website and onboarding experience still sucks as bad as it always has
Verizon’s website and their FIOS customer onboarding processes are full of problems and have been for at least a decade. I ran into nearly 30 of them just trying to complete the simple task of signing up for FIOS service. How do they get away with this?
WaPo article about Signal use by feds with me as lead-off hitter
This morning over at The Washington Post ([archive link]), Shira Ovide, Danielle Abril, and Hannah Natanson write about Signal use among federal workers. I’m the lede (funsies!). This is a great article capturing the mood among federal workers right now, and it makes relatively clear that while what Pete Hegseth et al are doing is… Read More »
TIME quotes me about DOGE and VA, gets stuff wrong
The TIME article contains two substantive errors, several minor errors, and a curious omission.
Mar. 13 NPR “Consider This” talks about risks of DOGE data access, with cameo by me
NPR’s Ailsa Chang; Elizabeth Lair of the Equity and Civic Technology Project at the Center For Democracy and Technology; Jonathan Kamens, late of the Department of Veterans Affairs; and University of Virginia law professor Danielle Citron, talk about the risks of DOGE having access to federal government data and how the Privacy Act of 1974 is being used to push back on it.
Comcast attempts to intimidate me into taking down a blog post
Comcast sent me two intimidating letters and a bogus DMCA takedown notice in a misguided effort to get me to take down content they didn’t like because it has Comcast executive email addresses in it.
Online privacy protection for people in the resistance: DeleteMe, Block Party
If you can make it go from taking 30 seconds to 30 minutes for a bad actor to find something private about you online, you’ll dramatically decrease the number of people willing to go through the effort. Think of it like putting an alarm-system sign on your lawn to encourage burglars to skip your house.
Feb. 26 live CNN interview about VA.gov cybersecurity
I did a brief press appearance on CNN this afternoon to talk about my firing from the VA and what that means for VA.gov cybersecurity. Here’s the video, with a transcript below it. Transcript Jessica Dean: A warning from a fired cybersecurity official for the department of veterans affairs. He sounded the alarm, saying sensitive… Read More »
Astoundingly good “WIRED” article about my firing from VA and what it means
Author Lily Hay Newman does an incredible job capturing the high stakes of compromising the security of VA.gov.