Richi's blog

Category: Software

  • Why was second factor authentication watered down?

    As far as I can remember, two factor authentication was used since the first time I used online banking with BBS like text interface over a 14.4bps modem. Back in the day the second factor was a printed list with numbered codes. The idea of using different factors is to prevent hackers form accessing your […]

  • Why I am sending back my Librem5

    After paying 0.163 BTC for a pre-order, I patiently waited two and a half years for the Librem 5 to finally arrive. Now after half a year with the phone, I finally lost patience. For some more context, please read my former blog posts The Librem 5 phone is still at an early stage and […]

  • Working from home during the Corona shutdown

    Like many people these days I currently work from home. Due to the corona pandemic, everything that is not essential is closed in Switzerland. Since I work in software development, it is possible to work at home. Most if not all people in my team do so. What is great about the new situation is […]

  • The Librem 5 phone is still at an early stage

    When I learned that Purism was going to develop a privacy respecting and security focused smart phone, I was immediately very excited. So far the only real open source phone was the OpenMoko, and that was almost a decade ago. I ordered one as soon as they opened the pre-orders. A quick look in my […]

  • Flying AdHoc Network

    The first time I heard about FANET was at a gathering of some paragliding friends last year. They mentioned that they can display each others position on their flight computers. While that sounds cool, I don’t often get to fly cross country any more. Thus this feature was not of particular interest to me. Then […]

  • When a product is better than the description

    When I was a kid I liked wrist watches from Casio. I had one with a calculator, one with an address database, one with an infrared remote control and one with an altimeter. But for the last 25 years I didn’t wear one. I don’t like to wrap anything around my wrist. And since I […]

  • Bitcoin Advanced Course by 21lectures

    Last week I attended a Bitcoin Advanced Course that was hosted by 21lectures. Lucas who is also the president of the Bitcoin Association Switzerland initially wanted Jimmy Song to teach his Bitcoin courses also in Switzerland. But when that didn’t work out, he decided to build the classes himself, with the help of great quality […]

  • CppOnSea

    I meant to write about CppOnSea for a while. The event is already a month in the past. So I better write down my impressions as long as I can remember anything. My comments will probably be shorter than had I written it down earlier. Last year I learned from a podcast about a new […]

  • Why I deactivated Tesla app access

    The official Tesla App is unfortunately not available for Ubuntu Phone. And there is no indication that it will be on my next phone, the Librem5 from Purism. On the bright side, from the computer I can control my car using the VisibleTesla desktop app running inside a docker container. But the best part about […]

  • The mother of all hackathons

    I just returned from #hack4climate. Even if it was just my third hackathon, I can state with certainty that this one was unlike any other. None of the 100 hackers from 33  countries experienced anything remotely comparable before. The topic of the event was to develop solutions how blockchain technology can help fighting climate change. […]