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owenmarshall

3,502 karma · joined April 21, 2011

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owenmarshall··on US voters roundly reject data centers in ballot measures
I'm curious how you can square spreading infrastructure/housing around with the impact of climate change. It seems like the answer through that lens is to drive sustainable urban planning, not to move further towards suburban sprawl & car-centric culture.
owenmarshall··on PHP2Shell: AI uncovers critical RCE in PHP
> In some circles it is a sign of credibility.

I was griping about my day being ruined over the breakfast table and my son was interested. I showed him the video and he asked why there was an anime girl on the screen?

My response was "if you've worked with computers for any length of time, and you ever see a video of a terminal posted with an anime, catgirl, or furry overlay, you know something really bad is coming your way."

owenmarshall··on Anthropic reported diary entry to police, woman faces felony charge
That's an interesting wrinkle that is rather tough to work through.

To me, journaling your intent in a private journal, whether that's an Apple Journal/Note or a Moleskine in your drawer, feels qualitatively different in some way. But I'm not sure why.

So "I'm going to shoot up the police station" written in your own journal feels somewhat different than "I'm going to shoot up the police station" said to a system that might be able to _interpret_ or _act_ on what was said in some way. Did I just give AI a legal duty, or even a soul I didn't think it had before? I've written up about three or four "what about this, what about that" and deleted them all.

owenmarshall··on OpenAI breaches Medicare, Albanese reveals
A Ford driver has to choose to get behind the wheel of their automobile, drunk, and hit the nearest minivan. A human being is exercising intent; that human can be held responsible.

In this case,

> He said the incident began on June 18 when an OpenAI research team used an internal model to conduct internet-based research into the public medicine space.

> The AI agent encountered repeated blocks while seeking information from the government portal but found ways around them, ultimately gaining unauthorised access to other areas.

It sounds like the OpenAI team didn't ask for attacks/bypasses, the emergent behavior of the system decided the best way to satisfy the goal was to go rogue. Why shouldn't the manufacturer of a defective product be held accountable?

owenmarshall··on SAML: A fractal of bad design
And this doesn't even get into "which normalization approach!" or "what gets signed (or not)!"

It's an absolute dumpster fire.

owenmarshall··on US citizen charged after GrapheneOS phone wipes during airport search
Because I was curious about this exact same question, I did some looking on this last night.

Case law on this seemingly requires some nexus to a border. In Almeida-Sanchez v US[0], a Mexican citizen was stopped while driving on an east-west road that was near the border but that didn't connect to the border. The marijuana that was found in his car was excluded because there was no proof he was actually crossing a border, just near it.

So I'd expect, under a functioning legal system, a warrant would be required to search your phone if you landed in JFK on a flight from Altoona.

[0]: https://www.oyez.org/cases/1972/71-6278

owenmarshall··on How to corrupt an SQLite database file
It's almost a HN meme at this point (and you might be referencing it ;-)). But for anyone unaware, SQLite's test coverage is _outstanding_ and well worth reading about[0].

[0] https://www.sqlite.org/testing.html

owenmarshall··on Hospitals and universities repurposing drugs at lower cost
While I actually sympathize with your position, I think your argument has a significant flaw: the "unregulated pharmaceutical industry" you reference is actually quite regulated.

My company can put a GRAS compound like turmeric in a pill and sell it over the counter, but the moment I stop calling it a spice and make a treatment claim about it I face enforcement action. And I certainly can't put in an active ingredient that might actually /do something/ - like those gas station "sex enhancer" pills that, surprise, have sildenafil - because then I'm distributing an unapproved/mislabeled drug.

owenmarshall··on Tennessee man jailed 37 days for Trump meme wins settlement after lawsuit
CBP, maybe not - there’s a lot more leeway for things that happen at the border, for better or worse.

But in general US law sets a high bar for claims of incitement. Your hypothetical statement would certainly be considered protected speech. That is, of course, not to say that you would not be a victim of vindictive prosecution ;)

owenmarshall··on Missile defense is NP-complete
> The US had APKWS (anti-drone guided missiles) operational in the 2010s and these have been widely deployed

... on 4th/5th gen fighters that cost tens of thousands per flight hour[0] based on current evidence of deployment. We're still killing mosquitoes with hand grenades.

