What's Going on with the Internet?

Ok so I am back blogging but I cannot understand the statistics (see below, why the spike when I was posting any new stuff?): 

So .. I think .. "There is weird stuff going on all over the Internet! Again see my blog's stats. Now remember - given the fact that I really stopped posting - not much in the last six months (from over 100+ posts to less that 20 year) and I have just started posting in earnest again (as a diary without mass interest content).These stats do not reflect interest in my blog but I propose rather a "scraping" of the blog sphere and Internet in general! Where did a 300k viewing audience come from since March - given I only have 243 followers (of which only about an estimated 60 or so I would call actively viewing new posts)!"

OK bloggers - anybody else see this pattern? Is it all those AI Large Language Models (LLMs) trying to get stupidly clever?

The Dead Internet Theory

Watching two trends: 

• en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/torconstantino/2024/08/26/is-ai-quietly-killing-itself-and-the-internet/

The Fourth AI Winter Cometh!

Prepping Plastic Miniatures: Reference Notes

From the Internet:

https://mustcontainminis.com/2021/08/how-to-prep-plastic-miniatures-for-painting.html

https://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2020/07/tutorial-how-to-prepare-soft-plastic.html

https://www.polygon.com/tabletop-games/23643118/how-to-paint-miniatures

https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/687047/painting-plastic-minis-how-guide-beginners-warning

https://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=110&art_id=5615&kb_cat_id=24

https://themodellingjournal.blogspot.com/p/how-to-paint-your-figures.html

Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7h9D6uuaso

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_gt4FwG47Y

There is always something to learn!

A Most Dangerous Discovery - The Way Back Machine and Other Parts of the Internet

Back in the days of the early 2000's I was in academia, like others, searching the Internet with a passion. The WayBackMachine was in its basic inception and I used it for hours in "multi-disciplinary research! (ahem). Well it's way better now as there seems to be oodles more to find and quicker check it out for yourself (see below):  

Examples of searches ..

https://archive.org/details/Airfix_Magazine_1960-01/page/n17/mode/2up

https://archive.org/details/airfixmagazine?&sort=-week&page=2

The generic WayBackEngine link: 

https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine

https://archive.org/details/magazine_rack

And there is more to be found ... (note, the collections are not necessarily comprehensive - but nevertheless a brilliant time waste, er I mean research resource) ...

Dragon Magazine: 

https://archive.org/details/DragonMagazine260_201801/DragonMagazine095/page/n3/mode/2up?q=dragon+magazine

The General: 

https://archive.org/details/general_magazine

Military Modeller: 

https://archive.org/details/modelmilitarymagazine

The Space Gamer:

https://archive.org/details/space-gamer

Ares Magazine: 

https://archive.org/details/ares_magazine

https://archive.org/details/Ares_Issue_12_1982_Jan/page/n3/mode/2up?q=ares

White Dwarf:

https://archive.org/details/white-dwarf-023-uk-1981-02-03-36pag/mode/2up?q=white+dwarf+magazine

Meanwhile in another part of the Internet - Donald Featherstone's Magazines and Newsletters: 

https://fourcats.co.uk/mags/index.html

And finally - the way is was back when board games had printed Zines distributed by postal mail or hand:

https://archive.org/details/Diplomacy_World_19_-_Spring_1978/page/n1/mode/2up?q=wargamer

I advise you to set an hour timer on your mobile phone before you start clicking on the links - but it may already be too late by now.

Dear Santa .. Can I have my own Internet .. Yours Putin

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50902496

All the things you can TRACK online!

Plane Tracker: 
https://www.flightradar24.com 

Satellite Tracker:
http://apps.agi.com/SatelliteViewer/
http://www.zarya.info/index.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_Kennen

Ship Tracker:
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-12.0/centery:25.0/zoom:4

And there are even Shark Trackers!
https://www.ocearch.org/tracker/?details=221

https://sharkresearch.rsmas.miami.edu/education/virtual-learning/tracking-sharks/

https://www.ocearch.org/tracker/?list

https://www.theverge.com/2013/8/29/4671128/shark-tracking-in-real-time-ocearch-global-tracker

Oh, did I forget to say there is Santa Tracker too (courtesy of NORAD)?
https://www.noradsanta.org/

Guns that can fire HOW far?

