Right Brain Feed

 I fired my kiln yesterday to slump some of my fused glass into bowl shape using a mold…. And I friggin made the mold myself! And it actually worked!  Fused glass projects typically require multiple trips thru the kiln. Typically you fuse a bunch of pieces of cut glass together into a flat disc or flat square , then in a second firing you slump it into a mold. Since molds cost 15-70$ each, I thought I’d use my mad pottery skillz and made my own.  I threw my mold as a bottomless cylinder on the wheel, then flared it out to the bowl shape. I used clay that’s really close to being porcelain (Highwaters Little Loafer ), and made sure the inside was super smooth by ribbing it like crazy. I fired it only to cone 04, because I read somewhere that bisque fired pots work better for mold than fully vitrified clay. In this glass slump firing I used papyros under it, since it does slump all the way to the touch the shelf,  but next time I’m going to skip the papyros. I was thril...

 Occasionally I find my former security nerd tin foil hat wedged firmly on my head. Translation: I used to work in computer security, and I still worry about risk on my home network.  Embedded devices are everywhere…. Running your thermostat, printer, webcam, etc etc. Some of these embedded devices tend to have security issues in them. So depending on the device (do I trust the company that made it), what it’s doing in my house (can it remotely unlock my front door?), or what pieces of my online identity and access it has to (really, this thing thinks it needs FULL access to my Google account?), I assess the risk differently. For instance, I can’t imagine having a web connected front door lock. One such embedded device is my kiln controller. It’s made by a small manufacturer that probably doesn’t have security specific software engineers, and it controls a fire breathing 2300F dragon (my kiln). Yikes!  So I don’t have it hooked up to the web so I can monitor it while it’s...