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Movie Review: Poor Things ★★★★★
Yes. Every single frame of this movie is a delight - even the closing titles. It is an explosion of outrageous colour, extravagant lenses, and delirious shots. Like an Escher woodcut electrified into...
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Notes on installing GrapheneOS on a Pixel 8 Pro - some bugs & oddities
These are notes to myself - and anyone else who finds them useful. Before starting, I booted the Google OS to install the latest firmware and an eSIM. After a few days of enduring Google's naggy...
View ArticleI made a mistake in verifying HTTP Message Signatures
It's never great to find out you're wrong, but that's how learning and personal growth happens. HTTP Message Signatures are hard1. There are lots of complex parts and getting any aspect wrong means...
View ArticleHow updates work in ActivityPub / Mastodon
I didn't realise this, so I'm documenting it to stop other people making the same silly mistake that I did. Messages in ActivityPub have two distinct ID strings. Here's a (truncated) view of what...
View ArticleReview: Ross Noble's Jibber Jabber Jamboree ★★★★★
"This is a show which rewards punctuality!" Thus spake Ross - they only comedian I know of who can successfully heckle his own audience, chastise himself for doing so, go on a twenty-minute segue about...
View Article.well-known/avatar
Hot on the heels of a post I wrote 4 years ago, wouldn't it be useful to have a well-known URl for user avatar images? When I sign up to a web service, I don't want to faff around uploading an image to...
View ArticleTheatre Review: Murder Trial Tonight II - Aldwych Theatre ★★☆☆☆
Overwrought melodrama in London's most uncomfortable theatre. This show has been done countless times before. You, the audience, watch extracts from a murder trial. At the end, you vote on whether she...
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The tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth
You know that ice-breaker game "Two Truths And A Lie"? When I'm forced into some mandatory office fun, I always say... I've sat in the seat of a space shuttle. I still have two of my baby teeth. I used...
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What the UK Government gets wrong about QR codes
One of my most memorable experiences in the Civil Service1 was discussing link shortening services with a very friendly2 person from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. I was trying to explain why...
View ArticleCaboom! Comment Anywhere, Bring Onto Own Media
In the IndieWeb movement there's a concept of "POSSE" - Publish Once, Simultaneously Syndicate Elsewhere. You should publish your words, pictures, songs, reviews on your own site. And then you can...
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Solved! "Access Point Name settings are not available for this user"
Android's user-hostile interface never fails to disappoint! I was struggling to get a new eSIM working. I could make and receive calls / texts, but data just wasn't connecting. I tried rebooting,...
View ArticleA personal WordPress MonoRepo for my themes and plugins
I use a self-built WordPress theme for this blog. I also use a variety of self-developed WordPress plugins for various enhancements. I used to publish these plugins, but I get terribly confused by the...
View ArticleThere's nothing you can do to prevent a SIM-swap attack
It is tempting to think that users are to blame for their own misfortune. If only they'd had a stronger password! If only they didn't re-use credentials! If only they had perfect OpSec! If only...!...
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Restaurant Review: No Catch - Vegan Fish and Chips ★★★★⯪
There's nothing finer to do in Brighton than walk along the promenade eating a wodge of chips the size of your face. But it was raining, so we sat inside and ate all the chips instead. This is...
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Receive push notifications from your rice cooker
I have a lovely, and reasonably priced, Mini Panda Rice Cooker. It does not have any SmartHome features. You put in water and rice, press a button, it cooks rice. Nice! The only problem is - I don't...
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Fifteen MegaWatt Hours from Sunshine - Four Years with Solar Panels in London
Just as the UK was entering the first COVID19 lockdown, we got solar panels installed on our roof. Four years later and our generation meter shows they have produced 15,480kWh of electricity. That's a...
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Book Review: The Terraformers - Annalee Newitz ★★★⯪☆
This is a fascinating story told on an almost geological timescale. It is a tantalisingly glimpse, into a much larger world. It is a story of contradiction - there's an epic universe, but we're stuck...
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Viewing my CT Scan in 3D using Linux
Several years ago, I had a CT scan of my jaw. The dentist wasn't sure if she was allowed to give me a copy of the scan, which led me to ask "who owns the copyright to my medical images?" I still don't...
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Thoughts on building an NFC reader for the Framework laptop
The Framework laptop has several little slots which can be used be used to expand the functionality of the laptop. They convert the internal USB-C ports into a different sort of port. For example,...
View ArticleWhat isn't realtime?
There are a few heartstopping moments when you have to transfer a Very Large Amount of Money. Will the bank deny the transaction? Will I have to remember my mother's cousin's dog's maiden name? Will...
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