BastardAcademic

A few months ago, I became really disillusioned with search engines. Google fully shed its imaginary cloak of useful consumer tool, and decided that being awful at search wasn't far enough, and that everything had to be AI generated. DuckDuckGo was returning irrelevance time and time again. Therefore, fed-up of ad-laden shite, I took a chance on paid search; I went to Kagi. The advantage is obvious from the get-go: I pay them ~£5 per month and get 0 adverts in my search. I just get the results I...

Ships that pass in the night, and whisper briefly but don't linger, Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another, Only a look and a voice, then silence again and blackness. ...

This came from a challenge on Twitter a couple of years ago from a Wheel of Time fan account asking if you could choose one WoT-related scene to make a 15 minute short film of, what would it be (this was just after we'd had the confirmation that the Amazon series would go ahead (I have Feelings and Opinions on said series, best discussed elsewhere)). So I though about it and answered that for me, it would be the moments leading up to Lews Therin Telamon to take the Hundred Companions, and Latra ...

Rainfall hits concrete No tin roof clattering here Grey skies linger long ...

Hive mind humans: There are a number of ways that a hive mind society of humans could potentially become a reality, both in fiction and in more scientifically plausible scenarios. Fictional scenarios often depict hive mind humans as a result of some sort of technology or mutation, such as: a virus that spreads and connects people's brains togethera device or implant that connects people's brains togethergenetic engineering to create a new species of human that is able to communicate telepathi...

Ok, so it seems that a Final Fantasy IX Remake might well be in the making - one of the most favoured games among the franchises' fans, and indeed, Hironobu Sakaguchi's personal favourite. It was my introduction to the popular series, and has remained a favourite of mine for decades now. What would I want to see in a remake to bring it up to date? Story: I don't think you'd need to make the same sort of story tweaks as we saw in FFVII - there's enough story, some bits just need fleshing out a l...

Notes on devolution and the UK's political structure.  - New political parties that are not tied to Westminster - Secretary of State for Wales/N.I./Scot to be representatives of those nations to Westminster - Devolve aspects of the capital to other cities in the country - Remove tax loopholes for 2nd homes/holiday homes - Reopen closed rail lines and bolster transport infrastructure - Invest in nuclear and other green energy technologies - Nationalise all infrastructure - Limit consultan...

Resources and examples of the Welsh folk tradition.Resources Ffwrnes Gerdd - YouTube playlist of Welsh Trad music https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9RqValZvA1u0uKiXzC9aSs8X-Cm35CVZ Welsh Traditional Music (Paperback) by Phyllis Kinney https://amzn.to/3kK2vFT​ Welsh Fiddle Tunes 97 Traditional Pieces for Violin https://bit.ly/3dVLMOr​ Trac Cymru (Tunes, songs, and information of all things Welsh trad) https://resources.trac.wales/​ The Welsh Folk-Song Society http://www.canugweri...

Cookies have been a staple of the internet since their creation in 1994, but they have become both a security risk and an insane design flaw that should have been replaced long ago. What are cookies? A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user's computer by a website. It is used to store information about a user's browsing habits and preferences, such as login information, shopping cart contents, or preferences. When a user visits a website, the website sends a request to the user's...

As usual, I take note of the fact that this blogging thing is going exceedingly badly. And, as usual, I will mutter something about attempting to get better at that. Only now, it seems, I have a way of making that happen a little easier. See, I, like I'm sure many of you, have taken the ChatGPT plunge, and found it a rather fascinating tool. So long as you know what you are doing, and are aware of its flaws and limitations, it is a an interesting tool to use. I've only just begun exploring it, ...

This is by no means an exhaustive list; it's just some of the bigger things I'm noting, while I try and see what workable solutions are accessible FPTP is a shitfire Not enough devolution (that applies within England as much as it does the other 3 nations) The PM is the ultimate arbiter of the Ministerial Code Lying in Parliament is fine so long as you can create enough FUD around whether you knew it was a lie You can't call a liar a liar in Parliament Only the PM's party can really get rid of ...

