Eric and Jon chat about vacations, Jon looks for whales in Washington while Eric searches for license plates in Utah. Eric finds 3 million hotel room doors can be opened while Jon finds a company playing boths sides. Eric discovers he's a Lightweaver while Jon is an Elsecaller who also likes a whale museums. [NOTE: Eric's travel mic was having issues - sorry for the audio!] __ __
Pi day, wasps about, new 3d printer, Dune 2, and a bee update. Stroustrup objects to the characterization of (modern) C++ as unsafe (but are any projects in C++ fully modern??), Apex Legends tourney participants forced to cheat, swappers come for the eSIMs, and your connected car is probably selling your driving behavior data to insurance companies. For fun we have a sick tulip identification and eradication robot and the Voyager 1 was POKEd in early March and is returning its FDS memory for analysis. __ __
Eric survives a birthday at Benihana, laments the inability to game the system and looks forward to building a new 3D Printer. Jon is giddily gearing up for bee season and educates Eric on Yellowjackets. Roku discovers what its user accounts are worth on the dark web and Jon needs to update his QNAP. Again. The British Library is under-appraised the consequences of a cyber attack. Learning to program a computer is similar to learning a spoken language and Jon shares plans on how to build a Langstroth Hive. __ __
Eric's 'things are breaking' woes continue and Jon has a nice trip to UW. Info stealers are targeting ChatGPT creds, beware cheap IOT devices (like that's new advice), and Anycubic's cloud MQTT service is hacked (or misconfigured). Bumblebees exhibit cumulative culture (!!), Eric says to watch Resident Alien, and Colossal scientists manage to induce pluripotent (asian elephant) stem cells in their quest to resurrect mammoths. __ __
Eric has a phone again! AT&T: 1, Apple: 0... then discovers wind chimes are not awesome at 4am. Jon puts his woodworking skills to ancient use and starts housing chickens in the bathroom. Don't miss the private lander relaxing on the moon. The White House says "Use Memory Safe Programming Languages" (and there was much rejoicing). Jon does a Hugging Face-Palm and asks why can't we have nice things - Eric immediately blames JavaScript. Did you celebrate Leap Day? And finally Jon discovers the Eddington Limit needs a rethink. __ __
Eric wardials and Jon fails to locate. Falling for scams is easier than you think and how threat actors are using LLMs. Oregon fails to adopt standard time, NASAs new moon landing, and snapshotting activity on the attosecond scale. __ __
Sportsball weekend. Jon can't pause TV and he's annoyed. Eric still has negative opinions of JavaScript and adds cell towers to the list. Followup on political ad clones. Eric uses ChatGPT to find missing US States. Almost. LassPass is not a Dating App. Phishception is the word of the day. FTC says Fraud Losses top 10 Billion in 2023. For fun, Eric reminds you about XKCD and some random math facts about the number 323. Jon reads up on Lake Kivu's Potential Energy. __ __
Eric Laser Tags and Jon's bees are (mostly) alive; arrests in a 400m crypto heist that may or may not have been from FTX, and the FBI cleans up old routers infected with a PRC botnet; a Chinese company announces new hyperloop speed record, and the winners of the Scrollprize demonstrate extracting text from papyrus charred by Vesuvius. __ __
Eric has an eye for pain while Jon admires his bees and discovers upgrade issues with his TV. Google ads can send you to malicious software and Facebook has 2000+ companies send them your data. Doom runs everywhere, including bacteria while gene therapy treats hearing loss for kids. __ __
The Oregon Thaw has happened and Eric and Jon can leave their houses. There was much rejoicing. Are or will AI Sleeper Agents be a thing, a President Biden Deepfake encouraging New Hampshire voters to stay home, and an extremely large data breach posted to Have I Been Pwned. For fun, the soon to be demise of the Leap Second, and a hidden city discovered in the Amazon thanks to lidar. __ __
It is all about the Ice. Kids out of school, but no Snow Days for the WFH crowd - and Jon avoids walking out his front door. Serving a court summons via Bitcoin is now a thing and irritating Mandiant is generally not a good move. Eric shares fun facts about Ice and Jon talks Noble Gas Clusters. __ __
Eric struggles with plane and weather issues (thanks Alaska!), and Jon drives in the Snow. Researchers demonstrate Denial of Wrench, the SEC is hacked to promote Bitcoin ETFs so they join the party, and Ransomware in 2023. For fun we have the Peregrine lunar lander and the first (?) person to beat Tetris on the NES. __ __
Happy New Year! Adult Diapers, what? Eric jumps a car, Jon eats brisket and has a stinkin' dishwasher. Security Best Practices for Earth and Beyond with more Triangulation Details. Eric likes a space picture and Jon shares a handful of the Good Stories you missed in 2023. __ __
Jon has a relaxing Christmas while Eric faces More Water Issues. Also, tire size matters. The first two Lapsus$ teens are sentenced in the UK, Japan plans to crack down on app stores, Ukraine hacks back for Kyivstar, and SSH servers under attack. What is a Flow Battery and is it better than Lithium Ion, and the Juno space probe will pass close to Io Dec 30th. Happy New Year! __ __
