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First item published on 2025-05-01T11:34:06.000Z
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<title type="text">Terence Eden’s Blog</title>
<subtitle type="text">Regular nonsense about tech and its effects 🙃</subtitle>
<updated>2025-04-30T12:33:29Z</updated>
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<title type="html"><![CDATA[Get alerted when your Kobo wishlist books drop in price]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59768</id>
<updated>2025-04-29T08:58:10Z</updated>
<published>2025-05-01T11:34:06Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ebooks"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="python"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="reading"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The brilliant kobodl Python package allows you to interact with your Kobo account programmatically. You can list all the books you've purchased, download them, and - as of version 0.12.0 - view your wishlist. Here's a rough and ready Python script which will tell you when any the books on your wishlist have dropped below a certain amount. Table of ContentsPrerequisitesGet your wishlistSort the …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>The brilliant <a href="https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader/">kobodl Python package</a> allows you to interact with your Kobo account programmatically. You can list all the books you've purchased, download them, and - as of version 0.12.0 - view your wishlist.</p>
<p>Here's a rough and ready Python script which will tell you when any the books on your wishlist have dropped below a certain amount.</p>
<p></p><nav id="toc"><menu id="toc-start"><li id="toc-title"><h2 id="table-of-contents"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#table-of-contents" class="heading-link">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#prerequisites">Prerequisites</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#get-your-wishlist">Get your wishlist</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#sort-the-wishlist">Sort the wishlist</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#create-the-message">Create the Message</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#send-an-email">Send an Email</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#setting-the-settings">Setting the settings</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#the-end-result">The End Result</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#next-steps">Next Steps</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>
<h2 id="prerequisites"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#prerequisites" class="heading-link">Prerequisites</a></h2>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://pypi.org/project/kobodl/">Install kobodl</a> following their guide.</li>
<li>Log in with your account by running <code>kobodl user add</code></li>
<li>Check that the configuration file is saved in the default location <code>/home/YOURUSERNAME/.config/kobodl.json</code></li>
</ol>
<h2 id="get-your-wishlist"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#get-your-wishlist" class="heading-link">Get your wishlist</a></h2>
<p>The kobodl function <code>GetWishList()</code> takes a list of users and returns a generator. The generator contains the book's name and author. The price is a string (for example <code>5.99 GBP</code>) so needs to be split at the space.</p>
<p>Here's a quick proof of concept:</p>
<pre><code class="language-python">import kobodl
wishlist = kobodl.book.actions.GetWishList( kobodl.globals.Settings().UserList.users )
for book in wishlist:
print( book.Title + " - " + book.Author + " " + book.Price.split()[0] )
</code></pre>
<h2 id="sort-the-wishlist"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#sort-the-wishlist" class="heading-link">Sort the wishlist</a></h2>
<p>Using Pandas, the data can be added to a dataframe and then sorted by price:</p>
<pre><code class="language-python">import kobodl
import pandas as pd
# Set up the lists
items = []
prices = []
ids = []
wishlist = kobodl.book.actions.GetWishList( kobodl.globals.Settings().UserList.users )
for book in wishlist:
items.append( book.Title + " - " + book.Author )
prices.append( float( book.Price.split()[0] ) )
ids.append( book.RevisionId )
# Place into a DataFrame
all_items = zip( ids, items, prices )
book_prices = pd.DataFrame( list(all_items), columns = ["ID", "Name", "Price"])
book_prices = book_prices.reset_index()
# Get books cheaper than three quid
cheap_df = book_prices[ book_prices["Price"] < 3 ]
</code></pre>
<h2 id="create-the-message"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#create-the-message" class="heading-link">Create the Message</a></h2>
<p>This will write the body text of the email. It gives you the price, book details, and a search link to buy the book.</p>
<pre><code class="language-python">from urllib.parse import quote_plus
# Search Prefix
website = "https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/search?query="
# Email Body
message = ""
for index, row in cheap_df.sort_values("Price").iterrows():
name = row["Name"]
price = str(row["Price"])
link = website + quote_plus( name )
message += "£" + price + " - " + name + "\n" + link + "\n\n"
</code></pre>
<h2 id="send-an-email"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#send-an-email" class="heading-link">Send an Email</a></h2>
<p>Python makes it fairly easy to send an email - assuming you have a co-operative mailhost.</p>
<pre><code class="language-python">import smtplib
from email.message import EmailMessage
# Send Email
def send_email(message):
email_user = '[email protected]'
email_password = 'P@55w0rd'
to = '[email protected]'
msg = EmailMessage()
msg.set_content(message)
msg['Subject'] = "Kobo price drops"
msg['From'] = email_user
msg['To'] = to
server = smtplib.SMTP_SSL('example.com', 465)
server.ehlo()
server.login(email_user, email_password)
server.send_message(msg)
server.quit()
send_email( message )
</code></pre>
<h2 id="setting-the-settings"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#setting-the-settings" class="heading-link">Setting the settings</a></h2>
<p>When running as a script, it is necessary to <a href="https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader/issues/159">ensure the settings are correctly initialised</a>.</p>
<pre><code class="language-python">from kobodl.settings import Settings
my_settings = Settings()
kobodl.Globals.Settings = my_settings
</code></pre>
<h2 id="the-end-result"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#the-end-result" class="heading-link">The End Result</a></h2>
<p>I have a cron job which runs this every morning. It sends an email like this:</p>
<img decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/books-fs8.png" alt="Screenshot of an email showing cheap books." width="370" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59769">
<h2 id="next-steps"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#next-steps" class="heading-link">Next Steps</a></h2>
<p>Some possible ideas. If you can code these, let me know!</p>
<ul>
<li>Save the prices so it sees if there's been a drop since yesterday.</li>
<li>Compare prices to Amazon for <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/02/automatic-kobo-and-kindle-ebook-arbitrage/">eBook Arbitrage</a>.</li>
<li>Automatically buy any book that hits 99p.</li>
</ul>
<p>Happy reading!</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Is enhancement the same as manipulation?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60538</id>
<updated>2025-04-30T12:33:29Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-30T11:34:34Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="AI"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="law"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="legal"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[How far can you enhance an image or video before you cross the line into manipulation? The UK is currently prosecuting two men accused of a crime. Part of the prosecution's evidence is a video. In showing it to the jury, the prosecution have said: the two minute and 41 second-long video is "extremely dark" but the "unmistakeable" noise of a chainsaw can be heard followed by the sound of a tree…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>How far can you enhance an image or video before you cross the line into manipulation?</p>
<p>The UK is currently prosecuting two men accused of a crime. Part of the prosecution's evidence is a video<sup id="fnref:not"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fn:not" class="footnote-ref" title="To be clear, I'm not at the trial." role="doc-noteref">0</a></sup>. In showing it to the jury, the prosecution have said:</p>
<blockquote><p>the two minute and 41 second-long video is "extremely dark" but the "unmistakeable" noise of a chainsaw can be heard followed by the sound of a tree falling.</p><br>
<p>Police experts have "enhanced" the video as much as possible but it has "not been interfered with", Mr Wright tells the jury.</p><br>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cvg93k0950pt?post=asset%3A54970a3b-ae9f-4299-832a-4ebe813dd756#post">BBC News</a>
</p></blockquote>
<p>I think most reasonable people would agree that creating an AI "Deep Fake" by inserting the faces of the pair into the video, would be unacceptable.</p>
<p>What about boosting the brightness on the video? That seems pretty unobjectionable to me and, I suspect, most neutral parties.</p>
<p>Suppose the prosecutors used AI to enhance the image? Perhaps <a href="https://www.slrlounge.com/photoshop-tips-how-to-use-content-aware-scale-to-extend-backgrounds/">adding a background which wasn't there</a> up maybe <a href="https://www.theverge.com/news/625904/netflix-a-different-world-ai-upscaling-nightmare">upscaling the video resolution</a> and introducing elements which didn't exist before? I think that's a step too far. Algorithmic enhancement strays into manipulation territory.</p>
<p>But what if the police ran a face detection algorithm on the video and only boosted the visibility of those parts, rather than the rest of the video? Now I think we're <a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/03/07/haggling/">haggling over price</a>.</p>
<p>The photographer <a href="https://paulclarke.com/photography/mother-of-all-photoshoots/">Paul Clarke has a wonderful blog post about enhancing photographs of MPs</a> - take a look at those photos. Are they enhanced or manipulated? Do you feel differently if it is a photo of an MP from "your" side?</p>
<p>But just brightening and colour correcting is fine, right?</p>
<p>This is a well-known problem in legal circles<sup id="fnref:friends"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fn:friends" class="footnote-ref" title="With thanks to several anonymous legal friends for pointing me in the right direction." role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup>. <a href="https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/practice-points/photographic-evidence-acceptable-manipulation/5040793.article">Boosting the colouring of a photo may make an injury seem more severe</a>. Zooming or cropping an image may make someone seem closer to the action than they were.</p>
<p>The Crown Prosecution Service has this to say about video<sup id="fnref:vids"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fn:vids" class="footnote-ref" title="There's a good discussion about the admissibility of video evidence in [2002] EWCA Crim 2373" role="doc-noteref">2</a></sup> evidence:</p>
<blockquote><p>In terms of proving the authenticity of the video recording, the Prosecution must be able to show that the video film produced in evidence is the original video recording or an authentic copy of the original and show that it has not been tampered with.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/exhibits#video">CPS Legal Guidance - Exhibits</a></p></blockquote>
<p>I suppose it's pretty easy to show that the produced evidence can be derived by taking the original and twisting the brightness and contrast knobs. I also guess that the defence could bring in an image manipulation specialist to show that the enhanced version introduces unacceptable changes.</p>
<p>Although that brings with it some problems about whether <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5eb177bd86650c435fa620e4/Regulatory_notice_2019.01_-_Imaging__2_.pdf">an expert in manipulation can say they're an expert about the <em>contents</em> of the media</a>. (No, basically.)</p>
<p>I'll leave you with these words from a House of Lords report in <strong>1998</strong>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The existence of a technology that can be used to modify images in this way need in itself be of no great concern; even the widespread availability of the technology at low cost might not cause concern.</p>
<p>But an apparent lack of understanding of the implications of both these facts should cause concern and warrants further study. The public and all those in the legal profession should be made more aware of the technology, what it can do, and what its limitations are.</p>
<p>It was suggested that criminal convictions that were dependent on evidence captured by digital cameras could be at risk if defence lawyers began to realise how vulnerable such images are to manipulation.</p>
<p><a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199798/ldselect/ldsctech/064v/st0503.htm#n11">Select Committee on Science and Technology Fifth Report</a></p></blockquote>
<p>The trial continues.</p>
<p><ins datetime="2025-04-30T12:28:57+00:00">Update!</ins></p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cvg93k0950pt?post=asset%3A6a86c349-4267-4cbb-bd9b-24eb8ec95e17#post">The BBC reports</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The initial video was totally dark, with just the sound of wind and a chainsaw leading up to a giant crash.</p>
<p>A second version has now been shown to the jury, which has been enhanced by a Northumbria Police digital media examiner.</p>
<p>The contrast has been changed, a white border has been put around it and the image has been made brighter.</p></blockquote>
<p>Here's a clip of the enhanced version:</p>
<p></p><div style="width: 620px;" class="wp-video"><video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-60538-2" width="620" height="349" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/bbc.mp4?_=2"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/bbc.mp4">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/bbc.mp4</a></video></div><p></p>
<p>If you were presented evidence of a completely dark video, how could you be sure that subsequent "brighter" version was derived from the original?</p>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<hr>
<ol start="0">
<li id="fn:not" role="doc-endnote">
<p>To be clear, I'm not at the trial. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fnref:not" 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>
<li id="fn:friends" role="doc-endnote">
<p>With thanks to several anonymous legal friends for pointing me in the right direction. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fnref:friends" 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>
<li id="fn:vids" role="doc-endnote">
<p>There's a good discussion about the admissibility of video evidence in <a href="https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2002/2373.html">[2002] EWCA Crim 2373</a> <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fnref:vids" 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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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Who is responsible for missing money?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/who-is-responsible-for-missing-money/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60433</id>
<updated>2025-04-27T14:59:53Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-29T11:34:02Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="banking"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="banks"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="money"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="new zealand"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I have a simple rule of thumb when it comes to news reports. The real story is always in the penultimate paragraph. Let's look at this inflammatory headline: Woman’s 'spree' after $158k banking error, refuses to return pensioner’s life savings An Auckland beneficiary is under investigation for an alleged “spending spree” after $158,000 was mistakenly transferred to her account. […] pensioner lo…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/who-is-responsible-for-missing-money/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>I have a simple rule of thumb when it comes to news reports. The <em>real</em> story is always in the penultimate paragraph.</p>
<p>Let's look at this inflammatory headline:</p>
<blockquote><h2 id="womans-spree-after-158k-banking-error-refuses-to-return-pensioners-life-savings"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/who-is-responsible-for-missing-money/#womans-spree-after-158k-banking-error-refuses-to-return-pensioners-life-savings" class="heading-link">Woman’s 'spree' after $158k banking error, refuses to return pensioner’s life savings</a></h2>
<p>An Auckland beneficiary is under investigation for an alleged “spending spree” after $158,000 was mistakenly transferred to her account.
</p><p> […] pensioner lost his life savings due to an account number error.
</p><p>The account number provided to Westpac had only 15 digits, not the intended 16, so Westpac added a zero to the suffice [sic] as per its usual protocols.
</p><p><a href="https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/auckland-pensioner-loses-158k-after-accidentally-sending-life-savings-to-wrong-account/">Newstalk ZB</a>
</p></blockquote>
<p>Wow! That seems pretty bad. Obviously the woman who allegedly received the money and then spent it shouldn't have done that. Spending money that doesn't belong to you is a crime in most parts of the world. But let's focus on the <em>real</em> villain here - the evil bank!!</p>
<p>Why did the bank make the decision to add an extra digit to the recipient's account number?</p>
<p>An <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_bank_account_number">NZ bank account number</a> looks like <code>BB-bbbb-AAAAAAA-SSS</code>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.paymentsnz.co.nz/resources/industry-registers/bank-branch-register/">first two digits are the banking institution and the next four are the specific branch</a>. The seven digit account number relates to the <em>specific</em> account. The three digit suffix is for the <em>type</em> of account. For example, your spending account might have suffix <code>001</code> and your savings account might have suffix <code>099</code>.</p>
<p>However, because all suffices have a leading zero, <a href="https://www.kiwibank.co.nz/help/accounts/open-manage/account-numbers/">it is often only displayed as two</a>.</p>
<p>So, adding an extra zero to the suffix itself shouldn't have caused a problem. It would have gone to the correct recipient although it might have either gone to the wrong sub-account. Indeed, WestPac's help page on international transfers says "<a href="https://www.westpac.co.nz/foreign-exchange/send-money-to-or-from-overseas/#sending-money-from-overseas">if your account suffix is 12, enter 012</a>". It sounds like the journalist hasn't quite understood where the insertion happened.</p>
<p>It seems likely to me that the victim meant to type <code>1234567-001</code> but missed a digit, causing WestPac to shift things to <code>1235670-01</code>. That's poorly formatted but technically valid.</p>
<p>But, wait! Don't bank account numbers have checksums? Yes! According to NZ's internal revenue, all bank account numbers have a check-digit. However, when checking an account number's validity:</p>
<blockquote><p>If less than the maximum number of digits is supplied, then values are right justified and the fields padded with zeroes</p>
<p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181009211542/https://www.ird.govt.nz/resources/9/d/9d739cde-ad76-4c49-ae08-522c62d94dd6/rwt-nrwt-spec-2016.pdf">Bank account number validation</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Having played around with the algorithm, the first few digits of the account number aren't included in the checksum validation. For example, the account number <code>1234567</code> and <code>0234567</code> both pass checksumming. So it is possible that padding the <em>start</em> of the string wouldn't have been picked up.</p>
<p>Whatever the underlying issue, it is distressing to hear of someone losing a significant amount of money.</p>
<h2 id="what-could-have-stopped-this"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/who-is-responsible-for-missing-money/#what-could-have-stopped-this" class="heading-link">What could have stopped this?</a></h2>
<p>Humans make mistakes. As an industry, we know this. It's our job to prevent, rectify, and neutralise those mistake. We need systems in place which reduce the likelihood of errors causing catastrophic failures.</p>
<p>Here are some systemic changes which could have prevented this:</p>
<ol>
<li>New Zealand could adopt the IBAN standard for international transfers.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.bnz.co.nz/support/international/payments/made-to-new-zealand">They don't seem keen on doing this</a>.</li>
<li>It wouldn't prevent mistyping, but a standardised length makes transferring to the wrong account less likely.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Confirmation of Payee asks the user to type in the name of the intended recipient. If it doesn't match the bank account, the payment is rejected or cautioned against.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.getverified.co.nz/">NZ <em>is</em> rolling out CoP</a> but it doesn't yet apply to international transfers.</li>
<li>Multi-lingual CoP is complex. I don't know if any cross-border payments do this yet.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>WestPac should have noticed the name discrepancy.
<ul>
<li>This is the argument I have the most sympathy with.</li>
<li>Of course, returning the money (especially to a closed account) may be difficult.</li>
</ul></li>
</ol>
<p>Large systems changes are expensive and time consuming.</p>
<p>What else could have been done? Let's go to the final few sentences of the story:</p>
<blockquote><p>Unfortunately, the incorrect bank account number <em>provided by Che</em> was a valid account number for another customer, Westpac said.
</p><p>“As soon as Mr Che alerted us to the issue, we traced the payment and froze the remaining funds.”
</p><p>But Westpac was unable to recover the rest of Che’s money due to the <em>seven-week delay in reporting his error</em> to the banks.
</p><p><small>Emphasis added</small></p></blockquote>
<p>I'm not trying to victim blame here, but WestPac seem to have done what was asked for them. The sender provided an ambiguous bank account number which was, nevertheless, valid.</p>
<p>The sender didn't raise an issue for <strong>seven weeks</strong>. Once notified, the bank froze the recipient account and notified the police.</p>
<p>Yes, big evil banks should be less evil. But they're in a tough spot. People want protection, <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/03/who-can-tell-you-what-to-do-with-your-money/">but they resent banks telling them what they can and can't do with their own money</a>. Big systemic change is difficult but it seems crushingly unfair when an innocent party is caught in the middle.</p>
<p>I don't think anyone comes out of this covered in glory. Banks need to invest in technology which keeps their customers safe. Customers need to take some responsibility for checking whether a bank has done the right thing.</p>
<p>The only tips I can give is that you must always copy & paste financial details from a trusted source, rather than manually type them in. Always send a small amount first to check it is received. If you suspect a mistake, contact your bank immediately.</p>
<p>Stay safe out there.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>2</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[HTML Oddities: Is a newline just another whitespace in attribute values?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59686</id>
<updated>2025-04-18T22:23:56Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-27T11:34:02Z</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[Consider these two HTML elements: <div class="a b">…</div> <div class="a b">…</div> Is there any semantic difference between them? Is there any way to target one but not the other? In other words, are they logically different? I think the answer is no. On every browser I've tested, both are the same. Whether using JS or CSS, there's no difference between them. You could replace every \n wit…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Consider these two HTML elements:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><div class="a b">…</div>
<div class="a
b">…</div>
</code></pre>
<p>Is there any <em>semantic</em> difference between them? Is there any way to target one but not the other? In other words, are they logically different?</p>
<p>I <em>think</em> the answer is no. On every browser I've tested, both are the same. Whether using JS or CSS, there's no difference between them. You could replace every <code>\n</code> with a <code> </code> and nothing would break.</p>
<p>But is that true for <em>every</em> attribute? Are there some attributes where a newline is *significant"?</p>
<p>For the vast majority of attributes, the answer is no. Consider the <code>alt</code> attribute for providing alternate text on images. This:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><img src="" alt="First line.
Second Line.
Forth line.">
</code></pre>
<p>When rendered by a browser, the newlines become spaces. See:</p>
<img decoding="async" src="" alt="First line.
Second Line.
Forth line.">
<p>But there's are <em>three</em> attributes where newlines <em>do</em> matter. Can you work out what they are?</p>
<h2 id="title"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/#title" class="heading-link">Title</a></h2>
<p><span title="First line.
Second Line.
Forth line.">Hover your cursor over this text and a title will appear</span>. It will look something like:</p>
<img decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/title.webp" alt="Title text showing multiple lines." width="704" height="303" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59697">
<p>The HTML specification has a section on "<a href="https://infra.spec.whatwg.org/#ascii-whitespace">space-separated tokens</a>" which it defines as "<a href="https://infra.spec.whatwg.org/#ascii-whitespace">ASCII whitespace</a>":</p>
<ul>
<li>U+0009 TAB</li>
<li>U+000A LF</li>
<li>U+000C FF</li>
<li>U+000D CR</li>
<li>U+0020 SPACE</li>
</ul>
<p>So tab, any newline, and space are all equivalent when it comes to tokenisation of content.</p>
<p>However, for <code>title</code> specifically:</p>
<blockquote><p>If the title attribute's value contains U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters, the content is split into multiple lines. Each U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character represents a line break.</p>
<p><a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/dom.html#attr-title">3.2.6.1 The title attribute</a></p></blockquote>
<h2 id="placeholder"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/#placeholder" class="heading-link">Placeholder</a></h2>
<p>There's another similar case:</p>
<p><textarea rows="4" placeholder="First line.
Second Line.
Forth line."></textarea></p>
<p>The good old <code><textarea></code> element has a <code>placeholder</code> attribute. That also allows newlines - although in a subtly different way to the title element!</p>
<blockquote><p>All U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN U+000A LINE FEED character pairs (CRLF) in the hint, as well as all other U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) and U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters in the hint, must be treated as line breaks when rendering the hint.</p>
<p><a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#the-textarea-element:concept-fe-value-4">4.10.11 The textarea element</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Quite why carriage returns are allowed here, but not in <code>title</code>, I don't know!</p>
<p>Also note, the <code>textarea</code>'s placeholder is different from the <code><input></code>'s placeholder, which <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#the-placeholder-attribute"><em>doesn't</em> support newlines</a>.</p>
<h2 id="id"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/#id" class="heading-link">ID</a></h2>
<p>I warn you though, this one is pretty nasty!</p>
<p>Consider this piece of HTML:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><p id="test
">Hello</p>
</code></pre>
<p>I know! What sort of sicko would include a newline in their ID?! But, it turns out, that is <em>significant</em>.</p>
<p>Try to select that element using CSS like:</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">#test {
color: red;
}
</code></pre>
<p>It won't work! The <em>literal</em> ID is <strong>not</strong> <code>test</code>. If you run:</p>
<pre><code class="language-js">document.querySelector("p")
</code></pre>
<p>It will return <code><p id="test\n"></code> - which means you can only select it with:</p>
<pre><code class="language-js">document.getElementById("test\n")
</code></pre>
<p>Or with CSS using <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/syndata.html#characters">special character selectors</a>:</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">#test\a {
color: blue;
}
</code></pre>
<p><a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#global-attributes:the-id-attribute-3">The spec says</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The id attribute specifies its element's unique identifier (ID).</p>
<p>There are no other restrictions on what form an ID can take; in particular, IDs can consist of just digits, start with a digit, start with an underscore, consist of just punctuation, etc.</p></blockquote>
<p>While it doesn't specifically mention newlines, it seems clear that the attribute can contain *anything".</p>
<h2 id="any-others"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/#any-others" class="heading-link">Any others?</a></h2>
<p>I'm pretty sure those three are the only attributes which treat newlines in their values as significant. Think I'm wrong? Please leave a comment.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>0</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Using Tempest Highlight with WordPress]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59866</id>
<updated>2025-04-25T14:34:42Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-26T11:34:19Z</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"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="php"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="programming"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="WordPress"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I like to highlight bits of code on my blog. I was using GeSHi - but it has ceased to receive updates and the colours it uses aren't WCAG compliant. After skimming through a few options, I found Tempest Highlight. It has nearly everything I want in a code highlighter: PHP with no 3rd party dependencies. Lots of common languages. Modern, with regular updates. Easy to use fun…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>I like to highlight bits of code on my blog. I <em>was</em> using <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/a-small-php-update-to-geshi/">GeSHi</a> - but it has ceased to receive updates and the colours it uses aren't WCAG compliant.</p>
<p>After skimming through a few options, I found <a href="https://github.com/tempestphp/highlight">Tempest Highlight</a>. It has <em>nearly</em> everything I want in a code highlighter:</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: "✅";">
<li> PHP with no 3rd party dependencies.</li>
<li> Lots of common languages.</li>
<li> Modern, with regular updates.</li>
<li> Easy to use functions.</li>
<li> Range of difference style sheets.</li>
</ul>
<p>But, on the downside:</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: "❌";">
<li> No WordPress plugin.</li>
<li> Not all languages supported.</li>
<li> CSS embedded in HTML.</li>
</ul>
<p>I can live without some esoteric languages, but I don't really want to run <code>composer install</code> on my blog. I just want a quick WordPress plugin. So, here's how I did it.</p>
<p></p><nav id="toc"><menu id="toc-start"><li id="toc-title"><h2 id="table-of-contents"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#table-of-contents" class="heading-link">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#here-be-dragons">Here Be Dragons</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#the-art-of-loading-without-loading">The Art of Loading without Loading</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#testing">Testing</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#draw-the-rest-of-the-owl">Draw The Rest of the Owl</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#todo">ToDo</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#get-the-code">Get the code</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>
<h2 id="here-be-dragons"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#here-be-dragons" class="heading-link">Here Be Dragons</a></h2>
<p>This is a quick prototype. It has an audience of one; me. It may break in unexpected ways. Use at your own risk.</p>
<p>The file layout is relatively simple:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_">WordPress Plugins
├── Highlight_Plugin
│ ├── src/
│ ├── autoload.php
│ ├── index.php
│ └── base.css
</code></pre>
<p>The <code>src/</code> directory contains the <code>src/</code> directory from <a href="https://github.com/tempestphp/highlight">Tempest Highlight</a>.</p>
<h2 id="the-art-of-loading-without-loading"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#the-art-of-loading-without-loading" class="heading-link">The Art of Loading without Loading</a></h2>
<p>Normally, to install a PHP package, the <code>composer</code> app creates an autoloader which will magically import everything you need into your project. We can't do that here. Instead, we need to manually load the library.</p>
<p>Create a file in the plugin's directory called <code>autoload.php</code> - its job is to autoload everything in the <code>src/</code> directory.</p>
<pre><code class="language-php"><?php
spl_autoload_register( function ( $class ) {
// Project-specific namespace prefix
$prefix = "Tempest\\Highlight\\";
// Base directory for the namespace prefix
$base_dir = __DIR__ . "/src/";
// Does the class use the namespace prefix?
$len = strlen( $prefix );
if ( strncmp( $prefix, $class, $len ) !== 0) {
// No, move to the next registered autoloader
return;
}
// Get the relative class name
$relative_class = substr( $class, $len );
// Replace namespace separators with directory separators, append with .php
$file = $base_dir . str_replace( "\\", "/", $relative_class ) . ".php";
// If the file exists, require it
if ( file_exists( $file ) ) {
require $file;
}
});
</code></pre>
<p>I don't know if that's the <em>easiest</em> way to do it. But it works!</p>
<h2 id="testing"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#testing" class="heading-link">Testing</a></h2>
<p>The <code>index.php</code> file can now be tested:</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">// Load the Tempest Highlight library
require_once __DIR__ . "/autoload.php";
// Set up the namespace
use Tempest\Highlight\Highlighter;
// Define the theme.
$theme = new Tempest\Highlight\Themes\InlineTheme( __DIR__ . "/src/Themes/Css/light-plus.css");
// Create the highlighter.
$highlighter = new Tempest\Highlight\Highlighter( $theme );
// Print some formatted HTML
echo $highlighter->parse("<em id='foo' class='bar'>test</em>", "html" );
</code></pre>
<p>All being well, that should produce this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_">&lt;<span style="color: #0000ff;">em</span> id='foo' class='bar'&gt;test&lt;/<span style="color: #0000ff;">em</span>&gt;
</code></pre>
<p>That has the CSS embedded. Not ideal, but certainly good enough. I picked "light-plus" because it was the only theme which seemed to meet at least WCAG AA when on a white background.</p>
<p>OK, so how do we go from printing out a scrap of HTML to extracting all the code snippets from a WordPress blog?</p>
<h2 id="draw-the-rest-of-the-owl"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#draw-the-rest-of-the-owl" class="heading-link">Draw The Rest of the Owl</a></h2>
<p>In <em>theory</em> the code is relatively straightforward.</p>
<h3 id="find-code-snippets"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#find-code-snippets" class="heading-link">Find code snippets</a></h3>
<p>My <a href="https://codeberg.org/edent/markdown-extra-unofficial/">Markdown plugin</a> transforms this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_"> ```javascript
var a = 2.0;
```
</code></pre>
<p>Into this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><pre><code class="language-javascript">
var a = 2.0;
</code></pre>
</code></pre>
<p>No need to use a regex, the new PHP 8.4 HTMLDocument gives us direct programmatic access to the HTML.</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">// Load the content into PHP 8.4's HTML DOM.
$dom = Dom\HTMLDocument::createFromString( $content, LIBXML_NOERROR | LIBXML_HTML_NOIMPLIED, "UTF-8" );
// Select the code snippets.
// `<pre><code class="language-*">`
$codeSnippets = $dom->querySelectorAll( "pre>code[class^=language-]" );
</code></pre>
<h3 id="replace-the-snippets"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#replace-the-snippets" class="heading-link">Replace the snippets</a></h3>
<p>From the above, I have the language and code, so it can "easily" be replaced.</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">// Iterate through each snippet.
foreach ( $codeSnippets as $code ) {
// Get the HTML from within the <code>.
$originalCode = $code->textContent;
// Replace the contents of <code> with the highlighted HTML.
$code->innerHTML = $highlighter->parse( $originalCode, $language )
}
</code></pre>
<p>Replacing the code in that node manipulates the original DOM. Which means, after looping through all the snippets, I can return the altered HTML like so:</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">return $dom->saveHTML();
</code></pre>
<h3 id="and-then"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#and-then" class="heading-link">And then…</a></h3>
<p>Obviously, there's a bit more too it than that. It ignores RSS feeds, it adds a base CSS style to the head, some SVGs get embedded, semantic metadata is included, and it all gets a bit tangled and complicated.</p>
<h2 id="todo"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#todo" class="heading-link">ToDo</a></h2>
<p>A few things need to happen to make this even better.</p>
<ul>
<li>Encoded comments as well and posts.</li>
<li>Add new languages.</li>
<li>Don't in-line the CSS into the HTML, but add it as a separate stylesheet.</li>
</ul>
<p>But, for now, it is running on my blog and that's good enough for me!</p>
<h2 id="get-the-code"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#get-the-code" class="heading-link">Get the code</a></h2>
<p>You can <a href="https://github.com/edent/highlight">play about with the WordPress plugin</a>. Bugs reports, pull requests, and suggestions all warmly welcomed.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>1</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Reverse Geocoding is Hard]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/reverse-geocoding-is-hard/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59857</id>
<updated>2025-04-24T18:18:33Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-25T11:34:39Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="geolocation"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="geotagging"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="OpenBenches"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[My wife and I run OpenBenches - a crowd-sourced database of nearly 40,000 memorial benches. Every bench is geo-tagged with a latitude and longitude. But how do you go from a string of digits to something human readable? How do I turn -33.755780,150.603769 into "42 Wallaby Way, Sydney, Australia"? Luckily, that's a (somewhat) solved problem. Services like OpenCage, StadiaMaps, OpenStreetMap,…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/reverse-geocoding-is-hard/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>My wife and I run <a href="https://openbenches.org/">OpenBenches</a> - a crowd-sourced database of nearly 40,000 memorial benches. Every bench is geo-tagged with a latitude and longitude. But how do you go from a string of digits to something human readable?</p>
<p>How do I turn <code>-33.755780,150.603769</code> into "42 Wallaby Way, Sydney, Australia"?</p>
<p>Luckily, that's a (somewhat) solved problem. Services like <a href="https://opencagedata.com/">OpenCage</a>, <a href="https://stadiamaps.com/">StadiaMaps</a>, <a href="https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org">OpenStreetMap</a>, and <a href="https://geocode.earth/">Geocode.Earth</a> all provide APIs which transform co-ordinates into addresses. Done! Let's go home.</p>
<p>Except… Not everywhere <em>has</em> an address. <a href="https://openbenches.org/bench/35905">Some benches are in parks</a>. They typically don't have a street number, but might have an interesting feature nearby to help with location. For example a statue or prominent landmark.</p>
<p>And… Not every address is relevant. <a href="https://openbenches.org/bench/26061">Some benches are on streets</a>. But we probably don't want to imply that the bench is <em>inside</em> or belongs to a specific nearby house.</p>
<p>Let's step back a bit. <em>Why</em> do we want to display a human-readable address?</p>
<p>We have two use-cases.</p>
<p>"As a visitor to the site, I want to:"</p>
<ol>
<li>Read a (rough) textual representation of where the bench is.</li>
<li>Click on a component of the address to see all benches within that area.</li>
</ol>
<p>The first is easy to explain:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/OB-Address.webp" alt="Map. Under it is an address of "Middlewich, Cheshire East, England, United Kingdom"." width="1134" height="638" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59858">
<p>The second is harder. Suppose a bench is in Wellington, New Zealand. We want to create a URl like <a href="https://openbenches.org/location/New%20Zealand/Wellington/">openbenches.org/location/New Zealand/Wellington/</a>. That way, users can click on the word "Wellington" and find all the benches nearby. A user can also manually edit that URl to increase or decrease precision.</p>
<p>Both of these are problems of <em>precision</em>.</p>
<p>Let's take a look at <a href="https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/reverse?lat=51.476845&lon=-0.295296&format=jsonv2">how one of the reverse geocoding services</a> deals with transforming <code>51.476845,-0.295296</code> into an address:</p>
<blockquote><p>Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Sandycombe Road, Kew, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, London, Greater London, England, TW9 2EN, United Kingdom</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>That is <em>too much</em> address!</strong></p>
<p>Yes, it is technically accurate. But it contains far too much detail for humans, the postcode is irrelevant, and the weird-subdivisions are nothing that a local person would use.</p>
<p>Looking at the full API response, we can see:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"place_id": 258770727,
"licence": "Data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. http://osm.org/copyright",
"name": "Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew",
"display_name": "Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Elizabeth Cottages, Kew, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, London, Greater London, England, TW9 3NJ, United Kingdom",
"address": {
"leisure": "Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew",
"road": "Elizabeth Cottages",
"suburb": "Kew",
"city_district": "London Borough of Richmond upon Thames",
"ISO3166-2-lvl8": "GB-RIC",
"city": "London",
"state_district": "Greater London",
"state": "England",
"ISO3166-2-lvl4": "GB-ENG",
"postcode": "TW9 3NJ",
"country": "United Kingdom",
"country_code": "gb"
}
}
</code></pre>
<p>Aha! Perhaps I can build a better address using just those components!</p>
<p>Except… Not every country has states. And not all states are used when giving addresses. Not every location is in a city. Some places have villages, prefectures, municipalities, and hamlets.</p>
<p>New York, New York is a valid address, but <a href="https://blog.opencagedata.com/post/99059889253/good-looking-addresses-solving-the-berlin-berlin">Berlin, Berlin</a> is not!</p>
<p>There's an <a href="https://github.com/OpenCageData/address-formatting">address formatter by OpenCage</a> which is pretty sensible about stripping off irrelevant details. But, to go back to my first point, not every map location on OpenBenches is a street address and - even if it is on a street - it probably shouldn't have a house number.</p>
<p>Well, there's kind of a solution to that! Most mapping provider have a <abbr title="Point of Interest">POI</abbr> function - we can find nearby things of interest and use them as a location.</p>
<p>Here's a <a href="https://openbenches.org/bench/36734">bench in Cook County, Illinois, USA</a>. The POI address is:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
…
"name": "Central Park",
"coarse_location": "Des Plaines, IL, USA",
…
}
</code></pre>
<p>I <em>assume</em> there's only one Central Park in Des Plaines. Do people know that "Il" is Illinois? Would "Cook County" be useful?</p>
<p>On the subject of localisation, not everywhere speaks English. Do I want to display addresses like "<span lang="ja">原爆の子の像, 広島, 日本</span>"? How about "原爆の子の像, Hiroshima, Japan"?</p>
<p>We're an international site, but most benches are in Anglophone countries.</p>
<p>Of course, just because something is <em>physically</em> near a POI, that doesn't mean it is <em>logically</em> close to it.</p>
<p>Consider a bench situated <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/query?lat=50.580682&lon=-3.467831">at the edge of this park</a>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/map.webp" alt="A map, with a marker situated just across a river." width="1328" height="1060" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59864"></p>
<p>The nearest POI is "Gay's Creamery" - across the river. Is that what you'd expect? Is there any way to easily say "if a point is <em>inside</em> an amenity* then use that as the address?</p>
<p>I don't want the users of our site to have to select from a list of POIs or addresses, this should be as automated as possible.</p>
<h2 id="the-plan"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/reverse-geocoding-is-hard/#the-plan" class="heading-link">The Plan</a></h2>
<p>For each bench:</p>
<ol>
<li>Use StadiaMaps to get the nearest POI.</li>
<li>Get the data in English.</li>
<li>Concatenate the name and coarse location.</li>
<li>Save the "address".</li>
<li>Wait for complaints?</li>
</ol>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[HTML Oddities: Does the order of attribute values matter?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59481</id>
<updated>2025-04-24T12:19:22Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-24T11:34:56Z</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[HTML elements can have attributes. For example id, class, src, alt, and many others. These attributes can contain values - an img element's src attribute has a value which is a link to an image. An id attribute's value is a single string. But some attributes can contain multiple values. Here's a thought experiment for you. Consider these two HTML elements: <p class="alpha bravo charlie">………</p> …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>HTML elements can have attributes. For example id, class, src, alt, and many others. These attributes can contain values - an img element's src attribute has a value which is a link to an image. An id attribute's value is a single string. But some attributes can contain <em>multiple</em> values.</p>
<p>Here's a thought experiment for you. Consider these two HTML elements:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><p class="alpha bravo charlie">………</p>
<p class="bravo charlie alpha">………</p>
</code></pre>
<p>Is there any <em>semantic</em> difference between them? Does the ordering of the values inside the class attribute matter?</p>
<p>Both can be targetted with CSS like:</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">.bravo {
color: red;
}
</code></pre>
<p>They can also be targetted using:</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">.charlie.bravo {
color: green;
}
</code></pre>
<p>Or using a <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Styling_basics/Basic_selectors#selector_lists">Selector List</a></p>
<pre><code class="language-css">.bravo, .alpha {
color: yellow;
}
</code></pre>
<p>So order doesn't matter, right?</p>
<h2 id="well-its-a-bit-more-complicated-than-that"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/#well-its-a-bit-more-complicated-than-that" class="heading-link">Well, it's a bit more complicated than that</a></h2>
<p>Consider <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Styling_basics/Attribute_selectors#presence_and_value_selectors">Presence Selectors</a>.</p>
<p>This CSS will <em>only</em> select the <strong>first</strong> element:</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">p[class="alpha bravo charlie"] {
font-size: 2em;
}
</code></pre>
<p>It targets the class name in that exact order. No other.</p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Styling_basics/Attribute_selectors#substring_matching_selectors">Substring Selectors</a> can be used in an order-specific manner.</p>
<p>This CSS will <strong>only</strong> select the <em>second</em> element:</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">p[class^="b"] {
display: block;
}
</code></pre>
<p>It looks for a class attribute where the <em>value</em> starts with <code>b</code></p>
<h2 id="where-ordering-matters"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/#where-ordering-matters" class="heading-link">Where ordering matters</a></h2>
<p>The <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/indices.html#attributes-3">HTML spec has a (non-normative) section on attributes</a>. Those which accept multiple values are (broadly) in three categories.</p>
<ol>
<li>A <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/common-microsyntaxes.html#set-of-space-separated-tokens">set of space-separated tokens</a> 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.</li>
<li>An <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/common-microsyntaxes.html#unordered-set-of-unique-space-separated-tokens">unordered set</a> of unique space-separated tokens is a set of space-separated tokens where none of the tokens are duplicated.</li>
<li>An <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/common-microsyntaxes.html#ordered-set-of-unique-space-separated-tokens">ordered set</a> of unique space-separated tokens is a set of space-separated tokens where none of the tokens are duplicated but where the order of the tokens is meaningful.</li>
</ol>
<p>The class attribute belongs to the first group. While ordering isn't meaningful, it also isn't irrelevant.</p>
<p>The only attributes which are specifically <strong>unordered</strong> are:</p>
<ul>
<li>All elements:
<ul>
<li><code>itemprop=</code>, <code>itemref=</code>, <code>itemtype=</code></li>
</ul></li>
<li><code><link></code>, <code><script></code>, <code><style></code>
<ul>
<li><code>blocking=</code></li>
</ul></li>
<li><code><output></code>
<ul>
<li><code>for=</code></li>
</ul></li>
<li><code><td></code>, <code><th></code>
<ul>
<li><code>headers=</code></li>
</ul></li>
<li><code><a></code>, <code><area></code>, <code><link></code>
<ul>
<li><code>rel=</code></li>
</ul></li>
<li><code><iframe></code>
<ul>
<li><code>sandbox=</code></li>
</ul></li>
<li><code><link></code>
<ul>
<li><code>sizes=</code></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<p>The <em>only</em> attribute specifically listed as "Ordered" is <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/interaction.html#the-accesskey-attribute">the <code>accesskey</code> attribute</a>.</p>
<p>There are a few others which do require an order, although it is not immediately obvious.</p>
<p>Both <code>imagesrcset</code> and <code>srcset</code> require a "Comma-separated list of image candidate strings". The comma separated strings can be in any order, but the text <em>within</em> them <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/images.html#image-candidate-string">has a strict ordering</a>.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><img srcset="header640.png 640w, header960.png 960w, header1024.png 1024w" …
</code></pre>
<p>Similarly, the <code>type</code> attribute requires its value to be a <a href="https://mimesniff.spec.whatwg.org/#valid-mime-type">valid MIME type</a>. But <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Media/Guides/Formats/codecs_parameter#basic_syntax">MIME types can also include a codec</a>. So it's possible to end up with HTML like:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><video>
<source
src="movie.webm"
type="video/webm; codecs='vp8, vorbis'">
</code></pre>
<p>Assuming those attributes were whitespace separated tokens would lead to nonsense!</p>
<p>The <code>autocomplete</code> type is another complex example. The <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/indices.html#attributes-3">spec</a> just says "Autofill field name and related tokens", but <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Attributes/autocomplete#token-list">MDN makes it clear</a> that it requires:</p>
<blockquote><p>An ordered set of space-separated tokens consisting of autofill detail tokens preceded by optional sectioning and either billing or shipping grouping tokens. Phone numbers, email addresses, and messaging protocol tokens are preceded by a token identifying the type of recipient.</p></blockquote>
<p>For example <code>autocomplete="home email"</code> says to suggest the user's home email address whereas <code>autocomplete="work email"</code> suggests their work email. The ordering is necessary and <code>autocomplete="email home"</code> will not be understood.</p>
<h2 id="where-else-might-ordering-matter"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/#where-else-might-ordering-matter" class="heading-link">Where else might ordering matter?</a></h2>
<p>Rather obviously, alt text should <em>always</em> remain in order. No one wants to read alphabetically ordered image descriptions!</p>
<p>As mentioned by <a href="https://sunny.garden/@knowler/114331801775907008">Nathan Knowler</a> some ARIA attributes require ordering for accessibility.</p>
<p>And, as <a href="https://wandering.shop/@kagan/114331745674240833">Kagan MacTane</a> pointed out, sometimes the ordering is important for a human - even if it is irrelevant for a machine.</p>
<h2 id="what-have-we-learned-today"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/#what-have-we-learned-today" class="heading-link">What have we learned today?</a></h2>
<p>I originally asked this question on Mastodon. About two-thirds of respondents thought that attribute ordering was irrelevant.</p>
<blockquote class="mastodon-embed" data-embed-url="https://mastodon.social/@Edent/114331612009479129/embed" style="background: #FCF8FF; border-radius: 8px; border: 1px solid #C9C4DA; margin: 0; max-width: 540px; min-width: 270px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"> <a href="https://mastodon.social/@Edent/114331612009479129" target="_blank" style="align-items: center; color: #1C1A25; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Fira Sans', 'Droid Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; justify-content: center; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 20px; padding: 24px; text-decoration: none;"> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" width="32" height="32" viewbox="0 0 79 75"><path d="M74.7135 16.6043C73.6199 8.54587 66.5351 2.19527 58.1366 0.964691C56.7196 0.756754 51.351 0 38.9148 0H38.822C26.3824 0 23.7135 0.756754 22.2966 0.964691C14.1319 2.16118 6.67571 7.86752 4.86669 16.0214C3.99657 20.0369 3.90371 24.4888 4.06535 28.5726C4.29578 34.4289 4.34049 40.275 4.877 46.1075C5.24791 49.9817 5.89495 53.8251 6.81328 57.6088C8.53288 64.5968 15.4938 70.4122 22.3138 72.7848C29.6155 75.259 37.468 75.6697 44.9919 73.971C45.8196 73.7801 46.6381 73.5586 47.4475 73.3063C49.2737 72.7302 51.4164 72.086 52.9915 70.9542C53.0131 70.9384 53.0308 70.9178 53.0433 70.8942C53.0558 70.8706 53.0628 70.8445 53.0637 70.8179V65.1661C53.0634 65.1412 53.0574 65.1167 53.0462 65.0944C53.035 65.0721 53.0189 65.0525 52.9992 65.0371C52.9794 65.0218 52.9564 65.011 52.9318 65.0056C52.9073 65.0002 52.8819 65.0003 52.8574 65.0059C48.0369 66.1472 43.0971 66.7193 38.141 66.7103C29.6118 66.7103 27.3178 62.6981 26.6609 61.0278C26.1329 59.5842 25.7976 58.0784 25.6636 56.5486C25.6622 56.5229 25.667 56.4973 25.6775 56.4738C25.688 56.4502 25.7039 56.4295 25.724 56.4132C25.7441 56.397 25.7678 56.3856 25.7931 56.3801C25.8185 56.3746 25.8448 56.3751 25.8699 56.3816C30.6101 57.5151 35.4693 58.0873 40.3455 58.086C41.5183 58.086 42.6876 58.086 43.8604 58.0553C48.7647 57.919 53.9339 57.6701 58.7591 56.7361C58.8794 56.7123 58.9998 56.6918 59.103 56.6611C66.7139 55.2124 73.9569 50.665 74.6929 39.1501C74.7204 38.6967 74.7892 34.4016 74.7892 33.9312C74.7926 32.3325 75.3085 22.5901 74.7135 16.6043ZM62.9996 45.3371H54.9966V25.9069C54.9966 21.8163 53.277 19.7302 49.7793 19.7302C45.9343 19.7302 44.0083 22.1981 44.0083 27.0727V37.7082H36.0534V27.0727C36.0534 22.1981 34.124 19.7302 30.279 19.7302C26.8019 19.7302 25.0651 21.8163 25.0617 25.9069V45.3371H17.0656V25.3172C17.0656 21.2266 18.1191 17.9769 20.2262 15.568C22.3998 13.1648 25.2509 11.9308 28.7898 11.9308C32.8859 11.9308 35.9812 13.492 38.0447 16.6111L40.036 19.9245L42.0308 16.6111C44.0943 13.492 47.1896 11.9308 51.2788 11.9308C54.8143 11.9308 57.6654 13.1648 59.8459 15.568C61.9529 17.9746 63.0065 21.2243 63.0065 25.3172L62.9996 45.3371Z" fill="currentColor"></path></svg> <div style="color: #787588; margin-top: 16px;">Post by @[email protected]</div> <div style="font-weight: 500;">View on Mastodon</div> </a> </blockquote>
