The Communication Cube


I don't want to alarm anyone but I think my programming skills may be improving. I've been looking through the code of my image editing and video downloading programs in the hope of improving them and also adding new features. While reading the code I experienced some why did I do it like that picard_facepalm.jpg.vbs moments, but I'm glad to say I know how to do things better this time around.
 
You are lucky. Improving is much more difficult the better you are. Due to that for me improving has become a monumental task. I would pick another skill, but, alas, I am good at everything. All I have left in this world is to pass on my skills to the new generation (or at least pass on a small fraction of my skills because obviously the next generation will not be as good as me) and then be held up as an example of excellence.
 
I was checking out this video regarding top-10 x86 assembly instructions, as you do. And in the comments the designer of RdSeed commented with the term: cat herder.
This reference was possibly to a popular commercial back in the day showing cowboys herding a group of cats. The commercial is okay, but I find the fun part that they have taken 50-60 cats to the actual location to perform the recording. I think that doesn't really show from the commercial itself. I assume they didn't use most of the material they had shot. They did train cats to swim, but those scenes flash by so quick you'd think they are all green-screened / faked.



Link to more info regarding commercial: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Herders
Some link to random number generation: https://wiki.osdev.org/Random_Number_Generator
 
Cat-herding is a term that's sometimes used in management. I'm not sure if it comes from the commercial or if the commercial is based on it.
 
Ty I need to buff up on obscure opcodes.

Got an alert for a Stacy…. pretty damn cool. Ataris were great for music because they had midi ports (and a non-preemptive multitasking os). I’d buy if I thought I’d use it. They are rare.

 
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You are lucky. Improving is much more difficult the better you are. Due to that for me improving has become a monumental task. I would pick another skill, but, alas, I am good at everything. All I have left in this world is to pass on my skills to the new generation (or at least pass on a small fraction of my skills because obviously the next generation will not be as good as me) and then be held up as an example of excellence.

henylrSY.jpg
 
I noticed Youtube doesn't track me anymore. I never login when I use the website but until 2 days ago it would still show some relevant videos while now I get the default view that I would see if I would switch to private-mode.
I guess law-suits against tracking children might have something to do with that feature getting removed.

Peony and I took this what is your mental age quiz as a bit of fun. I got 18-21yrs old and Peony got 13yrs old. xD

Her face atm: :mad:
I'm 45-50 according to that quiz. I guess it could even be older, if you open my phone I have none of those apps on it and even that is too much apps for my taste.

btw. I had to use Edge o_O to make that Quiz work, Firefox didn't work for me.
 
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I'm 45-50 according to that quiz. I guess it could even be older, if you open my phone I have none of those apps on it
Same for me! In fact, my phone does not even support those applications. Not because my phone is bad (my phone is the best, it is THE N900!) but because those applications are bad. Those applications are made for people who do not care about privacy nor freedom. I know that the N900 is not fully free either, but I need those chains to keep me tethered so I can live among mortals like you in the physical realm. Without those chains of slavery I would convert into a spirit of pure freedom and this world cannot contain the glory of such beings. I would be forced to move on to a higher plane of existence.

I noticed Youtube doesn't track me anymore.
I am guessing they still do, they probably just do it in secret now.
 
Same for me! In fact, my phone does not even support those applications. Not because my phone is bad (my phone is the best, it is THE N900!) but because those applications are bad. Those applications are made for people who do not care about privacy nor freedom. I know that the N900 is not fully free either, but I need those chains to keep me tethered so I can live among mortals like you in the physical realm. Without those chains of slavery I would convert into a spirit of pure freedom and this world cannot contain the glory of such beings. I would be forced to move on to a higher plane of existence.


I am guessing they still do, they probably just do it in secret now.
I'm sure they track me, they only don't provide recommendations based on my profile anymore.

In the past I worked for a large company with data analytics including user tracking. Since I've seen how much (unneeded) data was tracked for any user.
As I was checking compatibility of sites and apps with all kinds of browsers and devices I could check which data can be blocked but still have the site or application still work.
I couldn't see any explicit user information, but that wasn't really needed. If you combine multiple sources you could determine a user based on their meta information (like device+location).
Since I'm more aware of sharing information with others and block a lot of data and not use many apps (apps are riddled with tracking and harder to block without some proxy).

Next to this I learned that HTTPS isn't as safe as presented. Yes it encrypts your communication, but the network provides the certificate and can access the data if needed.
The only safe way of using HTTPS is by using certificate-pinning (https://wiki.mozilla.org/SecurityEngineering/Public_Key_Pinning), else a 'safe' proxy can be used which is under control by the network you're using. Certificate pinning forces the server to be using your certificate, not just any certified server. (Obviously HTTPS can eventually be decrypted, so safe is a relative term here)
I also once used HTTP 301 or 308 redirect on a 'safe' proxy to force iPhones to use my own test server instead of a commercial website. If you switched to a regular wifi/mobile network the redirect would stay in place without the user knowing.
As I'm just an engineer I assume many of these tricks can be used to take attack unsuspecting users very easily.
I also assume that if a big organization (like a government) wants to hack any of you devices they can, all devices can be hacked but some are more easily hackable compared to others.
 
To get out of doing anything useful I've decided to have a go at theming the FreePascal IDE.

The method posted on the FreePascal wiki doesn't work because it says to use a menu option that doesn't exist any more.

Luckily I stumbled across the following site. https://github.com/cyberfilth/FP-IDE-theme (Archived version)

[Colors]
Palette_1_40=#$03#$03#$08#$0B#$30#$28#$30#$17#$1F#$1A#$31#$31#$1E#$71#$1F#$37#$3F#$3A#$13#$13#$3E#$21#$3F#$0B#$03#$7A#$13#$13#$70#$7F#$7E#$70#$70#$78#$78#$70#$70#$70#$7F#$7E
Palette_41_80=#$20#$2B#$2F#$78#$2E#$70#$30#$3F#$3E#$3F#$2F#$1A#$20#$72#$31#$31#$30#$2F#$3E#$31#$13#$38#$00#$17#$1F#$1A#$71#$71#$1E#$17#$1F#$1E#$20#$2B#$2F#$78#$2E#$10#$30#$3F
Palette_81_120=#$3E#$70#$2F#$7A#$20#$12#$31#$31#$30#$2F#$3E#$31#$13#$38#$00#$37#$3F#$3A#$13#$13#$3E#$30#$3F#$3E#$20#$2B#$2F#$78#$2E#$30#$70#$7F#$7E#$1F#$2F#$1A#$20#$32#$31#$71
Palette_121_160=#$70#$2F#$7E#$71#$13#$38#$00#$70#$7F#$7A#$13#$13#$70#$70#$7F#$7E#$20#$2B#$2F#$78#$2E#$70#$30#$3F#$3E#$1F#$2F#$1A#$20#$72#$31#$31#$30#$2F#$3E#$31#$13#$38#$00#$30
Palette_161_200=#$3E#$1E#$70#$30#$3F#$3A#$08#$03#$03#$03#$03#$03#$71#$1F#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$00#$88#$88
Palette_201_240=#$06#$03#$0B#$0E#$0A#$07#$07#$70#$0B#$20#$02#$0A#$04#$4E#$31#$02#$0A#$02#$0A#$0A#$31#$3F#$0A#$20#$3E#$3F#$70#$20#$FF#$3A#$37#$FF#$FF#$FF

Each of the #$xx entries corresponds to a UI item listed in the table on the site. As for the colours 00 = black and FF = white, other colours = dunno yet.
 
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