Looking forward and back, 2nd August 2021 I’m very wary of journals and journalling, but “work out loud” keeps being recommended more and more, and I’ve seen friends and contacts manage to navigate the line between self-promotion and bluster successfully. Last week Fought backup software - rdiff-backup - ongoing Fixed, mostly, Manjaro blanking a screen by default Continuing playtesting of an online game set in the Vietnam War, I particularly like the double-blind play Being an “external security brain” for a customer Put in some technical restrictions to stop me playing “just one more game” until too early in the morning Mashed my sleep schedule because of how Linux handles fonts Fought Linux and poor IO handling… still fighting Started discussing red team thinking with a new-ish contact, I have my usual doubts that organisations are interested in this kind of service without it being bundled with many others, if at all Continued thinking around bots, either written in code or “card based”, for either my own games, or as an unauthorised addition to other’s games. But this looks like a deep area that should be a sole area of study, and I’m not sure its financially viable I learned that YouTube advertising is in-stream now Spent far too long trying to make some old hardware useful Finished all of Ape Out… at the “softer” level. If you’ve played it, you’ll know how important that last level is Tried the Long Journey Home, an interesting idea but really dissauded by the training mode before I even started the game Replaced some hard disks on a server like some kind of 20th Century IT version of the Sealed Knot This week Keep fighting rdiff-backup More chats with the consultancy umbrella Catch up with some old friends online Try to take off more items from my “to do” lists than I add Read a book, again

Looking forward and back, 26th July 2021 I’m very wary of journals and journalling, but “work out loud” keeps being recommended more and more, and I’ve seen friends and contacts manage to navigate the line between self-promotion and bluster successfully. Last week Tried to figure out the antonym of terrorism Thought about a “kind insurgency” organisation and how it would work Made inroads into an umbrella consulting organisation Had a great conversation with a CISO about their career plans, and where the cyber security industry is going Caught up with an old friend who’s a CISO now, and the difficulty of finding the right position, even when you’re in demand Helped umpire an influence modelling wargame, impressive in terms of Control and attendee engagement Attended DSTL’s “Supercharging Science” event, which confirmed a few opinions, and led to useful conversations Attended the CardStock meetup, thought provoking and useful Been rather impressed at the creativity in the Masters of the Universe release Caught up on a lot of newsletters, closed a few tabs This week Act as an “external security brain” for a customer Various dull technical projects Slightly more interesting technical projects, looking at automating some things More chats with the consultancy umbrella Catching up with others… I’ve taken a step back recently and, as naff as it sounds, realised just how many really smart people I know…

On the benefits of virtual conferences I’ve just finished helping organise the online conference PlaySecure, running mainly on top of the Gather platform. ( for a limited time tickets are available to visit the venue and watch recordings of the presentations, check out the link above ) Regardless of the conference having to be online because of the current pandemic and lockdowns, we found many benefits to holding the event online… and some issues too. I’ve briefly summarised them below, to help you consider your options when running your next event, and choosing between physical or virtual or hybrid. Personally I’m really hoping that “hybrid” takes off as an option, there are so many benefits that it’s worth overcoming the obstacles, regardless of progress with viruses and vaccines. ...

The ( former ) subtitle of this blog is a bit much isn’t it, “I am the coxswain on my boat of thought”. But the phrase “train of thought” is common, implying something that travels from one station to the next, on well established and solid tracks, to exact destinations. And if it goes off the rails at all, everything is lost. Whereas I have a “boat of thought”, it goes in a general direction from one port to the next, but it’s buffeted by waves and storms, and sometimes is forced to take interesting diversions. Wikipedia says that the coxswain is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives a literal meaning of “boat servant”, which I kind of like. ...

What do you think of the colour scheme? I like the green, black, and white - based on the graphic I chose for my Twitter avatar an age ago. It looks fine on my machine, but how does it look to you? If it’s particularly egregious please @ me on Twitter, or drop me an email. Thank you.

my first post, containing useful links