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First item published on 2025-06-15T11:34:55.000Z
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<title type="text">Terence Eden’s Blog</title>
<subtitle type="text">Regular nonsense about tech and its effects 🙃</subtitle>
<updated>2025-06-14T10:28:26Z</updated>
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<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: What We Talk About When We Talk About Books - The History and Future of Reading by Leah Price ★★★★★]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-books-the-history-and-future-of-reading-by-leah-price/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61169</id>
<updated>2025-06-05T20:36:34Z</updated>
<published>2025-06-15T11:34:55Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Is reading a morally good pastime? Do eBooks rot the brain in the same way that pulp paperbacks do? Should people of feeble character be allowed unfettered access to books? Show me how you want to read, and I’ll show you who you want to be. Leah Price has produced a pithy and astonishing look at what books were and whether they will survive. It is, perhaps, a little overwrought and o…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-books-the-history-and-future-of-reading-by-leah-price/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/97804650426851.webp" alt="Book cover featuring twisted book pages." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-61170"> Is reading a morally good pastime? Do eBooks rot the brain in the same way that pulp paperbacks do? Should people of feeble character be allowed unfettered access to books?</p>
<blockquote><p>Show me how you want to read, and I’ll show you who you want to be.</p></blockquote>
<p>Leah Price has produced a pithy and astonishing look at what books were and whether they will survive. It is, perhaps, a little overwrought and overwritten - but I revelled in the its joyous use of language.</p>
<blockquote><p>Perhaps print is to digital as Madonna is to whore: we worship one but use the other.</p></blockquote>
<p>It put forwards some provocative arguments and isn't afraid to show the counterpoint in its footnotes.</p>
<blockquote><p>Same text, different books: the very same sequence of words means something different—does something different—depending on whether it’s made for a desk or a pocket, a classroom or a church. Comparing these two editions of the same text makes visible how much of our reaction to a book is shaped by factors other than the words it contains. Its look and feel and smell instruct us wordlessly in how and why to read it—alone or in company, in search of learning or of salvation.</p></blockquote>
<p>How does DRM affect this, I wonder? If books are locked down then they cannot be analysed. Conversely, when every reader can choose their own font and hyphenation strategy, do we lose some collective experience?</p>
<p>Similarly, eReaders don't display their cover to fellow passengers on public transport. A boon for the privacy conscious, but means we lose the social signal that simply <em>everyone</em> is reading this new book.</p>
<p>Is reading for everyone?</p>
<blockquote><p>Once a sign of economic power, reading has become the province of those whose time lacks value.</p></blockquote>
<p>Harsh! The whole book is a powerful argument that books are a powerful argument. No matter what form the words are delivered in, some paranoid Moms will always want to see books from library shelves untimely ripp'd. There are, of course, an equal and opposite set of mothers who protest against cuts to literacy funding.</p>
<p>I sometimes wonder if any modern techbro CEOs have ever picked up a history book. Back in 1913, Thomas Edison was asked about the education powers of his new invention - the motion picture:</p>
<blockquote><p>“Books,” declared the inventor with decision, “will soon be obsolete in the public schools. Scholars will be instructed through the eye. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be completely changed inside of ten years.</p></blockquote>
<p>Books outlasted his prediction. They outlasted him. They will morph, adapt, scatter, and devour until they outlast us all.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Meeting my Fedifriends AFK]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/meeting-my-fedifriends-afk/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61215</id>
<updated>2025-06-14T10:28:26Z</updated>
<published>2025-06-14T11:34:11Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="fediverse"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[There's a lovely moment in the documentary about The Pirate Bay where Peter Sunde is being interviewed in a District Court: Prosecutor 1: When was the first time you met IRL? brokep: We don't use the expression IRL. We say AFK. But that's another issue. Prosecutor 2: Got to know each other IRL? What is that? Prosecutor 1: In Real Life. brokep: We don't like that expression. We say AFK - Away …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/meeting-my-fedifriends-afk/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>There's a lovely moment in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2608732/">the documentary about The Pirate Bay</a> where Peter Sunde is being interviewed in a District Court:</p>
<blockquote><p>Prosecutor 1: When was the first time you met IRL?</p>
<p>brokep: We don't use the expression IRL. We say AFK. But that's another issue.</p>
<p>Prosecutor 2: Got to know each other IRL? What is that?</p>
<p>Prosecutor 1: In Real Life.</p>
<p>brokep: We don't like that expression. We say AFK - Away From Keyboard. <strong>We think that the Internet is for real.</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>Isn't that great? Why do some people insist that online relationships are somehow less real than physical relationships?</p>
<p>As part of our recent <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/">grand Interrail journey</a>, I wanted to see how many people from social networks I could meet AFK. In the glory days of Twitter, I'm sure I'd've found a friend in every one-horse town. But the fractured nature of networking made it a bit of challenge.</p>
<p>Just before arriving in a new country, I sent out messages saying "Hey, I'm arriving in XYZ tomorrow. Anyone want to meet for a beer?" And, to my surprise and delight, many people did!</p>
<p>In half of the countries we went to, we met new friends. Sometimes for a quick drink, sometimes for dinner, and sometimes for a little exploring of a city. We even got invited to a local geek meet-up. It was <em>lovely</em>. We got tips on how to use the public transport system, which restaurants were tourist traps, and introduced to new beers.</p>
<p>It is nice to put faces to names. It's fun to meet a random friend and chat nonsense with them. And it is reassuring to know that there are people around the world who'll take a risk and meet a weary traveller.</p>
<p>Now, there are some obvious caveats to this story. We only met in well populated areas. I'm a tall bloke with a loud voice. Some light background stalking made sure the people we met weren't <em>too</em> crazy. We didn't get drunk. If you do this - I suggest taking all the normal precautions when meeting strangers. But, in the end, everything was fine.</p>
<p>Sometimes you want to go where at least one person knows your name.</p>
<p>Cheers!</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/crop.webp" alt="Me with a big mug of beer." width="1280" height="1280" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61222">
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: A History of the World in 47 Borders - The Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps by Jonn Elledge ★★★★⯪]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-a-history-of-the-world-in-47-borders-the-stories-behind-the-lines-on-our-maps-by-jonn-elledge/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61161</id>
<updated>2025-06-13T08:08:36Z</updated>
<published>2025-06-13T11:34:02Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="history"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Jonn Elledge has a witty and friendly tone. It skirts just the right line between trivia nerd and your favourite history teacher. He cheerfully points out the absurdities in history and swiftly pivots into the injustices of "Cartographic Colonialism". There are delightfully diverting asides and then we're brought right back into the horrors of a straight line. The problem with history is that…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-a-history-of-the-world-in-47-borders-the-stories-behind-the-lines-on-our-maps-by-jonn-elledge/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/hbg-title-a-history-of-the-world-in-47-borders-.webp" alt="Book cover with a map on it." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-61162"> Jonn Elledge has a witty and friendly tone. It skirts just the right line between trivia nerd and your favourite history teacher. He cheerfully points out the absurdities in history and swiftly pivots into the injustices of "Cartographic Colonialism". There are delightfully diverting asides and then we're brought right back into the horrors of a straight line.</p>
<p>The problem with history is that is is all a <em>bit</em> samey. Someone unities an country using violence and cunning thus setting up an empire that will last a thousand years - only for his heirs to immediately fall into civil war on his death. There's only so many times you can read about the bloody Habsburgs fucking over yet another country before it gets tiresome.</p>
<p>The borders of the world have little to do with geography and all to do with the mundanity of indifferent administrators carving up the world to fit into neat little boxes, regardless of the wishes of the boxes' inhabitants.</p>
<p>My only quibbles are that it could really do with a more illustrations. Sometimes only a picture of a map will do.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>2</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[The Mobile Phones of Doctor Who - Midnight]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-midnight/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60905</id>
<updated>2025-06-11T09:48:57Z</updated>
<published>2025-06-12T11:34:00Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Doctor Who Phones"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[A disturbing lack of phones in the latest series of Doctor Who - and no news yet on the next series. So let's revisit an older episode I'd previously overlooked. "Midnight" is a Series 4 episode which has a terrifying sequel in this year's "The Well". Donna briefly has a chat with The Doctor on what a appears to be a landline phone with the wire removed. Obviously that's not a mobile phone. …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-midnight/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>A disturbing lack of phones in <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/">the latest series of Doctor Who</a> - and no news yet on the next series. So let's revisit an older episode I'd previously overlooked.</p>
<p>"Midnight" is a <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/09/the-mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-series-4/">Series 4</a> episode which has a terrifying sequel in this year's "The Well".</p>
<p>Donna briefly has a chat with The Doctor on what a appears to be a landline phone with the wire removed.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Donna-phone.webp" alt="Donna chatting on a phone." width="960" height="540" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60911">
<p>Obviously that's not a mobile phone.</p>
<p>But what's The Doctor speaking to her on?
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Doctor-Payphone.webp" alt="The Doctor talking on a payphone." width="960" height="540" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60910"></p>
<p>A payphone? Look a little closer:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Doctor-Payphone-close-up.webp" alt="The Doctor talking on a payphone. Close up showing rotary dial." width="960" height="540" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60909">
<p>A <em>rotary dial</em> payphone!</p>
<p>This is the the <a href="https://payphone.illtyd.co.uk/cointelephone725">Coin Telephone 725A</a>. Isn't it gorgeous?</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Yellow-payphone.webp" alt="A yellow payphone with rotary dial." width="512" height="544" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60906">
<p>But is it a <em>mobile</em> phone? Yes. Yes it is. The <a href="http://www.samhallas.co.uk/repository/sales/dle_530.pdf">Post Office Telecommunications Bulletin DLE 530</a> describes this as "<em>portable</em> with plug and socket termination".</p>
<p>How portable? Easy to lug over a bar.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/payphone-in-pub.webp" alt="A barman carrying a payphone over a bar." width="699" height="755" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60908">
<p>And light enough for a dainty lady to carry.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/portable-with-plug-and-socket-termination.webp" alt="A woman carrying a payphone." width="512" height="714" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60907">
<p>So, there you go, a <em>sort of</em> mobile phone hidden away on the Planet Midnight!</p>
<p>You can <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/doctor-who-phones/">read dozens of these very silly blog posts in the archives</a>.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Large Language Models and Pareidolia]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/large-language-models-and-pareidolia/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61327</id>
<updated>2025-06-11T12:02:29Z</updated>
<published>2025-06-11T11:34:29Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="AI"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="LLM"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Have you ever looked up at the sky and seen a face staring back at you from the clouds? Of course you have; you're human. Our delicious meaty brains are hardwired to recognise certain shapes - and faces are a useful shape to recognise. A few false positives are a worthwhile trade-off for such a powerful feature. Mistakenly seeing faces where there are none is a phenomenon called pareidolia. If…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/large-language-models-and-pareidolia/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Have you ever looked up at the sky and seen a face staring back at you from the clouds? Of course you have; you're human. Our delicious meaty brains are hardwired to recognise certain shapes - and <a href="https://babyschool.yale.edu/does-my-baby-recognize-me/">faces are a useful shape to recognise</a>. A few false positives are a worthwhile trade-off for such a powerful feature.</p>
<p>Mistakenly seeing faces where there are none is a phenomenon called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia">pareidolia</a>. If you've ever used facial recognition on a computer, you'll know that <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2014/06/pareidolia-and-computer-vision/">machines also suffer from it</a>.</p>
<p>I was using an AI tool to scan all my photos. I wanted it to recognise all the human faces so that I could tag my photos with my friends' names. One of the photos it presented for tagging was this:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/lovelace-and-babbage.webp" alt="A photograph containing a painting of Ada Lovelace and a bust of Charles Babbage." width="512" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61329">
<p>Are those faces? Undoubtedly yes! Is this a mistake that a human would have made? Absolutely not!</p>
<p>But the above is a mistake generated by Machine Learning, not by Our-Lord-And-Saviour Large Language Models. Surely a language model doesn't suffer from this?</p>
<p>Because <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/01/google-has-no-faith-in-its-ability-to-launch-new-products/">Google has no faith in its ability to launch new products</a>, it has forcibly shoved AI into all of its services. There's no way to turn it off. You <em>will</em> use Gemini and you <em>will</em> like it.</p>
<p>At the time of writing, here's what happens if you ask Google "How many i's in teamwork?"</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/teamwork.webp" alt="Google replying "The word teamwork contains the letter i one time"." width="1008" height="737" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61330">
<p>It's easy to see how Google's LLM has gotten this so catastrophically wrong. There are dozens of articles where some business guru ineffectually tries to argue that <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/fact-there-is-an-i-in-team">there <em>is</em> an "I" in team actually</a>. So the statistical model inside the LLM gives weight to that.</p>
<p>Similarly, there are lots of silly articles proclaiming that <a href="https://careerpunk.com/team-player/">the I in team is in the A-hole</a>. But LLMs do not understand satire:</p>
<blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:k7xouwluizlonrdxeo5obppi/app.bsky.feed.post/3lr7odyhz7c2d" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreiaproxts5p2uzp4fhycdu3qcotcvqkz4l6ynbmlmt7ls4tbf47ap4"><p lang="en">Google and Meta search both report that Cape Breton Island has its own time zone 12 minutes ahead of mainland Nova Scotia time because they are both drawing that information from a Beaverton article I wrote in 2024</p>— <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:k7xouwluizlonrdxeo5obppi?ref_src=embed">Janel Comeau <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f341.png" alt="🍁" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> (@verybadllama.bsky.social)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:k7xouwluizlonrdxeo5obppi/post/3lr7odyhz7c2d?ref_src=embed">2025-06-10T00:50:07.217Z</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>LLMs are hardwired to regurgitate text which statistically matches what they've seen before. Their makers believe that a few false-positives are an acceptable error rate for such a useful feature. The LLM form of pareidolia is to recognise text as being syntactically and linguistically correct, even though the contents are rubbish. This is an inherent feature of LLMs. No amount of manually tweaking their parameters or prompts can fix this.</p>
<p>At the moment, Artificial Intelligence - whether Machine Learning or Large Language Models - only works well on a narrowly defined set of tasks and with humans checking the output.</p>
<p>Imagine you've just hired an intern. They've graduated top of their class from the best university and, apparently, excel at what they do. Because you're the boss and they're the intern, you ask them to make you a mug of tea. White, no sugar.</p>
<p>They return with the teabag still in the mug. OK, not everyone knows the intricacies of how to serve tea.</p>
<p>The tea tastes funny. You ask them if they sniffed the milk. "Milk? I used Tipp-Ex to make it white!"</p>
<p>At which point, after throwing up, you throw them out.</p>
<p>Most people encountering Gemini's repeated and unacceptable failures will decide, perhaps rightly, that AI isn't even close to good enough yet.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: The Secret World of Denisovans: The Epic Story of the Ancient Cousins to Sapiens and Neanderthals by Silvana Condemi ★★★☆☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-the-secret-world-of-denisovans-the-epic-story-of-the-ancient-cousins-to-sapiens-and-neanderthals-by-silvana-condemi/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61151</id>
<updated>2025-06-08T19:21:43Z</updated>
<published>2025-06-10T11:34:50Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NetGalley"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[This is a decidedly odd book. Was there a "secret" hominid that the world overlooked? While the Neanderthals get all the limelight, perhaps there was another lost species of human lurking in the background. The science seems settled - yes there was - so this book tells us how scientists reached that conclusion. Except, it isn't really clear who this book is aimed at. Part of it is very casually…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-the-secret-world-of-denisovans-the-epic-story-of-the-ancient-cousins-to-sapiens-and-neanderthals-by-silvana-condemi/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9798893030709.jpg" alt="Book cover with hominid skulls." width="267" height="400" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-61152">This is a decidedly odd book. Was there a "secret" hominid that the world overlooked? While the Neanderthals get all the limelight, perhaps there was another lost species of human lurking in the background. The science seems settled - yes there was - so this book tells us how scientists reached that conclusion.</p>
<p>Except, it isn't really clear who this book is aimed at. Part of it is very casually written - a hint of pop science and a healthy dollop of the personal lives of the scientists. The other part is a rather dense and unforgiving science book which is slightly beyond casual readers like me.</p>
<p>I was suddenly bombarded with sentences about the "tiny epiphysis (tip) of the distal phalanx" and how "the famous Denisova 3, was found in a stratigraphic position" and that "Exogenous DNA comes from the numerous necrophagous organisms that attack the remains after death."</p>
<p>There's very little ramp-up to the science and it suffers from the "<a href="https://xkcd.com/2501/">Average Familiarity Fallacy</a>" that non-experts have a working understand of the intricacies of a complex field.</p>
<p>It <em>is</em> interesting, and parts of it are downright fascinating:</p>
<blockquote><p>The team of researchers found that the site’s hunter-gatherers cooked giant carp of up to 6.5 feet (2 m) long, which they caught in a nearby lake. Several burnt flint microartifacts suggest they made fires. In the same layers as the burnt flints, the researchers collected around 40,000 pharyngeal teeth, carp teeth that are found at the bottom of their mouths. These teeth are all that remain of the carp, as heat softens the cartilaginous bones of fish and eradicates the possibility of their preservation. The discovery of these teeth suggests the fish were cooked at a controlled temperature rather than being grilled.</p>
<p>Even if we don’t know how the occupants of GBY made their fires, we do know that they stewed fish. Using X-ray diffraction, researchers established that the thermal expansion of the nanocrystals that make up the tooth enamel suggests their exposure to low to moderate heat: specifically, lower than 932°F (500°C), whereas a wood fire produces temperatures of between 1,472°F and 1,832°F (800°C and 1,000°C). It’s likely that prehistoric people cooked carp <i lang="fr">en papillote</i>, probably by burying them near their fires after wrapping them in giant water lily leaves collected from the nearby lake.</p></blockquote>
<p>I mean! Wow! That's some brilliant detective work.</p>
<p>Sadly, there is quite a lot of dusty old bones to wade through before you hit the good stuff. In the end, I found myself confused as to how different Neanderthals and Denisovans actually were.</p>
<p>The (pre-release) copy of the eBook commits the error of relegating all the images to the back. Several paragraphs are crying out for immediately viewable illustrations to help make sense of the text.</p>
<p>If you have a reasonable familiarity with palaeontology you'll probably enjoy this greatly - but it is a little too taxing for those of us with less evolved brains.</p>
<p>Many thanks to <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">NetGalley</a> for the review copy.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Treedix USB Cable Tester ★★★★☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61234</id>
<updated>2025-06-10T12:28:43Z</updated>
<published>2025-06-09T11:34:01Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="hardware"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="USB"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="usb-c"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Cables aren't just copper wire and plastic sheath any more. Modern USB-C cables contain little microchips called eMarkers which allow them to transfer data and power at terrifying speeds. But, sadly, there's no way you can look at a USB-C cable and see whether it supports the baffling array of features available. Enter the catchily-named Treedix TRX5-0816-AC. It will test just about any sort of …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Cables aren't just copper wire and plastic sheath any more. Modern USB-C cables contain <a href="https://hackaday.com/2023/01/04/all-about-usb-c-resistors-and-emarkers/">little microchips called eMarkers</a> which allow them to transfer data and power at terrifying speeds. But, sadly, there's no way you can look at a USB-C cable and see whether it supports the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C#Cable_types">baffling array of features</a> available.</p>
<p>Enter the catchily-named <a href="https://treedix.com/products/treedix-usb-cable-tester-usb-c-cable-tester-usb-tester-for-data-transmission-and-power-transmission-cable-testing-resistor-testing-type-c-emarker-for-usb-a-micro-b-micro-b-3-0-type-c-lighting-mini-b">Treedix TRX5-0816-AC</a>.</p>
<p>It will test just about <em>any</em> sort of USB cable and tell you what it does - and doesn't - support. It will also show you which pins are connected, how fast it can transmit data, and what the eMarker shows. Nice!</p>
<p>Let's put it through its paces.</p>
<h2 id="inputs-and-outputs"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#inputs-and-outputs" class="heading-link">Inputs and outputs</a></h2>
<p>On one side are your output ports - you have a choice of USB-C or USB-A 3.0.
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Input-ports.webp" alt="A USB-A and C port." width="1024" height="576" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61249"></p>
<p>At the bottom you have this range of ports to choose from:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ports.webp" alt="Lightning, mini USB, USB-C, micro superspeed, mico ports." width="1024" height="301" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61250">
<p>So you can go A-C, C-micro, C-lightning etc.</p>
<p>Finally, on the other side you have a button, a switch, and input power:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Power-and-buttons.webp" alt="Power and buttons." width="1024" height="576" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61251">
<p>The power switch toggles between the internal AAA battery (included) and a 5V supply from a USB-C cable (not included). Pressing the white button moves between the different diagnostic screens.</p>
<h2 id="power-only"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#power-only" class="heading-link">Power Only</a></h2>
<p>I tried with a short USB-C power-only cable designed for charging low-power devices. I plugged in the USB-A end and the USB-C end.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/A-to-C-power-only.webp" alt="A to C power only." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61238">
<p>It correctly identified that it couldn't do data transmission.</p>
<p>With a power-only USB-C cable, it had much the same display. Pressing the button on the side of the Treedix told me what it knew about the eMarker.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/No-emarker-chip-detected.webp" alt="No emarker chip detected." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61239">
<p>Perfect!</p>
<h2 id="passive-usb-c"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#passive-usb-c" class="heading-link">Passive USB-C</a></h2>
<p>What about a data and power USB-C cable? This is the <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/08/chubbycable-usb-c-review/">ChubbyCable I reviewed a few years ago.</a></p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Passive-USB-C-cable.webp" alt="Passive USB-C cable." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61240">
<p>USB 3.2 Gen2 and power of up to 100W. It has also correctly guessed the likely length of the cable by measuring the latency.</p>
<p>Interestingly, when looking at the basic functions, it says it can only do USB 2.0 speeds and correctly identifies that it doesn't do PowerDelivery 3.1 (which goes up to 240W).</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/USB-C-data-transmission.webp" alt="USB-C data transmission." width="2676" height="2007" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61241">
<p>Finally, which pins are connected?</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/USB-C-connected-pins.webp" alt="USB-C connected pins." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61242">
<p>That looks about right!</p>
<h2 id="thunderbolt-4-or-3"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#thunderbolt-4-or-3" class="heading-link">ThunderBolt 4 or 3?</a></h2>
<p>Let's compare two high-performance cables. The one I usually have plugged into my <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/06/review-framework-16-laptop/">Framework Laptop</a> and <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/08/gadget-review-mokin-usb-c-docking-station-linux-information/">USB-C hub</a></p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/TBT4.webp" alt="ThunderBolt 4." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61243">
<p>Thunderbolt 4 capable of 100W of Power and 40 Gbps of data. As expected, no PD3.1:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/No-PD-3.1.webp" alt="Screen showing results." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61244">
<p>Let's test a different high-quality cable I bought recently. The labelling claims 20Gbps and 240W of power. We can see that it does have PD3.1:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PD3.1.webp" alt="PD3.1" width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61245">
<p>But! Looking at the eMarker, it reports that is only a ThunderBolt 3 device capable of 10Gbps!</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10Gbps.webp" alt="10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen2." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61247">
<p>I asked the cable manufacturer if that's a problem with the cable or the eMarker or the diagnostic machine. They said:</p>
<blockquote><p>eMarker tester can only show single channel transmission rate 10Gbps, devices supporting dual channel can show 20Gbps. our products have 18 months warranty, if there is any problem, please feel free to contact me, I will provide you with satisfactory after-sales service.</p></blockquote>
<p>I contacted Treedix to see if they could shed light on this. They replied quickly:</p>
<blockquote><p>Yes, we sincerely apologize - this tester currently does not support dual-channel detection at this time.</p></blockquote>
<p>Which is a bit annoying.</p>
<p>Of course, my laptop only supports 10Gbps, so it is a bit moot!</p>
<h2 id="firmware"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#firmware" class="heading-link">Firmware</a></h2>
<p><ins datetime="2025-06-10T12:25:20+00:00">Update!</ins></p>
<p>I emailed Treedix about possible firmware updates - they said:</p>
<blockquote><p>Our devices with firmware version V2.3 and above can be updated. Currently the latest version is V2.3. you can see your version number. The way to view it is the boot page will show the version number. In addition, our test boards cannot be updated to test dual channels at this time. Because this is the information written inside the EMARKER, we can only read the information inside. We are currently working on the data inside the information we read to see if we can read the number of channels.</p></blockquote>
<p>Mine shows a firmware of 2.3.04 - which does appear to be the latest. If a new firmware appears, I'll update this post again.</p>
<h2 id="weird-cables"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#weird-cables" class="heading-link">Weird Cables</a></h2>
<p>As well as your standard USB-C, it will also do the <em>ugliest</em> plug known the mankind - the USB Micro-B SuperSpeed.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Micro-B-SS-pins.webp" alt="Micro B pins connected." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61248">
<p>It'll also do Lightning cables - as long as they also have a USB-A or C end.</p>
<h2 id="downsides"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#downsides" class="heading-link">Downsides</a></h2>
<p>Other than having to replace all your duff cables, there are a few annoying little niggles.</p>
<ul>
<li>The battery compartment is <em>really</em> stiff. I had to unscrew the back of the device to get it open.</li>
<li>The power switch feels a little flimsy.</li>
<li>The function button is a little small and fiddly.</li>
<li>Screen brightness can't be changed (but it is pretty bright).</li>
<li>No USB-B (the chunky one often used for printers).</li>
<li>Lack of dual-channel detection.</li>
<li><del datetime="2025-06-10T12:25:20+00:00">No firmware updates.</del></li>
</ul>
<p>Those are all minor complaints.</p>
<p>The biggest complaint is that USB-C terminology is <em>hard</em>. Which is better, 40Gbps but only 100W or 10Gbps but 240W? How does ThunderBolt relate to USB? What is EPR and why does it matter? Where does DP Alt Mode fit in?!</p>
<h2 id="verdict"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#verdict" class="heading-link">Verdict</a></h2>
<p>It powers up and detects all features instantly. It goes to sleep after a few minutes of not being used. It will even show you the electrical resistance of the cable if you think that's useful.</p>
<p>Total cost? <a href="https://amzn.to/44eJ7YL">£40 at the moment from Amazon</a>. I reckon that's a bargain. It is an indispensable piece of kit - especially if you have a big box of ancient USB cables. This will allow you to quickly and easily see which ones are broken, which are mislabelled, and which deserve pride of place in your collection.</p>
<p>If you're running a hackspace, this is a no-brainer. If you've ever wasted time trying to diagnose a USB problem, this should be your first port of call.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Open Data Man - how open is too open?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/open-data-man-how-open-is-too-open/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=55363</id>
<updated>2025-05-31T20:46:08Z</updated>
<published>2025-06-08T11:34:41Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ODcamp"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Open Data"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Open Data is dear to my heart. It is the idea that raw data should be public published, free of restrictions, and in a form that is most usable for others. When people talk about Open Data, they usually mean "Data that has been paid for by tax-payers" - often data created or collected by Government agencies. But it also extends to the data used by researchers, scientists, economists and any…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/open-data-man-how-open-is-too-open/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Open Data is dear to my heart. It is the idea that raw data should be public published, free of restrictions, and in a form that is most usable for others.</p>
<p>When people talk about Open Data, they usually mean "Data that has been paid for by tax-payers" - often data created or collected by Government agencies. But it also extends to the data used by researchers, scientists, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/04/16/is-the-best-evidence-for-austerity-based-on-an-excel-spreadsheet-error/">economists</a> and any other organisation which wants us to take them seriously. Some private companies also release Open Data - knowing that a level playing-field is good for ecosystem health.</p>
<p>What about individuals? Is it sensible, desirable, or useful for us to release our <em>personal</em> data as Open Data?</p>
<p>Last year, at <a href="https://www.odcamp.uk/">Open Data Camp</a> I ran a session about what data I release and what the implications are for my personal safety, security, and mental well-being.</p>
<p>First, for the hard-of-thinking, I am not suggesting you do anything you don't want. I'm also in no position to compel you to do anything. If you don't like my ideas, close the tab and write something better.</p>
<p>Right, still here? OK.</p>
<p>We all leave little trails of data with every online interaction. Yes, I know you use a VPN, and TOR, and Incognito mode - but those are all still part of a digital footprint. Here I'm mostly concerned with the <em>intentional</em> release of data.</p>
<p>Most of the data we intentionally release is highly curated. You post about your new job on LinkedIn - but you don't mention the 50 rejections leading up to it. Your online restaurant reviews make it sound like you only go to fancy joints with cool lighting and ethical menus - you don't post about the shameful 3am kebab from that dodgy van.</p>
<p>If you're using FourSquare or similar services, you're deliberately releasing a log of where you've been and at what time you were there. Even if you post a photo of a gig the day after it happened, it's trivial to locate you at that moment.</p>
<p>Some people are very open with their intimate medical data. I'm not. I haven't released a <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/06/3d-printing-my-teeth/">3D model of my teeth</a> - perhaps out of fear someone will use it to bite other people. Similarly, I haven't released my MRI scans just in case someone clones my brain.</p>
<p>So what about raw data?</p>
<p>I release <a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/solar-data/-/blob/main/README.md">my home's Solar Generation Statistics</a> as raw & open data. They're useful enough to be <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/citations/#a-year-of-solar-panels-open-data-2014">cited in several academic papers</a>.</p>
<p>I release my energy consumption (at 30 minute granularity) to <a href="https://www.livinglab.energy/home">The Living Lab</a> so they can build up a model of how normal people use electricity and gas. I trust them not to abuse it, but I'm cognisant they can see when I'm away or when I'm cooking. Do I want <em>you</em> to know that as well?</p>
<p>The discussion we held was wide ranging. Some people want the world to know about them and their problems, others value their privacy. It's an individual choice. It is a discussion you should have with those around you - especially if they're leaking your data.</p>
<p>I am indebted to the wonderful <a href="https://drawnalism.com/">Drawnalism</a> rendering me in the style of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man">da Vinci's Vitruvian Man</a>.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Open-Data-Man.webp" alt="Caricature of Terence as the Vitruvian Man spewing open data." width="3840" height="2160" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-55364">
<p>You can <a href="https://www.odcamp.uk/open-data-man/">read the full write-up of the session</a> on the Open Data Camp blog.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: Intimacy by Ita O'Brien ★★★☆☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-intimacy-by-ita-obrien/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59389</id>
<updated>2025-05-03T16:03:59Z</updated>
<published>2025-06-07T11:34:52Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="sex"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[This is a complicated book to review. There are several distinct strands to it, although they intermingle freely creating a confusing and disjointed thesis. Ita O'Brien, it is fair to say, invented the role of "Intimacy Co-ordinator" on film and TV sets. You wouldn't expect an director to just shout "fight" at a pair of actors and expect them to know how to safely perform a complex action…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-intimacy-by-ita-obrien/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9781529954036.jpg" alt="Book cover." width="200" height="320" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-59391">This is a complicated book to review. There are several distinct strands to it, although they intermingle freely creating a confusing and disjointed thesis.</p>
<p>Ita O'Brien, it is fair to say, invented the role of "Intimacy Co-ordinator" on film and TV sets. You wouldn't expect an director to just shout "fight" at a pair of actors and expect them to know how to <em>safely</em> perform a complex action scene, would you? Fights need to be choreographed, the crew need to behave in a way that minimises the risk of harm to others, actors have to feel safe. Why should sex scenes be any different?</p>
<p>This is the strongest part of the book. It explains <em>why</em> Intimacy Co-ordination is necessary and how it is used to improve a show. At times it veers a <em>little</em> into a sale-pitch for her work, but it is balanced with just the right amount of celebrity name-dropping and impassioned reasoning to keep it interesting.</p>
