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Topics - bugmenоt

#1
Cellebrite is the producer of surveillance technology used by many government agencies to quickly grab and analyze all data on an unlocked smartphone. They recently claimed to have hacked Signal. The claim was something between an overstatement and a lie, however enough to piss off its creator Moxie Marlinspike. He now claims to have found security holes in Cellebrites software which would make it possible to prepare a smartphone in a way that, if police is scanning it using Cellebrite's software, the police's computer can be compromised. This could render any gathered evidence useless in front of a court. He's also implying that he'll add that exploit to randomly selected Signal users' phones. Oh, and he claims to have found out that the software is distributed with a file owned by Apple without their consent, which could also be legally juicy.


https://signal.org/blog/cellebrite-vulnerabilities/
#2
Bring and Brag / Puzzles
February 03, 2020, 09:27:46 PM
A few puzzles I spent way more time on creating than I'm comfortable to admit.

https://tinyurl.com/t8hymdk

Don't mind the link shortener, it's supposed to keep the search engines from pointing to PD when someone googles the actual url. And yes, the website claims that there's a group behind it. It's a lie.
#3
... but not quite dead. Nice to lurk around every few months or so. Might try posting something relevant some day.
#5
Two vast and trunkless legs of stone / Reunion
November 20, 2017, 02:33:50 PM
Reunion with two old friends. Initial subject: The newly released Firefox Quantum. Subject quickly changes to quantum physics. First I'm having difficulties following because I am conditioned to activate the noise filter as soon as somebody claims to have knowledge about quantum physics (reason: repeated depressing encounters with the "a 15m youtube video taught me everything about quantum physics" / "Fuck SI units, my yoga teacher's definition of energy is all I need for understanding this" / "My cousin built a perpetual motion machine in his garage, but it doesn't work anymore because the oil industry sabotaged it" learning type). However, the old friend is a legit physicist ready to provide valuable insights, patiently trying to minimize misconceptions. What was initially planned to be an evening of blunt intoxication turned out to be an evening of informative intoxication. Subject changes to quantum encryption, then IT security, then programming languages, then linguistics. We try to drunk call Noam Chomsky at one point, without success. Change subjects with increased frequency. Fight over which russian anarchist had the mightiest beard. It's Kropotkin, not Bakunin. End up mutually accusing each others of being closet Stirnerists, making everybody angry for a short while. Find back to IT subjects via crypto-anarchism. Have techno-babble for a while. Question comes up "what's the first file you remember having on your computer?". Obviously it's not porn. Physicist friend says he remembers a weird PDF he got from me before he had internet access. Holy shit, it was the first book of Wilson's Illuminatus Trilogy. The nostalgia. Talk about the books and related matters for the rest of the evening.

Next day. Look at phone, find note to myself: "look up the No-cloning theorem". Look it up. Click some links. Read article about Nick Herbert, whose proposal of superluminal communication provoqued others into developing the No-cloning theorem. Apparently he's also into esotericism. Guy's still alive and has a website. http://www2.cruzio.com/~quanta/. The website is a fossil from the 90s but waitwtf: "Tributes to Pope Robert Anton Wilson"? Two photo galleries dedicated to RAW. They were buddies. Heh. I hope he never stops randomly appearing.
#6
I want to automatically replace html entities by their according characters in bash. For example, the string "Fremdsprachige Bücher" should become "Fremdsprachige Bücher".

The function should take any string as input and replace any html entity in it by the character it represents. It will use the file "html_entities.csv" as a lookup table, which looks like this:

Code (html_entities.csv) Select

...
upsilon;υ
Uuml;Ü
uuml;ü
weierp;℘
Xi;Ξ
...


