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<title type="text">Terence Eden’s Blog</title>
<subtitle type="text">Regular nonsense about tech and its effects 🙃</subtitle>
<updated>2026-09-18T06:57:46Z</updated>
<rights>© Terence Eden. 🄯 CC BY. See https://shkspr.mobi/blog/copyright-and-copyleft/</rights>
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<name>Terence Eden</name>
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<title type="html"><![CDATA[Theatre Review: The School for Wives - at Riverside Studios ★★★★★]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/theatre-review-the-school-for-wives/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=75485</id>
<updated>2026-09-18T06:57:46Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-18T11:34:51Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Theatre Review"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The Flywheel theatre company are reviving the rep tradition by having five actors perform five different plays in five weeks. Their interpretation of Molière's classic is gaudy and hilarious. Even the lighting cues are funny! It is fair to say that School for Wives isn't exactly an uncontroversial play. The plot basically boils down to "Women! Eh? You can't live with them, you can't easily groom …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/theatre-review-the-school-for-wives/"><![CDATA[<p>The <a href="https://flywheeltheatre.com/">Flywheel theatre company</a> are reviving the rep tradition by having five actors perform five different plays in five weeks. Their interpretation of Molière's classic is gaudy and hilarious. Even the lighting cues are funny!</p>
<p>It is fair to say that School for Wives isn't exactly an uncontroversial play. The plot basically boils down to "Women! Eh? You can't live with them, you can't easily groom them from the age of four and keep them imprisoned so they become perfect submissives."</p>
<p>Is the fear of cuckoldry funny? Is it OK to laugh at a jealous rage which leads to controlling behaviour? Should we find joy in the emotional torment of our characters?</p>
<p>Yes! Yes! And yes!</p>
<p>The cast squeeze every last drop of humour from the script, the direction is nimble, and the play has been edited down to a more manageable 75ish minutes (plus extra time for corpsing and applause).</p>
<p>A simply joyous production which left us grinning throughout.</p>
<p>You can <a href="https://riversidestudios.co.uk/whats-on/uqe-rep-radical-classical/">see all their upcoming shows</a> - which are very reasonably priced.</p>
<h2 id="pre-show-and-post-show"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/theatre-review-the-school-for-wives/#pre-show-and-post-show">Pre-Show and Post-Show</a></h2>
<p>I'm a believer in making the entire visit to the theatre a special experience. Riverside Studio, Hammersmith is a great venue with generous foyer space and more than adequate toilet provision. Not a given in London theatres!</p>
<p>The theatre programme is digital and provided via QR code. No £6 rip off for a booklet full of adverts here.</p>
<p>As we walked in, the cast were dotted around the stage an in the auditorium doing various bits of business which made for a jolly start.</p>
<p>Post curtain call there was a lovely speech from the cast thanking us for attending and letting us know about their future projects. Nothing wrong with a piece of shameless advertising to a captive audience 😄</p>
<p>Overall an excellent theatrical experience.</p>
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<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[How to get a DOI for your blog posts]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74717</id>
<updated>2026-09-16T13:04:19Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-16T11:34:28Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="academia"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="citation"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="DOI"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HTML"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="WordPress"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Each new post on this blog now has a Digital Object Identifier. This post looks at the how and the why of getting one, whether it is useful, and any issues you might experience if you go down this path. Table of ContentsBackgroundGetting a DOI the easy wayLet's Go Rogue!Automatic Submission of New ContentManual Submission of Old ContentGetting the DOIGenerating your own DOIMaking the DOI…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/"><![CDATA[<p>Each new post on this blog now has a <a href="https://www.doi.org/">Digital Object Identifier</a>. This post looks at the how and the why of getting one, whether it is useful, and any issues you might experience if you go down this path.</p>
<p></p><nav role="doc-toc"><menu><li><h2 id="table-of-contents"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#table-of-contents">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#background">Background</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#getting-a-doi-the-easy-way">Getting a DOI the easy way</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#lets-go-rogue">Let's Go Rogue!</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#automatic-submission-of-new-content">Automatic Submission of New Content</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#manual-submission-of-old-content">Manual Submission of Old Content</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#getting-the-doi">Getting the DOI</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#generating-your-own-doi">Generating your own DOI</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#making-the-doi-discoverable-in-html">Making the DOI discoverable in HTML</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#downsides">Downsides</a><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#loss-of-control">Loss of Control</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#tracking-citations">Tracking Citations</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#licencing">Licencing</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#verification">Verification</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#excluding-content">Excluding Content</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#deleting-content">Deleting Content</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#affiliations">Affiliations</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#more-vanity">More Vanity</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#humility">Humility</a></li></menu></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#is-it-worth-it">Is it worth it?</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>
<h2 id="background"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#background">Background</a></h2>
<p>A few years ago, I documented <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/09/how-to-add-issn-metadata-to-a-web-page/">how to to get an International Standard Serial Number for a blog</a>. An ISSN uniquely identifies a publication, which makes it easier for scholars and researchers to reference it. Getting one depends a little on whether a national institution is willing to accept your application.</p>
<p>Similarly, I also got an <a href="https://orcid.org/">ORCiD</a> which is used to uniquely identify researchers. That means it is possible to disambiguate "Einstein, A" the eminent physicist from "Einstein, A" a lovely chap called Allen who researches invasive slugs in Paraguay.</p>
<p>My blog posts are <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/citations/">regularly referenced in academic papers, books, conferences, and news articles</a>. The way most scholars cite a work is using a Digital Object Identifier. The idea is that a DOI is a unique and persistent code which can be used to refer to a specific article. If I ever stop using <code>shkspr.mobi</code> as my domain, or re-order my website, the DOI can be redirected to the article's new home. Future scholars will be able to follow a reference more easily than hoping <code>https://example.com/article123</code> still exists.</p>
<h2 id="getting-a-doi-the-easy-way"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#getting-a-doi-the-easy-way">Getting a DOI the easy way</a></h2>
<p>If you're an academic, your institution will have a paid subscription to a service which will "mint" a new DOI for all your articles.</p>
<p>If not, you can upload your paper to a service like arXiv and they'll mint a DOI for you. That's how <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/04/i-got-a-doi-from-arxiv-for-my-msc/">I got a DOI for my MSc</a>.</p>
<p>What about people who aren't traditional academics or who want to keep their content on their own website? There are a variety of paid-for services, some of which charge an eye-watering amount of money to create a DOI for you.</p>
<p>Or, there's Rogue Scholar.</p>
<h2 id="lets-go-rogue"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#lets-go-rogue">Let's Go Rogue!</a></h2>
<p>So what is <a href="https://rogue-scholar.org/overview">Rogue-Scholar.org</a>?</p>
<blockquote><p>Rogue Scholar is an open access archive and registry for science blogs. It preserves science blog posts, makes them citable via DOI, and ensures their long-term discoverability alongside formal scholarly literature.</p></blockquote>
<p>Nifty! My blog <em>just about</em> sneaks in to their "Computer Science" category. They require you to have a full-text feed of your posts. You also need to licence your content to them as Creative Commons Attribution.</p>
<p>Applying wasn't too difficult. I filled in their form, then jumped into their Slack. We had a bit of a discussion about what I needed to change in order to be approved.</p>
<p>A few days later, I was live at <a href="https://rogue-scholar.org/communities/shkspr/">https://rogue-scholar.org/communities/shkspr/</a></p>
<p>Which means, if you visit <a href="https://doi.org/10.59350/395ha-fss97">https://doi.org/10.59350/395ha-fss97</a> you'll be redirected to one of my blog posts.</p>
<h2 id="automatic-submission-of-new-content"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#automatic-submission-of-new-content">Automatic Submission of New Content</a></h2>
<p>Rogue Scholar automatically polls my feed, ingests my content, and then mints a DOI for every new post they encounter. There's nothing manual I have to do.</p>
<p>That's all very well for new content. But I have posts on here going <em>way</em> back to 1986. How can they get discovered and DOI'd?</p>
<h2 id="manual-submission-of-old-content"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#manual-submission-of-old-content">Manual Submission of Old Content</a></h2>
<p>By default, Rogue Scholar ingested the 40 most recent posts from my blog. Actually, that's not quite accurate. It got the 40 most recently <em>updated</em> posts. As I'd recently edited a few older posts, they got themselves a DOI.</p>
<p>I don't know how often Rogue Scholar polls my blog's feed. In my experiments, adding a new post resulted in a DOI being issued a couple of minutes after publication.</p>
<p>At the moment, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to add older content. I'm working on a WordPress plugin to retroactively add DOIs and make them discoverable.</p>
<h2 id="getting-the-doi"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#getting-the-doi">Getting the DOI</a></h2>
<p>The Rogue Scholar API is based on <a href="https://inveniordm.docs.cern.ch/reference/metadata/">InvenioDRM</a>.</p>
<p>Retrieving the DOI via their API requires you to make an unauthenticated request to:</p>
<p><code>https://rogue-scholar.org/api/records?q=metadata.identifiers.identifier%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fwhatever%22</code></p>
<p>That's your URl, wrapped in quotes, and the whole thing URl encoded. <a href="https://rogue-scholar.org/api/records?q=metadata.identifiers.identifier%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fshkspr.mobi%2Fblog%2F2026%2F09%2Fthe-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams%2F%22">Visit this example</a>. You can also use your post's GUID.</p>
<p>That gets back a rather detailed JSON document. The DOI is noted in several locations, but is easiest to find in hits→hits→0→links→doi</p>
<p>It's important to note that <a href="https://rogue-scholar.org/help/versioning">Rogue Scholar generates <em>two</em> DOIs for your post</a>. One for the post, another for the specific version of the post. If you update a post, it should get a new DOI. That way someone can refer to the post where you said your favourite band was the Spice Girls and not the edited one where you changed it to say B*Witched.</p>
<p>Alternatively, you can use the CrossRef search if you want to look at HTML results. See <a href="https://search.crossref.org/search/works?q=https%3A%2F%2Fshkspr.mobi%2Fblog%2F2026%2F09%2Fthe-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams%2F&from_ui=yes">this CrossRef example</a>.</p>
<p>As an aside, once you have the DOI, it's possible to create a <em>short</em> DOI at <a href="https://shortdoi.org/">https://shortdoi.org/</a> - I'll be honest, I've never seen these in the wild and <a href="https://www.crossref.org/display-guidelines/#shortdoi">they are not recommended for use</a>. Nevertheless, the API is pretty simple - <a href="https://shortdoi.org/10.59350/395ha-fss97?format=json">https://shortdoi.org/10.59350/395ha-fss97?format=json</a> will return a shorter URl like <a href="https://doi.org/rnjj">https://doi.org/rnjj</a></p>
<p>Finally, there's a "vanity" DOI for the entire blog. In my case <a href="https://doi.org/10.59350/shkspr"><code>10.59350/shkspr</code></a>.</p>
<h2 id="generating-your-own-doi"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#generating-your-own-doi">Generating your own DOI</a></h2>
<p>Your blog posts can self-attest a DOI - when Rogue Scholar sees that in your Atom feed, it will register it on your behalf.</p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/inveniosoftware/base32-lib/blob/master/base32_lib/base32.py">The code for generating a valid DOI</a> is relatively straightforward.</p>
<ul>
<li>Generate a random number between 0 and 1,099,511,627,775.</li>
<li>Convert it to a Base 32 string.</li>
<li>Add a two character checksum to the end.</li>
<li>Prefix it with <code>10.59350/</code></li>
</ul>
<p>Your new DOI can be made discoverable in your Atom feed by adding this to a post:</p>
<pre><code class="language-xml"><id>https://doi.org/10.59350/12345-67890</id>
</code></pre>
<p>Shortly after publication, it will be "minted" and be linkable.</p>
<h2 id="making-the-doi-discoverable-in-html"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#making-the-doi-discoverable-in-html">Making the DOI discoverable in HTML</a></h2>
<p>How do you semantically add a DOI to your HTML's metadata? By far the most popular citation manager is <a href="https://www.zotero.org/">Zotero</a>. They maintain <a href="https://www.zotero.org/support/dev/exposing_metadata">a page describing the metadata they look for</a>. According to them, this needs to be in your page's <code><head></code>:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><meta name=citation_doi content=10..../...>
</code></pre>
<p>They don't say whether it requires the <code>https://doi.org/</code> prefix - but looking at <a href="https://www.mendeley.com/guides/information-for-publishers">Mendeley</a> and <a href="https://help.altmetric.com/en/articles/9806913">AltMetric</a>, it appears not.</p>
<p>To use <a href="https://www.dublincore.org/specifications/dublin-core/dcmi-terms/terms/identifier/">DublinCore</a>, the <a href="https://help.altmetric.com/en/articles/9803009">AltMetric recommended syntax</a> is:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><meta name=DC.Identifier content=doi:10..../...>
</code></pre>
<p>Within the HTML, there's no specific Microdata syntax, but <a href="https://schema.org/ScholarlyArticle#eg-0399">Schema.org recommends the <code>sameAs</code> property</a>. Something like:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><a itemprop="sameAs" href="https://doi.org/10.../...">10.../...</a>
</code></pre>
<h2 id="downsides"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#downsides">Downsides</a></h2>
<p>OK, it isn't all flowers and kittens. There are a few things you ought to know before proceeding down this path.</p>
<h3 id="loss-of-control"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#loss-of-control">Loss of Control</a></h3>
<p>For the IndieWeb / ReDeCentralise / Self-Hosing crowd, it's important to realise that DOI is a somewhat centralised services. Yes, <a href="https://www.doi.org/the-community/existing-registration-agencies/">lots of different orgs can mint a DOI</a>, but as each ID has to be globally unique, doi.org sits in the middle as a benevolent gatekeeper. If DOI.org went bust or became evil, all the <code>https://doi.org/10....</code> links would die. There are many other services like <a href="https://datacite.org/">DataCite</a> and <a href="https://www.crossref.org/">CrossRef</a> which can resolve a DOI - but it might turn out to be a bit fragile.</p>
<p>Similarly, if Rogue Scholar ever goes <em>properly</em> rogue then they can redirect my DOI to wherever they like. That level of control is useful if my site disappears; they can redirect to an archive. But if they get hacked, it could redirect somewhere unsavoury.</p>
<p>Having my site's content backed-up somewhere is useful but, again, without control or <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#verification">verification</a> I worry that I might not be able to effectively manage it.</p>
<p>I use CSS to control the layout of my work but once it is archived as plain HTML or PDF, that formatting can disappear.</p>
<p>I don't know what will happen if I ever change DOI issuer.</p>
<h3 id="tracking-citations"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#tracking-citations">Tracking Citations</a></h3>
<p>I have a Google Scholar alert set up for my domain <code>shkspr.mobi</code>. That picks up people who make reference to this site. Hurrah! But, if they use <code>https://doi.org/10....</code> rather than <code>https://shkspr.mobi/...</code> I won't get alerted.</p>
<p>Luckily, <a href="https://doi.org/10.53731/zyg15-qv911">Rogue Scholar offer Citation Tracking</a> which <em>should</em> autopopulate their API with any backlinks from other sources. I'm yet to discover how that works in practice. I don't think it will give me an email alert though.</p>
<p>On a vanity issue, the DOI metadata shows the publisher of my posts as Rogue Scholar's parent organisation - <a href="https://front-matter.de/">Front Matter</a>.</p>
<p>If you look at the API response from <a href="https://api.crossref.org/works/10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69">https://api.crossref.org/works/10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69</a> you'll see something like:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"message": {
"institution": [
{
"name": "Front Matter"
}
],
"group-title": "Terence Eden's Blog",
"publisher": "Front Matter",
"DOI": "10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69",
"author": [
{
"ORCID": "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9265-9069",
"given": "Terence",
"family": "Eden"
}
]
}
}
</code></pre>
<p>Some citation managers will show the publication name as "Terence Eden's Blog" - others as "Front Matter".</p>
<h3 id="licencing"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#licencing">Licencing</a></h3>
<p>Rogue Scholar has a hard requirement that all content be Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY). There's no ability (yet) to choose different licences. Personally, I prefer Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA). I've allowed Rogue Scholar to use CC BY for my work which, of course, means if you get my posts through them you are also allowed to use CC BY.</p>
<p>If you get my work through my own website it is the slightly more restrictive CC BY-SA.</p>
<p>Does that make a practical difference? I don't know.</p>
<h3 id="verification"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#verification">Verification</a></h3>
<p>A DOI is persistent. That doesn't mean it is verifiable. If this blog ever goes offline the DOI will redirect to an archive - but there's no real way to tell that the text in that archive is accurate. There's no hashing or cryptographic signing. Yes, those things are rather brittle, but I think it would be helpful for the long-term integrity of citation chains.</p>
<h3 id="excluding-content"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#excluding-content">Excluding Content</a></h3>
<p>Suppose there is content you <em>don't</em> want to receive a DOI, what do you do? You'll need to generate an RSS feed which excludes those specific posts.</p>
<p>For WordPress, you can do something like <code>/feed/atom/?cat=-1234</code> to exclude posts which have a category with the ID of 1234.</p>
<p>There are some filters on the Rogue Scholar site which you might also be able to use.</p>
<h3 id="deleting-content"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#deleting-content">Deleting Content</a></h3>
<p>I don't think there's a way to delete or retract content from Rogue Scholar's DOI system yet. If you accidentally publish something you didn't mean to, it'll live on in the archives forever.</p>
<h3 id="affiliations"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#affiliations">Affiliations</a></h3>
<p>My ORCiD lists where I worked on certain dates. Initially, Rogue Scholar linked those to blog posts I wrote during my employment. However, all my posts were written in a personal capacity. It is possible to get those affiliations removed if they are inaccurate.</p>
<h3 id="more-vanity"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#more-vanity">More Vanity</a></h3>
<p>I initially tried generating DOIs like <code>edent-00f47</code> - although it's a valid Base 32 string with a checksum, it carries semantic meaning (my name) so shouldn't really be used. Ah well! Back to random strings.</p>
<h3 id="humility"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#humility">Humility</a></h3>
<p>Is this a valid use of the DOI ecosystem? A surprising number of my posts <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/citations">have been referenced in academic papers</a> - but surely not <em>all</em> of my posts are worthy of getting a DOI? The problem is, I don't know when <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/06/how-i-became-leonardo-da-vinci-on-the-blockchain/">a shitpost</a> will hit the zeitgeist and become quoted in papers, books, and articles.</p>
<p>It feels a bit self-indulgent and a little pretentious to mint a new DOI for every previous and future post on this site. But it isn't like the DOI system is running out of space, is it?</p>
<h2 id="is-it-worth-it"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#is-it-worth-it">Is it worth it?</a></h2>
<p>For me? Yes.</p>
<p>I think it is important that <a href="https://doi.org/10.64000/552ec-b8g03">scholarly blogs are properly referenced</a>. True, not <em>all</em> of my posts are cutting-edge research - but I'm always surprised which ones end up in someone's thesis or become part of a set-text.</p>
<p>I'm excited to see if this leads to an increase <em>or</em> decrease in my blog's visibility in academia.</p>
<p>If you have strong feelings either way about DOIs and/or blogs, please drop a comment in the box.</p>
<p>You may cite this post using <a href="https://doi.org/10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69">https://doi.org/10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69</a> 😃</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74717&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
<link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#comments" thr:count="6"/>
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<thr:total>6</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[[RSS Club] Sorry for breaking your feed readers!]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/rss-club-sorry-for-breaking-your-feed-readers/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=75570</id>
<updated>2026-09-15T07:37:02Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-15T11:34:26Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="RSS Club"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[You're part of the Groovy Gang because you're a member of RSS Club! These posts are only available on my RSS and Atom feed. This post is not available in the shops, on the web, via FTP, or anywhere else. So, yeah, sorry! My last post apparently broke some people's RSS readers. I had a code sample which said ＜marquee＞ - despite being properly escaped, some feed readers double-decoded it and tur…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/rss-club-sorry-for-breaking-your-feed-readers/"><![CDATA[<p><mark>You're part of the Groovy Gang because you're a member of <a href="https://daverupert.com/rss-club/">RSS Club</a>! These posts are only available on my RSS and Atom feed. This post is <strong>not</strong> available in the shops, on the web, via FTP, or anywhere else.</mark></p>
<p>So, yeah, sorry! My last post apparently broke some people's RSS readers. I had a code sample which said <code>＜marquee＞</code> - despite being properly escaped, some feed readers double-decoded it and turned it into a literal marquee element!</p>
<p><video width="270" height="585" muted="" autoplay="" loop="" style="display:inline" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/feedscroll2.webm"></video><video width="270" height="600" muted="" autoplay="" loop="" style="display:inline" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/feedscroll.webm"></video?</video></p>
<p>With thanks to Neil and CaféHaine for the videos.</p>
<p>I got several reports that people's readers started scrolling like that and they'd <a href="https://github.com/nextcloud/news-android/issues/1719">raised issues with their feed reader</a>. Ooops! Sorry!</p>
<p>That said, as far as I can tell, the feed <em>is</em> escaped correctly and shouldn't cause problems.</p>
<p>Here's the code (I've added in some spaces to ensure it doesn't cause any issues):</p>
<pre><code class="language-xml"><content type="html">
<![CDATA[< p> Lorem ipsum <code>& lt;marquee&gt;</code> dolor sed.</p>
</code></pre>
<p>So what's going on? The feed is generated by the latest version of WordPress which <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/99e2de78a828d4fe472e37cf25fb0b2173e65c86/src/wp-includes/feed-atom.php#L89">uses <code>CDATA</code> to wrap HTML</a> in a feed.</p>
<p>There is a <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/9992">17 year old discussion about whether this is conformant</a> on the WordPress issue tracker with the conclusion that it isn't incorrect and seems to work fine.</p>
<p>Is it OK? Is my feed broken or are a bunch of readers non-compliant? Let's go back to basics. The Atom spec says</p>
<blockquote><p>If the value of "type" is "html", the content of atom:content MUST NOT contain child elements and SHOULD be suitable for handling as <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4287/#ref-HTML">HTML</a>. The HTML markup MUST be escaped; for example, "<code><br></code>" as "<code>&lt;br></code>".</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4287/#section-4.1.3.3">RFC 4287: The Atom Syndication Format</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Hmmmm. That would indicate that ampersand-l-t-semicolon should be interpreted as a less-than sign.</p>
<p>However, the whole thing is wrapped in <code><![CDATA[</code> which according to the XML spec means:</p>
<blockquote><p>CDATA sections may occur anywhere character data may occur; they are used to escape blocks of text containing characters which would otherwise be recognized as markup.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-cdata-sect">Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition)</a></p></blockquote>
<p>So I <em>think</em> that a sensible feed-reader should see the CDATA block, grab the HTML inside it, and display it as-is. No need to unescape anything.</p>
<p>That said, I'll see if I can change my feed to <em>not</em> need this hybrid format. There's <a href="https://waspdev.com/articles/2026-05-11/avoid-using-cdata-in-rss">a brilliant blog post by Suren Enfiajyan</a> which makes the case that regular escaping is <em>probably</em> good enough.</p>
<p>If you've experienced this bug - or think that I'm generating my feeds in the wrong way - <a href="https://edent.tel">please get in touch</a>.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=75570&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<thr:total>0</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Esoteric HTML - ismap vs CSS]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/esoteric-html-ismap-vs-css/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73143</id>
<updated>2026-09-14T11:35:05Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-14T11:34:53Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="css"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HTML5"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="webdev"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The HTML specification is old and, while there is beauty in longevity, there's an inevitable build-up of boondoggles and baggage. Some elements like <marquee> have sadly been consigned to the dustbin of history - but there are still vestigial attributes just waiting to trip up the unwary. If you're young, you may never have heard of Image Maps. Back in the bad-old-days, there weren't many good…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/esoteric-html-ismap-vs-css/"><![CDATA[<p>The HTML specification is old and, while there is beauty in longevity, there's an inevitable build-up of boondoggles and baggage. Some elements like <code><marquee></code> have sadly been consigned to the dustbin of history - but there are still vestigial attributes just waiting to trip up the unwary.</p>
<p>If you're young, you may never have heard of Image Maps. Back in the bad-old-days, there weren't many good options for laying out a pixel-perfect HTML page. One option was to draw your website in an image editor, load it into a website <em>as an image</em>, and then make certain areas of the image clickable.</p>
<p>One way to do this was to add the attribute <code>ismap</code>. It is <em>only</em> valid on <code><img></code> elements which are inside an <code><a href=…></code> element. Like so:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><a href="click.php">
<img ismap src="img.png" width="100" height="100">
</a>
</code></pre>
<p>When you click on that image, you don't go to <code>click.php</code> - instead you go to <code>click.php?12,34</code> where the two numbers represent the X and Y coordinates of <em>where</em> on the image you clicked. That's brilliant! Your server knows the size of the image - so if you click on the top half it can take you to one place, and if you click in the lower left corner you can go to another.</p>
<p>Brilliant!</p>
<p>Except, of course, there's a catch!</p>
<p>The <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/embedded-content.html#dom-img-ismap">specification of the <code><img></code> element</a> is a little obtuse. Merely saying:</p>
<blockquote><p>The ismap attribute […] indicates by its presence that the element provides access to a server-side image map. This affects how events are handled on the corresponding a element.</p></blockquote>
<p>Instead, the details are in <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/links.html#links-created-by-a-and-area-elements">4.6.2 Links created by a and area elements</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>set x to the distance in CSS pixels from the left edge of the image to the location of the click, and set y to the distance in CSS pixels from the top edge of the image to the location of the click.</p></blockquote>
<p>Did you notice the gotcha?</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>the distance in CSS pixels</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>This is <em>not</em> based on the actual size of the image! It is based on the layout</p>
<p>Let's suppose you have an image which is 100 x 100 pixels. It is added to the website like this:</p>
<p><code><img src="100.png" width="100" height="100" ismap></code></p>
<p>Click on this image and you'll see that your X and Y positions are based on the natural size of the image.</p>
<p><a href="."><img src="https://placekittens.com/100/100" width="100" height="100" ismap="" alt="A cute kitten"></a></p>
<p>But suppose you change the HTML to this:</p>
<p><code><img src="100.png" width="500" height="20" ismap></code></p>
<p>When you click on the image, the X & Y positions are <em>not</em> based on the actual size of the image; they're based on its layout size.</p>
<p><a href="."><img src="https://placekittens.com/100/100" width="500" height="20" ismap="" style="height:20px" alt="A distorted image of a kitten"></a></p>
<p>Suppose you use CSS to resize the image:</p>
<p><code><img src="100.png" width="100" height="100" ismap style="width:7em;height:30ch"></code></p>
<p><a href="."><img src="https://placekittens.com/100/100" width="100" height="100" ismap="" style="width:7em;height:30ch" alt="A distorted image of a kitten"></a></p>
<p>The X and Y aren't based on the image's natural size, nor their declared height and width. Instead they're based on the size on screen determined by CSS.</p>
<p>And, of course, that's not necessarily <em>your</em> CSS! If the user has turned off style sheets, supplied their own, or uses an accessibility tool - the CSS size of the image might be <em>vastly</em> different from what you intended.</p>
<p>If you have an image 100 pixels wide and you want people clicking on the left half to go to a different location to the people clicking on the right half, you might have server-side code which says:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_">if X < 50 :
return page1.html
else
return page2.html
</code></pre>
<p>But if the CSS has stretched, shrunk, skewed, or distorted the image then you have <em>no way of knowing</em> where the user clicked.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, this behaviour is the same in all major browsers.</p>
<p>Basically, what I'm saying is, don't use <code>ismap</code> unless you're absolutely sure that there will be no CSS shenanigans. Even then, it probably isn't worth the risk.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73143&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<thr:total>12</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[The expectations of privacy in driverless cars]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-expectations-of-privacy-in-driverless-cars/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73168</id>
<updated>2026-09-13T11:33:41Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-13T11:34:13Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="AI"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="automation"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="car"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="privacy"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="robots"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Do riders in autonomous vehicles think that they are in a private space? Here's a fascinating story from California where an robotaxi was redirected from its intended destination and, instead, delivered its misbehaving passengers to the police. The 15-year-old passengers were riding in a driverless autonomous car around San Mateo Monday afternoon. The teens drank alcohol inside the Waymo taxi…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-expectations-of-privacy-in-driverless-cars/"><![CDATA[<p>Do riders in autonomous vehicles think that they are in a private space? Here's a fascinating story from California where an robotaxi was redirected from its intended destination and, instead, delivered its misbehaving passengers to the police.</p>
<blockquote><p>The 15-year-old passengers were riding in a driverless autonomous car around San Mateo Monday afternoon. The teens drank alcohol inside the Waymo taxi and shot Orbeez beads with a toy gun toward other vehicles.</p>
<p>A Waymo employee, who was remotely monitoring the car, tricked the unruly teenagers, authorities said. The employee told the young passengers that the Waymo was having mechanical issues and needed to stop.</p>
<p>Unknown to the teens, the employee had also called the San Mateo Police Department to report that a gun was firing from the car.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/heres-how-waymo-tricked-unruly-teen-passengers-in-san-mateo/">Here’s how Waymo tricked unruly teen passengers in San Mateo</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Is that OK?</p>
<p>Kids shooting (albeit fake) guns out of cars is bad. I've no problem with the long arm of the law feeling their collars.</p>
<p>But what sort of reasonable expectation of privacy do you have when you jump into a driverless car?</p>
<p>If you have a blazing row with your partner while sat in the back of a black cab, the driver's going to hear, right? There's no privacy expectation although you might rely on their discretion.</p>
<p>Take a phone call and arrange a drug deal, the driver might turn you in to the police. They're not a confidant, are they?</p>
<p>Kiss someone you shouldn't and you accept the risk that the driver might both notice and care.</p>
<p>But when there's no driver, there's no risk of your privacy being invaded is there?</p>
<blockquote><p>Nine former Tesla employees told Reuters that Tesla workers shared customer videos and images recorded by in-car cameras between 2019 and 2022.</p>
<p><a href="https://observer.com/2023/04/tesla-camera-recording-privacy-concern/">Tesla Workers Shared ‘Intimate’ Videos Recorded By In-Car Cameras</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Ah.</p>
<p>I don't know how Waymo was alerted to the problems in the car. Perhaps someone called them and reported the numberplate. Perhaps the car heard raised voices and sent an alert. Perhaps Waymo just regularly drops in on all its customers.</p>
<p>Rummaging through Waymo's various privacy policies eventually leads to this <a href="https://support.google.com/waymo/answer/9190819">rather ambiguous page</a> which describes how they monitor the inside of their vehicles.</p>
<blockquote><p>Our autonomous vehicles are equipped with an advanced suite of sensors – including cameras and microphones – that act as the 'eyes and ears' of our Waymo Driver.</p>
<strong>Cameras inside the car</strong>
<p>Cameras are a way for us to make sure that your trip goes smoothly. Among other things, we may use cameras to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Make sure that cars are clean</li>
<li>Find lost items</li>
<li>Provide help in case of emergency</li>
<li><i>Check that in-car rules are being followed</i> <small>[Emphasis added]</small></li>
<li>Improve products and services</li>
<li><i>Promote safety and security</i> <small>[Emphasis added]</small></li>
</ul>
<p>Our Support team may review video under certain circumstances, including after an issue is brought to our attention. Occasionally, in more urgent circumstances, Support may access live video during a trip.</p>
<strong>Microphones inside the car</strong>
<p>The microphones inside the car are only on during voice calls with Rider Support or when you actively choose to enable microphones inside the car.</p></blockquote>
<p>To me, that sounds like riders' voices aren't automatically sent back to the mothership. Indeed, they're at pains to say:</p>
<blockquote><p>Waymo vehicles also have a number of sensors, including our audio-detection system used to detect police and emergency vehicle sirens. Waymo has implemented technical and procedural safeguards designed to limit the collection of any human voice data from these microphones.</p></blockquote>
<p>So there is <em>some</em> acknowledgement of privacy - for our voices at least. Meanwhile, passengers are <a href="https://www.brautiganarchives.xyz/machines.html">all watched over by machines of loving grace</a> or, at the very least, fallible humans with prurient interests.</p>
<p>About a decade ago, people were theorising that a driverless cars would one day deliver to you <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/5qg125/eventually_a_selfdriving_car_will_deliver_a_dead/">a rider who died on the journey</a>. I don't think that's happened yet - instead, we have cars watching what what we do. Silently judging us picking our noses. Examining our body language for signs of stress. Tracking our breathing patterns and heart-rates to ensure we aren't going to cause damage to the vehicle.</p>
<p>Not listening though. That would be a step too far.</p>
<p>Besides, who needs to use a microphone when you've got a high-resolution camera backed by AI?</p>
<p></p><div style="width: 620px;" class="wp-video"><video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-73168-2" width="620" height="349" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2001-lip-reading-web.mp4?_=2"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2001-lip-reading-web.mp4">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2001-lip-reading-web.mp4</a></video></div><p></p>
<p>Just as I finished writing this post, a story broke about how a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-09-12/juveniles-riding-in-waymo-arrested-after-police-find-ghost-gun">Waymo pulled over and called the police on riders who had "ghost gun"</a>. The company said it alerted the authorities after detecting a terms of service violation.</p>
<p>Of course, it didn't say <em>how</em> it detected that!</p>
<p>I also find it curious that in both cases, the alleged perpetrators were juveniles. Maybe children have less of a right to privacy than adults?</p>
<p>I guess when you ride alone, you ride with a snitch.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73168&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
<link href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2001-lip-reading-web.mp4" rel="enclosure" length="3454412" type="video/mp4"/>
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<thr:total>7</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ActivityPub - How to send an updated user profile to Mastodon and the Fediverse]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-how-to-send-an-updated-user-profile-to-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74470</id>
<updated>2026-09-13T06:08:41Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-12T11:34:02Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityBot"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityPub"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="fediverse"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="mastodon"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Let's suppose you've updated the description of your ActivityPub account from "World's Number 1 Taylor Swift Fan" to "This account is now a Nickleback Truther". How do you let the rest of the Fediverse know that you've changed your allegiance? By default, most Mastodon instances won't periodically poll your account information just to see if you've updated it. So how does the information get…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-how-to-send-an-updated-user-profile-to-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/"><![CDATA[<p>Let's suppose you've updated the description of your ActivityPub account from "World's Number 1 Taylor Swift Fan" to "This account is now a Nickleback Truther". How do you let the rest of the Fediverse know that you've changed your allegiance?</p>
<p>By default, most Mastodon instances won't periodically poll your account information just to see if you've updated it. So how does the information get from your server to your followers' servers?</p>
<p>This wasn't immediately obvious to me, but I got a clue from reading <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-activitypub-by-evan-prodromou/">Evan Prodromou's book on ActivityPub</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Update activity type is for updating the properties of an object represented by the object property.</p>
<p>The most common types of objects that can be updated are content objects, like Note or Image. Actor types (like Person) and Question activity types can also be updated.</p></blockquote>
<p>Aha!</p>
<p>You need to craft an <code>Update</code> message which has as its object the <em>new</em> user information. That needs to be sent to the inbox of all your followers.</p>
<p>Something like this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
"actor": "https://example.com/user",
"id": "6a9162a6-a8e5-ca0f-9c08-8e6b814acef8",
"published": "2026-08-31T12:34:56+01:00",
"to": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#Public",
"type": "Update",
"object": {
"@context": [
"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
"https://w3id.org/security/v1"
],
"id": "https://example.com/user",
"name": "My new name",
"summary": "A brand new description!",
…
},
}
</code></pre>
<p>Obviously the <em>full</em> user information is a bit more than that - it will include inbox details, public keys, avatars, etc. The <code>published</code> property in the Update activity should be when you changed your details - not when the account was created.</p>
<p>Once that was sent, Mastodon immediately reflected the changes.</p>
<h2 id="thanks-to-nlnet"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-how-to-send-an-updated-user-profile-to-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/#thanks-to-nlnet">Thanks to NLnet</a></h2>
<p>This blog post was funded in part by the work I'm doing for my NLnet NGI0 grant to develop <a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot">ActivityBot</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://nlnet.nl/project/ActivityBot/"><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/NGI-logos.webp" alt="NLnet logo." width="900" height="200" class="aligncenter"></a></p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74470&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[[RSS Club] Sneak peek at new DOI functionality]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/rss-club-sneak-peek-at-new-doi-functionality/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74757</id>
<updated>2026-09-11T09:48:42Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-11T11:34:12Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="RSS Club"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[If you're reading this, you're part of RSS Club! A top secret society of cool people who subscribe to my feed. This post is not available on the web or via email. I've been playing about with Rogue Scholar. It's an open-access publication which allows blogs to get a persistent Digital Object Identifier. If I've set everything up correctly (not a given) then all new posts on this site will be…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/rss-club-sneak-peek-at-new-doi-functionality/"><![CDATA[<p><mark>If you're reading this, you're part of <a href="https://daverupert.com/rss-club/">RSS Club</a>! A <em>top secret</em> society of cool people who subscribe to my feed. This post is <strong>not</strong> available on the web or via email.</mark></p>
<p>I've been playing about with <a href="https://rogue-scholar.org/">Rogue Scholar</a>. It's an open-access publication which allows blogs to get a persistent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier">Digital Object Identifier</a>.</p>
<p>If I've set everything up correctly (not a given) then all new posts on this site will be issued with a DOI. Hopefully, this will not include RSS Club posts - as I'd like to keep them as a special private treat just between you and me.</p>
<p>I'm in the process of writing a WordPress plugin to retrieve the DOI and add it to posts. I'm not sure if there's a sensible way to add it into an RSS feed, but I'll give it a go.</p>
<p>Will this be useful? I don't know. My posts sometimes get <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/citations">referenced in proper academic works</a> - I'm not sure if this'll make any difference to that. But it is nice to experiment with these things.</p>
<p>If you have any experience with DOI or Rogue Scholar - please <a href="https://edent.tel/">get in touch</a>.</p>
<p>Thanks for being a member of RSS Club - you rock 😃</p>
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<thr:total>0</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Put an AV test at the start of your slides]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/put-an-av-test-at-the-start-of-your-slides/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=68346</id>
<updated>2026-09-02T09:08:33Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-10T11:34:10Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="presentations"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[For years, I've had a test-card at the start of my slides. Before I start my talk, I can immediately see if the aspect ratio is wrong, colours are off, or any other visual issues with the presentation. A few years ago I was invited to give a talk and was assured that the venue was set up for audio as well as video. I dutifully filled my slides with with demo videos containing sound. None of…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/put-an-av-test-at-the-start-of-your-slides/"><![CDATA[<p>For years, I've had a <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2017/11/put-a-test-card-at-the-start-of-your-slides/">test-card at the start of my slides</a>. Before I start my talk, I can immediately see if the aspect ratio is wrong, colours are off, or any other visual issues with the presentation.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Test-Card-on-a-screen.jpg" alt="A test card is displaying on a television screen" width="1024" height="768" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-28772">
<p>A few years ago I was invited to give a talk and was assured that the venue was set up for audio as well as video. I dutifully filled my slides with with demo videos containing sound. None of them worked. Somewhere between the HDMI output of the presentation laptop and the speakers, the audio went <abbr title="Absent Without Leave">AWOL</abbr>.</p>
<p>Ever since then, I've placed an audio test slide at the start of my presentations. There's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sound+sync+test">a good range of videos on YouTube</a> - pick one you like, embed it into your slides, and play it before your talk starts.</p>
<p>Over the years, I've found the following "bugs" with event AV setups:</p>
<ul>
<li>No sound.</li>
<li>Only left channel working.</li>
<li>Severe latency between audio and video.</li>
<li>Garbled sound.</li>
<li>Sound routing to the room but not the livestream.</li>
<li>Feedback / howl around when sound playing.</li>
</ul>
<p>Whether events are professionally run or community managed, you can never guarantee that sound will work. Add subtitles to your videos. If possible, add a sign-language interpreter. And, if all else fails, hold your microphone to your laptop's speakers.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=68346&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<thr:total>6</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ActivityPub - Is it worth defending against replay attacks and message/signature time skew?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74622</id>
<updated>2026-09-08T09:42:04Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-08T11:34:51Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityBot"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityPub"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="http"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="security"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Here's a problem that I've found with ActivityBot - my little ActivityPub server. Sometimes it receives messages which were originally sent months ago. Why does that happen and is it risky to accept and process them? My tl;dr is that it probably isn't worth worrying about. But I'd love someone to tell me why I'm wrong. Here's my thinking: Table of ContentsCausesIs that a problem?What are we…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/"><![CDATA[<p>Here's a problem that I've found with <a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot/">ActivityBot</a> - my little ActivityPub server. Sometimes it receives messages which were originally sent <em>months</em> ago. Why does that happen and is it risky to accept and process them?</p>
<p>My tl;dr is that it <em>probably</em> isn't worth worrying about. But I'd love someone to tell me why I'm wrong.</p>
<p>Here's my thinking:</p>
<p></p><nav role="doc-toc"><menu><li><h2 id="table-of-contents"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#table-of-contents">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#causes">Causes</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#is-that-a-problem">Is that a problem?</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#what-are-we-trying-to-protect-against">What are we trying to protect against?</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#putting-it-all-together">Putting it all together</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#no-youre-wrong-and-i-can-prove-it">No! You're wrong and I can prove it!</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>
<h2 id="causes"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#causes">Causes</a></h2>
<p>All ActivityPub messages should have a "published" timestamp in their body. Some will have an "updated" timestamp. That tells you, unsurprisingly, when the message is alleged to have been originally published or updated. That time might be very different to the time you receive the message.</p>
<p>There are, I think, three different reasons why a server might receive a message which has an out-of-date timestamp.</p>
<p>The first is that sometimes servers are just slow. Processing thousands of messages at the same time means that some of those messages take a while to send. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/09/how-far-did-my-post-go-on-the-fediverse/">ActivityPub is one big chain-mail</a> so it can take several minutes for a message to be sent to all your followers.</p>
<p>Similarly, your server might be slow. If it doesn't acknowledge receipt of a message, the original server will try sending it again. Sometimes that can take a while.</p>
<p>Finally, some servers take a relaxed view of standards. They send an update to an old message but keep the original publication date. Ideally, they'd use an "updated" timestamp but quite often they don't.</p>
<p>For the purposes of checking the legitimacy of the message, <strong>you do not need to check when a message says it was published or updated</strong>. You might want to check it isn't an <em>obviously</em> bogus date like far in the future or impossibly far in the past - but that's up to you.</p>
<p>It is normal that your server receives messages which appear to have been published at a totally different time from now.</p>
<h2 id="is-that-a-problem"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#is-that-a-problem">Is that a problem?</a></h2>
<p><em>Probably</em> not.</p>
<p>As described above, there are various reasons why a message may be delayed in transit - or may appear to come from the distant past.</p>
<p>What we <em>can</em> check is when the message was cryptographically signed by the sending server. This is independent of its published or updated timestamp.</p>
<p>HTTP requests to your server will have a <code>date</code> header which looks like <code>Tue, 01 Sep 2026 15:54:21 GMT</code> - this is in the slightly peculiar and Anglocentric <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5322/#section-3.3">RFC 5322 format</a>.</p>
<p>New style RFC 9421 headers will also have a <code>signature-input</code> header which will contain something like <code>created=1788278061</code>. That uses the slightly obscure <a href="https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap04.html#tag_04_16">UNIX / POSIX time</a> which counts seconds since the "Epoch" of 1st January 1970.</p>
<p>If you <a href="https://www.epochconverter.com/">convert the UNIX time</a> to something more modern, you should get an <em>identical</em> value to the <code>date</code> header.</p>
<p>But that isn't always the case. For example, <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9421.html#:~:text=Tue%2C%2020%20Apr%202021%2002%3A07%3A55%20GMT,-Content%2DType">the RFC 9421 standard gives this example</a>:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_">Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2021 02:07:55 GMT
"@signature-params": ("@method" "@authority" "@path" \
"content-digest" "content-length" "content-type")\
;created=1618884473;keyid="test-key-rsa-pss"
</code></pre>
<p>Converting <code>1618884473</code> to normal time gives Tue, 20 Apr 2021 02:07:<strong>53</strong> - a two second difference.</p>
<p>If the <code>date</code> and <code>created</code> values differ significantly - that may indicate that the message is untrustworthy. Or that there was a delay between the signing and the sending.</p>
<p>The spec says:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Date header field value represents the timestamp of the HTTP message. However, the creation time of the signature itself is encoded in the created signature parameter. These two values can be different, depending on how the signature and the HTTP message are created and serialized. Applications processing signatures for valid time windows should use the created signature parameter for such calculations. An application could also put limits on how much skew there is between the Date field and the created signature parameter, in order to limit the application of a generated signature to different HTTP messages.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9421.html#section-7.2.4">7.2.4. Choosing Signature Parameters and Derived Components over HTTP Fields</a></p></blockquote>
<p>But, of course, it doesn't tell you how much skew is problematic. It's up to you how much skew you're prepared to accept.</p>
<p>So that's the difference between the sent time and the signed time. The next time to check is your own. As we've discussed, sometimes servers are slow sending things out. Would you accept a request that was signed five minutes ago? Five days ago? Five months ago? What amount of difference is dangerous?</p>
<p>Here's what various services and sages have to say:</p>
<h3 id="mastodon"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#mastodon">Mastodon</a></h3>
<blockquote><p>The request contains a Date header. Compare it with current date and time within a reasonable time window to prevent replay attacks.</p>
<p><a href="https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2018/07/how-to-make-friends-and-verify-requests/">How to make friends and verify requests</a></p></blockquote>
<p>What is "reasonable"? The <a href="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/89bc0eb42609463d4b11e1604dacc37332a0f5ab/app/lib/signed_request.rb#L5">source code</a> suggests one hour.</p>
<h3 id="grishka"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#grishka">Grishka</a></h3>
<blockquote><p>Time in the Date header must differ from the recipient server’s clock by no more than 30 seconds</p>
<p><a href="https://grishka.me/blog/activitypub-from-scratch/">A bare-minimum ActivityPub server from scratch</a></p></blockquote>
<h3 id="evan-prodromou"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#evan-prodromou">Evan Prodromou</a></h3>
<blockquote><p><code>static #maxDateDiff = 5 * 60 * 1000 // 5 minutes</code></p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/evanp/activitypub-bot/blob/main/lib%2Fhttpsignatureauthenticator.js#L8">activitypub-bot</a></p></blockquote>
<h3 id="swicg"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#swicg">SWICG</a></h3>
<blockquote><p>The standards don't give a concrete time window to use for this comparison. In practice, an hour plus a few minutes buffer in either direction may be a good value, to account for both clock skew and differences in time zone/daylight savings time configuration across systems.</p>
<p><a href="https://swicg.github.io/activitypub-http-signature/#how-to-verify-a-signature">How To Verify a Signature</a></p></blockquote>
<h3 id="others"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#others">Others</a></h3>
<p>Without naming names, it looks like a bunch of popular servers don't check whether there's a significant difference between the date the request was signed and the date it was received.</p>
<h3 id="summary"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#summary">Summary</a></h3>
<p>Various documents and implementations recommend anything between 30 seconds to "a bit more than 60 minutes". Or they just ignore any date difference.</p>
<p>What's the right answer? What happens if the signed date is significantly different from the current date?</p>
<h2 id="what-are-we-trying-to-protect-against"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#what-are-we-trying-to-protect-against">What are we trying to protect against?</a></h2>
<p>Replay Attacks. Suppose someone is listening to the communications between the sending server and your server. They copy the message that is sent to you. Later they send it again!</p>
<p>At this point, you might be thinking "so what?" and… I'm inclined to agree with you!</p>
<p>What's the worst that could happen if you received the same message multiple times? Two things that I can think of.</p>
<p>Firstly, it might <em>not</em> be the same message. It is possible to send a new message but with old headers. An attacker could make someone post "I hate Taylor Swift" against their will and watch as legions of fans disembowel the victim.</p>
<p>Except, I don't think this is likely. The signature in the header contains a hash of the message being sent. If you are properly validating the signature, a changed message will have a different hash from the one in the original message. You don't need to check timestamps, you just need to check if the hashes match.</p>
<p>Secondly, <a href="https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/idempotence-explained">idempotence</a>. That's a fancy word for "pressing the button multiple times should only result in one action".</p>
<p>What happens if a user appears to send you multiple "like" messages for a single post? You only record one like.</p>
<p>What if they send multiple messages with the same content? Well, each will have a unique ID in the message - so you only post it once.</p>
<p>What if they send multiple <em>anythings</em>? I can't think of any ActivityPub action which would not be idempotent.</p>
<p>About the worst thing I can think of is this:</p>
<ul>
<li>Alice sends a message to you saying "I want to follow Bob".</li>
<li>Mallory intercepts this message.</li>
<li>You record Alice is now following Bob.</li>
<li>Alice sends a message to you saying "I want to <em>unfollow</em> Bob".</li>
<li>You record the severed relationship.</li>
<li>Mallory replays the original follow message.</li>
<li>You record Alice is now following Bob.</li>
</ul>
<p>It's also possible the following could happen:</p>
<ul>
<li>Alice posts a message saying "I love The Beatles".</li>
<li>You record Alice's message and display it on the timeline.</li>
<li>Alice updates her post to say "I love the Rolling Stones".</li>
<li>Mallory intercepts this message.</li>
<li>You record Alice's updated message and display the new version on the timeline.</li>
<li>Alice updates her post yet again to say "I love the Spice Girls".</li>
<li>You record Alice's updated message and display the new version on the timeline.</li>
<li>Mallory replays the original update message.</li>
<li>You now display that Alice loves the Stones rather than Spice Girls.</li>
</ul>
<p>Perhaps the same can happen with like/unlike, block/unblock, boost/unboost.</p>
<p>But none of that is significantly prevented by checking the date.</p>
<p>Ultimately, it is up to your sever to check the unique ID of each message and refuse to action any repeated messages. You may not want to trust the unique ID which is sent with the message. If that's the case, you can calculate your own - perhaps using a hash of the contents, the signature, or some other process which will generate an ID based on the message.</p>
<h2 id="putting-it-all-together"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#putting-it-all-together">Putting it all together</a></h2>
<p>Here's what you need to do to prevent replay attacks:</p>
<ol>
<li>Independently calculate the hash of the message received.</li>
<li>Validate that your calculated hash matches the hash sent in the message's HTTP headers.
