Bruce's Blog
Flutter Talk Links
Sketch - nice way to design screens and basic flows (Mac $) InVision - nice way to share and discuss / review screens and basic flows Getting Started with Flutter - get it installed in your environment VS Code Flutter extension VS Code Dart extension How Flutter Works...
Fun with Application Security – Beer City Code Conference 2017 – RECAP
Thanks to all the people who filled the room for my session this weekend at the Beer City Code Conference in Grand Rapids. It was great to share a lot of this content, in a hopefully fun and interesting way. I do want to blog on some of this, and perhaps screen...
Password guidelines from NIST preview major changes
Passwords still don’t work. Even after years of thinking up ways of making them harder to guess but still easy enough to remember, people still have passwords that are easily guessed and abused. A draft guideline from the National Institute of Standards and Technology...
QR Codes and URL Shorteners – Beware
We've all probably used them because they are so convenient. The full URL for this blog post is http://www.bruceabernethy.com/2017/05/qr-codes-and-url-shorteners-beware/ The bit.ly shortcode is only http://bit.ly/QRShort Which would you rather share with someone to...
Circle with Disney
The internet is a wonderful resource – more information, ideas, resources, entertainment, etc. at our fingertips than ever before in history. It can also be a huge distraction. The Circle with Disney is a Budgetting Helpful log of where time is going Setting...
Thought-Ending Cliches
"Because I said so." "We'll have to agree to disagree." "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion." We've all heard them. Some even end up on bumper stickers. These common phrases that seem intended to end debate and conversation. And I noticed lately that the...
Ninja, Master Chief, Snow Speeder–Travel Around The World
About four years ago we got back into Geocaching - which is basically the high-tech world-wide scavenger hunt using GPS devices or smartphones. The main goal of geocaching is to find caches/boxes that are hidden just about everywhere – these boxes don’t move...
Windows 8 Fatal Flaw – ARM Tablets only in Unmanaged Environments?
I know that many that have been following the development and previews of Windows 8 have many opinions about the new operating system. And while many are very positive, some have people quite concerned (e.g. the "Lack of the Start Menu" or "Metro as the default...
EBook Innovations Needed
I have had my Nook eBook Reader for a few month, and I am really hooked – so hooked that it bothers me when I have to resort to “paper solutions” for anything. It is so nice to be able to carry the Nook around with all kinds of books, news feeds (ala Calibre), PDFs...
Quit Bowling, and Start Digging Ditches – WCAGLS Day 1
“Quit Bowling” and “Start Digging Ditches” – two memorable quotes from the first day of the Willow Creek Leadership Summit (Seth Godin and Steven Furtick respectively). My mind is still processing and thinking through all that was presented today in the presentations...
Maker Faire Detroit 2011
I was able to attend Maker Faire Detroit 2011 this last weekend at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. It was an amazingly full day from 9:30 in the morning to 5:30 at night (with a 2.5 hour drive on either side of that), but well worth it. Maker Faire is a...
Losing 70 pounds
Today I "graduated" from my medical weight loss program - down 70 pounds in 17 weeks. All my "stats" got better - losing 10 inches on my waist, blood pressure much lower (dropped meds), and similar drops across the board. Since this success was largely because of...
Silverlight Certification Test – Passed
Microsoft released it's long awaited (very long awaited) Silverlight Certification (MCTS 70-506) earlier this year. It was reportedly held up several times as Silverlight transitioned from version 2->3->4. There was enough new in Silverlight 4 that the wait...
TalkTimer app for WP7
I have been part of the Toastmasters for Techies group in Grand Rapids since starting with the group about a year ago. In fact I am Vice President in charge of Public Relations, so let me mention now that everyone should attend if they communicate or present ideas...
Nook Simple Touch Reader – First Month
For Father’s Day this year I got a new Nook “Simple Touch Reader” so I have had it for about a month – time for a review. I figure it was time when the “battery warning” came on yesterday and it told me I was down to 20% of capacity, so I decided to charge it up. ...
Rebooting the blog in WordPress
I had a goal to get my blog up and running again by the end of June – so I figured I’d get a head start today I’ve been away from blogging for a while – first because of a major technical snafu at my previous hosting provider (WebHost4Life – ironic name), but...
Lessons Learned: Craftsmen and artists of all types have a lot in common
I spent last Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Festival of Faith and Writing which is a conference for authors, playwrights, publishers, readers, teachers, etc. I’ve been going to the conference since 1996, which was three years after I wrote my last/only book,...
Why I make a fuss over the release of Visual Studio 2010
It is no secret that most of my friends and family are non-programmers. When a group of us get together “in real life” and I do find someone to talk technology with, we usually get the look of “oh they’ve gone off into the fantasy world of acronyms again, give them...