Natanael, Tech janitor
@natanael.bsky.social
A nerd who likes cryptography. A bit weird, a bit witty, a bit whimsical
Fediverse: @[email protected]
DM open. For E2EE IM: @Natanael_L:matrix.org
ccTLD: SE
Mod @ https://reddit.com/r/crypto for cryptography
Fediverse: @[email protected]
DM open. For E2EE IM: @Natanael_L:matrix.org
ccTLD: SE
Mod @ https://reddit.com/r/crypto for cryptography
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
NFTs & Web3 probably also have similar charts because SV has basically a spaghetti cannon approach to the “next big” thing and well oiled hype machine (tech journos) that will amplify anything they say
Turns out interest in Metaverse had about a ~9 month half life.
November 24, 2025 at 11:04 AM
NFTs & Web3 probably also have similar charts because SV has basically a spaghetti cannon approach to the “next big” thing and well oiled hype machine (tech journos) that will amplify anything they say
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
Wow, QUIC Retry Packets use AES-GCM with a fixed key/nonce, empty plaintext, and associated data prefixed with a secret as a sort of MAC. That's... terrifying?
They essentially do MAC(K, v) = AES-GCM(key=const, nonce=const, plaintext=empty, aad=K||v). Does that actually hold?
They essentially do MAC(K, v) = AES-GCM(key=const, nonce=const, plaintext=empty, aad=K||v). Does that actually hold?
RFC 9001: Using TLS to Secure QUIC
This document describes how Transport Layer Security (TLS) is used to secure QUIC.
quicwg.org
November 24, 2025 at 10:51 AM
Wow, QUIC Retry Packets use AES-GCM with a fixed key/nonce, empty plaintext, and associated data prefixed with a secret as a sort of MAC. That's... terrifying?
They essentially do MAC(K, v) = AES-GCM(key=const, nonce=const, plaintext=empty, aad=K||v). Does that actually hold?
They essentially do MAC(K, v) = AES-GCM(key=const, nonce=const, plaintext=empty, aad=K||v). Does that actually hold?
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
It’s not like there aren’t elderly liberals to scam! Just not by foreigners stoking the culture war, I guess
open.substack.com/pub/data4dem...
open.substack.com/pub/data4dem...
Spam PACs Raise Money by Deceiving Seniors
One 89-year-old woman made 7,532 donations totaling $68,666
open.substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:17 PM
It’s not like there aren’t elderly liberals to scam! Just not by foreigners stoking the culture war, I guess
open.substack.com/pub/data4dem...
open.substack.com/pub/data4dem...
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
One fascinating and yet expected thing is that none of the big foreign accounts pretending to be American are left of center, or even anti-Trump. Not a single one. Says something about the economics and geopolitics of political grifting
If I’m understanding this correctly, X is owned by a white nationalist who pays poor people of color in developing countries to pretend to be working class white Americans to scare other white Americans into being afraid poor people of color from developing countries are going to ruin America?
November 23, 2025 at 11:08 PM
One fascinating and yet expected thing is that none of the big foreign accounts pretending to be American are left of center, or even anti-Trump. Not a single one. Says something about the economics and geopolitics of political grifting
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
There is apparently a COVID-like epidemic hitting horses in the US. EHV-1.
November 24, 2025 at 12:39 AM
There is apparently a COVID-like epidemic hitting horses in the US. EHV-1.
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
President insists his word is the one and only law in this land.
November 23, 2025 at 1:01 PM
President insists his word is the one and only law in this land.
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
Minimum for anyone running for congress imo
Impeachment isn’t an option, it’s a necessity. I know firsthand the lengths Trump is willing to go in order to silence dissent.
Impeach, convict, remove. And if our current leaders won’t do it, they need to step aside for people who will: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo54...
Impeach, convict, remove. And if our current leaders won’t do it, they need to step aside for people who will: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo54...
Trump Wrongly Indicted Me, I’ll Rightly Impeach Him | Kat Abughazaleh Speaks at Lincoln Memorial
YouTube video by Kat Abughazaleh
www.youtube.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Minimum for anyone running for congress imo
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
If people are not committing murder, correctly telling them that murder is illegal is, itself, illegal.
November 23, 2025 at 11:43 PM
If people are not committing murder, correctly telling them that murder is illegal is, itself, illegal.
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
“Despite telling the officers he was an American citizen, one of them broke the driver’s side window and detained him. In a video shared to the outlet by Cesar Jimenez, Christian can reportedly be heard asserting his citizenship while an officer responds “get out of the car” and “I don’t care.”