<ul>
<li>If not, this is a potential replay attack and the message must be ignored.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Verify that the signature received in the message's HTTP headers includes the message hash and is cryptographically valid.
<ul>
<li>If not, the signature is invalid and the message must be ignored.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Has the received message's unique ID already been processed?
<ul>
<li>If so, refuse to process it again.</li>
</ul></li>
</ol>
<p>I don't see what checking the timestamp of the HTTP signature has to do with anything. Someone who has access to the original messages and their headers could send them milliseconds after the original delivery.</p>
<p>I think it is probably <em>pragmatic</em> to give messages 60ish minutes grace before dropping them. Delays happen, but anything more significant than an hour <em>might</em> indicate a attack. But, equally, might just mean that the Internet is having a slow day.</p>
<p>If you are correctly checking signatures and hashes, I don't think you need to worry about skew between signature date and delivery date.</p>
<h2 id="no-youre-wrong-and-i-can-prove-it"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#no-youre-wrong-and-i-can-prove-it">No! You're wrong and I can prove it!</a></h2>
<p>Please tell me where I have erred! Stick a comment in the box or drop me an email. If I've made a massive or subtle mistake, I'd love to know what.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74622&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
<link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#comments" thr:count="6"/>
<link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/feed/atom/" thr:count="6"/>
<thr:total>6</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[The purpose of DNS is to spread scams]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74588</id>
<updated>2026-09-05T17:12:13Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-06T11:34:20Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ICANN"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="internet"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="scam"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="spam"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="tld"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="web"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I imagine everyone here has received an unsolicited message telling them that their tax is overdue and that they urgently need to visit Genuine-Tax-Payment-Website.fart or that a parcel is delayed at customs and you can pay a small sum for its release at Almost-The-Right-Acronym.ak You know it is a scam. Most people just mark as spam and move on with their day. But a significant number of people …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/"><![CDATA[<p>I imagine everyone here has received an unsolicited message telling them that their tax is overdue and that they urgently need to visit Genuine-Tax-Payment-Website.fart or that a parcel is delayed at customs and you can pay a small sum for its release at Almost-The-Right-Acronym.ak</p>
<p>You know it is a scam. Most people just mark as spam and move on with their day. But a significant number of people don't. They hastily visit the site, tap in their credit card details, give it their mother's maiden name, confirm address, upload a nude selfie, and only then realise that they've been had.</p>
<p>The Internet works at pretty close to the speed of light. You can register a .uk domain and a minute later it's accessible from the other side of the planet. Brilliant for users who want to quickly launch a website. Also brilliant for abusers who want to launch a spam campaign.</p>
<p>By the time enough people have reported the scammers' domain as suspicious, it is too late. In the time it takes for a registrar to disable the domain, or for its name to make its way to the <a href="https://safebrowsing.google.com/">Safe Browsing List</a>, a million messages have already been sent and enough people have handed over their details.</p>
<p>We're told that "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does">the purpose of a system is what it does</a>". At the moment, the Domain Name System's purpose seems to be a vector for criminals to run scams on people at a terrifyingly high rate.</p>
<h2 id="how-big-is-this-problem"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/#how-big-is-this-problem">How big is this problem?</a></h2>
<p>BIG!</p>
<p>There's a great blog post by Andrew Campling which reports on this startling claim:</p>
<blockquote><p>The study found that at least 10% of all new gTLD domain names registered during the year had subsequently appeared on security blocklists by the time of analysis. It estimated that, taking account of subsequent blocklisting and associated domains not themselves blocklisted, the share of names registered by malicious actors <strong>may be closer to 20%</strong>.</p>
<p><a href="https://labs.ripe.net/author/andrew_campling/dns-abuse-and-criminal-infrastructure-beyond-definitions-and-blocklists/">DNS Abuse and Criminal Infrastructure: Beyond Definitions and Blocklists</a> (emphasis added)</p></blockquote>
<p>That links to a presentation by Interisle which contains some rather shocking statistics (<a href="https://www.icann.org/en/blogs/details/looking-beyond-the-numbers-understanding-malicious-domain-registration-data-10-08-2026-en">albeit with disputed methodology</a>). It looks at <em>generic</em> Top Level Domains (gTLD) - those are things like .com and .fun rather than country code TLDs (ccTLD) like .uk and .de.</p>
<p>It says 85 million new registrations of gTLDs were made in 2025. Of those 8.5 million were added to blocklists by May 2025. It reckons that a 10% abuse rate is the likely floor for these numbers and it's probably closer to 20%. One in five newly registered domains with a gTLD are scams. That's a bloody crisis.</p>
<p>13 TLDs had more than 50% of their registrations blocklisted.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/gTLDs.webp" alt="Table listing the top 13 generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) with the highest percentage of blocklisted, malicious new domains created in 2025. Ranked from highest to lowest blocklist percentage, top entries include .LOCKER (72.9%), .LGBT (72.2%), and .TOWN (70.2%). The table detail includes TLD operators, registration totals, and specific malicious domain metrics." width="1162" height="954" class="aligncenter">
<p>I can understand why .bid and .loan are popular with scammers. But why .mobi?! What did I ever do to you, eh?</p>
<p>Who are the scammers registering these through?</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/registrars.webp" alt="List of registrars. NameCheap, Gname, Dynadot, NameSilo, GoDaddy." width="910" height="390" class="aligncenter">
<p>Ah, our old friends at NameCheap. See <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/05/why-do-scammers-love-namecheap/">Why do scammers love NameCheap?</a></p>
<p>If those five registrars had more effective policies, it might significantly dent the scammers' ability to ply their devious wares. Or they might just move on to other registrars.</p>
<p>As the report points out:</p>
<blockquote><p>suspension rates for blocklisted domains were 7.4% to 16.3%.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://interisle.net/s/FullReport_MaliciousRegistrationsintheDomainNameMarket_2026_rev.pdf">The full report is on the Interisle website</a>.</p>
<h2 id="what-can-be-done"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/#what-can-be-done">What can be done?</a></h2>
<p>I don't know.</p>
<p>In the first instance, it might make sense for registrars to do strong Know Your Customer (KYC) checks on anyone buying a domain. But that stops anyone who wants to anonymously register <code>I-Hate-Nintendo.whatever</code> without risking the wrath of Intellectual Property lawyers.</p>
<p>Also, criminals have access to stolen money and stolen cards. They can convince a hapless mule to register a domain on the criminals' behalf.</p>
<p>Registrars could ask for an escrow payment. Pay €9 for the domain name put €900 in escrow. If your domain appears on a blocklist within the year, you forfeit the money. Criminals with stolen funds are unlikely to care but it would probably put off lots of people from getting a new domain.</p>
<p>There are various banned words and phrases depending on the TLD. For example, <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/07/ss-tld-opening-for-direct-registrations/">South Sudan</a> has a list of political words which they don't want associated with their .ss ccTLD.</p>
<p>But if one gTLD bans a word, a different one might not. A scammer doesn't care if the gTLD is .arse or .elbow - they just want the start of the domain to look legitimate.</p>
<p>Some registrars have strings that they don't allow. In fairness to NameCheap, when I tried to register <code>dwp-payments-gov-uk.pizza</code> it told me that domain was banned. It wouldn't let me get any gTLD with that name.</p>
<p>But all it takes is one registrar to be slightly lax and the scammers get through. Increasing the complexity of the rules is also a hell of a burden on smaller registrars.</p>
<p>Besides, it's pretty easy to get a generic enough looking domain and stick the confusing bit on a subdomain. Here are a clutch mentioned in the report:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpaph.bond/uk/</code></li>
<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpcjh.bond/uk/</code></li>
<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpclc.bond/uk</code></li>
<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpclw.bond/uk</code></li>
<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpclj.bond/uk/</code></li>
</ul>
<p>Perhaps there ought to be a delay before a new domain goes live to allow people to object to it? That would give governments, banks, delivery companies, and a dozen more "important" organisations a right to veto any "dodgy" looking domain.</p>
<p>But suppose someone wants to register <code>gov-uk-stole-my-horse.horse</code> to protest the government's cruel policy of stealing horses - is that a legitimate use of a domain? What if the Darwin Pensioner Divas - a group of elderly singers - want to take payments for their new album of goth/punk covers, can the DPD delivery company veto <code>dpd-payments.music</code>?</p>
<p>Do we want a domain name system where powerful companies control exactly which domains we can register? If I have an idea for a domain on a Friday night do I have to wait until Monday before it can be launched? Are those companies realistically able to parse millions of domains per year and have a low false-positive rate?</p>
<p>All of these things are possible - but all of them come with an impact on legitimate users. To be clear, I don't know what the right answer is.</p>
<h2 id="what-is-icann-doing-about-it"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/#what-is-icann-doing-about-it">What is ICANN doing about it?</a></h2>
<p>Lots! It has been a few years since I've been to an ICANN meeting, but even back then the topic of abuse was high on the agenda. They appear to be looking at ways to coordinate abuse reports between various entities, along with some other policies which should hopefully work.</p>
<p>There are two salient points from <a href="https://hosted-files.sched.co/icann86/b3/TRANSC_I86SQV_Mon08June2026__GNSO-DNS%20Abuse%20Mitigation%20PDP%201%20%281%20of%204%29-en.pdf">one of the discussions held at the recent meeting</a></p>
<blockquote><p>If anybody thinks that in our current age of AI and as we move into different kinds of computing, DNS abuse is going to numerically stay steady and we will have a downward effect on that baseline 2027 number. I'm not sure that that's an accurate assumption. I think it's going to be the other thing, which is […] it's going to be easier to abuse the DNS.</p></blockquote>
<p>And</p>
<blockquote><p>Abusers are going to abuse because it's just too lucrative, because no matter what we do, they will find the way to make profit off of that, and will try to circumvent everything that we do. That is not a reason not to do it, though.</p></blockquote>
<p>Quite!</p>
<p>As I said, I don't know the answer to this. What I do know is, much like <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/is-it-possible-to-allow-sideloading-and-keep-users-safe/">Android's app ecosystem being a haven for scammers</a>, DNS is facing a crisis. When trust in a system goes, only chaos follows.</p>
<p>I don't want to live in a world where I have to show my passport and pay thousands of pounds to register a domain which is only available after being vetted by private interests. But I also don't want to live in a world where scammers have effectively no deterrent from abusing millions of people.</p>
<p>The purpose of a system is what it does. I hope DNS's purpose can become less dangerous while still remaining open.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74588&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
<link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/#comments" thr:count="10"/>
<link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/feed/atom/" thr:count="10"/>
<thr:total>10</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories by Ken Liu ★★★★☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-the-passing-of-the-dragon-and-other-stories-by-ken-liu/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74686</id>
<updated>2026-09-05T09:22:57Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-05T11:34:47Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NetGalley"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Sci Fi"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[This is a gorgeous set of short stories - and a good deal more accessible than some of the heavyweight prose Liu has previously been involved with. Some of the stories contain sentences which are complex jewels to be savoured. What I particularly like is the way he moves between almost-prosaic Earth-bound stories to the the most extraordinary flights of fancy. One story might be set in a…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-the-passing-of-the-dragon-and-other-stories-by-ken-liu/"><![CDATA[<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/9781035929306.webp" alt="Book cover." width="200" class="alignleft">
<p>This is a gorgeous set of short stories - and a good deal more accessible than some of the heavyweight prose Liu has previously been involved with. Some of the stories contain sentences which are complex jewels to be savoured.</p>
<p>What I particularly like is the way he moves between almost-prosaic Earth-bound stories to the the most extraordinary flights of fancy. One story might be set in a downtown art gallery, the next in the ice-rings of a far-off planet. The creeping feeling of senescence haunts the reader as they flit from story to story.</p>
<p>Much like his full-length novel <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/09/book-review-all-that-we-see-or-seem-by-ken-liu/">All That We See or Seem</a>, Liu has an incredible knack for tapping in to modern fears and weaving tall tales around them. There's a tenderness in all his character - even when a couple of the stories go nowhere, it is still pleasant to spend time in the worlds he has created.</p>
<p>It is, perhaps, missing a cohesive theme - the dragons come and go throughout the stories. Nevertheless, a compelling work chock full of fantastical ideas.</p>
<p>If you're in the mood for a wide and varied selection of stories, this is well worth picking up.</p>
<p>Many thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. Passing of the Dragon is available to buy now.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74686&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
<link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-the-passing-of-the-dragon-and-other-stories-by-ken-liu/#comments" thr:count="1"/>
<link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-the-passing-of-the-dragon-and-other-stories-by-ken-liu/feed/atom/" thr:count="1"/>
<thr:total>1</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[A reasonably practical guide to validating RFC 9421 HTTP Signatures for ActivityPub in PHP]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74429</id>
<updated>2026-09-04T13:36:29Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-03T11:34:12Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityBot"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityPub"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="mastodon"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="php"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="webdev"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[If you're reading this, you've probably been hitting your head against a brick wall trying to parse and decipher the new HTTP Signatures sent by Mastodon and other Fediverse servers. This is a basic and somewhat incomplete guide to accepting these signatures. I'm sure there are various gotchas, but it works with the signatures I've seen in the wild. Shut Up And Show Me The Code! OK, wow, no…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/"><![CDATA[<p>If you're reading this, you've probably been hitting your head against a brick wall trying to parse and decipher the new HTTP Signatures sent by Mastodon and other Fediverse servers.</p>
<p>This is a basic and somewhat incomplete guide to accepting these signatures. I'm sure there are various gotchas, but it works with the signatures I've seen in the wild.</p>
<h2 id="shut-up-and-show-me-the-code"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#shut-up-and-show-me-the-code">Shut Up And Show Me The Code!</a></h2>
<p>OK, wow, no need to be a dick about it! Here's how I validated a real signature that my server received. This requires PHP 8.4 or newer.</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">$verified = openssl_verify(
data: '"@method": POST
"@target-uri": https://example.viii.fi/inbox
"content-digest": sha-256=:tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=:
"@signature-params": ("@method" "@target-uri" "content-digest");created=1787780262;keyid="https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key"',
signature: base64_decode( "sIfmNsM/Q8iG6AJlne1IkZVjQSVFDEYIPsnoSOXQY+W3Eb4+SOn9o4J5SQmFOP+Jecjf3ioFwUdsrFjAGkUUOHPvSbNWkGKtNuGm+C6r3aI3JBCFGPqX3ITgZYV76CF7JJJ5hPGaG8YH/XdmxVIeFfD3M39FQCncMyyq7xJJvwKKP1mzS5s1vNQie8hbQ9owRjtqvoWcmM9GEYCUHNcMPLjZc+CBrj8sfBbNTYgIFI4UtirOaRJvYymxXjmXuzeVYxQujMjAjgobxQ8QFv0zlYsHk+gS5EYyafpJG9zmfCFSoF9+ZwqKNADmuADbISD9LZIH/bmkPoNXhxaeFPqYog==" ),
public_key: "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\nMIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAsYMEs4waqk/6gaS+xn1T\nYygElTtNIFNkBcEdEBMaeoGVhyZiVKtSjJCS4z+X+394PKvcfSTcFILIt2GI2jOB\nHD0M2fFgxc8mmdSdCQkgEh9jF3bFI3kopDvzYf726iioYKlHXKpfPKvFt7EJgKH7\naCtS25NQkek3YUd6y3VBcT3R6Xhze9P3QNoZMIsFXklgXDKj+EllfbUqLf1vxt3s\nmD9ETxy2bJi9FheE0uY2WhARn49XAvwczM5Wzt+zqxVEtgpi5v2+ZZAVKhDnJkiC\nCCuI6hrSnKNIx/5mSlX0a0S5h5d03djrCkYsqmwelu01rhOXP2grsz4BXp0y2wrO\n3QIDAQAB\n-----END PUBLIC KEY-----\n",
algorithm: "sha256"
);
echo $verified;
</code></pre>
<p>Copy and paste that into PHP and you should see that <code>$verified</code> is true.</p>
<h2 id="now-explain-the-code"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#now-explain-the-code">NOW EXPLAIN THE CODE</a></h2>
<p>Say please.</p>
<h2 id="please"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#please">PLEASE!!!</a></h2>
<p>Along with the message sent to your server, you will have received HTTP headers like this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_">content-digest: sha-256=:tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=:
signature: sig1=:sIfmNsM/Q8iG6AJlne1IkZVjQSVFDEYIPsnoSOXQY+W3Eb4+SOn9o4J5SQmFOP+Jecjf3ioFwUdsrFjAGkUUOHPvSbNWkGKtNuGm+C6r3aI3JBCFGPqX3ITgZYV76CF7JJJ5hPGaG8YH/XdmxVIeFfD3M39FQCncMyyq7xJJvwKKP1mzS5s1vNQie8hbQ9owRjtqvoWcmM9GEYCUHNcMPLjZc+CBrj8sfBbNTYgIFI4UtirOaRJvYymxXjmXuzeVYxQujMjAjgobxQ8QFv0zlYsHk+gS5EYyafpJG9zmfCFSoF9+ZwqKNADmuADbISD9LZIH/bmkPoNXhxaeFPqYog==:
signature-input: sig1=("@method" "@target-uri" "content-digest");created=1787780262;keyid="https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key"
</code></pre>
<p>The <code>signature-input</code> tells you how to construct a "Signature Base". You have to build a text string which places the various components in the order specified and separated with a newline:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_">"@method": POST
"@target-uri": https://example.viii.fi/inbox
"content-digest": sha-256=:tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=:
"@signature-params": ("@method" "@target-uri" "content-digest");created=1787780262;keyid="https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key"
</code></pre>
<p>Where <code>@method</code> is the HTTP method used to send data to your server (usually <code>GET</code> or <code>POST</code>), and <code>@target-uri</code> is the URl the message was sent to (usually your inbox).</p>
<p>The <code>publicKey</code> is slightly trickier. As you can see, the <code>signature-input</code> ends with <code>keyid="https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key</code></p>
<p>If you make a signed request to that URl, you'll get back an ActivityPub Actor document. It will look something like this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"@context": [
"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
"https://w3id.org/security/v1",
],
"id": "https://mastodon.social/users/Edent",
"webfinger": "Edent@mastodon.social",
"type": "Person",
"name": "Terence Eden",
"publicKey": {
"id": "https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key",
"owner": "https://mastodon.social/users/Edent",
"publicKeyPem": "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\nMIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAsYMEs4waqk/6gaS+xn1T\nYygElTtNIFNkBcEdEBMaeoGVhyZiVKtSjJCS4z+X+394PKvcfSTcFILIt2GI2jOB\nHD0M2fFgxc8mmdSdCQkgEh9jF3bFI3kopDvzYf726iioYKlHXKpfPKvFt7EJgKH7\naCtS25NQkek3YUd6y3VBcT3R6Xhze9P3QNoZMIsFXklgXDKj+EllfbUqLf1vxt3s\nmD9ETxy2bJi9FheE0uY2WhARn49XAvwczM5Wzt+zqxVEtgpi5v2+ZZAVKhDnJkiC\nCCuI6hrSnKNIx/5mSlX0a0S5h5d03djrCkYsqmwelu01rhOXP2grsz4BXp0y2wrO\n3QIDAQAB\n-----END PUBLIC KEY-----\n"
},
</code></pre>
<p>The <code>publicKeyPem</code> is the string you need. There's no need to convert the <code>\n</code> to literal newlines.</p>
<h2 id="is-that-it"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#is-that-it">Is that it?</a></h2>
<p>Not quite! All we've done so far is verify the headers. It is possible that these are genuine headers but attached to a fraudulent body.</p>
<p>This takes us back to the header <code>"content-digest": sha-256=:tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=:</code></p>
<p>That says that the body of the message sent has a Base64 encoded SHA256 hash of <code>tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=</code>.</p>
<p>To calculate your own content digest in PHP:</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">$input = file_get_contents( "php://input" );
$digestCalculated = base64_encode(
hash(
algo: "sha256",
data: $input,
binary: true
)
);
</code></pre>
<p>Does your digest match the one sent along with the headers? If not, something dodgy is going on.</p>
<h2 id="putting-it-all-together"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#putting-it-all-together">Putting it all together</a></h2>
<p>The steps are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Get the headers.</li>
<li>Get the body.</li>
<li>From the headers' <code>content-digest</code> extract the algorithm and hash.</li>
<li>Using the body, calculate your own hash using the algorithm from <code>content-digest</code>.</li>
<li>Does your hash match the sent hash? If not, stop. If so, proceed.</li>
<li>From the headers' <code>signature</code> extract the base64 encoded signature.</li>
<li>From the headers' <code>signature-input</code> extract the signature-input string.</li>
<li>From the signature-input string extract the order of the Signature Base.</li>
<li>Construct the Signature Base.</li>
<li>From the signature-input string extract the keyid.</li>
<li>Get the Public Key from the keyid.</li>
<li>Use <code>openssl_verify()</code> to verify the Signature Base and the base64 decoded signature, against the Public Key using SHA256.</li>
</ol>
<p>Note, <a href="https://docs.joinmastodon.org/spec/security/#http-message-signatures">Mastodon <em>only</em> uses SHA256</a>. I think it should explicitly say which algorithm it is using <a href="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/29905#issuecomment-5440336919">and have raised the issue</a>.</p>
<h3 id="in-code-form"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#in-code-form">In Code Form</a></h3>
<p>This is how you do it in PHP. Please read this carefully as there are some hard-coded assumptions.</p>
<pre><code class="language-php"><?php
// Validate the Digest.
// It is the hash of the raw input string, in binary, encoded as base64.
// The format is content-digest => <algorithm>=:<base64 encoded hash>:
$digestString = $headers["content-digest"];
// The Base64 encoding may have multiple `=` at the end. So split this at the first `=`.
$digestData = explode( separator: "=", string: $digestString, limit: 2 );
// Hashes are in lowercase, but have a `-` in their name.
// This is not what hash_algos() expects.
$digestAlgorithm = str_replace( search: "-", replace: "", subject: $digestData[0] );
// The hash is surrounded by `:` characters.
$digestHash = str_replace( search: ":", replace: "", subject: $digestData[1] );
// Check if the hash algorithm is one known about to PHP.
// If not, reject and record an error.
if ( !in_array( needle:$digestAlgorithm, haystack: hash_algos() ) ) {
return false;
}
// Manually calculate the digest based on the data sent.
$digestCalculated = base64_encode( hash( algo: $digestAlgorithm, data: $input, binary: true ) );
// Does our calculation match what was sent?
if ( !( $digestCalculated == $digestHash ) ) {
return false;
}
// The signature format is signature => <signature name>=:<base64 encoded hash>:
$signatureString = $headers["signature"];
// The Base64 encoding may have multiple `=` at the end. So split this at the first `=`.
$signatureData = explode( separator: "=", string: $signatureString, limit: 2 );
$signatureName = $signatureData[0];
// The signature is surrounded by `:` characters.
$signatureB64 = str_replace( search: ":", replace: "", subject: $signatureData[1] );
// The signature-input format is complicated!
$signatureInputString = $headers["signature-input"];
// Get the parameters. Assume there is only one signature.
$signatureParamsString = explode( separator: "=", string: $signatureInputString, limit: 2 )[1];
// Get the different elements of the signature.
$signatureInputData = explode( separator: ";", string: $signatureInputString );
// Construct the data.
$signatureInput = [];
foreach( $signatureInputData as $signatureInputParts ) {
$partsData = explode( separator: "=", string: $signatureInputParts );
// Strip quotes from keyid and parentheses from sig1.
if ( "keyid" == $partsData[0] ) {
$partsData[1] = str_replace( search: "\"", replace: "", subject: $partsData[1] );
}
if ( $signatureName == $partsData[0] ) {
$partsData[1] = str_replace( search: ["(", ")"], replace: "", subject: $partsData[1] );
}
$signatureInput[ $partsData[0] ] = $partsData[1] ;
}
$signatureStructure = $signatureInput[$signatureName];
$signatureKeyID = $signatureInput["keyid"];
// Remove quotes.
$signatureStructure = str_replace( search: "\"", replace: "", subject: $signatureStructure );
$signatureStructureData = explode( separator: " ", string: $signatureStructure );
// https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9421/#section-2.5
$signatureBase = "";
foreach ( $signatureStructureData as $signatureStructureParts ) {
if ( "@method" == $signatureStructureParts ) {
// https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9421/#name-method
$signatureBase .= "\"@method\": " . $_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] . "\n";
}
if ( "@target-uri" == $signatureStructureParts ) {
// https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9421/#section-2.2.2
// Change the domain name to your own.
$signatureBase .= "\"@target-uri\": https://EXAMPLE.COM" . $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"] . "\n";
}
if ( "content-digest" == $signatureStructureParts ) {
$signatureBase .= "\"content-digest\": $digestString\n";
}
}
// https://victoronsoftware.com/posts/http-message-signatures/#how-the-signature-is-created
$signatureBase .= "\"@signature-params\": $signatureParamsString";
// Get the signing user's public key.
// This is usually in the form `https://example.com/user/username#main-key`
// This is to differentiate if the user has multiple keys.
// This may need to be a signed request. You will need to write your own getDataFromURl() function to get the sending user's key.
$userData = getDataFromURl( $signatureKeyID );
$publicKey = $userData["publicKey"]["publicKeyPem"];
// Verify the request
$verified = openssl_verify(
data: $signatureBase,
signature: base64_decode( $signatureB64 ),
public_key: $publicKey,
algorithm: $digestAlgorithm
);
// Convert the result to boolean.
if ( $verified === 1 ) {
$verified = true;
} elseif ( $verified === 0 ) {
$verified = false;
} else {
$verified = null;
}
return $verified;
</code></pre>
<h2 id="further-reading"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#further-reading">Further Reading</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9421/">RFC 9421 HTTP Message Signatures</a></li>
<li><a href="https://victoronsoftware.com/posts/http-message-signatures/">Understanding HTTP message signatures: A developer's guide</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.otoroshi.io/docs/tutorials/http-message-signatures-rfc9421/">Sign and verify HTTP messages (RFC 9421)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://darutk.medium.com/verification-of-http-message-signatures-501bbdc7dfec">Verification of HTTP Message Signatures</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/macgirvin/HTTP-Message-Signer">HTTP-Message-Signer in PHP</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="thanks-to-nlnet"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#thanks-to-nlnet">Thanks to NLnet</a></h2>
<p>This blog post was funded in part by the work I'm doing for my NLnet NGI0 grant. Thanks!</p>
<p><a href="https://nlnet.nl/project/ActivityBot/"><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/NGI-logos.webp" alt="NLnet logo." width="900" height="200" class="aligncenter"></a></p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74429&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<thr:total>2</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: ActivityPub by Evan Prodromou ★★★★⯪]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-activitypub-by-evan-prodromou/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74414</id>
<updated>2026-08-31T18:53:48Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-01T11:34:18Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityPub"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[As part of my grant from NLnet to improve my Fediverse bot project, I'm spending time making sure I understand all the fundamentals of ActivityPub. The problem with Internet standards is they're scattered all over the place. Abandoned forums, half-maintained wikis, mailing lists with obscure rules, and monolithic blocks of text. Sometimes you just want one book which collates all the info and…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-activitypub-by-evan-prodromou/"><![CDATA[<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/activitypub.jpg" alt="Book cover with a parrot on it." width="200" class="alignleft">
<p>As part of <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/">my grant from NLnet</a> to improve my Fediverse bot project, I'm spending time making sure I understand all the fundamentals of ActivityPub. The problem with Internet standards is they're scattered all over the place. Abandoned forums, half-maintained wikis, mailing lists with obscure rules, and monolithic blocks of text.</p>
<p>Sometimes you just want one book which collates all the info and presents it in a consistent format. This is <em>nearly</em> that book.</p>
<p>Evan Prodromou has the unenviable task of making the whole ecosystem easy to understand. Thankfully he does that well. Things are logically laid out, there are comprehensive descriptions of even the most obscure parts of the spec, and it builds up nicely from the fundamentals. Oh, it's also surprisingly light-hearted.</p>
<blockquote><p>This principle is so important and long-winded that web architects have given it an acronym, HATEOAS. (We often pronounce it “HATE-ee-OH-us,” which sounds like a breakfast cereal nobody wants to eat. This is one reason web architects aren’t allowed to name breakfast cereals.)</p></blockquote>
<p>There's an excellent checklist for all the steps needed when building a minimal ActivityPub server.</p>
<p>As with all O'Reilly books, it is a beautifully typeset ePub. Even better, it was supplied DRM-free through Kobo.</p>
<p>About the only significant thing missing is details of how to verify RFC 9421 HTTP Signatures. That's understandable as they're pretty new, but a bit annoying as that's what a lot of servers are sending now. Similarly, there's a good write up of how to publish a poll, but not much about voting or publishing the results.</p>
<p>The "Far Horizons" chapter is particularly exciting - giving a speculative overview of what AP <em>could</em> be used for. I, for one, am particularly looking forward to putting my Internet Connected Fridge on social media 😆</p>
<p>Ultimately ActivityPub is a living and evolving set of standards. No book can possibly keep up with all the changes happening to it - but Evan does a brilliant job of bringing together all the moving parts and creating a coherent picture of the standard.</p>
<p>Highly recommended if you're interested in understanding the fundamentals of the Fediverse!</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74414&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<thr:total>1</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Review: Ruined Theatre's A Midsummer Night's Dream ★★★★☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/review-ruined-theatres-a-midsummer-nights-dream/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74461</id>
<updated>2026-08-31T09:51:55Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-31T11:34:08Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="shakespeare"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Theatre Review"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The whole point about Shakespeare is that you can set the play on an intergalactic space station or an American high school and keep virtually the rest unchanged. What happens when you transpose Dream from a proscenium arch to a living wood? As the sun sets over the trees, what sprites will come out to entertain us? Ruined Theatre brings a brilliant cast of seasoned West End performers to strut…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/review-ruined-theatres-a-midsummer-nights-dream/"><![CDATA[<p>The whole point about Shakespeare is that you can set the play on an intergalactic space station or an American high school and keep virtually the rest unchanged. What happens when you transpose Dream from a proscenium arch to a living wood? As the sun sets over the trees, what sprites will come out to entertain us?</p>
<p>Ruined Theatre brings a brilliant cast of seasoned West End performers to strut their hour among the ruins of Abbey Wood. Hey, gentrification has its benefits, OK?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/ruined_theatre/"><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/msnd.webp" alt="Poster for the show, an explosion of colour." width="1024" height="527" class="aligncenter"></a></p>
<p>I don't know how many times I've seen "Dream", but I know I've never seen it performed in an actual wood during summer. Booking the tickets a few weeks ago during England's heatwave, it sounded perfect. A warm, dusky evening, accompanied by færies and asses. The British weather, of course, had other ideas.</p>
<h2 id="the-show-must-go-on"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/review-ruined-theatres-a-midsummer-nights-dream/#the-show-must-go-on">The Show <em>Must</em> Go On</a></h2>
<p>The storm clouds were, as the bard wrote, heavy, black and, pendulous. Outside it may be raining, their makeup may be flaking, but everyone knows that Shakespeare is best played when defying the elements, right?</p>
<p>Even in the rain, it was great! Theseus and Hippolyta as selfie-obsessed poseurs made for a delightful start. Recasting Athens as Lesnes was a great touch. And then we were led through the woods. Rather than traipse us from scene to scene, we settled in to a clearing - bringing our own camping chairs with us - and watched the magic unfold.</p>
<p>Half the fun is in watching children and teenagers giggling at Hermia's rage and Bottom's overconfident bombast. But you can't go wrong with actors studiously ignoring the downpour and professing their (misplaced) love for each other. Honestly, who'd lie down in the mud just to make us chuckle? How many laughs can you ring out of a man with an ass's head? Lord, what fools these mortals be!</p>
<p>It is a fairly straightforward production. Aside from modern dress there wasn't much updating of the text other than trimming it down. The smoke machine might have been an eerie touch on a still summer's night, billowing around us, instead the wind took it before it had a chance to settle. The incidental music worked well - especially the intertextuality of Pyramus & Thisbe playing to the Romeo+Juliet soundtrack - but the speakers were over-driven and distorted. A small crimp on an otherwise fine production.</p>
<h2 id="reflections-in-a-dappled-pond"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/review-ruined-theatres-a-midsummer-nights-dream/#reflections-in-a-dappled-pond">Reflections in a dappled pond</a></h2>
<p>I'm fairly sure I once played Demetrius in a youth production. Or possibly Lysander. I know I got to kiss Helena. Or possibly Hermia. The mind plays funny tricks as you age. Some of the more dreary prose becomes light and airy. The laughs which felt forced come more easily. The gender politics a little more nuanced.</p>
<p>You can never go back, of course. But you will always remember your first stage kiss with Hermia (or possibly Helena) with great affection. Seeing Shakespeare again and again and again in a hundred different variations just helps you realise what a master storyteller he was.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74461&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<thr:total>1</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ActivityBot is the recipient of an NLnet grant!]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74406</id>
<updated>2026-08-30T10:32:47Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-30T11:34:55Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityBot"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityPub"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="fediverse"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NLnet"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Back in February, I applied for NLnet's Next Generation Zero grant. They were looking for Fediverse projects to help rewild the social media landscape. Or, as they describe it: Reclaim the public nature of the internet Small and medium-sized R&D grants between 5.000 and 50.000 euro, with the possibility to scale up. I run ActivityBot - it is a single-file ActivityPub server suitable for…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/"><![CDATA[<p>Back in February, I applied for <a href="https://nlnet.nl/NGI0/">NLnet's Next Generation Zero grant</a>. They were looking for Fediverse projects to help rewild the social media landscape. Or, as they describe it:</p>
<blockquote><p>Reclaim the public nature of the internet</p>
<p>Small and medium-sized R&D grants between 5.000 and 50.000 euro, with the possibility to scale up.</p></blockquote>
<p>I run <a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot">ActivityBot</a> - it is a single-file ActivityPub server suitable for launching automated accounts and designed as a learning tool for those who want to understand how the protocol works. Several people have told me how useful it is, but I haven't had the time to make it better. So I decided to stick in a last-minute application to the fund.</p>
<p>I really didn't know how much to apply for - or even if my project would be suitable for funding - so I cheekily asked for €10,000. After a few months of back-and-forth, I'm delighted to announce that I was successful!</p>
<p>In the spirit of openness, this blog post details how the NLnet grant process worked for me and what I'll be using the money for.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/NGI-logos.webp" alt="NLnet logo." width="900" height="200" class="aligncenter">
<h2 id="the-process"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#the-process">The Process</a></h2>
<p>The application was delightfully simple. Here's what it asked for, along with my answers. If you apply, please don't copy these verbatim; use your own words.</p>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Abstract : A single file server for ActivityPub. Designed for write-only bots. Allows any project to quickly and easily start publishing automated content to the Fediverse. Uses PHP, no other dependencies.
</li><li>Experience : I am the sole developer of Single File ActivityPub - https://gitlab.com/edent/activitypub-single-php-file<br>I was formerly the UK Government's representative to the W3C and have contributed to various ActivityPub projects and specifications.
</li><li>Amount : € 10000
</li><li>Use : The fund will be used for development, testing, promotional activity (including conference travel).<br>I anticipate this will fund 6 months of development. I have funded all previous development.<br>
</li><li>Comparison : Most ActivityPub services are complex. They implement a full specification and are designed for multi-user environments. Other projects allow reading and writing. ActivityBot is deliberately designed to be as simple as possible. A single file to upload, one user, publish only.<br>This will enable more projects to be able to instantly start publishing with low development cost and close to zero hosting cost.
</li><li>Challenges : Formal spec verification and a security audit will be the main technical challenges. The ActivityBot software has been running well for over a year. The funding will allow for better compatibility and security.
</li><li>Ecosystem : The project has mostly targeted individuals who want to run small bots. After further development, the project will engage with IoT providers, smaller publishers, open source projects who wish to publish updates, and other relevant parties.
