Computer science - Techie Mike - The IT guy in Thailand

SSH Honeypot Live — What Watching Bots Attack a Server Teaches CS Students About Network Security

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security • 7 min read

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SSH Honeypot Live — What Watching Bots Attack a Server Teaches CS Students About Network Security

# SSH Honeypot Live — What Watching Bots Attack a Server Teaches CS Students About Network Security Every internet-connected server lives in a shooting gallery. Open https://honeypotlive.cc/ for a minute and the point lands immediately. The screen fills with source IPs, login attempts, usernames,…

Techie Mike • 18 Jul 2026

The $20 Server — What Extreme Budget Computing Teaches CS Students

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Computer science • 8 min read

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The $20 Server — What Extreme Budget Computing Teaches CS Students

# The $20 Server — What Extreme Budget Computing Teaches CS Students The most educational server in the room is usually the worst one. Give students unlimited cloud credits and they can launch machines all afternoon without learning much about limits. Give them a battered $20 office desktop with 4…

Techie Mike • 18 Jul 2026

Linux Signals Explained — SIGTERM, SIGKILL and Process Control

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linux • 7 min read

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Linux Signals Explained — SIGTERM, SIGKILL and Process Control

# Linux Signals Explained — SIGTERM, SIGKILL and Process Control Pressing `Ctrl+C` looks simple until the day it stops working. You hit it in a terminal. One Python script exits immediately. A Docker container hangs for ten seconds before disappearing. A runaway process ignores you completely unti…

Techie Mike • 16 Jul 2026

Six arguing AI agents: what multi-agent debate teaches CS students about AI architecture

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Computer science • 8 min read

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Six arguing AI agents: what multi-agent debate teaches CS students about AI architecture

# Six arguing AI agents: what multi-agent debate teaches CS students about AI architecture Most students meet AI through prompts. Type a question, get a paragraph back, move on. That framing is useful for five minutes and then it gets in the way. The more interesting lesson is what happens when y…

Techie Mike • 11 Jul 2026

How to Ask for Help: Technical Communication Skills Every CS Student Needs

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Computer science • 8 min read

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How to Ask for Help: Technical Communication Skills Every CS Student Needs

# How to Ask for Help: Technical Communication Skills Every CS Student Needs A student shows me a Python program and says, "It doesn't work." That is the whole bug report. No error message. No explanation of what the program is meant to do. No clue whether it ever worked, whether they changed any…

Techie Mike • 09 Jul 2026

You're the OS: Teaching Process, Memory, and I/O Management Through Gaming

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tutorial • 7 min read

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You're the OS: Teaching Process, Memory, and I/O Management Through Gaming

# You're the OS: Teaching Process, Memory, and I/O Management Through Gaming I teach [Cambridge IGCSE and A-Level Computer Science](https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/). Every year, the examiner reports say the same thing: candidates struggle with operating system functions.…

Techie Mike • 27 Jun 2026

High School to Homelab — A Student's Linux Journey

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linux • 7 min read

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High School to Homelab — A Student's Linux Journey

# High School to Homelab — A Student's Linux Journey Last week, a high school student posted on [r/homelab](https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/). i5-6500T. 40TB NAS. ThinkPad X13 running Proxmox. Looking for advice on his setup. The best way to learn is to try and fail.…

Techie Mike • 23 Jun 2026

OpenCV 5 Computer Vision in Python for CS Students

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Python • 9 min read

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OpenCV 5 Computer Vision in Python for CS Students

You've written Python programs that print to the terminal, read files, and maybe even scraped a website. But have you written code that can _see_? Code that can detect edges in a photograph or find faces in a group picture? That's computer vision.…

Techie Mike • 10 Jun 2026

9618 Paper 1 Theory Fundamentals — AS CS Topic Guide

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Computer science • 14 min read

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9618 Paper 1 Theory Fundamentals — AS CS Topic Guide

The June 2026 Cambridge AS/A-Level Computer Science Paper 1 (9618) has just been sat. If you took it, you're probably wondering how you did. If you're preparing for a future sitting, you want to know what topics come up and how to score full marks. I've been teaching Cambridge A-Level CS for over a…

Techie Mike • 08 Jun 2026

Debugging Python for A-Level CS — Tracebacks & Fixes

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Python • 9 min read

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Debugging Python for A-Level CS — Tracebacks & Fixes

Debugging Python for A-Level CS — Reading Tracebacks and Finding Bugs When your Python program crashes, it's not the end of the world. It's the start of a clue. I've seen students freeze when that red error text appears in their IDE. They stare at it, panic, and close the terminal.…

Techie Mike • 07 Jun 2026

Python Program for IGCSE Paper 2 — Full Walkthrough

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Code • 9 min read

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Python Program for IGCSE Paper 2 — Full Walkthrough

If you're studying for Cambridge IGCSE Computer Science (0478/9618), Paper 2 is where you write actual code. And here's the thing — most students lose marks not because they can't code, but because they don't know what the examiner is looking for. I've been teaching IGCSE CS for over a decade, and…

Techie Mike • 05 Jun 2026

Binary, Hex & Number Systems — Visual Guide for IGCSE CS

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Computer science • 9 min read

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Binary, Hex & Number Systems — Visual Guide for IGCSE CS

Binary, Hexadecimal, and Number Systems — Visual Guide for IGCSE CS. Number systems are one of those topics that show up in every IGCSE Computer Science exam. Binary to denary. Denary to hex. Binary arithmetic. And I've seen students lose easy marks because they rush the conversions.…

Techie Mike • 31 May 2026