screensave.js

I am gradually going through my pile of old programming projects and I figure some of them are worth publishing on my blog. One of them I worked on a few years ago, for my harvey.dog site, involved playing with the JavaScript canvas.

Apple Notes Shapes

The Notes app on iPadOS is great for sketching out ideas with my finger. I can switch colors and infinitely erase and move things around much easier than with paper and pen. This concept is straightforward and is featured prominently in the marketing campaigns for the Apple Pencil and iPadOS 14.

I've found that certain shapes are "auto-perfected" by the app if you leave your finger touching the screen for a split second after finishing drawing the shape — a circle or line, for example. This is really nice for making tidy notes and drawings. But what all shapes work with this feature?

Beginnings with Rust

I started learning Rust last month during some unusual Covid-19-and-trapped-indoors-due-to-wildfire-smoke free time, and I've had fun with it. For some cross-platform hobby projects of mine I’ve done some experimentation with self-contained app bundles using Java, and after some struggles I still haven't got it to work nicely. I haven't specifically looked at app bundling with Rust yet, but given that it compiles to a native binary it should be easier to get MacOS apps and Linux appimages working. I’d heard and read a lot about Rust's reputation, so it was an easy choice for a new language to play with.

Paper Password Splitting

What will happen to your password-protected accounts upon your death? Will people you trust be able to access them? Do you feel unsafe writing your passwords down?

This is probably a somewhat uncomfortable topic, but one that deserves some attention. It turns out that we can solve this problem by "splitting" passwords on paper. This article will show you how to do it. No fancy software is needed, the instructions are simple enough to be included in your will, and it doesn't cost anything.

Diceware Passphrases

Diceware passphrases are super secure passwords you can create yourself with just dice, a pen, and paper.

"Passphrases" are used just like "passwords." They consist of everyday words, with spaces between — making them easy to remember and easy to type. And most importantly, by rolling dice to select the words, Diceware passphrases are secure and created without any bias. In other words, they're almost certainly more secure than any password you come up with on your own.