<p>There are some brilliantly crafted exercises which are used to help actors feel comfortable working with each other. Working professionals need to be able to express clear boundaries to each other. Communication is key, but it relies on being able to be honest with each other. As O'Brien puts it:</p>
<blockquote><p>being able to state your ‘no’, means that your ‘yes’ can be trusted.</p></blockquote>
<p>The author takes great pains to tell us that she's <em>not</em> a sex therapist, yet a large part of the book is taken up with how non-actors can improve their intimacy with their lovers. Some of our modern hang-ups, she asserts, are directly a result of unrealistic expectations hammered home by the entertainment industry:</p>
<blockquote><p>A couple meet and then it cuts to a sex scene, as if their physical relationship is separate from every other aspect of their lives. We’ve become accustomed to seeing portrayals of sex that are robotic, athletic, gratuitous. It’s rare to see the kind of relationships we’ve all experienced in real life: an expression of connection that is clumsy, awkward, funny and – hopefully – ultimately satisfying.</p></blockquote>
<p>Again, this is all important and interesting stuff. But then things go a bit off the rails.</p>
<p>Lots of the exercises she presents for non-actors are simply about stretching and general body-work. Her background in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19443927.2011.651536">Movement Studies</a> dominates the page. I understand that being in touch with your physicality is a necessary part of exploring your sexual boundaries, but it feels like it overly focuses on one aspect of self-comfort.</p>
<p>Anyone who has worked with actors know that they're a weird and superstitious bunch. Visualisation techniques often ask you to imagine you're a tree, or that a bright light is shining out of you, or that you have extra-sensory perception. If you're not an actor, being thrown in to some of these routines can feel alienating and jarring. You thought you were here to get intimate? No! Pretend you have energy lines flowing through you!</p>
<p>Sadly, it all goes a bit "woo". There's nonsense about chakras, homeopathy, "how overtones have the power to affect consciousness and the cellular level", and pseudoscientific claptrap about walking barefoot so the "electrons transfer to your body, neutralising the positively charged free radicals".</p>
<p>I felt that it undermined the seriousness of her work. And it <em>is</em> serious. People working in the entertainment industry need to be protected from harm. People in relationships need to find ways to be free and intimate with each other.</p>
<p>There's a lot of great stuff in here, but you'll need to assert your boundaries and skip past the bits which aren't appropriate for you.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[5,025 Km, 21 Journeys, and 10 Countries in 30 Days - An Interrailing Adventure]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61129</id>
<updated>2025-06-05T08:55:24Z</updated>
<published>2025-06-06T11:34:40Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="holiday"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="interrail"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="trains"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="travel"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="vegan"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="vegetarian"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Interrail were having a sale on their month-long first class tickets. So Liz and I decided to do a "Grand Tour" - running around and seeing a dozen European cities. There are lots of companies which will sell you a pre-designed package Interrailing tour - but we decided to tread our own path. We spent a few weeks poring over maps and rail planners, scouring booking.com for hotels, and working…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><a href="https://www.interrail.eu/en">Interrail</a> were having a sale on their month-long first class tickets. So Liz and I decided to do a "<a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/art-culture/what-was-grand-tour">Grand Tour</a>" - running around and seeing a dozen European cities.</p>
<p>There are lots of companies which will sell you a pre-designed package Interrailing tour - but we decided to tread our own path. We spent a few weeks poring over maps and rail planners, scouring booking.com for hotels, and working out where we would stop for laundry!</p>
<p>This is a <em>practical</em> look at our itinerary, how we booked the journeys, and the travel snags we faced. If you think you can do better, please write your own blog post.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Train-Jouney.webp" alt="Big map showing the route we took." width="2048" height="1066" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61130">
<h2 id="london-to-amsterdam"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#london-to-amsterdam" class="heading-link">London to Amsterdam</a></h2>
<p>The Eurostar itself is the most civilised way to travel. Get on train in city centre, a few hours later get off train in a foreign city centre.</p>
<p>The pre-travel experience isn't great. St Pancras is, sadly, dangerously overcrowded. Tried to get into the Premium lounge but even with 1st class tickets we were rebuffed. We also had the wrong sort of Amex for access.</p>
<p>Also annoyingly, there are only limited 1st class seats available for Interrail passengers. So our choice was 1st class with a change in Brussels or standard direct. We went direct so we didn't have to faff with a change. The seating in modern Eurostar trains is fairly spacious.</p>
<h2 id="amsterdam-to-the-hague-back"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#amsterdam-to-the-hague-back" class="heading-link">Amsterdam to The Hague & Back</a></h2>
<p>The Interrail app made this simple. Go to the journey planner, pick a train, add it to your journey.</p>
<p>The massive Aztec Code opened the gates, and we strolled on to a train and sat upstairs. The return was just as simple.</p>
<h2 id="amsterdam-to-frankfurt"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#amsterdam-to-frankfurt" class="heading-link">Amsterdam to Frankfurt</a></h2>
<p>Our first attempt at buying reservations. Annoyingly, the Interrail app punts you out to their website. Even more annoyingly, they cheekily add a booking fee - we found out later that DB's website (which has an English version) is fee free.</p>
<p>There's also no ability to select your seats with the Interrail website.</p>
<p>Again, a painless journey. The vegan currywurst was more than adequate for train food. The police passed through the train at one point checking passports - so useful to keep your papers close to hand.</p>
<p>WiFi was free and had a bunch of entertainment services if you get bored of looking out the window.</p>
<h2 id="frankfurt-to-zurich"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#frankfurt-to-zurich" class="heading-link">Frankfurt to Zurich</a></h2>
<p>Frankfurt station has a 1st class lounge - but not for Interrail passengers. Thankfully the main station has plenty of seating.</p>
<p>The night before departure, the Interrail app said seat reservations weren't necessary, but the DB website recommended them. Reservations were easy in the DB site and it let us pick our seats - only 6 were showing as available. We got on and the train was packed, so it was certainly worth the few Euro for a reservation.</p>
<p>No police checks but, on departing Basel's Swiss station, the guard checked passports.</p>
<h2 id="zurich-to-brugg-back"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zurich-to-brugg-back" class="heading-link">Zurich to Brugg & back</a></h2>
<p>A quick hop over to visit a castle. No barrier checks at Zurich's station. It is quite large, so worth leaving a few extra minutes to walk all the way down to the platforms.</p>
<p>Incredibly roomy 1st class on the upper deck.</p>
<p>We walked all the way to a minor station, hopped on a train back to the city.</p>
<p>After walking for an hour to a little bar where we met some friends, we found <em>another</em> little station to take us home. We didn't even have time to climb the stairs before we were back!</p>
<h2 id="zurich-cruise"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zurich-cruise" class="heading-link">Zurich Cruise</a></h2>
<p>The various benefits of the Interrail ticket aren't always obvious. We went on a lake cruise and were pleasantly surprised to discover that we got 50% off the 1st class tickets. We sat in the sunshine and took in the surrounding glamour.</p>
<h2 id="zurich-to-prague-sleeper"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zurich-to-prague-sleeper" class="heading-link">Zurich to Prague Sleeper</a></h2>
<p>This was one of our <em>anchor</em> journeys. 10 weeks before departure, we booked a private sleeper compartment.</p>
<p>We arrived at the station an hour early and had a slightly nervous wait for the train to appear on the departure board. Confusingly, there were two sleepers listed in the app, with subtly different routes but the same departure and arrival times.</p>
<p>Turns out, the train splits, with half going to Prague and the rest elsewhere. The train arrived about 15 minutes before departure, which was a little unnerving!</p>
<p>The private carriage had four free bottles of mineral water and some slippers, which was a nice touch.</p>
<p>Beer and wine was available to buy. There was a vegetarian breakfast, but nothing vegan other than a bread roll and a bottle of fruit juice.</p>
<p>Sleep was possible, although the starting and stopping of the train is quite disturbing.</p>
<p>No border checks. So we stepped off into the city centre.</p>
<h2 id="prague-public-transport"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#prague-public-transport" class="heading-link">Prague Public Transport</a></h2>
<p>We paid about £11 for unlimited trams, buses, and metro for 3 days. Well worth it!</p>
<h2 id="prague-to-bratislava"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#prague-to-bratislava" class="heading-link">Prague to Bratislava</a></h2>
<p>Annoyingly the Interrail app doesn't let you select seats, so it is always a hop off to the provider's website to select from a seating map. I wouldn't mind, but Interrail have the temerity to charge an inflated price for seat reservations <em>plus</em> a booking fee.</p>
<p>I found it was cheapest to book reservations directly on <a href="https://CD.cz">https://CD.cz</a> - note that they have shitty customer service for when things go wrong.</p>
<p>For example, our 1st class carriage was cancelled! We received an email after we had boarded changing us to 2nd class. Not ideal but we eventually battled through the crowds to get to our seats. Well, somewhere <em>close</em> to our seats.</p>
<p>No border inspection, but the ticket checker wanted to make sure our IDs matched our tickets.</p>
<p>WiFi was a bit rubbish, kept disappearing, but I was eventually able to submit a refund request for our seat reservations.</p>
<h2 id="bratislava-to-budapest"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#bratislava-to-budapest" class="heading-link">Bratislava to Budapest</a></h2>
<p>A 10 minute delay in departure led to a 20 minute delay in arrival, but the 1st class carriage was available. We each got a free bottle of water. No toilet paper or hand driers in the loos. No passport checks at the border.</p>
<h2 id="budapest-public-transport"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#budapest-public-transport" class="heading-link">Budapest Public Transport</a></h2>
<p>An utter failure! Despite the machine being in English, we just couldn't work out how to buy a single bus ticket. So we walked.</p>
<h2 id="budapest-to-vienna"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#budapest-to-vienna" class="heading-link">Budapest to Vienna</a></h2>
<p>Slightly confusingly there are multiple stations which go to Vienna. Neither of which were the station we arrived at!</p>
<p>The Interrail app, once again, wouldn't let us book seat reservations - so I registered for yet another train provider's website.</p>
<p>Keleti station has a 1st class lounge. Basic drinks and snacks available - although the only vegan food was pistachios <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f606.png" alt="😆" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p>
<p>The lounge was right next to the Vienna train's platform, which made for a relaxing wait.</p>
<p>At seat dining service, although the web-based ordering system was a bit slow. Had a surprisingly decent tofu curry and beer.</p>
<p>No passport checks and only 5 minutes late.</p>
<h2 id="vienna-public-transport"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#vienna-public-transport" class="heading-link">Vienna Public Transport</a></h2>
<p>Very easy to buy a 24 hour pass - all the machines spoke English. Tickets were pre-validated so we could jump on and off throughout our stay.</p>
<h2 id="vienna-to-graz"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#vienna-to-graz" class="heading-link">Vienna to Graz</a></h2>
<p>The OBB lounge is available to 1st class Interrail holders. So a relaxing wait for the train. Some snacks and drinks available.</p>
<p>Departed and arrived on time. Only thing of note was that a couple of the toilets were out of order.</p>
<h2 id="graz-to-ljubljana"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#graz-to-ljubljana" class="heading-link">Graz to Ljubljana</a></h2>
<p>Graz station also has a 1st class lounge. Our Interrail tickets didn't work on the automatic scanner, but the ÖBB agent took pity on us and opened the door. Plenty of snacks and drinks available.</p>
<p>One of the few journeys where we couldn't choose our seats when reserving. As a result, we were assigned to seats at opposite ends of the only 1st class carriage. Luckily, it wasn't very full so we grabbed two free seats next to each other.</p>
<p>No WiFi on the train, which was odd. That said, the quality of WiFi has been highly variable on these journeys.</p>
<p>The dining car was cute but cash only. The only vegan thing on the menu was a salad.</p>
<p>Train was old and rickety, came in a few minutes late.</p>
<p>Long wait at the border and a couple of ticket checks - but no passport inspection.</p>
<h2 id="ljubljana-to-zagreb"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#ljubljana-to-zagreb" class="heading-link">Ljubljana to Zagreb</a></h2>
<p>Train arrived on time, but no 1st class compartments. A fair few disgruntled Interraillers. No WiFi on the fairly decrepit train. But the 2nd class carriage had little compartments of 6 seats, so it wasn't too bad.</p>
<p>No power sockets, so glad I had my big battery with me. No air con, although the windows could be dragged open. No food or drink that I could see either. Primitive toilets.</p>
<p>Tickets were checked once we were over the border, but no passport control.</p>
<p>Czech railways, who sold us the 1st class reservation, refused a refund because we couldn't prove there was no 1st class! They refused to check with the train operator. So I filed a credit card dispute.</p>
<h2 id="zagreb-public-transport"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zagreb-public-transport" class="heading-link">Zagreb Public Transport</a></h2>
<p>Like other cities, there's a 24 and 72 hour pass for unlimited rides. We got the Zagreb Card which also came with entry to a bunch of museums.</p>
<p>Trams were plentiful. No need to show your ticket unless an inspector appears. Stops were announced in Croatian and English. Some trams were clean and modern, others ancient and filthy.</p>
<h2 id="zagreb-to-stuttgart-sleeper"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zagreb-to-stuttgart-sleeper" class="heading-link">Zagreb to Stuttgart Sleeper</a></h2>
<p>Another "tent-pole" journey booked weeks in advance. We managed to get a private berth for two - but without a toilet / washing facilities.</p>
<p>Zagreb station has left-luggage lockers which were big enough for our massive packs.</p>
<p>Train arrived 40 minutes early. Unfortunately, there was a problem without our coach so, after much shunting, a new one was procured. Rather than a 2 person berth, we got a 6 person couchette - albeit all to ourselves.</p>
<p>No WiFi, but plenty of phone signal along the line. One toilet didn't have soap, the other had no paper. Choose wisely!</p>
<p>At 0415 we crossed the border to Germany. Whereupon the police boarded, knocked loudly on our door, and demanded to see our passports.</p>
<p>I'll be honest, it wasn't the <em>best</em> quality sleep I've ever had! Breakfast was a pre-packaged chocolate croissant. No vegan option, but we did get some bottled water.</p>
<p>Given the reservation was over €200, we were somewhat underwhelmed!</p>
<h2 id="stuttgart-public-transport"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#stuttgart-public-transport" class="heading-link">Stuttgart Public Transport</a></h2>
<p>Find a machine at the U-Bahn, select English, pay a few € for a day pass. As with every other country there are no ticket barriers and you don't have to present your ticket to the driver.</p>
<h2 id="stuttgart-to-ludwigsburg-back"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#stuttgart-to-ludwigsburg-back" class="heading-link">Stuttgart to Ludwigsburg & back</a></h2>
<p>Cheeky little day-trip on our last full day. Trains every 10 minutes. 1st class available on the way out, but not the way back. But, for a 13 minute journey on a clean and modern train, it was hardly noticeable.</p>
<h2 id="stuttgart-to-paris"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#stuttgart-to-paris" class="heading-link">Stuttgart to Paris</a></h2>
<p>The trip I'd been dreading. Given Deutsche Bahn's reputation for poor timekeeping, I was worried we'd miss our connection in Paris.</p>
<p>We reserved the seats before we started the whole adventure as Interrail said they were selling quickly. Fair enough for a peak time morning service and, indeed, the train was crammed.</p>
<p>The TGV 9576 was a bit shabby. Even in 1st class some seats were torn and there were mystery stains on the ceiling. The luggage rack had just about enough space for everyone's bags.</p>
<p>The Interrail app was pretty good at keeping us informed of the likely arrival times. Although it thought the train would arrive late into Stuttgart instead it came early and departed on time. It also said there could be mandatory bag inspections and to allow an extra 20 minutes for boarding. That didn't happen though; we just strolled straight on.</p>
<p>On train WiFi worked once the train departed. There were some locally hosted podcasts, movies, train information, and food ordering.</p>
<p>Literally the only vegan option was grated carrot. Bienvenue en France!</p>
<p>Some of the toilets had no paper so, just like China, remember to carry your own!</p>
<h2 id="paris-to-london"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#paris-to-london" class="heading-link">Paris to London</a></h2>
<p>Much like the journey out, this was booked months in advance. That allowed us to get first class seats for the journey back.</p>
<p>A quick walk in the rain from Garre L'Est to Nord. The standard route takes you up a flight of stairs, which isn't ideal with luggage. The walkway between the stations isn’t yet complete. Luckily <a href="https://showmethejourney.com/travel-info-and-tips/est-to-nord/">there is an alternative route</a>.</p>
<p>The Eurostar terminal only lets you in 2 hours before departure. The lounge is only for Premier Mega Extra Special customers, so we sat in the main station.</p>
<p>Once on the train the "Plus" seats aren't noticeably more comfortable than the standard seats although they are a bit larger.</p>
<p>Departure was on time. As we were travelling in "Plus", we got a complimentary meal. There wasn't a vegan option, so I spooned the yogurt off my salad bowl. The cabin crew found me some margarine for my bread. Wine was nice!</p>
<p>Train arrived perfectly on time. But disembarking was delayed because of another train on the opposite platform.</p>
<h2 id="statistics"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#statistics" class="heading-link">Statistics</a></h2>
<p>The Interrail Android app has a nifty little summary of all the journeys you've taken.
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Stats.webp" alt="11 countries, 5025 Km, 21 journeys, 20 destinations. Total time on trains 2 days, 18 hours, 9 minutes." width="1008" height="840" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61131">
I'm not sure if that time accounts for delays (probably not) - but the rest seems accurate.</p>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[What is a "Cyber Attack"?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/what-is-a-cyber-attack/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61135</id>
<updated>2025-06-05T10:29:41Z</updated>
<published>2025-06-05T11:34:57Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="CyberSecurity"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="security"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Terminology is hard. Computer terminology is even harder. Humans are animals who just love to classify things. We have a fundamental need in our delicious meaty brains to put things into conceptual buckets. This, I think, leads to some unfortunate consequences when our categories don't match up with other people's categories. For example, take this news story and this journalist's response to…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/what-is-a-cyber-attack/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Terminology is hard. <em>Computer</em> terminology is even harder. Humans are animals who just <em>love</em> to classify things. We have a fundamental need in our delicious meaty brains to put things into conceptual buckets. This, I think, leads to some unfortunate consequences when our categories don't match up with other people's categories.</p>
<p>For example, take this news story and this journalist's response to it:</p>
<blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:4uyo4p7dnrovo2q2d4tya2vf/app.bsky.feed.post/3lqtp77uwyk2p" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreihxb766fu5it5ilrsjckvnpkakf5fcmw4kvvxbooiyb5vrzus47ay"><p lang="en">100,000 taxpayers will be told shortly that their @HMRCgovuk accounts have been hacked and £47m stolen by thieves claiming fake tax repayments bit.ly/4mSDrMs extraordinary admission to MPs from top official who claims it wasn’t a cyberattack!</p>— <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4uyo4p7dnrovo2q2d4tya2vf?ref_src=embed">Paul Lewis (@paullewismoney.bsky.social)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4uyo4p7dnrovo2q2d4tya2vf/post/3lqtp77uwyk2p?ref_src=embed">2025-06-05T06:33:24.098Z</a></blockquote>
<script async="" src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>I think it is pretty reasonable to say that having 100,000 accounts breached using a computer <em>is</em> a "cyberattack". So how do the UK tax authorities square that circle? Angela MacDonald, the deputy chief executive of HMRC, said:</p>
<blockquote><p>MacDonald stressed that the breach was “not a cyberattack, we have not been hacked, we have not had data extracted from us”.</p>
<p>She later said: “The ability for somebody to breach your systems and to extract data, to hold you to ransomware and all of those things, that is a cyberattack. That is not what has happened here.”</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>“This was not a cyberattack — it involved criminals using personal information from phishing activity or data obtained elsewhere to try to claim money from HMRC. We’re writing to those customers affected to reassure them we’ve secured their accounts and that they haven’t lost any money.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thetimes.com/article/24aef47e-978e-400d-bf6c-b6932e737cbc?shareToken=9d7a9b9250df0ea4ba9b3426d24492f9">Criminals access 100,000 people’s tax records</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Ah. I think that's pretty reasonable. Well, up to a point.</p>
<p>If you set your HMRC password to be "password" and someone guesses that - it is <em>you</em> who has been attacked; not the online service.</p>
<p>Here's what has probably happened in this case.</p>
<ul>
<li>You signed up to an online service.</li>
<li>You used your regular email and password.</li>
<li>The service <a href="https://haveibeenpwned.com/Breach/LinkedIn">got hacked and leaks everyone's details</a>.</li>
<li>A criminal went <a href="https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Credential_stuffing">credential stuffing</a> and tried all the usernames and password on lots of sites.</li>
<li>One of those sites was HMRC and the criminal started filling their pockets.</li>
</ul>
<p>Who is being "cyberattacked" here? HMRC say that no individual lost any money - although I suspect people will possibly feel various administrative repercussions. It is hard to feel that the individual is the victim.</p>
<p>HMRC didn't have any malware or ransomware installed. None of their computers were misused. Vast globs of data were not exfiltrated.</p>
<p>But were HMRC's digital defences breached? <em>Maybe…</em></p>
<p>Let's suppose that the cybercriminal who did this was an idiot. Here's what they <em>might</em> have done:</p>
<ul>
<li>Used a single IP address</li>
<li>From a "dangerous" country</li>
<li>Trying 1,000 passwords per second</li>
</ul>
<p>At which point, HMRC's systems should have started flashing red, sirens wailing, and countermeasures deployed. Any one or combination of the above should have been enough to trigger a "something fishy is going on here" alert. I think that scenario would be fair to describe it as <em>looking like</em> a cyberattack - although, depending on their risk tolerance it might be described as "<a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/anatoly-dyatlov">not great, not terrible</a>".</p>
<p>But if the attacker was smart, they'd have rotated through thousands of UK-based IP addresses and kept their stuffing volume below the noise threshold. Whereupon their attempts would likely have gone unnoticed.</p>
<p>Is a small and subtle attack still an attack? Yes.</p>
<h2 id="was-this-a-cyberattack"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/what-is-a-cyber-attack/#was-this-a-cyberattack" class="heading-link">Was this a cyberattack?</a></h2>
<p>I don't think it matters. Sorting things into predefined buckets is often just a way to bypass responsibility and accountability. Concentrating on the name of the thing rather than the thing itself doesn't help victims and doesn't prevent the incident from happening again.</p>
<p>Every counter-measure which HMRC could deploy will negatively affect legitimate users. Getting bombarded with emails saying "did you just try to log in?" is an annoyance, mandating 2FA excludes less technical users, banning suspicious IP addresses inevitably leads to false positives, rate-limits hit legitimate users. And, ultimately, (whisper it) users bear <em>some</em> of the blame for their poor password practices.</p>
<p>I'm sure HMRC will tighten up their monitoring, I'm sure some individuals will have better password hygiene, and I'm sure criminals will find a way to bypass both.</p>
<p>As ontology is difficult, I'll leave you with this instructional video.</p>
<iframe title="What Makes Soup, Soup? | Short Stuff | Comedy" width="620" height="349" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y1HVTNxwt7w?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>4</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[The NHS shouldn't outsource its QR codes]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-nhs-shouldnt-outsource-its-qr-codes/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60954</id>
<updated>2025-06-03T07:04:18Z</updated>
<published>2025-06-03T11:34:04Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gdpr"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="nhs"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="privacy"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="qr"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[QR codes are brilliant. They're a simple way to allow users to easily and quickly go to the right URl - no matter how complex. No more worrying about typing in long addresses or figuring out if that's a letter O or the number O. Scan and go! The best thing about QR codes is that they're free. It doesn't cost any money to generate one. They're an open standard with no middle-men. Users can go…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-nhs-shouldnt-outsource-its-qr-codes/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>QR codes are brilliant. They're a simple way to allow users to easily and quickly go to the right URl - no matter how complex. No more worrying about typing in long addresses or figuring out if that's a letter O or the number O. Scan and go!</p>
<p>The best thing about QR codes is that they're free. It doesn't cost any money to generate one. They're an open standard with no middle-men. Users can go direct to your site!</p>
<p>Except… Some people want to insert themselves into your conversation. Sometimes it is for malicious reasons, sometimes it is greed for user data, and sometimes it is just incompetence.</p>
<p>Let's take this example - a health centre wants people to register. Scan the QR and get started. Fab!</p>
<p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/registerQR.webp" alt="QR code on an NHS branded poster." width="982" height="1220" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60956">
<small>Photo shamelessly stolen from a LinkedIn contact.</small></p>
<p>But what happens when you scan the QR code? Rather than taking you directly to an authoritative and trusted NHS.UK domain name, it sends you through <code>https://register-with-gp.ht1.uk/</code>.</p>
<h2 id="who-on-earth-are-ht1-uk"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-nhs-shouldnt-outsource-its-qr-codes/#who-on-earth-are-ht1-uk" class="heading-link">Who on earth are HT1.UK?</a></h2>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.healthtech1.uk/">their website</a>, they're an automation company who are "on a mission to make the NHS the most advanced healthcare system in the world."</p>
<p>Good for them. But what information are they collecting about users who traverse through their QR codes? If you take a look at <a href="https://docs.healthtech1.uk/general-privacy-policy">their privacy policy</a> you won't find anything specific. Never mind, let's email their friendly privacy team. What's their email address?</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/emailthem.webp" alt="Screenshot of terms and conditions with an hello email address." width="1024" height="406" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60957">
<p>Of course, emailing that gets you back this error:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ht1email.webp" alt="Hey there 👋 This email inbox is not monitored. Please get in touch with us at [email protected] Thanks, Team at Healthtech-1" width="529" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60955">
<p>Emoji! How fun!!</p>
<p>So I emailed the new address to see what information they were collecting. Their response wasn't particularly informative.</p>
<blockquote><p>because Healthtech-1 is a processor of information and the GP practice is the data controller any requests about how your data is handled should be made to the GP practice who can inform you of the information you requested.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>I can confirm that there is no information stored about users who scan the QR codes and no cookies placed.</p></blockquote>
<p>But, of course, users have no way of verifying what this company is storing about them. There's simply no reason to use an untrusted 3rd party like this to provide either a QR code or an intermediary website.</p>
<h2 id="why-this-is-a-problem"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-nhs-shouldnt-outsource-its-qr-codes/#why-this-is-a-problem" class="heading-link">Why this is a problem</a></h2>
<p>Trust is everything. People are <em>constantly</em> being scammed. One of the great things that GOV.UK did was to say "This here is our trusted brand. If you don't see GOV.UK in the URl bar - don't trust it!"</p>
<p>The NHS should be doing the same. Every hospital, surgery, and clinic should have an NHS.UK domain name. When a user sees a link to a healthcare service which <em>doesn't</em> go through NHS.UK, they should feel suspicious and not click on it.</p>
<p>There is no way as a regular user to know that HT1.UK is a trusted domain. What about HT1.biz? HT2.UK? NHS.info.ly? What happens if HT1 go bust or have their domain name hijacked?</p>
<p>The NHS must stop the proliferation of these 3rd party domain names. They need to reinforce users' understanding that NHS.UK is the <em>only</em> trusted domain name for official NHS services.</p>
<p>I'm sure HT1.UK aren't doing anything nefarious with the data of people who visit their QR codes. I'm sure they're not inserting tracking cookies or selling my data. But I shouldn't have to be sure. All users should be pointed <em>directly</em> to an NHS.UK domain without having to risk whether their details are going via a dodgy site.</p>
<p>Here endeth the rant.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>8</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Mobile Phones of Doctor Who - Season 15]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60989</id>
<updated>2025-05-31T20:45:38Z</updated>
<published>2025-06-01T11:34:29Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Doctor Who Phones"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="DoctorWho"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Is it Season 15 of New Who? Series 2 of Ncuti Gatwa's Who? Series 1875 of the UNIT dating controversy? Either way, welcome back to this increasingly silly series of blog posts where I try to identify all the mobile phones used by The Doctor and their companions. This weird and wonderful series has, sadly, a paucity of phones. The only time they appear is in the phonetastic and bone-chilling…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Is it Season 15 of New Who? Series 2 of Ncuti Gatwa's Who? Series 1875 of the UNIT dating controversy? Either way, welcome back to this <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/doctor-who-phones/">increasingly silly series of blog posts</a> where I try to identify all the mobile phones used by The Doctor and their companions.</p>
<p>This weird and wonderful series has, sadly, a paucity of phones. The only time they appear is in the phonetastic and bone-chilling <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002bw41/doctor-who-season-2-4-lucky-day">Lucky Day</a>…</p>
<h2 id="lucky-day"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/#lucky-day" class="heading-link">Lucky Day</a></h2>
<p>Hunky heart-throb, and all-round nice guy Conrad Clark has this device:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Conrad1.webp" alt="Man writing text on a phone." width="852" height="639" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61002">
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Conrad2.webp" alt="Man holding a phone." width="855" height="641" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61001">
<p>Not much to go on. Looks like an Android. The vertical camera cluster, buttons on the right, and inset front camera means it is <em>probably</em> a Samsung - but you'd be hard pressed to tell which!</p>
<p>Ruby Sunday has the same yellow clad phone from <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/12/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-joy-to-the-world/">Joy To The World</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Ruby1.webp" alt="Woman holding a phone in a yellow case." width="853" height="640" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61000">
A few closeups as well.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/RubySide.webp" alt="Phone in a yellow case. View of buttons." width="598" height="448" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60998">
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/RubyFront.webp" alt="Phone in a yellow case. View of screen." width="855" height="642" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60999">
<p>I'm pretty sure that's the <a href="https://www.gsmarena.com/google_pixel_5-pictures-10386.php">Google Pixel 5</a>.</p>
<p>Carla's phone is wrapped in an anonymous case.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Carla.webp" alt="Woman holding a phone in a red case." width="848" height="635" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60997">
<p>That's <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-14/#space-babies">the same case as last year's episodes</a>. But there's not much to go on. That tiny camera cluster could be from anything other than an iPhone. Think you know what it is? Leave a note in the comments.</p>
<p>Most of <Think_Tank>'s phones are blurry and in the background, so it's hard to say what they are. One goon has this device:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ThinkTankGoon1.webp" alt="Cackling goon holding a phone." width="395" height="296" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60996">
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ThinkTankGoon1Side.webp" alt="Side on view of a phone." width="336" height="252" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60995">
<p>Given the bevel around the camera lenses, and the flash near the top, I think it's the <a href="https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s21_5g-10626.php">Samsung S21 5G</a></p>
<p>Another has this model:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ThinkTankGoon2Side.webp" alt="Goon holding a phone." width="657" height="493" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60993">
<p>Again, not much detail there. It looks like it has a fingerprint sensor on the rear. Any clues?</p>
<p>Shirley Bingham, UNIT's technical marvel, has this foldable phone.</p>
<p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Shirley.webp" alt="Woman in a wheelchair holding a foldable phone." width="590" height="443" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60994">
Although the scene is quite dark, I reckon it is the <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/12/the-mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-60th-anniversary-specials/">same phone she was rocking in The Star Beast</a>.</p>
<h2 id="up-next"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/#up-next" class="heading-link">Up next!</a></h2>
<p>Will there be more phones in "The War Between the Land and the Sea"? <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/doctor-who-phones/">Stay tuned</a>!</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>0</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[What's up with this "Please add me on WhatsApp" robocall spam?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whats-up-with-this-please-add-me-on-whatsapp-robocall-spam/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60938</id>
<updated>2025-05-30T15:52:29Z</updated>
<published>2025-05-31T11:34:18Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="phishing"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="scam"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="spam"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="WhatsApp"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Over the last few weeks, I've received several calls which all have the same modus operandi. A disembodied robotic voice tries to get me to connect on WhatsApp. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4 Some of the voices are reasonable facsimiles of human voices (like the above) and some are just garbage. 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. The voice cl…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whats-up-with-this-please-add-me-on-whatsapp-robocall-spam/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Over the last few weeks, I've received several calls which all have the same <i lang="la" title="Mode of operation.">modus operandi</i>. A disembodied robotic voice tries to get me to connect on WhatsApp.</p>
<p></p><div style="width: 620px;" class="wp-video"><video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-60938-2" width="620" height="348" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4?_=2"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4</a></video></div><p></p>
<p>Some of the voices are reasonable facsimiles of human voices (like the above) and some are just garbage.</p>
<p></p><figure class="audio">
<figcaption class="audio"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f50a.png" alt="🔊" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></figcaption>
<audio class="audio-player" controls="" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WhatsAppSpam.mp3">
<p><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f4be.png" alt="💾" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WhatsAppSpam.mp3">Download this audio file</a>.</p>
</audio>
</figure><p></p>
<p>The voice clip plays and the call immediately terminates.</p>
<p>What I can't understand is how this can possibly be effective from the scammers' point of view. On receiving the call the victim must…</p>
<ol>
<li>Decided to answer from an unknown number.</li>
<li>Listen to the message and decide it is legitimate.</li>
<li>Go the their phone's dialler app.</li>
<li>Copy the caller's phone number.</li>
<li>Open WhatsApp.
