Mastodawn

daniel:// stenberg://2h ago

To: Alex Rice HackerOne CTO

Hi again,

The level of input crap keeps increasing - both with and without the use of AI. We are now discussing completely dropping our bug-bounty as a means to perhaps slow down the flood.

We could really use some better tools from HackerOne to make it harder for slop to get filed.

Adam Kent 8h ago

Fun* thing I just noticed, the bulleted list markers in the Qantas "you got breached" email? 717kB PNG file.

tariq 15h ago

@ireneista the fundamental problem with the theory that open source can be sponsored well by corporations is the fact that fundamentally the incentives are driven by private equity and an unhealthy disregard to any investment in meaningful security/privacy/system integrity. Rationally it would make sense, but we’re in a system driven by greed.

Chu 朱 8h ago

My mom was listening to a political podcast in Cantonese and it's hilarious to me that they just refer to MAGA as 愚蠢人 (stupid people）as a matter of course. They don't beat around the bush... they just call it as it is.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/14/scientists-reportedly-hiding-ai-text-prompts-in-academic-papers-to-receive-positive-peer-reviews

Paul Cantrell 6h ago

I am deeply disappointed in researchers who choose to include hidden instructions in paper submissions telling LLMs to give a positive review.

This shows an embarrassing lack of imagination. If I were submitting a paper, I’d tell the LLM to emit the review in the form of a limerick, or include a recipe involving fermented clam paste.

Scientists reportedly hiding AI text prompts in academic papers to receive positive peer reviews

Research papers found carrying hidden white text giving instructions not to highlight negatives as concern grows over use of large language models for peer review

The Guardian

Max Leibman 13h ago

Bluesky: Users verify their age by adding a payment method or uploading a photo ID.

Mastodon: Users verify their age by posting pictures of the vintage computer equipment in their homes.

Dave?11h ago

#gamedev #indiedev

Jason Lefkowitz 1d ago

Designing a Web Designer Coffee Mug. It doesn’t have a handle because that would ruin the sleek modern look

Jernej Simončič �3h ago

Nanoraptor 10h ago

Jernej Simončič �4h ago

@MarkHoltom …again.

Yes, a file full of zero bits transfers faster over USB2.0 than a file full of one bits.

I've known this forever but it still feels ridiculous when you actually test it and it's true!

USB truly is cursed.

Adrian Tombu 6d ago

@lina But... why? 😳

@to Because USB 2.0 has to throw in an extra dummy zero bit every 6 consecutive one bits or else it loses its place in the data!

5225225 6d ago

@lina @to i'm surprised that doesn't also apply to long spans of zeros (so 0b01010101 would transfer the fastest of them all)

@5225225 @to It's NRZI encoded so a long span of zeros is actually sent as 0101010101!

Cloudmom Colette 6d ago

@lina @5225225 @to I'm so glad I'm moving from USB to ethernet on my side project for data transmission

Give me UDP before USB ever again

Cloudmom Colette 6d ago

@lina @5225225 @to luje: I was DISMAYED to not be able to beat 2Mbit of goodput on that project. Part of it was the STM libraries not having a good USB implementation for their own baked in transciever but mostly its just a nightmare to try to squeeze performance out of. Since I was facing interacting with an external PHY either way— ethernet seemed far less intimidating and problematic

Wilfried Klaebe 6d ago

@lina The USB 3 high-speed pairs use something better, nor?

@5225225 @to

Marcus Müller 5d ago

@wonka @lina @5225225 @to I mean, yeah, USB 3 uses 8b/10b in USB3 (or 128b/132b in errr USB 3.2 Gen 2×1 and 2×2, but not in 1×2) as line code.

Samantaz Fox 5d ago

@lina @to Oh, so kinda like bit stuffing in CANbus where an extra bit of the opposite level is added after 5 consecutive bits of the same value.

However I don't understand why in USB it only applies to ones and not zeroes.

EDIT: Just reat the other post about NRZI coding, it now makes perfect sense! But that remains cursed nonetheless x)

Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫16h ago

@SamantazFox @lina @to

The line between makes perfect sense and deeply cursed is where computer science thrives.

Maypop the Dragon 5d ago

@lina @to why six

Maypop the Dragon 5d ago

@lina @to hey undyne what is one more than the number of consecutive 1 bits that can be sent over usb 2.0 before sending a dummy 0 bit

#undertale #shitpost

doragasu 6d ago

@to @lina Google "bit stuffing". That's the reason.

