Remote
To Be Filled By O.E.M.
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Joined October 31, 2022
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PSA: if you read my blog via a web-based feed reader, be aware that Inoreader and Feedly fetch once and never update their copies.
I regularly make substantial updates published articles, so if you're using these tools, you're getting a subpar experience. The Old Reader is fine.
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On occasion, I delete old blog posts; it's almost always current-event punditry.
These posts have two possible outcomes. You were wrong and look dumb. Or you were right, and two years later, everyone "has always known" what you're trying to say and you look dumb anyway.
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@nothacking@infosec.exchange
re: LLMs: funny, but also kind of sad.
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@nothacking@infosec.exchange As to your second question, yes; I did see (and delete / hide) a couple of obviously LLM-generated comments and emails that seemed to be conversation hooks vaguely related to the article. I didn't bother responding because I'm 90% sure that what would have followed is an attempt to sell me something.
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@nothacking@infosec.exchange
re: LLMs: funny, but also kind of sad.
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@nothacking@infosec.exchange LLMs taking human jobs :-(
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@sentynel@social.sentynel.com
@sentynel@social.sentynel.com I've had it "cite" TikTok when searching for mathematical theorems. So basically, on par with the standard of academic citations
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@mcc@mastodon.social
@mcc@mastodon.social I think the official position is that you can always take your website offline
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@jmason@mastodon.ie
@jmason@mastodon.ie I think that's sort of normal, it's usually some combination of broken (e.g., mistyped) external links, duplicate ways to reach the same content, redirects, exclusions, etc. For example, this is for my homepage.
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Heh, Google now rubs your nose in it: they have a new report for webmasters that shows you how many times AI summaries "cited" your website. There is no click count because of course there isn't.
Is that a metric I'm supposed to optimize for, against, or what
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@azonenberg@ioc.exchange
@azonenberg@ioc.exchange Yeah, so the state probably has an official "noxious weed" list and if it's on it, you're supposed to eradicate them on your property. But realistically, very common and not nearly as annoying as thistle...
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@atomicbird@mastodon.social
@atomicbird@mastodon.social @briankrebs@infosec.exchange Grief counseling prompts will be provided
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@azonenberg@ioc.exchange
@azonenberg@ioc.exchange It's a daisy. If it has thin, coarsely serrated leaves, it's probably oxeye daisy, which may be a noxious weed where you live.
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@parkern@infosec.exchange
@parkern@infosec.exchange You have to migrate the job beforehand
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@nothacking@infosec.exchange
re: AI slop (quoted to add CW)
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@nothacking@infosec.exchange It's a cost-saving measure, the agent in your browser is expected to make up the rest
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@ChuckMcManis@chaos.social
@ChuckMcManis@chaos.social I asked my LLM agent and it said it's fine
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Random corn facts: back in the era before HTTPS-everywhere, every Google workstation that .corp.google.com in the domain search path to allow for short links to internal systems, and IT would gladly add DNS entries if you requested one.
I asked for *.corn.corp.google.com, which meant that if you typed google.corn on an internal workstation, you'd be taken to my webpage. Which had some utility.
I've been waiting patiently for ICANN to approve .corn for the entire internet, alas
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The release date is approaching fast, so I toyed with a crisper pitch for The Secret Life of Circuits. I think it stands out on three counts.
First, any book can rattle off formulas. This one focuses on giving elegant models that explain where those formulas come from.
Second, any book can say what a circuit ought to do, or eyeball some hypothetical plots. With nearly 300 full-color illustrations and original diagrams, this one shows you what happens in reality.
Third, any book can take you on a stroll down the memory lane. The Secret Life of Circuits focuses on modern problem-solving instead of antiquated tech.
If this sounds fun, you can order at:
https://nostarch.com/secret-life-of-circuits
https://amazon.com/dp/1718504802
https://barnesandnoble.com/w/the-secret-life-of-circuits-michal-zalewski/1149922689
...etc.
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@argonaut@mastodon.social
@argonaut@mastodon.social Well, there's my book... it is meant for folks who are starting from scratch and requires just a basic high-school grasp of mathematics (trigonometric functions, exponentiation and logarithms) + physics (atoms, electrons, birds and bees).