</li></ul>
</blockquote>
<p>I was told there was intense competition. After a couple of months, I received word that I'd made it to the 2nd round.</p>
<p>What then followed was a <em>very</em> polite interrogation about my ideas, how I would develop the project, what I would use the money for, and what my AI usage policy was. They also wanted a breakdown of the main tasks - with the understanding that this would be a provisional document subject to change.</p>
<p>I was on <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/another-ridiculous-interrail-holiday-6379km-and-13-countries-over-7-weeks/">a train through Europe</a> when I wrote this. I don't claim it to be a brilliant document - but it got the job done!</p>
<blockquote><p>1. User Research
</p><p>Recruit 2 - 5 potential users. Offer an incentive (approx £20ea) to participate in a user research session. Study design will take 1 - 2 days. Each interview and write up to take 1 day. Consolidation and report 2 days.
</p><p>Total effort 3 - 4 weeks.
</p><p>2. Standards Research
</p><p>Participate in ActivityPub user communities and standardisation groups. Attend virtual conferences (or any local to the UK). Approx 1 day per week for 6 months.
</p><p>3. Test Driven Development
</p><p>Create modern test harness, write test suite, iterate design based on tests. Anticipated effort 2 days per week for approx 3 months.
</p><p>4. Security Testing
</p><p>Work with the community and security professionals to test the resultant code. This will use human testers and normal fuzzers - this will not use AI tools. Anticipated effort 2 days per week for approx 2 months.
</p><p>5. User Acceptance Testing
</p><p>Recruit 2 - 5 potential users (ideally different to the research participants). Offer an incentive (approx £20ea) to participate in a user acceptance session. Study design will take 1 - 2 days. Each interview and write up to take 1 day. Consolidation and report 2 days.
</p><p>Total effort 3 - 4 weeks.
</p><p>6. Updates Based on Research, Testing, and Security
</p><p>While it would be lovely to anticipate getting everything right first time, the reality is that changes will need to be made based on the findings of the above. This will take up the remainder of the allocated time.</p></blockquote>
<p>Again, there was a little more back and forth. But a few weeks later I was informed that I was at the final stage, pending review. And, a few weeks after that, I was told my project had been given the green light.</p>
<p>I was invited to a group call where the very friendly team discussed the practicalities of the grant, what it could and couldn't fund. I also met a bunch of other people who'd also won.</p>
<p>The final stage was writing a proper Memorandum of Understanding. With the help of one of the team (thanks Victoria!) I was able to turn my scrappy plan into something a bit more formal. The project tool NLnet uses made it easy to build up a plan and put € amounts by each task.</p>
<p>The idea is that I will invoice against the grant whenever I have completed a task or sub-task. Obviously I don't want to leave invoicing until the end of the project, but I also need to be mindful of the foreign exchange fees charged by my bank for receiving Euro payments.</p>
<h2 id="final-project-plan"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#final-project-plan">Final Project Plan</a></h2>
<p>This is the plan I submitted. It represents what I hope to accomplish and how I'll draw down on the grant. I suspect this will change as the months go on.</p>
<hr>
<p>ActivityBot is an Open Source project which aims to develop, maintain, and improve a minimum viable ActivityPub server in a single PHP file.</p>
<p>The project is run by Terence Eden (trading as @edent); a developer residing in England.</p>
<p>This project is expected to run for approximately 6 months. All of the deliverables will be openly licenced using either an OSI approved software licence or a Creative Commons licence.</p>
<p>The high-level aims of the project are for ActivityBot to be:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A fully compliant ActivityPub server, running in a single PHP file.</p></li>
<li><p>A teaching tool to help developers understand the practical aspects of creating an ActivityPub server.</p></li>
<li><p>A practical method of publishing automated messages to the Fediverse.</p></li>
<li><p>A promotional tool to show how simple and easy ActivityPub development can be.</p></li>
<li><p>A secure and usable tool written in modern PHP.</p></li>
<li><p>Written by humans, with no AI/LLM generated code.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In light of NLnet's non-profit status, costs assume a discounted rate of €330 per day (£280). Incidentals such as hardware, software, travel, or sundries will be charged at cost with receipts provided.</p>
<h2 id="prepare-for-initial-release"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#prepare-for-initial-release">Prepare for initial release</a></h2>
<p>Ensure that the project is in a suitable state for initial release and future development.</p>
<p>Deliverable: Updates published to GitLab.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>€495 Prepare initial release. Clarify licencing, solicit community engagement, include example usage.</p></li>
<li><p>€495 Standards Research. Collation of standards websites. Ensure code comments refer to specific standards. Publish blog post(s) about findings for others to reference.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="user-research"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#user-research">User Research</a></h2>
<p>Recruit up to 10 participants for a user-research study. Participants should represent the diversity of the Fediverse.</p>
<p>Investigate what participants want from a tool like ActivityPub. The project plan may be adapted following the results of this study.</p>
<p>Deliverable: Study plan and results will be published and given a Creative Commons licence. Changes based on the results will be pushed to GitLab.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>€660 Study Design and recruitment of participants (blog post published as deliverable).</p></li>
<li><p>€990 Two days of user interviews, write up and publish results as blog post.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="test-driven-development"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#test-driven-development">Test Driven Development</a></h2>
<p>Create a modern test harness, write test suite, iterate design based on tests.</p>
<p>Deliverable: Tests published to GitLab. Blog posts published about the process and results.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>€330 Set up test suite</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Write tests</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Fixes based on test results</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="security-testing"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#security-testing">Security Testing</a></h2>
<p>Working with NLnet's security offering, ensure that the project meets modern security requirements.</p>
<ul>
<li>€720 Work with security team to assess security risks and possible mitigations. Fixes based on security team feedback</li>
</ul>
<p>Deliverable: Updates published to GitLab. Blogs published about the process and results.</p>
<h2 id="user-acceptance-testing"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#user-acceptance-testing">User Acceptance Testing</a></h2>
<p>Recruit up to 10 participants for a user-acceptance study. Participants should represent the diversity of the Fediverse.</p>
<p>Investigate whether participants are able to use ActivityBot. See which aspects need improvement. The project plan may be adapted following the results of this study.</p>
<p>Deliverable: Study plan and results will be published and given a Creative Commons licence. Changes based on feedback will be published to GitLab.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>€660 Study Design and recruitment of participants (blog post published as deliverable).</p></li>
<li><p>€990 Two days of user interviews, write up and publish results as blog post.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="conferences-and-standards-work"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#conferences-and-standards-work">Conferences and Standards Work</a></h2>
<p>Open Source participation often depends on attending conferences, either in person or virtually. Getting involved in the standardisation process ensures that future versions of ActivityPub and associated standards will be suitable for the community.</p>
<p>Deliverables: Presentations material (slideware), speaking at conferences (may be published as video), conference outputs. Where possible, these will be available under a suitable Creative Commons licence.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>€700 Travel and accommodation to one EU conference</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Publishing blog posts about ActivityPub standards work.</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Publishing blog posts about ActivityPub standards work.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="final-release"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#final-release">Final release</a></h2>
<p>Creating a final release for this phase of the ActivityBot project. This will involve incorporating all feedback received so far, improving documentation, and publishing code.</p>
<p>Deliverable: Updates published to GitLab. Blog post written. Release announcements.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>€330 Phase 1: Process and implement feedback from users</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Phase 2: Bug fixes</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Phase 3: Features</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Phase 4: Bug fixes</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Phase 5: Features</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Phase 6: Remedial work</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Process and implement feedback from accessibility scan</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Final release</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="next-steps"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#next-steps">Next Steps</a></h2>
<p>I've already begun work on updating the code. If you'd like to get involved, or have suggestions or bug reports - please <a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot">take a look at ActivityBot on GitLab</a>.</p>
<p>I'll be putting out a call for user-research participants once I've had a chance to catch my breath 😆</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74406&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<thr:total>3</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[A simple "copy this code" button in JavaScript]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/a-simple-copy-this-code-button-in-javascript/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=69787</id>
<updated>2026-08-30T18:29:45Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-29T11:34:49Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HowTo"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HTML"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="javascript"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Next to all the code samples on this blog is a little "copy" button. That makes it easier to grab any of the code I've shared. The HTML and JS is delightfully simple: <button onclick="navigator.clipboard.writeText( this.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('code')[0].textContent );" title="Copy code" >⧉</button> The navigator.clipboard.writeText needs a user interaction to w…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/a-simple-copy-this-code-button-in-javascript/"><![CDATA[<p>Next to all the code samples on this blog is a little "copy" button. That makes it easier to grab any of the code I've shared.</p>
<p>The HTML and JS is delightfully simple:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><button
onclick="navigator.clipboard.writeText(
this.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('code')[0].textContent
);"
title="Copy code"
>⧉</button>
</code></pre>
<p>The <code>navigator.clipboard.writeText</code> needs a user interaction to work - so it is tied to a click on the button.</p>
<p>It takes some plaintext content. But how to get that content? My code samples look like this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><pre itemscope itemtype=https://schema.org/SoftwareSourceCode translate=no>
<button onclick="navigator.clipboard.writeText( this.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('code')[0].textContent );">⧉</button>
<span>
<img alt height=32 src=html.svg width=32>
<span itemprop=programmingLanguage> HTML</span>
</span>
<code itemprop=text>[…]</code>
</pre>
</code></pre>
<p>There are various ways I could get that <code><code></code> element:</p>
<ul>
<li>Give it a unique ID (but that might clutter the code, or conflict with something else).</li>
<li>Use <code>this.nextSibling.nextSibling</code> (but that might not work if the layout changes).</li>
<li>Use <code>this.lastChild.textContent</code> (but, again, depends on the layout staying the same).</li>
<li>Select based on <code>itemprop</code> (could make the code a bit longer).</li>
<li>Complex filtering on a NodeList (urgh).</li>
</ul>
<p>None of those are particularly bad <i lang="la">per se</i>, so I've chosen the method which makes most sense to me.</p>
<p>You can read more about my <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/09/class-warfare-can-i-eliminate-css-classes-from-my-html/">Classless Design</a>, and how I use <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/08/what-programming-language-is-in-this-code-block/">metadata to identify programming languages</a>, including whether <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/should-htmls-blocks-be-translated/">HTML's code blocks be translated</a>.</p>
<p>To let people know that it has worked, I've added a little <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLElement/popover">popover</a>.</p>
<p>Every piece of code has it's own <code>dialog</code> element with a unique id:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><dialog
id=pop
popover=hint>Copied JS to 📋</dialog>
</code></pre>
<p>No JavaScript is required to show the popover when the copy button is pressed:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><button popovertarget=pop popovertargetaction=show>
</code></pre>
<p>Closing the the popover hint doesn't require JS; clicking outside it will dismiss it. But a little scrap of JS on the button's <code>onclick</code> will make it disappear after a few seconds:</p>
<pre><code class="language-js">setTimeout(
function() {
document.getElementById("pop").hidePopover();
},
3000);
</code></pre>
<p>The browser's default is to place it in the middle of the screen.</p>
<p>Positioning the popup so it is in proximity to the button also requires CSS - no JS.</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">dialog[popover] {
inset: unset;
position: absolute;
position-area: top;
padding: .5em;
}
</code></pre>
<p>OK, that started out simple but got a bit more complex. Sorry!</p>
<p><ins datetime="2026-08-30T18:28:40+00:00">Update!</ins> It turns out there are some accessibility issues with this approach. See <a href="https://codepen.io/editor/ccwilcox/pen/01a04d8d-3691-7003-b8f6-df7439ecbd0a">these updates by Curtis Wilcox</a>.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=69787&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<thr:total>2</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA["iT woRKs BeTter in THe aPp!!"]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/it-works-better-in-the-app/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73004</id>
<updated>2026-08-25T07:14:14Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-28T11:34:46Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="android"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Apps"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="google"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="rant"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The monkey-punchers at Google never quite seem to finish any of their apps. There's always some useful bit of work left undone, or showstopping bug which remains unfixed, a thousand jagged edges as yet unsolved by the greatest minds of their generation. I wanted to subscribe to an events calendar. I had a URl. I had my Google™ Pixel® phone running the latest Android© 17 with an updated calendar a…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/it-works-better-in-the-app/"><![CDATA[<p>The monkey-punchers at Google never quite seem to finish any of their apps. There's always some useful bit of work left undone, or showstopping bug which remains unfixed, a thousand jagged edges as yet unsolved by the greatest minds of their generation.</p>
<p>I wanted to subscribe to an events calendar. I had a URl. I had my Google™ Pixel® phone running the latest Android© 17 with an updated calendar app. Is it possible to click on a calendar link and add it to my phone?</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>Here's what <a href="https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37100">Google has to say about the matter</a>:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Google-Calendar-Help.webp" alt="To subscribe to a new calendar, you must use a computer web browser. You can't subscribe to a calendar in the Google Calendar app for Android, iPhone, or iPad." width="920" height="760" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-73005">
<p>Really?!? I mean, fucking <em>really</em>????</p>
<p>This isn't the most complex software engineering task known to humanity. Add a + button. Pop open a text entry field. Validate. Save. Done. I'm sure even the shitty Gemini model can vibe code that in a couple of months, right?</p>
<p>Anyway, I opened calendar.google.com on my phone (using desktop mode), added the calendar, and it magically appeared in the app.</p>
<p>This is just pathetic.</p>
<p>In fairness, this isn't only a Google problem. Many companies want a permanent presence on your homescreen and think you're too thick to use your browser's bookmarks feature. Maybe they're right. Maybe an app <em>is</em> the only way to increase the engagement KPI sufficiently so Quinn in the leadership squad can hit their OKRs and get a bonus.</p>
<p>So they build an app. Or, rather, they half-arse it. I've lost count of the number of times I've been told "it's easier if you use our app" only to be unceremoniously punted back to the web when I try to do anything outside of the app's narrow strictures.</p>
<p>I was there in the early days of phone apps. I built stuff for Symbian, BlackBerry, even the bloody Palm Pilot! The central problem with apps has always been that they are hard to update. Every new bit of functionality - or even a new page - needs to be tested on a thousand devices. Once done, it takes an age to distribute to users. The only way to solve that is to have the app dynamically pull in new functionality from a remote resource.</p>
<p>At which point, you've reinvented the Web browser!</p>
<p>Sure, there are some things you can <em>only</em> do with an app (<a href="https://developer.chrome.com/blog/serial-over-bluetooth/">although browsers are catching up</a>), and having an icon on the homescreen is useful (which is <a href="https://favicon.io/tutorials/favicon-sizes/">easy for sites to add</a>), as is offline functionality (which, again, <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Service_Worker_API/Using_Service_Workers">is possible on the web</a>).</p>
<p>Oh.</p>
<p>If you want an app, fine. Do it. Just finish the job please!</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73004&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<thr:total>10</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon ★★★★☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/book-review-the-infinite-sadness-of-small-appliances-by-glenn-dixon/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73408</id>
<updated>2026-07-23T22:11:55Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-27T11:34:48Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Sci Fi"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[This is a charming and zeitgeisty novel which has a strong start and fulfils the promise of its blurb. What if your autonomous vacuum cleaner was sentient and was very sad about your wife's death? It pays obvious homage to the Brave Little Toaster, 100 Acre Woods, Beauty and The Beast, and hundred other what-if-your-toys-came-to-life stories. Along the way we discover what it is like to be a…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/book-review-the-infinite-sadness-of-small-appliances-by-glenn-dixon/"><![CDATA[<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Infinite-Sadness-of-Small-Appliances-1-532x815-1.jpg" alt="Book cover." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-73409">
<p>This is a charming and zeitgeisty novel which has a strong start and fulfils the promise of its blurb. What if your autonomous vacuum cleaner was sentient and was very sad about your wife's death?</p>
<p>It pays obvious homage to the Brave Little Toaster, 100 Acre Woods, Beauty and The Beast, and hundred other what-if-your-toys-came-to-life stories. Along the way we discover what it is like to be a transfem robo-hacker in domestic peril, why clocks are so bossy, and whether art is a cure for grief.</p>
<p>The world-building is a little basic (The Algorithm™ is managing humanity's decline) but the characters are well constructed. A little derivative, it's true. Nevertheless, it is a touching tale, told well, and with a decent pace.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73408&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/book-review-the-infinite-sadness-of-small-appliances-by-glenn-dixon/feed/atom/" thr:count="1"/>
<thr:total>1</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Thermal Master P3 Macro Lens ★★★★⯪]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74230</id>
<updated>2026-08-25T12:37:17Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-26T11:34:52Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="infrared"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="thermal"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="usb-c"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The good folks at Thermal Master have sent me their latest camera to review - and it is a bit different to all the others I've tried. Whereas previous cameras are good for bird watching, or wildlife spotting, or finding leaks at home - the P3 has a manual macro lens and is specifically designed for getting close-up and personal with your electronics. Yup! See just how hot your CPU is getting…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/"><![CDATA[<p>The good folks at Thermal Master have sent me their latest camera to review - and it is a bit different to all the others I've tried.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/p3-thermal-camera-close-up.webp" alt="A small black camera with gold accents. It is held in the fingertips." width="3212" height="2409" class="aligncenter">
<p>Whereas previous cameras are good for <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/gadget-review-thermal-master-dv2-infrared-birdwatching-scope/">bird watching</a>, or <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-t2-max-plug-in-thermal-camera/">wildlife spotting</a>, or <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-hikmicro-d02-thermal-camera/">finding leaks at home</a> - the P3 has a manual macro lens and is specifically designed for getting close-up and personal with your electronics.</p>
<p>Yup! See just how hot your CPU is getting 🥵</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pi.webp" alt="A thermal image of a raspberry pi. The CPU is in red while the rest of the board is green." width="1344" height="1008" class="aligncenter">
<p>Let's take it for a spin!</p>
<h2 id="unboxing"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#unboxing">Unboxing</a></h2>
<p>As well as the camera (which looks <em>gorgeous</em> with its gold trim) you get a carry-case, USB-C extension cable, and a Lightning converter for older iPhones.</p>
<p>The metal casing of the camera feels delightful and gives it a bit of heft. The focus wheel is reasonably stiff which makes it easier to position just right.</p>
<h2 id="sample-photos"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#sample-photos">Sample Photos</a></h2>
<p>These are the raw images taken directly from the app. I haven't resized or altered them in any way. What you see is what you get. Here's a hot-spot on a circuit board:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/hotspot.webp" alt="A circuit rendered in grey with a bright red line on it." width="1344" height="1008" class="aligncenter">
<p>The natural size of the images is 1344x1008. That's obviously upscaled from the sensor, but there's a surprisingly amount of detail in there.</p>
<p>Here's a small circuit board which has just booted up:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Circuit-long-shot.webp" alt="A small circuit. Two of the chips are noticeably hotter than the rest of the board." width="1344" height="1008" class="aligncenter">
<p>Where the P3 shines is when you twist the manual lens all the way down to macro. You can get about 2cm away from a surface and stay in focus.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Chip-close-up.webp" alt="Close up of a small chip. It is hot, the traces are visible in the background." width="1344" height="1008" class="aligncenter">
<p>Obviously don't get that close to something red hot!</p>
<p>Annoyingly, the images are uncompressed JPEG and weigh in around 6MB each. I've losslessly compressed these to WebP, which is about 10% of the size.</p>
<h3 id="colours"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#colours">Colours</a></h3>
<p>There are a variety of different colour palettes to play with. Some are more useful than others. Here's a mug of hot and delicious matcha rendered in the various colours:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Hot-Tea-Montage.webp" alt="Four photos of a mug. The colours show how hot the tea is." width="2688" height="2016" class="alignleft">
<p>Scrolling through the colours is a little difficult in the app (more on that later) but once you've found one you like, it stays that way for the photography session.</p>
<h3 id="exif"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#exif">EXIF</a></h3>
<p>Geolocation is taken from the phone - there's no GPS chip in the camera. You can refuse location permission to the app and it will work just fine.</p>
<p>That's just about all you get other than the time and the model name of <code>USB_IR_RS300_P2L</code> - the infrared details aren't recorded separately.</p>
<h2 id="video"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#video">Video</a></h2>
<p>The video doesn't upsample the image, it has a resolution of 504x672 playing at 25fps. Audio is recorded from the phone's microphone and is 64kbps mono. A minute of video is around 22MB. I've recompressed this one for the web.</p>
<p></p><div style="width: 620px;" class="wp-video"><video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-74230-4" width="620" height="465" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/p3focusvid.mp4?_=4"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/p3focusvid.mp4">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/p3focusvid.mp4</a></video></div><p></p>
<h2 id="the-app"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#the-app">The App</a></h2>
<p>It is, sadly, an inevitability that good hardware is always accompanied by a substandard app. The <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thermalmaster.p2telephoto">Thermal Master Android App</a> is the only way to access the camera. It has a relatively easy to use interface with plenty of options.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Camera-interface.webp" alt="Camera interface with janky UI." width="504" class="aligncenter">
<p>As you can see from the word "brightness" the UI is a little janky in places.</p>
<p>There's a decent amount of settings to fiddle with.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/more-settings.webp" alt="Settings screens with various temperature settings." width="504" class="aligncenter">
<p>You can also change which elements get displayed on the final image.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/settings.webp" alt="Settings to control the camera." width="504" class="aligncenter">
<p>Unfortunately, it is also a bit crash-happy. Most times I used it, the app would randomly close. It takes a little while to re-open thanks to a mandatory animation. So it gets a bit annoying. Flicking through some of the options can be slow and tedious. It also doesn't respect the phone's orientation, so images may be 90⁰ off what you expect.</p>
<p>The app updated the firmware on the camera, but didn't say what had changed.</p>
<p>It takes photos and videos, allows you to share them, and has a bunch of options to play with - but it does have a habit of crashing just when you're about to take the perfect shot. There is also zoom available, but it is digital only - so you're just making the pixels bigger rather than getting optically closer to the object you're scanning.</p>
<h2 id="linux-info"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#linux-info">Linux Info</a></h2>
<p>I tried plugging it in to a Linux laptop. It shows up as <code>3474:45a2 Thermal Master Technology Co., Ltd. P3</code> - but that's about it. There's no way I can find to access the thermal images.</p>
<p>To be fair, this is explicitly sold as an Android and iOS device. I'm hopeful someone will be able to reverse engineer it.</p>
<h2 id="cost-and-final-thoughts"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#cost-and-final-thoughts">Cost and Final Thoughts</a></h2>
<p>Thermal cameras are expensive. This will run you about <a href="https://link.amazon/B0aFBVuY9">£280 on Amazon</a> or about <a href="https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/products/p3-thermal-camera-for-iphone-and-android">£260 direct</a>. Readers of this blog can get 10% off using code <code>THERMALBF10</code></p>
<p>If you run a hackspace, this is a no-brainer. The ability to see hot-spots on your circuits is immediately useful. The detail is impressive, allowing you to see exactly what's causing problems.</p>
<p>If you're a hobbyist, this is definitely in the "ask Santa if you've been good" category. You'll find it handy on any small projects you have, or to diagnose faults with electrical equipment.</p>
<p>For non-macro uses, it's also pretty good. You might be better off with a dedicated device if you want to go <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/gadget-review-thermal-master-dv2-infrared-birdwatching-scope/">hunting wildlife</a> or doing <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-hikmicro-d02-thermal-camera/">home surveys</a>.</p>
<p>The only fly in the ointment is the app. While somewhat customisable, it does repeatedly crash and it isn't the easiest to use or set up. I found that pretty frustrating and have fed back the problem to the developers. I appreciate it saving high quality images - but a PNG or lossless WebP would be easier to work with than massive JPGs.</p>
<p>Ultimately, this is an excellent thermal camera. It looks lush, it is customisable, the images are high quality, and the macro-lens is surprisingly useful.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74230&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Theatre Review: Cats at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre ★★★★☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/theatre-review-cats-at-regents-park-open-air-theatre/"/>
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74380</id>
<updated>2026-09-01T22:02:57Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-25T11:34:22Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="musical"/>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Theatre Review"/>
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Cats is so silly! In the olden days, after a wild animal was slaughtered, the tribe's shaman would wear the skin and re-enact the hunt. As he became one with the beast, the people slowly understood the ways of nature. Cats is a similarly spiritual experience wherein we watch androgynous sylphs gyrate across the stage and believe (if only for a moment) that the human has become feline, all in…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/theatre-review-cats-at-regents-park-open-air-theatre/"><![CDATA[<p>Cats is so <em>silly!</em></p>
<p>In the olden days, after a wild animal was slaughtered, the tribe's shaman would wear the skin and re-enact the hunt. As he became one with the beast, the people slowly understood the ways of nature.</p>
<p>Cats is a similarly spiritual experience wherein we watch androgynous sylphs gyrate across the stage and believe (if only for a moment) that the human has become feline, all in service of better understanding the mysteries of our moggies.</p>
<p>Does there need to be so many sequins? So much dry ice? Such a quantity of pyrotechnics?</p>
<p>No, probably not. But it all adds up to a spectacular which will keep you grinning.</p>
<p>The deficiencies in Cats are somewhat inherent. The scrapbook story doesn't make a lick of sense. It is more like a variety show than musical theatre. The lyrics are, at times, utterly asinine. The music soars, until someone starts playing what sounds like a genuine 1980s Casio keyboard - and all you can hear is squelch.</p>
<p>But then Gary Wilmot (!!!) comes on as Gus and all is forgiven on a haze of metatextual glory.</p>
<p>The choreography and dancing are exemplary. The singing occasionally gets muddled but is mostly delightful. The stage is perfect - the wind blowing through the trees and the moon gently rising only helps to accentuate the atmosphere.</p>
<p>The pre-show is good. As well as a variety of food stalls, patrons are encouraged to bring their own food and drink for a picnic. There are plenty of tables and a couple of selfie points.</p>
<p>The programme isn’t horrendous at £6 but still feels like it contains more advertising than content. The queues for the loos were outrageously long and the stalls weren't particularly clean.</p>
<p>There's nothing to do post-show except trudge back through the park. The selfie point is still illuminated if you want to queue for that. Even the t-shirt sales stopped after the interval.</p>
<p>I first saw Cats in the West End some time in the 1980s as a child and loved it. Afterwards my parents asked if I wanted to see a ballet or an opera next. "Eurgh! No! <em>Boring!</em>" I said. They politely informed me that I'd just seen both in one show and my juvenile mind was blown.</p>
<p>A few decades later I saw Cats on Broadway - shortly before it closed, I think. The C90 cassette they used to play the music was warbling like a demented bird and the sets looked equally tired. Despite the half empty auditorium, the cast attacked the songs with vigour. I still loved it.</p>
<p>And, today, I still had goosebumps. Maybe it was the unseasonable chill in the air, maybe it was the moonlight, or maybe it was the magic of Cats!</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74380&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<title type="text">Terence Eden’s Blog</title>
<subtitle type="text">Regular nonsense about tech and its effects 🙃</subtitle>
<updated>2026-09-18T06:57:46Z</updated>
<rights>© Terence Eden. 🄯 CC BY. See https://shkspr.mobi/blog/copyright-and-copyleft/</rights>
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<name>Terence Eden</name>
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<title type="html"><![CDATA[Theatre Review: The School for Wives - at Riverside Studios ★★★★★]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/theatre-review-the-school-for-wives/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=75485</id>
<updated>2026-09-18T06:57:46Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-18T11:34:51Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Theatre Review" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The Flywheel theatre company are reviving the rep tradition by having five actors perform five different plays in five weeks. Their interpretation of Molière's classic is gaudy and hilarious. Even the lighting cues are funny! It is fair to say that School for Wives isn't exactly an uncontroversial play. The plot basically boils down to "Women! Eh? You can't live with them, you can't easily groom …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/theatre-review-the-school-for-wives/"><![CDATA[<p>The <a href="https://flywheeltheatre.com/">Flywheel theatre company</a> are reviving the rep tradition by having five actors perform five different plays in five weeks. Their interpretation of Molière's classic is gaudy and hilarious. Even the lighting cues are funny!</p>
<p>It is fair to say that School for Wives isn't exactly an uncontroversial play. The plot basically boils down to "Women! Eh? You can't live with them, you can't easily groom them from the age of four and keep them imprisoned so they become perfect submissives."</p>
<p>Is the fear of cuckoldry funny? Is it OK to laugh at a jealous rage which leads to controlling behaviour? Should we find joy in the emotional torment of our characters?</p>
<p>Yes! Yes! And yes!</p>
<p>The cast squeeze every last drop of humour from the script, the direction is nimble, and the play has been edited down to a more manageable 75ish minutes (plus extra time for corpsing and applause).</p>
<p>A simply joyous production which left us grinning throughout.</p>
<p>You can <a href="https://riversidestudios.co.uk/whats-on/uqe-rep-radical-classical/">see all their upcoming shows</a> - which are very reasonably priced.</p>
<h2 id="pre-show-and-post-show"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/theatre-review-the-school-for-wives/#pre-show-and-post-show">Pre-Show and Post-Show</a></h2>
<p>I'm a believer in making the entire visit to the theatre a special experience. Riverside Studio, Hammersmith is a great venue with generous foyer space and more than adequate toilet provision. Not a given in London theatres!</p>
<p>The theatre programme is digital and provided via QR code. No £6 rip off for a booklet full of adverts here.</p>
<p>As we walked in, the cast were dotted around the stage an in the auditorium doing various bits of business which made for a jolly start.</p>
<p>Post curtain call there was a lovely speech from the cast thanking us for attending and letting us know about their future projects. Nothing wrong with a piece of shameless advertising to a captive audience 😄</p>
<p>Overall an excellent theatrical experience.</p>
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<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[How to get a DOI for your blog posts]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74717</id>
<updated>2026-09-16T13:04:19Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-16T11:34:28Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="academia" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="citation" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="DOI" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HTML" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="WordPress" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Each new post on this blog now has a Digital Object Identifier. This post looks at the how and the why of getting one, whether it is useful, and any issues you might experience if you go down this path. Table of ContentsBackgroundGetting a DOI the easy wayLet's Go Rogue!Automatic Submission of New ContentManual Submission of Old ContentGetting the DOIGenerating your own DOIMaking the DOI…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/"><![CDATA[<p>Each new post on this blog now has a <a href="https://www.doi.org/">Digital Object Identifier</a>. This post looks at the how and the why of getting one, whether it is useful, and any issues you might experience if you go down this path.</p>
<p></p><nav role="doc-toc"><menu><li><h2 id="table-of-contents"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#table-of-contents">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#background">Background</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#getting-a-doi-the-easy-way">Getting a DOI the easy way</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#lets-go-rogue">Let's Go Rogue!</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#automatic-submission-of-new-content">Automatic Submission of New Content</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#manual-submission-of-old-content">Manual Submission of Old Content</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#getting-the-doi">Getting the DOI</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#generating-your-own-doi">Generating your own DOI</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#making-the-doi-discoverable-in-html">Making the DOI discoverable in HTML</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#downsides">Downsides</a><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#loss-of-control">Loss of Control</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#tracking-citations">Tracking Citations</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#licencing">Licencing</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#verification">Verification</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#excluding-content">Excluding Content</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#deleting-content">Deleting Content</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#affiliations">Affiliations</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#more-vanity">More Vanity</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#humility">Humility</a></li></menu></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#is-it-worth-it">Is it worth it?</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>
<h2 id="background"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#background">Background</a></h2>
<p>A few years ago, I documented <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/09/how-to-add-issn-metadata-to-a-web-page/">how to to get an International Standard Serial Number for a blog</a>. An ISSN uniquely identifies a publication, which makes it easier for scholars and researchers to reference it. Getting one depends a little on whether a national institution is willing to accept your application.</p>
<p>Similarly, I also got an <a href="https://orcid.org/">ORCiD</a> which is used to uniquely identify researchers. That means it is possible to disambiguate "Einstein, A" the eminent physicist from "Einstein, A" a lovely chap called Allen who researches invasive slugs in Paraguay.</p>
<p>My blog posts are <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/citations/">regularly referenced in academic papers, books, conferences, and news articles</a>. The way most scholars cite a work is using a Digital Object Identifier. The idea is that a DOI is a unique and persistent code which can be used to refer to a specific article. If I ever stop using <code>shkspr.mobi</code> as my domain, or re-order my website, the DOI can be redirected to the article's new home. Future scholars will be able to follow a reference more easily than hoping <code>https://example.com/article123</code> still exists.</p>
<h2 id="getting-a-doi-the-easy-way"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#getting-a-doi-the-easy-way">Getting a DOI the easy way</a></h2>
<p>If you're an academic, your institution will have a paid subscription to a service which will "mint" a new DOI for all your articles.</p>
<p>If not, you can upload your paper to a service like arXiv and they'll mint a DOI for you. That's how <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/04/i-got-a-doi-from-arxiv-for-my-msc/">I got a DOI for my MSc</a>.</p>
<p>What about people who aren't traditional academics or who want to keep their content on their own website? There are a variety of paid-for services, some of which charge an eye-watering amount of money to create a DOI for you.</p>
<p>Or, there's Rogue Scholar.</p>
<h2 id="lets-go-rogue"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#lets-go-rogue">Let's Go Rogue!</a></h2>
<p>So what is <a href="https://rogue-scholar.org/overview">Rogue-Scholar.org</a>?</p>
<blockquote><p>Rogue Scholar is an open access archive and registry for science blogs. It preserves science blog posts, makes them citable via DOI, and ensures their long-term discoverability alongside formal scholarly literature.</p></blockquote>
<p>Nifty! My blog <em>just about</em> sneaks in to their "Computer Science" category. They require you to have a full-text feed of your posts. You also need to licence your content to them as Creative Commons Attribution.</p>
<p>Applying wasn't too difficult. I filled in their form, then jumped into their Slack. We had a bit of a discussion about what I needed to change in order to be approved.</p>
<p>A few days later, I was live at <a href="https://rogue-scholar.org/communities/shkspr/">https://rogue-scholar.org/communities/shkspr/</a></p>
<p>Which means, if you visit <a href="https://doi.org/10.59350/395ha-fss97">https://doi.org/10.59350/395ha-fss97</a> you'll be redirected to one of my blog posts.</p>
<h2 id="automatic-submission-of-new-content"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#automatic-submission-of-new-content">Automatic Submission of New Content</a></h2>
<p>Rogue Scholar automatically polls my feed, ingests my content, and then mints a DOI for every new post they encounter. There's nothing manual I have to do.</p>
<p>That's all very well for new content. But I have posts on here going <em>way</em> back to 1986. How can they get discovered and DOI'd?</p>
<h2 id="manual-submission-of-old-content"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#manual-submission-of-old-content">Manual Submission of Old Content</a></h2>
<p>By default, Rogue Scholar ingested the 40 most recent posts from my blog. Actually, that's not quite accurate. It got the 40 most recently <em>updated</em> posts. As I'd recently edited a few older posts, they got themselves a DOI.</p>
<p>I don't know how often Rogue Scholar polls my blog's feed. In my experiments, adding a new post resulted in a DOI being issued a couple of minutes after publication.</p>
<p>At the moment, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to add older content. I'm working on a WordPress plugin to retroactively add DOIs and make them discoverable.</p>
<h2 id="getting-the-doi"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#getting-the-doi">Getting the DOI</a></h2>
<p>The Rogue Scholar API is based on <a href="https://inveniordm.docs.cern.ch/reference/metadata/">InvenioDRM</a>.</p>
<p>Retrieving the DOI via their API requires you to make an unauthenticated request to:</p>
<p><code>https://rogue-scholar.org/api/records?q=metadata.identifiers.identifier%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fwhatever%22</code></p>
<p>That's your URl, wrapped in quotes, and the whole thing URl encoded. <a href="https://rogue-scholar.org/api/records?q=metadata.identifiers.identifier%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fshkspr.mobi%2Fblog%2F2026%2F09%2Fthe-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams%2F%22">Visit this example</a>. You can also use your post's GUID.</p>
<p>That gets back a rather detailed JSON document. The DOI is noted in several locations, but is easiest to find in hits→hits→0→links→doi</p>
<p>It's important to note that <a href="https://rogue-scholar.org/help/versioning">Rogue Scholar generates <em>two</em> DOIs for your post</a>. One for the post, another for the specific version of the post. If you update a post, it should get a new DOI. That way someone can refer to the post where you said your favourite band was the Spice Girls and not the edited one where you changed it to say B*Witched.</p>
<p>Alternatively, you can use the CrossRef search if you want to look at HTML results. See <a href="https://search.crossref.org/search/works?q=https%3A%2F%2Fshkspr.mobi%2Fblog%2F2026%2F09%2Fthe-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams%2F&from_ui=yes">this CrossRef example</a>.</p>
<p>As an aside, once you have the DOI, it's possible to create a <em>short</em> DOI at <a href="https://shortdoi.org/">https://shortdoi.org/</a> - I'll be honest, I've never seen these in the wild and <a href="https://www.crossref.org/display-guidelines/#shortdoi">they are not recommended for use</a>. Nevertheless, the API is pretty simple - <a href="https://shortdoi.org/10.59350/395ha-fss97?format=json">https://shortdoi.org/10.59350/395ha-fss97?format=json</a> will return a shorter URl like <a href="https://doi.org/rnjj">https://doi.org/rnjj</a></p>
<p>Finally, there's a "vanity" DOI for the entire blog. In my case <a href="https://doi.org/10.59350/shkspr"><code>10.59350/shkspr</code></a>.</p>
<h2 id="generating-your-own-doi"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#generating-your-own-doi">Generating your own DOI</a></h2>
<p>Your blog posts can self-attest a DOI - when Rogue Scholar sees that in your Atom feed, it will register it on your behalf.</p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/inveniosoftware/base32-lib/blob/master/base32_lib/base32.py">The code for generating a valid DOI</a> is relatively straightforward.</p>
<ul>
<li>Generate a random number between 0 and 1,099,511,627,775.</li>
<li>Convert it to a Base 32 string.</li>
<li>Add a two character checksum to the end.</li>
<li>Prefix it with <code>10.59350/</code></li>
</ul>
<p>Your new DOI can be made discoverable in your Atom feed by adding this to a post:</p>
<pre><code class="language-xml"><id>https://doi.org/10.59350/12345-67890</id>
</code></pre>
<p>Shortly after publication, it will be "minted" and be linkable.</p>
<h2 id="making-the-doi-discoverable-in-html"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#making-the-doi-discoverable-in-html">Making the DOI discoverable in HTML</a></h2>
