Finding the chase and cutting to it

I wrote my first code in 1986 on a Vic 20. In those days, printers were tremendously expensive compared to multi-purpose computers, so “publishing your code” meant writing it down by hand or saving it to a cassette your friend or client could then use, if they had a tape drive. But back to printers […]

Back when I launched my first web service, I came across the SSL Labs. This is a free service that allows you to check the status of a website in terms of its encrypted transport layer Eh? You know, the little green or grey lock symbol on your web address bar that let’s you know […]

On Friday, Mark Wild, Chief Executive from Crossrail spoke these immortal words – while we understand the engineering, the software is completely new and is performing a complex task. We don’t know how it is going to perform. Today’s computer systems are hugely complex and consist of interlocking pieces which need to work together perfectly.  […]

Whaaa..? This is a technical post and there are no apologies for that. I’ve run my own server for a while now (since 2007 to be honest) with the aim of 24/7 service to the internet.  It’s a small set up and I not only provide some tried and tested tools but also do some […]

I use fedora: I like it, there are a great many cool things you can do for very little effort. OK, don’t know what you’re talking about… Linux – there are several key flavours of Unix out there, and as a preference, I like the ones based on the Fedora definition.  I get some powerful […]

My family may be forgiven for thinking my life revolves around computers. I like to think it doesn’t but it’s when you talk to other mums in parents evening that you realise just how far down the rabbit hole you have indeed travelled. Since losing my computer in early October thanks to difficulty mounting an […]

Go back to last week and it became obvious that while I’d been backing up my data regularly I hadn’t actually tested that backup. That has been rectified, but I had suffered some data loss. Thankfully, not a huge amount not least down to Google taking a cached copy of my site reasonably regularly.  It […]

I have been working as a delivery manager for a large company specialising in complex integration problems. Essentially, up to now my role has been working out how we can make best use of our toolset. That is coming to an end, so I am now looking at the technical aspects of my role. Which […]

Changes to TLS protocols Jet lag meant I reverified my site against Qualys’ SSL Server test. New concerns have lead to them tightening their tests to help you protect your identity on line. In particular, forward secracy. Check out how to help set your web server correctly!

I first learnt to programme on a Commodore C64, and the way I used that computer was through what I now know is a command line interface or CLI.  This interface is a shell between me and the fundamental operating system which allows me, the user, to read data off the storage and put them […]