@bentomn@hachyderm.io
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

bentomn

@bentomn@hachyderm.io

app, web backend lately. #GameDev has-been. enjoyed #PostgreSQL. #infosec voyeur.

he/him in Oakland, California
Cover photo shows a fountain pattern in firework powder by Cai Guo-Qiang from the movie Sky Ladder (2016)

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

bentomn, to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“
Why should an upper-crust British interlocutor, clearly disdainful of our country’s policy decisions, be considered a credible figure to tell Americans how to handle our next election? Wasn’t the whole point of the American Revolution to escape these sorts of people unduly meddling in our country’s affairs?
“

The In-Flight Magazine for Corporate Jets - The American Prospect https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-02-in-flight-magazine-for-corporate-jets/

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“
These days, The Economist may have lost a step, perhaps because of its persistent attacks. Biden recently cited its rival, the Financial Times, as his preferred publication.
“

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“
WHY WOULD A PUBLICATION ALL OF A SUDDEN ARGUE against its own policy recommendations from a few years ago, just as they gain traction? “I’ve never seen such an obvious top-down change in editorial line. It’s frankly corrupt and gross,” said Matt Stoller, director of research of the American Economic Liberties Project.

It’s hard to shake the sense that such an abrupt change emanated from outside influence.
“

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“
What The Economist proposed from 2017 to 2019 were tweaks to the system to shore up its legitimacy. The Biden brain trust believed that a much broader transformation was needed to effectively move beyond neoliberalism. “I don’t think the publication was fully prepared for the declaration of ‘a new Washington consensus’ [by national security adviser Jake Sullivan] or giving someone like Lina Khan free rein,” said Singer.
“

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@stuartrobinson I gave up my subscription to The Economist years ago as well. It was probably sometime in the Obama administration. These changes of editorial direction are always curious, and subscribers sticky, so it seems worth talking about. I’ve enjoyed FT when I’ve landed there, and more since the pandemic, but I can’t convince myself to pay their rate.

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“
one of the magazine’s four trustees, who chose the editor in chief, is named Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone
"

“The Baroness was Thatcher's Environment Minister. Of the three other trustees, one is a Dame and another is a Lord.”, according to D. Dayen of The Prospect, in a post on Xitter.

bentomn, to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

If you enjoy watching a motivated team binary analysis, there is one going on here.

https://gist.github.com/smx-smx/a6112d54777845d389bd7126d6e9f504

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

Additional xz binary analysis here, noting fake rsa pub key material that could be logged in certain sshd configurations. Filtering on this string could help defenders with errant config detection.

This note also shows xz modified code that could write fake logging information, turning successful connections into failed connections in the logs.

https://www.wiz.io/blog/cve-2024-3094-critical-rce-vulnerability-found-in-xz-utils

bentomn, (edited ) to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

This is a good, clear note regarding the incident.
What is known, what is unknown.
It distills earlier notes, offers context.

https://gist.github.com/thesamesam/223949d5a074ebc3dce9ee78baad9e27

bentomn, (edited ) to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

Retro collectors.

This more or less new in box C compiler from the ‘90s for m68k AmigaOS shows up on FleeBay from an estate clean out.

It may clear at over $650.

Sure, it’s got a version of CFront for early C++. If you think you need that particular thing, you probably do require it.

At these prices, please tell your friends there are gcc tool chains for the ‘90s hardware, and sometimes clang+llvm+legacy.

Sold at $760.

bentomn, (edited ) to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

Fell down a rabbit hole last night reading about the Jolt single board computer. It was a 6502 based platform, that was a key part of the Atari Video Computer System (VCS) prototype. Design of Jolt started in 1974.

There is a nice collection of photos regarding Jolt here:
http://retro.hansotten.nl/6502-sbc/jolt-and-super-jolt/jolt/

1/7

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

Atari VCS addition to Jolt was primarily “Stella”, initially a wire wrap board for scanline display.

A framebuffer was too expensive due to memory cost.

The original object is now in the collection at the computer history museum.
https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/computer-games/16/185/758

Provenance of the prototype.
https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X725.86

2/7

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“Stella” became the Television Interface Adapter (TIA), a package of ~10k transistors that provided the scanline graphics associated with the VCS.
https://ataricompendium.com/faq/vcs_tia/vcs_tia.html

3/7

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

What I had not seen before was the through line back to the F-14 Tomcat Central Air Data Computer (CADC) from 1968-1970. Those details started to be released in 1998.