<p>How do you semantically add a DOI to your HTML's metadata? By far the most popular citation manager is <a href="https://www.zotero.org/">Zotero</a>. They maintain <a href="https://www.zotero.org/support/dev/exposing_metadata">a page describing the metadata they look for</a>. According to them, this needs to be in your page's <code><head></code>:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><meta name=citation_doi content=10..../...>
</code></pre>
<p>They don't say whether it requires the <code>https://doi.org/</code> prefix - but looking at <a href="https://www.mendeley.com/guides/information-for-publishers">Mendeley</a> and <a href="https://help.altmetric.com/en/articles/9806913">AltMetric</a>, it appears not.</p>
<p>To use <a href="https://www.dublincore.org/specifications/dublin-core/dcmi-terms/terms/identifier/">DublinCore</a>, the <a href="https://help.altmetric.com/en/articles/9803009">AltMetric recommended syntax</a> is:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><meta name=DC.Identifier content=doi:10..../...>
</code></pre>
<p>Within the HTML, there's no specific Microdata syntax, but <a href="https://schema.org/ScholarlyArticle#eg-0399">Schema.org recommends the <code>sameAs</code> property</a>. Something like:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><a itemprop="sameAs" href="https://doi.org/10.../...">10.../...</a>
</code></pre>
<h2 id="downsides"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#downsides">Downsides</a></h2>
<p>OK, it isn't all flowers and kittens. There are a few things you ought to know before proceeding down this path.</p>
<h3 id="loss-of-control"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#loss-of-control">Loss of Control</a></h3>
<p>For the IndieWeb / ReDeCentralise / Self-Hosing crowd, it's important to realise that DOI is a somewhat centralised services. Yes, <a href="https://www.doi.org/the-community/existing-registration-agencies/">lots of different orgs can mint a DOI</a>, but as each ID has to be globally unique, doi.org sits in the middle as a benevolent gatekeeper. If DOI.org went bust or became evil, all the <code>https://doi.org/10....</code> links would die. There are many other services like <a href="https://datacite.org/">DataCite</a> and <a href="https://www.crossref.org/">CrossRef</a> which can resolve a DOI - but it might turn out to be a bit fragile.</p>
<p>Similarly, if Rogue Scholar ever goes <em>properly</em> rogue then they can redirect my DOI to wherever they like. That level of control is useful if my site disappears; they can redirect to an archive. But if they get hacked, it could redirect somewhere unsavoury.</p>
<p>Having my site's content backed-up somewhere is useful but, again, without control or <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#verification">verification</a> I worry that I might not be able to effectively manage it.</p>
<p>I use CSS to control the layout of my work but once it is archived as plain HTML or PDF, that formatting can disappear.</p>
<p>I don't know what will happen if I ever change DOI issuer.</p>
<h3 id="tracking-citations"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#tracking-citations">Tracking Citations</a></h3>
<p>I have a Google Scholar alert set up for my domain <code>shkspr.mobi</code>. That picks up people who make reference to this site. Hurrah! But, if they use <code>https://doi.org/10....</code> rather than <code>https://shkspr.mobi/...</code> I won't get alerted.</p>
<p>Luckily, <a href="https://doi.org/10.53731/zyg15-qv911">Rogue Scholar offer Citation Tracking</a> which <em>should</em> autopopulate their API with any backlinks from other sources. I'm yet to discover how that works in practice. I don't think it will give me an email alert though.</p>
<p>On a vanity issue, the DOI metadata shows the publisher of my posts as Rogue Scholar's parent organisation - <a href="https://front-matter.de/">Front Matter</a>.</p>
<p>If you look at the API response from <a href="https://api.crossref.org/works/10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69">https://api.crossref.org/works/10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69</a> you'll see something like:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"message": {
"institution": [
{
"name": "Front Matter"
}
],
"group-title": "Terence Eden's Blog",
"publisher": "Front Matter",
"DOI": "10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69",
"author": [
{
"ORCID": "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9265-9069",
"given": "Terence",
"family": "Eden"
}
]
}
}
</code></pre>
<p>Some citation managers will show the publication name as "Terence Eden's Blog" - others as "Front Matter".</p>
<h3 id="licencing"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#licencing">Licencing</a></h3>
<p>Rogue Scholar has a hard requirement that all content be Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY). There's no ability (yet) to choose different licences. Personally, I prefer Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA). I've allowed Rogue Scholar to use CC BY for my work which, of course, means if you get my posts through them you are also allowed to use CC BY.</p>
<p>If you get my work through my own website it is the slightly more restrictive CC BY-SA.</p>
<p>Does that make a practical difference? I don't know.</p>
<h3 id="verification"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#verification">Verification</a></h3>
<p>A DOI is persistent. That doesn't mean it is verifiable. If this blog ever goes offline the DOI will redirect to an archive - but there's no real way to tell that the text in that archive is accurate. There's no hashing or cryptographic signing. Yes, those things are rather brittle, but I think it would be helpful for the long-term integrity of citation chains.</p>
<h3 id="excluding-content"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#excluding-content">Excluding Content</a></h3>
<p>Suppose there is content you <em>don't</em> want to receive a DOI, what do you do? You'll need to generate an RSS feed which excludes those specific posts.</p>
<p>For WordPress, you can do something like <code>/feed/atom/?cat=-1234</code> to exclude posts which have a category with the ID of 1234.</p>
<p>There are some filters on the Rogue Scholar site which you might also be able to use.</p>
<h3 id="deleting-content"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#deleting-content">Deleting Content</a></h3>
<p>I don't think there's a way to delete or retract content from Rogue Scholar's DOI system yet. If you accidentally publish something you didn't mean to, it'll live on in the archives forever.</p>
<h3 id="affiliations"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#affiliations">Affiliations</a></h3>
<p>My ORCiD lists where I worked on certain dates. Initially, Rogue Scholar linked those to blog posts I wrote during my employment. However, all my posts were written in a personal capacity. It is possible to get those affiliations removed if they are inaccurate.</p>
<h3 id="more-vanity"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#more-vanity">More Vanity</a></h3>
<p>I initially tried generating DOIs like <code>edent-00f47</code> - although it's a valid Base 32 string with a checksum, it carries semantic meaning (my name) so shouldn't really be used. Ah well! Back to random strings.</p>
<h3 id="humility"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#humility">Humility</a></h3>
<p>Is this a valid use of the DOI ecosystem? A surprising number of my posts <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/citations">have been referenced in academic papers</a> - but surely not <em>all</em> of my posts are worthy of getting a DOI? The problem is, I don't know when <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/06/how-i-became-leonardo-da-vinci-on-the-blockchain/">a shitpost</a> will hit the zeitgeist and become quoted in papers, books, and articles.</p>
<p>It feels a bit self-indulgent and a little pretentious to mint a new DOI for every previous and future post on this site. But it isn't like the DOI system is running out of space, is it?</p>
<h2 id="is-it-worth-it"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#is-it-worth-it">Is it worth it?</a></h2>
<p>For me? Yes.</p>
<p>I think it is important that <a href="https://doi.org/10.64000/552ec-b8g03">scholarly blogs are properly referenced</a>. True, not <em>all</em> of my posts are cutting-edge research - but I'm always surprised which ones end up in someone's thesis or become part of a set-text.</p>
<p>I'm excited to see if this leads to an increase <em>or</em> decrease in my blog's visibility in academia.</p>
<p>If you have strong feelings either way about DOIs and/or blogs, please drop a comment in the box.</p>
<p>You may cite this post using <a href="https://doi.org/10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69">https://doi.org/10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69</a> 😃</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74717&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
<link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#comments" thr:count="6" />
<link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/feed/atom/" thr:count="6" />
<thr:total>6</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[[RSS Club] Sorry for breaking your feed readers!]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/rss-club-sorry-for-breaking-your-feed-readers/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=75570</id>
<updated>2026-09-15T07:37:02Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-15T11:34:26Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="RSS Club" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[You're part of the Groovy Gang because you're a member of RSS Club! These posts are only available on my RSS and Atom feed. This post is not available in the shops, on the web, via FTP, or anywhere else. So, yeah, sorry! My last post apparently broke some people's RSS readers. I had a code sample which said ＜marquee＞ - despite being properly escaped, some feed readers double-decoded it and tur…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/rss-club-sorry-for-breaking-your-feed-readers/"><![CDATA[<p><mark>You're part of the Groovy Gang because you're a member of <a href="https://daverupert.com/rss-club/">RSS Club</a>! These posts are only available on my RSS and Atom feed. This post is <strong>not</strong> available in the shops, on the web, via FTP, or anywhere else.</mark></p>
<p>So, yeah, sorry! My last post apparently broke some people's RSS readers. I had a code sample which said <code>＜marquee＞</code> - despite being properly escaped, some feed readers double-decoded it and turned it into a literal marquee element!</p>
<p><video width="270" height="585" muted="" autoplay="" loop="" style="display:inline" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/feedscroll2.webm"></video><video width="270" height="600" muted="" autoplay="" loop="" style="display:inline" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/feedscroll.webm"></video?</video></p>
<p>With thanks to Neil and CaféHaine for the videos.</p>
<p>I got several reports that people's readers started scrolling like that and they'd <a href="https://github.com/nextcloud/news-android/issues/1719">raised issues with their feed reader</a>. Ooops! Sorry!</p>
<p>That said, as far as I can tell, the feed <em>is</em> escaped correctly and shouldn't cause problems.</p>
<p>Here's the code (I've added in some spaces to ensure it doesn't cause any issues):</p>
<pre><code class="language-xml"><content type="html">
<![CDATA[< p> Lorem ipsum <code>& lt;marquee&gt;</code> dolor sed.</p>
</code></pre>
<p>So what's going on? The feed is generated by the latest version of WordPress which <a href="https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/99e2de78a828d4fe472e37cf25fb0b2173e65c86/src/wp-includes/feed-atom.php#L89">uses <code>CDATA</code> to wrap HTML</a> in a feed.</p>
<p>There is a <a href="https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/9992">17 year old discussion about whether this is conformant</a> on the WordPress issue tracker with the conclusion that it isn't incorrect and seems to work fine.</p>
<p>Is it OK? Is my feed broken or are a bunch of readers non-compliant? Let's go back to basics. The Atom spec says</p>
<blockquote><p>If the value of "type" is "html", the content of atom:content MUST NOT contain child elements and SHOULD be suitable for handling as <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4287/#ref-HTML">HTML</a>. The HTML markup MUST be escaped; for example, "<code><br></code>" as "<code>&lt;br></code>".</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4287/#section-4.1.3.3">RFC 4287: The Atom Syndication Format</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Hmmmm. That would indicate that ampersand-l-t-semicolon should be interpreted as a less-than sign.</p>
<p>However, the whole thing is wrapped in <code><![CDATA[</code> which according to the XML spec means:</p>
<blockquote><p>CDATA sections may occur anywhere character data may occur; they are used to escape blocks of text containing characters which would otherwise be recognized as markup.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-cdata-sect">Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition)</a></p></blockquote>
<p>So I <em>think</em> that a sensible feed-reader should see the CDATA block, grab the HTML inside it, and display it as-is. No need to unescape anything.</p>
<p>That said, I'll see if I can change my feed to <em>not</em> need this hybrid format. There's <a href="https://waspdev.com/articles/2026-05-11/avoid-using-cdata-in-rss">a brilliant blog post by Suren Enfiajyan</a> which makes the case that regular escaping is <em>probably</em> good enough.</p>
<p>If you've experienced this bug - or think that I'm generating my feeds in the wrong way - <a href="https://edent.tel">please get in touch</a>.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=75570&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
<link rel="replies" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/rss-club-sorry-for-breaking-your-feed-readers/#comments" thr:count="0" />
<link rel="replies" type="application/atom+xml" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/rss-club-sorry-for-breaking-your-feed-readers/feed/atom/" thr:count="0" />
<thr:total>0</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Esoteric HTML - ismap vs CSS]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/esoteric-html-ismap-vs-css/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73143</id>
<updated>2026-09-14T11:35:05Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-14T11:34:53Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="css" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HTML5" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="webdev" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The HTML specification is old and, while there is beauty in longevity, there's an inevitable build-up of boondoggles and baggage. Some elements like <marquee> have sadly been consigned to the dustbin of history - but there are still vestigial attributes just waiting to trip up the unwary. If you're young, you may never have heard of Image Maps. Back in the bad-old-days, there weren't many good…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/esoteric-html-ismap-vs-css/"><![CDATA[<p>The HTML specification is old and, while there is beauty in longevity, there's an inevitable build-up of boondoggles and baggage. Some elements like <code><marquee></code> have sadly been consigned to the dustbin of history - but there are still vestigial attributes just waiting to trip up the unwary.</p>
<p>If you're young, you may never have heard of Image Maps. Back in the bad-old-days, there weren't many good options for laying out a pixel-perfect HTML page. One option was to draw your website in an image editor, load it into a website <em>as an image</em>, and then make certain areas of the image clickable.</p>
<p>One way to do this was to add the attribute <code>ismap</code>. It is <em>only</em> valid on <code><img></code> elements which are inside an <code><a href=…></code> element. Like so:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><a href="click.php">
<img ismap src="img.png" width="100" height="100">
</a>
</code></pre>
<p>When you click on that image, you don't go to <code>click.php</code> - instead you go to <code>click.php?12,34</code> where the two numbers represent the X and Y coordinates of <em>where</em> on the image you clicked. That's brilliant! Your server knows the size of the image - so if you click on the top half it can take you to one place, and if you click in the lower left corner you can go to another.</p>
<p>Brilliant!</p>
<p>Except, of course, there's a catch!</p>
<p>The <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/embedded-content.html#dom-img-ismap">specification of the <code><img></code> element</a> is a little obtuse. Merely saying:</p>
<blockquote><p>The ismap attribute […] indicates by its presence that the element provides access to a server-side image map. This affects how events are handled on the corresponding a element.</p></blockquote>
<p>Instead, the details are in <a href="https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/links.html#links-created-by-a-and-area-elements">4.6.2 Links created by a and area elements</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>set x to the distance in CSS pixels from the left edge of the image to the location of the click, and set y to the distance in CSS pixels from the top edge of the image to the location of the click.</p></blockquote>
<p>Did you notice the gotcha?</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>the distance in CSS pixels</strong></p></blockquote>
<p>This is <em>not</em> based on the actual size of the image! It is based on the layout</p>
<p>Let's suppose you have an image which is 100 x 100 pixels. It is added to the website like this:</p>
<p><code><img src="100.png" width="100" height="100" ismap></code></p>
<p>Click on this image and you'll see that your X and Y positions are based on the natural size of the image.</p>
<p><a href="."><img src="https://placekittens.com/100/100" width="100" height="100" ismap="" alt="A cute kitten"></a></p>
<p>But suppose you change the HTML to this:</p>
<p><code><img src="100.png" width="500" height="20" ismap></code></p>
<p>When you click on the image, the X & Y positions are <em>not</em> based on the actual size of the image; they're based on its layout size.</p>
<p><a href="."><img src="https://placekittens.com/100/100" width="500" height="20" ismap="" style="height:20px" alt="A distorted image of a kitten"></a></p>
<p>Suppose you use CSS to resize the image:</p>
<p><code><img src="100.png" width="100" height="100" ismap style="width:7em;height:30ch"></code></p>
<p><a href="."><img src="https://placekittens.com/100/100" width="100" height="100" ismap="" style="width:7em;height:30ch" alt="A distorted image of a kitten"></a></p>
<p>The X and Y aren't based on the image's natural size, nor their declared height and width. Instead they're based on the size on screen determined by CSS.</p>
<p>And, of course, that's not necessarily <em>your</em> CSS! If the user has turned off style sheets, supplied their own, or uses an accessibility tool - the CSS size of the image might be <em>vastly</em> different from what you intended.</p>
<p>If you have an image 100 pixels wide and you want people clicking on the left half to go to a different location to the people clicking on the right half, you might have server-side code which says:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_">if X < 50 :
return page1.html
else
return page2.html
</code></pre>
<p>But if the CSS has stretched, shrunk, skewed, or distorted the image then you have <em>no way of knowing</em> where the user clicked.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, this behaviour is the same in all major browsers.</p>
<p>Basically, what I'm saying is, don't use <code>ismap</code> unless you're absolutely sure that there will be no CSS shenanigans. Even then, it probably isn't worth the risk.</p>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[The expectations of privacy in driverless cars]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-expectations-of-privacy-in-driverless-cars/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73168</id>
<updated>2026-09-13T11:33:41Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-13T11:34:13Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="AI" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="automation" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="car" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="privacy" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="robots" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Do riders in autonomous vehicles think that they are in a private space? Here's a fascinating story from California where an robotaxi was redirected from its intended destination and, instead, delivered its misbehaving passengers to the police. The 15-year-old passengers were riding in a driverless autonomous car around San Mateo Monday afternoon. The teens drank alcohol inside the Waymo taxi…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-expectations-of-privacy-in-driverless-cars/"><![CDATA[<p>Do riders in autonomous vehicles think that they are in a private space? Here's a fascinating story from California where an robotaxi was redirected from its intended destination and, instead, delivered its misbehaving passengers to the police.</p>
<blockquote><p>The 15-year-old passengers were riding in a driverless autonomous car around San Mateo Monday afternoon. The teens drank alcohol inside the Waymo taxi and shot Orbeez beads with a toy gun toward other vehicles.</p>
<p>A Waymo employee, who was remotely monitoring the car, tricked the unruly teenagers, authorities said. The employee told the young passengers that the Waymo was having mechanical issues and needed to stop.</p>
<p>Unknown to the teens, the employee had also called the San Mateo Police Department to report that a gun was firing from the car.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/heres-how-waymo-tricked-unruly-teen-passengers-in-san-mateo/">Here’s how Waymo tricked unruly teen passengers in San Mateo</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Is that OK?</p>
<p>Kids shooting (albeit fake) guns out of cars is bad. I've no problem with the long arm of the law feeling their collars.</p>
<p>But what sort of reasonable expectation of privacy do you have when you jump into a driverless car?</p>
<p>If you have a blazing row with your partner while sat in the back of a black cab, the driver's going to hear, right? There's no privacy expectation although you might rely on their discretion.</p>
<p>Take a phone call and arrange a drug deal, the driver might turn you in to the police. They're not a confidant, are they?</p>
<p>Kiss someone you shouldn't and you accept the risk that the driver might both notice and care.</p>
<p>But when there's no driver, there's no risk of your privacy being invaded is there?</p>
<blockquote><p>Nine former Tesla employees told Reuters that Tesla workers shared customer videos and images recorded by in-car cameras between 2019 and 2022.</p>
<p><a href="https://observer.com/2023/04/tesla-camera-recording-privacy-concern/">Tesla Workers Shared ‘Intimate’ Videos Recorded By In-Car Cameras</a></p></blockquote>
<p>Ah.</p>
<p>I don't know how Waymo was alerted to the problems in the car. Perhaps someone called them and reported the numberplate. Perhaps the car heard raised voices and sent an alert. Perhaps Waymo just regularly drops in on all its customers.</p>
<p>Rummaging through Waymo's various privacy policies eventually leads to this <a href="https://support.google.com/waymo/answer/9190819">rather ambiguous page</a> which describes how they monitor the inside of their vehicles.</p>
<blockquote><p>Our autonomous vehicles are equipped with an advanced suite of sensors – including cameras and microphones – that act as the 'eyes and ears' of our Waymo Driver.</p>
<strong>Cameras inside the car</strong>
<p>Cameras are a way for us to make sure that your trip goes smoothly. Among other things, we may use cameras to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Make sure that cars are clean</li>
<li>Find lost items</li>
<li>Provide help in case of emergency</li>
<li><i>Check that in-car rules are being followed</i> <small>[Emphasis added]</small></li>
<li>Improve products and services</li>
<li><i>Promote safety and security</i> <small>[Emphasis added]</small></li>
</ul>
<p>Our Support team may review video under certain circumstances, including after an issue is brought to our attention. Occasionally, in more urgent circumstances, Support may access live video during a trip.</p>
<strong>Microphones inside the car</strong>
<p>The microphones inside the car are only on during voice calls with Rider Support or when you actively choose to enable microphones inside the car.</p></blockquote>
<p>To me, that sounds like riders' voices aren't automatically sent back to the mothership. Indeed, they're at pains to say:</p>
<blockquote><p>Waymo vehicles also have a number of sensors, including our audio-detection system used to detect police and emergency vehicle sirens. Waymo has implemented technical and procedural safeguards designed to limit the collection of any human voice data from these microphones.</p></blockquote>
<p>So there is <em>some</em> acknowledgement of privacy - for our voices at least. Meanwhile, passengers are <a href="https://www.brautiganarchives.xyz/machines.html">all watched over by machines of loving grace</a> or, at the very least, fallible humans with prurient interests.</p>
<p>About a decade ago, people were theorising that a driverless cars would one day deliver to you <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/5qg125/eventually_a_selfdriving_car_will_deliver_a_dead/">a rider who died on the journey</a>. I don't think that's happened yet - instead, we have cars watching what what we do. Silently judging us picking our noses. Examining our body language for signs of stress. Tracking our breathing patterns and heart-rates to ensure we aren't going to cause damage to the vehicle.</p>
<p>Not listening though. That would be a step too far.</p>
<p>Besides, who needs to use a microphone when you've got a high-resolution camera backed by AI?</p>
<p></p><div style="width: 620px;" class="wp-video"><video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-73168-2" width="620" height="349" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2001-lip-reading-web.mp4?_=2"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2001-lip-reading-web.mp4">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2001-lip-reading-web.mp4</a></video></div><p></p>
<p>Just as I finished writing this post, a story broke about how a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-09-12/juveniles-riding-in-waymo-arrested-after-police-find-ghost-gun">Waymo pulled over and called the police on riders who had "ghost gun"</a>. The company said it alerted the authorities after detecting a terms of service violation.</p>
<p>Of course, it didn't say <em>how</em> it detected that!</p>
<p>I also find it curious that in both cases, the alleged perpetrators were juveniles. Maybe children have less of a right to privacy than adults?</p>
<p>I guess when you ride alone, you ride with a snitch.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73168&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
<link href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2001-lip-reading-web.mp4" rel="enclosure" length="3454412" type="video/mp4" />
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ActivityPub - How to send an updated user profile to Mastodon and the Fediverse]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-how-to-send-an-updated-user-profile-to-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74470</id>
<updated>2026-09-13T06:08:41Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-12T11:34:02Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityBot" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityPub" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="fediverse" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="mastodon" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Let's suppose you've updated the description of your ActivityPub account from "World's Number 1 Taylor Swift Fan" to "This account is now a Nickleback Truther". How do you let the rest of the Fediverse know that you've changed your allegiance? By default, most Mastodon instances won't periodically poll your account information just to see if you've updated it. So how does the information get…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-how-to-send-an-updated-user-profile-to-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/"><![CDATA[<p>Let's suppose you've updated the description of your ActivityPub account from "World's Number 1 Taylor Swift Fan" to "This account is now a Nickleback Truther". How do you let the rest of the Fediverse know that you've changed your allegiance?</p>
<p>By default, most Mastodon instances won't periodically poll your account information just to see if you've updated it. So how does the information get from your server to your followers' servers?</p>
<p>This wasn't immediately obvious to me, but I got a clue from reading <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-activitypub-by-evan-prodromou/">Evan Prodromou's book on ActivityPub</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Update activity type is for updating the properties of an object represented by the object property.</p>
<p>The most common types of objects that can be updated are content objects, like Note or Image. Actor types (like Person) and Question activity types can also be updated.</p></blockquote>
<p>Aha!</p>
<p>You need to craft an <code>Update</code> message which has as its object the <em>new</em> user information. That needs to be sent to the inbox of all your followers.</p>
<p>Something like this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"@context": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
"actor": "https://example.com/user",
"id": "6a9162a6-a8e5-ca0f-9c08-8e6b814acef8",
"published": "2026-08-31T12:34:56+01:00",
"to": "https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#Public",
"type": "Update",
"object": {
"@context": [
"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
"https://w3id.org/security/v1"
],
"id": "https://example.com/user",
"name": "My new name",
"summary": "A brand new description!",
…
},
}
</code></pre>
<p>Obviously the <em>full</em> user information is a bit more than that - it will include inbox details, public keys, avatars, etc. The <code>published</code> property in the Update activity should be when you changed your details - not when the account was created.</p>
<p>Once that was sent, Mastodon immediately reflected the changes.</p>
<h2 id="thanks-to-nlnet"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-how-to-send-an-updated-user-profile-to-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/#thanks-to-nlnet">Thanks to NLnet</a></h2>
<p>This blog post was funded in part by the work I'm doing for my NLnet NGI0 grant to develop <a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot">ActivityBot</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://nlnet.nl/project/ActivityBot/"><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/NGI-logos.webp" alt="NLnet logo." width="900" height="200" class="aligncenter"></a></p>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[[RSS Club] Sneak peek at new DOI functionality]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/rss-club-sneak-peek-at-new-doi-functionality/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74757</id>
<updated>2026-09-11T09:48:42Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-11T11:34:12Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="RSS Club" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[If you're reading this, you're part of RSS Club! A top secret society of cool people who subscribe to my feed. This post is not available on the web or via email. I've been playing about with Rogue Scholar. It's an open-access publication which allows blogs to get a persistent Digital Object Identifier. If I've set everything up correctly (not a given) then all new posts on this site will be…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/rss-club-sneak-peek-at-new-doi-functionality/"><![CDATA[<p><mark>If you're reading this, you're part of <a href="https://daverupert.com/rss-club/">RSS Club</a>! A <em>top secret</em> society of cool people who subscribe to my feed. This post is <strong>not</strong> available on the web or via email.</mark></p>
<p>I've been playing about with <a href="https://rogue-scholar.org/">Rogue Scholar</a>. It's an open-access publication which allows blogs to get a persistent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier">Digital Object Identifier</a>.</p>
<p>If I've set everything up correctly (not a given) then all new posts on this site will be issued with a DOI. Hopefully, this will not include RSS Club posts - as I'd like to keep them as a special private treat just between you and me.</p>
<p>I'm in the process of writing a WordPress plugin to retrieve the DOI and add it to posts. I'm not sure if there's a sensible way to add it into an RSS feed, but I'll give it a go.</p>
<p>Will this be useful? I don't know. My posts sometimes get <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/citations">referenced in proper academic works</a> - I'm not sure if this'll make any difference to that. But it is nice to experiment with these things.</p>
<p>If you have any experience with DOI or Rogue Scholar - please <a href="https://edent.tel/">get in touch</a>.</p>
<p>Thanks for being a member of RSS Club - you rock 😃</p>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Put an AV test at the start of your slides]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/put-an-av-test-at-the-start-of-your-slides/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=68346</id>
<updated>2026-09-02T09:08:33Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-10T11:34:10Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="presentations" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[For years, I've had a test-card at the start of my slides. Before I start my talk, I can immediately see if the aspect ratio is wrong, colours are off, or any other visual issues with the presentation. A few years ago I was invited to give a talk and was assured that the venue was set up for audio as well as video. I dutifully filled my slides with with demo videos containing sound. None of…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/put-an-av-test-at-the-start-of-your-slides/"><![CDATA[<p>For years, I've had a <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2017/11/put-a-test-card-at-the-start-of-your-slides/">test-card at the start of my slides</a>. Before I start my talk, I can immediately see if the aspect ratio is wrong, colours are off, or any other visual issues with the presentation.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Test-Card-on-a-screen.jpg" alt="A test card is displaying on a television screen" width="1024" height="768" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-28772">
<p>A few years ago I was invited to give a talk and was assured that the venue was set up for audio as well as video. I dutifully filled my slides with with demo videos containing sound. None of them worked. Somewhere between the HDMI output of the presentation laptop and the speakers, the audio went <abbr title="Absent Without Leave">AWOL</abbr>.</p>
<p>Ever since then, I've placed an audio test slide at the start of my presentations. There's <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sound+sync+test">a good range of videos on YouTube</a> - pick one you like, embed it into your slides, and play it before your talk starts.</p>
<p>Over the years, I've found the following "bugs" with event AV setups:</p>
<ul>
<li>No sound.</li>
<li>Only left channel working.</li>
<li>Severe latency between audio and video.</li>
<li>Garbled sound.</li>
<li>Sound routing to the room but not the livestream.</li>
<li>Feedback / howl around when sound playing.</li>
</ul>
<p>Whether events are professionally run or community managed, you can never guarantee that sound will work. Add subtitles to your videos. If possible, add a sign-language interpreter. And, if all else fails, hold your microphone to your laptop's speakers.</p>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ActivityPub - Is it worth defending against replay attacks and message/signature time skew?]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74622</id>
<updated>2026-09-08T09:42:04Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-08T11:34:51Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityBot" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityPub" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="http" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="security" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Here's a problem that I've found with ActivityBot - my little ActivityPub server. Sometimes it receives messages which were originally sent months ago. Why does that happen and is it risky to accept and process them? My tl;dr is that it probably isn't worth worrying about. But I'd love someone to tell me why I'm wrong. Here's my thinking: Table of ContentsCausesIs that a problem?What are we…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/"><![CDATA[<p>Here's a problem that I've found with <a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot/">ActivityBot</a> - my little ActivityPub server. Sometimes it receives messages which were originally sent <em>months</em> ago. Why does that happen and is it risky to accept and process them?</p>
<p>My tl;dr is that it <em>probably</em> isn't worth worrying about. But I'd love someone to tell me why I'm wrong.</p>
<p>Here's my thinking:</p>
<p></p><nav role="doc-toc"><menu><li><h2 id="table-of-contents"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#table-of-contents">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#causes">Causes</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#is-that-a-problem">Is that a problem?</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#what-are-we-trying-to-protect-against">What are we trying to protect against?</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#putting-it-all-together">Putting it all together</a></li><li><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#no-youre-wrong-and-i-can-prove-it">No! You're wrong and I can prove it!</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>
<h2 id="causes"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#causes">Causes</a></h2>
<p>All ActivityPub messages should have a "published" timestamp in their body. Some will have an "updated" timestamp. That tells you, unsurprisingly, when the message is alleged to have been originally published or updated. That time might be very different to the time you receive the message.</p>
<p>There are, I think, three different reasons why a server might receive a message which has an out-of-date timestamp.</p>
<p>The first is that sometimes servers are just slow. Processing thousands of messages at the same time means that some of those messages take a while to send. <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/09/how-far-did-my-post-go-on-the-fediverse/">ActivityPub is one big chain-mail</a> so it can take several minutes for a message to be sent to all your followers.</p>
<p>Similarly, your server might be slow. If it doesn't acknowledge receipt of a message, the original server will try sending it again. Sometimes that can take a while.</p>
<p>Finally, some servers take a relaxed view of standards. They send an update to an old message but keep the original publication date. Ideally, they'd use an "updated" timestamp but quite often they don't.</p>
<p>For the purposes of checking the legitimacy of the message, <strong>you do not need to check when a message says it was published or updated</strong>. You might want to check it isn't an <em>obviously</em> bogus date like far in the future or impossibly far in the past - but that's up to you.</p>
<p>It is normal that your server receives messages which appear to have been published at a totally different time from now.</p>
<h2 id="is-that-a-problem"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#is-that-a-problem">Is that a problem?</a></h2>
<p><em>Probably</em> not.</p>
<p>As described above, there are various reasons why a message may be delayed in transit - or may appear to come from the distant past.</p>
<p>What we <em>can</em> check is when the message was cryptographically signed by the sending server. This is independent of its published or updated timestamp.</p>
<p>HTTP requests to your server will have a <code>date</code> header which looks like <code>Tue, 01 Sep 2026 15:54:21 GMT</code> - this is in the slightly peculiar and Anglocentric <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5322/#section-3.3">RFC 5322 format</a>.</p>
<p>New style RFC 9421 headers will also have a <code>signature-input</code> header which will contain something like <code>created=1788278061</code>. That uses the slightly obscure <a href="https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap04.html#tag_04_16">UNIX / POSIX time</a> which counts seconds since the "Epoch" of 1st January 1970.</p>
<p>If you <a href="https://www.epochconverter.com/">convert the UNIX time</a> to something more modern, you should get an <em>identical</em> value to the <code>date</code> header.</p>
<p>But that isn't always the case. For example, <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9421.html#:~:text=Tue%2C%2020%20Apr%202021%2002%3A07%3A55%20GMT,-Content%2DType">the RFC 9421 standard gives this example</a>:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_">Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2021 02:07:55 GMT
"@signature-params": ("@method" "@authority" "@path" \
"content-digest" "content-length" "content-type")\
;created=1618884473;keyid="test-key-rsa-pss"
</code></pre>
<p>Converting <code>1618884473</code> to normal time gives Tue, 20 Apr 2021 02:07:<strong>53</strong> - a two second difference.</p>
<p>If the <code>date</code> and <code>created</code> values differ significantly - that may indicate that the message is untrustworthy. Or that there was a delay between the signing and the sending.</p>
<p>The spec says:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Date header field value represents the timestamp of the HTTP message. However, the creation time of the signature itself is encoded in the created signature parameter. These two values can be different, depending on how the signature and the HTTP message are created and serialized. Applications processing signatures for valid time windows should use the created signature parameter for such calculations. An application could also put limits on how much skew there is between the Date field and the created signature parameter, in order to limit the application of a generated signature to different HTTP messages.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9421.html#section-7.2.4">7.2.4. Choosing Signature Parameters and Derived Components over HTTP Fields</a></p></blockquote>
<p>But, of course, it doesn't tell you how much skew is problematic. It's up to you how much skew you're prepared to accept.</p>
<p>So that's the difference between the sent time and the signed time. The next time to check is your own. As we've discussed, sometimes servers are slow sending things out. Would you accept a request that was signed five minutes ago? Five days ago? Five months ago? What amount of difference is dangerous?</p>
<p>Here's what various services and sages have to say:</p>
<h3 id="mastodon"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#mastodon">Mastodon</a></h3>
<blockquote><p>The request contains a Date header. Compare it with current date and time within a reasonable time window to prevent replay attacks.</p>
<p><a href="https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2018/07/how-to-make-friends-and-verify-requests/">How to make friends and verify requests</a></p></blockquote>
<p>What is "reasonable"? The <a href="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/89bc0eb42609463d4b11e1604dacc37332a0f5ab/app/lib/signed_request.rb#L5">source code</a> suggests one hour.</p>
<h3 id="grishka"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#grishka">Grishka</a></h3>
<blockquote><p>Time in the Date header must differ from the recipient server’s clock by no more than 30 seconds</p>
<p><a href="https://grishka.me/blog/activitypub-from-scratch/">A bare-minimum ActivityPub server from scratch</a></p></blockquote>
<h3 id="evan-prodromou"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#evan-prodromou">Evan Prodromou</a></h3>
<blockquote><p><code>static #maxDateDiff = 5 * 60 * 1000 // 5 minutes</code></p>
<p><a href="https://github.com/evanp/activitypub-bot/blob/main/lib%2Fhttpsignatureauthenticator.js#L8">activitypub-bot</a></p></blockquote>
<h3 id="swicg"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#swicg">SWICG</a></h3>
<blockquote><p>The standards don't give a concrete time window to use for this comparison. In practice, an hour plus a few minutes buffer in either direction may be a good value, to account for both clock skew and differences in time zone/daylight savings time configuration across systems.</p>
<p><a href="https://swicg.github.io/activitypub-http-signature/#how-to-verify-a-signature">How To Verify a Signature</a></p></blockquote>
<h3 id="others"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#others">Others</a></h3>
<p>Without naming names, it looks like a bunch of popular servers don't check whether there's a significant difference between the date the request was signed and the date it was received.</p>
<h3 id="summary"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#summary">Summary</a></h3>
<p>Various documents and implementations recommend anything between 30 seconds to "a bit more than 60 minutes". Or they just ignore any date difference.</p>
<p>What's the right answer? What happens if the signed date is significantly different from the current date?</p>
<h2 id="what-are-we-trying-to-protect-against"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#what-are-we-trying-to-protect-against">What are we trying to protect against?</a></h2>
<p>Replay Attacks. Suppose someone is listening to the communications between the sending server and your server. They copy the message that is sent to you. Later they send it again!</p>
<p>At this point, you might be thinking "so what?" and… I'm inclined to agree with you!</p>
<p>What's the worst that could happen if you received the same message multiple times? Two things that I can think of.</p>
<p>Firstly, it might <em>not</em> be the same message. It is possible to send a new message but with old headers. An attacker could make someone post "I hate Taylor Swift" against their will and watch as legions of fans disembowel the victim.</p>
<p>Except, I don't think this is likely. The signature in the header contains a hash of the message being sent. If you are properly validating the signature, a changed message will have a different hash from the one in the original message. You don't need to check timestamps, you just need to check if the hashes match.</p>
<p>Secondly, <a href="https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/idempotence-explained">idempotence</a>. That's a fancy word for "pressing the button multiple times should only result in one action".</p>
<p>What happens if a user appears to send you multiple "like" messages for a single post? You only record one like.</p>
<p>What if they send multiple messages with the same content? Well, each will have a unique ID in the message - so you only post it once.</p>
<p>What if they send multiple <em>anythings</em>? I can't think of any ActivityPub action which would not be idempotent.</p>
<p>About the worst thing I can think of is this:</p>
<ul>
<li>Alice sends a message to you saying "I want to follow Bob".</li>
<li>Mallory intercepts this message.</li>
<li>You record Alice is now following Bob.</li>
<li>Alice sends a message to you saying "I want to <em>unfollow</em> Bob".</li>
<li>You record the severed relationship.</li>
<li>Mallory replays the original follow message.</li>
<li>You record Alice is now following Bob.</li>
</ul>
<p>It's also possible the following could happen:</p>
<ul>
<li>Alice posts a message saying "I love The Beatles".</li>
<li>You record Alice's message and display it on the timeline.</li>
<li>Alice updates her post to say "I love the Rolling Stones".</li>
<li>Mallory intercepts this message.</li>
<li>You record Alice's updated message and display the new version on the timeline.</li>
<li>Alice updates her post yet again to say "I love the Spice Girls".</li>
<li>You record Alice's updated message and display the new version on the timeline.</li>
<li>Mallory replays the original update message.</li>
<li>You now display that Alice loves the Stones rather than Spice Girls.</li>
</ul>
<p>Perhaps the same can happen with like/unlike, block/unblock, boost/unboost.</p>
<p>But none of that is significantly prevented by checking the date.</p>
<p>Ultimately, it is up to your sever to check the unique ID of each message and refuse to action any repeated messages. You may not want to trust the unique ID which is sent with the message. If that's the case, you can calculate your own - perhaps using a hash of the contents, the signature, or some other process which will generate an ID based on the message.</p>
<h2 id="putting-it-all-together"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#putting-it-all-together">Putting it all together</a></h2>
<p>Here's what you need to do to prevent replay attacks:</p>
<ol>
<li>Independently calculate the hash of the message received.</li>
<li>Validate that your calculated hash matches the hash sent in the message's HTTP headers.
<ul>
<li>If not, this is a potential replay attack and the message must be ignored.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Verify that the signature received in the message's HTTP headers includes the message hash and is cryptographically valid.
<ul>
<li>If not, the signature is invalid and the message must be ignored.</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Has the received message's unique ID already been processed?
