It’s been 6 months since I last used the largest social media network on the planet and it’s been good for me. For certain relationships not so much, so I decided to turn it on again for Christmas.
Fake happiness ./Corrupted after compression
The pressure to be on social media is massive and we weave our lives and apparent facts about each other around it. Happy pictures equal happy life but how easy it is to fake this happiness for the satisfaction of others. Anyhow, after reactivating my account, the system rapidly to find your connections and suggestions. Normally, this is pretty easy if you do it from your phone as it would just scan your contacts and there you have it. Just the fuck with them I log in via Linux Kali behind some pretty odd firewall and intrusion detection gear.
I’ve always been terrible about tweaking the Social media privacy settings so just tend to BLOCK ANY inbound.
Tom Clancy’s The Division -trying to be a better person
I’ve spent the past few days in the game reward loop earning points on Tom Clancy’s The Division Global Event. It’s an excellent way to keep gamers playing with the hope of finding loot and rewards.
I ended up aiming for 50 mixed caches as my goal at the end of GE which should increase my chances of getting something special. My cache opening ceremony will probably take 20-30 minutes just to re-organise the inventory.
Here’s what on the Wishlist
AlphaBridge Classified Holster
Striker Classified Gloves and Holster
Lone Star Classified Mask, Knee Pads and Holster
D3-FNC Classified Holster
Reclaimer Classified Gloves and Knee Pads
This is absolute gibberish to non-Division gamers and like all acronyms and industry talk, it inadvertently divides people. I could actually meet a Division player and have a full decent genuine conversation dispute the demographic or real-life profile. Words like grind, face tanking, exotics and caches mean a totally different thing here.
This is what makes a game successful, I don’t see nothing wrong with a little Bump and Grind.
Tom Clancy’s The Division – Rush for loot
1st day of exercise for 50 days….feels good though.
The serious business of Gaming has not gone unnoticed by the global powerhouses like Microsoft. Gaming is one of the six massive investment areas that the tech giant is focusing on and it makes me laugh when individuals jab at my lifelong indulgence on this “not so niche” area of computing.
Source: Microsoft
In the meantime, this weekend I took some time to level up my 3rd character in readiness for the next Global Event in The Division. It’s always fun starting from scratch and it gives me a good excuse to opt-out of real life. I was joined by a few friends along the way and avoided toxic or youth gamers.
Tom Clancy’s The Division – Ready for the Global Event
In a way, I guess we re-invent ourselves in real life to suit the situation and our personal goals all the time.
My love for single player games continues; this skillset is particularly fruitful in a real-life Person versus Environment (PvE) situation. This morning I arrive at Gatwick Airport knowing I had just one hour to get to the terminal gate.
Navigating major airport terminals during summer holidays is challenging if you don’t anticipate the delays and have a countermeasure in mind. Also, any Network specialist will tell you that the last ‘hop’ is often the most problematic.
Airport terminal log – target Gate arrival time 11:20
10:30 arrive at Gatwick by train
10:40 arrive at terminal monorail shuttle
transfer (Primary service)
Delay 1 - (Service failure)Terminal train
out of service transferred to slow buses.10:45 arrive at terminal
10:50 Checked-in luggage (I don’t normally do this)
10:55 Arrive at security check
Delay 2 - (Slow Service) Carry-on luggage
selected for ‘random’ check11:05 Cleared to proceed to gateway
Delay 3 - Gate allocated at 15 mins walk11:10 Arrive at Gate sweating and panting
11:30 Actually boarding plane
Delay 4 - Sitting on runway
waiting for flight slot12:14 Flight actually takes off
Flight departure scheduled for 11:55 and there no compensation or anything I can do about it except bitch and blog.
Tom Clancy’s The Division – the downside of Server side gaming
Hazards and delays avoided
Heavy or cumbersome hand luggage
Travel document misplaced
Gadgets misplaced
Fast steady pace walk pass all NPCs
(In real life - families, groups,tourists, airport staff walking the opposite way and folk who arrived early)
Shopping queues
No window shopping
No phone calls
No App checking
No SMS or VoIP
No other players
...single player runs are definitely faster
Mission accomplished – Side effects
Elevated blood pressure
Massive adrenaline surge
No time to think
No last minute detours
Hight chance of verbal conflict
Countermeasure
Arrive 2 hours ahead of time.
(Problem: 4 out 5 EasyJet flights delayed)
ABSOLVER – Time to relax
Chaos can raise its head rapidly. Are you prepared?
Winter version is similar with the added bonus of being able to use your coat to conceal a second carry-on bag avoiding the additional fee….whoops, did I say that out loud.
The Directive on security of network and information systems (the NIS Directive) was adopted by the European Parliament on 6 July 2016 and entered into force in August 2016. Member States have to transpose the Directive into their national laws by 9 May 2018.
Naturally, this law has been sidelined in favour of the more popular GDPR which was entered into force on the 25 May 2018.
Maybe it’s “too” technical or doesn’t have a good acronym. I’ll just call it DENIS (DirectivE on security of Network and Information Systems) to keep it simple.
Two new Laws that just made things a little bit more complicated, but wait, there’s a shortage of InfoSec experts and salaries are not rising in proportion to the work, and wait, the InfoSec profession is 90% male or has all the industry reports suddenly fallen to the bottom of the agenda.
Cute little single player game INSIDE has got me laughing and panicking at the same time as I play the role of a boy escaping Big Brother….it kinda feels like Orwell’s 1984 vision. The simple game design is what makes it an absolute winner in the era of 20 bottom combination moves.
INSIDE – Simple but brilliant gameplay
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