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Gavin Brown

Gavin Brown

organic, vegan peace hippy.

Location buckfastleigh, devon, uk

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  • Gavin Brown made a comment

    i would suggest that one of the best ways to ensure that hardware and indeed software is doing what we want is to ensure that firmware/software is open source rather than proprietary. this then allows checks to happen either by myself or others than reduce the likelihood of external actors/agencies compromising the hardware/software.

  • a really thought provoking first week. makes me want to delve further into the subject.

    TJXWCYMYRJZZQQLYLPCQ. know what i mean?

  • Gavin Brown made a comment

    modern life would fail completely if cryptanalysts were winning. it hasn't so therefore cryptographers must have the upperhand currently. it is however a neverending evolutionary battle and who is to say that the balance of power will always favour the cryptographers. i've seen to many 'dystopian future' themed films to think that it will always be this way.

  • i basically run my 'life' through my phone, from using cloud based storage to doing all my banking through an app. also being able to pay for most purchases by simply waving my phone at a payment portal is so so convenient. even the phone itself is encrypted. the idea of losing this level of convenience is horrifying.

  • there is a great film called 'the imitation game' starring benedict cumberbatch as alan turing. britain's treatment of alan turing however was utterly disgraceful as he was driven to suicide simply because he was gay. i would say that cryptanalysis hastened the end of ww2 rather than changed the outcome, but in doing so saved millions of lives that otherwise...

  • SIXZBCSPGCCCABRXRESGDGAIEBI

  • frequency analysis, simply because prior to al-kindi's explanation of this process no-one seems to have thought of this as a possibility.

  • before pc's to decode cyphers i would imagine that there were teams of cryptanalysts all working together as a 'human computer' to break codes. an early version of bletchley park? how exciting!

  • my advice would be don't use a weak or readily known cipher when plotting either the otherthrow of a regime or an illegal money making scheme. imagine the change to history if mary queen of scots' plot had actually worked. looking at the teapot dome scandal i am not so sure that it changed a huge amount. money and power still seem to go hand in hand and i am...

  • Gavin Brown made a comment

    if a code can be created it must in theory be possible to break it. the question surely is how long does it take to be broken? if a code is sufficiently complicated to make the time taken to break it too long to be worth the effort then effectively the code is 'unbreakable'.

  • Gavin Brown made a comment

    i fancy something different to study.

  • what a great course this has been. reignited my interest in music from a playing point of view and given me several pointers for areas i wish to explore further. thank you to everyone involved in the creation of this course and to all my felloe learners for providing some real food for thought. cheers!

  • the course has been a great way to revisit updated info from the first time his course was run and then hear different viewpoints from a variety of different people around the world.

  • i know i have already posted about my love of elbow but if 'one day like this' has whetted your appetite for more it is a track of their 2008 album 'the seldom seen kid'. they re-recorded the whole album live with the bbc concert orchestra at abbey road studios and released it as 'the seldom seen kid live at abbey road'. using a whole orchestra really brings a...

  • @RayMackay indeed he does. also, live he has a lovely demeanour, chatting to the crowd, telling funny little anecdotes and generally coming across as an all round nice guy.

  • moving away from metal, elbow are one of my fave bands. 'one day like this' is a beautiful song. funnily enough having seen slipknot just prior to lockdown in the uk my next gig was supposed to be elbow in april but this gig has now been postponed until 2021. their latest album 'giants of all sizes' is for me their best release to date. guy garvey has a truly...

  • cradle of filth have evolved and changed over the years, from a debut album that was black metal they very quickly developed a style that brought in more varied elements such as death metal. over the last few years they seem to have developed a more gothic influenced sound. a good album to start with would be 'hammer of the witches' from 2015. i particularly...

  • i previously replied to a comment with a mention of a song i love and that is 'seven nation army' by white stripes. the structure is strophic. a simple riff repeated throughout the verse, chorus and underpinning the guitar solo. in fact the power of the song comes from that riff undiluted by any variation.

  • @RayMackay yeah 'knockin on heavens door' is a good example. i think another good example is 'seven nation army' by white stripes. that simple repeated riff throughout the song is so powerful precisely because it is the only riff used.

  • not sure that the who deserve the criticism they are getting. whilst not suggesting for one moment that the who are above any form of criticism the idea that they should have declared the corona virus outbreak a pandemic earlier seems wrong. you cannot call something a pandemic when it isn't. what they did do however is declare it a pheic at the end of january...

  • i honestly wasn't expecting cradle of filth to appear in this course. a truly pleasant surprise as i absolutely love this band and have had a lifelong love affair with the most extreme forms of heavy metal. in fact the last bands i saw live before the lockdown took place were slipknot with special guests behemoth. cradle of filth are on my must see list when...

  • as the very funny vic reeves once said... "83 percent of statistics are made up on the spot". i may be paraphrasing.