<ul>
<li>Install WhatsApp if they don't have it already</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Create a new contact - giving a name - and pasting the number.</li>
<li>Engage with the contact.</li>
</ol>
<p>That's a <em>lot</em> of effort based on… what? A vague offer? There's a little bit of a <a href="https://copyhackers.com/2014/04/curiosity-gap/">curiosity gap</a> but not much. It's hardly "add me on WhatsApp or we'll release the photos we have of you" or "you've won the lottery, add me on WhatsApp to get the funds", or "This is the CEO of your company, urgently add me…".</p>
<p>I <em>guess</em> that if a spammer is able to send out thousands of these messages then they <em>might</em> be able to attract a couple of people to engage with them. There's no easy way to <a href="https://faq.whatsapp.com/1142481766359885/?cms_platform=web">report a spam account to WhatsApp</a> unless you've engaged with it.</p>
<p>I also assume that WhatsApp will see that <em>you</em> were the person who initiated WhatsApp contact - which makes them less likely to think the scammer is the problem.</p>
<p>I am just fascinated to see if this scam can possibly be effective. Generating fake voices is free, as is placing short calls. WhatsApp accounts are also free and easy to automate. But are there really that many people willing to go to the effort of adding a new contact based on so little information?</p>
<p>Obviously, all spam is a numbers game. If the message reaches someone receptive to a robocall, they're less likely to query the scam. And, yes, I know that you're a very clever boy and don't answer unknown numbers - but in the real world people get calls from hospitals, recruiters, and friends with new numbers.</p>
<p>If you're a spammer and have found this approach effective - please leave a comment!</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
<link href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4" rel="enclosure" length="198313" type="video/mp4"/>
<link href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WhatsAppSpam.mp3" rel="enclosure" length="13077" type="audio/mpeg"/>
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<thr:total>4</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark ★★★⯪☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-the-haunting-of-tram-car-015-by-p-djeli-clark/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60512</id>
<updated>2025-04-29T08:49:57Z</updated>
<published>2025-05-29T11:34:54Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[After reading the short story A Dead Djinn in Cairo, I decided to grab the first book in the "Dead Djinn" series. It is a delightfully realised universe although reminiscent of both Saladin Ahmed's work - a Middle-East populated with ghuls, djinn, and sword-wielding magicians - and also Annalee Newitz's Terraformers with its sentient trains and unionised robots. Unfortunately, it is rather…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-the-haunting-of-tram-car-015-by-p-djeli-clark/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/9781250294807.jpg" alt="Book cover showing aerial trams in a modern city." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-60515"> After reading the short story <a href="https://torpublishinggroup.com/a-dead-djinn-in-cairo/">A Dead Djinn in Cairo</a>, I decided to grab the first book in the "Dead Djinn" series.</p>
<p>It is a delightfully realised universe although reminiscent of both <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/06/book-review-engraved-on-the-eye-saladin-ahmed/">Saladin Ahmed</a>'s work - a Middle-East populated with ghuls, djinn, and sword-wielding magicians - and also <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/03/book-review-the-terraformers-annalee-newitz/">Annalee Newitz's Terraformers</a> with its sentient trains and unionised robots.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it is rather brief. The short story and book together make for a decent novella. Because of that, some of the exposition is rather abrupt. Rather than gradually introduce us into the gender politics of the city, one character turns to another to clumsily explain it.</p>
<p>It's a good book, I just wish there was a lot more of it.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>0</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Whatever happened to cheap eReaders?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60457</id>
<updated>2025-05-22T06:44:40Z</updated>
<published>2025-05-27T11:34:04Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ebooks"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="eink"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="reading"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Way back in 2012, The Guardian reviewed an eInk reader which cost a mere £8. The txtr beagle was designed to be a stripped-down and simplified eReader. As far as I can tell, it never shipped. There were a few review units sent out but I can't find any evidence of consumers getting their hands on one. Also, that £8 price was the subsidised price when purchased with a mobile contract. Their w…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Way back in 2012, The Guardian reviewed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/nov/08/beagle-e-reader-review">an eInk reader which cost a mere £8</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Txtr_beagle">txtr beagle</a> was designed to be a stripped-down and simplified eReader<sup id="fnref:txtr"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#fn:txtr" class="footnote-ref" title="You can see some internal photos on this Mastodon thread." role="doc-noteref">0</a></sup>.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, it never shipped. There were a few <a href="https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Txtr_beagle">review units sent out</a> but I can't find any evidence of consumers getting their hands on one. Also, that £8 price was the <em>subsidised</em> price when purchased with a mobile contract. Their <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130828235409/http://gb.txtr.com/beagle/">website ceased working long ago</a>.</p>
<p>But it got me intrigued. Moore's law is supposed to drive down the cost of electronics. So where are all the dirt-cheap eReaders?</p>
<p>The cheapest Kindle for sale on Amazon UK right now is about £100. Back in 2012, it was about £70. Taking <a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator">inflation into account</a>, that price has stayed static. Brands like Kobo are also in the £100 to £150 range.</p>
<p>About the cheapest retail eReader is the <a href="https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/pocketbook-basic-lux-4-ink-black-6-8gb-wi-fi-e-reader-pb618-p-ww/version.asp">PocketBook Lux 4</a> for £85 or the (terribly reviewed) <a href="https://amzn.to/44dgZ9Y">Woxter Scriba</a> for £70.</p>
<p>AliExpress has loads of second-hand and obsolete models at cheap-ish prices. But a surprising dearth of new eReaders.</p>
<p>Going wholesale, <a href="https://www.alibaba.com">Alibaba</a> has a range of models, some of which clock in at around £30.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/30-quid-eReaders.webp" alt="Range of eReaders in a store. Each around £30." width="1280" height="603" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-60459">
<p>But, of course, that's before shipping and tax. They won't come with any manufacturer's warranty and don't expect any software updates. Also, good luck getting accessories!</p>
<p>So what's stopping new eReaders being released at a cheap(er) price? I think it comes down to four main things.</p>
<h2 id="reading-is-a-niche-hobby"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#reading-is-a-niche-hobby" class="heading-link">Reading is a niche hobby</a></h2>
<p><a href="https://yougov.co.uk/entertainment/articles/51730-40-of-britons-havent-read-a-single-book-in-the-last-12-months">Around 40% of UK adults didn't read a single book last year</a>. That survey combines reading books and listening to audiobooks. Of the 60% who do read/listen, about 14% primarily listen. Of those that read, around 60% do so on paper books.</p>
<p>If reading is niche, reading electronically is a tiny niche! This is somewhat of a chicken-and-egg argument. If an eReader were the same cost as a mass-market paperback, I'm sure many more paper-book readers would become converts.</p>
<p>The whole point of an eInk reader is that it is a distraction-free environment. Yeah, you <em>could</em> scroll TikTok on one, but it isn't a pleasant experience. An eReader is designed for one thing only, unlike a phone or tablet. Do enough people want to carry yet-another-bloody-device just for reading?</p>
<h2 id="eink-is-expensive"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#eink-is-expensive" class="heading-link">eInk is expensive</a></h2>
<p>The company which makes eInk hold several patents on the process. They're not a patent troll; they're building a business and selling mega-hectares of the stuff. Understandably, they have an interest in keeping prices high. They don't want to cannibalise their own market.</p>
<p>A basic 6 inch screen with wiring costs around £20 wholesale - that's from Alibaba, so doesn't include tax and shipping. That's before you've added any electronics or a operating system.</p>
<p>Speaking of which…</p>
<h2 id="android-is-a-bottleneck"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#android-is-a-bottleneck" class="heading-link">Android is a bottleneck</a></h2>
<p>The promise of the Android Open Source Project was a free Operating System for anyone to use. The reality has been a little different. Most people want to be able to use basic Android functionality - like download operating system updates or reading apps. But Google doesn't allow that for eInk devices.</p>
<p>As I understand it, <a href="https://source.android.com/docs/compatibility/9/android-9-cdd#7_1_6_screen_technology">Google requires Android devices to have colour screens</a> and, so I've read, won't certify eInk eReaders for newer versions of Android.</p>
<p>So manufacturers have to source parts which have drivers for older versions of Android. Or they have to develop their own OSes.</p>
<h2 id="books-are-fungible"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#books-are-fungible" class="heading-link">Books are fungible</a></h2>
<p>Back when Apple sold iPods, they knew that the majority of purchasers would buy MP3s direct from Apple. The perfect symbiotic relationship! But the walled-gardens cracked and now people can buy their music from anywhere.</p>
<p>Amazon keeps this model for its eBooks. Unless you're prepared to get technical, you can only read Amazon books on your Amazon Kindle paid for with your Amazon wallet.</p>
<p>Games consoles are often sold at a loss because the manufacturer knows they'll make it up in game sales and subscriptions.</p>
<p>A low-price manufacturer is unlikely to also run a book store and wouldn't be able to cross-subsidise their hardware with content sales.</p>
<h2 id="alternatives"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#alternatives" class="heading-link">Alternatives</a></h2>
<p>Some people have tried <a href="https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/building-an-open-hardware-ebook-reader/">building open source eReaders</a> but they're either abandoned, <a href="https://www.crowdsupply.com/soldered/inkplate-6plus#products">not suitable for production</a>, or <a href="https://pine64eu.com/product/pinenote-community-edition/">ridiculously expensive</a>.</p>
<p>Buying second hand is relatively cheap - often under £50. But eInk screens can be brittle, and older ones may have scratches or cracks which are effectively unrepairable.</p>
<h2 id="how-cheap-is-cheap"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#how-cheap-is-cheap" class="heading-link">How cheap is cheap?</a></h2>
<p>I'd love a £8 eReader. Something I could throw in a pocket and not worry about damaging. An eReader which was the same price as a hardback book - around £20 - would be amazing.</p>
<p>But I don't think we'll get there soon. The monopoly on screen technologies sets a retail floor of around £30, before the rest of the hardware is taken into account. Niche hardware is viable - but only with decent OS support. Other than Kobo and Amazon, no book retailer wants to stray outside their core competency to develop and subsidise hardware.</p>
<p>So I guess it's buy second-hand, or wait for the patents to expire.</p>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<hr>
<ol start="0">
<li id="fn:txtr" role="doc-endnote">
<p>You can <a href="https://chaos.social/@henryk/114433370736288910">see some internal photos on this Mastodon thread</a>. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#fnref:txtr" class="footnote-backref" role="doc-backlink"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/21a9.png" alt="↩" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />︎</a></p>
</li>
</ol>
</div>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>25</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Decorative text within HTML]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60444</id>
<updated>2025-05-24T11:09:12Z</updated>
<published>2025-05-25T11:34:29Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="css"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HTML"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Back in 2020, Andy Bell introduced me to the idea of grouping attribute values. You've probably seen something like this before: <article class="card-section-background1-colorRed" ></article> A single class over-encumbered by all sorts of things. The more modular way to write this would be: <article class="card section box bg-base color-primary" ></article> That's pretty good! Each…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Back in 2020, Andy Bell introduced me to the idea of <a href="https://piccalil.li/blog/cube-css/#grouping">grouping attribute values</a>.</p>
<p>You've probably seen something like this before:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><article
class="card-section-background1-colorRed"
></article>
</code></pre>
<p>A single class over-encumbered by all sorts of things. The more modular way to write this would be:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><article
class="card section box bg-base color-primary"
></article>
</code></pre>
<p>That's pretty good! Each one of those classes can have its own bit of CSS and everyone is happy. But… sometimes it is hard to spot the gaps. Is that a - or a spec of dirt on your screen? Is there a way to make it more visually obvious what the groupings are?</p>
<p>Andy proposed this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><article
class="[ card ] [ section box ] [ bg-base color-primary ]"
></article>
</code></pre>
<p>Or, if you don't like brackets, this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><article
class="card | section box | bg-base color-primary"
></article>
</code></pre>
<p>The nice thing about attributes values is that they can contain <em>any</em> character. <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/dom.html#attribute-text">The spec says</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>An attribute value is a string. Except where otherwise specified, attribute values on HTML elements may be any string value, including the empty string, and there is no restriction on what text can be specified in such attribute values.</p></blockquote>
<p>Obviously there are some little gotchas. Quotes may need to be encoded, and some attributes only take specific variables. For the <code>class</code> attribute, however, <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/common-microsyntaxes.html#set-of-space-separated-tokens">the spec says</a> they can have:</p>
<blockquote><p>A set of space-separated tokens is a string containing zero or more words (known as tokens) separated by one or more ASCII whitespace, where words consist of any string of one or more characters, none of which are ASCII whitespace.</p></blockquote>
<p>If a string isn't referenced within the CSS, it is simply ignored. So let's get creative!</p>
<h2 id="space-cowboy"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#space-cowboy" class="heading-link">Space Cowboy</a></h2>
<p>You can space your variables however you like. These are all perfectly valid and (might) be easier for a human to read.</p>
<p>Separating out primary and secondary classes:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><article
class="card section box bg-base color-primary"
></article>
</code></pre>
<p>Newline classes:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><article
class="card
section
box
bg-base
color-primary"
></article>
</code></pre>
<p>Vertically aligned classes:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><article
class="card
section
box
bg-base
color-primary"
></article>
</code></pre>
<h2 id="specific-call-outs"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#specific-call-outs" class="heading-link">Specific call-outs</a></h2>
<p>Remember, you can have <em>any</em> text in your class names. If you need to highlight something specific to a human, you could use emoji:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><article
class="card ➡ section box ⬅ bg-base color-primary"
></article>
</code></pre>
<p>Or</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><article
class="card 👉 section box 👈 bg-base color-primary"
></article>
</code></pre>
<h2 id="unicode-abuses"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#unicode-abuses" class="heading-link">Unicode Abuses</a></h2>
<p>Unicode contains lots of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Alphanumeric_Symbols">mathematical symbols which <em>look</em> like letters</a> but aren't. You <em>could</em> write something like:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><article
class="𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝒃𝒐𝒙 𝘣𝘨-𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦 c𝐨l𝐨r-p𝐫i𝐦a𝐫y"
></article>
</code></pre>
<p>But I wouldn't recommend it; you would need to change your CSS to target those particular values.</p>
<h2 id="commenting"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#commenting" class="heading-link">Commenting</a></h2>
<p>All code should be self commenting. HTML allows <code><!-- comments in code --></code> but there's nothing stopping you from adding comments <em>inside</em> values.</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><article
class="
'Cards_updated_with_2025_setting'
card
//section_box_to_be_deprecated_next_year
section box
#Colours_set_in_primary.css
bg-base color-primary"
></article>
</code></pre>
<p>I'd suggesting using underscore spacing to keep things readable and avoid having words which are accidentally class names.</p>
<p>Or, go artstic:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><article
class="
/ \
/ _ \
| / \ |
|| || _______
|| || |\ \
|| || ||\ \
|| || || \ |
|| || || \__/
|| || || ||
\\_/ \_/ \_//
/ _ _ \
/ \ Don't change this
| 0 0 | code without first
| \ ___ / | speaking to Sam
/ \ \_/ / \ in front-end.
/ ----- | --\ \
| \__/|\__/ \ |
\ |_|_| /
\_____ _____/
\ /
| |
card section box bg-base color-primary"
></article>
</code></pre>
<p>Yes. That is perfectly valid HTML. It may not be <em>sensible</em>, but it won't cause any problems in the browser. <a href="https://mastodon.social/@Edent/114410839719196560">It might make people grumpy though</a>.</p>
<h2 id="caveats"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#caveats" class="heading-link">Caveats</a></h2>
<p>There are a few things to be aware of here:</p>
<ul>
<li>Optimisers might strip spaces.</li>
<li>Pre-processes might re-order values.</li>
<li>This is unusual and humans might get confused.</li>
</ul>
</body></html>]]></content>
<link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#comments" thr:count="9"/>
<link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/feed/atom/" thr:count="9"/>
<thr:total>9</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: How to Land a Plane by Mark Vanhoenacker ★★★★☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-how-to-land-a-plane-by-mark-vanhoenacker/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59448</id>
<updated>2025-04-27T15:00:03Z</updated>
<published>2025-05-23T11:34:44Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I was lounging by the pool while on holiday, desperately hoping that I would never need to use the knowledge contained within this book. "How to Land a Plane" is not a metaphor. This isn't a book which teaches you life-lessons via the exciting world of aeronautics. It is a charming and practical guide to landing plane. What the various instruments say, how the controls work, and the basics of…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-how-to-land-a-plane-by-mark-vanhoenacker/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cover-2.jpg" alt="Bright green book cover featuring a landing plane." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-59449">I was lounging by the pool while on holiday, desperately hoping that I would never need to use the knowledge contained within this book.</p>
<p>"How to Land a Plane" is <em>not</em> a metaphor. This isn't a book which teaches you life-lessons via the exciting world of aeronautics. It is a charming and practical guide to landing plane. What the various instruments say, how the controls work, and the basics of navigation.</p>
<p>The author strikes an irreverent but relaxing tone, the sort which might sooth a nervous flyer, as he gently bombards the reader with facts. There are some excellent illustrations and lots of rabbit-holes for the curious adventurer to wander through. The writing is pure poetry about motion.</p>
<p>It is one of those books which makes you feel clever without effort. For an over-confident man like me, it is utter catnip. I'm now convinced I could mansplain landing a 747 and take a reasonable crack at it if the pilot were incapacitated.</p>
<p>Our flight home was - sadly - uneventful.</p>
<p>I am indebted to my former colleagues at CDDO for getting me this fine leaving present - and regretful that it took me so long to read!</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>1</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed ★★★★★]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-throne-of-the-crescent-moon-by-saladin-ahmed/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59414</id>
<updated>2025-05-05T08:32:31Z</updated>
<published>2025-05-21T11:34:41Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[After reading Saladin Ahmed's collection of short stories, I was keen to read more. This book is fantastic! Fantasy books usually seem to be swords and dragons, set in a generic European country. Crescent Moon is scimitars and sorcery, and set in a mythical Middle-Eastern country. The writing is sublime. It feels like an ancient epic, translated a hundred years ago with archaic language left…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-throne-of-the-crescent-moon-by-saladin-ahmed/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cover-1.jpg" alt="Book cover featuring a throne drenched in blood." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-59415">After reading <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/06/book-review-engraved-on-the-eye-saladin-ahmed/">Saladin Ahmed's collection of short stories</a>, I was keen to read more. This book is fantastic! Fantasy books usually seem to be swords and dragons, set in a generic European country. Crescent Moon is scimitars and sorcery, and set in a mythical Middle-Eastern country.</p>
<p>The writing is sublime. It feels like an ancient epic, translated a hundred years ago with archaic language left intact. It'll make good use of your eReader's dictionary to discover words like "ensorcelled".</p>
<p>Amongst all the blood and magic, are literary gems like:</p>
<blockquote><p>Zamia’s little laugh cut through him like a sword poisoned with pure happiness.</p></blockquote>
<p>But, perhaps the best thing about this, is that it reads like the <em>end</em> of a trilogy. The characters are all established, there's little exposition about the fantasy-word, the environment is richly textured. Above all, the characters are <em>tired</em>!</p>
<p>It is a fast-paced, exciting, and entertaining book. Perfect for fantasy-lovers who fancy something a bit different from endless Game-of-Thrones rip-offs.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>2</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Can you meaningfully measure how environmentally friendly a website is?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59612</id>
<updated>2025-05-04T08:10:22Z</updated>
<published>2025-05-19T11:34:26Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Energy Saving"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="EnergyCrisis"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="environment"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="green"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="websites"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Think global; act local. That's the mantra, right? I can't stop coal plants belching out suffocating pollutants, but can I ensure my website is as environmentally friendly as possible? There are several services which claim to be able to detect just how lean, green, and clean your website is. But, in my opinion, they're all a bit inadequate. WebsiteCarbon The WebsiteCarbon.com service gives me …]]></summary>
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<html><head></head><body><p>Think global; act local. That's the mantra, right? I can't stop coal plants belching out suffocating pollutants, but can I ensure my website is as environmentally friendly as possible?</p>
<p>There are several services which <em>claim</em> to be able to detect just how lean, green, and clean your website is. But, in my opinion, they're all a bit inadequate.</p>
<h2 id="websitecarbon"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/#websitecarbon" class="heading-link">WebsiteCarbon</a></h2>
<p>The WebsiteCarbon.com service <a href="https://www.websitecarbon.com/website/shkspr-mobi-blog/">gives me this <em>very</em> pleasing report</a></p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/websitecarbon.webp" alt="Website carbon results for: shkspr.mobi/blog
Hurrah! This web page achieves a carbon rating of A. This is cleaner than 82 % of all web pages globally" width="1180" height="649" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59729">
<p>But what does that actually mean? There's an almost content-free <a href="https://www.websitecarbon.com/introducing-the-website-carbon-rating-system/">description of their rating system</a>. It boils down to <a href="https://www.websitecarbon.com/how-does-it-work/">how large your web pages are</a> and whether your <a href="https://www.websitecarbon.com/how-does-it-work/#green-energy">data centre runs on green energy</a>.</p>
<p>I specifically chose <a href="https://krystal.io/green">Krystal as my host because of their green energy credentials</a>. So it got that right.</p>
<p>WebsiteCarbon seems to just be an advertising pitch for their paid-for auditing services:</p>
<blockquote><p>You can get a comprehensive view of a website’s emissions and potential improvements by carrying out a Website Carbon Audit.</p></blockquote>
<p>Let's try another service.</p>
<h2 id="ecograder"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/#ecograder" class="heading-link">EcoGrader</a></h2>
<p><a href="https://ecograder.com/report/1yLXszsX2DpOmRPIZyu0NKhz">EcoGrader gives me a lower score</a> but provides a lot more detail about <em>why</em>.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Impact-Report.webp" alt="Your Impact Report
Report for:
https://shkspr.mobi/blog/
Performance Impact
Ecograder Score 86 Out of 100.
Emissions per Pageload 0.28 grams of carbon dioxide.
This page scores better than 78% of all URLs crawled by Ecograder.
Ecograder scores pages based on a variety of performance, efficiency, and user experience factors as well as emissions estimates and green hosting powered by renewable energy.
Page Weight
84
UX Design
86
Green Hosting
100" width="1496" height="623" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59730">
<p>They also give tips on how I can improve things.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cwv.webp" alt="Tips like optimise media, remove unused code, properly size images, reduce 3rd party code." width="405" height="786" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59732">
<p>Do you notice anything about those tips? They're basically the same as <a href="https://web.dev/explore/learn-core-web-vitals">Core Web Vitals</a>! A set of useful, if generic, tips to optimise your website.</p>
<h2 id="others"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/#others" class="heading-link">Others</a></h2>
<p>There are <a href="https://rootwebdesign.studio/articles/tools-for-calculating-your-websites-co2-emissions/">several other services</a> which claim to measure your site's eco-credentials. But, as far as I can tell, they're all doing the same thing; reskinning Core Web Vitals or similar products.</p>
<p>Some, like, <a href="https://themarkup.org/blacklight">Blacklight</a> are promoted on the claim that <a href="https://rootwebdesign.studio/articles/the-environmental-benefits-of-privacy-focussed-web-design/">excessive tracking scripts are an environmental disaster</a>. In the end, the message is the same - clean up your website to make it <del>faster</del> more efficient.</p>
<h2 id="what-does-this-mean"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/#what-does-this-mean" class="heading-link">What Does This Mean?</a></h2>
<p>The <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/12/energy-efficiency-of-modern-codecs/">energy efficiency of modern codecs</a> is often asymmetric. It might be energy intensive to encode a movie - but that's paid back a thousand-fold by having to store and stream less data and by the efficiency of the decode process at the user's end.</p>
<p>If you operating at planetary scale then, yes, a small saving affecting a billion users will have a huge impact. If you're optimising a single hero image on your recipe blog, probably not so much.</p>
<p>Much like the discredited idea that <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/10/no-you-cant-save-30-per-year-by-switching-off-your-standby-devices/">by switching off your "standby" devices you can save £££</a>, most of these website changes are marginal at best.</p>
<p>Yes, we should strive for svelte and performant websites - as much for usability as for environmentalism. It makes ecological sense to choose a hosting provider who is at least somewhat responsible in their energy usage - as much for cost as for anything else.</p>
<p>If these websites help convince your boss that you can remove horrific amounts of JS, upgrade images to WebP, and set sensible caching policies - great! Sell them the shiny accreditation badge while you go about making the site better.</p>
<p>Finally, a word of caution to anyone implicitly trusting these services - there's no way to know what's going on in the background of a website. An ultra efficient looking website served from a green data-centre, might be spinning up a dozen LLMs just to churn out the page content. A slow website <a href="https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/">might be solar powered</a>. All those ultra-compressed images might be adverts for fossil fuels.</p>
<p>And every time you leave a comment on my blog, I shoot a panda.</p>
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?xml-stylesheet href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/atom-style.xsl" type="text/xsl"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:thr="http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0" xml:lang="en-GB" > <title type="text">Terence Eden’s Blog</title> <subtitle type="text">Regular nonsense about tech and its effects 🙃</subtitle> <updated>2025-06-14T10:28:26Z</updated> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/feed/atom/</id> <link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/feed/atom/" /> <generator uri="https://wordpress.org/" version="6.8.1">WordPress</generator> <icon>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/cropped-avatar-32x32.jpeg</icon> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: What We Talk About When We Talk About Books - The History and Future of Reading by Leah Price ★★★★★]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-books-the-history-and-future-of-reading-by-leah-price/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61169</id> <updated>2025-06-05T20:36:34Z</updated> <published>2025-06-15T11:34:55Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Is reading a morally good pastime? Do eBooks rot the brain in the same way that pulp paperbacks do? Should people of feeble character be allowed unfettered access to books? Show me how you want to read, and I’ll show you who you want to be. Leah Price has produced a pithy and astonishing look at what books were and whether they will survive. It is, perhaps, a little overwrought and o…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-books-the-history-and-future-of-reading-by-leah-price/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/97804650426851.webp" alt="Book cover featuring twisted book pages." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-61170"> Is reading a morally good pastime? Do eBooks rot the brain in the same way that pulp paperbacks do? Should people of feeble character be allowed unfettered access to books?</p> <blockquote><p>Show me how you want to read, and I’ll show you who you want to be.</p></blockquote> <p>Leah Price has produced a pithy and astonishing look at what books were and whether they will survive. It is, perhaps, a little overwrought and overwritten - but I revelled in the its joyous use of language.</p> <blockquote><p>Perhaps print is to digital as Madonna is to whore: we worship one but use the other.</p></blockquote> <p>It put forwards some provocative arguments and isn't afraid to show the counterpoint in its footnotes.</p> <blockquote><p>Same text, different books: the very same sequence of words means something different—does something different—depending on whether it’s made for a desk or a pocket, a classroom or a church. Comparing these two editions of the same text makes visible how much of our reaction to a book is shaped by factors other than the words it contains. Its look and feel and smell instruct us wordlessly in how and why to read it—alone or in company, in search of learning or of salvation.</p></blockquote> <p>How does DRM affect this, I wonder? If books are locked down then they cannot be analysed. Conversely, when every reader can choose their own font and hyphenation strategy, do we lose some collective experience?</p> <p>Similarly, eReaders don't display their cover to fellow passengers on public transport. A boon for the privacy conscious, but means we lose the social signal that simply <em>everyone</em> is reading this new book.</p> <p>Is reading for everyone?</p> <blockquote><p>Once a sign of economic power, reading has become the province of those whose time lacks value.</p></blockquote> <p>Harsh! The whole book is a powerful argument that books are a powerful argument. No matter what form the words are delivered in, some paranoid Moms will always want to see books from library shelves untimely ripp'd. There are, of course, an equal and opposite set of mothers who protest against cuts to literacy funding.</p> <p>I sometimes wonder if any modern techbro CEOs have ever picked up a history book. Back in 1913, Thomas Edison was asked about the education powers of his new invention - the motion picture:</p> <blockquote><p>“Books,” declared the inventor with decision, “will soon be obsolete in the public schools. Scholars will be instructed through the eye. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be completely changed inside of ten years.</p></blockquote> <p>Books outlasted his prediction. They outlasted him. They will morph, adapt, scatter, and devour until they outlast us all.</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-books-the-history-and-future-of-reading-by-leah-price/#comments" thr:count="1" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-books-the-history-and-future-of-reading-by-leah-price/feed/atom/" thr:count="1" /> <thr:total>1</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Meeting my Fedifriends AFK]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/meeting-my-fedifriends-afk/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61215</id> <updated>2025-06-14T10:28:26Z</updated> <published>2025-06-14T11:34:11Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="fediverse" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[There's a lovely moment in the documentary about The Pirate Bay where Peter Sunde is being interviewed in a District Court: Prosecutor 1: When was the first time you met IRL? brokep: We don't use the expression IRL. We say AFK. But that's another issue. Prosecutor 2: Got to know each other IRL? What is that? Prosecutor 1: In Real Life. brokep: We don't like that expression. We say AFK - Away …]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/meeting-my-fedifriends-afk/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p>There's a lovely moment in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2608732/">the documentary about The Pirate Bay</a> where Peter Sunde is being interviewed in a District Court:</p> <blockquote><p>Prosecutor 1: When was the first time you met IRL?</p> <p>brokep: We don't use the expression IRL. We say AFK. But that's another issue.</p> <p>Prosecutor 2: Got to know each other IRL? What is that?</p> <p>Prosecutor 1: In Real Life.</p> <p>brokep: We don't like that expression. We say AFK - Away From Keyboard. <strong>We think that the Internet is for real.</strong></p></blockquote> <p>Isn't that great? Why do some people insist that online relationships are somehow less real than physical relationships?</p> <p>As part of our recent <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/">grand Interrail journey</a>, I wanted to see how many people from social networks I could meet AFK. In the glory days of Twitter, I'm sure I'd've found a friend in every one-horse town. But the fractured nature of networking made it a bit of challenge.</p> <p>Just before arriving in a new country, I sent out messages saying "Hey, I'm arriving in XYZ tomorrow. Anyone want to meet for a beer?" And, to my surprise and delight, many people did!</p> <p>In half of the countries we went to, we met new friends. Sometimes for a quick drink, sometimes for dinner, and sometimes for a little exploring of a city. We even got invited to a local geek meet-up. It was <em>lovely</em>. We got tips on how to use the public transport system, which restaurants were tourist traps, and introduced to new beers.</p> <p>It is nice to put faces to names. It's fun to meet a random friend and chat nonsense with them. And it is reassuring to know that there are people around the world who'll take a risk and meet a weary traveller.</p> <p>Now, there are some obvious caveats to this story. We only met in well populated areas. I'm a tall bloke with a loud voice. Some light background stalking made sure the people we met weren't <em>too</em> crazy. We didn't get drunk. If you do this - I suggest taking all the normal precautions when meeting strangers. But, in the end, everything was fine.</p> <p>Sometimes you want to go where at least one person knows your name.</p> <p>Cheers!</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/crop.webp" alt="Me with a big mug of beer." width="1280" height="1280" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61222"> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/meeting-my-fedifriends-afk/#comments" thr:count="4" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/meeting-my-fedifriends-afk/feed/atom/" thr:count="4" /> <thr:total>4</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: A History of the World in 47 Borders - The Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps by Jonn Elledge ★★★★⯪]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-a-history-of-the-world-in-47-borders-the-stories-behind-the-lines-on-our-maps-by-jonn-elledge/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61161</id> <updated>2025-06-13T08:08:36Z</updated> <published>2025-06-13T11:34:02Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="history" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Jonn Elledge has a witty and friendly tone. It skirts just the right line between trivia nerd and your favourite history teacher. He cheerfully points out the absurdities in history and swiftly pivots into the injustices of "Cartographic Colonialism". There are delightfully diverting asides and then we're brought right back into the horrors of a straight line. The problem with history is that…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-a-history-of-the-world-in-47-borders-the-stories-behind-the-lines-on-our-maps-by-jonn-elledge/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/hbg-title-a-history-of-the-world-in-47-borders-.webp" alt="Book cover with a map on it." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-61162"> Jonn Elledge has a witty and friendly tone. It skirts just the right line between trivia nerd and your favourite history teacher. He cheerfully points out the absurdities in history and swiftly pivots into the injustices of "Cartographic Colonialism". There are delightfully diverting asides and then we're brought right back into the horrors of a straight line.</p> <p>The problem with history is that is is all a <em>bit</em> samey. Someone unities an country using violence and cunning thus setting up an empire that will last a thousand years - only for his heirs to immediately fall into civil war on his death. There's only so many times you can read about the bloody Habsburgs fucking over yet another country before it gets tiresome.</p> <p>The borders of the world have little to do with geography and all to do with the mundanity of indifferent administrators carving up the world to fit into neat little boxes, regardless of the wishes of the boxes' inhabitants.</p> <p>My only quibbles are that it could really do with a more illustrations. Sometimes only a picture of a map will do.</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-a-history-of-the-world-in-47-borders-the-stories-behind-the-lines-on-our-maps-by-jonn-elledge/#comments" thr:count="2" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-a-history-of-the-world-in-47-borders-the-stories-behind-the-lines-on-our-maps-by-jonn-elledge/feed/atom/" thr:count="2" /> <thr:total>2</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[The Mobile Phones of Doctor Who - Midnight]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-midnight/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60905</id> <updated>2025-06-11T09:48:57Z</updated> <published>2025-06-12T11:34:00Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Doctor Who Phones" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[A disturbing lack of phones in the latest series of Doctor Who - and no news yet on the next series. So let's revisit an older episode I'd previously overlooked. "Midnight" is a Series 4 episode which has a terrifying sequel in this year's "The Well". Donna briefly has a chat with The Doctor on what a appears to be a landline phone with the wire removed. Obviously that's not a mobile phone. …]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-midnight/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p>A disturbing lack of phones in <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/">the latest series of Doctor Who</a> - and no news yet on the next series. So let's revisit an older episode I'd previously overlooked.</p> <p>"Midnight" is a <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/09/the-mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-series-4/">Series 4</a> episode which has a terrifying sequel in this year's "The Well".</p> <p>Donna briefly has a chat with The Doctor on what a appears to be a landline phone with the wire removed.</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Donna-phone.webp" alt="Donna chatting on a phone." width="960" height="540" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60911"> <p>Obviously that's not a mobile phone.