mdisraeli

Neat little experiment! Delays between packets are not normally logged, so detecting this would be a challenge - any ideas of the best way to detect this sort of channel?

Interesting side note: If I recall correctly, a variant of this can be used to de-anonymise Tor connections if you have visibility over the entry and exit connections. Measure time and size relationships between packets and look for corresponding matching ones at the other end. Not 100% accurate, but with lots of connections it builds in confidence.

Get in touch with your previous students, both those in academia, and those in industry.

If they're in academia, ask about their industry connections. If they're in industry, ask if they can help you. If you can't get direct contacts, at least find out what skills and knowledge is being looked for, and what options exist.

It's very easy to forget the power of an 'alumni' network. Who we know is often our greatest asset.

If you are finding it difficult to stand for extended periods, consider getting your feet checked, and if you have already, using your prescribed orthotics (insoles/shoes/other supports) whilst standing.

When I come home, I routinely take my outdoor shoes off. I spent most of my time at home sitting at my desk, but last year I began to learn bass guitar. I found that standing to play for less than an hour was enough to wipe me out for the entire evening, with knock-on exhaustion until the next day.

I have pes cavovarus - a deformity of the feet characterised by high arches and inward turned heels. When I finally got orthotics and placed them into my outdoor shoes, walking suddenly became easier and instances of debilitating cramp reduced in frequency and severity.

Following my experiences with playing my bass, I placed a spare pair of orthotic insoles into my slippers. This was not something my medical team had suggested previously. Suddenly I found it less exhausting to stand for extended periods. The change was actually quite immediate and significant.

Flat arches are far more common than what I have, but I suspect the same concept still applies - and orthotics for flat arches are far more widely available to consumers!

I thought that was probably what you were doing, and it's a good check - one of the ones I tend to do myself when investigating strange things!

Just thought I'd add for other readers some security industry commentary :)

The Google results start with things like VirusTotal, which has several scannners which declares the gif as being a malicious site.

The gif itself is almost certainly not malicious. There's probably two things happening here. Firstly, the hosting domain of the gif scanned could be known to be malicious. And secondly and more generally, Cloudflare is heavily used by the criminal scene, so to play safe a number of scanners may flag any cloudflare element as malicious.

For the record, I'm completely in agreement with "feature, not a bug". For myself and many people I know, mental health stuff makes more sense when looked at like that, and it also matches up with core concepts of Cogitative Behavioural Therapy. At some point your brain needed certain bits of code to survive, but unfortunately the brain can't be cleanly patched once those times have passed (which is also an awful analogy, but works enough for this).

It is often difficult to get a diagnosis of PTSD when you've not been at war or subjected to a singular catastrophic event. And even if you did, there may not exist treatment pathways for those with PTSD from more complex or long lasting situations :(

And on a far more simple level, disassociating and returning from it is utterly terrifying, and worse still one might know that their loved ones will have also had a very difficult experience

Disassociating doesn't always work like played out in films or TV, sadly. It's terrifying, and often find it hard to trust what's in front of you. Familiarity is needed, as it acts to ground you, and a key part of this is to feel safe on a number of different levels. Simply having photos alone may not be enough, unless those photos are something you regularly examine and experience.

Grounding is a common method of dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues. The idea of finding your place, finding familiarity, centring yourself. Something you are very used to doing normally and when safe is important, as is having that also associated very strongly with being safe.

For some people, photos will work well for this - they might capture moments with strong association with safety and happiness. Some people may be able to instead use an object, a talisman of sorts.

For others, or for when the disassociation is worse, a single grounding method may not be enough. It's about building the complete story - getting home and watching something familiar. The grounding only happens from weight of evidence.

Finally, there's something you don't hear talked about much. Coming back around from disassociating can be utterly terrifying in it's own right. Both as one tries to return, and after coming back. Having multiple entirely different means to ground helps with this.

Glad it wasn't just me!

Leonard Nimoy gave many of us a role model to look up to, and his work inspired many future works of fiction that inspired even more.

How many of us were called "Spock" by bullies, but actually found comfort in knowing that Spock was six shades of badass?

Neat, thanks for running the experiment to see how differing MP3 encoder settings affect the lost portion. This explains why 320kbps is generally accepted amongst DJs, as any loss is significantly less than that caused by the club sound system :P