Eric recounts a 2500 mile roadtrip that includes a kidnapping while Jon enjoys concert week. Eric has a secret shoe shopping habit that has been compromized while Jon moots about a map mess. Garage chemists powered by ChatGPT and the world revolves around checks. __ __
Eric and Jon depart in two directions on road trips, Vans, Zoo Lights, and Bee Hives. Binance will be scoured for {evil,taxes}, Beeper Blues, and Push Notification spying by governments. A fun bonanza with We Are Bob, Humane, and Cassiopeia A in stereo(-ish). __ __
Eric gets a new toy and installs a license plate holder thanks to Amazon - and no thanks to Amazon subscriptions. Jon gets his new router table set up and finds a photo frustration. Eric uses an (invalid) excuse to be annoyed with JavaScript while Jon checks in on iOS zero-days and Citrix bugs. The Internation Space Station turns 25, Charlie Munger passes on and we'll see you at CosMc's! (Maybe... or maybe not...) __ __
Eric travels for Thanksgiving and Jon goes there and back again. Adversarial ML against LLMs, whether generated code is secure (it's not), the demise of a Crypto Drainer, and a complaint against Meta's new policy of pay-us-so-we-don't-track-you. For fun we have the California Railroad Museum and a video explaining just how Apple's Thunderbolt 4 USB-C cable can cost $130 (with CAT scans!). __ __
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Eric goes to visit family in California, Jon does a lot of driving and preemptively eats pumpkin pie. Fidelity National Financial has an ooopsie. Something something OpenAI something something. Binance is fined despite not being a US company. Eric takes the family to see the aftermath of the Oroville Dam and Jon explores the volcanic Io. __ __
Jon constructs and Eric cleans house. Let google send your spam, bipartisan (??) surveillance reform bill, and how AI may change democracy. Quantitatively adults have better attention spans now than 30 years ago, and you should read Seth Ring's novels (start with the Titan series). __ __
Eric wrote some code and was reminded what "at the speed of government" means while Jon did some travel and acquired discount Halloween candy. Google introduces a real-time code analysis for side-loaded Android apps and Krebs drops some education on how criminal reshipping services work. Eric suggests you check out neal.fun again while Jon avoids fun for a landmark real estate ruling. __ __
Eric hobnobs with forecasters and Jon has an Electrical Mystery. How Kaspersky intercepted 'Operation Triangulation', Apple's new iMessage contact security, what if YouTube just used the tag, and maybe Microsoft shouldn't be putting 'generative AI engagement polls' next to *all* articles. For fun we have the wild flavors of Coke Creations, and the first CRISPR treatment (for sickle cell) is up for FDA approval Dec 8th. __ __
The rains have returned, Eric's Electric Car Experiment continues, Jon eats weeds and becomes tired. Despite an Oktaober event, 1Password is ok. IOS (the other IOS) has some issues to work through. A Space Winnebago is looking for a reentry permit from the FAA and Jon wants to buy some uncomfortably cool chairs. __ __
Eric gets a car and Jon doesn't quite get into an AirBnB. Sourdough and roast failures. Virtual gaming company hacked via Discord, a part time DJ selling fake or unqualified airplane parts, and Slack's Google Drive integration allows information disclosure. For fun we have roll your own ambient audio (chaos!) and a Marsquake that didn't come from asteroids. __ __
Eric gets some 100 year old sourdough starter and Jon gets an oboe fixed despite the Jason mixup. Microsoft reveals more on a CVE. Have you been squatted? Here Come the Passkeys! Confluence gets a perfect score. Cloud providers weather a DDoS. Eric reveals some astroid dust while Jon goes to watch an eclipse. __ __
Eric crochets and Jon ... doesn't. Deep fakes of Hanks, Gayle King, and Mr. Beast, Google to enforce eMail security standards to send to gMail users, and highs and lows of reproducing a tricky zero day in the libwebp library. For fun we have the Nimbus EV -- a small three wheeled, two seater electric vehicle and the Nobel Prize in Medicine is given to Karikó and Weissman in recognition of their mRNA work that led to the covid vaccines. __ __
Eric goes on a trip to Chicago while Jon drops in at College. Complicated hotel scam and new security features in Windows 11. Eric checks in on OSIRIS-REX and Jon talks about non-Bee Bees. Finally, from the Mostly Security Book Club: We Are Bob and Warbreaker. __ __
Eric wins the Oregon Zoo Volunteers Cornhole Tournament and Jon visits the Tillamook Forestry Center. A Linux malware was served for more than 3 years without notice, food companies battling Mexican label requirements, stopping trains by playing three tones, and identity theft from 1965 discovered by facial recognition. For fun we have inverse vaccines (!!) and the obit of a Bletchley Park codebreaker. __ __
Jon spends the weekend waiting for the fence guy, Eric watches a movie. The International Criminal Court at the Hague will prosecute cyberattacks. Microsoft blogs a bit about Storm-0558. Eric finds a really fast EV and Jon discusses fluid dynamics. __ __
Jon goes fishing and Eric potlucks. The Momas (meals) and the Papas (pals) both have security problems of different sorts. The government goes on a Duck Hunt to shut down QakBot. For fun we have the New York Times word game 'Connections' and a new method to create adult stem cells by resetting the epigenome. __ __