If you follow along here, you’ll have noticed that I didn’t write anything last week. I didn’t really have the space to think about it, and the deadline, albeit self-imposed, passed. I’m forgiving myself for the lapse.

Which leads me to the point about how I, and others no doubt, think about writing, documenting, and sharing a few bits about our life online. I’m a private person, and I don’t post much on Social Media. In part for the same reasons I said above: lack of time and motivation. The other reason is that I consider it dangerous, from a cybersecurity perspective, to freely give out too many details about one’s life over a world-spanning network, where bad-faith actors can use that information against you or those around you in your life, which is why you’ll notice that I tend to anonymise much of the information.

Still, last week was rather busy, and I didn’t have a lot of time to myself to reflect on things. I’d accepted to complete a project with a very tight deadline, and despite travelling across to the west coast of the USA, I managed to fit in enough time to plan out the needed steps. Last week was filled with fleshing out that information and producing a 75-page PowerPoint presentation to support my discussion. I completed the project Friday afternoon after a final day mad rush to get it all in place, and then promptly crashed. I was drained and felt I needed a little time to relax, as I hadn’t been able to do so for quite some time. In between all of this, I managed to fit in ten hours of teaching.

If you haven’t taught before, it is such a rewarding experience, but one that takes a lot of energy and a lot of effort to keep a class interested and not to fall asleep. I took advantage of the time of year to give the class a few bits of history to explain the time of year, Halloween, Bonfire Night, etc. I thought it would be helpful for them to have this cultural background as they are training to work in hotels worldwide and will courtois clients from the UK, the USA, and other nations. I think it worked out ok.

This week, I have a less dense schedule, so I should be able to start thinking strategically about my work. It is something I need to do and haven’t had the time to do so.

Reading

This week, I finished Glyn Moody’s Walled Culture. It is an excellent overview and essay on the state of copyright on the Internet, amongst other things. I suggest you buy the paperback, but if you can’t (for whatever reason), Glyn has a free ebook available on the website.

Instead of starting one of the books listed here, I cracked and bought the second book in Asimov’s The Robot series, The Caves of Steel. I’m only a few pages in and totally into the novel. It’s a feeling I used to get in my late teens and early twenties. I’d always have a SciFi book with me, often a couple in case I finished one and wanted to read something new. I was living in London at the time and would frequently be on public transport, which is almost the perfect setting to read books… for me.

I’ll definitely start one of the other books today or tomorrow. I just need to choose one and get started. That, or pick up on one of the ones I’ve not finished yet.

Of note

I don’t know if I wrote about it here, but I had become very frustrated with the HomePod mini I use at my desk. I have a stereo pair on either side of my monitor, and they provide a good enough sound for me to enjoy my music while I’m working. But recently, and I can’t quite pin down the exact date, they started playing up. They would get out of sync, or one side would stop working and even refuse to play at all. Requiring a reboot to get started again was a little annoying, but not the end of the world. The worst thing for me was that they had developed amnesia. They would forget what was playing for no apparent reason.

I have had this setup since they were released in November 2020, according to MacTracker (a great little resource app), and I enjoyed stereo music at my desk independent of the monitor speakers —in my case, the Apple Studio Display— or speakers that could be plugged directly into my computer. The Studio Display speakers are good enough, and I would be OK using them, but I prefer the minis because they are an independent music source. If I use the monitor speakers, I have to have macOS sounds turned on, and I would likely be disturbed by all the bleeping and pinging of modern life. And if I reboot the computer for whatever reason, the music stops, which is less than optimal. The homepods solve this, and I can silence the computer when I need to, reboot it, or do whatever I like without affecting the music. Bliss.

Anyway, the amnesia got so bad that if I paused the music on the HomePod, quickly did something for more than a few seconds, re-tapping the top of the device didn’t restart the playing, it would start a whole new playlist, joyful announcing that it would play a list just for me. It got so annoying that I sometimes ended up controlling it from my phone in AirPlay mode.

I’m glad to say that this has been fixed. I don’t know when or what happened. I suspect it is the latest firmware, but I can’t tell for sure, as Apple is ridiculously quiet on such things. All I can say is that it is back to how it used to be. I can pause music by touching the top to pause, then return a day or more later for it to restart where it left off. Peace is restored in the Galaxy.

Have a good week.

Well, that was an interesting week!

A while back, I applied for a fellowship program with ARIN, the American Registry of Internet Numbers. I’d hoped to get picked but didn’t bet any money on being so. To my surprise, I was picked as one of the ARIN52 cohort of Fellows. I was invited to participate in the policy discussions and the general meeting in a virtual capacity. I was very happy to be selected as there are only a few places, and many people apply each year. I felt I had something to offer, and I felt that being “entre deux chaises” would give me a unique perspective coming from the French-speaking region and having deep knowledge of both the English-speaking and French-speaking Caribbean. That’s how I left it, and I was looking forward to the meeting.

However, that’s not quite how it turned out.

