Author Archives: pappp

Article note: Neat. I figured there were some 4BSD bits that just aren't worth touching, but I suppose a lot of the safety and hardening features the OpenBSD folks have piloted require touching everything eventually.

Article note: The weird culturally-enforced dialects in specialist fields are all bizarre. I'm finding modern computer academese really off-putting lately because of all the deceitful behavior I run into coached that way.

Article note: It's a nice 2020 presentation of "Classical CS is counting the wrong thing; arithmetic operations don't matter, most performance optimizatuon on modern systems is about not surprising the caches or branch predictors."

Article note: Just like the bad old days, Microsoft updates fucking bootloaders. This seems to be largely justified on the control-granting security theater around secure boot.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Last Tuesday, loads of Linux users—many running packages released as early as this year—started reporting their devices were failing to boot. Instead, they received a cryptic error message that included the phrase: “Something has gone seriously wrong.”

The cause: an update Microsoft issued as part of its monthly patch release. It was intended to close a 2-year-old vulnerability in GRUB, an open source boot loader used to start up many Linux devices. The vulnerability, with a severity rating of 8.6 out of 10, made it possible for hackers to bypass secure boot, the industry standard for ensuring that devices running Windows or other operating systems don’t load malicious firmware or software during the bootup process. CVE-2022-2601 was discovered in 2022, but for unclear reasons, Microsoft patched it only last Tuesday.

Multiple distros, both new and old, affected

Tuesday’s update left dual-boot devices—meaning those configured to run both Windows and Linux—no longer able to boot into the latter when Secure Boot was enforced. When users tried to load Linux, they received the message: “Verifying shim SBAT data failed: Security Policy Violation. Something has gone seriously wrong: SBAT self-check failed: Security Policy Violation.” Almost immediately support and discussion forums lit up with ​​reports of the failure.

Article note: The more we can break the publishers' hold, the better.

Article note: Man, the disinformation and bullshit are going to be tragic. At the little end, already-a-problem careful timing and framing to hide the crowding and trash at touristy spots, making it disappointing to actually visit, is going to go into overdrive. ... and at the big end, the now the famous soviet disinformation photo editing like the retroactive disappearance of Nikolai Yezhov are just ...normal. That's not gonna be good for our social shared perception of reality.

Article note: That's quicker than usual.

Article note: The part where one private cartel can compel another private cartel (which likes to pretend they're a utility or not based on what's better for them) to cut off an essential service based on a flimsy accusation really is completely absurd.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Bosca78)

A large Internet service provider wants the Supreme Court to rule that ISPs shouldn't have to disconnect broadband users who have been accused of piracy. Cable firm Cox Communications, which is trying to overturn a ruling in a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Sony, petitioned the Supreme Court to take up the case yesterday.

Cox said in a press release that a recent appeals court ruling "would force ISPs to terminate Internet service to households or businesses based on unproven allegations of infringing activity, and put them in a position of having to police their networks—contrary to customer expectations... Terminating Internet service would not just impact the individual accused of unlawfully downloading content, it would kick an entire household off the Internet."

The case began in 2018 when Sony and other music copyright holders sued Cox, claiming that it didn't adequately fight piracy on its network and failed to terminate repeat infringers. A US District Court jury in the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in December 2019 that Cox must pay $1 billion in damages to the major record labels.

Article note: Remember the "Everything must integrate with google+" era? Like that, but dumber.

Article note: Ooh, the suggestion of a structured prior art database for 3D printer technology overseen by eg. OSHWA as a community defense mechanism is a neat idea.