A seat-of-the-pants recipe — I’ve been wanting to try making bagels for a while. Most of the recipes I found required diastatic malt or barley syrup, which I don’t have. Instead, beer! I cobbled this together from a variety of sources, including Basics with Babish’s bagel recipe, Binging with Babish’s bagel sandwich recipe, Joshua…

Yesterday afternoon, Marilyn Marks sent an email thread to me and several other election security experts. The email was seeking to… — Yesterday afternoon, Marilyn Marks sent an email thread to me and several other election security experts. The email was seeking to confirm two serious vulnerabilities in Georgia’s online voter registration system. It contained a technical description of the problems, apparently reported by a party volunteer. Without exploiting the vulnerabilities, I…

U.S elections generate a LOT of data, and often times well-meaning analysts attempt to try and glean something more from election data… — U.S elections generate a LOT of data, and often times well-meaning analysts attempt to try and glean something more from election data other than just who won and whose votes they got. Fraud, arguably the most important thing to detect in an election, is frequently something that people attempt to…

Disclaimer: vote tampering of any kind is a felony. Accessing computer systems without proper authorization is a felony. This post was not… — Disclaimer: vote tampering of any kind is a felony. Accessing computer systems without proper authorization is a felony. This post was not written with intent to enable election tampering, and I expressly condemn any activity to that end. Some technical details are omitted for both brevity and to prevent this…

In which I try to explain what "your data" is, who has it, and what that means. — Disclaimer: I have, at best, passing knowledge of what is discussed in this post. If there are errors, please point them out and I will correct accordingly. I’ve always loved listening to the radio. It’s a great way to discover new music, and it takes very little brain power: you…

Matt Bernhard and J. Alex Halderman — Matt Bernhard and J. Alex Halderman Election technology in the United States is less than perfect, and much has been said about the security risks. However, U.S. elections are not homogenous: the voting machines in use vary county-by-county, and the potential impact of any problems depends on whether a local…

I have been struggling with anxiety and depression for a long time, and below lies many of the frustrations I have felt about the process… — I have been struggling with anxiety and depression for a long time, and below lies many of the frustrations I have felt about the process of dealing with it. This is a reflection of my own experience with navigating mental health care, so your mileage may vary.

Using a computer is hard. Showing how people actually use computers seems to be even harder. Television and movies generally seem to want… — Using a computer is hard. Showing how people actually use computers seems to be even harder. Television and movies generally seem to want to cash in on all the sexiness of technology without putting in any effort into understanding how it all works, and that can lead to some pretty…