Ring cycle

There are three different organisations that send me their publication, called ‘The Ring’, from time to time. Yes, three different publications.

Each of them no doubt had a witty and original reason for coming up with the name, but I also can’t help feeling that some classic text on “how to run a successful development office” must emphasise the need for names that make your members feel part of an elite circle, an inner ring…

Anyway, since these three are amongst the very few things that come through my door and don’t go straight to the recycling, I must just get used to the fact that all my reading matter has this somewhat toroidal flavour.

But perhaps I need one ring to rule them all…

The summer of our dis-content?

Is this a bug, or a marketing cliff-hanger from Apple, do you think?

Decline and Fall

We visited the Roman fort at Hardknott Pass yesterday: a favourite spot of mine.

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However, this chap looked at me as if to say, “Romans? Ha! They came and went, but the sheep live on!”

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Beware of chemicals

Chemicals are dangerous things. Everybody knows that.

Apple

From IFLS. Thanks to Matt Kemp for the link.

Where the roads aren’t made for cars

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In the countryside around Newsells Park Stud, everything is tailored to equine comfort and happiness.

How heartbleed works

Everybody has probably now heard of the heartbleed bug which affects hundreds of thousands of computers across the net. There are some lists out there of the popular services which are affected – see this page, for example – and it’s worth noting that you should change any passwords on Facebook, Google, IFTTT, Tumblr and Yahoo at the very least.

But have you wondered how it works? What does a ‘memory-leak vulnerability’ actually mean? Well, of course, nobody explains it better and more briefly than XKCD:

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© Copyright Quentin Stafford-Fraser