Realised it’d been a while, thought it was time for an update. I’m gonna try and make an effort to get closer to an ideal of something like #weeknotes as I’ve always been jealous of Adrian’s ability to put this thoughts down and get them out the door in a sensible way… Anyway, use the Table of Contents above to skip to bits you may care about. Farset Updates So, this was the actual reason for this update but it started a weird thought process that led to this blog. ...
Turns out that November 1963 was a pretty stupendous month all in all, in particular the couple of days (20-24) we’re currently wading through. C.S Lewis (Good Belfast Man) who was not only the beloved childrens author, but also an accomplished scholar, and one of the pioneers of the Science Fiction form, popped his clogs due to long term illness on Friday 22nd at around 2pm GMT aged 64 Aldous Huxley, one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century and author of one of my favourite books (Brave New World) spun off his mortal coil at the age of 69 taking one more tab of LSD to lighten his passage at 5pm the same day ...
So, what are they going to do with all those ‘NI 2012: Our Time Out Place’ things? Is it no longer our place? Are we joining up with the republic or the mainland or something? Are we all getting deported?! I DON’T WANT TO BE DEPORTED! Who am I Kidding, yes, I do, this place sucks sometimes between flegs and riots and expenses and planning permission and investment funds and floods. Thanks to those who made 2012 suck less, especially everyone who has contributed to Farset and all that jazz, it really has been a dream come true. ...
2011 has been a great year for me; Graduated with a 1st MEng in Electronics & Software Engineering @QUB, Got Job offer to a major financial house, which I turned down, Got Job offer to a C|EH company in England, which I turned down, Got DELNI Funded PhD offer (x4) from CSIT/ECIT, which I turned down, Got selected to be one of the two UK projects within a Joint UK/FR Defence PhD Programme, which I accepted, ...
Inspired by the drinking game ‘Kings’ Co-Authors:W.P.L. Cully, and L. Martin Requirements: 1 standard deck of cards 1 jug/tankard/chalice/large vessel 1 top hat (or suitably ‘posh’ headgear) at least 4 people Card Assignments: A: Drink Me (Drink your own drink) 2: Tweedledee Tweedledum (Two person waterfall, card drawers choice of partner, second person can only stop drinking after the card drawer) 3: Time for Tea (Group Waterfall, to stop drinking, person to your right must stop first) 4: Door Mouse (Last person to put their forehead on the table takes a drink) 5: Skive (Get out of jail free card to be used at any time until the next 5 is pulled from the deck) 6: Mad March Hare (card drawer can make up an arbitrary rule that lasts until another 6 is drawn) 7: Caterpillar (aka Questionmaster, if anyone answers a question posed by the cardholder, that person has to drink, this continues until another 7 is drawn) 8: Cheshire Cat (the drawer must grin until another 8 is drawn) 9: Rhymes (card drawer picks a word, and each subsequent person around the table must say a non-repeated word that rhymes with the previous word. When someone fails, they drink) 10: Do it again (if the previous card was NOT a face card, repeat the action) J: All Change (this drawer receives the hat, granting the power to randomly shout [loudly] ‘ALL CHANGE’, at which point everyone passes their drink (and the hat, passing on the power) to the person on their left. There is no limit to how long this goes on for, but when another J is drawn, the hat is given to that person) Q: Queen’s Cup* (Pour your entire drink into the central cup/jug/whatever. If Q♥ appeared before the last Q, down the remains of the cup. See also K) Q♥: Off with his head! (Down the cup, if this card appears before any other Q’s, down your own drink) K: Kings and Queens (Each respective suit-couples (K♥/Q♥) are paired such that for the rest of the game, when the Queen drinks, the relevant King must also drink. In the case of the cup being drank, it can be shared, but this involves two people drinking out of the same vessel so can get messy, otherwise take turns and the Q goes first. If the K is pulled with no corresponding Q, there is no initial penalty) ...
I was sitting in Sinnamon on the Stranmillis Road, enjoying a coffee, a sausage roll, and my Kindle, reading the latest 2600. One article immediatly stood out to me, ‘A World Spinning’. The main focus of the article was the world-changing domino effect, toppling regimes across the middle east, all caused by one, little textfile. The textfile in question was a US Embassy cable highlighting the indemic corruption in the (ex) Tunisian Government. As most know, this leak was from WikiLeaks; a rag-tag loosely knit chaotic alliance of hackers across the globe, all with the the same general aim to allow open and plain discourse and stopping governments across the globe from hiding secrets from their citizenry; big secrets and small… Of course, as with most things to do with hackers, the aim isn’t that simple; having spoken to some of those involved, it was abundantly clear that some elements within Wikileaks purely want to screw with governments that (they feel have) wronged them, but others are simply motivated by the cat-and-mouse challenge of acquiring, validating, securing and releasing information in a hostile environment. ...
Inspired by Barry Haughey’s recent facebook post; Dear International Banking Conglomerates and other major employers, I just spent 3 hours of my life writing custom cover letters, answering pointless assessment questions, and entering my ‘skillsets’ on 4 different occasions for an application for one job… Just gimme the bloody job already; you’re big enough and ugly enough to have been able to pick up all that infomation from either a) My extensive and detailed resume, b) my attached university transcript. ...
I am sick and tired of seeing ‘so and so joined SOMETHING COOL EVERYONE SHOULD SEE’ only to check out the group and see its behind a join-wall. so I’m starting my own library of pointless Facebook joinwall groups along with alternate source material and a brief of what is behind the joinwall. Affectionately known as FGL. Check it out and let me know what groups you want exposed.
“In this upcoming round of ACTA negotiations, the U.S. delegation will be working with other delegations to resolve some fundamental issues, such as the scope of the intellectual property rights that are the focus of this agreement. Progress is necessary so that we can prepare to release a text that will provide meaningful information to the public and be a basis for productive dialogue. We hope that enough progress is made in New Zealand in clearing brackets from the text so that participants can be in a position to reach a consensus on sharing a meaningful text with the public.” ...
Folks, we’re basically screwed; The Digital Economy Bill recieved Royal Accent on April 9th and is officially now Law. So after barely three days of parliamentary ‘debate’ where only 20-ish MP’s actually spoke on the subject (but somehow 189 MP’s decided it was a good idea anyway), our civil rights have been sacrificed infront of the alter of copyright. Many sites have a much more indepth tretise on the subject than I could do so I’ll keep this short. ...