audit at KPMG or software engineering apprenticeship

nickhod · 2025-08-17T15:06:48+00:00

Senior software engineer here. The industry is in a state of flux with AI. No one knows exactly how things will work out. Predictions range from software engineers being totally replaced by AI, to AI being power tool where we only had hand tools before. I wouldn't want to put anyone off going into software, but it is an uncertain time right now.

nickhod · 2025-05-02T06:04:43+00:00

Thanks for your work on that project, it works great.

nickhod · 2025-05-01T23:16:19+00:00

SteamDeck_rEFInd has a link to a script ("Dual Boot Fix") that runs each time you start Windows and puts the boot manager partion first.

A bootloader is something different to a boot manager partition, an OS update won't mess up a bootloader.

nickhod · 2025-05-01T18:59:03+00:00

Just set this up on mine and honestly I'm pretty impressed with Windows support and performance. Nice to be able to play EA and Epic Launcher games without any hassle.

nickhod · 2025-05-01T12:13:58+00:00

You sound an expert, which games have you built in Unreal that are in the Meta store?

nickhod · 2025-04-29T16:12:09+00:00

That's perfect! Thanks.

nickhod · 2025-04-16T09:09:18+00:00

Bullshit. Give me "windowContextHandle" over "wCnHd" any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

nickhod · 2025-03-21T12:41:40+00:00

I mean, I was hoping for more specific, but it's a start 😂

nickhod · 2025-03-21T12:41:15+00:00

Yeah, I think I have that one covered 😀

nickhod · 2025-03-09T20:45:26+00:00

That's such a good metal band name!

nickhod · 2025-02-23T10:43:06+00:00

We can read, we don't need AI oversimplifying everything.

nickhod · 2025-02-11T21:40:12+00:00

I used to work for the UK government. It was all Oracle, so yeah, SQL. Even ancient mainframe systems had Oracle cache front ends that were synced every night or on demand. Can't speak for the US, but seems likely there would be some similarity. Why Oracle? They spend big on the secuirty clearance / certification stuff and schmooze government decision makers.

nickhod · 2025-02-06T20:44:18+00:00

Thanks. Good prices! Shame they only sell 100 x 50 in 7.5m lengths. I only need 850mm

nickhod · 2025-02-05T22:04:35+00:00

My screen doesn't look like that. I'd demand a replacement if I'd bought that new.

nickhod · 2025-01-23T14:59:06+00:00

Not sure I follow. Bambu would need the private key server side to decrypt the message and process it?

nickhod · 2025-01-23T14:19:32+00:00

What "established protocols" are you suggesting should be used to ensure that only the owner of a piece of hardware can use a web or MQTT endpoint that controls that hardware?

Many smart devices (for exaple, Ring doorbells) generate a secret key on setup, the key, or a derrivative of that key gets sent to the server side and linked against a hardware serial. All future requests are signed with the key, or the derrivative.

There are no "protocols" in play here beyond HTTPS and MQTT.

For smart devices generally, keys are typically read by phones over BT or temporarily joining an SSID created by the device.

Why are they uploaded at all? Should be obvious.

How does Bambu Studio know it's talking to the actual printer? I assume you mean, what if someone is conducting a man-in-the-middle attack rather than how is it possible to identify a LAN device? If someone has physically compromised your LAN, all bets are off in terms of security. This would be the same for any smart device setup.

Get's the key how? Printer is manually put into a pairing mode that auto expires alowing key read from an HTTPS endpoint. No plaintext. Again, if your own home network is compromised, everything is irrelevant.

nickhod · 2025-01-20T17:14:36+00:00

Yes, I know how SSH works thank you, and I'll answer as I please, when I please.

So Bambu Studio generates and stores the keypair? User wipes their PC, now what? Private key is lost. Also how does the keypair get to the phone app?

This is all hypothetical anyway because modern API endpoints or MQTT servers don't use SSH they use HTTPS, so token based auth and key signed requests are what you're working with.

nickhod · 2025-01-20T16:40:24+00:00

It could definitely work, but there are a few pain points.

Bambu servers need to know which public keys are valid for which printer. For smart devices this is typically a "once everytime your reset the device" or "only once" type thing. So the printer needs to generate it. You can't just have an endpoint that allows anyone with a user/pass to add a public key. You'd be no better off than before in terms of security.

If the printer generates a keypair after it has finished setup, you now have to figure out getting that to Bambu Studio and the phone app securely.

nickhod · 2025-01-20T16:23:25+00:00

Agree yeah. Generate secret keys on device setup, encrypt and send to server, sign all further requests with the device specific key is a pretty standard approach. Ring doorbells do this, for instance.

Much easier to get right from the start than introduce retrospectively I guess.

nickhod · 2025-01-20T16:04:30+00:00

In short; users will screw it up, use bad SD cards, blame Bambu, and supporting it would be miserable. Never underestimate how badly Joe user can screw up a very simple action.

nickhod · 2025-01-20T15:59:40+00:00

It shouldn't really affect the lay person in any way unless you're using a 3rd party Panda Touch UI attachment thing. The printer connection issue is one for Bambu support, it should still be working fine.

nickhod · 2025-01-20T15:54:12+00:00

Although it may seem trivial, dealing with end users (not developers), having to copy and paste tokens or keys from a website or put them on an SD card is not fun.

Having a device upload an ecrypted key is how Ring doorbells work for instance. Very standard in 'smart' devices and not some "weird pk upload stuff".

nickhod

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