I was curating my Obsidian vault and came across the list of penetration testing and red teaming blogs I heavily consulted a decade ago. Good times… It was like finding a time capsule! Here are the links - note many no longer work (and look at how many begin with http!): http://carnal0wnage.blogspot.com/ http://www.mcgrewsecurity.com/ http://www.gnucitizen.org/blog/ http://www.darknet.org.uk/ http://spylogic.net/ http://taosecurity.blogspot.com/ http://www.room362.com/ http://blog.sipvicious.org/ http://blog.portswigger.net/ http://pentestmonkey.net/blog/ http://jeremiahgrossman.blogspot.com/ http://i8jesus.com/ http://blog.c22.cc/ http://www.skullsecurity.org/blog/ http://blog.metasploit.com/ http://www.darkoperator.com/ http://blog.skeptikal.org/ http://preachsecurity.blogspot.com/ http://www.tssci-security.com/ http://www.gdssecurity.com/l/b/ http://websec.wordpress.com/ http://bernardodamele.blogspot.com/ http://laramies.blogspot.com/ http://www.spylogic.net/ http://blog.andlabs.org/ http://xs-sniper.com/blog/ http://www.commonexploits.com/ http://www.sensepost.com/blog/ http://wepma.blogspot.com/ http://exploit.co.il/ http://securityreliks.wordpress.com/ http://www.madirish.net/index.html http://sirdarckcat.blogspot.com/ http://reusablesec.blogspot.com/ http://myne-us.blogspot.com/ http://www.notsosecure.com/ http://blog.spiderlabs.com/ http://www.corelan.be/ http://www.digininja.org/ http://www.pauldotcom.com/ http://www.attackvector.org/ http://deviating.net/ http://www.alphaonelabs.com/ http://www.smashingpajsswords.com/ http://wirewatcher.wordpress.com/ http://gynvael.coldwind.pl/ http://www.nullthreat.net/ http://www.question-defense.com/ http://archangelamael.blogspot.com/ http://memset.wordpress.com/ http://sickness.tor.hu/ http://punter-infosec.com/ http://www.securityninja.co.uk/ http://securityandrisk.blogspot.com/ http://esploit.blogspot.com/ http://www.pentestit.com/

I continue looking for work :( I continue to use Firefox as my default browser after two weeks. It’s reliably growing on me. Privacy is near the top of my desired attributes in a web browser, and uBlock Origin’s documentation explains why uBO works best in Firefox. SleepyTabs is the tab management extension I felt was most lacking in the Firefox ecosystem. It’s killer feature: it displays a “sleeping” placeholder tab with info about the site so I don’t have to reload the site when I click a tab. I had a chat with chatGPT that I think is instructive. I queried chatGPT for help with a technical issue I couldn’t fix on my own. I was confidently led astray over several iterations of problem solving. Eventually, the best answer for me was to perform a web search that provided a fix within minutes. I’ve found LLMs to be very useful, but I think we’re pretty far away from AGI, and interactions like this I think validate that. An internet classic was making the rounds again this week. I worry for the “Free as in speech” future of Linux if work like this becomes the default across the ecosystem. That’s all for this week! God bless. ...

I continue looking for work :( I switched back to Firefox this week after reading this analysis disucsing fingerprint resistance among Brave, Firefox, and Safari. (Brave continues to be my go-to backup, and I’m sure in a few weeks it’ll become my default again) Zed version 0.219.4 released my most-anticipated feature: a which-key implementation. It’s not perfect (the implementations in Emacs and Neovim are far superior) but it has potential Digg relaunched in public beta. Party like it’s 2004! How to make a damn website jumped out at me this week. The instructions seem trivial: this is how I used to make webpages in 1995, but the basics have been lost to the newer generations.

I continue looking for work :( It’s hard to justify Tahoe icons - I was excited for macOS Tahoe prior to launch, but after three months of using it, I’ve grown to dislike Liquid Glass so much. This article focuses on another Tahoe UX tragedy: monochromatic menu icons everywhere. Eat Real Food: The USG’s new Food Pyramid - I’m old enough to remember the 1992 food pyramid vividly. New Years 2026 - GetUnlockd - I hope you find this inspiring.

Happy New Year! 🥳 I continue looking for work :( 5 Tiny Habits That Make You Instantly Magnetic - A little magnetism can’t hurt. [Warren Buffett steps down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO after six decades] - This is a major event. I’ve heard Warren Buffett’s name for as long as I’ve lived. It’s unsurprising, however, as he’s 95 years old. Engineering.fyi - This is a nice collection of tech blogs I’ve only recently discovered. Run AI Models Locally: A New Laptop Era Begins - The desire to run more AI at the edge is leading to a change in laptop design for the first time in more than two decades. Interestingly, Apple adapted much of these design changes six years ago with the introduction of the M1 chips. They have been behind on the AI software side, but prescient on the hardware side. You’re Not Burned Out. You’re Existentially Starving - I suspect this author, too, has reached middle age and is dealing with the corresponding identity crisis.

Merry Christmas!🎄 No post this week. Too busy looking for work :(

No post this week. Too busy looking for work :(

Tech Beam Jump - This sounds like a feature I want in every text editor I use. Culture Temporal Landmarks - Impact of temporal landmarks on our cognitiion. Understood: See through my eyes - Informative guide to having a glimpse of life through the eyes of someone struggling with ADHD. InfoSec NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0 - Useful framework to build a cybersecurity program around.

Faith Fr. Mike’s Ultimate Guide to Advent - ’tis the season! Tech QuickTime turns 34! - Wow. Time flies. Zig Quits GitHub over Microsoft’s AI Obsession - Microsoft has been on a tear this year putting AI into everything it can. I wonder if this is the start of a trend. (I doubt it, since the network effects of GitHub are very strong right now, but who knows?) Helldivers 2 Slashes Install from 154GB to 23GB - I wonder how much storage could be preserved if all games found a way to do this. Culture Roblox: Inflated Key Metrics For Wall Street And A Pedophile Hellscape For Kids - This article terrified me. I have kids who enjoyed playing Roblox befo my wife and I removed it earlier this year. At the time, I thought it was temporary, but after reading this, Roblox will not be running in this house. Philip K Dick’s “Metz” Speech - This was fascinating. InfoSec Diamond Model, Kill Chain, and ATT&CK - This was a good refresher on these topics.