I learned to play two new abstract games in 2024. The first was shogi, Japanese chess. Perhaps that’ll be the subject of another post. The second is Tak. Tak was inspired by a novel by Patrik Rothfuss. A few years later, a game designer contacted the author and they collaborated to create the game in… Continue reading A game of Tak
Category: Metal (Technical)
From Asergo to Gandi in six days
I’ve been hosting my server with a Danish company, Asergo, since 2006. Back then they were called Easyspeedy. It hasn’t all been plain sailing, but things got much better over time, and in particular since they rebranded from Easyspeedy to Asergo in 2017, it’s been a fairly flawless experience. There were some customer service issues… Continue reading From Asergo to Gandi in six days
Weeeee’re back!
You may not have noticed, but my server crashed a while back (I did get one unprompted comment, so I’m not completely writing into a vacuum). Since it no longer runs anything business-related, and I had been looking for a cheaper server, I wasn’t in any rush to restore it. I had already got an… Continue reading Weeeee’re back!
Fourteen years of silence
But it’s been 14 years of silence It’s been 14 years of pain It’s been 14 years that are gone forever and I’ll never have again Yes, the lyrics of a Guns N Roses classic, and yes, also how long it feels to have been locked up for two weeks alone in my house due… Continue reading Fourteen years of silence
Simple hosting?
All I want is a simple website! OK, I have a website, and you’re probably reading this on it. But I want a simple website. Since 2006, I’ve had a server hosted with Asergo (previously EasySpeedy). It ran a lot at one stage. Huge mounds of organic food found new homes through its circuits. Today… Continue reading Simple hosting?
Firefox Quantum and too many tabs
I’ve been running Firefox Quantum as a browser since it came out, and there’s been a noticeable improvement in all areas. Rendering speed, CPU, memory – it lives up to all the hype. I’ve used Firefox as my primary browser for ages, but often used Chrome and Chromium as alternatives for certain sites, or when… Continue reading Firefox Quantum and too many tabs
South African Banks SSL Security (2)
After seeing someone’s Facebook security horror story about a local credit card (not one of the banks listed below), I was inspired to re-run the tests I previously ran on the South African banks, using SSL Lab’s SSL Server Test. The results last time were awful, with Standard Bank and Absa falling way below the… Continue reading South African Banks SSL Security (2)
Trust Us, We’re a Payment Gateway
A friend told me today about an experience of attempting to book a flight on kulula.com. His credit card wasn’t working, but there was an option for bank transfer (EFT), so he chose that. The EFT option used SID, a payment option promising secure EFT transactions. All good so far, so he followed the link.… Continue reading Trust Us, We’re a Payment Gateway
South African Banks SSL Security
After coming across an article testing the security of the SSL implementations of Australian banks, I decided to run the same tests on the South African banks, using SSL Lab’s SSL Server Test. I have a little bit of inside info into some of the banks systems, so was not too surprised how bad the… Continue reading South African Banks SSL Security
A comparison of WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Telegram permissions on Android
Recently I’ve seen quite a few postings of the article The Insidiousness of Facebook Messenger’s Mobile App Terms of Service , claiming you should remove your Facebook Messenger because of the control the app has over your Android device. Many have suggested Telegram instead, which I’ve been using a while. “Using”, I should add, in… Continue reading A comparison of WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Telegram permissions on Android