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Google's Android Sideloading Restrictions: A Pragmatic Balancing Act?

2025-08-30

Google's Android Sideloading Restrictions: A Pragmatic Balancing Act?

Google's upcoming restrictions on Android sideloading, requiring developer registration, spark a debate between security and freedom. The author argues that while banks and game developers have legitimate reasons to restrict app usage on rooted devices, Google's move might stifle open-source and small developers, questioning its effectiveness in combating fraudulent apps. The piece concludes by posing several questions, pondering the balance between user safety and software freedom.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech sideloading

AI in Education: A Century-Old Prediction?

2025-08-16

AI in Education: A Century-Old Prediction?

Over a century ago, Edison predicted that motion pictures would replace books and revolutionize education within a decade. Today, a similar narrative surrounds AI, with claims that it will obsolete books and transform education in ten years. However, history shows that new technologies aren't a panacea. Using Edison's prediction about film as a parallel, the author cautions against AI hype, urging a rational assessment of its role in education – potentially as a supplementary tool, not a sole one.

(shkspr.mobi)

AI technological predictions

£16 USB-C Smartwatch: Surprisingly Good!

2025-08-09

£16 USB-C Smartwatch: Surprisingly Good!

The Colmi P80, a £16 smartwatch, boasts a USB-C charging port – a rarity. The author, driven by a desire for USB-C compatibility across all devices, tested its capabilities. Surprisingly, the watch offered impressive battery life (around 5 days), accurate heart rate and sleep monitoring, and decent functionality. While the accompanying app is basic and some features are limited, the overall performance far exceeds expectations for its price point.

(shkspr.mobi)

Hardware USB-C smartwatch budget smartwatch

The File Is Dead: Long Live the Database

2025-07-17

The File Is Dead: Long Live the Database

Recent data breaches, like the UK Ministry of Defence incident, highlight the persistent problem of file-based data sharing. The author argues this outdated practice stems from a deeply ingrained 'file' mentality, incompatible with modern collaboration tools and database technology. The piece calls for abandoning file sharing in favor of database-centric data management for improved security and efficiency. It uses the analogy of a car designed to carry hay to illustrate how modern computing remains stuck in the past.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech

Tracking the ISS with DNS: A Fun Experiment

2025-07-06

Tracking the ISS with DNS: A Fun Experiment

The author created where-is-the-iss.dedyn.io, a domain name that uses DNS LOC records to display the real-time latitude, longitude, and altitude of the International Space Station. By leveraging the N2YO API for location data and the deSEC API for DNS updates, the author updates the record every 15 minutes. This fun project demonstrates the flexibility and creative applications of DNS, showcasing the author's passion for DNS technology.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech

The Hunt for the Legendary Hacktoberfest Tees

2025-07-05

The Hunt for the Legendary Hacktoberfest Tees

A developer's quest to recreate their beloved, worn-out Hacktoberfest t-shirts leads them on a frustrating search for high-resolution design assets. After years of wearing the free shirts given for participation, they're now trying to reproduce them but struggle to find suitable images online. Low-resolution images, AI upscaling failures, and missing years of designs are all part of the journey. The author pleads for help from the community to locate the missing high-resolution logos.

(shkspr.mobi)

Misc T-shirt Design

Reading Passport NFC Chip Data with Python

2025-06-25

Reading Passport NFC Chip Data with Python

The author attempts to read the NFC chip data from their cancelled passport using the Python library pypassport. Due to the passport being cancelled, a portion of the MRZ (Machine Readable Zone) is missing. The author reconstructs the MRZ from other information on the passport and successfully reads the passport information, including biometric data. The article details the composition of the MRZ, checksum calculation methods, and the reading process, and discusses the possibility and practical value of brute-forcing the MRZ. Ultimately, the author demonstrates that while theoretically possible, brute-forcing is very difficult in practice, and reading the information directly from the passport is much more convenient and efficient.

