Dirty Flashing LineageOS for the Nexus 6


This is a quick guide on how to upgrade your Shamu from CyanogenMod to LineageOS. Download everything In order to upgrade, you'll need to download the experimental and the nightly build. These can be downloaded from https://download.lineageos.org/shamu. Store them in the root of your SD card Flash Experimental If you need to know how to […]

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Anatomy of an Amazon Phishing Attack


Phishing is the devious practice of tricking users into giving away their usernames and passwords to fraudulent sites. It is big business, and the best defence against it is constant vigilance. I'm going to walk you, step-by-step, through a scam that targetted me today. Along the way we'll see how to avoid falling prey to […]

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By Act of Parliament 1603: One Mulberry Tree


Welcome to my descent into a mulberry-induced madness. As I was wandering through the quaint European town of Woodstock, I noticed a most intriguing plaque affixed to one of the houses. This seems like a curiously specific act to pass! This house is № 28 High Street - so why would Parliament pass an act […]

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Rules for Cooperative Poker #JanJam17


3 playing cards on a table.

This is a sort of poker variant / group solitaire which can be played either competitively or collaboratively. These rules were thrashed out at the Oxford January Games Jam. I think it is original - but there are literally thousands of card games, so it is hard to tell! As I've mentioned before, I love […]

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Don't redact FOI answers with a marker pen


(Disclaimer - I currently work for GDS, although I don't work on FOI. This is an opinion piece and doesn't represent the views on any of my employers - past, present, or future.) The Irish government recently complied with a Freedom of Information Act request from journalists at RTÉ. The journalists wanted copies of messages […]

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Review: PITAKA Carbon Fibre Wallet


The good folk at PITAKA have sent me one of their Carbon Fibre wallets to review. It is a gorgeous bit of kit - but does that justify the price tag? You can also view the unboxing on YouTube This is a card-holder with space for 6 cards - wrapped up in a protective bundle, […]

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Introducing CAVE TEAM - a new board game #JanJam17


I'm a little obsessed with collaborative games. I'm bored with fighting against my friends, trying to bankrupt them, or simply beating them into submission. I attended the Oxford Games Jam with one very specific aim in mind - help create a game where people had to work together as a team. It's a hard mindset […]

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You need a SIM card in your phone to dial 999


Photo of a nano SIM card and its plastic housing.

I want to correct a common misconception. Many people think that you can dial the emergency services even if you do not have a SIM in your phone. I see this advice scattered around the web - often telling people to keep an old, SIMless phone for an emergency - and it is dangerously wrong. […]

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Experiments in Molecular Gastronomy #1 - Apple Agar Strips


A few weeks ago I tried some delicious vegetarian caviar. Beautiful - but expensive. I began to wonder how hard it would be to make my own flavour pearls. Well, all good experiments start by buying a beginners' kit. Before attempting basic "spherification", I decided to attempt something much more simple. Agar-Agar veggie strips. 400g […]

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Asymmetric Latency


I've just finished reading the most wonderful short story - Tower of Babylon by Ted Chiang. In it, he speculates on what would happen if The Tower of Babel were completed. For those unfamiliar with the legend, it tells of a people who tried to build a tower tall enough to reach the heavens. The […]

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