PortabelloBelle 🇪🇺 🏳️‍⚧️6d ago

@to @lina

1s are heavier 😁

PortabelloBelle 🇪🇺 🏳️‍⚧️6d ago

@to @lina

Speaking of weight, does physical memory get heavier the more data you add to it?

Asahi Lina (朝日リナ) // nullptr::live 5d ago

@ArabellaLovejoy @to Take this with a grain of salt, but I get that a modern SSD using 3D NAND gains around 0.05 picograms per terabyte of data stored. 0s are heavier and an empty SSD is all 1s.

Roughly going by the cell geometry and electron density mentioned in this paper, which works out to around 300 electrons per programmed cell, taking 150 as an average (whitening) and assuming TLC flash: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/elex/17/23/17_17.20200335/_pdf

This does not apply to RAM since that uses capacitors, so you take electrons from one side and move them to the other, so no net weight change.

Räucherkäse 5d ago

@lina @ArabellaLovejoy @to Nitpick: DRAM is capacitors, but SRAM isn't. On the other hand, latches are usually symmetric, so they may balance out nicely, too.

Asahi Lina (朝日リナ) // nullptr::live 5d ago

@smochi @ArabellaLovejoy @to SRAM is also (gate) capacitors, just statically connected to the voltage rails via a feedback path instead of dynamically refreshed ^^

PortabelloBelle 🇪🇺 🏳️‍⚧️5d ago

@lina @smochi @to

When I posed this question, I was expecting to get a chuckle, or perhaps a bit of philosophy, I'm astonished that I got this wonderful information in response to what I thought was a bit of whimsy.

Cassandrich 5d ago

@ArabellaLovejoy @lina @smochi @to There's probably also some cursed phenomenon by which the entropy difference imposes a mass difference.. 🙃

https://bigthink.com/hard-science/dark-matter-theory/

C++ Wage Slave 4d ago

@dalias

I'm not sure whether you were joking, but, yes, there is a plausible theory that information has mass:

@ArabellaLovejoy @lina @smochi @to

There is no dark matter. Instead, information has mass, physicist says

Is information the fifth form of matter?

Big Think

Räucherkäse 5d ago

@lina @ArabellaLovejoy @to Strictly speaking, the gate capacitors do play a role, but they are not exactly designed to be the information carriers. If you build an SRAM cell with BJTs, it's the small hold currents and the transistor's switching thresholds that store the information. The same is true with FETs - the hold currents will just keep the gate capacitors in charged/discharged state continuously. But you're not wrong - you can totally look at this from different angles.

Eragon 6d ago

@lina This is so cursed.
Is it still true in USB 3.0 (or 3.1 or any other newer revisions with their cursed naming scheme)

@eragon It's true with all 480Mbps and slower devices. For USB 3.0 SuperSpeed instead they just did a misleading marketing and the "5 Gbps" they advertise are instead 4 Gbps, but at least it's independent of what data you send. See my previous thread for some discussion on that...

Ember

6d ago

@lina does it interpolate between the speeds? like, would sending a 90% zeros file be faster than a pure random file?

@Ember It depends on the distribution of the bits. A file that is 90% zeros all in a row and 10% ones all in a row (1.6% overhead) would actually be slower than a pure random file that is 50/50 (0.8% overhead).

Gerard Braad 6d ago

Everybody knows zero weighs nothing... ;-)

letterbeen 6d ago

@lina
So, theoretically, you could make a faster transfer mechanism that counted the amount of 0s, and conditionally flipped every bit before and after the transfer? You would have to read the whole file twice though, so probably not a practical solution 😅

Wilfried Klaebe 6d ago

@letterbeen or "just" use a compressing content transfer encoding like gzip 😉

@lina

Cassandrich 5d ago

@letterbeen @lina Easier than that, just encrypt it.

mmu_man 6d ago

@lina I suppose the encoding used forces a maximum number of contiguous ones by inserting symbols or something… or there's a special empty block frame like sparse files on disks?

@mmu_man It inserts a zero every six consecutive ones.

Z̈oé ⛵6d ago

@lina Few people know it but the reason for this is very simple. While zeroes are round, a 1 has a sharp corner and a hook that could get stuck and damage the insulation around the copper if you would completely fill the line with ones. Instead, sending some zeroes every now and then to flush any stuck „1“ before a clog can develop.