<script data-allowed-prefixes="https://mastodon.social/" async="" src="https://mastodon.social/embed.js"></script>
<p>I hope I've demonstrated that it is slightly more complicated than it may appear at first.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[A small PHP update to GeSHi]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/a-small-php-update-to-geshi/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59807</id>
<updated>2025-04-22T11:56:19Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-23T11:34:53Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HTML"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="php"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The faithful old GeSHi Syntax Highlighter hasn't seen an update in a many a long year. It's a tried and trusted way to do server-side code highlighting - turning a myriad of programming languages into beautiful HTML & CSS. A few weeks ago, I noticed someone had proposed an update to its HTML rendering. The changes were mostly adding in new element names. PHP has been updated several times…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/a-small-php-update-to-geshi/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>The faithful old GeSHi Syntax Highlighter hasn't seen an update in a many a long year. It's a tried and trusted way to do server-side code highlighting - turning a myriad of programming languages into beautiful HTML & CSS.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago, I noticed someone had <a href="https://github.com/GeSHi/geshi-1.0/pull/156">proposed an update to its HTML rendering</a>. The changes were mostly adding in new element names.</p>
<p>PHP has been updated several times since GeSHi was last updated, so I thought I'd do the same. Here's <a href="https://github.com/GeSHi/geshi-1.0/pull/162">an update to the PHP highlighter</a>.</p>
<p>Getting all the current PHP functions was fairly simple:</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">$functions = get_defined_functions();
$builtInFunctions = $functions['internal'];
sort($builtInFunctions);
foreach ( $builtInFunctions as $key => $value ) {
echo "'{$value}', ";
}
</code></pre>
<p>Now I'm wondering if there's a <em>better</em> code highlighter. Here's what I'm looking for:</p>
<ul>
<li>Server-side. I don't want to clutter the web with JavaScript.</li>
<li>PHP only. I don't want to add something more complicated to my tech stack.</li>
<li>WordPress for preference (but not blocks-only). Although I can build around a library.</li>
<li>Accessible colours. GeSHi's style-sheet doesn't always meet WCAG.</li>
<li>Actively maintained. If it hasn't been updated in 2 years, it's probably broken.</li>
<li>Somewhat hackable. I like to add a bit of semantic fluff around the output.</li>
</ul>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: It's Not That Radical - Climate Action to Transform Our World by Mikaela Loach ★★⯪☆☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-its-not-that-radical-climate-action-to-transform-our-world-by-mikaela-loach/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59451</id>
<updated>2025-04-18T12:31:51Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-22T11:34:32Z</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="Climate Crisis"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NetGalley"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I think I mostly agree with everything this book is saying, but after almost every paragraph I found myself scribbling the same note "Yes! But what action should I take though?" The author has an excellent and accessible way of showing the problems caused by the Climate Crisis - but the "action" part is mostly missing. Take this example: So something you can do right now to tackle them is to…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-its-not-that-radical-climate-action-to-transform-our-world-by-mikaela-loach/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><img decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cover-3.jpg" alt="Book cover." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-59452">I think I mostly agree with everything this book is saying, but after almost every paragraph I found myself scribbling the same note "Yes! But <em>what</em> action should I take though?"</p>
<p>The author has an excellent and accessible way of showing the problems caused by the Climate Crisis - but the "action" part is mostly missing. Take this example:</p>
<blockquote><p>So something you can do right now to tackle them is to divest your money from them. Find out if your bank still has investments in fossil fuels and if they do, change your bank! It’s a quick and easy way you can take action.</p></blockquote>
<p>That's a pretty good suggestion. But there's no follow up. How do I do this? What platforms should I use? Which resources could help me? And, sadly, it is fatally undermined by the next line:</p>
<blockquote><p>It won’t fix the problem but it’s a tactic to get us on the way there.</p></blockquote>
<p>Although it (quite rightly) eschews rehashing arguments about whether climate change is real, it does meander through lots of other political and sociological theories. Sometimes to the detriment of the core argument.</p>
<blockquote><p>The fact that the climate crisis is inherently woven together with oppressive systems of white supremacy, capitalism and patriarchy, both in its causation and its impacts, means that this crisis doesn’t ask us to leave behind what we are already fighting for, but instead to find a way to connect our struggles</p></blockquote>
<p>Is it though? Because of the constant need to tie everything back to the original sins of racism and colonialism, the argument gets completely diffused. It isn't enough for us to tackle pollution, we have to tackle everything everywhere all at once.</p>
<p>Similarly, it falls into the same trap as lots of other socialist works.</p>
<blockquote><p>Truly tackling the climate crisis requires each of us to go to the roots of poverty, of police brutality and legalised injustice. It requires us to move away from capitalist exploitation, which exists only to extract profit. Climate justice offers the real possibility of huge leaps towards our collective liberation because it aims to dismantle the very foundations of these issues. This is a far more exciting prospect to me.</p></blockquote>
<p>Is the Climate Crisis tied in with police brutality? There's an interesting discussion in the book about why so many white protestors are willing to get arrested - in part because they believe the police will treat them more fairly than protestors from a racial minority.</p>
<p>Assuming we accept the arguments that colonialism is the root cause of all this, what action can be taken?</p>
<blockquote><p>Reparations must go beyond paying cheques to individuals and instead be investments into infrastructure, education, healthcare, housing and energy. These investments will raise the living standards of all oppressed people</p></blockquote>
<p>OK, great idea. But how? That's nothing an individual can do.</p>
<p>It is so frustrating to read paragraphs like:</p>
<blockquote><p>We have to take action in order to make things better. We have to join movements and take drastic action because the world as we know it quite literally depends on us doing so.</p></blockquote>
<p>Yes! I agree! Which movements should I join? How can I find them? What can I do to help them? Where should I target my actions?</p>
<p>There are no answers.</p>
<p>Or this:</p>
<blockquote><p>Campaigns like Clean Air for Southall and Hayes (CASH) are yet another painful reminder that the most toxic substances, most dangerous industries and the most polluted roads are in the backyards of the poor, which in this country all too-often means the backyards of Black people and people of colour.</p></blockquote>
<p>Brilliant! But did <a href="https://www.breathelondon.org/community-groups/clean-air-for-southall-and-hayes">CASH</a> succeed? What lessons can we learn from it? How do I start something like that? Where can I find out more?</p>
<p>Again, no meaningful discussion of the actions people can take.</p>
<p>Or this:</p>
<blockquote><p>Consumers’ cannot stop climate change because capitalism is not compatible with a climate-just world. But active citizens CAN. Movements CAN. WE CAN when we challenge and disrupt these systems, rather than limiting our power and actions to those which are within it.</p></blockquote>
<p>I am genuinely fuelled by her ambition and righteous indignation. How do I disrupt these systems? Give me some action I can take.</p>
<p>The title of the book is "It's Not That Radical". The problem is, the book <em>is</em> radical.</p>
<blockquote><p>The more I read and watched, the more I was overwhelmed by how many alternatives to capitalism there are, and how much there is to know. But the deeper I got into my research, the more I realised that we can’t expect everyone to read ten different books, watch dozens of talks, be able to understand academic papers or have hundreds of conversations in order to work towards a world beyond capitalism.</p></blockquote>
<p>The problem is, people <em>like</em> capitalism. They continually vote for it. They like having new cars, shiny gadgets, and exciting distractions. Telling people that they have to accept a lower standard of living isn't likely to change minds.</p>
<p>To be fair, the author does realise this. They look back on their past actions and realise how alienating some of them were. It's important to have a <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/01/book-review-rules-for-radicals-a-pragmatic-primer-for-realistic-radicals-by-saul-alinsky/">Theory Of Change</a> if you want to actually engage with people.</p>
<blockquote><p>We aren’t actually toning down our demands. We aren’t making them conform to the system. We are just finding a way to communicate our demands so that they will be listened to and understood. I think that, in the contexts we are facing, this sort of practicality is of the utmost importance.</p></blockquote>
<p>The book is a bit rambly, but does eventually settle on some reasonable action to take. It also correctly points out that every campaign rests on the backs of the often-invisible people doing the ground-work.</p>
<blockquote><p>Actions and campaigns don’t just spring up out of nowhere – they require a huge workforce with a wide variety of skills. All of these roles are valuable. It’s so much more than people on the streets or behind a megaphone.</p></blockquote>
<p>The latter half contains an excellent section on the perils of fame and the dangers of cancel culture. It is painfully self-aware and an excellent antidote to some of the gleeful destruction out in the world. There's also some beautiful writing about her personal philosophy, what drives her, and the importance of empathy.</p>
<blockquote><p>To see no stranger is to open one’s heart to empathy; to try and see every person as a nuanced, messy person.</p></blockquote>
<p>It becomes refreshingly egoless and uplifting. This isn't about one person, it is about all of us.</p>
<p>The strongest part of the book is the author's rules for action. They are a perfect encapsulation of understanding the theory of change necessary for something to be successful:</p>
<blockquote>
Ahead of partaking in any action, I ask myself the following questions:
<ul>
<li>Does this have the potential to create lasting change?</li>
<li>How does this fit onto our roadmap for a completely transformed and liberated world?</li>
<li>Will this help to shift the Overton Window closer to a place that allows us a liveable future?</li>
<li>Will this help improve the material conditions of the lives of those most affected and oppressed?</li>
<li>Could this prevent any of the above?</li>
<li>Is this just a distraction from work that could truly build a new world?</li>
<li>What can I do to modify or change this action so that it cannot be co-opted?</li>
<li>With arrestable actions, it’s also important to add: is it essential for this to be arrestable?</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>That's an excellent list for anyone to follow.</p>
<p>I am probably not the target audience. If you're looking for a radical view of what needs to be done, or are happy to be radicalised, this is excellent. If you're looking for concrete steps you can take, you might find it a bit lacking.</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[Book Review: Murder Your Employer - The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes ★★⯪☆☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-murder-your-employer-the-mcmasters-guide-to-homicide-the-new-york-times-bestseller-by-rupert-holmes/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59455</id>
<updated>2025-04-16T14:00:32Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-21T11:34:35Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[What if the Discworld's Assassin's Guild existed in the real world? That's it. That's the plot. Go to a university where they'll teach you to be a better class of murderer. The first half is excellent. Chuckles all the way through. A heady mix of every boarding-school novel you've ever read, and funny little twists and turns. Lots of the dialogue is straight out of Terry Pratchett (and I can't…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-murder-your-employer-the-mcmasters-guide-to-homicide-the-new-york-times-bestseller-by-rupert-holmes/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><img decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cover-4.jpg" alt="Book cover featuring an old fashioned line drawing of an employee holding a knife behind his back." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-59456">What if the Discworld's Assassin's Guild existed in the real world? That's it. That's the plot. Go to a university where they'll teach you to be a better class of murderer.</p>
<p>The first half is excellent. Chuckles all the way through. A heady mix of every boarding-school novel you've ever read, and funny little twists and turns. Lots of the dialogue is straight out of Terry Pratchett (and I can't be the only one to notice that the school crest features an Anhk and Morpork, right?).</p>
<p>It is a very silly introduction to the deadly serious business of death.</p>
<p>And then the second half - where the characters we have been following go and do the grisly deed - is a real let-down.</p>
<p>The murders are <em>so</em> convoluted. They rely on a string of unlikely coincidences, preposterous behaviour, and daft plots. It is a confusing and rambly mess. Tangled to the point of absurdity and increasingly hard to follow.</p>
<p>All build-up, no pay-off.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: 6-Colour ePaper Name Badge ★★★★⯪]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59522</id>
<updated>2025-04-23T09:45:28Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-20T11:34:47Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="demo"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="eink"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The good folks at SmartDisplayer Technology Co have sent me a six colour eInk badge to play about with. Here's a quick video and then a walk-through of its features. You can also view SmartDisplayer's official video. The Badge It is a single block of plastic. There are no seams, screws, or rough edges. The ePaper appear right on the surface of the badge, there's no recessing or anything…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>The good folks at <a href="https://smartdisplayer.com.tw">SmartDisplayer Technology Co</a> have sent me a <em>six</em> colour eInk badge to play about with.</p>
<p>Here's a quick video and then a walk-through of its features.</p>
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Demo - six-colour eInk screen" width="560" height="315" src="https://tube.tchncs.de/videos/embed/ohEz1V4ByLHL98sspBqMHK" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-forms"></iframe>
<!-- https://youtu.be/UeipkX7huR8 -->
<p>You can also view <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2FfN006-vQ">SmartDisplayer's official video</a>.</p>
<h2 id="the-badge"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#the-badge" class="heading-link">The Badge</a></h2>
<p>It is a single block of plastic. There are no seams, screws, or rough edges. The ePaper appear right on the surface of the badge, there's no recessing or anything to indicate that this is a high-tech gadget. It uses their "cold lamination" technology which creates an impeccable matt finish.</p>
<p>The display area is 56.4mm x 84.6mm - which is pretty close to the size of a standard credit card - for a resolution of 180PPI.</p>
<h2 id="the-eink"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#the-eink" class="heading-link">The eInk</a></h2>
<p>This uses E-Ink <a href="https://www.eink.com/brand/detail/Spectra6">Spectra 6</a> technology. With only 6 colours to play about with there's a <em>lot</em> of dithering needed to make a picture look presentable. Those 6 colours are:</p>
<ul>
<li>#000 Black</li>
<li>#F00 Red</li>
<li>#0F0 Green</li>
<li>#00F Blue</li>
<li>#FF0 Yellow</li>
<li>#FFF White</li>
</ul>
<p>I used a standard <a href="https://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/monitor_calibration.htm">Monitor Calibration Image</a>, dithered it using the supplied software, and flashed it to the card. I then scanned in the card so you can see exactly how faithful the image reproduction is.</p>
<p>On the left, the eInk. On the right, the original image.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/24-color-small.jpg" alt="A swatch of colours." width="2048" height="1567" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59533">
<p>That's pretty bloody good!</p>
<p>Using <a href="http://www.brucelindbloom.com/index.html?ReferenceImages.html">Bruce Lindbloom's RGB Reference image</a> is also a good way to test a range of colours.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/lindstrom.webp" alt="A multicolour CGI image." width="1920" height="1080" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59555">
Not bad for red, green, blue, yellow, white, black, eh?</p>
<p>It's hard to find a good test-card with a variety of skin-tones (there's a creepy Getty one with naked women), so I used <a href="https://www.murideo.com/test-pattern-library.html">the Murideo Portrait Reference Photograph</a>. The original:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Skintones.webp" alt="Telegenic American Youth with a variety of skin tones." width="1024" height="576" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59537">
<p>On eInk:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Skintones-eInk.webp" alt="Skintones rendered on eInk." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59536">
<p>And here's another one:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/skintones.webp" alt="Various skintones dithered." width="1920" height="1080" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59554">
<h2 id="the-card-writer"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#the-card-writer" class="heading-link">The Card Writer</a></h2>
<p>For Linux nerds, the USB writer showed up as: <code>1fc9:0102 NXP Semiconductors IT-102MU Reader</code>.</p>
<p>There's almost no information about it other than a <a href="https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=174064590315968&w=2">brief discussion on an OpenBSD mailing list</a>, and a mention on the <a href="https://ccid.apdu.fr/ccid/shouldwork.html#0x1FC90x0102">CCID database</a>. Apparently it will work as on <a href="https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/7014689?hl=en#zippy=%2Csupported-smart-card-readers">ChromeOS</a>. It makes a <em>hideous</em> beeping sound when the card is inserted.</p>
<p>Once the card is inserted, two LEDs light up.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/LEDs.webp" alt="Blue and green LEDs shining through white plastic." width="1024" height="576" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59523">
<p>The green one quickly vanishes, but the blue one pulses until the card is removed from the reader.</p>
<details><summary>Detailed <code>lsusb</code> Output</summary><pre>Bus 005 Device 084: ID 1fc9:0102 NXP Semiconductors IT-102MU Reader
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 0
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x1fc9 NXP Semiconductors
idProduct 0x0102
bcdDevice 1.12
iManufacturer 1 InfoThink
iProduct 2 IT-102MU Reader
iSerial 3 1.00
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 0x005d
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0x80
(Bus Powered)
MaxPower 500mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 3
bInterfaceClass 11 Chip/SmartCard
bInterfaceSubClass 0
bInterfaceProtocol 0
iInterface 0
ChipCard Interface Descriptor:
bLength 54
bDescriptorType 33
bcdCCID 1.10 (Warning: Only accurate for version 1.0)
nMaxSlotIndex 0
bVoltageSupport 7 5.0V 3.0V 1.8V
dwProtocols 3 T=0 T=1
dwDefaultClock 3685
dwMaxiumumClock 14320
bNumClockSupported 0
dwDataRate 9909 bps
dwMaxDataRate 848000 bps
bNumDataRatesSupp. 0
dwMaxIFSD 254
dwSyncProtocols 00000000
dwMechanical 00000000
dwFeatures 000404BE
Auto configuration based on ATR
Auto activation on insert
Auto voltage selection
Auto clock change
Auto baud rate change
Auto PPS made by CCID
Auto IFSD exchange
Short and extended APDU level exchange
dwMaxCCIDMsgLen 271
bClassGetResponse echo
bClassEnvelope echo
wlcdLayout none
bPINSupport 0
bMaxCCIDBusySlots 1
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x01 EP 1 OUT
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x82 EP 2 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 4
</pre></details>
<h2 id="the-software"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#the-software" class="heading-link">The Software</a></h2>
<p>It is Windows-only software, and it is bare-bones. You can load an image, select if you want it dithered or not, and then download it to the badge. That's it.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/eInk-Software.webp" alt="Screenshot of the software." width="457" height="630" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59540">
No image editing; it just resizes everything to 400x600. There's no badge design software or QR generator. And, to be honest, I think that's fine. You're better off designing your badges in dedicated software.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the app wouldn't run under WINE in Linux. I used Oracle's VirtualBox. Note, the included software requires you to install <a href="https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/6.0">Microsoft's .Net Windows Desktop Runtime 6</a> <em>and</em> the latest <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170#latest-microsoft-visual-c-redistributable-version">Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Version</a>.</p>
<p>VirtualBox initially refused to see the USB peripheral. I had to unplug the reader, create a USB filter using <code>1fc9:0102</code>, start the VM, and only then plug in the USB reader. Then it worked. Bit of a faff!</p>
<h2 id="pricing"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#pricing" class="heading-link">Pricing</a></h2>
<p>I've got good news and bad news!</p>
<p>First, the bad. <a href="https://smartdisplayer.com.tw">SmartDisplayer Technology Co</a> are B2B sellers. They'll sell you a single badge for US$70 + shipping. If you're buying more than a thousand, the price drops to $65. The NFC reader is $120.</p>
<p>In terms of badge pricing, I think that's pretty fair. If you want to buy a demokit of just the screen, <a href="https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/4''Spectra6ePaperDisplay">that'll cost you US$99 direct from eInk</a>. So $70 full assembled is a bargain.</p>
<p>The good news? They'll shortly be bringing out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIfzeQXCnoM">a USB-C badge which doesn't require the NFC reader</a>. The badge itself will be slightly smaller (and a little thicker). That should make it easier to update the badge on the fly - but possibly not as convenient if you're programming hundreds of them.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/type-c.webp" alt="Graphic showing the new badge is slightly thicker, but shorter." width="715" height="387" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59553">
<p>If you're buying in bulk, they will also do custom printing on the badge, and can replace the plastic with wood.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/wooden.webp" alt="Badge with a wooden decal." width="180" height="378" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59552">
<p>For more information, or to place an order, <a href="https://www.smartdisplayer.com/contact">contact SmartDisplayer</a>.</p>
<h2 id="verdict"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#verdict" class="heading-link">Verdict</a></h2>
<p>If you want a fun lanyard which is easy to change, and can reproduce a decent range of colours, this is excellent. Ideally it would be easy to flash with a phone, but the supplied software is adequate.</p>
<p>The USB writer is a little bit clunky, but it holds the badge in place while data and power are transmitted.</p>
<p>I'm astonished by just how flat this badge is. SmartDisplayer cold-lamination process is incredible. The image is <em>on</em> the badge, not under it.</p>
<p>It looks stunning - a real premium product and the price reflects that.</p>
<p>As a <em>personal</em> gadget, I think it is great. But for other uses, I'm not so sure. Are you <em>really</em> going to be handing out $65 lanyards to all of your event attendees? Perhaps at a very expensive conference! But even then, you might want to take a deposit.</p>
<p>Anyone with a suitable reader can reflash a badge; there's no way to lock these. So they're not ideal for security.</p>
<p>If you attend lots of conferences, and are perpetually annoyed by ugly conference badges which misspell your name or don't have a personal QR code, these are a great (albeit pricey) gadget.</p>
<p>Thanks to SmartDisplayer for the review unit. Next time you see me at an event - please snap a photo of my badge!</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>2</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Introducing Pretty Print HTML for PHP 8.4]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59672</id>
<updated>2025-04-19T07:46:11Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-19T11:34:54Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HTML"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="php"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I'm delight to announce the first release of my opinionated HTML Pretty Printer for new versions of PHP. Grab the code from Packagist Contribute on GitLab There are several prettifiers on Packagist, but I think mine is the only one which works with the new Dom\HTMLDocument class. Table of ContentsWhatHowLimitationsWhyNext Steps What This takes hard-to-read HTML like: <!doctype…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>I'm delight to announce the first release of my opinionated HTML Pretty Printer for new versions of PHP.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://packagist.org/packages/edent/pretty-print-html">Grab the code from Packagist</a></li>
<li><a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/pretty-print-html-using-php/">Contribute on GitLab</a></li>
</ul>
<p>There are several prettifiers on Packagist, but I think mine is the only one which works with <a href="https://wiki.php.net/rfc/domdocument_html5_parser">the new <code>Dom\HTMLDocument</code> class</a>.</p>
<p></p><nav id="toc"><menu id="toc-start"><li id="toc-title"><h2 id="table-of-contents"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#table-of-contents" class="heading-link">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#what">What</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#how">How</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#limitations">Limitations</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#why">Why</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#next-steps">Next Steps</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>
<h2 id="what"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#what" class="heading-link">What</a></h2>
<p>This takes hard-to-read HTML like:</p>
<p><code><!doctype html><html><head><meta charset="UTF-8"></head><body><div id="main" class="news main"><h1 id="top">Title</h1><p>How <em>exciting</em>!</p></div></code></p>
<p>And pretty-prints it with some <em>opinionated</em> formatting:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset=UTF-8>
</head>
<body>
<div class="main news" id=main>
<h1 id=top>Title</h1>
<p>How <em>exciting</em>!</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
</code></pre>
<p>All elements are indented where possible. Attributes are sorted alphabetically. Attribute variables are unquoted if possible. CSS and JS are unaltered. These options are configurable.</p>
<p>To get an idea of what it outputs, take a look at the source code of this page!</p>
<h2 id="how"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#how" class="heading-link">How</a></h2>
<p>This is designed to be simple to use, but with enough options to be useful to as many people as possible.</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">// HTML as a string:
$html = "<div>This is <span> an <em>example</em>";
// Or as a file:
$html = file_get_contents( "example.html" );
// Turn the HTML into a Dom\HTMLDocument
$dom = \Dom\HTMLDocument::createFromString( $html, LIBXML_NOERROR, "UTF-8" );
// Create the pretty printer
$formatter = new Edent\PrettyPrintHtml\PrettyPrintHtml();
// Output the result
echo $formatter->serializeHtml( $dom );
</code></pre>
<h2 id="limitations"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#limitations" class="heading-link">Limitations</a></h2>
<p>Whitespace is <em>hard</em>. There are many different types. Sometimes it is for display, sometimes it isn't. Adding extra newlines and tabs almost certainly <em>will</em> cause layout changes somewhere on your page.</p>
<p>You can either change your CSS to minimise this, add elements to the <code>preserveElements</code> list to stop them being altered, or re-write your original HTML. The choice is yours.</p>
<h2 id="why"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#why" class="heading-link">Why</a></h2>
<p><a href="https://libraries.mit.edu/150books/2011/05/11/1985/">As was written long ago</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>A computer language is not just a way of getting a computer to perform operations but rather … it is a novel formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology. Thus, programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.</p></blockquote>
<p>PHP's new <code>Dom\HTMLDocument</code> class produces syntactically valid HTML code. The code is very easy for a computer to parse. But because there is no indenting, the code is difficult for a human to parse.</p>
<p>Adding newlines and indents before every new element can introduce spacing errors when the HTML is rendered to screen. Some of these can be fixed with extra CSS, some cannot</p>
<p>This pretty-printer attempts to make code readable for humans by striking a balance between legibility when rendered on screen or viewed as source code.</p>
<p>Why is human readability so important?</p>
<p>As <a href="https://ohhelloana.blog/in-defense-of-unpolished-websites/">Ana Rodrigues said</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Today's heavily optimized websites have largely killed the "view source" learning experience. The code is minified, bundled, and often incomprehensible to beginners trying to understand how things work. […] I want anyone, regardless of skill level, to inspect elements, understand the structure, and learn from readable code.</p></blockquote>
<p>Using this pretty printer should give you and your users an excellent "view source" experience, without sacrificing the browser's ability to render the code.</p>
<h2 id="next-steps"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#next-steps" class="heading-link">Next Steps</a></h2>
<p>I'm sure there are many bugs and oddities. I'd love you to <a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/pretty-print-html-using-php/">report any problems on GitLab</a>. Feel free to contribute test-cases and code.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>0</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Is this the smallest USB-C hub? ★★★★★]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-this-the-smallest-usb-c-hub/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59377</id>
<updated>2025-04-09T20:29:51Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-18T11:34:45Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="usb-c"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The gadget wizards at Benfei know that I'm a sucker for any sort of USB-C gadget. So when they offered to send me their micro-hub to review, how could I refuse? It is dinky! Here's what you get for your tenner USB-C PowerDelivery HDMI USB-A Frankly, I'm impressed that they managed to fit that much in! If you'll excuse my lacklustre photo-editing skills, here are the two output ports: …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-this-the-smallest-usb-c-hub/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>The gadget wizards at <a href="https://www.benfei.com">Benfei</a> know that I'm a sucker for any sort of USB-C gadget. So when they offered to send me their micro-hub to review, how could I refuse?</p>
<p>It is <em>dinky!</em></p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/dinky.jpg" alt="Tiny hub nestled in the palm of my hand." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59380">
<p>Here's what you get for your tenner</p>
<ul>
<li>USB-C PowerDelivery</li>
<li>HDMI</li>
<li>USB-A</li>
</ul>
<p>Frankly, I'm impressed that they managed to fit that much in!</p>
<p>If you'll excuse my lacklustre photo-editing skills, here are the two output ports:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/ports.jpg" alt="USB and HDMI ports on the sides." width="601" height="539" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59378">
<p>This is what it looks like plugged into a laptop:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/laptop.jpg" alt="Plugged into a Framework laptop. It is about as tall as the enter key." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59381">
<p>The spec says it will use about 10 Watts for the hub and pass the rest through. I used my <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/10/gadget-review-plugable-usb-c-voltage-amperage-meter-240w/">Plugable Power Meter</a> to measure throughput - my 65W charger supplied about 45W to the laptop. Perhaps a bit less than they claim, but certainly good enough.</p>
<p>It delivered 4K video flawlessly - my Linux laptop was able to play 60Hz videos without issue. And, of course, the USB-A port worked as expected.</p>
<p>But that's not the real challenge here, is it? USB-C is the future - how well does it work on a variety of devices?</p>
<p>Plugging in to my Pixel 8 Pro, the PowerDelivery hit 20W - which is decent. DP Alt-Mode is still experimental in Android, but GrapheneOS was able to drive video and audio to my TV. And, again, the USB port worked with a keyboard, thumb-drive, and other accessories.</p>
<p>Let's go for a bigger challenge. How does this thing cope with the Nintendo Switch?</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/switch.jpg" alt="Nintendo Switch with TV showing output." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59379">
<p>Brilliant! Sound, video, and power all worked!</p>
<p>The only real downside is that it doesn't do data passthrough on the power-in port. So you will lose a USB-C data-socket when using it. It is 48mm wide - so you may need an extension cable if your existing ports are very close together.</p>
<p>But, for a tenner, this is an absolute steal. It even comes with a tiny lanyard and keyring so you can keep it with you at all times.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>3</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[That's Not How A SIM Swap Attack Works]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/thats-not-how-a-sim-swap-attack-works/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59603</id>
<updated>2025-04-17T12:46:55Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-17T11:34:54Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="2fa"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="CyberSecurity"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="MFA"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="security"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="sim"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[There's a disturbing article in The Guardian about a person who was on the receiving end of a successful cybersecurity attack. EE texted to say they had processed my sim activation request, and the new sim would be active in 24 hours. I was told to contact them if I hadn’t requested this. I hadn’t, so I did so immediately. Twenty-four hours later, my mobile stopped working and money was wit…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/thats-not-how-a-sim-swap-attack-works/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>There's <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/apr/15/ee-was-unapologetic-after-i-tried-to-stop-a-sim-swap">a disturbing article in The Guardian</a> about a person who was on the receiving end of a successful cybersecurity attack.</p>
<blockquote><p>EE texted to say they had processed my sim activation request, and the new sim would be active in 24 hours. I was told to contact them if I hadn’t requested this. I hadn’t, so I did so immediately. Twenty-four hours later, my mobile stopped working and money was withdrawn from my bank account.
</p><p><strong>With their alien sim, the fraudster infiltrated my handset and stole details for every account I had.</strong> Passwords and logins had been changed for my finance, retail and some social media accounts. </p></blockquote>
<p>(Emphasis added.)</p>
<p>I realise it is in the consumer rights section of the newspaper, not the technology section, and I dare-say some editorialising has gone on, but that's <em>nonsense</em>.</p>
<p>Here's how a SIM swap works.</p>
<ol>
<li>Attacker convinces your phone company to reassign your telephone number to a new SIM.</li>
<li>Attacker goes to a website where you have an account, and initiates a password reset.</li>
<li>Website sends a verification code to your phone number, which is now in the hands of the attacker.</li>
<li>Attacker supplies verification code and gets into your account.</li>
</ol>
<p>Do you notice the missing step there?</p>
<p>At no point does the attacker "infiltrate" your handset. Your handset is still in your possession. The SIM is dead, but that doesn't give the attacker access to the phone itself. There is simply <strong>no way</strong> for someone to put a new SIM into their phone and automatically get access to your device.</p>
<p>Try it now. Take your SIM out of your phone and put it into a new one. Do all of your apps suddenly appear? Are your usernames and passwords visible to you? No.</p>
<p>There are ways to transfer your data from an <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210216">iPhone</a> or <a href="https://support.google.com/android/answer/13761358?hl=en">Android</a> - but they require a lot more work than swapping a SIM.</p>
<p>So how did the attacker know which websites to target and what username to use?</p>
<h2 id="what-probably-happened"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/thats-not-how-a-sim-swap-attack-works/#what-probably-happened" class="heading-link">What (Probably) Happened</a></h2>
<p>Let's assume the person in the article didn't have malware on their device and hadn't handed over all their details to a cold caller.</p>
<p>The most obvious answer is that the attacker <em>already</em> knew the victim's email address. Maybe the victim gave out their phone number and email to some dodgy site, or they're listed on their contact page, or something like that.</p>
<p>The attacker now has two routes.</p>
<p>First is "hit and hope". They try the email address on hundreds of popular sites' password reset page until they get a match. That's time-consuming given the vast volume of websites.</p>
<p>Second is targetting your email. If the attacker can get into your email, they can see which sites you use, who your bank is, and where you shop. They can target those specific sites, perform a password reset, and get your details.</p>
<p>I strongly suspect it is the latter which has happened. The swapped SIM was used to reset the victim's email password. Once in the email, all the accounts were easily found. At no point was the handset broken into.</p>
<h2 id="what-can-i-do-to-protect-myself"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/thats-not-how-a-sim-swap-attack-works/#what-can-i-do-to-protect-myself" class="heading-link">What can I do to protect myself?</a></h2>
<p>It is important to realise that <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/03/theres-nothing-you-can-do-to-prevent-a-sim-swap-attack/">there's nothing you can do to prevent a SIM-swap attack</a>! Your phone company is probably incompetent and their staff can easily be bribed. You do not control your phone number. If you get hit by a SIM swap, it almost certainly isn't your fault.</p>
<p>So here are some practical steps anyone can take to reduce the likelihood and effectiveness of this class of attack:</p>
<ul>
<li>Remember that <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/03/its-ok-to-lie-to-wifi-providers/">it's OK to lie to WiFi providers</a> and other people who ask for your details. You don't need to give someone your email for a receipt. You don't need to hand over your real phone number on a survey. This is the most important thing you can do.</li>
<li>Try to hack yourself. How easy would it be for an attacker who had stolen your phone number to also steal your email address? Open up a private browser window and try to reset your email password. What do you notice? How could you secure yourself better?</li>
<li>Don't use SMS for two-factor authentication. If you are given a choice of 2FA methods, use a dedicated app. If the only option you're given is SMS - contact the company to complain, or leave for a different provider.</li>
<li>Don't rely on a <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/scientits.bsky.social/post/3lmz2zaxkf22k">setting a PIN for your SIM</a>. The PIN only protects the physical SIM from being moved to a new device; it does nothing to stop your number being ported to a new SIM.</li>
<li>Finally, realise that professional criminals only need to be lucky once but you need to be lucky all the time.</li>
</ul>
<p>Stay safe out there.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>5</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Benfei SATA to USB-C Drive Enclosure ★★★★★]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-sata-to-usb-c-drive-enclosure/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59359</id>
<updated>2025-04-16T09:31:57Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-16T11:34:54Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="usb-c"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The good folks at Benfei know that I'm always losing my USB Thumb Drives. They're just too damn small. I crave something bigger and harder to lose. Not as huge as a CD Drive, but not as small as a MiniDisc. Something chunky and satisfying, with a slim elegance. So they've sent me their SATA to USB-C drive enclosure. It's a cute little box, with a built-in USB-C cable. The cable has one of…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-sata-to-usb-c-drive-enclosure/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>The good folks at Benfei know that I'm always losing my USB Thumb Drives. They're just too damn small. I crave something bigger and harder to lose. Not as huge as a CD Drive, but not as small as a MiniDisc. Something chunky and satisfying, with a slim elegance. So they've sent me their SATA to USB-C drive enclosure.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SATA-enclosure.jpg" alt="Hand-sized plastic box with a short cable." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59374">
<p>It's a cute little box, with a built-in USB-C cable.</p>
<p>The cable has one of those weird adapters which lets you convert it back to USB-A. Personally, I think we should force everyone to USB-C and not pander to the laggards who refuse to embrace the future. The box is "tool free" - which means you can slide the top off with ease.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SATA-port.jpg" alt="Plastic box with a SATA connector." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59373">
<p>Inside is the standard SATA plug, waiting for your disk. The unit also comes with some extra foam padding - so you can ensure nothing rattles around in there.</p>
<p>I couldn't find my SSD, but I had an old 320GB HDD laying around, so shoved that in there.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SATA-HDD.jpg" alt="Plastic unit with a small hard disk in it." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59372">
<p>As was to be expected, it is plug-and-play technology. For Linux nerds, this shows up as <code>152d:0583 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. JMS583Gen 2 to PCIe Gen3x2 Bridge</code>.</p>
<p>You can <a href="https://www.jmicron.com/file/download/1012/JMS583_Product+Brief.pdf">read the JMicron datasheed for the chip</a>.</p>
<p>For a laugh, I plugged it into my Android phone:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-usb-sata.png" alt="Android notification saying the drive is ready to set up." width="1024" height="248" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59375">
<p>USB-C has reached the sort of maturity where you can be reasonably sure that plugging in random gadgets will just work.</p>
<p>I did a quick drive benchmark and it seemed to top out at 60MB/s for reading and writing. To be fair, that may just be the age of my piece of spinning rust.</p>
<p>For less than a tenner, this is a great gadget to have in your bag. It's quick and simple to open, you don't need to faff around with screws. The cable is a little short - but you probably don't want it trailing all over your desk.</p>
<p>Oh, and it has a blue LED to let you know it is working. Thankfully, it isn't overly bright so doesn't cause a distraction.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>1</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Benfei USB-C to Ethernet Adapter ★★★★★]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-usb-c-to-ethernet-adapter/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59361</id>
<updated>2025-04-13T16:26:42Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-15T11:34:47Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="usb-c"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Sure, WiFi is basically fine. But sometimes you need the raw power, high speed, and utter reliability of Ethernet. Billions of packets hurtling down twisted copper pair in order to deliver your data - that's what it is all about, right? But - alas! - laptops don't have Ethernet ports these days. And mobile phones tend to shun them as well. Who can save us from the tyranny of multi-GigaHertz…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-usb-c-to-ethernet-adapter/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Sure, WiFi is basically fine. But sometimes you need the raw power, high speed, and utter reliability of Ethernet. Billions of packets hurtling down twisted copper pair in order to deliver your data - that's what it is all about, right?</p>
<p>But - alas! - laptops don't have Ethernet ports these days. And mobile phones tend to shun them as well. Who can save us from the tyranny of multi-GigaHertz radiowaves?!</p>
<p>The good folk at Benfei have sent me their latest gadget and, somehow, I need to make 300 words out of "plug into device, plug in Ethernet cable, data go fast". Let's see how that goes!</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/USB-C-Ethernet.jpg" alt="A USB-C to Ethernet converter." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59369">
<p>My hands trembling, I plugged in the svelte USB-C plug into my waiting laptop. With a satisfying "clunk", the Ethernet cable docked into the waiting receptacle. An instant later, subtle LEDs began to flicker as the data pulsed through the CAT6 and into my computer.</p>
<p>For Linux nerds, this is a <code>0bda:8153 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter</code>. Plugging it in just worked - although there are <a href="https://www.benfei.com/pages/drivers">drivers for Linux, Mac, and Windows</a> if you need them.</p>
<p>Just for a laugh, I plugged it into my Android phone and - amazingly - it also just worked. I was free from the shackles of poor 5G coverage. Well, I could only go as far as my Ethernet cable stretched, but the speeds were fantastic.</p>
<p>This claims to be good up to 1Gbps. Sadly, I downgraded my <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/12/whats-the-point-in-gigabit-broadband/">Gigabit broadband</a>, but let's see just how fast it can go. Here's a speed test run from my Android phone:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/620.png" alt="620 Mbps." width="504" height="653" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59368">
<p>Fair play! That totally maxed out my home broadband.</p>
<h2 id="verdict"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-usb-c-to-ethernet-adapter/#verdict" class="heading-link">Verdict</a></h2>
<p>It's a cute little unit. For about a tenner - depending on how The Algorithm feels - this can't be beat. The short cable is nicely braided, the silver design is inoffensive, and you get the standard Ethernet blinkenlights to tell you it's working.</p>
<p>Please click the affiliate links so my family doesn't starve.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>4</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[You don't need an API key to archive Twitter Data]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59462</id>
<updated>2025-04-14T10:53:38Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-14T11:34:07Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="api"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HowTo"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="twitter"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Apparently there's no need for IP laws any more, so here's a way to archive high-fidelity Twitter data without signing up for an expensive API key. This is perfect for academics wishing to preserve Tweets, journalists wanting to download evidence, or simply embedding content without leaking user data back to Twitter. Table of Contentstl;drBackgroundEmbed CodeAPI CallOptionsOutputTweet With…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Apparently <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/ednewtonrex.bsky.social/post/3lmmv4x7gps2a">there's no need for IP laws any more</a>, so here's a way to archive high-fidelity Twitter data without signing up for an expensive API key.</p>
<p>This is perfect for academics wishing to preserve Tweets, journalists wanting to download evidence, or simply embedding content without leaking user data back to Twitter.</p>
<p></p><nav id="toc"><menu id="toc-start"><li id="toc-title"><h2 id="table-of-contents"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#table-of-contents" class="heading-link">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#tldr">tl;dr</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#background">Background</a><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#embed-code">Embed Code</a></li></menu></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#api-call">API Call</a><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#options">Options</a></li></menu></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#output">Output</a><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#tweet-with-image">Tweet With Image</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#replies">Replies</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#quote-tweets">Quote Tweets</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#downloading-media">Downloading Media</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#other-examples">Other Examples</a></li></menu></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#limitations">Limitations</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#python-code">Python Code</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#have-fun">Have Fun</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>
<h2 id="tldr"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#tldr" class="heading-link">tl;dr</a></h2>
<p>You can get the full JSON code of any Tweet by using this API:</p>
<p><code>https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=123456789&token=01010101010</code></p>
<p>Add any valid Twitter <code>id</code>, and choose a random number for your <code>token</code>. Done.</p>
<h2 id="background"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#background" class="heading-link">Background</a></h2>
<p>Twitter has an "embed" functionality. Websites can import a full copy of a Tweet, including its media and metadata. <a href="https://create.twitter.com/en/products/embedded-tweets">Twitter's documentation is a little lacklustre</a> but here's a brief explanation of how it works.</p>
<h3 id="embed-code"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#embed-code" class="heading-link">Embed Code</a></h3>
<p>Using HTML like this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><iframe
src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=719484841172054016"
width=512
height=768></iframe>
</code></pre>
<p>Produces an embeddable which looks like this:</p>
<iframe src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=719484841172054016" width="512" height="768"></iframe>
<h2 id="api-call"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#api-call" class="heading-link">API Call</a></h2>
<p>With a bit of sniffing of the traffic, it's possible to see that the iframe eventually calls a URl like this:</p>
<p><a style="font-family:monospace;" href="https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=719484841172054016&token=123">https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=719484841172054016&token=123</a></p>
<p>Visit that and you'll see the JSON code of a Tweet.</p>
<h3 id="options"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#options" class="heading-link">Options</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><code>id=</code> this is the numeric ID of the Tweet.</li>
<li><code>token=</code> this is the API token. It can be set to a random number. It isn't checked.</li>
<li>There's an optional <code>lang=</code> which takes <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IETF_language_tag">BCP47 language codes</a>. For example <code>lang=en</code> or <code>lang=zh</code>. However, they don't seem to make any difference to the output.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="output"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#output" class="heading-link">Output</a></h2>
<p>Here's the JSON of the above Tweet. As you can see, it includes metadata on the number of replies, favourites, and retweets. There are entities, fully expanded links, and media in a variety of formats. There's also information on whether the post has been edited, if the user is stupid enough to pay for a blue-tick, and the language of the message.</p>
<h3 id="tweet-with-image"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#tweet-with-image" class="heading-link">Tweet With Image</a></h3>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"__typename": "Tweet",
"lang": "en",
"favorite_count": 4,
"possibly_sensitive": false,
"created_at": "2016-04-11T11:18:48.000Z",
"display_text_range": [
0,
120
],
"entities": {
"hashtags": [],
"urls": [],
"user_mentions": [
{
"id_str": "23937508",
"indices": [
20,
30
],
"name": "BBC Radio 4",
"screen_name": "BBCRadio4"
}
],
"symbols": [],
"media": [
{
"display_url": "pic.x.com/6F3ZSiWuIn",
"expanded_url": "https://x.com/edent/status/719484841172054016/photo/1",
"indices": [
97,
120
],
"url": "https://t.co/6F3ZSiWuIn"
}
]
},
"id_str": "719484841172054016",
"text": "Warning! I'll be on @BBCRadio4's You And Yours shortly.\nPlease tune your wirelesses accordingly. https://t.co/6F3ZSiWuIn",
"user": {
"id_str": "14054507",
"name": "Terence Eden is on Mastodon",
"profile_image_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1623225628530016260/SW0HsKjP_normal.jpg",
"screen_name": "edent",
"verified": false,
"is_blue_verified": false,
"profile_image_shape": "Circle"
},
"edit_control": {
"edit_tweet_ids": [
"719484841172054016"
],
"editable_until_msecs": "1460375328174",
"is_edit_eligible": true,
"edits_remaining": "5"
},
"mediaDetails": [
{
"display_url": "pic.x.com/6F3ZSiWuIn",
"expanded_url": "https://x.com/edent/status/719484841172054016/photo/1",
"ext_media_availability": {
"status": "Available"
},
"indices": [
97,
120
],
"media_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfwfpnJWwAEXwe3.jpg",
"original_info": {
"height": 1280,
"width": 960,
"focus_rects": []
},
"sizes": {
"large": {
"h": 1280,
"resize": "fit",
"w": 960
},
"medium": {
"h": 1200,
"resize": "fit",
"w": 900
},
"small": {
"h": 680,
"resize": "fit",
"w": 510
},
"thumb": {
"h": 150,
"resize": "crop",
"w": 150
}
},
"type": "photo",
"url": "https://t.co/6F3ZSiWuIn"
}
],
"photos": [
{
"backgroundColor": {
"red": 204,
"green": 214,
"blue": 221
},
"cropCandidates": [],
"expandedUrl": "https://x.com/edent/status/719484841172054016/photo/1",