  • i like the idea that less is more.

  • i believe i am learning one right now. paper plane by status quo. uses the i,iv,v structure. in b flat so the chords are b flat, e flat and f. the chords played are power chords so b flat 5, e flat 5 and f5.

  • @MaryireneIbeto i honestly believe that this is one of the reasons that a basic understanding of scientific techniques should be taught from a very early age. when studying for my stem degree one of the first things that was discussed was the principle that correlation is no sign of causation and that one needs to be very cautious when looking for correlations...

  • i am not a huge fan of social media and only use it in a limited way. these sites are basically full of unchecked gossip and nonsense. this noise can make it incredibly difficult to highlight reliable evidence based information. also, in the uk, newspapers are more likely to be full of gossip, remember that reporters aren't often scientists or people who have...

  • @ShirleyJackson https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/no-evidence-that-flu-shot-increases-risk-of-covid-19/

    basically it is not true. just another lie peddled by some on social media.

  • i have just emailed my local mp to express my concerns over the apparent 'does as i say not as i do' approach by the uk government.

  • @SheilaEdlund the definition doesn't relate to a specific infection, i just linked to a who page that happened to be about influenza. regardless of the disease the definition remains the same and is "the worldwide spread of a new disease". hope this helps.

  • @RachelleHughes the who declared it a pheic on the 30th january 2020. not sure they could have done this much sooner.

  • @SheilaEdlund i googled it. one of the first results was a link to the who website. their definition of a pandemic is "the worldwide spread of a new disease"

  • the who define it as... "a pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease"

  • as i am not on spotify i thought i would post a link to the playlist i have created on amazon music unlimited...

    https://music.amazon.co.uk/user-playlists/57341ef5689447f28a1a0b68e53bb868engb?ref=dm_sh_Gyl7CJuPKVWXUk9tBqKatVOjC

  • @RossJ the perfect mockumentary. a while ago i bought the collector's edition boxset. 5 discs of spinal tap goodness but the icing on the cake is a working miniature marshall amp about 6" tall, powered by a 9v battery and the dials on the amp go up to 11. to this day i use that amp as a practice amp.

  • did the course first time around. both my wife and i are key workers and have kept working throughout the pandemic. some of the people that i work with have a habit of believing the conspiracy end of corona gossip and i like to gently nudge them towards the reality of this virus and its associated disease. this course provides a good resource to help me do this.

  • yet again a great playlist. love 'if you wanna' by the vaccines. plus some pulp and of course dylan.

  • fascinating stuff. the fact that something, that to the untrained ear sounds so complicated, is pinned by the simplest repetitions.

  • Gavin Brown made a comment

    paper plane - status quo
    come together - the beatles
    subteranean homesick blues - bob dylan

  • johnny cash, bob dylan and the disco beatles, abba. you're spoiling us.

  • what an incredible drummer... wow!! i do love a bit of bhangra, gonna have to get my smart speaker to play some for me later.

  • Gavin Brown made a comment

    love a good ted talk and that one was a real eye, or should that be ear, opener. brilliant.

  • nice to see a wide selection of genres with some lovely songs. nice to see public enemy and groove armada in there.

  • ah, waterloo sunset, the greatest kinks' song. and some pj harvey as well, not to mention 'the boss'. that's quite a playlist.

  • two words, soul food. music, at its best, moves us in a deeply emotional way. now each day i could pick three entirely different songs to show what i mean but today the three songs that move me, in entirely different ways, are...

    hallelujah by leonard cohen
    people=shit by slipknot
    mr blue sky by elo

  • Gavin Brown made a comment

    when i picked up the guitar i wanted to be a shredder. then i found my limitations and realised that what i listen to a lot is not what i like to play. people that i have played with musically tend to say that i play with a lot of feel. i think this is their polite way of saying that technically i am not that great. i generally play bluesy music and would like...

  • hey old timer, only joking, 53yr old here. harlan howard's phrase sprang to mind when he spoke about country music as "three chords and the truth". i'd add that maybe the road more difficult is the road more satisfying and this is the first step.

  • play a bit of guitar. can come up with nice little riffs and sequences but have never found the way to turn these into songs. that's where this course comes in.

    musically, i like a lot but if i was forced to pick a genre then it is always going to be the extreme end of heavy metal. last gig was slipknot, shortly before corona virus took hold. other faves...

  • me too!

  • have just come out of a 14 day isolation period and gone back to work. am a key worker apparently, although my weekly pay packet seems to suggest otherwise. didn't have an issue with isolation. modern tech means it is easy to stay in touch with family and friends even when continents apart (my sis lives in s.africa) and tbh i am designed to spend long periods...

  • @FredRiley i did a quick websearch and found 3m n95 face masks available with free next day uk delivery within seconds. mind you, they are £30 a pop so not cheap.

