Sometimes - only sometimes - slowness is a feature, not a bug. A few weeks ago, I was reading about a purported use for "smart contracts". If your plane is cancelled, a smart-contract could automatically pay out your travel insurance, the millisecond the cancellation was reported. Nifty, right‽ Slowness for crap reasons There are plenty of processes which are slow for annoying reasons. The insurance company is slow in the hope that you won't pursue your claim. That's good for their b…
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Here's a (possibly) daft idea. What if you could pay for goods using a transferable bank account? Say you want to pay a friend some money. But you're not physically close enough to hand over cash. You create a new bank account with a unique username and password. As quickly and easily as getting a new email address. Couple of clicks and it is done. You move money from your main account into the new account. This happens instantly and is free. A property of these accounts is that anyone…
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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. Module 1 is huge. It is also fairly light on details. This means that there is no central controller…
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Why do I do this to myself? Why? As part of my ongoing MSc, I have to take 3 professional training courses. I've completed my cybersecurity course, and I have a Machine Learning course booked for January. So what to do next? There's a lot of discussion in government circles about Blockchain. As with any new tech, there are plenty of Thought Leaders™ and sales drones trying to push it. For every one person with a legitimately useful idea, there are 99 scammers and grifters. I'm not a big f…
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I recently purchased a book for my MSC which was only available via a crappy Android app. There was no obvious way to decrypt it to read on a more sensible device, so I resorted to the ancient art of screenscraping. This is a quick-and-dirty way to grab images of the pages and convert them to a standard PDF using Linux. There's a lot more you can do to make the end book more useful, but this'll get you started Lots of Screen Shots With a USB cable plugged into my phone and laptop, I wrote a…
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How will law, regulation and ethics govern a future of fast-changing technologies? Focuses on the practical difficulties of applying law, policy and ethical structures to emergent technologies both now and in the future. Covers crucial current issues such as big data ethics, ubiquitous surveillance and the Internet of Things, and disruptive technologies such as autonomous vehicles, DIY genetics and robot agents. Asks where law might go next and how to regulate new-phase technology such …
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As part of my MSc, I have to take an online exam. Obviously, this means I am highly likely to cheat by looking up things on Wikipedia or by having a bit of paper with notes on it. EVIL! So, the exam body requires me to install ProctorU. It's a service which lets someone watch you through your laptop camera while you do the exam. Creepy, but I get it. They also want to see your screen to make sure you're not alt-tabbing. A bit grim, but I get it. They also want complete control over your…
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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 Business and Technology module. You can read my Digital Leadership paper and my Data Analytics Paper. I really didn't enjoy this module. Although well taught, it was a business studies course mostly focussed on how American companies managed innovation. I struggled to connect the teaching to my role in the UK public sector. I was charmingly…
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The one thing I know about myself is that I hate introspection. So, fair warning, this will be a mopey and self-indulgent post. As part of my MSc, I have to create and discuss my Personal Development Plan in relation to my Career and I'm… stumped! I've never known what I wanted to be when I grow up. Sure, vague dreams of being a starship pilot (unlikely) or an actor (failed) - but other than that? Just… I dunno. Computers? My "career" so far has been drifting from gig to gig going "Oh, that l…
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This is a diary of what I've learned. Hopefully it will let other learners know what the course is like, and if it is worthwhile. Oh, and it might just help me remember what I'm learning! Verdicts Some of the lab tasks were impossible without looking at the cheat sheet. I got stuck on one because the question told me to go to one URl, but I had to guess the one which was vulnerable. Felt like a bit of a "gotcha" moment. Perhaps in a proper lab environment it might have made more sense - but…
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This is a diary of what I've learned. Hopefully it will let other learners know what the course is like, and if it is worthwhile. Oh, and it might just help me remember what I'm learning! The penultimate day. Try not to worry about the upcoming exam! Today was lots of HTTP, TLS, and other low-ish level stuff like that. But mostly focussed on common website attacks. Verdict Bit of a repeat of yesterday's Windows session to make up for the broken labs. The exam requires 50% right answers to…
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This is a diary of what I've learned. Hopefully it will let other learners know what the course is like, and if it is worthwhile. Oh, and it might just help me remember what I'm learning! Day 3 - the day I was dreading most of all… Windows! I've been avoiding M$ WinDoze (LOL!!!) since long before it was fashionable. Even at my earliest jobs, I'd find a way to convince the IT department to let me run Linux on their kit. I'm penguin-powered, baby! So, what can an Ubuntu toting geek learn about …
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