Things I build, break, fix, and write about

17 September 2026
Require a BitLocker pre-boot PIN

TPM-only BitLocker is tidy until you remember what is left exposed when the machine can unlock itself. BitLocker PINs are the small, awkward step that makes a stolen laptop less cooperative, and I trust that far more than wishful thinking about physical security.

17 September 2026
Secure connectivity principles in water sector OT

Secure connectivity principles only work when the boundary is real, not decorative. I’ve seen too many remote paths that looked neat on paper and fell...

16 September 2026
Monitoring radio, transport and core faults

Private 5G resilience does not come from a cheerful dashboard or a nice radio map. I want to see where the attach failed, which path dropped, and...

16 September 2026
Pre-boot authentication for BitLocker

TPM-only BitLocker is convenient, but convenience is not the same as a proper boundary. BitLocker PINs push that line back to pre-boot, which is where...

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3 April 2026
Using IP Reputation Data from Operation Synergia in Your Botnet Firewall Rules

Operation Synergia III sinkholed 45,000 botnet and malware IPs across 72 countries with law enforcement backing. That chain of custody makes the data worth blocking at your firewall; the catch is that...

1 April 2026
Zram and zswap: which memory compression fits your homelab

I've built systems that swap differently depending on what dies first: the CPU or the storage. Zram and zswap solve adjacent problems, and picking the wrong one costs you either write cycles or...

30 March 2026
Blink Outdoor 4 camera + 3 more Amazon tech bargains

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28 March 2026
Azure credits documentation fails to flag marketplace

I deployed Claude via Azure AI Foundry assuming startup credits would cover it. The $1,600 invoice arrived mid-cycle, charged directly to my card. Microsoft's documentation never mentions that...

27 March 2026
n8n | stable

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25 March 2026
Running Chromium on ARM64 Linux Servers: docker-compose Setup and Pitfalls

Google doesn't publish ARM64 Chrome. Chromium fills that gap on Debian-based ARM64 Linux systems, and any CDP automation library works identically against it. Pin the version, fix `/dev/shm`, work...

24 March 2026
Detecting spoofed VPN downloads: a practical approach

The trust UI lies by omission. A valid signature proves only that someone with a private key signed the file, not that the signer is the vendor you intended. Storm-2561 distributes trojanised VPN...

23 March 2026
Stellar Blade (PS5) + 2 more Amazon tech bargains

Check out these top Amazon deals including Stellar Blade for PS5 at £28.6.

22 March 2026
Petabyte leaks start with uncontrolled backup access

A single compromised credential reaching both production and backup storage across the same network boundary turns one day's data loss into months or years. Isolation done badly is barely isolation at...

21 March 2026
Video file naming and structure for decade-scale retrieval

A video archive you cannot read a decade later is just a warm drive waiting to die. Ambiguous filenames and missing verification schedules kill cold storage video archival; fix those two things, and...