Kyle

I'm a student at Bristol, studying Computer Science. Aside from that, I do various work for the University, basically tricking unsuspecting sixth form students into thinking University is a good idea (jk, it can be a good idea). I also work part time tutoring A level maths. Outside of work stuff, I'm part of Bristol RAG which means I do a mix of promoting and helping them with events and also managing their website (badly :P).

Privacy is definitely important, I often find there tends to be a split with people though. Some people will say "if you've got nothing to hide, why does it matter?", I totally get that but I think it doesn't consider the risk of centrally storing private information. It's one thing to be comfortable for law enforcement to have access to personal data, but I don't think anyone would be comfortable if someone with more malicious intent had access to that. If law enforcement has access to data, then there is always a risk that a hacker could discover a weakness in their database and use that to get access to a huge amount of private data. In terms of companies having access to private data, I really don't know what my opinion is. On the one I do highly value privacy, but on the other it's so convenient to have stuff suggested to me all the time that I like. You already mentioned Spotify, it's probably the best example for me, I think Spotify knows my music taste better than I do. I guess my main concern is that companies I give my data to are responsible with it. I think also people themselves should be somewhat responsible for what they put online and how well they secure that. If you but everything about you online in some form and use the same bad password everywhere, then of course your data is going to be less safe. One thing to mention with selling data onto third parties is often it's anonymous data. However that doesn't mean it's impossible to de-anonymise the data. There were some researchers a few years back who had access to anonymous data from a bunch of netflix users about what films they liked, they were able to use the IMDB database to link accounts on IMDB to nextflix account - all that just based on an anonymous list of film ratings. They used a machine learning approach so it wouldn't have been 100% accurate but they were able to link a large amount of the list with a pretty high certainty.

I used to listen to a load of decent podcasts but I can't remember any of them anymore. The only thing I listen to occasionally now is Psychobabble, the only way I can describe it is a super gay (quite literally) podcast where they pretty much just tell loads of stories and talk about random stuff. I find it mildly amusing but rarely pay a great deal of attention to it. It's generally just background noise. You could probably listen to the first 5 seconds to decide whether you'll like it or not

I guess another point would be even if whatsapp wasn't encrypted end to end, there would still be other lesser known applications out there you can use, signal and wickr just to name a couple. Even if they weren't a thing, as long as you can establish a connection with the other party, you can establish some sort of end to end encryption if you both had an agreed upon scheme to use. I'd argue requesting a back door is a little stupid because it solves nothing, other end to end encryption will still be available and all that would be introduced is a security floor.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/mar/27/amber-rudd-call-backdoor-access-hazy-grasp-encryption Those of you in the UK probably saw in the news Amber Rudd calling for backdoor access to messaging services like whatsapp. Inaccuracies of what she said aside, what do people think of this? Should governments be able to use 'back doors' to spy on people? An argument often used is governments are already able to read mail (with a warrant) so why not digital communication. On the other side many are concerned about privacy, they either don't want the government or anyone else to read it, or they don't want the information to fall into the wrong hands (like a malicious hacker). I remember a few years ago, I had a school project where I was presenting various quantum computing technologies that were being developed. One was something called quantum key distribution, basically a way of sending messages which are pretty much impossible to intercept and decrypt (without detection). This led to one of my teachers asking why it was so important that no one could intercept and decrypt messages, and also to ask what if the a government needed to intercept a message from a terrorist. At that point I had no answer, even now I don't think I do So what are people's opinions on this? I don't have a solid view on it but I lean more closely towards saying it's sensible to have end to end encryption. Sorry for more serious post, but hopefully it will get some interesting responses! EDIT: For those interested, this video goes through the details from a high level of how end to end encryption works, and also the alternatives. Worth a watch if you got time to spare

I suck at every game Still a fun game! I discovered it about a month ago, it's so addictive (even if you do suck at it). I spend half my time trying not to go bankrupt.

I basically just use PC now, don't game as much as I used to. If I do game it's normally casual games that you don't have to put much effort into, openTTD, Minecraft etc.

Yeah I have that exact problem with the battery - I've literally started bringing my charger to uni. I also got a portable charger for when I'm out, it's quite bad really It just about lasts if I don't bring a charger but if I wanted to stay later somewhere then it'd run out. The only redeeming feature in terms of battery life is ultra power saving, even if I'm nearly out it adds on a significant amount extra.

I use a Galaxy S6, had one for about 2 years now (nearly) and never really had a problem. Fast charging is also a saviour sometimes (though it wouldn't be needed if the battery life was longer). I hope to keep my S6 for at least another 2 years, in the past I'd change my phone every 2 years but I don't feel like I need to atm. My friend has had one (well I think it's the 3T) for a while now and really likes it. The fast charging is even better than anything I've seen before, it's a really decent phone. Definitely don't think you could get one that good for anywhere near that price with any of the bigger brands.

Good to see all these changes, everything that's been done so far looks really good The server list app look good - definitely an improvement since the last time I saw it.

Happy Birthday Jamie Hope you enjoy it! Wouldn't be a birthday thread without some sort of birthday meme so here's your obligatory birthday meme

I don't normally write down resolutions but I think they're a good idea, they definitely help give direction. Anyway these are mine for this year: Try to get into the habit of waking up early, both so I can actually go to my lectures and so I have more time in the day. Go to the gym more, I for some reason purchased a 9 month pass so I may as well get my moneys worth. Start actually prioritising my university work. Actually stick to the budgets I create. Do more stuff to help other people (ik stuff is very general).

Felt like the world of JR deserved to see this. I didn't know whether I found this just weird or funny or both but definitely worth a watch