iOS Family Sharing users cannot mix authentication schemes

Apple supports two styles of two-factor authentication, that they call (and distinguish as) “two-step” vs “two-factor”.  “Two-step” is their older method, though functionally they’re basically equivalent. If you have multiple accounts on a Family Sharing arrangement, and some use “two-factor” while others use “two-step”, you’re in for a bag of hurt. For example, any time you change … Read more

EXIF metadata stores random gibberish for dates & times

Warped clock face spiralling ever inwards

I hadn’t ’til yesterday realised that EXIF metadata doesn’t actually store dates & times correctly.  Whoever came up with the spec all those decades ago clearly didn’t know how to work with dates & times correctly.  This is immensely frustrating since now we have countless images taken with timestamps that are collectively gibberish. The problem is … Read more

Building John The Ripper Jumbo for macOS Sierra

It’s quickly apparent that John The Ripper Jumbo doesn’t build out of the box on macOS, and probably hasn’t for a long time, due to its complaint about missing OpenSSL headers. This guide was almost helpful, except it’s out of date – e.g. the Makefile.in patch it provides no longer applies cleanly – and simply doesn’t … Read more

Lightroom’s flaws & limitations

I’m attempting to switch to Lightroom, from Aperture, given lack of better alternatives. I’ve attempted this switch a couple of times before, without success. I’m finding that it’s still kind of annoying.  Here’s the start of my laundry list against it: It’s very slow.  I am already so very tired of seeing that blasted “Loading…” … Read more

Why I cancelled Backblaze

This is the feedback I sent to Backblaze shortly before I cancelled my account with them. For the additional context – the restore failure I alluded to was basically that: Over the course of more than a week and repeated attempts, they were unable to restore 99.7% of my data. They sent me 685 spammy … Read more

Dealing with Nikon Technical Support (a.k.a. pulling teeth)

Me:  Hey, the D7100 with these particular lenses over-exposes by exactly one stop when not wide open. Nikon’s Support Website:  Cool story bro.  Got any pics? Me:  Sure, here they are… Nikon’s Support Website:  Sorry, all attachments have to be 10 MB or less. Me:  U wot mate? … Me:  Okay, I put them up on … Read more