Horizon-scanning: Ethics for Robots – Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? by John Sawkins

The driver-less car is already here: how many of us knew that it will be pre-programmed to make its own ethical decisions? For example, unlike the human driver, who would understandably, if given the option, seek to protect his or her family if the worst were to happen and a crash with lethal consequences occurred, the driverless car would dispassionately choose the option with the least number of casualties as opposed to saving the lives of its own passengers. Read more…

Internet and Computer Security: The Basics by Alex Dunedin

This is an article written for the IT and Biscuits people who attend. The overwhelming theme of requests was to understand how to secure your computer from external attacks and from normal browsing activity on the internet. Internet security can be broken down in various ways. I will be discussing the main points here which you can address without investing in learning some of the deeper aspects. These are the main areas which I will cover: Read more…

Emergency Linux Migration Guide by Paul Whitaker

This guide is meant to ease the process of transitioning from Windows to Linux, but it is meant to be an overview of the whole process rather than a detailed step-by-step (when you know where to look, which you soon will, the step-by-step stuff is all very well documented any way, so that’s not a problem).
Why you need to escape from Windows
Almost all major computer security problems, from high end milspec cyber weapons like StuxNet to Gameover/Zeus depend entirely on the absence of substantial security features in Microsoft products. Windows is a house built on the sand of the old DOS operating system which was perfectly fit for purpose back when a PC consisted of two floppy disks and a monitor. Read more…

Ragged University Website Development Workshop Pilot by Mike Harkness

This is an account of the pilot of the website development workshop brought together to promote digital literacies and help realise people’s ambitions through sharing in a community setting. More workshops will be coming, and this would not be possible without the generosity, support and contributions of Graeme Sturrock (owner of Edinburgh Computer Repairs), and Derek Howden (owner of Great Website Hosting)… Read more…