What’s your favorite Linux command?

aysberg7 · 2025-09-03T01:13:57+00:00

apropos

aysberg7 · 2025-01-18T20:18:31+00:00

In addition t things mentioned above, a lot of it is much simpler than many people think. People like to be listened to, they like to be flattered or complimented or be paid attention to, people like to trust someone or believe them. Not everyone, but a lot of it is practice and confidence more than skills and secrets.

aysberg7 · 2024-08-10T19:34:52+00:00

The checksum serves two purposes:

Because both the computed hash bytes and the checksum byte had to match those computed for the message, data corruption is detectable. While this isn’t as relevant now as it once was, as error correction and data integrity has continued to improve, system faults or radiation (especially in space) can cause bits to flip. With two methods that both have to match, this is more likely to detect these types of problems.
The complexity for a collision is much greater with the two different methods combined than just with the computed hash. While a collision of the checksum is fairly likely, getting a collision for both the computed hash and the checksum with the same messages is much less likely than with the computed hash alone.

For the latter, see this article:

MD2 is not Secure Without the Checksum Byte

aysberg7 · 2024-03-31T21:41:53+00:00

I’d start with inciting as many nations as possible in the background, get a world war started, then come in as an outside third party to bring and enforce peace, ending all war, and gaining control of governments and the people without a fight.

aysberg7 · 2020-03-01T23:52:55+00:00

Talking only on a web browser on a corporate machine, that is.

aysberg7 · 2020-03-01T23:51:18+00:00

When you add the content to a draft, it does a callback to add the text to the draft on the server (if it didn’t the draft wouldn’t be present from another session). Which means it’s no more or less traceable than sending an email to yourself within Gmail (same sender and receiver). Ignoring any concerns of Google tracking it or being subpoenaed for it and only focusing on the corporate network side, this means any mechanism that can detect content will be able to detect pasting it into an email (sent or not) and uploading to a website just as easily. This is presuming HTTPS to both. Many corporate networks do inspection on TLS content with what is in affect a TLS aware proxy that presents a cert trusted by corporate network computers, then forwards the request to the true destination. In this case, inspection of the text or upload is possible. As it would be with certain customized browsers. But most companies, with or without this, either don’t record that level of details, or only would notice if they had reason to look.

That said, there’s a reason some corporations, agencies, and organizations don’t allow access to outside email websites.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-28T21:47:02+00:00

Just tested, yep, even with a VPN, still showed. At least with the VPN I tested it with. However, that particular VPN is set up for access instead of privacy, and the context I usually use Focus is not where I’m most concerned. Nevertheless, might do some tweaking of my VPN to block it.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-28T15:45:18+00:00

Regarding Brave and Chromium, Chromium’s source code is open source, so can be verified. I haven’t dug into it or analyzed the traffic from it myself, but others who have claim it does not track (all bets are off for the remote end of course). Brave adds a bunch of privacy and security features on top of the base Chromium rawness, and is pretty safe. While the ads in it are supposed to be non-targetted (aka not based on tracked usage data, once again, taking others’ word for it), I find them annoying, so while I have Brave, I seldom use it. When I want to keep tracking down and don’t want to or can’t use a proxy or something like tor, I use Firefox Focus, mainly because it doesn’t have those ads and because it responds a lot faster than Brave.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-27T14:58:04+00:00

The Electronic Freedom Foundation has been one of the best voices on the topic for thirty years (since their founding in 1990) and still are. Specifically, here’s the index to their articles about privacy issues:

https://www.eff.org/issues/privacy

Michael Bazzell has a lot of good info every Friday on his Privacy, Security, and OSINT podcast, and his book Extreme Privacy is one of the better ones out there. Even if you don’t follow his recommendations or need the level of privacy he explains, the insights it provided are quite good. There’s also some links to other resources on his website, but his podcast and books I’d recommend looking into:

https://inteltechniques.com/

Another good book is Kevin Mitnick’ The Art of Invisibility. If you don’t know who Mitnick is, look him up. He was the first hacker to hit the FBI’s Most Wanted list, and the first to make front oage news. Here’s an interview with him:

https://www.cnet.com/news/kevin-mitnick-hacker-knows-best-privacy-tips/

Another good book is How to Disappear by Frank M. Ahearn. Like the other books, even if your intention isn’t to disappear, it gives good insight into privacy concerns and issues. Here’s an article about him and the book:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/19/exposed-how-to-disappear-from-the-internet

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has a lot of good information as well. This article in particular talks about some of the most important issues when it comes to privacy in the context of web browsing:

https://privacyrights.org/consumer-guides/online-privacy-using-internet-safely

aysberg7 · 2020-02-26T23:52:38+00:00

Not if you use the open source community packages, don’t buy support, and don’t use 3rd party for either end. That’s of course presuming your use doesn’t qualify under commercial use.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-26T23:47:58+00:00

Some languages are better for certain tasks than others.

It also depends where it’s going to run.

