A Little Database Theory – Part 1

The other day I came across a forum on the web and spotted a post by someone who wanted to know the difference between relational calculus and relational algebra. As happens so often on the web, all of the responses were written by people who had virtually no idea...

Turing Machines and the Turing Test

  Everyone these days has heard of Alan Turing, the father of computer science, the man who cracked the Enigma code and the eponymous “inventor” of both Turing Machines and the Turing Test. Science fiction tends to conflate the two, but they are...

So What exactly is a Virus?

We all have anti-virus software and naturally  take precautions against viruses, but do we know what a virus actually is? It’s obviously a piece of software that does something nasty, but how does that nastiness manage to find its way onto our computer? The...

Q. Just how easy is it to change your password?

Answer. A lot Harder than you might think! The other week it occurred to me that I really ought to get around to changing the passwords that pretty much control my life. You might think that would be pretty simple, but this “project” has been going for 3...