Mastodon Feed: Posts

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
azonenberg@ioc.exchange ("Andrew Zonenberg") wrote:

Cool research paper (presented at HARRIS but I finally had time to read the full paper) on hardware reverse engineering education https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3641554.3701797

According to their fairly extensive survey (section 4, figure 1), my 2014 course on hardware RE at RPI was indeed the first ever for-credit university course dedicated to hardware reverse engineering. I've believed this was the case for a long time (as my attempts in 2013-14 to find other courses to build mine on were unsuccessful) but it's nice to have some validation of that.

Maybe one day I can refresh the course with all kinds of new material I've learned since then and offer a followup...

cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen") wrote:

I don't generally have much trouble with my desktop environments (even ones using wayland), but I know people do have problems. Reading this post from the KiCad folks was a bit eye opening about the state of things:

https://www.kicad.org/blog/2025/06/KiCad-and-Wayland-Support/

#electronics

Boosted by fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻"):
micahflee@infosec.exchange ("Micah Lee") wrote:

I wrote about how to turn in-person meetings into Signal groups, how to manage large semi-public Signal groups while vetting new members, and how to use announcement-only Signal groups, perfect for rapidly responding to ICE raids https://micahflee.com/using-signal-groups-for-activism/

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

In the #Fediverse, #Meta is simultaneously the enemy of #decentralization and a non-hostile we can trust to interpolate with.

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
bartek wrote:

@pluralistic I finished reading “Picks and Shovels” couple of days ago and I must say that besides the fact that it is great book (compliments to the author :)) it engraved empathetic listening into my mind. Not that it was a new concept to me, but somehow it made me think about it anytime I listen to someone. Great job, Cory! Thanks for that!

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
clive@saturation.social ("Clive Thompson") wrote:

A view of the sun's poles, courtesy the european union's solar orbiter: https://www.esa.int/Science%5FExploration/Space%5FScience/Solar%5FOrbiter/Solar%5FOrbiter%5Fgets%5Fworld-first%5Fviews%5Fof%5Fthe%5FSun%5Fs%5Fpoles?utm%5Fsource=tldrnewsletter

Boosted by jwz:
Lana@beige.party ("𝐿𝒶𝓃𝒶 "not yet begun to fight"") wrote:

Ok so let me get the order of events straight.

- Terrorist dressed up in police gear breaks in to a senator's house, shoots him and his wife
- Flees the scene
- Goes to a separate elected representative's house
- Cops arrive on the scene before he can break in
- Surround the house
- He starts shooting at cops
- Cops fire back
- Somehow all miss him
- They somehow let him barge into the house
- He murders a sitting congresswoman and her husband
- And THEN the cops allow him to escape again??
- Are we fucking kidding??

This is either complete ineptitude or the police were actual accomplices in the murder and attempted murder of two different Democratic Congresspeople.

pzmyers@freethought.online ("pzmyers 🕷") wrote:

I'm so old, I remember when the Iceman was revealed.

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2025/06/16/a-famous-hoax/

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
skyglowberlin@fediscience.org ("Christopher Kyba 🇨🇦🇪🇺") wrote:

By changing the lights on different nights, it let us extrapolate to find out how bright the city would be if it turned off all the streetlights completely.

The result was surprising: if all the streetlights were turned off completely, Tucson would barely change in the satellite image. After midnight, only about 13% of the light from Tucson that's seen from space comes from streetlights.

(4/)

chipotle@mstdn.social ("Watts Martin") wrote:

Someone posted “Did Slack change their font, or am I going crazy?” and I want to reply with, “It’s still Comic Sans for me like always ¯\_(ツ)_/¯”

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
stimpunks@mastodon.online ("Stimpunks Foundation") wrote:

Who gets left out of your dream of a good society?
Who gets left out of your dream of a good society?
Who got left out in your dream of a good society?
Dream better
Dream bigger
With me
—Ezra Furman

https://youtu.be/LUhCJ0atfPI?si=NxGoDygP3sTlNc3N

Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
pho4cexa@tiny.tilde.website ("a very weeny construct 💀") wrote:

learning about and browsing https://publicsuffix.org and one of the first cool domains after scrolling past all the amazon bullshit is https://pages.gay which is static hosting for https://git.gay run by https://besties.house

so cool. you love to see it

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

@tobinbaker It seems like an exaggeration, but also a lot of truth. It leads to a defensive style of posting that can just suck the life out of things. You have to look over your shoulder at every word. "How can this be interpreted in the worst possible light?"

It's exhausting.

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
chiasm@mastodon.online wrote:

This is truly horrible. But we have a responsibility to not look away and to acknowledge the effects of the community's choices, unfortunately.
#CovidIsNotOver #CovidLong

https://www.thegauntlet.news/p/long-covid-is-now-the-number-one

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
NewtonMark@eigenmagic.net ("Mark Newton") wrote:

I think they’re trying to say the boat sank.

