Nature abhors a vacuum ...

.. especially when I spot it ;-)

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HeartBleed article in @ConversationUK ...

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Explainer: should you change your password after Heartbleed? By Andrew Smith , The Open University If you’re struggling to understand the deluge of information about the Heartbleed vulnerability , you’re not alone. Some reports tell us to change all our online passwords immediately, others warn us that this could do more harm than good. There is a lot of misinformation out there. It is essential that you do not panic but nor should you be complacent. We all need a good old fashioned mix of common sense and prudence. What is Heartbleed? On many of the servers and internet web services we use, there is a free and open source security technology called OpenSSL . In simple terms, when you see the padlock beside the web page URL , you have a secure and encrypted web connection that may have been managed by the OpenSSL software. To date, OpenSSL has worked incredibly well. Network engineers and users like you have been more than happy with the service it has provided. But Google
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Simulation vs emulation vs virtualisation ....

So, that was an interesting thought, there is a blur of ideas in many research papers I have read where I have wondered if the authors actually know the difference between emulation, simulation and virtualisation. I am not going to claim to be the definite source on this one, but here goes. Emulation : it pretends to be the environment, such as a gaming console, where the 'code' in the guise of ripped ROMs are tricked into thinking that they are running on their host platform. Emu's run like the real thing, but are not. There tends to be no interaction between the emulator and the underlying system, where the emu is effectively the application. I have used emulators for the SNES, Sega MegaDrive and my old ZX spectrum. Virtualisation: it acts like the real thing, pretending to be 'real hardware'. Therefore an operating system does not know if its on bare metal or within the virtualisation environment. By virtue of its affordance, the hypervisor within the virtu
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Slow are the wheels that maketh the #Linux NAL ...

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The wheels at my university are renowned for being slow and cumbersome. However, getting a simple prepackaged course from a 3rd party with no rights issues out there has been nothing short of escargot'esqe. As of the 1st of May 2017 - we have our first Linux NAL - following the model of the relevant knowledge courses that once occupied the students of the Open University. Offering Linux is not a new notion - having offered for three years a short course in Linux that was at the time ahead of most in reaching a distance learning population. In this short time, we engaged with over 2400 students giving them all a taste of Linux. Now, with the maturity of HTML5 and some considerable insight from NDG and LPI in collaboration with Cisco Systems. We are able to offer a fully remote Linux experience. With the Linux operating system running as a web browser based cloud instance. Our first presentation of this course will have all the hallmarks of a discovery experience - while
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