Intrigue is swirling around Lyra once more. Her daemon Pantalaimon is witness to a brutal murder, and the dying man entrusts them with secrets that carry echoes from their past. They learn of a city haunted by daemons, of a desert said to hold the secret of Dust. Powerful forces are about to throw Lyra and Malcolm together once again. And the dangers they face will challenge everything they thought they knew about the world, and about themselves. I met Philip Pullman a few years ago and,…
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This is a minor obsession of mine. The crew of JMC Red Dwarf are familiar with 20th Century pop-culture - but they never mention Doctor Who. Why? In various episodes they talk about The Flintstones, Casablanca, Marilyn Monroe, Laurel & Hardy, and all sorts of TV shows. But Doctor Who is strangely absent. There can only be one logical explanation. Lister and the gang exist the same universe as The Doctor. He has saved the Earth many times, and has deleted himself from their history. Now, I…
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For years, my email address was registered with our electricity supplier. I got the monthly bills sent to me. My wife's email was used for the water supplier. This made sense when we were a young couple with separate finances - but now we're a smug an old married couple, with a joint bank account, it's a bit annoying. We both want to see the bills, and we don't want to rely on the other forwarding us an email, or sticking the PDF into a shared folder. Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentCouples …
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We're back again with Kim Rowan. Listen to her thoughts about what it's like to become a manager of technical teams. 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. Read about how she got into tech. …
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Edward Snowden, the man who risked everything to expose the US government’s system of mass surveillance, reveals for the first time the story of his life, including how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to try to bring it down. I'm a civil servant in the UK. Luckily, I suppose, I don't often have access to TOP SECRET information. I suppose I could leak the canteen's lunch menu, but that won't make headlines. What drives a person to jeopardise their career, their f…
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The Netherlands is a world leader in responsible disclosure. The Dutch like to resolve conflicts through a process of general consultation: the famous ‘polder model’. In this book, we hear from the hackers, system owners, IT specialists, managers, journalists, politicians and lawyers who have been key players in a number of prominent disclosures. Their stories offer a glimpse into the mysterious world of cyber security, revealing how hackers can help us all. A short but essential volume. A …
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It is 1932, and the losses of the First World War are still keenly felt. Violet Speedwell, mourning for both her fiancé and her brother and regarded by society as a ‘surplus woman’ unlikely to marry, resolves to escape her suffocating mother and strike out alone. I normally love Tracy Chevalier's books. But this was the first one which left me cold. It was just so... drab. The politics felt tacked on - to the point where I laughed aloud at the following dialogue: “Arthur, whatever is…
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How do you modernise the technology of a huge organisation like the UK's Ministry of Justice? Kim Rowan has some bright ideas. 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. Read Kim's post on the Application Modernisation Team For more technical posts, read the Just-Tech blog on Medium. …
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Queer Privacy is a collection of essays about community, family, coming out, dating, domestic violence, activism, sex work and suicide. We will talk about problems, we won't always have solutions, and not all the stories have happy endings. After all, this is real life and we are building it together - one step at a time. How do you design an app which protects privacy? Yes, yes, I know "your privacy is important to us" - but that has always been a lie. For most of us a privacy breach…
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The Fated Sky looks forward to 1961, when mankind is well-established on the moon and looking forward to its next step: journeying to, and eventually colonizing, Mars. Of course, the noted Lady Astronaut Elma York would like to go, but could the International Aerospace Coalition ever stand the thought of putting a woman on such a potentially dangerous mission? I rushed to buy this book the minute I finished its prequel - The Calculating Stars. Mary Robinette Kowal has created an…
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Happy Ada Lovelace Day! I interviewed its founder, Suw Charman-Anderson, on an earlier episode. So here is a BONUS EPISODE for your ears. I hope you have as much fun listening to it as I had recording it. 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. …
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The world is run by American corporations; there are no taxes; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; the Police and the NRA are publicly-traded security firms; the government can only investigate crimes it can bill for. Billy NRA is finding out that life in a private army isn't all snappy uniforms & code names. Jennifer Government, a legendary agent with a barcode tattoo, is a consumer watchdog with a gun. Most episodes of Black Mirror can be summarised as "What…
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