</p> <p>But what's The Doctor speaking to her on? <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Doctor-Payphone.webp" alt="The Doctor talking on a payphone." width="960" height="540" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60910"></p> <p>A payphone? Look a little closer:</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Doctor-Payphone-close-up.webp" alt="The Doctor talking on a payphone. Close up showing rotary dial." width="960" height="540" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60909"> <p>A <em>rotary dial</em> payphone!</p> <p>This is the the <a href="https://payphone.illtyd.co.uk/cointelephone725">Coin Telephone 725A</a>. Isn't it gorgeous?</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Yellow-payphone.webp" alt="A yellow payphone with rotary dial." width="512" height="544" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60906"> <p>But is it a <em>mobile</em> phone? Yes. Yes it is. The <a href="http://www.samhallas.co.uk/repository/sales/dle_530.pdf">Post Office Telecommunications Bulletin DLE 530</a> describes this as "<em>portable</em> with plug and socket termination".</p> <p>How portable? Easy to lug over a bar.</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/payphone-in-pub.webp" alt="A barman carrying a payphone over a bar." width="699" height="755" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60908"> <p>And light enough for a dainty lady to carry.</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/portable-with-plug-and-socket-termination.webp" alt="A woman carrying a payphone." width="512" height="714" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60907"> <p>So, there you go, a <em>sort of</em> mobile phone hidden away on the Planet Midnight!</p> <p>You can <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/doctor-who-phones/">read dozens of these very silly blog posts in the archives</a>.</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-midnight/#comments" thr:count="0" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-midnight/feed/atom/" thr:count="0" /> <thr:total>0</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Large Language Models and Pareidolia]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/large-language-models-and-pareidolia/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61327</id> <updated>2025-06-11T12:02:29Z</updated> <published>2025-06-11T11:34:29Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="AI" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="LLM" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Have you ever looked up at the sky and seen a face staring back at you from the clouds? Of course you have; you're human. Our delicious meaty brains are hardwired to recognise certain shapes - and faces are a useful shape to recognise. A few false positives are a worthwhile trade-off for such a powerful feature. Mistakenly seeing faces where there are none is a phenomenon called pareidolia. If…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/large-language-models-and-pareidolia/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p>Have you ever looked up at the sky and seen a face staring back at you from the clouds? Of course you have; you're human. Our delicious meaty brains are hardwired to recognise certain shapes - and <a href="https://babyschool.yale.edu/does-my-baby-recognize-me/">faces are a useful shape to recognise</a>. A few false positives are a worthwhile trade-off for such a powerful feature.</p> <p>Mistakenly seeing faces where there are none is a phenomenon called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia">pareidolia</a>. If you've ever used facial recognition on a computer, you'll know that <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2014/06/pareidolia-and-computer-vision/">machines also suffer from it</a>.</p> <p>I was using an AI tool to scan all my photos. I wanted it to recognise all the human faces so that I could tag my photos with my friends' names. One of the photos it presented for tagging was this:</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/lovelace-and-babbage.webp" alt="A photograph containing a painting of Ada Lovelace and a bust of Charles Babbage." width="512" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61329"> <p>Are those faces? Undoubtedly yes! Is this a mistake that a human would have made? Absolutely not!</p> <p>But the above is a mistake generated by Machine Learning, not by Our-Lord-And-Saviour Large Language Models. Surely a language model doesn't suffer from this?</p> <p>Because <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/01/google-has-no-faith-in-its-ability-to-launch-new-products/">Google has no faith in its ability to launch new products</a>, it has forcibly shoved AI into all of its services. There's no way to turn it off. You <em>will</em> use Gemini and you <em>will</em> like it.</p> <p>At the time of writing, here's what happens if you ask Google "How many i's in teamwork?"</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/teamwork.webp" alt="Google replying "The word teamwork contains the letter i one time"." width="1008" height="737" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61330"> <p>It's easy to see how Google's LLM has gotten this so catastrophically wrong. There are dozens of articles where some business guru ineffectually tries to argue that <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/fact-there-is-an-i-in-team">there <em>is</em> an "I" in team actually</a>. So the statistical model inside the LLM gives weight to that.</p> <p>Similarly, there are lots of silly articles proclaiming that <a href="https://careerpunk.com/team-player/">the I in team is in the A-hole</a>. But LLMs do not understand satire:</p> <blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:k7xouwluizlonrdxeo5obppi/app.bsky.feed.post/3lr7odyhz7c2d" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreiaproxts5p2uzp4fhycdu3qcotcvqkz4l6ynbmlmt7ls4tbf47ap4"><p lang="en">Google and Meta search both report that Cape Breton Island has its own time zone 12 minutes ahead of mainland Nova Scotia time because they are both drawing that information from a Beaverton article I wrote in 2024</p>— <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:k7xouwluizlonrdxeo5obppi?ref_src=embed">Janel Comeau <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f341.png" alt="🍁" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> (@verybadllama.bsky.social)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:k7xouwluizlonrdxeo5obppi/post/3lr7odyhz7c2d?ref_src=embed">2025-06-10T00:50:07.217Z</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>LLMs are hardwired to regurgitate text which statistically matches what they've seen before. Their makers believe that a few false-positives are an acceptable error rate for such a useful feature. The LLM form of pareidolia is to recognise text as being syntactically and linguistically correct, even though the contents are rubbish. This is an inherent feature of LLMs. No amount of manually tweaking their parameters or prompts can fix this.</p> <p>At the moment, Artificial Intelligence - whether Machine Learning or Large Language Models - only works well on a narrowly defined set of tasks and with humans checking the output.</p> <p>Imagine you've just hired an intern. They've graduated top of their class from the best university and, apparently, excel at what they do. Because you're the boss and they're the intern, you ask them to make you a mug of tea. White, no sugar.</p> <p>They return with the teabag still in the mug. OK, not everyone knows the intricacies of how to serve tea.</p> <p>The tea tastes funny. You ask them if they sniffed the milk. "Milk? I used Tipp-Ex to make it white!"</p> <p>At which point, after throwing up, you throw them out.</p> <p>Most people encountering Gemini's repeated and unacceptable failures will decide, perhaps rightly, that AI isn't even close to good enough yet.</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/large-language-models-and-pareidolia/#comments" thr:count="4" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/large-language-models-and-pareidolia/feed/atom/" thr:count="4" /> <thr:total>4</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: The Secret World of Denisovans: The Epic Story of the Ancient Cousins to Sapiens and Neanderthals by Silvana Condemi ★★★☆☆]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-the-secret-world-of-denisovans-the-epic-story-of-the-ancient-cousins-to-sapiens-and-neanderthals-by-silvana-condemi/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61151</id> <updated>2025-06-08T19:21:43Z</updated> <published>2025-06-10T11:34:50Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NetGalley" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[This is a decidedly odd book. Was there a "secret" hominid that the world overlooked? While the Neanderthals get all the limelight, perhaps there was another lost species of human lurking in the background. The science seems settled - yes there was - so this book tells us how scientists reached that conclusion. Except, it isn't really clear who this book is aimed at. Part of it is very casually…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-the-secret-world-of-denisovans-the-epic-story-of-the-ancient-cousins-to-sapiens-and-neanderthals-by-silvana-condemi/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9798893030709.jpg" alt="Book cover with hominid skulls." width="267" height="400" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-61152">This is a decidedly odd book. Was there a "secret" hominid that the world overlooked? While the Neanderthals get all the limelight, perhaps there was another lost species of human lurking in the background. The science seems settled - yes there was - so this book tells us how scientists reached that conclusion.</p> <p>Except, it isn't really clear who this book is aimed at. Part of it is very casually written - a hint of pop science and a healthy dollop of the personal lives of the scientists. The other part is a rather dense and unforgiving science book which is slightly beyond casual readers like me.</p> <p>I was suddenly bombarded with sentences about the "tiny epiphysis (tip) of the distal phalanx" and how "the famous Denisova 3, was found in a stratigraphic position" and that "Exogenous DNA comes from the numerous necrophagous organisms that attack the remains after death."</p> <p>There's very little ramp-up to the science and it suffers from the "<a href="https://xkcd.com/2501/">Average Familiarity Fallacy</a>" that non-experts have a working understand of the intricacies of a complex field.</p> <p>It <em>is</em> interesting, and parts of it are downright fascinating:</p> <blockquote><p>The team of researchers found that the site’s hunter-gatherers cooked giant carp of up to 6.5 feet (2 m) long, which they caught in a nearby lake. Several burnt flint microartifacts suggest they made fires. In the same layers as the burnt flints, the researchers collected around 40,000 pharyngeal teeth, carp teeth that are found at the bottom of their mouths. These teeth are all that remain of the carp, as heat softens the cartilaginous bones of fish and eradicates the possibility of their preservation. The discovery of these teeth suggests the fish were cooked at a controlled temperature rather than being grilled.</p> <p>Even if we don’t know how the occupants of GBY made their fires, we do know that they stewed fish. Using X-ray diffraction, researchers established that the thermal expansion of the nanocrystals that make up the tooth enamel suggests their exposure to low to moderate heat: specifically, lower than 932°F (500°C), whereas a wood fire produces temperatures of between 1,472°F and 1,832°F (800°C and 1,000°C). It’s likely that prehistoric people cooked carp <i lang="fr">en papillote</i>, probably by burying them near their fires after wrapping them in giant water lily leaves collected from the nearby lake.</p></blockquote> <p>I mean! Wow! That's some brilliant detective work.</p> <p>Sadly, there is quite a lot of dusty old bones to wade through before you hit the good stuff. In the end, I found myself confused as to how different Neanderthals and Denisovans actually were.</p> <p>The (pre-release) copy of the eBook commits the error of relegating all the images to the back. Several paragraphs are crying out for immediately viewable illustrations to help make sense of the text.</p> <p>If you have a reasonable familiarity with palaeontology you'll probably enjoy this greatly - but it is a little too taxing for those of us with less evolved brains.</p> <p>Many thanks to <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/">NetGalley</a> for the review copy.</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-the-secret-world-of-denisovans-the-epic-story-of-the-ancient-cousins-to-sapiens-and-neanderthals-by-silvana-condemi/#comments" thr:count="1" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-the-secret-world-of-denisovans-the-epic-story-of-the-ancient-cousins-to-sapiens-and-neanderthals-by-silvana-condemi/feed/atom/" thr:count="1" /> <thr:total>1</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Treedix USB Cable Tester ★★★★☆]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61234</id> <updated>2025-06-10T12:28:43Z</updated> <published>2025-06-09T11:34:01Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="hardware" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="USB" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="usb-c" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Cables aren't just copper wire and plastic sheath any more. Modern USB-C cables contain little microchips called eMarkers which allow them to transfer data and power at terrifying speeds. But, sadly, there's no way you can look at a USB-C cable and see whether it supports the baffling array of features available. Enter the catchily-named Treedix TRX5-0816-AC. It will test just about any sort of …]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p>Cables aren't just copper wire and plastic sheath any more. Modern USB-C cables contain <a href="https://hackaday.com/2023/01/04/all-about-usb-c-resistors-and-emarkers/">little microchips called eMarkers</a> which allow them to transfer data and power at terrifying speeds. But, sadly, there's no way you can look at a USB-C cable and see whether it supports the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C#Cable_types">baffling array of features</a> available.</p> <p>Enter the catchily-named <a href="https://treedix.com/products/treedix-usb-cable-tester-usb-c-cable-tester-usb-tester-for-data-transmission-and-power-transmission-cable-testing-resistor-testing-type-c-emarker-for-usb-a-micro-b-micro-b-3-0-type-c-lighting-mini-b">Treedix TRX5-0816-AC</a>.</p> <p>It will test just about <em>any</em> sort of USB cable and tell you what it does - and doesn't - support. It will also show you which pins are connected, how fast it can transmit data, and what the eMarker shows. Nice!</p> <p>Let's put it through its paces.</p> <h2 id="inputs-and-outputs"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#inputs-and-outputs" class="heading-link">Inputs and outputs</a></h2> <p>On one side are your output ports - you have a choice of USB-C or USB-A 3.0. <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Input-ports.webp" alt="A USB-A and C port." width="1024" height="576" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61249"></p> <p>At the bottom you have this range of ports to choose from:</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ports.webp" alt="Lightning, mini USB, USB-C, micro superspeed, mico ports." width="1024" height="301" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61250"> <p>So you can go A-C, C-micro, C-lightning etc.</p> <p>Finally, on the other side you have a button, a switch, and input power:</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Power-and-buttons.webp" alt="Power and buttons." width="1024" height="576" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61251"> <p>The power switch toggles between the internal AAA battery (included) and a 5V supply from a USB-C cable (not included). Pressing the white button moves between the different diagnostic screens.</p> <h2 id="power-only"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#power-only" class="heading-link">Power Only</a></h2> <p>I tried with a short USB-C power-only cable designed for charging low-power devices. I plugged in the USB-A end and the USB-C end.</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/A-to-C-power-only.webp" alt="A to C power only." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61238"> <p>It correctly identified that it couldn't do data transmission.</p> <p>With a power-only USB-C cable, it had much the same display. Pressing the button on the side of the Treedix told me what it knew about the eMarker.</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/No-emarker-chip-detected.webp" alt="No emarker chip detected." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61239"> <p>Perfect!</p> <h2 id="passive-usb-c"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#passive-usb-c" class="heading-link">Passive USB-C</a></h2> <p>What about a data and power USB-C cable? This is the <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/08/chubbycable-usb-c-review/">ChubbyCable I reviewed a few years ago.</a></p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Passive-USB-C-cable.webp" alt="Passive USB-C cable." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61240"> <p>USB 3.2 Gen2 and power of up to 100W. It has also correctly guessed the likely length of the cable by measuring the latency.</p> <p>Interestingly, when looking at the basic functions, it says it can only do USB 2.0 speeds and correctly identifies that it doesn't do PowerDelivery 3.1 (which goes up to 240W).</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/USB-C-data-transmission.webp" alt="USB-C data transmission." width="2676" height="2007" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61241"> <p>Finally, which pins are connected?</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/USB-C-connected-pins.webp" alt="USB-C connected pins." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61242"> <p>That looks about right!</p> <h2 id="thunderbolt-4-or-3"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#thunderbolt-4-or-3" class="heading-link">ThunderBolt 4 or 3?</a></h2> <p>Let's compare two high-performance cables. The one I usually have plugged into my <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/06/review-framework-16-laptop/">Framework Laptop</a> and <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/08/gadget-review-mokin-usb-c-docking-station-linux-information/">USB-C hub</a></p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/TBT4.webp" alt="ThunderBolt 4." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61243"> <p>Thunderbolt 4 capable of 100W of Power and 40 Gbps of data. As expected, no PD3.1:</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/No-PD-3.1.webp" alt="Screen showing results." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61244"> <p>Let's test a different high-quality cable I bought recently. The labelling claims 20Gbps and 240W of power. We can see that it does have PD3.1:</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PD3.1.webp" alt="PD3.1" width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61245"> <p>But! Looking at the eMarker, it reports that is only a ThunderBolt 3 device capable of 10Gbps!</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10Gbps.webp" alt="10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen2." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61247"> <p>I asked the cable manufacturer if that's a problem with the cable or the eMarker or the diagnostic machine. They said:</p> <blockquote><p>eMarker tester can only show single channel transmission rate 10Gbps, devices supporting dual channel can show 20Gbps. our products have 18 months warranty, if there is any problem, please feel free to contact me, I will provide you with satisfactory after-sales service.</p></blockquote> <p>I contacted Treedix to see if they could shed light on this. They replied quickly:</p> <blockquote><p>Yes, we sincerely apologize - this tester currently does not support dual-channel detection at this time.</p></blockquote> <p>Which is a bit annoying.</p> <p>Of course, my laptop only supports 10Gbps, so it is a bit moot!</p> <h2 id="firmware"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#firmware" class="heading-link">Firmware</a></h2> <p><ins datetime="2025-06-10T12:25:20+00:00">Update!</ins></p> <p>I emailed Treedix about possible firmware updates - they said:</p> <blockquote><p>Our devices with firmware version V2.3 and above can be updated. Currently the latest version is V2.3. you can see your version number. The way to view it is the boot page will show the version number. In addition, our test boards cannot be updated to test dual channels at this time. Because this is the information written inside the EMARKER, we can only read the information inside. We are currently working on the data inside the information we read to see if we can read the number of channels.</p></blockquote> <p>Mine shows a firmware of 2.3.04 - which does appear to be the latest. If a new firmware appears, I'll update this post again.</p> <h2 id="weird-cables"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#weird-cables" class="heading-link">Weird Cables</a></h2> <p>As well as your standard USB-C, it will also do the <em>ugliest</em> plug known the mankind - the USB Micro-B SuperSpeed.</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Micro-B-SS-pins.webp" alt="Micro B pins connected." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61248"> <p>It'll also do Lightning cables - as long as they also have a USB-A or C end.</p> <h2 id="downsides"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#downsides" class="heading-link">Downsides</a></h2> <p>Other than having to replace all your duff cables, there are a few annoying little niggles.</p> <ul> <li>The battery compartment is <em>really</em> stiff. I had to unscrew the back of the device to get it open.</li> <li>The power switch feels a little flimsy.</li> <li>The function button is a little small and fiddly.</li> <li>Screen brightness can't be changed (but it is pretty bright).</li> <li>No USB-B (the chunky one often used for printers).</li> <li>Lack of dual-channel detection.</li> <li><del datetime="2025-06-10T12:25:20+00:00">No firmware updates.</del></li> </ul> <p>Those are all minor complaints.</p> <p>The biggest complaint is that USB-C terminology is <em>hard</em>. Which is better, 40Gbps but only 100W or 10Gbps but 240W? How does ThunderBolt relate to USB? What is EPR and why does it matter? Where does DP Alt Mode fit in?!</p> <h2 id="verdict"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#verdict" class="heading-link">Verdict</a></h2> <p>It powers up and detects all features instantly. It goes to sleep after a few minutes of not being used. It will even show you the electrical resistance of the cable if you think that's useful.</p> <p>Total cost? <a href="https://amzn.to/44eJ7YL">£40 at the moment from Amazon</a>. I reckon that's a bargain. It is an indispensable piece of kit - especially if you have a big box of ancient USB cables. This will allow you to quickly and easily see which ones are broken, which are mislabelled, and which deserve pride of place in your collection.</p> <p>If you're running a hackspace, this is a no-brainer. If you've ever wasted time trying to diagnose a USB problem, this should be your first port of call.</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#comments" thr:count="7" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/feed/atom/" thr:count="7" /> <thr:total>7</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Open Data Man - how open is too open?]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/open-data-man-how-open-is-too-open/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=55363</id> <updated>2025-05-31T20:46:08Z</updated> <published>2025-06-08T11:34:41Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ODcamp" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Open Data" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Open Data is dear to my heart. It is the idea that raw data should be public published, free of restrictions, and in a form that is most usable for others. When people talk about Open Data, they usually mean "Data that has been paid for by tax-payers" - often data created or collected by Government agencies. But it also extends to the data used by researchers, scientists, economists and any…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/open-data-man-how-open-is-too-open/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p>Open Data is dear to my heart. It is the idea that raw data should be public published, free of restrictions, and in a form that is most usable for others.</p> <p>When people talk about Open Data, they usually mean "Data that has been paid for by tax-payers" - often data created or collected by Government agencies. But it also extends to the data used by researchers, scientists, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/04/16/is-the-best-evidence-for-austerity-based-on-an-excel-spreadsheet-error/">economists</a> and any other organisation which wants us to take them seriously. Some private companies also release Open Data - knowing that a level playing-field is good for ecosystem health.</p> <p>What about individuals? Is it sensible, desirable, or useful for us to release our <em>personal</em> data as Open Data?</p> <p>Last year, at <a href="https://www.odcamp.uk/">Open Data Camp</a> I ran a session about what data I release and what the implications are for my personal safety, security, and mental well-being.</p> <p>First, for the hard-of-thinking, I am not suggesting you do anything you don't want. I'm also in no position to compel you to do anything. If you don't like my ideas, close the tab and write something better.</p> <p>Right, still here? OK.</p> <p>We all leave little trails of data with every online interaction. Yes, I know you use a VPN, and TOR, and Incognito mode - but those are all still part of a digital footprint. Here I'm mostly concerned with the <em>intentional</em> release of data.</p> <p>Most of the data we intentionally release is highly curated. You post about your new job on LinkedIn - but you don't mention the 50 rejections leading up to it. Your online restaurant reviews make it sound like you only go to fancy joints with cool lighting and ethical menus - you don't post about the shameful 3am kebab from that dodgy van.</p> <p>If you're using FourSquare or similar services, you're deliberately releasing a log of where you've been and at what time you were there. Even if you post a photo of a gig the day after it happened, it's trivial to locate you at that moment.</p> <p>Some people are very open with their intimate medical data. I'm not. I haven't released a <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/06/3d-printing-my-teeth/">3D model of my teeth</a> - perhaps out of fear someone will use it to bite other people. Similarly, I haven't released my MRI scans just in case someone clones my brain.</p> <p>So what about raw data?</p> <p>I release <a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/solar-data/-/blob/main/README.md">my home's Solar Generation Statistics</a> as raw & open data. They're useful enough to be <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/citations/#a-year-of-solar-panels-open-data-2014">cited in several academic papers</a>.</p> <p>I release my energy consumption (at 30 minute granularity) to <a href="https://www.livinglab.energy/home">The Living Lab</a> so they can build up a model of how normal people use electricity and gas. I trust them not to abuse it, but I'm cognisant they can see when I'm away or when I'm cooking. Do I want <em>you</em> to know that as well?</p> <p>The discussion we held was wide ranging. Some people want the world to know about them and their problems, others value their privacy. It's an individual choice. It is a discussion you should have with those around you - especially if they're leaking your data.</p> <p>I am indebted to the wonderful <a href="https://drawnalism.com/">Drawnalism</a> rendering me in the style of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man">da Vinci's Vitruvian Man</a>.</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Open-Data-Man.webp" alt="Caricature of Terence as the Vitruvian Man spewing open data." width="3840" height="2160" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-55364"> <p>You can <a href="https://www.odcamp.uk/open-data-man/">read the full write-up of the session</a> on the Open Data Camp blog.</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/open-data-man-how-open-is-too-open/#comments" thr:count="2" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/open-data-man-how-open-is-too-open/feed/atom/" thr:count="2" /> <thr:total>2</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: Intimacy by Ita O'Brien ★★★☆☆]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-intimacy-by-ita-obrien/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59389</id> <updated>2025-05-03T16:03:59Z</updated> <published>2025-06-07T11:34:52Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="sex" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[This is a complicated book to review. There are several distinct strands to it, although they intermingle freely creating a confusing and disjointed thesis. Ita O'Brien, it is fair to say, invented the role of "Intimacy Co-ordinator" on film and TV sets. You wouldn't expect an director to just shout "fight" at a pair of actors and expect them to know how to safely perform a complex action…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-intimacy-by-ita-obrien/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9781529954036.jpg" alt="Book cover." width="200" height="320" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-59391">This is a complicated book to review. There are several distinct strands to it, although they intermingle freely creating a confusing and disjointed thesis.</p> <p>Ita O'Brien, it is fair to say, invented the role of "Intimacy Co-ordinator" on film and TV sets. You wouldn't expect an director to just shout "fight" at a pair of actors and expect them to know how to <em>safely</em> perform a complex action scene, would you? Fights need to be choreographed, the crew need to behave in a way that minimises the risk of harm to others, actors have to feel safe. Why should sex scenes be any different?</p> <p>This is the strongest part of the book. It explains <em>why</em> Intimacy Co-ordination is necessary and how it is used to improve a show. At times it veers a <em>little</em> into a sale-pitch for her work, but it is balanced with just the right amount of celebrity name-dropping and impassioned reasoning to keep it interesting.</p> <p>There are some brilliantly crafted exercises which are used to help actors feel comfortable working with each other. Working professionals need to be able to express clear boundaries to each other. Communication is key, but it relies on being able to be honest with each other. As O'Brien puts it:</p> <blockquote><p>being able to state your ‘no’, means that your ‘yes’ can be trusted.</p></blockquote> <p>The author takes great pains to tell us that she's <em>not</em> a sex therapist, yet a large part of the book is taken up with how non-actors can improve their intimacy with their lovers. Some of our modern hang-ups, she asserts, are directly a result of unrealistic expectations hammered home by the entertainment industry:</p> <blockquote><p>A couple meet and then it cuts to a sex scene, as if their physical relationship is separate from every other aspect of their lives. We’ve become accustomed to seeing portrayals of sex that are robotic, athletic, gratuitous. It’s rare to see the kind of relationships we’ve all experienced in real life: an expression of connection that is clumsy, awkward, funny and – hopefully – ultimately satisfying.</p></blockquote> <p>Again, this is all important and interesting stuff. But then things go a bit off the rails.</p> <p>Lots of the exercises she presents for non-actors are simply about stretching and general body-work. Her background in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19443927.2011.651536">Movement Studies</a> dominates the page. I understand that being in touch with your physicality is a necessary part of exploring your sexual boundaries, but it feels like it overly focuses on one aspect of self-comfort.</p> <p>Anyone who has worked with actors know that they're a weird and superstitious bunch. Visualisation techniques often ask you to imagine you're a tree, or that a bright light is shining out of you, or that you have extra-sensory perception. If you're not an actor, being thrown in to some of these routines can feel alienating and jarring. You thought you were here to get intimate? No! Pretend you have energy lines flowing through you!</p> <p>Sadly, it all goes a bit "woo". There's nonsense about chakras, homeopathy, "how overtones have the power to affect consciousness and the cellular level", and pseudoscientific claptrap about walking barefoot so the "electrons transfer to your body, neutralising the positively charged free radicals".</p> <p>I felt that it undermined the seriousness of her work. And it <em>is</em> serious. People working in the entertainment industry need to be protected from harm. People in relationships need to find ways to be free and intimate with each other.</p> <p>There's a lot of great stuff in here, but you'll need to assert your boundaries and skip past the bits which aren't appropriate for you.</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-intimacy-by-ita-obrien/#comments" thr:count="0" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-intimacy-by-ita-obrien/feed/atom/" thr:count="0" /> <thr:total>0</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[5,025 Km, 21 Journeys, and 10 Countries in 30 Days - An Interrailing Adventure]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61129</id> <updated>2025-06-05T08:55:24Z</updated> <published>2025-06-06T11:34:40Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="holiday" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="interrail" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="trains" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="travel" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="vegan" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="vegetarian" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Interrail were having a sale on their month-long first class tickets. So Liz and I decided to do a "Grand Tour" - running around and seeing a dozen European cities. There are lots of companies which will sell you a pre-designed package Interrailing tour - but we decided to tread our own path. We spent a few weeks poring over maps and rail planners, scouring booking.com for hotels, and working…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p><a href="https://www.interrail.eu/en">Interrail</a> were having a sale on their month-long first class tickets. So Liz and I decided to do a "<a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/art-culture/what-was-grand-tour">Grand Tour</a>" - running around and seeing a dozen European cities.</p> <p>There are lots of companies which will sell you a pre-designed package Interrailing tour - but we decided to tread our own path. We spent a few weeks poring over maps and rail planners, scouring booking.com for hotels, and working out where we would stop for laundry!</p> <p>This is a <em>practical</em> look at our itinerary, how we booked the journeys, and the travel snags we faced. If you think you can do better, please write your own blog post.</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Train-Jouney.webp" alt="Big map showing the route we took." width="2048" height="1066" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61130"> <h2 id="london-to-amsterdam"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#london-to-amsterdam" class="heading-link">London to Amsterdam</a></h2> <p>The Eurostar itself is the most civilised way to travel. Get on train in city centre, a few hours later get off train in a foreign city centre.</p> <p>The pre-travel experience isn't great. St Pancras is, sadly, dangerously overcrowded. Tried to get into the Premium lounge but even with 1st class tickets we were rebuffed. We also had the wrong sort of Amex for access.</p> <p>Also annoyingly, there are only limited 1st class seats available for Interrail passengers. So our choice was 1st class with a change in Brussels or standard direct. We went direct so we didn't have to faff with a change. The seating in modern Eurostar trains is fairly spacious.</p> <h2 id="amsterdam-to-the-hague-back"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#amsterdam-to-the-hague-back" class="heading-link">Amsterdam to The Hague & Back</a></h2> <p>The Interrail app made this simple. Go to the journey planner, pick a train, add it to your journey.</p> <p>The massive Aztec Code opened the gates, and we strolled on to a train and sat upstairs. The return was just as simple.</p> <h2 id="amsterdam-to-frankfurt"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#amsterdam-to-frankfurt" class="heading-link">Amsterdam to Frankfurt</a></h2> <p>Our first attempt at buying reservations. Annoyingly, the Interrail app punts you out to their website. Even more annoyingly, they cheekily add a booking fee - we found out later that DB's website (which has an English version) is fee free.</p> <p>There's also no ability to select your seats with the Interrail website.</p> <p>Again, a painless journey. The vegan currywurst was more than adequate for train food. The police passed through the train at one point checking passports - so useful to keep your papers close to hand.</p> <p>WiFi was free and had a bunch of entertainment services if you get bored of looking out the window.</p> <h2 id="frankfurt-to-zurich"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#frankfurt-to-zurich" class="heading-link">Frankfurt to Zurich</a></h2> <p>Frankfurt station has a 1st class lounge - but not for Interrail passengers. Thankfully the main station has plenty of seating.</p> <p>The night before departure, the Interrail app said seat reservations weren't necessary, but the DB website recommended them. Reservations were easy in the DB site and it let us pick our seats - only 6 were showing as available. We got on and the train was packed, so it was certainly worth the few Euro for a reservation.</p> <p>No police checks but, on departing Basel's Swiss station, the guard checked passports.</p> <h2 id="zurich-to-brugg-back"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zurich-to-brugg-back" class="heading-link">Zurich to Brugg & back</a></h2> <p>A quick hop over to visit a castle. No barrier checks at Zurich's station. It is quite large, so worth leaving a few extra minutes to walk all the way down to the platforms.</p> <p>Incredibly roomy 1st class on the upper deck.</p> <p>We walked all the way to a minor station, hopped on a train back to the city.</p> <p>After walking for an hour to a little bar where we met some friends, we found <em>another</em> little station to take us home. We didn't even have time to climb the stairs before we were back!</p> <h2 id="zurich-cruise"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zurich-cruise" class="heading-link">Zurich Cruise</a></h2> <p>The various benefits of the Interrail ticket aren't always obvious. We went on a lake cruise and were pleasantly surprised to discover that we got 50% off the 1st class tickets. We sat in the sunshine and took in the surrounding glamour.</p> <h2 id="zurich-to-prague-sleeper"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zurich-to-prague-sleeper" class="heading-link">Zurich to Prague Sleeper</a></h2> <p>This was one of our <em>anchor</em> journeys. 10 weeks before departure, we booked a private sleeper compartment.</p> <p>We arrived at the station an hour early and had a slightly nervous wait for the train to appear on the departure board. Confusingly, there were two sleepers listed in the app, with subtly different routes but the same departure and arrival times.</p> <p>Turns out, the train splits, with half going to Prague and the rest elsewhere. The train arrived about 15 minutes before departure, which was a little unnerving!</p> <p>The private carriage had four free bottles of mineral water and some slippers, which was a nice touch.</p> <p>Beer and wine was available to buy. There was a vegetarian breakfast, but nothing vegan other than a bread roll and a bottle of fruit juice.</p> <p>Sleep was possible, although the starting and stopping of the train is quite disturbing.</p> <p>No border checks. So we stepped off into the city centre.</p> <h2 id="prague-public-transport"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#prague-public-transport" class="heading-link">Prague Public Transport</a></h2> <p>We paid about £11 for unlimited trams, buses, and metro for 3 days. Well worth it!</p> <h2 id="prague-to-bratislava"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#prague-to-bratislava" class="heading-link">Prague to Bratislava</a></h2> <p>Annoyingly the Interrail app doesn't let you select seats, so it is always a hop off to the provider's website to select from a seating map. I wouldn't mind, but Interrail have the temerity to charge an inflated price for seat reservations <em>plus</em> a booking fee.</p> <p>I found it was cheapest to book reservations directly on <a href="https://CD.cz">https://CD.cz</a> - note that they have shitty customer service for when things go wrong.</p> <p>For example, our 1st class carriage was cancelled! We received an email after we had boarded changing us to 2nd class. Not ideal but we eventually battled through the crowds to get to our seats. Well, somewhere <em>close</em> to our seats.</p> <p>No border inspection, but the ticket checker wanted to make sure our IDs matched our tickets.</p> <p>WiFi was a bit rubbish, kept disappearing, but I was eventually able to submit a refund request for our seat reservations.</p> <h2 id="bratislava-to-budapest"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#bratislava-to-budapest" class="heading-link">Bratislava to Budapest</a></h2> <p>A 10 minute delay in departure led to a 20 minute delay in arrival, but the 1st class carriage was available. We each got a free bottle of water. No toilet paper or hand driers in the loos. No passport checks at the border.</p> <h2 id="budapest-public-transport"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#budapest-public-transport" class="heading-link">Budapest Public Transport</a></h2> <p>An utter failure! Despite the machine being in English, we just couldn't work out how to buy a single bus ticket. So we walked.</p> <h2 id="budapest-to-vienna"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#budapest-to-vienna" class="heading-link">Budapest to Vienna</a></h2> <p>Slightly confusingly there are multiple stations which go to Vienna. Neither of which were the station we arrived at!</p> <p>The Interrail app, once again, wouldn't let us book seat reservations - so I registered for yet another train provider's website.</p> <p>Keleti station has a 1st class lounge. Basic drinks and snacks available - although the only vegan food was pistachios <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f606.png" alt="😆" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></p> <p>The lounge was right next to the Vienna train's platform, which made for a relaxing wait.</p> <p>At seat dining service, although the web-based ordering system was a bit slow. Had a surprisingly decent tofu curry and beer.</p> <p>No passport checks and only 5 minutes late.</p> <h2 id="vienna-public-transport"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#vienna-public-transport" class="heading-link">Vienna Public Transport</a></h2> <p>Very easy to buy a 24 hour pass - all the machines spoke English. Tickets were pre-validated so we could jump on and off throughout our stay.</p> <h2 id="vienna-to-graz"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#vienna-to-graz" class="heading-link">Vienna to Graz</a></h2> <p>The OBB lounge is available to 1st class Interrail holders. So a relaxing wait for the train. Some snacks and drinks available.</p> <p>Departed and arrived on time. Only thing of note was that a couple of the toilets were out of order.