Category Archives: Internet

King Features Syndicate comics currently unavailable

The folks at the King Features Syndicate have always made their comics harder to aggregate than those of any of the other syndicates. I had implemented a convoluted workaround involving redirecting requests for images of their comics through the comics aggregator itself, where various special headers were inserted into the request to convince the King… Read More: King Features Syndicate comics currently unavailable »

CGI script for RSS feed of comments on Hacker News posting

Perhaps I just don’t grok the zen of Hacker News, but I just don’t get why the site doesn’t provide RSS feeds of comments on postings. I also don’t get why nobody has written something to provide this. Or, at least, if it has been written, I couldn’t find it (perhaps my Google mojo just isn’t… Read More: CGI script for RSS feed of comments on Hacker News… »

Using Selenium to monitor your Vonage balance

UPDATE [2013-01-20]: The scripts weren’t reading the username and password from the config file properly. In fact, I had accidentally hard-coded my own Vonage username and password in this script. D’oh! Needless to say, I’ve changed my password, and the updated scripts below are fixed. Also, I updated the cron script to allow the usage… Read More: Using Selenium to monitor your Vonage balance »

xkcd.com added to comics aggregator

I’ve added xkcd.com the comics aggregator. And there was much rejoicing. Alas, because of the architecture of the aggregator, I can’t easily serve up the alt text that Randall attaches to the strips. :-/ As always, feel free to show your appreciation. 🙂  

Mass. Sen. Will Brownsberger to co-sponsor social networking privacy bill

I have just been informed by a member of Massachusetts Senator Will Brownsberger’s staff that he “will be co-sponsoring a piece of legislation that will, among other things, prevent employers from asking job applicants for their social networking passwords.” This issue has been raised in previous sessions of the Massachusetts legislature, but it has not… Read More: Mass. Sen. Will Brownsberger to co-sponsor social networking privacy bill »

Comics added to aggregator

By popular demand, I’ve added Mallard Fillmore, Prickly City, Broom Hilda, Calvin and Hobbes, Beetle Bailey, and The Born Loser to the comics aggregator. As always, feel free to show your appreciation. 🙂  

Amend the ECPA to protect email privacy!

The privacy of our email is protected by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, passed in 1986, which requires law-enforcement officials to obtain a warrant to intercept and read private email. However, the law has a critical flaw: it does not require a warrant for emails “left on servers” for more than 180 days. This made… Read More: Amend the ECPA to protect email privacy! »