Due to a participant being unable to secure a travel visa in time, I was asked if I wanted to travel to San Diego to participate in person. I immediately said yes, but I had a couple of administrative things to take care of to ensure I could travel. Passport expiration and that sort of thing! I got the ESTA, sent off my details and received the flight and hotel bookings. This all happened in the couple of weeks preceding the week this post covers.

This week, it was travel and conference time. The journey was long, requiring two layovers, one overnight and the other in the middle of the USA. After a delay of 3 hours or so, I finally touched down in San Diego and grabbed an Uber to the hotel. I was greeted with an evening cocktail where I could meet some other Fellows and the ARIN representatives already onsite. To clarify, I had the opportunity to attend not only ARIN52 but NANOG89 (North American Network Operators Group).

NANOG was fascinating, and I met many people that I will keep in touch with. We discussed some of my research, and they kindly provided me with data and other contextual information. So valuable! One was a researcher from ICANN. It’s not every day you get to exchange with people like that, so despite my introverted tendencies, I tried to make the best of the opportunity, and I think I succeeded in that goal.

The ARIN meeting was very interesting, too. I think I’ll be spending a bit more time with them, trying to devote some time to internet governance and maybe even applying to be part of the Advisory Council. I’ll let you know.

Travel back was a little more interesting, shall we say! The overnight from San Diego to Miami was uneventful, and arrived a little ahead of schedule. Aside from being dog-tired, I felt fine and had a little breakfast at the Airport. Shout out to the super kind waitress who could see I was very tired. I don’t tend to sleep on aeroplanes; consequently, with an overnight flight, I’m not particularly rested when I arrive at the destination. That was only the start of the bad day I had. Hurricane season decided to develop a hurricane that ruined my chances of flying home on Saturday morning. The flight was delayed 24 hours, and I had to scramble to find a hotel for the night. Hotel found, and with one short Uber ride over, I was checking in. The flight home the day after was uneventful, and I was glad to be home. The evening granted me a lovely sunset, and I found it comforting and felt happy to be home.

A big thanks to the ARIN team, particularly Amanda. You all made me feel welcome and part of your team from the outset. That’s no trivial task, and you did it with flying colours!

Reading

I picked up a couple of The Internet Protocol Journal issues at the conference. If you’re interested in networks, this is a must-read.

I have nearly finished Walled Culture from Glyn Moody. He talks about the Internet, freedom, copyrights, content filtering and many other important subjects to understand if you will be using the Internet anytime soon. I have a couple of chapters left, and I suspect I’ll finish it this week.

If I do, I’ll start one of the other books I listed here.

Of note

Not technology-related, but I have been keeping up with the Cricket World Cup. What that means is more that I have been disappointed with England’s performance. Something is out of whack, and they can’t get it together to win matches that are, to be fair, seriously difficult. What stands out to me is the upcoming nations like Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and the Netherlands have shown that they are progressing well and will be in the big leagues sooner than most anticipated. This is great for the sport.

One last prediction. In 5 to 10 years, I fully suspect the United States will put out a world-class cricket team, particularly in the T20 and One Day International series. Mark my words!

Have a great week.

I’m a little late with this as I’ve been travelling all weekend. Flight delays are always fun, but when mixed with 3 terminal changes, it just adds insult to injury! Oh well.

I had a hectic week trying to get some new teaching off to a good start. I’m enjoying it and find it very self-fulfilling, and the groups I have are really good. I try to have a laugh and a joke with them, all the while pushing forward with the education.

I will be swamped next and will write a little bit of what I’ve been doing then.

Reading

I wrote a book list that I published last week. I’ve continued a little with Cory Doctorow’s “The Internet Con”. It’s interesting and does dive into some of the things that have been on my mind recently as it concerns tech as a whole.

If I’m honest, and I think I’ve written before, I’m reevaluating tech and its overall worth to society. I’m still largely positive, but I’m trying to redefine and consider some downsides.

Of note

I’m following with great interest the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried in the collapse of FTX. So far, the defence has been making a pig’s ear of it, and witness after witness (called by the prosecution) has shown how he was more than a naive guy who got in too deep, as he tried to plead through his media tour a while ago. Instead, he seems to be a calculated and ruthless frauder on a hitherto not-seen scale.

The jury will decide, but so far, it’s not looking good for him.

Have a good week.

My ARIN fellowship program is progressing well and I’m getting deeper into some of the topics on the mailing list. Internet governance is an interesting topic and it’s interesting to see that some of the discussions are purely procedural and others deeply technical. I’m more comfortable with the technical discussions, but I’m getting there when it comes to the procedural ones. I think this type always takes a bit more time to get up-to-speed with, and to understand the nuances. I’m hoping to contribute in the near future.

I’m up-to-date on the UNCTAD training and will finish the penultimate module early this week. I’m going to need to, to give me space to work on a new project that I have been offered. I cannot say anything about it yet (NDA, ’n stuff). But I will when I’m able to.

