Dad, get these teds off me!
It's worse than that, there are more on the way!
04 December 2018
STOP THE PRESS: Blockchain - "the answer to everything" - turns out to be pants.
Though Blockchain has been touted as the answer to everything, a study of 43 solutions advanced in the international development sector has found exactly no evidence of success.
Three practitioners including erstwhile blockchain enthusiast John Burg, a Fellow at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), looked at instances of the distributed crypto ledger being used in a wide range of situations by NGOs, contractors and agencies. But they drew a complete blank.
"We found a proliferation of press releases, white papers, and persuasively written articles," Burg et al wrote on Thursday. "However, we found no documentation or evidence of the results blockchain was purported to have achieved in these claims. We also did not find lessons learned or practical insights, as are available for other technologies in development."
Blockchain vendors were keen to puff the merits of the technology, but when the three asked for proof of success in the field, it all went very quiet.
Microsoft's Edge browser to be replaced with one one based on Chromium?...
Microsoft's Edge web browser has seen little success since its debut on Windows 10 back in 2015. Built from the ground up with a new rendering engine known as EdgeHTML, Microsoft Edge was designed to be fast, lightweight, and secure, but launched with a plethora of issues which resulted in users rejecting it early on. Edge has since struggled to gain any traction, thanks to its continued instability and lack of mindshare, from users and web developers.
Because of this, I'm told that Microsoft is throwing in the towel with EdgeHTML and is instead building a new web browser powered by Chromium, a rendering engine first popularized by Google's Chrome browser. Codenamed Anaheim, this new web browser for Windows 10 will replace Edge as the default browser on the platform, according to my sources who wish to remain anonymous. It's unknown at this time if Anaheim will use the Edge brand or a new brand, or if the user interface between Edge and Anaheim is different. One thing is for sure, however; EdgeHTML in Windows 10's default browser is dead.
03 December 2018
Back from our hols, a great cruise to the Canaries. One of the highlights: Madeira by URAL sidecar outfit!!!
So: we FINALLY managed to get away on hols: tools downed - just having a fab old time. OK, we did get away for 4 days in June: Devon & Cornwall. but I find that 4 days off work a year, somehow just isn't enough. I dunno, call me greedy...
A great holiday shared with our dear pals Brian & Tracy. We went on the Marella (Thomson / Tui) Dream on their 7/8 day Canarian Flavours cruise. We had a great time, went to great destinations, met some lovely people, lots of great food and drink.
What I want to share with you is the fantastic Ural sidecar tour of Funchal, Madeira! If you find yourself in Madeira - contact Madeira Sidecar Tours - they are superb. Sadly the weather was a bit inclement - ranging between generally damp & light rain, but as I said to Filipe - our very able pilot - we are British & used to the odd bit of rain(!).
Bri took the bathtub, I took the pillion seat. Very comfy for both of us! The URAL is agricultural, old fashioned, clunky, slow & under powered. Surely that makes it rubbish, I hear you ask? Not at all - I totally loved it! We averaged 15-20 odd MPH, never above 25mph. I have never had so much fun at such slow speeds! It was stable on slippery, inclined steep roads (up & down). It's got a huge boot & spare wheel!
I love the idea of taking Calli on my bike, but can't work out a safe way to take a 10-11 Kg beloved pooch. Sidecar: problem solved!
Only problem: URALs are (somehow) over £15k new!!! For that much, you can have the choice of pretty much any modern bike... Now, if I can find a pre EFI model for £3k on eBay, then that might work. But, where to put it? Aah, those first world problems...
What a great experience, the URAL is so unlike a normal bike - if you get a chance, try it - an absolute hoot! Now, back to modern bikes, but still with three wheels... Look what I have a trial set up on: the new Yamaha Niken! It is apparently a crazy, brilliant thing! Review to follow later this month...
Have a Dell.com account? Your info may or may not have been stolen!
According to a customer update on Dell’s website, the computer company was hit with a hack earlier this month, and they’re being pretty darn vague about it.
Here’s what we know. On 9 November, the company noticed some “unauthorised” activity on its network, which was intended to steal customer information. Dell says that it quickly intervened and shut the hack down, likely before anything was breached. Then, out of “an abundance of caution,” (Dell’s words, not mine,) the company reset everyone’s passwords. Dell also hired a digital forensics team, and has launched an official investigation into the matter.
Dell does clarify that this potential breach could only have accessed names, email addresses and hashed passwords. Credit card information is stored separately and would not have been accessible, even if Dell hadn’t caught the breach when it did.
At the moment, the company is staying silent over how many accounts, if any, have been affected. In a press release from Wednesday, a Dell spokesperson announced that “though it is possible some of this information was removed from Dell’s network, our investigations found no conclusive evidence that any was extracted.” In short, your data might have been stolen, but also, your data might not have been stolen. Thanks, Dell.
01 December 2018
We're in December: so it's time for Child of Hope's new Christmas videos!
It’s that time of year again - the Child of Hope Christmas Party is fast approaching!
The children have been working hard to bring you a Christmas extravaganza this year - a hilarious nativity video each day for 11 days, starting on Dec 1.
Every year we aim to bring a little Christmas joy to the whole community surrounding Child of Hope, including our students and their siblings, parents, invited guests and community leaders - after all, it would be unfair to keep all the fun to ourselves!
Could you donate to help us put on the party? It would help to provide food, drink, a present for the children and a fantastic party for around 1,300 people who live in one of the poorest places on Earth. This will be the best meal they have all year for some of them it may be the first proper meal they have had since the last Christmas party. We can only do this thanks to your generosity, so a huge Thank you for any amount you are able to donate.
If you would like to donate to the party, please click HERE for our JustGiving page.
The new Christmas film from Spoken-Truth: Mess
Mess. It’s just one word. One syllable that brings to mind a whole load of images….messy ones! And at Christmas time, this one messy syllable word seems to shift into top gear! I think of the post-Christmas dinner-plate pile-up, or the decor of celebration wrappers between the sofas (Malteaser ones!)
It’s fair to say there was a fair bit of mess at the very first Christmas too. As Mary and Joseph trekked down to Bethlehem for a census, there was no room for them to stay. So the young couple welcomed Jesus into the world, with a bunch of animals as his roommates (some scholars claim it was almost as bad as living with students).
But Jesus didn’t just enter the mess of a downstairs room with a feeding trough, he entered the mess of our world too. It was a message that has been posted in versus throughout scripture, one will come to fix up the mess.
The Christmas story is about the one who was born in the Mess. You see ‘Mess’ is only central to the Christmas story when it’s an abbreviation. When it’s followed up with 3 letters i.a.h. - it changes everything.
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