<ul>
<li>If so, refuse to process it again.</li>
</ul></li>
</ol>
<p>I don't see what checking the timestamp of the HTTP signature has to do with anything. Someone who has access to the original messages and their headers could send them milliseconds after the original delivery.</p>
<p>I think it is probably <em>pragmatic</em> to give messages 60ish minutes grace before dropping them. Delays happen, but anything more significant than an hour <em>might</em> indicate a attack. But, equally, might just mean that the Internet is having a slow day.</p>
<p>If you are correctly checking signatures and hashes, I don't think you need to worry about skew between signature date and delivery date.</p>
<h2 id="no-youre-wrong-and-i-can-prove-it"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#no-youre-wrong-and-i-can-prove-it">No! You're wrong and I can prove it!</a></h2>
<p>Please tell me where I have erred! Stick a comment in the box or drop me an email. If I've made a massive or subtle mistake, I'd love to know what.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74622&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<thr:total>6</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[The purpose of DNS is to spread scams]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74588</id>
<updated>2026-09-05T17:12:13Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-06T11:34:20Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ICANN" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="internet" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="scam" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="spam" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="tld" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="web" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[I imagine everyone here has received an unsolicited message telling them that their tax is overdue and that they urgently need to visit Genuine-Tax-Payment-Website.fart or that a parcel is delayed at customs and you can pay a small sum for its release at Almost-The-Right-Acronym.ak You know it is a scam. Most people just mark as spam and move on with their day. But a significant number of people …]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/"><![CDATA[<p>I imagine everyone here has received an unsolicited message telling them that their tax is overdue and that they urgently need to visit Genuine-Tax-Payment-Website.fart or that a parcel is delayed at customs and you can pay a small sum for its release at Almost-The-Right-Acronym.ak</p>
<p>You know it is a scam. Most people just mark as spam and move on with their day. But a significant number of people don't. They hastily visit the site, tap in their credit card details, give it their mother's maiden name, confirm address, upload a nude selfie, and only then realise that they've been had.</p>
<p>The Internet works at pretty close to the speed of light. You can register a .uk domain and a minute later it's accessible from the other side of the planet. Brilliant for users who want to quickly launch a website. Also brilliant for abusers who want to launch a spam campaign.</p>
<p>By the time enough people have reported the scammers' domain as suspicious, it is too late. In the time it takes for a registrar to disable the domain, or for its name to make its way to the <a href="https://safebrowsing.google.com/">Safe Browsing List</a>, a million messages have already been sent and enough people have handed over their details.</p>
<p>We're told that "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does">the purpose of a system is what it does</a>". At the moment, the Domain Name System's purpose seems to be a vector for criminals to run scams on people at a terrifyingly high rate.</p>
<h2 id="how-big-is-this-problem"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/#how-big-is-this-problem">How big is this problem?</a></h2>
<p>BIG!</p>
<p>There's a great blog post by Andrew Campling which reports on this startling claim:</p>
<blockquote><p>The study found that at least 10% of all new gTLD domain names registered during the year had subsequently appeared on security blocklists by the time of analysis. It estimated that, taking account of subsequent blocklisting and associated domains not themselves blocklisted, the share of names registered by malicious actors <strong>may be closer to 20%</strong>.</p>
<p><a href="https://labs.ripe.net/author/andrew_campling/dns-abuse-and-criminal-infrastructure-beyond-definitions-and-blocklists/">DNS Abuse and Criminal Infrastructure: Beyond Definitions and Blocklists</a> (emphasis added)</p></blockquote>
<p>That links to a presentation by Interisle which contains some rather shocking statistics (<a href="https://www.icann.org/en/blogs/details/looking-beyond-the-numbers-understanding-malicious-domain-registration-data-10-08-2026-en">albeit with disputed methodology</a>). It looks at <em>generic</em> Top Level Domains (gTLD) - those are things like .com and .fun rather than country code TLDs (ccTLD) like .uk and .de.</p>
<p>It says 85 million new registrations of gTLDs were made in 2025. Of those 8.5 million were added to blocklists by May 2025. It reckons that a 10% abuse rate is the likely floor for these numbers and it's probably closer to 20%. One in five newly registered domains with a gTLD are scams. That's a bloody crisis.</p>
<p>13 TLDs had more than 50% of their registrations blocklisted.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/gTLDs.webp" alt="Table listing the top 13 generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) with the highest percentage of blocklisted, malicious new domains created in 2025. Ranked from highest to lowest blocklist percentage, top entries include .LOCKER (72.9%), .LGBT (72.2%), and .TOWN (70.2%). The table detail includes TLD operators, registration totals, and specific malicious domain metrics." width="1162" height="954" class="aligncenter">
<p>I can understand why .bid and .loan are popular with scammers. But why .mobi?! What did I ever do to you, eh?</p>
<p>Who are the scammers registering these through?</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/registrars.webp" alt="List of registrars. NameCheap, Gname, Dynadot, NameSilo, GoDaddy." width="910" height="390" class="aligncenter">
<p>Ah, our old friends at NameCheap. See <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/05/why-do-scammers-love-namecheap/">Why do scammers love NameCheap?</a></p>
<p>If those five registrars had more effective policies, it might significantly dent the scammers' ability to ply their devious wares. Or they might just move on to other registrars.</p>
<p>As the report points out:</p>
<blockquote><p>suspension rates for blocklisted domains were 7.4% to 16.3%.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="https://interisle.net/s/FullReport_MaliciousRegistrationsintheDomainNameMarket_2026_rev.pdf">The full report is on the Interisle website</a>.</p>
<h2 id="what-can-be-done"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/#what-can-be-done">What can be done?</a></h2>
<p>I don't know.</p>
<p>In the first instance, it might make sense for registrars to do strong Know Your Customer (KYC) checks on anyone buying a domain. But that stops anyone who wants to anonymously register <code>I-Hate-Nintendo.whatever</code> without risking the wrath of Intellectual Property lawyers.</p>
<p>Also, criminals have access to stolen money and stolen cards. They can convince a hapless mule to register a domain on the criminals' behalf.</p>
<p>Registrars could ask for an escrow payment. Pay €9 for the domain name put €900 in escrow. If your domain appears on a blocklist within the year, you forfeit the money. Criminals with stolen funds are unlikely to care but it would probably put off lots of people from getting a new domain.</p>
<p>There are various banned words and phrases depending on the TLD. For example, <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/07/ss-tld-opening-for-direct-registrations/">South Sudan</a> has a list of political words which they don't want associated with their .ss ccTLD.</p>
<p>But if one gTLD bans a word, a different one might not. A scammer doesn't care if the gTLD is .arse or .elbow - they just want the start of the domain to look legitimate.</p>
<p>Some registrars have strings that they don't allow. In fairness to NameCheap, when I tried to register <code>dwp-payments-gov-uk.pizza</code> it told me that domain was banned. It wouldn't let me get any gTLD with that name.</p>
<p>But all it takes is one registrar to be slightly lax and the scammers get through. Increasing the complexity of the rules is also a hell of a burden on smaller registrars.</p>
<p>Besides, it's pretty easy to get a generic enough looking domain and stick the confusing bit on a subdomain. Here are a clutch mentioned in the report:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpaph.bond/uk/</code></li>
<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpcjh.bond/uk/</code></li>
<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpclc.bond/uk</code></li>
<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpclw.bond/uk</code></li>
<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpclj.bond/uk/</code></li>
</ul>
<p>Perhaps there ought to be a delay before a new domain goes live to allow people to object to it? That would give governments, banks, delivery companies, and a dozen more "important" organisations a right to veto any "dodgy" looking domain.</p>
<p>But suppose someone wants to register <code>gov-uk-stole-my-horse.horse</code> to protest the government's cruel policy of stealing horses - is that a legitimate use of a domain? What if the Darwin Pensioner Divas - a group of elderly singers - want to take payments for their new album of goth/punk covers, can the DPD delivery company veto <code>dpd-payments.music</code>?</p>
<p>Do we want a domain name system where powerful companies control exactly which domains we can register? If I have an idea for a domain on a Friday night do I have to wait until Monday before it can be launched? Are those companies realistically able to parse millions of domains per year and have a low false-positive rate?</p>
<p>All of these things are possible - but all of them come with an impact on legitimate users. To be clear, I don't know what the right answer is.</p>
<h2 id="what-is-icann-doing-about-it"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/#what-is-icann-doing-about-it">What is ICANN doing about it?</a></h2>
<p>Lots! It has been a few years since I've been to an ICANN meeting, but even back then the topic of abuse was high on the agenda. They appear to be looking at ways to coordinate abuse reports between various entities, along with some other policies which should hopefully work.</p>
<p>There are two salient points from <a href="https://hosted-files.sched.co/icann86/b3/TRANSC_I86SQV_Mon08June2026__GNSO-DNS%20Abuse%20Mitigation%20PDP%201%20%281%20of%204%29-en.pdf">one of the discussions held at the recent meeting</a></p>
<blockquote><p>If anybody thinks that in our current age of AI and as we move into different kinds of computing, DNS abuse is going to numerically stay steady and we will have a downward effect on that baseline 2027 number. I'm not sure that that's an accurate assumption. I think it's going to be the other thing, which is […] it's going to be easier to abuse the DNS.</p></blockquote>
<p>And</p>
<blockquote><p>Abusers are going to abuse because it's just too lucrative, because no matter what we do, they will find the way to make profit off of that, and will try to circumvent everything that we do. That is not a reason not to do it, though.</p></blockquote>
<p>Quite!</p>
<p>As I said, I don't know the answer to this. What I do know is, much like <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/is-it-possible-to-allow-sideloading-and-keep-users-safe/">Android's app ecosystem being a haven for scammers</a>, DNS is facing a crisis. When trust in a system goes, only chaos follows.</p>
<p>I don't want to live in a world where I have to show my passport and pay thousands of pounds to register a domain which is only available after being vetted by private interests. But I also don't want to live in a world where scammers have effectively no deterrent from abusing millions of people.</p>
<p>The purpose of a system is what it does. I hope DNS's purpose can become less dangerous while still remaining open.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74588&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<thr:total>10</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories by Ken Liu ★★★★☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-the-passing-of-the-dragon-and-other-stories-by-ken-liu/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74686</id>
<updated>2026-09-05T09:22:57Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-05T11:34:47Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NetGalley" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Sci Fi" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[This is a gorgeous set of short stories - and a good deal more accessible than some of the heavyweight prose Liu has previously been involved with. Some of the stories contain sentences which are complex jewels to be savoured. What I particularly like is the way he moves between almost-prosaic Earth-bound stories to the the most extraordinary flights of fancy. One story might be set in a…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-the-passing-of-the-dragon-and-other-stories-by-ken-liu/"><![CDATA[<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/9781035929306.webp" alt="Book cover." width="200" class="alignleft">
<p>This is a gorgeous set of short stories - and a good deal more accessible than some of the heavyweight prose Liu has previously been involved with. Some of the stories contain sentences which are complex jewels to be savoured.</p>
<p>What I particularly like is the way he moves between almost-prosaic Earth-bound stories to the the most extraordinary flights of fancy. One story might be set in a downtown art gallery, the next in the ice-rings of a far-off planet. The creeping feeling of senescence haunts the reader as they flit from story to story.</p>
<p>Much like his full-length novel <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/09/book-review-all-that-we-see-or-seem-by-ken-liu/">All That We See or Seem</a>, Liu has an incredible knack for tapping in to modern fears and weaving tall tales around them. There's a tenderness in all his character - even when a couple of the stories go nowhere, it is still pleasant to spend time in the worlds he has created.</p>
<p>It is, perhaps, missing a cohesive theme - the dragons come and go throughout the stories. Nevertheless, a compelling work chock full of fantastical ideas.</p>
<p>If you're in the mood for a wide and varied selection of stories, this is well worth picking up.</p>
<p>Many thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. Passing of the Dragon is available to buy now.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74686&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<thr:total>1</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[A reasonably practical guide to validating RFC 9421 HTTP Signatures for ActivityPub in PHP]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74429</id>
<updated>2026-09-04T13:36:29Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-03T11:34:12Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityBot" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityPub" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="mastodon" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="php" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="webdev" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[If you're reading this, you've probably been hitting your head against a brick wall trying to parse and decipher the new HTTP Signatures sent by Mastodon and other Fediverse servers. This is a basic and somewhat incomplete guide to accepting these signatures. I'm sure there are various gotchas, but it works with the signatures I've seen in the wild. Shut Up And Show Me The Code! OK, wow, no…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/"><![CDATA[<p>If you're reading this, you've probably been hitting your head against a brick wall trying to parse and decipher the new HTTP Signatures sent by Mastodon and other Fediverse servers.</p>
<p>This is a basic and somewhat incomplete guide to accepting these signatures. I'm sure there are various gotchas, but it works with the signatures I've seen in the wild.</p>
<h2 id="shut-up-and-show-me-the-code"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#shut-up-and-show-me-the-code">Shut Up And Show Me The Code!</a></h2>
<p>OK, wow, no need to be a dick about it! Here's how I validated a real signature that my server received. This requires PHP 8.4 or newer.</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">$verified = openssl_verify(
data: '"@method": POST
"@target-uri": https://example.viii.fi/inbox
"content-digest": sha-256=:tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=:
"@signature-params": ("@method" "@target-uri" "content-digest");created=1787780262;keyid="https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key"',
signature: base64_decode( "sIfmNsM/Q8iG6AJlne1IkZVjQSVFDEYIPsnoSOXQY+W3Eb4+SOn9o4J5SQmFOP+Jecjf3ioFwUdsrFjAGkUUOHPvSbNWkGKtNuGm+C6r3aI3JBCFGPqX3ITgZYV76CF7JJJ5hPGaG8YH/XdmxVIeFfD3M39FQCncMyyq7xJJvwKKP1mzS5s1vNQie8hbQ9owRjtqvoWcmM9GEYCUHNcMPLjZc+CBrj8sfBbNTYgIFI4UtirOaRJvYymxXjmXuzeVYxQujMjAjgobxQ8QFv0zlYsHk+gS5EYyafpJG9zmfCFSoF9+ZwqKNADmuADbISD9LZIH/bmkPoNXhxaeFPqYog==" ),
public_key: "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\nMIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAsYMEs4waqk/6gaS+xn1T\nYygElTtNIFNkBcEdEBMaeoGVhyZiVKtSjJCS4z+X+394PKvcfSTcFILIt2GI2jOB\nHD0M2fFgxc8mmdSdCQkgEh9jF3bFI3kopDvzYf726iioYKlHXKpfPKvFt7EJgKH7\naCtS25NQkek3YUd6y3VBcT3R6Xhze9P3QNoZMIsFXklgXDKj+EllfbUqLf1vxt3s\nmD9ETxy2bJi9FheE0uY2WhARn49XAvwczM5Wzt+zqxVEtgpi5v2+ZZAVKhDnJkiC\nCCuI6hrSnKNIx/5mSlX0a0S5h5d03djrCkYsqmwelu01rhOXP2grsz4BXp0y2wrO\n3QIDAQAB\n-----END PUBLIC KEY-----\n",
algorithm: "sha256"
);
echo $verified;
</code></pre>
<p>Copy and paste that into PHP and you should see that <code>$verified</code> is true.</p>
<h2 id="now-explain-the-code"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#now-explain-the-code">NOW EXPLAIN THE CODE</a></h2>
<p>Say please.</p>
<h2 id="please"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#please">PLEASE!!!</a></h2>
<p>Along with the message sent to your server, you will have received HTTP headers like this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_">content-digest: sha-256=:tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=:
signature: sig1=:sIfmNsM/Q8iG6AJlne1IkZVjQSVFDEYIPsnoSOXQY+W3Eb4+SOn9o4J5SQmFOP+Jecjf3ioFwUdsrFjAGkUUOHPvSbNWkGKtNuGm+C6r3aI3JBCFGPqX3ITgZYV76CF7JJJ5hPGaG8YH/XdmxVIeFfD3M39FQCncMyyq7xJJvwKKP1mzS5s1vNQie8hbQ9owRjtqvoWcmM9GEYCUHNcMPLjZc+CBrj8sfBbNTYgIFI4UtirOaRJvYymxXjmXuzeVYxQujMjAjgobxQ8QFv0zlYsHk+gS5EYyafpJG9zmfCFSoF9+ZwqKNADmuADbISD9LZIH/bmkPoNXhxaeFPqYog==:
signature-input: sig1=("@method" "@target-uri" "content-digest");created=1787780262;keyid="https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key"
</code></pre>
<p>The <code>signature-input</code> tells you how to construct a "Signature Base". You have to build a text string which places the various components in the order specified and separated with a newline:</p>
<pre><code class="language-_">"@method": POST
"@target-uri": https://example.viii.fi/inbox
"content-digest": sha-256=:tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=:
"@signature-params": ("@method" "@target-uri" "content-digest");created=1787780262;keyid="https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key"
</code></pre>
<p>Where <code>@method</code> is the HTTP method used to send data to your server (usually <code>GET</code> or <code>POST</code>), and <code>@target-uri</code> is the URl the message was sent to (usually your inbox).</p>
<p>The <code>publicKey</code> is slightly trickier. As you can see, the <code>signature-input</code> ends with <code>keyid="https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key</code></p>
<p>If you make a signed request to that URl, you'll get back an ActivityPub Actor document. It will look something like this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-json">{
"@context": [
"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams",
"https://w3id.org/security/v1",
],
"id": "https://mastodon.social/users/Edent",
"webfinger": "Edent@mastodon.social",
"type": "Person",
"name": "Terence Eden",
"publicKey": {
"id": "https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key",
"owner": "https://mastodon.social/users/Edent",
"publicKeyPem": "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\nMIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAsYMEs4waqk/6gaS+xn1T\nYygElTtNIFNkBcEdEBMaeoGVhyZiVKtSjJCS4z+X+394PKvcfSTcFILIt2GI2jOB\nHD0M2fFgxc8mmdSdCQkgEh9jF3bFI3kopDvzYf726iioYKlHXKpfPKvFt7EJgKH7\naCtS25NQkek3YUd6y3VBcT3R6Xhze9P3QNoZMIsFXklgXDKj+EllfbUqLf1vxt3s\nmD9ETxy2bJi9FheE0uY2WhARn49XAvwczM5Wzt+zqxVEtgpi5v2+ZZAVKhDnJkiC\nCCuI6hrSnKNIx/5mSlX0a0S5h5d03djrCkYsqmwelu01rhOXP2grsz4BXp0y2wrO\n3QIDAQAB\n-----END PUBLIC KEY-----\n"
},
</code></pre>
<p>The <code>publicKeyPem</code> is the string you need. There's no need to convert the <code>\n</code> to literal newlines.</p>
<h2 id="is-that-it"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#is-that-it">Is that it?</a></h2>
<p>Not quite! All we've done so far is verify the headers. It is possible that these are genuine headers but attached to a fraudulent body.</p>
<p>This takes us back to the header <code>"content-digest": sha-256=:tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=:</code></p>
<p>That says that the body of the message sent has a Base64 encoded SHA256 hash of <code>tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=</code>.</p>
<p>To calculate your own content digest in PHP:</p>
<pre><code class="language-php">$input = file_get_contents( "php://input" );
$digestCalculated = base64_encode(
hash(
algo: "sha256",
data: $input,
binary: true
)
);
</code></pre>
<p>Does your digest match the one sent along with the headers? If not, something dodgy is going on.</p>
<h2 id="putting-it-all-together"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#putting-it-all-together">Putting it all together</a></h2>
<p>The steps are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Get the headers.</li>
<li>Get the body.</li>
<li>From the headers' <code>content-digest</code> extract the algorithm and hash.</li>
<li>Using the body, calculate your own hash using the algorithm from <code>content-digest</code>.</li>
<li>Does your hash match the sent hash? If not, stop. If so, proceed.</li>
<li>From the headers' <code>signature</code> extract the base64 encoded signature.</li>
<li>From the headers' <code>signature-input</code> extract the signature-input string.</li>
<li>From the signature-input string extract the order of the Signature Base.</li>
<li>Construct the Signature Base.</li>
<li>From the signature-input string extract the keyid.</li>
<li>Get the Public Key from the keyid.</li>
<li>Use <code>openssl_verify()</code> to verify the Signature Base and the base64 decoded signature, against the Public Key using SHA256.</li>
</ol>
<p>Note, <a href="https://docs.joinmastodon.org/spec/security/#http-message-signatures">Mastodon <em>only</em> uses SHA256</a>. I think it should explicitly say which algorithm it is using <a href="https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/29905#issuecomment-5440336919">and have raised the issue</a>.</p>
<h3 id="in-code-form"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#in-code-form">In Code Form</a></h3>
<p>This is how you do it in PHP. Please read this carefully as there are some hard-coded assumptions.</p>
<pre><code class="language-php"><?php
// Validate the Digest.
// It is the hash of the raw input string, in binary, encoded as base64.
// The format is content-digest => <algorithm>=:<base64 encoded hash>:
$digestString = $headers["content-digest"];
// The Base64 encoding may have multiple `=` at the end. So split this at the first `=`.
$digestData = explode( separator: "=", string: $digestString, limit: 2 );
// Hashes are in lowercase, but have a `-` in their name.
// This is not what hash_algos() expects.
$digestAlgorithm = str_replace( search: "-", replace: "", subject: $digestData[0] );
// The hash is surrounded by `:` characters.
$digestHash = str_replace( search: ":", replace: "", subject: $digestData[1] );
// Check if the hash algorithm is one known about to PHP.
// If not, reject and record an error.
if ( !in_array( needle:$digestAlgorithm, haystack: hash_algos() ) ) {
return false;
}
// Manually calculate the digest based on the data sent.
$digestCalculated = base64_encode( hash( algo: $digestAlgorithm, data: $input, binary: true ) );
// Does our calculation match what was sent?
if ( !( $digestCalculated == $digestHash ) ) {
return false;
}
// The signature format is signature => <signature name>=:<base64 encoded hash>:
$signatureString = $headers["signature"];
// The Base64 encoding may have multiple `=` at the end. So split this at the first `=`.
$signatureData = explode( separator: "=", string: $signatureString, limit: 2 );
$signatureName = $signatureData[0];
// The signature is surrounded by `:` characters.
$signatureB64 = str_replace( search: ":", replace: "", subject: $signatureData[1] );
// The signature-input format is complicated!
$signatureInputString = $headers["signature-input"];
// Get the parameters. Assume there is only one signature.
$signatureParamsString = explode( separator: "=", string: $signatureInputString, limit: 2 )[1];
// Get the different elements of the signature.
$signatureInputData = explode( separator: ";", string: $signatureInputString );
// Construct the data.
$signatureInput = [];
foreach( $signatureInputData as $signatureInputParts ) {
$partsData = explode( separator: "=", string: $signatureInputParts );
// Strip quotes from keyid and parentheses from sig1.
if ( "keyid" == $partsData[0] ) {
$partsData[1] = str_replace( search: "\"", replace: "", subject: $partsData[1] );
}
if ( $signatureName == $partsData[0] ) {
$partsData[1] = str_replace( search: ["(", ")"], replace: "", subject: $partsData[1] );
}
$signatureInput[ $partsData[0] ] = $partsData[1] ;
}
$signatureStructure = $signatureInput[$signatureName];
$signatureKeyID = $signatureInput["keyid"];
// Remove quotes.
$signatureStructure = str_replace( search: "\"", replace: "", subject: $signatureStructure );
$signatureStructureData = explode( separator: " ", string: $signatureStructure );
// https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9421/#section-2.5
$signatureBase = "";
foreach ( $signatureStructureData as $signatureStructureParts ) {
if ( "@method" == $signatureStructureParts ) {
// https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9421/#name-method
$signatureBase .= "\"@method\": " . $_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] . "\n";
}
if ( "@target-uri" == $signatureStructureParts ) {
// https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9421/#section-2.2.2
// Change the domain name to your own.
$signatureBase .= "\"@target-uri\": https://EXAMPLE.COM" . $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"] . "\n";
}
if ( "content-digest" == $signatureStructureParts ) {
$signatureBase .= "\"content-digest\": $digestString\n";
}
}
// https://victoronsoftware.com/posts/http-message-signatures/#how-the-signature-is-created
$signatureBase .= "\"@signature-params\": $signatureParamsString";
// Get the signing user's public key.
// This is usually in the form `https://example.com/user/username#main-key`
// This is to differentiate if the user has multiple keys.
// This may need to be a signed request. You will need to write your own getDataFromURl() function to get the sending user's key.
$userData = getDataFromURl( $signatureKeyID );
$publicKey = $userData["publicKey"]["publicKeyPem"];
// Verify the request
$verified = openssl_verify(
data: $signatureBase,
signature: base64_decode( $signatureB64 ),
public_key: $publicKey,
algorithm: $digestAlgorithm
);
// Convert the result to boolean.
if ( $verified === 1 ) {
$verified = true;
} elseif ( $verified === 0 ) {
$verified = false;
} else {
$verified = null;
}
return $verified;
</code></pre>
<h2 id="further-reading"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#further-reading">Further Reading</a></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9421/">RFC 9421 HTTP Message Signatures</a></li>
<li><a href="https://victoronsoftware.com/posts/http-message-signatures/">Understanding HTTP message signatures: A developer's guide</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.otoroshi.io/docs/tutorials/http-message-signatures-rfc9421/">Sign and verify HTTP messages (RFC 9421)</a></li>
<li><a href="https://darutk.medium.com/verification-of-http-message-signatures-501bbdc7dfec">Verification of HTTP Message Signatures</a></li>
<li><a href="https://github.com/macgirvin/HTTP-Message-Signer">HTTP-Message-Signer in PHP</a></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="thanks-to-nlnet"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#thanks-to-nlnet">Thanks to NLnet</a></h2>
<p>This blog post was funded in part by the work I'm doing for my NLnet NGI0 grant. Thanks!</p>
<p><a href="https://nlnet.nl/project/ActivityBot/"><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/NGI-logos.webp" alt="NLnet logo." width="900" height="200" class="aligncenter"></a></p>
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<thr:total>2</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: ActivityPub by Evan Prodromou ★★★★⯪]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-activitypub-by-evan-prodromou/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74414</id>
<updated>2026-08-31T18:53:48Z</updated>
<published>2026-09-01T11:34:18Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityPub" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[As part of my grant from NLnet to improve my Fediverse bot project, I'm spending time making sure I understand all the fundamentals of ActivityPub. The problem with Internet standards is they're scattered all over the place. Abandoned forums, half-maintained wikis, mailing lists with obscure rules, and monolithic blocks of text. Sometimes you just want one book which collates all the info and…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-activitypub-by-evan-prodromou/"><![CDATA[<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/activitypub.jpg" alt="Book cover with a parrot on it." width="200" class="alignleft">
<p>As part of <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/">my grant from NLnet</a> to improve my Fediverse bot project, I'm spending time making sure I understand all the fundamentals of ActivityPub. The problem with Internet standards is they're scattered all over the place. Abandoned forums, half-maintained wikis, mailing lists with obscure rules, and monolithic blocks of text.</p>
<p>Sometimes you just want one book which collates all the info and presents it in a consistent format. This is <em>nearly</em> that book.</p>
<p>Evan Prodromou has the unenviable task of making the whole ecosystem easy to understand. Thankfully he does that well. Things are logically laid out, there are comprehensive descriptions of even the most obscure parts of the spec, and it builds up nicely from the fundamentals. Oh, it's also surprisingly light-hearted.</p>
<blockquote><p>This principle is so important and long-winded that web architects have given it an acronym, HATEOAS. (We often pronounce it “HATE-ee-OH-us,” which sounds like a breakfast cereal nobody wants to eat. This is one reason web architects aren’t allowed to name breakfast cereals.)</p></blockquote>
<p>There's an excellent checklist for all the steps needed when building a minimal ActivityPub server.</p>
<p>As with all O'Reilly books, it is a beautifully typeset ePub. Even better, it was supplied DRM-free through Kobo.</p>
<p>About the only significant thing missing is details of how to verify RFC 9421 HTTP Signatures. That's understandable as they're pretty new, but a bit annoying as that's what a lot of servers are sending now. Similarly, there's a good write up of how to publish a poll, but not much about voting or publishing the results.</p>
<p>The "Far Horizons" chapter is particularly exciting - giving a speculative overview of what AP <em>could</em> be used for. I, for one, am particularly looking forward to putting my Internet Connected Fridge on social media 😆</p>
<p>Ultimately ActivityPub is a living and evolving set of standards. No book can possibly keep up with all the changes happening to it - but Evan does a brilliant job of bringing together all the moving parts and creating a coherent picture of the standard.</p>
<p>Highly recommended if you're interested in understanding the fundamentals of the Fediverse!</p>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Review: Ruined Theatre's A Midsummer Night's Dream ★★★★☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/review-ruined-theatres-a-midsummer-nights-dream/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74461</id>
<updated>2026-08-31T09:51:55Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-31T11:34:08Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="shakespeare" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Theatre Review" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The whole point about Shakespeare is that you can set the play on an intergalactic space station or an American high school and keep virtually the rest unchanged. What happens when you transpose Dream from a proscenium arch to a living wood? As the sun sets over the trees, what sprites will come out to entertain us? Ruined Theatre brings a brilliant cast of seasoned West End performers to strut…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/review-ruined-theatres-a-midsummer-nights-dream/"><![CDATA[<p>The whole point about Shakespeare is that you can set the play on an intergalactic space station or an American high school and keep virtually the rest unchanged. What happens when you transpose Dream from a proscenium arch to a living wood? As the sun sets over the trees, what sprites will come out to entertain us?</p>
<p>Ruined Theatre brings a brilliant cast of seasoned West End performers to strut their hour among the ruins of Abbey Wood. Hey, gentrification has its benefits, OK?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/ruined_theatre/"><img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/msnd.webp" alt="Poster for the show, an explosion of colour." width="1024" height="527" class="aligncenter"></a></p>
<p>I don't know how many times I've seen "Dream", but I know I've never seen it performed in an actual wood during summer. Booking the tickets a few weeks ago during England's heatwave, it sounded perfect. A warm, dusky evening, accompanied by færies and asses. The British weather, of course, had other ideas.</p>
<h2 id="the-show-must-go-on"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/review-ruined-theatres-a-midsummer-nights-dream/#the-show-must-go-on">The Show <em>Must</em> Go On</a></h2>
<p>The storm clouds were, as the bard wrote, heavy, black and, pendulous. Outside it may be raining, their makeup may be flaking, but everyone knows that Shakespeare is best played when defying the elements, right?</p>
<p>Even in the rain, it was great! Theseus and Hippolyta as selfie-obsessed poseurs made for a delightful start. Recasting Athens as Lesnes was a great touch. And then we were led through the woods. Rather than traipse us from scene to scene, we settled in to a clearing - bringing our own camping chairs with us - and watched the magic unfold.</p>
<p>Half the fun is in watching children and teenagers giggling at Hermia's rage and Bottom's overconfident bombast. But you can't go wrong with actors studiously ignoring the downpour and professing their (misplaced) love for each other. Honestly, who'd lie down in the mud just to make us chuckle? How many laughs can you ring out of a man with an ass's head? Lord, what fools these mortals be!</p>
<p>It is a fairly straightforward production. Aside from modern dress there wasn't much updating of the text other than trimming it down. The smoke machine might have been an eerie touch on a still summer's night, billowing around us, instead the wind took it before it had a chance to settle. The incidental music worked well - especially the intertextuality of Pyramus & Thisbe playing to the Romeo+Juliet soundtrack - but the speakers were over-driven and distorted. A small crimp on an otherwise fine production.</p>
<h2 id="reflections-in-a-dappled-pond"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/review-ruined-theatres-a-midsummer-nights-dream/#reflections-in-a-dappled-pond">Reflections in a dappled pond</a></h2>
<p>I'm fairly sure I once played Demetrius in a youth production. Or possibly Lysander. I know I got to kiss Helena. Or possibly Hermia. The mind plays funny tricks as you age. Some of the more dreary prose becomes light and airy. The laughs which felt forced come more easily. The gender politics a little more nuanced.</p>
<p>You can never go back, of course. But you will always remember your first stage kiss with Hermia (or possibly Helena) with great affection. Seeing Shakespeare again and again and again in a hundred different variations just helps you realise what a master storyteller he was.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74461&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[ActivityBot is the recipient of an NLnet grant!]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74406</id>
<updated>2026-08-30T10:32:47Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-30T11:34:55Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityBot" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="ActivityPub" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="fediverse" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="NLnet" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Back in February, I applied for NLnet's Next Generation Zero grant. They were looking for Fediverse projects to help rewild the social media landscape. Or, as they describe it: Reclaim the public nature of the internet Small and medium-sized R&D grants between 5.000 and 50.000 euro, with the possibility to scale up. I run ActivityBot - it is a single-file ActivityPub server suitable for…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/"><![CDATA[<p>Back in February, I applied for <a href="https://nlnet.nl/NGI0/">NLnet's Next Generation Zero grant</a>. They were looking for Fediverse projects to help rewild the social media landscape. Or, as they describe it:</p>
<blockquote><p>Reclaim the public nature of the internet</p>
<p>Small and medium-sized R&D grants between 5.000 and 50.000 euro, with the possibility to scale up.</p></blockquote>
<p>I run <a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot">ActivityBot</a> - it is a single-file ActivityPub server suitable for launching automated accounts and designed as a learning tool for those who want to understand how the protocol works. Several people have told me how useful it is, but I haven't had the time to make it better. So I decided to stick in a last-minute application to the fund.</p>
<p>I really didn't know how much to apply for - or even if my project would be suitable for funding - so I cheekily asked for €10,000. After a few months of back-and-forth, I'm delighted to announce that I was successful!</p>
<p>In the spirit of openness, this blog post details how the NLnet grant process worked for me and what I'll be using the money for.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/NGI-logos.webp" alt="NLnet logo." width="900" height="200" class="aligncenter">
<h2 id="the-process"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#the-process">The Process</a></h2>
<p>The application was delightfully simple. Here's what it asked for, along with my answers. If you apply, please don't copy these verbatim; use your own words.</p>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Abstract : A single file server for ActivityPub. Designed for write-only bots. Allows any project to quickly and easily start publishing automated content to the Fediverse. Uses PHP, no other dependencies.
</li><li>Experience : I am the sole developer of Single File ActivityPub - https://gitlab.com/edent/activitypub-single-php-file<br>I was formerly the UK Government's representative to the W3C and have contributed to various ActivityPub projects and specifications.
</li><li>Amount : € 10000
</li><li>Use : The fund will be used for development, testing, promotional activity (including conference travel).<br>I anticipate this will fund 6 months of development. I have funded all previous development.<br>
</li><li>Comparison : Most ActivityPub services are complex. They implement a full specification and are designed for multi-user environments. Other projects allow reading and writing. ActivityBot is deliberately designed to be as simple as possible. A single file to upload, one user, publish only.<br>This will enable more projects to be able to instantly start publishing with low development cost and close to zero hosting cost.
</li><li>Challenges : Formal spec verification and a security audit will be the main technical challenges. The ActivityBot software has been running well for over a year. The funding will allow for better compatibility and security.
</li><li>Ecosystem : The project has mostly targeted individuals who want to run small bots. After further development, the project will engage with IoT providers, smaller publishers, open source projects who wish to publish updates, and other relevant parties.
</li></ul>
</blockquote>
<p>I was told there was intense competition. After a couple of months, I received word that I'd made it to the 2nd round.</p>
<p>What then followed was a <em>very</em> polite interrogation about my ideas, how I would develop the project, what I would use the money for, and what my AI usage policy was. They also wanted a breakdown of the main tasks - with the understanding that this would be a provisional document subject to change.</p>
<p>I was on <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/another-ridiculous-interrail-holiday-6379km-and-13-countries-over-7-weeks/">a train through Europe</a> when I wrote this. I don't claim it to be a brilliant document - but it got the job done!</p>
<blockquote><p>1. User Research
</p><p>Recruit 2 - 5 potential users. Offer an incentive (approx £20ea) to participate in a user research session. Study design will take 1 - 2 days. Each interview and write up to take 1 day. Consolidation and report 2 days.
</p><p>Total effort 3 - 4 weeks.
</p><p>2. Standards Research
</p><p>Participate in ActivityPub user communities and standardisation groups. Attend virtual conferences (or any local to the UK). Approx 1 day per week for 6 months.
</p><p>3. Test Driven Development
</p><p>Create modern test harness, write test suite, iterate design based on tests. Anticipated effort 2 days per week for approx 3 months.
</p><p>4. Security Testing
</p><p>Work with the community and security professionals to test the resultant code. This will use human testers and normal fuzzers - this will not use AI tools. Anticipated effort 2 days per week for approx 2 months.
</p><p>5. User Acceptance Testing
</p><p>Recruit 2 - 5 potential users (ideally different to the research participants). Offer an incentive (approx £20ea) to participate in a user acceptance session. Study design will take 1 - 2 days. Each interview and write up to take 1 day. Consolidation and report 2 days.
</p><p>Total effort 3 - 4 weeks.
</p><p>6. Updates Based on Research, Testing, and Security
</p><p>While it would be lovely to anticipate getting everything right first time, the reality is that changes will need to be made based on the findings of the above. This will take up the remainder of the allocated time.</p></blockquote>
<p>Again, there was a little more back and forth. But a few weeks later I was informed that I was at the final stage, pending review. And, a few weeks after that, I was told my project had been given the green light.</p>
<p>I was invited to a group call where the very friendly team discussed the practicalities of the grant, what it could and couldn't fund. I also met a bunch of other people who'd also won.</p>
<p>The final stage was writing a proper Memorandum of Understanding. With the help of one of the team (thanks Victoria!) I was able to turn my scrappy plan into something a bit more formal. The project tool NLnet uses made it easy to build up a plan and put € amounts by each task.</p>
<p>The idea is that I will invoice against the grant whenever I have completed a task or sub-task. Obviously I don't want to leave invoicing until the end of the project, but I also need to be mindful of the foreign exchange fees charged by my bank for receiving Euro payments.</p>
<h2 id="final-project-plan"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#final-project-plan">Final Project Plan</a></h2>
<p>This is the plan I submitted. It represents what I hope to accomplish and how I'll draw down on the grant. I suspect this will change as the months go on.</p>
<hr>
<p>ActivityBot is an Open Source project which aims to develop, maintain, and improve a minimum viable ActivityPub server in a single PHP file.</p>
<p>The project is run by Terence Eden (trading as @edent); a developer residing in England.</p>
<p>This project is expected to run for approximately 6 months. All of the deliverables will be openly licenced using either an OSI approved software licence or a Creative Commons licence.</p>
<p>The high-level aims of the project are for ActivityBot to be:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A fully compliant ActivityPub server, running in a single PHP file.</p></li>
<li><p>A teaching tool to help developers understand the practical aspects of creating an ActivityPub server.</p></li>
<li><p>A practical method of publishing automated messages to the Fediverse.</p></li>
<li><p>A promotional tool to show how simple and easy ActivityPub development can be.</p></li>
<li><p>A secure and usable tool written in modern PHP.</p></li>
<li><p>Written by humans, with no AI/LLM generated code.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In light of NLnet's non-profit status, costs assume a discounted rate of €330 per day (£280). Incidentals such as hardware, software, travel, or sundries will be charged at cost with receipts provided.</p>
<h2 id="prepare-for-initial-release"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#prepare-for-initial-release">Prepare for initial release</a></h2>
<p>Ensure that the project is in a suitable state for initial release and future development.</p>
<p>Deliverable: Updates published to GitLab.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>€495 Prepare initial release. Clarify licencing, solicit community engagement, include example usage.</p></li>
<li><p>€495 Standards Research. Collation of standards websites. Ensure code comments refer to specific standards. Publish blog post(s) about findings for others to reference.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="user-research"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#user-research">User Research</a></h2>
<p>Recruit up to 10 participants for a user-research study. Participants should represent the diversity of the Fediverse.</p>
<p>Investigate what participants want from a tool like ActivityPub. The project plan may be adapted following the results of this study.</p>
<p>Deliverable: Study plan and results will be published and given a Creative Commons licence. Changes based on the results will be pushed to GitLab.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>€660 Study Design and recruitment of participants (blog post published as deliverable).</p></li>
<li><p>€990 Two days of user interviews, write up and publish results as blog post.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="test-driven-development"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#test-driven-development">Test Driven Development</a></h2>
<p>Create a modern test harness, write test suite, iterate design based on tests.</p>
<p>Deliverable: Tests published to GitLab. Blog posts published about the process and results.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>€330 Set up test suite</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Write tests</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Fixes based on test results</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="security-testing"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#security-testing">Security Testing</a></h2>
<p>Working with NLnet's security offering, ensure that the project meets modern security requirements.</p>
<ul>
<li>€720 Work with security team to assess security risks and possible mitigations. Fixes based on security team feedback</li>
</ul>
<p>Deliverable: Updates published to GitLab. Blogs published about the process and results.</p>
<h2 id="user-acceptance-testing"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#user-acceptance-testing">User Acceptance Testing</a></h2>
<p>Recruit up to 10 participants for a user-acceptance study. Participants should represent the diversity of the Fediverse.</p>
<p>Investigate whether participants are able to use ActivityBot. See which aspects need improvement. The project plan may be adapted following the results of this study.</p>
<p>Deliverable: Study plan and results will be published and given a Creative Commons licence. Changes based on feedback will be published to GitLab.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>€660 Study Design and recruitment of participants (blog post published as deliverable).</p></li>
<li><p>€990 Two days of user interviews, write up and publish results as blog post.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="conferences-and-standards-work"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#conferences-and-standards-work">Conferences and Standards Work</a></h2>
<p>Open Source participation often depends on attending conferences, either in person or virtually. Getting involved in the standardisation process ensures that future versions of ActivityPub and associated standards will be suitable for the community.</p>
<p>Deliverables: Presentations material (slideware), speaking at conferences (may be published as video), conference outputs. Where possible, these will be available under a suitable Creative Commons licence.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>€700 Travel and accommodation to one EU conference</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Publishing blog posts about ActivityPub standards work.</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Publishing blog posts about ActivityPub standards work.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="final-release"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#final-release">Final release</a></h2>
<p>Creating a final release for this phase of the ActivityBot project. This will involve incorporating all feedback received so far, improving documentation, and publishing code.</p>
<p>Deliverable: Updates published to GitLab. Blog post written. Release announcements.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>€330 Phase 1: Process and implement feedback from users</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Phase 2: Bug fixes</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Phase 3: Features</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Phase 4: Bug fixes</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Phase 5: Features</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Phase 6: Remedial work</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Process and implement feedback from accessibility scan</p></li>
<li><p>€330 Final release</p></li>
</ul>
<h2 id="next-steps"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#next-steps">Next Steps</a></h2>
<p>I've already begun work on updating the code. If you'd like to get involved, or have suggestions or bug reports - please <a href="https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot">take a look at ActivityBot on GitLab</a>.</p>
<p>I'll be putting out a call for user-research participants once I've had a chance to catch my breath 😆</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74406&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[A simple "copy this code" button in JavaScript]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/a-simple-copy-this-code-button-in-javascript/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=69787</id>
<updated>2026-08-30T18:29:45Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-29T11:34:49Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HowTo" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="HTML" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="javascript" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Next to all the code samples on this blog is a little "copy" button. That makes it easier to grab any of the code I've shared. The HTML and JS is delightfully simple: <button onclick="navigator.clipboard.writeText( this.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('code')[0].textContent );" title="Copy code" >⧉</button> The navigator.clipboard.writeText needs a user interaction to w…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/a-simple-copy-this-code-button-in-javascript/"><![CDATA[<p>Next to all the code samples on this blog is a little "copy" button. That makes it easier to grab any of the code I've shared.</p>
<p>The HTML and JS is delightfully simple:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><button
onclick="navigator.clipboard.writeText(
this.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('code')[0].textContent
);"
title="Copy code"
>⧉</button>
</code></pre>
<p>The <code>navigator.clipboard.writeText</code> needs a user interaction to work - so it is tied to a click on the button.</p>
<p>It takes some plaintext content. But how to get that content? My code samples look like this:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><pre itemscope itemtype=https://schema.org/SoftwareSourceCode translate=no>
<button onclick="navigator.clipboard.writeText( this.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('code')[0].textContent );">⧉</button>
<span>
<img alt height=32 src=html.svg width=32>
<span itemprop=programmingLanguage> HTML</span>
</span>
<code itemprop=text>[…]</code>
</pre>
</code></pre>
<p>There are various ways I could get that <code><code></code> element:</p>
<ul>
<li>Give it a unique ID (but that might clutter the code, or conflict with something else).</li>
<li>Use <code>this.nextSibling.nextSibling</code> (but that might not work if the layout changes).</li>
<li>Use <code>this.lastChild.textContent</code> (but, again, depends on the layout staying the same).</li>
<li>Select based on <code>itemprop</code> (could make the code a bit longer).</li>
<li>Complex filtering on a NodeList (urgh).</li>
</ul>
<p>None of those are particularly bad <i lang="la">per se</i>, so I've chosen the method which makes most sense to me.</p>
<p>You can read more about my <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/09/class-warfare-can-i-eliminate-css-classes-from-my-html/">Classless Design</a>, and how I use <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/08/what-programming-language-is-in-this-code-block/">metadata to identify programming languages</a>, including whether <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/should-htmls-blocks-be-translated/">HTML's code blocks be translated</a>.</p>
<p>To let people know that it has worked, I've added a little <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLElement/popover">popover</a>.</p>
<p>Every piece of code has it's own <code>dialog</code> element with a unique id:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><dialog
id=pop
popover=hint>Copied JS to 📋</dialog>
</code></pre>
<p>No JavaScript is required to show the popover when the copy button is pressed:</p>
<pre><code class="language-html"><button popovertarget=pop popovertargetaction=show>
</code></pre>
<p>Closing the the popover hint doesn't require JS; clicking outside it will dismiss it. But a little scrap of JS on the button's <code>onclick</code> will make it disappear after a few seconds:</p>
<pre><code class="language-js">setTimeout(
function() {
document.getElementById("pop").hidePopover();
},
3000);
</code></pre>
<p>The browser's default is to place it in the middle of the screen.</p>
<p>Positioning the popup so it is in proximity to the button also requires CSS - no JS.</p>
<pre><code class="language-css">dialog[popover] {
inset: unset;
position: absolute;
position-area: top;
padding: .5em;
}
</code></pre>
