Mr. Robot - eps1.43xpl0its.wmv - Episode 5 - IT Nut Blog Review

Mr. Robot - Episode 5

The best episode so far, by far! Warning! Contains Spoilers!

Elliot has gone through his Morphine withdrawal at record-breaking speed, and now he's in the mountain! Steel Mountain - the fortress that houses the servers used by Allsafe.

Evil Corp have decided to do physical backups of all of their data, and they are moving it from Steel Mountain. Probably due to the security breaches, but possibly because it was always part of the plan that Tyrell revealed to Elliot, to bring everything in house and cut Allsafe out of the loop.

The downloading and movement of the E Corp data gives fsociety a limited window of opportunity to act.

Whilst Elliot is inside Steel Mountain, he bumps into his old friend, Mr Tyrell Wellick! What is he doing there? They weren't expecting to see each other, but it works to Elliot's advantage. He needs to get access to the 2nd floor, which requires special security clearance - and Tyrell has that clearance. Bingo!

Tyrell, drops the bombshell that he knows about Elliot framing Colby - the previous CTO of Evil Corp. There's no trail leading to Elliot, so he's safe for now, and Tyrell doesn't want anything. He just wanted to know what Elliot's weakness is, and now he believes he has it. Revenge. Revenge for his father's death, for which Elliot holds Evil Corp responsible. What Tyrell will do with that knowledge is unclear at this point.

Anyway, the raspberry pi has been put in place and the plan is in motion, or so they think! Darlene had enlisted the help of the 'Dark Army' (a Chinese hacker group) to bring down Evil Corp, but it looks like the Dark Army had plans of their own.

Now that we know about Cisco (the rapper / hacker), we know that he was working for the Dark Army. They are the ones who blackmailed Ollie, and Angela took the bait. Presumably, the Dark Army got what they needed when Angela put that CD into a computer at work, and now they have gone silent. fsociety has had its legs cut off.

The more we learn, the more doubt that is cast on the true identity of the fsociety behind the mask. Tyrell Wellick had a lot to gain from Colby being out of the picture. Wellick has his eye on the CTO position, and he is relentless proactive in his pursuit of power. The Dark Army also has its own agenda, which is still shrouded in mystery. Maybe they are working for the highest bidder, whoever that may be. And Mr. Robot. We still know nothing about what drives him. What's his story? Is he really driven by idealistic motives, or is he a hacker-for-hire?

The plot thickens!

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Mr. Robot - eps1.3_da3m0ns.mp4 - Episode 4 - IT Nut Blog Review - Contains Spoilers!

Mr. Robot - Episode 4

It's all kicking off! I can't really review this episode without containing spoilers, so look away now if you haven't already seen it!

Elliot goes back to fsociety, and the other fsociety hackers finally get voices and start becoming characters in their own right. Before Elliot can help them, however, they need to help him get off the drugs. There's some sort of hallucination / dream sequence that takes up what feels like most of the episode, which is probably my least favourite part of the series so far. I almost switched off at that point, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

That apparently random rapper / hacker (who gave the CD to Ollie in episode 2) makes a reappearance. His name is Cisco and his part to play in the grand scheme becomes a bit clearer.

Angela takes the CD and Ollie's worker ID badge and frames Ollie, but the consequences of her actions remain to be seen.

Keep an eye out for episode 5!

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Mr. Robot - eps.1.2_d3bug.mkv - Episode 3 - IT Nut Blog Review

Mr. Robot - Episode 3

In this episode, they are developing the character of Mr. Wellick - one of the Evil Corp executives. He's a bit of an enigma, but in a slightly annoying, rather than mysterious way. He seems to have lots of pent up frustrations that he takes out on himself and homeless people; and there's some ambiguity about his sexual persuasion. Too many layers that are, again, not convincingly introduced, but they do give the storyline some scope.

Elliot is out of hospital now. He rejects another request from Mr. Robot to give him access to Allsafe, and now he's hoping to lead a 'normal' life. Again, not particularly convincing, because it implies that he's just been playing a part so far as opposed to having any deeply held beliefs. I mean, he gets a caramel latte from Starbucks, which is surely the epitome of everything that he despises about capitalism. And instagram... Really?

Elliot's childhood friend, Angela, is also his colleague at Allsafe. She got him the job there. In the last episode, Angela's boyfriend, Ollie - who is also their colleague - stupidly accepts a CD from some random rapper guy in the street and puts it in his laptop! He works in a cyber security firm for goodness sake! And he commits the cardinal sin of unprotected techs! His computer is hacked, they get a good look at everything and they blackmail him.

It's not clear who 'they' are at this point, but they want Ollie to put the CD into a computer at Allsafe so they can hack the system. Surely any cyber security firm worth its salt would have either removed and or disabled any usb ports and CD drives in any of the computers that have access to the servers. Allsafe and E Corp are under attack from all directions it seems.

Darlene is an interesting character. She's one of the hackers from fsociety, and she's probably the most convincing character in the show so far. The other hackers are mostly like shadows in the background, so there's lots of room for them to develop and thicken the plot.

Towards the end of this episode, Elliot is at another crossroad when a story appears in the news which relates to E Corp's role in Elliot's father's death. What will Elliot do now?

