What's this??!

Blog entry for December 2019

謹賀新年

or... a Happy New Year for 2020 to all our customers, past, present and future. Twenty-twenty may be perfect eyesight, but it will also be the Year of the Rat, here represented but a cute, if somewhat over-dressed, mouse saying Yoroshiku!.

And the red padlock?

A long-time customer asked me the other day: "What does the red padlock mean? I'm sure there used to be a green one..." Well, actually no, there never was a padlock at all. What has happened is that browsers have started marking any site using the original http:// web protocol with various indications that they are "insecure". This is a bit misleading: it simply means that the connection is not encrypted, so in principle the government might be spying on which puzzles you are looking at. Encryption is essential for anything involving payment details, but we do not collect these directly, since they are handled by PayPal (and of course you should check there is a green padlock, and an https:// connection there). Back in 2002, when Imaginatorium Shop opened its virtual doors, encryption was only for payment sites, but now most sites are switching, and we too will soon be getting a new domain with a green padlock. Please be patient, but look for changes in the new year.