UPDATED 05/2023 Tories need to be gotten rid of, for the next couple of generations ideally - but I'll settle for the next 3/4 election cycles. But first, they need to be displaced. These are, in my opinion, the manifesto promises and policies that should do it: Proportional Representation - this should be a no-brainer. And should be done without a needless, baited plebiscite. AV or STV would be my personal choices, but I'm by no means the expert. All I do know is, FPTP benefit the Tories, and...

As this very long weekend has shown, lots of you are still attached to the idea of monarchy - specifically British monarchy. The reasons are varied, but are irrelevant. All that matters, in the end, is that you like the institution, and you are unlikely to change your mind on the matter. Equally, there are republicans like myself, who are very much in opposition to a monarchical structure in its entirety. Again, there are a few reasons for this, and again, they are largely irrelevant. Like our ...

FB Page post from 25/05/2021 I know the blog hasn't really been much of a blog for the past two years - between lack of time, and life, I've just not been able to do what I really want with it. In the past few days, I've come across 2 things that have re-inspired me to get back into this, but to do it in a very different way, so that's what I'll do. The first thing that gave me inspiration was this piece by the internet's own Cory Doctorow, who described how his method of blogging draws ins...

As we're in a New Year, I thought I'd share some of the tools I found and explored in 2021 that really made a difference: Chocolatey - a package manager for Windows. While MS is still doddering about trying to get "Winget" to work, Chcolatey have been at this for a few years now, and both the shell and GUI versions make finding, installing, and updating software exceptionally easy. They are also constantly adding new packages as well, making this a no-brainer choice for any IT Pro or tinkerer. ...

Originally posted: Sat, 07 Nov 2020 14:15:58 This is pretty much just a list, as things come to me. For me, questioning things that are socially acceptable started a few years ago when the vegan phenomenon really kicked off. I am not a vegan myself, but I do have serious concerns as to how we treat pets and livestock - bring on cultured meats say I! A few years later, and I start seeing more and more posts trying to work out what future generations would find abhorrent about ours, as well as th...

Originally posted: Sat, 07 Nov 2020 13:51:09 For a truly progressive society that works for everyone, one that also envisages some of the upcoming problems faced by humanity, four basic principles should be enacted and held as the absolute minimum that can be done for the benefit of all. None of these things are new, and most are implemented to greater or lesser degrees in most democratic countries. That the following are available is proof that the task is not a logistical one, but one of phil...

Originally posted: Tue, 11 Feb 2020 14:54:55 N.B. This was a paper I wrote for my degree course, giving my view of the disaster that was Equifax. I've just read that the US DoJ has decided to pin the attack directly on China and is levelling charges against Chinese citizens for the breach. I also haven't clarified what Equifax have done to remedy their many, many issues: this is because as far as I can tell, they've done very little. Abstract— In the Spring of 2017, Equifax suffered multiple b...

Originally posted: Mon, 26 Aug 2019 09:33:18 It's been a busy few weeks here, as I'm back on the job hunt. You'd think searching and applying for new positions would be easy - but there are some rather annoying pitfalls. Here's my short overview, in which we discover that geography should become a compulsory short course for recruiters (particularly if they live within the M25). Getting setup The easy bit - open your browser, find your job boards, create your accounts, upload your CV. After t...

Originally posted: Sat, 20 Jul 2019 08:51:54 Users are infuriating at the best of times. Then there are the ones who smuggle their own applications or devices onto your network. Welcome to the deep, dark depths of Shadow IT... Shadow IT, if you don't know, is the concept of users run amok and installing whatever application or device they think they need without asking. Tut Tut. Of course, this is also partially your fault, for ignoring the Principle of Least Privilege and letting them, so we ...

Originally posted: Sat, 22 Jun 2019 08:50:05 I've not really talked about my love of comic books and graphic novels here. Not that I'm an obsessive, but I do have a few titles I'm heavily attached to. Hellblazer, Lucifer, The Sandman, The Invisibles, Preacher, 100 Bullets, DMZ, to name but a few. A large portion of these have a one specific thing in common: they were all released, or continued, on DC's Vertigo imprint. History Started in 1993 under the guidance of Karen Berger, an editor of l...

