Author: Robby Pedrica
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Thoughts on the Nikon D5500; City Photowalk
First of all, I have to send a big thank you to @IamNikonSA @nikon_sa for the opportunity to test out the new Nikon D5500 on the D5500 City Photowalk this morning along the beautiful Greenpoint Promenade. This #thruthelens event was fantastic with weather and views that couldn’t be bettered! Nikon even provided a goodie bag with…
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Invoiceplane takes another step
I took quite some time to find an accounts/invoicing package that suits my work style but I finally came upon Invoiceplane last year. The basic requirements were: product/service database client database create quotes create invoices send invoices via email classification of invoices and quotes ( workflow eg. created, sent, overdue, etc. ) list invoices by…
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Online security in the shopping season
Online security should always be the focus of anyone using the internet. Yet major holidays tend to be more important seeing as there are many who only shop online around this time. Black Friday especially is a big draw-card. The fact is that online security is part common sense and part preventative maintenance. If you…
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eMailStor Services and other
It’s not often that I blog about business services that we offer as this is supposed to be a general IT blog, however I’ve had quite a few inquiries about what it is that eMailStor does so a blog entry is the easiest … eMailStor was started to service one requirement: SMTP relay. This is…
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Apple Pay thoughts and security
The big Apple event on Tuesday wasn’t that big a deal in my opinion. The iPhone 6 was expected although not in 2 editions but that is the least that Apple had to do to catch up with Android. Apple watch? Meh … sleek industrial design and interesting software options but ultimately I still think that smart…
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A fascination with special characters
In the computer world, special characters can have a certain usefulness or can be a hindrance. The very first special character I learnt 25 years ago, was the colon. It was ( still is ) used as the delimiter to change drive letters in DOS. eg. if you were in drive C and wanted to go…
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Heartbleed finally results in some resources for OpenSSL
Heartbleed continues to cause enormous issues around the globe and is being actively attacked. Saying that, the bulk of solutions and systems out there using OpenSSL have been patched by now so the risk surface is growing smaller and smaller by the day. OpenSSL President Steve Marquess wrote in a blog post last week that…
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Heartbleed SSL attack
The latest SSL attack in the form of Heartbleed ( ref. CVE-2014-0160 ) has burst onto the scenes in the last 24 hours with a bang. Effectively, Heartbleed is a weakness in OpenSSL that allows the theft of information that is under normal circumstances protected by SSL/TLS. It allows the memory of affected systems to be…
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The end of Windows XP
Windows XP support will officially end on April the 8th next week. This is a very important change that appears to have escaped many people. Why important? Because you will no longer be receiving any updates ( security or other ) from Microsoft for XP. That effectively means that if there is a security hole…
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Security issues in ADSL and other routers
I’ve never been a fan of using ADSL/Wifi routers as the main firewall for a network ( which unfortunately ends up being the case for most home users ). These are devices built to the cheapest price, using the cheapest software development and generally, there are very few ( if any updates ) for security…
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This weekend’s racing
Well well well. Motogp has certainly shaken things up a bit this weekend past. With a little bit of stirring as well. Who knew that the recently revised regulations would throw up such a hornet’s nest … Lorenzo out before the 1st lap was even over. Bautista down while in 2nd. Smith out while in…
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Windows ( XP ) and ATMs
Regular readers of this blog will know that I’ve ranted about the use of Microsoft Windows by banks in their ATMs, in the past. The idea of using one of the most insecure and targeted OS’ in existence to run what should be a very secure device, just boggles the mind. My own bank does…
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The people we trust
The right to privacy in the new social era is no longer a given. In fact, many say that you should expect to have no privacy with information made available on the Internet. I’m a half and half kinda guy in this argument. On the one hand, pure social media information should be assumed to…
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Android Security
I’ve been a keen Android user for many years now; as I am with all things Linux. I really do believe that Linux, and other associated FOSS software, has proven a great advantage for us bipedals, allowing those in a not so fortunate financial situation to still use high grade software and achieve their goals.…