</p> <h2 id="graz-to-ljubljana"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#graz-to-ljubljana" class="heading-link">Graz to Ljubljana</a></h2> <p>Graz station also has a 1st class lounge. Our Interrail tickets didn't work on the automatic scanner, but the ÖBB agent took pity on us and opened the door. Plenty of snacks and drinks available.</p> <p>One of the few journeys where we couldn't choose our seats when reserving. As a result, we were assigned to seats at opposite ends of the only 1st class carriage. Luckily, it wasn't very full so we grabbed two free seats next to each other.</p> <p>No WiFi on the train, which was odd. That said, the quality of WiFi has been highly variable on these journeys.</p> <p>The dining car was cute but cash only. The only vegan thing on the menu was a salad.</p> <p>Train was old and rickety, came in a few minutes late.</p> <p>Long wait at the border and a couple of ticket checks - but no passport inspection.</p> <h2 id="ljubljana-to-zagreb"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#ljubljana-to-zagreb" class="heading-link">Ljubljana to Zagreb</a></h2> <p>Train arrived on time, but no 1st class compartments. A fair few disgruntled Interraillers. No WiFi on the fairly decrepit train. But the 2nd class carriage had little compartments of 6 seats, so it wasn't too bad.</p> <p>No power sockets, so glad I had my big battery with me. No air con, although the windows could be dragged open. No food or drink that I could see either. Primitive toilets.</p> <p>Tickets were checked once we were over the border, but no passport control.</p> <p>Czech railways, who sold us the 1st class reservation, refused a refund because we couldn't prove there was no 1st class! They refused to check with the train operator. So I filed a credit card dispute.</p> <h2 id="zagreb-public-transport"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zagreb-public-transport" class="heading-link">Zagreb Public Transport</a></h2> <p>Like other cities, there's a 24 and 72 hour pass for unlimited rides. We got the Zagreb Card which also came with entry to a bunch of museums.</p> <p>Trams were plentiful. No need to show your ticket unless an inspector appears. Stops were announced in Croatian and English. Some trams were clean and modern, others ancient and filthy.</p> <h2 id="zagreb-to-stuttgart-sleeper"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zagreb-to-stuttgart-sleeper" class="heading-link">Zagreb to Stuttgart Sleeper</a></h2> <p>Another "tent-pole" journey booked weeks in advance. We managed to get a private berth for two - but without a toilet / washing facilities.</p> <p>Zagreb station has left-luggage lockers which were big enough for our massive packs.</p> <p>Train arrived 40 minutes early. Unfortunately, there was a problem without our coach so, after much shunting, a new one was procured. Rather than a 2 person berth, we got a 6 person couchette - albeit all to ourselves.</p> <p>No WiFi, but plenty of phone signal along the line. One toilet didn't have soap, the other had no paper. Choose wisely!</p> <p>At 0415 we crossed the border to Germany. Whereupon the police boarded, knocked loudly on our door, and demanded to see our passports.</p> <p>I'll be honest, it wasn't the <em>best</em> quality sleep I've ever had! Breakfast was a pre-packaged chocolate croissant. No vegan option, but we did get some bottled water.</p> <p>Given the reservation was over €200, we were somewhat underwhelmed!</p> <h2 id="stuttgart-public-transport"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#stuttgart-public-transport" class="heading-link">Stuttgart Public Transport</a></h2> <p>Find a machine at the U-Bahn, select English, pay a few € for a day pass. As with every other country there are no ticket barriers and you don't have to present your ticket to the driver.</p> <h2 id="stuttgart-to-ludwigsburg-back"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#stuttgart-to-ludwigsburg-back" class="heading-link">Stuttgart to Ludwigsburg & back</a></h2> <p>Cheeky little day-trip on our last full day. Trains every 10 minutes. 1st class available on the way out, but not the way back. But, for a 13 minute journey on a clean and modern train, it was hardly noticeable.</p> <h2 id="stuttgart-to-paris"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#stuttgart-to-paris" class="heading-link">Stuttgart to Paris</a></h2> <p>The trip I'd been dreading. Given Deutsche Bahn's reputation for poor timekeeping, I was worried we'd miss our connection in Paris.</p> <p>We reserved the seats before we started the whole adventure as Interrail said they were selling quickly. Fair enough for a peak time morning service and, indeed, the train was crammed.</p> <p>The TGV 9576 was a bit shabby. Even in 1st class some seats were torn and there were mystery stains on the ceiling. The luggage rack had just about enough space for everyone's bags.</p> <p>The Interrail app was pretty good at keeping us informed of the likely arrival times. Although it thought the train would arrive late into Stuttgart instead it came early and departed on time. It also said there could be mandatory bag inspections and to allow an extra 20 minutes for boarding. That didn't happen though; we just strolled straight on.</p> <p>On train WiFi worked once the train departed. There were some locally hosted podcasts, movies, train information, and food ordering.</p> <p>Literally the only vegan option was grated carrot. Bienvenue en France!</p> <p>Some of the toilets had no paper so, just like China, remember to carry your own!</p> <h2 id="paris-to-london"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#paris-to-london" class="heading-link">Paris to London</a></h2> <p>Much like the journey out, this was booked months in advance. That allowed us to get first class seats for the journey back.</p> <p>A quick walk in the rain from Garre L'Est to Nord. The standard route takes you up a flight of stairs, which isn't ideal with luggage. The walkway between the stations isn’t yet complete. Luckily <a href="https://showmethejourney.com/travel-info-and-tips/est-to-nord/">there is an alternative route</a>.</p> <p>The Eurostar terminal only lets you in 2 hours before departure. The lounge is only for Premier Mega Extra Special customers, so we sat in the main station.</p> <p>Once on the train the "Plus" seats aren't noticeably more comfortable than the standard seats although they are a bit larger.</p> <p>Departure was on time. As we were travelling in "Plus", we got a complimentary meal. There wasn't a vegan option, so I spooned the yogurt off my salad bowl. The cabin crew found me some margarine for my bread. Wine was nice!</p> <p>Train arrived perfectly on time. But disembarking was delayed because of another train on the opposite platform.</p> <h2 id="statistics"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#statistics" class="heading-link">Statistics</a></h2> <p>The Interrail Android app has a nifty little summary of all the journeys you've taken. <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Stats.webp" alt="11 countries, 5025 Km, 21 journeys, 20 destinations. Total time on trains 2 days, 18 hours, 9 minutes." width="1008" height="840" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61131"> I'm not sure if that time accounts for delays (probably not) - but the rest seems accurate.</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#comments" thr:count="4" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/feed/atom/" thr:count="4" /> <thr:total>4</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[What is a "Cyber Attack"?]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/what-is-a-cyber-attack/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61135</id> <updated>2025-06-05T10:29:41Z</updated> <published>2025-06-05T11:34:57Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="CyberSecurity" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="security" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Terminology is hard. Computer terminology is even harder. Humans are animals who just love to classify things. We have a fundamental need in our delicious meaty brains to put things into conceptual buckets. This, I think, leads to some unfortunate consequences when our categories don't match up with other people's categories. For example, take this news story and this journalist's response to…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/what-is-a-cyber-attack/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p>Terminology is hard. <em>Computer</em> terminology is even harder. Humans are animals who just <em>love</em> to classify things. We have a fundamental need in our delicious meaty brains to put things into conceptual buckets. This, I think, leads to some unfortunate consequences when our categories don't match up with other people's categories.</p> <p>For example, take this news story and this journalist's response to it:</p> <blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:4uyo4p7dnrovo2q2d4tya2vf/app.bsky.feed.post/3lqtp77uwyk2p" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreihxb766fu5it5ilrsjckvnpkakf5fcmw4kvvxbooiyb5vrzus47ay"><p lang="en">100,000 taxpayers will be told shortly that their @HMRCgovuk accounts have been hacked and £47m stolen by thieves claiming fake tax repayments bit.ly/4mSDrMs extraordinary admission to MPs from top official who claims it wasn’t a cyberattack!</p>— <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4uyo4p7dnrovo2q2d4tya2vf?ref_src=embed">Paul Lewis (@paullewismoney.bsky.social)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4uyo4p7dnrovo2q2d4tya2vf/post/3lqtp77uwyk2p?ref_src=embed">2025-06-05T06:33:24.098Z</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>I think it is pretty reasonable to say that having 100,000 accounts breached using a computer <em>is</em> a "cyberattack". So how do the UK tax authorities square that circle? Angela MacDonald, the deputy chief executive of HMRC, said:</p> <blockquote><p>MacDonald stressed that the breach was “not a cyberattack, we have not been hacked, we have not had data extracted from us”.</p> <p>She later said: “The ability for somebody to breach your systems and to extract data, to hold you to ransomware and all of those things, that is a cyberattack. That is not what has happened here.”</p> <p>…</p> <p>“This was not a cyberattack — it involved criminals using personal information from phishing activity or data obtained elsewhere to try to claim money from HMRC. We’re writing to those customers affected to reassure them we’ve secured their accounts and that they haven’t lost any money.”</p> <p><a href="https://www.thetimes.com/article/24aef47e-978e-400d-bf6c-b6932e737cbc?shareToken=9d7a9b9250df0ea4ba9b3426d24492f9">Criminals access 100,000 people’s tax records</a></p></blockquote> <p>Ah. I think that's pretty reasonable. Well, up to a point.</p> <p>If you set your HMRC password to be "password" and someone guesses that - it is <em>you</em> who has been attacked; not the online service.</p> <p>Here's what has probably happened in this case.</p> <ul> <li>You signed up to an online service.</li> <li>You used your regular email and password.</li> <li>The service <a href="https://haveibeenpwned.com/Breach/LinkedIn">got hacked and leaks everyone's details</a>.</li> <li>A criminal went <a href="https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Credential_stuffing">credential stuffing</a> and tried all the usernames and password on lots of sites.</li> <li>One of those sites was HMRC and the criminal started filling their pockets.</li> </ul> <p>Who is being "cyberattacked" here? HMRC say that no individual lost any money - although I suspect people will possibly feel various administrative repercussions. It is hard to feel that the individual is the victim.</p> <p>HMRC didn't have any malware or ransomware installed. None of their computers were misused. Vast globs of data were not exfiltrated.</p> <p>But were HMRC's digital defences breached? <em>Maybe…</em></p> <p>Let's suppose that the cybercriminal who did this was an idiot. Here's what they <em>might</em> have done:</p> <ul> <li>Used a single IP address</li> <li>From a "dangerous" country</li> <li>Trying 1,000 passwords per second</li> </ul> <p>At which point, HMRC's systems should have started flashing red, sirens wailing, and countermeasures deployed. Any one or combination of the above should have been enough to trigger a "something fishy is going on here" alert. I think that scenario would be fair to describe it as <em>looking like</em> a cyberattack - although, depending on their risk tolerance it might be described as "<a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/anatoly-dyatlov">not great, not terrible</a>".</p> <p>But if the attacker was smart, they'd have rotated through thousands of UK-based IP addresses and kept their stuffing volume below the noise threshold. Whereupon their attempts would likely have gone unnoticed.</p> <p>Is a small and subtle attack still an attack? Yes.</p> <h2 id="was-this-a-cyberattack"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/what-is-a-cyber-attack/#was-this-a-cyberattack" class="heading-link">Was this a cyberattack?</a></h2> <p>I don't think it matters. Sorting things into predefined buckets is often just a way to bypass responsibility and accountability. Concentrating on the name of the thing rather than the thing itself doesn't help victims and doesn't prevent the incident from happening again.</p> <p>Every counter-measure which HMRC could deploy will negatively affect legitimate users. Getting bombarded with emails saying "did you just try to log in?" is an annoyance, mandating 2FA excludes less technical users, banning suspicious IP addresses inevitably leads to false positives, rate-limits hit legitimate users. And, ultimately, (whisper it) users bear <em>some</em> of the blame for their poor password practices.</p> <p>I'm sure HMRC will tighten up their monitoring, I'm sure some individuals will have better password hygiene, and I'm sure criminals will find a way to bypass both.</p> <p>As ontology is difficult, I'll leave you with this instructional video.</p> <iframe title="What Makes Soup, Soup? | Short Stuff | Comedy" width="620" height="349" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y1HVTNxwt7w?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/what-is-a-cyber-attack/#comments" thr:count="4" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/what-is-a-cyber-attack/feed/atom/" thr:count="4" /> <thr:total>4</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[The NHS shouldn't outsource its QR codes]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-nhs-shouldnt-outsource-its-qr-codes/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60954</id> <updated>2025-06-03T07:04:18Z</updated> <published>2025-06-03T11:34:04Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gdpr" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="nhs" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="privacy" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="qr" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[QR codes are brilliant. They're a simple way to allow users to easily and quickly go to the right URl - no matter how complex. No more worrying about typing in long addresses or figuring out if that's a letter O or the number O. Scan and go! The best thing about QR codes is that they're free. It doesn't cost any money to generate one. They're an open standard with no middle-men. Users can go…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-nhs-shouldnt-outsource-its-qr-codes/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p>QR codes are brilliant. They're a simple way to allow users to easily and quickly go to the right URl - no matter how complex. No more worrying about typing in long addresses or figuring out if that's a letter O or the number O. Scan and go!</p> <p>The best thing about QR codes is that they're free. It doesn't cost any money to generate one. They're an open standard with no middle-men. Users can go direct to your site!</p> <p>Except… Some people want to insert themselves into your conversation. Sometimes it is for malicious reasons, sometimes it is greed for user data, and sometimes it is just incompetence.</p> <p>Let's take this example - a health centre wants people to register. Scan the QR and get started. Fab!</p> <p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/registerQR.webp" alt="QR code on an NHS branded poster." width="982" height="1220" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60956"> <small>Photo shamelessly stolen from a LinkedIn contact.</small></p> <p>But what happens when you scan the QR code? Rather than taking you directly to an authoritative and trusted NHS.UK domain name, it sends you through <code>https://register-with-gp.ht1.uk/</code>.</p> <h2 id="who-on-earth-are-ht1-uk"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-nhs-shouldnt-outsource-its-qr-codes/#who-on-earth-are-ht1-uk" class="heading-link">Who on earth are HT1.UK?</a></h2> <p>According to <a href="https://www.healthtech1.uk/">their website</a>, they're an automation company who are "on a mission to make the NHS the most advanced healthcare system in the world."</p> <p>Good for them. But what information are they collecting about users who traverse through their QR codes? If you take a look at <a href="https://docs.healthtech1.uk/general-privacy-policy">their privacy policy</a> you won't find anything specific. Never mind, let's email their friendly privacy team. What's their email address?</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/emailthem.webp" alt="Screenshot of terms and conditions with an hello email address." width="1024" height="406" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60957"> <p>Of course, emailing that gets you back this error:</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ht1email.webp" alt="Hey there 👋 This email inbox is not monitored. Please get in touch with us at [email protected] Thanks, Team at Healthtech-1" width="529" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60955"> <p>Emoji! How fun!!</p> <p>So I emailed the new address to see what information they were collecting. Their response wasn't particularly informative.</p> <blockquote><p>because Healthtech-1 is a processor of information and the GP practice is the data controller any requests about how your data is handled should be made to the GP practice who can inform you of the information you requested.</p> <p>…</p> <p>I can confirm that there is no information stored about users who scan the QR codes and no cookies placed.</p></blockquote> <p>But, of course, users have no way of verifying what this company is storing about them. There's simply no reason to use an untrusted 3rd party like this to provide either a QR code or an intermediary website.</p> <h2 id="why-this-is-a-problem"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-nhs-shouldnt-outsource-its-qr-codes/#why-this-is-a-problem" class="heading-link">Why this is a problem</a></h2> <p>Trust is everything. People are <em>constantly</em> being scammed. One of the great things that GOV.UK did was to say "This here is our trusted brand. If you don't see GOV.UK in the URl bar - don't trust it!"</p> <p>The NHS should be doing the same. Every hospital, surgery, and clinic should have an NHS.UK domain name. When a user sees a link to a healthcare service which <em>doesn't</em> go through NHS.UK, they should feel suspicious and not click on it.</p> <p>There is no way as a regular user to know that HT1.UK is a trusted domain. What about HT1.biz? HT2.UK? NHS.info.ly? What happens if HT1 go bust or have their domain name hijacked?</p> <p>The NHS must stop the proliferation of these 3rd party domain names. They need to reinforce users' understanding that NHS.UK is the <em>only</em> trusted domain name for official NHS services.</p> <p>I'm sure HT1.UK aren't doing anything nefarious with the data of people who visit their QR codes. I'm sure they're not inserting tracking cookies or selling my data. But I shouldn't have to be sure. All users should be pointed <em>directly</em> to an NHS.UK domain without having to risk whether their details are going via a dodgy site.</p> <p>Here endeth the rant.</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-nhs-shouldnt-outsource-its-qr-codes/#comments" thr:count="8" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-nhs-shouldnt-outsource-its-qr-codes/feed/atom/" thr:count="8" /> <thr:total>8</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Mobile Phones of Doctor Who - Season 15]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60989</id> <updated>2025-05-31T20:45:38Z</updated> <published>2025-06-01T11:34:29Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Doctor Who Phones" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="DoctorWho" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Is it Season 15 of New Who? Series 2 of Ncuti Gatwa's Who? Series 1875 of the UNIT dating controversy? Either way, welcome back to this increasingly silly series of blog posts where I try to identify all the mobile phones used by The Doctor and their companions. This weird and wonderful series has, sadly, a paucity of phones. The only time they appear is in the phonetastic and bone-chilling…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p>Is it Season 15 of New Who? Series 2 of Ncuti Gatwa's Who? Series 1875 of the UNIT dating controversy? Either way, welcome back to this <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/doctor-who-phones/">increasingly silly series of blog posts</a> where I try to identify all the mobile phones used by The Doctor and their companions.</p> <p>This weird and wonderful series has, sadly, a paucity of phones. The only time they appear is in the phonetastic and bone-chilling <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002bw41/doctor-who-season-2-4-lucky-day">Lucky Day</a>…</p> <h2 id="lucky-day"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/#lucky-day" class="heading-link">Lucky Day</a></h2> <p>Hunky heart-throb, and all-round nice guy Conrad Clark has this device:</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Conrad1.webp" alt="Man writing text on a phone." width="852" height="639" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61002"> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Conrad2.webp" alt="Man holding a phone." width="855" height="641" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61001"> <p>Not much to go on. Looks like an Android. The vertical camera cluster, buttons on the right, and inset front camera means it is <em>probably</em> a Samsung - but you'd be hard pressed to tell which!</p> <p>Ruby Sunday has the same yellow clad phone from <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/12/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-joy-to-the-world/">Joy To The World</a>.</p> <p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Ruby1.webp" alt="Woman holding a phone in a yellow case." width="853" height="640" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61000"> A few closeups as well.</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/RubySide.webp" alt="Phone in a yellow case. View of buttons." width="598" height="448" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60998"> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/RubyFront.webp" alt="Phone in a yellow case. View of screen." width="855" height="642" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60999"> <p>I'm pretty sure that's the <a href="https://www.gsmarena.com/google_pixel_5-pictures-10386.php">Google Pixel 5</a>.</p> <p>Carla's phone is wrapped in an anonymous case.</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Carla.webp" alt="Woman holding a phone in a red case." width="848" height="635" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60997"> <p>That's <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-14/#space-babies">the same case as last year's episodes</a>. But there's not much to go on. That tiny camera cluster could be from anything other than an iPhone. Think you know what it is? Leave a note in the comments.</p> <p>Most of <Think_Tank>'s phones are blurry and in the background, so it's hard to say what they are. One goon has this device:</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ThinkTankGoon1.webp" alt="Cackling goon holding a phone." width="395" height="296" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60996"> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ThinkTankGoon1Side.webp" alt="Side on view of a phone." width="336" height="252" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60995"> <p>Given the bevel around the camera lenses, and the flash near the top, I think it's the <a href="https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s21_5g-10626.php">Samsung S21 5G</a></p> <p>Another has this model:</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ThinkTankGoon2Side.webp" alt="Goon holding a phone." width="657" height="493" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60993"> <p>Again, not much detail there. It looks like it has a fingerprint sensor on the rear. Any clues?</p> <p>Shirley Bingham, UNIT's technical marvel, has this foldable phone.</p> <p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Shirley.webp" alt="Woman in a wheelchair holding a foldable phone." width="590" height="443" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-60994"> Although the scene is quite dark, I reckon it is the <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/12/the-mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-60th-anniversary-specials/">same phone she was rocking in The Star Beast</a>.</p> <h2 id="up-next"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/#up-next" class="heading-link">Up next!</a></h2> <p>Will there be more phones in "The War Between the Land and the Sea"? <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/doctor-who-phones/">Stay tuned</a>!</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/#comments" thr:count="0" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/feed/atom/" thr:count="0" /> <thr:total>0</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[What's up with this "Please add me on WhatsApp" robocall spam?]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whats-up-with-this-please-add-me-on-whatsapp-robocall-spam/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60938</id> <updated>2025-05-30T15:52:29Z</updated> <published>2025-05-31T11:34:18Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="phishing" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="scam" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="spam" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="WhatsApp" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Over the last few weeks, I've received several calls which all have the same modus operandi. A disembodied robotic voice tries to get me to connect on WhatsApp. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4 Some of the voices are reasonable facsimiles of human voices (like the above) and some are just garbage. 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. The voice cl…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whats-up-with-this-please-add-me-on-whatsapp-robocall-spam/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p>Over the last few weeks, I've received several calls which all have the same <i lang="la" title="Mode of operation.">modus operandi</i>. A disembodied robotic voice tries to get me to connect on WhatsApp.</p> <p></p><div style="width: 620px;" class="wp-video"><video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-60938-2" width="620" height="348" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4?_=2"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4</a></video></div><p></p> <p>Some of the voices are reasonable facsimiles of human voices (like the above) and some are just garbage.</p> <p></p><figure class="audio"> <figcaption class="audio"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f50a.png" alt="🔊" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /></figcaption> <audio class="audio-player" controls="" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WhatsAppSpam.mp3"> <p><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f4be.png" alt="💾" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WhatsAppSpam.mp3">Download this audio file</a>.</p> </audio> </figure><p></p> <p>The voice clip plays and the call immediately terminates.</p> <p>What I can't understand is how this can possibly be effective from the scammers' point of view. On receiving the call the victim must…</p> <ol> <li>Decided to answer from an unknown number.</li> <li>Listen to the message and decide it is legitimate.</li> <li>Go the their phone's dialler app.</li> <li>Copy the caller's phone number.</li> <li>Open WhatsApp. <ul> <li>Install WhatsApp if they don't have it already</li> </ul></li> <li>Create a new contact - giving a name - and pasting the number.</li> <li>Engage with the contact.</li> </ol> <p>That's a <em>lot</em> of effort based on… what? A vague offer? There's a little bit of a <a href="https://copyhackers.com/2014/04/curiosity-gap/">curiosity gap</a> but not much. It's hardly "add me on WhatsApp or we'll release the photos we have of you" or "you've won the lottery, add me on WhatsApp to get the funds", or "This is the CEO of your company, urgently add me…".</p> <p>I <em>guess</em> that if a spammer is able to send out thousands of these messages then they <em>might</em> be able to attract a couple of people to engage with them. There's no easy way to <a href="https://faq.whatsapp.com/1142481766359885/?cms_platform=web">report a spam account to WhatsApp</a> unless you've engaged with it.</p> <p>I also assume that WhatsApp will see that <em>you</em> were the person who initiated WhatsApp contact - which makes them less likely to think the scammer is the problem.</p> <p>I am just fascinated to see if this scam can possibly be effective. Generating fake voices is free, as is placing short calls. WhatsApp accounts are also free and easy to automate. But are there really that many people willing to go to the effort of adding a new contact based on so little information?</p> <p>Obviously, all spam is a numbers game. If the message reaches someone receptive to a robocall, they're less likely to query the scam. And, yes, I know that you're a very clever boy and don't answer unknown numbers - but in the real world people get calls from hospitals, recruiters, and friends with new numbers.</p> <p>If you're a spammer and have found this approach effective - please leave a comment!</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4" rel="enclosure" length="198313" type="video/mp4" /> <link href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WhatsAppSpam.mp3" rel="enclosure" length="13077" type="audio/mpeg" /> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whats-up-with-this-please-add-me-on-whatsapp-robocall-spam/#comments" thr:count="4" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whats-up-with-this-please-add-me-on-whatsapp-robocall-spam/feed/atom/" thr:count="4" /> <thr:total>4</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark ★★★⯪☆]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-the-haunting-of-tram-car-015-by-p-djeli-clark/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60512</id> <updated>2025-04-29T08:49:57Z</updated> <published>2025-05-29T11:34:54Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[After reading the short story A Dead Djinn in Cairo, I decided to grab the first book in the "Dead Djinn" series. It is a delightfully realised universe although reminiscent of both Saladin Ahmed's work - a Middle-East populated with ghuls, djinn, and sword-wielding magicians - and also Annalee Newitz's Terraformers with its sentient trains and unionised robots. Unfortunately, it is rather…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-the-haunting-of-tram-car-015-by-p-djeli-clark/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/9781250294807.jpg" alt="Book cover showing aerial trams in a modern city." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-60515"> After reading the short story <a href="https://torpublishinggroup.com/a-dead-djinn-in-cairo/">A Dead Djinn in Cairo</a>, I decided to grab the first book in the "Dead Djinn" series.</p> <p>It is a delightfully realised universe although reminiscent of both <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/06/book-review-engraved-on-the-eye-saladin-ahmed/">Saladin Ahmed</a>'s work - a Middle-East populated with ghuls, djinn, and sword-wielding magicians - and also <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/03/book-review-the-terraformers-annalee-newitz/">Annalee Newitz's Terraformers</a> with its sentient trains and unionised robots.</p> <p>Unfortunately, it is rather brief. The short story and book together make for a decent novella. Because of that, some of the exposition is rather abrupt. Rather than gradually introduce us into the gender politics of the city, one character turns to another to clumsily explain it.</p> <p>It's a good book, I just wish there was a lot more of it.</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-the-haunting-of-tram-car-015-by-p-djeli-clark/#comments" thr:count="0" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-the-haunting-of-tram-car-015-by-p-djeli-clark/feed/atom/" thr:count="0" /> <thr:total>0</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Whatever happened to cheap eReaders?]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60457</id> <updated>2025-05-22T06:44:40Z</updated> <published>2025-05-27T11:34:04Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ebooks" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="eink" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="reading" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Way back in 2012, The Guardian reviewed an eInk reader which cost a mere £8. The txtr beagle was designed to be a stripped-down and simplified eReader. As far as I can tell, it never shipped. There were a few review units sent out but I can't find any evidence of consumers getting their hands on one. Also, that £8 price was the subsidised price when purchased with a mobile contract. Their w…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p>Way back in 2012, The Guardian reviewed <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/nov/08/beagle-e-reader-review">an eInk reader which cost a mere £8</a>.</p> <p>The <a href="https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Txtr_beagle">txtr beagle</a> was designed to be a stripped-down and simplified eReader<sup id="fnref:txtr"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#fn:txtr" class="footnote-ref" title="You can see some internal photos on this Mastodon thread." role="doc-noteref">0</a></sup>.</p> <p>As far as I can tell, it never shipped. There were a few <a href="https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Txtr_beagle">review units sent out</a> but I can't find any evidence of consumers getting their hands on one. Also, that £8 price was the <em>subsidised</em> price when purchased with a mobile contract. Their <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130828235409/http://gb.txtr.com/beagle/">website ceased working long ago</a>.</p> <p>But it got me intrigued. Moore's law is supposed to drive down the cost of electronics. So where are all the dirt-cheap eReaders?</p> <p>The cheapest Kindle for sale on Amazon UK right now is about £100. Back in 2012, it was about £70. Taking <a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator">inflation into account</a>, that price has stayed static. Brands like Kobo are also in the £100 to £150 range.</p> <p>About the cheapest retail eReader is the <a href="https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/pocketbook-basic-lux-4-ink-black-6-8gb-wi-fi-e-reader-pb618-p-ww/version.asp">PocketBook Lux 4</a> for £85 or the (terribly reviewed) <a href="https://amzn.to/44dgZ9Y">Woxter Scriba</a> for £70.</p> <p>AliExpress has loads of second-hand and obsolete models at cheap-ish prices. But a surprising dearth of new eReaders.</p> <p>Going wholesale, <a href="https://www.alibaba.com">Alibaba</a> has a range of models, some of which clock in at around £30.</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/30-quid-eReaders.webp" alt="Range of eReaders in a store. Each around £30." width="1280" height="603" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-60459"> <p>But, of course, that's before shipping and tax. They won't come with any manufacturer's warranty and don't expect any software updates. Also, good luck getting accessories!</p> <p>So what's stopping new eReaders being released at a cheap(er) price? I think it comes down to four main things.</p> <h2 id="reading-is-a-niche-hobby"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#reading-is-a-niche-hobby" class="heading-link">Reading is a niche hobby</a></h2> <p><a href="https://yougov.co.uk/entertainment/articles/51730-40-of-britons-havent-read-a-single-book-in-the-last-12-months">Around 40% of UK adults didn't read a single book last year</a>. That survey combines reading books and listening to audiobooks. Of the 60% who do read/listen, about 14% primarily listen. Of those that read, around 60% do so on paper books.</p> <p>If reading is niche, reading electronically is a tiny niche! This is somewhat of a chicken-and-egg argument. If an eReader were the same cost as a mass-market paperback, I'm sure many more paper-book readers would become converts.</p> <p>The whole point of an eInk reader is that it is a distraction-free environment. Yeah, you <em>could</em> scroll TikTok on one, but it isn't a pleasant experience. An eReader is designed for one thing only, unlike a phone or tablet. Do enough people want to carry yet-another-bloody-device just for reading?</p> <h2 id="eink-is-expensive"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#eink-is-expensive" class="heading-link">eInk is expensive</a></h2> <p>The company which makes eInk hold several patents on the process. They're not a patent troll; they're building a business and selling mega-hectares of the stuff. Understandably, they have an interest in keeping prices high. They don't want to cannibalise their own market.</p> <p>A basic 6 inch screen with wiring costs around £20 wholesale - that's from Alibaba, so doesn't include tax and shipping. That's before you've added any electronics or a operating system.</p> <p>Speaking of which…</p> <h2 id="android-is-a-bottleneck"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#android-is-a-bottleneck" class="heading-link">Android is a bottleneck</a></h2> <p>The promise of the Android Open Source Project was a free Operating System for anyone to use. The reality has been a little different. Most people want to be able to use basic Android functionality - like download operating system updates or reading apps. But Google doesn't allow that for eInk devices.</p> <p>As I understand it, <a href="https://source.android.com/docs/compatibility/9/android-9-cdd#7_1_6_screen_technology">Google requires Android devices to have colour screens</a> and, so I've read, won't certify eInk eReaders for newer versions of Android.</p> <p>So manufacturers have to source parts which have drivers for older versions of Android. Or they have to develop their own OSes.</p> <h2 id="books-are-fungible"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#books-are-fungible" class="heading-link">Books are fungible</a></h2> <p>Back when Apple sold iPods, they knew that the majority of purchasers would buy MP3s direct from Apple. The perfect symbiotic relationship! But the walled-gardens cracked and now people can buy their music from anywhere.</p> <p>Amazon keeps this model for its eBooks. Unless you're prepared to get technical, you can only read Amazon books on your Amazon Kindle paid for with your Amazon wallet.</p> <p>Games consoles are often sold at a loss because the manufacturer knows they'll make it up in game sales and subscriptions.</p> <p>A low-price manufacturer is unlikely to also run a book store and wouldn't be able to cross-subsidise their hardware with content sales.</p> <h2 id="alternatives"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#alternatives" class="heading-link">Alternatives</a></h2> <p>Some people have tried <a href="https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/building-an-open-hardware-ebook-reader/">building open source eReaders</a> but they're either abandoned, <a href="https://www.crowdsupply.com/soldered/inkplate-6plus#products">not suitable for production</a>, or <a href="https://pine64eu.com/product/pinenote-community-edition/">ridiculously expensive</a>.</p> <p>Buying second hand is relatively cheap - often under £50. But eInk screens can be brittle, and older ones may have scratches or cracks which are effectively unrepairable.</p> <h2 id="how-cheap-is-cheap"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#how-cheap-is-cheap" class="heading-link">How cheap is cheap?</a></h2> <p>I'd love a £8 eReader. Something I could throw in a pocket and not worry about damaging. An eReader which was the same price as a hardback book - around £20 - would be amazing.</p> <p>But I don't think we'll get there soon. The monopoly on screen technologies sets a retail floor of around £30, before the rest of the hardware is taken into account. Niche hardware is viable - but only with decent OS support. Other than Kobo and Amazon, no book retailer wants to stray outside their core competency to develop and subsidise hardware.</p> <p>So I guess it's buy second-hand, or wait for the patents to expire.</p> <div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes"> <hr> <ol start="0"> <li id="fn:txtr" role="doc-endnote"> <p>You can <a href="https://chaos.social/@henryk/114433370736288910">see some internal photos on this Mastodon thread</a>. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#fnref:txtr" class="footnote-backref" role="doc-backlink"><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/21a9.png" alt="↩" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" />︎</a></p> </li> </ol> </div> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#comments" thr:count="25" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/feed/atom/" thr:count="25" /> <thr:total>25</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Decorative text within HTML]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60444</id> <updated>2025-05-24T11:09:12Z</updated> <published>2025-05-25T11:34:29Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="css" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HTML" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Back in 2020, Andy Bell introduced me to the idea of grouping attribute values. You've probably seen something like this before: <article class="card-section-background1-colorRed" ></article> A single class over-encumbered by all sorts of things. The more modular way to write this would be: <article class="card section box bg-base color-primary" ></article> That's pretty good! Each…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p>Back in 2020, Andy Bell introduced me to the idea of <a href="https://piccalil.li/blog/cube-css/#grouping">grouping attribute values</a>.</p> <p>You've probably seen something like this before:</p> <pre><code class="language-html"><article class="card-section-background1-colorRed" ></article> </code></pre> <p>A single class over-encumbered by all sorts of things. The more modular way to write this would be:</p> <pre><code class="language-html"><article class="card section box bg-base color-primary" ></article> </code></pre> <p>That's pretty good! Each one of those classes can have its own bit of CSS and everyone is happy. But… sometimes it is hard to spot the gaps. Is that a - or a spec of dirt on your screen? Is there a way to make it more visually obvious what the groupings are?</p> <p>Andy proposed this:</p> <pre><code class="language-html"><article class="[ card ] [ section box ] [ bg-base color-primary ]" ></article> </code></pre> <p>Or, if you don't like brackets, this:</p> <pre><code class="language-html"><article class="card | section box | bg-base color-primary" ></article> </code></pre> <p>The nice thing about attributes values is that they can contain <em>any</em> character. <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/dom.html#attribute-text">The spec says</a>:</p> <blockquote><p>An attribute value is a string. Except where otherwise specified, attribute values on HTML elements may be any string value, including the empty string, and there is no restriction on what text can be specified in such attribute values.