How do you archive a conference? A decade ago, I blogged about how to archive a BarCamp - I don't think anyone took up my suggestions. I tried to put it into practice, but in this post about 2009's BarCampBrighton4, half the links have rotted away, cool media-hosting startups have gone bust and eaten the video. Websites die, tweets get deleted, media codecs become obsolete. BarCamps, GovCamps, and other unconferences are part of our digital heritage. We should be proud of what we create and…
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I, unironically, love Reddit. But it's just USENET with a better UI, and a few moderation improvements. Most days I use DropBox. But it's just FTP, but a bit easier to use and automate. I waste a lot of time on Slack. When I explain it to old-school nerds, I say it's IRC - but developed by someone who gives a damn about user experience. Most people in the world don't have access to WWW. Instead, they use Facebook which gives them a much simpler way to post photos and share their thoughts. It …
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I'm going to start this discussion with the why and then move on to the how. Let's begin with a couple of user stories. As the recipient of some data, I want to verify that it hasn't been tampered with. and As the recipient of some data, I want to verify who originally published it. Here's why I think this is important. We are in an era of fake news. A screenshot can be easily altered. A webpage is trivial to edit. But data should be provably true. Recently, a prominent person's…
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I am a civil servant in the UK - this is my personal blog. As part of my job, I have to follow the Civil Service Code which, among other things, says I'm not allowed to be political at work. Political Impartiality You must:serve the government ... no matter what your own political beliefs arecomply with any restrictions that have been laid down on your political activities You must not: act in a way that is determined by party political considerations allow your personal political views to…
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In the early days of the web, I used to go hunting for Beatles Bootlegs. I scoured forums, emailed dodgy geezers, and swapped poorly encoded RealAudio™ files on USENET. The Beatles had recently released their Anthology series, and us nerds were desperate to hear more unreleased goodies. Sure, there were rarities and out-takes, but we wanted more. We wanted Ultra Rare tracks. That one song no one had ever heard since it was first recorded. Digital music is now done. There is nothing more w…
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tl;dr Google forgot to renew a domain used in their documentation. It was mildly embarrassing for them. And possibly a minor security concern for some new G-Suite domain administrators Background Choosing a good example domain, to use in documentation, is hard. You want something which is obviously an example, so that users understand they have to substitute it for their own details. But it also needs to be a validly formatted domain, and shouldn't be used for anything important, and -…
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If you'd like to set up a meeting or call with me, chances are, I've sent you a link to my calendar. It's a public website where you can see when I'm available. One important note, before we go any further, this public calendar only shows my free/busy status. It doesn't show the names of the appointments, details of people I'm meeting with, locations, or any other data. It's literally just "this is when Terence is busy". There are two primary reasons why I do this. Make it easy for people …
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A year ago, I swapped my comfy job at GDS for a new role at the Department of Health and Social Care. So, this is a sort of informal end-of-year review. It has been a fun and challenging year. Some of the things I've tried have worked, others less so. The Good Helped kickstart NHSX. I think that counts for something! A bit of that was procedural stuff like obtaining the domain name and convincing Twitter to give us the @NHSX name. Some of it was sitting in rooms while senior people turned to …
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I set myself a resolution last year - go 12 months without using physical cash. No coins, no notes, no gold bullion, no cheques. I attempted to do all my spending on credit card, Direct Debit, and bank transfer (BACS). It worked! Mostly... Here's where it didn't work, and what I learned from it. Foreign Cash Went to Hong Kong and withdrew £100 in local currency. Was completely unnecessary. Everywhere took card / contactless. We didn't stray away from the tourist trail, which may have …
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Let me preface this post by saying that I am a lazy idiot. I have a problem, I keep leaving the fridge door open. I've come home a few times only to discover my half-hearted push hasn't properly closed the door and it has swung back open. Our new house has a built in fridge, so I can't adjust the feet to make it close automatically. I can't easily attach springs and magnets to force it shut. The only solution? A new gadget! Enter the EcoSavers Fridge Alarm Light. It's a clever bit of kit. …
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bləʊk ʧeɪn Noun: any technology which attracts clueless men User Stories are great! A simplified snippet to help you understand the problem you're facing. There are, of course, a vanishingly small number of genuine use-cases for the Blockchain. So cryptobores have to resort to ever more baroque explanations to sell their wares. I recently stumbled on this absolute gem of a user story, and feel compared to share it with you in all its horror. *sigh* I'll grudgingly admit, there's the ker…
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We're delighted to announce that our OpenBenches.org project has been awarded a $250 microgrant from Icculus! Ryan C. Gordon@icculusGoogle gave me an award for my contributions to Linux gaming and open source, and while I’m honored to be acknowledged, I can’t accept money from a company that is actively engaging in union busting.❤️ 2,934💬 0🔁 48402:20 - Wed 25 December 2019Ryan C. Gordon@icculusReplying to @icculusWhen I agreed to the award, I hadn’t heard about @eiais’s firing, or any of the ot…
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