ICE detained teenaged US citizen during school lunch break, family says
ICE detained teenaged US citizen during school lunch break, family says
Christian Jimenez, Oregon high school senior, faces possible obstruction charges after traffic stop by immigration agents
www.theguardian.com
November 23, 2025 at 11:13 PM
“Despite telling the officers he was an American citizen, one of them broke the driver’s side window and detained him. In a video shared to the outlet by Cesar Jimenez, Christian can reportedly be heard asserting his citizenship while an officer responds “get out of the car” and “I don’t care.”
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
I was raised by my grandparents. My grandfather grew up Dickensian- street- urchin- poor on the streets in Manhattan; fought in WWII; and then got a good union civil service job that allowed him to retire after 30 years with a pension at age 61. The loss of that historic connection is a problem now.
I feel like a lot of us were privileged to be among the last generation to be able to learn under the 60's civil rights generation. What im seeing today from this newer generation of children is a serious lack of grounding, which i think is due to them not having direct access to the type of
November 24, 2025 at 1:03 AM
I was raised by my grandparents. My grandfather grew up Dickensian- street- urchin- poor on the streets in Manhattan; fought in WWII; and then got a good union civil service job that allowed him to retire after 30 years with a pension at age 61. The loss of that historic connection is a problem now.
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
Not the worst thing about this of course, but the idea that medieval Europe judicially executed 2% of the population is ludicrous. Even at the highest peaks you get nowhere close to 1 in every 50 people. That's wartime massacres territory.
November 24, 2025 at 12:58 AM
Not the worst thing about this of course, but the idea that medieval Europe judicially executed 2% of the population is ludicrous. Even at the highest peaks you get nowhere close to 1 in every 50 people. That's wartime massacres territory.
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
Meta halted internal research that purportedly showed (young) people who stopped using Facebook became less depressed and anxious, according to an unredacted legal filing released on Friday. www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/m...
Meta halted internal research suggesting social media harm, court filing alleges
Meta is alleged to have halted internal research suggesting social media harm, according to court documents.
www.cnbc.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Meta halted internal research that purportedly showed (young) people who stopped using Facebook became less depressed and anxious, according to an unredacted legal filing released on Friday. www.cnbc.com/2025/11/23/m...
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
Patent trolls couldn’t kill patent challenges in Congress. They couldn’t kill them in court. Now the Patent Office is trying to do it for them. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
The Patent Office Is About To Make Bad Patents Untouchable
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has proposed new rules that would effectively end the public’s ability to challenge improperly granted patents at the Patent Office itself. We need EFF
www.eff.org
November 23, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Patent trolls couldn’t kill patent challenges in Congress. They couldn’t kill them in court. Now the Patent Office is trying to do it for them. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
That and the atmosphere that breeds that metric
It’s not the metric it’s the people who make it
It’s not the metric it’s the people who make it
Engagement KPIs have been responsible for infinite scroll UI traps, RecSys radicalization spirals, public shame brigades, and basically every modern ailment novel to the past decade. At some point, you have to recognize that the problem isn't any one technology, it's the metric.
The company essentially turned a dial that made ChatGPT more appealing and made people use it more, but sent some of them into delusional spirals.
OpenAI has since made the chatbot safer, but that comes with a tradeoff: less usage.
OpenAI has since made the chatbot safer, but that comes with a tradeoff: less usage.
November 23, 2025 at 10:55 PM
That and the atmosphere that breeds that metric
It’s not the metric it’s the people who make it
It’s not the metric it’s the people who make it
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
The X reveal was fantastic for pointing that in a culture war, nobody even needs to from the culture they are fighting for or even country they claim to be fighting for.
I.e. Many in this fight sit on a throne of lies.
I.e. Many in this fight sit on a throne of lies.
Ian Miles Cheong: Everyone must go back to the country where they are born. Please don't tell people I'm living in Malaysia, where I was born, but spend my entire life complaining about America.
Ian Miles Cheong: *has been secretly living in Dubai this whole time*
Ian Miles Cheong: *has been secretly living in Dubai this whole time*
Someone is having concerns about Twitter privacy all of a sudden
November 23, 2025 at 10:59 PM
The X reveal was fantastic for pointing that in a culture war, nobody even needs to from the culture they are fighting for or even country they claim to be fighting for.
I.e. Many in this fight sit on a throne of lies.
I.e. Many in this fight sit on a throne of lies.
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
This is the way.
November 23, 2025 at 9:04 PM
This is the way.
