Why, a hexvex of course!

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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 10th, 2023

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  • The key concept they’re missing a lot of the time is that software sits within the file system and not the other way around.

    This is largely because apps hide this and data is generally stored in one place on your phone (the downloads folder).

    Best way to fix it - have 1–2 lessons entirely devoted to finding shit on their computer. My favourite activity is “ok, save your word file, close word, you now have 10 mins to find that file without opening word”.





  • The net that exists today is more than the fault of the wealthy.

    “It’s to stop terrorism”

    “It’s to stop pedophiles”

    “It’s to protect children”

    With this, the World Wide Web turned into the Widely Watched Web.

    “This should be taken down as it is offensive”

    “Fake news, take it down or face a lawsuit”

    “This offends me, take it down”

    The technologies used to surveil were been put to work with the intent to suppress. The web became a set of clustered strands.

    “I own this, take it down”

    “You do not have the rights to this, take it down”

    “Protect the artists, don’t share or repost”

    And so the net was colonised, centralised, and conquered. Monetisation is the lifeblood of the net now, and so it shall remain. A few threads thrumming with echo chambers, built to move money over ideas.




  • So, I’ve seen a lot of people who were extremely sharp as PhD students become blunted as soon as 9–5 starts.

    A lot of decline among adults can likely be traced back to increased cognitive load during working hours, which chips away at intelligence over time as folks burn out.

    With kids it’s harder to place, maybe it’s walking the tightrope that is modern social interactions?










  • One of the experiences I will never forget was “teaching” an ICT class about 2 decades ago (I was a TA who got left to cover a class - good times).

    The older ones of you will remember the trick (many of us used it for playing flash games like adventure quest!) - have two browser windows open, minimise the one with the thing you were not supposed to be doing on it when the teacher comes around - no evidence right?

    These kids were doing the same thing - I swear I’ve never seen so much porn in my entire life. Oh and yes, a lot of it involved Japanese animation. This was on a network with parental controls enabled by the way, because it didn’t block those sites.

    Here’s the thing - and we all know it, no matter what measures you put in place kids will find away around it. More crudely put “If little Timmy wants titties, Timmy going to move heaven and earth to find them”.

    They’ll sneak a parental passport at 3am when you’re sleeping, or just VPN on in, or even invest in a fake ID. Nothing you do is going to stop that; you have to sleep some time, you have a lot of goals, they can stay up all night, and they only have one.

    Catching your kids with porn and dealing with it is a game of whack-a-mole every parent has to play, and honestly it’s one they need to play. It’s about having those difficult talks and saying “it’s ok to want to look as long as you realise it isn’t real”.

    Mass surveillance isn’t the way - if I were a government hostile to the USA (and soon the UK), I’d be working on making the best free porn site ever made. Think of all the free documents and credentials, think of all the blackmail material, think of all the harm that could be inflicted.

    Admittedly, skin cream is likely to face less of a rabid drive from kids, and isn’t something you’d blackmail over. Then again, maybe little Timmy needs some lotion, or maybe president Puta wants to use my girlfriend’s skin lotion addiction to compel me to spy for Russia?