By @edent · bug google paypal · 19 comments · 350 words · read ~50,764 times.
Hey kids! Did you know that the best way to report bugs to Google is via passive-aggressive blog posts? Yup, s'true. They don't offer support for any of their products*, so your only hope is getting your complaint to the top of Reddit / HackerNews / Cool Site of the Day and hoping that particular […]
Continue reading →By @edent · art ascii qr · 100 words · read ~1,852 times.
There are plenty of QR generators which will render the code in ASCII, but I wanted to try something a little different. Is it possible to hide ASCII Art into QR Codes? Errr.... yes... It's pretty damn simple! I was surprised I couldn't find anyone else doing this. (_/) (='.'=) (")_(") Becomes: Which, when scanned, […]
Continue reading →By @edent · flooding python ukblc14 · 1 comment · 650 words · read ~113 times.
As part of BlueLightCamp '14, a group of civil servants, hackers, and emergency service workers got together for a weekend of furious creation. I decided to look at flooding data. The recent floods in the UK are a brutal remember of the realities of climate change and our poor stewardship of the nation's waterways. The […]
Continue reading →By @edent · ergonomic keyboard microsoft · 400 words · read ~958 times.
I've written before about my love for the MS 4000 Ergonomic Keyboard. It's the only keyboard I'm comfortable typing on for extended periods of time. Sadly, one of mine has started to get a bit old and frail - the letters are rubbing off and the keys are getting a bit spongy - so I […]
Continue reading →By @edent · mobile review · 2 comments · 500 words · read ~2,775 times.
VWTech Co Ltd are yet another company out of Shenzen, China, selling weird and wonderful gadgets at knockdown prices. I decided to treat myself to one of their "Unique Real Handmade Natural Wood Wooden Hard Bamboo Shockproof Case For Samsung Galaxy Note 3" It promised to be a laser-cut and engraved, bamboo case for my […]
Continue reading →By @edent · Apple security · 1 comment · 650 words · read ~1,083 times.
A (very minor) privacy issue I found with the iTunes API - disclosed on 7th April. Apple provide an API to allow users to search the iTunes store. Let's suppose that a user wishes to search for Music Videos from The Beatles. The search itself is performed over HTTPS. https://itunes.apple.com/search?entity=musicVideo&term=beatles This means that anyone sniffing […]
Continue reading →By @edent · govcamp hackathon police ukblc14 · 700 words
This is a necropost - resurrected from the now defunct blog of a previous employer. I've just come back from an amazing BlueLightCamp 2014 - held in the splendid offices of the Ordnance Survey. Themed unconferences are nothing new - but I think this was one of the first that I've been to focussed on […]
Continue reading →By @edent · security Unsecured State · 300 words · read ~434 times.
A few months ago, I was attending the National Hack The Government event. I was showing off some of the work I had been doing on "The Unsecured State" - looking at *.gov.uk website security. I was chatting to an envoy from the Food Standards Agency who was eager to hear more about what I'd […]
Continue reading →