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Links March 2026

March 6, 2026 | etbe

Krebs has an interesting article about the Kimwolf botnet which uses residential proxy relay services [1].

cory Doctorow wrote an insightful blog post about code being a liability not an asset [2].

Aigars Mahinovs wrote an interesting review of the BMW i4 M50 xDrive and the BMW i5 eDrive40 which seem like very impressive vehicles [3]. I was wondering what BMW would do now that all the features they had in the 90s have been copied by cheaper brands but they have managed to do new and exciting things.

Arstechnica has an interesting article about the recently declassified JUMPSEAT surveillance satellites that ran from 1971 to 1987 [4].

Cory Doctorow wrote an interesting blog post about OgApp which briefly allowed viewing Instagram without ads and the issues of US corporations misusing EU copyright law [5].

ZDNet has an interesting article about new planned developments for the web of trust for Linux kernel coders (and others) [6].

Last month India had a 300 million person strike, we need more large scale strikes against governments that support predatory corporations [7].

Techdirt has an insightful article on the ways the fascism is bad for innovation and a market based economy [8].

The Acknowledgements section from the Scheme Shell (scsh) reference is epic [9].

Vice has an insightful article on research about “do your own research” and how simple Google searches tend to reinforce conspiracy theories [10]. A problem with Google is that it’s most effective if you already know the answer.

Issendai has an interesting and insightful series of blog posts about estranged parents forums which seems a lot like Incel forums in the way they promote abuse [11].

Caitlin Johnstone wrote an interesting article about how “the empire” caused the rebirth of a real counterculture by their attempts to coerce support for Israeli atrocities [12].

Radley Balko wrote an interesting article about “the courage to be decent” concerning the Trump regime’s attempts to scare lawyers into cooperating with them [13].

Terry Tan wrote a useful resource on the API for Google search, this could be good for shell scripts and for 3rd party programs that launch a search [14].

The Proof has an interesting article about eating oysters and mussels as a vegan [15].

All Things Linguistic has an interesting and amusing post about Yoda’s syntax in non-English languages [16].

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Links February 2026

February 17, 2026 | etbe

Charles Stross has a good theory of why “AI” is being pushed on corporations, really we need to just replace CEOs with LLMs [1].

This disturbing and amusing article describes how an Open AI investor appears to be having psychological problems releated to SCP based text generated by ChatGPT [2]. Definitely going to be a recursive problem as people who believe in it invest in it.

interesting analysis of dbus and design for a more secure replacement [3].

Scott Jenson gave an insightful lecture for Canonical about future potential developments in the desktop UX [4].

Ploum wrote an insightful article about the problems caused by the Github monopoly [5]. Radicale sounds interesting.

Niki Tonsky write an interesting article about the UI problems with Tahoe (latest MacOS release) due to trying to make an icon for everything [6]. They have a really good writing style as well as being well researched.

Fil-C is an interesting project to compile C/C++ programs in a memory safe way, some of which can be considered a software equivalent of CHERI [7].

Brian Krebs wrote a long list of the ways that Trump has enabled corruption and a variety of other crimes including child sex abuse in the last year [8].

This video about designing a C64 laptop is a masterclass in computer design [9].

Salon has an interesting article about the abortion thought experiment that conservatives can’t handle [10].

Ron Garrett wrote an insightful blog post about abortion [11].

Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders wrote an insightful article about the potential of LLM systems for advertising and enshittification [12]. We need serious legislation about this ASAP!

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Links December 2025

December 21, 2025 | etbe

Russ Allbery wrote an interesting review of Politics on the Edge, by Rory Stewart who sems like one of the few conservative politicians I could respect and possibly even like [1]. It has some good insights about the problems with our current political environment.

The NY Times has an amusing article about the attempt to sell the solution to the CIA’s encrypted artwork [2].

Wired has an interesting article about computer face recognition systems failing on people with facial disabilities or scars [3]. This is a major accessibility issue potentially violating disability legislation and a demonstration of the problems of fully automating systems when there should be a human in the loop.

The October 2025 report from the Debian Reproducible Builds team is particularly interesting [4]. “kpcyrd forwarded a fascinating tidbit regarding so-called ninja and samurai build ordering, that uses data structures in which the pointer values returned from malloc are used to determine some order of execution” LOL

Louis Rossmann made an insightful youtube video about the moral case for piracy of software and media [5].