(shkspr.mobi)

Development Passport

Cloudflare's GDPR Compliance Questioned After Year-Long Email Spam

2025-06-23

Cloudflare's GDPR Compliance Questioned After Year-Long Email Spam

A user, after canceling their Cloudflare account over a year ago, continues to receive marketing emails despite repeated requests for removal. Despite contacting the CTO and Data Protection Office, the issue persists. The user alleges Cloudflare's non-compliance with GDPR, highlighting apparent mismanagement of customer data, including an inability to accurately track customer numbers. The escalation to Cloudflare's highest levels has yielded no resolution, raising serious concerns about their data privacy practices.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech

Outdated Tech Costs Bank a GDPR Lawsuit

2025-06-11

Outdated Tech Costs Bank a GDPR Lawsuit

A Belgian bank lost a court case due to its outdated EBCDIC system's inability to handle accented characters, resulting in incorrect customer name records. This highlights the importance of system modernization in the digital age and the strict accuracy requirements for personal data under GDPR. The case raises concerns about the continued use of legacy technologies like EBCDIC, far inferior to Unicode, and their limitations in data processing.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech

The Art of Grouping Attribute Values in HTML: Making Code More Readable

2025-06-02

The Art of Grouping Attribute Values in HTML: Making Code More Readable

This article introduces an improved way to organize HTML class attributes. By adding spaces, newlines, or other characters within the class attribute value, different CSS classes can be grouped more clearly. For example, using `[card] [section box] [bg-base color-primary]` or `card | section box | bg-base color-primary` instead of `card-section-background1-colorRed`. While this approach isn't without limitations (optimizers might strip spaces, pre-processors might reorder values), it can improve code readability and maintainability, especially in large projects. The author also demonstrates more creative ways to enhance class attribute readability using emojis or comments, reminding readers to prioritize code understandability and teamwork.

(shkspr.mobi)

Development

The Mystery of the Missing $10 eReader: Why Haven't Prices Dropped?

2025-06-02

The Mystery of the Missing $10 eReader: Why Haven't Prices Dropped?

In 2012, a promising £8 e-reader, the txtr beagle, was reviewed but never widely released. Today, the cheapest e-readers remain around £100. This article explores why. The reasons include the niche market for e-reading, high costs due to e-ink screen patents, Google's restrictions on Android for e-ink devices, and the lack of a sustainable business model for low-cost manufacturers without content cross-subsidization. The author expresses a desire for a cheap e-reader but concludes that this is unlikely until patents expire or a new business model emerges.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech consumer electronics

New WhatsApp Scam: Robot Voice Leads to Friend Request

2025-05-31

New WhatsApp Scam: Robot Voice Leads to Friend Request

A new WhatsApp scam involves robocalls leaving a number and immediately hanging up, prompting victims to add the number on WhatsApp. The scam leverages curiosity and a lack of caution towards unknown numbers. Despite the multiple steps involved, the sheer volume of calls might make it effective. The author questions the scam's efficiency and asks for comments from those who've found this approach successful.

(shkspr.mobi)

Misc

LCP eBook DRM: A Cautiously Optimistic Assessment

2025-05-09

Readium's LCP eBook DRM scheme allows offline reading after download, eliminating the need for constant online verification. It uses AES-256 encryption and is authorized via an .lcpl file containing decryption information. While the scheme relies on a proprietary decryption BLOB, its open ePub format and multi-reader support make it relatively secure and allow for offline backups. However, the bookseller can track reading devices and times, and forgotten passwords are unrecoverable. Furthermore, the long-term compatibility and security of the BLOB are questionable, and the risk of cracking remains. In short, LCP represents a relatively benign attempt at DRM, but its long-term security and level of user control require cautious assessment.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech

OpenBenches' Address Conundrum: Geolocating 40,000 Benches Elegantly

2025-04-27

OpenBenches' Address Conundrum: Geolocating 40,000 Benches Elegantly

OpenBenches, a crowdsourced database of nearly 40,000 memorial benches, faces a challenge: converting latitude/longitude coordinates into human-readable addresses. Many benches lack formal addresses, residing in parks, etc. Existing geocoding APIs provide overly detailed or irrelevant information. The author explores using multiple APIs and Points of Interest (POIs) for automated address generation, but encounters issues with language localization, address formatting inconsistencies, and POI accuracy. Balancing address precision with user-friendliness and internationalization remains a key challenge.

