With the new year, I’ve been thinking about where this blog will go in the future. Below are some thoughts.

A few quick notes on the role that mode confusion may have played in the recent crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX-8 aircraft.

Now that my dissertation is complete, I offer my perspective on the process and some advice for prospective PhD candidates.

Within human factors engineering, one of the topics I’m most interested in is how human error can contribute to system failure. With news of JAXA’s loss of their just-launched x-ray satellite, did human error contribute to this complex system failure as well?

This is one of the most important lessons I learned while working from home. If you don’t value your own time, who will?

A quick example regarding the importance of affordances and the gulf of execution in design. Examples can be found in all sorts of places.

For my dissertation, I’m arguing that we should be able to formally model and analyze human mental models to find unanticipated problems in computer security. But what does that mean and why does it matter?

If organizations would just stop using Windows XP and patch their software, WCry wouldn’t have been an issue. Unfortunately, that’s often easier said than done for safety-critical systems built with now-retired software.

Depending on user needs, an actual “password book” might not be a bad idea. It’s certainly better than rampant password reuse.

Everyone should have a threat model, but a bit of thought should go into calibration. Make sure your model is appropriate and that your opsec follows from it.

Instructions for installing Pi-hole to systematically block advertisements across your network are easy to find, but it gets a little more tricky when using different hardware. Here are some tips to get up and running with a BeagleBoard.

When I first started my website, I was excited to use Google Analytics to examine my site traffic. However, I’ve since reversed my decision and ended up disabling it. Read on to find out why.

So, you have a laptop on which you’ve installed Linux, and you’ve configured and used PowerTOP to reduce the power consumption of said hardware. That’s great! The question now becomes: “How should I implement these power-saving settings automatically every time I reboot my laptop?”

If someone is sufficiently motivated, she can find most programs—or an alternative—for free. It begs the question: Why would anyone want to pay for a program you could get or otherwise use for free? I present my argument for doing just that … but there’s a catch.

Earlier this year, the New York Times ran a piece in their Food section called “Three Steps to Brewing a Better Cup of Coffee” that I recently ran across. The author noted three steps you can take to improve the quality of your morning cup, but there are some other items I would like to add that can definitely improve the brewing process.

Improve your operational security by moving to a locally-stored password generation and storage utility.

Of all the dark roast coffees that I’ve tried, the monsooned Malabar is my favorite.

A good first exposure to a medium roast that won’t leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.

For those of you who would like to create a better-looking curriculum vitae for prospective employers, consider using moderncv. This tutorial will help you get started.

Static site generators can greatly reduce the slope of the website creation learning curve. Take advantage of these tools if you are interested in creating your own simple website but want to sidestep manually generating the HTML and CSS on your own.

As you can read on my “About” page, I’m a graduate student studying Human Factors (HF) engineering. What does that mean? Or, more importantly, what does and does not fall under the purview of my interests?