<p>OK, that started out simple but got a bit more complex. Sorry!</p>
<p><ins datetime="2026-08-30T18:28:40+00:00">Update!</ins> It turns out there are some accessibility issues with this approach. See <a href="https://codepen.io/editor/ccwilcox/pen/01a04d8d-3691-7003-b8f6-df7439ecbd0a">these updates by Curtis Wilcox</a>.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=69787&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA["iT woRKs BeTter in THe aPp!!"]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/it-works-better-in-the-app/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73004</id>
<updated>2026-08-25T07:14:14Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-28T11:34:46Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="android" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Apps" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="google" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="rant" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The monkey-punchers at Google never quite seem to finish any of their apps. There's always some useful bit of work left undone, or showstopping bug which remains unfixed, a thousand jagged edges as yet unsolved by the greatest minds of their generation. I wanted to subscribe to an events calendar. I had a URl. I had my Google™ Pixel® phone running the latest Android© 17 with an updated calendar a…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/it-works-better-in-the-app/"><![CDATA[<p>The monkey-punchers at Google never quite seem to finish any of their apps. There's always some useful bit of work left undone, or showstopping bug which remains unfixed, a thousand jagged edges as yet unsolved by the greatest minds of their generation.</p>
<p>I wanted to subscribe to an events calendar. I had a URl. I had my Google™ Pixel® phone running the latest Android© 17 with an updated calendar app. Is it possible to click on a calendar link and add it to my phone?</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>Here's what <a href="https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37100">Google has to say about the matter</a>:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Google-Calendar-Help.webp" alt="To subscribe to a new calendar, you must use a computer web browser. You can't subscribe to a calendar in the Google Calendar app for Android, iPhone, or iPad." width="920" height="760" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-73005">
<p>Really?!? I mean, fucking <em>really</em>????</p>
<p>This isn't the most complex software engineering task known to humanity. Add a + button. Pop open a text entry field. Validate. Save. Done. I'm sure even the shitty Gemini model can vibe code that in a couple of months, right?</p>
<p>Anyway, I opened calendar.google.com on my phone (using desktop mode), added the calendar, and it magically appeared in the app.</p>
<p>This is just pathetic.</p>
<p>In fairness, this isn't only a Google problem. Many companies want a permanent presence on your homescreen and think you're too thick to use your browser's bookmarks feature. Maybe they're right. Maybe an app <em>is</em> the only way to increase the engagement KPI sufficiently so Quinn in the leadership squad can hit their OKRs and get a bonus.</p>
<p>So they build an app. Or, rather, they half-arse it. I've lost count of the number of times I've been told "it's easier if you use our app" only to be unceremoniously punted back to the web when I try to do anything outside of the app's narrow strictures.</p>
<p>I was there in the early days of phone apps. I built stuff for Symbian, BlackBerry, even the bloody Palm Pilot! The central problem with apps has always been that they are hard to update. Every new bit of functionality - or even a new page - needs to be tested on a thousand devices. Once done, it takes an age to distribute to users. The only way to solve that is to have the app dynamically pull in new functionality from a remote resource.</p>
<p>At which point, you've reinvented the Web browser!</p>
<p>Sure, there are some things you can <em>only</em> do with an app (<a href="https://developer.chrome.com/blog/serial-over-bluetooth/">although browsers are catching up</a>), and having an icon on the homescreen is useful (which is <a href="https://favicon.io/tutorials/favicon-sizes/">easy for sites to add</a>), as is offline functionality (which, again, <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Service_Worker_API/Using_Service_Workers">is possible on the web</a>).</p>
<p>Oh.</p>
<p>If you want an app, fine. Do it. Just finish the job please!</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73004&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Book Review: The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon ★★★★☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/book-review-the-infinite-sadness-of-small-appliances-by-glenn-dixon/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73408</id>
<updated>2026-07-23T22:11:55Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-27T11:34:48Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Book Review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Sci Fi" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[This is a charming and zeitgeisty novel which has a strong start and fulfils the promise of its blurb. What if your autonomous vacuum cleaner was sentient and was very sad about your wife's death? It pays obvious homage to the Brave Little Toaster, 100 Acre Woods, Beauty and The Beast, and hundred other what-if-your-toys-came-to-life stories. Along the way we discover what it is like to be a…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/book-review-the-infinite-sadness-of-small-appliances-by-glenn-dixon/"><![CDATA[<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Infinite-Sadness-of-Small-Appliances-1-532x815-1.jpg" alt="Book cover." width="200" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-73409">
<p>This is a charming and zeitgeisty novel which has a strong start and fulfils the promise of its blurb. What if your autonomous vacuum cleaner was sentient and was very sad about your wife's death?</p>
<p>It pays obvious homage to the Brave Little Toaster, 100 Acre Woods, Beauty and The Beast, and hundred other what-if-your-toys-came-to-life stories. Along the way we discover what it is like to be a transfem robo-hacker in domestic peril, why clocks are so bossy, and whether art is a cure for grief.</p>
<p>The world-building is a little basic (The Algorithm™ is managing humanity's decline) but the characters are well constructed. A little derivative, it's true. Nevertheless, it is a touching tale, told well, and with a decent pace.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73408&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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<thr:total>1</thr:total>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Gadget Review: Thermal Master P3 Macro Lens ★★★★⯪]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74230</id>
<updated>2026-08-25T12:37:17Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-26T11:34:52Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="gadget" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="infrared" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="review" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="thermal" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="usb-c" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The good folks at Thermal Master have sent me their latest camera to review - and it is a bit different to all the others I've tried. Whereas previous cameras are good for bird watching, or wildlife spotting, or finding leaks at home - the P3 has a manual macro lens and is specifically designed for getting close-up and personal with your electronics. Yup! See just how hot your CPU is getting…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/"><![CDATA[<p>The good folks at Thermal Master have sent me their latest camera to review - and it is a bit different to all the others I've tried.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/p3-thermal-camera-close-up.webp" alt="A small black camera with gold accents. It is held in the fingertips." width="3212" height="2409" class="aligncenter">
<p>Whereas previous cameras are good for <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/gadget-review-thermal-master-dv2-infrared-birdwatching-scope/">bird watching</a>, or <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-t2-max-plug-in-thermal-camera/">wildlife spotting</a>, or <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-hikmicro-d02-thermal-camera/">finding leaks at home</a> - the P3 has a manual macro lens and is specifically designed for getting close-up and personal with your electronics.</p>
<p>Yup! See just how hot your CPU is getting 🥵</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pi.webp" alt="A thermal image of a raspberry pi. The CPU is in red while the rest of the board is green." width="1344" height="1008" class="aligncenter">
<p>Let's take it for a spin!</p>
<h2 id="unboxing"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#unboxing">Unboxing</a></h2>
<p>As well as the camera (which looks <em>gorgeous</em> with its gold trim) you get a carry-case, USB-C extension cable, and a Lightning converter for older iPhones.</p>
<p>The metal casing of the camera feels delightful and gives it a bit of heft. The focus wheel is reasonably stiff which makes it easier to position just right.</p>
<h2 id="sample-photos"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#sample-photos">Sample Photos</a></h2>
<p>These are the raw images taken directly from the app. I haven't resized or altered them in any way. What you see is what you get. Here's a hot-spot on a circuit board:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/hotspot.webp" alt="A circuit rendered in grey with a bright red line on it." width="1344" height="1008" class="aligncenter">
<p>The natural size of the images is 1344x1008. That's obviously upscaled from the sensor, but there's a surprisingly amount of detail in there.</p>
<p>Here's a small circuit board which has just booted up:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Circuit-long-shot.webp" alt="A small circuit. Two of the chips are noticeably hotter than the rest of the board." width="1344" height="1008" class="aligncenter">
<p>Where the P3 shines is when you twist the manual lens all the way down to macro. You can get about 2cm away from a surface and stay in focus.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Chip-close-up.webp" alt="Close up of a small chip. It is hot, the traces are visible in the background." width="1344" height="1008" class="aligncenter">
<p>Obviously don't get that close to something red hot!</p>
<p>Annoyingly, the images are uncompressed JPEG and weigh in around 6MB each. I've losslessly compressed these to WebP, which is about 10% of the size.</p>
<h3 id="colours"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#colours">Colours</a></h3>
<p>There are a variety of different colour palettes to play with. Some are more useful than others. Here's a mug of hot and delicious matcha rendered in the various colours:</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Hot-Tea-Montage.webp" alt="Four photos of a mug. The colours show how hot the tea is." width="2688" height="2016" class="alignleft">
<p>Scrolling through the colours is a little difficult in the app (more on that later) but once you've found one you like, it stays that way for the photography session.</p>
<h3 id="exif"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#exif">EXIF</a></h3>
<p>Geolocation is taken from the phone - there's no GPS chip in the camera. You can refuse location permission to the app and it will work just fine.</p>
<p>That's just about all you get other than the time and the model name of <code>USB_IR_RS300_P2L</code> - the infrared details aren't recorded separately.</p>
<h2 id="video"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#video">Video</a></h2>
<p>The video doesn't upsample the image, it has a resolution of 504x672 playing at 25fps. Audio is recorded from the phone's microphone and is 64kbps mono. A minute of video is around 22MB. I've recompressed this one for the web.</p>
<p></p><div style="width: 620px;" class="wp-video"><video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-74230-4" width="620" height="465" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/p3focusvid.mp4?_=4"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/p3focusvid.mp4">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/p3focusvid.mp4</a></video></div><p></p>
<h2 id="the-app"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#the-app">The App</a></h2>
<p>It is, sadly, an inevitability that good hardware is always accompanied by a substandard app. The <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thermalmaster.p2telephoto">Thermal Master Android App</a> is the only way to access the camera. It has a relatively easy to use interface with plenty of options.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Camera-interface.webp" alt="Camera interface with janky UI." width="504" class="aligncenter">
<p>As you can see from the word "brightness" the UI is a little janky in places.</p>
<p>There's a decent amount of settings to fiddle with.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/more-settings.webp" alt="Settings screens with various temperature settings." width="504" class="aligncenter">
<p>You can also change which elements get displayed on the final image.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/settings.webp" alt="Settings to control the camera." width="504" class="aligncenter">
<p>Unfortunately, it is also a bit crash-happy. Most times I used it, the app would randomly close. It takes a little while to re-open thanks to a mandatory animation. So it gets a bit annoying. Flicking through some of the options can be slow and tedious. It also doesn't respect the phone's orientation, so images may be 90⁰ off what you expect.</p>
<p>The app updated the firmware on the camera, but didn't say what had changed.</p>
<p>It takes photos and videos, allows you to share them, and has a bunch of options to play with - but it does have a habit of crashing just when you're about to take the perfect shot. There is also zoom available, but it is digital only - so you're just making the pixels bigger rather than getting optically closer to the object you're scanning.</p>
<h2 id="linux-info"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#linux-info">Linux Info</a></h2>
<p>I tried plugging it in to a Linux laptop. It shows up as <code>3474:45a2 Thermal Master Technology Co., Ltd. P3</code> - but that's about it. There's no way I can find to access the thermal images.</p>
<p>To be fair, this is explicitly sold as an Android and iOS device. I'm hopeful someone will be able to reverse engineer it.</p>
<h2 id="cost-and-final-thoughts"><a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#cost-and-final-thoughts">Cost and Final Thoughts</a></h2>
<p>Thermal cameras are expensive. This will run you about <a href="https://link.amazon/B0aFBVuY9">£280 on Amazon</a> or about <a href="https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/products/p3-thermal-camera-for-iphone-and-android">£260 direct</a>. Readers of this blog can get 10% off using code <code>THERMALBF10</code></p>
<p>If you run a hackspace, this is a no-brainer. The ability to see hot-spots on your circuits is immediately useful. The detail is impressive, allowing you to see exactly what's causing problems.</p>
<p>If you're a hobbyist, this is definitely in the "ask Santa if you've been good" category. You'll find it handy on any small projects you have, or to diagnose faults with electrical equipment.</p>
<p>For non-macro uses, it's also pretty good. You might be better off with a dedicated device if you want to go <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/gadget-review-thermal-master-dv2-infrared-birdwatching-scope/">hunting wildlife</a> or doing <a href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-hikmicro-d02-thermal-camera/">home surveys</a>.</p>
<p>The only fly in the ointment is the app. While somewhat customisable, it does repeatedly crash and it isn't the easiest to use or set up. I found that pretty frustrating and have fed back the problem to the developers. I appreciate it saving high quality images - but a PNG or lossless WebP would be easier to work with than massive JPGs.</p>
<p>Ultimately, this is an excellent thermal camera. It looks lush, it is customisable, the images are high quality, and the macro-lens is surprisingly useful.</p>
<img src="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74230&HTTP_REFERER=Atom" alt width="1" height="1" loading="eager">]]></content>
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</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Terence Eden</name>
<uri>https://edent.tel/</uri>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Theatre Review: Cats at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre ★★★★☆]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/theatre-review-cats-at-regents-park-open-air-theatre/" />
<id>https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74380</id>
<updated>2026-09-01T22:02:57Z</updated>
<published>2026-08-25T11:34:22Z</published>
<category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="musical" /><category scheme="https://shkspr.mobi/blog" term="Theatre Review" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Cats is so silly! In the olden days, after a wild animal was slaughtered, the tribe's shaman would wear the skin and re-enact the hunt. As he became one with the beast, the people slowly understood the ways of nature. Cats is a similarly spiritual experience wherein we watch androgynous sylphs gyrate across the stage and believe (if only for a moment) that the human has become feline, all in…]]></summary>
<content type="html" xml:base="https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/theatre-review-cats-at-regents-park-open-air-theatre/"><![CDATA[<p>Cats is so <em>silly!</em></p>
<p>In the olden days, after a wild animal was slaughtered, the tribe's shaman would wear the skin and re-enact the hunt. As he became one with the beast, the people slowly understood the ways of nature.</p>
<p>Cats is a similarly spiritual experience wherein we watch androgynous sylphs gyrate across the stage and believe (if only for a moment) that the human has become feline, all in service of better understanding the mysteries of our moggies.</p>
<p>Does there need to be so many sequins? So much dry ice? Such a quantity of pyrotechnics?</p>
<p>No, probably not. But it all adds up to a spectacular which will keep you grinning.</p>
<p>The deficiencies in Cats are somewhat inherent. The scrapbook story doesn't make a lick of sense. It is more like a variety show than musical theatre. The lyrics are, at times, utterly asinine. The music soars, until someone starts playing what sounds like a genuine 1980s Casio keyboard - and all you can hear is squelch.</p>
<p>But then Gary Wilmot (!!!) comes on as Gus and all is forgiven on a haze of metatextual glory.</p>
<p>The choreography and dancing are exemplary. The singing occasionally gets muddled but is mostly delightful. The stage is perfect - the wind blowing through the trees and the moon gently rising only helps to accentuate the atmosphere.</p>
<p>The pre-show is good. As well as a variety of food stalls, patrons are encouraged to bring their own food and drink for a picnic. There are plenty of tables and a couple of selfie points.</p>
<p>The programme isn’t horrendous at £6 but still feels like it contains more advertising than content. The queues for the loos were outrageously long and the stalls weren't particularly clean.</p>
<p>There's nothing to do post-show except trudge back through the park. The selfie point is still illuminated if you want to queue for that. Even the t-shirt sales stopped after the interval.</p>
<p>I first saw Cats in the West End some time in the 1980s as a child and loved it. Afterwards my parents asked if I wanted to see a ballet or an opera next. "Eurgh! No! <em>Boring!</em>" I said. They politely informed me that I'd just seen both in one show and my juvenile mind was blown.</p>
<p>A few decades later I saw Cats on Broadway - shortly before it closed, I think. The C90 cassette they used to play the music was warbling like a demented bird and the sets looked equally tired. Despite the half empty auditorium, the cast attacked the songs with vigour. I still loved it.</p>
<p>And, today, I still had goosebumps. Maybe it was the unseasonable chill in the air, maybe it was the moonlight, or maybe it was the magic of Cats!</p>
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"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=75485",
"title": "Theatre Review: The School for Wives - at Riverside Studios ★★★★★",
"description": "The Flywheel theatre company are reviving the rep tradition by having five actors perform five different plays in five weeks. Their interpretation of Molière's classic is gaudy and hilarious. Even the lighting cues are funny! It is fair to say that School for Wives isn't exactly an uncontroversial play. The plot basically boils down to \"Women! Eh? You can't live with them, you can't easily groom …",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/theatre-review-the-school-for-wives/",
"published": "2026-09-18T11:34:51.000Z",
"updated": "2026-09-18T06:57:46.000Z",
"content": "<p>The <a href=\"https://flywheeltheatre.com/\">Flywheel theatre company</a> are reviving the rep tradition by having five actors perform five different plays in five weeks. Their interpretation of Molière's classic is gaudy and hilarious. Even the lighting cues are funny!</p>\n\n<p>It is fair to say that School for Wives isn't exactly an uncontroversial play. The plot basically boils down to \"Women! Eh? You can't live with them, you can't easily groom them from the age of four and keep them imprisoned so they become perfect submissives.\"</p>\n\n<p>Is the fear of cuckoldry funny? Is it OK to laugh at a jealous rage which leads to controlling behaviour? Should we find joy in the emotional torment of our characters?</p>\n\n<p>Yes! Yes! And yes!</p>\n\n<p>The cast squeeze every last drop of humour from the script, the direction is nimble, and the play has been edited down to a more manageable 75ish minutes (plus extra time for corpsing and applause).</p>\n\n<p>A simply joyous production which left us grinning throughout.</p>\n\n<p>You can <a href=\"https://riversidestudios.co.uk/whats-on/uqe-rep-radical-classical/\">see all their upcoming shows</a> - which are very reasonably priced.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"pre-show-and-post-show\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/theatre-review-the-school-for-wives/#pre-show-and-post-show\">Pre-Show and Post-Show</a></h2>\n\n<p>I'm a believer in making the entire visit to the theatre a special experience. Riverside Studio, Hammersmith is a great venue with generous foyer space and more than adequate toilet provision. Not a given in London theatres!</p>\n\n<p>The theatre programme is digital and provided via QR code. No £6 rip off for a booklet full of adverts here.</p>\n\n<p>As we walked in, the cast were dotted around the stage an in the auditorium doing various bits of business which made for a jolly start.</p>\n\n<p>Post curtain call there was a lovely speech from the cast thanking us for attending and letting us know about their future projects. Nothing wrong with a piece of shameless advertising to a captive audience 😄</p>\n\n<p>Overall an excellent theatrical experience.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=75485&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "Theatre Review",
"term": "Theatre Review",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74717",
"title": "How to get a DOI for your blog posts",
"description": "Each new post on this blog now has a Digital Object Identifier. This post looks at the how and the why of getting one, whether it is useful, and any issues you might experience if you go down this path. Table of ContentsBackgroundGetting a DOI the easy wayLet's Go Rogue!Automatic Submission of New ContentManual Submission of Old ContentGetting the DOIGenerating your own DOIMaking the DOI…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/",
"published": "2026-09-16T11:34:28.000Z",
"updated": "2026-09-16T13:04:19.000Z",
"content": "<p>Each new post on this blog now has a <a href=\"https://www.doi.org/\">Digital Object Identifier</a>. This post looks at the how and the why of getting one, whether it is useful, and any issues you might experience if you go down this path.</p>\n\n<p></p><nav role=\"doc-toc\"><menu><li><h2 id=\"table-of-contents\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#table-of-contents\">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#background\">Background</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#getting-a-doi-the-easy-way\">Getting a DOI the easy way</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#lets-go-rogue\">Let's Go Rogue!</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#automatic-submission-of-new-content\">Automatic Submission of New Content</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#manual-submission-of-old-content\">Manual Submission of Old Content</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#getting-the-doi\">Getting the DOI</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#generating-your-own-doi\">Generating your own DOI</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#making-the-doi-discoverable-in-html\">Making the DOI discoverable in HTML</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#downsides\">Downsides</a><menu><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#loss-of-control\">Loss of Control</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#tracking-citations\">Tracking Citations</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#licencing\">Licencing</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#verification\">Verification</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#excluding-content\">Excluding Content</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#deleting-content\">Deleting Content</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#affiliations\">Affiliations</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#more-vanity\">More Vanity</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#humility\">Humility</a></li></menu></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#is-it-worth-it\">Is it worth it?</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>\n\n<h2 id=\"background\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#background\">Background</a></h2>\n\n<p>A few years ago, I documented <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/09/how-to-add-issn-metadata-to-a-web-page/\">how to to get an International Standard Serial Number for a blog</a>. An ISSN uniquely identifies a publication, which makes it easier for scholars and researchers to reference it. Getting one depends a little on whether a national institution is willing to accept your application.</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, I also got an <a href=\"https://orcid.org/\">ORCiD</a> which is used to uniquely identify researchers. That means it is possible to disambiguate \"Einstein, A\" the eminent physicist from \"Einstein, A\" a lovely chap called Allen who researches invasive slugs in Paraguay.</p>\n\n<p>My blog posts are <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/citations/\">regularly referenced in academic papers, books, conferences, and news articles</a>. The way most scholars cite a work is using a Digital Object Identifier. The idea is that a DOI is a unique and persistent code which can be used to refer to a specific article. If I ever stop using <code>shkspr.mobi</code> as my domain, or re-order my website, the DOI can be redirected to the article's new home. Future scholars will be able to follow a reference more easily than hoping <code>https://example.com/article123</code> still exists.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"getting-a-doi-the-easy-way\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#getting-a-doi-the-easy-way\">Getting a DOI the easy way</a></h2>\n\n<p>If you're an academic, your institution will have a paid subscription to a service which will \"mint\" a new DOI for all your articles.</p>\n\n<p>If not, you can upload your paper to a service like arXiv and they'll mint a DOI for you. That's how <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/04/i-got-a-doi-from-arxiv-for-my-msc/\">I got a DOI for my MSc</a>.</p>\n\n<p>What about people who aren't traditional academics or who want to keep their content on their own website? There are a variety of paid-for services, some of which charge an eye-watering amount of money to create a DOI for you.</p>\n\n<p>Or, there's Rogue Scholar.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"lets-go-rogue\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#lets-go-rogue\">Let's Go Rogue!</a></h2>\n\n<p>So what is <a href=\"https://rogue-scholar.org/overview\">Rogue-Scholar.org</a>?</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Rogue Scholar is an open access archive and registry for science blogs. It preserves science blog posts, makes them citable via DOI, and ensures their long-term discoverability alongside formal scholarly literature.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Nifty! My blog <em>just about</em> sneaks in to their \"Computer Science\" category. They require you to have a full-text feed of your posts. You also need to licence your content to them as Creative Commons Attribution.</p>\n\n<p>Applying wasn't too difficult. I filled in their form, then jumped into their Slack. We had a bit of a discussion about what I needed to change in order to be approved.</p>\n\n<p>A few days later, I was live at <a href=\"https://rogue-scholar.org/communities/shkspr/\">https://rogue-scholar.org/communities/shkspr/</a></p>\n\n<p>Which means, if you visit <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.59350/395ha-fss97\">https://doi.org/10.59350/395ha-fss97</a> you'll be redirected to one of my blog posts.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"automatic-submission-of-new-content\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#automatic-submission-of-new-content\">Automatic Submission of New Content</a></h2>\n\n<p>Rogue Scholar automatically polls my feed, ingests my content, and then mints a DOI for every new post they encounter. There's nothing manual I have to do.</p>\n\n<p>That's all very well for new content. But I have posts on here going <em>way</em> back to 1986. How can they get discovered and DOI'd?</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"manual-submission-of-old-content\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#manual-submission-of-old-content\">Manual Submission of Old Content</a></h2>\n\n<p>By default, Rogue Scholar ingested the 40 most recent posts from my blog. Actually, that's not quite accurate. It got the 40 most recently <em>updated</em> posts. As I'd recently edited a few older posts, they got themselves a DOI.</p>\n\n<p>I don't know how often Rogue Scholar polls my blog's feed. In my experiments, adding a new post resulted in a DOI being issued a couple of minutes after publication.</p>\n\n<p>At the moment, there doesn't seem to be an easy way to add older content. I'm working on a WordPress plugin to retroactively add DOIs and make them discoverable.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"getting-the-doi\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#getting-the-doi\">Getting the DOI</a></h2>\n\n<p>The Rogue Scholar API is based on <a href=\"https://inveniordm.docs.cern.ch/reference/metadata/\">InvenioDRM</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Retrieving the DOI via their API requires you to make an unauthenticated request to:</p>\n\n<p><code>https://rogue-scholar.org/api/records?q=metadata.identifiers.identifier%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fwhatever%22</code></p>\n\n<p>That's your URl, wrapped in quotes, and the whole thing URl encoded. <a href=\"https://rogue-scholar.org/api/records?q=metadata.identifiers.identifier%3A%22https%3A%2F%2Fshkspr.mobi%2Fblog%2F2026%2F09%2Fthe-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams%2F%22\">Visit this example</a>. You can also use your post's GUID.</p>\n\n<p>That gets back a rather detailed JSON document. The DOI is noted in several locations, but is easiest to find in hits→hits→0→links→doi</p>\n\n<p>It's important to note that <a href=\"https://rogue-scholar.org/help/versioning\">Rogue Scholar generates <em>two</em> DOIs for your post</a>. One for the post, another for the specific version of the post. If you update a post, it should get a new DOI. That way someone can refer to the post where you said your favourite band was the Spice Girls and not the edited one where you changed it to say B*Witched.</p>\n\n<p>Alternatively, you can use the CrossRef search if you want to look at HTML results. See <a href=\"https://search.crossref.org/search/works?q=https%3A%2F%2Fshkspr.mobi%2Fblog%2F2026%2F09%2Fthe-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams%2F&from_ui=yes\">this CrossRef example</a>.</p>\n\n<p>As an aside, once you have the DOI, it's possible to create a <em>short</em> DOI at <a href=\"https://shortdoi.org/\">https://shortdoi.org/</a> - I'll be honest, I've never seen these in the wild and <a href=\"https://www.crossref.org/display-guidelines/#shortdoi\">they are not recommended for use</a>. Nevertheless, the API is pretty simple - <a href=\"https://shortdoi.org/10.59350/395ha-fss97?format=json\">https://shortdoi.org/10.59350/395ha-fss97?format=json</a> will return a shorter URl like <a href=\"https://doi.org/rnjj\">https://doi.org/rnjj</a></p>\n\n<p>Finally, there's a \"vanity\" DOI for the entire blog. In my case <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.59350/shkspr\"><code>10.59350/shkspr</code></a>.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"generating-your-own-doi\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#generating-your-own-doi\">Generating your own DOI</a></h2>\n\n<p>Your blog posts can self-attest a DOI - when Rogue Scholar sees that in your Atom feed, it will register it on your behalf.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://github.com/inveniosoftware/base32-lib/blob/master/base32_lib/base32.py\">The code for generating a valid DOI</a> is relatively straightforward.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Generate a random number between 0 and 1,099,511,627,775.</li>\n<li>Convert it to a Base 32 string.</li>\n<li>Add a two character checksum to the end.</li>\n<li>Prefix it with <code>10.59350/</code></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Your new DOI can be made discoverable in your Atom feed by adding this to a post:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-xml\"><id>https://doi.org/10.59350/12345-67890</id>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Shortly after publication, it will be \"minted\" and be linkable.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"making-the-doi-discoverable-in-html\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#making-the-doi-discoverable-in-html\">Making the DOI discoverable in HTML</a></h2>\n\n<p>How do you semantically add a DOI to your HTML's metadata? By far the most popular citation manager is <a href=\"https://www.zotero.org/\">Zotero</a>. They maintain <a href=\"https://www.zotero.org/support/dev/exposing_metadata\">a page describing the metadata they look for</a>. According to them, this needs to be in your page's <code><head></code>:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><meta name=citation_doi content=10..../...>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>They don't say whether it requires the <code>https://doi.org/</code> prefix - but looking at <a href=\"https://www.mendeley.com/guides/information-for-publishers\">Mendeley</a> and <a href=\"https://help.altmetric.com/en/articles/9806913\">AltMetric</a>, it appears not.</p>\n\n<p>To use <a href=\"https://www.dublincore.org/specifications/dublin-core/dcmi-terms/terms/identifier/\">DublinCore</a>, the <a href=\"https://help.altmetric.com/en/articles/9803009\">AltMetric recommended syntax</a> is:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><meta name=DC.Identifier content=doi:10..../...>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Within the HTML, there's no specific Microdata syntax, but <a href=\"https://schema.org/ScholarlyArticle#eg-0399\">Schema.org recommends the <code>sameAs</code> property</a>. Something like:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><a itemprop=\"sameAs\" href=\"https://doi.org/10.../...\">10.../...</a>\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"downsides\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#downsides\">Downsides</a></h2>\n\n<p>OK, it isn't all flowers and kittens. There are a few things you ought to know before proceeding down this path.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"loss-of-control\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#loss-of-control\">Loss of Control</a></h3>\n\n<p>For the IndieWeb / ReDeCentralise / Self-Hosing crowd, it's important to realise that DOI is a somewhat centralised services. Yes, <a href=\"https://www.doi.org/the-community/existing-registration-agencies/\">lots of different orgs can mint a DOI</a>, but as each ID has to be globally unique, doi.org sits in the middle as a benevolent gatekeeper. If DOI.org went bust or became evil, all the <code>https://doi.org/10....</code> links would die. There are many other services like <a href=\"https://datacite.org/\">DataCite</a> and <a href=\"https://www.crossref.org/\">CrossRef</a> which can resolve a DOI - but it might turn out to be a bit fragile.</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, if Rogue Scholar ever goes <em>properly</em> rogue then they can redirect my DOI to wherever they like. That level of control is useful if my site disappears; they can redirect to an archive. But if they get hacked, it could redirect somewhere unsavoury.</p>\n\n<p>Having my site's content backed-up somewhere is useful but, again, without control or <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#verification\">verification</a> I worry that I might not be able to effectively manage it.</p>\n\n<p>I use CSS to control the layout of my work but once it is archived as plain HTML or PDF, that formatting can disappear.</p>\n\n<p>I don't know what will happen if I ever change DOI issuer.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"tracking-citations\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#tracking-citations\">Tracking Citations</a></h3>\n\n<p>I have a Google Scholar alert set up for my domain <code>shkspr.mobi</code>. That picks up people who make reference to this site. Hurrah! But, if they use <code>https://doi.org/10....</code> rather than <code>https://shkspr.mobi/...</code> I won't get alerted.</p>\n\n<p>Luckily, <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.53731/zyg15-qv911\">Rogue Scholar offer Citation Tracking</a> which <em>should</em> autopopulate their API with any backlinks from other sources. I'm yet to discover how that works in practice. I don't think it will give me an email alert though.</p>\n\n<p>On a vanity issue, the DOI metadata shows the publisher of my posts as Rogue Scholar's parent organisation - <a href=\"https://front-matter.de/\">Front Matter</a>.</p>\n\n<p>If you look at the API response from <a href=\"https://api.crossref.org/works/10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69\">https://api.crossref.org/works/10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69</a> you'll see something like:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-json\">{\n \"message\": {\n \"institution\": [\n {\n \"name\": \"Front Matter\"\n }\n ],\n \"group-title\": \"Terence Eden's Blog\",\n \"publisher\": \"Front Matter\",\n \"DOI\": \"10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69\",\n \"author\": [\n {\n \"ORCID\": \"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9265-9069\",\n \"given\": \"Terence\",\n \"family\": \"Eden\"\n }\n ]\n }\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Some citation managers will show the publication name as \"Terence Eden's Blog\" - others as \"Front Matter\".</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"licencing\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#licencing\">Licencing</a></h3>\n\n<p>Rogue Scholar has a hard requirement that all content be Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY). There's no ability (yet) to choose different licences. Personally, I prefer Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA). I've allowed Rogue Scholar to use CC BY for my work which, of course, means if you get my posts through them you are also allowed to use CC BY.</p>\n\n<p>If you get my work through my own website it is the slightly more restrictive CC BY-SA.</p>\n\n<p>Does that make a practical difference? I don't know.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"verification\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#verification\">Verification</a></h3>\n\n<p>A DOI is persistent. That doesn't mean it is verifiable. If this blog ever goes offline the DOI will redirect to an archive - but there's no real way to tell that the text in that archive is accurate. There's no hashing or cryptographic signing. Yes, those things are rather brittle, but I think it would be helpful for the long-term integrity of citation chains.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"excluding-content\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#excluding-content\">Excluding Content</a></h3>\n\n<p>Suppose there is content you <em>don't</em> want to receive a DOI, what do you do? You'll need to generate an RSS feed which excludes those specific posts.</p>\n\n<p>For WordPress, you can do something like <code>/feed/atom/?cat=-1234</code> to exclude posts which have a category with the ID of 1234.</p>\n\n<p>There are some filters on the Rogue Scholar site which you might also be able to use.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"deleting-content\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#deleting-content\">Deleting Content</a></h3>\n\n<p>I don't think there's a way to delete or retract content from Rogue Scholar's DOI system yet. If you accidentally publish something you didn't mean to, it'll live on in the archives forever.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"affiliations\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#affiliations\">Affiliations</a></h3>\n\n<p>My ORCiD lists where I worked on certain dates. Initially, Rogue Scholar linked those to blog posts I wrote during my employment. However, all my posts were written in a personal capacity. It is possible to get those affiliations removed if they are inaccurate.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"more-vanity\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#more-vanity\">More Vanity</a></h3>\n\n<p>I initially tried generating DOIs like <code>edent-00f47</code> - although it's a valid Base 32 string with a checksum, it carries semantic meaning (my name) so shouldn't really be used. Ah well! Back to random strings.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"humility\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#humility\">Humility</a></h3>\n\n<p>Is this a valid use of the DOI ecosystem? A surprising number of my posts <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/citations\">have been referenced in academic papers</a> - but surely not <em>all</em> of my posts are worthy of getting a DOI? The problem is, I don't know when <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2018/06/how-i-became-leonardo-da-vinci-on-the-blockchain/\">a shitpost</a> will hit the zeitgeist and become quoted in papers, books, and articles.</p>\n\n<p>It feels a bit self-indulgent and a little pretentious to mint a new DOI for every previous and future post on this site. But it isn't like the DOI system is running out of space, is it?</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"is-it-worth-it\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/how-to-get-a-doi-for-your-blog-posts/#is-it-worth-it\">Is it worth it?</a></h2>\n\n<p>For me? Yes.</p>\n\n<p>I think it is important that <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.64000/552ec-b8g03\">scholarly blogs are properly referenced</a>. True, not <em>all</em> of my posts are cutting-edge research - but I'm always surprised which ones end up in someone's thesis or become part of a set-text.</p>\n\n<p>I'm excited to see if this leads to an increase <em>or</em> decrease in my blog's visibility in academia.</p>\n\n<p>If you have strong feelings either way about DOIs and/or blogs, please drop a comment in the box.</p>\n\n<p>You may cite this post using <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69\">https://doi.org/10.59350/5ck9b-kjv69</a> 😃</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74717&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
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{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
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"categories": [
{
"label": "academia",
"term": "academia",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "citation",
"term": "citation",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "DOI",
"term": "DOI",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "HTML",
"term": "HTML",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "WordPress",
"term": "WordPress",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=75570",
"title": "[RSS Club] Sorry for breaking your feed readers!",
"description": "You're part of the Groovy Gang because you're a member of RSS Club! These posts are only available on my RSS and Atom feed. This post is not available in the shops, on the web, via FTP, or anywhere else. So, yeah, sorry! My last post apparently broke some people's RSS readers. I had a code sample which said ＜marquee＞ - despite being properly escaped, some feed readers double-decoded it and tur…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/rss-club-sorry-for-breaking-your-feed-readers/",
"published": "2026-09-15T11:34:26.000Z",
"updated": "2026-09-15T07:37:02.000Z",
"content": "<p><mark>You're part of the Groovy Gang because you're a member of <a href=\"https://daverupert.com/rss-club/\">RSS Club</a>! These posts are only available on my RSS and Atom feed. This post is <strong>not</strong> available in the shops, on the web, via FTP, or anywhere else.</mark></p>\n\n<p>So, yeah, sorry! My last post apparently broke some people's RSS readers. I had a code sample which said <code>＜marquee＞</code> - despite being properly escaped, some feed readers double-decoded it and turned it into a literal marquee element!</p>\n\n<p><video width=\"270\" height=\"585\" muted=\"\" autoplay=\"\" loop=\"\" style=\"display:inline\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/feedscroll2.webm\"></video><video width=\"270\" height=\"600\" muted=\"\" autoplay=\"\" loop=\"\" style=\"display:inline\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/feedscroll.webm\"></video?</video></p>\n\n<p>With thanks to Neil and CaféHaine for the videos.</p>\n\n<p>I got several reports that people's readers started scrolling like that and they'd <a href=\"https://github.com/nextcloud/news-android/issues/1719\">raised issues with their feed reader</a>. Ooops! Sorry!</p>\n\n<p>That said, as far as I can tell, the feed <em>is</em> escaped correctly and shouldn't cause problems.</p>\n\n<p>Here's the code (I've added in some spaces to ensure it doesn't cause any issues):</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-xml\"><content type=\"html\">\n <![CDATA[< p> Lorem ipsum <code>& lt;marquee></code> dolor sed.</p>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>So what's going on? The feed is generated by the latest version of WordPress which <a href=\"https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/99e2de78a828d4fe472e37cf25fb0b2173e65c86/src/wp-includes/feed-atom.php#L89\">uses <code>CDATA</code> to wrap HTML</a> in a feed.</p>\n\n<p>There is a <a href=\"https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/9992\">17 year old discussion about whether this is conformant</a> on the WordPress issue tracker with the conclusion that it isn't incorrect and seems to work fine.</p>\n\n<p>Is it OK? Is my feed broken or are a bunch of readers non-compliant? Let's go back to basics. The Atom spec says</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>If the value of \"type\" is \"html\", the content of atom:content MUST NOT contain child elements and SHOULD be suitable for handling as <a href=\"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4287/#ref-HTML\">HTML</a>. The HTML markup MUST be escaped; for example, \"<code><br></code>\" as \"<code><br></code>\".</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4287/#section-4.1.3.3\">RFC 4287: The Atom Syndication Format</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Hmmmm. That would indicate that ampersand-l-t-semicolon should be interpreted as a less-than sign.</p>\n\n<p>However, the whole thing is wrapped in <code><![CDATA[</code> which according to the XML spec means:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>CDATA sections may occur anywhere character data may occur; they are used to escape blocks of text containing characters which would otherwise be recognized as markup.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/#sec-cdata-sect\">Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition)</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>So I <em>think</em> that a sensible feed-reader should see the CDATA block, grab the HTML inside it, and display it as-is. No need to unescape anything.</p>\n\n<p>That said, I'll see if I can change my feed to <em>not</em> need this hybrid format. There's <a href=\"https://waspdev.com/articles/2026-05-11/avoid-using-cdata-in-rss\">a brilliant blog post by Suren Enfiajyan</a> which makes the case that regular escaping is <em>probably</em> good enough.</p>\n\n<p>If you've experienced this bug - or think that I'm generating my feeds in the wrong way - <a href=\"https://edent.tel\">please get in touch</a>.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=75570&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "RSS Club",
"term": "RSS Club",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73143",
"title": "Esoteric HTML - ismap vs CSS",
"description": "The HTML specification is old and, while there is beauty in longevity, there's an inevitable build-up of boondoggles and baggage. Some elements like <marquee> have sadly been consigned to the dustbin of history - but there are still vestigial attributes just waiting to trip up the unwary. If you're young, you may never have heard of Image Maps. Back in the bad-old-days, there weren't many good…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/esoteric-html-ismap-vs-css/",
"published": "2026-09-14T11:34:53.000Z",
"updated": "2026-09-14T11:35:05.000Z",
"content": "<p>The HTML specification is old and, while there is beauty in longevity, there's an inevitable build-up of boondoggles and baggage. Some elements like <code><marquee></code> have sadly been consigned to the dustbin of history - but there are still vestigial attributes just waiting to trip up the unwary.</p>\n\n<p>If you're young, you may never have heard of Image Maps. Back in the bad-old-days, there weren't many good options for laying out a pixel-perfect HTML page. One option was to draw your website in an image editor, load it into a website <em>as an image</em>, and then make certain areas of the image clickable.</p>\n\n<p>One way to do this was to add the attribute <code>ismap</code>. It is <em>only</em> valid on <code><img></code> elements which are inside an <code><a href=…></code> element. Like so:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><a href=\"click.php\">\n <img ismap src=\"img.png\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\">\n</a>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>When you click on that image, you don't go to <code>click.php</code> - instead you go to <code>click.php?12,34</code> where the two numbers represent the X and Y coordinates of <em>where</em> on the image you clicked. That's brilliant! Your server knows the size of the image - so if you click on the top half it can take you to one place, and if you click in the lower left corner you can go to another.</p>\n\n<p>Brilliant!</p>\n\n<p>Except, of course, there's a catch!</p>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/embedded-content.html#dom-img-ismap\">specification of the <code><img></code> element</a> is a little obtuse. Merely saying:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>The ismap attribute […] indicates by its presence that the element provides access to a server-side image map. This affects how events are handled on the corresponding a element.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Instead, the details are in <a href=\"https://html.spec.whatwg.org/multipage/links.html#links-created-by-a-and-area-elements\">4.6.2 Links created by a and area elements</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>set x to the distance in CSS pixels from the left edge of the image to the location of the click, and set y to the distance in CSS pixels from the top edge of the image to the location of the click.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Did you notice the gotcha?</p>\n\n<blockquote><p><strong>the distance in CSS pixels</strong></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>This is <em>not</em> based on the actual size of the image! It is based on the layout</p>\n\n<p>Let's suppose you have an image which is 100 x 100 pixels. It is added to the website like this:</p>\n\n<p><code><img src=\"100.png\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" ismap></code></p>\n\n<p>Click on this image and you'll see that your X and Y positions are based on the natural size of the image.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\".\"><img src=\"https://placekittens.com/100/100\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" ismap=\"\" alt=\"A cute kitten\"></a></p>\n\n<p>But suppose you change the HTML to this:</p>\n\n<p><code><img src=\"100.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"20\" ismap></code></p>\n\n<p>When you click on the image, the X & Y positions are <em>not</em> based on the actual size of the image; they're based on its layout size.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\".\"><img src=\"https://placekittens.com/100/100\" width=\"500\" height=\"20\" ismap=\"\" style=\"height:20px\" alt=\"A distorted image of a kitten\"></a></p>\n\n<p>Suppose you use CSS to resize the image:</p>\n\n<p><code><img src=\"100.png\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" ismap style=\"width:7em;height:30ch\"></code></p>\n\n<p><a href=\".\"><img src=\"https://placekittens.com/100/100\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" ismap=\"\" style=\"width:7em;height:30ch\" alt=\"A distorted image of a kitten\"></a></p>\n\n<p>The X and Y aren't based on the image's natural size, nor their declared height and width. Instead they're based on the size on screen determined by CSS.</p>\n\n<p>And, of course, that's not necessarily <em>your</em> CSS! If the user has turned off style sheets, supplied their own, or uses an accessibility tool - the CSS size of the image might be <em>vastly</em> different from what you intended.</p>\n\n<p>If you have an image 100 pixels wide and you want people clicking on the left half to go to a different location to the people clicking on the right half, you might have server-side code which says:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-_\">if X < 50 :\n return page1.html\nelse\n return page2.html\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>But if the CSS has stretched, shrunk, skewed, or distorted the image then you have <em>no way of knowing</em> where the user clicked.</p>\n\n<p>As far as I can tell, this behaviour is the same in all major browsers.</p>\n\n<p>Basically, what I'm saying is, don't use <code>ismap</code> unless you're absolutely sure that there will be no CSS shenanigans. Even then, it probably isn't worth the risk.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73143&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "css",
"term": "css",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "HTML5",
"term": "HTML5",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "webdev",
"term": "webdev",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73168",
