Monthly Archives: October 2012

HOWTO: Create an animated gif from a video with command line tools

posted on 22 October, 2012 with tags , , , ,

Sometimes I see a few seconds of a video I’m watching and I think that it’d make a great animated gif. But because I don’t always have access to a bunch of graphics software, and because I might be using my Ubuntu or OS X box, it’s nice to have a process that works with […]

100 years of cinematic copyright

posted on 14 October, 2012 with tags , , ,

I know this is a wonky thing, but I was reading the Library of Congress blog this week when I saw an article about the centennial of copyright for film works. Prior to that date, film was not on the list of classes of work that were eligible. Filmmakers would instead send in collections of […]

Square’s security anti-patterns

posted on 8 October, 2012 with tags , , ,

Square dongles really truly make processing credit cards not just easier, but possible for all sorts of groups that didn’t have access before: I’ve bought from bands selling merchandise, taxi drivers, food cart operators, and more. I’m worried, though, that Square also makes credit card fraud easier by teaching credit card users security anti-patterns. In […]