"url": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfwfpnJWwAEXwe3.jpg",
"width": 960,
"height": 1280
}
],
"conversation_count": 1,
"news_action_type": "conversation",
"isEdited": false,
"isStaleEdit": false
}
</code></pre>
<h3 id="replies"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#replies" class="heading-link">Replies</a></h3>
<p>Here's a more complicated example. This Tweet is in reply to another Tweet - so both messages are included:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"__typename": "Tweet",
"in_reply_to_screen_name": "edent",
"in_reply_to_status_id_str": "1095653997644574720",
"in_reply_to_user_id_str": "14054507",
"lang": "en",
"favorite_count": 0,
"created_at": "2019-02-13T12:22:59.000Z",
"display_text_range": [
7,
252
],
"entities": {
"hashtags": [],
"urls": [],
"user_mentions": [
{
"id_str": "14054507",
"indices": [
0,
6
],
"name": "Terence Eden is on Mastodon",
"screen_name": "edent"
}
],
"symbols": []
},
"id_str": "1095659600420966400",
"text": "@edent I can definitely see how this would get in the way of making your day a productive one. Do you find this happens often? If it does, I'd be happy to chat to you about a reliable alternative with us during your lunch break! ☕ PM me for a chat! ^JH",
"user": {
"id_str": "20139563",
"name": "Sky",
"profile_image_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1674689671006240769/OpfisqRG_normal.jpg",
"screen_name": "SkyUK",
"verified": false,
"verified_type": "Business",
"is_blue_verified": false,
"profile_image_shape": "Square"
},
"edit_control": {
"edit_tweet_ids": [
"1095659600420966400"
],
"editable_until_msecs": "1550062379768",
"is_edit_eligible": true,
"edits_remaining": "5"
},
"conversation_count": 2,
"news_action_type": "conversation",
"parent": {
"lang": "en",
"reply_count": 2,
"retweet_count": 1,
"favorite_count": 1,
"possibly_sensitive": false,
"created_at": "2019-02-13T12:00:43.000Z",
"display_text_range": [
0,
112
],
"entities": {
"hashtags": [],
"urls": [],
"user_mentions": [
{
"id_str": "17872077",
"indices": [
33,
45
],
"name": "Virgin Media ❤",
"screen_name": "virginmedia"
}
],
"symbols": [],
"media": [
{
"display_url": "pic.x.com/mje6nh38CZ",
"expanded_url": "https://x.com/edent/status/1095653997644574720/photo/1",
"indices": [
113,
136
],
"url": "https://t.co/mje6nh38CZ"
}
]
},
"id_str": "1095653997644574720",
"text": "Working from home is tricky when @virginmedia goes down so hard even its status page falls over.\nTime for lunch. https://t.co/mje6nh38CZ",
"user": {
"id_str": "14054507",
"name": "Terence Eden is on Mastodon",
"profile_image_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1623225628530016260/SW0HsKjP_normal.jpg",
"screen_name": "edent",
"verified": false,
"is_blue_verified": false,
"profile_image_shape": "Circle"
},
"edit_control": {
"edit_tweet_ids": [
"1095653997644574720"
],
"editable_until_msecs": "1550061043962",
"is_edit_eligible": true,
"edits_remaining": "5"
},
"mediaDetails": [
{
"display_url": "pic.x.com/mje6nh38CZ",
"expanded_url": "https://x.com/edent/status/1095653997644574720/photo/1",
"ext_alt_text": "Oops! something's broken! ",
"ext_media_availability": {
"status": "Available"
},
"indices": [
113,
136
],
"media_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzSLf6sWsAAGWWH.jpg",
"original_info": {
"height": 797,
"width": 1080,
"focus_rects": [
{
"x": 0,
"y": 192,
"w": 1080,
"h": 605
},
{
"x": 142,
"y": 0,
"w": 797,
"h": 797
},
{
"x": 191,
"y": 0,
"w": 699,
"h": 797
},
{
"x": 341,
"y": 0,
"w": 399,
"h": 797
},
{
"x": 0,
"y": 0,
"w": 1080,
"h": 797
}
]
},
"sizes": {
"large": {
"h": 797,
"resize": "fit",
"w": 1080
},
"medium": {
"h": 797,
"resize": "fit",
"w": 1080
},
"small": {
"h": 502,
"resize": "fit",
"w": 680
},
"thumb": {
"h": 150,
"resize": "crop",
"w": 150
}
},
"type": "photo",
"url": "https://t.co/mje6nh38CZ"
}
],
"photos": [
{
"accessibilityLabel": "Oops! something's broken! ",
"backgroundColor": {
"red": 204,
"green": 214,
"blue": 221
},
"cropCandidates": [
{
"x": 0,
"y": 192,
"w": 1080,
"h": 605
},
{
"x": 142,
"y": 0,
"w": 797,
"h": 797
},
{
"x": 191,
"y": 0,
"w": 699,
"h": 797
},
{
"x": 341,
"y": 0,
"w": 399,
"h": 797
},
{
"x": 0,
"y": 0,
"w": 1080,
"h": 797
}
],
"expandedUrl": "https://x.com/edent/status/1095653997644574720/photo/1",
"url": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzSLf6sWsAAGWWH.jpg",
"width": 1080,
"height": 797
}
],
"isEdited": false,
"isStaleEdit": false
},
"isEdited": false,
"isStaleEdit": false
}
</code></pre>
<h3 id="quote-tweets"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#quote-tweets" class="heading-link">Quote Tweets</a></h3>
<p>Here's an example where I have quoted a Tweet:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"__typename": "Tweet",
"lang": "en",
"favorite_count": 9,
"possibly_sensitive": false,
"created_at": "2022-08-19T13:36:44.000Z",
"display_text_range": [
0,
182
],
"entities": {
"hashtags": [],
"urls": [
{
"display_url": "gu.com",
"expanded_url": "http://gu.com",
"indices": [
17,
40
],
"url": "https://t.co/Skj7FB7Tyt"
}
],
"user_mentions": [],
"symbols": []
},
"id_str": "1560621791470448642",
"text": "Whoever buys the https://t.co/Skj7FB7Tyt domain will effectively get to rewrite history.\nThey can redirect links like these - and change the nature of the content being commented on.",
"user": {
"id_str": "14054507",
"name": "Terence Eden is on Mastodon",
"profile_image_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1623225628530016260/SW0HsKjP_normal.jpg",
"screen_name": "edent",
"verified": false,
"is_blue_verified": false,
"profile_image_shape": "Circle"
},
"edit_control": {
"edit_tweet_ids": [
"1560621791470448642"
],
"editable_until_msecs": "1660918004000",
"is_edit_eligible": true,
"edits_remaining": "5"
},
"conversation_count": 4,
"news_action_type": "conversation",
"quoted_tweet": {
"lang": "en",
"reply_count": 131,
"retweet_count": 1337,
"favorite_count": 2789,
"possibly_sensitive": false,
"created_at": "2018-11-27T15:56:19.000Z",
"display_text_range": [
0,
279
],
"entities": {
"hashtags": [],
"urls": [
{
"display_url": "gu.com/p/axa7k/stw",
"expanded_url": "https://gu.com/p/axa7k/stw",
"indices": [
256,
279
],
"url": "https://t.co/UulPL1CtcK"
}
],
"user_mentions": [],
"symbols": []
},
"id_str": "1067447032363794432",
"text": "The Steele Dossier asserted Russian hacking of the DNC was \"conducted with the full knowledge &amp; support of Trump &amp; senior members of his campaign.” Trump's war against the FBI &amp; efforts to obstruct make sense if he thought they could prove it. https://t.co/UulPL1CtcK",
"user": {
"id_str": "548384458",
"name": "Joyce Alene",
"profile_image_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/952257848301498371/5s24RH-g_normal.jpg",
"screen_name": "JoyceWhiteVance",
"verified": false,
"is_blue_verified": true,
"profile_image_shape": "Circle"
},
"edit_control": {
"edit_tweet_ids": [
"1067447032363794432"
],
"editable_until_msecs": "1543335979379",
"is_edit_eligible": true,
"edits_remaining": "5"
},
"isEdited": false,
"isStaleEdit": false
},
"isEdited": false,
"isStaleEdit": false
}
</code></pre>
<h3 id="downloading-media"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#downloading-media" class="heading-link">Downloading Media</a></h3>
<p>Videos are also available to download, with no restrictions, in a variety of resolutions:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json"> "mediaDetails": [
{
"type": "video",
"url": "https://t.co/Qw1IFom7Fh",
"video_info": {
"aspect_ratio": [
3,
4
],
"duration_millis": 13578,
"variants": [
{
"content_type": "application/x-mpegURL",
"url": "https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/pl/DiIKFNNZLWbLmECm.m3u8?tag=12"
},
{
"bitrate": 632000,
"content_type": "video/mp4",
"url": "https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/320x426/oq2p-t0RJEEKuDD6.mp4?tag=12"
},
{
"bitrate": 950000,
"content_type": "video/mp4",
"url": "https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/480x640/3X8ZsBmXmmaaakmM.mp4?tag=12"
},
{
"bitrate": 2176000,
"content_type": "video/mp4",
"url": "https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/720x960/sS9cLdGn93eUmvKC.mp4?tag=12"
}
]
}
}
],
</code></pre>
<h3 id="other-examples"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#other-examples" class="heading-link">Other Examples</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=909106648928718848&lang=en&token=123456">Multiple Images</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=670060095972245504&lang=en&token=123456">Polls</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=83659275024601088&lang=en&token=123456">Deleted Message</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=1131218926493413377&lang=en&token=123456">Summary Cards</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="limitations"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#limitations" class="heading-link">Limitations</a></h2>
<p>There are a few small limitations with this approach.</p>
<ul>
<li>It doesn't capture replies
<ul>
<li>If the Tweet is in reply to something, it will capture the parent.</li>
<li>If the Tweet quotes something, it will capture the quoted Tweet.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>The counts for replies, retweets, and favourites may not be accurate
<ul>
<li>Older messages seem worse for this, but that's a natural part of digital decay.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Reduced metadata
<ul>
<li>The official API used to tell you which device was used to post the message, user's timezone, and other bits of useful information.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>You need to know the ID of the Tweet
<ul>
<li>There's no way to automatically grab every Tweet by a user, or from a search.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Sometimes the API stops responding
<ul>
<li>Change the token to another random number.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Occasionally replies and quotes won't be included
<ul>
<li>Calling the API again often recovers the data.</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="python-code"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#python-code" class="heading-link">Python Code</a></h2>
<p>If you're technically inclined, I've <a href="https://github.com/edent/Tweet2Embed">written some Python code to automate turning the JSON into HTML</a>.</p>
<h2 id="have-fun"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#have-fun" class="heading-link">Have Fun</a></h2>
<p>Remember, the owner of Twitter no longer believes in IP law. So I guess you can go nuts and download all of Twitter's data and use it for any purpose?</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
<link href="https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/320x426/oq2p-t0RJEEKuDD6.mp4?tag=12" rel="enclosure" length="416756" type="video/mp4"/>
<link href="https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/480x640/3X8ZsBmXmmaaakmM.mp4?tag=12" rel="enclosure" length="786328" type="video/mp4"/>
<link href="https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/720x960/sS9cLdGn93eUmvKC.mp4?tag=12" rel="enclosure" length="1546364" type="video/mp4"/>
<link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#comments" thr:count="2"/>
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<thr:total>2</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: Great Robots of History by Tim Major ★★★⯪☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-great-robots-of-history-by-tim-major/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59406</id>
<updated>2025-04-10T21:09:10Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-13T11:34:51Z</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="robots"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Sci Fi"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[This is a lovely and twisted anthology of stories. Each presents a "historic" robot - be they an automaton, a puppet given life by the gods, or a resurrected villager. Some, like the Mechanical Turk, are historical fact but others are invented just for us to gawk at. The stories are mostly dark and brooding, with the macabre turn. They're fun - but the constant theme is "what if I, an…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-great-robots-of-history-by-tim-major/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><img decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Great-Robots-of-History-500.jpg" alt="Pygmalion kissing a statue who has been brought to life." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-59407">This is a lovely and twisted anthology of stories. Each presents a "historic" robot - be they an automaton, a puppet given life by the gods, or a resurrected villager. Some, like the Mechanical Turk, are historical fact but others are invented just for us to gawk at.</p>
<p>The stories are mostly dark and brooding, with the macabre turn. They're fun - but the constant theme is "what if I, an intelligent person, got trapped in the brain of a dullard?" Robots who are self-aware of their limitations reveal to us how terrifying dementia must be.</p>
<p>We meet robots who are reassured that they are without sin, and those which long to sin. Perhaps malicious dæmons reside in their programming just as bugs reside in our souls?</p>
<p>A fine collection.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
<link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-great-robots-of-history-by-tim-major/#comments" thr:count="0"/>
<link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-great-robots-of-history-by-tim-major/feed/atom/" thr:count="0"/>
<thr:total>0</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Benfei Laptop Riser with Built-In USB-C Dock ★★★☆☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59363</id>
<updated>2025-04-09T18:31:40Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-12T11:34:32Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="usb-c"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The good folks at Benfei have sent me a laptop stand to review. You know the drill, a few pieces of metal, some hinges, and rubber feet. But this stand holds a little more interest for the gadget lover - a built in USB-C hub! What do you get for your £35? USB-C power input - capable of taking 100W of PowerDelivery. A built-in USB-C cable to connect to your laptop. HDMI port which supports 4k …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>The good folks at Benfei have sent me a laptop stand to review. You know the drill, a few pieces of metal, some hinges, and rubber feet. But this stand holds a little more interest for the gadget lover - a built in USB-C hub!</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/benfei-dock-riser.jpg" alt="A metal laptop stand with USB ports built in." width="1000" height="922" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59366">
<p>What do you get for your £35?</p>
<ul>
<li>USB-C power input - capable of taking 100W of PowerDelivery.</li>
<li>A built-in USB-C cable to connect to your laptop.</li>
<li>HDMI port which supports 4k @ 60Hz.</li>
<li>Four USB-A ports.</li>
</ul>
<p>And that's it! There isn't any DisplayPort, no Ethernet, no sound, no extra USB-C ports. It is, I have to say, a little bare-bones.</p>
<p>The smarts are powered by a <a href="http://www.bridgesil.com.cn/upload/20240815145503.pdf">Bridgesil USB 3.2 chip</a>. For Linux nerds, it shows up as <code>35d6:3510 Bridgesil USB3.2 Hub</code> and <code>35d6:2510 Bridgesil USB2.1 Hub</code>.</p>
<h2 id="putting-it-through-its-paces"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/#putting-it-through-its-paces" class="heading-link">Putting it through its paces</a></h2>
<p>The 4K HDMI worked flawlessly. As you'd expect from HDMI, the picture clarity was perfectly reproduced. My 60Hz videos played without tearing or juddering.</p>
<p>Similarly, it's hard to go wrong with basic USB ports. Everything I plugged into them worked. USB disk speeds seemed fine. Read speeds were around 40MB/s and write speeds about the same. Pretty much what you'd expect - although I suspect this is more geared towards keyboard, mice, printers, and other office devices.</p>
<p>Power was OK. I took measurements with <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/10/gadget-review-plugable-usb-c-voltage-amperage-meter-240w/">my Plugable power meter</a>. I used a 65W charger, but the maximum I could get it to deliver to the hub was 50W (19.77v, 2.53A). Output to the laptop stuck at around 48W. There's usually a little drop off between the two as the hub itself requires some power. How much juice does your laptop need while you're doom-scrolling?</p>
<h2 id="verdict"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/#verdict" class="heading-link">Verdict</a></h2>
<p>As a laptop stand, it is brilliant. Easily adjustable, good range of movement, and some hefty rubber cushions to prevent slipping.</p>
<p>The USB features on it work - charging is fast enough, HDMI is crisp, and the USB-A ports are decent - but I just wish it had a <em>bit</em> more. Personally, I didn't like the USB ports being at the front - it meant that the cables kept getting in my way. I didn't <em>need</em> an extra HDMI port - but some extra USB-C ports would have been useful, as would Ethernet and sound.</p>
<p>If you're happy with a single HDMI and four A ports, this is fine. But if your needs are more complex or you require more power, you might want to buy a more fully-featured dock.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
<link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/#comments" thr:count="2"/>
<link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/feed/atom/" thr:count="2"/>
<thr:total>2</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[FobCam '25 - All my MFA tokens on one page]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59334</id>
<updated>2025-04-11T09:35:20Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-11T11:34:34Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="2fa"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="CyberSecurity"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="MFA"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Satire (Probably)"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="security"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Some ideas are timeless. Back in 2004, an anonymous genius set up "FobCam". Tired of having to carry around an RSA SecurID token everywhere, our hero simply left the fob at home with an early webcam pointing at it. And then left the page open for all to see. Security expert Bruce Schneier approved of this trade-off between security and usability - saying what we're all thinking: Here’s a guy w…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Some ideas are timeless. Back in 2004, an anonymous genius set up "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060215092922/http://fob.webhop.net/">FobCam</a>". Tired of having to carry around an RSA SecurID token everywhere, our hero simply left the fob at home with an early webcam pointing at it. And then left the page open for all to see.</p>
<img decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/FobCam-fs8.png" alt="Website with a grainy webcam photo of a SecurID fob." width="512" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59341">
<p>Security expert Bruce Schneier approved<sup id="fnref:🫠"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:🫠" class="footnote-ref" title="🫠" role="doc-noteref">0</a></sup> of this trade-off between security and usability - saying what we're all thinking:</p>
<blockquote><p>Here’s a guy who has a webcam pointing at his SecurID token, so he doesn’t have to remember to carry it around. Here’s the strange thing: unless you know who the webpage belongs to, it’s still good security.
<a href="https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram/archives/2004/0815.html#:~:text=webcam">Crypto-Gram - August 15, 2004</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Nowadays, we have to carry dozens of these tokens with us. Although, unlike the poor schmucks of 2004, we have an app for that. But I don't always have access to my phone. Sometimes I'm in a secure location where I can't access my electronics. Sometimes my phone gets stolen, and I need to log into Facebook to whinge about it. Sometimes I just can't be bothered to remember which fingerprint unlocks my phone<sup id="fnref:🖕"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:🖕" class="footnote-ref" title="🖕" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup>.</p>
<p>Using the <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/03/using-the-web-crypto-api-to-generate-totp-codes-in-javascript-without-3rd-party-libraries/">Web Crypto API, it is easy to Generate TOTP Codes in JavaScript directly in the browser</a>. So here are all my important MFA tokens. If I ever need to log in somewhere, I can just visit this page and grab the code I need<sup id="fnref:🙃"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:🙃" class="footnote-ref" title="🙃" role="doc-noteref">2</a></sup>.</p>
<h2 id="all-my-important-codes"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#all-my-important-codes" class="heading-link">All My Important Codes</a></h2>
<table>
<tbody><tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/github.svg" width="100" title="Github"></td><td id="otp0"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/bitwarden.svg" width="100" title="BitWarden"></td><td id="otp1"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/apple.svg" width="100" title="Apple"></td><td id="otp2"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/ebay.svg" width="100" title="ebay"></td><td id="otp3"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/amazon.svg" width="100" title="Amazon"></td><td id="otp4"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/npm.svg" width="100" title="NPM"></td><td id="otp5"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/paypal.svg" width="100" title="PayPal"></td><td id="otp6"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/facebook.svg" width="100" title="Facebook"></td><td id="otp7"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/zoom.svg" width="100" title="Zoom"></td><td id="otp8"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/linkedin.svg" width="100" title="LinkedIn"></td><td id="otp9"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h2 id="what-the-actual-fuck"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#what-the-actual-fuck" class="heading-link">What The <em>Actual</em> Fuck?</a></h2>
<p>A 2007 paper called <a href="https://cups.cs.cmu.edu/soups/2007/proceedings/p64_bauer.pdf">Lessons learned from the deployment of a smartphone-based access-control system</a> looked at whether fobs met the needs of their users:</p>
<blockquote> However, we observed that end users tend to be most concerned about how convenient [fobs] are to use. There are many examples of end users of widely used access-control technologies readily sacrificing security for convenience. For example, it is well known that users often write their passwords on post-it notes and stick them to their computer monitors. Other users are more inventive: a good example is the user who pointed a webcam at his fob and published the image online so he would not have to carry the fob around.</blockquote>
<p>As for Schneier's suggestion that anonymity added protection, a contemporary report noted that <a href="https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram/archives/2004/0915.html#:~:text=Fobcam">the owner of the FobCam site was trivial to identify</a><sup id="fnref:dox"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:dox" class="footnote-ref" title="The neologism "doxing" hadn't yet been invented." role="doc-noteref">3</a></sup>.</p>
<p>Every security system involves trade-offs. I have a password manager, but with over a thousand passwords in it, the process of navigating and maintaining becomes a burden. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/08/i-have-4-2fa-coverage/">The number of 2FA tokens I have is also rising</a>. All of these security factors need backing up. Those back-ups need testing<sup id="fnref:back"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:back" class="footnote-ref" title="As was written by the prophets: "Only wimps use tape backup: real men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it"" role="doc-noteref">4</a></sup>. It is an endless cycle of drudgery.</p>
<p>What's a rational user supposed to do<sup id="fnref:rat"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:rat" class="footnote-ref" title="I in no way imply that I am rational." role="doc-noteref">5</a></sup>? I suppose I could buy a couple of hardware keys, keep one in an off-site location, but somehow keep both in sync, and hope that a firmware-update doesn't brick them.</p>
<p>Should I just upload all of my passwords, tokens, secrets, recovery codes, passkeys, and biometrics<sup id="fnref:bro"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:bro" class="footnote-ref" title="Just one more factor, that'll fix security, just gotta add one more factor bro." role="doc-noteref">6</a></sup> into the cloud?</p>
<p>The cloud is just someone else's computer. This website is <em>my</em> computer. So I'm going to upload all my factors here. What's the worst that could happen<sup id="fnref:🤯"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:🤯" class="footnote-ref" title="This is left as an exercise for the reader." role="doc-noteref">7</a></sup>.</p>
<script>async function generateTOTP(
base32Secret = "QWERTY",
interval = 30,
length = 6,
algorithm = "SHA-1" ) {
// Decode the secret
// The Base32 Alphabet is specified at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4648#section-6
const alphabet = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ234567";
let bits = "";
// Some secrets are padded with the `=` character. Remove padding.
// https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3548#section-2.2
base32Secret = base32Secret.replace( /=+$/, "" )
// Loop through the trimmed secret
for ( let char of base32Secret ) {
// Ensure the secret's characters are upper case
const value = alphabet.indexOf( char.toUpperCase() );
// If the character doesn't appear in the alphabet.
if (value === -1) throw new Error( "Invalid Base32 character" );
// Binary representation of where the character is in the alphabet
bits += value.toString( 2 ).padStart( 5, "0" );
}
// Turn the bits into bytes
let bytes = [];
// Loop through the bits, eight at a time
for ( let i = 0; i < bits.length; i += 8 ) {
if ( bits.length - i >= 8 ) {
bytes.push( parseInt( bits.substring( i, i + 8 ), 2 ) );
}
}
// Turn those bytes into an array
const decodedSecret = new Uint8Array( bytes );
// Number of seconds since Unix Epoch
const timeStamp = Date.now() / 1000;
// Number of intervals since Unix Epoch
// https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6238#section-4.2
const timeCounter = Math.floor( timeStamp / interval );
// Number of intervals in hexadecimal
const timeHex = timeCounter.toString( 16 );
// Left-Pad with 0
const paddedHex = timeHex.padStart( 16, "0" );
// Set up a buffer to hold the data
const timeBuffer = new ArrayBuffer( 8 );
const timeView = new DataView( timeBuffer );
// Take the hex string, split it into 2-character chunks
const timeBytes = paddedHex.match( /.{1,2}/g ).map(
// Convert to bytes
byte => parseInt( byte, 16 )
);
// Write each byte into timeBuffer.
for ( let i = 0; i < 8; i++ ) {
timeView.setUint8(i, timeBytes[i]);
}
// Use Web Crypto API to generate the HMAC key
// https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/SubtleCrypto/importKey
const key = await crypto.subtle.importKey(
"raw",
decodedSecret,
{
name: "HMAC",
hash: algorithm
},
false,
["sign"]
);
// Sign the timeBuffer with the generated HMAC key
// https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/SubtleCrypto/sign
const signature = await crypto.subtle.sign( "HMAC", key, timeBuffer );
// Get HMAC as bytes
const hmac = new Uint8Array( signature );
// https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4226#section-5.4
// Use the last byte to generate the offset
const offset = hmac[ hmac.length - 1 ] & 0x0f;
// Bit Twiddling operations
const binaryCode =
( ( hmac[ offset ] & 0x7f ) << 24 ) |
( ( hmac[ offset + 1 ] & 0xff ) << 16 ) |
( ( hmac[ offset + 2 ] & 0xff ) << 8 ) |
( ( hmac[ offset + 3 ] & 0xff ) );
// Turn the binary code into a decimal string
const stringOTP = binaryCode.toString();
// Count backwards from the last character for the length of the code
let otp = stringOTP.slice( -length)
// Pad with 0 to full length
otp = otp.padStart( length, "0" );
// All done!
return otp;
}
// Placeholder for OTPs
var otps = [];
// Do you really think these are my genuine codes? At least one of them is. But which?
var otpData =
[
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "IPT5TRO7VFK66M6SHUJ7XZNM2U6IZZ4L"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "EXGKOX26KMDSTL6KM3BYMPXXDDKNQEYM"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "UGVGXRQFHY62OWI5SGSTZLIQUMXTTVME"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "Y4UHVLFIZZZK7ENDYZ4O3ZZI2QWUJI37"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "Z2KDRL4ELOCDALT3OSNUK65Z2KPOWGUL"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "OWRQKSCBLRUZXYXLXIDATUK6UTG3CPVV"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "XQLSEGNYPBMVK35ZMDTVN5GFOZB46WJJ"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "M3KVKGRB2WVWOZXN437EMF2MS36G75IR",
"Comment" : "This is genuinely my Twitter TOTP secret - although the period should be 30. But what's the password? There's a clue somewhere in this source code!",
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "3EMER2B6YXIFMMAY5XBYLNF4NSEGJXCU"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "ZML6O5K7QSVFE5QIWNFFT7BIZI7PBHNV"
}
]
var i = 0;
otpData.forEach (
item => {
// Add OTP
otps[i] = item;
i++;
}
);
// Generate TOTP codes
async function update() {
for (var i = 0; i < otps.length; i++){
// Convert the algorithm
// The algorithm name is different for TOTP and Web Crypto(!)
algorithm = "SHA-1";
document.getElementById( "otp" + i).innerHTML = await generateTOTP(
otps[i]["secret"],
otps[i]["period"],
otps[i]["digits"],
algorithm
);
}
}
// Update every second
setInterval(update, 1000);
</script>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<hr>
<ol start="0">
<li id="fn:🫠" role="doc-endnote">
<p><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1fae0.png" alt="🫠" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:🫠" 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>
<li id="fn:🖕" role="doc-endnote">
<p><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f595.png" alt="🖕" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:🖕" 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>
<li id="fn:🙃" role="doc-endnote">
<p><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f643.png" alt="🙃" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:🙃" 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>
<li id="fn:dox" role="doc-endnote">
<p>The neologism "doxing" hadn't yet been invented. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:dox" 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>
<li id="fn:back" role="doc-endnote">
<p>As was written by the prophets: "<a href="https://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9607.2/0292.html">Only wimps use tape backup: <em>real</em> men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it</a>" <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:back" 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>
<li id="fn:rat" role="doc-endnote">
<p>I in no way imply that I am rational. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:rat" 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>
<li id="fn:bro" role="doc-endnote">
<p>Just one more factor, that'll fix security, just gotta add one more factor bro. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:bro" 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>
<li id="fn:🤯" role="doc-endnote">
<p>This is left as an exercise for the reader. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:🤯" 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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</entry>
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<title type="text">Terence Eden’s Blog</title>
<subtitle type="text">Regular nonsense about tech and its effects 🙃</subtitle>
<updated>2025-04-30T12:33:29Z</updated>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" />
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<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Get alerted when your Kobo wishlist books drop in price]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59768</id>
<updated>2025-04-29T08:58:10Z</updated>
<published>2025-05-01T11:34:06Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ebooks" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="python" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="reading" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The brilliant kobodl Python package allows you to interact with your Kobo account programmatically. You can list all the books you've purchased, download them, and - as of version 0.12.0 - view your wishlist. Here's a rough and ready Python script which will tell you when any the books on your wishlist have dropped below a certain amount. Table of ContentsPrerequisitesGet your wishlistSort the …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>The brilliant <a href="https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader/">kobodl Python package</a> allows you to interact with your Kobo account programmatically. You can list all the books you've purchased, download them, and - as of version 0.12.0 - view your wishlist.</p>
<p>Here's a rough and ready Python script which will tell you when any the books on your wishlist have dropped below a certain amount.</p>
<p></p><nav id="toc"><menu id="toc-start"><li id="toc-title"><h2 id="table-of-contents"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#table-of-contents" class="heading-link">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#prerequisites">Prerequisites</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#get-your-wishlist">Get your wishlist</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#sort-the-wishlist">Sort the wishlist</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#create-the-message">Create the Message</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#send-an-email">Send an Email</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#setting-the-settings">Setting the settings</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#the-end-result">The End Result</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#next-steps">Next Steps</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>
<h2 id="prerequisites"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#prerequisites" class="heading-link">Prerequisites</a></h2>
<ol>
<li><a href="https://pypi.org/project/kobodl/">Install kobodl</a> following their guide.</li>
<li>Log in with your account by running <code>kobodl user add</code></li>
<li>Check that the configuration file is saved in the default location <code>/home/YOURUSERNAME/.config/kobodl.json</code></li>
</ol>
<h2 id="get-your-wishlist"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#get-your-wishlist" class="heading-link">Get your wishlist</a></h2>
<p>The kobodl function <code>GetWishList()</code> takes a list of users and returns a generator. The generator contains the book's name and author. The price is a string (for example <code>5.99 GBP</code>) so needs to be split at the space.</p>
<p>Here's a quick proof of concept:</p>
<pre><code class="language-python">import kobodl
wishlist = kobodl.book.actions.GetWishList( kobodl.globals.Settings().UserList.users )
for book in wishlist:
print( book.Title + " - " + book.Author + " " + book.Price.split()[0] )
</code></pre>
<h2 id="sort-the-wishlist"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#sort-the-wishlist" class="heading-link">Sort the wishlist</a></h2>
<p>Using Pandas, the data can be added to a dataframe and then sorted by price:</p>
<pre><code class="language-python">import kobodl
import pandas as pd
# Set up the lists
items = []
prices = []
ids = []
wishlist = kobodl.book.actions.GetWishList( kobodl.globals.Settings().UserList.users )
for book in wishlist:
items.append( book.Title + " - " + book.Author )
prices.append( float( book.Price.split()[0] ) )
ids.append( book.RevisionId )
# Place into a DataFrame
all_items = zip( ids, items, prices )
book_prices = pd.DataFrame( list(all_items), columns = ["ID", "Name", "Price"])
book_prices = book_prices.reset_index()
# Get books cheaper than three quid
cheap_df = book_prices[ book_prices["Price"] < 3 ]
</code></pre>
<h2 id="create-the-message"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#create-the-message" class="heading-link">Create the Message</a></h2>
<p>This will write the body text of the email. It gives you the price, book details, and a search link to buy the book.</p>
<pre><code class="language-python">from urllib.parse import quote_plus
# Search Prefix
website = "https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/search?query="
# Email Body
message = ""
for index, row in cheap_df.sort_values("Price").iterrows():
name = row["Name"]
price = str(row["Price"])
link = website + quote_plus( name )
message += "£" + price + " - " + name + "\n" + link + "\n\n"
</code></pre>
<h2 id="send-an-email"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#send-an-email" class="heading-link">Send an Email</a></h2>
<p>Python makes it fairly easy to send an email - assuming you have a co-operative mailhost.</p>
<pre><code class="language-python">import smtplib
from email.message import EmailMessage
# Send Email
def send_email(message):
email_user = '[email protected]'
email_password = 'P@55w0rd'
to = '[email protected]'
msg = EmailMessage()
msg.set_content(message)
msg['Subject'] = "Kobo price drops"
msg['From'] = email_user
msg['To'] = to
server = smtplib.SMTP_SSL('example.com', 465)
server.ehlo()
server.login(email_user, email_password)
server.send_message(msg)
server.quit()
send_email( message )
</code></pre>
<h2 id="setting-the-settings"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#setting-the-settings" class="heading-link">Setting the settings</a></h2>
<p>When running as a script, it is necessary to <a href="https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader/issues/159">ensure the settings are correctly initialised</a>.</p>
<pre><code class="language-python">from kobodl.settings import Settings
my_settings = Settings()
kobodl.Globals.Settings = my_settings
</code></pre>
<h2 id="the-end-result"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#the-end-result" class="heading-link">The End Result</a></h2>
<p>I have a cron job which runs this every morning. It sends an email like this:</p>
<img decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/books-fs8.png" alt="Screenshot of an email showing cheap books." width="370" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59769">
<h2 id="next-steps"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#next-steps" class="heading-link">Next Steps</a></h2>
<p>Some possible ideas. If you can code these, let me know!</p>
<ul>
<li>Save the prices so it sees if there's been a drop since yesterday.</li>
<li>Compare prices to Amazon for <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/02/automatic-kobo-and-kindle-ebook-arbitrage/">eBook Arbitrage</a>.</li>
<li>Automatically buy any book that hits 99p.</li>
</ul>
<p>Happy reading!</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Is enhancement the same as manipulation?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60538</id>
<updated>2025-04-30T12:33:29Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-30T11:34:34Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="AI" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="law" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="legal" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[How far can you enhance an image or video before you cross the line into manipulation? The UK is currently prosecuting two men accused of a crime. Part of the prosecution's evidence is a video. In showing it to the jury, the prosecution have said: the two minute and 41 second-long video is "extremely dark" but the "unmistakeable" noise of a chainsaw can be heard followed by the sound of a tree…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>How far can you enhance an image or video before you cross the line into manipulation?</p>
<p>The UK is currently prosecuting two men accused of a crime. Part of the prosecution's evidence is a video<sup id="fnref:not"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fn:not" class="footnote-ref" title="To be clear, I'm not at the trial." role="doc-noteref">0</a></sup>. In showing it to the jury, the prosecution have said:</p>
<blockquote><p>the two minute and 41 second-long video is "extremely dark" but the "unmistakeable" noise of a chainsaw can be heard followed by the sound of a tree falling.</p><br>
<p>Police experts have "enhanced" the video as much as possible but it has "not been interfered with", Mr Wright tells the jury.</p><br>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cvg93k0950pt?post=asset%3A54970a3b-ae9f-4299-832a-4ebe813dd756#post">BBC News</a>
</p></blockquote>
<p>I think most reasonable people would agree that creating an AI "Deep Fake" by inserting the faces of the pair into the video, would be unacceptable.</p>
<p>What about boosting the brightness on the video? That seems pretty unobjectionable to me and, I suspect, most neutral parties.</p>
<p>Suppose the prosecutors used AI to enhance the image? Perhaps <a href="https://www.slrlounge.com/photoshop-tips-how-to-use-content-aware-scale-to-extend-backgrounds/">adding a background which wasn't there</a> up maybe <a href="https://www.theverge.com/news/625904/netflix-a-different-world-ai-upscaling-nightmare">upscaling the video resolution</a> and introducing elements which didn't exist before? I think that's a step too far. Algorithmic enhancement strays into manipulation territory.</p>
<p>But what if the police ran a face detection algorithm on the video and only boosted the visibility of those parts, rather than the rest of the video? Now I think we're <a href="https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/03/07/haggling/">haggling over price</a>.</p>
<p>The photographer <a href="https://paulclarke.com/photography/mother-of-all-photoshoots/">Paul Clarke has a wonderful blog post about enhancing photographs of MPs</a> - take a look at those photos. Are they enhanced or manipulated? Do you feel differently if it is a photo of an MP from "your" side?</p>
<p>But just brightening and colour correcting is fine, right?</p>
<p>This is a well-known problem in legal circles<sup id="fnref:friends"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fn:friends" class="footnote-ref" title="With thanks to several anonymous legal friends for pointing me in the right direction." role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup>. <a href="https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/practice-points/photographic-evidence-acceptable-manipulation/5040793.article">Boosting the colouring of a photo may make an injury seem more severe</a>. Zooming or cropping an image may make someone seem closer to the action than they were.</p>
<p>The Crown Prosecution Service has this to say about video<sup id="fnref:vids"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fn:vids" class="footnote-ref" title="There's a good discussion about the admissibility of video evidence in [2002] EWCA Crim 2373" role="doc-noteref">2</a></sup> evidence:</p>
<blockquote><p>In terms of proving the authenticity of the video recording, the Prosecution must be able to show that the video film produced in evidence is the original video recording or an authentic copy of the original and show that it has not been tampered with.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/exhibits#video">CPS Legal Guidance - Exhibits</a></p></blockquote>
<p>I suppose it's pretty easy to show that the produced evidence can be derived by taking the original and twisting the brightness and contrast knobs. I also guess that the defence could bring in an image manipulation specialist to show that the enhanced version introduces unacceptable changes.</p>
<p>Although that brings with it some problems about whether <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5eb177bd86650c435fa620e4/Regulatory_notice_2019.01_-_Imaging__2_.pdf">an expert in manipulation can say they're an expert about the <em>contents</em> of the media</a>. (No, basically.)</p>
<p>I'll leave you with these words from a House of Lords report in <strong>1998</strong>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The existence of a technology that can be used to modify images in this way need in itself be of no great concern; even the widespread availability of the technology at low cost might not cause concern.</p>
<p>But an apparent lack of understanding of the implications of both these facts should cause concern and warrants further study. The public and all those in the legal profession should be made more aware of the technology, what it can do, and what its limitations are.</p>
<p>It was suggested that criminal convictions that were dependent on evidence captured by digital cameras could be at risk if defence lawyers began to realise how vulnerable such images are to manipulation.</p>
<p><a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199798/ldselect/ldsctech/064v/st0503.htm#n11">Select Committee on Science and Technology Fifth Report</a></p></blockquote>
<p>The trial continues.</p>
<p><ins datetime="2025-04-30T12:28:57+00:00">Update!</ins></p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cvg93k0950pt?post=asset%3A6a86c349-4267-4cbb-bd9b-24eb8ec95e17#post">The BBC reports</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The initial video was totally dark, with just the sound of wind and a chainsaw leading up to a giant crash.</p>
<p>A second version has now been shown to the jury, which has been enhanced by a Northumbria Police digital media examiner.</p>
<p>The contrast has been changed, a white border has been put around it and the image has been made brighter.</p></blockquote>
<p>Here's a clip of the enhanced version:</p>
<p></p><div style="width: 620px;" class="wp-video"><video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-60538-2" width="620" height="349" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/bbc.mp4?_=2"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/bbc.mp4">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/bbc.mp4</a></video></div><p></p>
<p>If you were presented evidence of a completely dark video, how could you be sure that subsequent "brighter" version was derived from the original?</p>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<hr>
<ol start="0">
<li id="fn:not" role="doc-endnote">
<p>To be clear, I'm not at the trial. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fnref:not" 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>
<li id="fn:friends" role="doc-endnote">
<p>With thanks to several anonymous legal friends for pointing me in the right direction. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fnref:friends" 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>
<li id="fn:vids" role="doc-endnote">
<p>There's a good discussion about the admissibility of video evidence in <a href="https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2002/2373.html">[2002] EWCA Crim 2373</a> <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fnref:vids" 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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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Who is responsible for missing money?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/who-is-responsible-for-missing-money/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60433</id>
<updated>2025-04-27T14:59:53Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-29T11:34:02Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="banking" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="banks" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="money" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="new zealand" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I have a simple rule of thumb when it comes to news reports. The real story is always in the penultimate paragraph. Let's look at this inflammatory headline: Woman’s 'spree' after $158k banking error, refuses to return pensioner’s life savings An Auckland beneficiary is under investigation for an alleged “spending spree” after $158,000 was mistakenly transferred to her account. […] pensioner lo…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/who-is-responsible-for-missing-money/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>I have a simple rule of thumb when it comes to news reports. The <em>real</em> story is always in the penultimate paragraph.</p>
<p>Let's look at this inflammatory headline:</p>
<blockquote><h2 id="womans-spree-after-158k-banking-error-refuses-to-return-pensioners-life-savings"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/who-is-responsible-for-missing-money/#womans-spree-after-158k-banking-error-refuses-to-return-pensioners-life-savings" class="heading-link">Woman’s 'spree' after $158k banking error, refuses to return pensioner’s life savings</a></h2>
<p>An Auckland beneficiary is under investigation for an alleged “spending spree” after $158,000 was mistakenly transferred to her account.
</p><p> […] pensioner lost his life savings due to an account number error.
</p><p>The account number provided to Westpac had only 15 digits, not the intended 16, so Westpac added a zero to the suffice [sic] as per its usual protocols.
</p><p><a href="https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/auckland-pensioner-loses-158k-after-accidentally-sending-life-savings-to-wrong-account/">Newstalk ZB</a>
</p></blockquote>
<p>Wow! That seems pretty bad. Obviously the woman who allegedly received the money and then spent it shouldn't have done that. Spending money that doesn't belong to you is a crime in most parts of the world. But let's focus on the <em>real</em> villain here - the evil bank!!</p>
<p>Why did the bank make the decision to add an extra digit to the recipient's account number?</p>
<p>An <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_bank_account_number">NZ bank account number</a> looks like <code>BB-bbbb-AAAAAAA-SSS</code>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.paymentsnz.co.nz/resources/industry-registers/bank-branch-register/">first two digits are the banking institution and the next four are the specific branch</a>. The seven digit account number relates to the <em>specific</em> account. The three digit suffix is for the <em>type</em> of account. For example, your spending account might have suffix <code>001</code> and your savings account might have suffix <code>099</code>.</p>
<p>However, because all suffices have a leading zero, <a href="https://www.kiwibank.co.nz/help/accounts/open-manage/account-numbers/">it is often only displayed as two</a>.</p>
<p>So, adding an extra zero to the suffix itself shouldn't have caused a problem. It would have gone to the correct recipient although it might have either gone to the wrong sub-account. Indeed, WestPac's help page on international transfers says "<a href="https://www.westpac.co.nz/foreign-exchange/send-money-to-or-from-overseas/#sending-money-from-overseas">if your account suffix is 12, enter 012</a>". It sounds like the journalist hasn't quite understood where the insertion happened.</p>
<p>It seems likely to me that the victim meant to type <code>1234567-001</code> but missed a digit, causing WestPac to shift things to <code>1235670-01</code>. That's poorly formatted but technically valid.</p>
<p>But, wait! Don't bank account numbers have checksums? Yes! According to NZ's internal revenue, all bank account numbers have a check-digit. However, when checking an account number's validity:</p>
<blockquote><p>If less than the maximum number of digits is supplied, then values are right justified and the fields padded with zeroes</p>
<p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20181009211542/https://www.ird.govt.nz/resources/9/d/9d739cde-ad76-4c49-ae08-522c62d94dd6/rwt-nrwt-spec-2016.pdf">Bank account number validation</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Having played around with the algorithm, the first few digits of the account number aren't included in the checksum validation. For example, the account number <code>1234567</code> and <code>0234567</code> both pass checksumming. So it is possible that padding the <em>start</em> of the string wouldn't have been picked up.</p>
<p>Whatever the underlying issue, it is distressing to hear of someone losing a significant amount of money.</p>
<h2 id="what-could-have-stopped-this"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/who-is-responsible-for-missing-money/#what-could-have-stopped-this" class="heading-link">What could have stopped this?</a></h2>
<p>Humans make mistakes. As an industry, we know this. It's our job to prevent, rectify, and neutralise those mistake. We need systems in place which reduce the likelihood of errors causing catastrophic failures.</p>
<p>Here are some systemic changes which could have prevented this:</p>
<ol>
<li>New Zealand could adopt the IBAN standard for international transfers.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.bnz.co.nz/support/international/payments/made-to-new-zealand">They don't seem keen on doing this</a>.</li>
<li>It wouldn't prevent mistyping, but a standardised length makes transferring to the wrong account less likely.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Confirmation of Payee asks the user to type in the name of the intended recipient. If it doesn't match the bank account, the payment is rejected or cautioned against.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.getverified.co.nz/">NZ <em>is</em> rolling out CoP</a> but it doesn't yet apply to international transfers.</li>
<li>Multi-lingual CoP is complex. I don't know if any cross-border payments do this yet.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>WestPac should have noticed the name discrepancy.
<ul>
<li>This is the argument I have the most sympathy with.</li>
<li>Of course, returning the money (especially to a closed account) may be difficult.</li>
</ul></li>
</ol>
<p>Large systems changes are expensive and time consuming.</p>
<p>What else could have been done? Let's go to the final few sentences of the story:</p>
<blockquote><p>Unfortunately, the incorrect bank account number <em>provided by Che</em> was a valid account number for another customer, Westpac said.
</p><p>“As soon as Mr Che alerted us to the issue, we traced the payment and froze the remaining funds.”
</p><p>But Westpac was unable to recover the rest of Che’s money due to the <em>seven-week delay in reporting his error</em> to the banks.
</p><p><small>Emphasis added</small></p></blockquote>
<p>I'm not trying to victim blame here, but WestPac seem to have done what was asked for them. The sender provided an ambiguous bank account number which was, nevertheless, valid.</p>
<p>The sender didn't raise an issue for <strong>seven weeks</strong>. Once notified, the bank froze the recipient account and notified the police.</p>
<p>Yes, big evil banks should be less evil. But they're in a tough spot. People want protection, <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/03/who-can-tell-you-what-to-do-with-your-money/">but they resent banks telling them what they can and can't do with their own money</a>. Big systemic change is difficult but it seems crushingly unfair when an innocent party is caught in the middle.</p>
<p>I don't think anyone comes out of this covered in glory. Banks need to invest in technology which keeps their customers safe. Customers need to take some responsibility for checking whether a bank has done the right thing.</p>
<p>The only tips I can give is that you must always copy & paste financial details from a trusted source, rather than manually type them in. Always send a small amount first to check it is received. If you suspect a mistake, contact your bank immediately.</p>
<p>Stay safe out there.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[HTML Oddities: Is a newline just another whitespace in attribute values?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59686</id>
<updated>2025-04-18T22:23:56Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-27T11:34:02Z</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[Consider these two HTML elements: <div class="a b">…</div> <div class="a b">…</div> Is there any semantic difference between them? Is there any way to target one but not the other? In other words, are they logically different? I think the answer is no. On every browser I've tested, both are the same. Whether using JS or CSS, there's no difference between them. You could replace every \n wit…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Consider these two HTML elements:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><div class="a b">…</div>
<div class="a
b">…</div>
</code></pre>
<p>Is there any <em>semantic</em> difference between them? Is there any way to target one but not the other? In other words, are they logically different?</p>
<p>I <em>think</em> the answer is no. On every browser I've tested, both are the same. Whether using JS or CSS, there's no difference between them. You could replace every <code>\n</code> with a <code> </code> and nothing would break.</p>
<p>But is that true for <em>every</em> attribute? Are there some attributes where a newline is *significant"?</p>
<p>For the vast majority of attributes, the answer is no. Consider the <code>alt</code> attribute for providing alternate text on images. This:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><img src="" alt="First line.
Second Line.
Forth line.">
</code></pre>
<p>When rendered by a browser, the newlines become spaces. See:</p>
<img decoding="async" src="" alt="First line.
Second Line.
Forth line.">
<p>But there's are <em>three</em> attributes where newlines <em>do</em> matter. Can you work out what they are?</p>
<h2 id="title"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/#title" class="heading-link">Title</a></h2>
<p><span title="First line.
