Last week, the folks at Yahoo informed us that 500 million users‘ details got leaked in a massive hack. On face value it just seems like yet another hack. Yahoo was downplaying the hack, but the reality is, you need to be scared (if you have a Yahoo account that is). Companies like Yahoo! store all sorts of information about you. The most common type of information they store are… Read Article →
What happened on Census night?
August 9 2016, census night… Families all over the country are preparing to complete their census online, but no, they can not access the website. People are venting, the ABS is copping it left, right and center, and our PM is being hammered for the government’s incompetence or running a proper census. And then we hear the news… The site was hacked, but it wasn’t hacked, and people started complaining…. Read Article →
Why I don’t church anymore
I am a Christian. I was brought up as one, grew up in the church, and for as long as I can remember, God has been a part of my life. I am also logical. I like to understand things, be able to explain things, and for the last few years, I started observing some problems with my religion. When you look at the Bible, and in particular the teachings… Read Article →
TOTP in Perl
TOTP (or Time-based One-time Password Algorithm) is an algorithm used to generate a one-time password from a previously shared key. Now if that confused you, maybe you’re more familiar with Google Authenticator. If you’re keen to generate an OTP in Perl, or integrate it in your web application, then the code below can be used to either generate the OTP, or to check if the OTP is valid. #!/usr/bin/perl #… Read Article →
Microsoft Continuum – First thoughts
Microsoft has released Continuum for their line of Lumia 950 phones. Continuum is the ability to use your phone as a desktop. By plugging the phone into a dock, you can control the phone with a regular keyboard and screen. Let’s look at the phone. The Lumia 950 is ok. It’s not spectacular, just ok. It’s the first time I’m using the Windows platform (just having migrated from Android). The… Read Article →
Another day, another hack – LinkedIn
LinkedIn, the famous professional social networking site, was hacked in 2012. At first, it was thought that only 6.5 million accounts were hacked. A few weeks ago, it turns out that more than 165 million accounts have been hacked. Now the hackers did not get the password. They got your email addresses, and the password hash. The hash is essentially an encrypted version of the password that can not be… Read Article →
Sending emails through Gmail from Perl
Sending email through Perl can be done in many ways. I like to simply call sendmail, but that approach is not always portable between operating systems. For that, we use Net::SMTP. But if you plan to send email via Gmail, normal plain ol’ port 25 SMTP won’t work. For that, we need to switch to TLS/SSL with Authentication. But first, let’s review what the Gmail settings are. Server : smtp.gmail.com… Read Article →
It is time to vote
July 2nd 2016 is the time we vote. We, the people of Australia, decides who our next prime minister would be. Isn’t it amazing, that no matter who is in power, there is always something bad to be said about the man in charge. I personally do not think that Turnbull is doing too bad of a job, but then again, I don’t agree with everything he stands for. As… Read Article →
Williams River Holiday Park
It was a great weekend camping. We went up to Clarence Town, and spent the weekend at the Williams River Holiday Park. The unpowered camping site cost about $22 a night. Checking in Friday was reasonably painless, although I must say the lady at the office was not the friendliest around (but hey, I didn’t go there to see her!). They do lock the gate around 5:30 PM, so you… Read Article →
Surface Pro 3
Microsoft recently launched their Surface Pro 4. When I bought my Microsoft Surface Pro 3 last year, I had high expectations for the device. For those who don’t know, the Surface Pro 3 is a tablet, but it is also a laptop. Unlike your normal tablets (like your Android or iPad devices), the Surface Pro actually runs Windows. So any of your normal Windows applications and games will run on… Read Article →