Or you can call it a cigatar, if you like, because we’re starting from a cigar box guitar, pictured at left. The point of this article is how to change its tuning so it can be played exactly like a ukulele, without having to buy new strings. This also works for a G6 baritone to C6 standard tuning conversion, if you have a baritone ukulele. Read More
DOM Purify added to all my apps
All my crypto apps, with the exception of those meant to be performed also by hand, have been upgraded to include the powerful DOM Purify filter, which removes malicious content from web pages. This is in case you get an encrypted message with a malicious payload, which might execute and do something nasty as soon as you decrypt it. Apps involved: PassLok, PassLok for Email, SeeOnce, URSA.
Convert a ukulele to play in G
One year after I started learning the ukulele, I have learned to accompany many songs by strumming. But I still divide them into “easy” (key of C), and “all others” (any other key). This is because the basic chords involved in a song written in the key of C (C, F, G7, Am, Dm) are especially easy on the standard-tuned (gCEA) ukulele. But it turns out that the “easy” songs are only about half the songs in most books. One solution is to use a capo, but then the sound goes from tinny to tinnier, especially if the difference is large (say, a song in the key of G, which would mean a capo on the 7th fret; try that on a soprano!).
But I’ve found a better solution, and this is to get a second uke and turn it into a “cuatrolele” by simply swapping the order of the strings. As a demo, I have sound samples for a soprano uke originally tuned in C6 (gCEA), which has become a G6 (DGBe) g-ukulele, or “gukulele” for short. Read More
Guitar and ukulele sizes: all the numbers that matter
As part of the ukutar project, I looked for small guitars that I could turn into ukuleles, and found there is a bewildering array of names that often don’t describe very well the size of the instrument or how it sounds. Pictures are pretty much useless. In this article I present a table with most of the guitar and ukulele sizes I’ve found, and try to make some sense of the numbers. Read More
SeeOnce, URSA released as extensions for Chrome and Firefox
PassLok did it first, and now SeeOnce and URSA have followed. Both are available as extension/addon at the Chrome and Firefox web stores. They are just one click away, and are protected from interference by other code running on the browser. These are the links for SeeOnce: Chrome, Firefox, and for URSA: Chrome, Firefox. And, for good measure, PassLok: Chrome, Firefox, and PassLok for Email: Chrome, Firefox. Read More
Switch between guitar and ukulele
In this post, I’m going to tell you an easy trick to play ukulele if you know guitar, or to play guitar (almost) if you know ukulele. It is based on the circle of fifths, pictured at left. Read More
Make a ukutar
Here we go again with a “new” hybrid instrument. A ukutar is a guitar that wants to be a ukulele. It has four strings and it plays exactly like a ukulele, but it sounds rather like a guitar, with all that deep resonance that we love in the instrument. Read on to see how you can make one with a $30 budget. There’s also some sound samples. Read More
The Looming Face ID Debacle
As of late-October, 2017, only one week is left before the spanking new iPhone X stars shipping. I predict FaceIDgate to start within a week of the first units being received, with no end in sight. The source for this prediction is Apple’s own documents.
Update 11/12/17: It took researchers only five days to break Face ID, from the moment the devices were available. Read all about it here, or at the end of my post.
We’re doing passwords wrong!
You suspected it all along, and now it’s official: the “experts” have been forcing us to use passwords the wrong way. Among those practices that actually decrease security: adding weird characters to your text-based password, forcing people to change their password after a certain number of days or logins. The revelation comes from a recent document from NIST. Now there’s only hope that Government websites will start adopting the new guidelines (they’re the worst perpetrators).
In this article, I am repeating much of what I already said in this other article, but with less technical jargon and a few more months available for testing.
Learn guitar at an (relative) old age
I just turned 57, and my new project is to learn how to play guitar. After many failed attempts, here’s what seems to be working. And it only requires two pieces of wire. Read More