Yeah. Yeah, I reckon so. Under the right circumstances. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA, 2FA, TOTP, whatever you want to call it) is pretty nifty. You scan a QR code and your phone will continually generate a set of one-time passwords which are synchronised with a remote server. There's nothing stopping multiple people from scanning that QR code! They will each have the same password displayed …
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My friend has published their first novel - and it is a cracker! After a calamitous accident, the Fairy realm is cut off from the mundane world. Only one trickster remains, a sprite by the name of Mainder who is now trapped on our side. All seems to be going well in his little corner of the world, until a plucky team of archaeologists start digging around the shattered ruins of the portal…
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Remember World of Goo? The hit game that you loved on the Nintendo Wii? It was all the rage in 2009: .social-embed{all:unset;display:block;}.social-embed * {all:unset;display:revert;}.social-embed::after{all:unset;}.social-embed::before{all:unset;}blockquote:not(*){all:unset;}.social-embed a{cursor:pointer;}blockquote.social-embed{box-sizing:border-box;border:.5px…
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Many years ago, when I was younger and more foolish, I worked for an advertising startup. Things seemed to be going pretty well! The office was expanding, the sales team was screaming into phones, the budget for servers was rising. Growth had been healthy, but now looked to be plateauing. One day we were summoned into a large conference room. Our CEO was on the speakerphone (I told you this was…
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I want to live in the world where this book is true. But I think I'm too cynical. Adam Greenfield has expertly diagnosed the problem we're all about to face. With ecological collapse comes societal breakdown. This "failure cascade" will bring unimaginable suffering. What can we do to give mutual aid and help save ourselves and our communities? The answer is building a series of "Lifehouses";…
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This is a retropost. Mostly written in August 2020 but published long after I left the Civil Service. It is, although I don't quite realise it, the depths of the pandemic. Everyone is relegated to working from home. Thousands of Civil Servants trying to keep things running from their kitchen tables, on dodgy WiFi, with crying children in the background. Things are happening quickly. Much more…
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It looks like South Sudan's Top Level Domain is going to start allowing direct registrations! Long-time readers of this blog will know that it's possible to register .me.ss domain names - there are various other 3rd level domains you can buy. But, from the 1st of August 2024, you'll be able to apply for a 2nd level. So you'll be able to grab example.ss. Here's the official announcement. As …
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To recap, we have 5,040W of solar panels, with a 3.6kW inverter, and a 4.8kWh battery. That's a lot of (expensive) gear! What does it mean in terms of energy savings? Over the last 12 months we have: 4,000 kWh generated by the solar panels. 1,200 kWh purchased from the grid. 1,200 kWh sold to the grid. 1,300 kWh discharged from the battery. (Data taken from various APIs and rounded to make…
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I've been writing about QR codes since 2007 - long before they were fashionable. Because QR Codes are so cheap to produce, there has always been a concern that attackers might print out their own codes and stick them over legitimate ones. When I first wrote about QR Hijacking in 2011, I said that such attacks were usually easy to spot: Recently, a new wave of QR Hijacking attacks have been…
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(Inspired by this conversation between Jukesie and Himal) Lots of companies encourage their staff to blog. It's free PR! It makes them look like they're on the cutting edge of technology! It helps with recruitment! It can also be a corporate nightmare. What if the developer says something stupid? What if it accidentally reveals something top secret? What if the CEO doesn't like it? And so,…
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I am a pedant. I like it when validators say "nothing to report". No errors, no warnings, no information messages. My blog is plagued with messages on the HTML validator saying Info: Trailing slash on void elements has no effect and interacts badly with unquoted attribute values. By default, the WordPress function get_the_post_thumbnail() spits out HTML like: <img width="1024" height="593" …
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I am easily influenced. At EMF Camp, I saw my friends Skylar and Cameron using some nifty walkie-talkies out in the field. Skye (patiently) explained to me the joys of PMR446 and - because I was quite drunk I hastily bought some radios on Amazon. Hey, they were on special - £30 for a pair! After a few days of use, I've come to the conclusion that they're… basically fine? My main reason for bu…
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