The thought of the Chinese having a RAIL gun sparked an Internet news media frenzy on popular networks:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/chinese-navy-ship-reportedly-spotted-with-a-deadly-electromagnetic-railgun-%E2%80%93-see-images/ar-BBIxXOs?li=BBoPRmx
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/chinese-navy-ship-reportedly-spotted-deadly-electromagnetic-railgun-see-images-1657951
http://uk.businessinsider.com/china-testing-railgun-us-navy-2018-2?r=US&IR=T
http://defence-blog.com/navy/china-develops-ship-based-electromagnetic-railgun.html
http://china-defense.blogspot.co.uk/2018/01/breaking-news-plan-railgun-is-here-and.html

Al Stewart - Roads to Moscow (WWII Themed Song for the upcoming Chain of Command Stalingrad Campaign)

From "The Year of the Cat" to "Roads to Moscow" (sung from a Russian soldier's perspective) Al Stewart plays them all:

https://play.google.com/music/preview/Tho6f6g4o2qliloydh6gcacpysa?lyrics=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=lyrics&pcampaignid=kp-songlyrics

You Tube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKE4Y1Us46o

I particularly like this verse from the middle of the song ..

... Two broken Tigers on fire in the night. Flicker their souls to the wind. We wait in the lines for the final approach to begin. It's been almost four years that I've carried a gun. At home it will almost be spring. The flames of the Tigers are lighting the road to Berlin. Ah, quickly we move through the ruins that bow to the ground. The old men and children they send out to face us, they can't slow us down. And all that I ever. Was able to see. The eyes of the city are opening. Now it's the end of the dream ...

While I am talking about WWII Eastern Front you have got to check out Service Rations Distribution posts on his Kursk and Stalingrad games:

Kursk
Stalingrad
Bagration

General WW2 Stuff from SRB

Re: Song - I am just showing my age! It also demonstrates the power of the Internet and Google's search engine as I could not remember the title of the song. So I type in "Al Stewart General Guderian". Al Stewart is fair enough but the reference to General Guderian comes from a line in another verse, but it came back with a decent match.

Note to self: Now there is an Interesting Modern Asymmetrical Wargaming Scenario if ever there was one

Russia a 'risk' to undersea cables, defence chief warns

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42362500

Update: Follow on in the BBC News 03/01/18, Russian "deep sea snipping capability":
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-42543712

The historic US Sub-Spy action [New York Times]:
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/08/us/a-tale-of-daring-american-submarine-espionage.html
Note: Also see Blind Man's Bluff

Interesting Naval Site:
https://www.naval-technology.com

Blogger Owners Beware : DO NOT click on VampireStat links

For the low down: 

http://spamspoiler.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/adsense-watchdog-zombiestat-vampirestat.html

So when you look at your traffic/visitors statistics in Google beware some peopel who come to your site come not for the content but for you to "honeypot" to them

No wargame content will be found at VampireStat or its ilk

Reviewing the "September Surge" of postings

During September I tested myself with a "thirty day challenge" as inspired by the TED talk 'You can try anything new for thirty days'.

To post (as it turned out at least) one a day for the whole of September. Whoppee, not quite the life changing event such as giving up sugar or caffeine, or even climbing Mount Kilimanjaro .. AND .. I did stack up some postings in advance (cheat, cheat) via the Blogger "scheduling" feature. For example, I had the "Chain of Command" game series of posts 'in the bag' all lined up ready to go, but I seemed to be posting the night before for at least half the time (which explains some of mypoor spelling and punctuation, ahem to "Boldy Go" sticks out in my mind).

The posts also seemed to be (at least to my mind) smaller and 'snappier' (almost curt) and looking at a picture for the most part. A big downside being my beautiful wife and spouse was also snappier "Are you on that computer again, it's past your bedtime! Never mind what the TED talk said!" 

I think the posts were a little more varied in topic as begets more thoughts on future projects appeared as well as what I was currently doing on my immediate painting table, no secrets left ;)

In Summary:
Experiment over, as I type this on the 30th September (as befitting a night before posting) I can safely say that during October, November and December I will 'step down a gear (or two)' or risk burnt food at the dinner table as well as Blogger exhaustion.

:-O

Your thoughts as always ever appreciated ;)

The Curious Case of Roze Zara (No Pictures)

This was a novel twist to an old trick,but this time with a pretty face to honey trap you in.

A comment posted in relatively good English asking for a blogging engine recommendation (curious as I am using Googles' already), but then slips in some dubious links for the unwary at the end

Cardsharing Server | Cccam Server | Best Cardsharing Server

"Roze" really, I'm a married man!

Danger, Danger ... Linked-In Phish Alert

Nearly got caught out by this one as nefarious criminal masterminds are always at work on the net

Thankfully this threat was thwarted by my Anti-Virus software but a relatively authentic looking request "to connect to" was/is a hidden trojan.

By clicking on View Profile (and I guess if you do Accept) a nasty little bit of malware (not the Ben 10 Alien type) will try and run (installing said trojan))

Just passing the message on as the Internet is a jungle out there! If in doubt go through LinkedIn proper to do your research/review ;)