Louis Rossman made an insightful video about the way that Hyundai is circumventing Right to Repair laws to make repairs needlessly expensive [6]. Korean cars aren’t much good nowadays. Their prices keep increasing and the quality doesn’t.

Brian Krebs wrote an interesting article about how Google is taking legal action against SMS phishing crime groups [7]. We need more of this!

Josh Griffiths wrote an informative blog post about how YouTube is awful [8]. I really should investigate Peertube.

Louis Rossman made an informative YouTube video about Right to Repair and the US military, if even the US military is getting ripped off by this it’s a bigger problem than most people realise [9]. He also asks the rhetorical question of whether politicians are bought or whether it’s a “subscription model”.

Brian Krebs wrote an informative article about the US plans to ban TP Link devices, OpenWRT seems like a good option [10].

Brian Krebs wrote an informative article about “free streaming” Android TV boxes that act as hidden residential VPN proxies [11]. Also the “free streaming” violates copyright law.

Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders wrote an interesting article about ways that AI is being used to strengthen democracy [12].

Cory Doctorow wrote an insightful article about the incentives for making shitty goods and services and why we need legislation to protect consumers [13].

Linus Tech Tips has an interesting interview with Linus Torvalds [14].

Interesting video about the Kowloon Walled City [15]. It would be nice if a government deliberately created a hive city like that, the only example I know of is the Alaskan town in a single building.

David Brin wrote an insightful set of 3 blog posts about a Democratic American deal that could improve the situation there [16].

[1] https://tinyurl.com/2czzxp77
[2] https://tinyurl.com/22k6yo6s
[3] https://tinyurl.com/29fg9ses
[4] https://reproducible-builds.org/reports/2025-10/
[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAx3yCNomkg
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv9jAQ_MiK0
[7] https://tinyurl.com/276qmbuh
[8] https://tinyurl.com/2bhp6sa2
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0LmjzXV7IA
[10] https://tinyurl.com/22pgz36h
[11] https://tinyurl.com/2xveozvd
[12] https://tinyurl.com/2bjs4g2j
[13] https://tinyurl.com/2bsh3wbt
[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfv0V1SxbNA
[15] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoNclh1K_zY
[16] https://tinyurl.com/29opfj43

Links October 2025

October 31, 2025 | etbe

Informative video about the way corporations charge different rates based on location and even type of device used on the web site [1]. This should be illegal everywhere!

Bruce Schneier with Heather Adkins and Gadi Evron wrote an insightful post about AI Hacking and the Future of Cybersecurity, the future seems grim [2].

Slaughterbots is an interesting Dust SciFi movie exploring the future of autonoms weapons [3].

Arstechnica has an intersting article on a genetically engineered plant with a more efficient system for photosynthesis [4]. If this goes to plan it could revolutionise agriculture!

David Brin wrote an insightful blog post about the Seldon Paradox [5]. Also he wrote the final book in the Foundation series so he is the current living export on Hari Seldon.

Charles Stross wrote an insightful blog post about the pivot away from fossil fuels and the future of computers without Moore’s Law [6].

Audrey Woods wrote an insightful article about the end of Moore’s Law, we can get more transistors from multichip modules bit it’s only small linear improvements not exponential [7].

Bruce Schneier and Barath Raghavan wrote an interesting article about AI’s OODA loop problem, it’s a good way of thinking about some of these issues [8]. I think that LLM security is a losing game. Getting them to mostly not tell people how to commit crimes is the limit of controls.

Manga telling the story of Revelations in all it’s drug inspired madness [9]. When I read the entire Bible I skipped Revelations because it’s too obviously the product of mental illness.

CNN has an interesting article about bitcoin ARMs which are almost exclusively used for crime [10].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PL1d0xiHRhg
[2] https://tinyurl.com/242xna4c
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU
[4] https://tinyurl.com/2yyj3tgz
[5] https://tinyurl.com/2ytuvkfp
[6] https://tinyurl.com/2b2a98kr
[7] https://tinyurl.com/2a6csfk9
[8] https://tinyurl.com/2y7zk5zz
[9] https://www.electricsheepcomix.com/apocamon/
[10] https://tinyurl.com/27ge7gcf

Links September 2025

September 30, 2025 | etbe

Werdahias wrote an informative blog post about Dark Mode for QT programs on non-QT environments (mostly GNOME based), we need more blog posts about this sort of thing [1].