</p></blockquote> <p>Obviously there are some little gotchas. Quotes may need to be encoded, and some attributes only take specific variables. For the <code>class</code> attribute, however, <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/common-microsyntaxes.html#set-of-space-separated-tokens">the spec says</a> they can have:</p> <blockquote><p>A set of space-separated tokens is a string containing zero or more words (known as tokens) separated by one or more ASCII whitespace, where words consist of any string of one or more characters, none of which are ASCII whitespace.</p></blockquote> <p>If a string isn't referenced within the CSS, it is simply ignored. So let's get creative!</p> <h2 id="space-cowboy"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#space-cowboy" class="heading-link">Space Cowboy</a></h2> <p>You can space your variables however you like. These are all perfectly valid and (might) be easier for a human to read.</p> <p>Separating out primary and secondary classes:</p> <pre><code class="language-html"><article class="card section box bg-base color-primary" ></article> </code></pre> <p>Newline classes:</p> <pre><code class="language-html"><article class="card section box bg-base color-primary" ></article> </code></pre> <p>Vertically aligned classes:</p> <pre><code class="language-html"><article class="card section box bg-base color-primary" ></article> </code></pre> <h2 id="specific-call-outs"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#specific-call-outs" class="heading-link">Specific call-outs</a></h2> <p>Remember, you can have <em>any</em> text in your class names. If you need to highlight something specific to a human, you could use emoji:</p> <pre><code class="language-html"><article class="card ➡ section box ⬅ bg-base color-primary" ></article> </code></pre> <p>Or</p> <pre><code class="language-html"><article class="card 👉 section box 👈 bg-base color-primary" ></article> </code></pre> <h2 id="unicode-abuses"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#unicode-abuses" class="heading-link">Unicode Abuses</a></h2> <p>Unicode contains lots of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Alphanumeric_Symbols">mathematical symbols which <em>look</em> like letters</a> but aren't. You <em>could</em> write something like:</p> <pre><code class="language-html"><article class="𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝒃𝒐𝒙 𝘣𝘨-𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦 c𝐨l𝐨r-p𝐫i𝐦a𝐫y" ></article> </code></pre> <p>But I wouldn't recommend it; you would need to change your CSS to target those particular values.</p> <h2 id="commenting"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#commenting" class="heading-link">Commenting</a></h2> <p>All code should be self commenting. HTML allows <code><!-- comments in code --></code> but there's nothing stopping you from adding comments <em>inside</em> values.</p> <pre><code class="language-html"><article class=" 'Cards_updated_with_2025_setting' card //section_box_to_be_deprecated_next_year section box #Colours_set_in_primary.css bg-base color-primary" ></article> </code></pre> <p>I'd suggesting using underscore spacing to keep things readable and avoid having words which are accidentally class names.</p> <p>Or, go artstic:</p> <pre><code class="language-html"><article class=" / \ / _ \ | / \ | || || _______ || || |\ \ || || ||\ \ || || || \ | || || || \__/ || || || || \\_/ \_/ \_// / _ _ \ / \ Don't change this | 0 0 | code without first | \ ___ / | speaking to Sam / \ \_/ / \ in front-end. / ----- | --\ \ | \__/|\__/ \ | \ |_|_| / \_____ _____/ \ / | | card section box bg-base color-primary" ></article> </code></pre> <p>Yes. That is perfectly valid HTML. It may not be <em>sensible</em>, but it won't cause any problems in the browser. <a href="https://mastodon.social/@Edent/114410839719196560">It might make people grumpy though</a>.</p> <h2 id="caveats"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#caveats" class="heading-link">Caveats</a></h2> <p>There are a few things to be aware of here:</p> <ul> <li>Optimisers might strip spaces.</li> <li>Pre-processes might re-order values.</li> <li>This is unusual and humans might get confused.</li> </ul> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#comments" thr:count="9" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/feed/atom/" thr:count="9" /> <thr:total>9</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: How to Land a Plane by Mark Vanhoenacker ★★★★☆]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-how-to-land-a-plane-by-mark-vanhoenacker/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59448</id> <updated>2025-04-27T15:00:03Z</updated> <published>2025-05-23T11:34:44Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[I was lounging by the pool while on holiday, desperately hoping that I would never need to use the knowledge contained within this book. "How to Land a Plane" is not a metaphor. This isn't a book which teaches you life-lessons via the exciting world of aeronautics. It is a charming and practical guide to landing plane. What the various instruments say, how the controls work, and the basics of…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-how-to-land-a-plane-by-mark-vanhoenacker/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cover-2.jpg" alt="Bright green book cover featuring a landing plane." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-59449">I was lounging by the pool while on holiday, desperately hoping that I would never need to use the knowledge contained within this book.</p> <p>"How to Land a Plane" is <em>not</em> a metaphor. This isn't a book which teaches you life-lessons via the exciting world of aeronautics. It is a charming and practical guide to landing plane. What the various instruments say, how the controls work, and the basics of navigation.</p> <p>The author strikes an irreverent but relaxing tone, the sort which might sooth a nervous flyer, as he gently bombards the reader with facts. There are some excellent illustrations and lots of rabbit-holes for the curious adventurer to wander through. The writing is pure poetry about motion.</p> <p>It is one of those books which makes you feel clever without effort. For an over-confident man like me, it is utter catnip. I'm now convinced I could mansplain landing a 747 and take a reasonable crack at it if the pilot were incapacitated.</p> <p>Our flight home was - sadly - uneventful.</p> <p>I am indebted to my former colleagues at CDDO for getting me this fine leaving present - and regretful that it took me so long to read!</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-how-to-land-a-plane-by-mark-vanhoenacker/#comments" thr:count="1" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-how-to-land-a-plane-by-mark-vanhoenacker/feed/atom/" thr:count="1" /> <thr:total>1</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed ★★★★★]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-throne-of-the-crescent-moon-by-saladin-ahmed/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59414</id> <updated>2025-05-05T08:32:31Z</updated> <published>2025-05-21T11:34:41Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[After reading Saladin Ahmed's collection of short stories, I was keen to read more. This book is fantastic! Fantasy books usually seem to be swords and dragons, set in a generic European country. Crescent Moon is scimitars and sorcery, and set in a mythical Middle-Eastern country. The writing is sublime. It feels like an ancient epic, translated a hundred years ago with archaic language left…]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-throne-of-the-crescent-moon-by-saladin-ahmed/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cover-1.jpg" alt="Book cover featuring a throne drenched in blood." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-59415">After reading <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/06/book-review-engraved-on-the-eye-saladin-ahmed/">Saladin Ahmed's collection of short stories</a>, I was keen to read more. This book is fantastic! Fantasy books usually seem to be swords and dragons, set in a generic European country. Crescent Moon is scimitars and sorcery, and set in a mythical Middle-Eastern country.</p> <p>The writing is sublime. It feels like an ancient epic, translated a hundred years ago with archaic language left intact. It'll make good use of your eReader's dictionary to discover words like "ensorcelled".</p> <p>Amongst all the blood and magic, are literary gems like:</p> <blockquote><p>Zamia’s little laugh cut through him like a sword poisoned with pure happiness.</p></blockquote> <p>But, perhaps the best thing about this, is that it reads like the <em>end</em> of a trilogy. The characters are all established, there's little exposition about the fantasy-word, the environment is richly textured. Above all, the characters are <em>tired</em>!</p> <p>It is a fast-paced, exciting, and entertaining book. Perfect for fantasy-lovers who fancy something a bit different from endless Game-of-Thrones rip-offs.</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-throne-of-the-crescent-moon-by-saladin-ahmed/#comments" thr:count="2" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-throne-of-the-crescent-moon-by-saladin-ahmed/feed/atom/" thr:count="2" /> <thr:total>2</thr:total> </entry> <entry> <author> <name>@edent</name> </author> <title type="html"><![CDATA[Can you meaningfully measure how environmentally friendly a website is?]]></title> <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/" /> <id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59612</id> <updated>2025-05-04T08:10:22Z</updated> <published>2025-05-19T11:34:26Z</published> <category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Energy Saving" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="EnergyCrisis" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="environment" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="green" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="websites" /> <summary type="html"><![CDATA[Think global; act local. That's the mantra, right? I can't stop coal plants belching out suffocating pollutants, but can I ensure my website is as environmentally friendly as possible? There are several services which claim to be able to detect just how lean, green, and clean your website is. But, in my opinion, they're all a bit inadequate. WebsiteCarbon The WebsiteCarbon.com service gives me …]]></summary> <content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/"><![CDATA[ <html><head></head><body><p>Think global; act local. That's the mantra, right? I can't stop coal plants belching out suffocating pollutants, but can I ensure my website is as environmentally friendly as possible?</p> <p>There are several services which <em>claim</em> to be able to detect just how lean, green, and clean your website is. But, in my opinion, they're all a bit inadequate.</p> <h2 id="websitecarbon"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/#websitecarbon" class="heading-link">WebsiteCarbon</a></h2> <p>The WebsiteCarbon.com service <a href="https://www.websitecarbon.com/website/shkspr-mobi-blog/">gives me this <em>very</em> pleasing report</a></p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/websitecarbon.webp" alt="Website carbon results for: shkspr.mobi/blog Hurrah! This web page achieves a carbon rating of A. This is cleaner than 82 % of all web pages globally" width="1180" height="649" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59729"> <p>But what does that actually mean? There's an almost content-free <a href="https://www.websitecarbon.com/introducing-the-website-carbon-rating-system/">description of their rating system</a>. It boils down to <a href="https://www.websitecarbon.com/how-does-it-work/">how large your web pages are</a> and whether your <a href="https://www.websitecarbon.com/how-does-it-work/#green-energy">data centre runs on green energy</a>.</p> <p>I specifically chose <a href="https://krystal.io/green">Krystal as my host because of their green energy credentials</a>. So it got that right.</p> <p>WebsiteCarbon seems to just be an advertising pitch for their paid-for auditing services:</p> <blockquote><p>You can get a comprehensive view of a website’s emissions and potential improvements by carrying out a Website Carbon Audit.</p></blockquote> <p>Let's try another service.</p> <h2 id="ecograder"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/#ecograder" class="heading-link">EcoGrader</a></h2> <p><a href="https://ecograder.com/report/1yLXszsX2DpOmRPIZyu0NKhz">EcoGrader gives me a lower score</a> but provides a lot more detail about <em>why</em>.</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Impact-Report.webp" alt="Your Impact Report Report for: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/ Performance Impact Ecograder Score 86 Out of 100. Emissions per Pageload 0.28 grams of carbon dioxide. This page scores better than 78% of all URLs crawled by Ecograder. Ecograder scores pages based on a variety of performance, efficiency, and user experience factors as well as emissions estimates and green hosting powered by renewable energy. Page Weight 84 UX Design 86 Green Hosting 100" width="1496" height="623" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59730"> <p>They also give tips on how I can improve things.</p> <img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cwv.webp" alt="Tips like optimise media, remove unused code, properly size images, reduce 3rd party code." width="405" height="786" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59732"> <p>Do you notice anything about those tips? They're basically the same as <a href="https://web.dev/explore/learn-core-web-vitals">Core Web Vitals</a>! A set of useful, if generic, tips to optimise your website.</p> <h2 id="others"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/#others" class="heading-link">Others</a></h2> <p>There are <a href="https://rootwebdesign.studio/articles/tools-for-calculating-your-websites-co2-emissions/">several other services</a> which claim to measure your site's eco-credentials. But, as far as I can tell, they're all doing the same thing; reskinning Core Web Vitals or similar products.</p> <p>Some, like, <a href="https://themarkup.org/blacklight">Blacklight</a> are promoted on the claim that <a href="https://rootwebdesign.studio/articles/the-environmental-benefits-of-privacy-focussed-web-design/">excessive tracking scripts are an environmental disaster</a>. In the end, the message is the same - clean up your website to make it <del>faster</del> more efficient.</p> <h2 id="what-does-this-mean"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/#what-does-this-mean" class="heading-link">What Does This Mean?</a></h2> <p>The <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/12/energy-efficiency-of-modern-codecs/">energy efficiency of modern codecs</a> is often asymmetric. It might be energy intensive to encode a movie - but that's paid back a thousand-fold by having to store and stream less data and by the efficiency of the decode process at the user's end.</p> <p>If you operating at planetary scale then, yes, a small saving affecting a billion users will have a huge impact. If you're optimising a single hero image on your recipe blog, probably not so much.</p> <p>Much like the discredited idea that <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/10/no-you-cant-save-30-per-year-by-switching-off-your-standby-devices/">by switching off your "standby" devices you can save £££</a>, most of these website changes are marginal at best.</p> <p>Yes, we should strive for svelte and performant websites - as much for usability as for environmentalism. It makes ecological sense to choose a hosting provider who is at least somewhat responsible in their energy usage - as much for cost as for anything else.</p> <p>If these websites help convince your boss that you can remove horrific amounts of JS, upgrade images to WebP, and set sensible caching policies - great! Sell them the shiny accreditation badge while you go about making the site better.</p> <p>Finally, a word of caution to anyone implicitly trusting these services - there's no way to know what's going on in the background of a website. An ultra efficient looking website served from a green data-centre, might be spinning up a dozen LLMs just to churn out the page content. A slow website <a href="https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/">might be solar powered</a>. All those ultra-compressed images might be adverts for fossil fuels.</p> <p>And every time you leave a comment on my blog, I shoot a panda.</p> </body></html>]]></content> <link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/#comments" thr:count="5" /> <link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/feed/atom/" thr:count="5" /> <thr:total>5</thr:total> </entry> </feed>
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"title": "Book Review: What We Talk About When We Talk About Books - The History and Future of Reading by Leah Price ★★★★★",
"description": "Is reading a morally good pastime? Do eBooks rot the brain in the same way that pulp paperbacks do? Should people of feeble character be allowed unfettered access to books? Show me how you want to read, and I’ll show you who you want to be. Leah Price has produced a pithy and astonishing look at what books were and whether they will survive. It is, perhaps, a little overwrought and o…",
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"content": "<html><head></head><body><p><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/97804650426851.webp\" alt=\"Book cover featuring twisted book pages.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-61170\"> Is reading a morally good pastime? Do eBooks rot the brain in the same way that pulp paperbacks do? Should people of feeble character be allowed unfettered access to books?</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Show me how you want to read, and I’ll show you who you want to be.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Leah Price has produced a pithy and astonishing look at what books were and whether they will survive. It is, perhaps, a little overwrought and overwritten - but I revelled in the its joyous use of language.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Perhaps print is to digital as Madonna is to whore: we worship one but use the other.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>It put forwards some provocative arguments and isn't afraid to show the counterpoint in its footnotes.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Same text, different books: the very same sequence of words means something different—does something different—depending on whether it’s made for a desk or a pocket, a classroom or a church. Comparing these two editions of the same text makes visible how much of our reaction to a book is shaped by factors other than the words it contains. Its look and feel and smell instruct us wordlessly in how and why to read it—alone or in company, in search of learning or of salvation.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>How does DRM affect this, I wonder? If books are locked down then they cannot be analysed. Conversely, when every reader can choose their own font and hyphenation strategy, do we lose some collective experience?</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, eReaders don't display their cover to fellow passengers on public transport. A boon for the privacy conscious, but means we lose the social signal that simply <em>everyone</em> is reading this new book.</p>\n\n<p>Is reading for everyone?</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Once a sign of economic power, reading has become the province of those whose time lacks value.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Harsh! The whole book is a powerful argument that books are a powerful argument. No matter what form the words are delivered in, some paranoid Moms will always want to see books from library shelves untimely ripp'd. There are, of course, an equal and opposite set of mothers who protest against cuts to literacy funding.</p>\n\n<p>I sometimes wonder if any modern techbro CEOs have ever picked up a history book. Back in 1913, Thomas Edison was asked about the education powers of his new invention - the motion picture:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>“Books,” declared the inventor with decision, “will soon be obsolete in the public schools. Scholars will be instructed through the eye. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be completely changed inside of ten years.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Books outlasted his prediction. They outlasted him. They will morph, adapt, scatter, and devour until they outlast us all.</p>\n</body></html>",
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"description": "There's a lovely moment in the documentary about The Pirate Bay where Peter Sunde is being interviewed in a District Court: Prosecutor 1: When was the first time you met IRL? brokep: We don't use the expression IRL. We say AFK. But that's another issue. Prosecutor 2: Got to know each other IRL? What is that? Prosecutor 1: In Real Life. brokep: We don't like that expression. We say AFK - Away …",
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"published": "2025-06-14T11:34:11.000Z",
"updated": "2025-06-14T10:28:26.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>There's a lovely moment in <a href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2608732/\">the documentary about The Pirate Bay</a> where Peter Sunde is being interviewed in a District Court:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Prosecutor 1: When was the first time you met IRL?</p>\n\n<p>brokep: We don't use the expression IRL. We say AFK. But that's another issue.</p>\n\n<p>Prosecutor 2: Got to know each other IRL? What is that?</p>\n\n<p>Prosecutor 1: In Real Life.</p>\n\n<p>brokep: We don't like that expression. We say AFK - Away From Keyboard. <strong>We think that the Internet is for real.</strong></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Isn't that great? Why do some people insist that online relationships are somehow less real than physical relationships?</p>\n\n<p>As part of our recent <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/\">grand Interrail journey</a>, I wanted to see how many people from social networks I could meet AFK. In the glory days of Twitter, I'm sure I'd've found a friend in every one-horse town. But the fractured nature of networking made it a bit of challenge.</p>\n\n<p>Just before arriving in a new country, I sent out messages saying \"Hey, I'm arriving in XYZ tomorrow. Anyone want to meet for a beer?\" And, to my surprise and delight, many people did!</p>\n\n<p>In half of the countries we went to, we met new friends. Sometimes for a quick drink, sometimes for dinner, and sometimes for a little exploring of a city. We even got invited to a local geek meet-up. It was <em>lovely</em>. We got tips on how to use the public transport system, which restaurants were tourist traps, and introduced to new beers.</p>\n\n<p>It is nice to put faces to names. It's fun to meet a random friend and chat nonsense with them. And it is reassuring to know that there are people around the world who'll take a risk and meet a weary traveller.</p>\n\n<p>Now, there are some obvious caveats to this story. We only met in well populated areas. I'm a tall bloke with a loud voice. Some light background stalking made sure the people we met weren't <em>too</em> crazy. We didn't get drunk. If you do this - I suggest taking all the normal precautions when meeting strangers. But, in the end, everything was fine.</p>\n\n<p>Sometimes you want to go where at least one person knows your name.</p>\n\n<p>Cheers!</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/crop.webp\" alt=\"Me with a big mug of beer.\" width=\"1280\" height=\"1280\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61222\">\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61161",
"title": "Book Review: A History of the World in 47 Borders - The Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps by Jonn Elledge ★★★★⯪",
"description": "Jonn Elledge has a witty and friendly tone. It skirts just the right line between trivia nerd and your favourite history teacher. He cheerfully points out the absurdities in history and swiftly pivots into the injustices of \"Cartographic Colonialism\". There are delightfully diverting asides and then we're brought right back into the horrors of a straight line. The problem with history is that…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-a-history-of-the-world-in-47-borders-the-stories-behind-the-lines-on-our-maps-by-jonn-elledge/",
"published": "2025-06-13T11:34:02.000Z",
"updated": "2025-06-13T08:08:36.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/hbg-title-a-history-of-the-world-in-47-borders-.webp\" alt=\"Book cover with a map on it.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-61162\"> Jonn Elledge has a witty and friendly tone. It skirts just the right line between trivia nerd and your favourite history teacher. He cheerfully points out the absurdities in history and swiftly pivots into the injustices of \"Cartographic Colonialism\". There are delightfully diverting asides and then we're brought right back into the horrors of a straight line.</p>\n\n<p>The problem with history is that is is all a <em>bit</em> samey. Someone unities an country using violence and cunning thus setting up an empire that will last a thousand years - only for his heirs to immediately fall into civil war on his death. There's only so many times you can read about the bloody Habsburgs fucking over yet another country before it gets tiresome.</p>\n\n<p>The borders of the world have little to do with geography and all to do with the mundanity of indifferent administrators carving up the world to fit into neat little boxes, regardless of the wishes of the boxes' inhabitants.</p>\n\n<p>My only quibbles are that it could really do with a more illustrations. Sometimes only a picture of a map will do.</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60905",
"title": "The Mobile Phones of Doctor Who - Midnight",
"description": "A disturbing lack of phones in the latest series of Doctor Who - and no news yet on the next series. So let's revisit an older episode I'd previously overlooked. \"Midnight\" is a Series 4 episode which has a terrifying sequel in this year's \"The Well\". Donna briefly has a chat with The Doctor on what a appears to be a landline phone with the wire removed. Obviously that's not a mobile phone. …",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-midnight/",
"published": "2025-06-12T11:34:00.000Z",
"updated": "2025-06-11T09:48:57.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>A disturbing lack of phones in <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/\">the latest series of Doctor Who</a> - and no news yet on the next series. So let's revisit an older episode I'd previously overlooked.</p>\n\n<p>\"Midnight\" is a <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/09/the-mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-series-4/\">Series 4</a> episode which has a terrifying sequel in this year's \"The Well\".</p>\n\n<p>Donna briefly has a chat with The Doctor on what a appears to be a landline phone with the wire removed.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Donna-phone.webp\" alt=\"Donna chatting on a phone.\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60911\">\n\n<p>Obviously that's not a mobile phone.</p>\n\n<p>But what's The Doctor speaking to her on?\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Doctor-Payphone.webp\" alt=\"The Doctor talking on a payphone.\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60910\"></p>\n\n<p>A payphone? Look a little closer:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Doctor-Payphone-close-up.webp\" alt=\"The Doctor talking on a payphone. Close up showing rotary dial.\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60909\">\n\n<p>A <em>rotary dial</em> payphone!</p>\n\n<p>This is the the <a href=\"https://payphone.illtyd.co.uk/cointelephone725\">Coin Telephone 725A</a>. Isn't it gorgeous?</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Yellow-payphone.webp\" alt=\"A yellow payphone with rotary dial.\" width=\"512\" height=\"544\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60906\">\n\n<p>But is it a <em>mobile</em> phone? Yes. Yes it is. The <a href=\"http://www.samhallas.co.uk/repository/sales/dle_530.pdf\">Post Office Telecommunications Bulletin DLE 530</a> describes this as \"<em>portable</em> with plug and socket termination\".</p>\n\n<p>How portable? Easy to lug over a bar.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/payphone-in-pub.webp\" alt=\"A barman carrying a payphone over a bar.\" width=\"699\" height=\"755\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60908\">\n\n<p>And light enough for a dainty lady to carry.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/portable-with-plug-and-socket-termination.webp\" alt=\"A woman carrying a payphone.\" width=\"512\" height=\"714\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60907\">\n\n<p>So, there you go, a <em>sort of</em> mobile phone hidden away on the Planet Midnight!</p>\n\n<p>You can <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/doctor-who-phones/\">read dozens of these very silly blog posts in the archives</a>.</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61327",
"title": "Large Language Models and Pareidolia",
"description": "Have you ever looked up at the sky and seen a face staring back at you from the clouds? Of course you have; you're human. Our delicious meaty brains are hardwired to recognise certain shapes - and faces are a useful shape to recognise. A few false positives are a worthwhile trade-off for such a powerful feature. Mistakenly seeing faces where there are none is a phenomenon called pareidolia. If…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/large-language-models-and-pareidolia/",
"published": "2025-06-11T11:34:29.000Z",
"updated": "2025-06-11T12:02:29.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>Have you ever looked up at the sky and seen a face staring back at you from the clouds? Of course you have; you're human. Our delicious meaty brains are hardwired to recognise certain shapes - and <a href=\"https://babyschool.yale.edu/does-my-baby-recognize-me/\">faces are a useful shape to recognise</a>. A few false positives are a worthwhile trade-off for such a powerful feature.</p>\n\n<p>Mistakenly seeing faces where there are none is a phenomenon called <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia\">pareidolia</a>. If you've ever used facial recognition on a computer, you'll know that <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2014/06/pareidolia-and-computer-vision/\">machines also suffer from it</a>.</p>\n\n<p>I was using an AI tool to scan all my photos. I wanted it to recognise all the human faces so that I could tag my photos with my friends' names. One of the photos it presented for tagging was this:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/lovelace-and-babbage.webp\" alt=\"A photograph containing a painting of Ada Lovelace and a bust of Charles Babbage.\" width=\"512\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61329\">\n\n<p>Are those faces? Undoubtedly yes! Is this a mistake that a human would have made? Absolutely not!</p>\n\n<p>But the above is a mistake generated by Machine Learning, not by Our-Lord-And-Saviour Large Language Models. Surely a language model doesn't suffer from this?</p>\n\n<p>Because <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/01/google-has-no-faith-in-its-ability-to-launch-new-products/\">Google has no faith in its ability to launch new products</a>, it has forcibly shoved AI into all of its services. There's no way to turn it off. You <em>will</em> use Gemini and you <em>will</em> like it.</p>\n\n<p>At the time of writing, here's what happens if you ask Google \"How many i's in teamwork?\"</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/teamwork.webp\" alt=\"Google replying \"The word teamwork contains the letter i one time\".\" width=\"1008\" height=\"737\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61330\">\n\n<p>It's easy to see how Google's LLM has gotten this so catastrophically wrong. There are dozens of articles where some business guru ineffectually tries to argue that <a href=\"https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/fact-there-is-an-i-in-team\">there <em>is</em> an \"I\" in team actually</a>. So the statistical model inside the LLM gives weight to that.</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, there are lots of silly articles proclaiming that <a href=\"https://careerpunk.com/team-player/\">the I in team is in the A-hole</a>. But LLMs do not understand satire:</p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"bluesky-embed\" data-bluesky-uri=\"at://did:plc:k7xouwluizlonrdxeo5obppi/app.bsky.feed.post/3lr7odyhz7c2d\" data-bluesky-cid=\"bafyreiaproxts5p2uzp4fhycdu3qcotcvqkz4l6ynbmlmt7ls4tbf47ap4\"><p lang=\"en\">Google and Meta search both report that Cape Breton Island has its own time zone 12 minutes ahead of mainland Nova Scotia time because they are both drawing that information from a Beaverton article I wrote in 2024</p>— <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:k7xouwluizlonrdxeo5obppi?ref_src=embed\">Janel Comeau <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f341.png\" alt=\"🍁\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /> (@verybadllama.bsky.social)</a> <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:k7xouwluizlonrdxeo5obppi/post/3lr7odyhz7c2d?ref_src=embed\">2025-06-10T00:50:07.217Z</a></blockquote>\n\n<script async=\"\" src=\"https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n<p>LLMs are hardwired to regurgitate text which statistically matches what they've seen before. Their makers believe that a few false-positives are an acceptable error rate for such a useful feature. The LLM form of pareidolia is to recognise text as being syntactically and linguistically correct, even though the contents are rubbish. This is an inherent feature of LLMs. No amount of manually tweaking their parameters or prompts can fix this.</p>\n\n<p>At the moment, Artificial Intelligence - whether Machine Learning or Large Language Models - only works well on a narrowly defined set of tasks and with humans checking the output.</p>\n\n<p>Imagine you've just hired an intern. They've graduated top of their class from the best university and, apparently, excel at what they do. Because you're the boss and they're the intern, you ask them to make you a mug of tea. White, no sugar.</p>\n\n<p>They return with the teabag still in the mug. OK, not everyone knows the intricacies of how to serve tea.</p>\n\n<p>The tea tastes funny. You ask them if they sniffed the milk. \"Milk? I used Tipp-Ex to make it white!\"</p>\n\n<p>At which point, after throwing up, you throw them out.</p>\n\n<p>Most people encountering Gemini's repeated and unacceptable failures will decide, perhaps rightly, that AI isn't even close to good enough yet.</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61151",
"title": "Book Review: The Secret World of Denisovans: The Epic Story of the Ancient Cousins to Sapiens and Neanderthals by Silvana Condemi ★★★☆☆",
"description": "This is a decidedly odd book. Was there a \"secret\" hominid that the world overlooked? While the Neanderthals get all the limelight, perhaps there was another lost species of human lurking in the background. The science seems settled - yes there was - so this book tells us how scientists reached that conclusion. Except, it isn't really clear who this book is aimed at. Part of it is very casually…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-the-secret-world-of-denisovans-the-epic-story-of-the-ancient-cousins-to-sapiens-and-neanderthals-by-silvana-condemi/",
"published": "2025-06-10T11:34:50.000Z",
"updated": "2025-06-08T19:21:43.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9798893030709.jpg\" alt=\"Book cover with hominid skulls.\" width=\"267\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-61152\">This is a decidedly odd book. Was there a \"secret\" hominid that the world overlooked? While the Neanderthals get all the limelight, perhaps there was another lost species of human lurking in the background. The science seems settled - yes there was - so this book tells us how scientists reached that conclusion.</p>\n\n<p>Except, it isn't really clear who this book is aimed at. Part of it is very casually written - a hint of pop science and a healthy dollop of the personal lives of the scientists. The other part is a rather dense and unforgiving science book which is slightly beyond casual readers like me.</p>\n\n<p>I was suddenly bombarded with sentences about the \"tiny epiphysis (tip) of the distal phalanx\" and how \"the famous Denisova 3, was found in a stratigraphic position\" and that \"Exogenous DNA comes from the numerous necrophagous organisms that attack the remains after death.\"</p>\n\n<p>There's very little ramp-up to the science and it suffers from the \"<a href=\"https://xkcd.com/2501/\">Average Familiarity Fallacy</a>\" that non-experts have a working understand of the intricacies of a complex field.</p>\n\n<p>It <em>is</em> interesting, and parts of it are downright fascinating:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>The team of researchers found that the site’s hunter-gatherers cooked giant carp of up to 6.5 feet (2 m) long, which they caught in a nearby lake. Several burnt flint microartifacts suggest they made fires. In the same layers as the burnt flints, the researchers collected around 40,000 pharyngeal teeth, carp teeth that are found at the bottom of their mouths. These teeth are all that remain of the carp, as heat softens the cartilaginous bones of fish and eradicates the possibility of their preservation. The discovery of these teeth suggests the fish were cooked at a controlled temperature rather than being grilled.</p>\n\n<p>Even if we don’t know how the occupants of GBY made their fires, we do know that they stewed fish. Using X-ray diffraction, researchers established that the thermal expansion of the nanocrystals that make up the tooth enamel suggests their exposure to low to moderate heat: specifically, lower than 932°F (500°C), whereas a wood fire produces temperatures of between 1,472°F and 1,832°F (800°C and 1,000°C). It’s likely that prehistoric people cooked carp <i lang=\"fr\">en papillote</i>, probably by burying them near their fires after wrapping them in giant water lily leaves collected from the nearby lake.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>I mean! Wow! That's some brilliant detective work.</p>\n\n<p>Sadly, there is quite a lot of dusty old bones to wade through before you hit the good stuff. In the end, I found myself confused as to how different Neanderthals and Denisovans actually were.</p>\n\n<p>The (pre-release) copy of the eBook commits the error of relegating all the images to the back. Several paragraphs are crying out for immediately viewable illustrations to help make sense of the text.</p>\n\n<p>If you have a reasonable familiarity with palaeontology you'll probably enjoy this greatly - but it is a little too taxing for those of us with less evolved brains.</p>\n\n<p>Many thanks to <a href=\"https://www.netgalley.com/\">NetGalley</a> for the review copy.</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61234",
"title": "Gadget Review: Treedix USB Cable Tester ★★★★☆",
"description": "Cables aren't just copper wire and plastic sheath any more. Modern USB-C cables contain little microchips called eMarkers which allow them to transfer data and power at terrifying speeds. But, sadly, there's no way you can look at a USB-C cable and see whether it supports the baffling array of features available. Enter the catchily-named Treedix TRX5-0816-AC. It will test just about any sort of …",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/",
"published": "2025-06-09T11:34:01.000Z",
