The Lazy Person's Guide to Useful Everyday Software

Software to make your digital life more productive and less tedious

Aaron Kanter

8 minute read

Several people have posited that the best coders are lazy, citing that they will write DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) code to make maintenance and testing easier and that they will use the right tools to solve their problems with the least amount of required effort. Well, the same principle applies when it comes to general productivity when it comes to working with computers, whether you’re a software developer, an Excel spelunker, or a human Markov chain email generator.

Giddyup: First Look at Pony Lang

Initial impressions of the Pony language

Aaron Kanter

7 minute read

A friend of mine jokingly brought up the Pony language in the context that he’s resigned himself to learn the language because his manager (also a mutual friend) is a staunch pony-phile (e.g., attended BABSCon, had a Rainbow Dash balloon floating above his desk at a previous job). At first I was intrigued: How many of the core designers are diehard bronies? Is this a legitimate language or just horsing around?

Password Management for the [Somewhat] Common Man

Thoughts about the seemingly only option for free, cross-platform password management

Aaron Kanter

8 minute read

123456, password, qwerty In the offchance you’ve been living under a rock lacking internet access for the past several years, passwords and account information are leaked on a frighteningly regular basis. Amazon forced some portion of its customers to reset their passwords around Black Friday 2015. Over 30 million Ashley Madison accounts’ details were leaked last summer including a plethora of personal details in addition to passwords. Back in 2013, more than 130 million Adobe user names, emails, encrypted (but unsalted) passwords, and clear-text password hints (do not ever use real password hints) were loosed upon the internet.