  • @MarkSykes yes, you're right. as this course has shown, the chinese responded very quickly to the outbreak.

    @TraceyRichards corona virus was declared a pheic by the end of january this year. during the first week of march our esteemed prime minister was stating live on tv that he had met with and shaken hands with plenty of people who had corona virus....

  • grading gives it a level of nuance but i feel that nuance means that many people may dismiss it as "not that serious" at anything under the highest level. maybe a grading of amber and red such as the met office use for weather warnings could work. my own view is if a pheic is declared then it is already serious so probably best to leave it at that.

  • same here garry, i figure one of the best ways to stay safe is to stay informed and fl courses are a great learning resource.

  • i am not sure that you can to be honest. part of the reason for my self isolation is the fact than when my workplace setup a easel and board so people could write their questions on it some of the comments/questions left on the board were, to say the least, worrying. apparently there is another virus infecting people at the mo, one called stupid.

  • same here, not retired but love fl and their courses. absolutely trust fl to provide accurate, up to date info.

  • well i have some time on my hands now as i started a period of self isolation yesterday due to being diabetic. always best to be armed with facts.

  • Gavin Brown made a comment

    15/15, i was obviously paying attention. thank you to everyone for a very interesting course and one that has really inspired me to take control of my online presence and make it work better for me.

  • this all comes back to wheaton's law of the internet, "don't be a dick". don't post like one and certainly never reply to a post like one. remember as mark twain said (i may be paraphrasing), "never argue with an idiot as they will drag you down to their level and beat you on experience". always engage with people/situations in a positive way no matter how...

  • cannot search on platforms other than linkedin as not on any so just used a couple of, what i figure are, common hashtags and then looked at the other hashtags attached to results i got.

    i have been quite a passive user of linkedin and only really read articles that appeared in my main feed. this exercise has made me realise that if i am to get anything...

  • i think the idea of being a content creator and not just a consumer is the crux of the matter for me.

  • i grew my network initially by first all connecting with work colleagues and friends on linkedin. i also have a rule that i always accept an offer to connect. this has meant that although my network seems to grow slowly i feel that it is a case of quality over quantity.

  • i kept being told that linkedin was the one for me, which is handy as that is the main one i use. again i am getting the feeling that i really need to exploit linkedin for my own gain.

  • linkedin all the way for me. a great resource for finding out about different companies and the people (or at least some of them) that work there.

  • i like an comment or article if i like it but i rarely engage in any online conversations, maybe i should?

  • i predominantly use linkedin which is great for business news, i am about to setup a twitter account but purely as a link generator for when i am in my study on my desktop pc and i have toyed with the idea of instagram as a place to show of arty shots of my dr. who collection. facebook and i fell out over my name, facebook didn't like the name i was using and...

  • so far the course has made me realise that i need to get on top of my online presence and get it to a place where it can really help me professionally.

  • a complete reworking of my linkedin profile is planned. with an additional plan to become a regular poster on the platform. i also want to create a twitter profile for use as a link generated for scientific topics i am interested in.

  • i am guilty of letting profiles stagnate online. one of the reasons for taking this course. i have given myself a fortnight from now to have everything up to date, relevant and polished.

  • i avoid anything that sounds like it was created using a management speak word / phrase generator, i like it to read and therefore sound as natural as possible.

  • good scenarios. no real surprises. the profile pic choice was a good one. i have always thought that for a pro pic you should think along the lines of a passport photo, so head and shoulders only with an unfussy background.

  • within the last 24 months i have deleted almost all my social media. leaving me with a twitter account that i don't think i have ever used (gonna cull that one) plus linkedin which i need to create a strategy and content for. this is where i think most of my effort should go.

  • i have always applied 'wheaton's law of the internet' to my posts. for anyone interested will wheaton played the character wesley crusher in star trek tng and has been very active on social media for many years now. wheaton's law simply states 'don't be a dick'. so the question i ask myself before i post anything either professionally or personally is 'am i...

  • i have always separated personal/professional social media and there were some very good reasons given in the video for ensuring that you always do this.

  • tried a search for 'gawainthevegan' using duckduckgo and the top result was my soundcloud account, which i haven't used in months and months, followed by a comment on the guardian website followed by a couple of reviews on zavvi. the soundcloud hit wasn't expected and has reminded me to go to that account and update it (or possibly delete it as i haven't used...

  • i did a quick web search for gawainthevegan and the top hit was nothing to do with myself but the next two results were reviews i have posted on amazon.co.uk and there was also a comment i posted on the guardian's website.

  • hi, gav here. online i am gawainthevegan (my xbox gamertag originally but the name has spread to other social accounts). i would like some tips on how to make better use of the limited online presence i have.

  • i limit my exposure to social media, i only really use linkedin, utube and whatsapp. interested to see how their use can maybe be improved and the kind of benefits that i may see from any improvement.