Cariadus

As a Nominet tag holder I often have to send PGP emails to Nominet’s Automaton to renew, modify or release domains. The problem is how to do this when away from my office? Until recently my system of choice was a Nokia N810 internet tablet with Claws Mail and a PGP plugin combined with a Nokia E71 phone to provide the internet connection.

Having recently defected to Android in the shape of an HTC Desire the question was: would it be possible to send PGP mail on the Android phone?

After some searching and assistance from a very helpful Android app developer it turns out that the answer is: yes, it is possible.

I’ll make some of this brief as much of it has already been covered in other places. A good place to start is the Guardian Project’s article. However, there are some tweaks needed to satisfy the quirks of Nominet’s Automaton.

Step 1 – Get your public and private keys

If you’re a Nominet member you probably already have your PGP keys set up with Nominet. If not, follow the procedure in Nominet’s PGP guide to create your keys and register them with Nominet. You also need to export the keys so that you can copy the keys to your phone as you can’t create keys on your Android phone as yet.

Step 2 – Install the latest version of K9 mail app

The latest version of K9 has OpenPGP options built in. Note that at the time of writing you need to download this from the K9 download page as the version available on the Marketplace is several versions behind and doesn’t have OpenPGP functionality. You need version k9-2910-release.apk or higher.

You’ll need to set up an account in K9 for the email address that you use for sending to the Automaton.

Step 3 – Install Android Privacy Guard

Download the latest version of APG. This needs to be version 1.0.6 or higher to work with Nominet’s Automaton. Note: this will not be available until early-mid August 2010. (The developer was kind enough to let me try a beta version and I can confirm that it works.)

Step 4 – Import your keys to APG

Copy your public and private keys to your phone, open APG and install them – this is a fairly simple process. There is an option in APG to delete the keys once imported – it is best to check this option as it is not a good idea to have the raw private key on a mobile device.

Step 5 – Configure K9 to work with APG

In Account Settings there is a Cryptography section. Tap OpenPGP Provider and select APG. Tap the Auto-sign box so that it is checked.

Step 6 – Configure APG to work with the Automaton.

Open APG and tap Menu and Settings.

Tap Hash Alogorithm and select SHA-1

Tap Message Compression and select None

In the Advanced section at the bottom tap the box that says Force V3 signatures so that it is ticked.

Step 7 – Send a test email to Nominet

In K-9 send a test email to the Automaton as per Nominet’s PGP guide. On the compose screen in K9 you should now have a check box which should already be ticked for your public key. Don’t check the Encrypt box – the Automaton needs signed PGP mail, not encrypted.

Has it worked?

And finally you should hopefully get an email reply from the Automaton to say that your test message has been successful.

If not, check that you are using keys that have already been registered with Nominet and that you have configured APG correctly in step 6. You can check Nominet’s list of error messages.

If it did work consider sending a donation to the developer of APG who went out of his way to ensure that the the PGP signature produced by APG satisfied the vagaries of the Nominet Automaton. Many thanks Thialfihar!

References:
http://code.google.com/p/k9mail/
http://code.google.com/p/k9mail/downloads/list
http://www.thialfihar.org/projects/apg/
http://guardianproject.info/2010/07/09/how-to-lockdown-your-mobile-e-mail/
http://www.nic.uk/registrars/systems/auto/pgp/

Google Street View launched in the UK last week and there has been a storm of protest over privacy. And it’s easy to see why.

Consider this for instance. Barbara has a work colleague called Julie. I’ve met Julie a couple of times at parties and work functions but otherwise I don’t know her that well. So Google Street View comes out and Barbara and her work colleagues decide to look up their homes to see if they’re on there and what they look like. And the shot for Julie’s house looks like this:

That’s me sitting in my car parked outside her house. Even though faces and car number plates might be blurred it’s still possible to identify people by the car they drive, the clothes they wear. That is undeniably me in that picture.
So she asks me later whether I’ve ever been to Julie’s house. “No,” I say. She shows me the Street View picture. Oh-oh, it’s not even as if I’m driving past, I’m actually parked outside the house. Uh…so now I’m scrabbling around for an explanation…oops. I end up admitting that maybe I’ve got to know Julie a little too well.