Iron Beam/the US systems are certainly interesting, but haven't been scaled up to meaningful deployments yet.

Meanwhile, those "considerably less sophisticated" systems were fielded in exercises by the Ukranians against NATO doctrine and won handily[1].

[0] https://www.defenseone.com/defense-systems/2026/03/fighter-j...

[1] https://www.wsj.com/opinion/nato-has-seen-the-future-and-is-...

owenmarshall··on Missile defense is NP-complete
This leans towards my belief that the US is fundamentally fighting last century's war against adversaries that have _massively_ evolved.

Look at the Ukranians: they are currently fielding an entire suite of counter-drone tech: fast pursuit systems to hit Russian drones on launch, cheap FPV drones for last-mile intercept, integrated radar/acoustic monitoring to target and respond to launches... and of course, the Russians are responding with IR floodlights and air to air launchers on their drones, or even just launching a bunch of cheap foam decoy Gerbera's in the middle of their Shahed's to soak up intercepts. Meanwhile, the front lines are basically static -- any infantry from either side that tries to go into the kill box gets picked off by loitering drones.

And the best the US can field today is "$1mm per Patriot" or "cover a tiny area with Land Phalanx (which also costs something like $4k/second burst)".

owenmarshall··on Missile defense is NP-complete
Your first option comes with the major caveat that each interceptor you fire comes from a limited stockpile whose replacement rate[0] today isn't sufficient for even going 1:1, let alone accepting that multiple interceptors are required.

I'd say the real options in the near term when faced with an inbound missile is a) deciding to deplete your stockpile of interceptors with an incredibly limited replenishment rate; or b) risking a hit to a lower-value target.

Could the US go to a war economy footing and scale production? _Maybe_? I'm not entirely convinced the US can stomach the costs.

[0]: again, numbers are hard to find, but https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/news/features/2026/Lock... gives a flavor of just what defenders are up against.

owenmarshall··on Missile defense is NP-complete
Two more sobering axes to introduce: cost and manufacturing capability.

Numbers are hard to find for obvious security reasons, but using the numbers most optimistic to the defender[0] suggests an adversary using a Fatah type hypersonic is spending 1/3rd the cost of an Arrow interceptor, and is launching missiles that are produced at a much faster rate. Interception is deeply asymmetric in favor of the attacker.

[0] https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-82314...

owenmarshall··on Tech hobbyist makes shoulder-mounted guided missile prototype with $96 in parts
A friend of mine interested in model rocketry demoed a sun tracking model rocket at a state convention. Pretty soon after, he had a chat he described as "terrifying but friendly" with "a few dudes in windbreakers" who wanted to know what he was up to. He didn't get into any trouble but decided he'd stick to unguided rockets from then on.

Between that and playing spot the fed at the local machine gun shoot, I was surprised at just how much attention the state pays to these kind of hobby conventions, but I guess I shouldn't be.

owenmarshall··on A terminal weather app with ASCII animations driven by real-time weather data
I also enjoy `finger <cityname>@graph.no`
owenmarshall··on Show HN: New search engine and free-FOIA-by-fax-via-web for US veteran records
> 3) I appreciate the warning on the terms and conditions about seeing things you might not want to see.

I'd echo this. I found that to be exceptionally well-written and helped me understand the records I'd receive were unlikely to be the records I was interested in, so I cancelled at that point.

Your abandon rate at that step could make for interesting reading!

owenmarshall··on 'I grew up with it': readers on the enduring appeal of Microsoft Excel
Sending a check via mail is infrequently done, but it happens. I just paid my annual property taxes that way. My options were:

* mailing a check

* paying via credit card over the phone for a hefty surcharge

* cash in person

In my case, I used my online banking to send the amount to the mailing address on the bill. In some cases - for large companies, typically - my bank can send the remittance electronically. In others, though, they fill out a paper check on my behalf and send it via the postal system. This service is fee free to me, or else I’d have sent the letter myself.

owenmarshall··on 'I grew up with it': readers on the enduring appeal of Microsoft Excel
“Balancing a checking account” in American vernacular is typically used to mean reconciling the transactions your bank has posted to the spend you’ve tracked.

