The unfortunate truth about running a website is that web hosting costs money. The ugly, behind the unfortunate truth is that we are pretty much stuck with advertisement to recover the cost. So you set up AdSense and after a…
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Blog Archives
No, sending a confirmation email is not proper validation!
After hitting “publish” on my previous blog post, I had kinda hoped, not having to explain why the lazy-ass “just sent a confirmation mail” option is not a proper method for validating an email address, but apparently, a lot of…
Posted in Rants
Validating Email Addresses with a Regex? Do yourself a favor and don’t
Let’s say you got a simple problem: build a form that allows a user to sign up for a newsletter. Obviously, you need to prevent users from entering junk while still allowing “exotic” addresses. What does a valid address look…
Posted in Coding
Does your phone have a lockscreen? If so, why?
Stupid question, right? Your phone has a lockscreen to protect your data, of course! Well, “protecting your data” is an idiot phrase. Catchy, easy to repeat and so abstract that it can mean everything, which in the end means nothing.…
Posted in Security
Explaining “privacy” to the layman (in easy terms)
Andrew has a dog named Chomper. Andrew isn’t as stupid as to use his dogs name anywhere as the answer to a password recovery question, but he doesn’t see why he should keep the name secret either. After all, he…
So, how Google dependent are you?
I just read this story here. In summary: a number of people buy the new Pixel smartphone directly from Google, then immediately resell the device. The TOS clearly forbids doing that (but apparently, nobody read them), so Google terminates the…
Posted in Rants
…Hey, want to sign up for a “free” account?
… We all have them, friends and relatives that jump for anything “free”. After all, if you don’t have to pay for, what’s the harm? Well, welcome to contract law. By definition, a contract is a formless, but legally binding…
Posted in Security
Do not use fingerprint sensors! Period!
I had this discussion with a friend the other day, who is now the proud owner of a fingerprint protected front door and smartphone, but since fingerprint scanners are creeping into more and more security appliances, it is worth repeating…
Posted in Security
The pitfall of the digital assistant
Food for thoughts: digital assistants with voice recognition are suppose to save us time: we can simply speak our mind and they already know how to perform complex tasks, thus saving us the hassle of pushing buttons and carrying out…
Posted in Persepective
Fingerprints are NOT passwords!
The three basic rules for password security are: Never write your password down. Someone might find your note. Never use the same password for different services. Otherwise you give the operators of one service access to the other. Change your…
Posted in Security
