matt kaar

Craigslist searches delivered to your inbox

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:54:00 -0700

Nat and I are on the hunt for a leather ottoman. Some guy on Craigslist sold his after promising it to us, and its been hard to find another since.

With a search only returning six hits, what we really needed was Craigslist to notify us when new ottomans get posted. Craigslist won't do this on its own, but with the help of FeedMyInbox, searching for our new ottoman became a whole lot easier.

There are just two steps to this trick:

After searching for an item on Craigslist, copy the URL from the results page.
Head over to FeedMyInbox and paste the URL where it says Website or Feed URL. Then add your email address and click Submit.

You'll receive a confirmation email with a CONFIRM link – don't forget to click it. And that's it! Sit back and watch new Craigslist results come straight to your inbox.

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Addendum: Amazon EC2 VPN with Windows

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:00:43 -0800

@Mascasa recently wrote some excellent instructions on setting up OpenVPN using Amazon Web Services and getting connected with a Mac client:

http://www.stratumsecurity.com/blog/2010/12/03/shearing-firesheep-with-the-cloud/

It turns out connecting with Windows is easy too. Here's how I did it.

Download and install the OpenVPN GUI for Windows from here (the full Installation Package). Accept all the defaults when installing.
Download the same keys and certificates used in the Mac setup (ca.crt, ta.key,.crt and .key) to your Windows machine. You might need a client like WinSCP to pull them off the EC2 server.
Download the client template here and rename it to EC2_VPN.ovpn. Open it in WordPad and change the hostname and cert/key filenames (lines 42 and 89-90).
Copy all of the files (*.key, *.crt and *.ovpn) to the OpenVPN configuration directory (usually \Program Files\OpenVPN\config).
Right-click on the OpenVPN icon in the system tray and click Connect.

That's it. Visit IPChicken and check that your Amazon IP appears. And leave a comment if you run into problems.

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Issues with Posterous autopost and Facebook login

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 07:11:00 -0700

First off, I can't say enough good things about Posterous. They've made blogging effortless for me, and I refer them to all of my friends—especially the non-techie ones. However, I've run into two small problems in the past weeks, and I figured I'd write about them in case someone has a solution.

Autopost

Nat and I have a group blog for family stuff. For some reason, I can't autopost her blog posts to my Facebook account. The screenshots below show the steps and error message I get:

See the full gallery on Posterous

I googled "The site settings for this autopost site don't allow autoposting" to no avail. And I can autopost articles that I write, just not hers. So I ran through these steps to try to fix it, and now I've created a second problem.

Facebook Login

After removing and re-adding my Facebook account to Posterous, I can't login using the Facebook login button on the site. I know, small nitpick, but it used to work—it's the curious engineer in me that wants to fix it. Here's some screenshots:

See the full gallery on Posterous

Instead of logging me in, Posterous acts like I'm a new user, even though my Facebook account is already added in Posterous:

I've already swapped a few emails with Posterous support, but we haven't stumbled upon an answer yet. Any suggestions?

UPDATE (9-30-10)

After hijacking a thread on their Facebook forum, Rich from Posterous was helpful in ironing out the autopost problem. Currently with group blogs, only a post's author can autopost to Facebook. However, they're working to implement more robust autoposting options in the future.

They're still looking into the weird login issues. And now, for some reason, I never appear logged in from either of my Posterous blogs.

The control panel still works, though—I'm using it to update this post.

UPDATE #2 (1-23-11)

Everything is back to normal now. This morning I reset Facebook autoposting using these instructions again — this time using Safari. This time it worked as designed. Now I can login using Facebook and avoid remembering another password. Woohoo!

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Hooked on Instapaper

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 09:49:00 -0700

If there's one browsing tool I like more than Safari Reader/iReader, it's Instapaper. Reading articles during the day drives me to distraction, and Instapaper allows me to save off interesting stuff for later consumption.

To get started, head over to instapaper.com and register for an account. I recommend setting a password too, but it's not required. Then click and drag the Read Later button to the bookmarks bar in your browser (that's Chrome for Mac below.)

And that's it! When you stumble across a long web article, just click that Read Later bookmark. Once you have time to read, open up Instapaper and click the Text button next to each story — they'll show up without any annoying ads.

Finally, there's an iPad/iPhone app for when you're away from your computer. And Kindle owners can download all of their articles using the Kindle link on the right-hand side of the main site. So many options!