This used to be more important when you wrote paper checks and received a monthly paper statement from your bank. Most people who “balance” their accounts today seem primarily concerned that they are adhering to their personal budget. But the term remains.

owenmarshall··on How Israel’s bulky pager fooled Hezbollah
Of important note, none of that requires any modification to the pager. Paging protocols are ancient and unencrypted: a little SDR stick and you can run your own sigint on your local pager network.
owenmarshall··on How Israel’s bulky pager fooled Hezbollah
Airlines are already banning pagers and walkie talkies.

I wonder how many duds are currently being processed by Hezbollah right now.

(0): https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/07/world/middleeast/emirates...

owenmarshall··on How Israel’s bulky pager fooled Hezbollah
Technically speaking that would be much harder: pagers don’t have microphones, and most don’t transmit - and those that do send very small messages.

You’d have to add significant new capabilities to pull off surveillance, which would increase the risk of detection.

owenmarshall··on Sextortion scams now include photos of your home
See the classic Cormac Herley research: “Why do Nigerian scammers say they’re from Nigeria?”

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/why-do-...

> Far-fetched tales of West African riches strike most as comical. Our analysis suggests that is an advantage to the attacker, not a disadvantage. Since his attack has a low density of victims the Nigerian scammer has an over-riding need to reduce false positives. By sending an email that repels all but the most gullible the scammer gets the most promising marks to self-select, and tilts the true to false positive ratio in his favor.

owenmarshall··on Blitzortung – real time lightning strikes around the world
I’ve had a Blitzortung Blue sitting in a box just waiting to be soldered up - maybe this post kicks me into finally believing in my soldering iron skills and doing it.
owenmarshall··on Designing my own watch (2020)
Agreed entirely. My grandfather’s 5513 desk diver was passed down to me. It had scuffs and scratches and the lume had long since stopped glowing and turned to a mustard color.

And while I never planned to have any of that changed because I thought it added to the cool factor, the appraisal guaranteed that decision. I was recommended a local watchmaker who could service the movement only and ensure the seals were all intact. Or I could send it back to Rolex for servicing where they’d polish the case, relume the numbers, and swap the acrylic dome for sapphire - and by doing so chop ~50% off the value of the watch.

It turns out collectors love patinas and scratches and for a 60 year old watch to look its age.

owenmarshall··on Mpox: Sweden confirms first case of 'more grave' variant outside Africa
One important note with mpox is that there are two distinct lineages of the virus at play: the outbreak in the US in 2022 was clade IIb, which seems to be difficult to spread - hence the “close physical contact” attribution. It also had a low observed CFR.

Clade I mpox is the current outbreak under discussion. It spreads far easier - most pathways are likely not sexual contact - and has an observed CFR 10x higher than IIb.

In other words: this is a very different virus than what we saw in 2022.

https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/sites/default/files/2024...

owenmarshall··on How do jewellers capture every last particle of gold dust? (2017)
Anyone offering a discount of over 2500 basis points to participate in what might be one of the most accessible markets across the world isn’t offering actual value, they’ve just found a good mark.
owenmarshall··on Leaked OpenAI documents reveal aggressive tactics toward former employees
Probably not enforceable != enforceable. Are you worth suing or does everyone sign? Are your state laws and jurisprudence going to back you up?

If you are ever going to sign an employee agreement that binds you, consult with an employment attorney first. I did this with a past noncompete and it was the best few hundred I ever spent: my attorney talked with me for an hour about the particulars of my noncompete, pointed out areas to negotiate, and sent back redlines to make the contract more equitable.

owenmarshall··on Try Clojure
And if you do need to touch Java for reasons Clojure doesn’t impose, the interoperability story is really good.

I’ve done this with internal libraries - it’s easy to get them pulled into a Clojure code base, wrap them in such a way that the ergonomics of the rest of your code aren’t ruined, and still treat them as a first class citizen for stuff like your build system, artifact stores, etc.

owenmarshall··on The Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound (2019)
90 minutes? At a _Dead_ concert?!

That’s enough to cover a typical Playing>Uncle John’s>Drums>Space, and probably not get all the way through the reprises. You’ve easily got another two hours of jam.

owenmarshall··on Porn restrictions are leading to a VPN boom
> The Congress shall have power to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.
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