Often I hear this: “How am I supposed to know when I see a fake? They’re all so perfect!”. This familiar refrain is often followed by the person explaining how “computer illiterate” they are or some other version of that idea. The truth is, if you know what to look for, you can often tell that you’ve landed on a fake page. It’s important to learn that you have to suspect everything you see in a browser.
The amazing web-based tool KeeWeb is perhaps one of the better ways to make Keepass databases work for you in a cross-platform environment. The challenge with using this tool, however, is that it’s not exactly the easiest to get running on your own hosting server. Yes, you can just go to app.keeweb.info, but if you want to try hosting it yourself somewhere, it may seem like a real challenge. For that reason, I wanted to offer some thoughts on how you get this thing up and running.
This morning has started randomly. While sitting down to drink a coffee and read the tech news, I ran into Oshawa’s Mayor John Henry. As a homeowner, small business owner, and an electric vehicle driver in his city, I had a few questions to ask. Naturally, he with with another person, so I tried to be cognizant of not being a dick by interrupting them.
The most amazing side effect of being in the technology business is working with all sorts of technical people. Most often, they work for manufacturers or vendors; but they sometimes branch out and start their own businesses. After more than 16 years as a consultant, I’ve learned a few things and sometimes get to pass on my “straight talk” to others who do what I’ve been doing so long. I want to do more of this when I can.
The one thing a product that stores data should never do is destroy it. Sure, there may be other smaller issues, but I was surprised to learn that a Leef iBridge 64GB device I tested actively destroyed data while in use. How could this not be a bigger story on the Internets? I even attempted to fish through Amazon comments, but still found no one with an issue like this.
This whole HTTPS and Google’s push to encrypt (or weaponize depending on your perspective) is back on people’s lips again. I’m a little late to the party of course, since I have been out of the country so many times in the last three months that blogging has been a distant thought. With all of this talk, I’m left to wonder if the uproar has any merit. You’ll remember, I’ve spoken about this before; actively discussing Dave Winer’s commonly cited reason why sites don’t need to move to SSL.
Automattic, the makers of popular blogging software WordPress (this site is based on the self-hosted version), have released a newly re-vamped set of tools and software around the blogging platform. The idea appears to be pushing WordPress into the new generation of web tools.
Just after I picked up the Nikon AW1 camera, I needed to shoot something. I was so excited, grabbing my camera and running outside looking for something to capture. Thankfully, this spider was there having lunch, ready for me to sit on the ground and slowly grab this image. This turned out so well, I’ve been using it as a wallpaper. Enjoy.
Just like medical journals, it seems like every new day brings some new report or another on the “state” of technology. Some reports are “nothing is secure, and you can never be secure“, while others take a more alarmist “secure everything” approach. I’m always sceptical when I hear of these things. They’re flashy, push people’s buttons, and generally feel like squeeze pages for a larger sales tactic. In fact, the first thing they should disclose is what they sell. At CWL we provide technology support services, so this topic is one that I’m acutely interested in. That said, there are often good things to glean from even the worst.
With the recent support for Ad Blockers in iOS 9, many have been discussing the ethics of blocking advertisements on the mobile platform (and elsewhere). Up until the end of September, ad blockers were the #1 applications on Apple’s app store. The discussion about these has continued after Marco Arment pulled his ad blocking application named Peace. I wanted to offer my perspective on this.
Kevin Costain