If you're looking for a more rudimentary intro, there's Forrest Mims' book - very approachable but somewhat dated:
https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Started-Electronics-Forrest-Mims/dp/0945053282
There's also Practical Electronics for Inventors, although I'm not sure it's more accessible than my book - it contains a lot more trivia (1k+ pages), but some of it is not going to be relevant anymore:
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541
Beyond that, I don't know. "The Art of Electronics" is excellent, but really requires you to know a lot of things beforehand. All About Circuits hosts a free e-book, and although it's comprehensive, it's in dire need of an editor - there's a lot of irrelevant detail before you even get to connecting an LED to a battery:
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/
On a super basic Arduino level, No Starch has a bunch of books too - but they probably cover what you already know: https://nostarch.com/catalog/hardware-and-diy
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@ChuckMcManis@chaos.social
@ChuckMcManis@chaos.social On the tangential topic of malls, the thing that strikes me about visiting Poland is that shopping malls thrive over there. But it's largely because they were imported from the US fairly late and were seen as prestige projects that would be built in premium locations near to where people work and live.
In the US, most malls were a drive away, so they were successful only because you couldn't find the same entertainment and shopping options nearby. And I guess the internet ruined that.
I think there are some urban malls in the US that are still doing fine.
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So, my blog is about to hit 7k email subscribers (+ an indeterminate number of RSS weirdos), which is kinda cool, but it also increasingly feels like a party at the end of the internet.
But independent forums have been gobbled up by Reddit, now insular and hostile to outgoing links. As for aggregators, the #1 choice was Hacker News, but the site is now an outlet for AI press releases and op-eds to the detriment of everything else:
https://infosec.exchange/@lcamtuf/116972535649965973
My 2026 wake-up call was that HN didn't take this fine SWE bait:
https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/a-breakthrough-in-cc-dependency-management
So, yeah. As the old internet withers away, Substack is one of the few non-algorithmic yet low-friction ways to share long-form content with like-minded folks. But the outlook is pretty bleak.
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I don't understand why my recent article on negative resistance, featuring Skippy the blog assistant, has gotten so few clicks. It can't be the topic, so do you just hate Skippy? You don't want to make Skippy mad
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Some more illustrations added to my recent articles on electronics:
https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/tech-note-making-your-own-v-i-plots - more plots for Zener diodes and a Schottky diode.
https://lcamtuf.substack.com/p/negative-resistance - a V-I plot for a modified negative resistance circuit with improved range.
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New paradigm: our startup offers pre-trained agents *with physical presence* for a predictable monthly fee. They show up at your office M-F at 9am and even have their own cute names such as Adrian, Elizabeth, or Liang
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@cR0w@infosec.exchange
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@wyatt@hachyderm.io
@wyatt@hachyderm.io It was homely. Reminded me of Slashdot, which had a stupid commenting culture but was a good way to discover interesting stories that were not press releases.
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Negative resistance (featuring Skippy, the friendly blog assistant): https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/blog/negative/
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@dougmerritt@mathstodon.xyz
@dougmerritt@mathstodon.xyz People say that, but I suspect it's a bit of an "I'm stuck in traffic" / "you're the traffic" kind of a deal. I mean, the macro reason must be in good part that you have millions of very affluent people competing for 1970s shacks in a region that makes it fabulously difficult to build more housing. I'm sure that there's some speculation that makes it worse, but most homes are owned by individuals or small-scale trusts / LLCs which are *probably* not fronts for BlackRock.
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@fullywoolly@mastodon.social
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@dougmerritt@mathstodon.xyz
@dougmerritt@mathstodon.xyz I honestly didn't want to bug him, it's pretty inconsequential. I'll just keep it on my blog forever
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@zl2tod@mastodon.online
@zl2tod@mastodon.online It's just a pretty normal Schottky diode (BAT46), none of the weird stuff
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@gsuberland@chaos.social
@gsuberland@chaos.social Been there, I guess (that's just NPN with unconnected base in reverse bias)
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