Second Line.
Forth line.">Hover your cursor over this text and a title will appear</span>. It will look something like:</p>
<img decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/title.webp" alt="Title text showing multiple lines." width="704" height="303" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59697">
<p>The HTML specification has a section on "<a href="https://infra.spec.whatwg.org/#ascii-whitespace">space-separated tokens</a>" which it defines as "<a href="https://infra.spec.whatwg.org/#ascii-whitespace">ASCII whitespace</a>":</p>
<ul>
<li>U+0009 TAB</li>
<li>U+000A LF</li>
<li>U+000C FF</li>
<li>U+000D CR</li>
<li>U+0020 SPACE</li>
</ul>
<p>So tab, any newline, and space are all equivalent when it comes to tokenisation of content.</p>
<p>However, for <code>title</code> specifically:</p>
<blockquote><p>If the title attribute's value contains U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters, the content is split into multiple lines. Each U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character represents a line break.</p>
<p><a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/dom.html#attr-title">3.2.6.1 The title attribute</a></p></blockquote>
<h2 id="placeholder"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/#placeholder" class="heading-link">Placeholder</a></h2>
<p>There's another similar case:</p>
<p><textarea rows="4" placeholder="First line.
Second Line.
Forth line."></textarea></p>
<p>The good old <code><textarea></code> element has a <code>placeholder</code> attribute. That also allows newlines - although in a subtly different way to the title element!</p>
<blockquote><p>All U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN U+000A LINE FEED character pairs (CRLF) in the hint, as well as all other U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) and U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters in the hint, must be treated as line breaks when rendering the hint.</p>
<p><a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#the-textarea-element:concept-fe-value-4">4.10.11 The textarea element</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Quite why carriage returns are allowed here, but not in <code>title</code>, I don't know!</p>
<p>Also note, the <code>textarea</code>'s placeholder is different from the <code><input></code>'s placeholder, which <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#the-placeholder-attribute"><em>doesn't</em> support newlines</a>.</p>
<h2 id="id"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/#id" class="heading-link">ID</a></h2>
<p>I warn you though, this one is pretty nasty!</p>
<p>Consider this piece of HTML:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><p id="test
">Hello</p>
</code></pre>
<p>I know! What sort of sicko would include a newline in their ID?! But, it turns out, that is <em>significant</em>.</p>
<p>Try to select that element using CSS like:</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">#test {
color: red;
}
</code></pre>
<p>It won't work! The <em>literal</em> ID is <strong>not</strong> <code>test</code>. If you run:</p>
<pre><code class="language-js">document.querySelector("p")
</code></pre>
<p>It will return <code><p id="test\n"></code> - which means you can only select it with:</p>
<pre><code class="language-js">document.getElementById("test\n")
</code></pre>
<p>Or with CSS using <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/syndata.html#characters">special character selectors</a>:</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">#test\a {
color: blue;
}
</code></pre>
<p><a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#global-attributes:the-id-attribute-3">The spec says</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The id attribute specifies its element's unique identifier (ID).</p>
<p>There are no other restrictions on what form an ID can take; in particular, IDs can consist of just digits, start with a digit, start with an underscore, consist of just punctuation, etc.</p></blockquote>
<p>While it doesn't specifically mention newlines, it seems clear that the attribute can contain *anything".</p>
<h2 id="any-others"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/#any-others" class="heading-link">Any others?</a></h2>
<p>I'm pretty sure those three are the only attributes which treat newlines in their values as significant. Think I'm wrong? Please leave a comment.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Using Tempest Highlight with WordPress]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59866</id>
<updated>2025-04-25T14:34:42Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-26T11:34:19Z</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" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="php" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="programming" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="WordPress" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I like to highlight bits of code on my blog. I was using GeSHi - but it has ceased to receive updates and the colours it uses aren't WCAG compliant. After skimming through a few options, I found Tempest Highlight. It has nearly everything I want in a code highlighter: PHP with no 3rd party dependencies. Lots of common languages. Modern, with regular updates. Easy to use fun…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>I like to highlight bits of code on my blog. I <em>was</em> using <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/a-small-php-update-to-geshi/">GeSHi</a> - but it has ceased to receive updates and the colours it uses aren't WCAG compliant.</p>
<p>After skimming through a few options, I found <a href="https://github.com/tempestphp/highlight">Tempest Highlight</a>. It has <em>nearly</em> everything I want in a code highlighter:</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: "✅";">
<li> PHP with no 3rd party dependencies.</li>
<li> Lots of common languages.</li>
<li> Modern, with regular updates.</li>
<li> Easy to use functions.</li>
<li> Range of difference style sheets.</li>
</ul>
<p>But, on the downside:</p>
<ul style="list-style-type: "❌";">
<li> No WordPress plugin.</li>
<li> Not all languages supported.</li>
<li> CSS embedded in HTML.</li>
</ul>
<p>I can live without some esoteric languages, but I don't really want to run <code>composer install</code> on my blog. I just want a quick WordPress plugin. So, here's how I did it.</p>
<p></p><nav id="toc"><menu id="toc-start"><li id="toc-title"><h2 id="table-of-contents"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#table-of-contents" class="heading-link">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#here-be-dragons">Here Be Dragons</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#the-art-of-loading-without-loading">The Art of Loading without Loading</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#testing">Testing</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#draw-the-rest-of-the-owl">Draw The Rest of the Owl</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#todo">ToDo</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#get-the-code">Get the code</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>
<h2 id="here-be-dragons"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#here-be-dragons" class="heading-link">Here Be Dragons</a></h2>
<p>This is a quick prototype. It has an audience of one; me. It may break in unexpected ways. Use at your own risk.</p>
<p>The file layout is relatively simple:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_">WordPress Plugins
├── Highlight_Plugin
│ ├── src/
│ ├── autoload.php
│ ├── index.php
│ └── base.css
</code></pre>
<p>The <code>src/</code> directory contains the <code>src/</code> directory from <a href="https://github.com/tempestphp/highlight">Tempest Highlight</a>.</p>
<h2 id="the-art-of-loading-without-loading"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#the-art-of-loading-without-loading" class="heading-link">The Art of Loading without Loading</a></h2>
<p>Normally, to install a PHP package, the <code>composer</code> app creates an autoloader which will magically import everything you need into your project. We can't do that here. Instead, we need to manually load the library.</p>
<p>Create a file in the plugin's directory called <code>autoload.php</code> - its job is to autoload everything in the <code>src/</code> directory.</p>
<pre><code class="language-php"><?php
spl_autoload_register( function ( $class ) {
// Project-specific namespace prefix
$prefix = "Tempest\\Highlight\\";
// Base directory for the namespace prefix
$base_dir = __DIR__ . "/src/";
// Does the class use the namespace prefix?
$len = strlen( $prefix );
if ( strncmp( $prefix, $class, $len ) !== 0) {
// No, move to the next registered autoloader
return;
}
// Get the relative class name
$relative_class = substr( $class, $len );
// Replace namespace separators with directory separators, append with .php
$file = $base_dir . str_replace( "\\", "/", $relative_class ) . ".php";
// If the file exists, require it
if ( file_exists( $file ) ) {
require $file;
}
});
</code></pre>
<p>I don't know if that's the <em>easiest</em> way to do it. But it works!</p>
<h2 id="testing"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#testing" class="heading-link">Testing</a></h2>
<p>The <code>index.php</code> file can now be tested:</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">// Load the Tempest Highlight library
require_once __DIR__ . "/autoload.php";
// Set up the namespace
use Tempest\Highlight\Highlighter;
// Define the theme.
$theme = new Tempest\Highlight\Themes\InlineTheme( __DIR__ . "/src/Themes/Css/light-plus.css");
// Create the highlighter.
$highlighter = new Tempest\Highlight\Highlighter( $theme );
// Print some formatted HTML
echo $highlighter->parse("<em id='foo' class='bar'>test</em>", "html" );
</code></pre>
<p>All being well, that should produce this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_">&lt;<span style="color: #0000ff;">em</span> id='foo' class='bar'&gt;test&lt;/<span style="color: #0000ff;">em</span>&gt;
</code></pre>
<p>That has the CSS embedded. Not ideal, but certainly good enough. I picked "light-plus" because it was the only theme which seemed to meet at least WCAG AA when on a white background.</p>
<p>OK, so how do we go from printing out a scrap of HTML to extracting all the code snippets from a WordPress blog?</p>
<h2 id="draw-the-rest-of-the-owl"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#draw-the-rest-of-the-owl" class="heading-link">Draw The Rest of the Owl</a></h2>
<p>In <em>theory</em> the code is relatively straightforward.</p>
<h3 id="find-code-snippets"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#find-code-snippets" class="heading-link">Find code snippets</a></h3>
<p>My <a href="https://codeberg.org/edent/markdown-extra-unofficial/">Markdown plugin</a> transforms this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_"> ```javascript
var a = 2.0;
```
</code></pre>
<p>Into this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><pre><code class="language-javascript">
var a = 2.0;
</code></pre>
</code></pre>
<p>No need to use a regex, the new PHP 8.4 HTMLDocument gives us direct programmatic access to the HTML.</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">// Load the content into PHP 8.4's HTML DOM.
$dom = Dom\HTMLDocument::createFromString( $content, LIBXML_NOERROR | LIBXML_HTML_NOIMPLIED, "UTF-8" );
// Select the code snippets.
// `<pre><code class="language-*">`
$codeSnippets = $dom->querySelectorAll( "pre>code[class^=language-]" );
</code></pre>
<h3 id="replace-the-snippets"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#replace-the-snippets" class="heading-link">Replace the snippets</a></h3>
<p>From the above, I have the language and code, so it can "easily" be replaced.</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">// Iterate through each snippet.
foreach ( $codeSnippets as $code ) {
// Get the HTML from within the <code>.
$originalCode = $code->textContent;
// Replace the contents of <code> with the highlighted HTML.
$code->innerHTML = $highlighter->parse( $originalCode, $language )
}
</code></pre>
<p>Replacing the code in that node manipulates the original DOM. Which means, after looping through all the snippets, I can return the altered HTML like so:</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">return $dom->saveHTML();
</code></pre>
<h3 id="and-then"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#and-then" class="heading-link">And then…</a></h3>
<p>Obviously, there's a bit more too it than that. It ignores RSS feeds, it adds a base CSS style to the head, some SVGs get embedded, semantic metadata is included, and it all gets a bit tangled and complicated.</p>
<h2 id="todo"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#todo" class="heading-link">ToDo</a></h2>
<p>A few things need to happen to make this even better.</p>
<ul>
<li>Encoded comments as well and posts.</li>
<li>Add new languages.</li>
<li>Don't in-line the CSS into the HTML, but add it as a separate stylesheet.</li>
</ul>
<p>But, for now, it is running on my blog and that's good enough for me!</p>
<h2 id="get-the-code"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#get-the-code" class="heading-link">Get the code</a></h2>
<p>You can <a href="https://github.com/edent/highlight">play about with the WordPress plugin</a>. Bugs reports, pull requests, and suggestions all warmly welcomed.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Reverse Geocoding is Hard]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/reverse-geocoding-is-hard/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59857</id>
<updated>2025-04-24T18:18:33Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-25T11:34:39Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="geolocation" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="geotagging" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="OpenBenches" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[My wife and I run OpenBenches - a crowd-sourced database of nearly 40,000 memorial benches. Every bench is geo-tagged with a latitude and longitude. But how do you go from a string of digits to something human readable? How do I turn -33.755780,150.603769 into "42 Wallaby Way, Sydney, Australia"? Luckily, that's a (somewhat) solved problem. Services like OpenCage, StadiaMaps, OpenStreetMap,…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/reverse-geocoding-is-hard/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>My wife and I run <a href="https://openbenches.org/">OpenBenches</a> - a crowd-sourced database of nearly 40,000 memorial benches. Every bench is geo-tagged with a latitude and longitude. But how do you go from a string of digits to something human readable?</p>
<p>How do I turn <code>-33.755780,150.603769</code> into "42 Wallaby Way, Sydney, Australia"?</p>
<p>Luckily, that's a (somewhat) solved problem. Services like <a href="https://opencagedata.com/">OpenCage</a>, <a href="https://stadiamaps.com/">StadiaMaps</a>, <a href="https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org">OpenStreetMap</a>, and <a href="https://geocode.earth/">Geocode.Earth</a> all provide APIs which transform co-ordinates into addresses. Done! Let's go home.</p>
<p>Except… Not everywhere <em>has</em> an address. <a href="https://openbenches.org/bench/35905">Some benches are in parks</a>. They typically don't have a street number, but might have an interesting feature nearby to help with location. For example a statue or prominent landmark.</p>
<p>And… Not every address is relevant. <a href="https://openbenches.org/bench/26061">Some benches are on streets</a>. But we probably don't want to imply that the bench is <em>inside</em> or belongs to a specific nearby house.</p>
<p>Let's step back a bit. <em>Why</em> do we want to display a human-readable address?</p>
<p>We have two use-cases.</p>
<p>"As a visitor to the site, I want to:"</p>
<ol>
<li>Read a (rough) textual representation of where the bench is.</li>
<li>Click on a component of the address to see all benches within that area.</li>
</ol>
<p>The first is easy to explain:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/OB-Address.webp" alt="Map. Under it is an address of "Middlewich, Cheshire East, England, United Kingdom"." width="1134" height="638" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59858">
<p>The second is harder. Suppose a bench is in Wellington, New Zealand. We want to create a URl like <a href="https://openbenches.org/location/New%20Zealand/Wellington/">openbenches.org/location/New Zealand/Wellington/</a>. That way, users can click on the word "Wellington" and find all the benches nearby. A user can also manually edit that URl to increase or decrease precision.</p>
<p>Both of these are problems of <em>precision</em>.</p>
<p>Let's take a look at <a href="https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/reverse?lat=51.476845&lon=-0.295296&format=jsonv2">how one of the reverse geocoding services</a> deals with transforming <code>51.476845,-0.295296</code> into an address:</p>
<blockquote><p>Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Sandycombe Road, Kew, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, London, Greater London, England, TW9 2EN, United Kingdom</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>That is <em>too much</em> address!</strong></p>
<p>Yes, it is technically accurate. But it contains far too much detail for humans, the postcode is irrelevant, and the weird-subdivisions are nothing that a local person would use.</p>
<p>Looking at the full API response, we can see:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"place_id": 258770727,
"licence": "Data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. http://osm.org/copyright",
"name": "Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew",
"display_name": "Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Elizabeth Cottages, Kew, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, London, Greater London, England, TW9 3NJ, United Kingdom",
"address": {
"leisure": "Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew",
"road": "Elizabeth Cottages",
"suburb": "Kew",
"city_district": "London Borough of Richmond upon Thames",
"ISO3166-2-lvl8": "GB-RIC",
"city": "London",
"state_district": "Greater London",
"state": "England",
"ISO3166-2-lvl4": "GB-ENG",
"postcode": "TW9 3NJ",
"country": "United Kingdom",
"country_code": "gb"
}
}
</code></pre>
<p>Aha! Perhaps I can build a better address using just those components!</p>
<p>Except… Not every country has states. And not all states are used when giving addresses. Not every location is in a city. Some places have villages, prefectures, municipalities, and hamlets.</p>
<p>New York, New York is a valid address, but <a href="https://blog.opencagedata.com/post/99059889253/good-looking-addresses-solving-the-berlin-berlin">Berlin, Berlin</a> is not!</p>
<p>There's an <a href="https://github.com/OpenCageData/address-formatting">address formatter by OpenCage</a> which is pretty sensible about stripping off irrelevant details. But, to go back to my first point, not every map location on OpenBenches is a street address and - even if it is on a street - it probably shouldn't have a house number.</p>
<p>Well, there's kind of a solution to that! Most mapping provider have a <abbr title="Point of Interest">POI</abbr> function - we can find nearby things of interest and use them as a location.</p>
<p>Here's a <a href="https://openbenches.org/bench/36734">bench in Cook County, Illinois, USA</a>. The POI address is:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
…
"name": "Central Park",
"coarse_location": "Des Plaines, IL, USA",
…
}
</code></pre>
<p>I <em>assume</em> there's only one Central Park in Des Plaines. Do people know that "Il" is Illinois? Would "Cook County" be useful?</p>
<p>On the subject of localisation, not everywhere speaks English. Do I want to display addresses like "<span lang="ja">原爆の子の像, 広島, 日本</span>"? How about "原爆の子の像, Hiroshima, Japan"?</p>
<p>We're an international site, but most benches are in Anglophone countries.</p>
<p>Of course, just because something is <em>physically</em> near a POI, that doesn't mean it is <em>logically</em> close to it.</p>
<p>Consider a bench situated <a href="https://www.openstreetmap.org/query?lat=50.580682&lon=-3.467831">at the edge of this park</a>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/map.webp" alt="A map, with a marker situated just across a river." width="1328" height="1060" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59864"></p>
<p>The nearest POI is "Gay's Creamery" - across the river. Is that what you'd expect? Is there any way to easily say "if a point is <em>inside</em> an amenity* then use that as the address?</p>
<p>I don't want the users of our site to have to select from a list of POIs or addresses, this should be as automated as possible.</p>
<h2 id="the-plan"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/reverse-geocoding-is-hard/#the-plan" class="heading-link">The Plan</a></h2>
<p>For each bench:</p>
<ol>
<li>Use StadiaMaps to get the nearest POI.</li>
<li>Get the data in English.</li>
<li>Concatenate the name and coarse location.</li>
<li>Save the "address".</li>
<li>Wait for complaints?</li>
</ol>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[HTML Oddities: Does the order of attribute values matter?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59481</id>
<updated>2025-04-24T12:19:22Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-24T11:34:56Z</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[HTML elements can have attributes. For example id, class, src, alt, and many others. These attributes can contain values - an img element's src attribute has a value which is a link to an image. An id attribute's value is a single string. But some attributes can contain multiple values. Here's a thought experiment for you. Consider these two HTML elements: <p class="alpha bravo charlie">………</p> …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>HTML elements can have attributes. For example id, class, src, alt, and many others. These attributes can contain values - an img element's src attribute has a value which is a link to an image. An id attribute's value is a single string. But some attributes can contain <em>multiple</em> values.</p>
<p>Here's a thought experiment for you. Consider these two HTML elements:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><p class="alpha bravo charlie">………</p>
<p class="bravo charlie alpha">………</p>
</code></pre>
<p>Is there any <em>semantic</em> difference between them? Does the ordering of the values inside the class attribute matter?</p>
<p>Both can be targetted with CSS like:</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">.bravo {
color: red;
}
</code></pre>
<p>They can also be targetted using:</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">.charlie.bravo {
color: green;
}
</code></pre>
<p>Or using a <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Styling_basics/Basic_selectors#selector_lists">Selector List</a></p>
<pre><code class="language-css">.bravo, .alpha {
color: yellow;
}
</code></pre>
<p>So order doesn't matter, right?</p>
<h2 id="well-its-a-bit-more-complicated-than-that"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/#well-its-a-bit-more-complicated-than-that" class="heading-link">Well, it's a bit more complicated than that</a></h2>
<p>Consider <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Styling_basics/Attribute_selectors#presence_and_value_selectors">Presence Selectors</a>.</p>
<p>This CSS will <em>only</em> select the <strong>first</strong> element:</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">p[class="alpha bravo charlie"] {
font-size: 2em;
}
</code></pre>
<p>It targets the class name in that exact order. No other.</p>
<p>Similarly, <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Styling_basics/Attribute_selectors#substring_matching_selectors">Substring Selectors</a> can be used in an order-specific manner.</p>
<p>This CSS will <strong>only</strong> select the <em>second</em> element:</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">p[class^="b"] {
display: block;
}
</code></pre>
<p>It looks for a class attribute where the <em>value</em> starts with <code>b</code></p>
<h2 id="where-ordering-matters"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/#where-ordering-matters" class="heading-link">Where ordering matters</a></h2>
<p>The <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/indices.html#attributes-3">HTML spec has a (non-normative) section on attributes</a>. Those which accept multiple values are (broadly) in three categories.</p>
<ol>
<li>A <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/common-microsyntaxes.html#set-of-space-separated-tokens">set of space-separated tokens</a> 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.</li>
<li>An <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/common-microsyntaxes.html#unordered-set-of-unique-space-separated-tokens">unordered set</a> of unique space-separated tokens is a set of space-separated tokens where none of the tokens are duplicated.</li>
<li>An <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/common-microsyntaxes.html#ordered-set-of-unique-space-separated-tokens">ordered set</a> of unique space-separated tokens is a set of space-separated tokens where none of the tokens are duplicated but where the order of the tokens is meaningful.</li>
</ol>
<p>The class attribute belongs to the first group. While ordering isn't meaningful, it also isn't irrelevant.</p>
<p>The only attributes which are specifically <strong>unordered</strong> are:</p>
<ul>
<li>All elements:
<ul>
<li><code>itemprop=</code>, <code>itemref=</code>, <code>itemtype=</code></li>
</ul></li>
<li><code><link></code>, <code><script></code>, <code><style></code>
<ul>
<li><code>blocking=</code></li>
</ul></li>
<li><code><output></code>
<ul>
<li><code>for=</code></li>
</ul></li>
<li><code><td></code>, <code><th></code>
<ul>
<li><code>headers=</code></li>
</ul></li>
<li><code><a></code>, <code><area></code>, <code><link></code>
<ul>
<li><code>rel=</code></li>
</ul></li>
<li><code><iframe></code>
<ul>
<li><code>sandbox=</code></li>
</ul></li>
<li><code><link></code>
<ul>
<li><code>sizes=</code></li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<p>The <em>only</em> attribute specifically listed as "Ordered" is <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/interaction.html#the-accesskey-attribute">the <code>accesskey</code> attribute</a>.</p>
<p>There are a few others which do require an order, although it is not immediately obvious.</p>
<p>Both <code>imagesrcset</code> and <code>srcset</code> require a "Comma-separated list of image candidate strings". The comma separated strings can be in any order, but the text <em>within</em> them <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/images.html#image-candidate-string">has a strict ordering</a>.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><img srcset="header640.png 640w, header960.png 960w, header1024.png 1024w" …
</code></pre>
<p>Similarly, the <code>type</code> attribute requires its value to be a <a href="https://mimesniff.spec.whatwg.org/#valid-mime-type">valid MIME type</a>. But <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Media/Guides/Formats/codecs_parameter#basic_syntax">MIME types can also include a codec</a>. So it's possible to end up with HTML like:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><video>
<source
src="movie.webm"
type="video/webm; codecs='vp8, vorbis'">
</code></pre>
<p>Assuming those attributes were whitespace separated tokens would lead to nonsense!</p>
<p>The <code>autocomplete</code> type is another complex example. The <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/indices.html#attributes-3">spec</a> just says "Autofill field name and related tokens", but <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Attributes/autocomplete#token-list">MDN makes it clear</a> that it requires:</p>
<blockquote><p>An ordered set of space-separated tokens consisting of autofill detail tokens preceded by optional sectioning and either billing or shipping grouping tokens. Phone numbers, email addresses, and messaging protocol tokens are preceded by a token identifying the type of recipient.</p></blockquote>
<p>For example <code>autocomplete="home email"</code> says to suggest the user's home email address whereas <code>autocomplete="work email"</code> suggests their work email. The ordering is necessary and <code>autocomplete="email home"</code> will not be understood.</p>
<h2 id="where-else-might-ordering-matter"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/#where-else-might-ordering-matter" class="heading-link">Where else might ordering matter?</a></h2>
<p>Rather obviously, alt text should <em>always</em> remain in order. No one wants to read alphabetically ordered image descriptions!</p>
<p>As mentioned by <a href="https://sunny.garden/@knowler/114331801775907008">Nathan Knowler</a> some ARIA attributes require ordering for accessibility.</p>
<p>And, as <a href="https://wandering.shop/@kagan/114331745674240833">Kagan MacTane</a> pointed out, sometimes the ordering is important for a human - even if it is irrelevant for a machine.</p>
<h2 id="what-have-we-learned-today"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/#what-have-we-learned-today" class="heading-link">What have we learned today?</a></h2>
<p>I originally asked this question on Mastodon. About two-thirds of respondents thought that attribute ordering was irrelevant.</p>
<blockquote class="mastodon-embed" data-embed-url="https://mastodon.social/@Edent/114331612009479129/embed" style="background: #FCF8FF; border-radius: 8px; border: 1px solid #C9C4DA; margin: 0; max-width: 540px; min-width: 270px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"> <a href="https://mastodon.social/@Edent/114331612009479129" target="_blank" style="align-items: center; color: #1C1A25; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Fira Sans', 'Droid Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; justify-content: center; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 20px; padding: 24px; text-decoration: none;"> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" width="32" height="32" viewbox="0 0 79 75"><path d="M74.7135 16.6043C73.6199 8.54587 66.5351 2.19527 58.1366 0.964691C56.7196 0.756754 51.351 0 38.9148 0H38.822C26.3824 0 23.7135 0.756754 22.2966 0.964691C14.1319 2.16118 6.67571 7.86752 4.86669 16.0214C3.99657 20.0369 3.90371 24.4888 4.06535 28.5726C4.29578 34.4289 4.34049 40.275 4.877 46.1075C5.24791 49.9817 5.89495 53.8251 6.81328 57.6088C8.53288 64.5968 15.4938 70.4122 22.3138 72.7848C29.6155 75.259 37.468 75.6697 44.9919 73.971C45.8196 73.7801 46.6381 73.5586 47.4475 73.3063C49.2737 72.7302 51.4164 72.086 52.9915 70.9542C53.0131 70.9384 53.0308 70.9178 53.0433 70.8942C53.0558 70.8706 53.0628 70.8445 53.0637 70.8179V65.1661C53.0634 65.1412 53.0574 65.1167 53.0462 65.0944C53.035 65.0721 53.0189 65.0525 52.9992 65.0371C52.9794 65.0218 52.9564 65.011 52.9318 65.0056C52.9073 65.0002 52.8819 65.0003 52.8574 65.0059C48.0369 66.1472 43.0971 66.7193 38.141 66.7103C29.6118 66.7103 27.3178 62.6981 26.6609 61.0278C26.1329 59.5842 25.7976 58.0784 25.6636 56.5486C25.6622 56.5229 25.667 56.4973 25.6775 56.4738C25.688 56.4502 25.7039 56.4295 25.724 56.4132C25.7441 56.397 25.7678 56.3856 25.7931 56.3801C25.8185 56.3746 25.8448 56.3751 25.8699 56.3816C30.6101 57.5151 35.4693 58.0873 40.3455 58.086C41.5183 58.086 42.6876 58.086 43.8604 58.0553C48.7647 57.919 53.9339 57.6701 58.7591 56.7361C58.8794 56.7123 58.9998 56.6918 59.103 56.6611C66.7139 55.2124 73.9569 50.665 74.6929 39.1501C74.7204 38.6967 74.7892 34.4016 74.7892 33.9312C74.7926 32.3325 75.3085 22.5901 74.7135 16.6043ZM62.9996 45.3371H54.9966V25.9069C54.9966 21.8163 53.277 19.7302 49.7793 19.7302C45.9343 19.7302 44.0083 22.1981 44.0083 27.0727V37.7082H36.0534V27.0727C36.0534 22.1981 34.124 19.7302 30.279 19.7302C26.8019 19.7302 25.0651 21.8163 25.0617 25.9069V45.3371H17.0656V25.3172C17.0656 21.2266 18.1191 17.9769 20.2262 15.568C22.3998 13.1648 25.2509 11.9308 28.7898 11.9308C32.8859 11.9308 35.9812 13.492 38.0447 16.6111L40.036 19.9245L42.0308 16.6111C44.0943 13.492 47.1896 11.9308 51.2788 11.9308C54.8143 11.9308 57.6654 13.1648 59.8459 15.568C61.9529 17.9746 63.0065 21.2243 63.0065 25.3172L62.9996 45.3371Z" fill="currentColor"></path></svg> <div style="color: #787588; margin-top: 16px;">Post by @[email protected]</div> <div style="font-weight: 500;">View on Mastodon</div> </a> </blockquote>
<script data-allowed-prefixes="https://mastodon.social/" async="" src="https://mastodon.social/embed.js"></script>
<p>I hope I've demonstrated that it is slightly more complicated than it may appear at first.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[A small PHP update to GeSHi]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/a-small-php-update-to-geshi/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59807</id>
<updated>2025-04-22T11:56:19Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-23T11:34:53Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HTML" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="php" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The faithful old GeSHi Syntax Highlighter hasn't seen an update in a many a long year. It's a tried and trusted way to do server-side code highlighting - turning a myriad of programming languages into beautiful HTML & CSS. A few weeks ago, I noticed someone had proposed an update to its HTML rendering. The changes were mostly adding in new element names. PHP has been updated several times…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/a-small-php-update-to-geshi/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>The faithful old GeSHi Syntax Highlighter hasn't seen an update in a many a long year. It's a tried and trusted way to do server-side code highlighting - turning a myriad of programming languages into beautiful HTML & CSS.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago, I noticed someone had <a href="https://github.com/GeSHi/geshi-1.0/pull/156">proposed an update to its HTML rendering</a>. The changes were mostly adding in new element names.</p>
<p>PHP has been updated several times since GeSHi was last updated, so I thought I'd do the same. Here's <a href="https://github.com/GeSHi/geshi-1.0/pull/162">an update to the PHP highlighter</a>.</p>
<p>Getting all the current PHP functions was fairly simple:</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">$functions = get_defined_functions();
$builtInFunctions = $functions['internal'];
sort($builtInFunctions);
foreach ( $builtInFunctions as $key => $value ) {
echo "'{$value}', ";
}
</code></pre>
<p>Now I'm wondering if there's a <em>better</em> code highlighter. Here's what I'm looking for:</p>
<ul>
<li>Server-side. I don't want to clutter the web with JavaScript.</li>
<li>PHP only. I don't want to add something more complicated to my tech stack.</li>
<li>WordPress for preference (but not blocks-only). Although I can build around a library.</li>
<li>Accessible colours. GeSHi's style-sheet doesn't always meet WCAG.</li>
<li>Actively maintained. If it hasn't been updated in 2 years, it's probably broken.</li>
<li>Somewhat hackable. I like to add a bit of semantic fluff around the output.</li>
</ul>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: It's Not That Radical - Climate Action to Transform Our World by Mikaela Loach ★★⯪☆☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-its-not-that-radical-climate-action-to-transform-our-world-by-mikaela-loach/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59451</id>
<updated>2025-04-18T12:31:51Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-22T11:34:32Z</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="Climate Crisis" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NetGalley" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I think I mostly agree with everything this book is saying, but after almost every paragraph I found myself scribbling the same note "Yes! But what action should I take though?" The author has an excellent and accessible way of showing the problems caused by the Climate Crisis - but the "action" part is mostly missing. Take this example: So something you can do right now to tackle them is to…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-its-not-that-radical-climate-action-to-transform-our-world-by-mikaela-loach/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><img decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cover-3.jpg" alt="Book cover." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-59452">I think I mostly agree with everything this book is saying, but after almost every paragraph I found myself scribbling the same note "Yes! But <em>what</em> action should I take though?"</p>
<p>The author has an excellent and accessible way of showing the problems caused by the Climate Crisis - but the "action" part is mostly missing. Take this example:</p>
<blockquote><p>So something you can do right now to tackle them is to divest your money from them. Find out if your bank still has investments in fossil fuels and if they do, change your bank! It’s a quick and easy way you can take action.</p></blockquote>
<p>That's a pretty good suggestion. But there's no follow up. How do I do this? What platforms should I use? Which resources could help me? And, sadly, it is fatally undermined by the next line:</p>
<blockquote><p>It won’t fix the problem but it’s a tactic to get us on the way there.</p></blockquote>
<p>Although it (quite rightly) eschews rehashing arguments about whether climate change is real, it does meander through lots of other political and sociological theories. Sometimes to the detriment of the core argument.</p>
<blockquote><p>The fact that the climate crisis is inherently woven together with oppressive systems of white supremacy, capitalism and patriarchy, both in its causation and its impacts, means that this crisis doesn’t ask us to leave behind what we are already fighting for, but instead to find a way to connect our struggles</p></blockquote>
<p>Is it though? Because of the constant need to tie everything back to the original sins of racism and colonialism, the argument gets completely diffused. It isn't enough for us to tackle pollution, we have to tackle everything everywhere all at once.</p>
<p>Similarly, it falls into the same trap as lots of other socialist works.</p>
<blockquote><p>Truly tackling the climate crisis requires each of us to go to the roots of poverty, of police brutality and legalised injustice. It requires us to move away from capitalist exploitation, which exists only to extract profit. Climate justice offers the real possibility of huge leaps towards our collective liberation because it aims to dismantle the very foundations of these issues. This is a far more exciting prospect to me.</p></blockquote>
<p>Is the Climate Crisis tied in with police brutality? There's an interesting discussion in the book about why so many white protestors are willing to get arrested - in part because they believe the police will treat them more fairly than protestors from a racial minority.</p>
<p>Assuming we accept the arguments that colonialism is the root cause of all this, what action can be taken?</p>
<blockquote><p>Reparations must go beyond paying cheques to individuals and instead be investments into infrastructure, education, healthcare, housing and energy. These investments will raise the living standards of all oppressed people</p></blockquote>
<p>OK, great idea. But how? That's nothing an individual can do.</p>
<p>It is so frustrating to read paragraphs like:</p>
<blockquote><p>We have to take action in order to make things better. We have to join movements and take drastic action because the world as we know it quite literally depends on us doing so.</p></blockquote>
<p>Yes! I agree! Which movements should I join? How can I find them? What can I do to help them? Where should I target my actions?</p>
<p>There are no answers.</p>
<p>Or this:</p>
<blockquote><p>Campaigns like Clean Air for Southall and Hayes (CASH) are yet another painful reminder that the most toxic substances, most dangerous industries and the most polluted roads are in the backyards of the poor, which in this country all too-often means the backyards of Black people and people of colour.</p></blockquote>
<p>Brilliant! But did <a href="https://www.breathelondon.org/community-groups/clean-air-for-southall-and-hayes">CASH</a> succeed? What lessons can we learn from it? How do I start something like that? Where can I find out more?</p>
<p>Again, no meaningful discussion of the actions people can take.</p>
<p>Or this:</p>
<blockquote><p>Consumers’ cannot stop climate change because capitalism is not compatible with a climate-just world. But active citizens CAN. Movements CAN. WE CAN when we challenge and disrupt these systems, rather than limiting our power and actions to those which are within it.</p></blockquote>
<p>I am genuinely fuelled by her ambition and righteous indignation. How do I disrupt these systems? Give me some action I can take.</p>
<p>The title of the book is "It's Not That Radical". The problem is, the book <em>is</em> radical.</p>
<blockquote><p>The more I read and watched, the more I was overwhelmed by how many alternatives to capitalism there are, and how much there is to know. But the deeper I got into my research, the more I realised that we can’t expect everyone to read ten different books, watch dozens of talks, be able to understand academic papers or have hundreds of conversations in order to work towards a world beyond capitalism.</p></blockquote>
<p>The problem is, people <em>like</em> capitalism. They continually vote for it. They like having new cars, shiny gadgets, and exciting distractions. Telling people that they have to accept a lower standard of living isn't likely to change minds.</p>
<p>To be fair, the author does realise this. They look back on their past actions and realise how alienating some of them were. It's important to have a <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/01/book-review-rules-for-radicals-a-pragmatic-primer-for-realistic-radicals-by-saul-alinsky/">Theory Of Change</a> if you want to actually engage with people.</p>
<blockquote><p>We aren’t actually toning down our demands. We aren’t making them conform to the system. We are just finding a way to communicate our demands so that they will be listened to and understood. I think that, in the contexts we are facing, this sort of practicality is of the utmost importance.</p></blockquote>
<p>The book is a bit rambly, but does eventually settle on some reasonable action to take. It also correctly points out that every campaign rests on the backs of the often-invisible people doing the ground-work.</p>
<blockquote><p>Actions and campaigns don’t just spring up out of nowhere – they require a huge workforce with a wide variety of skills. All of these roles are valuable. It’s so much more than people on the streets or behind a megaphone.</p></blockquote>
<p>The latter half contains an excellent section on the perils of fame and the dangers of cancel culture. It is painfully self-aware and an excellent antidote to some of the gleeful destruction out in the world. There's also some beautiful writing about her personal philosophy, what drives her, and the importance of empathy.</p>
<blockquote><p>To see no stranger is to open one’s heart to empathy; to try and see every person as a nuanced, messy person.</p></blockquote>
<p>It becomes refreshingly egoless and uplifting. This isn't about one person, it is about all of us.</p>
<p>The strongest part of the book is the author's rules for action. They are a perfect encapsulation of understanding the theory of change necessary for something to be successful:</p>
<blockquote>
Ahead of partaking in any action, I ask myself the following questions:
<ul>
<li>Does this have the potential to create lasting change?</li>
<li>How does this fit onto our roadmap for a completely transformed and liberated world?</li>
<li>Will this help to shift the Overton Window closer to a place that allows us a liveable future?</li>
<li>Will this help improve the material conditions of the lives of those most affected and oppressed?</li>
<li>Could this prevent any of the above?</li>
<li>Is this just a distraction from work that could truly build a new world?</li>
<li>What can I do to modify or change this action so that it cannot be co-opted?</li>
<li>With arrestable actions, it’s also important to add: is it essential for this to be arrestable?</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>That's an excellent list for anyone to follow.</p>
<p>I am probably not the target audience. If you're looking for a radical view of what needs to be done, or are happy to be radicalised, this is excellent. If you're looking for concrete steps you can take, you might find it a bit lacking.</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[Book Review: Murder Your Employer - The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes ★★⯪☆☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-murder-your-employer-the-mcmasters-guide-to-homicide-the-new-york-times-bestseller-by-rupert-holmes/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59455</id>
<updated>2025-04-16T14:00:32Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-21T11:34:35Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[What if the Discworld's Assassin's Guild existed in the real world? That's it. That's the plot. Go to a university where they'll teach you to be a better class of murderer. The first half is excellent. Chuckles all the way through. A heady mix of every boarding-school novel you've ever read, and funny little twists and turns. Lots of the dialogue is straight out of Terry Pratchett (and I can't…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-murder-your-employer-the-mcmasters-guide-to-homicide-the-new-york-times-bestseller-by-rupert-holmes/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><img decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cover-4.jpg" alt="Book cover featuring an old fashioned line drawing of an employee holding a knife behind his back." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-59456">What if the Discworld's Assassin's Guild existed in the real world? That's it. That's the plot. Go to a university where they'll teach you to be a better class of murderer.</p>
<p>The first half is excellent. Chuckles all the way through. A heady mix of every boarding-school novel you've ever read, and funny little twists and turns. Lots of the dialogue is straight out of Terry Pratchett (and I can't be the only one to notice that the school crest features an Anhk and Morpork, right?).</p>
<p>It is a very silly introduction to the deadly serious business of death.</p>
<p>And then the second half - where the characters we have been following go and do the grisly deed - is a real let-down.</p>
<p>The murders are <em>so</em> convoluted. They rely on a string of unlikely coincidences, preposterous behaviour, and daft plots. It is a confusing and rambly mess. Tangled to the point of absurdity and increasingly hard to follow.</p>
<p>All build-up, no pay-off.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: 6-Colour ePaper Name Badge ★★★★⯪]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59522</id>
<updated>2025-04-23T09:45:28Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-20T11:34:47Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="demo" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="eink" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The good folks at SmartDisplayer Technology Co have sent me a six colour eInk badge to play about with. Here's a quick video and then a walk-through of its features. You can also view SmartDisplayer's official video. The Badge It is a single block of plastic. There are no seams, screws, or rough edges. The ePaper appear right on the surface of the badge, there's no recessing or anything…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>The good folks at <a href="https://smartdisplayer.com.tw">SmartDisplayer Technology Co</a> have sent me a <em>six</em> colour eInk badge to play about with.</p>
<p>Here's a quick video and then a walk-through of its features.</p>
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Demo - six-colour eInk screen" width="560" height="315" src="https://tube.tchncs.de/videos/embed/ohEz1V4ByLHL98sspBqMHK" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" sandbox="allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-forms"></iframe>
<!-- https://youtu.be/UeipkX7huR8 -->
<p>You can also view <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2FfN006-vQ">SmartDisplayer's official video</a>.</p>
<h2 id="the-badge"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#the-badge" class="heading-link">The Badge</a></h2>
<p>It is a single block of plastic. There are no seams, screws, or rough edges. The ePaper appear right on the surface of the badge, there's no recessing or anything to indicate that this is a high-tech gadget. It uses their "cold lamination" technology which creates an impeccable matt finish.</p>
<p>The display area is 56.4mm x 84.6mm - which is pretty close to the size of a standard credit card - for a resolution of 180PPI.</p>
<h2 id="the-eink"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#the-eink" class="heading-link">The eInk</a></h2>
<p>This uses E-Ink <a href="https://www.eink.com/brand/detail/Spectra6">Spectra 6</a> technology. With only 6 colours to play about with there's a <em>lot</em> of dithering needed to make a picture look presentable. Those 6 colours are:</p>
<ul>
<li>#000 Black</li>
<li>#F00 Red</li>
<li>#0F0 Green</li>
<li>#00F Blue</li>
<li>#FF0 Yellow</li>
<li>#FFF White</li>
</ul>
<p>I used a standard <a href="https://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/monitor_calibration.htm">Monitor Calibration Image</a>, dithered it using the supplied software, and flashed it to the card. I then scanned in the card so you can see exactly how faithful the image reproduction is.</p>
<p>On the left, the eInk. On the right, the original image.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/24-color-small.jpg" alt="A swatch of colours." width="2048" height="1567" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59533">
<p>That's pretty bloody good!</p>
<p>Using <a href="http://www.brucelindbloom.com/index.html?ReferenceImages.html">Bruce Lindbloom's RGB Reference image</a> is also a good way to test a range of colours.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/lindstrom.webp" alt="A multicolour CGI image." width="1920" height="1080" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59555">
Not bad for red, green, blue, yellow, white, black, eh?</p>
<p>It's hard to find a good test-card with a variety of skin-tones (there's a creepy Getty one with naked women), so I used <a href="https://www.murideo.com/test-pattern-library.html">the Murideo Portrait Reference Photograph</a>. The original:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Skintones.webp" alt="Telegenic American Youth with a variety of skin tones." width="1024" height="576" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59537">
<p>On eInk:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Skintones-eInk.webp" alt="Skintones rendered on eInk." width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59536">
<p>And here's another one:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/skintones.webp" alt="Various skintones dithered." width="1920" height="1080" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59554">
<h2 id="the-card-writer"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#the-card-writer" class="heading-link">The Card Writer</a></h2>
<p>For Linux nerds, the USB writer showed up as: <code>1fc9:0102 NXP Semiconductors IT-102MU Reader</code>.</p>
<p>There's almost no information about it other than a <a href="https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=174064590315968&w=2">brief discussion on an OpenBSD mailing list</a>, and a mention on the <a href="https://ccid.apdu.fr/ccid/shouldwork.html#0x1FC90x0102">CCID database</a>. Apparently it will work as on <a href="https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/7014689?hl=en#zippy=%2Csupported-smart-card-readers">ChromeOS</a>. It makes a <em>hideous</em> beeping sound when the card is inserted.</p>
<p>Once the card is inserted, two LEDs light up.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/LEDs.webp" alt="Blue and green LEDs shining through white plastic." width="1024" height="576" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59523">
<p>The green one quickly vanishes, but the blue one pulses until the card is removed from the reader.</p>
<details><summary>Detailed <code>lsusb</code> Output</summary><pre>Bus 005 Device 084: ID 1fc9:0102 NXP Semiconductors IT-102MU Reader
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 2.00
bDeviceClass 0
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x1fc9 NXP Semiconductors
idProduct 0x0102
bcdDevice 1.12
iManufacturer 1 InfoThink
iProduct 2 IT-102MU Reader
iSerial 3 1.00
bNumConfigurations 1
Configuration Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 2
wTotalLength 0x005d
bNumInterfaces 1
bConfigurationValue 1
iConfiguration 0
bmAttributes 0x80
(Bus Powered)
MaxPower 500mA
Interface Descriptor:
bLength 9
bDescriptorType 4
bInterfaceNumber 0
bAlternateSetting 0
bNumEndpoints 3
bInterfaceClass 11 Chip/SmartCard
bInterfaceSubClass 0
bInterfaceProtocol 0
iInterface 0
ChipCard Interface Descriptor:
bLength 54
bDescriptorType 33
bcdCCID 1.10 (Warning: Only accurate for version 1.0)
nMaxSlotIndex 0
bVoltageSupport 7 5.0V 3.0V 1.8V
dwProtocols 3 T=0 T=1
dwDefaultClock 3685
dwMaxiumumClock 14320
bNumClockSupported 0
dwDataRate 9909 bps
dwMaxDataRate 848000 bps
bNumDataRatesSupp. 0
dwMaxIFSD 254
dwSyncProtocols 00000000
dwMechanical 00000000
dwFeatures 000404BE
Auto configuration based on ATR
Auto activation on insert
Auto voltage selection
Auto clock change
Auto baud rate change
Auto PPS made by CCID
Auto IFSD exchange
Short and extended APDU level exchange
dwMaxCCIDMsgLen 271
bClassGetResponse echo
bClassEnvelope echo
wlcdLayout none
bPINSupport 0
bMaxCCIDBusySlots 1
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x01 EP 1 OUT
bmAttributes 2
Transfer Type Bulk
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 0
Endpoint Descriptor:
bLength 7
bDescriptorType 5
bEndpointAddress 0x82 EP 2 IN
bmAttributes 3
Transfer Type Interrupt
Synch Type None
Usage Type Data
wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes
bInterval 4
</pre></details>
<h2 id="the-software"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#the-software" class="heading-link">The Software</a></h2>
<p>It is Windows-only software, and it is bare-bones. You can load an image, select if you want it dithered or not, and then download it to the badge. That's it.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/eInk-Software.webp" alt="Screenshot of the software." width="457" height="630" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59540">
No image editing; it just resizes everything to 400x600. There's no badge design software or QR generator. And, to be honest, I think that's fine. You're better off designing your badges in dedicated software.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the app wouldn't run under WINE in Linux. I used Oracle's VirtualBox. Note, the included software requires you to install <a href="https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/6.0">Microsoft's .Net Windows Desktop Runtime 6</a> <em>and</em> the latest <a href="https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170#latest-microsoft-visual-c-redistributable-version">Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Version</a>.</p>
<p>VirtualBox initially refused to see the USB peripheral. I had to unplug the reader, create a USB filter using <code>1fc9:0102</code>, start the VM, and only then plug in the USB reader. Then it worked. Bit of a faff!</p>
<h2 id="pricing"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#pricing" class="heading-link">Pricing</a></h2>
<p>I've got good news and bad news!</p>
<p>First, the bad. <a href="https://smartdisplayer.com.tw">SmartDisplayer Technology Co</a> are B2B sellers. They'll sell you a single badge for US$70 + shipping. If you're buying more than a thousand, the price drops to $65. The NFC reader is $120.</p>
<p>In terms of badge pricing, I think that's pretty fair. If you want to buy a demokit of just the screen, <a href="https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/4''Spectra6ePaperDisplay">that'll cost you US$99 direct from eInk</a>. So $70 full assembled is a bargain.</p>
<p>The good news? They'll shortly be bringing out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIfzeQXCnoM">a USB-C badge which doesn't require the NFC reader</a>. The badge itself will be slightly smaller (and a little thicker). That should make it easier to update the badge on the fly - but possibly not as convenient if you're programming hundreds of them.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/type-c.webp" alt="Graphic showing the new badge is slightly thicker, but shorter." width="715" height="387" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59553">
<p>If you're buying in bulk, they will also do custom printing on the badge, and can replace the plastic with wood.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/wooden.webp" alt="Badge with a wooden decal." width="180" height="378" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59552">
<p>For more information, or to place an order, <a href="https://www.smartdisplayer.com/contact">contact SmartDisplayer</a>.</p>
<h2 id="verdict"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#verdict" class="heading-link">Verdict</a></h2>
<p>If you want a fun lanyard which is easy to change, and can reproduce a decent range of colours, this is excellent. Ideally it would be easy to flash with a phone, but the supplied software is adequate.</p>
<p>The USB writer is a little bit clunky, but it holds the badge in place while data and power are transmitted.</p>
<p>I'm astonished by just how flat this badge is. SmartDisplayer cold-lamination process is incredible. The image is <em>on</em> the badge, not under it.</p>
<p>It looks stunning - a real premium product and the price reflects that.</p>
<p>As a <em>personal</em> gadget, I think it is great. But for other uses, I'm not so sure. Are you <em>really</em> going to be handing out $65 lanyards to all of your event attendees? Perhaps at a very expensive conference! But even then, you might want to take a deposit.</p>
<p>Anyone with a suitable reader can reflash a badge; there's no way to lock these. So they're not ideal for security.</p>
<p>If you attend lots of conferences, and are perpetually annoyed by ugly conference badges which misspell your name or don't have a personal QR code, these are a great (albeit pricey) gadget.</p>
<p>Thanks to SmartDisplayer for the review unit. Next time you see me at an event - please snap a photo of my badge!</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>2</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Introducing Pretty Print HTML for PHP 8.4]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59672</id>
<updated>2025-04-19T07:46:11Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-19T11:34:54Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HTML" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="php" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I'm delight to announce the first release of my opinionated HTML Pretty Printer for new versions of PHP. Grab the code from Packagist Contribute on GitLab There are several prettifiers on Packagist, but I think mine is the only one which works with the new Dom\HTMLDocument class. Table of ContentsWhatHowLimitationsWhyNext Steps What This takes hard-to-read HTML like: <!doctype…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>I'm delight to announce the first release of my opinionated HTML Pretty Printer for new versions of PHP.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://packagist.org/packages/edent/pretty-print-html">Grab the code from Packagist</a></li>
<li><a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/pretty-print-html-using-php/">Contribute on GitLab</a></li>
</ul>
<p>There are several prettifiers on Packagist, but I think mine is the only one which works with <a href="https://wiki.php.net/rfc/domdocument_html5_parser">the new <code>Dom\HTMLDocument</code> class</a>.</p>
<p></p><nav id="toc"><menu id="toc-start"><li id="toc-title"><h2 id="table-of-contents"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#table-of-contents" class="heading-link">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#what">What</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#how">How</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#limitations">Limitations</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#why">Why</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#next-steps">Next Steps</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>
<h2 id="what"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#what" class="heading-link">What</a></h2>
<p>This takes hard-to-read HTML like:</p>
<p><code><!doctype html><html><head><meta charset="UTF-8"></head><body><div id="main" class="news main"><h1 id="top">Title</h1><p>How <em>exciting</em>!</p></div></code></p>
<p>And pretty-prints it with some <em>opinionated</em> formatting:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><!doctype html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset=UTF-8>
</head>
<body>
<div class="main news" id=main>
<h1 id=top>Title</h1>
<p>How <em>exciting</em>!</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>
</code></pre>
<p>All elements are indented where possible. Attributes are sorted alphabetically. Attribute variables are unquoted if possible. CSS and JS are unaltered. These options are configurable.</p>
<p>To get an idea of what it outputs, take a look at the source code of this page!</p>
<h2 id="how"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#how" class="heading-link">How</a></h2>
<p>This is designed to be simple to use, but with enough options to be useful to as many people as possible.</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">// HTML as a string:
$html = "<div>This is <span> an <em>example</em>";
// Or as a file:
$html = file_get_contents( "example.html" );
// Turn the HTML into a Dom\HTMLDocument
$dom = \Dom\HTMLDocument::createFromString( $html, LIBXML_NOERROR, "UTF-8" );
// Create the pretty printer
$formatter = new Edent\PrettyPrintHtml\PrettyPrintHtml();
// Output the result
echo $formatter->serializeHtml( $dom );
</code></pre>
<h2 id="limitations"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#limitations" class="heading-link">Limitations</a></h2>
<p>Whitespace is <em>hard</em>. There are many different types. Sometimes it is for display, sometimes it isn't. Adding extra newlines and tabs almost certainly <em>will</em> cause layout changes somewhere on your page.</p>
<p>You can either change your CSS to minimise this, add elements to the <code>preserveElements</code> list to stop them being altered, or re-write your original HTML. The choice is yours.</p>
<h2 id="why"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#why" class="heading-link">Why</a></h2>
<p><a href="https://libraries.mit.edu/150books/2011/05/11/1985/">As was written long ago</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>A computer language is not just a way of getting a computer to perform operations but rather … it is a novel formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology. Thus, programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.</p></blockquote>
<p>PHP's new <code>Dom\HTMLDocument</code> class produces syntactically valid HTML code. The code is very easy for a computer to parse. But because there is no indenting, the code is difficult for a human to parse.</p>
<p>Adding newlines and indents before every new element can introduce spacing errors when the HTML is rendered to screen. Some of these can be fixed with extra CSS, some cannot</p>
<p>This pretty-printer attempts to make code readable for humans by striking a balance between legibility when rendered on screen or viewed as source code.</p>
<p>Why is human readability so important?</p>
<p>As <a href="https://ohhelloana.blog/in-defense-of-unpolished-websites/">Ana Rodrigues said</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Today's heavily optimized websites have largely killed the "view source" learning experience. The code is minified, bundled, and often incomprehensible to beginners trying to understand how things work. […] I want anyone, regardless of skill level, to inspect elements, understand the structure, and learn from readable code.</p></blockquote>
<p>Using this pretty printer should give you and your users an excellent "view source" experience, without sacrificing the browser's ability to render the code.</p>
<h2 id="next-steps"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#next-steps" class="heading-link">Next Steps</a></h2>
<p>I'm sure there are many bugs and oddities. I'd love you to <a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/pretty-print-html-using-php/">report any problems on GitLab</a>. Feel free to contribute test-cases and code.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Is this the smallest USB-C hub? ★★★★★]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-this-the-smallest-usb-c-hub/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59377</id>
<updated>2025-04-09T20:29:51Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-18T11:34:45Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="usb-c" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The gadget wizards at Benfei know that I'm a sucker for any sort of USB-C gadget. So when they offered to send me their micro-hub to review, how could I refuse? It is dinky! Here's what you get for your tenner USB-C PowerDelivery HDMI USB-A Frankly, I'm impressed that they managed to fit that much in! If you'll excuse my lacklustre photo-editing skills, here are the two output ports: …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-this-the-smallest-usb-c-hub/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>The gadget wizards at <a href="https://www.benfei.com">Benfei</a> know that I'm a sucker for any sort of USB-C gadget. So when they offered to send me their micro-hub to review, how could I refuse?</p>
<p>It is <em>dinky!</em></p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/dinky.jpg" alt="Tiny hub nestled in the palm of my hand." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59380">
<p>Here's what you get for your tenner</p>
<ul>
<li>USB-C PowerDelivery</li>
<li>HDMI</li>
<li>USB-A</li>
</ul>
<p>Frankly, I'm impressed that they managed to fit that much in!</p>
<p>If you'll excuse my lacklustre photo-editing skills, here are the two output ports:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/ports.jpg" alt="USB and HDMI ports on the sides." width="601" height="539" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59378">
<p>This is what it looks like plugged into a laptop:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/laptop.jpg" alt="Plugged into a Framework laptop. It is about as tall as the enter key." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59381">
<p>The spec says it will use about 10 Watts for the hub and pass the rest through. I used my <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/10/gadget-review-plugable-usb-c-voltage-amperage-meter-240w/">Plugable Power Meter</a> to measure throughput - my 65W charger supplied about 45W to the laptop. Perhaps a bit less than they claim, but certainly good enough.</p>
<p>It delivered 4K video flawlessly - my Linux laptop was able to play 60Hz videos without issue. And, of course, the USB-A port worked as expected.</p>
<p>But that's not the real challenge here, is it? USB-C is the future - how well does it work on a variety of devices?</p>
<p>Plugging in to my Pixel 8 Pro, the PowerDelivery hit 20W - which is decent. DP Alt-Mode is still experimental in Android, but GrapheneOS was able to drive video and audio to my TV. And, again, the USB port worked with a keyboard, thumb-drive, and other accessories.</p>
<p>Let's go for a bigger challenge. How does this thing cope with the Nintendo Switch?</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/switch.jpg" alt="Nintendo Switch with TV showing output." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59379">
<p>Brilliant! Sound, video, and power all worked!</p>
<p>The only real downside is that it doesn't do data passthrough on the power-in port. So you will lose a USB-C data-socket when using it. It is 48mm wide - so you may need an extension cable if your existing ports are very close together.</p>
<p>But, for a tenner, this is an absolute steal. It even comes with a tiny lanyard and keyring so you can keep it with you at all times.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>3</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[That's Not How A SIM Swap Attack Works]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/thats-not-how-a-sim-swap-attack-works/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59603</id>
<updated>2025-04-17T12:46:55Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-17T11:34:54Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="2fa" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="CyberSecurity" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="MFA" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="security" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="sim" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[There's a disturbing article in The Guardian about a person who was on the receiving end of a successful cybersecurity attack. EE texted to say they had processed my sim activation request, and the new sim would be active in 24 hours. I was told to contact them if I hadn’t requested this. I hadn’t, so I did so immediately. Twenty-four hours later, my mobile stopped working and money was wit…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/thats-not-how-a-sim-swap-attack-works/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>There's <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/apr/15/ee-was-unapologetic-after-i-tried-to-stop-a-sim-swap">a disturbing article in The Guardian</a> about a person who was on the receiving end of a successful cybersecurity attack.</p>
<blockquote><p>EE texted to say they had processed my sim activation request, and the new sim would be active in 24 hours. I was told to contact them if I hadn’t requested this. I hadn’t, so I did so immediately. Twenty-four hours later, my mobile stopped working and money was withdrawn from my bank account.
