Nicolas Ventura

As of 12 April 2026, there have been 89 posts published.

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There is no Justice

12 April 2026 Here's the follow-up from the story about almost becoming roadkill. We went to the police station, and showed the video to the officer. Despite the fact that the officer agrees that the driver clearly broke the law, he said that there was unfortunately nothing he could do. Read more

Inches from Disaster

11 April 2026 All you faithful readers are probably wondering what the "mysterious event" is by now that I referenced in my CCTV Hacking story. Why could I possibly want security camera footage? (Other than the fact, that's kind of cool.) Well, let's just say, please drive safely, people. Read more

CCTV Hacking

10 April 2026 In late March, an event occurred which caused me to request CCTV footage from a local transportation service. That will be saved for another story. But if you're here to read about computery stuff, this is the tale for you. Read more

Cell Division Puzzle

28 March 2026 On YouTube, I recently watched this puzzle introduced by creator @3blue1brown. I figured it would be a pretty easy puzzle and probably involved factorials or exponentials if you wanted an exact numerical answer. I didn't think of it much until a few weeks later when he posted the solution. But before you watch it, read this! I promise, it will be quick. Read more

Marin's Geographic Weakness

13 March 2026 Marin county, California is in a beautiful and extremely defendable location. Marin is surrounded on 3 sides by water, and is only bordered directly by a single other county. It is well-prepared for siege and has some built-in countermeasures for attack. But just how well would it fare in times of war? Read more

Replaying Pokemon Heartgold

27 February 2026 Unfortunately, this past week I mysteriously got really sick, took some time off work and really didn't do that much. It put a red light onto doing anything physical; so absolutely no running. I stayed home and did the one thing that would make me feel better - I broke out my old Nintendo DS and started a new playthough on the best game in the world. Or, the best game in Johto - Pokemon Heartgold! Read more

Maximize Luggage Space

16 February 2026 I can't find it now, but there was once an airline that measured carryon luggage a really interesting way to provide more flexibility. Basically, you measure the length, width, and height of your luggage and add them up all together. That total length could not exceed a certain length in order to be carried on the flight. So, how could you maximize your luggage space? Read more

Speed of Transit to Work

10 February 2026 A while ago, I wrote about how long it took me to take public transit to work compared to driving. Since then, Clipper cards (the payment method for transit in the Bay Area) have rolled out their 2.0 upgrade, which makes inter-agency transfers significantly cheaper, or even free. On the other hand, the bridge toll for driving has increased every year. Let's compare this again, with an interesting twist. On the ride to work, the weather was clear and sunny. On the ride home, it was raining. How much does poor weather conditions affect a commute in the Bay Area? You're about to find out. Read more

Switching from npm to Bun

28 January 2026 When I first heard of Bun, I thought, "it's just another one of the hundreds of JavaScript frameworks out there." And it is, sort of. So why is there so much hype? At least, relatively. If you're not a computer nerd, you probably think I'm talking about rolls of bread. It does have a fun name. Read more

How to Wake Up and Focus

18 January 2026 Many times, I find myself having a lot to do an simply not doing it. In fact, the more things that I have to do, the more I procrastinate, leading to just more things to catch up on. But once I get into the "flow state", my mind is so sharp and concentrated, and that's one of the best feelings. I don't get why my brain just doesn't want to get into the flow state on its own. I have my own tricks and I've done some a bit of online research to try to find out how to kick myself into gear. Read more