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
catsalad@infosec.exchange ("CatSalad🐈🥗 (D.Burch) :blobcatrainbow:") wrote:

We are starving and clearly haven't eaten in _days_⁠!

:neocat_scream_stare:⁠:neocat_scream:⁠:neocat_cry_loud:

Attachments:

• video: My kittens always act like they haven't eaten in days. Video of three very hungry kittens meowing constantly while climbing impatiently on their owner as their soft cat food is being portioned. One even makes it up to the counter before being put back on the floor. Very hungry kitty cats.

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

I criticize US policing a fair bit, but I will say, the Minnesota police official who connected the dots after the first shooting and sent officers to proactively check on other elected officials in the area likely saved quite a few lives. They sadly arrived too late to stop the murders of the Hortmans, but arrived in time to ID the fleeing suspect and stop him from moving on to the next targets on his list.

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
older@wandering.shop wrote:

https://globalvoices.org/2025/06/16/will-chinas-new-solar-firms-accelerate-indonesias-green-transition/

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
Ostdrossel@mindly.social ("Ostdrossel :verified:") wrote:

These guys are dominating the feeder right now and are one of my favorite summer visitors, the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. They are majestic and stunning but also goofy and spunky. They form monogamous couples, and I love that both male and female build the nest and brood, and they sing while building and incubating ❤️. They love seeds and nuts but also have a sweet tooth and an appetite for grubs. Check out their song on the Merlin app! #birds

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
thedarktangent@defcon.social ("Jeff Moss") wrote:

It’s 2025 and you still can’t backup your Microsoft Office configuration and import it on a new laptop.

I’m specifically complaining about exchange. Yes you backup and import email data files, but not mail server account configurations. So it’s a lot of manually typing in server settings and long passwords.

This will be the last time I buy MS Office, if I have to do everything manually I may as well do it on FOSS software.

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
Edent ("Terence Eden") wrote:

🆕 blog! “Your Password Algorithm Sucks”

There are two sorts of people in the world; those who know they are stupid and those who think they are clever.

Stupid people use a password manager. They know they can't remember a hundred different passwords and so outsource the thinking to something reasonably secure. I'm a stupid person and am very happy to have BitWarden…

👀 Read more: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/06/your-password-algorithm-sucks/
⸻
#CyberSecurity #passwords #security

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

Omg hi babe

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

I believe "compute" should be recognized as a distinct layer in the technology stack for the web.

Why do I believe that? Well, actually, I, I haven't been able to articulate it yet.

Boosted by mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze"):
mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

@MaierAmsden @Star12Mt @evan @finner Election security hasn't really percolated up to being a national political issue, except sporadically (e.g., after the 2000 election). That's partly because almost everything about elections is controlled at the state and local level.

The good news is that state and local officials have become increasingly receptive to improving things, on the whole. That's probably where the maximum bang for the buck lies with having influence.

Boosted by pluralistic@mamot.fr ("Cory Doctorow"):
BarbaraF@mastodon.uno ("La Ba") wrote:

@riotnrrd @Overwhelmed @ma1 @pluralistic yes, an incredible song: I love Fabrizio de André, he was great at talking about inner feelings moving people (both the good and the bad ones)

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

Documents Reveal How DC Police Surveil Social Media Profiles and Protest Activity | Brennan Center for Justice (2024):

"Voyager promoted its ability to run keyword searches on social media platforms to generate a list of thought leaders, activists, and “disrupters” and then tap into their networks."

Thought this is a good reminder that they are always watching. And that our posts here feed into the #Meta machine.

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/documents-reveal-how-dc-police-surveil-social-media-profiles-and-protest

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

Oh wow, the scoldy guy is *still* upset with me for my failure to delete or edit a post he didn't like.

fromjason ("fromjason.xyz ❤️ 💻") wrote:

Has anyone coined a colloquial term for #Bluesky's flavor of decentralization? #ActivityPub is often associated with the “federation" flavor, but that term doesn't feel applicable to Bsky/ #ATProtocol

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

With a few exceptions (mostly towers atop downtown switching offices in populated areas), no one was trying to make any of this utilitarian communications infrastructure *beautiful*. It was form strictly following function, built to be reliable and rugged.

But there was, I think, quite a bit of beauty to find in it. I wonder if we'll look at our current neighborhood cellular towers, now often regarded as a visual blight, the same way decades after they're (inevitably) also gone.

mattblaze@federate.social ("Matt Blaze") wrote:

The San Jose Oak Hill Tower is unique in a number of ways. This particular concrete brutalist design appears not to have been used anywhere else; it seems to have been site-specific. It sits atop an underground switching center (that was partly used for a military contract), which explains the relatively hardened design.

Today the underground switch is still there, owned by AT&T, but the tower space is leased to land mobile and cellular providers. The old horn antennas at top are disconnected.