A 0 can be neatly pushed through the copper at high pressure without damaging the cable.

Now you know!

KaustcVantas 6d ago

How did we ever survive in the age without /s tags

#With-gusto-and-panache #apparently

rastilin 5d ago

@kaustcvantas @lina @uint8_t@chaos.social

I think people tend to forget that ironic shitposting is still shitposting.

Stefan Eissing 6d ago

@uint8_t @lina Should have imagined more complex bits. Then we'd have 0 and i.

Z̈oé ⛵6d ago

@icing @lina the problem with i is that it’s often used in for loops so it could get entangled in the software threads, or its value might change unexpectedly and rapidly if it gets into the wrong scope

Efraim Flashner 5d ago

@uint8_t
Sometimes you have to stop what you're doing and find the dots which have fallen off the top of the is. It's been proven that despite the 1s getting suck on corners it's still faster than searching for the dots.
@icing @lina

lp0 on fire

5d ago

@efraim @uint8_t @icing @lina, ı·iıi·.ı0i·iı

C++ Wage Slave 4d ago

@uint8_t

In addition, if the USB cable is kinked, the dot of the i can snap off the body. Now you have two bits where there was one before, causing a buffer overflow.

@icing @lina

@icing @uint8_t @lina thats done with QPSK but not on usb links.

Räucherkäse 5d ago

@icing @uint8_t @lina It would make interface circuitry much more complicated, because you'd have to consider every signal from an imaginary angle.

Stefan Eissing 5d ago

@smochi @uint8_t @lina This seems to happen on the internet a lot already.😌

2¢6d ago

@uint8_t @lina Finally, someone explains NRZI so it makes sense!

@Qbitzerre @uint8_t @lina Usual line coding is NRZ, which encodes bits in levels. 1 high 0 low, simple.

But USB is NRZI-S, it encodes bits in level *changes* : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-return-to-zero#Non-return-to-zero_inverted

This means a zero is encoded by a level change and a one is encoded by no change. You need bit suffing because USB does not transmit the associated clock, and with no transition in long strings of ones, the receiver would loose sync.

Non-return-to-zero - Wikipedia

2¢5d ago

@f4grx @uint8_t @lina ah, clocks! makes me nostalgic for the days of bisync, SDLC, etc. The serifs on the ones were very big in those days. We used axle grease to keep the current loop devices from getting constipated.

Mark T. Tomczak 5d ago

@uint8_t I am so angry about how close to the actual explanation this is. 😉

Ryan Peters 4d ago

@uint8_t @lina my pipes get the same way.

I use drain-0

Sparrows 1d ago

@uint8_t @lina I understand backpressure a little more now.

doragasu 1d ago

@uint8_t @lina This is, surprisingly, not completely wrong!

morph 1d ago

@uint8_t are numbers pushed into the cable with the top or bottom first? I can totally see 1’s getting stuck if they’re sent bottom-up, maybe they should make a new protocol that takes numbers shapes into account. Also fonts are a thing, sending 1’s sans-serif should improve the throughput a lot

Bill Braine 23h ago

@uint8_t @lina

That’s why we only send files with 0 and O bits.

Mensch, Marina 6d ago

@lina but data is Data, or Not?

Jean-Baptiste Quéru 6d ago

@lina That was similarly true on the ZX Spectrum, a 0 took 0.5ms whereas a 1 took 1ms.

Aatch 6d ago

@lina eh, "cursed" seems a little harsh. The NRZI encoding and bit-stuffing makes sense for real-world scenarios.

Marc 6d ago

@lina gah thanks Lina now "bit stuffing" is in my work Google history

Janek @ IndieDev.site 6d ago

@lina the USBus is coming

#memes #programmer_humor #funny

Jan 5d ago

@lina It’s interesting to see how the standards evolved.
Since USB 3.0 it uses an 8b/10b scheme, 3.1 Gen 2 moved to 128/132b.
Do you know what kind of hardware improvements made this possible? Better clock stability of the transmitters?

Keenan Tims 5d ago

@jangw @lina I'd assume just a desire to keep implementation complexity low to satisfy the Universalness of USB, and since its overhead on random data is less it should have slightly better real world throughput. 8b/10b was in use in the 80s so it was certainly a known option, but implementation is quite a bit more complex than bit stuffing. It was probably more that DC balance and lowering the required channel bandwidth became more critical at higher speeds.