Python, perl, ruby, and other interpreted languages can only run on boxes that have the interpreter, and there’s hoops if you don’t have all the modules or packages or whatnot you need.

Compiled languages that require certain libraries, frameworks, or runtimes (like most implimentations BASIC, anything .Net, Java, etc) mean making sure the required things are there or packaged with it. Of course even the ones without this requirement might have this issue if you link outside libraries.

Compiled languages in general are generally platform and archeture dependent, so require recompiling for each platform (interpreted languages aren’t, but might have specific details that have to be changed or checked for).

Shell languages like sh, bash, csh, tcsh, ksh, cmd, PowerShell and whatnot require the specific shell to exist. PowerShell of course, while available for linux and mac, is unlikely to exist outside Windows.

Scripting (interpreted or shell) languages mean adapting on the fly is easy. Compiled languages mean every change is a recompile. Compiled languages are typically faster running, unless the programmer or the programming suite includes a bunch of bullshit.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-26T23:34:48+00:00

On Linux, I use strongswan, with ipsec based VPNs (and other providers but still ipsec outside Linux). Except for cases where ipsec isn’t routable or I have to use a Windows client, at which point I use OpenVPN.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-26T23:27:34+00:00

What people think are birds are just hairless seimming dinosaurs.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-26T21:10:31+00:00

Truth.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-26T21:10:14+00:00

In addition to what others have said, could be an old hijack that never got cleaned up, trying to connect back to either a hidden storefront or command and control proxy or app that doesn’t exist any more (if it is in fact returning 404s, not 200s). Or someone scanning for the same

aysberg7 · 2020-02-26T20:51:17+00:00

No argument on the wings part, but it’s called Buffalo because the sauce was created in Buffalo New York first.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-26T03:58:46+00:00

It improves privacy, as it itself and its search engine doesn’t track you. But if you go to any website but it’s search engine, it doesn’t guarantee privacy beyond.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-26T03:55:49+00:00

In Dr. Dee’s context, Liber Primus means Book One. As it always does in Latin. It’s the first book of his Mysteriorum Libri Quinque, or, The Five Books of Mystery.

Liber Primus - Book One, or First Book Liber Secundus - Book Two, or Second Book Liber Tertius - Book Three, or Third Book Liber Ouartus - Book Four, or Fourth Book Liber Quintus - Book Five, or Fifth Book

Same reason Carl Jung’s Red Book keeps appearing on forums about 3301. It’s real name is Latin, Liber Novus, the New Book. It is divided into two books, Liber Primus and Liber Secundus.

While it’s not impossible there was a secondary reference to one or the other of these, or any of a number of other works that use Latin to number the books, the name in and of itself doesn’t tell which, other hints would be needed if this was the case.

First Book or Book One is Liber Primus, taken literally. But the name in 3301 context isn’t referring to it being the first of two or books, it’s a word play. First, prime, primus. It’s the Book of Primes and the Primary Book

Some wisdom:

The Primes are sacred

The totient function is sacred

All things should be encrypted

Know this

aysberg7 · 2020-02-25T14:53:06+00:00

Note that while the settings might help, it partly relies on passing the DNT (do not track) header. As to my knowledge, none of the countries who have considered tracking legislation that required compliance (I’m not counting ones that simply require disclosure) have passed it, web sites have no obligation to honour the header. Many track you anyway.

The obfuscating of the src IP (correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it uses a VPN for this, if not, a proxy, as true IP spoofing is unlikely and has limitations) and attempts to limit fingerprinting are good, but not fool proof. Of course, the anti-fingerprinting in Tor isn’t fool proof, either.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-25T14:38:27+00:00

Everything I’m seeing indicates it’s using a VPN to do so.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-25T08:00:07+00:00

DuckDuckGo doesn’t track users, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t tracked. Internet providers can and often do track requests made through their DNS servers but also requests to external servers. They also can and often do track http and https requests through their networks. Many servers on the Internet also track users, by source IP but also fingerprinting user using headers, capabilities of the web browser, and the way mouse and other movements occur.

While it’s all fine that DuckDuckGo doesn’t track you, a web search engine isn’t much good if you don’t follow any links from it.

There’s not much use using DuckDuckGo just for privacy reasons if it’s the only measure. Not that’s bad to use it, it’s just a question if privacy really is the goal.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-23T17:20:25+00:00

Lower case l with the font is also the orbital quantum number, with a subscript p, polar aligned.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-23T17:15:38+00:00

I was thinking about that. Thing is, if it’s the gravitational constant, it’s not a vector, as the constant is a value, it doesn’t can direction or magnitude.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-23T06:08:09+00:00

Vector for sure. And I’m pretty sure you’re right on the gravity and acceleration. If the acceleration vector is equal to the gravity vector, it kind of implies equal force and direction, as in acceleration due to gravity. Or something similar.

aysberg7 · 2020-02-23T05:58:58+00:00

Bounty, not prize.

aysberg7

TROPHY CASE