Month: April 2018

The Guardian seems to have a “secret” memo showing that if Amber Rudd is in control of her department she would have known about the deportation targets, which currently she claims not to be aware.

In all manner of ways, the current government have shown themselves as untrustworthy.

Their actions after Grenfell show their allegiance is more to landlords than tenants. Windrush shows its more to UKIPpers than people who have added to society. And then we get on to Brexit and the NHS – both situations not helped at all by the work over the last few years by the Tories.

I think we need a new way of governing as the impoverished are worse off, the ill are worse off, and the immigrants (invited to this country) are worse off. The only ones better off are those who are well off to start.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/apr/27/amber-rudd-was-told-about-migrant-removal-targets-leak-reveals

I’m getting involved with something at work which means I’ve been getting my hands dirty with Moodle – https://moodle.org/.

Nothing too heavy yet, but everything I’ve seen so far is simple, straightforward and intuitive.

Which for any CMS, regardless of its focus, is a tremendous achievement.

I was chatting only yesterday saying that in this day and age, any UI (User Interface) that is not simple and intuitive (and with no built in training guidance) is insulting the user and of course will long term lead to a lack of engagement across all possible users.

So Moodle gets a thumbs up, as does WordPress. Joomla and other CMS less so, though I wish I had been able to play with Drupal, but that may yet happen.

So many inventions owe inspiration to shows, a lot of Star Trek has generated work such as tricorders.

But now a different franchise has made its impact – Transformers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/technology-43919460/real-life-transformer-the-japanese-robot-that-becomes-a-car

This is a fantastic step forward in my opinion, and one I am sure Elon Musk is keeping an eye on as well.

The human race needs to expand off the Earth, and yes, we will need to do so and not be the space bound locusts we could be if continued as we do today on Earth.

We need to reduce the reliance and threat to the world through our excessive use of resources, and whilst the initial journeys might be high cost both financially and with some resources, the aim has to be to recycle some of that funding back to sending key resources back. To start an interplanetary marketing operation if you like.

This is just the first step, but I hope that it presages a swift follow up to the next stages of us getting to Mars, and beyond.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-43907326

Brilliant documentary and shows how, very sadly, a group of women were unable to pursue their dream of going to space.

indeed, one could say there was a degree of misogyny, especially from those in NASA and the military, who effectively fed NASA with their astronaut candidates.

It was most interesting to hear how accomplished these women were, bearing in mind limitations imposed by law restricting their ability to fly jets and similar.

The US effectively threw away at least one way in which they could have lead the space race.

Of course it’s presented from the women’s perspective but the other sample footage used to show the misogynistic views does resonate and highlight that they lost a key opportunity.

Enjoy a good watch and lots of great footage

https://www.netflix.com/title/80174436?s=i&trkid=14170286

Security and privacy are key these days.

To find a hotel room was at risk from this sort of breach and to not leave a trace is a big issue in my view.

That said, I would want all the hotels still affected to be able to upgrade and only afterwards advise of a possible vulnerability. Equally, folk wanting to claim because of possible lost items, would need to be on very firm ground.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43896360

Any security breach anywhere is a problem, but the one outlined below, about the Grayshift iPhone unlocking tool used by many law agencies, seems to be smoke and no fire.

“Source code” later is mentioned to be UI code to access the machine. And likely to be web code based on the commentary, so really its perhaps HTML, Javascript or PHP. Certainly it is unlikely to be the guts of the machine.

I think the Grayshift tool has a limited life as, when Apple finally fix the exploit they’re using, it will become a brick. And it will get fixed, either deliberately or inadvertently.

So, whilst the box is a challenge for iPhone users who may be in breach of the law, the rest of us are still likely to be relatively safe, for now.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/04/24/iphone-unlocking-firm-grayshift-hit-by-extortion-demands-after-data-breach

Canadians are usually the most tolerant of nations, and I hope that continues, in the face of the van incident last night.

Equally I hope that all those I know over in Canada are not affected.

It will be interesting to understand what happened, why and then make decisions based on the facts rather than launch in to speculation and witch hunts which may have no foundation.

My best to all who are affected in Canada.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43875321