I remember in my first year of university (October ’96 – sweet Jesus), I decided to sign up for the student table tennis team (committed sportsman). I was advised to send an email to the Secretary of the University Table Tennis Club in order to arrange a trial. I remember staring at the person who was suggesting this as though they were a lunatic. Why would I even know what an ‘email’ was, let alone be able to send one? I concluded that table tennis must be a viper’s nest of geekdom, and stayed well clear.
As everyone knows, the geeks went on to inherit the earth, and techie became the new normal. And the Table Tennis Club had to muddle through without my skills, which was probably no bad thing.
This preamble comes because next weekend, I will be participating in an online crime festival named BritCrime. I will not be leaving the house to do so, but will be part of an ‘online panel discussion’. I have yet to work out how I will be doing this: there are instructions to read about a facility called ‘Blab’ – in my case it should be ‘Blag’ – but there will be no technological shying-away on my part; I shall give it my all to understand.
As I write, I note that my laptop (a prehistoric hand-me-down from my wife) does in fact possess a tiny camera hidden in the crossbar above the screen. I suddenly feel uneasy, remembering reading somewhere that Mark Zuckerberg had decided to tape his up (I assumed he must have a cutting-edge computer to have been forced to do so). Might some crazed hacker have watched me taking forty winks at my desk when I should have been researching a new chapter? The mind boggles.
Anyway, should anyone wish to tune in legitimately, the day is Saturday 16th July, the time 2.00pm-3.30pm, and the website behind it all http://www.britcrime.com/
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