Sometimes, you want to stop scripts running only on specific domains. The best way to do that, I think, is with uBlock Origin - a free and fast ad-blocker. On the desktop version, it's simple to block scripts. Click the plugin icon, then click the disable scripts button. But on mobile it's a little more complicated. Here's how to do it on the Android version of Firefox. Install Firefox. Then …
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There's a law in the USA called the DMCA - Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Amongst its myriad provisions is the ability for copyright holders to send takedown notices to service providers. If someone has ripped off your content, you can send them a legal letter saying "take that down". People often send DMCA requests to Google saying "this site has stolen my copyrighted content - please remove …
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If you explore this blog's archives, you'll see that I've been blogging continuously every day since the start of 2020. Before that, I was blogging every month since mid-2008. Today, I am very hungover. Although I usually write a bunch of posts a few days and weeks in advance, I find myself looking at my publishing calendar and seeing it blissfully empty. Part of the reason I blog is that I…
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Imagine, just for a moment, you and your friends decide to travel in time. In order to make sure you can authenticate your communications with each other, you set up a shared Time-based One Time Password (TOTP). The TOTP algorithm uses a Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC). The hash is calculated from a shared key and a time-based component. The key is a short string of characters.…
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This is a retropost. It was written in July 2021, but published after I had left the Civil Service. An MP has written to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster asking about some work our department is doing. This is all rather usual for Government business. In the letter, the MP mentions me. By name. This is decidedly unusual! Civil Servants at my level are anonymous, interchangeable cogs…
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I'm pretty sure that the 2FA codes generated by my bank's TOTP app have a bias towards the number 8 - because eight is an auspicious number. But is that just my stupid meaty brain noticing patterns where none exist? The TOTP algorithm uses HMAC, which in turn uses SHA-1. My aforementioned brain is not clever enough to understand how that works. Although bigger, meatier brains have assured me it …
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Recently, WordPress got in contact with me to say they suspect that my password was exposed in some sort of data breach. Well, it's a day ending with a "y" - so of course some scumbag has pilfered my digital identity. WordPress mandated that I change my password. But was that really necessary? Firstly, the password was uniquely generated by my password manager. It isn't re-used anywhere else.…
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A few weeks ago, someone wanted to send me some crypto. After spending months studying for a Blockchain exam, I usually avoid such things. But, hey, $20 is $20. So I signed up for a wallet, installed an extension, verified my credentials, saved a seed phrase, and - without too much technical fuss - had some crypto transferred to my account. So far, so good. Compared to a traditional financial…
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A glistening pool of blood gently wept from the body. Crimson gore sparkled under rapid flash photography as it loosely clung to the wounds. So many wounds. Too many for this to have been an accident. "Bite marks," said the forensics officer. "A lot of bite marks." The detective peered at the ragged corpse. It was barely recognisable as human; just a series of holes where flesh ought to be. …
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I love putting stickers on my laptops. But when it's time to move to a different laptop, what happens to all those cool stickers? After spending too many nights with a scraper and isopropanol, I decided to get a pre-cut dbrand skin. It'll protect the laptop and it will peel off in one piece, allowing me to preserve all my old stickers. I got the cheapest possible one - it's going to be covered…
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TicketMaster has joined the long list of companies to lose their customers' information. As is common, they sent out an email to warn poor sods like me who might have had our details snaffled. Their email is particularly poor and contains a delightful example of how not to communicate issues like this. See if you can spot it: In the same breath as warning their customers to look out for…
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Another one in the Panopticon series. Bouncy sci-fi which scattershoots its plots all over the place. VR, Mission to Mars, evil AI, underwater cities, eyeless technomages - this has it all. It probably has a little too much crammed in. But, hey, it's a great ride. A cliffhanger every other chapter, vaguely plausible science, and mortal danger at every turn. It looked like I was about to be part …
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