"title": "The expectations of privacy in driverless cars",
"description": "Do riders in autonomous vehicles think that they are in a private space? Here's a fascinating story from California where an robotaxi was redirected from its intended destination and, instead, delivered its misbehaving passengers to the police. The 15-year-old passengers were riding in a driverless autonomous car around San Mateo Monday afternoon. The teens drank alcohol inside the Waymo taxi…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-expectations-of-privacy-in-driverless-cars/",
"published": "2026-09-13T11:34:13.000Z",
"updated": "2026-09-13T11:33:41.000Z",
"content": "<p>Do riders in autonomous vehicles think that they are in a private space? Here's a fascinating story from California where an robotaxi was redirected from its intended destination and, instead, delivered its misbehaving passengers to the police.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>The 15-year-old passengers were riding in a driverless autonomous car around San Mateo Monday afternoon. The teens drank alcohol inside the Waymo taxi and shot Orbeez beads with a toy gun toward other vehicles.</p>\n\n<p>A Waymo employee, who was remotely monitoring the car, tricked the unruly teenagers, authorities said. The employee told the young passengers that the Waymo was having mechanical issues and needed to stop.</p>\n\n<p>Unknown to the teens, the employee had also called the San Mateo Police Department to report that a gun was firing from the car.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/heres-how-waymo-tricked-unruly-teen-passengers-in-san-mateo/\">Here’s how Waymo tricked unruly teen passengers in San Mateo</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Is that OK?</p>\n\n<p>Kids shooting (albeit fake) guns out of cars is bad. I've no problem with the long arm of the law feeling their collars.</p>\n\n<p>But what sort of reasonable expectation of privacy do you have when you jump into a driverless car?</p>\n\n<p>If you have a blazing row with your partner while sat in the back of a black cab, the driver's going to hear, right? There's no privacy expectation although you might rely on their discretion.</p>\n\n<p>Take a phone call and arrange a drug deal, the driver might turn you in to the police. They're not a confidant, are they?</p>\n\n<p>Kiss someone you shouldn't and you accept the risk that the driver might both notice and care.</p>\n\n<p>But when there's no driver, there's no risk of your privacy being invaded is there?</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Nine former Tesla employees told Reuters that Tesla workers shared customer videos and images recorded by in-car cameras between 2019 and 2022.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://observer.com/2023/04/tesla-camera-recording-privacy-concern/\">Tesla Workers Shared ‘Intimate’ Videos Recorded By In-Car Cameras</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Ah.</p>\n\n<p>I don't know how Waymo was alerted to the problems in the car. Perhaps someone called them and reported the numberplate. Perhaps the car heard raised voices and sent an alert. Perhaps Waymo just regularly drops in on all its customers.</p>\n\n<p>Rummaging through Waymo's various privacy policies eventually leads to this <a href=\"https://support.google.com/waymo/answer/9190819\">rather ambiguous page</a> which describes how they monitor the inside of their vehicles.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Our autonomous vehicles are equipped with an advanced suite of sensors – including cameras and microphones – that act as the 'eyes and ears' of our Waymo Driver.</p>\n\n<strong>Cameras inside the car</strong>\n\n<p>Cameras are a way for us to make sure that your trip goes smoothly. Among other things, we may use cameras to:</p>\n\n<ul>\n <li>Make sure that cars are clean</li>\n <li>Find lost items</li>\n <li>Provide help in case of emergency</li>\n <li><i>Check that in-car rules are being followed</i> <small>[Emphasis added]</small></li>\n <li>Improve products and services</li>\n <li><i>Promote safety and security</i> <small>[Emphasis added]</small></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Our Support team may review video under certain circumstances, including after an issue is brought to our attention. Occasionally, in more urgent circumstances, Support may access live video during a trip.</p>\n\n<strong>Microphones inside the car</strong>\n\n<p>The microphones inside the car are only on during voice calls with Rider Support or when you actively choose to enable microphones inside the car.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>To me, that sounds like riders' voices aren't automatically sent back to the mothership. Indeed, they're at pains to say:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Waymo vehicles also have a number of sensors, including our audio-detection system used to detect police and emergency vehicle sirens. Waymo has implemented technical and procedural safeguards designed to limit the collection of any human voice data from these microphones.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>So there is <em>some</em> acknowledgement of privacy - for our voices at least. Meanwhile, passengers are <a href=\"https://www.brautiganarchives.xyz/machines.html\">all watched over by machines of loving grace</a> or, at the very least, fallible humans with prurient interests.</p>\n\n<p>About a decade ago, people were theorising that a driverless cars would one day deliver to you <a href=\"https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/5qg125/eventually_a_selfdriving_car_will_deliver_a_dead/\">a rider who died on the journey</a>. I don't think that's happened yet - instead, we have cars watching what what we do. Silently judging us picking our noses. Examining our body language for signs of stress. Tracking our breathing patterns and heart-rates to ensure we aren't going to cause damage to the vehicle.</p>\n\n<p>Not listening though. That would be a step too far.</p>\n\n<p>Besides, who needs to use a microphone when you've got a high-resolution camera backed by AI?</p>\n\n<p></p><div style=\"width: 620px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-73168-2\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video/mp4\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2001-lip-reading-web.mp4?_=2\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2001-lip-reading-web.mp4\">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2001-lip-reading-web.mp4</a></video></div><p></p>\n\n<p>Just as I finished writing this post, a story broke about how a <a href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-09-12/juveniles-riding-in-waymo-arrested-after-police-find-ghost-gun\">Waymo pulled over and called the police on riders who had \"ghost gun\"</a>. The company said it alerted the authorities after detecting a terms of service violation.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, it didn't say <em>how</em> it detected that!</p>\n\n<p>I also find it curious that in both cases, the alleged perpetrators were juveniles. Maybe children have less of a right to privacy than adults?</p>\n\n<p>I guess when you ride alone, you ride with a snitch.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73168&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [
{
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2001-lip-reading-web.mp4",
"image": null,
"title": null,
"length": 3454412,
"type": "video",
"mimeType": "video/mp4"
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],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "AI",
"term": "AI",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "automation",
"term": "automation",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "car",
"term": "car",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "privacy",
"term": "privacy",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "robots",
"term": "robots",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74470",
"title": "ActivityPub - How to send an updated user profile to Mastodon and the Fediverse",
"description": "Let's suppose you've updated the description of your ActivityPub account from \"World's Number 1 Taylor Swift Fan\" to \"This account is now a Nickleback Truther\". How do you let the rest of the Fediverse know that you've changed your allegiance? By default, most Mastodon instances won't periodically poll your account information just to see if you've updated it. So how does the information get…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-how-to-send-an-updated-user-profile-to-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/",
"published": "2026-09-12T11:34:02.000Z",
"updated": "2026-09-13T06:08:41.000Z",
"content": "<p>Let's suppose you've updated the description of your ActivityPub account from \"World's Number 1 Taylor Swift Fan\" to \"This account is now a Nickleback Truther\". How do you let the rest of the Fediverse know that you've changed your allegiance?</p>\n\n<p>By default, most Mastodon instances won't periodically poll your account information just to see if you've updated it. So how does the information get from your server to your followers' servers?</p>\n\n<p>This wasn't immediately obvious to me, but I got a clue from reading <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-activitypub-by-evan-prodromou/\">Evan Prodromou's book on ActivityPub</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>The Update activity type is for updating the properties of an object represented by the object property.</p>\n\n<p>The most common types of objects that can be updated are content objects, like Note or Image. Actor types (like Person) and Question activity types can also be updated.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Aha!</p>\n\n<p>You need to craft an <code>Update</code> message which has as its object the <em>new</em> user information. That needs to be sent to the inbox of all your followers.</p>\n\n<p>Something like this:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-json\">{\n \"@context\": \"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams\",\n \"actor\": \"https://example.com/user\",\n \"id\": \"6a9162a6-a8e5-ca0f-9c08-8e6b814acef8\",\n \"published\": \"2026-08-31T12:34:56+01:00\",\n \"to\": \"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#Public\",\n \"type\": \"Update\",\n \"object\": {\n \"@context\": [\n \"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams\",\n \"https://w3id.org/security/v1\"\n ],\n \"id\": \"https://example.com/user\",\n \"name\": \"My new name\",\n \"summary\": \"A brand new description!\",\n …\n },\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Obviously the <em>full</em> user information is a bit more than that - it will include inbox details, public keys, avatars, etc. The <code>published</code> property in the Update activity should be when you changed your details - not when the account was created.</p>\n\n<p>Once that was sent, Mastodon immediately reflected the changes.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"thanks-to-nlnet\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-how-to-send-an-updated-user-profile-to-mastodon-and-the-fediverse/#thanks-to-nlnet\">Thanks to NLnet</a></h2>\n\n<p>This blog post was funded in part by the work I'm doing for my NLnet NGI0 grant to develop <a href=\"https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot\">ActivityBot</a>.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://nlnet.nl/project/ActivityBot/\"><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/NGI-logos.webp\" alt=\"NLnet logo.\" width=\"900\" height=\"200\" class=\"aligncenter\"></a></p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74470&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "ActivityBot",
"term": "ActivityBot",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "ActivityPub",
"term": "ActivityPub",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "fediverse",
"term": "fediverse",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "mastodon",
"term": "mastodon",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74757",
"title": "[RSS Club] Sneak peek at new DOI functionality",
"description": "If you're reading this, you're part of RSS Club! A top secret society of cool people who subscribe to my feed. This post is not available on the web or via email. I've been playing about with Rogue Scholar. It's an open-access publication which allows blogs to get a persistent Digital Object Identifier. If I've set everything up correctly (not a given) then all new posts on this site will be…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/rss-club-sneak-peek-at-new-doi-functionality/",
"published": "2026-09-11T11:34:12.000Z",
"updated": "2026-09-11T09:48:42.000Z",
"content": "<p><mark>If you're reading this, you're part of <a href=\"https://daverupert.com/rss-club/\">RSS Club</a>! A <em>top secret</em> society of cool people who subscribe to my feed. This post is <strong>not</strong> available on the web or via email.</mark></p>\n\n<p>I've been playing about with <a href=\"https://rogue-scholar.org/\">Rogue Scholar</a>. It's an open-access publication which allows blogs to get a persistent <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier\">Digital Object Identifier</a>.</p>\n\n<p>If I've set everything up correctly (not a given) then all new posts on this site will be issued with a DOI. Hopefully, this will not include RSS Club posts - as I'd like to keep them as a special private treat just between you and me.</p>\n\n<p>I'm in the process of writing a WordPress plugin to retrieve the DOI and add it to posts. I'm not sure if there's a sensible way to add it into an RSS feed, but I'll give it a go.</p>\n\n<p>Will this be useful? I don't know. My posts sometimes get <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/citations\">referenced in proper academic works</a> - I'm not sure if this'll make any difference to that. But it is nice to experiment with these things.</p>\n\n<p>If you have any experience with DOI or Rogue Scholar - please <a href=\"https://edent.tel/\">get in touch</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Thanks for being a member of RSS Club - you rock 😃</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74757&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "RSS Club",
"term": "RSS Club",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=68346",
"title": "Put an AV test at the start of your slides",
"description": "For years, I've had a test-card at the start of my slides. Before I start my talk, I can immediately see if the aspect ratio is wrong, colours are off, or any other visual issues with the presentation. A few years ago I was invited to give a talk and was assured that the venue was set up for audio as well as video. I dutifully filled my slides with with demo videos containing sound. None of…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/put-an-av-test-at-the-start-of-your-slides/",
"published": "2026-09-10T11:34:10.000Z",
"updated": "2026-09-02T09:08:33.000Z",
"content": "<p>For years, I've had a <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2017/11/put-a-test-card-at-the-start-of-your-slides/\">test-card at the start of my slides</a>. Before I start my talk, I can immediately see if the aspect ratio is wrong, colours are off, or any other visual issues with the presentation.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Test-Card-on-a-screen.jpg\" alt=\"A test card is displaying on a television screen\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-28772\">\n\n<p>A few years ago I was invited to give a talk and was assured that the venue was set up for audio as well as video. I dutifully filled my slides with with demo videos containing sound. None of them worked. Somewhere between the HDMI output of the presentation laptop and the speakers, the audio went <abbr title=\"Absent Without Leave\">AWOL</abbr>.</p>\n\n<p>Ever since then, I've placed an audio test slide at the start of my presentations. There's <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sound+sync+test\">a good range of videos on YouTube</a> - pick one you like, embed it into your slides, and play it before your talk starts.</p>\n\n<p>Over the years, I've found the following \"bugs\" with event AV setups:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>No sound.</li>\n<li>Only left channel working.</li>\n<li>Severe latency between audio and video.</li>\n<li>Garbled sound.</li>\n<li>Sound routing to the room but not the livestream.</li>\n<li>Feedback / howl around when sound playing.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Whether events are professionally run or community managed, you can never guarantee that sound will work. Add subtitles to your videos. If possible, add a sign-language interpreter. And, if all else fails, hold your microphone to your laptop's speakers.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=68346&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "presentations",
"term": "presentations",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74622",
"title": "ActivityPub - Is it worth defending against replay attacks and message/signature time skew?",
"description": "Here's a problem that I've found with ActivityBot - my little ActivityPub server. Sometimes it receives messages which were originally sent months ago. Why does that happen and is it risky to accept and process them? My tl;dr is that it probably isn't worth worrying about. But I'd love someone to tell me why I'm wrong. Here's my thinking: Table of ContentsCausesIs that a problem?What are we…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/",
"published": "2026-09-08T11:34:51.000Z",
"updated": "2026-09-08T09:42:04.000Z",
"content": "<p>Here's a problem that I've found with <a href=\"https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot/\">ActivityBot</a> - my little ActivityPub server. Sometimes it receives messages which were originally sent <em>months</em> ago. Why does that happen and is it risky to accept and process them?</p>\n\n<p>My tl;dr is that it <em>probably</em> isn't worth worrying about. But I'd love someone to tell me why I'm wrong.</p>\n\n<p>Here's my thinking:</p>\n\n<p></p><nav role=\"doc-toc\"><menu><li><h2 id=\"table-of-contents\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#table-of-contents\">Table of Contents</a></h2><menu><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#causes\">Causes</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#is-that-a-problem\">Is that a problem?</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#what-are-we-trying-to-protect-against\">What are we trying to protect against?</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#putting-it-all-together\">Putting it all together</a></li><li><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#no-youre-wrong-and-i-can-prove-it\">No! You're wrong and I can prove it!</a></li></menu></li></menu></nav><p></p>\n\n<h2 id=\"causes\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#causes\">Causes</a></h2>\n\n<p>All ActivityPub messages should have a \"published\" timestamp in their body. Some will have an \"updated\" timestamp. That tells you, unsurprisingly, when the message is alleged to have been originally published or updated. That time might be very different to the time you receive the message.</p>\n\n<p>There are, I think, three different reasons why a server might receive a message which has an out-of-date timestamp.</p>\n\n<p>The first is that sometimes servers are just slow. Processing thousands of messages at the same time means that some of those messages take a while to send. <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2023/09/how-far-did-my-post-go-on-the-fediverse/\">ActivityPub is one big chain-mail</a> so it can take several minutes for a message to be sent to all your followers.</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, your server might be slow. If it doesn't acknowledge receipt of a message, the original server will try sending it again. Sometimes that can take a while.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, some servers take a relaxed view of standards. They send an update to an old message but keep the original publication date. Ideally, they'd use an \"updated\" timestamp but quite often they don't.</p>\n\n<p>For the purposes of checking the legitimacy of the message, <strong>you do not need to check when a message says it was published or updated</strong>. You might want to check it isn't an <em>obviously</em> bogus date like far in the future or impossibly far in the past - but that's up to you.</p>\n\n<p>It is normal that your server receives messages which appear to have been published at a totally different time from now.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"is-that-a-problem\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#is-that-a-problem\">Is that a problem?</a></h2>\n\n<p><em>Probably</em> not.</p>\n\n<p>As described above, there are various reasons why a message may be delayed in transit - or may appear to come from the distant past.</p>\n\n<p>What we <em>can</em> check is when the message was cryptographically signed by the sending server. This is independent of its published or updated timestamp.</p>\n\n<p>HTTP requests to your server will have a <code>date</code> header which looks like <code>Tue, 01 Sep 2026 15:54:21 GMT</code> - this is in the slightly peculiar and Anglocentric <a href=\"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5322/#section-3.3\">RFC 5322 format</a>.</p>\n\n<p>New style RFC 9421 headers will also have a <code>signature-input</code> header which will contain something like <code>created=1788278061</code>. That uses the slightly obscure <a href=\"https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap04.html#tag_04_16\">UNIX / POSIX time</a> which counts seconds since the \"Epoch\" of 1st January 1970.</p>\n\n<p>If you <a href=\"https://www.epochconverter.com/\">convert the UNIX time</a> to something more modern, you should get an <em>identical</em> value to the <code>date</code> header.</p>\n\n<p>But that isn't always the case. For example, <a href=\"https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9421.html#:~:text=Tue%2C%2020%20Apr%202021%2002%3A07%3A55%20GMT,-Content%2DType\">the RFC 9421 standard gives this example</a>:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-_\">Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2021 02:07:55 GMT\n\"@signature-params\": (\"@method\" \"@authority\" \"@path\" \\\n \"content-digest\" \"content-length\" \"content-type\")\\\n ;created=1618884473;keyid=\"test-key-rsa-pss\"\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Converting <code>1618884473</code> to normal time gives Tue, 20 Apr 2021 02:07:<strong>53</strong> - a two second difference.</p>\n\n<p>If the <code>date</code> and <code>created</code> values differ significantly - that may indicate that the message is untrustworthy. Or that there was a delay between the signing and the sending.</p>\n\n<p>The spec says:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>The Date header field value represents the timestamp of the HTTP message. However, the creation time of the signature itself is encoded in the created signature parameter. These two values can be different, depending on how the signature and the HTTP message are created and serialized. Applications processing signatures for valid time windows should use the created signature parameter for such calculations. An application could also put limits on how much skew there is between the Date field and the created signature parameter, in order to limit the application of a generated signature to different HTTP messages.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9421.html#section-7.2.4\">7.2.4. Choosing Signature Parameters and Derived Components over HTTP Fields</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>But, of course, it doesn't tell you how much skew is problematic. It's up to you how much skew you're prepared to accept.</p>\n\n<p>So that's the difference between the sent time and the signed time. The next time to check is your own. As we've discussed, sometimes servers are slow sending things out. Would you accept a request that was signed five minutes ago? Five days ago? Five months ago? What amount of difference is dangerous?</p>\n\n<p>Here's what various services and sages have to say:</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"mastodon\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#mastodon\">Mastodon</a></h3>\n\n<blockquote><p>The request contains a Date header. Compare it with current date and time within a reasonable time window to prevent replay attacks.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2018/07/how-to-make-friends-and-verify-requests/\">How to make friends and verify requests</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<p>What is \"reasonable\"? The <a href=\"https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/blob/89bc0eb42609463d4b11e1604dacc37332a0f5ab/app/lib/signed_request.rb#L5\">source code</a> suggests one hour.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"grishka\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#grishka\">Grishka</a></h3>\n\n<blockquote><p>Time in the Date header must differ from the recipient server’s clock by no more than 30 seconds</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://grishka.me/blog/activitypub-from-scratch/\">A bare-minimum ActivityPub server from scratch</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<h3 id=\"evan-prodromou\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#evan-prodromou\">Evan Prodromou</a></h3>\n\n<blockquote><p><code>static #maxDateDiff = 5 * 60 * 1000 // 5 minutes</code></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://github.com/evanp/activitypub-bot/blob/main/lib%2Fhttpsignatureauthenticator.js#L8\">activitypub-bot</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<h3 id=\"swicg\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#swicg\">SWICG</a></h3>\n\n<blockquote><p>The standards don't give a concrete time window to use for this comparison. In practice, an hour plus a few minutes buffer in either direction may be a good value, to account for both clock skew and differences in time zone/daylight savings time configuration across systems.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://swicg.github.io/activitypub-http-signature/#how-to-verify-a-signature\">How To Verify a Signature</a></p></blockquote>\n\n<h3 id=\"others\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#others\">Others</a></h3>\n\n<p>Without naming names, it looks like a bunch of popular servers don't check whether there's a significant difference between the date the request was signed and the date it was received.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"summary\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#summary\">Summary</a></h3>\n\n<p>Various documents and implementations recommend anything between 30 seconds to \"a bit more than 60 minutes\". Or they just ignore any date difference.</p>\n\n<p>What's the right answer? What happens if the signed date is significantly different from the current date?</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-are-we-trying-to-protect-against\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#what-are-we-trying-to-protect-against\">What are we trying to protect against?</a></h2>\n\n<p>Replay Attacks. Suppose someone is listening to the communications between the sending server and your server. They copy the message that is sent to you. Later they send it again!</p>\n\n<p>At this point, you might be thinking \"so what?\" and… I'm inclined to agree with you!</p>\n\n<p>What's the worst that could happen if you received the same message multiple times? Two things that I can think of.</p>\n\n<p>Firstly, it might <em>not</em> be the same message. It is possible to send a new message but with old headers. An attacker could make someone post \"I hate Taylor Swift\" against their will and watch as legions of fans disembowel the victim.</p>\n\n<p>Except, I don't think this is likely. The signature in the header contains a hash of the message being sent. If you are properly validating the signature, a changed message will have a different hash from the one in the original message. You don't need to check timestamps, you just need to check if the hashes match.</p>\n\n<p>Secondly, <a href=\"https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/idempotence-explained\">idempotence</a>. That's a fancy word for \"pressing the button multiple times should only result in one action\".</p>\n\n<p>What happens if a user appears to send you multiple \"like\" messages for a single post? You only record one like.</p>\n\n<p>What if they send multiple messages with the same content? Well, each will have a unique ID in the message - so you only post it once.</p>\n\n<p>What if they send multiple <em>anythings</em>? I can't think of any ActivityPub action which would not be idempotent.</p>\n\n<p>About the worst thing I can think of is this:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Alice sends a message to you saying \"I want to follow Bob\".</li>\n<li>Mallory intercepts this message.</li>\n<li>You record Alice is now following Bob.</li>\n<li>Alice sends a message to you saying \"I want to <em>unfollow</em> Bob\".</li>\n<li>You record the severed relationship.</li>\n<li>Mallory replays the original follow message.</li>\n<li>You record Alice is now following Bob.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>It's also possible the following could happen:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Alice posts a message saying \"I love The Beatles\".</li>\n<li>You record Alice's message and display it on the timeline.</li>\n<li>Alice updates her post to say \"I love the Rolling Stones\".</li>\n<li>Mallory intercepts this message.</li>\n<li>You record Alice's updated message and display the new version on the timeline.</li>\n<li>Alice updates her post yet again to say \"I love the Spice Girls\".</li>\n<li>You record Alice's updated message and display the new version on the timeline.</li>\n<li>Mallory replays the original update message.</li>\n<li>You now display that Alice loves the Stones rather than Spice Girls.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Perhaps the same can happen with like/unlike, block/unblock, boost/unboost.</p>\n\n<p>But none of that is significantly prevented by checking the date.</p>\n\n<p>Ultimately, it is up to your sever to check the unique ID of each message and refuse to action any repeated messages. You may not want to trust the unique ID which is sent with the message. If that's the case, you can calculate your own - perhaps using a hash of the contents, the signature, or some other process which will generate an ID based on the message.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"putting-it-all-together\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#putting-it-all-together\">Putting it all together</a></h2>\n\n<p>Here's what you need to do to prevent replay attacks:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Independently calculate the hash of the message received.</li>\n<li>Validate that your calculated hash matches the hash sent in the message's HTTP headers.\n\n<ul>\n<li>If not, this is a potential replay attack and the message must be ignored.</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>Verify that the signature received in the message's HTTP headers includes the message hash and is cryptographically valid.\n\n<ul>\n<li>If not, the signature is invalid and the message must be ignored.</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>Has the received message's unique ID already been processed?\n\n<ul>\n<li>If so, refuse to process it again.</li>\n</ul></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I don't see what checking the timestamp of the HTTP signature has to do with anything. Someone who has access to the original messages and their headers could send them milliseconds after the original delivery.</p>\n\n<p>I think it is probably <em>pragmatic</em> to give messages 60ish minutes grace before dropping them. Delays happen, but anything more significant than an hour <em>might</em> indicate a attack. But, equally, might just mean that the Internet is having a slow day.</p>\n\n<p>If you are correctly checking signatures and hashes, I don't think you need to worry about skew between signature date and delivery date.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"no-youre-wrong-and-i-can-prove-it\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/activitypub-is-it-worth-defending-against-replay-attacks-and-message-signature-time-skew/#no-youre-wrong-and-i-can-prove-it\">No! You're wrong and I can prove it!</a></h2>\n\n<p>Please tell me where I have erred! Stick a comment in the box or drop me an email. If I've made a massive or subtle mistake, I'd love to know what.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74622&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "ActivityBot",
"term": "ActivityBot",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "ActivityPub",
"term": "ActivityPub",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "http",
"term": "http",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "security",
"term": "security",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74588",
"title": "The purpose of DNS is to spread scams",
"description": "I imagine everyone here has received an unsolicited message telling them that their tax is overdue and that they urgently need to visit Genuine-Tax-Payment-Website.fart or that a parcel is delayed at customs and you can pay a small sum for its release at Almost-The-Right-Acronym.ak You know it is a scam. Most people just mark as spam and move on with their day. But a significant number of people …",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/",
"published": "2026-09-06T11:34:20.000Z",
"updated": "2026-09-05T17:12:13.000Z",
"content": "<p>I imagine everyone here has received an unsolicited message telling them that their tax is overdue and that they urgently need to visit Genuine-Tax-Payment-Website.fart or that a parcel is delayed at customs and you can pay a small sum for its release at Almost-The-Right-Acronym.ak</p>\n\n<p>You know it is a scam. Most people just mark as spam and move on with their day. But a significant number of people don't. They hastily visit the site, tap in their credit card details, give it their mother's maiden name, confirm address, upload a nude selfie, and only then realise that they've been had.</p>\n\n<p>The Internet works at pretty close to the speed of light. You can register a .uk domain and a minute later it's accessible from the other side of the planet. Brilliant for users who want to quickly launch a website. Also brilliant for abusers who want to launch a spam campaign.</p>\n\n<p>By the time enough people have reported the scammers' domain as suspicious, it is too late. In the time it takes for a registrar to disable the domain, or for its name to make its way to the <a href=\"https://safebrowsing.google.com/\">Safe Browsing List</a>, a million messages have already been sent and enough people have handed over their details.</p>\n\n<p>We're told that \"<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does\">the purpose of a system is what it does</a>\". At the moment, the Domain Name System's purpose seems to be a vector for criminals to run scams on people at a terrifyingly high rate.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"how-big-is-this-problem\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/#how-big-is-this-problem\">How big is this problem?</a></h2>\n\n<p>BIG!</p>\n\n<p>There's a great blog post by Andrew Campling which reports on this startling claim:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>The study found that at least 10% of all new gTLD domain names registered during the year had subsequently appeared on security blocklists by the time of analysis. It estimated that, taking account of subsequent blocklisting and associated domains not themselves blocklisted, the share of names registered by malicious actors <strong>may be closer to 20%</strong>.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://labs.ripe.net/author/andrew_campling/dns-abuse-and-criminal-infrastructure-beyond-definitions-and-blocklists/\">DNS Abuse and Criminal Infrastructure: Beyond Definitions and Blocklists</a> (emphasis added)</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>That links to a presentation by Interisle which contains some rather shocking statistics (<a href=\"https://www.icann.org/en/blogs/details/looking-beyond-the-numbers-understanding-malicious-domain-registration-data-10-08-2026-en\">albeit with disputed methodology</a>). It looks at <em>generic</em> Top Level Domains (gTLD) - those are things like .com and .fun rather than country code TLDs (ccTLD) like .uk and .de.</p>\n\n<p>It says 85 million new registrations of gTLDs were made in 2025. Of those 8.5 million were added to blocklists by May 2025. It reckons that a 10% abuse rate is the likely floor for these numbers and it's probably closer to 20%. One in five newly registered domains with a gTLD are scams. That's a bloody crisis.</p>\n\n<p>13 TLDs had more than 50% of their registrations blocklisted.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/gTLDs.webp\" alt=\"Table listing the top 13 generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) with the highest percentage of blocklisted, malicious new domains created in 2025. Ranked from highest to lowest blocklist percentage, top entries include .LOCKER (72.9%), .LGBT (72.2%), and .TOWN (70.2%). The table detail includes TLD operators, registration totals, and specific malicious domain metrics.\" width=\"1162\" height=\"954\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>I can understand why .bid and .loan are popular with scammers. But why .mobi?! What did I ever do to you, eh?</p>\n\n<p>Who are the scammers registering these through?</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/registrars.webp\" alt=\"List of registrars. NameCheap, Gname, Dynadot, NameSilo, GoDaddy.\" width=\"910\" height=\"390\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Ah, our old friends at NameCheap. See <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/05/why-do-scammers-love-namecheap/\">Why do scammers love NameCheap?</a></p>\n\n<p>If those five registrars had more effective policies, it might significantly dent the scammers' ability to ply their devious wares. Or they might just move on to other registrars.</p>\n\n<p>As the report points out:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>suspension rates for blocklisted domains were 7.4% to 16.3%.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://interisle.net/s/FullReport_MaliciousRegistrationsintheDomainNameMarket_2026_rev.pdf\">The full report is on the Interisle website</a>.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-can-be-done\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/#what-can-be-done\">What can be done?</a></h2>\n\n<p>I don't know.</p>\n\n<p>In the first instance, it might make sense for registrars to do strong Know Your Customer (KYC) checks on anyone buying a domain. But that stops anyone who wants to anonymously register <code>I-Hate-Nintendo.whatever</code> without risking the wrath of Intellectual Property lawyers.</p>\n\n<p>Also, criminals have access to stolen money and stolen cards. They can convince a hapless mule to register a domain on the criminals' behalf.</p>\n\n<p>Registrars could ask for an escrow payment. Pay €9 for the domain name put €900 in escrow. If your domain appears on a blocklist within the year, you forfeit the money. Criminals with stolen funds are unlikely to care but it would probably put off lots of people from getting a new domain.</p>\n\n<p>There are various banned words and phrases depending on the TLD. For example, <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/07/ss-tld-opening-for-direct-registrations/\">South Sudan</a> has a list of political words which they don't want associated with their .ss ccTLD.</p>\n\n<p>But if one gTLD bans a word, a different one might not. A scammer doesn't care if the gTLD is .arse or .elbow - they just want the start of the domain to look legitimate.</p>\n\n<p>Some registrars have strings that they don't allow. In fairness to NameCheap, when I tried to register <code>dwp-payments-gov-uk.pizza</code> it told me that domain was banned. It wouldn't let me get any gTLD with that name.</p>\n\n<p>But all it takes is one registrar to be slightly lax and the scammers get through. Increasing the complexity of the rules is also a hell of a burden on smaller registrars.</p>\n\n<p>Besides, it's pretty easy to get a generic enough looking domain and stick the confusing bit on a subdomain. Here are a clutch mentioned in the report:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpaph.bond/uk/</code></li>\n<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpcjh.bond/uk/</code></li>\n<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpclc.bond/uk</code></li>\n<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpclw.bond/uk</code></li>\n<li><code>https://gov.uk-dwpclj.bond/uk/</code></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Perhaps there ought to be a delay before a new domain goes live to allow people to object to it? That would give governments, banks, delivery companies, and a dozen more \"important\" organisations a right to veto any \"dodgy\" looking domain.</p>\n\n<p>But suppose someone wants to register <code>gov-uk-stole-my-horse.horse</code> to protest the government's cruel policy of stealing horses - is that a legitimate use of a domain? What if the Darwin Pensioner Divas - a group of elderly singers - want to take payments for their new album of goth/punk covers, can the DPD delivery company veto <code>dpd-payments.music</code>?</p>\n\n<p>Do we want a domain name system where powerful companies control exactly which domains we can register? If I have an idea for a domain on a Friday night do I have to wait until Monday before it can be launched? Are those companies realistically able to parse millions of domains per year and have a low false-positive rate?</p>\n\n<p>All of these things are possible - but all of them come with an impact on legitimate users. To be clear, I don't know what the right answer is.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"what-is-icann-doing-about-it\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/the-purpose-of-dns-is-to-spread-scams/#what-is-icann-doing-about-it\">What is ICANN doing about it?</a></h2>\n\n<p>Lots! It has been a few years since I've been to an ICANN meeting, but even back then the topic of abuse was high on the agenda. They appear to be looking at ways to coordinate abuse reports between various entities, along with some other policies which should hopefully work.</p>\n\n<p>There are two salient points from <a href=\"https://hosted-files.sched.co/icann86/b3/TRANSC_I86SQV_Mon08June2026__GNSO-DNS%20Abuse%20Mitigation%20PDP%201%20%281%20of%204%29-en.pdf\">one of the discussions held at the recent meeting</a></p>\n\n<blockquote><p>If anybody thinks that in our current age of AI and as we move into different kinds of computing, DNS abuse is going to numerically stay steady and we will have a downward effect on that baseline 2027 number. I'm not sure that that's an accurate assumption. I think it's going to be the other thing, which is […] it's going to be easier to abuse the DNS.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>And</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Abusers are going to abuse because it's just too lucrative, because no matter what we do, they will find the way to make profit off of that, and will try to circumvent everything that we do. That is not a reason not to do it, though.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Quite!</p>\n\n<p>As I said, I don't know the answer to this. What I do know is, much like <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/08/is-it-possible-to-allow-sideloading-and-keep-users-safe/\">Android's app ecosystem being a haven for scammers</a>, DNS is facing a crisis. When trust in a system goes, only chaos follows.</p>\n\n<p>I don't want to live in a world where I have to show my passport and pay thousands of pounds to register a domain which is only available after being vetted by private interests. But I also don't want to live in a world where scammers have effectively no deterrent from abusing millions of people.</p>\n\n<p>The purpose of a system is what it does. I hope DNS's purpose can become less dangerous while still remaining open.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74588&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "ICANN",
"term": "ICANN",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "internet",
"term": "internet",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "scam",
"term": "scam",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "spam",
"term": "spam",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "tld",
"term": "tld",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "web",
"term": "web",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74686",
"title": "Book Review: The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories by Ken Liu ★★★★☆",
"description": "This is a gorgeous set of short stories - and a good deal more accessible than some of the heavyweight prose Liu has previously been involved with. Some of the stories contain sentences which are complex jewels to be savoured. What I particularly like is the way he moves between almost-prosaic Earth-bound stories to the the most extraordinary flights of fancy. One story might be set in a…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-the-passing-of-the-dragon-and-other-stories-by-ken-liu/",
"published": "2026-09-05T11:34:47.000Z",
"updated": "2026-09-05T09:22:57.000Z",
"content": "<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/9781035929306.webp\" alt=\"Book cover.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft\">\n\n<p>This is a gorgeous set of short stories - and a good deal more accessible than some of the heavyweight prose Liu has previously been involved with. Some of the stories contain sentences which are complex jewels to be savoured.</p>\n\n<p>What I particularly like is the way he moves between almost-prosaic Earth-bound stories to the the most extraordinary flights of fancy. One story might be set in a downtown art gallery, the next in the ice-rings of a far-off planet. The creeping feeling of senescence haunts the reader as they flit from story to story.</p>\n\n<p>Much like his full-length novel <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/09/book-review-all-that-we-see-or-seem-by-ken-liu/\">All That We See or Seem</a>, Liu has an incredible knack for tapping in to modern fears and weaving tall tales around them. There's a tenderness in all his character - even when a couple of the stories go nowhere, it is still pleasant to spend time in the worlds he has created.</p>\n\n<p>It is, perhaps, missing a cohesive theme - the dragons come and go throughout the stories. Nevertheless, a compelling work chock full of fantastical ideas.</p>\n\n<p>If you're in the mood for a wide and varied selection of stories, this is well worth picking up.</p>\n\n<p>Many thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. Passing of the Dragon is available to buy now.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74686&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "Book Review",
"term": "Book Review",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "NetGalley",
"term": "NetGalley",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "Sci Fi",
"term": "Sci Fi",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74429",
"title": "A reasonably practical guide to validating RFC 9421 HTTP Signatures for ActivityPub in PHP",
"description": "If you're reading this, you've probably been hitting your head against a brick wall trying to parse and decipher the new HTTP Signatures sent by Mastodon and other Fediverse servers. This is a basic and somewhat incomplete guide to accepting these signatures. I'm sure there are various gotchas, but it works with the signatures I've seen in the wild. Shut Up And Show Me The Code! OK, wow, no…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/",
"published": "2026-09-03T11:34:12.000Z",
"updated": "2026-09-04T13:36:29.000Z",
"content": "<p>If you're reading this, you've probably been hitting your head against a brick wall trying to parse and decipher the new HTTP Signatures sent by Mastodon and other Fediverse servers.</p>\n\n<p>This is a basic and somewhat incomplete guide to accepting these signatures. I'm sure there are various gotchas, but it works with the signatures I've seen in the wild.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"shut-up-and-show-me-the-code\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#shut-up-and-show-me-the-code\">Shut Up And Show Me The Code!</a></h2>\n\n<p>OK, wow, no need to be a dick about it! Here's how I validated a real signature that my server received. This requires PHP 8.4 or newer.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-php\">$verified = openssl_verify(\n data: '\"@method\": POST\n\"@target-uri\": https://example.viii.fi/inbox\n\"content-digest\": sha-256=:tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=:\n\"@signature-params\": (\"@method\" \"@target-uri\" \"content-digest\");created=1787780262;keyid=\"https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key\"',\n signature: base64_decode( \"sIfmNsM/Q8iG6AJlne1IkZVjQSVFDEYIPsnoSOXQY+W3Eb4+SOn9o4J5SQmFOP+Jecjf3ioFwUdsrFjAGkUUOHPvSbNWkGKtNuGm+C6r3aI3JBCFGPqX3ITgZYV76CF7JJJ5hPGaG8YH/XdmxVIeFfD3M39FQCncMyyq7xJJvwKKP1mzS5s1vNQie8hbQ9owRjtqvoWcmM9GEYCUHNcMPLjZc+CBrj8sfBbNTYgIFI4UtirOaRJvYymxXjmXuzeVYxQujMjAjgobxQ8QFv0zlYsHk+gS5EYyafpJG9zmfCFSoF9+ZwqKNADmuADbISD9LZIH/bmkPoNXhxaeFPqYog==\" ),\n public_key: \"-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\\nMIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAsYMEs4waqk/6gaS+xn1T\\nYygElTtNIFNkBcEdEBMaeoGVhyZiVKtSjJCS4z+X+394PKvcfSTcFILIt2GI2jOB\\nHD0M2fFgxc8mmdSdCQkgEh9jF3bFI3kopDvzYf726iioYKlHXKpfPKvFt7EJgKH7\\naCtS25NQkek3YUd6y3VBcT3R6Xhze9P3QNoZMIsFXklgXDKj+EllfbUqLf1vxt3s\\nmD9ETxy2bJi9FheE0uY2WhARn49XAvwczM5Wzt+zqxVEtgpi5v2+ZZAVKhDnJkiC\\nCCuI6hrSnKNIx/5mSlX0a0S5h5d03djrCkYsqmwelu01rhOXP2grsz4BXp0y2wrO\\n3QIDAQAB\\n-----END PUBLIC KEY-----\\n\",\n algorithm: \"sha256\"\n);\n\necho $verified;\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Copy and paste that into PHP and you should see that <code>$verified</code> is true.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"now-explain-the-code\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#now-explain-the-code\">NOW EXPLAIN THE CODE</a></h2>\n\n<p>Say please.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"please\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#please\">PLEASE!!!</a></h2>\n\n<p>Along with the message sent to your server, you will have received HTTP headers like this:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-_\">content-digest: sha-256=:tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=:\nsignature: sig1=:sIfmNsM/Q8iG6AJlne1IkZVjQSVFDEYIPsnoSOXQY+W3Eb4+SOn9o4J5SQmFOP+Jecjf3ioFwUdsrFjAGkUUOHPvSbNWkGKtNuGm+C6r3aI3JBCFGPqX3ITgZYV76CF7JJJ5hPGaG8YH/XdmxVIeFfD3M39FQCncMyyq7xJJvwKKP1mzS5s1vNQie8hbQ9owRjtqvoWcmM9GEYCUHNcMPLjZc+CBrj8sfBbNTYgIFI4UtirOaRJvYymxXjmXuzeVYxQujMjAjgobxQ8QFv0zlYsHk+gS5EYyafpJG9zmfCFSoF9+ZwqKNADmuADbISD9LZIH/bmkPoNXhxaeFPqYog==:\nsignature-input: sig1=(\"@method\" \"@target-uri\" \"content-digest\");created=1787780262;keyid=\"https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key\"\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>The <code>signature-input</code> tells you how to construct a \"Signature Base\". You have to build a text string which places the various components in the order specified and separated with a newline:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-_\">\"@method\": POST\n\"@target-uri\": https://example.viii.fi/inbox\n\"content-digest\": sha-256=:tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=:\n\"@signature-params\": (\"@method\" \"@target-uri\" \"content-digest\");created=1787780262;keyid=\"https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key\"\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Where <code>@method</code> is the HTTP method used to send data to your server (usually <code>GET</code> or <code>POST</code>), and <code>@target-uri</code> is the URl the message was sent to (usually your inbox).</p>\n\n<p>The <code>publicKey</code> is slightly trickier. As you can see, the <code>signature-input</code> ends with <code>keyid=\"https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key</code></p>\n\n<p>If you make a signed request to that URl, you'll get back an ActivityPub Actor document. It will look something like this:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-json\">{\n \"@context\": [\n \"https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams\",\n \"https://w3id.org/security/v1\",\n ],\n \"id\": \"https://mastodon.social/users/Edent\",\n \"webfinger\": \"Edent@mastodon.social\",\n \"type\": \"Person\",\n \"name\": \"Terence Eden\",\n \"publicKey\": {\n \"id\": \"https://mastodon.social/users/Edent#main-key\",\n \"owner\": \"https://mastodon.social/users/Edent\",\n \"publicKeyPem\": \"-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\\nMIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAsYMEs4waqk/6gaS+xn1T\\nYygElTtNIFNkBcEdEBMaeoGVhyZiVKtSjJCS4z+X+394PKvcfSTcFILIt2GI2jOB\\nHD0M2fFgxc8mmdSdCQkgEh9jF3bFI3kopDvzYf726iioYKlHXKpfPKvFt7EJgKH7\\naCtS25NQkek3YUd6y3VBcT3R6Xhze9P3QNoZMIsFXklgXDKj+EllfbUqLf1vxt3s\\nmD9ETxy2bJi9FheE0uY2WhARn49XAvwczM5Wzt+zqxVEtgpi5v2+ZZAVKhDnJkiC\\nCCuI6hrSnKNIx/5mSlX0a0S5h5d03djrCkYsqmwelu01rhOXP2grsz4BXp0y2wrO\\n3QIDAQAB\\n-----END PUBLIC KEY-----\\n\"\n },\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>The <code>publicKeyPem</code> is the string you need. There's no need to convert the <code>\\n</code> to literal newlines.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"is-that-it\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#is-that-it\">Is that it?</a></h2>\n\n<p>Not quite! All we've done so far is verify the headers. It is possible that these are genuine headers but attached to a fraudulent body.</p>\n\n<p>This takes us back to the header <code>\"content-digest\": sha-256=:tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=:</code></p>\n\n<p>That says that the body of the message sent has a Base64 encoded SHA256 hash of <code>tFdB/ENGczHMlZMDb66pXoUi2d0OqH2iBHdnN/WV1mc=</code>.</p>\n\n<p>To calculate your own content digest in PHP:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-php\">$input = file_get_contents( \"php://input\" );\n$digestCalculated = base64_encode(\n hash(\n algo: \"sha256\",\n data: $input,\n binary: true\n )\n);\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Does your digest match the one sent along with the headers? If not, something dodgy is going on.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"putting-it-all-together\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#putting-it-all-together\">Putting it all together</a></h2>\n\n<p>The steps are:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Get the headers.</li>\n<li>Get the body.</li>\n<li>From the headers' <code>content-digest</code> extract the algorithm and hash.</li>\n<li>Using the body, calculate your own hash using the algorithm from <code>content-digest</code>.</li>\n<li>Does your hash match the sent hash? If not, stop. If so, proceed.</li>\n<li>From the headers' <code>signature</code> extract the base64 encoded signature.</li>\n<li>From the headers' <code>signature-input</code> extract the signature-input string.</li>\n<li>From the signature-input string extract the order of the Signature Base.</li>\n<li>Construct the Signature Base.</li>\n<li>From the signature-input string extract the keyid.</li>\n<li>Get the Public Key from the keyid.</li>\n<li>Use <code>openssl_verify()</code> to verify the Signature Base and the base64 decoded signature, against the Public Key using SHA256.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Note, <a href=\"https://docs.joinmastodon.org/spec/security/#http-message-signatures\">Mastodon <em>only</em> uses SHA256</a>. I think it should explicitly say which algorithm it is using <a href=\"https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/29905#issuecomment-5440336919\">and have raised the issue</a>.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"in-code-form\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#in-code-form\">In Code Form</a></h3>\n\n<p>This is how you do it in PHP. Please read this carefully as there are some hard-coded assumptions.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-php\"><?php\n\n// Validate the Digest.\n// It is the hash of the raw input string, in binary, encoded as base64.\n\n// The format is content-digest => <algorithm>=:<base64 encoded hash>:\n$digestString = $headers[\"content-digest\"];\n// The Base64 encoding may have multiple `=` at the end. So split this at the first `=`.\n$digestData = explode( separator: \"=\", string: $digestString, limit: 2 );\n\n// Hashes are in lowercase, but have a `-` in their name.\n// This is not what hash_algos() expects.\n$digestAlgorithm = str_replace( search: \"-\", replace: \"\", subject: $digestData[0] );\n\n// The hash is surrounded by `:` characters.\n$digestHash = str_replace( search: \":\", replace: \"\", subject: $digestData[1] );\n\n// Check if the hash algorithm is one known about to PHP.\n// If not, reject and record an error.\nif ( !in_array( needle:$digestAlgorithm, haystack: hash_algos() ) ) {\n return false;\n}\n\n// Manually calculate the digest based on the data sent.\n$digestCalculated = base64_encode( hash( algo: $digestAlgorithm, data: $input, binary: true ) );\n\n// Does our calculation match what was sent?\nif ( !( $digestCalculated == $digestHash ) ) {\n return false;\n}\n\n// The signature format is signature => <signature name>=:<base64 encoded hash>:\n$signatureString = $headers[\"signature\"];\n// The Base64 encoding may have multiple `=` at the end. So split this at the first `=`.\n$signatureData = explode( separator: \"=\", string: $signatureString, limit: 2 );\n$signatureName = $signatureData[0];\n\n// The signature is surrounded by `:` characters.\n$signatureB64 = str_replace( search: \":\", replace: \"\", subject: $signatureData[1] );\n\n// The signature-input format is complicated!\n$signatureInputString = $headers[\"signature-input\"];\n\n// Get the parameters. Assume there is only one signature.\n$signatureParamsString = explode( separator: \"=\", string: $signatureInputString, limit: 2 )[1];\n\n// Get the different elements of the signature.\n$signatureInputData = explode( separator: \";\", string: $signatureInputString );\n\n// Construct the data.\n$signatureInput = [];\nforeach( $signatureInputData as $signatureInputParts ) {\n $partsData = explode( separator: \"=\", string: $signatureInputParts );\n // Strip quotes from keyid and parentheses from sig1.\n if ( \"keyid\" == $partsData[0] ) {\n $partsData[1] = str_replace( search: \"\\\"\", replace: \"\", subject: $partsData[1] );\n }\n\n if ( $signatureName == $partsData[0] ) {\n $partsData[1] = str_replace( search: [\"(\", \")\"], replace: \"\", subject: $partsData[1] );\n }\n\n $signatureInput[ $partsData[0] ] = $partsData[1] ;\n}\n\n$signatureStructure = $signatureInput[$signatureName];\n$signatureKeyID = $signatureInput[\"keyid\"];\n\n// Remove quotes.\n$signatureStructure = str_replace( search: \"\\\"\", replace: \"\", subject: $signatureStructure );\n$signatureStructureData = explode( separator: \" \", string: $signatureStructure );\n\n// https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9421/#section-2.5\n$signatureBase = \"\";\nforeach ( $signatureStructureData as $signatureStructureParts ) {\n if ( \"@method\" == $signatureStructureParts ) {\n // https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9421/#name-method\n $signatureBase .= \"\\\"@method\\\": \" . $_SERVER[\"REQUEST_METHOD\"] . \"\\n\";\n }\n if ( \"@target-uri\" == $signatureStructureParts ) {\n // https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9421/#section-2.2.2\n // Change the domain name to your own.\n $signatureBase .= \"\\\"@target-uri\\\": https://EXAMPLE.COM\" . $_SERVER[\"REQUEST_URI\"] . \"\\n\";\n }\n if ( \"content-digest\" == $signatureStructureParts ) {\n $signatureBase .= \"\\\"content-digest\\\": $digestString\\n\";\n }\n}\n\n// https://victoronsoftware.com/posts/http-message-signatures/#how-the-signature-is-created\n$signatureBase .= \"\\\"@signature-params\\\": $signatureParamsString\";\n\n// Get the signing user's public key.\n// This is usually in the form `https://example.com/user/username#main-key`\n// This is to differentiate if the user has multiple keys.\n// This may need to be a signed request. You will need to write your own getDataFromURl() function to get the sending user's key.\n$userData = getDataFromURl( $signatureKeyID );\n$publicKey = $userData[\"publicKey\"][\"publicKeyPem\"];\n\n// Verify the request\n$verified = openssl_verify(\n data: $signatureBase,\n signature: base64_decode( $signatureB64 ),\n public_key: $publicKey,\n algorithm: $digestAlgorithm\n);\n\n// Convert the result to boolean.\nif ( $verified === 1 ) {\n $verified = true;\n} elseif ( $verified === 0 ) {\n $verified = false;\n} else {\n $verified = null;\n}\n\nreturn $verified;\n</code></pre>\n\n<h2 id=\"further-reading\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#further-reading\">Further Reading</a></h2>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc9421/\">RFC 9421 HTTP Message Signatures</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://victoronsoftware.com/posts/http-message-signatures/\">Understanding HTTP message signatures: A developer's guide</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.otoroshi.io/docs/tutorials/http-message-signatures-rfc9421/\">Sign and verify HTTP messages (RFC 9421)</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://darutk.medium.com/verification-of-http-message-signatures-501bbdc7dfec\">Verification of HTTP Message Signatures</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://github.com/macgirvin/HTTP-Message-Signer\">HTTP-Message-Signer in PHP</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2 id=\"thanks-to-nlnet\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/a-reasonably-practical-guide-to-validating-rfc-9421-http-signatures-for-activitypub-in-php/#thanks-to-nlnet\">Thanks to NLnet</a></h2>\n\n<p>This blog post was funded in part by the work I'm doing for my NLnet NGI0 grant. Thanks!</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://nlnet.nl/project/ActivityBot/\"><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/NGI-logos.webp\" alt=\"NLnet logo.\" width=\"900\" height=\"200\" class=\"aligncenter\"></a></p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74429&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