This is the script so far:

Code (sanitize.sh) Select

sanitizeHTML() {
OUTSTRING="$1"
cat "html_entities.csv" | while read LINE; do
  IFS=';' read FROM TO <<< "$LINE"
  MATCH="&$FROM;"
  while [[ $OUTSTRING =~ (.*)$MATCH(.*) ]]; do
    OUTSTRING="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}$TO${BASH_REMATCH[2]}"
    echo "DURING LOOP IT DOES THIS: $OUTSTRING"
  done
done
echo "AFTER LOOP IT DOES THIS: $OUTSTRING"
}

sanitizeHTML "Fremdsprachige B&uuml;cher"


But the output is this:

DURING LOOP IT DOES THIS: Fremdsprachige Bücher
AFTER LOOP IT DOES THIS: Fremdsprachige B&uuml;cher


The replacement seems to work during the loop, but why does $OUTSTRING contain the original html entities after the loop? I'd like to solve this without grep or sed by the way.
#7
Most of you probably use social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or Reddit. What these three have in common is that an amount of points is displayed along with each post or comment.

Every other month or so, I like to roam the realms of PD to see how you heathens are doing. Today I had a fnordesque moment when scrolling through whatever thread. While reading a comment I caught myself red-handed looking for the amount of points it had. I must have subconsciously expected the forum to tell me how much I should agree to that specific comment. But it didn't. Even the users' post counts are not trustworthy on here.

Like some sort of animal, I had to think for myself. No wonder the user counts are declining.
#8
Aneristic Illusions / They do it while we're distracted
January 30, 2017, 01:37:05 PM
They do it while we're distracted, so we won't complain that much. It's an old trick. Timing is key. Things that may make us feel uneasy are announced during major look-at-me-ings. Some will still notice and feel uneasy, some might even loudly oppose, but no critical mass will be reached. In 2009, I felt quite uneasy when Time Warner announced their takeover of DC Comics. I mean how could they, seriously. I felt sad that day.

Today I learned that AT&T is buying Time Warner. Of course this was announced in the middle of the U.S. Presidency Death Match Extravaganza, and of course it went under my radar until today. Look at the assets already owned by Time Warner, which will now be swallowed by AT&T.

I'm feeling quite uneasy right now.
#9
Hi, I made a German translation of the BIP. Have fun.

Cheers
#10
http://www.the-other.info/2014/disney-gangs

This is hilarious. I'm considering joining the SONS OF ANAKIN.
#11
Two vast and trunkless legs of stone / BELGIUM
July 01, 2014, 10:50:21 PM
 :sotw:
#12
Principia Discussion / What about Kreg Thornley?
May 14, 2014, 10:51:24 PM
Wasn't there the website "kregthornley.com"? If I recall correctly, there was some weird experimental music on it.. and some photos I don't remember.
The wayback machine sadly provides everything but the content: https://web.archive.org/web/20130601063855/http://kregthornley.com/
Can anyone provide a link to his works?
#13
Literate Chaotic / Hermann Hesse
May 07, 2014, 09:13:06 AM
I've managed to avoid Hermann Hesse for a long time. Not sure why I avoided him, maybe because of the "mainstream is bad" meme I have acquired during my teenage years. Many pals told me that his books are must-read, that he was so insightful, that he was so ahead of his time, etc...
So, in the last few days, in order to fill some educational gaps, I've read "Demian" and "Der Steppenwolf". I didn't like them. At all. I had the impression that all he does is provide readers (who, of course, identity with the protagonist) with the following thought process: "You're so smart and unique, your smarter than most people, but you suffer because you're stuck between two worlds, you're a herd animal and an individual, this is very bad but can't be evaded because that's how you are, however you can find other people who are like you, in fact, everyone is like this."
My reaction: "Duh!". Do his thought processes seem so worn out to me because my culture has been dealing with them for a long time now? These thoughts have been reiterated over and over again at least since Goethe. Why did my parent's generation seem to love Hesse that much? What did I miss? Am I simply getting to old for enjoying Hesse? Is Siddharta still worth reading?
#15
The program "ddate" converts gregorian date into discordian date which is described in the principia discordia. The output looks like this:
"Today is Pungenday, the 56th day of The Aftermath in the YOLD 3176"

That piece of software is installed on every default installation of any ubuntu version and many debian systems. The manpage links to subgenius.com.
The ubuntu repositories also contain programs called "hdate" and "itools" for hebrew and muslim calendars, but contrary to ddate, they both have to be installed manually.

