Notices by occult (occult@vox.ominous.net)

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@trailofbits/116419704979785055

Today in memory safety bugs in Rust code.

RE: https://mastodon.social/@mcc/116415821939972420

Fantastic thread by @mcc documenting the recent BlueSky outage.

I've been wanting a proper technical examination of BlueSky's supposed decentralized and architecture to cut through the hype I've read from ATProto / BlueSky advocates about how PDSs, AppViews, and other components interoperate.

They really have misrepresented the stack and how resilient it all is.

The fact that in 2026, BlackSky (as amazing as the team is) is still affected and is less transparent than I thought is surprising.

Walking around MIT and spotted these beauties.

#cats #CatsOfMastodon #caturday #MIT #CambridgeMA

Watching the livestream of the Artemis II launch, I just witnessed one of the astronauts type in the password on their tablet while sitting in the capsule on camera.

#ArtemisII #Artemis #Artemis2 #NASA #InfoSec #cybersecurity #OpSec #Privacy #SpaceExploration

@SecularJeffrey @catsalad

same caption, different photo.

https://vox.ominous.net/@occult/116103841606429399

@catsalad Will I see you at UNIX EXPO this year?

I hear pink computers and floppy disks are debuting!

#UNIX

@catsalad I know these were super serious UNIX business magazines back in 1985, but today they would literally be the cover of some punk zine.

#UNIX

This is some proto- @prahou art right here.

To think all of this amazing art is buried in 40-year-old computer magazines.

This one is from the July 1988 issue of "VLSI Systems Design."

They should re-create this steel-bound UNIX reference manual.

#UNIX

Hey @prahou is your computer sad or happy?

Is this Mr. Computo?

From the May 1985 issue of UNIX WORLD magazine.

#UNIX

These article illustrations are truly something.

UNIX Review, April 1985.

#UNIX #unix_surrealism

When someone asks me what the #Fediverse, #Mastodon or #ActivityPub is I'll use this illustration from UNIX Review, April 1985.

#UNIX

OBEY.

BYTE Magazine, October 1983.

Please don’t be shocked, but I’ve been reading old #UNIX Review magazines on Archive.org, as one does. I’ve been finding a number of interesting artifacts throughout. This June 1984 ad by Cadmus Computer Systems listed a #USENET address: !wivax!cadmus.

This is a UUCP bang path, for the kids who don’t know. The ! separates relay hops, it’s a literal routing instruction. Get to the backbone, reach wivax, forward to cadmus.

No DNS.

Machines screamed at each other to swap data.

#unix_surrealism

wivax was a VAX at Wang Laboratories in Lowell, MA where Cadmus was based.

The TELEX number printed right next to it is also interesting. This represents telegraph infrastructure and the infant internet, side by side in a transitional moment.

Here’s an ad for cross-compilers and assemblers for UNIX environments.

My favorite detail here is this brag: “Over the past 3 years, we’ve built over 1MB of working code.” Cross-compilers, assemblers, simulators, and debuggers targeting six architectures across a dozen hosts. This code was dense.

The 80’s #UNIX wars were a wild time.

It’s also very fun to read the articles from the time and see what they were predicting for the future. “UNIX for the masses” was a popular topic.

This is an original ad for a #UNIX computer company.

No AI art here! You can see the artist’s signature over the dragon’s wing.

The art in these ads is incredible. This one for ChipCrafter by SeattleSilicon is pretty great.

@hellomiakoda Well, that’s one way to interpret it. I don’t see it through such a pessimistic lens.