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How to install iReader for Firefox

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:28:00 -0700

Mom, the last time I posted about Safari Reader you asked me if it's something you could use.

Since you're a Firefox user, you can't use that exact feature, but there's an add-on called iReader that works much the same way. By the way, Clark Howard uses Google Chrome now (I know you're a fan.)

But no worries, Firefox is still a fine browser. And here's my best attempt to walk you through installing something on your computer without logging in and doing it for you. :)

Here we go…

Click here → iReader :: Add-ons for Firefox. That will load a separate tab with this in it:
Click Add to Firefox.
A warning screen will appear. You'll have to trust me on this one. Click Add to Firefox again.
Firefox is really paranoid with warning you about software. Read the text and click Install Now.
In order to enable the add-on, you've got to restart Firefox. Luckily, there's a convenient Restart Firefox button in the next window that appears. Click that button.
Finally surf to any long web article like this one. You should see a little 'R' icon in the address bar. Go ahead and click it.
Now enjoy easier reading and no ads.

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Single-minded browsing using Safari Reader

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:41:00 -0700

I'll admit it — I forward my fair share of web articles to family and friends. Unfortunately, with small font sizes and distracting ads, my eyes tire out quickly after page 3 of most long articles.

Enter the new Reader button in Safari 5.

Reader displays an article's text in a readable font size and greys out the rest of the clutter. It'll also consolidate multi-page articles to a single page.

For those not on Safari, the iReader extension for Firefox and Chrome gives you the same clutter-free reading goodness.

Check out how Reader handles this New York Times article on Vitamin D deficiency.

Now when will they give us the same thing on the iPad??

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Kindle, how low will you go?

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 05:17:00 -0700

Oh Amazon, how you tempt me…

Yesterday, Woot announced they're getting acquired by Amazon. Now they have the latest Kindle for $150.

After devouring some great books on the Kindle recently, I really wanted to share them with Nat. Buying physical copies could start to add up, so while writing this post, I broke down and bought a second Kindle. Geek toys, you will be my downfall.

UPDATE (9:24 AM ET): Looks like it sold out.

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iPhone 4: To upgrade or not, that's the question

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:35:00 -0700

Being between jobs this week has me with free time, and my iPhone 3GS is burning a hole in my pocket right now.

I'd love to upgrade, but I'm not too keen on signing another contract with AT&T–service in the DC area isn't stellar. And Nat's on Verizon (she gets free calls to her parents), and she's not leaving anytime soon. My money's on Verizon getting the iPhone sometime this year, but I'll still be under contract for another six months at that point.

What's weird is that AT&T's offering to upgrade for only $18, even though I purchased my current phone less than a year ago. Used 3GS's are going for $350 on eBay, so I could upgrade for nothing and only have the contract to worry about. This is the dilemma, and not having a job to occupy my time isn't helping…

Thoughts?

UPDATE: Maybe I'll wait a little while, things aren't exactly smooth sailing for AT&T today.

UPDATE 2: Looks like I waited too long…

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Switching gears after four great years

Sat, 22 May 2010 04:32:00 -0700

I'm leaving my job at MITRE for a new one at CERT.

The decision wasn't an easy one. Four years ago, MITRE hired me straight out of grad school to help engineer cross domain solutions for the Government. Problem was, I'd never heard of a cross domain solution. Turns out, they're computers that connect different classified networks to help with information sharing.

I learned a ton about these systems - what they do, and what they don't do. Turns out, they have to be pretty secure - we are talking about national security after all. And along the way, I led a big deployment that'll help warfighters share information a lot easier.

Fast forward four years, and I'm ready for my next adventure. CERT needed a developer for their new XNET exercise network (pdf). I saw a new challenge and the opportunity to get back to development work. Oh, and Nat and I get to stay in the DC area (score!)

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who made the past four years so memorable. If the next four are as exciting, I'll be one lucky guy.

matt kaar

Craigslist searches delivered to your inbox

Addendum: Amazon EC2 VPN with Windows

Issues with Posterous autopost and Facebook login

Hooked on Instapaper

How to install iReader for Firefox

Single-minded browsing using Safari Reader

Kindle, how low will you go?

iPhone 4: To upgrade or not, that's the question

Switching gears after four great years

Hello world