The Atlantic has calmed a little after a frenetic September with a number of storms that passed well north of us. Although we did get a number of days with the outer bands causing power cuts and torrential rain. Last week was a week with nothing but rain! The new threats are most likely to start in the Gulf of Mexico, but there’s still time for the Atlantic to produce something. I’ll be glad when this hurricane season is over.

That’s pretty much it, aside me starting some new teaching positions. It’s a job I really enjoy and I take a lot of pleasure from it.

Reading

I’ve been accumulating a list of books I’ve purchased to be read sometime. However, it is always difficult to actually get around to reading them all, so I thought I’d compile the list as an aid to help me start reading them. I’m interested in a number of different topics, and I try to read books that are not necessarily in my wheelhouse but at least challenge me intellectually. Here goes:

• The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
• How the Internet Happened
• Bit Rot
• Viral Justice
• On the Writing Practice
• Bad Blood
• Stubborn Attachments
• The Internet Con (How to Seize the Means of Computation)
• Athena Unbound
• Walled Culture
• Media Use in Digital Everyday Life
• Data and Democracy at Work
• Living with Algorithms
• Binge
• The New Politics of Numbers
• Get Rich or Lie Trying
• Resistance, Rebellion & Revolt
• How Sugar Corrupted the World
• Rebooting AI
• The Alignment Problem
• More than a Glitch
• Foolproof
• Chokepoint Capitalism
• Time Come
• iRobot Series

I’ll leave you to look for these at your favourite retailer, online or otherwise. Where there are links, they are available as Open Access.

Of note

Last night, I decided to diagram my home network with the view to looking at an eventual upgrade in the future, once FttH is available in my area, as I’m on an old DSL circuit that provides barely adequate broadband for an exorbitant (for what its worth) cost. In doing so, I noticed that I had unintentionally constricted one-half of the network by making everything go through a small-capacity Wi-Fi router in Wi-Fi access point mode. Drawing out the diagram —using MindNode if you’re interested— highlighted immediately what was a potential problem that pretty much explains why I’ve been having crappy wifi on that side of the house. I suspect the box just couldn’t reliably handle all the ins and outs at the same time. Fixing that has steadied the network so far. There are some weird things going on still, but I put that down to Apple’s kit, creating and adding network IP addresses ad hoc. Wireshark would seem to confirm this when I look at the MAC address constructor origins, although a couple are made up on-the-fly MAC addresses. I’ll dig a little deeper in the future. For now, I’m content with a more stable network.

In other news, the attacks in Palestine/Israel are deeply worrying. This is a deeply complex issue that cannot, and should not, be discussed over a short form of micro-blogging services that are renowned for a binary view of the world. I’d implore you not to post, particularly if it’s a topic that is your opinion on something you clearly don’t know about or understand, rather than a detailed analysis from a seasoned expert. I think we need a little time to properly assess the situation and understand what is going on. Be polite and be mindful of the fact that there are many actors around the world that will pounce on this situation to push their agenda, both good and bad.

That’s all I’ll say on the matter until I understand it better.

Have a good week.

I had a busy week with many moving parts that required a little patience and organisation. As someone who struggles with personal organisation and procrastination at the best of times, I was quite surprised with my ability to successfully organise and execute all the required bits within the constraints that were self-imposed. If you know, you know.

Next week looks to be no less busy, and I’m going to be going between many projects over the week.

I started my participation in the ARIN Fellowship with the first meeting, and we’ll meet again this week. I’m looking forward to my participation and feel that it is something I can develop over the coming years.

I managed to keep up with the UNCTAD training I’m currently doing, a course on international trade statistics on services. Clearly, I’m interested in digital services statistics and how they are captured in official statistics systems. The course is really interesting, but very dense and quite dry. A challenge. So far, my results have been good, and I’m over the average score at the moment. I have three more modules to complete the course, taking the next three weeks. I’ll need some good planning to keep studying during a busy period.

Reading

I finished iRobot reasonably quickly, and I quite enjoyed it. I haven’t purchased the second book in the series yet, but I think I’ll do it soon. I’ve tried to keep to a routine of non-fiction and factual texts in the morning and during the day and novels in the evening. I have an anthology of Coupland books to read, but I haven’t got into it yet.

I find that with a lot of books, particularly novels, I get frustrated at the start, then suddenly I’m all in on the story and can’t stop reading it. There are only a few novels that I haven’t had this feeling with. The moral of the tale is to stick with it until you get over the edge. I rarely give up on a book, although it has happened.

Of note

I’m thinking a lot about three subjects at the moment for professional and personal reasons: colonialism, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.

I’m not someone who is binary in my thoughts. I find things are always much more nuanced than most would think. Not only that, there are contradictory positions that we as humans are capable of holding in our heads simultaneously. For example, I don’t think Sam Altman is a particularly trustworthy or benevolent person he presents himself as. But, ChatGPT, when used correctly, can bring useful benefits.

Over the coming weeks, there is plenty of time to think deeply about this and other subjects.

Have a great week.