Originally posted: Tue, 28 May 2019 08:51:09 N.B. This is a freebie writing prompt for anyone who wants it - I got as far as I could, then couldn't see a way forward with it. The bell struck midnight as the crowds snaked through the city streets, their shapes bathed in the blue reflected light of the moon. At least, they did heading towards the bigger temples, the gatherings heading to the smaller ones, or those of the minor cults, would barely fill a tavern. Still, they all came, greedy for ...

Originally posted: Mon, 20 May 2019 08:54:25 As I'm seemingly doing a series on Cyber Warfare, I suppose we should rewind from Hybrid War a little and define what CyberWar is. Let us enter the fifth domain of warfare, Cyberspace, and try not to get hit. Traditional war is fought on land, at sea, or in the air. For a short while (although this notion might be having a small renaissance with Trump’s Space Marine idea), it looked that combat might move ever upwards into space, so much so that the...

Originally posted: Wed, 08 May 2019 09:05:06 Cyber Warfare has just entered a new, and dangerous reality. Is this vicious overkill, a well-measured response, an outlier, or the shape of things to come? CLEARED FOR RELEASE: We thwarted an attempted Hamas cyber offensive against Israeli targets. Following our successful cyber defensive operation, we targeted a building where the Hamas cyber operatives work. HamasCyberHQ.exe has been removed. pic.twitter.com/AhgKjiOqS7— Israel Defense Forces (@I...

Originally posted: Thu, 02 May 2019 13:03:28 Singularities are Black Swan events: you might be able to see it coming, but beyond the event horizon, it's anyone's guess. There's been talk for years about the next one, the one where AGI supposedly emerges, and almost instantaneously becomes ASI. But what if it isn't? Humans have almost always lived with singularity events; hell, from the point of view of all other life on earth, we are a singularity event. Some of these are obvious, like the co...

Originally posted: Mon, 18 Mar 2019 11:06:00 This is not a post about transhumanism or integrated tech. This is about my horrible time management. And it is horrible. I've been doing my annual email cleanout and found some dark neglected corners. A couple of years ago, I decided it might be a Good Thing to create some email rules to help keep my Inbox a bit tidier, and infinitely more readable. It turns out that this has worked, at least to make my Inbox workable. Unfortunately, it means that ...

Originally Posted: Wed, 20 Jun 2018 17:52:00 Today, I want to look at soft skills; more precisely, one soft skill in particular, namely problem solving. Yes, that old chestnut, the one everyone seems to need to put on their CV, from janitorial staff and burger flippers to IT practitioners of all flavours. But why am I writing about it now? Because it’s not a very well understood skill, and it is only half of what a CyberSec pro needs. Confused? I’ll explain. As I’ve mentioned previously, one...

Originally published: Sat, 23 Jun 2018 07:13:00 +0000 Other titles considered for this post: How Not to Piss Off Entire Forums and Facebook Groups; Avoiding the Banhammer; Stop Being Lazy and Look it Up Yourselves. Before you can embark on a career in, well, anything even vaguely IT related (or do practically anything), you must master one crucial skill: information searching. In the days of yore, and even rumoured to still exist despite budget cuts, there were in of cult of specialists in ...

Originally posted: Sat, 23 Jun 2018 11:53:00 Nice, long, big word there as a title. I'll shorten it for you: polymath. A person of wide knowledge or expertise. The desired human state. I have long been an advocate for something I call wide-spectrum literacy: competence in reading, writing, arithmetic, science, technology, politics, philosophy, economics, to say the least. I have what you could mildly call a vehement dislike of ignorance, particularly wilful ignorance: I find little to no excu...

My top cigars of 2021: Joya de Nicaragua Cigars Dos Cientos - a limited edition smoke created to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the independence of Nicaragua. Limited to 3000 boxes, very much worth your time and money if you get the opportunity. This is undoubtedly my smoke of the year Davidoff of London Winston Churchill Limited Edition 2021 - I know may rave about the Late Hour, but it's just not my favourite Churchill. This, however, I had very early in the year, and was only knocked of...