Astral Codex Ten has an interesting blog post about the rise of Christianity, trying to work out why it took over so quickly [2].

Frances Haugen’s whistleblower statement about Facebook is worth reading, Facebook seems to be one of the most evil companies in the world [3].

Interesting blog post by Philip Bennett about trying to repair a 28 player Galaxian game from 1990 [4].

Bruce Schneier and Nathan E. Sanders wrote an insightful article about AI in Government [5].

Krebs has an interesting analysis of Conservatives whinging about alleged discrimination due to their use of spam lists [6].

Nick Cheesman wrote an insightful article on the failures of Meritocracy with ANU as a case study [7]. I am mystified as to why ABC categorised it under Religion.

David Brin wrote an interesting short SciFi story about dealing with blackmail [8].

Charles Stross has an interesting take on AI economics etc [9].

Corey Doctorow wrote an interesting blog post about the impending economic crash becuase of all the money tied up in AI investments [10].

[1] https://tinyurl.com/2dztdg77
[2] https://tinyurl.com/2b2yvgfx
[3] https://tinyurl.com/yeppy78q
[4] https://philwip.com/2025/04/14/galaxian-3-project-revival/
[5] https://tinyurl.com/25ylubnc
[6] https://tinyurl.com/27jnzjkt
[7] https://tinyurl.com/29fl4q39
[8] https://tinyurl.com/2ye367yn
[9] https://tinyurl.com/24bx8nds
[10] https://pluralistic.net/2025/09/27/econopocalypse/

Links August 2025

August 31, 2025 | etbe

Dimitri John Ledkov wrote an informative blog post about self encrypting disks and UEFI with Linux [1].

This Coffeezilla video highlights an interesting scam, run a broker for day traders and don’t execute trades, just be the counterparty for every trade and rely on day traders losing [2].

First Sight is a Dust SciFi short film that’s worthy of Black Mirror [3].

Apple published an interesting article about the operation of the Secure Enclave in iPhone, Mac, and all other significant Apple hardware [4].

Reese Waters made an amusing video about a conservative catfight that’s going on, nice to see horrible people attacking each other [5].

Chengyuan Ma wrote an informative summary of the history of the Great Firewall of China [6]. The V2Ray proxy has a nice feature set!

Interesting article about the JP Morgan Workplace Activity Data Utility (WADU) AI spyware system [7]. Corporate work is going to become even more horrible.

Veritasium has a great video about the history of vulcanised rubber and the potential for significant problems if rubber leaf blight spreads to other countries [8].

Jalopnik has an interesting article about how Reagan killed the safest car ever built [9].

David Brin wrote an interesting article “Tolkien Enemy of Progress” about fiction that justifies autocratic rule [10].

Links July 2025

July 31, 2025 | etbe

Louis Rossman made an informative YouTube video about right to repair and the US military [1]. This is really important as it helps promote free software and open standards.

The ACM has an insightful article about hidden controls [2]. We need EU regulations about hidden controls in safety critical systems like cars.

This Daily WTF article has some interesting security implications for Windows [3].

Earth.com has an interesting article about the “rubber hand illusion” and how it works on Octopus [4]. For a long time I have been opposed to eating Octopus because I think they are too intelligent.

The Washington Post has an insightful article about the future of spies when everything is tracked by technology [5].

Micah Lee wrote an informative guide to using Signal groups for activism [6].

David Brin wrote an insightful blog post about the phases of the ongoing US civil war [7].

Christian Kastner wrote an interesting blog post about using Glibc hardware capabilities to use different builds of a shared library for a range of CPU features [8].

David Brin wrote an insightful and interesting blog post comparing President Carter with the criminals in the Republican party [9].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HafelMKC9RI
[2] https://tinyurl.com/yon77zhg
[3] https://tinyurl.com/2d5bdpcw
[4] https://tinyurl.com/2bv8b2hn
[5] https://tinyurl.com/27brmavr
[6] https://micahflee.com/using-signal-groups-for-activism/
[7] https://tinyurl.com/2bfupoge
[8] https://tinyurl.com/29n4jnh8
[9] https://tinyurl.com/2b6fhozc

Links June 2025

June 30, 2025 | etbe

Jonathan McDowell wrote part 2 of his blog series about setting up a voice assistant on Debian, I look forward to reading further posts [1]. I’m working on some related things for Debian that will hopefully work with this.

