Author's posts
Jan 18 2012
and darkness shall be upon the face of the net
Today, 18 January 2012, parts of the ‘net went deliberately dark in combined opposition to the SOPA (A Bill to:“promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes.” I love the “other purposes” bit.) and PIPA bills currently being considered by the US legislative machinery. These two …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2012/01/18/and-darkness-shall-be-upon-the-face-of-the-net/
Jan 12 2012
t-mobile resets its policy?
As I have mentioned in other posts here, I run my own mail server on one of my VMs. I do this for a variety of reasons, but the main one is that I like to control my own network destiny. Back in October last year I noticed an interesting change in my mail experience …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2012/01/12/t-mobile-resets-its-policy/
Jan 12 2012
tails in a spin
When I first tested running a tails mirror on one of my VMs, the traffic level reported by vnstat ran at around 20-30 GiB per day. I figured I could live with that because it meant that my total monthly traffic would be unlikely to exceed my monthly 1TB allowance. However, when I checked the …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2012/01/12/tails-in-a-spin/
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2012/01/05/well-its-not-me/
Dec 24 2011
happy birthday trivia
Astonishingly, today is the fifth anniversary of my first post to trivia. So, five years ago on christmas eve, I was writing a blog post. Five years later, it is again christmas eve and what am I doing? Hmmm.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/12/24/happy-birthday-trivia/
Dec 24 2011
bah, humbug
At this time of year it is traditional to receive christmas cards from people with whom you may have only infrequent, if any, contact on a normal daily basis. If you are in a relationship, these cards will often be addressed to you as a couple or family, and be signed on behalf of other …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/12/24/bah-humbug/
Dec 20 2011
the amnesic incognito live system
Or “tails” if you prefer, is a live CD/USB distribution based on debian which aims to help you preserve your privacy and anonymity when out and about. As the home website says, tails helps you to: use the Internet anonymously almost anywhere you go and on any computer: all connections to the Internet are forced …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/12/20/the-amnesic-incognito-live-system/
Dec 19 2011
tunnelling X over ssh
OK, yes, I know there are probably already a gazillion web pages on the ‘net explaining exactly how to do this, but I got caught out by a silly gotcha when I tried to do this a couple of days ago, so I thought I’d post a note. Firstly, X is not exactly a secure …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/12/19/tunnelling-x-over-ssh/
Nov 30 2011
tp-link respond
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the problems I had with a TP-Link IP camera. Today I received a comment on that post from a guy called Luke in the TP-Link support team. In that response he apologises for the difficulties I had and promises to investigate further. His response deserves as wide …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/30/tp-link-respond/
Nov 23 2011
no you can’t have my mobile number
I guess, like me, many parents will have facebook accounts simply as a means of communicating with their kids. In the past I have used my account as a way of finding out what my kids actually do, or like in the way of music for example. This can be more fruitful than attempting a …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/23/no-you-cant-have-my-mobile-number/
Nov 23 2011
the most influential people in UK IT?
This would be funny if it weren’t quite so tragic. A friend of mine has just pointed me to the Computer Weekly “second annual UKtech50” poll of “the definitive list of the real movers and shakers in UK IT – the CIOs, industry executives, public servants and business leaders driving the creation of a high-tech …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/23/the-most-influential-people-in-uk-it/
Nov 23 2011
google buys advertising
In an interesting reverse of the norm, google paid for three full page adverts in the guardian a couple of days ago. Today there is yet another full page ad in the same paper. I assume they have run similar campaigns in other UK newspapers over the past few days, The ads are quite intriguing …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/23/google-buys-advertising/
Nov 16 2011
do not buy one of these
Standalone IP cameras have come down in price quite remarkably over the past few years. It is now perfectly possible to get a camera for between £50.00 and £75.00, and this makes them attractive for anyone wanting to set up simple “home surveillance” systems. I bought one recently just to see what I could …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/16/do-not-buy-one-of-these/
Nov 09 2011
ubuntu de-throned
For the first time since early 2005, Ubuntu has fallen off the top spot on distrowatch. The new number one, by page hit ranking, is Linux Mint. I’m not at all surprised.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/09/ubuntu-de-throned/
Nov 09 2011
do I trust this site?
Following a visit to EFF to read an article on e-book privacy, I met this: So. EFF uses a wildcard SSL cert issued by a company which was breached earlier this year.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/09/do-i-trust-this-site/
Nov 09 2011
dis-unity
The reaction to Ubuntu’s move to Unity seems to be getting wider coverage. Over at LWN, Bruce Byfield blogged recently about the rift between the Ubuntu developers and its users. In particular he highlights Tal Liron’s entry to the Ubuntu launchpad bug wiki under bug number 882274. In that entry, entitled “Community engagement is broken” …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/09/dis-unity/
Nov 08 2011
I prefer the chip wrapper version
My newspaper of choice is the Guardian. Recently they were forced to increase the cover price and ever since have been running a series of advertisements for various forms of subscription which will lower the cost from some £35.00 pcm (if you include its sister paper the Observer on sundays) to as little as £9.99 …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/08/i-prefer-the-chip-wrapper-version/
Nov 06 2011
fully minted
After exploring the alternatives to Ubuntu, I finally settled on Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) running Xfce as the desktop. I am now Ubuntu free and have a desktop that looks the way /I/ want it to look rather than the way some design nut wants it to look. I am also hopeful that the …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/06/fully-minted/
Nov 04 2011
there is no version 7
This week’s BOFH in El Reg rings horribly true: “I JUST WANT MY MENU BACK!” “You mean you don’t like the ribbon? It’s new!” “I don’t care if it’s new – I can’t find anything!” Back when I was a sysadmin we used to call users a “test load”.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/04/there-is-no-version-7/
Oct 19 2011
time to ditch ubuntu?
I’ve used Ubuntu on my desktops/laptops and netbook for some time now. I think my first installation was 6.06 (the version 6.04 which was late by two months) and my desktops currently all run 10.04 LTS. I got over the minor irritation of the move of the window control buttons from the top right to …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/19/time-to-ditch-ubuntu/
Oct 19 2011
I don’t have a start menu
You know those irritating conversations you have with “support” staff at your ISP whenever you have a problem which is even slightly off their script? Well xkcd has a solution. Use the code word “shibboleet”. It might work. Nothing else ever does. With thanks as always to xkcd
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/19/i-dont-have-a-start-menu/
Oct 14 2011
clarity is not a virtue
Picking up my copy of the second edition I was reminded of the old obfuscated c contests. One of the earliest (anonymous) entries was this tribute to K&R’s famous printf(“hello world\n”); —————————————————————————- int i;main(){for(;i[“]<i;++i){–i;}”];read(‘-‘-‘-‘,i+++”hell\ o, world!\n”,’/’/’/’));}read(j,i,p){write(j/p+p,i—j,i/i);} —————————————————————————- c is not known as flexible for nothing.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/14/clarity-is-not-a-virtue/
Oct 14 2011
mountain streams
In response to the news of Dennis Ritchie’s death, Ted Harding, a long time member of the anglia linux users group posted an interesting comment to the list this morning. Ted has kindly given me permission to link to that comment. Like Ted, I too hope we shall be seeing proper tributes to both Dennis …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/14/mountain-streams/
Oct 13 2011
a double googol
It seems that google has lost a recent battle to wrest control of the goggle.com domain away from its owner. I wonder if they’ll want to have a go at me next.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/13/a-double-googol/