(shkspr.mobi)

Development geolocation address resolution

Streaming Services' Annoying Child Profile Prompts: A Rant

2025-04-13

Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Amazon Prime, among others, persistently prompt users to create child profiles, even those without children. The author expresses frustration, arguing this is not only annoying but potentially hurtful to those who have lost children or struggle with fertility. The plea is for a "never ask again" option, respecting the needs of childless users and acknowledging that the world doesn't revolve around children.

(shkspr.mobi)

Misc child profiles

Exploiting a Flaw in LCP DRM: A Simple Bypass in the Thorium Reader

2025-03-17

Exploiting a Flaw in LCP DRM: A Simple Bypass in the Thorium Reader

A blogger discovered a way to bypass LCP DRM, an ebook digital rights management scheme. The method leverages the Thorium reader's debugging functionality to easily extract unencrypted ebook content, including text, images, and metadata, without cracking encryption. This prompted a discussion with the Readium consortium (LCP DRM developers), who acknowledged a security vulnerability and stated they would improve security measures. The blogger argues this highlights deficiencies in LCP DRM, and both readers and publishers should be aware of the issue.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech

The Messy State of TOTP: A Test Suite is Born

2025-03-02

The Messy State of TOTP: A Test Suite is Born

The current TOTP specification is riddled with inconsistencies. Major implementations by Google, Apple, and Yubico subtly disagree on its implementation, leading to idiosyncratic variants in various MFA apps. The official RFC is frustratingly vague. The author built a test suite to check if your favorite app correctly implements the TOTP standard, highlighting ambiguities in digit count, hash algorithm, time step, secret length, and labeling. The author calls for improved specifications to prevent future issues.

(shkspr.mobi)

Development

Capital Letters Make Smaller QR Codes: A URL Encoding Mystery

2025-02-25

Capital Letters Make Smaller QR Codes: A URL Encoding Mystery

Two QR codes pointing to the same URL, one larger than the other. Why? The answer isn't error correction, but encoding mode. A URL in all capital letters uses the more compact alphanumeric mode, while lowercase uses byte mode, leading to data redundancy and a larger QR code. This highlights the impact of character set choices in URL encoding on QR code size. For the smallest QR code, use uppercase letters.

(shkspr.mobi)

Tech QR code URL encoding

Meta's LLaMA and the Copyright Tsunami: A Pirate Bay for AI?

2025-02-11

Meta's LLaMA and the Copyright Tsunami: A Pirate Bay for AI?

Authors are suing various Large Language Model (LLM) vendors, claiming copyright infringement in the training data. The evidence points to Meta's LLaMA, which used Books3 from Bibliotik – a private tracker containing massive amounts of pirated books. Meta's own paper admits to using Books3, essentially confessing to training on unauthorized intellectual property. This sparks debate on AI fair use and copyright, but the core issue remains: should an AI openly admitting to using pirated data face legal consequences?

(shkspr.mobi)

AI

It's Time to Ban Email?

2025-01-28

This article argues that email is outdated and presents numerous examples of errors and security risks caused by improper email use, such as information leaks and accidental email misdirection. The author points out that the BCC function in email has existed since 1975 yet remains a source of confusion for many. Modern collaborative tools, like shared documents and instant messaging, are argued to be superior for communication needs. While email offers the advantage of permanent storage, it's clumsy and error-prone in the digital age. The author calls for the adoption of more efficient communication methods, ultimately advocating for the phasing out of email.

(shkspr.mobi)

Misc collaboration tools

Most People Don't Care About Quality: The Rise of 'Good Enough'

2025-01-01

Most People Don't Care About Quality: The Rise of 'Good Enough'

This article explores the disparity in people's perception of quality. It argues that while professionals like designers and photographers prioritize detail and perfection, most people are largely insensitive to differences in quality, favoring convenience and ease of consumption. The article uses Netflix as a case study, analyzing the success of its low-cost, high-volume content strategy and predicting a future dominated by AI-generated content. This isn't because AI-generated content is inherently good, but because most people don't notice or care about imperfections, prioritizing basic needs and accessibility. The article concludes with the observation that this 'good enough' mentality permeates various fields, from clothing and food to entertainment, where value for money and convenience outweigh the pursuit of ultimate quality.

(shkspr.mobi)

Misc quality perception AI content generation