So dear people living in muslim/jewish zones, please strengthen your open source communities, or else debian will have to quit support for your keyboard layouts, language support and time zone. Thanks in advance.
#16
Post here if you are in. I propose next weekend. I propose the add-on BtS.
Duration will be at least 15 hours.
#17
Propaganda Depository / Melting two faces with MorphMan
January 20, 2010, 04:52:49 PM
I've been playing around with this software. I was able to download it by googling "morphman rapidshare". Then of course i bought it as always.

Usage: Load two portraits of different people into the program. Set spots to show the software the different areas of the face (Click on both right eyes, click on the ears etc... the more spots the better). Let the faces melt.





#18
After a lot of talking about it and trying to convince my friends that it really exists, I finally ordered it:

QuoteOCZ's Neural Impulse Actuator (nia) marks a new era in gaming. Rather than being a substitute for a mouse, the nia is a pioneering new peripheral to be used in conjunction with your mouse for a more immersive gaming experience. The nia is compatible with any PC game using keyboard input... past, present, or future. Predefined profiles included with the software allow the gamer to develop their own nia—memory to launch the desired behavior of their character and shoot with the "blink of an eye", without lifting a finger.

http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/ocz_peripherals/nia-neural_impulse_actuator

Isnt this cool? On monday Im getting one of these. Its not the "more immersive gaming experience" im looking for, but I just want to move a cursor and press keys with my thoughts.
Experiences will be posted.
#19
Bring and Brag / Christian missionaries
November 28, 2009, 05:17:59 PM
Christmas is coming. Again I have observed an increasing number of christians who want other people to accept Jesus. Two days ago i saw two guys who, shouting, read bible passages in front of children on a schoolyard. I talked to them but I can't talk to all of them.

So I've opened a self reflection/discussion platform for them by writing and hanging up those posters:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23292164/gotteswort

It may happen that you prefer the english version:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23292230/Gods-Word

Any suggestions to make it more effective?
#20
The first place where I read the word "memebomb" was this board. As I understood a memebomb is a short phrase which is intended to change the reader's consciousness of certain things. It must be a well prepared meme though, because the writer of the meme probably has some idea about how this change would have to look like. Or maybe the intention is to change a specific part of the reader's consciousness in a random way? Or even change random parts of it in a random way?

Since i read about memebombs, i have compared them with specially crafted packages which are sent in a computer network to gain privileges on an other computer or to change it's settings. Ok i have started to compare humans to computers, so i go on. Let's say every human being has a basic root shell for it's own machine. It has access to a large number of hardware/software functions such as moving our legs, getting signals of the eyes or linking a tree to the word "tree".

Our hardware drivers symbolize our power to use those functions. As a child, we have learnt how to walk, how to interpret the signals coming from the eyes (e.g. turning the image upside down in our mind because it's sent to us upside down) and how to call a tree "tree". As a child we wrote those drivers by ourselves, learning the functions from observing/getting taught by others or through the success-failure-principle. After writing such a driver the next step is to get used to the driver. At this point we compile the driver into a binary in order to have it ready to use at every moment. In this step most of our driver's source code information becomes unnessecary or gets lost. As soon a driver shows acceptable results we forget all about the learning process, how the driver came together and possible bugs contained. We just use it. We don't have to think how to walk, how to see and how to acknowledge a tree.

