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smolsky

185 karma · joined September 2, 2010

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smolsky··on Capstone Disassembler Framework
It's difficult to find a succinct overview. Here is a slide deck buried among links: http://www.capstone-engine.org/BHUSA2014-capstone.pdf
smolsky··on Dune 3D 1.1.0 Released
Oh, I thought this was an OSS remake Dune II. How sad... heh.
smolsky··on Open Sourcing DOS 4
OMG, I remember copying official 5.25 disks back in the 90s...
smolsky··on Reverse engineering a software crack
Nice!

P.S. who remembers the legendary Phrozen Crew cracks? They were minimal byte patches that often toggled a conditional jump in an MS-DOS app/game...

smolsky··on Hiew Hex Editor
Is there x86-x64 assembler? If so, I would have put that on the front page...
smolsky··on Hiew Hex Editor
LOL, shout out to SEN - I used his tool, Hiew back in 1994 for the first time. Good times.

P.S. I still use it from time to time - it has a nice built-in assembler for x86/x86-x64.

smolsky··on Microsoft wants to move Windows to the cloud
LOL, behold the MS-branded VNC!
smolsky··on The Design of SQLite4 (2014)
Did they fold the LSM idea? What about the single global namespace in which all records live?
smolsky··on The Design of SQLite4 (2014)
Oh, wow, that's right. That note is here: https://sqlite.org/src4/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki
smolsky··on Why does trying to break into the NT 3.1 kernel reboot my 486DX4 machine?
LOL, I remember compiling a tiny C program that sent a TCP packet to NT 4.0 to trigger a hang...
smolsky··on Gitless: A simple VCS built on top of Git
All good critique. Not sure whether it's better to overload a command or force users to remember multiple ones...

I used Mercurial 12 years ago before learning Git - it was a great stepping stone. I loved `hg` CLI as things made sense for the workflow.

smolsky··on Never trust a programmer who says they know C++
LOL, someone told me in an interview that they are a C++ expert. I asked them if that refers to their company, or the wider community, or the C++ Committee members or the C++ compiler frontend maintainers.

It should be a science. It should be closer to core math. And yet it often feels closer to performance arts w.r.t. the individual's level.

smolsky··on Google Pixel Fold
Oh no... am I the only one disappointed that they made it fold the wrong way? I was hoping for a phone that's half the size of Pixel7 when folded...
smolsky··on Show HN: Procal: A simple Qt-based programming calculator
LOL, here is my C++ implementation of the same concept: https://github.com/os12/calc
smolsky··on Show HN: Procal: A simple Qt-based programming calculator
LOL, nice! I wrote something quite similar a few years ago: https://github.com/os12/calc
smolsky··on Laser-Based Audio Injection Attacks on Voice-Controllable Systems [pdf]
For the ones too lazy to RTFA:

VIII. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK

In this paper we presented LightCommands , which is an attack that uses light to inject commands into voice-controllable systems from large distances. To mount the attack, an attacker transmits light modulated with an audio signal, which is converted back to the original audio signal within a microphone. We demonstrated LightCommands on many commercially available voice-controllable systems that use Siri, Portal, Google Assistant, and Alexa, obtaining successful command injections at a maximum distance of more than 100 meters while penetrating clear glass windows. Next, we highlight deficiencies in the security of voice-controllable systems, which leads to additional compromises of third-party hardware such as locks and cars. Better understanding of the physics behind the attack will benefit both new attacks and countermeasures. In particular, we can possibly use the same principle to mount other acoustic injection attacks (e.g., on motion sensors) using light. In addition, heating by laser can also be an effective way of injecting false signals to sensors.

smolsky··on A mobile phone that respects your freedom [video]
She is the CTO. So, let's rephrase your statement: "If she were your boss, ...."
smolsky··on 15 states are trying to make the electoral college obselete
CA voter here - I believe that's correct to an extent. This is a blue state so you cannot influence presidential election here. However, there are local policies/measures/propositions and that is why people turn up to vote.
smolsky··on 15 states are trying to make the electoral college obselete
...and adjustments have been happening over many decades. That's why, say, California has many more electoral votes (55) than Montana (3). Yet it's still not completely proportional as California has about 40M people while Montana has just over 1M.
smolsky··on Uber S-1
I think the word you are looking for is "quadratic".
smolsky··on Uber S-1
So, here a line from their "Consolidated Statements of Operations":

  Other income (expense), net:  139, (16), 4,993
The three numbers representing 2016, 2017 and 2018. The company is _only_ $997M down for 2018 because of that $4,993M item.

Can someone explain what that is? Will it re-occur in the coming years?

smolsky··on Lyft Crashes Below IPO Price
Lyft, Uber, Yellow Cab, Local Shitty Cab.
smolsky··on Lyft Crashes Below IPO Price
Well, the financials look shady to me: $900 loss and no plan in sight. Perhaps the IPO euphoria was that short-lived?

Regarding the post-ipo crash - yeah, FB did that. Yet they turned a good profit soon after and then rebounded.

smolsky··on Tesla Model Y
Well, I would like to get a Model 3, yet I want Tesla to get glitches out of their production first. I am sure v2 will be much better (sw/hw issues, trim quality, gaps etc).

And then they need to start all over with Model Y. What quality expectations are there?

smolsky··on Ghidra, NSA's reverse-engineering tool
I don't think that is possible. I used early versions of IDA Pro on MS-DOS in 1996... and it had the core analysis and interactive disasm mode then. Ghidra seems to be based on this very concept, all the way down to the "XREF" labels. Even the sub-panels in the UI look the same: Imports, Exports, Symbols...
smolsky··on Ghidra, NSA's reverse-engineering tool
Let's not forget https://www.radare.org which is trying to be a OSS IDA Pro.
smolsky··on $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now
Yeah, I hear you.

Yet all you (we) need to do is find a friend/colleague with a Model 3 and go to lunch/test-drive together. In fact, I would value my friend's frank opinion over a slimy car salesman's one.

smolsky··on $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now
Not really, a Civic starts at 20K in the USA.
smolsky··on $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now
...and yet I managed to knock the price down by 5K and 2K off MSRP when I bought my last 2 vehicles. So this destination charge is often a moot point with regular car brands/dealers.
smolsky··on $35,000 Tesla Model 3 Available Now
It's cheap in NorCal - my friend had a Model 3 delivered by a dude. Literally. A dude drove his car to his house and then called Uber.

P.S. by "dude" I meant that the man just drove the car to the owner's place from their Fremont factory (30 min).

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