</p><p><strong>With their alien sim, the fraudster infiltrated my handset and stole details for every account I had.</strong> Passwords and logins had been changed for my finance, retail and some social media accounts. </p></blockquote>
<p>(Emphasis added.)</p>
<p>I realise it is in the consumer rights section of the newspaper, not the technology section, and I dare-say some editorialising has gone on, but that's <em>nonsense</em>.</p>
<p>Here's how a SIM swap works.</p>
<ol>
<li>Attacker convinces your phone company to reassign your telephone number to a new SIM.</li>
<li>Attacker goes to a website where you have an account, and initiates a password reset.</li>
<li>Website sends a verification code to your phone number, which is now in the hands of the attacker.</li>
<li>Attacker supplies verification code and gets into your account.</li>
</ol>
<p>Do you notice the missing step there?</p>
<p>At no point does the attacker "infiltrate" your handset. Your handset is still in your possession. The SIM is dead, but that doesn't give the attacker access to the phone itself. There is simply <strong>no way</strong> for someone to put a new SIM into their phone and automatically get access to your device.</p>
<p>Try it now. Take your SIM out of your phone and put it into a new one. Do all of your apps suddenly appear? Are your usernames and passwords visible to you? No.</p>
<p>There are ways to transfer your data from an <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210216">iPhone</a> or <a href="https://support.google.com/android/answer/13761358?hl=en">Android</a> - but they require a lot more work than swapping a SIM.</p>
<p>So how did the attacker know which websites to target and what username to use?</p>
<h2 id="what-probably-happened"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/thats-not-how-a-sim-swap-attack-works/#what-probably-happened" class="heading-link">What (Probably) Happened</a></h2>
<p>Let's assume the person in the article didn't have malware on their device and hadn't handed over all their details to a cold caller.</p>
<p>The most obvious answer is that the attacker <em>already</em> knew the victim's email address. Maybe the victim gave out their phone number and email to some dodgy site, or they're listed on their contact page, or something like that.</p>
<p>The attacker now has two routes.</p>
<p>First is "hit and hope". They try the email address on hundreds of popular sites' password reset page until they get a match. That's time-consuming given the vast volume of websites.</p>
<p>Second is targetting your email. If the attacker can get into your email, they can see which sites you use, who your bank is, and where you shop. They can target those specific sites, perform a password reset, and get your details.</p>
<p>I strongly suspect it is the latter which has happened. The swapped SIM was used to reset the victim's email password. Once in the email, all the accounts were easily found. At no point was the handset broken into.</p>
<h2 id="what-can-i-do-to-protect-myself"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/thats-not-how-a-sim-swap-attack-works/#what-can-i-do-to-protect-myself" class="heading-link">What can I do to protect myself?</a></h2>
<p>It is important to realise that <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/03/theres-nothing-you-can-do-to-prevent-a-sim-swap-attack/">there's nothing you can do to prevent a SIM-swap attack</a>! Your phone company is probably incompetent and their staff can easily be bribed. You do not control your phone number. If you get hit by a SIM swap, it almost certainly isn't your fault.</p>
<p>So here are some practical steps anyone can take to reduce the likelihood and effectiveness of this class of attack:</p>
<ul>
<li>Remember that <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/03/its-ok-to-lie-to-wifi-providers/">it's OK to lie to WiFi providers</a> and other people who ask for your details. You don't need to give someone your email for a receipt. You don't need to hand over your real phone number on a survey. This is the most important thing you can do.</li>
<li>Try to hack yourself. How easy would it be for an attacker who had stolen your phone number to also steal your email address? Open up a private browser window and try to reset your email password. What do you notice? How could you secure yourself better?</li>
<li>Don't use SMS for two-factor authentication. If you are given a choice of 2FA methods, use a dedicated app. If the only option you're given is SMS - contact the company to complain, or leave for a different provider.</li>
<li>Don't rely on a <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/scientits.bsky.social/post/3lmz2zaxkf22k">setting a PIN for your SIM</a>. The PIN only protects the physical SIM from being moved to a new device; it does nothing to stop your number being ported to a new SIM.</li>
<li>Finally, realise that professional criminals only need to be lucky once but you need to be lucky all the time.</li>
</ul>
<p>Stay safe out there.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>5</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Benfei SATA to USB-C Drive Enclosure ★★★★★]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-sata-to-usb-c-drive-enclosure/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59359</id>
<updated>2025-04-16T09:31:57Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-16T11:34:54Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="usb-c" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The good folks at Benfei know that I'm always losing my USB Thumb Drives. They're just too damn small. I crave something bigger and harder to lose. Not as huge as a CD Drive, but not as small as a MiniDisc. Something chunky and satisfying, with a slim elegance. So they've sent me their SATA to USB-C drive enclosure. It's a cute little box, with a built-in USB-C cable. The cable has one of…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-sata-to-usb-c-drive-enclosure/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>The good folks at Benfei know that I'm always losing my USB Thumb Drives. They're just too damn small. I crave something bigger and harder to lose. Not as huge as a CD Drive, but not as small as a MiniDisc. Something chunky and satisfying, with a slim elegance. So they've sent me their SATA to USB-C drive enclosure.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SATA-enclosure.jpg" alt="Hand-sized plastic box with a short cable." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59374">
<p>It's a cute little box, with a built-in USB-C cable.</p>
<p>The cable has one of those weird adapters which lets you convert it back to USB-A. Personally, I think we should force everyone to USB-C and not pander to the laggards who refuse to embrace the future. The box is "tool free" - which means you can slide the top off with ease.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SATA-port.jpg" alt="Plastic box with a SATA connector." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59373">
<p>Inside is the standard SATA plug, waiting for your disk. The unit also comes with some extra foam padding - so you can ensure nothing rattles around in there.</p>
<p>I couldn't find my SSD, but I had an old 320GB HDD laying around, so shoved that in there.</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SATA-HDD.jpg" alt="Plastic unit with a small hard disk in it." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59372">
<p>As was to be expected, it is plug-and-play technology. For Linux nerds, this shows up as <code>152d:0583 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. JMS583Gen 2 to PCIe Gen3x2 Bridge</code>.</p>
<p>You can <a href="https://www.jmicron.com/file/download/1012/JMS583_Product+Brief.pdf">read the JMicron datasheed for the chip</a>.</p>
<p>For a laugh, I plugged it into my Android phone:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-usb-sata.png" alt="Android notification saying the drive is ready to set up." width="1024" height="248" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59375">
<p>USB-C has reached the sort of maturity where you can be reasonably sure that plugging in random gadgets will just work.</p>
<p>I did a quick drive benchmark and it seemed to top out at 60MB/s for reading and writing. To be fair, that may just be the age of my piece of spinning rust.</p>
<p>For less than a tenner, this is a great gadget to have in your bag. It's quick and simple to open, you don't need to faff around with screws. The cable is a little short - but you probably don't want it trailing all over your desk.</p>
<p>Oh, and it has a blue LED to let you know it is working. Thankfully, it isn't overly bright so doesn't cause a distraction.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>1</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Benfei USB-C to Ethernet Adapter ★★★★★]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-usb-c-to-ethernet-adapter/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59361</id>
<updated>2025-04-13T16:26:42Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-15T11:34:47Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="usb-c" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Sure, WiFi is basically fine. But sometimes you need the raw power, high speed, and utter reliability of Ethernet. Billions of packets hurtling down twisted copper pair in order to deliver your data - that's what it is all about, right? But - alas! - laptops don't have Ethernet ports these days. And mobile phones tend to shun them as well. Who can save us from the tyranny of multi-GigaHertz…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-usb-c-to-ethernet-adapter/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Sure, WiFi is basically fine. But sometimes you need the raw power, high speed, and utter reliability of Ethernet. Billions of packets hurtling down twisted copper pair in order to deliver your data - that's what it is all about, right?</p>
<p>But - alas! - laptops don't have Ethernet ports these days. And mobile phones tend to shun them as well. Who can save us from the tyranny of multi-GigaHertz radiowaves?!</p>
<p>The good folk at Benfei have sent me their latest gadget and, somehow, I need to make 300 words out of "plug into device, plug in Ethernet cable, data go fast". Let's see how that goes!</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/USB-C-Ethernet.jpg" alt="A USB-C to Ethernet converter." width="1024" height="771" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59369">
<p>My hands trembling, I plugged in the svelte USB-C plug into my waiting laptop. With a satisfying "clunk", the Ethernet cable docked into the waiting receptacle. An instant later, subtle LEDs began to flicker as the data pulsed through the CAT6 and into my computer.</p>
<p>For Linux nerds, this is a <code>0bda:8153 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter</code>. Plugging it in just worked - although there are <a href="https://www.benfei.com/pages/drivers">drivers for Linux, Mac, and Windows</a> if you need them.</p>
<p>Just for a laugh, I plugged it into my Android phone and - amazingly - it also just worked. I was free from the shackles of poor 5G coverage. Well, I could only go as far as my Ethernet cable stretched, but the speeds were fantastic.</p>
<p>This claims to be good up to 1Gbps. Sadly, I downgraded my <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/12/whats-the-point-in-gigabit-broadband/">Gigabit broadband</a>, but let's see just how fast it can go. Here's a speed test run from my Android phone:</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/620.png" alt="620 Mbps." width="504" height="653" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59368">
<p>Fair play! That totally maxed out my home broadband.</p>
<h2 id="verdict"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-usb-c-to-ethernet-adapter/#verdict" class="heading-link">Verdict</a></h2>
<p>It's a cute little unit. For about a tenner - depending on how The Algorithm feels - this can't be beat. The short cable is nicely braided, the silver design is inoffensive, and you get the standard Ethernet blinkenlights to tell you it's working.</p>
<p>Please click the affiliate links so my family doesn't starve.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
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<thr:total>4</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[You don't need an API key to archive Twitter Data]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59462</id>
<updated>2025-04-14T10:53:38Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-14T11:34:07Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="api" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HowTo" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="twitter" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Apparently there's no need for IP laws any more, so here's a way to archive high-fidelity Twitter data without signing up for an expensive API key. This is perfect for academics wishing to preserve Tweets, journalists wanting to download evidence, or simply embedding content without leaking user data back to Twitter. Table of Contentstl;drBackgroundEmbed CodeAPI CallOptionsOutputTweet With…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Apparently <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/ednewtonrex.bsky.social/post/3lmmv4x7gps2a">there's no need for IP laws any more</a>, so here's a way to archive high-fidelity Twitter data without signing up for an expensive API key.</p>
<p>This is perfect for academics wishing to preserve Tweets, journalists wanting to download evidence, or simply embedding content without leaking user data back to Twitter.</p>
<p></p><nav id="toc"><menu id="toc-start"><li id="toc-title"><h2 id="table-of-contents"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#table-of-contents" class="heading-link">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#tldr">tl;dr</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#background">Background</a><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#embed-code">Embed Code</a></li></menu></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#api-call">API Call</a><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#options">Options</a></li></menu></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#output">Output</a><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#tweet-with-image">Tweet With Image</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#replies">Replies</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#quote-tweets">Quote Tweets</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#downloading-media">Downloading Media</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#other-examples">Other Examples</a></li></menu></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#limitations">Limitations</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#python-code">Python Code</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#have-fun">Have Fun</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>
<h2 id="tldr"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#tldr" class="heading-link">tl;dr</a></h2>
<p>You can get the full JSON code of any Tweet by using this API:</p>
<p><code>https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=123456789&token=01010101010</code></p>
<p>Add any valid Twitter <code>id</code>, and choose a random number for your <code>token</code>. Done.</p>
<h2 id="background"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#background" class="heading-link">Background</a></h2>
<p>Twitter has an "embed" functionality. Websites can import a full copy of a Tweet, including its media and metadata. <a href="https://create.twitter.com/en/products/embedded-tweets">Twitter's documentation is a little lacklustre</a> but here's a brief explanation of how it works.</p>
<h3 id="embed-code"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#embed-code" class="heading-link">Embed Code</a></h3>
<p>Using HTML like this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><iframe
src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=719484841172054016"
width=512
height=768></iframe>
</code></pre>
<p>Produces an embeddable which looks like this:</p>
<iframe src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=719484841172054016" width="512" height="768"></iframe>
<h2 id="api-call"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#api-call" class="heading-link">API Call</a></h2>
<p>With a bit of sniffing of the traffic, it's possible to see that the iframe eventually calls a URl like this:</p>
<p><a style="font-family:monospace;" href="https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=719484841172054016&token=123">https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=719484841172054016&token=123</a></p>
<p>Visit that and you'll see the JSON code of a Tweet.</p>
<h3 id="options"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#options" class="heading-link">Options</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><code>id=</code> this is the numeric ID of the Tweet.</li>
<li><code>token=</code> this is the API token. It can be set to a random number. It isn't checked.</li>
<li>There's an optional <code>lang=</code> which takes <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IETF_language_tag">BCP47 language codes</a>. For example <code>lang=en</code> or <code>lang=zh</code>. However, they don't seem to make any difference to the output.</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="output"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#output" class="heading-link">Output</a></h2>
<p>Here's the JSON of the above Tweet. As you can see, it includes metadata on the number of replies, favourites, and retweets. There are entities, fully expanded links, and media in a variety of formats. There's also information on whether the post has been edited, if the user is stupid enough to pay for a blue-tick, and the language of the message.</p>
<h3 id="tweet-with-image"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#tweet-with-image" class="heading-link">Tweet With Image</a></h3>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"__typename": "Tweet",
"lang": "en",
"favorite_count": 4,
"possibly_sensitive": false,
"created_at": "2016-04-11T11:18:48.000Z",
"display_text_range": [
0,
120
],
"entities": {
"hashtags": [],
"urls": [],
"user_mentions": [
{
"id_str": "23937508",
"indices": [
20,
30
],
"name": "BBC Radio 4",
"screen_name": "BBCRadio4"
}
],
"symbols": [],
"media": [
{
"display_url": "pic.x.com/6F3ZSiWuIn",
"expanded_url": "https://x.com/edent/status/719484841172054016/photo/1",
"indices": [
97,
120
],
"url": "https://t.co/6F3ZSiWuIn"
}
]
},
"id_str": "719484841172054016",
"text": "Warning! I'll be on @BBCRadio4's You And Yours shortly.\nPlease tune your wirelesses accordingly. https://t.co/6F3ZSiWuIn",
"user": {
"id_str": "14054507",
"name": "Terence Eden is on Mastodon",
"profile_image_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1623225628530016260/SW0HsKjP_normal.jpg",
"screen_name": "edent",
"verified": false,
"is_blue_verified": false,
"profile_image_shape": "Circle"
},
"edit_control": {
"edit_tweet_ids": [
"719484841172054016"
],
"editable_until_msecs": "1460375328174",
"is_edit_eligible": true,
"edits_remaining": "5"
},
"mediaDetails": [
{
"display_url": "pic.x.com/6F3ZSiWuIn",
"expanded_url": "https://x.com/edent/status/719484841172054016/photo/1",
"ext_media_availability": {
"status": "Available"
},
"indices": [
97,
120
],
"media_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfwfpnJWwAEXwe3.jpg",
"original_info": {
"height": 1280,
"width": 960,
"focus_rects": []
},
"sizes": {
"large": {
"h": 1280,
"resize": "fit",
"w": 960
},
"medium": {
"h": 1200,
"resize": "fit",
"w": 900
},
"small": {
"h": 680,
"resize": "fit",
"w": 510
},
"thumb": {
"h": 150,
"resize": "crop",
"w": 150
}
},
"type": "photo",
"url": "https://t.co/6F3ZSiWuIn"
}
],
"photos": [
{
"backgroundColor": {
"red": 204,
"green": 214,
"blue": 221
},
"cropCandidates": [],
"expandedUrl": "https://x.com/edent/status/719484841172054016/photo/1",
"url": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfwfpnJWwAEXwe3.jpg",
"width": 960,
"height": 1280
}
],
"conversation_count": 1,
"news_action_type": "conversation",
"isEdited": false,
"isStaleEdit": false
}
</code></pre>
<h3 id="replies"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#replies" class="heading-link">Replies</a></h3>
<p>Here's a more complicated example. This Tweet is in reply to another Tweet - so both messages are included:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"__typename": "Tweet",
"in_reply_to_screen_name": "edent",
"in_reply_to_status_id_str": "1095653997644574720",
"in_reply_to_user_id_str": "14054507",
"lang": "en",
"favorite_count": 0,
"created_at": "2019-02-13T12:22:59.000Z",
"display_text_range": [
7,
252
],
"entities": {
"hashtags": [],
"urls": [],
"user_mentions": [
{
"id_str": "14054507",
"indices": [
0,
6
],
"name": "Terence Eden is on Mastodon",
"screen_name": "edent"
}
],
"symbols": []
},
"id_str": "1095659600420966400",
"text": "@edent I can definitely see how this would get in the way of making your day a productive one. Do you find this happens often? If it does, I'd be happy to chat to you about a reliable alternative with us during your lunch break! ☕ PM me for a chat! ^JH",
"user": {
"id_str": "20139563",
"name": "Sky",
"profile_image_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1674689671006240769/OpfisqRG_normal.jpg",
"screen_name": "SkyUK",
"verified": false,
"verified_type": "Business",
"is_blue_verified": false,
"profile_image_shape": "Square"
},
"edit_control": {
"edit_tweet_ids": [
"1095659600420966400"
],
"editable_until_msecs": "1550062379768",
"is_edit_eligible": true,
"edits_remaining": "5"
},
"conversation_count": 2,
"news_action_type": "conversation",
"parent": {
"lang": "en",
"reply_count": 2,
"retweet_count": 1,
"favorite_count": 1,
"possibly_sensitive": false,
"created_at": "2019-02-13T12:00:43.000Z",
"display_text_range": [
0,
112
],
"entities": {
"hashtags": [],
"urls": [],
"user_mentions": [
{
"id_str": "17872077",
"indices": [
33,
45
],
"name": "Virgin Media ❤",
"screen_name": "virginmedia"
}
],
"symbols": [],
"media": [
{
"display_url": "pic.x.com/mje6nh38CZ",
"expanded_url": "https://x.com/edent/status/1095653997644574720/photo/1",
"indices": [
113,
136
],
"url": "https://t.co/mje6nh38CZ"
}
]
},
"id_str": "1095653997644574720",
"text": "Working from home is tricky when @virginmedia goes down so hard even its status page falls over.\nTime for lunch. https://t.co/mje6nh38CZ",
"user": {
"id_str": "14054507",
"name": "Terence Eden is on Mastodon",
"profile_image_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1623225628530016260/SW0HsKjP_normal.jpg",
"screen_name": "edent",
"verified": false,
"is_blue_verified": false,
"profile_image_shape": "Circle"
},
"edit_control": {
"edit_tweet_ids": [
"1095653997644574720"
],
"editable_until_msecs": "1550061043962",
"is_edit_eligible": true,
"edits_remaining": "5"
},
"mediaDetails": [
{
"display_url": "pic.x.com/mje6nh38CZ",
"expanded_url": "https://x.com/edent/status/1095653997644574720/photo/1",
"ext_alt_text": "Oops! something's broken! ",
"ext_media_availability": {
"status": "Available"
},
"indices": [
113,
136
],
"media_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzSLf6sWsAAGWWH.jpg",
"original_info": {
"height": 797,
"width": 1080,
"focus_rects": [
{
"x": 0,
"y": 192,
"w": 1080,
"h": 605
},
{
"x": 142,
"y": 0,
"w": 797,
"h": 797
},
{
"x": 191,
"y": 0,
"w": 699,
"h": 797
},
{
"x": 341,
"y": 0,
"w": 399,
"h": 797
},
{
"x": 0,
"y": 0,
"w": 1080,
"h": 797
}
]
},
"sizes": {
"large": {
"h": 797,
"resize": "fit",
"w": 1080
},
"medium": {
"h": 797,
"resize": "fit",
"w": 1080
},
"small": {
"h": 502,
"resize": "fit",
"w": 680
},
"thumb": {
"h": 150,
"resize": "crop",
"w": 150
}
},
"type": "photo",
"url": "https://t.co/mje6nh38CZ"
}
],
"photos": [
{
"accessibilityLabel": "Oops! something's broken! ",
"backgroundColor": {
"red": 204,
"green": 214,
"blue": 221
},
"cropCandidates": [
{
"x": 0,
"y": 192,
"w": 1080,
"h": 605
},
{
"x": 142,
"y": 0,
"w": 797,
"h": 797
},
{
"x": 191,
"y": 0,
"w": 699,
"h": 797
},
{
"x": 341,
"y": 0,
"w": 399,
"h": 797
},
{
"x": 0,
"y": 0,
"w": 1080,
"h": 797
}
],
"expandedUrl": "https://x.com/edent/status/1095653997644574720/photo/1",
"url": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzSLf6sWsAAGWWH.jpg",
"width": 1080,
"height": 797
}
],
"isEdited": false,
"isStaleEdit": false
},
"isEdited": false,
"isStaleEdit": false
}
</code></pre>
<h3 id="quote-tweets"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#quote-tweets" class="heading-link">Quote Tweets</a></h3>
<p>Here's an example where I have quoted a Tweet:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"__typename": "Tweet",
"lang": "en",
"favorite_count": 9,
"possibly_sensitive": false,
"created_at": "2022-08-19T13:36:44.000Z",
"display_text_range": [
0,
182
],
"entities": {
"hashtags": [],
"urls": [
{
"display_url": "gu.com",
"expanded_url": "http://gu.com",
"indices": [
17,
40
],
"url": "https://t.co/Skj7FB7Tyt"
}
],
"user_mentions": [],
"symbols": []
},
"id_str": "1560621791470448642",
"text": "Whoever buys the https://t.co/Skj7FB7Tyt domain will effectively get to rewrite history.\nThey can redirect links like these - and change the nature of the content being commented on.",
"user": {
"id_str": "14054507",
"name": "Terence Eden is on Mastodon",
"profile_image_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1623225628530016260/SW0HsKjP_normal.jpg",
"screen_name": "edent",
"verified": false,
"is_blue_verified": false,
"profile_image_shape": "Circle"
},
"edit_control": {
"edit_tweet_ids": [
"1560621791470448642"
],
"editable_until_msecs": "1660918004000",
"is_edit_eligible": true,
"edits_remaining": "5"
},
"conversation_count": 4,
"news_action_type": "conversation",
"quoted_tweet": {
"lang": "en",
"reply_count": 131,
"retweet_count": 1337,
"favorite_count": 2789,
"possibly_sensitive": false,
"created_at": "2018-11-27T15:56:19.000Z",
"display_text_range": [
0,
279
],
"entities": {
"hashtags": [],
"urls": [
{
"display_url": "gu.com/p/axa7k/stw",
"expanded_url": "https://gu.com/p/axa7k/stw",
"indices": [
256,
279
],
"url": "https://t.co/UulPL1CtcK"
}
],
"user_mentions": [],
"symbols": []
},
"id_str": "1067447032363794432",
"text": "The Steele Dossier asserted Russian hacking of the DNC was \"conducted with the full knowledge &amp; support of Trump &amp; senior members of his campaign.” Trump's war against the FBI &amp; efforts to obstruct make sense if he thought they could prove it. https://t.co/UulPL1CtcK",
"user": {
"id_str": "548384458",
"name": "Joyce Alene",
"profile_image_url_https": "https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/952257848301498371/5s24RH-g_normal.jpg",
"screen_name": "JoyceWhiteVance",
"verified": false,
"is_blue_verified": true,
"profile_image_shape": "Circle"
},
"edit_control": {
"edit_tweet_ids": [
"1067447032363794432"
],
"editable_until_msecs": "1543335979379",
"is_edit_eligible": true,
"edits_remaining": "5"
},
"isEdited": false,
"isStaleEdit": false
},
"isEdited": false,
"isStaleEdit": false
}
</code></pre>
<h3 id="downloading-media"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#downloading-media" class="heading-link">Downloading Media</a></h3>
<p>Videos are also available to download, with no restrictions, in a variety of resolutions:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json"> "mediaDetails": [
{
"type": "video",
"url": "https://t.co/Qw1IFom7Fh",
"video_info": {
"aspect_ratio": [
3,
4
],
"duration_millis": 13578,
"variants": [
{
"content_type": "application/x-mpegURL",
"url": "https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/pl/DiIKFNNZLWbLmECm.m3u8?tag=12"
},
{
"bitrate": 632000,
"content_type": "video/mp4",
"url": "https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/320x426/oq2p-t0RJEEKuDD6.mp4?tag=12"
},
{
"bitrate": 950000,
"content_type": "video/mp4",
"url": "https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/480x640/3X8ZsBmXmmaaakmM.mp4?tag=12"
},
{
"bitrate": 2176000,
"content_type": "video/mp4",
"url": "https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/720x960/sS9cLdGn93eUmvKC.mp4?tag=12"
}
]
}
}
],
</code></pre>
<h3 id="other-examples"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#other-examples" class="heading-link">Other Examples</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=909106648928718848&lang=en&token=123456">Multiple Images</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=670060095972245504&lang=en&token=123456">Polls</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=83659275024601088&lang=en&token=123456">Deleted Message</a></li>
<li><a href="https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=1131218926493413377&lang=en&token=123456">Summary Cards</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="limitations"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#limitations" class="heading-link">Limitations</a></h2>
<p>There are a few small limitations with this approach.</p>
<ul>
<li>It doesn't capture replies
<ul>
<li>If the Tweet is in reply to something, it will capture the parent.</li>
<li>If the Tweet quotes something, it will capture the quoted Tweet.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>The counts for replies, retweets, and favourites may not be accurate
<ul>
<li>Older messages seem worse for this, but that's a natural part of digital decay.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Reduced metadata
<ul>
<li>The official API used to tell you which device was used to post the message, user's timezone, and other bits of useful information.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>You need to know the ID of the Tweet
<ul>
<li>There's no way to automatically grab every Tweet by a user, or from a search.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Sometimes the API stops responding
<ul>
<li>Change the token to another random number.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Occasionally replies and quotes won't be included
<ul>
<li>Calling the API again often recovers the data.</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="python-code"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#python-code" class="heading-link">Python Code</a></h2>
<p>If you're technically inclined, I've <a href="https://github.com/edent/Tweet2Embed">written some Python code to automate turning the JSON into HTML</a>.</p>
<h2 id="have-fun"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#have-fun" class="heading-link">Have Fun</a></h2>
<p>Remember, the owner of Twitter no longer believes in IP law. So I guess you can go nuts and download all of Twitter's data and use it for any purpose?</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
<link href="https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/320x426/oq2p-t0RJEEKuDD6.mp4?tag=12" rel="enclosure" length="416756" type="video/mp4" />
<link href="https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/480x640/3X8ZsBmXmmaaakmM.mp4?tag=12" rel="enclosure" length="786328" type="video/mp4" />
<link href="https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/720x960/sS9cLdGn93eUmvKC.mp4?tag=12" rel="enclosure" length="1546364" type="video/mp4" />
<link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#comments" thr:count="2" />
<link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/feed/atom/" thr:count="2" />
<thr:total>2</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: Great Robots of History by Tim Major ★★★⯪☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-great-robots-of-history-by-tim-major/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59406</id>
<updated>2025-04-10T21:09:10Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-13T11:34:51Z</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="robots" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Sci Fi" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[This is a lovely and twisted anthology of stories. Each presents a "historic" robot - be they an automaton, a puppet given life by the gods, or a resurrected villager. Some, like the Mechanical Turk, are historical fact but others are invented just for us to gawk at. The stories are mostly dark and brooding, with the macabre turn. They're fun - but the constant theme is "what if I, an…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-great-robots-of-history-by-tim-major/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p><img decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Great-Robots-of-History-500.jpg" alt="Pygmalion kissing a statue who has been brought to life." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-59407">This is a lovely and twisted anthology of stories. Each presents a "historic" robot - be they an automaton, a puppet given life by the gods, or a resurrected villager. Some, like the Mechanical Turk, are historical fact but others are invented just for us to gawk at.</p>
<p>The stories are mostly dark and brooding, with the macabre turn. They're fun - but the constant theme is "what if I, an intelligent person, got trapped in the brain of a dullard?" Robots who are self-aware of their limitations reveal to us how terrifying dementia must be.</p>
<p>We meet robots who are reassured that they are without sin, and those which long to sin. Perhaps malicious dæmons reside in their programming just as bugs reside in our souls?</p>
<p>A fine collection.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
<link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-great-robots-of-history-by-tim-major/#comments" thr:count="0" />
<link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-great-robots-of-history-by-tim-major/feed/atom/" thr:count="0" />
<thr:total>0</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Benfei Laptop Riser with Built-In USB-C Dock ★★★☆☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59363</id>
<updated>2025-04-09T18:31:40Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-12T11:34:32Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="usb-c" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The good folks at Benfei have sent me a laptop stand to review. You know the drill, a few pieces of metal, some hinges, and rubber feet. But this stand holds a little more interest for the gadget lover - a built in USB-C hub! What do you get for your £35? USB-C power input - capable of taking 100W of PowerDelivery. A built-in USB-C cable to connect to your laptop. HDMI port which supports 4k …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>The good folks at Benfei have sent me a laptop stand to review. You know the drill, a few pieces of metal, some hinges, and rubber feet. But this stand holds a little more interest for the gadget lover - a built in USB-C hub!</p>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/benfei-dock-riser.jpg" alt="A metal laptop stand with USB ports built in." width="1000" height="922" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59366">
<p>What do you get for your £35?</p>
<ul>
<li>USB-C power input - capable of taking 100W of PowerDelivery.</li>
<li>A built-in USB-C cable to connect to your laptop.</li>
<li>HDMI port which supports 4k @ 60Hz.</li>
<li>Four USB-A ports.</li>
</ul>
<p>And that's it! There isn't any DisplayPort, no Ethernet, no sound, no extra USB-C ports. It is, I have to say, a little bare-bones.</p>
<p>The smarts are powered by a <a href="http://www.bridgesil.com.cn/upload/20240815145503.pdf">Bridgesil USB 3.2 chip</a>. For Linux nerds, it shows up as <code>35d6:3510 Bridgesil USB3.2 Hub</code> and <code>35d6:2510 Bridgesil USB2.1 Hub</code>.</p>
<h2 id="putting-it-through-its-paces"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/#putting-it-through-its-paces" class="heading-link">Putting it through its paces</a></h2>
<p>The 4K HDMI worked flawlessly. As you'd expect from HDMI, the picture clarity was perfectly reproduced. My 60Hz videos played without tearing or juddering.</p>
<p>Similarly, it's hard to go wrong with basic USB ports. Everything I plugged into them worked. USB disk speeds seemed fine. Read speeds were around 40MB/s and write speeds about the same. Pretty much what you'd expect - although I suspect this is more geared towards keyboard, mice, printers, and other office devices.</p>
<p>Power was OK. I took measurements with <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/10/gadget-review-plugable-usb-c-voltage-amperage-meter-240w/">my Plugable power meter</a>. I used a 65W charger, but the maximum I could get it to deliver to the hub was 50W (19.77v, 2.53A). Output to the laptop stuck at around 48W. There's usually a little drop off between the two as the hub itself requires some power. How much juice does your laptop need while you're doom-scrolling?</p>
<h2 id="verdict"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/#verdict" class="heading-link">Verdict</a></h2>
<p>As a laptop stand, it is brilliant. Easily adjustable, good range of movement, and some hefty rubber cushions to prevent slipping.</p>
<p>The USB features on it work - charging is fast enough, HDMI is crisp, and the USB-A ports are decent - but I just wish it had a <em>bit</em> more. Personally, I didn't like the USB ports being at the front - it meant that the cables kept getting in my way. I didn't <em>need</em> an extra HDMI port - but some extra USB-C ports would have been useful, as would Ethernet and sound.</p>
<p>If you're happy with a single HDMI and four A ports, this is fine. But if your needs are more complex or you require more power, you might want to buy a more fully-featured dock.</p>
</body></html>]]></content>
<link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/#comments" thr:count="2" />
<link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/feed/atom/" thr:count="2" />
<thr:total>2</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>@edent</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[FobCam '25 - All my MFA tokens on one page]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59334</id>
<updated>2025-04-11T09:35:20Z</updated>
<published>2025-04-11T11:34:34Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="/etc/" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="2fa" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="CyberSecurity" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="MFA" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Satire (Probably)" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="security" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Some ideas are timeless. Back in 2004, an anonymous genius set up "FobCam". Tired of having to carry around an RSA SecurID token everywhere, our hero simply left the fob at home with an early webcam pointing at it. And then left the page open for all to see. Security expert Bruce Schneier approved of this trade-off between security and usability - saying what we're all thinking: Here’s a guy w…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/"><![CDATA[
<html><head></head><body><p>Some ideas are timeless. Back in 2004, an anonymous genius set up "<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20060215092922/http://fob.webhop.net/">FobCam</a>". Tired of having to carry around an RSA SecurID token everywhere, our hero simply left the fob at home with an early webcam pointing at it. And then left the page open for all to see.</p>
<img decoding="async" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/FobCam-fs8.png" alt="Website with a grainy webcam photo of a SecurID fob." width="512" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-59341">
<p>Security expert Bruce Schneier approved<sup id="fnref:🫠"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:🫠" class="footnote-ref" title="🫠" role="doc-noteref">0</a></sup> of this trade-off between security and usability - saying what we're all thinking:</p>
<blockquote><p>Here’s a guy who has a webcam pointing at his SecurID token, so he doesn’t have to remember to carry it around. Here’s the strange thing: unless you know who the webpage belongs to, it’s still good security.
<a href="https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram/archives/2004/0815.html#:~:text=webcam">Crypto-Gram - August 15, 2004</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Nowadays, we have to carry dozens of these tokens with us. Although, unlike the poor schmucks of 2004, we have an app for that. But I don't always have access to my phone. Sometimes I'm in a secure location where I can't access my electronics. Sometimes my phone gets stolen, and I need to log into Facebook to whinge about it. Sometimes I just can't be bothered to remember which fingerprint unlocks my phone<sup id="fnref:🖕"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:🖕" class="footnote-ref" title="🖕" role="doc-noteref">1</a></sup>.</p>
<p>Using the <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/03/using-the-web-crypto-api-to-generate-totp-codes-in-javascript-without-3rd-party-libraries/">Web Crypto API, it is easy to Generate TOTP Codes in JavaScript directly in the browser</a>. So here are all my important MFA tokens. If I ever need to log in somewhere, I can just visit this page and grab the code I need<sup id="fnref:🙃"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:🙃" class="footnote-ref" title="🙃" role="doc-noteref">2</a></sup>.</p>
<h2 id="all-my-important-codes"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#all-my-important-codes" class="heading-link">All My Important Codes</a></h2>
<table>
<tbody><tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/github.svg" width="100" title="Github"></td><td id="otp0"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/bitwarden.svg" width="100" title="BitWarden"></td><td id="otp1"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/apple.svg" width="100" title="Apple"></td><td id="otp2"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/ebay.svg" width="100" title="ebay"></td><td id="otp3"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/amazon.svg" width="100" title="Amazon"></td><td id="otp4"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/npm.svg" width="100" title="NPM"></td><td id="otp5"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/paypal.svg" width="100" title="PayPal"></td><td id="otp6"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/facebook.svg" width="100" title="Facebook"></td><td id="otp7"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/zoom.svg" width="100" title="Zoom"></td><td id="otp8"></td></tr>
<tr><td><img decoding="async" src="https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/linkedin.svg" width="100" title="LinkedIn"></td><td id="otp9"></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<h2 id="what-the-actual-fuck"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#what-the-actual-fuck" class="heading-link">What The <em>Actual</em> Fuck?</a></h2>
<p>A 2007 paper called <a href="https://cups.cs.cmu.edu/soups/2007/proceedings/p64_bauer.pdf">Lessons learned from the deployment of a smartphone-based access-control system</a> looked at whether fobs met the needs of their users:</p>
<blockquote> However, we observed that end users tend to be most concerned about how convenient [fobs] are to use. There are many examples of end users of widely used access-control technologies readily sacrificing security for convenience. For example, it is well known that users often write their passwords on post-it notes and stick them to their computer monitors. Other users are more inventive: a good example is the user who pointed a webcam at his fob and published the image online so he would not have to carry the fob around.</blockquote>
<p>As for Schneier's suggestion that anonymity added protection, a contemporary report noted that <a href="https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram/archives/2004/0915.html#:~:text=Fobcam">the owner of the FobCam site was trivial to identify</a><sup id="fnref:dox"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:dox" class="footnote-ref" title="The neologism "doxing" hadn't yet been invented." role="doc-noteref">3</a></sup>.</p>
<p>Every security system involves trade-offs. I have a password manager, but with over a thousand passwords in it, the process of navigating and maintaining becomes a burden. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/08/i-have-4-2fa-coverage/">The number of 2FA tokens I have is also rising</a>. All of these security factors need backing up. Those back-ups need testing<sup id="fnref:back"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:back" class="footnote-ref" title="As was written by the prophets: "Only wimps use tape backup: real men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it"" role="doc-noteref">4</a></sup>. It is an endless cycle of drudgery.</p>
<p>What's a rational user supposed to do<sup id="fnref:rat"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:rat" class="footnote-ref" title="I in no way imply that I am rational." role="doc-noteref">5</a></sup>? I suppose I could buy a couple of hardware keys, keep one in an off-site location, but somehow keep both in sync, and hope that a firmware-update doesn't brick them.</p>
<p>Should I just upload all of my passwords, tokens, secrets, recovery codes, passkeys, and biometrics<sup id="fnref:bro"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:bro" class="footnote-ref" title="Just one more factor, that'll fix security, just gotta add one more factor bro." role="doc-noteref">6</a></sup> into the cloud?</p>
<p>The cloud is just someone else's computer. This website is <em>my</em> computer. So I'm going to upload all my factors here. What's the worst that could happen<sup id="fnref:🤯"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:🤯" class="footnote-ref" title="This is left as an exercise for the reader." role="doc-noteref">7</a></sup>.</p>
<script>async function generateTOTP(
base32Secret = "QWERTY",
interval = 30,
length = 6,
algorithm = "SHA-1" ) {
// Decode the secret
// The Base32 Alphabet is specified at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4648#section-6
const alphabet = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ234567";
let bits = "";
// Some secrets are padded with the `=` character. Remove padding.
