Take a look at the following text, looks normal enough doesn't it? "Harry ".draziw a si Potter Now, try to select the text and see what happens. WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS THIS?! If you examine the source code for this page, you'll see that I'm using the Unicode Bi-Directional characters. "Harry ‮".draziw a si ‭Potter These characters are useful when writing text that includes, say, E…
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Search Engine Optimisation is the (dark) art of getting a site to the top of Google's ranking algorithm. If you're in the business of selling decorations for ponds, you want your shop to be right at the top of the results when people search for "bespoke synthetic frog spawn." The problem is, there are lots of people all playing the same game. So, what "unusual" tactics can be used to drive…
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Homoglyphs are characters that love each other very much look strikingly similar to each other. Can you quickly tell the difference between these two - O0? That's The capital letter "o" and the number 0. How about Il1|? Depending on the font used - and your attention to detail, it may be hard to spot the difference between all three. The sites homoglyphs.net and IronGeek are great resources…
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I've started seeing an uptick in Twitter spam - ostensibly from my friends telling me I can make money online. The common denominator is that they all use Pinterest as a vector for spreading the spam. Looking at the accounts of people who have recently tweeted these or similar messages, shows that the majority are real people - not automated spam-bots. So how is this happening? Checking the …
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Imagine, just for a moment, you were a computer. Take a look at the following sentence and try to work out where and how you should hyperlink the text. He said "You should visit http://example.com/!" Obvious, isn't it? Except, of course, it's not really that simple. There could well be a file named "!" on the webserver. Infact, there could be file named "!"" on there. And yet, to my tastes, …
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I'm turning into an old curmudgeon. Either that, or the new wave of social marketing has severely missed its intended target. Let me ask you a question, do you want to be friends with your utility company? Your phone provider? Your soft drinks manufacturer? I don't mean "follow-on-social-media" friends - I mean actual buddies. On the face of it, that's a ridiculous question. You can no more…
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It's always very tricky when people who aren't educators start banging on about what should or shouldn't be taught in schools. My own school days are but a hazy memory of hormones, angst, and boring homework. Yet here I am, pontificating. With the current "fad" of encouraging children to learn to code, I thought I would be worth looking at the difference between coding and computer science. …
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Ever heard of Mydex? Here's how they describe themselves: Mydex provides the individual with a hyper-secure storage area to enable them to manage their personal data, including text, numbers, images, video, certificates and sound. No-one but the individual can access or see the data. Not just secure, but hyper-secure! They've been signed up by the UK Government to provide Identity Assurance. …
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My mother loves her BlackBerry, even though it is one of my cast offs. Sadly, her ancient Torch finally gave up the ghost a few weeks ago. We spent some time trying to work out the best phone for her before, eventually, settling on.... another BlackBerry Torch! Why? My mum has an Android tablet which she likes very much. Her Windows laptop suits her needs fine. She admires her friends'…
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Cyber Security is of vital national importance. As the United Kingdom places more of its infrastructure onto the Internet, bugs and glitches go from minor inconveniences to full scale national emergencies. Suppose, for a moment, that a hacker were to interrupt payment processing for banks, or tamper with the UK's water supply, or cut off the phone lines. The economic damage alone could run…
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My wife likes to set reminders for herself in Google Calendar. Recently, she added a note to her personal Google Calendar reading "Email alice@example.com to discuss pay rise" and set the date for a few months from now. She'd had a discussion with her boss, Alice, and they'd agreed to talk about salary later in the year. A few moments later, Alice sent her a "Meeting Accepted" email. What... …
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Numbers matter to some people. It's sometimes not important who did something first - but rather who did things on "milestone" numbers. Here are the billionth messages posted on Twitter. 1,000,000,000 annchan@annchan2「ほのちゃんに歯が生えた」のほのかちゃんがもう１９歳て！あれから１９年！http://tinyurl.com/5lrcjv❤️ 424💬 5🔁 005:49 - Tue 11 November 2008 Although Ann is still on Twitter, the website they pointed to is long since …
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