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If you’ve ever sat at a computer pressing the same buttons repeatedly trying to get tickets for some concert then you’ll understand why people sometimes use software to automate the process.  Several years ago I literally spent 10 hours clicking two buttons on a web site trying to get certain tickets for Glastonbury.  I did…

It’s worth remembering that anyone can set up a proxy server with only a little technical knowledge.  Download some software like Glype, click a few buttons and enter some basic information and you’re ready to go.  Obviously you need somewhere to host it but you can grab yourself a little space for only a few…

There are many people all over the world who’ve stuck with their ISP for years without even looking at the other options available. In the UK there have been lots of campaigns urging people to look at different providers and switching to the best value companies for their requirements. The problem is that people tend…

In the physical world, we’re overloaded with ways to identity ourselves.  We have identity cards, driving licenses, passports, health insurance cards and a myriad of other forms of identification methods. It’s tempting to look at an IP address and presume that they’re all more or less the same. The notation is standard across the board…

I once met a project manager who really didn’t enjoy the testing phase of a project. He was one of those time driven managers where milestones and targets were the most important factor in a project. His badge of honor was to deliver his projects on time and was immensely proud of this. Unfortunately by…

Is privacy a right, or in this world of terrorist threats is it something that we have to accept as a price to pay for keeping us safe. For many people the two are not mutually exclusive, and for many losing that privacy means that those who threaten us have won. The problem is that…

Online anonymity is important to many people for a variety of reasons. If you are unlucky enough to live in a country where the state controls and prosecutes people based on what they say online there’s obviously a priority. Many others are simply concerned about the abuse and control that the state and large corporations…

One of the most useful protocols to understand especially when troubleshooting networks is that of the address resolution protocol. This is used to map internet addresses to hardware addresses at the lower layers of the OSI model. If you’re looking at figuring out issues in an unfamiliar network then having a good working knowledge of…

If you’ve ever worked on a large IT project which has it’s own testing department, then you know it can be quite time consuming work. What’s worse you can sometimes be seen as a hindrance to the project rather than something that creates a quality product. Often you’ll see project managers who are more consumed…

For those of us who’ve worked in IT for a few decades, the whole idea that we still use passwords as a means of authentication is quite remarkable. I remember many discussions in work and bulletin boards over twenty years ago about how insecure they were and the numerous better solutions. However they’re still very…