// https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3548#section-2.2
base32Secret = base32Secret.replace( /=+$/, "" )
// Loop through the trimmed secret
for ( let char of base32Secret ) {
// Ensure the secret's characters are upper case
const value = alphabet.indexOf( char.toUpperCase() );
// If the character doesn't appear in the alphabet.
if (value === -1) throw new Error( "Invalid Base32 character" );
// Binary representation of where the character is in the alphabet
bits += value.toString( 2 ).padStart( 5, "0" );
}
// Turn the bits into bytes
let bytes = [];
// Loop through the bits, eight at a time
for ( let i = 0; i < bits.length; i += 8 ) {
if ( bits.length - i >= 8 ) {
bytes.push( parseInt( bits.substring( i, i + 8 ), 2 ) );
}
}
// Turn those bytes into an array
const decodedSecret = new Uint8Array( bytes );
// Number of seconds since Unix Epoch
const timeStamp = Date.now() / 1000;
// Number of intervals since Unix Epoch
// https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6238#section-4.2
const timeCounter = Math.floor( timeStamp / interval );
// Number of intervals in hexadecimal
const timeHex = timeCounter.toString( 16 );
// Left-Pad with 0
const paddedHex = timeHex.padStart( 16, "0" );
// Set up a buffer to hold the data
const timeBuffer = new ArrayBuffer( 8 );
const timeView = new DataView( timeBuffer );
// Take the hex string, split it into 2-character chunks
const timeBytes = paddedHex.match( /.{1,2}/g ).map(
// Convert to bytes
byte => parseInt( byte, 16 )
);
// Write each byte into timeBuffer.
for ( let i = 0; i < 8; i++ ) {
timeView.setUint8(i, timeBytes[i]);
}
// Use Web Crypto API to generate the HMAC key
// https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/SubtleCrypto/importKey
const key = await crypto.subtle.importKey(
"raw",
decodedSecret,
{
name: "HMAC",
hash: algorithm
},
false,
["sign"]
);
// Sign the timeBuffer with the generated HMAC key
// https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/SubtleCrypto/sign
const signature = await crypto.subtle.sign( "HMAC", key, timeBuffer );
// Get HMAC as bytes
const hmac = new Uint8Array( signature );
// https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4226#section-5.4
// Use the last byte to generate the offset
const offset = hmac[ hmac.length - 1 ] & 0x0f;
// Bit Twiddling operations
const binaryCode =
( ( hmac[ offset ] & 0x7f ) << 24 ) |
( ( hmac[ offset + 1 ] & 0xff ) << 16 ) |
( ( hmac[ offset + 2 ] & 0xff ) << 8 ) |
( ( hmac[ offset + 3 ] & 0xff ) );
// Turn the binary code into a decimal string
const stringOTP = binaryCode.toString();
// Count backwards from the last character for the length of the code
let otp = stringOTP.slice( -length)
// Pad with 0 to full length
otp = otp.padStart( length, "0" );
// All done!
return otp;
}
// Placeholder for OTPs
var otps = [];
// Do you really think these are my genuine codes? At least one of them is. But which?
var otpData =
[
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "IPT5TRO7VFK66M6SHUJ7XZNM2U6IZZ4L"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "EXGKOX26KMDSTL6KM3BYMPXXDDKNQEYM"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "UGVGXRQFHY62OWI5SGSTZLIQUMXTTVME"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "Y4UHVLFIZZZK7ENDYZ4O3ZZI2QWUJI37"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "Z2KDRL4ELOCDALT3OSNUK65Z2KPOWGUL"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "OWRQKSCBLRUZXYXLXIDATUK6UTG3CPVV"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "XQLSEGNYPBMVK35ZMDTVN5GFOZB46WJJ"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "M3KVKGRB2WVWOZXN437EMF2MS36G75IR",
"Comment" : "This is genuinely my Twitter TOTP secret - although the period should be 30. But what's the password? There's a clue somewhere in this source code!",
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "3EMER2B6YXIFMMAY5XBYLNF4NSEGJXCU"
},
{
"algorithm" : "SHA1",
"digits" : 6,
"period" : 15,
"secret" : "ZML6O5K7QSVFE5QIWNFFT7BIZI7PBHNV"
}
]
var i = 0;
otpData.forEach (
item => {
// Add OTP
otps[i] = item;
i++;
}
);
// Generate TOTP codes
async function update() {
for (var i = 0; i < otps.length; i++){
// Convert the algorithm
// The algorithm name is different for TOTP and Web Crypto(!)
algorithm = "SHA-1";
document.getElementById( "otp" + i).innerHTML = await generateTOTP(
otps[i]["secret"],
otps[i]["period"],
otps[i]["digits"],
algorithm
);
}
}
// Update every second
setInterval(update, 1000);
</script>
<div class="footnotes" role="doc-endnotes">
<hr>
<ol start="0">
<li id="fn:🫠" role="doc-endnote">
<p><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1fae0.png" alt="🫠" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:🫠" 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>
<li id="fn:🖕" role="doc-endnote">
<p><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f595.png" alt="🖕" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:🖕" 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>
<li id="fn:🙃" role="doc-endnote">
<p><img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f643.png" alt="🙃" class="wp-smiley" style="height: 1em; max-height: 1em;" /> <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:🙃" 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>
<li id="fn:dox" role="doc-endnote">
<p>The neologism "doxing" hadn't yet been invented. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:dox" 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>
<li id="fn:back" role="doc-endnote">
<p>As was written by the prophets: "<a href="https://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9607.2/0292.html">Only wimps use tape backup: <em>real</em> men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it</a>" <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:back" 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>
<li id="fn:rat" role="doc-endnote">
<p>I in no way imply that I am rational. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:rat" 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>
<li id="fn:bro" role="doc-endnote">
<p>Just one more factor, that'll fix security, just gotta add one more factor bro. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:bro" 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>
<li id="fn:🤯" role="doc-endnote">
<p>This is left as an exercise for the reader. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:🤯" 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>
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"title": "Get alerted when your Kobo wishlist books drop in price",
"description": "The brilliant kobodl Python package allows you to interact with your Kobo account programmatically. You can list all the books you've purchased, download them, and - as of version 0.12.0 - view your wishlist. Here's a rough and ready Python script which will tell you when any the books on your wishlist have dropped below a certain amount. Table of ContentsPrerequisitesGet your wishlistSort the …",
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"updated": "2025-04-29T08:58:10.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>The brilliant <a href=\"https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader/\">kobodl Python package</a> allows you to interact with your Kobo account programmatically. You can list all the books you've purchased, download them, and - as of version 0.12.0 - view your wishlist.</p>\n\n<p>Here's a rough and ready Python script which will tell you when any the books on your wishlist have dropped below a certain amount.</p>\n\n<p></p><nav id=\"toc\"><menu id=\"toc-start\"><li id=\"toc-title\"><h2 id=\"table-of-contents\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#table-of-contents\" class=\"heading-link\">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#prerequisites\">Prerequisites</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#get-your-wishlist\">Get your wishlist</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#sort-the-wishlist\">Sort the wishlist</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#create-the-message\">Create the Message</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#send-an-email\">Send an Email</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#setting-the-settings\">Setting the settings</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#the-end-result\">The End Result</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#next-steps\">Next Steps</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>\n\n<h2 id=\"prerequisites\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#prerequisites\" class=\"heading-link\">Prerequisites</a></h2>\n\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https://pypi.org/project/kobodl/\">Install kobodl</a> following their guide.</li>\n<li>Log in with your account by running <code>kobodl user add</code></li>\n<li>Check that the configuration file is saved in the default location <code>/home/YOURUSERNAME/.config/kobodl.json</code></li>\n</ol>\n\n<h2 id=\"get-your-wishlist\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#get-your-wishlist\" class=\"heading-link\">Get your wishlist</a></h2>\n\n<p>The kobodl function <code>GetWishList()</code> takes a list of users and returns a generator. The generator contains the book's name and author. The price is a string (for example <code>5.99 GBP</code>) so needs to be split at the space.</p>\n\n<p>Here's a quick proof of concept:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-python\">import kobodl\nwishlist = kobodl.book.actions.GetWishList( kobodl.globals.Settings().UserList.users )\nfor book in wishlist:\n print( book.Title + \" - \" + book.Author + \" \" + book.Price.split()[0] )\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"sort-the-wishlist\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#sort-the-wishlist\" class=\"heading-link\">Sort the wishlist</a></h2>\n\n<p>Using Pandas, the data can be added to a dataframe and then sorted by price:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-python\">import kobodl\nimport pandas as pd\n\n# Set up the lists\nitems = []\nprices = []\nids = []\n\nwishlist = kobodl.book.actions.GetWishList( kobodl.globals.Settings().UserList.users )\n\nfor book in wishlist:\n items.append( book.Title + \" - \" + book.Author )\n prices.append( float( book.Price.split()[0] ) )\n ids.append( book.RevisionId )\n\n# Place into a DataFrame\nall_items = zip( ids, items, prices )\nbook_prices = pd.DataFrame( list(all_items), columns = [\"ID\", \"Name\", \"Price\"])\nbook_prices = book_prices.reset_index() \n\n# Get books cheaper than three quid\ncheap_df = book_prices[ book_prices[\"Price\"] < 3 ]\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"create-the-message\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#create-the-message\" class=\"heading-link\">Create the Message</a></h2>\n\n<p>This will write the body text of the email. It gives you the price, book details, and a search link to buy the book.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-python\">from urllib.parse import quote_plus\n\n# Search Prefix\nwebsite = \"https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/search?query=\"\n\n# Email Body\nmessage = \"\"\n\nfor index, row in cheap_df.sort_values(\"Price\").iterrows():\n name = row[\"Name\"]\n price = str(row[\"Price\"])\n link = website + quote_plus( name )\n message += \"£\" + price + \" - \" + name + \"\\n\" + link + \"\\n\\n\"\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"send-an-email\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#send-an-email\" class=\"heading-link\">Send an Email</a></h2>\n\n<p>Python makes it fairly easy to send an email - assuming you have a co-operative mailhost.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-python\">import smtplib\nfrom email.message import EmailMessage\n\n# Send Email\ndef send_email(message):\n email_user = '[email protected]'\n email_password = 'P@55w0rd'\n to = '[email protected]'\n msg = EmailMessage()\n msg.set_content(message)\n msg['Subject'] = \"Kobo price drops\"\n msg['From'] = email_user\n msg['To'] = to\n server = smtplib.SMTP_SSL('example.com', 465)\n server.ehlo()\n server.login(email_user, email_password)\n server.send_message(msg)\n server.quit()\n\nsend_email( message )\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"setting-the-settings\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#setting-the-settings\" class=\"heading-link\">Setting the settings</a></h2>\n\n<p>When running as a script, it is necessary to <a href=\"https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader/issues/159\">ensure the settings are correctly initialised</a>.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-python\">from kobodl.settings import Settings\n\nmy_settings = Settings()\nkobodl.Globals.Settings = my_settings\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"the-end-result\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#the-end-result\" class=\"heading-link\">The End Result</a></h2>\n\n<p>I have a cron job which runs this every morning. It sends an email like this:</p>\n\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/books-fs8.png\" alt=\"Screenshot of an email showing cheap books.\" width=\"370\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59769\">\n\n<h2 id=\"next-steps\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/05/get-alerted-when-your-kobo-wishlist-books-drop-in-price/#next-steps\" class=\"heading-link\">Next Steps</a></h2>\n\n<p>Some possible ideas. If you can code these, let me know!</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Save the prices so it sees if there's been a drop since yesterday.</li>\n<li>Compare prices to Amazon for <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/02/automatic-kobo-and-kindle-ebook-arbitrage/\">eBook Arbitrage</a>.</li>\n<li>Automatically buy any book that hits 99p.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Happy reading!</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=60538",
"title": "Is enhancement the same as manipulation?",
"description": "How far can you enhance an image or video before you cross the line into manipulation? The UK is currently prosecuting two men accused of a crime. Part of the prosecution's evidence is a video. In showing it to the jury, the prosecution have said: the two minute and 41 second-long video is \"extremely dark\" but the \"unmistakeable\" noise of a chainsaw can be heard followed by the sound of a tree…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/",
"published": "2025-04-30T11:34:34.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-30T12:33:29.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>How far can you enhance an image or video before you cross the line into manipulation?</p>\n\n<p>The UK is currently prosecuting two men accused of a crime. Part of the prosecution's evidence is a video<sup id=\"fnref:not\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fn:not\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"To be clear, I'm not at the trial.\" role=\"doc-noteref\">0</a></sup>. In showing it to the jury, the prosecution have said:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>the two minute and 41 second-long video is \"extremely dark\" but the \"unmistakeable\" noise of a chainsaw can be heard followed by the sound of a tree falling.</p><br>\n<p>Police experts have \"enhanced\" the video as much as possible but it has \"not been interfered with\", Mr Wright tells the jury.</p><br>\n<p><a href=\"https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cvg93k0950pt?post=asset%3A54970a3b-ae9f-4299-832a-4ebe813dd756#post\">BBC News</a>\n</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>I think most reasonable people would agree that creating an AI \"Deep Fake\" by inserting the faces of the pair into the video, would be unacceptable.</p>\n\n<p>What about boosting the brightness on the video? That seems pretty unobjectionable to me and, I suspect, most neutral parties.</p>\n\n<p>Suppose the prosecutors used AI to enhance the image? Perhaps <a href=\"https://www.slrlounge.com/photoshop-tips-how-to-use-content-aware-scale-to-extend-backgrounds/\">adding a background which wasn't there</a> up maybe <a href=\"https://www.theverge.com/news/625904/netflix-a-different-world-ai-upscaling-nightmare\">upscaling the video resolution</a> and introducing elements which didn't exist before? I think that's a step too far. Algorithmic enhancement strays into manipulation territory.</p>\n\n<p>But what if the police ran a face detection algorithm on the video and only boosted the visibility of those parts, rather than the rest of the video? Now I think we're <a href=\"https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/03/07/haggling/\">haggling over price</a>.</p>\n\n<p>The photographer <a href=\"https://paulclarke.com/photography/mother-of-all-photoshoots/\">Paul Clarke has a wonderful blog post about enhancing photographs of MPs</a> - take a look at those photos. Are they enhanced or manipulated? Do you feel differently if it is a photo of an MP from \"your\" side?</p>\n\n<p>But just brightening and colour correcting is fine, right?</p>\n\n<p>This is a well-known problem in legal circles<sup id=\"fnref:friends\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fn:friends\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"With thanks to several anonymous legal friends for pointing me in the right direction.\" role=\"doc-noteref\">1</a></sup>. <a href=\"https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/practice-points/photographic-evidence-acceptable-manipulation/5040793.article\">Boosting the colouring of a photo may make an injury seem more severe</a>. Zooming or cropping an image may make someone seem closer to the action than they were.</p>\n\n<p>The Crown Prosecution Service has this to say about video<sup id=\"fnref:vids\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fn:vids\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"There's a good discussion about the admissibility of video evidence in [2002] EWCA Crim 2373\" role=\"doc-noteref\">2</a></sup> evidence:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>In terms of proving the authenticity of the video recording, the Prosecution must be able to show that the video film produced in evidence is the original video recording or an authentic copy of the original and show that it has not been tampered with.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/exhibits#video\">CPS Legal Guidance - Exhibits</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>I suppose it's pretty easy to show that the produced evidence can be derived by taking the original and twisting the brightness and contrast knobs. I also guess that the defence could bring in an image manipulation specialist to show that the enhanced version introduces unacceptable changes.</p>\n\n<p>Although that brings with it some problems about whether <a href=\"https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5eb177bd86650c435fa620e4/Regulatory_notice_2019.01_-_Imaging__2_.pdf\">an expert in manipulation can say they're an expert about the <em>contents</em> of the media</a>. (No, basically.)</p>\n\n<p>I'll leave you with these words from a House of Lords report in <strong>1998</strong>:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>The existence of a technology that can be used to modify images in this way need in itself be of no great concern; even the widespread availability of the technology at low cost might not cause concern.</p>\n\n<p>But an apparent lack of understanding of the implications of both these facts should cause concern and warrants further study. The public and all those in the legal profession should be made more aware of the technology, what it can do, and what its limitations are.</p>\n\n<p>It was suggested that criminal convictions that were dependent on evidence captured by digital cameras could be at risk if defence lawyers began to realise how vulnerable such images are to manipulation.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199798/ldselect/ldsctech/064v/st0503.htm#n11\">Select Committee on Science and Technology Fifth Report</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>The trial continues.</p>\n\n<p><ins datetime=\"2025-04-30T12:28:57+00:00\">Update!</ins></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cvg93k0950pt?post=asset%3A6a86c349-4267-4cbb-bd9b-24eb8ec95e17#post\">The BBC reports</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>The initial video was totally dark, with just the sound of wind and a chainsaw leading up to a giant crash.</p>\n\n<p>A second version has now been shown to the jury, which has been enhanced by a Northumbria Police digital media examiner.</p>\n\n<p>The contrast has been changed, a white border has been put around it and the image has been made brighter.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Here's a clip of the enhanced version:</p>\n\n<p></p><div style=\"width: 620px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-60538-2\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video/mp4\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/bbc.mp4?_=2\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/bbc.mp4\">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/bbc.mp4</a></video></div><p></p>\n\n<p>If you were presented evidence of a completely dark video, how could you be sure that subsequent \"brighter\" version was derived from the original?</p>\n\n<div class=\"footnotes\" role=\"doc-endnotes\">\n<hr>\n<ol start=\"0\">\n\n<li id=\"fn:not\" role=\"doc-endnote\">\n<p>To be clear, I'm not at the trial. <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fnref:not\" 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<li id=\"fn:friends\" role=\"doc-endnote\">\n<p>With thanks to several anonymous legal friends for pointing me in the right direction. <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fnref:friends\" 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<li id=\"fn:vids\" role=\"doc-endnote\">\n<p>There's a good discussion about the admissibility of video evidence in <a href=\"https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2002/2373.html\">[2002] EWCA Crim 2373</a> <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-enhancement-the-same-as-manipulation/#fnref:vids\" 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=60433",
"title": "Who is responsible for missing money?",
"description": "I have a simple rule of thumb when it comes to news reports. The real story is always in the penultimate paragraph. Let's look at this inflammatory headline: Woman’s 'spree' after $158k banking error, refuses to return pensioner’s life savings An Auckland beneficiary is under investigation for an alleged “spending spree” after $158,000 was mistakenly transferred to her account. […] pensioner lo…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/who-is-responsible-for-missing-money/",
"published": "2025-04-29T11:34:02.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-27T14:59:53.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>I have a simple rule of thumb when it comes to news reports. The <em>real</em> story is always in the penultimate paragraph.</p>\n\n<p>Let's look at this inflammatory headline:</p>\n\n<blockquote><h2 id=\"womans-spree-after-158k-banking-error-refuses-to-return-pensioners-life-savings\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/who-is-responsible-for-missing-money/#womans-spree-after-158k-banking-error-refuses-to-return-pensioners-life-savings\" class=\"heading-link\">Woman’s 'spree' after $158k banking error, refuses to return pensioner’s life savings</a></h2>\n<p>An Auckland beneficiary is under investigation for an alleged “spending spree” after $158,000 was mistakenly transferred to her account.\n</p><p> […] pensioner lost his life savings due to an account number error.\n</p><p>The account number provided to Westpac had only 15 digits, not the intended 16, so Westpac added a zero to the suffice [sic] as per its usual protocols.\n</p><p><a href=\"https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/auckland-pensioner-loses-158k-after-accidentally-sending-life-savings-to-wrong-account/\">Newstalk ZB</a>\n</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Wow! That seems pretty bad. Obviously the woman who allegedly received the money and then spent it shouldn't have done that. Spending money that doesn't belong to you is a crime in most parts of the world. But let's focus on the <em>real</em> villain here - the evil bank!!</p>\n\n<p>Why did the bank make the decision to add an extra digit to the recipient's account number?</p>\n\n<p>An <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_bank_account_number\">NZ bank account number</a> looks like <code>BB-bbbb-AAAAAAA-SSS</code>.</p>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://www.paymentsnz.co.nz/resources/industry-registers/bank-branch-register/\">first two digits are the banking institution and the next four are the specific branch</a>. The seven digit account number relates to the <em>specific</em> account. The three digit suffix is for the <em>type</em> of account. For example, your spending account might have suffix <code>001</code> and your savings account might have suffix <code>099</code>.</p>\n\n<p>However, because all suffices have a leading zero, <a href=\"https://www.kiwibank.co.nz/help/accounts/open-manage/account-numbers/\">it is often only displayed as two</a>.</p>\n\n<p>So, adding an extra zero to the suffix itself shouldn't have caused a problem. It would have gone to the correct recipient although it might have either gone to the wrong sub-account. Indeed, WestPac's help page on international transfers says \"<a href=\"https://www.westpac.co.nz/foreign-exchange/send-money-to-or-from-overseas/#sending-money-from-overseas\">if your account suffix is 12, enter 012</a>\". It sounds like the journalist hasn't quite understood where the insertion happened.</p>\n\n<p>It seems likely to me that the victim meant to type <code>1234567-001</code> but missed a digit, causing WestPac to shift things to <code>1235670-01</code>. That's poorly formatted but technically valid.</p>\n\n<p>But, wait! Don't bank account numbers have checksums? Yes! According to NZ's internal revenue, all bank account numbers have a check-digit. However, when checking an account number's validity:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>If less than the maximum number of digits is supplied, then values are right justified and the fields padded with zeroes</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20181009211542/https://www.ird.govt.nz/resources/9/d/9d739cde-ad76-4c49-ae08-522c62d94dd6/rwt-nrwt-spec-2016.pdf\">Bank account number validation</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Having played around with the algorithm, the first few digits of the account number aren't included in the checksum validation. For example, the account number <code>1234567</code> and <code>0234567</code> both pass checksumming. So it is possible that padding the <em>start</em> of the string wouldn't have been picked up.</p>\n\n<p>Whatever the underlying issue, it is distressing to hear of someone losing a significant amount of money.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-could-have-stopped-this\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/who-is-responsible-for-missing-money/#what-could-have-stopped-this\" class=\"heading-link\">What could have stopped this?</a></h2>\n\n<p>Humans make mistakes. As an industry, we know this. It's our job to prevent, rectify, and neutralise those mistake. We need systems in place which reduce the likelihood of errors causing catastrophic failures.</p>\n\n<p>Here are some systemic changes which could have prevented this:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>New Zealand could adopt the IBAN standard for international transfers.\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.bnz.co.nz/support/international/payments/made-to-new-zealand\">They don't seem keen on doing this</a>.</li>\n<li>It wouldn't prevent mistyping, but a standardised length makes transferring to the wrong account less likely.</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>Confirmation of Payee asks the user to type in the name of the intended recipient. If it doesn't match the bank account, the payment is rejected or cautioned against.\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.getverified.co.nz/\">NZ <em>is</em> rolling out CoP</a> but it doesn't yet apply to international transfers.</li>\n<li>Multi-lingual CoP is complex. I don't know if any cross-border payments do this yet.</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>WestPac should have noticed the name discrepancy.\n\n<ul>\n<li>This is the argument I have the most sympathy with.</li>\n<li>Of course, returning the money (especially to a closed account) may be difficult.</li>\n</ul></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Large systems changes are expensive and time consuming.</p>\n\n<p>What else could have been done? Let's go to the final few sentences of the story:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Unfortunately, the incorrect bank account number <em>provided by Che</em> was a valid account number for another customer, Westpac said.\n</p><p>“As soon as Mr Che alerted us to the issue, we traced the payment and froze the remaining funds.”\n</p><p>But Westpac was unable to recover the rest of Che’s money due to the <em>seven-week delay in reporting his error</em> to the banks.\n</p><p><small>Emphasis added</small></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>I'm not trying to victim blame here, but WestPac seem to have done what was asked for them. The sender provided an ambiguous bank account number which was, nevertheless, valid.</p>\n\n<p>The sender didn't raise an issue for <strong>seven weeks</strong>. Once notified, the bank froze the recipient account and notified the police.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, big evil banks should be less evil. But they're in a tough spot. People want protection, <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/03/who-can-tell-you-what-to-do-with-your-money/\">but they resent banks telling them what they can and can't do with their own money</a>. Big systemic change is difficult but it seems crushingly unfair when an innocent party is caught in the middle.</p>\n\n<p>I don't think anyone comes out of this covered in glory. Banks need to invest in technology which keeps their customers safe. Customers need to take some responsibility for checking whether a bank has done the right thing.</p>\n\n<p>The only tips I can give is that you must always copy & paste financial details from a trusted source, rather than manually type them in. Always send a small amount first to check it is received. If you suspect a mistake, contact your bank immediately.</p>\n\n<p>Stay safe out there.</p>\n</body></html>",
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59686",
"title": "HTML Oddities: Is a newline just another whitespace in attribute values?",
"description": "Consider these two HTML elements: <div class=\"a b\">…</div> <div class=\"a b\">…</div> Is there any semantic difference between them? Is there any way to target one but not the other? In other words, are they logically different? I think the answer is no. On every browser I've tested, both are the same. Whether using JS or CSS, there's no difference between them. You could replace every \\n wit…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/",
"published": "2025-04-27T11:34:02.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-18T22:23:56.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>Consider these two HTML elements:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><div class=\"a b\">…</div>\n\n<div class=\"a\nb\">…</div>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Is there any <em>semantic</em> difference between them? Is there any way to target one but not the other? In other words, are they logically different?</p>\n\n<p>I <em>think</em> the answer is no. On every browser I've tested, both are the same. Whether using JS or CSS, there's no difference between them. You could replace every <code>\\n</code> with a <code> </code> and nothing would break.</p>\n\n<p>But is that true for <em>every</em> attribute? Are there some attributes where a newline is *significant\"?</p>\n\n<p>For the vast majority of attributes, the answer is no. Consider the <code>alt</code> attribute for providing alternate text on images. This:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><img src=\"\" alt=\"First line.\nSecond Line.\n\nForth line.\">\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>When rendered by a browser, the newlines become spaces. See:</p>\n\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\" alt=\"First line.\nSecond Line.\nForth line.\">\n\n<p>But there's are <em>three</em> attributes where newlines <em>do</em> matter. Can you work out what they are?</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"title\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/#title\" class=\"heading-link\">Title</a></h2>\n\n<p><span title=\"First line.\nSecond Line.\n\nForth line.\">Hover your cursor over this text and a title will appear</span>. It will look something like:</p>\n\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/title.webp\" alt=\"Title text showing multiple lines.\" width=\"704\" height=\"303\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59697\">\n\n<p>The HTML specification has a section on \"<a href=\"https://infra.spec.whatwg.org/#ascii-whitespace\">space-separated tokens</a>\" which it defines as \"<a href=\"https://infra.spec.whatwg.org/#ascii-whitespace\">ASCII whitespace</a>\":</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>U+0009 TAB</li>\n<li>U+000A LF</li>\n<li>U+000C FF</li>\n<li>U+000D CR</li>\n<li>U+0020 SPACE</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>So tab, any newline, and space are all equivalent when it comes to tokenisation of content.</p>\n\n<p>However, for <code>title</code> specifically:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>If the title attribute's value contains U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters, the content is split into multiple lines. Each U+000A LINE FEED (LF) character represents a line break.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/dom.html#attr-title\">3.2.6.1 The title attribute</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<h2 id=\"placeholder\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/#placeholder\" class=\"heading-link\">Placeholder</a></h2>\n\n<p>There's another similar case:</p>\n\n<p><textarea rows=\"4\" placeholder=\"First line.\nSecond Line.\n\nForth line.\"></textarea></p>\n\n<p>The good old <code><textarea></code> element has a <code>placeholder</code> attribute. That also allows newlines - although in a subtly different way to the title element!</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>All U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN U+000A LINE FEED character pairs (CRLF) in the hint, as well as all other U+000D CARRIAGE RETURN (CR) and U+000A LINE FEED (LF) characters in the hint, must be treated as line breaks when rendering the hint.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#the-textarea-element:concept-fe-value-4\">4.10.11 The textarea element</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Quite why carriage returns are allowed here, but not in <code>title</code>, I don't know!</p>\n\n<p>Also note, the <code>textarea</code>'s placeholder is different from the <code><input></code>'s placeholder, which <a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#the-placeholder-attribute\"><em>doesn't</em> support newlines</a>.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"id\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/#id\" class=\"heading-link\">ID</a></h2>\n\n<p>I warn you though, this one is pretty nasty!</p>\n\n<p>Consider this piece of HTML:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><p id=\"test\n\">Hello</p>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>I know! What sort of sicko would include a newline in their ID?! But, it turns out, that is <em>significant</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Try to select that element using CSS like:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-css\">#test {\n color: red;\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>It won't work! The <em>literal</em> ID is <strong>not</strong> <code>test</code>. If you run:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-js\">document.querySelector(\"p\")\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>It will return <code><p id=\"test\\n\"></code> - which means you can only select it with:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-js\">document.getElementById(\"test\\n\")\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Or with CSS using <a href=\"https://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/syndata.html#characters\">special character selectors</a>:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-css\">#test\\a {\n color: blue;\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#global-attributes:the-id-attribute-3\">The spec says</a></p>\n\n<blockquote><p>The id attribute specifies its element's unique identifier (ID).</p>\n\n<p>There are no other restrictions on what form an ID can take; in particular, IDs can consist of just digits, start with a digit, start with an underscore, consist of just punctuation, etc.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>While it doesn't specifically mention newlines, it seems clear that the attribute can contain *anything\".</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"any-others\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-is-a-newline-just-another-whitespace-in-attribute-values/#any-others\" class=\"heading-link\">Any others?</a></h2>\n\n<p>I'm pretty sure those three are the only attributes which treat newlines in their values as significant. Think I'm wrong? Please leave a comment.</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59866",
"title": "Using Tempest Highlight with WordPress",
"description": "I like to highlight bits of code on my blog. I was using GeSHi - but it has ceased to receive updates and the colours it uses aren't WCAG compliant. After skimming through a few options, I found Tempest Highlight. It has nearly everything I want in a code highlighter: PHP with no 3rd party dependencies. Lots of common languages. Modern, with regular updates. Easy to use fun…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/",
"published": "2025-04-26T11:34:19.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-25T14:34:42.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>I like to highlight bits of code on my blog. I <em>was</em> using <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/a-small-php-update-to-geshi/\">GeSHi</a> - but it has ceased to receive updates and the colours it uses aren't WCAG compliant.</p>\n\n<p>After skimming through a few options, I found <a href=\"https://github.com/tempestphp/highlight\">Tempest Highlight</a>. It has <em>nearly</em> everything I want in a code highlighter:</p>\n\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: \"✅\";\">\n <li> PHP with no 3rd party dependencies.</li>\n <li> Lots of common languages.</li>\n <li> Modern, with regular updates.</li>\n <li> Easy to use functions.</li>\n <li> Range of difference style sheets.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>But, on the downside:</p>\n\n<ul style=\"list-style-type: \"❌\";\">\n <li> No WordPress plugin.</li>\n <li> Not all languages supported.</li>\n <li> CSS embedded in HTML.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I can live without some esoteric languages, but I don't really want to run <code>composer install</code> on my blog. I just want a quick WordPress plugin. So, here's how I did it.</p>\n\n<p></p><nav id=\"toc\"><menu id=\"toc-start\"><li id=\"toc-title\"><h2 id=\"table-of-contents\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#table-of-contents\" class=\"heading-link\">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#here-be-dragons\">Here Be Dragons</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#the-art-of-loading-without-loading\">The Art of Loading without Loading</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#testing\">Testing</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#draw-the-rest-of-the-owl\">Draw The Rest of the Owl</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#todo\">ToDo</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#get-the-code\">Get the code</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>\n\n<h2 id=\"here-be-dragons\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#here-be-dragons\" class=\"heading-link\">Here Be Dragons</a></h2>\n\n<p>This is a quick prototype. It has an audience of one; me. It may break in unexpected ways. Use at your own risk.</p>\n\n<p>The file layout is relatively simple:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-_\">WordPress Plugins\n├── Highlight_Plugin\n│ ├── src/\n│ ├── autoload.php\n│ ├── index.php\n│ └── base.css\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>The <code>src/</code> directory contains the <code>src/</code> directory from <a href=\"https://github.com/tempestphp/highlight\">Tempest Highlight</a>.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"the-art-of-loading-without-loading\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#the-art-of-loading-without-loading\" class=\"heading-link\">The Art of Loading without Loading</a></h2>\n\n<p>Normally, to install a PHP package, the <code>composer</code> app creates an autoloader which will magically import everything you need into your project. We can't do that here. Instead, we need to manually load the library.</p>\n\n<p>Create a file in the plugin's directory called <code>autoload.php</code> - its job is to autoload everything in the <code>src/</code> directory.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-php\"><?php\nspl_autoload_register( function ( $class ) {\n // Project-specific namespace prefix\n $prefix = \"Tempest\\\\Highlight\\\\\";\n\n // Base directory for the namespace prefix\n $base_dir = __DIR__ . \"/src/\";\n\n // Does the class use the namespace prefix?\n $len = strlen( $prefix );\n if ( strncmp( $prefix, $class, $len ) !== 0) {\n // No, move to the next registered autoloader\n return;\n }\n\n // Get the relative class name\n $relative_class = substr( $class, $len );\n\n // Replace namespace separators with directory separators, append with .php\n $file = $base_dir . str_replace( \"\\\\\", \"/\", $relative_class ) . \".php\";\n\n // If the file exists, require it\n if ( file_exists( $file ) ) {\n require $file;\n }\n});\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>I don't know if that's the <em>easiest</em> way to do it. But it works!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"testing\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#testing\" class=\"heading-link\">Testing</a></h2>\n\n<p>The <code>index.php</code> file can now be tested:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-php\">// Load the Tempest Highlight library\nrequire_once __DIR__ . \"/autoload.php\";\n\n// Set up the namespace\nuse Tempest\\Highlight\\Highlighter;\n\n// Define the theme.\n$theme = new Tempest\\Highlight\\Themes\\InlineTheme( __DIR__ . \"/src/Themes/Css/light-plus.css\");\n\n// Create the highlighter.\n$highlighter = new Tempest\\Highlight\\Highlighter( $theme );\n\n// Print some formatted HTML\necho $highlighter->parse(\"<em id='foo' class='bar'>test</em>\", \"html\" );\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>All being well, that should produce this:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-_\"><<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">em</span> id='foo' class='bar'>test</<span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">em</span>>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>That has the CSS embedded. Not ideal, but certainly good enough. I picked \"light-plus\" because it was the only theme which seemed to meet at least WCAG AA when on a white background.</p>\n\n<p>OK, so how do we go from printing out a scrap of HTML to extracting all the code snippets from a WordPress blog?</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"draw-the-rest-of-the-owl\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#draw-the-rest-of-the-owl\" class=\"heading-link\">Draw The Rest of the Owl</a></h2>\n\n<p>In <em>theory</em> the code is relatively straightforward.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"find-code-snippets\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#find-code-snippets\" class=\"heading-link\">Find code snippets</a></h3>\n\n<p>My <a href=\"https://codeberg.org/edent/markdown-extra-unofficial/\">Markdown plugin</a> transforms this:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-_\"> ```javascript\n var a = 2.0;\n ``` \n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Into this:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><pre><code class=\"language-javascript\">\nvar a = 2.0;\n</code></pre>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>No need to use a regex, the new PHP 8.4 HTMLDocument gives us direct programmatic access to the HTML.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-php\">// Load the content into PHP 8.4's HTML DOM.\n$dom = Dom\\HTMLDocument::createFromString( $content, LIBXML_NOERROR | LIBXML_HTML_NOIMPLIED, \"UTF-8\" );\n\n// Select the code snippets.\n// `<pre><code class=\"language-*\">`\n$codeSnippets = $dom->querySelectorAll( \"pre>code[class^=language-]\" );\n</code></pre>\n\n<h3 id=\"replace-the-snippets\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#replace-the-snippets\" class=\"heading-link\">Replace the snippets</a></h3>\n\n<p>From the above, I have the language and code, so it can \"easily\" be replaced.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-php\">// Iterate through each snippet.\nforeach ( $codeSnippets as $code ) {\n // Get the HTML from within the <code>.\n $originalCode = $code->textContent;\n // Replace the contents of <code> with the highlighted HTML.\n $code->innerHTML = $highlighter->parse( $originalCode, $language )\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Replacing the code in that node manipulates the original DOM. Which means, after looping through all the snippets, I can return the altered HTML like so:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-php\">return $dom->saveHTML();\n</code></pre>\n\n<h3 id=\"and-then\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#and-then\" class=\"heading-link\">And then…</a></h3>\n\n<p>Obviously, there's a bit more too it than that. It ignores RSS feeds, it adds a base CSS style to the head, some SVGs get embedded, semantic metadata is included, and it all gets a bit tangled and complicated.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"todo\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#todo\" class=\"heading-link\">ToDo</a></h2>\n\n<p>A few things need to happen to make this even better.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Encoded comments as well and posts.</li>\n<li>Add new languages.</li>\n<li>Don't in-line the CSS into the HTML, but add it as a separate stylesheet.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>But, for now, it is running on my blog and that's good enough for me!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"get-the-code\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/using-tempest-highlight-with-wordpress/#get-the-code\" class=\"heading-link\">Get the code</a></h2>\n\n<p>You can <a href=\"https://github.com/edent/highlight\">play about with the WordPress plugin</a>. Bugs reports, pull requests, and suggestions all warmly welcomed.</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59857",
"title": "Reverse Geocoding is Hard",
"description": "My wife and I run OpenBenches - a crowd-sourced database of nearly 40,000 memorial benches. Every bench is geo-tagged with a latitude and longitude. But how do you go from a string of digits to something human readable? How do I turn -33.755780,150.603769 into \"42 Wallaby Way, Sydney, Australia\"? Luckily, that's a (somewhat) solved problem. Services like OpenCage, StadiaMaps, OpenStreetMap,…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/reverse-geocoding-is-hard/",
"published": "2025-04-25T11:34:39.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-24T18:18:33.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>My wife and I run <a href=\"https://openbenches.org/\">OpenBenches</a> - a crowd-sourced database of nearly 40,000 memorial benches. Every bench is geo-tagged with a latitude and longitude. But how do you go from a string of digits to something human readable?</p>\n\n<p>How do I turn <code>-33.755780,150.603769</code> into \"42 Wallaby Way, Sydney, Australia\"?</p>\n\n<p>Luckily, that's a (somewhat) solved problem. Services like <a href=\"https://opencagedata.com/\">OpenCage</a>, <a href=\"https://stadiamaps.com/\">StadiaMaps</a>, <a href=\"https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org\">OpenStreetMap</a>, and <a href=\"https://geocode.earth/\">Geocode.Earth</a> all provide APIs which transform co-ordinates into addresses. Done! Let's go home.</p>\n\n<p>Except… Not everywhere <em>has</em> an address. <a href=\"https://openbenches.org/bench/35905\">Some benches are in parks</a>. They typically don't have a street number, but might have an interesting feature nearby to help with location. For example a statue or prominent landmark.</p>\n\n<p>And… Not every address is relevant. <a href=\"https://openbenches.org/bench/26061\">Some benches are on streets</a>. But we probably don't want to imply that the bench is <em>inside</em> or belongs to a specific nearby house.</p>\n\n<p>Let's step back a bit. <em>Why</em> do we want to display a human-readable address?</p>\n\n<p>We have two use-cases.</p>\n\n<p>\"As a visitor to the site, I want to:\"</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Read a (rough) textual representation of where the bench is.</li>\n<li>Click on a component of the address to see all benches within that area.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The first is easy to explain:</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/OB-Address.webp\" alt=\"Map. Under it is an address of \"Middlewich, Cheshire East, England, United Kingdom\".\" width=\"1134\" height=\"638\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59858\">\n\n<p>The second is harder. Suppose a bench is in Wellington, New Zealand. We want to create a URl like <a href=\"https://openbenches.org/location/New%20Zealand/Wellington/\">openbenches.org/location/New Zealand/Wellington/</a>. That way, users can click on the word \"Wellington\" and find all the benches nearby. A user can also manually edit that URl to increase or decrease precision.</p>\n\n<p>Both of these are problems of <em>precision</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Let's take a look at <a href=\"https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/reverse?lat=51.476845&lon=-0.295296&format=jsonv2\">how one of the reverse geocoding services</a> deals with transforming <code>51.476845,-0.295296</code> into an address:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Sandycombe Road, Kew, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, London, Greater London, England, TW9 2EN, United Kingdom</p></blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>That is <em>too much</em> address!</strong></p>\n\n<p>Yes, it is technically accurate. But it contains far too much detail for humans, the postcode is irrelevant, and the weird-subdivisions are nothing that a local person would use.</p>\n\n<p>Looking at the full API response, we can see:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-json\">{\n \"place_id\": 258770727,\n \"licence\": \"Data © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0. http://osm.org/copyright\",\n \"name\": \"Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew\",\n \"display_name\": \"Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Elizabeth Cottages, Kew, London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, London, Greater London, England, TW9 3NJ, United Kingdom\",\n \"address\": {\n \"leisure\": \"Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew\",\n \"road\": \"Elizabeth Cottages\",\n \"suburb\": \"Kew\",\n \"city_district\": \"London Borough of Richmond upon Thames\",\n \"ISO3166-2-lvl8\": \"GB-RIC\",\n \"city\": \"London\",\n \"state_district\": \"Greater London\",\n \"state\": \"England\",\n \"ISO3166-2-lvl4\": \"GB-ENG\",\n \"postcode\": \"TW9 3NJ\",\n \"country\": \"United Kingdom\",\n \"country_code\": \"gb\"\n }\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Aha! Perhaps I can build a better address using just those components!</p>\n\n<p>Except… Not every country has states. And not all states are used when giving addresses. Not every location is in a city. Some places have villages, prefectures, municipalities, and hamlets.</p>\n\n<p>New York, New York is a valid address, but <a href=\"https://blog.opencagedata.com/post/99059889253/good-looking-addresses-solving-the-berlin-berlin\">Berlin, Berlin</a> is not!</p>\n\n<p>There's an <a href=\"https://github.com/OpenCageData/address-formatting\">address formatter by OpenCage</a> which is pretty sensible about stripping off irrelevant details. But, to go back to my first point, not every map location on OpenBenches is a street address and - even if it is on a street - it probably shouldn't have a house number.</p>\n\n<p>Well, there's kind of a solution to that! Most mapping provider have a <abbr title=\"Point of Interest\">POI</abbr> function - we can find nearby things of interest and use them as a location.</p>\n\n<p>Here's a <a href=\"https://openbenches.org/bench/36734\">bench in Cook County, Illinois, USA</a>. The POI address is:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-json\">{\n…\n \"name\": \"Central Park\",\n \"coarse_location\": \"Des Plaines, IL, USA\",\n…\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>I <em>assume</em> there's only one Central Park in Des Plaines. Do people know that \"Il\" is Illinois? Would \"Cook County\" be useful?</p>\n\n<p>On the subject of localisation, not everywhere speaks English. Do I want to display addresses like \"<span lang=\"ja\">原爆の子の像, 広島, 日本</span>\"? How about \"原爆の子の像, Hiroshima, Japan\"?</p>\n\n<p>We're an international site, but most benches are in Anglophone countries.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, just because something is <em>physically</em> near a POI, that doesn't mean it is <em>logically</em> close to it.</p>\n\n<p>Consider a bench situated <a href=\"https://www.openstreetmap.org/query?lat=50.580682&lon=-3.467831\">at the edge of this park</a>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/map.webp\" alt=\"A map, with a marker situated just across a river.\" width=\"1328\" height=\"1060\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59864\"></p>\n\n<p>The nearest POI is \"Gay's Creamery\" - across the river. Is that what you'd expect? Is there any way to easily say \"if a point is <em>inside</em> an amenity* then use that as the address?</p>\n\n<p>I don't want the users of our site to have to select from a list of POIs or addresses, this should be as automated as possible.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"the-plan\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/reverse-geocoding-is-hard/#the-plan\" class=\"heading-link\">The Plan</a></h2>\n\n<p>For each bench:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Use StadiaMaps to get the nearest POI.</li>\n<li>Get the data in English.</li>\n<li>Concatenate the name and coarse location.</li>\n<li>Save the \"address\".</li>\n<li>Wait for complaints?</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Thoughts?</p>\n</body></html>",
