Hi, I'm Ryan.

I design. I code. I blog.

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No Power? No Smartphone. Now what?!

It looks like Mother nature chose to trick instead of treat this Halloween. Hurricane Sandy’s wrath saw New York, surrounding areas, and as far north as Canada become an apocalyptic disaster zone. It’s a good thing many people have the internet, social media and smartphones to come to the rescue, right? Wrong. When power went out, cell service down and battery life draining, many people were left with one question. Now what?

You Call Those Security Questions?

lost wallet

Despite a 6 year streak of not losing my wallet, the ongoing craziness of 2013 has put that one to rest. Luckily there was no money in it (who has money in their wallets these days?), my debt you can have! As I’ve gone through the motions this week replacing things and adding credit alerts, I’m noting one scary trend. What’s up with the lack of secure “security questions”?!

The End Of Literacy, Or The Beginning Of A New Era?

Ain't Nobody Got Time For That

If Shakespeare were alive today, what do you think he’d have to say about today’s literacy? All of these LOLs and OMGs, hashtags and 140 character snippets. He’d think we’ve all gone mad, turned back into cavemen—this is certainly not prose! Would he have a point? Have we regressed, or has our literacy just evolved?

Screw The Roses, Stop And Look Up Once In A While

typing text message

Smartphones have taken the world by storm. No longer in the hands of the few, thanks to Android they are in the hands of the many. Full blown keyboards have made it easy to surf the net, email, and text with others—everywhere we go. Smartphones keep us entertained, occupied, our heads looking down at them. Try looking up once in a while though. You might be missing more than just roses.

Creative Cloud Gets Hacked

Adobe Creative Cloud Hacked

That didn’t take long. It was great to wake up to an email this morning from Adobe Customer Care, the subject line “Important Customer Security Alert.” Looks like Adobe got hacked, and I’m not alone—there are 2.9 million others in the same boat.

Oh Heartbleed, You Make My Heart Bleed

Heartbleed bug

There’s a new big bad in town, and it’s causing quite a stir. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Say hello to Heartbleed! The latest and greatest in online security holes has just came into the spot light. For a small bug it’s already being crowned the greatest internet threat ever. Oh ya, and it’s been around for 2 years. They just found it now.