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{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
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"categories": [
{
"label": "ActivityBot",
"term": "ActivityBot",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "ActivityPub",
"term": "ActivityPub",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "mastodon",
"term": "mastodon",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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"term": "php",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
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"term": "webdev",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74414",
"title": "Book Review: ActivityPub by Evan Prodromou ★★★★⯪",
"description": "As part of my grant from NLnet to improve my Fediverse bot project, I'm spending time making sure I understand all the fundamentals of ActivityPub. The problem with Internet standards is they're scattered all over the place. Abandoned forums, half-maintained wikis, mailing lists with obscure rules, and monolithic blocks of text. Sometimes you just want one book which collates all the info and…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/09/book-review-activitypub-by-evan-prodromou/",
"published": "2026-09-01T11:34:18.000Z",
"updated": "2026-08-31T18:53:48.000Z",
"content": "<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/activitypub.jpg\" alt=\"Book cover with a parrot on it.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft\">\n\n<p>As part of <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/\">my grant from NLnet</a> to improve my Fediverse bot project, I'm spending time making sure I understand all the fundamentals of ActivityPub. The problem with Internet standards is they're scattered all over the place. Abandoned forums, half-maintained wikis, mailing lists with obscure rules, and monolithic blocks of text.</p>\n\n<p>Sometimes you just want one book which collates all the info and presents it in a consistent format. This is <em>nearly</em> that book.</p>\n\n<p>Evan Prodromou has the unenviable task of making the whole ecosystem easy to understand. Thankfully he does that well. Things are logically laid out, there are comprehensive descriptions of even the most obscure parts of the spec, and it builds up nicely from the fundamentals. Oh, it's also surprisingly light-hearted.</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>This principle is so important and long-winded that web architects have given it an acronym, HATEOAS. (We often pronounce it “HATE-ee-OH-us,” which sounds like a breakfast cereal nobody wants to eat. This is one reason web architects aren’t allowed to name breakfast cereals.)</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>There's an excellent checklist for all the steps needed when building a minimal ActivityPub server.</p>\n\n<p>As with all O'Reilly books, it is a beautifully typeset ePub. Even better, it was supplied DRM-free through Kobo.</p>\n\n<p>About the only significant thing missing is details of how to verify RFC 9421 HTTP Signatures. That's understandable as they're pretty new, but a bit annoying as that's what a lot of servers are sending now. Similarly, there's a good write up of how to publish a poll, but not much about voting or publishing the results.</p>\n\n<p>The \"Far Horizons\" chapter is particularly exciting - giving a speculative overview of what AP <em>could</em> be used for. I, for one, am particularly looking forward to putting my Internet Connected Fridge on social media 😆</p>\n\n<p>Ultimately ActivityPub is a living and evolving set of standards. No book can possibly keep up with all the changes happening to it - but Evan does a brilliant job of bringing together all the moving parts and creating a coherent picture of the standard.</p>\n\n<p>Highly recommended if you're interested in understanding the fundamentals of the Fediverse!</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74414&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
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"categories": [
{
"label": "ActivityPub",
"term": "ActivityPub",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "Book Review",
"term": "Book Review",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74461",
"title": "Review: Ruined Theatre's A Midsummer Night's Dream ★★★★☆",
"description": "The whole point about Shakespeare is that you can set the play on an intergalactic space station or an American high school and keep virtually the rest unchanged. What happens when you transpose Dream from a proscenium arch to a living wood? As the sun sets over the trees, what sprites will come out to entertain us? Ruined Theatre brings a brilliant cast of seasoned West End performers to strut…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/review-ruined-theatres-a-midsummer-nights-dream/",
"published": "2026-08-31T11:34:08.000Z",
"updated": "2026-08-31T09:51:55.000Z",
"content": "<p>The whole point about Shakespeare is that you can set the play on an intergalactic space station or an American high school and keep virtually the rest unchanged. What happens when you transpose Dream from a proscenium arch to a living wood? As the sun sets over the trees, what sprites will come out to entertain us?</p>\n\n<p>Ruined Theatre brings a brilliant cast of seasoned West End performers to strut their hour among the ruins of Abbey Wood. Hey, gentrification has its benefits, OK?</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.instagram.com/ruined_theatre/\"><img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/msnd.webp\" alt=\"Poster for the show, an explosion of colour.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"527\" class=\"aligncenter\"></a></p>\n\n<p>I don't know how many times I've seen \"Dream\", but I know I've never seen it performed in an actual wood during summer. Booking the tickets a few weeks ago during England's heatwave, it sounded perfect. A warm, dusky evening, accompanied by færies and asses. The British weather, of course, had other ideas.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"the-show-must-go-on\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/review-ruined-theatres-a-midsummer-nights-dream/#the-show-must-go-on\">The Show <em>Must</em> Go On</a></h2>\n\n<p>The storm clouds were, as the bard wrote, heavy, black and, pendulous. Outside it may be raining, their makeup may be flaking, but everyone knows that Shakespeare is best played when defying the elements, right?</p>\n\n<p>Even in the rain, it was great! Theseus and Hippolyta as selfie-obsessed poseurs made for a delightful start. Recasting Athens as Lesnes was a great touch. And then we were led through the woods. Rather than traipse us from scene to scene, we settled in to a clearing - bringing our own camping chairs with us - and watched the magic unfold.</p>\n\n<p>Half the fun is in watching children and teenagers giggling at Hermia's rage and Bottom's overconfident bombast. But you can't go wrong with actors studiously ignoring the downpour and professing their (misplaced) love for each other. Honestly, who'd lie down in the mud just to make us chuckle? How many laughs can you ring out of a man with an ass's head? Lord, what fools these mortals be!</p>\n\n<p>It is a fairly straightforward production. Aside from modern dress there wasn't much updating of the text other than trimming it down. The smoke machine might have been an eerie touch on a still summer's night, billowing around us, instead the wind took it before it had a chance to settle. The incidental music worked well - especially the intertextuality of Pyramus & Thisbe playing to the Romeo+Juliet soundtrack - but the speakers were over-driven and distorted. A small crimp on an otherwise fine production.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"reflections-in-a-dappled-pond\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/review-ruined-theatres-a-midsummer-nights-dream/#reflections-in-a-dappled-pond\">Reflections in a dappled pond</a></h2>\n\n<p>I'm fairly sure I once played Demetrius in a youth production. Or possibly Lysander. I know I got to kiss Helena. Or possibly Hermia. The mind plays funny tricks as you age. Some of the more dreary prose becomes light and airy. The laughs which felt forced come more easily. The gender politics a little more nuanced.</p>\n\n<p>You can never go back, of course. But you will always remember your first stage kiss with Hermia (or possibly Helena) with great affection. Seeing Shakespeare again and again and again in a hundred different variations just helps you realise what a master storyteller he was.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74461&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
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{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
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],
"categories": [
{
"label": "shakespeare",
"term": "shakespeare",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "Theatre Review",
"term": "Theatre Review",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74406",
"title": "ActivityBot is the recipient of an NLnet grant!",
"description": "Back in February, I applied for NLnet's Next Generation Zero grant. They were looking for Fediverse projects to help rewild the social media landscape. Or, as they describe it: Reclaim the public nature of the internet Small and medium-sized R&D grants between 5.000 and 50.000 euro, with the possibility to scale up. I run ActivityBot - it is a single-file ActivityPub server suitable for…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/",
"published": "2026-08-30T11:34:55.000Z",
"updated": "2026-08-30T10:32:47.000Z",
"content": "<p>Back in February, I applied for <a href=\"https://nlnet.nl/NGI0/\">NLnet's Next Generation Zero grant</a>. They were looking for Fediverse projects to help rewild the social media landscape. Or, as they describe it:</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>Reclaim the public nature of the internet</p>\n\n<p>Small and medium-sized R&D grants between 5.000 and 50.000 euro, with the possibility to scale up.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>I run <a href=\"https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot\">ActivityBot</a> - it is a single-file ActivityPub server suitable for launching automated accounts and designed as a learning tool for those who want to understand how the protocol works. Several people have told me how useful it is, but I haven't had the time to make it better. So I decided to stick in a last-minute application to the fund.</p>\n\n<p>I really didn't know how much to apply for - or even if my project would be suitable for funding - so I cheekily asked for €10,000. After a few months of back-and-forth, I'm delighted to announce that I was successful!</p>\n\n<p>In the spirit of openness, this blog post details how the NLnet grant process worked for me and what I'll be using the money for.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/NGI-logos.webp\" alt=\"NLnet logo.\" width=\"900\" height=\"200\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<h2 id=\"the-process\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#the-process\">The Process</a></h2>\n\n<p>The application was delightfully simple. Here's what it asked for, along with my answers. If you apply, please don't copy these verbatim; use your own words.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li>Abstract : A single file server for ActivityPub. Designed for write-only bots. Allows any project to quickly and easily start publishing automated content to the Fediverse. Uses PHP, no other dependencies.\n</li><li>Experience : I am the sole developer of Single File ActivityPub - https://gitlab.com/edent/activitypub-single-php-file<br>I was formerly the UK Government's representative to the W3C and have contributed to various ActivityPub projects and specifications.\n</li><li>Amount : € 10000\n</li><li>Use : The fund will be used for development, testing, promotional activity (including conference travel).<br>I anticipate this will fund 6 months of development. I have funded all previous development.<br>\n</li><li>Comparison : Most ActivityPub services are complex. They implement a full specification and are designed for multi-user environments. Other projects allow reading and writing. ActivityBot is deliberately designed to be as simple as possible. A single file to upload, one user, publish only.<br>This will enable more projects to be able to instantly start publishing with low development cost and close to zero hosting cost.\n</li><li>Challenges : Formal spec verification and a security audit will be the main technical challenges. The ActivityBot software has been running well for over a year. The funding will allow for better compatibility and security.\n</li><li>Ecosystem : The project has mostly targeted individuals who want to run small bots. After further development, the project will engage with IoT providers, smaller publishers, open source projects who wish to publish updates, and other relevant parties.\n</li></ul>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I was told there was intense competition. After a couple of months, I received word that I'd made it to the 2nd round.</p>\n\n<p>What then followed was a <em>very</em> polite interrogation about my ideas, how I would develop the project, what I would use the money for, and what my AI usage policy was. They also wanted a breakdown of the main tasks - with the understanding that this would be a provisional document subject to change.</p>\n\n<p>I was on <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/another-ridiculous-interrail-holiday-6379km-and-13-countries-over-7-weeks/\">a train through Europe</a> when I wrote this. I don't claim it to be a brilliant document - but it got the job done!</p>\n\n<blockquote><p>1. User Research\n\n</p><p>Recruit 2 - 5 potential users. Offer an incentive (approx £20ea) to participate in a user research session. Study design will take 1 - 2 days. Each interview and write up to take 1 day. Consolidation and report 2 days.\n\n</p><p>Total effort 3 - 4 weeks.\n\n</p><p>2. Standards Research\n\n</p><p>Participate in ActivityPub user communities and standardisation groups. Attend virtual conferences (or any local to the UK). Approx 1 day per week for 6 months.\n\n</p><p>3. Test Driven Development\n\n</p><p>Create modern test harness, write test suite, iterate design based on tests. Anticipated effort 2 days per week for approx 3 months.\n\n</p><p>4. Security Testing\n\n</p><p>Work with the community and security professionals to test the resultant code. This will use human testers and normal fuzzers - this will not use AI tools. Anticipated effort 2 days per week for approx 2 months.\n\n</p><p>5. User Acceptance Testing\n\n</p><p>Recruit 2 - 5 potential users (ideally different to the research participants). Offer an incentive (approx £20ea) to participate in a user acceptance session. Study design will take 1 - 2 days. Each interview and write up to take 1 day. Consolidation and report 2 days.\n\n</p><p>Total effort 3 - 4 weeks.\n\n</p><p>6. Updates Based on Research, Testing, and Security\n\n</p><p>While it would be lovely to anticipate getting everything right first time, the reality is that changes will need to be made based on the findings of the above. This will take up the remainder of the allocated time.</p></blockquote>\n\n<p>Again, there was a little more back and forth. But a few weeks later I was informed that I was at the final stage, pending review. And, a few weeks after that, I was told my project had been given the green light.</p>\n\n<p>I was invited to a group call where the very friendly team discussed the practicalities of the grant, what it could and couldn't fund. I also met a bunch of other people who'd also won.</p>\n\n<p>The final stage was writing a proper Memorandum of Understanding. With the help of one of the team (thanks Victoria!) I was able to turn my scrappy plan into something a bit more formal. The project tool NLnet uses made it easy to build up a plan and put € amounts by each task.</p>\n\n<p>The idea is that I will invoice against the grant whenever I have completed a task or sub-task. Obviously I don't want to leave invoicing until the end of the project, but I also need to be mindful of the foreign exchange fees charged by my bank for receiving Euro payments.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"final-project-plan\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#final-project-plan\">Final Project Plan</a></h2>\n\n<p>This is the plan I submitted. It represents what I hope to accomplish and how I'll draw down on the grant. I suspect this will change as the months go on.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>ActivityBot is an Open Source project which aims to develop, maintain, and improve a minimum viable ActivityPub server in a single PHP file.</p>\n\n<p>The project is run by Terence Eden (trading as @edent); a developer residing in England.</p>\n\n<p>This project is expected to run for approximately 6 months. All of the deliverables will be openly licenced using either an OSI approved software licence or a Creative Commons licence.</p>\n\n<p>The high-level aims of the project are for ActivityBot to be:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>A fully compliant ActivityPub server, running in a single PHP file.</p></li>\n<li><p>A teaching tool to help developers understand the practical aspects of creating an ActivityPub server.</p></li>\n<li><p>A practical method of publishing automated messages to the Fediverse.</p></li>\n<li><p>A promotional tool to show how simple and easy ActivityPub development can be.</p></li>\n<li><p>A secure and usable tool written in modern PHP.</p></li>\n<li><p>Written by humans, with no AI/LLM generated code.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>In light of NLnet's non-profit status, costs assume a discounted rate of €330 per day (£280). Incidentals such as hardware, software, travel, or sundries will be charged at cost with receipts provided.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"prepare-for-initial-release\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#prepare-for-initial-release\">Prepare for initial release</a></h2>\n\n<p>Ensure that the project is in a suitable state for initial release and future development.</p>\n\n<p>Deliverable: Updates published to GitLab.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>€495 Prepare initial release. Clarify licencing, solicit community engagement, include example usage.</p></li>\n<li><p>€495 Standards Research. Collation of standards websites. Ensure code comments refer to specific standards. Publish blog post(s) about findings for others to reference.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2 id=\"user-research\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#user-research\">User Research</a></h2>\n\n<p>Recruit up to 10 participants for a user-research study. Participants should represent the diversity of the Fediverse.</p>\n\n<p>Investigate what participants want from a tool like ActivityPub. The project plan may be adapted following the results of this study.</p>\n\n<p>Deliverable: Study plan and results will be published and given a Creative Commons licence. Changes based on the results will be pushed to GitLab.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>€660 Study Design and recruitment of participants (blog post published as deliverable).</p></li>\n<li><p>€990 Two days of user interviews, write up and publish results as blog post.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2 id=\"test-driven-development\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#test-driven-development\">Test Driven Development</a></h2>\n\n<p>Create a modern test harness, write test suite, iterate design based on tests.</p>\n\n<p>Deliverable: Tests published to GitLab. Blog posts published about the process and results.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>€330 Set up test suite</p></li>\n<li><p>€330 Write tests</p></li>\n<li><p>€330 Fixes based on test results</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2 id=\"security-testing\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#security-testing\">Security Testing</a></h2>\n\n<p>Working with NLnet's security offering, ensure that the project meets modern security requirements.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>€720 Work with security team to assess security risks and possible mitigations. Fixes based on security team feedback</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Deliverable: Updates published to GitLab. Blogs published about the process and results.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"user-acceptance-testing\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#user-acceptance-testing\">User Acceptance Testing</a></h2>\n\n<p>Recruit up to 10 participants for a user-acceptance study. Participants should represent the diversity of the Fediverse.</p>\n\n<p>Investigate whether participants are able to use ActivityBot. See which aspects need improvement. The project plan may be adapted following the results of this study.</p>\n\n<p>Deliverable: Study plan and results will be published and given a Creative Commons licence. Changes based on feedback will be published to GitLab.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>€660 Study Design and recruitment of participants (blog post published as deliverable).</p></li>\n<li><p>€990 Two days of user interviews, write up and publish results as blog post.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2 id=\"conferences-and-standards-work\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#conferences-and-standards-work\">Conferences and Standards Work</a></h2>\n\n<p>Open Source participation often depends on attending conferences, either in person or virtually. Getting involved in the standardisation process ensures that future versions of ActivityPub and associated standards will be suitable for the community.</p>\n\n<p>Deliverables: Presentations material (slideware), speaking at conferences (may be published as video), conference outputs. Where possible, these will be available under a suitable Creative Commons licence.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>€700 Travel and accommodation to one EU conference</p></li>\n<li><p>€330 Publishing blog posts about ActivityPub standards work.</p></li>\n<li><p>€330 Publishing blog posts about ActivityPub standards work.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2 id=\"final-release\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#final-release\">Final release</a></h2>\n\n<p>Creating a final release for this phase of the ActivityBot project. This will involve incorporating all feedback received so far, improving documentation, and publishing code.</p>\n\n<p>Deliverable: Updates published to GitLab. Blog post written. Release announcements.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>€330 Phase 1: Process and implement feedback from users</p></li>\n<li><p>€330 Phase 2: Bug fixes</p></li>\n<li><p>€330 Phase 3: Features</p></li>\n<li><p>€330 Phase 4: Bug fixes</p></li>\n<li><p>€330 Phase 5: Features</p></li>\n<li><p>€330 Phase 6: Remedial work</p></li>\n<li><p>€330 Process and implement feedback from accessibility scan</p></li>\n<li><p>€330 Final release</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2 id=\"next-steps\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/activitybot-is-the-recipient-of-an-nlnet-grant/#next-steps\">Next Steps</a></h2>\n\n<p>I've already begun work on updating the code. If you'd like to get involved, or have suggestions or bug reports - please <a href=\"https://gitlab.com/edent/activity-bot\">take a look at ActivityBot on GitLab</a>.</p>\n\n<p>I'll be putting out a call for user-research participants once I've had a chance to catch my breath 😆</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74406&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "ActivityBot",
"term": "ActivityBot",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "ActivityPub",
"term": "ActivityPub",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "fediverse",
"term": "fediverse",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "NLnet",
"term": "NLnet",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=69787",
"title": "A simple \"copy this code\" button in JavaScript",
"description": "Next to all the code samples on this blog is a little \"copy\" button. That makes it easier to grab any of the code I've shared. The HTML and JS is delightfully simple: <button onclick=\"navigator.clipboard.writeText( this.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('code')[0].textContent );\" title=\"Copy code\" >⧉</button> The navigator.clipboard.writeText needs a user interaction to w…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/a-simple-copy-this-code-button-in-javascript/",
"published": "2026-08-29T11:34:49.000Z",
"updated": "2026-08-30T18:29:45.000Z",
"content": "<p>Next to all the code samples on this blog is a little \"copy\" button. That makes it easier to grab any of the code I've shared.</p>\n\n<p>The HTML and JS is delightfully simple:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><button\n onclick=\"navigator.clipboard.writeText(\n this.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('code')[0].textContent\n );\" \n title=\"Copy code\"\n>⧉</button>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>The <code>navigator.clipboard.writeText</code> needs a user interaction to work - so it is tied to a click on the button.</p>\n\n<p>It takes some plaintext content. But how to get that content? My code samples look like this:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><pre itemscope itemtype=https://schema.org/SoftwareSourceCode translate=no>\n <button onclick=\"navigator.clipboard.writeText( this.parentNode.getElementsByTagName('code')[0].textContent );\">⧉</button>\n <span>\n <img alt height=32 src=html.svg width=32>\n <span itemprop=programmingLanguage> HTML</span>\n </span>\n <code itemprop=text>[…]</code>\n</pre>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>There are various ways I could get that <code><code></code> element:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Give it a unique ID (but that might clutter the code, or conflict with something else).</li>\n<li>Use <code>this.nextSibling.nextSibling</code> (but that might not work if the layout changes).</li>\n<li>Use <code>this.lastChild.textContent</code> (but, again, depends on the layout staying the same).</li>\n<li>Select based on <code>itemprop</code> (could make the code a bit longer).</li>\n<li>Complex filtering on a NodeList (urgh).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>None of those are particularly bad <i lang=\"la\">per se</i>, so I've chosen the method which makes most sense to me.</p>\n\n<p>You can read more about my <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/09/class-warfare-can-i-eliminate-css-classes-from-my-html/\">Classless Design</a>, and how I use <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/08/what-programming-language-is-in-this-code-block/\">metadata to identify programming languages</a>, including whether <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/01/should-htmls-blocks-be-translated/\">HTML's code blocks be translated</a>.</p>\n\n<p>To let people know that it has worked, I've added a little <a href=\"https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLElement/popover\">popover</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Every piece of code has it's own <code>dialog</code> element with a unique id:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><dialog\n id=pop\n popover=hint>Copied JS to 📋</dialog>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>No JavaScript is required to show the popover when the copy button is pressed:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-html\"><button popovertarget=pop popovertargetaction=show>\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Closing the the popover hint doesn't require JS; clicking outside it will dismiss it. But a little scrap of JS on the button's <code>onclick</code> will make it disappear after a few seconds:</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-js\">setTimeout(\n function() {\n document.getElementById(\"pop\").hidePopover();\n }, \n3000);\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>The browser's default is to place it in the middle of the screen.</p>\n\n<p>Positioning the popup so it is in proximity to the button also requires CSS - no JS.</p>\n\n<pre><code class=\"language-css\">dialog[popover] {\n inset: unset;\n position: absolute;\n position-area: top;\n padding: .5em;\n}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>OK, that started out simple but got a bit more complex. Sorry!</p>\n\n<p><ins datetime=\"2026-08-30T18:28:40+00:00\">Update!</ins> It turns out there are some accessibility issues with this approach. See <a href=\"https://codepen.io/editor/ccwilcox/pen/01a04d8d-3691-7003-b8f6-df7439ecbd0a\">these updates by Curtis Wilcox</a>.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=69787&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "HowTo",
"term": "HowTo",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "HTML",
"term": "HTML",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "javascript",
"term": "javascript",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73004",
"title": "\"iT woRKs BeTter in THe aPp!!\"",
"description": "The monkey-punchers at Google never quite seem to finish any of their apps. There's always some useful bit of work left undone, or showstopping bug which remains unfixed, a thousand jagged edges as yet unsolved by the greatest minds of their generation. I wanted to subscribe to an events calendar. I had a URl. I had my Google™ Pixel® phone running the latest Android© 17 with an updated calendar a…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/it-works-better-in-the-app/",
"published": "2026-08-28T11:34:46.000Z",
"updated": "2026-08-25T07:14:14.000Z",
"content": "<p>The monkey-punchers at Google never quite seem to finish any of their apps. There's always some useful bit of work left undone, or showstopping bug which remains unfixed, a thousand jagged edges as yet unsolved by the greatest minds of their generation.</p>\n\n<p>I wanted to subscribe to an events calendar. I had a URl. I had my Google™ Pixel® phone running the latest Android© 17 with an updated calendar app. Is it possible to click on a calendar link and add it to my phone?</p>\n\n<p>No.</p>\n\n<p>Here's what <a href=\"https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37100\">Google has to say about the matter</a>:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Google-Calendar-Help.webp\" alt=\"To subscribe to a new calendar, you must use a computer web browser. You can't subscribe to a calendar in the Google Calendar app for Android, iPhone, or iPad.\" width=\"920\" height=\"760\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-73005\">\n\n<p>Really?!? I mean, fucking <em>really</em>????</p>\n\n<p>This isn't the most complex software engineering task known to humanity. Add a + button. Pop open a text entry field. Validate. Save. Done. I'm sure even the shitty Gemini model can vibe code that in a couple of months, right?</p>\n\n<p>Anyway, I opened calendar.google.com on my phone (using desktop mode), added the calendar, and it magically appeared in the app.</p>\n\n<p>This is just pathetic.</p>\n\n<p>In fairness, this isn't only a Google problem. Many companies want a permanent presence on your homescreen and think you're too thick to use your browser's bookmarks feature. Maybe they're right. Maybe an app <em>is</em> the only way to increase the engagement KPI sufficiently so Quinn in the leadership squad can hit their OKRs and get a bonus.</p>\n\n<p>So they build an app. Or, rather, they half-arse it. I've lost count of the number of times I've been told \"it's easier if you use our app\" only to be unceremoniously punted back to the web when I try to do anything outside of the app's narrow strictures.</p>\n\n<p>I was there in the early days of phone apps. I built stuff for Symbian, BlackBerry, even the bloody Palm Pilot! The central problem with apps has always been that they are hard to update. Every new bit of functionality - or even a new page - needs to be tested on a thousand devices. Once done, it takes an age to distribute to users. The only way to solve that is to have the app dynamically pull in new functionality from a remote resource.</p>\n\n<p>At which point, you've reinvented the Web browser!</p>\n\n<p>Sure, there are some things you can <em>only</em> do with an app (<a href=\"https://developer.chrome.com/blog/serial-over-bluetooth/\">although browsers are catching up</a>), and having an icon on the homescreen is useful (which is <a href=\"https://favicon.io/tutorials/favicon-sizes/\">easy for sites to add</a>), as is offline functionality (which, again, <a href=\"https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Service_Worker_API/Using_Service_Workers\">is possible on the web</a>).</p>\n\n<p>Oh.</p>\n\n<p>If you want an app, fine. Do it. Just finish the job please!</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73004&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "android",
"term": "android",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "Apps",
"term": "Apps",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "google",
"term": "google",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "rant",
"term": "rant",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=73408",
"title": "Book Review: The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances by Glenn Dixon ★★★★☆",
"description": "This is a charming and zeitgeisty novel which has a strong start and fulfils the promise of its blurb. What if your autonomous vacuum cleaner was sentient and was very sad about your wife's death? It pays obvious homage to the Brave Little Toaster, 100 Acre Woods, Beauty and The Beast, and hundred other what-if-your-toys-came-to-life stories. Along the way we discover what it is like to be a…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/book-review-the-infinite-sadness-of-small-appliances-by-glenn-dixon/",
"published": "2026-08-27T11:34:48.000Z",
"updated": "2026-07-23T22:11:55.000Z",
"content": "<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Infinite-Sadness-of-Small-Appliances-1-532x815-1.jpg\" alt=\"Book cover.\" width=\"200\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-73409\">\n\n<p>This is a charming and zeitgeisty novel which has a strong start and fulfils the promise of its blurb. What if your autonomous vacuum cleaner was sentient and was very sad about your wife's death?</p>\n\n<p>It pays obvious homage to the Brave Little Toaster, 100 Acre Woods, Beauty and The Beast, and hundred other what-if-your-toys-came-to-life stories. Along the way we discover what it is like to be a transfem robo-hacker in domestic peril, why clocks are so bossy, and whether art is a cure for grief.</p>\n\n<p>The world-building is a little basic (The Algorithm™ is managing humanity's decline) but the characters are well constructed. A little derivative, it's true. Nevertheless, it is a touching tale, told well, and with a decent pace.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=73408&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"label": "Book Review",
"term": "Book Review",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
},
{
"label": "Sci Fi",
"term": "Sci Fi",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
}
]
},
{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74230",
"title": "Gadget Review: Thermal Master P3 Macro Lens ★★★★⯪",
"description": "The good folks at Thermal Master have sent me their latest camera to review - and it is a bit different to all the others I've tried. Whereas previous cameras are good for bird watching, or wildlife spotting, or finding leaks at home - the P3 has a manual macro lens and is specifically designed for getting close-up and personal with your electronics. Yup! See just how hot your CPU is getting…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/",
"published": "2026-08-26T11:34:52.000Z",
"updated": "2026-08-25T12:37:17.000Z",
"content": "<p>The good folks at Thermal Master have sent me their latest camera to review - and it is a bit different to all the others I've tried.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/p3-thermal-camera-close-up.webp\" alt=\"A small black camera with gold accents. It is held in the fingertips.\" width=\"3212\" height=\"2409\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Whereas previous cameras are good for <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/gadget-review-thermal-master-dv2-infrared-birdwatching-scope/\">bird watching</a>, or <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-t2-max-plug-in-thermal-camera/\">wildlife spotting</a>, or <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-hikmicro-d02-thermal-camera/\">finding leaks at home</a> - the P3 has a manual macro lens and is specifically designed for getting close-up and personal with your electronics.</p>\n\n<p>Yup! See just how hot your CPU is getting 🥵</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/pi.webp\" alt=\"A thermal image of a raspberry pi. The CPU is in red while the rest of the board is green.\" width=\"1344\" height=\"1008\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Let's take it for a spin!</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"unboxing\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#unboxing\">Unboxing</a></h2>\n\n<p>As well as the camera (which looks <em>gorgeous</em> with its gold trim) you get a carry-case, USB-C extension cable, and a Lightning converter for older iPhones.</p>\n\n<p>The metal casing of the camera feels delightful and gives it a bit of heft. The focus wheel is reasonably stiff which makes it easier to position just right.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"sample-photos\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#sample-photos\">Sample Photos</a></h2>\n\n<p>These are the raw images taken directly from the app. I haven't resized or altered them in any way. What you see is what you get. Here's a hot-spot on a circuit board:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/hotspot.webp\" alt=\"A circuit rendered in grey with a bright red line on it.\" width=\"1344\" height=\"1008\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>The natural size of the images is 1344x1008. That's obviously upscaled from the sensor, but there's a surprisingly amount of detail in there.</p>\n\n<p>Here's a small circuit board which has just booted up:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Circuit-long-shot.webp\" alt=\"A small circuit. Two of the chips are noticeably hotter than the rest of the board.\" width=\"1344\" height=\"1008\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Where the P3 shines is when you twist the manual lens all the way down to macro. You can get about 2cm away from a surface and stay in focus.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Chip-close-up.webp\" alt=\"Close up of a small chip. It is hot, the traces are visible in the background.\" width=\"1344\" height=\"1008\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Obviously don't get that close to something red hot!</p>\n\n<p>Annoyingly, the images are uncompressed JPEG and weigh in around 6MB each. I've losslessly compressed these to WebP, which is about 10% of the size.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"colours\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#colours\">Colours</a></h3>\n\n<p>There are a variety of different colour palettes to play with. Some are more useful than others. Here's a mug of hot and delicious matcha rendered in the various colours:</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Hot-Tea-Montage.webp\" alt=\"Four photos of a mug. The colours show how hot the tea is.\" width=\"2688\" height=\"2016\" class=\"alignleft\">\n\n<p>Scrolling through the colours is a little difficult in the app (more on that later) but once you've found one you like, it stays that way for the photography session.</p>\n\n<h3 id=\"exif\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#exif\">EXIF</a></h3>\n\n<p>Geolocation is taken from the phone - there's no GPS chip in the camera. You can refuse location permission to the app and it will work just fine.</p>\n\n<p>That's just about all you get other than the time and the model name of <code>USB_IR_RS300_P2L</code> - the infrared details aren't recorded separately.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"video\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#video\">Video</a></h2>\n\n<p>The video doesn't upsample the image, it has a resolution of 504x672 playing at 25fps. Audio is recorded from the phone's microphone and is 64kbps mono. A minute of video is around 22MB. I've recompressed this one for the web.</p>\n\n<p></p><div style=\"width: 620px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-74230-4\" width=\"620\" height=\"465\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video/mp4\" src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/p3focusvid.mp4?_=4\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/p3focusvid.mp4\">https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/p3focusvid.mp4</a></video></div><p></p>\n\n<h2 id=\"the-app\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#the-app\">The App</a></h2>\n\n<p>It is, sadly, an inevitability that good hardware is always accompanied by a substandard app. The <a href=\"https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.thermalmaster.p2telephoto\">Thermal Master Android App</a> is the only way to access the camera. It has a relatively easy to use interface with plenty of options.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Camera-interface.webp\" alt=\"Camera interface with janky UI.\" width=\"504\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>As you can see from the word \"brightness\" the UI is a little janky in places.</p>\n\n<p>There's a decent amount of settings to fiddle with.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/more-settings.webp\" alt=\"Settings screens with various temperature settings.\" width=\"504\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>You can also change which elements get displayed on the final image.</p>\n\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/settings.webp\" alt=\"Settings to control the camera.\" width=\"504\" class=\"aligncenter\">\n\n<p>Unfortunately, it is also a bit crash-happy. Most times I used it, the app would randomly close. It takes a little while to re-open thanks to a mandatory animation. So it gets a bit annoying. Flicking through some of the options can be slow and tedious. It also doesn't respect the phone's orientation, so images may be 90⁰ off what you expect.</p>\n\n<p>The app updated the firmware on the camera, but didn't say what had changed.</p>\n\n<p>It takes photos and videos, allows you to share them, and has a bunch of options to play with - but it does have a habit of crashing just when you're about to take the perfect shot. There is also zoom available, but it is digital only - so you're just making the pixels bigger rather than getting optically closer to the object you're scanning.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"linux-info\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#linux-info\">Linux Info</a></h2>\n\n<p>I tried plugging it in to a Linux laptop. It shows up as <code>3474:45a2 Thermal Master Technology Co., Ltd. P3</code> - but that's about it. There's no way I can find to access the thermal images.</p>\n\n<p>To be fair, this is explicitly sold as an Android and iOS device. I'm hopeful someone will be able to reverse engineer it.</p>\n\n<h2 id=\"cost-and-final-thoughts\"><a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-thermal-master-p3-macro-lens/#cost-and-final-thoughts\">Cost and Final Thoughts</a></h2>\n\n<p>Thermal cameras are expensive. This will run you about <a href=\"https://link.amazon/B0aFBVuY9\">£280 on Amazon</a> or about <a href=\"https://thermalmaster.com/en-gb/products/p3-thermal-camera-for-iphone-and-android\">£260 direct</a>. Readers of this blog can get 10% off using code <code>THERMALBF10</code></p>\n\n<p>If you run a hackspace, this is a no-brainer. The ability to see hot-spots on your circuits is immediately useful. The detail is impressive, allowing you to see exactly what's causing problems.</p>\n\n<p>If you're a hobbyist, this is definitely in the \"ask Santa if you've been good\" category. You'll find it handy on any small projects you have, or to diagnose faults with electrical equipment.</p>\n\n<p>For non-macro uses, it's also pretty good. You might be better off with a dedicated device if you want to go <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/07/gadget-review-thermal-master-dv2-infrared-birdwatching-scope/\">hunting wildlife</a> or doing <a href=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/gadget-review-hikmicro-d02-thermal-camera/\">home surveys</a>.</p>\n\n<p>The only fly in the ointment is the app. While somewhat customisable, it does repeatedly crash and it isn't the easiest to use or set up. I found that pretty frustrating and have fed back the problem to the developers. I appreciate it saving high quality images - but a PNG or lossless WebP would be easier to work with than massive JPGs.</p>\n\n<p>Ultimately, this is an excellent thermal camera. It looks lush, it is customisable, the images are high quality, and the macro-lens is surprisingly useful.</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74230&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
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"authors": [
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"name": "Terence Eden",
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"url": "https://edent.tel/"
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"categories": [
{
"label": "gadget",
"term": "gadget",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"label": "review",
"term": "review",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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"label": "thermal",
"term": "thermal",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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"term": "usb-c",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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{
"id": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/?p=74380",
"title": "Theatre Review: Cats at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre ★★★★☆",
"description": "Cats is so silly! In the olden days, after a wild animal was slaughtered, the tribe's shaman would wear the skin and re-enact the hunt. As he became one with the beast, the people slowly understood the ways of nature. Cats is a similarly spiritual experience wherein we watch androgynous sylphs gyrate across the stage and believe (if only for a moment) that the human has become feline, all in…",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/08/theatre-review-cats-at-regents-park-open-air-theatre/",
"published": "2026-08-25T11:34:22.000Z",
"updated": "2026-09-01T22:02:57.000Z",
"content": "<p>Cats is so <em>silly!</em></p>\n\n<p>In the olden days, after a wild animal was slaughtered, the tribe's shaman would wear the skin and re-enact the hunt. As he became one with the beast, the people slowly understood the ways of nature.</p>\n\n<p>Cats is a similarly spiritual experience wherein we watch androgynous sylphs gyrate across the stage and believe (if only for a moment) that the human has become feline, all in service of better understanding the mysteries of our moggies.</p>\n\n<p>Does there need to be so many sequins? So much dry ice? Such a quantity of pyrotechnics?</p>\n\n<p>No, probably not. But it all adds up to a spectacular which will keep you grinning.</p>\n\n<p>The deficiencies in Cats are somewhat inherent. The scrapbook story doesn't make a lick of sense. It is more like a variety show than musical theatre. The lyrics are, at times, utterly asinine. The music soars, until someone starts playing what sounds like a genuine 1980s Casio keyboard - and all you can hear is squelch.</p>\n\n<p>But then Gary Wilmot (!!!) comes on as Gus and all is forgiven on a haze of metatextual glory.</p>\n\n<p>The choreography and dancing are exemplary. The singing occasionally gets muddled but is mostly delightful. The stage is perfect - the wind blowing through the trees and the moon gently rising only helps to accentuate the atmosphere.</p>\n\n<p>The pre-show is good. As well as a variety of food stalls, patrons are encouraged to bring their own food and drink for a picnic. There are plenty of tables and a couple of selfie points.</p>\n\n<p>The programme isn’t horrendous at £6 but still feels like it contains more advertising than content. The queues for the loos were outrageously long and the stalls weren't particularly clean.</p>\n\n<p>There's nothing to do post-show except trudge back through the park. The selfie point is still illuminated if you want to queue for that. Even the t-shirt sales stopped after the interval.</p>\n\n<p>I first saw Cats in the West End some time in the 1980s as a child and loved it. Afterwards my parents asked if I wanted to see a ballet or an opera next. \"Eurgh! No! <em>Boring!</em>\" I said. They politely informed me that I'd just seen both in one show and my juvenile mind was blown.</p>\n\n<p>A few decades later I saw Cats on Broadway - shortly before it closed, I think. The C90 cassette they used to play the music was warbling like a demented bird and the sets looked equally tired. Despite the half empty auditorium, the cast attacked the songs with vigour. I still loved it.</p>\n\n<p>And, today, I still had goosebumps. Maybe it was the unseasonable chill in the air, maybe it was the moonlight, or maybe it was the magic of Cats!</p>\n<img src=\"https://shkspr.mobi/blog/wp-content/themes/edent-wordpress-theme/info/okgo.php?ID=74380&HTTP_REFERER=Atom\" alt width=\"1\" height=\"1\" loading=\"eager\">",
"image": null,
"media": [],
"authors": [
{
"name": "Terence Eden",
"email": null,
"url": "https://edent.tel/"
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],
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{
"label": "musical",
"term": "musical",
"url": "https://shkspr.mobi/blog"
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"label": "Theatre Review",
"term": "Theatre Review",
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}