Category Archives: skulduggery

271. Security & the Neo-feudalists – One Dimensional Chess

A few cen­turies ago Europe was dot­ted with castle fortresses, sur­rounded by sup­pos­edly impreg­nable stone walls and moats of water. Bar­ri­caded in these castles were lords and ladies, suck­ing the life out of the peas­ant farms around them, and blow­ing … Con­tinue read­ing

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268. Trouble with the Sock God

Have you noticed? It’s the small gods who always make trou­ble. Take the Sock God. With­out fail, each time I wash clothes, the Sock God sneaks in and steals a sock. Once I tried to beat the bug­ger by buy­ing … Con­tinue read­ing

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266. Pity your neighbour’s cat

The most cer­tain qual­ity of power is that those who seek it will mis­use it. A sec­ond cer­tainty is that an army of zom­bies will eagerly imi­tate their lead­ers. And so it is with “cyber war­fare”. Gov­ern­ment lead­ers rou­tinely spy … Con­tinue read­ing

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264. Evidence – The Alchemy of the Ages

What do politi­cians, vot­ers, the cap­tains of indus­try, drug com­pa­nies, priests and door-to-door sales­men all have in com­mon? Not much. How­ever, every one of them has an addic­tion to evi­dence. Not any evi­dence. The evi­dence they crave (and will pay … Con­tinue read­ing

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259. What is Your Greatest Weakness?

A favourite ques­tion in job inter­views is “what is your great­est weak­ness?” I always find the ques­tion puz­zling. It is puz­zling because nowa­days the per­son who inter­views you is rarely, say, a hard drink­ing build­ing super­vi­sor who wants to know … Con­tinue read­ing

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254. Life’s Big Tests and Petty Minded Creeps

Life’s big tests are mostly less about fight­ing real mon­sters than find­ing a way past petty minded creeps: their shadow mon­sters are built from stu­pid­ity, igno­rance, greed, incom­pe­tence, jeal­ousy and cow­ardice. Some­times the tough­est part is not being a petty … Con­tinue read­ing

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251. The Customer is Always Stupid

The cus­tomer is always right” or “the cus­tomer is always stu­pid” – which one is true? Well, it is a bit like hav­ing two sets of account­ing books, one for the tax office and one for pri­vate profit. Any smart … Con­tinue read­ing

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