Secure · Productive · In the age of AI
Live a secure and productive online life.
sharpe.co.za is a set of plain-English field guides for everyday people. How to hold your own keys, protect your privacy, and work alongside AI without handing over the things that matter.
Field guides
Latest
- Latest
Plain-English field guide · Windows
Lock and Key
A password vault only a key in your hand can open.
A plain-English guide to setting up a hardware-backed password vault on Windows with gopass and a YubiKey, so only a physical key can open your passwords.
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Plain-English field guide · Cross-platform
The Handover
A plain-English guide to the one sealed plan that lets a trusted person reach your accounts and keys if you cannot, without leaving secrets lying around.
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Plain-English field guide · Cross-platform
Three Copies
A hands-on guide to the three-copy backup rule, done with encryption you hold the key to, so theft, fire or ransomware never means lost files.
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Plain-English field guide · Windows, Mac, Linux
Local Mind
A hands-on guide to running a capable AI assistant entirely on your own laptop with Ollama or LM Studio, with no account and nothing sent anywhere.
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Plain-English field guide · Phone and family
Code Word
A plain-English guide to the AI voice-clone call that mimics a loved one in trouble, and the one agreed family code word that defeats it.
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Plain-English field guide · Cross-platform
Off the List
A hands-on guide to finding the sites that sell your home address and phone number, and using your right to deletion to make them take it down.
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Plain-English field guide · Home network
Front Door
A hands-on guide to the handful of router settings that matter, and how to put smart gadgets on their own network so a weak one cannot reach your real devices.
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Plain-English field guide · Cross-platform
Off the Record
A plain-English guide to what ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude keep from your conversations, and the one setting in each that stops your chats training the model.
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Plain-English field guide · Cross-platform
Masked
A plain-English guide to handing out alias email addresses and a spare phone number, so a breach or a spammer never reaches the real ones.
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Plain-English field guide · Cross-platform
Second Factor
A plain-English guide to moving your most important logins off SMS codes onto passkeys and a hardware key, the single biggest account-safety upgrade most people can make.
