Neil Craig / is on Nostr

Lead Architect @ BBC. Snowboarder, skateboarder. Oxfordshire, UK. Opinions mine. He/Him.
Interested in #serverless #nodejs #googlecloud #terraform #bigquery #analytics #web #cdn #http #tls #http2 #http3 #security #infosec #privacy #webperformance #webperf etc.

Last Notes

2024-08-06 16:38:55

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@npub19lt…qfjk I'm on holiday at the mo but have a friend who works at Xero if that's useful at all. I'm not 100% sure what he'd be able to do but happy to ask if needed 👍

2024-07-23 10:41:40

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@npub198t…hasj Oh that is interesting. Does your spike align with ours?
I'm unsure how much to read in to stats at such low request volumes but it's certainly curious!

2024-07-23 10:01:29

Does anyone know what happened to internet access in Turkmenistan from the 11th to the 19th of July 2024?
We saw roughly a 75% reduction in requests to www.bbc.co.uk & www.bbc.com over that period.
Traffic looks to have returned now (possibly at a higher level).
Curious...Could be a scraper or something I guess. Not a lot of traffic.
#Turkmenistan #WebStats #Censorship (maybe)
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/835/215/761/740/865/original/7d9ddb182228258c.png

2024-07-09 16:48:59

Any recommendations for "website as a service" a la Squarespace, Wix etc. for a UK primary school?
They're currently on a WordPress site, custom hosted and I think they'd be better off on a "platform".
Needs:
- Admin users would all be very much non-technical
- No sales
- Mobile-friendly
- Decent performance
- Secure/private
Typical stuff I spose.
TiA. Boosts would be appreciated!

2024-07-04 22:03:09

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@npub17nm…dm57 Looks like Starmer is trying to be the new Flavor Flav
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/730/478/035/967/239/original/df4e289a71735d14.png

2024-07-04 20:26:58

Here's a few of the prep tasks we've done for the UK General Election in/around our team:
- Add extra CDN/peering capacity
- Ensure personal & machine credentials & TLS cert work & won't expire
- Raise service quotas for safety
- Check that deployment pipeline are clean/deployable
- Ask 3rd parties to be extra-vigilant on change requests
- Rehearse failovers to backup systems
- Make sure all logging/metrics are working correctly
Probably mainly/all pretty obvious but maybe useful.
#BBC #GE2024

2024-07-02 11:10:16

I read a few things about the Ladybird Web Browser project - looks interesting: https://ladybird.org/
Keen to see how it turns out so I decided to make a regular donation. I hope it turns out well and might be a necessary alternative to Firefox if the current trends at Moz continue.
#WebDev #Ladybird #OSS
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/716/584/508/482/395/original/680d96e252afc8e2.png

2024-07-02 10:21:17

I'm updating our roadmap for our internal CDN which serves www.bbc.co.uk & www.bbc.com to the UK.
Which protocols/edge features/security controls (not website content/features/security controls) would you like to see us add?
Already on the list:
- IPv6
- QUIC/h3 (already supported outside UK)
- Post-Quantum Crypto (maybe, needs research)
I can't make any promises but suggestions would be great
Boosts would be ace, TiA!
Edit: Also 👀 for security/performance/reliability tech
#BBC #WebDev #CDN

2024-06-27 16:14:48

Is there a machine-readable, standard way to define a content license for web pages/content?
Feels like this'd be a good way to clearly state to content scrapers what they can and cannot do with web content. Right now it feels like the wild west.

2024-06-27 11:36:14

According to Google, the next thing I should listen to after this week's Risky Business Podcast is...
"Minecraft - Bedtime Meditation
Sleep Stories - Mrs. Honeybee"
🤷🏼‍♂️
https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/688/372/662/279/675/original/8b67e1f148bf53a5.png

2024-06-19 10:04:11

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@npub1zj4…fyjh Hmmm, thanks. I'll dig a bit deeper, maybe one of my filters is blocking it - I don't think I changed anything for a while though...

2024-06-19 09:38:54

Is duckduckgo.com not working for anyone else?
It's timing our for me on searches.
#DuckDuckGo

2024-06-14 16:38:40

Thinking I ought to get back into RSS.
What are people using for (ideally web-based, got enough apps already!) RSS readers?

2024-06-11 15:49:48

Does anyone reading this have a Nord VPN account and use their "smartDNS"?
We're trying to trace a possible edge case which is resulting in people getting an Akamai (used for page assets) IP address for www.bbc.co.uk - which results in a "410 gone".
It might not be related to this but it's all we have to go on at the moment.
Boosts/shares would be much appreciated 👍

2024-05-30 11:14:53

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@npub19lt…qfjk Nice! I was hoping to go this year but couldn't in the end.
At least you've got M&S and Leon...

2024-05-13 13:40:12

The BBC is hiring 2x data-focussed Technical Architects ("senior" & "lead") for UK-based folks (due to boring tax/legal reasons).
Great & smart team (we work with them regularly) using mostly AWS-based tech. Flexible location (mainly remote by default but options to work from a number of offices). Solid pension & benefits.
Shares/boosts would be much appreciated. Closes May 16th.
Full details on the adverts:
https://careers.bbc.co.uk/job/Glasgow-Senior-Architect-G511DA/794392302/
https://careers.bbc.co.uk/job/Glasgow-Lead-Architect-G511DA/794389302/

2024-05-10 12:48:06

Despite the very clever people working at Google & Fitbit, my Pixel Watch still marks me mowing the lawn as "Biking" every time.
I do get that the arm position will be pretty much identical but maybe they ought to consider metadata - how many people are cycling for an hour whilst in wifi range and within ~60 metres of their home location whilst moving at walking pace? 🤣