The Problem With Charging for Data

Friday April 27 2012 - , , , , , - 0 comments

I’ve just been watching a TV programme, “Don’t Get Done, Get Dom” in which Dominic Littlewood takes on consumer protection cases on behalf of aggrieved consumers. This episode was something I am professionally interested in. The unfortunate victim had been on holiday to Egypt and on her return, received a bill for over £2,200 related to data roaming charges. She claims that although her phone was turned on throughout the holiday so that she could receive incoming calls, she had not used the phone for anything while abroad. As you might expect, the mobile operator, T Mobile, dug in their heels and...

A Cautionary Tale of Cloud Computing

Tuesday April 24 2012 - , , - 0 comments

As people move in their droves to cloud services such a GMail, Googe Docs, Office365, iCloud and others, I wonder how much thought they’ve given to the trust they are placing in the hands of those large corporations? I’m not convinced that our trust has been earned yet. As my colleague Wayne Small puts it: be careful that The Cloud is not a thunder storm!...

Why 8 Characters is No Longer Enough For Strong Passwords

Thursday April 12 2012 - , , , - 0 comments

It has long been accepted practice that passwords must be ‘complex’ and ‘at least 8 characters’. The reasons for these guidelines are: Complexity thwarts a ‘dictionary attack’. That is, comparing a password to a database of known words and phrases. Password length increases entropy, or the amount of randomness contained in the password, and thwarts a ‘brute force attack’. Brute force attacks step painstakingly through every possibly password combination. The guideline of 8 characters is based on the length of time it would take to ‘guess’ a password using a brute force attack. Historically, given...

Access my Basic Information. And Take My First Born.

Sunday April 01 2012 - , , , , , , - 0 comments

Why giving a Facebook app permission to “access your basic information” may not be a great idea It seems so simple. Someone sends you an invitation. You click Allow. What’s the harm? Of course, you noticed the small print at the bottom, didn’t you? Oh, you didn’t bother to read that? oops… you’ve been socially engineered.  ...

Unfair Use Policy

Sunday April 01 2012 - , , , , , , , - 1 comments

Some broadband providers in the UK are getting away with imposing some very aggressive ‘fair use’ policies. The service is always sold by the ‘headline speed’, the maximum theoretical speed that the line can operate at. The point of ADSL is that it’s always on, always connected, 24x7. So you’d think that when you purchase a 10 Mbps (megabits-per-second) you can actually use your service to download content at that speed. Some providers are happy to take your money but are not so pleased when you actually want to use the service. The location I am at now uses Virgin Media ‘Up To 10 Meg’ service...

Installation–The Poor Cousin of Development

Saturday March 31 2012 - , , , , , - 0 comments

As developers, we tend to ignore installation for as long as possible, hoping there will be a quick ‘wizard’ we can run that will abstract the problem away. Utilities such as InstallAware, InstallShield and so on tap into that inherent reluctance and are somewhat successful at it, although I have found that they actually just substitute one set of problems for another. The truth is that installation is non-trivial and should be an integral part of product design and development, and that developers need to understand the installation process better. Many people think of installation as just copying...

Rebalancing the Economics of Printing

Thursday March 29 2012 - , , , , - 0 comments

The last decade and a half has seen the introduction and evolution of ink jet printers. Today, ink jet is the dominant technology for most printing. The printer manufacturers tried to introduce a new economics with ink jet technology. Earlier dot matrix printers tended to be expensive, with relatively inexpensive replaceable ink ribbons. Ink jet printers tend to be cheap, with expensive consumables. Printer manufacturers realised that printers were a license to print money. If they could get their brand of printer into your home or office, they had guaranteed recurring revenue on the replaceable...

Aurora Spotting

Tuesday March 27 2012 - , , , , , , , , - 0 comments

Aurora Borealis VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL The famous Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis to use the correct name, are a phenomenon rarely seen from the UK. But rarely is not never, and if one is prepared, it is perfectly possible to see from the whole of the UK. At times of high activity, aurorae have been observed as far south as Rome. Knowing when to look is important. This year there is high probability of auroral activity, so I thought I’d throw together some tips for aurora spotting. So who am I to tell you how to see an aurora? My qualifications are that I’ve seen it, twice, and photographed...

TDD FizzBuzz Code Kata using Machine.Specifications

Monday March 26 2012 - , , , , , , - 3 comments

After I read Jeff Atwood’s article claiming that some interviewees for programming jobs are unable to write even the most basic code, I thought I would have a go and see how I got on. As an extra wrinkle, I’m forcing myself to do this using strictly test driven development. I thought it might be useful to document this process and perhaps get some comments on how others might have done things differently. I’m sure mine isn’t the only way or even the best way. The problem specification, as quoted by Jeff, is: Write a program that prints the numbers from 1 to 100. But for multiples of three print...

Don’t Ask Me to Like Your Page

Saturday March 24 2012 - , , , , , , - 0 comments

Lately, a lot of businesses who don’t really ‘get’ social media have been creating Facebook pages because its the done thing these days. Their first act is usually then to email everyone they know and ask them to ‘like’ their page. We’ve all done it, but this is manipulative and fake; things that don’t work well in social media. Businesses can’t control social media, it is something with a life of its own that must be embraced but respected. People are not used to plain speaking these days, so you may be offended by what I am about to say, I hope you will not be because I’m trying to help you....