Divergent Brain

The essays

δivergent Byte publishes its thinking. The essays are not marketing. They are the working out. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — attribution matters.

We Need Extra Friday Double Maths

Why the IT industry built a multi-billion pound revenue stream on the GUI, what block all actually means, and the CVE database as the invoice for that decision.

Infrastructure · Security

Next-Gen Firewalls: When Mathematical Reality Meets Vendor Theatre

A systematic analysis of the NGFW vulnerability landscape — 2024–2025 CVE data across Palo Alto, SonicWall, WatchGuard, and Fortinet — and what the numbers actually say about the architecture.

Security · CVE

The FD Principle

Your Finance Director insisted on data portability before signing the finance system contract. Your network configuration deserves the same standard. Why it doesn't have it, and what to do about it.

Governance · Infrastructure

The Efficiency Paradox

Why BSD is too good for its own good — and why that makes it better for you. The structural market failure that punishes the better operating system, and why it has consequences that run from e-waste through supply chain sovereignty to mineral extraction economics.

Economics · Sovereignty

The Prisoners' Problem (series)

A vulnerability class the security field has encountered for forty years without a shared name for it. Gustavus Simmons described it in 1983. Each instance is still treated as novel. The series names the class precisely enough that the defence can be systematic rather than reactive.

Security · Series

Ballmer's Brilliant Bundling Bounce

The genius nobody credited, the pipes the cloud runs through, and why the ARR keeps growing regardless of what renders the UI. An honest account of thirty years in a Microsoft estate.

Strategy · Microsoft

You Already Know How To Do This

A guide to using AI that does not require a course. The skills required to use AI well are the skills educated, experienced adults already possess and routinely apply to every other domain of their lives.

AI · Epistemology

Licence

The essays are licensed under CC BY 4.0. You are free to share and adapt the material for any purpose, provided you give appropriate credit. Attribution matters — it is one of the principles the work is built on.

James Bacchus · δivergent Byte Limited · Islington, London · divergentbyte.com