Book Review feminism · 250 words
Taking us on an eye-opening journey through science, Inferior challenges our preconceptions about men and women, investigating the ferocious gender wars that burn in biology, psychology and anthropology. Angela Saini revisits the landmark experiments that have informed our understanding, lays bare the problem of bias in research, and speaks to the scientists finally exploring the truth about…
Continue reading →Book Review · 200 words
In 1843, at the age of sixteen, servant girl Grace Marks was convicted for her part in the vicious murders of her employer and his mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Grace herself claims to have no memory of the murders. A curious book this. It read like a Tracy Chevalier - take a minor historical figure and spin a yarn around them - although written…
Continue reading →advertising spam twitter · 1 comment · 550 words · Viewed ~1,270 times
Twitter has a problem with scam advertising. Rather than having humans manually check adverts for acceptability and authenticity, they let almost anyone promote anything. Whatever meagre protections they build in are rapidly evaded by the scammers. Let's take a look at an example of a promoted crypto-scam about Singapore. I'd say it was obviously a fake, but Twitter says this story comes from…
Continue reading →2fa passwords security usability · 7 comments · 650 words · Viewed ~1,073 times
Last week I wrote about how I had 800 passwords in my password manager. It was intended to highlight the ridiculous proliferation of online services, and how redecentralising identity comes with a manageability problem. I now want to talk about 2FA - Two-Factor Authentication - the random codes you have to type in every time you log in somewhere secure. This week, I've moved all my 2FA tokens…
Continue reading →emoji · 150 words · Viewed ~1,060 times
I'm a fan of the Little Alchemy series of games. Combine earth and fire to get lava. Combine fire and water to get steam. Steam and lava combined makes... You get the picture. I've been toying around with making a version which only uses emoji. Here's what me and my friends have come up with so far. Feel free to add others. ❄+⛄=☃ 🌧️+☂=☔ 🌦️+🌱=🌳 🔥+💧=♨️ 🚰+🦠=🚱 🐟+🍚=🍣 🥕+🥬+🥒+🍅=🥗 🔒+🔑=🔓 🌌+🔭=☄️ 🧔+💈=👨 🚬+…
Continue reading →podcast · 150 words
Because podcasts are now cool™ again - I've decided to resurrect this feed. If you're interested in being interviewed - please get in touch with me. We can record in person, over the phone, or via Skype. In the meantime, here's the podcast's theme-tune to get you in the mood. And to test that I've set up everything properly. 🔊 Gran Vals ~ Francisco Tárrega🎤 Brian Streckfus 💾 Download th…
Continue reading →passwords security usability ux · 10 comments · 500 words · Viewed ~8,374 times
I've started using BitWarden - the open source password manager. As I've been binge-watching Marie Kondo, I thought it was about time that I deleted all the accounts that I no longer user. I got rid of dozens related to previous employers. I hope the passwords wouldn't work after I left but 🤷♂️. I scanned through the list and deleted old bank details, failed social networks, and obvious duplic…
Continue reading →dhsc meta nhsx work · 550 words · Viewed ~286 times
This is what I've been working on in my new job: Matt Hancock@MattHancockBig welcome to @NHSX - harnessing technology to deliver for patientsTransforming health and care@NHSXHello, World!gov.uk/government/new…❤️ 513💬 0🔁 24012:24 - Tue 19 February 2019❤️ 41💬 4🔁 014:50 - Tue 19 February 2019 BOOM! With a fancy announcement in the House of Commons and everything! It has been a lot of work - and I…
Continue reading →android app location privacy · 3 comments · 550 words · Viewed ~10,678 times
Here's an interesting user-hostile pattern which could easily be avoided if programmers and business-people thought like regular humans. I have a Pioneer / Onkyo sound system. It's pretty nice and comes with a (not too crappy) Android app to let me remote control it. One day, the app updated itself. The changelog was the usual bland "bug fixes and improvements" message, but when I opened it,…
Continue reading →data Open Data Smart Home tado · 2 comments · 600 words · Viewed ~1,147 times
I have a Tado smart thermostat - part of my smarthome project. As well as letting me set the temperature from my phone, it records environmental data, and provides a handy API for me to retrieve it. This blog post will show you why I've gathered the data, let you download the full dataset, and explain what I learned from it. Why do this? There's a long-standing plan to use waste-heat from a…
Continue reading →AI Book Review · 150 words
You are accused of a crime. Who would you rather determined your fate – a human or an algorithm? An algorithm is more consistent and less prone to error of judgement. Yet a human can look you in the eye before passing sentence. Welcome to the age of the algorithm. An all-too-brief journey through the problems with modern AI. If you've been paying attention to the trade-press, many of the s…
Continue reading →marketing Social Media · 1 comment · 1,350 words · Viewed ~4,221 times
You're sat in a pub, chatting with your mates. You start to moan about how the cheap lager they serve gives you a headache. All of a sudden, a stranger runs up to you and says: "Oh no! Headaches? Have you tried the refreshing taste of Pepsi® Cola? It's the Flavour That Keeps Giving™!" I suspect you would complain to the bar manager and then find a new watering hole. You might, perhaps, tell the …
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