I’m testing out OpenSnitch on Trixie inspired by this blog post, it’s an interesting package [2].

Valerie wrote an informative article about creating mesh networks using LORA for emergency use [3].

Interesting article about Signal and Windows Recall. That gives us some things to consider regarding ML features on Linux systems [4].

Insightful article about AI and the end of prestige [5]. We should all learn about LLMs.

Jonathan Dowland wrote an informative blog post about how to manage namespaces on Linux [6].

The Consumer Rights wiki is a great resource for raising awareness of corporations exploiting their customers for computer related goods and services [7].

Interesting article about Schizophrenia and the cliff-edge function of evolution [8].

[1] Error
[2] https://tinyurl.com/2dowoctp
[3] https://bowshock.nl/irc/
[4] https://tinyurl.com/yu43hprm
[5] https://tinyurl.com/23lko434
[6] https://jmtd.net/log/mount_namespaces/
[7] https://consumerrights.wiki/
[8] https://tinyurl.com/2ak438ke

Links May 2025

May 31, 2025 | etbe

Christopher Biggs gave an informative Evrything Open lecture about voice recognition [1]. We need this on Debian phones.

Guido wrote an informative blog post about booting a custom Android kernel on a Pixel 3a [2]. Good work in writing this up, but a pity that Google made the process so difficult.

Interesting to read about an expert being a victim of a phishing attack [3]. It can happen to anyone, everyone has moments when they aren’t concentrating.

Interesting advice on how to leak to a journalist [4].

Brian Krebs wrote an informative article about the ways that Trump is deliberately reducing the cyber security of the US government [5].

Brian Krebs wrote an interesting article about the main smishng groups from China [6].

Louis Rossmann (who is known for high quality YouTube videos about computer repair) made an informative video about a scammy Australian company run by a child sex offender [7].

The Helmover was one of the wildest engineering projects of WW2, an over the horizon guided torpedo that could one-shot a battleship [8].

Interesting blog post about DDoSecrets and the utter failure of the company Telemessages which was used by the US government [9].

Jonathan McDowell wrote an interesting blog post about developing a free software competitor to Alexa etc, the listening hardware costs $13US per node [10].

Noema Magazine published an insightful article about Rewilding the Internet, it has some great ideas [11].

Links April 2025

April 30, 2025 | etbe

Asianometry has an interesting YouTube video about elecrolytic capacitors degrading and how they affect computers [1]. Keep your computers cool people!

Biella Coleman (famous for studying the Anthropology of Debian) and Eric Reinhart wrote an interesting article about MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) and how it ended up doing exactly the opposite of what was intended [2].

SciShow has an informative video about lung cancer cases among non-smokers, the risk factors are genetics, Radon, and cooking [3].

Ian Jackson wrote an insightful blog post about whether Rust is “woke” [4].

Bruce Schneier write an interesting blog post about research into making AIs Trusted Third Parties [5]. This has the potential to solve some cryptology problems.

CHERIoT is an interesting project for controlling all jump statements in RISC-V among other related security features [6]. We need this sort of thing for IoT devices that will run for years without change.

Brian Krebs wrote an informative post about how Trump is attacking the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution [7].

The Register has an interesting summary of the kernel “enclave” and “exclave” functionality in recent Apple OSs [8].

Dr Gabor Mate wrote an interesting psychological analysis of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump [9].

ChoiceJacking is an interesting variant of the JuiceJacking attack on mobile phones by hostile chargers [10]. They should require input for security sensitive events to come from the local hardware not USB or Bluetooth.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSpzAVpnXo4
[2] https://tinyurl.com/25rpmgxx
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYhncB9Ftt8
[4] https://diziet.dreamwidth.org/19480.html
[5] https://tinyurl.com/287ahynt
[6] https://cheriot.org/
[7] https://tinyurl.com/28x64xyc
[8] https://tinyurl.com/237qycbw
[9] https://drgabormate.com/trump-clinton-trauma/
[10] https://tinyurl.com/22wmyogu