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azernik

13,302 karma · joined May 26, 2010

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azernik··on A new form of verification on Bluesky
We need the blue checks to combat impersonation attacks. If a malicious actor pretends to represent a New York Times journalist, or your bank, or a government agency, you don't want users to be tricked into believing them.
azernik··on A new form of verification on Bluesky
It was a "hidden caste system" with no real consequences for people's interaction with the platform. I have approximately zero sympathy with the "anti-bluecheck" resentments that Musk tapped into.
azernik··on 4chan Sharty Hack And Janitor Email Leak
If you're looking for a link to the results of illegal hacking, then I humbly suggest that aboveboard news sites are not the place to look.
azernik··on YAML: The Norway Problem (2022)
Even worse is the all-decimal MAC problem.

Some genius decided that, to make time input convenient, YAML would parse HH:MM:SS as SS + 60×MM + 60×60×HH. So you could enter 1:23:45 and it would give you the correct number of seconds in 1 hour, 23 minutes, and 45 seconds.

They neglected to put a maximum on the number of such sexagesimal places, so if you put, say, six numbers separated by colons like this, it would be parsed as a very large integer.

Imagine my surprise when, while working at a networking company, we had some devices which failed to configure their MAC addresses in YAML! After this YAML config file had been working for literal years! (I believe this was via netplan? It's been like a decade, I don't remember.)

Turns out, if an unquoted MAC address had even a single non-decimal hex digit, it would do what we expected (parse as a string). This is not only by FAR the more common case, but also we had an A in our vendor prefix, so we never ran into this "feature" during initial development.

Then one day we ran out of MAC addresses and got a new vendor prefix. This time it didn't have any letters in it. Hilarity ensued.

(This behavior has thankfully been removed in more recent YAML standards.)

azernik··on Dijkstra On the foolishness of "natural language programming"
If you don't mind sharing - what's the specific prompt you use to get this to happen, and which LLM do you use it with?
azernik··on Gemini Robotics
Humans are really well designed mechanical systems!
azernik··on Huawei targeted in new European Parliament corruption probe
In what way is Bellingcat a "spook-run operation"?
azernik··on The shrouded sinister history of the bulldozer
So... not lax regulation
azernik··on Planes are having their GPS hacked. Could new clocks keep them safe?
A) you keep on using the word "almanac". That term only refers to the imprecise information about all satellites that every satellite broadcasts, mostly to improve TTFF. The actual position used for navigation is called "ephemeris", and each satellite only broadcasts its own.

B) none of that other stuff in the navigation message changes the pseudorange, which is what spoofers mess with. For a networking analogy - pseudoranges are calculated based on layer 1/2 properties of the network. (Specifically the code phase and Doppler shift.) Navigation messages are layer 7 information passed on top of that physical layer. You can change the timing and frequency characteristics of the PRN code without touching a single bit of the navigation message.)

The G/NAV message (note the G - government) is for a separate service - not OSNMA - where not only is the navigation message encrypted, but the PRN code is also encrypted (symmetrically, so it can't be done for the mass market or even untrusted commercial customers).

azernik··on Planes are having their GPS hacked. Could new clocks keep them safe?
It has optional cryptographic signatures of the navigation message, i.e. the data indicating position of satellites.

Spoofing generally works not by altering the navigation message, but by altering the timing of arriving signals. I'd recommend this video for a publicly-available overview of the techniques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAjWJbZOq6I

tl;dr Galileo spoofers exist and work just fine.

azernik··on Planes are having their GPS hacked. Could new clocks keep them safe?
"GPS" is being used as a genericism in these articles. All the GNSS constellations work the same way, and all of the military-grade spoofers are multi constellation.
azernik··on ICE arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests, lawyer says
The closest to it is that the organization he represented supported resistance "by any means, including armed resistance" immediately after 7.10.23. But AFAIU they were very careful not to mention Hamas, positively or negatively.
azernik··on ICE arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests, lawyer says
You still need a judge to rule that he in fact broke the law. (Specifically an immigration judge.)
azernik··on ICE arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests, lawyer says
ICE agents told his lawyer (in a phone call while he was being arrested) that it had been revoked
azernik··on ICE arrests Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests, lawyer says
Only after a hearing before a judge. The State Department does not have the legal authority to revoke Green Cards.
azernik··on GitHub reveals how software engineers are purging federal databases
1. This is removing actual content, not just changing internal naming. "Children/Families affected by systematic discrimination/bias/exclusion" will simply no longer be able to find grants targeted at them.

2. The amount of effort being put into this is much higher than GitHub changing their default for new repos to "main"

azernik··on GitHub reveals how software engineers are purging federal databases
How much of that was actually removed in a crash effort, and how much was just fliers saying "please use this other word in the future"?
azernik··on The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE
If you want to get rid of the Permanent Resident status for parents of citizens, go ahead; perfectly constitutional.

But I suspect that isn't the limit anti-14th-amendment people's ambitions.

azernik··on Show HN: I built an active community of trans people online
It provides plausible deniability. "We did our best, judge"
azernik··on Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, but Trump might offer lifeline
From the first paragraph: "without banning the app itself"
azernik··on Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, but Trump might offer lifeline
It's annoying to have to take the time to train my recommender on a different platform. I'm sure I could get YouTube Shorts to eventually give me an equivalently pleasant experience, it's just a pain.
azernik··on Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, but Trump might offer lifeline
It is not banned in Canada
azernik··on Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, but Trump might offer lifeline
Approximately zero people outside of China use Douyin.

If you are in Brazil or the Philippines or Germany, you're using TikTok.

azernik··on The origin of the cargo cult metaphor
Not because they actually believe in. i.e. they may, but that's not the reason they're taking the action.
azernik··on The Origins of Wokeness
No
azernik··on The Origins of Wokeness
The "misogyny" that article purports is just... being publicly trans.
azernik··on It's time to abandon the cargo cult metaphor
Even that ridiculous thing doesn't have "differently abled".
azernik··on It's time to abandon the cargo cult metaphor
Who is "they"? I have never in my life heard this demand.
azernik··on The origin of the cargo cult metaphor
> What kind of "evidence" beyond the content of the signalling itself it would require?

"Virtue signaling" means someone is acting only to signal their own virtue, and not because they actually believe in the thing they are doing or expressing.

There is no evidence of that.

azernik··on TSMC's Arizona Plant to Start Making Advanced Chips
The law in question that prohibits exports of the latest process node is Taiwanese, not American. So yes, it matters what their interests are.

Regardless of whether you think it's a state, it is an entity with agency that makes its own rules that its companies (like TSMC) follow.

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