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
back on the jpegxl hope train
Google Revisits JPEG XL in Chromium After Earlier Removal
Google has resumed work on JPEG XL support in Chromium after removing it three years ago. A developer says the current version is feature complete and under review.
windowsreport.com
November 23, 2025 at 9:51 AM
back on the jpegxl hope train
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
ok one last post -- oldheads are always going to "why is the web dying.... how can we get the kids invested in the free and open web"
bro the kids can't read. that's why the web is dying. first things first
bro the kids can't read. that's why the web is dying. first things first
November 11, 2025 at 6:49 PM
ok one last post -- oldheads are always going to "why is the web dying.... how can we get the kids invested in the free and open web"
bro the kids can't read. that's why the web is dying. first things first
bro the kids can't read. that's why the web is dying. first things first
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
I think the shortest version of why LLMs are an anti education technology is that education is fundamentally about making shared context to understand ourselves, each other, and the world
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
November 23, 2025 at 12:57 PM
I think the shortest version of why LLMs are an anti education technology is that education is fundamentally about making shared context to understand ourselves, each other, and the world
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
And by design LLMs destroy shared context
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
November 23, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
y'know, if tech companies weren't so fired up to call every single thing "AI" it would be a lot easier to distinguish "ML spam filter that is well-sandboxed and tuned on your emails" from "giant context and IP-eroding foundation model that makes people paranoid and unhappy"
since the "google is now training gemini on your email contents" thing keeps bumping around here: it's _not happening_. I say this not to defend google but because I know a lot of people that have broken their filtering and made their lives much more annoying from sheer misinformation.
The malwarebytes Google opting-your-emails-into-ai-training thing is not true. The post is based on one bad tweet.
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
I know anti-tech lamenting is a Bluesky core principle, but please use the same judgement you would for any other clickbait.
www.theverge.com/news/826902/...
November 23, 2025 at 12:58 PM
y'know, if tech companies weren't so fired up to call every single thing "AI" it would be a lot easier to distinguish "ML spam filter that is well-sandboxed and tuned on your emails" from "giant context and IP-eroding foundation model that makes people paranoid and unhappy"
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
despite everyone sort of knowing fed soc was affirmative action for asshole beliefs, there was still a lot of prestige attached to it. there was negative prestige attached to, say, critical legal studies.
November 22, 2025 at 6:59 PM
despite everyone sort of knowing fed soc was affirmative action for asshole beliefs, there was still a lot of prestige attached to it. there was negative prestige attached to, say, critical legal studies.
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
Difficult to overstate how profound a failure DOGE was. Spending in FY2025 was not only than in FY2024 – but higher than it was projected to be when Trump first took office.*
The little bit of spending DOGE cut has already killed hundreds of thousands and will eventually lead to millions of deaths.
The little bit of spending DOGE cut has already killed hundreds of thousands and will eventually lead to millions of deaths.
Bye bye, “DOGE”.
It no longer exists as a “centralized entity”, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/dog...
It no longer exists as a “centralized entity”, according to the Office of Personnel Management.
@reuters.com
www.reuters.com/world/us/dog...
November 23, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Difficult to overstate how profound a failure DOGE was. Spending in FY2025 was not only than in FY2024 – but higher than it was projected to be when Trump first took office.*
The little bit of spending DOGE cut has already killed hundreds of thousands and will eventually lead to millions of deaths.
The little bit of spending DOGE cut has already killed hundreds of thousands and will eventually lead to millions of deaths.
Reposted by Natanael, Tech janitor
Don’t sanewash this, media. The Trump White House forfeited benefit of the doubt a while ago. They pushed an awful, very Russia-friendly plan for Ukraine, and are now lying to save face.
You can tell because the plan aligns with their year-long efforts, and the current lies contradict each other.
You can tell because the plan aligns with their year-long efforts, and the current lies contradict each other.
Pretty obvious what happened
Team Trump, high on their own supply and sympathetic to Russia, thought they could make Ukraine surrender and declare Trump a glorious peacemaker.
Then they got out of their bubble into reality, embarrassingly flopped, and are now scrambling to lie trying to save face.
Team Trump, high on their own supply and sympathetic to Russia, thought they could make Ukraine surrender and declare Trump a glorious peacemaker.
Then they got out of their bubble into reality, embarrassingly flopped, and are now scrambling to lie trying to save face.
November 23, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Don’t sanewash this, media. The Trump White House forfeited benefit of the doubt a while ago. They pushed an awful, very Russia-friendly plan for Ukraine, and are now lying to save face.
You can tell because the plan aligns with their year-long efforts, and the current lies contradict each other.
You can tell because the plan aligns with their year-long efforts, and the current lies contradict each other.