They are connected by a key designer, Ray Holt who worked on both the F-14 CADC and later the Jolt single board computer.

https://www.eejournal.com/article/ray-holt-and-the-cadc-the-worlds-first-military-digital-flight-computer/

4/7

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

The project of the F-14 CADC was the first(?) conversion of an electro mechanical computer for flight to a digital one. It was responsible for controlling all the surfaces and gauges used by the F-14.

There are several ways into this material these days.

Here is a 1998 supplemental note to a paper originally written in 1971, that describes the CADC and its capabilities.
https://firstmicroprocessor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/lsistate-97.pdf

5/7

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

Of particular interest looking back are the 20-bit parallel multiplier and divider, and the use of Horner’s method to simplify the sixth degree polynomials to run on this hardware.

The system design was fault tolerant, milspec temperature range, and low power.

There are some scans of these chips here.

(Original link)
https://firstmicroprocessor.com/

(Archive link)
https://web.archive.org/web/20240314015750/https://firstmicroprocessor.com/

6/7

bentomn, (edited )
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

In 2020, a longtime writer for Wired caught up with Ray Holt.

It’s a piece about family, memory, and kindling an interest for these digital things in the next generation.

(Original link)
https://www.wired.com/story/secret-history-of-the-first-microprocessor-f-14/

(Archive link)
https://archive.is/2020.12.24-035332/https://www.wired.com/story/secret-history-of-the-first-microprocessor-f-14/

7/7

quintessence, to random
@quintessence@hachyderm.io avatar

I know this post may date more than a fair few of us, but what was your first computer? (This includes family computers, for those to whom this applies.)

Mine was an Apple IIGS that was bought before I was born. Was reminded of that sweet old school look-and-feel by an account that's tinkering with one on oldbytes.space .

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@quintessence Sinclair ZX80/81 with cassettes at home. Schools had a few Apple II in scattered classrooms at first, and later computer labs of Apple II.

bentomn, (edited ) to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

My new hobby is submitting data to the FCC on what internet services and mobile speeds are available at US addresses I can influence.

You can use this site to submit informational data or challenge claims of availability or speeds at US addresses.

https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/

ai6yr, to random
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

Hmm, well, went to check on the house and the contractors left a giant dump (#2) unflushed and clogged in the toilet, if you're wondering how my remodeling is going.

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@ai6yr Yeah, pretty sure City of Oakland requires homeowners to sign something about renting the porto on permitted improvements over a certain size. When you see a big job going on, and no Porto, it’s a thing. It’s a sensible rule.

lkanies, to random
@lkanies@hachyderm.io avatar

It’s “just” pneumonia (which kills 40k Americans per year), but my evening was quite disrupted.

My second “week before spring break” in a row I’ve spent in the hospital with a family member.

The last time, one of my sisters died.

This time, my father in law got to go home (he was a lot less sick than my sister).

In both cases, we have no idea what the next week will hold, or where we will be.

(Last year, she died and then I went on spring break. If possible, I would avoid this option.)

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@lkanies oh man, hospitals. hope your father in law can get some rest and feel better soon.

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@lkanies yeah, pneumonia is no fun. had my own case early 2000s, wouldn’t wish it on anyone. recovery took quite a while.

all I can suggest is keeping father in law house calm, turning down the lights, discouraging loud tv.

so sorry about your sister, that has got to be so difficult.

a pulse oximeter can bring piece of mind, to keep tabs on oxygenation. hepa filter, maybe.

be sure to put your metaphorical oxygen mask on too. and try to rest.

bentomn,
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

@lkanies you got this. just pace yourself. glad you’ve got more help in two days.

bentomn, to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“There was a moment soon after I moved to New York City from Oregon—though not that soon, maybe two years in, the point being how long my pristine naïveté resisted corruption—when I realized that every new literary person I met had gone to Harvard or Brown.”

A chronicle of wealth and class in the literary world - Emily Cooke - Bookforum Magazine https://www.bookforum.com/print/2305/a-chronicle-of-wealth-and-class-in-the-literary-world-17183

bentomn, to random
@bentomn@hachyderm.io avatar

“As reporters, we wanted a newsroom where we called the shots,” said Pinto. “We know what we think is newsworthy; we don’t need multiple layers of people second-guessing that.”

via jayrosen_nyu

Journalism is in freefall. These writers aren’t giving up: ‘We can go out swinging’ | US press and publishing | The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/mar/02/journalism-us-media-industry-layoffs-co-ops

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