"updated": "2025-06-10T12:28:43.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>Cables aren't just copper wire and plastic sheath any more. Modern USB-C cables contain <a href=\"https://hackaday.com/2023/01/04/all-about-usb-c-resistors-and-emarkers/\">little microchips called eMarkers</a> which allow them to transfer data and power at terrifying speeds. But, sadly, there's no way you can look at a USB-C cable and see whether it supports the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C#Cable_types\">baffling array of features</a> available.</p>\n\n<p>Enter the catchily-named <a href=\"https://treedix.com/products/treedix-usb-cable-tester-usb-c-cable-tester-usb-tester-for-data-transmission-and-power-transmission-cable-testing-resistor-testing-type-c-emarker-for-usb-a-micro-b-micro-b-3-0-type-c-lighting-mini-b\">Treedix TRX5-0816-AC</a>.</p>\n\n<p>It will test just about <em>any</em> sort of USB cable and tell you what it does - and doesn't - support. It will also show you which pins are connected, how fast it can transmit data, and what the eMarker shows. Nice!</p>\n\n<p>Let's put it through its paces.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"inputs-and-outputs\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#inputs-and-outputs\" class=\"heading-link\">Inputs and outputs</a></h2>\n\n<p>On one side are your output ports - you have a choice of USB-C or USB-A 3.0.\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Input-ports.webp\" alt=\"A USB-A and C port.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61249\"></p>\n\n<p>At the bottom you have this range of ports to choose from:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ports.webp\" alt=\"Lightning, mini USB, USB-C, micro superspeed, mico ports.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"301\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61250\">\n\n<p>So you can go A-C, C-micro, C-lightning etc.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, on the other side you have a button, a switch, and input power:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Power-and-buttons.webp\" alt=\"Power and buttons.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61251\">\n\n<p>The power switch toggles between the internal AAA battery (included) and a 5V supply from a USB-C cable (not included). Pressing the white button moves between the different diagnostic screens.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"power-only\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#power-only\" class=\"heading-link\">Power Only</a></h2>\n\n<p>I tried with a short USB-C power-only cable designed for charging low-power devices. I plugged in the USB-A end and the USB-C end.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/A-to-C-power-only.webp\" alt=\"A to C power only.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61238\">\n\n<p>It correctly identified that it couldn't do data transmission.</p>\n\n<p>With a power-only USB-C cable, it had much the same display. Pressing the button on the side of the Treedix told me what it knew about the eMarker.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/No-emarker-chip-detected.webp\" alt=\"No emarker chip detected.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61239\">\n\n<p>Perfect!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"passive-usb-c\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#passive-usb-c\" class=\"heading-link\">Passive USB-C</a></h2>\n\n<p>What about a data and power USB-C cable? This is the <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/08/chubbycable-usb-c-review/\">ChubbyCable I reviewed a few years ago.</a></p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Passive-USB-C-cable.webp\" alt=\"Passive USB-C cable.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61240\">\n\n<p>USB 3.2 Gen2 and power of up to 100W. It has also correctly guessed the likely length of the cable by measuring the latency.</p>\n\n<p>Interestingly, when looking at the basic functions, it says it can only do USB 2.0 speeds and correctly identifies that it doesn't do PowerDelivery 3.1 (which goes up to 240W).</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/USB-C-data-transmission.webp\" alt=\"USB-C data transmission.\" width=\"2676\" height=\"2007\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61241\">\n\n<p>Finally, which pins are connected?</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/USB-C-connected-pins.webp\" alt=\"USB-C connected pins.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61242\">\n\n<p>That looks about right!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"thunderbolt-4-or-3\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#thunderbolt-4-or-3\" class=\"heading-link\">ThunderBolt 4 or 3?</a></h2>\n\n<p>Let's compare two high-performance cables. The one I usually have plugged into my <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/06/review-framework-16-laptop/\">Framework Laptop</a> and <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/08/gadget-review-mokin-usb-c-docking-station-linux-information/\">USB-C hub</a></p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/TBT4.webp\" alt=\"ThunderBolt 4.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61243\">\n\n<p>Thunderbolt 4 capable of 100W of Power and 40 Gbps of data. As expected, no PD3.1:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/No-PD-3.1.webp\" alt=\"Screen showing results.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61244\">\n\n<p>Let's test a different high-quality cable I bought recently. The labelling claims 20Gbps and 240W of power. We can see that it does have PD3.1:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/PD3.1.webp\" alt=\"PD3.1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61245\">\n\n<p>But! Looking at the eMarker, it reports that is only a ThunderBolt 3 device capable of 10Gbps!</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/10Gbps.webp\" alt=\"10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen2.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61247\">\n\n<p>I asked the cable manufacturer if that's a problem with the cable or the eMarker or the diagnostic machine. They said:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>eMarker tester can only show single channel transmission rate 10Gbps, devices supporting dual channel can show 20Gbps. our products have 18 months warranty, if there is any problem, please feel free to contact me, I will provide you with satisfactory after-sales service.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>I contacted Treedix to see if they could shed light on this. They replied quickly:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Yes, we sincerely apologize - this tester currently does not support dual-channel detection at this time.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Which is a bit annoying.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, my laptop only supports 10Gbps, so it is a bit moot!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"firmware\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#firmware\" class=\"heading-link\">Firmware</a></h2>\n\n<p><ins datetime=\"2025-06-10T12:25:20+00:00\">Update!</ins></p>\n\n<p>I emailed Treedix about possible firmware updates - they said:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Our devices with firmware version V2.3 and above can be updated. Currently the latest version is V2.3. you can see your version number. The way to view it is the boot page will show the version number. In addition, our test boards cannot be updated to test dual channels at this time. Because this is the information written inside the EMARKER, we can only read the information inside. We are currently working on the data inside the information we read to see if we can read the number of channels.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Mine shows a firmware of 2.3.04 - which does appear to be the latest. If a new firmware appears, I'll update this post again.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"weird-cables\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#weird-cables\" class=\"heading-link\">Weird Cables</a></h2>\n\n<p>As well as your standard USB-C, it will also do the <em>ugliest</em> plug known the mankind - the USB Micro-B SuperSpeed.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Micro-B-SS-pins.webp\" alt=\"Micro B pins connected.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61248\">\n\n<p>It'll also do Lightning cables - as long as they also have a USB-A or C end.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"downsides\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#downsides\" class=\"heading-link\">Downsides</a></h2>\n\n<p>Other than having to replace all your duff cables, there are a few annoying little niggles.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The battery compartment is <em>really</em> stiff. I had to unscrew the back of the device to get it open.</li>\n<li>The power switch feels a little flimsy.</li>\n<li>The function button is a little small and fiddly.</li>\n<li>Screen brightness can't be changed (but it is pretty bright).</li>\n<li>No USB-B (the chunky one often used for printers).</li>\n<li>Lack of dual-channel detection.</li>\n<li><del datetime=\"2025-06-10T12:25:20+00:00\">No firmware updates.</del></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Those are all minor complaints.</p>\n\n<p>The biggest complaint is that USB-C terminology is <em>hard</em>. Which is better, 40Gbps but only 100W or 10Gbps but 240W? How does ThunderBolt relate to USB? What is EPR and why does it matter? Where does DP Alt Mode fit in?!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"verdict\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/gadget-review-treedix-usb-cable-tester/#verdict\" class=\"heading-link\">Verdict</a></h2>\n\n<p>It powers up and detects all features instantly. It goes to sleep after a few minutes of not being used. It will even show you the electrical resistance of the cable if you think that's useful.</p>\n\n<p>Total cost? <a href=\"https://amzn.to/44eJ7YL\">£40 at the moment from Amazon</a>. I reckon that's a bargain. It is an indispensable piece of kit - especially if you have a big box of ancient USB cables. This will allow you to quickly and easily see which ones are broken, which are mislabelled, and which deserve pride of place in your collection.</p>\n\n<p>If you're running a hackspace, this is a no-brainer. If you've ever wasted time trying to diagnose a USB problem, this should be your first port of call.</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=55363",
"title": "Open Data Man - how open is too open?",
"description": "Open Data is dear to my heart. It is the idea that raw data should be public published, free of restrictions, and in a form that is most usable for others. When people talk about Open Data, they usually mean \"Data that has been paid for by tax-payers\" - often data created or collected by Government agencies. But it also extends to the data used by researchers, scientists, economists and any…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/open-data-man-how-open-is-too-open/",
"published": "2025-06-08T11:34:41.000Z",
"updated": "2025-05-31T20:46:08.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>Open Data is dear to my heart. It is the idea that raw data should be public published, free of restrictions, and in a form that is most usable for others.</p>\n\n<p>When people talk about Open Data, they usually mean \"Data that has been paid for by tax-payers\" - often data created or collected by Government agencies. But it also extends to the data used by researchers, scientists, <a href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/04/16/is-the-best-evidence-for-austerity-based-on-an-excel-spreadsheet-error/\">economists</a> and any other organisation which wants us to take them seriously. Some private companies also release Open Data - knowing that a level playing-field is good for ecosystem health.</p>\n\n<p>What about individuals? Is it sensible, desirable, or useful for us to release our <em>personal</em> data as Open Data?</p>\n\n<p>Last year, at <a href=\"https://www.odcamp.uk/\">Open Data Camp</a> I ran a session about what data I release and what the implications are for my personal safety, security, and mental well-being.</p>\n\n<p>First, for the hard-of-thinking, I am not suggesting you do anything you don't want. I'm also in no position to compel you to do anything. If you don't like my ideas, close the tab and write something better.</p>\n\n<p>Right, still here? OK.</p>\n\n<p>We all leave little trails of data with every online interaction. Yes, I know you use a VPN, and TOR, and Incognito mode - but those are all still part of a digital footprint. Here I'm mostly concerned with the <em>intentional</em> release of data.</p>\n\n<p>Most of the data we intentionally release is highly curated. You post about your new job on LinkedIn - but you don't mention the 50 rejections leading up to it. Your online restaurant reviews make it sound like you only go to fancy joints with cool lighting and ethical menus - you don't post about the shameful 3am kebab from that dodgy van.</p>\n\n<p>If you're using FourSquare or similar services, you're deliberately releasing a log of where you've been and at what time you were there. Even if you post a photo of a gig the day after it happened, it's trivial to locate you at that moment.</p>\n\n<p>Some people are very open with their intimate medical data. I'm not. I haven't released a <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/06/3d-printing-my-teeth/\">3D model of my teeth</a> - perhaps out of fear someone will use it to bite other people. Similarly, I haven't released my MRI scans just in case someone clones my brain.</p>\n\n<p>So what about raw data?</p>\n\n<p>I release <a href=\"https://gitlab.com/edent/solar-data/-/blob/main/README.md\">my home's Solar Generation Statistics</a> as raw & open data. They're useful enough to be <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/citations/#a-year-of-solar-panels-open-data-2014\">cited in several academic papers</a>.</p>\n\n<p>I release my energy consumption (at 30 minute granularity) to <a href=\"https://www.livinglab.energy/home\">The Living Lab</a> so they can build up a model of how normal people use electricity and gas. I trust them not to abuse it, but I'm cognisant they can see when I'm away or when I'm cooking. Do I want <em>you</em> to know that as well?</p>\n\n<p>The discussion we held was wide ranging. Some people want the world to know about them and their problems, others value their privacy. It's an individual choice. It is a discussion you should have with those around you - especially if they're leaking your data.</p>\n\n<p>I am indebted to the wonderful <a href=\"https://drawnalism.com/\">Drawnalism</a> rendering me in the style of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man\">da Vinci's Vitruvian Man</a>.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Open-Data-Man.webp\" alt=\"Caricature of Terence as the Vitruvian Man spewing open data.\" width=\"3840\" height=\"2160\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-55364\">\n\n<p>You can <a href=\"https://www.odcamp.uk/open-data-man/\">read the full write-up of the session</a> on the Open Data Camp blog.</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59389",
"title": "Book Review: Intimacy by Ita O'Brien ★★★☆☆",
"description": "This is a complicated book to review. There are several distinct strands to it, although they intermingle freely creating a confusing and disjointed thesis. Ita O'Brien, it is fair to say, invented the role of \"Intimacy Co-ordinator\" on film and TV sets. You wouldn't expect an director to just shout \"fight\" at a pair of actors and expect them to know how to safely perform a complex action…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/book-review-intimacy-by-ita-obrien/",
"published": "2025-06-07T11:34:52.000Z",
"updated": "2025-05-03T16:03:59.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/9781529954036.jpg\" alt=\"Book cover.\" width=\"200\" height=\"320\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-59391\">This is a complicated book to review. There are several distinct strands to it, although they intermingle freely creating a confusing and disjointed thesis.</p>\n\n<p>Ita O'Brien, it is fair to say, invented the role of \"Intimacy Co-ordinator\" on film and TV sets. You wouldn't expect an director to just shout \"fight\" at a pair of actors and expect them to know how to <em>safely</em> perform a complex action scene, would you? Fights need to be choreographed, the crew need to behave in a way that minimises the risk of harm to others, actors have to feel safe. Why should sex scenes be any different?</p>\n\n<p>This is the strongest part of the book. It explains <em>why</em> Intimacy Co-ordination is necessary and how it is used to improve a show. At times it veers a <em>little</em> into a sale-pitch for her work, but it is balanced with just the right amount of celebrity name-dropping and impassioned reasoning to keep it interesting.</p>\n\n<p>There are some brilliantly crafted exercises which are used to help actors feel comfortable working with each other. Working professionals need to be able to express clear boundaries to each other. Communication is key, but it relies on being able to be honest with each other. As O'Brien puts it:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>being able to state your ‘no’, means that your ‘yes’ can be trusted.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>The author takes great pains to tell us that she's <em>not</em> a sex therapist, yet a large part of the book is taken up with how non-actors can improve their intimacy with their lovers. Some of our modern hang-ups, she asserts, are directly a result of unrealistic expectations hammered home by the entertainment industry:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>A couple meet and then it cuts to a sex scene, as if their physical relationship is separate from every other aspect of their lives. We’ve become accustomed to seeing portrayals of sex that are robotic, athletic, gratuitous. It’s rare to see the kind of relationships we’ve all experienced in real life: an expression of connection that is clumsy, awkward, funny and – hopefully – ultimately satisfying.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Again, this is all important and interesting stuff. But then things go a bit off the rails.</p>\n\n<p>Lots of the exercises she presents for non-actors are simply about stretching and general body-work. Her background in <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1080/19443927.2011.651536\">Movement Studies</a> dominates the page. I understand that being in touch with your physicality is a necessary part of exploring your sexual boundaries, but it feels like it overly focuses on one aspect of self-comfort.</p>\n\n<p>Anyone who has worked with actors know that they're a weird and superstitious bunch. Visualisation techniques often ask you to imagine you're a tree, or that a bright light is shining out of you, or that you have extra-sensory perception. If you're not an actor, being thrown in to some of these routines can feel alienating and jarring. You thought you were here to get intimate? No! Pretend you have energy lines flowing through you!</p>\n\n<p>Sadly, it all goes a bit \"woo\". There's nonsense about chakras, homeopathy, \"how overtones have the power to affect consciousness and the cellular level\", and pseudoscientific claptrap about walking barefoot so the \"electrons transfer to your body, neutralising the positively charged free radicals\".</p>\n\n<p>I felt that it undermined the seriousness of her work. And it <em>is</em> serious. People working in the entertainment industry need to be protected from harm. People in relationships need to find ways to be free and intimate with each other.</p>\n\n<p>There's a lot of great stuff in here, but you'll need to assert your boundaries and skip past the bits which aren't appropriate for you.</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61129",
"title": "5,025 Km, 21 Journeys, and 10 Countries in 30 Days - An Interrailing Adventure",
"description": "Interrail were having a sale on their month-long first class tickets. So Liz and I decided to do a \"Grand Tour\" - running around and seeing a dozen European cities. There are lots of companies which will sell you a pre-designed package Interrailing tour - but we decided to tread our own path. We spent a few weeks poring over maps and rail planners, scouring booking.com for hotels, and working…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/",
"published": "2025-06-06T11:34:40.000Z",
"updated": "2025-06-05T08:55:24.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p><a href=\"https://www.interrail.eu/en\">Interrail</a> were having a sale on their month-long first class tickets. So Liz and I decided to do a \"<a href=\"https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/art-culture/what-was-grand-tour\">Grand Tour</a>\" - running around and seeing a dozen European cities.</p>\n\n<p>There are lots of companies which will sell you a pre-designed package Interrailing tour - but we decided to tread our own path. We spent a few weeks poring over maps and rail planners, scouring booking.com for hotels, and working out where we would stop for laundry!</p>\n\n<p>This is a <em>practical</em> look at our itinerary, how we booked the journeys, and the travel snags we faced. If you think you can do better, please write your own blog post.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Train-Jouney.webp\" alt=\"Big map showing the route we took.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1066\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61130\">\n\n<h2 id=\"london-to-amsterdam\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#london-to-amsterdam\" class=\"heading-link\">London to Amsterdam</a></h2>\n\n<p>The Eurostar itself is the most civilised way to travel. Get on train in city centre, a few hours later get off train in a foreign city centre.</p>\n\n<p>The pre-travel experience isn't great. St Pancras is, sadly, dangerously overcrowded. Tried to get into the Premium lounge but even with 1st class tickets we were rebuffed. We also had the wrong sort of Amex for access.</p>\n\n<p>Also annoyingly, there are only limited 1st class seats available for Interrail passengers. So our choice was 1st class with a change in Brussels or standard direct. We went direct so we didn't have to faff with a change. The seating in modern Eurostar trains is fairly spacious.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"amsterdam-to-the-hague-back\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#amsterdam-to-the-hague-back\" class=\"heading-link\">Amsterdam to The Hague & Back</a></h2>\n\n<p>The Interrail app made this simple. Go to the journey planner, pick a train, add it to your journey.</p>\n\n<p>The massive Aztec Code opened the gates, and we strolled on to a train and sat upstairs. The return was just as simple.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"amsterdam-to-frankfurt\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#amsterdam-to-frankfurt\" class=\"heading-link\">Amsterdam to Frankfurt</a></h2>\n\n<p>Our first attempt at buying reservations. Annoyingly, the Interrail app punts you out to their website. Even more annoyingly, they cheekily add a booking fee - we found out later that DB's website (which has an English version) is fee free.</p>\n\n<p>There's also no ability to select your seats with the Interrail website.</p>\n\n<p>Again, a painless journey. The vegan currywurst was more than adequate for train food. The police passed through the train at one point checking passports - so useful to keep your papers close to hand.</p>\n\n<p>WiFi was free and had a bunch of entertainment services if you get bored of looking out the window.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"frankfurt-to-zurich\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#frankfurt-to-zurich\" class=\"heading-link\">Frankfurt to Zurich</a></h2>\n\n<p>Frankfurt station has a 1st class lounge - but not for Interrail passengers. Thankfully the main station has plenty of seating.</p>\n\n<p>The night before departure, the Interrail app said seat reservations weren't necessary, but the DB website recommended them. Reservations were easy in the DB site and it let us pick our seats - only 6 were showing as available. We got on and the train was packed, so it was certainly worth the few Euro for a reservation.</p>\n\n<p>No police checks but, on departing Basel's Swiss station, the guard checked passports.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"zurich-to-brugg-back\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zurich-to-brugg-back\" class=\"heading-link\">Zurich to Brugg & back</a></h2>\n\n<p>A quick hop over to visit a castle. No barrier checks at Zurich's station. It is quite large, so worth leaving a few extra minutes to walk all the way down to the platforms.</p>\n\n<p>Incredibly roomy 1st class on the upper deck.</p>\n\n<p>We walked all the way to a minor station, hopped on a train back to the city.</p>\n\n<p>After walking for an hour to a little bar where we met some friends, we found <em>another</em> little station to take us home. We didn't even have time to climb the stairs before we were back!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"zurich-cruise\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zurich-cruise\" class=\"heading-link\">Zurich Cruise</a></h2>\n\n<p>The various benefits of the Interrail ticket aren't always obvious. We went on a lake cruise and were pleasantly surprised to discover that we got 50% off the 1st class tickets. We sat in the sunshine and took in the surrounding glamour.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"zurich-to-prague-sleeper\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zurich-to-prague-sleeper\" class=\"heading-link\">Zurich to Prague Sleeper</a></h2>\n\n<p>This was one of our <em>anchor</em> journeys. 10 weeks before departure, we booked a private sleeper compartment.</p>\n\n<p>We arrived at the station an hour early and had a slightly nervous wait for the train to appear on the departure board. Confusingly, there were two sleepers listed in the app, with subtly different routes but the same departure and arrival times.</p>\n\n<p>Turns out, the train splits, with half going to Prague and the rest elsewhere. The train arrived about 15 minutes before departure, which was a little unnerving!</p>\n\n<p>The private carriage had four free bottles of mineral water and some slippers, which was a nice touch.</p>\n\n<p>Beer and wine was available to buy. There was a vegetarian breakfast, but nothing vegan other than a bread roll and a bottle of fruit juice.</p>\n\n<p>Sleep was possible, although the starting and stopping of the train is quite disturbing.</p>\n\n<p>No border checks. So we stepped off into the city centre.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"prague-public-transport\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#prague-public-transport\" class=\"heading-link\">Prague Public Transport</a></h2>\n\n<p>We paid about £11 for unlimited trams, buses, and metro for 3 days. Well worth it!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"prague-to-bratislava\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#prague-to-bratislava\" class=\"heading-link\">Prague to Bratislava</a></h2>\n\n<p>Annoyingly the Interrail app doesn't let you select seats, so it is always a hop off to the provider's website to select from a seating map. I wouldn't mind, but Interrail have the temerity to charge an inflated price for seat reservations <em>plus</em> a booking fee.</p>\n\n<p>I found it was cheapest to book reservations directly on <a href=\"https://CD.cz\">https://CD.cz</a> - note that they have shitty customer service for when things go wrong.</p>\n\n<p>For example, our 1st class carriage was cancelled! We received an email after we had boarded changing us to 2nd class. Not ideal but we eventually battled through the crowds to get to our seats. Well, somewhere <em>close</em> to our seats.</p>\n\n<p>No border inspection, but the ticket checker wanted to make sure our IDs matched our tickets.</p>\n\n<p>WiFi was a bit rubbish, kept disappearing, but I was eventually able to submit a refund request for our seat reservations.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"bratislava-to-budapest\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#bratislava-to-budapest\" class=\"heading-link\">Bratislava to Budapest</a></h2>\n\n<p>A 10 minute delay in departure led to a 20 minute delay in arrival, but the 1st class carriage was available. We each got a free bottle of water. No toilet paper or hand driers in the loos. No passport checks at the border.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"budapest-public-transport\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#budapest-public-transport\" class=\"heading-link\">Budapest Public Transport</a></h2>\n\n<p>An utter failure! Despite the machine being in English, we just couldn't work out how to buy a single bus ticket. So we walked.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"budapest-to-vienna\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#budapest-to-vienna\" class=\"heading-link\">Budapest to Vienna</a></h2>\n\n<p>Slightly confusingly there are multiple stations which go to Vienna. Neither of which were the station we arrived at!</p>\n\n<p>The Interrail app, once again, wouldn't let us book seat reservations - so I registered for yet another train provider's website.</p>\n\n<p>Keleti station has a 1st class lounge. Basic drinks and snacks available - although the only vegan food was pistachios <img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f606.png\" alt=\"😆\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /></p>\n\n<p>The lounge was right next to the Vienna train's platform, which made for a relaxing wait.</p>\n\n<p>At seat dining service, although the web-based ordering system was a bit slow. Had a surprisingly decent tofu curry and beer.</p>\n\n<p>No passport checks and only 5 minutes late.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"vienna-public-transport\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#vienna-public-transport\" class=\"heading-link\">Vienna Public Transport</a></h2>\n\n<p>Very easy to buy a 24 hour pass - all the machines spoke English. Tickets were pre-validated so we could jump on and off throughout our stay.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"vienna-to-graz\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#vienna-to-graz\" class=\"heading-link\">Vienna to Graz</a></h2>\n\n<p>The OBB lounge is available to 1st class Interrail holders. So a relaxing wait for the train. Some snacks and drinks available.</p>\n\n<p>Departed and arrived on time. Only thing of note was that a couple of the toilets were out of order.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"graz-to-ljubljana\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#graz-to-ljubljana\" class=\"heading-link\">Graz to Ljubljana</a></h2>\n\n<p>Graz station also has a 1st class lounge. Our Interrail tickets didn't work on the automatic scanner, but the ÖBB agent took pity on us and opened the door. Plenty of snacks and drinks available.</p>\n\n<p>One of the few journeys where we couldn't choose our seats when reserving. As a result, we were assigned to seats at opposite ends of the only 1st class carriage. Luckily, it wasn't very full so we grabbed two free seats next to each other.</p>\n\n<p>No WiFi on the train, which was odd. That said, the quality of WiFi has been highly variable on these journeys.</p>\n\n<p>The dining car was cute but cash only. The only vegan thing on the menu was a salad.</p>\n\n<p>Train was old and rickety, came in a few minutes late.</p>\n\n<p>Long wait at the border and a couple of ticket checks - but no passport inspection.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"ljubljana-to-zagreb\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#ljubljana-to-zagreb\" class=\"heading-link\">Ljubljana to Zagreb</a></h2>\n\n<p>Train arrived on time, but no 1st class compartments. A fair few disgruntled Interraillers. No WiFi on the fairly decrepit train. But the 2nd class carriage had little compartments of 6 seats, so it wasn't too bad.</p>\n\n<p>No power sockets, so glad I had my big battery with me. No air con, although the windows could be dragged open. No food or drink that I could see either. Primitive toilets.</p>\n\n<p>Tickets were checked once we were over the border, but no passport control.</p>\n\n<p>Czech railways, who sold us the 1st class reservation, refused a refund because we couldn't prove there was no 1st class! They refused to check with the train operator. So I filed a credit card dispute.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"zagreb-public-transport\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zagreb-public-transport\" class=\"heading-link\">Zagreb Public Transport</a></h2>\n\n<p>Like other cities, there's a 24 and 72 hour pass for unlimited rides. We got the Zagreb Card which also came with entry to a bunch of museums.</p>\n\n<p>Trams were plentiful. No need to show your ticket unless an inspector appears. Stops were announced in Croatian and English. Some trams were clean and modern, others ancient and filthy.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"zagreb-to-stuttgart-sleeper\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#zagreb-to-stuttgart-sleeper\" class=\"heading-link\">Zagreb to Stuttgart Sleeper</a></h2>\n\n<p>Another \"tent-pole\" journey booked weeks in advance. We managed to get a private berth for two - but without a toilet / washing facilities.</p>\n\n<p>Zagreb station has left-luggage lockers which were big enough for our massive packs.</p>\n\n<p>Train arrived 40 minutes early. Unfortunately, there was a problem without our coach so, after much shunting, a new one was procured. Rather than a 2 person berth, we got a 6 person couchette - albeit all to ourselves.</p>\n\n<p>No WiFi, but plenty of phone signal along the line. One toilet didn't have soap, the other had no paper. Choose wisely!</p>\n\n<p>At 0415 we crossed the border to Germany. Whereupon the police boarded, knocked loudly on our door, and demanded to see our passports.</p>\n\n<p>I'll be honest, it wasn't the <em>best</em> quality sleep I've ever had! Breakfast was a pre-packaged chocolate croissant. No vegan option, but we did get some bottled water.</p>\n\n<p>Given the reservation was over €200, we were somewhat underwhelmed!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"stuttgart-public-transport\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#stuttgart-public-transport\" class=\"heading-link\">Stuttgart Public Transport</a></h2>\n\n<p>Find a machine at the U-Bahn, select English, pay a few € for a day pass. As with every other country there are no ticket barriers and you don't have to present your ticket to the driver.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"stuttgart-to-ludwigsburg-back\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#stuttgart-to-ludwigsburg-back\" class=\"heading-link\">Stuttgart to Ludwigsburg & back</a></h2>\n\n<p>Cheeky little day-trip on our last full day. Trains every 10 minutes. 1st class available on the way out, but not the way back. But, for a 13 minute journey on a clean and modern train, it was hardly noticeable.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"stuttgart-to-paris\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#stuttgart-to-paris\" class=\"heading-link\">Stuttgart to Paris</a></h2>\n\n<p>The trip I'd been dreading. Given Deutsche Bahn's reputation for poor timekeeping, I was worried we'd miss our connection in Paris.</p>\n\n<p>We reserved the seats before we started the whole adventure as Interrail said they were selling quickly. Fair enough for a peak time morning service and, indeed, the train was crammed.</p>\n\n<p>The TGV 9576 was a bit shabby. Even in 1st class some seats were torn and there were mystery stains on the ceiling. The luggage rack had just about enough space for everyone's bags.</p>\n\n<p>The Interrail app was pretty good at keeping us informed of the likely arrival times. Although it thought the train would arrive late into Stuttgart instead it came early and departed on time. It also said there could be mandatory bag inspections and to allow an extra 20 minutes for boarding. That didn't happen though; we just strolled straight on.</p>\n\n<p>On train WiFi worked once the train departed. There were some locally hosted podcasts, movies, train information, and food ordering.</p>\n\n<p>Literally the only vegan option was grated carrot. Bienvenue en France!</p>\n\n<p>Some of the toilets had no paper so, just like China, remember to carry your own!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"paris-to-london\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#paris-to-london\" class=\"heading-link\">Paris to London</a></h2>\n\n<p>Much like the journey out, this was booked months in advance. That allowed us to get first class seats for the journey back.</p>\n\n<p>A quick walk in the rain from Garre L'Est to Nord. The standard route takes you up a flight of stairs, which isn't ideal with luggage. The walkway between the stations isn’t yet complete. Luckily <a href=\"https://showmethejourney.com/travel-info-and-tips/est-to-nord/\">there is an alternative route</a>.</p>\n\n<p>The Eurostar terminal only lets you in 2 hours before departure. The lounge is only for Premier Mega Extra Special customers, so we sat in the main station.</p>\n\n<p>Once on the train the \"Plus\" seats aren't noticeably more comfortable than the standard seats although they are a bit larger.</p>\n\n<p>Departure was on time. As we were travelling in \"Plus\", we got a complimentary meal. There wasn't a vegan option, so I spooned the yogurt off my salad bowl. The cabin crew found me some margarine for my bread. Wine was nice!</p>\n\n<p>Train arrived perfectly on time. But disembarking was delayed because of another train on the opposite platform.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"statistics\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/5025-km-21-journeys-and-10-countries-in-30-days-an-interrailing-adventure/#statistics\" class=\"heading-link\">Statistics</a></h2>\n\n<p>The Interrail Android app has a nifty little summary of all the journeys you've taken.\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Stats.webp\" alt=\"11 countries, 5025 Km, 21 journeys, 20 destinations. Total time on trains 2 days, 18 hours, 9 minutes.\" width=\"1008\" height=\"840\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61131\">\nI'm not sure if that time accounts for delays (probably not) - but the rest seems accurate.</p>\n</body></html>",
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"categories": [
{
"label": "/etc/",
"term": "/etc/",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "holiday",
"term": "holiday",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "interrail",
"term": "interrail",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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"label": "trains",
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
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{
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"term": "vegan",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "vegetarian",
"term": "vegetarian",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=61135",
"title": "What is a \"Cyber Attack\"?",
"description": "Terminology is hard. Computer terminology is even harder. Humans are animals who just love to classify things. We have a fundamental need in our delicious meaty brains to put things into conceptual buckets. This, I think, leads to some unfortunate consequences when our categories don't match up with other people's categories. For example, take this news story and this journalist's response to…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/what-is-a-cyber-attack/",
"published": "2025-06-05T11:34:57.000Z",
"updated": "2025-06-05T10:29:41.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>Terminology is hard. <em>Computer</em> terminology is even harder. Humans are animals who just <em>love</em> to classify things. We have a fundamental need in our delicious meaty brains to put things into conceptual buckets. This, I think, leads to some unfortunate consequences when our categories don't match up with other people's categories.</p>\n\n<p>For example, take this news story and this journalist's response to it:</p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"bluesky-embed\" data-bluesky-uri=\"at://did:plc:4uyo4p7dnrovo2q2d4tya2vf/app.bsky.feed.post/3lqtp77uwyk2p\" data-bluesky-cid=\"bafyreihxb766fu5it5ilrsjckvnpkakf5fcmw4kvvxbooiyb5vrzus47ay\"><p lang=\"en\">100,000 taxpayers will be told shortly that their @HMRCgovuk accounts have been hacked and £47m stolen by thieves claiming fake tax repayments bit.ly/4mSDrMs extraordinary admission to MPs from top official who claims it wasn’t a cyberattack!</p>— <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4uyo4p7dnrovo2q2d4tya2vf?ref_src=embed\">Paul Lewis (@paullewismoney.bsky.social)</a> <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4uyo4p7dnrovo2q2d4tya2vf/post/3lqtp77uwyk2p?ref_src=embed\">2025-06-05T06:33:24.098Z</a></blockquote>\n\n<script async=\"\" src=\"https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"></script>\n\n<p>I think it is pretty reasonable to say that having 100,000 accounts breached using a computer <em>is</em> a \"cyberattack\". So how do the UK tax authorities square that circle? Angela MacDonald, the deputy chief executive of HMRC, said:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>MacDonald stressed that the breach was “not a cyberattack, we have not been hacked, we have not had data extracted from us”.</p>\n\n<p>She later said: “The ability for somebody to breach your systems and to extract data, to hold you to ransomware and all of those things, that is a cyberattack. That is not what has happened here.”</p>\n\n<p>…</p>\n\n<p>“This was not a cyberattack — it involved criminals using personal information from phishing activity or data obtained elsewhere to try to claim money from HMRC. We’re writing to those customers affected to reassure them we’ve secured their accounts and that they haven’t lost any money.”</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.thetimes.com/article/24aef47e-978e-400d-bf6c-b6932e737cbc?shareToken=9d7a9b9250df0ea4ba9b3426d24492f9\">Criminals access 100,000 people’s tax records</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Ah. I think that's pretty reasonable. Well, up to a point.</p>\n\n<p>If you set your HMRC password to be \"password\" and someone guesses that - it is <em>you</em> who has been attacked; not the online service.</p>\n\n<p>Here's what has probably happened in this case.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>You signed up to an online service.</li>\n<li>You used your regular email and password.</li>\n<li>The service <a href=\"https://haveibeenpwned.com/Breach/LinkedIn\">got hacked and leaks everyone's details</a>.</li>\n<li>A criminal went <a href=\"https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Credential_stuffing\">credential stuffing</a> and tried all the usernames and password on lots of sites.</li>\n<li>One of those sites was HMRC and the criminal started filling their pockets.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Who is being \"cyberattacked\" here? HMRC say that no individual lost any money - although I suspect people will possibly feel various administrative repercussions. It is hard to feel that the individual is the victim.</p>\n\n<p>HMRC didn't have any malware or ransomware installed. None of their computers were misused. Vast globs of data were not exfiltrated.</p>\n\n<p>But were HMRC's digital defences breached? <em>Maybe…</em></p>\n\n<p>Let's suppose that the cybercriminal who did this was an idiot. Here's what they <em>might</em> have done:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Used a single IP address</li>\n<li>From a \"dangerous\" country</li>\n<li>Trying 1,000 passwords per second</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>At which point, HMRC's systems should have started flashing red, sirens wailing, and countermeasures deployed. Any one or combination of the above should have been enough to trigger a \"something fishy is going on here\" alert. I think that scenario would be fair to describe it as <em>looking like</em> a cyberattack - although, depending on their risk tolerance it might be described as \"<a href=\"https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/anatoly-dyatlov\">not great, not terrible</a>\".</p>\n\n<p>But if the attacker was smart, they'd have rotated through thousands of UK-based IP addresses and kept their stuffing volume below the noise threshold. Whereupon their attempts would likely have gone unnoticed.</p>\n\n<p>Is a small and subtle attack still an attack? Yes.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"was-this-a-cyberattack\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/what-is-a-cyber-attack/#was-this-a-cyberattack\" class=\"heading-link\">Was this a cyberattack?</a></h2>\n\n<p>I don't think it matters. Sorting things into predefined buckets is often just a way to bypass responsibility and accountability. Concentrating on the name of the thing rather than the thing itself doesn't help victims and doesn't prevent the incident from happening again.</p>\n\n<p>Every counter-measure which HMRC could deploy will negatively affect legitimate users. Getting bombarded with emails saying \"did you just try to log in?\" is an annoyance, mandating 2FA excludes less technical users, banning suspicious IP addresses inevitably leads to false positives, rate-limits hit legitimate users. And, ultimately, (whisper it) users bear <em>some</em> of the blame for their poor password practices.</p>\n\n<p>I'm sure HMRC will tighten up their monitoring, I'm sure some individuals will have better password hygiene, and I'm sure criminals will find a way to bypass both.</p>\n\n<p>As ontology is difficult, I'll leave you with this instructional video.</p>\n\n<iframe title=\"What Makes Soup, Soup? | Short Stuff | Comedy\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y1HVTNxwt7w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"></iframe>\n</body></html>",
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"label": "/etc/",
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{
"label": "CyberSecurity",
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "security",
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},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60954",
"title": "The NHS shouldn't outsource its QR codes",
"description": "QR codes are brilliant. They're a simple way to allow users to easily and quickly go to the right URl - no matter how complex. No more worrying about typing in long addresses or figuring out if that's a letter O or the number O. Scan and go! The best thing about QR codes is that they're free. It doesn't cost any money to generate one. They're an open standard with no middle-men. Users can go…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-nhs-shouldnt-outsource-its-qr-codes/",
"published": "2025-06-03T11:34:04.000Z",