OK, so I’ve made that up. It’s actually outside our house and I don’t have to think up any explanation as to why I would be there.

But you can imagine all the little incendiary devices laying hidden in Street View ready to be stumbled upon. And in the scenario above it’s no good Google removing the image when they receive a complaint about it. By then it would be too late and the incendiary device would have exploded.

I have ambivalent thoughts about Street View. I can certainly see the privacy issues with it. I don’t really mind being on it myself because I’m doing nothing more innocuous than sitting in my car outside my house, but I can see how some people would mind.

Last week I had to collect a client from an address in Cardiff – a house that was supposed to be difficult to find. I was not only able to look it up on Google Maps but I could also do a ‘drive through’ of the street and familiarise myself with it before I got there. The client was amazed that I was able to find his house without having to telephone for directions (as everyone else does, apparently). For that kind of use Street View is an invaluable tool.

But if I had been photographed in less innocuous circumstances I probably wouldn’t be thinking of it as a valuable tool.

Not that that would be likely to happen of course…

It’s almost exactly six years since our greyhound, Tim, was run over on the road outside our house. He lost so much blood he almost didn’t survive. His right foreleg was so horrifically broken I was sure that he would lose his leg. I was amazed when the vet said he could fix it. The caveat was that it would be a long process, it would be expensive and there was no guarantee that he would have full use of the leg afterwards. Even if the bone healed nerve damage could render the leg useless. Amputation would be quicker and cheaper. It didn’t take us long to decide that if there was any chance of the leg being saved it would be worth it.

Tim had to endure six months of painful treatment and many times I wondered whether we’d made the right decision to try to save it. The vet, Stefano Susanna of West Farm Veterinary Clinic in Cowbridge performed a minor miracle in saving the leg, including an operation to pin the bone and fit a metal frame to the leg.

Throughout this time we had much-needed moral and financial support from Greyhound Welfare.

And now to see Tim run through the water on the beach with a look of pure enjoyment on his face, or striding across the sand, you would never guess that he came so close to losing his leg. A miracle indeed.

I like the idea of being able to post directly from my mobile phone – maybe that way I would actually post stuff instead of leaving the site dormant. So I’m experimenting with Shozu to see how it works out.

I already use Shozu for Facebook and Twitter updates and it works great on my Nokia E7¹so it makes sense to use it for WordPress too.

So we’ll see how this goes…

31 years ago today two 17 year-olds got together in a school dance.

They couldn’t have guessed then that 31 years later they would still be together.

And looking back on 31 years of happiness.

[Us on a bus - Barcelona, last year]

My father was taken in to hospital this evening. He’s 86 and very frail. He’s a diabetic but in the last couple of years the danger has been going hypo rather than hyper (ie his blood sugar level has gone too low). But suddenly his blood sugar level has shot up to a dangerous level so he had to be admitted to hospital. He seems reasonably well in himself so hopefully it won’t be too long before he’s home again.

And on a slightly different note, I have to take the dog to the vet tomorrow to have a growth removed from a very delicate (and private) area. He’ll need to have a general anaesthetic so I’ll have a very groggy dog to deal with tomorrow with a sore private part…

Four months ago today we moved to our new home in the seaside town of Barry. Compared to our previous home in the ‘posh’ town of Cowbridge a move to Barry was a step down. Barry is synonomous with run-down areas, crime and faded seaside glamour. At least that was the way that I saw it, in common, I’m sure, with most Cowbridge residents.

But what I hadn’t realised until about a year ago, is that there are actually some very attractive parts of Barry, such as the areas around Romily Park and The Knap. And, overall, once you get to know it, it’s not such a bad place.

And after four months I have to say that I love it here. To have a beautiful coastline and sandy beaches within walking distance of our home is wonderful. To be able to walk the dog on the beach is wonderful. I’ve always wanted to live by the sea, and now I do. Perhaps one day I’ll get blasé about it but at the moment it’s almost like being on an extended holiday.

These photos were taken walking the dog yesterday and today and, hopefully, you’ll see what I mean.

Yesterday evening we went to an Exhibition of GCSE and A Level Art and Textiles at Siân’s school. Siân had work exhibited in the art and textiles section.
(Click a photo to see the details.)

She’s a very talented artist and the dress she designed and made is stunning.
Needless to say we were very proud parents.