For acknowledging a tree is quite a simple mental activity, let's look at more complicated ones, like opinions or social behaviour. We also have read-and-write access to our "having opinions" or "acting in a group" drivers, but we tend to synchronize our data with other humans and we have problems telling apart our self-written data and another one's data. Also there are many security holes which lead to unwanted manipulation and which allow others to inject specially crafted packages, such as propaganda, advertising or memebombs. But how to protect oneself from manipulation? A common practise is to finaly compile one's own opinion drivers and delete the source code, so they seemingly can't be changed by anyone anymore. This practise gives one the illusion of security and i call it dogma. In fact, compiling your own opinion into a dogma and deleting the source code makes manipulation more difficult only for yourself. For people who want to manipulate you it's mostly still the same game because a manipulator doesn't nessecarily have to know your source sode. There are many other ways to find security holes: Observing your output signals (words, noise, body language...), studying human's program code (psychology, esoteric crap), hardware details (neuroscience) or just intuition.

What's the difference between propaganda and meme bombs? I think propaganda wants to change the opinion drivers of people in a specific way and make people compile those drivers after changing. Memebombs howewer want to get people to de-compile or rewrite their own opinion drivers and keep as many drivers as possible open source. Both propaganda and memebombs seem to become more efficient if they are seen/heard more often.

Some questions to all meme bombers:
1. What methods for finding security holes and preparing the proper memebombs do you prefer? 
2. (How) do you want to modify the drivers of the reader? 
#21
Think for Yourself, Schmuck! / BIP german translation
November 03, 2009, 02:01:12 PM
I'm going to spend time translating some of the Black Iron Prison texts into german. I intend to keep the phrases quite near to the original, except where it sounds silly. (That's why i hate the german translation of the PD). So i will try to use appropriate german metaphores etc instead of the english ones.

As english is a school language to me, i keep stumbling upon phrases which i don't really understand. At this point i ask for your help. Some sentences will be left in english and marked red. Please explain those sentences to me.

Thanks in advance.
#22
a hobby of mine is collecting all kinds of files. for example ebooks. i mostly fish them out of p2p/irc networks or ftp servers.
i can't read most of them because there are too many and they partially suck. but i try to tag and sort them as good as necessary.
nor can i upload them all because doing so could cause trouble with the law and i don't want to filter the collection (furthermore there would have to be different filters for different countries and so on...)

so i decided to make a list of my current collection and put this list online. so if someone wants to have some of my ebooks (only books which cause no trouble with the law), you can post here and i will post a download link. it might take time.

here is the link to the list:
http://lix.in/-4eaeef

at the moment, only the sections "spiritual" and "action" (EDIT: and "fiction") and their subsections are listed.
that's because other sections like "philosophy" or "science" are not yet properly downloaded or tagged. this will take time.
#23
Literate Chaotic / RAW interviews and essays
July 03, 2008, 06:37:48 PM
i found a small collection of essays and interviews from raw. so i uploaded it. i didn't upload the audiobooks and ebooks, because i was told that for each illegal upload, god kills a little baby kitty.

the following should be legally ok.

http://00s.00.funpic.de/raw/
#24
Or Kill Me / that old guy...
June 13, 2008, 06:45:22 PM
This is a true story written as kinda-poem.
I want to get some experience in writing english stuff.

[no title]

In the town where i grew up
there's that station and that pub.
And every time i'm passing by
I see that old strange-looking guy

His skin looks raw, his ears are huge...
huge and hairy, somehow scary.
Most of the time, his eyes are closed...
not a single blink, he seems to think.

Or maybe he's just sleeping.

So he's asleep or he is not,
now i'm getting to the plot:

There is that noise he always makes.

a whirring, humming, snoring something.

There's that man who makes that noise,
and absolutely noone knows
if it stems from his voice
or after all from his nose.

a whirring, humming, snoring something.

it could be both from his voice and his nose
but noone really knows.
except of him i guess.

One day I wanted to ask him.
But I don't speak his language.

There's that man who makes that noise,
and absolutely noone knows
if it stems from his voice
or after all from his nose.

It sounds so calm and wise.
And with his always closed eyes,

the guy looks like buddha.

A russian buddha or something.