"updated": "2025-06-03T07:04:18.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>QR codes are brilliant. They're a simple way to allow users to easily and quickly go to the right URl - no matter how complex. No more worrying about typing in long addresses or figuring out if that's a letter O or the number O. Scan and go!</p>\n\n<p>The best thing about QR codes is that they're free. It doesn't cost any money to generate one. They're an open standard with no middle-men. Users can go direct to your site!</p>\n\n<p>Except… Some people want to insert themselves into your conversation. Sometimes it is for malicious reasons, sometimes it is greed for user data, and sometimes it is just incompetence.</p>\n\n<p>Let's take this example - a health centre wants people to register. Scan the QR and get started. Fab!</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/registerQR.webp\" alt=\"QR code on an NHS branded poster.\" width=\"982\" height=\"1220\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60956\">\n<small>Photo shamelessly stolen from a LinkedIn contact.</small></p>\n\n<p>But what happens when you scan the QR code? Rather than taking you directly to an authoritative and trusted NHS.UK domain name, it sends you through <code>https://register-with-gp.ht1.uk/</code>.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"who-on-earth-are-ht1-uk\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-nhs-shouldnt-outsource-its-qr-codes/#who-on-earth-are-ht1-uk\" class=\"heading-link\">Who on earth are HT1.UK?</a></h2>\n\n<p>According to <a href=\"https://www.healthtech1.uk/\">their website</a>, they're an automation company who are \"on a mission to make the NHS the most advanced healthcare system in the world.\"</p>\n\n<p>Good for them. But what information are they collecting about users who traverse through their QR codes? If you take a look at <a href=\"https://docs.healthtech1.uk/general-privacy-policy\">their privacy policy</a> you won't find anything specific. Never mind, let's email their friendly privacy team. What's their email address?</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/emailthem.webp\" alt=\"Screenshot of terms and conditions with an hello email address.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"406\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60957\">\n\n<p>Of course, emailing that gets you back this error:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ht1email.webp\" alt=\"Hey there 👋 This email inbox is not monitored. Please get in touch with us at [email protected] Thanks, Team at Healthtech-1\" width=\"529\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60955\">\n\n<p>Emoji! How fun!!</p>\n\n<p>So I emailed the new address to see what information they were collecting. Their response wasn't particularly informative.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>because Healthtech-1 is a processor of information and the GP practice is the data controller any requests about how your data is handled should be made to the GP practice who can inform you of the information you requested.</p>\n\n<p>…</p>\n\n<p>I can confirm that there is no information stored about users who scan the QR codes and no cookies placed.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>But, of course, users have no way of verifying what this company is storing about them. There's simply no reason to use an untrusted 3rd party like this to provide either a QR code or an intermediary website.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"why-this-is-a-problem\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/the-nhs-shouldnt-outsource-its-qr-codes/#why-this-is-a-problem\" class=\"heading-link\">Why this is a problem</a></h2>\n\n<p>Trust is everything. People are <em>constantly</em> being scammed. One of the great things that GOV.UK did was to say \"This here is our trusted brand. If you don't see GOV.UK in the URl bar - don't trust it!\"</p>\n\n<p>The NHS should be doing the same. Every hospital, surgery, and clinic should have an NHS.UK domain name. When a user sees a link to a healthcare service which <em>doesn't</em> go through NHS.UK, they should feel suspicious and not click on it.</p>\n\n<p>There is no way as a regular user to know that HT1.UK is a trusted domain. What about HT1.biz? HT2.UK? NHS.info.ly? What happens if HT1 go bust or have their domain name hijacked?</p>\n\n<p>The NHS must stop the proliferation of these 3rd party domain names. They need to reinforce users' understanding that NHS.UK is the <em>only</em> trusted domain name for official NHS services.</p>\n\n<p>I'm sure HT1.UK aren't doing anything nefarious with the data of people who visit their QR codes. I'm sure they're not inserting tracking cookies or selling my data. But I shouldn't have to be sure. All users should be pointed <em>directly</em> to an NHS.UK domain without having to risk whether their details are going via a dodgy site.</p>\n\n<p>Here endeth the rant.</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"label": "/etc/",
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{
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
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{
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60989",
"title": "Mobile Phones of Doctor Who - Season 15",
"description": "Is it Season 15 of New Who? Series 2 of Ncuti Gatwa's Who? Series 1875 of the UNIT dating controversy? Either way, welcome back to this increasingly silly series of blog posts where I try to identify all the mobile phones used by The Doctor and their companions. This weird and wonderful series has, sadly, a paucity of phones. The only time they appear is in the phonetastic and bone-chilling…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/",
"published": "2025-06-01T11:34:29.000Z",
"updated": "2025-05-31T20:45:38.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>Is it Season 15 of New Who? Series 2 of Ncuti Gatwa's Who? Series 1875 of the UNIT dating controversy? Either way, welcome back to this <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/doctor-who-phones/\">increasingly silly series of blog posts</a> where I try to identify all the mobile phones used by The Doctor and their companions.</p>\n\n<p>This weird and wonderful series has, sadly, a paucity of phones. The only time they appear is in the phonetastic and bone-chilling <a href=\"https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002bw41/doctor-who-season-2-4-lucky-day\">Lucky Day</a>…</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"lucky-day\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/#lucky-day\" class=\"heading-link\">Lucky Day</a></h2>\n\n<p>Hunky heart-throb, and all-round nice guy Conrad Clark has this device:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Conrad1.webp\" alt=\"Man writing text on a phone.\" width=\"852\" height=\"639\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61002\">\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Conrad2.webp\" alt=\"Man holding a phone.\" width=\"855\" height=\"641\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61001\">\n\n<p>Not much to go on. Looks like an Android. The vertical camera cluster, buttons on the right, and inset front camera means it is <em>probably</em> a Samsung - but you'd be hard pressed to tell which!</p>\n\n<p>Ruby Sunday has the same yellow clad phone from <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/12/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-joy-to-the-world/\">Joy To The World</a>.</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Ruby1.webp\" alt=\"Woman holding a phone in a yellow case.\" width=\"853\" height=\"640\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61000\">\nA few closeups as well.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/RubySide.webp\" alt=\"Phone in a yellow case. View of buttons.\" width=\"598\" height=\"448\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60998\">\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/RubyFront.webp\" alt=\"Phone in a yellow case. View of screen.\" width=\"855\" height=\"642\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60999\">\n\n<p>I'm pretty sure that's the <a href=\"https://www.gsmarena.com/google_pixel_5-pictures-10386.php\">Google Pixel 5</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Carla's phone is wrapped in an anonymous case.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Carla.webp\" alt=\"Woman holding a phone in a red case.\" width=\"848\" height=\"635\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60997\">\n\n<p>That's <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-14/#space-babies\">the same case as last year's episodes</a>. But there's not much to go on. That tiny camera cluster could be from anything other than an iPhone. Think you know what it is? Leave a note in the comments.</p>\n\n<p>Most of <Think_Tank>'s phones are blurry and in the background, so it's hard to say what they are. One goon has this device:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ThinkTankGoon1.webp\" alt=\"Cackling goon holding a phone.\" width=\"395\" height=\"296\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60996\">\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ThinkTankGoon1Side.webp\" alt=\"Side on view of a phone.\" width=\"336\" height=\"252\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60995\">\n\n<p>Given the bevel around the camera lenses, and the flash near the top, I think it's the <a href=\"https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s21_5g-10626.php\">Samsung S21 5G</a></p>\n\n<p>Another has this model:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ThinkTankGoon2Side.webp\" alt=\"Goon holding a phone.\" width=\"657\" height=\"493\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60993\">\n\n<p>Again, not much detail there. It looks like it has a fingerprint sensor on the rear. Any clues?</p>\n\n<p>Shirley Bingham, UNIT's technical marvel, has this foldable phone.</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Shirley.webp\" alt=\"Woman in a wheelchair holding a foldable phone.\" width=\"590\" height=\"443\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-60994\">\nAlthough the scene is quite dark, I reckon it is the <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/12/the-mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-60th-anniversary-specials/\">same phone she was rocking in The Star Beast</a>.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"up-next\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/mobile-phones-of-doctor-who-season-15/#up-next\" class=\"heading-link\">Up next!</a></h2>\n\n<p>Will there be more phones in \"The War Between the Land and the Sea\"? <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/tag/doctor-who-phones/\">Stay tuned</a>!</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
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],
"categories": [
{
"label": "/etc/",
"term": "/etc/",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "Doctor Who Phones",
"term": "Doctor Who Phones",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "DoctorWho",
"term": "DoctorWho",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60938",
"title": "What's up with this \"Please add me on WhatsApp\" robocall spam?",
"description": "Over the last few weeks, I've received several calls which all have the same modus operandi. A disembodied robotic voice tries to get me to connect on WhatsApp. https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4 Some of the voices are reasonable facsimiles of human voices (like the above) and some are just garbage. \t🔊 \t \t \t\t💾 Download this audio file. \t The voice cl…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whats-up-with-this-please-add-me-on-whatsapp-robocall-spam/",
"published": "2025-05-31T11:34:18.000Z",
"updated": "2025-05-30T15:52:29.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>Over the last few weeks, I've received several calls which all have the same <i lang=\"la\" title=\"Mode of operation.\">modus operandi</i>. A disembodied robotic voice tries to get me to connect on WhatsApp.</p>\n\n<p></p><div style=\"width: 620px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-60938-2\" width=\"620\" height=\"348\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video/mp4\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4?_=2\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4\">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/add-me-on-whatsapp.mp4</a></video></div><p></p>\n\n<p>Some of the voices are reasonable facsimiles of human voices (like the above) and some are just garbage.</p>\n\n<p></p><figure class=\"audio\">\n\t<figcaption class=\"audio\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f50a.png\" alt=\"🔊\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /></figcaption>\n\t\n\t<audio class=\"audio-player\" controls=\"\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WhatsAppSpam.mp3\">\n\t\t<p><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f4be.png\" alt=\"💾\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /> <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WhatsAppSpam.mp3\">Download this audio file</a>.</p>\n\t</audio>\n</figure><p></p>\n\n<p>The voice clip plays and the call immediately terminates.</p>\n\n<p>What I can't understand is how this can possibly be effective from the scammers' point of view. On receiving the call the victim must…</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Decided to answer from an unknown number.</li>\n<li>Listen to the message and decide it is legitimate.</li>\n<li>Go the their phone's dialler app.</li>\n<li>Copy the caller's phone number.</li>\n<li>Open WhatsApp.\n\n<ul>\n<li>Install WhatsApp if they don't have it already</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>Create a new contact - giving a name - and pasting the number.</li>\n<li>Engage with the contact.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>That's a <em>lot</em> of effort based on… what? A vague offer? There's a little bit of a <a href=\"https://copyhackers.com/2014/04/curiosity-gap/\">curiosity gap</a> but not much. It's hardly \"add me on WhatsApp or we'll release the photos we have of you\" or \"you've won the lottery, add me on WhatsApp to get the funds\", or \"This is the CEO of your company, urgently add me…\".</p>\n\n<p>I <em>guess</em> that if a spammer is able to send out thousands of these messages then they <em>might</em> be able to attract a couple of people to engage with them. There's no easy way to <a href=\"https://faq.whatsapp.com/1142481766359885/?cms_platform=web\">report a spam account to WhatsApp</a> unless you've engaged with it.</p>\n\n<p>I also assume that WhatsApp will see that <em>you</em> were the person who initiated WhatsApp contact - which makes them less likely to think the scammer is the problem.</p>\n\n<p>I am just fascinated to see if this scam can possibly be effective. Generating fake voices is free, as is placing short calls. WhatsApp accounts are also free and easy to automate. But are there really that many people willing to go to the effort of adding a new contact based on so little information?</p>\n\n<p>Obviously, all spam is a numbers game. If the message reaches someone receptive to a robocall, they're less likely to query the scam. And, yes, I know that you're a very clever boy and don't answer unknown numbers - but in the real world people get calls from hospitals, recruiters, and friends with new numbers.</p>\n\n<p>If you're a spammer and have found this approach effective - please leave a comment!</p>\n</body></html>",
"image": null,
"media": [
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "spam",
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60512",
"title": "Book Review: The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark ★★★⯪☆",
"description": "After reading the short story A Dead Djinn in Cairo, I decided to grab the first book in the \"Dead Djinn\" series. It is a delightfully realised universe although reminiscent of both Saladin Ahmed's work - a Middle-East populated with ghuls, djinn, and sword-wielding magicians - and also Annalee Newitz's Terraformers with its sentient trains and unionised robots. Unfortunately, it is rather…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-the-haunting-of-tram-car-015-by-p-djeli-clark/",
"published": "2025-05-29T11:34:54.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-29T08:49:57.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/9781250294807.jpg\" alt=\"Book cover showing aerial trams in a modern city.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-60515\"> After reading the short story <a href=\"https://torpublishinggroup.com/a-dead-djinn-in-cairo/\">A Dead Djinn in Cairo</a>, I decided to grab the first book in the \"Dead Djinn\" series.</p>\n\n<p>It is a delightfully realised universe although reminiscent of both <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/06/book-review-engraved-on-the-eye-saladin-ahmed/\">Saladin Ahmed</a>'s work - a Middle-East populated with ghuls, djinn, and sword-wielding magicians - and also <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/03/book-review-the-terraformers-annalee-newitz/\">Annalee Newitz's Terraformers</a> with its sentient trains and unionised robots.</p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, it is rather brief. The short story and book together make for a decent novella. Because of that, some of the exposition is rather abrupt. Rather than gradually introduce us into the gender politics of the city, one character turns to another to clumsily explain it.</p>\n\n<p>It's a good book, I just wish there was a lot more of it.</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60457",
"title": "Whatever happened to cheap eReaders?",
"description": "Way back in 2012, The Guardian reviewed an eInk reader which cost a mere £8. The txtr beagle was designed to be a stripped-down and simplified eReader. As far as I can tell, it never shipped. There were a few review units sent out but I can't find any evidence of consumers getting their hands on one. Also, that £8 price was the subsidised price when purchased with a mobile contract. Their w…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/",
"published": "2025-05-27T11:34:04.000Z",
"updated": "2025-05-22T06:44:40.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>Way back in 2012, The Guardian reviewed <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2012/nov/08/beagle-e-reader-review\">an eInk reader which cost a mere £8</a>.</p>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Txtr_beagle\">txtr beagle</a> was designed to be a stripped-down and simplified eReader<sup id=\"fnref:txtr\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#fn:txtr\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"You can see some internal photos on this Mastodon thread.\" role=\"doc-noteref\">0</a></sup>.</p>\n\n<p>As far as I can tell, it never shipped. There were a few <a href=\"https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Txtr_beagle\">review units sent out</a> but I can't find any evidence of consumers getting their hands on one. Also, that £8 price was the <em>subsidised</em> price when purchased with a mobile contract. Their <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20130828235409/http://gb.txtr.com/beagle/\">website ceased working long ago</a>.</p>\n\n<p>But it got me intrigued. Moore's law is supposed to drive down the cost of electronics. So where are all the dirt-cheap eReaders?</p>\n\n<p>The cheapest Kindle for sale on Amazon UK right now is about £100. Back in 2012, it was about £70. Taking <a href=\"https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator\">inflation into account</a>, that price has stayed static. Brands like Kobo are also in the £100 to £150 range.</p>\n\n<p>About the cheapest retail eReader is the <a href=\"https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/pocketbook-basic-lux-4-ink-black-6-8gb-wi-fi-e-reader-pb618-p-ww/version.asp\">PocketBook Lux 4</a> for £85 or the (terribly reviewed) <a href=\"https://amzn.to/44dgZ9Y\">Woxter Scriba</a> for £70.</p>\n\n<p>AliExpress has loads of second-hand and obsolete models at cheap-ish prices. But a surprising dearth of new eReaders.</p>\n\n<p>Going wholesale, <a href=\"https://www.alibaba.com\">Alibaba</a> has a range of models, some of which clock in at around £30.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/30-quid-eReaders.webp\" alt=\"Range of eReaders in a store. Each around £30.\" width=\"1280\" height=\"603\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-60459\">\n\n<p>But, of course, that's before shipping and tax. They won't come with any manufacturer's warranty and don't expect any software updates. Also, good luck getting accessories!</p>\n\n<p>So what's stopping new eReaders being released at a cheap(er) price? I think it comes down to four main things.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"reading-is-a-niche-hobby\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#reading-is-a-niche-hobby\" class=\"heading-link\">Reading is a niche hobby</a></h2>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://yougov.co.uk/entertainment/articles/51730-40-of-britons-havent-read-a-single-book-in-the-last-12-months\">Around 40% of UK adults didn't read a single book last year</a>. That survey combines reading books and listening to audiobooks. Of the 60% who do read/listen, about 14% primarily listen. Of those that read, around 60% do so on paper books.</p>\n\n<p>If reading is niche, reading electronically is a tiny niche! This is somewhat of a chicken-and-egg argument. If an eReader were the same cost as a mass-market paperback, I'm sure many more paper-book readers would become converts.</p>\n\n<p>The whole point of an eInk reader is that it is a distraction-free environment. Yeah, you <em>could</em> scroll TikTok on one, but it isn't a pleasant experience. An eReader is designed for one thing only, unlike a phone or tablet. Do enough people want to carry yet-another-bloody-device just for reading?</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"eink-is-expensive\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#eink-is-expensive\" class=\"heading-link\">eInk is expensive</a></h2>\n\n<p>The company which makes eInk hold several patents on the process. They're not a patent troll; they're building a business and selling mega-hectares of the stuff. Understandably, they have an interest in keeping prices high. They don't want to cannibalise their own market.</p>\n\n<p>A basic 6 inch screen with wiring costs around £20 wholesale - that's from Alibaba, so doesn't include tax and shipping. That's before you've added any electronics or a operating system.</p>\n\n<p>Speaking of which…</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"android-is-a-bottleneck\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#android-is-a-bottleneck\" class=\"heading-link\">Android is a bottleneck</a></h2>\n\n<p>The promise of the Android Open Source Project was a free Operating System for anyone to use. The reality has been a little different. Most people want to be able to use basic Android functionality - like download operating system updates or reading apps. But Google doesn't allow that for eInk devices.</p>\n\n<p>As I understand it, <a href=\"https://source.android.com/docs/compatibility/9/android-9-cdd#7_1_6_screen_technology\">Google requires Android devices to have colour screens</a> and, so I've read, won't certify eInk eReaders for newer versions of Android.</p>\n\n<p>So manufacturers have to source parts which have drivers for older versions of Android. Or they have to develop their own OSes.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"books-are-fungible\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#books-are-fungible\" class=\"heading-link\">Books are fungible</a></h2>\n\n<p>Back when Apple sold iPods, they knew that the majority of purchasers would buy MP3s direct from Apple. The perfect symbiotic relationship! But the walled-gardens cracked and now people can buy their music from anywhere.</p>\n\n<p>Amazon keeps this model for its eBooks. Unless you're prepared to get technical, you can only read Amazon books on your Amazon Kindle paid for with your Amazon wallet.</p>\n\n<p>Games consoles are often sold at a loss because the manufacturer knows they'll make it up in game sales and subscriptions.</p>\n\n<p>A low-price manufacturer is unlikely to also run a book store and wouldn't be able to cross-subsidise their hardware with content sales.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"alternatives\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#alternatives\" class=\"heading-link\">Alternatives</a></h2>\n\n<p>Some people have tried <a href=\"https://hackaday.com/2019/10/31/building-an-open-hardware-ebook-reader/\">building open source eReaders</a> but they're either abandoned, <a href=\"https://www.crowdsupply.com/soldered/inkplate-6plus#products\">not suitable for production</a>, or <a href=\"https://pine64eu.com/product/pinenote-community-edition/\">ridiculously expensive</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Buying second hand is relatively cheap - often under £50. But eInk screens can be brittle, and older ones may have scratches or cracks which are effectively unrepairable.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"how-cheap-is-cheap\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#how-cheap-is-cheap\" class=\"heading-link\">How cheap is cheap?</a></h2>\n\n<p>I'd love a £8 eReader. Something I could throw in a pocket and not worry about damaging. An eReader which was the same price as a hardback book - around £20 - would be amazing.</p>\n\n<p>But I don't think we'll get there soon. The monopoly on screen technologies sets a retail floor of around £30, before the rest of the hardware is taken into account. Niche hardware is viable - but only with decent OS support. Other than Kobo and Amazon, no book retailer wants to stray outside their core competency to develop and subsidise hardware.</p>\n\n<p>So I guess it's buy second-hand, or wait for the patents to expire.</p>\n\n<div class=\"footnotes\" role=\"doc-endnotes\">\n<hr>\n<ol start=\"0\">\n\n<li id=\"fn:txtr\" role=\"doc-endnote\">\n<p>You can <a href=\"https://chaos.social/@henryk/114433370736288910\">see some internal photos on this Mastodon thread</a>. <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/whatever-happened-to-cheap-ereaders/#fnref:txtr\" class=\"footnote-backref\" role=\"doc-backlink\"><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/21a9.png\" alt=\"↩\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" />︎</a></p>\n</li>\n\n</ol>\n</div>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60444",
"title": "Decorative text within HTML",
"description": "Back in 2020, Andy Bell introduced me to the idea of grouping attribute values. You've probably seen something like this before: <article class=\"card-section-background1-colorRed\" ></article> A single class over-encumbered by all sorts of things. The more modular way to write this would be: <article class=\"card section box bg-base color-primary\" ></article> That's pretty good! Each…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/",
"published": "2025-05-25T11:34:29.000Z",
"updated": "2025-05-24T11:09:12.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>Back in 2020, Andy Bell introduced me to the idea of <a href=\"https://piccalil.li/blog/cube-css/#grouping\">grouping attribute values</a>.</p>\n\n<p>You've probably seen something like this before:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><article\n class=\"card-section-background1-colorRed\"\n></article>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>A single class over-encumbered by all sorts of things. The more modular way to write this would be:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><article\n class=\"card section box bg-base color-primary\"\n></article>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>That's pretty good! Each one of those classes can have its own bit of CSS and everyone is happy. But… sometimes it is hard to spot the gaps. Is that a - or a spec of dirt on your screen? Is there a way to make it more visually obvious what the groupings are?</p>\n\n<p>Andy proposed this:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><article\n class=\"[ card ] [ section box ] [ bg-base color-primary ]\"\n></article>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Or, if you don't like brackets, this:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><article\n class=\"card | section box | bg-base color-primary\"\n></article>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>The nice thing about attributes values is that they can contain <em>any</em> character. <a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/dom.html#attribute-text\">The spec says</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>An attribute value is a string. Except where otherwise specified, attribute values on HTML elements may be any string value, including the empty string, and there is no restriction on what text can be specified in such attribute values.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Obviously there are some little gotchas. Quotes may need to be encoded, and some attributes only take specific variables. For the <code>class</code> attribute, however, <a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/common-microsyntaxes.html#set-of-space-separated-tokens\">the spec says</a> they can have:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>A set of space-separated tokens is a string containing zero or more words (known as tokens) separated by one or more ASCII whitespace, where words consist of any string of one or more characters, none of which are ASCII whitespace.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>If a string isn't referenced within the CSS, it is simply ignored. So let's get creative!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"space-cowboy\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#space-cowboy\" class=\"heading-link\">Space Cowboy</a></h2>\n\n<p>You can space your variables however you like. These are all perfectly valid and (might) be easier for a human to read.</p>\n\n<p>Separating out primary and secondary classes:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><article\n class=\"card section box bg-base color-primary\"\n></article>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Newline classes:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><article\n class=\"card\n section\n box\n bg-base\n color-primary\"\n></article>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Vertically aligned classes:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><article\n class=\"card \n section\n box\n bg-base \n color-primary\"\n></article>\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"specific-call-outs\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#specific-call-outs\" class=\"heading-link\">Specific call-outs</a></h2>\n\n<p>Remember, you can have <em>any</em> text in your class names. If you need to highlight something specific to a human, you could use emoji:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><article\n class=\"card ➡ section box ⬅ bg-base color-primary\"\n></article>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Or</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><article\n class=\"card 👉 section box 👈 bg-base color-primary\"\n></article>\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"unicode-abuses\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#unicode-abuses\" class=\"heading-link\">Unicode Abuses</a></h2>\n\n<p>Unicode contains lots of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_Alphanumeric_Symbols\">mathematical symbols which <em>look</em> like letters</a> but aren't. You <em>could</em> write something like:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><article\n class=\"𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝒃𝒐𝒙 𝘣𝘨-𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦 c𝐨l𝐨r-p𝐫i𝐦a𝐫y\"\n></article>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>But I wouldn't recommend it; you would need to change your CSS to target those particular values.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"commenting\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#commenting\" class=\"heading-link\">Commenting</a></h2>\n\n<p>All code should be self commenting. HTML allows <code><!-- comments in code --></code> but there's nothing stopping you from adding comments <em>inside</em> values.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><article\n class=\"\n 'Cards_updated_with_2025_setting'\n card\n //section_box_to_be_deprecated_next_year\n section box\n #Colours_set_in_primary.css\n bg-base color-primary\"\n></article>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>I'd suggesting using underscore spacing to keep things readable and avoid having words which are accidentally class names.</p>\n\n<p>Or, go artstic:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><article\n class=\"\n / \\\n / _ \\\n | / \\ |\n || || _______\n || || |\\ \\\n || || ||\\ \\\n || || || \\ |\n || || || \\__/\n || || || ||\n \\\\_/ \\_/ \\_//\n / _ _ \\\n / \\ Don't change this\n | 0 0 | code without first\n | \\ ___ / | speaking to Sam \n / \\ \\_/ / \\ in front-end.\n/ ----- | --\\ \\\n| \\__/|\\__/ \\ |\n\\ |_|_| /\n \\_____ _____/\n \\ /\n | |\n card section box bg-base color-primary\"\n></article>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Yes. That is perfectly valid HTML. It may not be <em>sensible</em>, but it won't cause any problems in the browser. <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/@Edent/114410839719196560\">It might make people grumpy though</a>.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"caveats\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/decorative-text-within-html/#caveats\" class=\"heading-link\">Caveats</a></h2>\n\n<p>There are a few things to be aware of here:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Optimisers might strip spaces.</li>\n<li>Pre-processes might re-order values.</li>\n<li>This is unusual and humans might get confused.</li>\n</ul>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59448",
"title": "Book Review: How to Land a Plane by Mark Vanhoenacker ★★★★☆",
"description": "I was lounging by the pool while on holiday, desperately hoping that I would never need to use the knowledge contained within this book. \"How to Land a Plane\" is not a metaphor. This isn't a book which teaches you life-lessons via the exciting world of aeronautics. It is a charming and practical guide to landing plane. What the various instruments say, how the controls work, and the basics of…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-how-to-land-a-plane-by-mark-vanhoenacker/",
"published": "2025-05-23T11:34:44.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-27T15:00:03.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cover-2.jpg\" alt=\"Bright green book cover featuring a landing plane.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-59449\">I was lounging by the pool while on holiday, desperately hoping that I would never need to use the knowledge contained within this book.</p>\n\n<p>\"How to Land a Plane\" is <em>not</em> a metaphor. This isn't a book which teaches you life-lessons via the exciting world of aeronautics. It is a charming and practical guide to landing plane. What the various instruments say, how the controls work, and the basics of navigation.</p>\n\n<p>The author strikes an irreverent but relaxing tone, the sort which might sooth a nervous flyer, as he gently bombards the reader with facts. There are some excellent illustrations and lots of rabbit-holes for the curious adventurer to wander through. The writing is pure poetry about motion.</p>\n\n<p>It is one of those books which makes you feel clever without effort. For an over-confident man like me, it is utter catnip. I'm now convinced I could mansplain landing a 747 and take a reasonable crack at it if the pilot were incapacitated.</p>\n\n<p>Our flight home was - sadly - uneventful.</p>\n\n<p>I am indebted to my former colleagues at CDDO for getting me this fine leaving present - and regretful that it took me so long to read!</p>\n</body></html>",
"image": null,
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"categories": [
{
"label": "/etc/",
"term": "/etc/",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "Book Review",
"term": "Book Review",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59414",
"title": "Book Review: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed ★★★★★",
"description": "After reading Saladin Ahmed's collection of short stories, I was keen to read more. This book is fantastic! Fantasy books usually seem to be swords and dragons, set in a generic European country. Crescent Moon is scimitars and sorcery, and set in a mythical Middle-Eastern country. The writing is sublime. It feels like an ancient epic, translated a hundred years ago with archaic language left…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/book-review-throne-of-the-crescent-moon-by-saladin-ahmed/",
"published": "2025-05-21T11:34:41.000Z",
"updated": "2025-05-05T08:32:31.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cover-1.jpg\" alt=\"Book cover featuring a throne drenched in blood.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-59415\">After reading <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/06/book-review-engraved-on-the-eye-saladin-ahmed/\">Saladin Ahmed's collection of short stories</a>, I was keen to read more. This book is fantastic! Fantasy books usually seem to be swords and dragons, set in a generic European country. Crescent Moon is scimitars and sorcery, and set in a mythical Middle-Eastern country.</p>\n\n<p>The writing is sublime. It feels like an ancient epic, translated a hundred years ago with archaic language left intact. It'll make good use of your eReader's dictionary to discover words like \"ensorcelled\".</p>\n\n<p>Amongst all the blood and magic, are literary gems like:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Zamia’s little laugh cut through him like a sword poisoned with pure happiness.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>But, perhaps the best thing about this, is that it reads like the <em>end</em> of a trilogy. The characters are all established, there's little exposition about the fantasy-word, the environment is richly textured. Above all, the characters are <em>tired</em>!</p>\n\n<p>It is a fast-paced, exciting, and entertaining book. Perfect for fantasy-lovers who fancy something a bit different from endless Game-of-Thrones rip-offs.</p>\n</body></html>",
"image": null,
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"label": "/etc/",
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"label": "Book Review",
"term": "Book Review",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59612",
"title": "Can you meaningfully measure how environmentally friendly a website is?",
"description": "Think global; act local. That's the mantra, right? I can't stop coal plants belching out suffocating pollutants, but can I ensure my website is as environmentally friendly as possible? There are several services which claim to be able to detect just how lean, green, and clean your website is. But, in my opinion, they're all a bit inadequate. WebsiteCarbon The WebsiteCarbon.com service gives me …",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/",
"published": "2025-05-19T11:34:26.000Z",
"updated": "2025-05-04T08:10:22.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>Think global; act local. That's the mantra, right? I can't stop coal plants belching out suffocating pollutants, but can I ensure my website is as environmentally friendly as possible?</p>\n\n<p>There are several services which <em>claim</em> to be able to detect just how lean, green, and clean your website is. But, in my opinion, they're all a bit inadequate.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"websitecarbon\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/#websitecarbon\" class=\"heading-link\">WebsiteCarbon</a></h2>\n\n<p>The WebsiteCarbon.com service <a href=\"https://www.websitecarbon.com/website/shkspr-mobi-blog/\">gives me this <em>very</em> pleasing report</a></p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/websitecarbon.webp\" alt=\"Website carbon results for: shkspr.mobi/blog\nHurrah! This web page achieves a carbon rating of A. This is cleaner than 82 % of all web pages globally\" width=\"1180\" height=\"649\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59729\">\n\n<p>But what does that actually mean? There's an almost content-free <a href=\"https://www.websitecarbon.com/introducing-the-website-carbon-rating-system/\">description of their rating system</a>. It boils down to <a href=\"https://www.websitecarbon.com/how-does-it-work/\">how large your web pages are</a> and whether your <a href=\"https://www.websitecarbon.com/how-does-it-work/#green-energy\">data centre runs on green energy</a>.</p>\n\n<p>I specifically chose <a href=\"https://krystal.io/green\">Krystal as my host because of their green energy credentials</a>. So it got that right.</p>\n\n<p>WebsiteCarbon seems to just be an advertising pitch for their paid-for auditing services:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>You can get a comprehensive view of a website’s emissions and potential improvements by carrying out a Website Carbon Audit.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Let's try another service.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"ecograder\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/#ecograder\" class=\"heading-link\">EcoGrader</a></h2>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://ecograder.com/report/1yLXszsX2DpOmRPIZyu0NKhz\">EcoGrader gives me a lower score</a> but provides a lot more detail about <em>why</em>.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Impact-Report.webp\" alt=\"Your Impact Report\n\nReport for:\nhttps://shkspr.mobi/blog/\nPerformance Impact\nEcograder Score 86 Out of 100.\n\nEmissions per Pageload 0.28 grams of carbon dioxide.\n\nThis page scores better than 78% of all URLs crawled by Ecograder.\n\nEcograder scores pages based on a variety of performance, efficiency, and user experience factors as well as emissions estimates and green hosting powered by renewable energy.\n\n Page Weight\n 84\n UX Design\n 86\n Green Hosting\n 100\" width=\"1496\" height=\"623\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59730\">\n\n<p>They also give tips on how I can improve things.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cwv.webp\" alt=\"Tips like optimise media, remove unused code, properly size images, reduce 3rd party code.\" width=\"405\" height=\"786\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59732\">\n\n<p>Do you notice anything about those tips? They're basically the same as <a href=\"https://web.dev/explore/learn-core-web-vitals\">Core Web Vitals</a>! A set of useful, if generic, tips to optimise your website.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"others\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/#others\" class=\"heading-link\">Others</a></h2>\n\n<p>There are <a href=\"https://rootwebdesign.studio/articles/tools-for-calculating-your-websites-co2-emissions/\">several other services</a> which claim to measure your site's eco-credentials. But, as far as I can tell, they're all doing the same thing; reskinning Core Web Vitals or similar products.</p>\n\n<p>Some, like, <a href=\"https://themarkup.org/blacklight\">Blacklight</a> are promoted on the claim that <a href=\"https://rootwebdesign.studio/articles/the-environmental-benefits-of-privacy-focussed-web-design/\">excessive tracking scripts are an environmental disaster</a>. In the end, the message is the same - clean up your website to make it <del>faster</del> more efficient.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-does-this-mean\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/can-you-meaningfully-measure-how-environmentally-friendly-a-website-is/#what-does-this-mean\" class=\"heading-link\">What Does This Mean?</a></h2>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/12/energy-efficiency-of-modern-codecs/\">energy efficiency of modern codecs</a> is often asymmetric. It might be energy intensive to encode a movie - but that's paid back a thousand-fold by having to store and stream less data and by the efficiency of the decode process at the user's end.</p>\n\n<p>If you operating at planetary scale then, yes, a small saving affecting a billion users will have a huge impact. If you're optimising a single hero image on your recipe blog, probably not so much.</p>\n\n<p>Much like the discredited idea that <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/10/no-you-cant-save-30-per-year-by-switching-off-your-standby-devices/\">by switching off your \"standby\" devices you can save £££</a>, most of these website changes are marginal at best.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, we should strive for svelte and performant websites - as much for usability as for environmentalism. It makes ecological sense to choose a hosting provider who is at least somewhat responsible in their energy usage - as much for cost as for anything else.</p>\n\n<p>If these websites help convince your boss that you can remove horrific amounts of JS, upgrade images to WebP, and set sensible caching policies - great! Sell them the shiny accreditation badge while you go about making the site better.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, a word of caution to anyone implicitly trusting these services - there's no way to know what's going on in the background of a website. An ultra efficient looking website served from a green data-centre, might be spinning up a dozen LLMs just to churn out the page content. A slow website <a href=\"https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/\">might be solar powered</a>. All those ultra-compressed images might be adverts for fossil fuels.</p>\n\n<p>And every time you leave a comment on my blog, I shoot a panda.</p>\n</body></html>",
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