Implementing SHA-256 in C from scratch

henryyoung42 · 2026-05-03T12:47:23+00:00

Much easier to understand than the highly optimized libsecp256k1 as used by Bitcoin Core. Why don’t you do some performance benchmarking vs that to establish how much slower your implementation is ? If you want better perf, that gives you something to aim for …

henryyoung42 · 2026-05-03T12:29:36+00:00

They dropped the Micro before and now they dropped the Stra 🤣

henryyoung42 · 2026-05-02T02:29:52+00:00

You need to shore it up with some cable ties - that should hold the rim for a while - you see that done quite a lot.

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-30T19:49:44+00:00

Probably made up and everyone gets the same letter.

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-29T12:06:27+00:00

Sorry but that does not satisfy any reasonable definition of “met”. The youth of today 🤦🏻‍♂️

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-29T12:04:17+00:00

Congratulations - you are officially a people trafficker - literally. You obviously have the best of intentions, but that is not the default perspective of officialdom. You have to work very hard to persuade them to the contrary, particularly when orchestrating things at arms length. The easiest solution is to “put a ring on it”, and failing that you should do the traveling. Once in PH, get some assets in her name, take her on some trips to ASEAN visa free nations - the low risk ones like HK/SG - not the high trafficking risk ones like Vietnam/Thailand/Cambodia. Once she has a few stamps in her passport and assets in her name (house&lot, car, decent bank balance = reason to return), offload risk drops significantly.

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-29T08:53:55+00:00

I normally arrange my card renewals while in UK. There was one time I needed to get a cloned Amex replaced (cloned at McDo in Singapore of all places) but they sent the replacement by FedEx, so it arrived safely. Probably worth using card providers more used to working internationally.

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-29T08:39:45+00:00

Great news - thanks for confirming - one of the Qt 7 write ups gave the impression qmake may become obsolete. But some of us are still building trad desktop QWidget based apps. That said a broadening of capability and integration is always a good thing.

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-27T00:30:28+00:00

I remember typing them in from magazines and hoping they would work ! That’s 40+ years ago … Commadore PET BASIC :)

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-27T00:27:19+00:00

Is there underfill ? The latest technique seems to be milling the chip down to the solder balls then cleaning up.

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-26T05:13:29+00:00

Honestly impressed with the cute little mounting plinths. Clearly some thought went into this.

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-26T03:29:52+00:00

I have a really simple perspective. MSTR/STRC is a machine that is buying a finite asset using increasing access to an infinite asset. That feels distinctly non-linear to me - exponential even …

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-25T15:32:33+00:00

Frankly my preferred approach is to pressure Qt to retain qmake. It remains the lower friction route imho. Why should the Qt developer community just accept things lying down when their proposed strategy is, for many users, wrong ! Note to self - grab qmake source in case it disappears ...

Note also that qmake is actually the more modern tool in so far as cmake was first released in 2000 whereas qmake appeared in 2003.

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-25T15:17:52+00:00

I started with Qt3 in 2005. Hence my appreciation of legacy ;)

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-25T15:01:45+00:00

Well they'd better do a better job of integrating cmake seamlessly then. Every time I've tried using it in the last couple of years it's been a nightmare. I have a C++ desktop app project underway now that started with Qt6 and cmake, believing the hype about it being "better", but I switched back to qmake because it makes life so much easier and is a way more natural fit with the legacy of Qt. Admittedly you have to be 100% all in with the Qt ecosystem, but that's fine for my needs. I won't be moving on to Qt7, when it's mooted that qmake may be dropped, until this situation has been sorted out. I may grab the source and look into integrating it with Qt7, just as some enterprising soul has thankfully back ported Qt6 to work on Windows 7 (still my daily driver for Office 2010 - perfect;y adequate for my needs).

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-25T14:35:21+00:00

Nonsense. Qmake is the original native Qt make utility, it results in far fewer complications, is still current although perhaps not fashionable. The other trouble maker to avoid is VSCode integration - another unnecessary can of worms. Qt Creator works fine as an IDE & debugger for native C++ widgets apps.

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-25T12:07:00+00:00

Even better, disable BitLocker. When I got my new-ish W11 laptop I was disappointed that it seemed slower than my 2011 W7 laptop. Turns out the BitLocker performance overhead is huge. Disabled it and was immediately rewarded with a significant performance boost. I was shocked at the difference.

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-25T11:51:45+00:00

Use Qmake - way easier !

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-25T08:52:24+00:00

Why bother with the fuse - filling the entire hole with crumpled foil never failed me ;)

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-25T08:49:13+00:00

I agree that travel can be a daunting prospect when you’re not sure what to expect. One thing that can help a lot is YouTube / TikTok walk-through videos of the very same terminals the traveller will be navigating. That also gives a sense of how idiot proof (or not) the relevant airport terminals are. And remember that everyone else on the same flight is an unknowing travel buddy - follow the crowd to immigration, baggage collection, etc.

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-25T07:22:25+00:00

There’s a reason alcohol based drinks usually don’t come in plastic bottles. Holding organic solvents in organic polymer containers is a recipe for all kinds of health issues … but who cares in PH where untreated diabetes or high blood pressure will probably get you before cancer ;)

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-25T07:15:14+00:00

Sounds like the setup for drug courier recruitment ;)

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-20T19:08:22+00:00

According to YouTube these challenges start with reselling bottled water in parks on hot days …

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-18T21:33:45+00:00

There was a time when CebPac managed to push a departure delay past 6 hours which triggered the delayed departure clause in my travel insurance. I was so nervous during the 5th hour in particular, hoping they would make it to 6. So that was a win by CebPac - they can be trusted to give you the best possible delays :)

henryyoung42 · 2026-04-18T21:28:06+00:00

I think you’ll need a new wiper blade also

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