Teknovis

I am always interested in statistics relating to Irish incomes, and I often get asked about this while travelling, so I thought the the following statistics from Plans to slash the USC are rash and dangerous – here’s why were very interesting:

• 70% of earners have an income greater than 12,000€ per annum
• 50% of earners have an income greater than 27,000€ per annum
• 22% of earners have an income greater than 50,000€ per annum
• 16% of earners have an income greater than 60,000€ per annum

These figures relate to earned income, so they do not include non-earned income.

Tags: Ireland

I have a small (or perhaps average) collection of DVDs. Some are old, some are new, and there are many that I have not yet watched. There are also some that I have seen several times. They are a mix of films and series.

The way that people consume media has changed dramatically over recent years, and I am no exception to this phenomenon! So it has been a while since I last looked at a DVD. There are probably two significant reasons for this:

• I no longer have a laptop with a DVD player
• I use my phone for accessing online content

However, I would like to watch some of my DVDs. So I decided that it was time I learned how to rip them!

Unfortunately the process turned-out to be slightly more cumbersome to get started than I expected. I was told by colleagues to use HandBrake. It is a neat application, and it is easy to get it running. However, the videos that it produced were stuttering and pixelated. I spent a while playing with settings, and browsing the web site to no avail :(

I then came across this very useful and up-to-date article: How to Rip a DVD to Your Computer. It transpired that my problems were being caused by not having libdvdcss installed! So I installed the latest 64bit version (rather than the version linked to in the article), and everything worked smoothly!

The “normal” preset plays back perfectly on both my computer (using VLC media player) and my mobile phone!

Tags: Handbrake, VLC Media Player

I was searching for a new secure instant messaging app, and I previously described my requirements in Secure Instant Messaging App Requirements. My search has finished, and I have a winner :) Let me explain how I got to this point :)

There are lots of messaging apps available that claim to be secure. Indeed, they may well be depending on what is meant by secure. My requirements were very clear, so it was relatively easy to reduce the field to an initial short list of four (in alphabetical order):

• Open Whisper Systems (also referred to as TextSecure on Android and Signal on iOS)
• Surespot
• Telegram
• Threema

All of these apps are covered in the Secure Messaging Scorecard by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. I found that was a very useful resource.

Surespot was the first to be eliminated. This was an easy decision, because there are rumours that it has been compromised. I am not sure that I believe all of these rumours, but they are enough to scare me away! See any of the following:

• Has secure IM app Surespot been compromised by the feds?
• Opinion: Is Surespot the latest cryptowar victim?
• #FBI Others Have Probably Compromised #Surespot App

Telegram was next to be eliminated. It has several good and bad features, and the main ones of interest to me are summarised in the table below.

It was fairly to easy to eliminate Telegram, because I do not like the way that it only provides end-to-end encryption in the secure chat mode. It would be too difficult for me to educate my target audience in the differences between the various types of chats.

This left Open Whisper Systems and Threema, and I spent the most time studying both of these. Obviously I looked at their respective web sites, and I also found the following two resources very useful:

• How Secure is TextSecure?
• Threema Cryptography Whitepaper

The main good and bad features of Open Whisper Systems in my opinion are summarised in the table below.

Similarly, the main good and bad features of Threema in my opinion are summarised in the table below.

Of course I realise that some of my opinions are very subjective (such as the nationalities of the people behind them). I am also aware that I must have a certain amount of trust in the app provider, and that no secure app in the world can compensate for a compromised operating system!

So what app did I ultimately select? Threema :) So far I have been extremely happy with my choice!

However, I have been impressed by Open Whisper Systems, and I am considering using it for work purposes. (I like to keep my personal apps separate from my work apps.)

Tags: Facebook, Open Whisper Systems, Surespot, Telegram, Threema, WhatsApp

A very nice interactive infographic: The Billion Dollar Startup Club

I often get orphaned temporary files in Windows. Typically they are associated with an Office file that I have, and they normally have the same name, except that it is prefixed with a tilde.

I find them very annoying!

I never knew how to search for them until recently. It is actually very simple – just use the following command in the search box in Windows Explorer!

name:~"*~*"

It works great!

Lately I have been on a mission to find an instant messaging app for my mobile phone. The initial plan is to use it for personal purposes with immediate family members, and I am in the position of being able to move them all to a new app. I am less concerned about less immediate family and friends.

If there is a suitable app, then I want to be able to use it for work purposes also.

The obvious choice is WhatsApp, but I detest it in principle for a few reasons:

• It is owned by Facebook, which I do not use – nor do I want to use it!
• It is tied to a specific device, and it uses the phone number as an identifier. This is such an outdated approach!
• I am very sceptical of its security model (i.e., there is none), and I dislike allowing an entity in the middle of my communications to have access to them!

In fairness to WhatsApp, the user interface is very polished and easy to use!

So my main mandatory requirements are:

• Easy to use
• Uses well established cryptography
• Uses end-to-end encryption
• Not dependent upon a mobile phone number (and hence capable of running on devices without SIMs)
• Capable of sending and receiving photos
• Supports group chats (less than 10 people)
• Available for both Android and iOS
• Trustworthy (whatever that means!)

Nice to have features include:

• Available for Windows desktops
• General verification features

Aspects that do not concern me:

• Having to pay (a reasonable) once-off fee for it
• Voice call features
• Corporate features
• Recalling messages
• Remotely deleting messages
• Establishing secure communications with people that I do not meet in person

I will create a new post in the near future describing what apps I eliminated, and what app(s) I decided to use!

Tags: Facebook, WhatsApp

Sometimes I wonder if my colleagues are building Rube Goldberg machines!

I had to read about the “Evil” bit in Request for Comments: 3514 this afternoon!

I wonder why it never caught-on!

I came across this nice infographic today (click to see larger version):

LensVid Exclusive: What Happened to the Photography Industry in 2014? (Copyright LensVid)

The original inforgraphic and accompanying article can be found in LensVid Exclusive: What Happened to the Photography Industry in 2014?.

Wow – it has been a long time since I blogged!!!

I updated my favourite text editor recently – Notepad++. I was very impressed when the following message appeared slowly on my screen as if somebody was typing it:

Notepad++ Message

And just because I too believe in free speech (and equally the right not to agree with the speech being expressed):

Charlie Hebdo Covers

#JeSuisCharlie

Tags: Censorship, Notepad++