Certified Blockchain Professional - Module 08: Decentralised Apps (Dapps)


Logo for the Certified Blockchain Professional.

As previously discussed, I'm doing the Certified Blockchain Professional course. It is self-directed learning, so I'm going through it at my own pace. In order to consolidate my learning, and help organise my thoughts, I'm blogging about my reflections on each module. These are mostly notes to myself - but I hope if you find something interesting (or incorrect) that you'll leave a comment. A short and pointless chapter. No real discussion of how DAOs actually work, or example code. No…

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Certified Blockchain Professional - Module 07: Ethereum


Logo for the Certified Blockchain Professional.

As previously discussed, I'm doing the Certified Blockchain Professional course. It is self-directed learning, so I'm going through it at my own pace. In order to consolidate my learning, and help organise my thoughts, I'm blogging about my reflections on each module. These are mostly notes to myself - but I hope if you find something interesting (or incorrect) that you'll leave a comment. Again, a terribly written & edited chapter. I had to revert to the sources on Wikipedia to understand…

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Certified Blockchain Professional - Module 06: Open Source Business Blockchain Frameworks


Logo for the Certified Blockchain Professional.

As previously discussed, I'm doing the Certified Blockchain Professional course. It is self-directed learning, so I'm going through it at my own pace. In order to consolidate my learning, and help organise my thoughts, I'm blogging about my reflections on each module. These are mostly notes to myself - but I hope if you find something interesting (or incorrect) that you'll leave a comment. Permissioned Ledger All the participants are known and trusted. This removes the need for PoW or…

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Certified Blockchain Professional - Module 05: Sustainable Blockchain


Logo for the Certified Blockchain Professional.

As previously discussed, I'm doing the Certified Blockchain Professional course. It is self-directed learning, so I'm going through it at my own pace. In order to consolidate my learning, and help organise my thoughts, I'm blogging about my reflections on each module. These are mostly notes to myself - but I hope if you find something interesting (or incorrect) that you'll leave a comment. One of the biggest challenges organizations face in adopting blockchain solutions is the energy…

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Certified Blockchain Professional - Module 04: Bitcoin


Logo for the Certified Blockchain Professional.

As previously discussed, I'm doing the Certified Blockchain Professional course. It is self-directed learning, so I'm going through it at my own pace. In order to consolidate my learning, and help organise my thoughts, I'm blogging about my reflections on each module. These are mostly notes to myself - but I hope if you find something interesting (or incorrect) that you'll leave a comment. Another poorly edited chapter full of grammatical mistakes and logical leaps. Oh well! I've booked this…

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Certified Blockchain Professional - Module 03: Blockchain Mining


Logo for the Certified Blockchain Professional.

As previously discussed, I'm doing the Certified Blockchain Professional course. It is self-directed learning, so I'm going through it at my own pace. In order to consolidate my learning, and help organise my thoughts, I'm blogging about my reflections on each module. These are mostly notes to myself - but I hope if you find something interesting (or incorrect) that you'll leave a comment. The key to remember is that "mining" really means "solving cryptographic puzzles in order to validate a…

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Book Review: Information Warfare and Security by Dorothy E. Denning


Book cover showing a CRT monitor behind barbed wire.

I found this book while following a citation trail for my MSc. Published before the 21st Century (fuck, I'm old) it's a run-down of this new-fangled thing called Information Warfare. It covers electronic attacks, espionage, computer security and more. In the last 20 years, depressingly little has changed. If you removed the mentions of ActiveX and floppy disks, it'd still be 90% relevant. It sets out in clear detail why information warfare is the new frontier - and some practical takes on how…

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MSc Assignment 4 - Open Professional Practise - Cyber Security


A padlock engraved into a circuit board.

I'm doing an apprenticeship MSc in Digital Technology. In the spirit of openness, I'm blogging my research and my assignments. This is my paper from the OPP module - where I can choose any subject. I picked Cybersecurity. You can read my Digital Leadership paper, my Data Analytics Paper, and my Business and Technology essay. I've previously written about the Art of Hacking course. The middle two parts of this paper are about that - why I chose it and how I put it into practice. The first and …

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Is it faster to read or to listen?


A reel-to-reel tape recorder.

Fourteen years ago, I blogged about the future of voice. In the post, I asked these two questions - which I'd nicked from someone else: Are you faster at speaking or typing? Are you faster at reading or listening? Lots of us now use Siri, Alexa, Bixby, and the like because it is quicker to speak than type. For long-form wordsmithing - it's still probably easier to type-and-edit than it is to speak-then-edit. And the way humans speak is markedly different from how they write. But the…

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Practical Machine Learning with Python


Logo of the Python programming language.

As part of my MSc I'm taking a short course in Practical Machine Learning via QA.com. The first three days were just about basic stats visualisation using Python. It was great to have a refresher - but I would have expected that to be a pre-requisite. The tutor was excellent - very patient at explaining complex concepts. And the use of Jupyter Notebooks is a gamechanger for taught courses like this. Ultimately, it was a useful course - although I expected a lot more time to be spent on…

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Certified Blockchain Professional - Module 02: Crypto Assets


Logo for the Certified Blockchain Professional.

As previously discussed, I'm doing the Certified Blockchain Professional course. It is self-directed learning, so I'm going through it at my own pace. In order to consolidate my learning, and help organise my thoughts, I'm blogging about my reflections on each module. These are mostly notes to myself - but I hope if you find something interesting (or incorrect) that you'll leave a comment. Part of the problem with this book is that it is so credulous. It takes almost everything at face value…

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An algorithm to write an assignment


A typewriter. The words "Write something" are typed onto the fresh white paper.

Some of you may be familiar with the Feynman Algorithm. It is a general technique to solve any problem. The steps are as follows: Write down the problem. Think real hard. Write down the solution. Easy! As part of my MSc, I have to write a series of assignments. These are essays with a strict word count and an even stricter marking scheme. I'm proud that I've successfully developed a technique for writing these assignments. I've noticed that a number of students don't know where to begin…

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