"image": null,
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{
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"url": null
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"categories": [
{
"label": "/etc/",
"term": "/etc/",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "geolocation",
"term": "geolocation",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "geotagging",
"term": "geotagging",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "OpenBenches",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59481",
"title": "HTML Oddities: Does the order of attribute values matter?",
"description": "HTML elements can have attributes. For example id, class, src, alt, and many others. These attributes can contain values - an img element's src attribute has a value which is a link to an image. An id attribute's value is a single string. But some attributes can contain multiple values. Here's a thought experiment for you. Consider these two HTML elements: <p class=\"alpha bravo charlie\">………</p> …",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/",
"published": "2025-04-24T11:34:56.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-24T12:19:22.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>HTML elements can have attributes. For example id, class, src, alt, and many others. These attributes can contain values - an img element's src attribute has a value which is a link to an image. An id attribute's value is a single string. But some attributes can contain <em>multiple</em> values.</p>\n\n<p>Here's a thought experiment for you. Consider these two HTML elements:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><p class=\"alpha bravo charlie\">………</p>\n<p class=\"bravo charlie alpha\">………</p>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Is there any <em>semantic</em> difference between them? Does the ordering of the values inside the class attribute matter?</p>\n\n<p>Both can be targetted with CSS like:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-css\">.bravo {\n color: red;\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>They can also be targetted using:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-css\">.charlie.bravo {\n color: green;\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Or using a <a href=\"https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Styling_basics/Basic_selectors#selector_lists\">Selector List</a></p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-css\">.bravo, .alpha {\n color: yellow;\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>So order doesn't matter, right?</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"well-its-a-bit-more-complicated-than-that\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/#well-its-a-bit-more-complicated-than-that\" class=\"heading-link\">Well, it's a bit more complicated than that</a></h2>\n\n<p>Consider <a href=\"https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Styling_basics/Attribute_selectors#presence_and_value_selectors\">Presence Selectors</a>.</p>\n\n<p>This CSS will <em>only</em> select the <strong>first</strong> element:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-css\">p[class=\"alpha bravo charlie\"] {\n font-size: 2em;\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>It targets the class name in that exact order. No other.</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, <a href=\"https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn_web_development/Core/Styling_basics/Attribute_selectors#substring_matching_selectors\">Substring Selectors</a> can be used in an order-specific manner.</p>\n\n<p>This CSS will <strong>only</strong> select the <em>second</em> element:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-css\">p[class^=\"b\"] {\n display: block;\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>It looks for a class attribute where the <em>value</em> starts with <code>b</code></p>\n\n<h2 id=\"where-ordering-matters\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/#where-ordering-matters\" class=\"heading-link\">Where ordering matters</a></h2>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/indices.html#attributes-3\">HTML spec has a (non-normative) section on attributes</a>. Those which accept multiple values are (broadly) in three categories.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>A <a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/common-microsyntaxes.html#set-of-space-separated-tokens\">set of space-separated tokens</a> 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.</li>\n<li>An <a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/common-microsyntaxes.html#unordered-set-of-unique-space-separated-tokens\">unordered set</a> of unique space-separated tokens is a set of space-separated tokens where none of the tokens are duplicated.</li>\n<li>An <a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/common-microsyntaxes.html#ordered-set-of-unique-space-separated-tokens\">ordered set</a> of unique space-separated tokens is a set of space-separated tokens where none of the tokens are duplicated but where the order of the tokens is meaningful.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The class attribute belongs to the first group. While ordering isn't meaningful, it also isn't irrelevant.</p>\n\n<p>The only attributes which are specifically <strong>unordered</strong> are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>All elements:\n\n<ul>\n<li><code>itemprop=</code>, <code>itemref=</code>, <code>itemtype=</code></li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><code><link></code>, <code><script></code>, <code><style></code>\n\n<ul>\n<li><code>blocking=</code></li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><code><output></code>\n\n<ul>\n<li><code>for=</code></li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><code><td></code>, <code><th></code>\n\n<ul>\n<li><code>headers=</code></li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><code><a></code>, <code><area></code>, <code><link></code>\n\n<ul>\n<li><code>rel=</code></li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><code><iframe></code>\n\n<ul>\n<li><code>sandbox=</code></li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><code><link></code>\n\n<ul>\n<li><code>sizes=</code></li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The <em>only</em> attribute specifically listed as \"Ordered\" is <a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/interaction.html#the-accesskey-attribute\">the <code>accesskey</code> attribute</a>.</p>\n\n<p>There are a few others which do require an order, although it is not immediately obvious.</p>\n\n<p>Both <code>imagesrcset</code> and <code>srcset</code> require a \"Comma-separated list of image candidate strings\". The comma separated strings can be in any order, but the text <em>within</em> them <a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/images.html#image-candidate-string\">has a strict ordering</a>.</p>\n\n<p>For example:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><img srcset=\"header640.png 640w, header960.png 960w, header1024.png 1024w\" …\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Similarly, the <code>type</code> attribute requires its value to be a <a href=\"https://mimesniff.spec.whatwg.org/#valid-mime-type\">valid MIME type</a>. But <a href=\"https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Media/Guides/Formats/codecs_parameter#basic_syntax\">MIME types can also include a codec</a>. So it's possible to end up with HTML like:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><video>\n <source \n src=\"movie.webm\"\n type=\"video/webm; codecs='vp8, vorbis'\">\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Assuming those attributes were whitespace separated tokens would lead to nonsense!</p>\n\n<p>The <code>autocomplete</code> type is another complex example. The <a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/indices.html#attributes-3\">spec</a> just says \"Autofill field name and related tokens\", but <a href=\"https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Attributes/autocomplete#token-list\">MDN makes it clear</a> that it requires:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>An ordered set of space-separated tokens consisting of autofill detail tokens preceded by optional sectioning and either billing or shipping grouping tokens. Phone numbers, email addresses, and messaging protocol tokens are preceded by a token identifying the type of recipient.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>For example <code>autocomplete=\"home email\"</code> says to suggest the user's home email address whereas <code>autocomplete=\"work email\"</code> suggests their work email. The ordering is necessary and <code>autocomplete=\"email home\"</code> will not be understood.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"where-else-might-ordering-matter\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/#where-else-might-ordering-matter\" class=\"heading-link\">Where else might ordering matter?</a></h2>\n\n<p>Rather obviously, alt text should <em>always</em> remain in order. No one wants to read alphabetically ordered image descriptions!</p>\n\n<p>As mentioned by <a href=\"https://sunny.garden/@knowler/114331801775907008\">Nathan Knowler</a> some ARIA attributes require ordering for accessibility.</p>\n\n<p>And, as <a href=\"https://wandering.shop/@kagan/114331745674240833\">Kagan MacTane</a> pointed out, sometimes the ordering is important for a human - even if it is irrelevant for a machine.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-have-we-learned-today\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/html-oddities-does-the-order-of-attribute-values-matter/#what-have-we-learned-today\" class=\"heading-link\">What have we learned today?</a></h2>\n\n<p>I originally asked this question on Mastodon. About two-thirds of respondents thought that attribute ordering was irrelevant.</p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"mastodon-embed\" data-embed-url=\"https://mastodon.social/@Edent/114331612009479129/embed\" style=\"background: #FCF8FF; border-radius: 8px; border: 1px solid #C9C4DA; margin: 0; max-width: 540px; min-width: 270px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;\"> <a href=\"https://mastodon.social/@Edent/114331612009479129\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"align-items: center; color: #1C1A25; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Fira Sans', 'Droid Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; justify-content: center; letter-spacing: 0.25px; line-height: 20px; padding: 24px; text-decoration: none;\"> <svg xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\" width=\"32\" height=\"32\" viewbox=\"0 0 79 75\"><path d=\"M74.7135 16.6043C73.6199 8.54587 66.5351 2.19527 58.1366 0.964691C56.7196 0.756754 51.351 0 38.9148 0H38.822C26.3824 0 23.7135 0.756754 22.2966 0.964691C14.1319 2.16118 6.67571 7.86752 4.86669 16.0214C3.99657 20.0369 3.90371 24.4888 4.06535 28.5726C4.29578 34.4289 4.34049 40.275 4.877 46.1075C5.24791 49.9817 5.89495 53.8251 6.81328 57.6088C8.53288 64.5968 15.4938 70.4122 22.3138 72.7848C29.6155 75.259 37.468 75.6697 44.9919 73.971C45.8196 73.7801 46.6381 73.5586 47.4475 73.3063C49.2737 72.7302 51.4164 72.086 52.9915 70.9542C53.0131 70.9384 53.0308 70.9178 53.0433 70.8942C53.0558 70.8706 53.0628 70.8445 53.0637 70.8179V65.1661C53.0634 65.1412 53.0574 65.1167 53.0462 65.0944C53.035 65.0721 53.0189 65.0525 52.9992 65.0371C52.9794 65.0218 52.9564 65.011 52.9318 65.0056C52.9073 65.0002 52.8819 65.0003 52.8574 65.0059C48.0369 66.1472 43.0971 66.7193 38.141 66.7103C29.6118 66.7103 27.3178 62.6981 26.6609 61.0278C26.1329 59.5842 25.7976 58.0784 25.6636 56.5486C25.6622 56.5229 25.667 56.4973 25.6775 56.4738C25.688 56.4502 25.7039 56.4295 25.724 56.4132C25.7441 56.397 25.7678 56.3856 25.7931 56.3801C25.8185 56.3746 25.8448 56.3751 25.8699 56.3816C30.6101 57.5151 35.4693 58.0873 40.3455 58.086C41.5183 58.086 42.6876 58.086 43.8604 58.0553C48.7647 57.919 53.9339 57.6701 58.7591 56.7361C58.8794 56.7123 58.9998 56.6918 59.103 56.6611C66.7139 55.2124 73.9569 50.665 74.6929 39.1501C74.7204 38.6967 74.7892 34.4016 74.7892 33.9312C74.7926 32.3325 75.3085 22.5901 74.7135 16.6043ZM62.9996 45.3371H54.9966V25.9069C54.9966 21.8163 53.277 19.7302 49.7793 19.7302C45.9343 19.7302 44.0083 22.1981 44.0083 27.0727V37.7082H36.0534V27.0727C36.0534 22.1981 34.124 19.7302 30.279 19.7302C26.8019 19.7302 25.0651 21.8163 25.0617 25.9069V45.3371H17.0656V25.3172C17.0656 21.2266 18.1191 17.9769 20.2262 15.568C22.3998 13.1648 25.2509 11.9308 28.7898 11.9308C32.8859 11.9308 35.9812 13.492 38.0447 16.6111L40.036 19.9245L42.0308 16.6111C44.0943 13.492 47.1896 11.9308 51.2788 11.9308C54.8143 11.9308 57.6654 13.1648 59.8459 15.568C61.9529 17.9746 63.0065 21.2243 63.0065 25.3172L62.9996 45.3371Z\" fill=\"currentColor\"></path></svg> <div style=\"color: #787588; margin-top: 16px;\">Post by @[email protected]</div> <div style=\"font-weight: 500;\">View on Mastodon</div> </a> </blockquote>\n\n<script data-allowed-prefixes=\"https://mastodon.social/\" async=\"\" src=\"https://mastodon.social/embed.js\"></script>\n\n<p>I hope I've demonstrated that it is slightly more complicated than it may appear at first.</p>\n</body></html>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "@edent",
"email": null,
"url": null
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "/etc/",
"term": "/etc/",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "css",
"term": "css",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "HTML",
"term": "HTML",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59807",
"title": "A small PHP update to GeSHi",
"description": "The faithful old GeSHi Syntax Highlighter hasn't seen an update in a many a long year. It's a tried and trusted way to do server-side code highlighting - turning a myriad of programming languages into beautiful HTML & CSS. A few weeks ago, I noticed someone had proposed an update to its HTML rendering. The changes were mostly adding in new element names. PHP has been updated several times…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/a-small-php-update-to-geshi/",
"published": "2025-04-23T11:34:53.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-22T11:56:19.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>The faithful old GeSHi Syntax Highlighter hasn't seen an update in a many a long year. It's a tried and trusted way to do server-side code highlighting - turning a myriad of programming languages into beautiful HTML & CSS.</p>\n\n<p>A few weeks ago, I noticed someone had <a href=\"https://github.com/GeSHi/geshi-1.0/pull/156\">proposed an update to its HTML rendering</a>. The changes were mostly adding in new element names.</p>\n\n<p>PHP has been updated several times since GeSHi was last updated, so I thought I'd do the same. Here's <a href=\"https://github.com/GeSHi/geshi-1.0/pull/162\">an update to the PHP highlighter</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Getting all the current PHP functions was fairly simple:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-php\">$functions = get_defined_functions();\n$builtInFunctions = $functions['internal'];\nsort($builtInFunctions);\nforeach ( $builtInFunctions as $key => $value ) {\n echo \"'{$value}', \"; \n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Now I'm wondering if there's a <em>better</em> code highlighter. Here's what I'm looking for:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Server-side. I don't want to clutter the web with JavaScript.</li>\n<li>PHP only. I don't want to add something more complicated to my tech stack.</li>\n<li>WordPress for preference (but not blocks-only). Although I can build around a library.</li>\n<li>Accessible colours. GeSHi's style-sheet doesn't always meet WCAG.</li>\n<li>Actively maintained. If it hasn't been updated in 2 years, it's probably broken.</li>\n<li>Somewhat hackable. I like to add a bit of semantic fluff around the output.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Any thoughts?</p>\n</body></html>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "@edent",
"email": null,
"url": null
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "/etc/",
"term": "/etc/",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "HTML",
"term": "HTML",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "php",
"term": "php",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59451",
"title": "Book Review: It's Not That Radical - Climate Action to Transform Our World by Mikaela Loach ★★⯪☆☆",
"description": "I think I mostly agree with everything this book is saying, but after almost every paragraph I found myself scribbling the same note \"Yes! But what action should I take though?\" The author has an excellent and accessible way of showing the problems caused by the Climate Crisis - but the \"action\" part is mostly missing. Take this example: So something you can do right now to tackle them is to…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-its-not-that-radical-climate-action-to-transform-our-world-by-mikaela-loach/",
"published": "2025-04-22T11:34:32.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-18T12:31:51.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cover-3.jpg\" alt=\"Book cover.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-59452\">I think I mostly agree with everything this book is saying, but after almost every paragraph I found myself scribbling the same note \"Yes! But <em>what</em> action should I take though?\"</p>\n\n<p>The author has an excellent and accessible way of showing the problems caused by the Climate Crisis - but the \"action\" part is mostly missing. Take this example:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>So something you can do right now to tackle them is to divest your money from them. Find out if your bank still has investments in fossil fuels and if they do, change your bank! It’s a quick and easy way you can take action.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>That's a pretty good suggestion. But there's no follow up. How do I do this? What platforms should I use? Which resources could help me? And, sadly, it is fatally undermined by the next line:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>It won’t fix the problem but it’s a tactic to get us on the way there.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Although it (quite rightly) eschews rehashing arguments about whether climate change is real, it does meander through lots of other political and sociological theories. Sometimes to the detriment of the core argument.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>The fact that the climate crisis is inherently woven together with oppressive systems of white supremacy, capitalism and patriarchy, both in its causation and its impacts, means that this crisis doesn’t ask us to leave behind what we are already fighting for, but instead to find a way to connect our struggles</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Is it though? Because of the constant need to tie everything back to the original sins of racism and colonialism, the argument gets completely diffused. It isn't enough for us to tackle pollution, we have to tackle everything everywhere all at once.</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, it falls into the same trap as lots of other socialist works.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Truly tackling the climate crisis requires each of us to go to the roots of poverty, of police brutality and legalised injustice. It requires us to move away from capitalist exploitation, which exists only to extract profit. Climate justice offers the real possibility of huge leaps towards our collective liberation because it aims to dismantle the very foundations of these issues. This is a far more exciting prospect to me.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Is the Climate Crisis tied in with police brutality? There's an interesting discussion in the book about why so many white protestors are willing to get arrested - in part because they believe the police will treat them more fairly than protestors from a racial minority.</p>\n\n<p>Assuming we accept the arguments that colonialism is the root cause of all this, what action can be taken?</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Reparations must go beyond paying cheques to individuals and instead be investments into infrastructure, education, healthcare, housing and energy. These investments will raise the living standards of all oppressed people</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>OK, great idea. But how? That's nothing an individual can do.</p>\n\n<p>It is so frustrating to read paragraphs like:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>We have to take action in order to make things better. We have to join movements and take drastic action because the world as we know it quite literally depends on us doing so.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes! I agree! Which movements should I join? How can I find them? What can I do to help them? Where should I target my actions?</p>\n\n<p>There are no answers.</p>\n\n<p>Or this:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Campaigns like Clean Air for Southall and Hayes (CASH) are yet another painful reminder that the most toxic substances, most dangerous industries and the most polluted roads are in the backyards of the poor, which in this country all too-often means the backyards of Black people and people of colour.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Brilliant! But did <a href=\"https://www.breathelondon.org/community-groups/clean-air-for-southall-and-hayes\">CASH</a> succeed? What lessons can we learn from it? How do I start something like that? Where can I find out more?</p>\n\n<p>Again, no meaningful discussion of the actions people can take.</p>\n\n<p>Or this:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Consumers’ cannot stop climate change because capitalism is not compatible with a climate-just world. But active citizens CAN. Movements CAN. WE CAN when we challenge and disrupt these systems, rather than limiting our power and actions to those which are within it.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>I am genuinely fuelled by her ambition and righteous indignation. How do I disrupt these systems? Give me some action I can take.</p>\n\n<p>The title of the book is \"It's Not That Radical\". The problem is, the book <em>is</em> radical.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>The more I read and watched, the more I was overwhelmed by how many alternatives to capitalism there are, and how much there is to know. But the deeper I got into my research, the more I realised that we can’t expect everyone to read ten different books, watch dozens of talks, be able to understand academic papers or have hundreds of conversations in order to work towards a world beyond capitalism.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>The problem is, people <em>like</em> capitalism. They continually vote for it. They like having new cars, shiny gadgets, and exciting distractions. Telling people that they have to accept a lower standard of living isn't likely to change minds.</p>\n\n<p>To be fair, the author does realise this. They look back on their past actions and realise how alienating some of them were. It's important to have a <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/01/book-review-rules-for-radicals-a-pragmatic-primer-for-realistic-radicals-by-saul-alinsky/\">Theory Of Change</a> if you want to actually engage with people.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>We aren’t actually toning down our demands. We aren’t making them conform to the system. We are just finding a way to communicate our demands so that they will be listened to and understood. I think that, in the contexts we are facing, this sort of practicality is of the utmost importance.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>The book is a bit rambly, but does eventually settle on some reasonable action to take. It also correctly points out that every campaign rests on the backs of the often-invisible people doing the ground-work.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Actions and campaigns don’t just spring up out of nowhere – they require a huge workforce with a wide variety of skills. All of these roles are valuable. It’s so much more than people on the streets or behind a megaphone.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>The latter half contains an excellent section on the perils of fame and the dangers of cancel culture. It is painfully self-aware and an excellent antidote to some of the gleeful destruction out in the world. There's also some beautiful writing about her personal philosophy, what drives her, and the importance of empathy.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>To see no stranger is to open one’s heart to empathy; to try and see every person as a nuanced, messy person.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>It becomes refreshingly egoless and uplifting. This isn't about one person, it is about all of us.</p>\n\n<p>The strongest part of the book is the author's rules for action. They are a perfect encapsulation of understanding the theory of change necessary for something to be successful:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\nAhead of partaking in any action, I ask myself the following questions:\n<ul>\n <li>Does this have the potential to create lasting change?</li>\n <li>How does this fit onto our roadmap for a completely transformed and liberated world?</li>\n <li>Will this help to shift the Overton Window closer to a place that allows us a liveable future?</li>\n <li>Will this help improve the material conditions of the lives of those most affected and oppressed?</li>\n <li>Could this prevent any of the above?</li>\n <li>Is this just a distraction from work that could truly build a new world?</li>\n <li>What can I do to modify or change this action so that it cannot be co-opted?</li>\n <li>With arrestable actions, it’s also important to add: is it essential for this to be arrestable?</li>\n</ul>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That's an excellent list for anyone to follow.</p>\n\n<p>I am probably not the target audience. If you're looking for a radical view of what needs to be done, or are happy to be radicalised, this is excellent. If you're looking for concrete steps you can take, you might find it a bit lacking.</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=59455",
"title": "Book Review: Murder Your Employer - The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes ★★⯪☆☆",
"description": "What if the Discworld's Assassin's Guild existed in the real world? That's it. That's the plot. Go to a university where they'll teach you to be a better class of murderer. The first half is excellent. Chuckles all the way through. A heady mix of every boarding-school novel you've ever read, and funny little twists and turns. Lots of the dialogue is straight out of Terry Pratchett (and I can't…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-murder-your-employer-the-mcmasters-guide-to-homicide-the-new-york-times-bestseller-by-rupert-holmes/",
"published": "2025-04-21T11:34:35.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-16T14:00:32.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/cover-4.jpg\" alt=\"Book cover featuring an old fashioned line drawing of an employee holding a knife behind his back.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-59456\">What if the Discworld's Assassin's Guild existed in the real world? That's it. That's the plot. Go to a university where they'll teach you to be a better class of murderer.</p>\n\n<p>The first half is excellent. Chuckles all the way through. A heady mix of every boarding-school novel you've ever read, and funny little twists and turns. Lots of the dialogue is straight out of Terry Pratchett (and I can't be the only one to notice that the school crest features an Anhk and Morpork, right?).</p>\n\n<p>It is a very silly introduction to the deadly serious business of death.</p>\n\n<p>And then the second half - where the characters we have been following go and do the grisly deed - is a real let-down.</p>\n\n<p>The murders are <em>so</em> convoluted. They rely on a string of unlikely coincidences, preposterous behaviour, and daft plots. It is a confusing and rambly mess. Tangled to the point of absurdity and increasingly hard to follow.</p>\n\n<p>All build-up, no pay-off.</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59522",
"title": "Gadget Review: 6-Colour ePaper Name Badge ★★★★⯪",
"description": "The good folks at SmartDisplayer Technology Co have sent me a six colour eInk badge to play about with. Here's a quick video and then a walk-through of its features. You can also view SmartDisplayer's official video. The Badge It is a single block of plastic. There are no seams, screws, or rough edges. The ePaper appear right on the surface of the badge, there's no recessing or anything…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/",
"published": "2025-04-20T11:34:47.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-23T09:45:28.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>The good folks at <a href=\"https://smartdisplayer.com.tw\">SmartDisplayer Technology Co</a> have sent me a <em>six</em> colour eInk badge to play about with.</p>\n\n<p>Here's a quick video and then a walk-through of its features.</p>\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Demo - six-colour eInk screen\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https://tube.tchncs.de/videos/embed/ohEz1V4ByLHL98sspBqMHK\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-forms\"></iframe>\n\n<!-- https://youtu.be/UeipkX7huR8 -->\n\n<p>You can also view <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2FfN006-vQ\">SmartDisplayer's official video</a>.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"the-badge\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#the-badge\" class=\"heading-link\">The Badge</a></h2>\n\n<p>It is a single block of plastic. There are no seams, screws, or rough edges. The ePaper appear right on the surface of the badge, there's no recessing or anything to indicate that this is a high-tech gadget. It uses their \"cold lamination\" technology which creates an impeccable matt finish.</p>\n\n<p>The display area is 56.4mm x 84.6mm - which is pretty close to the size of a standard credit card - for a resolution of 180PPI.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"the-eink\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#the-eink\" class=\"heading-link\">The eInk</a></h2>\n\n<p>This uses E-Ink <a href=\"https://www.eink.com/brand/detail/Spectra6\">Spectra 6</a> technology. With only 6 colours to play about with there's a <em>lot</em> of dithering needed to make a picture look presentable. Those 6 colours are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>#000 Black</li>\n<li>#F00 Red</li>\n<li>#0F0 Green</li>\n<li>#00F Blue</li>\n<li>#FF0 Yellow</li>\n<li>#FFF White</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I used a standard <a href=\"https://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/monitor_calibration.htm\">Monitor Calibration Image</a>, dithered it using the supplied software, and flashed it to the card. I then scanned in the card so you can see exactly how faithful the image reproduction is.</p>\n\n<p>On the left, the eInk. On the right, the original image.</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/24-color-small.jpg\" alt=\"A swatch of colours.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1567\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59533\">\n\n<p>That's pretty bloody good!</p>\n\n<p>Using <a href=\"http://www.brucelindbloom.com/index.html?ReferenceImages.html\">Bruce Lindbloom's RGB Reference image</a> is also a good way to test a range of colours.</p>\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/lindstrom.webp\" alt=\"A multicolour CGI image.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59555\">\nNot bad for red, green, blue, yellow, white, black, eh?</p>\n\n<p>It's hard to find a good test-card with a variety of skin-tones (there's a creepy Getty one with naked women), so I used <a href=\"https://www.murideo.com/test-pattern-library.html\">the Murideo Portrait Reference Photograph</a>. The original:</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Skintones.webp\" alt=\"Telegenic American Youth with a variety of skin tones.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59537\">\n\n<p>On eInk:</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Skintones-eInk.webp\" alt=\"Skintones rendered on eInk.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59536\">\n\n<p>And here's another one:</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/skintones.webp\" alt=\"Various skintones dithered.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59554\">\n\n<h2 id=\"the-card-writer\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#the-card-writer\" class=\"heading-link\">The Card Writer</a></h2>\n\n<p>For Linux nerds, the USB writer showed up as: <code>1fc9:0102 NXP Semiconductors IT-102MU Reader</code>.</p>\n\n<p>There's almost no information about it other than a <a href=\"https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=174064590315968&w=2\">brief discussion on an OpenBSD mailing list</a>, and a mention on the <a href=\"https://ccid.apdu.fr/ccid/shouldwork.html#0x1FC90x0102\">CCID database</a>. Apparently it will work as on <a href=\"https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/7014689?hl=en#zippy=%2Csupported-smart-card-readers\">ChromeOS</a>. It makes a <em>hideous</em> beeping sound when the card is inserted.</p>\n\n<p>Once the card is inserted, two LEDs light up.</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/LEDs.webp\" alt=\"Blue and green LEDs shining through white plastic.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59523\">\n\n<p>The green one quickly vanishes, but the blue one pulses until the card is removed from the reader.</p>\n\n<details><summary>Detailed <code>lsusb</code> Output</summary><pre>Bus 005 Device 084: ID 1fc9:0102 NXP Semiconductors IT-102MU Reader\nDevice Descriptor:\n bLength 18\n bDescriptorType 1\n bcdUSB 2.00\n bDeviceClass 0 \n bDeviceSubClass 0 \n bDeviceProtocol 0 \n bMaxPacketSize0 64\n idVendor 0x1fc9 NXP Semiconductors\n idProduct 0x0102 \n bcdDevice 1.12\n iManufacturer 1 InfoThink\n iProduct 2 IT-102MU Reader\n iSerial 3 1.00\n bNumConfigurations 1\n Configuration Descriptor:\n bLength 9\n bDescriptorType 2\n wTotalLength 0x005d\n bNumInterfaces 1\n bConfigurationValue 1\n iConfiguration 0 \n bmAttributes 0x80\n (Bus Powered)\n MaxPower 500mA\n Interface Descriptor:\n bLength 9\n bDescriptorType 4\n bInterfaceNumber 0\n bAlternateSetting 0\n bNumEndpoints 3\n bInterfaceClass 11 Chip/SmartCard\n bInterfaceSubClass 0 \n bInterfaceProtocol 0 \n iInterface 0 \n ChipCard Interface Descriptor:\n bLength 54\n bDescriptorType 33\n bcdCCID 1.10 (Warning: Only accurate for version 1.0)\n nMaxSlotIndex 0\n bVoltageSupport 7 5.0V 3.0V 1.8V \n dwProtocols 3 T=0 T=1\n dwDefaultClock 3685\n dwMaxiumumClock 14320\n bNumClockSupported 0\n dwDataRate 9909 bps\n dwMaxDataRate 848000 bps\n bNumDataRatesSupp. 0\n dwMaxIFSD 254\n dwSyncProtocols 00000000 \n dwMechanical 00000000 \n dwFeatures 000404BE\n Auto configuration based on ATR\n Auto activation on insert\n Auto voltage selection\n Auto clock change\n Auto baud rate change\n Auto PPS made by CCID\n Auto IFSD exchange\n Short and extended APDU level exchange\n dwMaxCCIDMsgLen 271\n bClassGetResponse echo\n bClassEnvelope echo\n wlcdLayout none\n bPINSupport 0 \n bMaxCCIDBusySlots 1\n Endpoint Descriptor:\n bLength 7\n bDescriptorType 5\n bEndpointAddress 0x81 EP 1 IN\n bmAttributes 2\n Transfer Type Bulk\n Synch Type None\n Usage Type Data\n wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes\n bInterval 0\n Endpoint Descriptor:\n bLength 7\n bDescriptorType 5\n bEndpointAddress 0x01 EP 1 OUT\n bmAttributes 2\n Transfer Type Bulk\n Synch Type None\n Usage Type Data\n wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes\n bInterval 0\n Endpoint Descriptor:\n bLength 7\n bDescriptorType 5\n bEndpointAddress 0x82 EP 2 IN\n bmAttributes 3\n Transfer Type Interrupt\n Synch Type None\n Usage Type Data\n wMaxPacketSize 0x0040 1x 64 bytes\n bInterval 4\n</pre></details>\n\n<h2 id=\"the-software\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#the-software\" class=\"heading-link\">The Software</a></h2>\n\n<p>It is Windows-only software, and it is bare-bones. You can load an image, select if you want it dithered or not, and then download it to the badge. That's it.\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/eInk-Software.webp\" alt=\"Screenshot of the software.\" width=\"457\" height=\"630\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59540\">\nNo image editing; it just resizes everything to 400x600. There's no badge design software or QR generator. And, to be honest, I think that's fine. You're better off designing your badges in dedicated software.</p>\n\n<p>Unsurprisingly, the app wouldn't run under WINE in Linux. I used Oracle's VirtualBox. Note, the included software requires you to install <a href=\"https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download/dotnet/6.0\">Microsoft's .Net Windows Desktop Runtime 6</a> <em>and</em> the latest <a href=\"https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170#latest-microsoft-visual-c-redistributable-version\">Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Version</a>.</p>\n\n<p>VirtualBox initially refused to see the USB peripheral. I had to unplug the reader, create a USB filter using <code>1fc9:0102</code>, start the VM, and only then plug in the USB reader. Then it worked. Bit of a faff!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"pricing\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#pricing\" class=\"heading-link\">Pricing</a></h2>\n\n<p>I've got good news and bad news!</p>\n\n<p>First, the bad. <a href=\"https://smartdisplayer.com.tw\">SmartDisplayer Technology Co</a> are B2B sellers. They'll sell you a single badge for US$70 + shipping. If you're buying more than a thousand, the price drops to $65. The NFC reader is $120.</p>\n\n<p>In terms of badge pricing, I think that's pretty fair. If you want to buy a demokit of just the screen, <a href=\"https://shopkits.eink.com/en/product/detail/4''Spectra6ePaperDisplay\">that'll cost you US$99 direct from eInk</a>. So $70 full assembled is a bargain.</p>\n\n<p>The good news? They'll shortly be bringing out <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIfzeQXCnoM\">a USB-C badge which doesn't require the NFC reader</a>. The badge itself will be slightly smaller (and a little thicker). That should make it easier to update the badge on the fly - but possibly not as convenient if you're programming hundreds of them.</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/type-c.webp\" alt=\"Graphic showing the new badge is slightly thicker, but shorter.\" width=\"715\" height=\"387\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59553\">\n\n<p>If you're buying in bulk, they will also do custom printing on the badge, and can replace the plastic with wood.</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/wooden.webp\" alt=\"Badge with a wooden decal.\" width=\"180\" height=\"378\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59552\">\n\n<p>For more information, or to place an order, <a href=\"https://www.smartdisplayer.com/contact\">contact SmartDisplayer</a>.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"verdict\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-6-colour-epaper-name-badge/#verdict\" class=\"heading-link\">Verdict</a></h2>\n\n<p>If you want a fun lanyard which is easy to change, and can reproduce a decent range of colours, this is excellent. Ideally it would be easy to flash with a phone, but the supplied software is adequate.</p>\n\n<p>The USB writer is a little bit clunky, but it holds the badge in place while data and power are transmitted.</p>\n\n<p>I'm astonished by just how flat this badge is. SmartDisplayer cold-lamination process is incredible. The image is <em>on</em> the badge, not under it.</p>\n\n<p>It looks stunning - a real premium product and the price reflects that.</p>\n\n<p>As a <em>personal</em> gadget, I think it is great. But for other uses, I'm not so sure. Are you <em>really</em> going to be handing out $65 lanyards to all of your event attendees? Perhaps at a very expensive conference! But even then, you might want to take a deposit.</p>\n\n<p>Anyone with a suitable reader can reflash a badge; there's no way to lock these. So they're not ideal for security.</p>\n\n<p>If you attend lots of conferences, and are perpetually annoyed by ugly conference badges which misspell your name or don't have a personal QR code, these are a great (albeit pricey) gadget.</p>\n\n<p>Thanks to SmartDisplayer for the review unit. Next time you see me at an event - please snap a photo of my badge!</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59672",
"title": "Introducing Pretty Print HTML for PHP 8.4",
"description": "I'm delight to announce the first release of my opinionated HTML Pretty Printer for new versions of PHP. Grab the code from Packagist Contribute on GitLab There are several prettifiers on Packagist, but I think mine is the only one which works with the new Dom\\HTMLDocument class. Table of ContentsWhatHowLimitationsWhyNext Steps What This takes hard-to-read HTML like: <!doctype…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/",
"published": "2025-04-19T11:34:54.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-19T07:46:11.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>I'm delight to announce the first release of my opinionated HTML Pretty Printer for new versions of PHP.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://packagist.org/packages/edent/pretty-print-html\">Grab the code from Packagist</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://gitlab.com/edent/pretty-print-html-using-php/\">Contribute on GitLab</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>There are several prettifiers on Packagist, but I think mine is the only one which works with <a href=\"https://wiki.php.net/rfc/domdocument_html5_parser\">the new <code>Dom\\HTMLDocument</code> class</a>.</p>\n\n<p></p><nav id=\"toc\"><menu id=\"toc-start\"><li id=\"toc-title\"><h2 id=\"table-of-contents\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#table-of-contents\" class=\"heading-link\">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#what\">What</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#how\">How</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#limitations\">Limitations</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#why\">Why</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#next-steps\">Next Steps</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>\n\n<h2 id=\"what\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#what\" class=\"heading-link\">What</a></h2>\n\n<p>This takes hard-to-read HTML like:</p>\n\n<p><code><!doctype html><html><head><meta charset=\"UTF-8\"></head><body><div id=\"main\" class=\"news main\"><h1 id=\"top\">Title</h1><p>How <em>exciting</em>!</p></div></code></p>\n\n<p>And pretty-prints it with some <em>opinionated</em> formatting:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><!doctype html>\n<html>\n <head>\n <meta charset=UTF-8>\n </head>\n <body>\n <div class=\"main news\" id=main>\n <h1 id=top>Title</h1>\n <p>How <em>exciting</em>!</p>\n </div>\n </body>\n</html>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>All elements are indented where possible. Attributes are sorted alphabetically. Attribute variables are unquoted if possible. CSS and JS are unaltered. These options are configurable.</p>\n\n<p>To get an idea of what it outputs, take a look at the source code of this page!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"how\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#how\" class=\"heading-link\">How</a></h2>\n\n<p>This is designed to be simple to use, but with enough options to be useful to as many people as possible.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-php\">// HTML as a string:\n$html = \"<div>This is <span> an <em>example</em>\";\n// Or as a file:\n$html = file_get_contents( \"example.html\" );\n\n// Turn the HTML into a Dom\\HTMLDocument\n$dom = \\Dom\\HTMLDocument::createFromString( $html, LIBXML_NOERROR, \"UTF-8\" );\n\n// Create the pretty printer\n$formatter = new Edent\\PrettyPrintHtml\\PrettyPrintHtml();\n\n// Output the result\necho $formatter->serializeHtml( $dom );\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"limitations\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#limitations\" class=\"heading-link\">Limitations</a></h2>\n\n<p>Whitespace is <em>hard</em>. There are many different types. Sometimes it is for display, sometimes it isn't. Adding extra newlines and tabs almost certainly <em>will</em> cause layout changes somewhere on your page.</p>\n\n<p>You can either change your CSS to minimise this, add elements to the <code>preserveElements</code> list to stop them being altered, or re-write your original HTML. The choice is yours.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"why\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#why\" class=\"heading-link\">Why</a></h2>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://libraries.mit.edu/150books/2011/05/11/1985/\">As was written long ago</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>A computer language is not just a way of getting a computer to perform operations but rather … it is a novel formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology. Thus, programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>PHP's new <code>Dom\\HTMLDocument</code> class produces syntactically valid HTML code. The code is very easy for a computer to parse. But because there is no indenting, the code is difficult for a human to parse.</p>\n\n<p>Adding newlines and indents before every new element can introduce spacing errors when the HTML is rendered to screen. Some of these can be fixed with extra CSS, some cannot</p>\n\n<p>This pretty-printer attempts to make code readable for humans by striking a balance between legibility when rendered on screen or viewed as source code.</p>\n\n<p>Why is human readability so important?</p>\n\n<p>As <a href=\"https://ohhelloana.blog/in-defense-of-unpolished-websites/\">Ana Rodrigues said</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Today's heavily optimized websites have largely killed the \"view source\" learning experience. The code is minified, bundled, and often incomprehensible to beginners trying to understand how things work. […] I want anyone, regardless of skill level, to inspect elements, understand the structure, and learn from readable code.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Using this pretty printer should give you and your users an excellent \"view source\" experience, without sacrificing the browser's ability to render the code.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"next-steps\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/introducing-pretty-print-html-for-php-8-4/#next-steps\" class=\"heading-link\">Next Steps</a></h2>\n\n<p>I'm sure there are many bugs and oddities. I'd love you to <a href=\"https://gitlab.com/edent/pretty-print-html-using-php/\">report any problems on GitLab</a>. Feel free to contribute test-cases and code.</p>\n</body></html>",
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{
"label": "/etc/",
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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"label": "HTML",
"term": "HTML",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59377",
"title": "Is this the smallest USB-C hub? ★★★★★",
"description": "The gadget wizards at Benfei know that I'm a sucker for any sort of USB-C gadget. So when they offered to send me their micro-hub to review, how could I refuse? It is dinky! Here's what you get for your tenner USB-C PowerDelivery HDMI USB-A Frankly, I'm impressed that they managed to fit that much in! If you'll excuse my lacklustre photo-editing skills, here are the two output ports: …",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/is-this-the-smallest-usb-c-hub/",
"published": "2025-04-18T11:34:45.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-09T20:29:51.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>The gadget wizards at <a href=\"https://www.benfei.com\">Benfei</a> know that I'm a sucker for any sort of USB-C gadget. So when they offered to send me their micro-hub to review, how could I refuse?</p>\n\n<p>It is <em>dinky!</em></p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/dinky.jpg\" alt=\"Tiny hub nestled in the palm of my hand.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"771\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59380\">\n\n<p>Here's what you get for your tenner</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>USB-C PowerDelivery</li>\n<li>HDMI</li>\n<li>USB-A</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Frankly, I'm impressed that they managed to fit that much in!</p>\n\n<p>If you'll excuse my lacklustre photo-editing skills, here are the two output ports:</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/ports.jpg\" alt=\"USB and HDMI ports on the sides.\" width=\"601\" height=\"539\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59378\">\n\n<p>This is what it looks like plugged into a laptop:</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/laptop.jpg\" alt=\"Plugged into a Framework laptop. It is about as tall as the enter key.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"771\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59381\">\n\n<p>The spec says it will use about 10 Watts for the hub and pass the rest through. I used my <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/10/gadget-review-plugable-usb-c-voltage-amperage-meter-240w/\">Plugable Power Meter</a> to measure throughput - my 65W charger supplied about 45W to the laptop. Perhaps a bit less than they claim, but certainly good enough.</p>\n\n<p>It delivered 4K video flawlessly - my Linux laptop was able to play 60Hz videos without issue. And, of course, the USB-A port worked as expected.</p>\n\n<p>But that's not the real challenge here, is it? USB-C is the future - how well does it work on a variety of devices?</p>\n\n<p>Plugging in to my Pixel 8 Pro, the PowerDelivery hit 20W - which is decent. DP Alt-Mode is still experimental in Android, but GrapheneOS was able to drive video and audio to my TV. And, again, the USB port worked with a keyboard, thumb-drive, and other accessories.</p>\n\n<p>Let's go for a bigger challenge. How does this thing cope with the Nintendo Switch?</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/switch.jpg\" alt=\"Nintendo Switch with TV showing output.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"771\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59379\">\n\n<p>Brilliant! Sound, video, and power all worked!</p>\n\n<p>The only real downside is that it doesn't do data passthrough on the power-in port. So you will lose a USB-C data-socket when using it. It is 48mm wide - so you may need an extension cable if your existing ports are very close together.</p>\n\n<p>But, for a tenner, this is an absolute steal. It even comes with a tiny lanyard and keyring so you can keep it with you at all times.</p>\n</body></html>",
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"label": "/etc/",
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"label": "gadget",
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "review",
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
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"term": "usb-c",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59603",
"title": "That's Not How A SIM Swap Attack Works",
"description": "There's a disturbing article in The Guardian about a person who was on the receiving end of a successful cybersecurity attack. EE texted to say they had processed my sim activation request, and the new sim would be active in 24 hours. I was told to contact them if I hadn’t requested this. I hadn’t, so I did so immediately. Twenty-four hours later, my mobile stopped working and money was wit…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/thats-not-how-a-sim-swap-attack-works/",
