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   ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 31-May-2025 02:33:19 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

   learning today just how much of ukrainian army runs on commercial off the shelf hardware, and often open source hardware

   everyone knows about dji mavics, but the drone detection is apparently done mostly with a tinySA... exact same thing my headmate got from aliexpress, with a webusb-based flasher for a custom firmware geared to detecting enemy drones' c&c links specifically

   i wonder how the person (people? i can't find credits) who designed tinySA feel about it

   • Embed this notice
     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 31-May-2025 02:34:27 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     i'm building useful open source hardware so it's only a matter of time until someone uses it for warfare, if they haven't already

     i sure don't know how i feel about it

   • Embed this notice
     Dima (dimin@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 31-May-2025 02:48:22 JST Dima

     in reply to

     @whitequark As a Ukrainian I have a bit more to add to this. The reason for most of that specific stuff being used is due to it being the cheapest decent stuff one could get from Ali or manufacture on any generic PCBA line in bulk quickly. Nowadays completely custom solutions are popping up, the stuff you described was just used as a stopgap at the start since it's better than nothing. Both sides are using FOSS/H stuff and when you make something open you need to be ready for anyone to use it

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     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 31-May-2025 02:55:36 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     to be clear, I'm not saying "the use of OSHW in warfare is unequivocally bad". as you may have learned already, i am not against the existence and use of weapons as a whole. and, to state the hopefully obvious, ukraine should win and i would not be conflicted being in the supply chain of that event.

     however, even in that case, knowing that someone's life--someone you would like to live--hinges on your OSHW you never intended to be a part of a life support system--is a lot.

   • Embed this notice
     Fedor Indutny (indutny@mean.engineer)'s status on Saturday, 31-May-2025 02:56:28 JST Fedor Indutny

     in reply to

     @whitequark it is easier for me to justify Ukraine’s use of my software, but I agree that it just goes to show that many more countries use it for warfare and… it is unsettling

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     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 31-May-2025 02:56:47 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     • Fedor Indutny

     @indutny i've expanded a bit on what i mean

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     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 31-May-2025 02:57:31 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     • Dima

     @dimin yeah, i was talking to someone else from ukraine about it

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     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 31-May-2025 03:28:48 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     • Jason Petersen (he)

     @jason some people who knew me for a long time acted surprised!!

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     Jason Petersen (he) (jason@logoff.website)'s status on Saturday, 31-May-2025 03:28:49 JST Jason Petersen (he)

     in reply to

     @whitequark That “as you may have learned already” made me snort my drink out my nose