Twitter has recently improved the accessibility of its site. When uploading an image, a user can add alt text - a short description of the image for people with visual impairments. Here's an example: Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentThis is a test to see if alt-text in images is searchable on Twitter.alpaca omnithorp pic.x.com/jhgcsaxpkd❤️ 1💬 0🔁 010:37 - Sun 19 February 2017 If you take a look…
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I've found an interesting, but low severity, way for a malicious user to selectively deny access to specific GitHub issues and Pull Requests. This doesn't affect the whole site - just targeted pages. It doesn't require elevated permissions, nor any special skills. This is just GitHub punching itself in the face. Here's how it works. An attacker creates thousands of comments in their own…
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C-3P0 doesn't have a schnoz. The degloved terminator has a bleak hole where his snout should be. Both the Jetson's Rosie and Futurama's Bender are arhinotic. The robot sat in front of me was different. The RoboThespian is an imposing chunk of metal. LEDs blink as servomotors whine. The exposed wiring twists as the arms flex in a crude approximation of humanity. But the face... Oh! The face! A…
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Is email dead? I don't think so - but I know lots of people who either don't have an email account or deliberately don't check it. And why should they? Is email a requirement for modern life? All the major chat apps - WhatsApp, Line, Signal, Wire, Skype - only require a mobile phone number. Hey presto I can communicate with anyone around the world. No email required. But, suppose I wish to…
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It is a little masochistic to dwell on one's mistakes. I doubt anyone thinks that I am perfect (not even my mother!) - but I think talking about our mistake serves a useful purpose. It's healthy for us to discuss our failings, and hopefully helps people from following in our footsteps. After last week's success with making solid apple juice, I thought I'd try my hand at "spherification". A way …
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Good news! is being relaunched with a slew of new features which frees it up from its previous shackles. What is .tel Your address book is probably a mausoleum - stuffed with the rotting corpses of long dead phone numbers. Perhaps you took my business card back in 2002, duly entered it on your Palm Pilot, and never spoke to me again. That address book entry has a phone number I've not used…
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This is a quick guide on how to upgrade your Shamu from CyanogenMod to LineageOS. Download everything In order to upgrade, you'll need to download the experimental and the nightly build. These can be downloaded from https://download.lineageos.org/shamu. Store them in the root of your SD card Flash Experimental If you need to know how to access recovery, you can find the information at…
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Phishing is the devious practice of tricking users into giving away their usernames and passwords to fraudulent sites. It is big business, and the best defence against it is constant vigilance. I'm going to walk you, step-by-step, through a scam that targetted me today. Along the way we'll see how to avoid falling prey to these monsters. It starts with a text I was sent this SMS from a…
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Welcome to my descent into a mulberry-induced madness. As I was wandering through the quaint European town of Woodstock, I noticed a most intriguing plaque affixed to one of the houses. This seems like a curiously specific act to pass! This house is № 28 High Street - so why would Parliament pass an act declaring it to be 1 Mulberry Tree? My first stop was the Parliamentary Legislation site. …
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This is a sort of poker variant / group solitaire which can be played either competitively or collaboratively. These rules were thrashed out at the Oxford January Games Jam. I think it is original - but there are literally thousands of card games, so it is hard to tell! As I've mentioned before, I love collaborative games. I'd much rather help my friends than beat them. This game is…
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(Disclaimer - I currently work for GDS, although I don't work on FOI. This is an opinion piece and doesn't represent the views on any of my employers - past, present, or future.) The Irish government recently complied with a Freedom of Information Act request from journalists at RTÉ. The journalists wanted copies of messages sent via a WhatsApp group. The Irish government complied and sent out …
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The good folk at PITAKA have sent me one of their Carbon Fibre wallets to review. It is a gorgeous bit of kit - but does that justify the price tag? https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/PITAKA-Carbon-Fibre-Wallet-Review-6mP3siO8Sps.webm You can also view the unboxing on YouTube This is a card-holder with space for 6 cards - wrapped up in a protective bundle, secured with strong …
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