Author Archives: Andy Brodie

Replacing Symantec VIP with a generic TOTP app

Posted on 1st June 2019 by Andy Brodie

Occasionally, I need to log in to a system that requires the use of a Symantec VIP code.  For those that haven’t come across this before the app displays a 6 digit numeric code that changes every 30 seconds.  When … Continue reading →

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C Development on a Micro:bit

Posted on 19th October 2016 by Andy Brodie

I wanted to have a fiddle writing code for the BBC Micro:bit in C, where I’d have access to the full potential of the device, most importantly the Bluetooth functionality. Creating your own programs offline requires a non-trivial setup, regardless … Continue reading →

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Understanding Forward Secrecy

Posted on 14th October 2015 by Andy Brodie

Two weeks ago I delivered a presentation for Worldpay on the subject of Forward Secrecy.  I volunteered to give this around 10 weeks ago as it was a subject that I’d seen mentioned several times whilst reading security-related web sites, … Continue reading →

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Dell L521x Brightness Controls on Windows 10

Posted on 12th August 2015 by Andy Brodie

I do love my Dell L521x, it’s worked really well for 2 years so far, but I hit my first problem with it after upgrading to Windows 10. After the upgrade I found that I was unable to control the … Continue reading →

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The Right Live Writer on Windows 10

Posted on 11th August 2015 by Andy Brodie

Having performed a clean install of Windows 10, I wanted to re-install Microsoft Live Writer.  I’ve never found anything within which it is easier and quicker to create and edit blog entries, and editing offline was an essential requirement for … Continue reading →

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Don’t confuse Service Oriented Architecture with writing services

Posted on 22nd July 2015 by Andy Brodie

Something I’ve witnessed many times in many different places, is a confusion between service oriented architecture and the use of services (usually web services). Separating an amorphous block of code with an interface and JAX-RPC or WCF makes you no … Continue reading →

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Public Key Cryptography Overview

Posted on 22nd April 2015 by Andy Brodie

Public Key Cryptography is a hugely important invention.  It underpins the security (specifically the confidentiality) of most online commerce transactions.  Whilst it’s a complex subject and the subject of highly intricate and complex research to make the Internet a secure place to do business, … Continue reading →

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Bitcoin Overview

Posted on 7th April 2015 by Andy Brodie

Bitcoin is a hugely interesting technology.  The social aspects and impacts aside, and purely from a technology perspective, Bitcoin appears to be a neat, elegant solution to the major challenges of electronic currency – specifically trust, integrity and control. To help … Continue reading →

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The Importance of Consumability

Posted on 2nd April 2015 by Andy Brodie

Consumability is a word that my blogging software hotly denies is a real word (with an angry red underline), but it is probably the most important word an architect needs to keep in the forefront of their minds and be … Continue reading →

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Escaping values for CSV files

Posted on 18th March 2015 by Andy Brodie

When serialising data to a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file, it’s important that field values that contain reserved characters are escaped correctly.  For example, if a value contains a unescaped comma, then this value will be incorrectly interpreted as two … Continue reading →

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