Adam LeventhalApr 9, 2024

What an Oxide and Friends last night! @bcantrill and I were joined by the one and only @AndresFreundTec to talk about his discovery of the xz backdoor. It’s an incredible story… so great to get into the details with Andres. Definitely check it out (or on the pod tomorrow).

https://youtu.be/jg5F9UupL6I

Oxide and Friends 4/8/2024 -- Discovering the XZ Backdoor with Andres Freund

YouTube
Show threadAdam LeventhalApr 9, 2024
I was really pleased by this background image so wanted to talk about it briefly. The concept was (of course!) simple: the (in)famous xkcd graphic with the thankless Nebraskan removed https://xkcd.com/2347/
Dependency

xkcd
Show threadAdam LeventhalApr 9, 2024
Like all lazy people in 2024, I turned to Chat GPT for help. This didn't work out well. (Have I mentioned that I'm bad at Chat GPT?)
Show threadAdam LeventhalApr 9, 2024
I should mention that we don't put a ton of time into Oxide and Friends (sorry!) so I try to bound these side-quests at least somewhat. Somewhat. I decided to find a physics simulator (like a lunatic) and SimPHY was the first one I stumbled onto that worked well enough. I roughed out the structure from the xkcd comic:
Show threadAdam LeventhalApr 9, 2024
Then removed the linchpin:
Show threadAdam LeventhalApr 9, 2024
And simulated...
Show threadAdam LeventhalApr 9, 2024
Until I got to something that was suitably calamitous:
Show threadAdam LeventhalApr 9, 2024
I threw it on the iPad that I "borrowed" from my older son and traced it in Procreate with his Apple Pencil. 100% it could have been better, but I already felt like a crazy person and wasn't sure it was going to work out
Show threadAdam LeventhalApr 9, 2024
Then I threw the lines into Photoshop, applied the bucket tool, and ... good enough!
Show threadAdam LeventhalApr 10, 2024
The latest episode of Oxide and Friends where @bcantrill and I speak with @AndresFreundTec is now up on podcast platforms https://share.transistor.fm/s/e2538f7d
Oxide and Friends | Discovering the XZ Backdoor with Andres Freund

Andres Freund joined Bryan and Adam to talk about his discovery of the xz backdoor. It’s an incredible story… so great to get into the details with Andres. We started by ranting about the coverage in the New York Times… coverage that explicitly refused to dig into the details! It’s all the more...

Show threadAndresFreundTec
@ahl @bcantrill I'm sorry for the audio quality. I didn't realize that was happening. I never had done a call on discord before. I now see that there's an "input sensitivity" setting, and I guess that was set wrongly. Seems pretty odd that the default doesn't work though.
Apr 10, 2024 at 11:36pmWeb