Author: Ben Dellar

  • I run a Tor Exit Relay (and so should you)

    We’re all being monitored online in some way – that’s no surprise or secret. Many of us, myself included are not particularly concerned about this for most day to day things. We might not be doing anything “wrong” by the laws of our country so we go about our online business without much of a second thought.
    For many people around the world this is not the case. Numerous governments create environments where online freedom is curtailed and censorship rules. They may restrict access to news, communication tools or even specific topics by keyword and will often punish people who attempt to access such information.

    For the last few months I’ve been experimenting with hosting Tor relays on some virtual private servers across the internet as a way of helping to provide channels for people to access information and communicate more freely.

    tormaple
    The status screen for one of my exit relays showing a solid 40-50Mbit/sec a second of traffic passing through it.

    (more…)

  • Don’t throw it away – the future of spaceflight

    An economist would ask the question; what is the price elasticity of the orbital space launch market? In simpler terms – what could the impact of space launch costs reducing but as much as 75% do to the commercial space industry.

    spacex-landed

    For my thoughts I want to take you back in time to some quotes in the early days of a new technical development:

     

    “The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.”
    Sir William Preece, chief engineer of the British Post Office, 1876

    “Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.”
    Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, 1946

    “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
    Ken Olson, President of Digital Equipment Corp 1977

     

    (more…)

  • Jack of many trades and decent at some!

    So what motivated an IT guy turned management consultant to start a blog without any central theme to hold it together?

    Of course this being my blog that’s a rhetorical question. I’ve always thought of sharing more about my various projects as well as my thoughts about various things that affect us all so here we go!

     

    You can expect to hear from me on a variety of topics:


    Drones
    I have built at least four different autonomous aircraft and am part of the WestCoastUAV team in the 2016 Medical Express Challenge.

    X-UAV Talon UAV
    My Talon aircraft during testing for the 2016 Medical Express Challenge

    Space Exploration
    Alas I do not own any spacecraft yet but my beautiful girlfriend gave me an awesome telescope for my Birthday this year and I’ve always had a lot of enthusiasm for space exploration.

    The Moon
    Holding a phone up to the telescope – arranging a proper way to capture images will probably be a future post once I figure it out.

    Technology
    I am passionate about how technology can change our world for the better. I am most definitely an advocate in favour of privacy and encryption andto back this up I operate a tor exit node on a VPS to help improve the availability of private and secure communications on the internet for those that need it.


    Healthcare
    This is my day job but I am fortunate enough to be at the centre of some major transformation projects and where appropriate will look to share some insights here.


     

    That will about do for now. Of course there is every possibility I’ll actually end up posting something completely unrelated and you can expect I’ll take things where my mind goes which should keep things fresh!