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Mr. Robot - eps1.1_one-and-zer0es.mpeg - Episode 2 - IT Nut Blog Review

Mr. Robot - Episode 2

The last episode ended with a cliff hanger. Who are those men in the room? This is where the second episode picks up. Elliot is about to be offered a job that doesn't officially exist. The so-called 'top 1% of the top 1%' want him to join them. They represent everything that he despises, but he waivers, and for a moment, we are uncertain about the choice he will make.

When Elliot gets home, he takes a larger dose of morphine than usual, and again, we experience uncertainty about the future of this young man and the role he will play. That drug-taking aspect of his character is probably the least convincing part of the plot.

If you have seen the TV series 'Dexter', Dexter's dual personality is much more prominent and defined. He has rules that he does not waiver from. He is convincingly in control of his own choices. Elliot, however, seems to be somewhat wishy-washy in that respect. What are his absolute values that he will not waiver from? Or are the writers trying to make him more human and relatable? If that's the case, he is a character that marches the fringes of his dual existence.

Elliot, in typical American style, is seeing a psychiatrist. He seems to genuinely care about her, so he takes a protective interest in her private life. Elliot hacks everyone he meets, and he knows all of their secrets.

I can't help thinking that Elliot is a watered-down version of Lisbeth Salander from 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. The movies don't really do justice to her technical abilities, but if you read the books, she is awesome! They both have similar back stories of woe, but Lisbeth is a true loner, maverick and tough cookie! Anyway, it's neither here nor there. This Mr. Robot series is pretty good so far.

In the last episode, Elliot was instrumental in framing one of the chief execs of the company. He is led by Mr. Robot to believe that he is doing the right thing. In this episode, however, Elliot realises that he was maybe too hasty in trusting Mr. Robot. Elliot bought the rhetoric that Mr. Robot was selling, because it was what Elliot wanted to hear.

Something that puzzled Elliot about the initial hack of the system in episode one was that the hacker group, 'fsociety', were nowhere to be found - not mentioned at all - in the online forums. He possibly took that to mean that fsociety had noble intentions. It just seems that they were biding their time. In this episode they come out, all guns blazing, with a video that outlines their demands. Elliot may soon have blood on his hands.

Elliot is at a cross-roads. What will he do? What can he do? Mr. Robot isn't about to let him go that easily. Elliot joined the group 'fsociety' - albeit hastily - and he will face the consequences if he tries to leave.

Stay tuned!

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Mr. Robot - IT Nut Blog Review - Episode 1 (eps1.0_hellofriend.mov)

Mr. Robot - Episode 1

I must admit that I was intrigued when I saw the trailer for the imaginatively named 'Mr. Robot' ('A.I.' and 'i, Robot' were already taken). Episode one starts off with the 'mysterious black screen and narrator's voice sequence, which sets the scene. The premise is that there are a bunch of wealthy bespectacled white males that run the world (or America - same difference). Nothing new there.

For those of you who haven't heard about this series, it's about Elliot Alderson. He's a sociopathic hacker who works for 'Allsafe Cyber Security', which has clients like 'E Corp' - that Elliot affectionately calls 'Evil Corp' (it bears a strong resemblance to one of the large corporations of the day) - and he's some sort of do-gooder vigilante by night. He has a pet goldfish called Qwerty (classic!).

I'll try not to include any spoilers, but we're given a preview into Elliot's expertise when he hacks into the servers of a coffee shop chain, just because it has the fastest wifi in town and that arouses his suspicions. Nothing is ever good for no reason. He discovers that the owner is running a child porn ring and dobs him into the police. He's not doing it for the money, so he's a one of the good guys. Clear cut case, or is it? The grey area is that he does morphine, but he controls his addiction, it doesn't control him.

When 'E Corp' is hit by a cyber attack, Elliot saves the day, but Mr. Robot leaves him a message in the code. That is when it starts to get interesting!

In short, the show is about a young man who is disenfranchised by capitalism and large corporations, and he's groomed by idealists that want to change the world. See the show if you want to know what else happens in episode 1!


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Trigger 'Appy = Consumer of Apps, Creator of None

Necessity is the mother of all mischief

When I was working in the beauty industry, apps like Instagram and Pinterest were pretty much essential for sharing my nail art designs and product reviews. Knowledge of Html & CSS were also and absolute must for maintaining the beauty blog for the business.

I had worked in IT as a project manager up until 4 years ago, and I continued to dabbled with programming languages like python and Ruby, but I underestimated the value they would add to my career in the future.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Going to Cuba last year really showed me the importance of being a maker as well as a consumer. There was so much more that I could've done offline if I'd had the know-how. When I got back to the UK, my interest in tech was renewed and now I am totally nuts about tech and coding! Everything in it's right time, as they say.

Self-confessed geek! And I love IT!

I am working in the IT industry full time again as a recruiter and programmer, and I can't shut up about it! I was going to delete the previous posts in this blog about nail art and product reviews, but they are actually still quite relevant. I used my iPhone (when I had it) to take the pictures. I used Instagram to add filters to some of the snaps and share them, and a totes kawaii picture editing app to add some funk to the others! There is also a wacky handset gadget in the post, 'A Few of My Favourite Things' so it's all still relevant.

Instaglamtastic pics for blogs and social media

This blog does have a new name and a new look. I created the banner image using canva.com, which is an amazing site! You can create all the images you need for social media using canva, and the canvases are all pre-sized for the different platforms, so it's really quick and easy.

The future of IT Nut Job

I'll be posting all kinds of tech-related stuff! App reviews, tutorial reviews, latest projects, cool tech updates and some random girly stuff too.


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