"published": "2025-04-17T11:34:54.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-17T12:46:55.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>There's <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/apr/15/ee-was-unapologetic-after-i-tried-to-stop-a-sim-swap\">a disturbing article in The Guardian</a> about a person who was on the receiving end of a successful cybersecurity attack.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>EE texted to say they had processed my sim activation request, and the new sim would be active in 24 hours. I was told to contact them if I hadn’t requested this. I hadn’t, so I did so immediately. Twenty-four hours later, my mobile stopped working and money was withdrawn from my bank account.\n</p><p><strong>With their alien sim, the fraudster infiltrated my handset and stole details for every account I had.</strong> Passwords and logins had been changed for my finance, retail and some social media accounts. </p></blockquote>\n\n<p>(Emphasis added.)</p>\n\n<p>I realise it is in the consumer rights section of the newspaper, not the technology section, and I dare-say some editorialising has gone on, but that's <em>nonsense</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Here's how a SIM swap works.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Attacker convinces your phone company to reassign your telephone number to a new SIM.</li>\n<li>Attacker goes to a website where you have an account, and initiates a password reset.</li>\n<li>Website sends a verification code to your phone number, which is now in the hands of the attacker.</li>\n<li>Attacker supplies verification code and gets into your account.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Do you notice the missing step there?</p>\n\n<p>At no point does the attacker \"infiltrate\" your handset. Your handset is still in your possession. The SIM is dead, but that doesn't give the attacker access to the phone itself. There is simply <strong>no way</strong> for someone to put a new SIM into their phone and automatically get access to your device.</p>\n\n<p>Try it now. Take your SIM out of your phone and put it into a new one. Do all of your apps suddenly appear? Are your usernames and passwords visible to you? No.</p>\n\n<p>There are ways to transfer your data from an <a href=\"https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT210216\">iPhone</a> or <a href=\"https://support.google.com/android/answer/13761358?hl=en\">Android</a> - but they require a lot more work than swapping a SIM.</p>\n\n<p>So how did the attacker know which websites to target and what username to use?</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-probably-happened\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/thats-not-how-a-sim-swap-attack-works/#what-probably-happened\" class=\"heading-link\">What (Probably) Happened</a></h2>\n\n<p>Let's assume the person in the article didn't have malware on their device and hadn't handed over all their details to a cold caller.</p>\n\n<p>The most obvious answer is that the attacker <em>already</em> knew the victim's email address. Maybe the victim gave out their phone number and email to some dodgy site, or they're listed on their contact page, or something like that.</p>\n\n<p>The attacker now has two routes.</p>\n\n<p>First is \"hit and hope\". They try the email address on hundreds of popular sites' password reset page until they get a match. That's time-consuming given the vast volume of websites.</p>\n\n<p>Second is targetting your email. If the attacker can get into your email, they can see which sites you use, who your bank is, and where you shop. They can target those specific sites, perform a password reset, and get your details.</p>\n\n<p>I strongly suspect it is the latter which has happened. The swapped SIM was used to reset the victim's email password. Once in the email, all the accounts were easily found. At no point was the handset broken into.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-can-i-do-to-protect-myself\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/thats-not-how-a-sim-swap-attack-works/#what-can-i-do-to-protect-myself\" class=\"heading-link\">What can I do to protect myself?</a></h2>\n\n<p>It is important to realise that <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/03/theres-nothing-you-can-do-to-prevent-a-sim-swap-attack/\">there's nothing you can do to prevent a SIM-swap attack</a>! Your phone company is probably incompetent and their staff can easily be bribed. You do not control your phone number. If you get hit by a SIM swap, it almost certainly isn't your fault.</p>\n\n<p>So here are some practical steps anyone can take to reduce the likelihood and effectiveness of this class of attack:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Remember that <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/03/its-ok-to-lie-to-wifi-providers/\">it's OK to lie to WiFi providers</a> and other people who ask for your details. You don't need to give someone your email for a receipt. You don't need to hand over your real phone number on a survey. This is the most important thing you can do.</li>\n<li>Try to hack yourself. How easy would it be for an attacker who had stolen your phone number to also steal your email address? Open up a private browser window and try to reset your email password. What do you notice? How could you secure yourself better?</li>\n<li>Don't use SMS for two-factor authentication. If you are given a choice of 2FA methods, use a dedicated app. If the only option you're given is SMS - contact the company to complain, or leave for a different provider.</li>\n<li>Don't rely on a <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/scientits.bsky.social/post/3lmz2zaxkf22k\">setting a PIN for your SIM</a>. The PIN only protects the physical SIM from being moved to a new device; it does nothing to stop your number being ported to a new SIM.</li>\n<li>Finally, realise that professional criminals only need to be lucky once but you need to be lucky all the time.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Stay safe out there.</p>\n</body></html>",
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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"term": "sim",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59359",
"title": "Gadget Review: Benfei SATA to USB-C Drive Enclosure ★★★★★",
"description": "The good folks at Benfei know that I'm always losing my USB Thumb Drives. They're just too damn small. I crave something bigger and harder to lose. Not as huge as a CD Drive, but not as small as a MiniDisc. Something chunky and satisfying, with a slim elegance. So they've sent me their SATA to USB-C drive enclosure. It's a cute little box, with a built-in USB-C cable. The cable has one of…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-sata-to-usb-c-drive-enclosure/",
"published": "2025-04-16T11:34:54.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-16T09:31:57.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>The good folks at Benfei know that I'm always losing my USB Thumb Drives. They're just too damn small. I crave something bigger and harder to lose. Not as huge as a CD Drive, but not as small as a MiniDisc. Something chunky and satisfying, with a slim elegance. So they've sent me their SATA to USB-C drive enclosure.</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SATA-enclosure.jpg\" alt=\"Hand-sized plastic box with a short cable.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"771\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59374\">\n\n<p>It's a cute little box, with a built-in USB-C cable.</p>\n\n<p>The cable has one of those weird adapters which lets you convert it back to USB-A. Personally, I think we should force everyone to USB-C and not pander to the laggards who refuse to embrace the future. The box is \"tool free\" - which means you can slide the top off with ease.</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SATA-port.jpg\" alt=\"Plastic box with a SATA connector.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"771\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59373\">\n\n<p>Inside is the standard SATA plug, waiting for your disk. The unit also comes with some extra foam padding - so you can ensure nothing rattles around in there.</p>\n\n<p>I couldn't find my SSD, but I had an old 320GB HDD laying around, so shoved that in there.</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/SATA-HDD.jpg\" alt=\"Plastic unit with a small hard disk in it.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"771\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59372\">\n\n<p>As was to be expected, it is plug-and-play technology. For Linux nerds, this shows up as <code>152d:0583 JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. JMS583Gen 2 to PCIe Gen3x2 Bridge</code>.</p>\n\n<p>You can <a href=\"https://www.jmicron.com/file/download/1012/JMS583_Product+Brief.pdf\">read the JMicron datasheed for the chip</a>.</p>\n\n<p>For a laugh, I plugged it into my Android phone:</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/android-usb-sata.png\" alt=\"Android notification saying the drive is ready to set up.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"248\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59375\">\n\n<p>USB-C has reached the sort of maturity where you can be reasonably sure that plugging in random gadgets will just work.</p>\n\n<p>I did a quick drive benchmark and it seemed to top out at 60MB/s for reading and writing. To be fair, that may just be the age of my piece of spinning rust.</p>\n\n<p>For less than a tenner, this is a great gadget to have in your bag. It's quick and simple to open, you don't need to faff around with screws. The cable is a little short - but you probably don't want it trailing all over your desk.</p>\n\n<p>Oh, and it has a blue LED to let you know it is working. Thankfully, it isn't overly bright so doesn't cause a distraction.</p>\n</body></html>",
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"label": "/etc/",
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59361",
"title": "Gadget Review: Benfei USB-C to Ethernet Adapter ★★★★★",
"description": "Sure, WiFi is basically fine. But sometimes you need the raw power, high speed, and utter reliability of Ethernet. Billions of packets hurtling down twisted copper pair in order to deliver your data - that's what it is all about, right? But - alas! - laptops don't have Ethernet ports these days. And mobile phones tend to shun them as well. Who can save us from the tyranny of multi-GigaHertz…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-usb-c-to-ethernet-adapter/",
"published": "2025-04-15T11:34:47.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-13T16:26:42.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>Sure, WiFi is basically fine. But sometimes you need the raw power, high speed, and utter reliability of Ethernet. Billions of packets hurtling down twisted copper pair in order to deliver your data - that's what it is all about, right?</p>\n\n<p>But - alas! - laptops don't have Ethernet ports these days. And mobile phones tend to shun them as well. Who can save us from the tyranny of multi-GigaHertz radiowaves?!</p>\n\n<p>The good folk at Benfei have sent me their latest gadget and, somehow, I need to make 300 words out of \"plug into device, plug in Ethernet cable, data go fast\". Let's see how that goes!</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/USB-C-Ethernet.jpg\" alt=\"A USB-C to Ethernet converter.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"771\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59369\">\n\n<p>My hands trembling, I plugged in the svelte USB-C plug into my waiting laptop. With a satisfying \"clunk\", the Ethernet cable docked into the waiting receptacle. An instant later, subtle LEDs began to flicker as the data pulsed through the CAT6 and into my computer.</p>\n\n<p>For Linux nerds, this is a <code>0bda:8153 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter</code>. Plugging it in just worked - although there are <a href=\"https://www.benfei.com/pages/drivers\">drivers for Linux, Mac, and Windows</a> if you need them.</p>\n\n<p>Just for a laugh, I plugged it into my Android phone and - amazingly - it also just worked. I was free from the shackles of poor 5G coverage. Well, I could only go as far as my Ethernet cable stretched, but the speeds were fantastic.</p>\n\n<p>This claims to be good up to 1Gbps. Sadly, I downgraded my <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/12/whats-the-point-in-gigabit-broadband/\">Gigabit broadband</a>, but let's see just how fast it can go. Here's a speed test run from my Android phone:</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/620.png\" alt=\"620 Mbps.\" width=\"504\" height=\"653\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59368\">\n\n<p>Fair play! That totally maxed out my home broadband.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"verdict\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-usb-c-to-ethernet-adapter/#verdict\" class=\"heading-link\">Verdict</a></h2>\n\n<p>It's a cute little unit. For about a tenner - depending on how The Algorithm feels - this can't be beat. The short cable is nicely braided, the silver design is inoffensive, and you get the standard Ethernet blinkenlights to tell you it's working.</p>\n\n<p>Please click the affiliate links so my family doesn't starve.</p>\n</body></html>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "@edent",
"email": null,
"url": null
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "/etc/",
"term": "/etc/",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "gadget",
"term": "gadget",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "review",
"term": "review",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "usb-c",
"term": "usb-c",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59462",
"title": "You don't need an API key to archive Twitter Data",
"description": "Apparently there's no need for IP laws any more, so here's a way to archive high-fidelity Twitter data without signing up for an expensive API key. This is perfect for academics wishing to preserve Tweets, journalists wanting to download evidence, or simply embedding content without leaking user data back to Twitter. Table of Contentstl;drBackgroundEmbed CodeAPI CallOptionsOutputTweet With…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/",
"published": "2025-04-14T11:34:07.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-14T10:53:38.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>Apparently <a href=\"https://bsky.app/profile/ednewtonrex.bsky.social/post/3lmmv4x7gps2a\">there's no need for IP laws any more</a>, so here's a way to archive high-fidelity Twitter data without signing up for an expensive API key.</p>\n\n<p>This is perfect for academics wishing to preserve Tweets, journalists wanting to download evidence, or simply embedding content without leaking user data back to Twitter.</p>\n\n<p></p><nav id=\"toc\"><menu id=\"toc-start\"><li id=\"toc-title\"><h2 id=\"table-of-contents\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#table-of-contents\" class=\"heading-link\">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#tldr\">tl;dr</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#background\">Background</a><menu><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#embed-code\">Embed Code</a></li></menu></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#api-call\">API Call</a><menu><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#options\">Options</a></li></menu></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#output\">Output</a><menu><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#tweet-with-image\">Tweet With Image</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#replies\">Replies</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#quote-tweets\">Quote Tweets</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#downloading-media\">Downloading Media</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#other-examples\">Other Examples</a></li></menu></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#limitations\">Limitations</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#python-code\">Python Code</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#have-fun\">Have Fun</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>\n\n<h2 id=\"tldr\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#tldr\" class=\"heading-link\">tl;dr</a></h2>\n\n<p>You can get the full JSON code of any Tweet by using this API:</p>\n\n<p><code>https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=123456789&token=01010101010</code></p>\n\n<p>Add any valid Twitter <code>id</code>, and choose a random number for your <code>token</code>. Done.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"background\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#background\" class=\"heading-link\">Background</a></h2>\n\n<p>Twitter has an \"embed\" functionality. Websites can import a full copy of a Tweet, including its media and metadata. <a href=\"https://create.twitter.com/en/products/embedded-tweets\">Twitter's documentation is a little lacklustre</a> but here's a brief explanation of how it works.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"embed-code\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#embed-code\" class=\"heading-link\">Embed Code</a></h3>\n\n<p>Using HTML like this:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><iframe\n src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=719484841172054016\"\n width=512\n height=768></iframe>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Produces an embeddable which looks like this:</p>\n\n<iframe src=\"https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?id=719484841172054016\" width=\"512\" height=\"768\"></iframe>\n\n<h2 id=\"api-call\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#api-call\" class=\"heading-link\">API Call</a></h2>\n\n<p>With a bit of sniffing of the traffic, it's possible to see that the iframe eventually calls a URl like this:</p>\n\n<p><a style=\"font-family:monospace;\" href=\"https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=719484841172054016&token=123\">https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=719484841172054016&token=123</a></p>\n\n<p>Visit that and you'll see the JSON code of a Tweet.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"options\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#options\" class=\"heading-link\">Options</a></h3>\n\n<ul>\n<li><code>id=</code> this is the numeric ID of the Tweet.</li>\n<li><code>token=</code> this is the API token. It can be set to a random number. It isn't checked.</li>\n<li>There's an optional <code>lang=</code> which takes <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IETF_language_tag\">BCP47 language codes</a>. For example <code>lang=en</code> or <code>lang=zh</code>. However, they don't seem to make any difference to the output.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2 id=\"output\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#output\" class=\"heading-link\">Output</a></h2>\n\n<p>Here's the JSON of the above Tweet. As you can see, it includes metadata on the number of replies, favourites, and retweets. There are entities, fully expanded links, and media in a variety of formats. There's also information on whether the post has been edited, if the user is stupid enough to pay for a blue-tick, and the language of the message.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"tweet-with-image\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#tweet-with-image\" class=\"heading-link\">Tweet With Image</a></h3>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-json\">{\n \"__typename\": \"Tweet\",\n \"lang\": \"en\",\n \"favorite_count\": 4,\n \"possibly_sensitive\": false,\n \"created_at\": \"2016-04-11T11:18:48.000Z\",\n \"display_text_range\": [\n 0,\n 120\n ],\n \"entities\": {\n \"hashtags\": [],\n \"urls\": [],\n \"user_mentions\": [\n {\n \"id_str\": \"23937508\",\n \"indices\": [\n 20,\n 30\n ],\n \"name\": \"BBC Radio 4\",\n \"screen_name\": \"BBCRadio4\"\n }\n ],\n \"symbols\": [],\n \"media\": [\n {\n \"display_url\": \"pic.x.com/6F3ZSiWuIn\",\n \"expanded_url\": \"https://x.com/edent/status/719484841172054016/photo/1\",\n \"indices\": [\n 97,\n 120\n ],\n \"url\": \"https://t.co/6F3ZSiWuIn\"\n }\n ]\n },\n \"id_str\": \"719484841172054016\",\n \"text\": \"Warning! I'll be on @BBCRadio4's You And Yours shortly.\\nPlease tune your wirelesses accordingly. https://t.co/6F3ZSiWuIn\",\n \"user\": {\n \"id_str\": \"14054507\",\n \"name\": \"Terence Eden is on Mastodon\",\n \"profile_image_url_https\": \"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1623225628530016260/SW0HsKjP_normal.jpg\",\n \"screen_name\": \"edent\",\n \"verified\": false,\n \"is_blue_verified\": false,\n \"profile_image_shape\": \"Circle\"\n },\n \"edit_control\": {\n \"edit_tweet_ids\": [\n \"719484841172054016\"\n ],\n \"editable_until_msecs\": \"1460375328174\",\n \"is_edit_eligible\": true,\n \"edits_remaining\": \"5\"\n },\n \"mediaDetails\": [\n {\n \"display_url\": \"pic.x.com/6F3ZSiWuIn\",\n \"expanded_url\": \"https://x.com/edent/status/719484841172054016/photo/1\",\n \"ext_media_availability\": {\n \"status\": \"Available\"\n },\n \"indices\": [\n 97,\n 120\n ],\n \"media_url_https\": \"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfwfpnJWwAEXwe3.jpg\",\n \"original_info\": {\n \"height\": 1280,\n \"width\": 960,\n \"focus_rects\": []\n },\n \"sizes\": {\n \"large\": {\n \"h\": 1280,\n \"resize\": \"fit\",\n \"w\": 960\n },\n \"medium\": {\n \"h\": 1200,\n \"resize\": \"fit\",\n \"w\": 900\n },\n \"small\": {\n \"h\": 680,\n \"resize\": \"fit\",\n \"w\": 510\n },\n \"thumb\": {\n \"h\": 150,\n \"resize\": \"crop\",\n \"w\": 150\n }\n },\n \"type\": \"photo\",\n \"url\": \"https://t.co/6F3ZSiWuIn\"\n }\n ],\n \"photos\": [\n {\n \"backgroundColor\": {\n \"red\": 204,\n \"green\": 214,\n \"blue\": 221\n },\n \"cropCandidates\": [],\n \"expandedUrl\": \"https://x.com/edent/status/719484841172054016/photo/1\",\n \"url\": \"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CfwfpnJWwAEXwe3.jpg\",\n \"width\": 960,\n \"height\": 1280\n }\n ],\n \"conversation_count\": 1,\n \"news_action_type\": \"conversation\",\n \"isEdited\": false,\n \"isStaleEdit\": false\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<h3 id=\"replies\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#replies\" class=\"heading-link\">Replies</a></h3>\n\n<p>Here's a more complicated example. This Tweet is in reply to another Tweet - so both messages are included:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-json\">{\n \"__typename\": \"Tweet\",\n \"in_reply_to_screen_name\": \"edent\",\n \"in_reply_to_status_id_str\": \"1095653997644574720\",\n \"in_reply_to_user_id_str\": \"14054507\",\n \"lang\": \"en\",\n \"favorite_count\": 0,\n \"created_at\": \"2019-02-13T12:22:59.000Z\",\n \"display_text_range\": [\n 7,\n 252\n ],\n \"entities\": {\n \"hashtags\": [],\n \"urls\": [],\n \"user_mentions\": [\n {\n \"id_str\": \"14054507\",\n \"indices\": [\n 0,\n 6\n ],\n \"name\": \"Terence Eden is on Mastodon\",\n \"screen_name\": \"edent\"\n }\n ],\n \"symbols\": []\n },\n \"id_str\": \"1095659600420966400\",\n \"text\": \"@edent I can definitely see how this would get in the way of making your day a productive one. Do you find this happens often? If it does, I'd be happy to chat to you about a reliable alternative with us during your lunch break! ☕ PM me for a chat! ^JH\",\n \"user\": {\n \"id_str\": \"20139563\",\n \"name\": \"Sky\",\n \"profile_image_url_https\": \"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1674689671006240769/OpfisqRG_normal.jpg\",\n \"screen_name\": \"SkyUK\",\n \"verified\": false,\n \"verified_type\": \"Business\",\n \"is_blue_verified\": false,\n \"profile_image_shape\": \"Square\"\n },\n \"edit_control\": {\n \"edit_tweet_ids\": [\n \"1095659600420966400\"\n ],\n \"editable_until_msecs\": \"1550062379768\",\n \"is_edit_eligible\": true,\n \"edits_remaining\": \"5\"\n },\n \"conversation_count\": 2,\n \"news_action_type\": \"conversation\",\n \"parent\": {\n \"lang\": \"en\",\n \"reply_count\": 2,\n \"retweet_count\": 1,\n \"favorite_count\": 1,\n \"possibly_sensitive\": false,\n \"created_at\": \"2019-02-13T12:00:43.000Z\",\n \"display_text_range\": [\n 0,\n 112\n ],\n \"entities\": {\n \"hashtags\": [],\n \"urls\": [],\n \"user_mentions\": [\n {\n \"id_str\": \"17872077\",\n \"indices\": [\n 33,\n 45\n ],\n \"name\": \"Virgin Media ❤\",\n \"screen_name\": \"virginmedia\"\n }\n ],\n \"symbols\": [],\n \"media\": [\n {\n \"display_url\": \"pic.x.com/mje6nh38CZ\",\n \"expanded_url\": \"https://x.com/edent/status/1095653997644574720/photo/1\",\n \"indices\": [\n 113,\n 136\n ],\n \"url\": \"https://t.co/mje6nh38CZ\"\n }\n ]\n },\n \"id_str\": \"1095653997644574720\",\n \"text\": \"Working from home is tricky when @virginmedia goes down so hard even its status page falls over.\\nTime for lunch. https://t.co/mje6nh38CZ\",\n \"user\": {\n \"id_str\": \"14054507\",\n \"name\": \"Terence Eden is on Mastodon\",\n \"profile_image_url_https\": \"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1623225628530016260/SW0HsKjP_normal.jpg\",\n \"screen_name\": \"edent\",\n \"verified\": false,\n \"is_blue_verified\": false,\n \"profile_image_shape\": \"Circle\"\n },\n \"edit_control\": {\n \"edit_tweet_ids\": [\n \"1095653997644574720\"\n ],\n \"editable_until_msecs\": \"1550061043962\",\n \"is_edit_eligible\": true,\n \"edits_remaining\": \"5\"\n },\n \"mediaDetails\": [\n {\n \"display_url\": \"pic.x.com/mje6nh38CZ\",\n \"expanded_url\": \"https://x.com/edent/status/1095653997644574720/photo/1\",\n \"ext_alt_text\": \"Oops! something's broken! \",\n \"ext_media_availability\": {\n \"status\": \"Available\"\n },\n \"indices\": [\n 113,\n 136\n ],\n \"media_url_https\": \"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzSLf6sWsAAGWWH.jpg\",\n \"original_info\": {\n \"height\": 797,\n \"width\": 1080,\n \"focus_rects\": [\n {\n \"x\": 0,\n \"y\": 192,\n \"w\": 1080,\n \"h\": 605\n },\n {\n \"x\": 142,\n \"y\": 0,\n \"w\": 797,\n \"h\": 797\n },\n {\n \"x\": 191,\n \"y\": 0,\n \"w\": 699,\n \"h\": 797\n },\n {\n \"x\": 341,\n \"y\": 0,\n \"w\": 399,\n \"h\": 797\n },\n {\n \"x\": 0,\n \"y\": 0,\n \"w\": 1080,\n \"h\": 797\n }\n ]\n },\n \"sizes\": {\n \"large\": {\n \"h\": 797,\n \"resize\": \"fit\",\n \"w\": 1080\n },\n \"medium\": {\n \"h\": 797,\n \"resize\": \"fit\",\n \"w\": 1080\n },\n \"small\": {\n \"h\": 502,\n \"resize\": \"fit\",\n \"w\": 680\n },\n \"thumb\": {\n \"h\": 150,\n \"resize\": \"crop\",\n \"w\": 150\n }\n },\n \"type\": \"photo\",\n \"url\": \"https://t.co/mje6nh38CZ\"\n }\n ],\n \"photos\": [\n {\n \"accessibilityLabel\": \"Oops! something's broken! \",\n \"backgroundColor\": {\n \"red\": 204,\n \"green\": 214,\n \"blue\": 221\n },\n \"cropCandidates\": [\n {\n \"x\": 0,\n \"y\": 192,\n \"w\": 1080,\n \"h\": 605\n },\n {\n \"x\": 142,\n \"y\": 0,\n \"w\": 797,\n \"h\": 797\n },\n {\n \"x\": 191,\n \"y\": 0,\n \"w\": 699,\n \"h\": 797\n },\n {\n \"x\": 341,\n \"y\": 0,\n \"w\": 399,\n \"h\": 797\n },\n {\n \"x\": 0,\n \"y\": 0,\n \"w\": 1080,\n \"h\": 797\n }\n ],\n \"expandedUrl\": \"https://x.com/edent/status/1095653997644574720/photo/1\",\n \"url\": \"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzSLf6sWsAAGWWH.jpg\",\n \"width\": 1080,\n \"height\": 797\n }\n ],\n \"isEdited\": false,\n \"isStaleEdit\": false\n },\n \"isEdited\": false,\n \"isStaleEdit\": false\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<h3 id=\"quote-tweets\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#quote-tweets\" class=\"heading-link\">Quote Tweets</a></h3>\n\n<p>Here's an example where I have quoted a Tweet:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-json\">{\n \"__typename\": \"Tweet\",\n \"lang\": \"en\",\n \"favorite_count\": 9,\n \"possibly_sensitive\": false,\n \"created_at\": \"2022-08-19T13:36:44.000Z\",\n \"display_text_range\": [\n 0,\n 182\n ],\n \"entities\": {\n \"hashtags\": [],\n \"urls\": [\n {\n \"display_url\": \"gu.com\",\n \"expanded_url\": \"http://gu.com\",\n \"indices\": [\n 17,\n 40\n ],\n \"url\": \"https://t.co/Skj7FB7Tyt\"\n }\n ],\n \"user_mentions\": [],\n \"symbols\": []\n },\n \"id_str\": \"1560621791470448642\",\n \"text\": \"Whoever buys the https://t.co/Skj7FB7Tyt domain will effectively get to rewrite history.\\nThey can redirect links like these - and change the nature of the content being commented on.\",\n \"user\": {\n \"id_str\": \"14054507\",\n \"name\": \"Terence Eden is on Mastodon\",\n \"profile_image_url_https\": \"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1623225628530016260/SW0HsKjP_normal.jpg\",\n \"screen_name\": \"edent\",\n \"verified\": false,\n \"is_blue_verified\": false,\n \"profile_image_shape\": \"Circle\"\n },\n \"edit_control\": {\n \"edit_tweet_ids\": [\n \"1560621791470448642\"\n ],\n \"editable_until_msecs\": \"1660918004000\",\n \"is_edit_eligible\": true,\n \"edits_remaining\": \"5\"\n },\n \"conversation_count\": 4,\n \"news_action_type\": \"conversation\",\n \"quoted_tweet\": {\n \"lang\": \"en\",\n \"reply_count\": 131,\n \"retweet_count\": 1337,\n \"favorite_count\": 2789,\n \"possibly_sensitive\": false,\n \"created_at\": \"2018-11-27T15:56:19.000Z\",\n \"display_text_range\": [\n 0,\n 279\n ],\n \"entities\": {\n \"hashtags\": [],\n \"urls\": [\n {\n \"display_url\": \"gu.com/p/axa7k/stw\",\n \"expanded_url\": \"https://gu.com/p/axa7k/stw\",\n \"indices\": [\n 256,\n 279\n ],\n \"url\": \"https://t.co/UulPL1CtcK\"\n }\n ],\n \"user_mentions\": [],\n \"symbols\": []\n },\n \"id_str\": \"1067447032363794432\",\n \"text\": \"The Steele Dossier asserted Russian hacking of the DNC was \\\"conducted with the full knowledge & support of Trump & senior members of his campaign.” Trump's war against the FBI & efforts to obstruct make sense if he thought they could prove it. https://t.co/UulPL1CtcK\",\n \"user\": {\n \"id_str\": \"548384458\",\n \"name\": \"Joyce Alene\",\n \"profile_image_url_https\": \"https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/952257848301498371/5s24RH-g_normal.jpg\",\n \"screen_name\": \"JoyceWhiteVance\",\n \"verified\": false,\n \"is_blue_verified\": true,\n \"profile_image_shape\": \"Circle\"\n },\n \"edit_control\": {\n \"edit_tweet_ids\": [\n \"1067447032363794432\"\n ],\n \"editable_until_msecs\": \"1543335979379\",\n \"is_edit_eligible\": true,\n \"edits_remaining\": \"5\"\n },\n \"isEdited\": false,\n \"isStaleEdit\": false\n },\n \"isEdited\": false,\n \"isStaleEdit\": false\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<h3 id=\"downloading-media\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#downloading-media\" class=\"heading-link\">Downloading Media</a></h3>\n\n<p>Videos are also available to download, with no restrictions, in a variety of resolutions:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-json\"> \"mediaDetails\": [\n {\n \"type\": \"video\",\n \"url\": \"https://t.co/Qw1IFom7Fh\",\n \"video_info\": {\n \"aspect_ratio\": [\n 3,\n 4\n ],\n \"duration_millis\": 13578,\n \"variants\": [\n {\n \"content_type\": \"application/x-mpegURL\",\n \"url\": \"https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/pl/DiIKFNNZLWbLmECm.m3u8?tag=12\"\n },\n {\n \"bitrate\": 632000,\n \"content_type\": \"video/mp4\",\n \"url\": \"https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/320x426/oq2p-t0RJEEKuDD6.mp4?tag=12\"\n },\n {\n \"bitrate\": 950000,\n \"content_type\": \"video/mp4\",\n \"url\": \"https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/480x640/3X8ZsBmXmmaaakmM.mp4?tag=12\"\n },\n {\n \"bitrate\": 2176000,\n \"content_type\": \"video/mp4\",\n \"url\": \"https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1432767873504718850/pu/vid/720x960/sS9cLdGn93eUmvKC.mp4?tag=12\"\n }\n ]\n }\n }\n ],\n</code></pre>\n\n<h3 id=\"other-examples\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#other-examples\" class=\"heading-link\">Other Examples</a></h3>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=909106648928718848&lang=en&token=123456\">Multiple Images</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=670060095972245504&lang=en&token=123456\">Polls</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=83659275024601088&lang=en&token=123456\">Deleted Message</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://cdn.syndication.twimg.com/tweet-result?id=1131218926493413377&lang=en&token=123456\">Summary Cards</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2 id=\"limitations\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#limitations\" class=\"heading-link\">Limitations</a></h2>\n\n<p>There are a few small limitations with this approach.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>It doesn't capture replies\n\n<ul>\n<li>If the Tweet is in reply to something, it will capture the parent.</li>\n<li>If the Tweet quotes something, it will capture the quoted Tweet.</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>The counts for replies, retweets, and favourites may not be accurate\n\n<ul>\n<li>Older messages seem worse for this, but that's a natural part of digital decay.</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>Reduced metadata\n\n<ul>\n<li>The official API used to tell you which device was used to post the message, user's timezone, and other bits of useful information.</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>You need to know the ID of the Tweet\n\n<ul>\n<li>There's no way to automatically grab every Tweet by a user, or from a search.</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>Sometimes the API stops responding\n\n<ul>\n<li>Change the token to another random number.</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>Occasionally replies and quotes won't be included\n\n<ul>\n<li>Calling the API again often recovers the data.</li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2 id=\"python-code\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#python-code\" class=\"heading-link\">Python Code</a></h2>\n\n<p>If you're technically inclined, I've <a href=\"https://github.com/edent/Tweet2Embed\">written some Python code to automate turning the JSON into HTML</a>.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"have-fun\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/you-dont-need-an-api-key-to-archive-twitter-data/#have-fun\" class=\"heading-link\">Have Fun</a></h2>\n\n<p>Remember, the owner of Twitter no longer believes in IP law. So I guess you can go nuts and download all of Twitter's data and use it for any purpose?</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": "api",
"term": "api",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "HowTo",
"term": "HowTo",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "twitter",
"term": "twitter",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59406",
"title": "Book Review: Great Robots of History by Tim Major ★★★⯪☆",
"description": "This is a lovely and twisted anthology of stories. Each presents a \"historic\" robot - be they an automaton, a puppet given life by the gods, or a resurrected villager. Some, like the Mechanical Turk, are historical fact but others are invented just for us to gawk at. The stories are mostly dark and brooding, with the macabre turn. They're fun - but the constant theme is \"what if I, an…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/book-review-great-robots-of-history-by-tim-major/",
"published": "2025-04-13T11:34:51.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-10T21:09:10.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Great-Robots-of-History-500.jpg\" alt=\"Pygmalion kissing a statue who has been brought to life.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-59407\">This is a lovely and twisted anthology of stories. Each presents a \"historic\" robot - be they an automaton, a puppet given life by the gods, or a resurrected villager. Some, like the Mechanical Turk, are historical fact but others are invented just for us to gawk at.</p>\n\n<p>The stories are mostly dark and brooding, with the macabre turn. They're fun - but the constant theme is \"what if I, an intelligent person, got trapped in the brain of a dullard?\" Robots who are self-aware of their limitations reveal to us how terrifying dementia must be.</p>\n\n<p>We meet robots who are reassured that they are without sin, and those which long to sin. Perhaps malicious dæmons reside in their programming just as bugs reside in our souls?</p>\n\n<p>A fine collection.</p>\n</body></html>",
"image": null,
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{
"name": "@edent",
"email": null,
"url": 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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{
"label": "robots",
"term": "robots",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "Sci Fi",
"term": "Sci Fi",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59363",
"title": "Gadget Review: Benfei Laptop Riser with Built-In USB-C Dock ★★★☆☆",
"description": "The good folks at Benfei have sent me a laptop stand to review. You know the drill, a few pieces of metal, some hinges, and rubber feet. But this stand holds a little more interest for the gadget lover - a built in USB-C hub! What do you get for your £35? USB-C power input - capable of taking 100W of PowerDelivery. A built-in USB-C cable to connect to your laptop. HDMI port which supports 4k …",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/",
"published": "2025-04-12T11:34:32.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-09T18:31:40.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>The good folks at Benfei have sent me a laptop stand to review. You know the drill, a few pieces of metal, some hinges, and rubber feet. But this stand holds a little more interest for the gadget lover - a built in USB-C hub!</p>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/benfei-dock-riser.jpg\" alt=\"A metal laptop stand with USB ports built in.\" width=\"1000\" height=\"922\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59366\">\n\n<p>What do you get for your £35?</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>USB-C power input - capable of taking 100W of PowerDelivery.</li>\n<li>A built-in USB-C cable to connect to your laptop.</li>\n<li>HDMI port which supports 4k @ 60Hz.</li>\n<li>Four USB-A ports.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>And that's it! There isn't any DisplayPort, no Ethernet, no sound, no extra USB-C ports. It is, I have to say, a little bare-bones.</p>\n\n<p>The smarts are powered by a <a href=\"http://www.bridgesil.com.cn/upload/20240815145503.pdf\">Bridgesil USB 3.2 chip</a>. For Linux nerds, it shows up as <code>35d6:3510 Bridgesil USB3.2 Hub</code> and <code>35d6:2510 Bridgesil USB2.1 Hub</code>.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"putting-it-through-its-paces\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/#putting-it-through-its-paces\" class=\"heading-link\">Putting it through its paces</a></h2>\n\n<p>The 4K HDMI worked flawlessly. As you'd expect from HDMI, the picture clarity was perfectly reproduced. My 60Hz videos played without tearing or juddering.</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, it's hard to go wrong with basic USB ports. Everything I plugged into them worked. USB disk speeds seemed fine. Read speeds were around 40MB/s and write speeds about the same. Pretty much what you'd expect - although I suspect this is more geared towards keyboard, mice, printers, and other office devices.</p>\n\n<p>Power was OK. I took measurements with <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/10/gadget-review-plugable-usb-c-voltage-amperage-meter-240w/\">my Plugable power meter</a>. I used a 65W charger, but the maximum I could get it to deliver to the hub was 50W (19.77v, 2.53A). Output to the laptop stuck at around 48W. There's usually a little drop off between the two as the hub itself requires some power. How much juice does your laptop need while you're doom-scrolling?</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"verdict\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/gadget-review-benfei-laptop-riser-with-built-in-usb-c-dock/#verdict\" class=\"heading-link\">Verdict</a></h2>\n\n<p>As a laptop stand, it is brilliant. Easily adjustable, good range of movement, and some hefty rubber cushions to prevent slipping.</p>\n\n<p>The USB features on it work - charging is fast enough, HDMI is crisp, and the USB-A ports are decent - but I just wish it had a <em>bit</em> more. Personally, I didn't like the USB ports being at the front - it meant that the cables kept getting in my way. I didn't <em>need</em> an extra HDMI port - but some extra USB-C ports would have been useful, as would Ethernet and sound.</p>\n\n<p>If you're happy with a single HDMI and four A ports, this is fine. But if your needs are more complex or you require more power, you might want to buy a more fully-featured dock.</p>\n</body></html>",
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"name": "@edent",
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"label": "/etc/",
"term": "/etc/",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "gadget",
"term": "gadget",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
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"term": "usb-c",
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=59334",
"title": "FobCam '25 - All my MFA tokens on one page",
"description": "Some ideas are timeless. Back in 2004, an anonymous genius set up \"FobCam\". Tired of having to carry around an RSA SecurID token everywhere, our hero simply left the fob at home with an early webcam pointing at it. And then left the page open for all to see. Security expert Bruce Schneier approved of this trade-off between security and usability - saying what we're all thinking: Here’s a guy w…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/",
"published": "2025-04-11T11:34:34.000Z",
"updated": "2025-04-11T09:35:20.000Z",
"content": "<html><head></head><body><p>Some ideas are timeless. Back in 2004, an anonymous genius set up \"<a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20060215092922/http://fob.webhop.net/\">FobCam</a>\". Tired of having to carry around an RSA SecurID token everywhere, our hero simply left the fob at home with an early webcam pointing at it. And then left the page open for all to see.</p>\n\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/FobCam-fs8.png\" alt=\"Website with a grainy webcam photo of a SecurID fob.\" width=\"512\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-59341\">\n\n<p>Security expert Bruce Schneier approved<sup id=\"fnref:🫠\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:🫠\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"🫠\" role=\"doc-noteref\">0</a></sup> of this trade-off between security and usability - saying what we're all thinking:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Here’s a guy who has a webcam pointing at his SecurID token, so he doesn’t have to remember to carry it around. Here’s the strange thing: unless you know who the webpage belongs to, it’s still good security.\n<a href=\"https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram/archives/2004/0815.html#:~:text=webcam\">Crypto-Gram - August 15, 2004</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Nowadays, we have to carry dozens of these tokens with us. Although, unlike the poor schmucks of 2004, we have an app for that. But I don't always have access to my phone. Sometimes I'm in a secure location where I can't access my electronics. Sometimes my phone gets stolen, and I need to log into Facebook to whinge about it. Sometimes I just can't be bothered to remember which fingerprint unlocks my phone<sup id=\"fnref:🖕\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:🖕\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"🖕\" role=\"doc-noteref\">1</a></sup>.</p>\n\n<p>Using the <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/03/using-the-web-crypto-api-to-generate-totp-codes-in-javascript-without-3rd-party-libraries/\">Web Crypto API, it is easy to Generate TOTP Codes in JavaScript directly in the browser</a>. So here are all my important MFA tokens. If I ever need to log in somewhere, I can just visit this page and grab the code I need<sup id=\"fnref:🙃\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:🙃\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"🙃\" role=\"doc-noteref\">2</a></sup>.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"all-my-important-codes\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#all-my-important-codes\" class=\"heading-link\">All My Important Codes</a></h2>\n\n<table>\n<tbody><tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/github.svg\" width=\"100\" title=\"Github\"></td><td id=\"otp0\"></td></tr>\n<tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/bitwarden.svg\" width=\"100\" title=\"BitWarden\"></td><td id=\"otp1\"></td></tr>\n<tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/apple.svg\" width=\"100\" title=\"Apple\"></td><td id=\"otp2\"></td></tr>\n<tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/ebay.svg\" width=\"100\" title=\"ebay\"></td><td id=\"otp3\"></td></tr>\n<tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/amazon.svg\" width=\"100\" title=\"Amazon\"></td><td id=\"otp4\"></td></tr>\n<tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/npm.svg\" width=\"100\" title=\"NPM\"></td><td id=\"otp5\"></td></tr>\n<tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/paypal.svg\" width=\"100\" title=\"PayPal\"></td><td id=\"otp6\"></td></tr>\n<tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/facebook.svg\" width=\"100\" title=\"Facebook\"></td><td id=\"otp7\"></td></tr>\n<tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/zoom.svg\" width=\"100\" title=\"Zoom\"></td><td id=\"otp8\"></td></tr>\n<tr><td><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://edent.github.io/SuperTinyIcons/images/svg/linkedin.svg\" width=\"100\" title=\"LinkedIn\"></td><td id=\"otp9\"></td></tr>\n</tbody></table>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-the-actual-fuck\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#what-the-actual-fuck\" class=\"heading-link\">What The <em>Actual</em> Fuck?</a></h2>\n\n<p>A 2007 paper called <a href=\"https://cups.cs.cmu.edu/soups/2007/proceedings/p64_bauer.pdf\">Lessons learned from the deployment of a smartphone-based access-control system</a> looked at whether fobs met the needs of their users:</p>\n\n<blockquote> However, we observed that end users tend to be most concerned about how convenient [fobs] are to use. There are many examples of end users of widely used access-control technologies readily sacrificing security for convenience. For example, it is well known that users often write their passwords on post-it notes and stick them to their computer monitors. Other users are more inventive: a good example is the user who pointed a webcam at his fob and published the image online so he would not have to carry the fob around.</blockquote>\n\n<p>As for Schneier's suggestion that anonymity added protection, a contemporary report noted that <a href=\"https://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram/archives/2004/0915.html#:~:text=Fobcam\">the owner of the FobCam site was trivial to identify</a><sup id=\"fnref:dox\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:dox\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"The neologism \"doxing\" hadn't yet been invented.\" role=\"doc-noteref\">3</a></sup>.</p>\n\n<p>Every security system involves trade-offs. I have a password manager, but with over a thousand passwords in it, the process of navigating and maintaining becomes a burden. <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/08/i-have-4-2fa-coverage/\">The number of 2FA tokens I have is also rising</a>. All of these security factors need backing up. Those back-ups need testing<sup id=\"fnref:back\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:back\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"As was written by the prophets: \"Only wimps use tape backup: real men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it\"\" role=\"doc-noteref\">4</a></sup>. It is an endless cycle of drudgery.</p>\n\n<p>What's a rational user supposed to do<sup id=\"fnref:rat\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:rat\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"I in no way imply that I am rational.\" role=\"doc-noteref\">5</a></sup>? I suppose I could buy a couple of hardware keys, keep one in an off-site location, but somehow keep both in sync, and hope that a firmware-update doesn't brick them.</p>\n\n<p>Should I just upload all of my passwords, tokens, secrets, recovery codes, passkeys, and biometrics<sup id=\"fnref:bro\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:bro\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"Just one more factor, that'll fix security, just gotta add one more factor bro.\" role=\"doc-noteref\">6</a></sup> into the cloud?</p>\n\n<p>The cloud is just someone else's computer. This website is <em>my</em> computer. So I'm going to upload all my factors here. What's the worst that could happen<sup id=\"fnref:🤯\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fn:🤯\" class=\"footnote-ref\" title=\"This is left as an exercise for the reader.\" role=\"doc-noteref\">7</a></sup>.</p>\n\n<script>async function generateTOTP( \n base32Secret = \"QWERTY\", \n interval = 30, \n length = 6, \n algorithm = \"SHA-1\" ) {\n \n // Decode the secret\n // The Base32 Alphabet is specified at https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4648#section-6\n const alphabet = \"ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ234567\";\n let bits = \"\";\n \n // Some secrets are padded with the `=` character. Remove padding.\n // https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3548#section-2.2\n base32Secret = base32Secret.replace( /=+$/, \"\" )\n\n // Loop through the trimmed secret\n for ( let char of base32Secret ) {\n // Ensure the secret's characters are upper case\n const value = alphabet.indexOf( char.toUpperCase() );\n\n // If the character doesn't appear in the alphabet.\n if (value === -1) throw new Error( \"Invalid Base32 character\" );\n \n // Binary representation of where the character is in the alphabet\n bits += value.toString( 2 ).padStart( 5, \"0\" );\n }\n\n // Turn the bits into bytes\n let bytes = [];\n // Loop through the bits, eight at a time\n for ( let i = 0; i < bits.length; i += 8 ) {\n if ( bits.length - i >= 8 ) {\n bytes.push( parseInt( bits.substring( i, i + 8 ), 2 ) );\n }\n }\n\n // Turn those bytes into an array\n const decodedSecret = new Uint8Array( bytes );\n \n // Number of seconds since Unix Epoch\n const timeStamp = Date.now() / 1000; \n\n // Number of intervals since Unix Epoch\n // https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6238#section-4.2\n const timeCounter = Math.floor( timeStamp / interval );\n\n // Number of intervals in hexadecimal\n const timeHex = timeCounter.toString( 16 );\n\n // Left-Pad with 0\n const paddedHex = timeHex.padStart( 16, \"0\" );\n\n // Set up a buffer to hold the data\n const timeBuffer = new ArrayBuffer( 8 );\n const timeView = new DataView( timeBuffer );\n \n // Take the hex string, split it into 2-character chunks \n const timeBytes = paddedHex.match( /.{1,2}/g ).map(\n // Convert to bytes\n byte => parseInt( byte, 16 )\n );\n\n // Write each byte into timeBuffer.\n for ( let i = 0; i < 8; i++ ) {\n timeView.setUint8(i, timeBytes[i]);\n }\n \n // Use Web Crypto API to generate the HMAC key\n // https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/SubtleCrypto/importKey\n const key = await crypto.subtle.importKey(\n \"raw\",\n decodedSecret,\n { \n name: \"HMAC\", \n hash: algorithm \n },\n false,\n [\"sign\"]\n );\n\n // Sign the timeBuffer with the generated HMAC key\n // https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/SubtleCrypto/sign\n const signature = await crypto.subtle.sign( \"HMAC\", key, timeBuffer );\n \n // Get HMAC as bytes\n const hmac = new Uint8Array( signature );\n\n // https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4226#section-5.4\n // Use the last byte to generate the offset\n const offset = hmac[ hmac.length - 1 ] & 0x0f;\n\n // Bit Twiddling operations\n const binaryCode = \n ( ( hmac[ offset ] & 0x7f ) << 24 ) |\n ( ( hmac[ offset + 1 ] & 0xff ) << 16 ) |\n ( ( hmac[ offset + 2 ] & 0xff ) << 8 ) |\n ( ( hmac[ offset + 3 ] & 0xff ) );\n\n // Turn the binary code into a decimal string\n const stringOTP = binaryCode.toString();\n\n // Count backwards from the last character for the length of the code\n let otp = stringOTP.slice( -length)\n\n // Pad with 0 to full length\n otp = otp.padStart( length, \"0\" );\n\n // All done!\n return otp;\n}\n// Placeholder for OTPs\nvar otps = [];\n\n// Do you really think these are my genuine codes? At least one of them is. But which?\nvar otpData = \n [\n {\n \"algorithm\" : \"SHA1\",\n \"digits\" : 6,\n \"period\" : 15,\n \"secret\" : \"IPT5TRO7VFK66M6SHUJ7XZNM2U6IZZ4L\"\n },\n {\n \"algorithm\" : \"SHA1\",\n \"digits\" : 6,\n \"period\" : 15,\n \"secret\" : \"EXGKOX26KMDSTL6KM3BYMPXXDDKNQEYM\"\n },\n {\n \"algorithm\" : \"SHA1\",\n \"digits\" : 6,\n \"period\" : 15,\n \"secret\" : \"UGVGXRQFHY62OWI5SGSTZLIQUMXTTVME\"\n },\n {\n \"algorithm\" : \"SHA1\",\n \"digits\" : 6,\n \"period\" : 15,\n \"secret\" : \"Y4UHVLFIZZZK7ENDYZ4O3ZZI2QWUJI37\"\n },\n {\n \"algorithm\" : \"SHA1\",\n \"digits\" : 6,\n \"period\" : 15,\n \"secret\" : \"Z2KDRL4ELOCDALT3OSNUK65Z2KPOWGUL\"\n },\n {\n \"algorithm\" : \"SHA1\",\n \"digits\" : 6,\n \"period\" : 15,\n \"secret\" : \"OWRQKSCBLRUZXYXLXIDATUK6UTG3CPVV\"\n },\n {\n \"algorithm\" : \"SHA1\",\n \"digits\" : 6,\n \"period\" : 15,\n \"secret\" : \"XQLSEGNYPBMVK35ZMDTVN5GFOZB46WJJ\"\n },\n {\n \"algorithm\" : \"SHA1\",\n \"digits\" : 6,\n \"period\" : 15,\n \"secret\" : \"M3KVKGRB2WVWOZXN437EMF2MS36G75IR\",\n \"Comment\" : \"This is genuinely my Twitter TOTP secret - although the period should be 30. But what's the password? There's a clue somewhere in this source code!\",\n },\n {\n \"algorithm\" : \"SHA1\",\n \"digits\" : 6,\n \"period\" : 15,\n \"secret\" : \"3EMER2B6YXIFMMAY5XBYLNF4NSEGJXCU\"\n },\n {\n \"algorithm\" : \"SHA1\",\n \"digits\" : 6,\n \"period\" : 15,\n \"secret\" : \"ZML6O5K7QSVFE5QIWNFFT7BIZI7PBHNV\"\n }\n ]\n\n\nvar i = 0;\n\notpData.forEach (\n item => {\n // Add OTP\n otps[i] = item;\n i++;\n }\n);\n\n// Generate TOTP codes\nasync function update() {\n for (var i = 0; i < otps.length; i++){\n // Convert the algorithm\n // The algorithm name is different for TOTP and Web Crypto(!)\n algorithm = \"SHA-1\";\n \n document.getElementById( \"otp\" + i).innerHTML = await generateTOTP( \n otps[i][\"secret\"], \n otps[i][\"period\"], \n otps[i][\"digits\"], \n algorithm\n );\n }\n}\n// Update every second\nsetInterval(update, 1000);\n\n</script>\n\n<div class=\"footnotes\" role=\"doc-endnotes\">\n<hr>\n<ol start=\"0\">\n\n<li id=\"fn:🫠\" role=\"doc-endnote\">\n<p><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1fae0.png\" alt=\"🫠\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /> <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:🫠\" 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<li id=\"fn:🖕\" role=\"doc-endnote\">\n<p><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f595.png\" alt=\"🖕\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /> <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:🖕\" 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<li id=\"fn:🙃\" role=\"doc-endnote\">\n<p><img src=\"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/15.1.0/72x72/1f643.png\" alt=\"🙃\" class=\"wp-smiley\" style=\"height: 1em; max-height: 1em;\" /> <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:🙃\" 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<li id=\"fn:dox\" role=\"doc-endnote\">\n<p>The neologism \"doxing\" hadn't yet been invented. <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:dox\" 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<li id=\"fn:back\" role=\"doc-endnote\">\n<p>As was written by the prophets: \"<a href=\"https://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9607.2/0292.html\">Only wimps use tape backup: <em>real</em> men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it</a>\" <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:back\" 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<li id=\"fn:rat\" role=\"doc-endnote\">\n<p>I in no way imply that I am rational. <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:rat\" 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<li id=\"fn:bro\" role=\"doc-endnote\">\n<p>Just one more factor, that'll fix security, just gotta add one more factor bro. <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:bro\" 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<li id=\"fn:🤯\" role=\"doc-endnote\">\n<p>This is left as an exercise for the reader. <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/04/fobcam-25-all-my-mfa-tokens-on-one-page/#fnref:🤯\" 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>",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "@edent",
"email": null,
"url": null
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "/etc/",
"term": "/etc/",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "2fa",
"term": "2fa",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "CyberSecurity",
"term": "CyberSecurity",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "MFA",
"term": "MFA",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "Satire (Probably)",
"term": "Satire (Probably)",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "security",
"term": "security",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
}
]
}