More Password Idiocy

When will web sites start to be careful with people’s passwords? Oh, I know that a few sites get it right, but it seems to me that the vast majority still don’t have a clue what they are doing. Here is today’s example. I got an email this morning from a company called RAM (that’s… Continue reading More Password Idiocy

Drizzle

When I first read about Drizzle last week I assumed it was some kind of joke. It turns out that it isn’t, so it just makes me a little depressed. Drizzle is[1] a cut-down version of MySQL. MySQL is the database server than has been known to make grown database designers cry because of its… Continue reading Drizzle

Twitter Hierarchy

For most of the last year, I’ve been working behind a corporate firewall which blocks most social networking sites. It’s therefore only in the last month or so that I’ve been able to use Twitter all day every day. It seems to me that many of Twitter’s users have slightly distorted the sites original purpose.… Continue reading Twitter Hierarchy

James Cross, Lifeboatman

My family have lived in the same part of Essex for over two hundred years. The earliest record I can find is a Thomas Cross who was born in Little Clacton in 1789. Thomas was my great, great, great, great grandfather. The family moved to Great Clacton soon afterwards and then (once it was created… Continue reading James Cross, Lifeboatman

Password Antipattern

I’ve come across the “password antipattern” twice today. And I had different reactions to it each time. I thought it was worth trying to work out why that was. Let’s start by explaining what I mean by the “password antipattern”. There are many bad ways to handle users’ passwords which I’ve discussed at length before,… Continue reading Password Antipattern

(Not) Buying NT Tickets

I just saw that Russell T Davies is speaking at the National Theatre. I’m a big fan of his work, so I decided to buy tickets. I wandered over to the NT web site and found the event I was looking for. I added a couple of tickets to my shopping basket and went to… Continue reading (Not) Buying NT Tickets

It’s Only A Cracker

Obscure bits of religious  dogma are causing a bit of a ridiculous argument over in the USA. It seems that crackers need to be treated with the right level of respect if you don’t want the might of the Catholic League coming after you. It’s not just any old cracker, of course. Oh no. It… Continue reading It’s Only A Cracker