Noa 🐍 🏳️‍🌈

@noatamir@chaos.social
398 Followers
369 Following
49 Posts

OSS community organizer  
pandas core team

D&D, ttrpgs, board games, retro, Nintendo & indie games 🎲👾🎮

  ♠️ , intersectional trans-inclusive feminist, child-free, BLM  

Joined fedi to make friends & post cat pictures 🐈‍⬛

You are welcome to follow me if you want to see posts about nerdy and feminist things. I might block non-genuine looking profiles, or if something in the interaction feels weird to me.

👋 pronounsthey/she/היא/sie
🎙 podcasthttps://techpointcharlie.blog
🐍 datahttps://pandas.pydata.org/
🏳️‍🌈 Berlin nonbinary meetuphttps://nonbinary.berlin
Noa 🐍 🏳️‍🌈Oct 4, 2024
😿😫🙅
Noa 🐍 🏳️‍🌈Sep 14, 2024
Our cat was …………. yawning 😉
#CatsoOfMastodon #caturday
Noa 🐍 🏳️‍🌈Jun 15, 2024

Enjoy great readings, conversations, and food at the upcoming African Book Festival Berlin: Queer Edition

June 28th to 30th at Alte Münze

https://africanbookfestival.de/

#berlin #culture #book #festival

African Book Festival

Noa 🐍 🏳️‍🌈Mar 9, 2024
It‘s a trap
#CatsOfMastodon #Caturday #Cats
Noa 🐍 🏳️‍🌈Nov 1, 2023
Who needed a cat pic today? #catsofmastodon
Noa 🐍 🏳️‍🌈Oct 17, 2023

Liebe Netzwerk,

ich habe diesem Interview mit Ruth Haran deutsche Untertitel hinzugefügt. Bitte teilen Sie es. Helfen Sie uns, unsere Familie zurückzubekommen.

Von den insgesamt zehn Geiseln unserer Familie sind vier deutsche Staatsbürger, zwei sind Italiener und eine Person hat die österreichische Staatsbürgerschaft. Drei der Geiseln sind Kinder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCCjGqOGZsU

#BringThemBack

Interview mit Ruth Haran, Holocaust-Überlebende aus Beeri, deren Familie als Geiseln genommen wurde.

YouTube
Noa 🐍 🏳️‍🌈Oct 10, 2023
I invite you to pray/hope with me that everyone in Palestine and Israel feels safer and better in the future ☮️
Noa 🐍 🏳️‍🌈Sep 10, 2023
A floofy and restful #bleptember to all the #catsofmastodon
Noa 🐍 🏳️‍🌈Aug 8, 2023
Jeder Tag ist #weltkatzentag. Every day is #worldcatday.
Noa 🐍 🏳️‍🌈Jul 18, 2023
Being genuinely happy to come back from a vacation/conference to work with one‘s lovely colleagues is such an excellent feeling 
×
Alex HaydockApr 21

Did you leave your Wii at the #EMF2024 Swap Shop?

If so, it's now hosting my blog:

https://blog.infected.systems/posts/2025-04-21-this-blog-is-hosted-on-a-nintendo-wii/

Huge credit to @jmcwhatever for the effort porting NetBSD to the Wii!

Show threadAlex HaydockApr 21
It's surviving remarkably well so far, but you can really see the impact of having that NTP sync fire at :42.
Show threadAlex HaydockApr 21
Uh oh... here we go
Show threadAlex HaydockApr 22

12+ hours in and this is still getting boosts and likes so I thought I'd follow up with some of the graphs from the past 12h.

The Wii has handled this far better than I expected, honestly.

We've settled in to an average rate of approx 10 requests-per-second, down from a peak of 40. Almost all responses are taking less than 0.1 seconds now, though the heatmap suggests it was struggling a bit more when we were up at 40 per-second.

Show threadMiyuru SankalpaApr 22
@alexhaydock survived HN hug of death 🎉
Show threadBook4d ago
@alexhaydock I love that you did this.
Show threadDont Steal Mac OS X.kextApr 21
@alexhaydock why would it struggle with ntp syncing so bad? i wouldnt have guessed it was an intensive operation
Show threadAlex HaydockApr 21
@760ceb3b9c0ba4872cadf3ce35a7a4 I'm not too sure but `ntpd` seems a touch heavy in what it does... by single-core 2006 CPU standards at least.
Show threadEndlessMasonApr 22

@alexhaydock
It might me fuckery - how much cpu time does the "changes the time" service take?

It's always ruining when a second is shorter/longer than normal, right?

@760ceb3b9c0ba4872cadf3ce35a7a4

Show threadAlex HaydockApr 22

@EndlessMason @760ceb3b9c0ba4872cadf3ce35a7a4 Thats an interesting thought that does make me think more about how NTP syncs might mess with observability in that sort of way.

In this case it won’t be that though as those stats are coming from the Caddy instance in front of the Wii, which isn’t affected by the time sync. All it sees is that the Wii spends a short time taking a lot longer to reply to HTTP requests around the :42 mark.

Once the system is up for a little while the slew seems to settle down a lot though so I could probably make that NTP poll a lot less frequent.

Show threadEndlessMasonApr 22

@alexhaydock
This is the kind of shit one must eat if their servers are in the local timezones instead of gmt.

You get "traffic spike detected" pages at 0200 the day after dst because the thing looked up how many requests happened in this hour yesterday and it was none because that hour didn't.

You also get one when 0200 happens twice, because that hour later twice as long so... Double the traffic ! Oh no !

The theory crafting on those calls was lots of fun

@760ceb3b9c0ba4872cadf3ce35a7a4

Show threadZach Leatherman Apr 21
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever ahah amazing
Show threadKateApr 21

@alexhaydock

Rebooting NetBSD reboots the whole console, and not just the NetBSD ‘app’, so you’ll find yourself back at the Wii Menu after any kernel patch or system upgrade. Yes, this does mean that the Wiimote and sensor bar in your server cupboard are now a vital component of the production infrastructure.

this is true genius!

Show threadTamontenApr 21

@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever

Props.

Exactly the wonderfully dumb nerd stuff I’d expect and love from EMF attendees.

Show threadJared McNeillApr 21
@alexhaydock from your blog: "Rebooting NetBSD reboots the whole console" you can directly boot NetBSD with bootmii (on older models) or priiloader (the others). The bootmii method actually frees up over 10MB of RAM, so I'd recommend that if your system can do it.
Show threadAlex HaydockApr 21

@jmcwhatever Amazing! And thank you for the work on the port 😄

I'll definitely try some experimenting with that when things have calmed down a bit. At the moment the Wii is managing to mostly keep up with an average of around 28 requests per second.

Show threadshom ✊🏽🐧📷🤿🏔️🪚Apr 21
@alexhaydock excellent project and write up!
@jmcwhatever
Show thread🔺GnomeBones🔺Apr 21
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever I hope you gave it a wash.
Show thread@charleshb.bsky.socialApr 21
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever Very cool!
Show threadDavid Cantrell 🏏Apr 21
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever I'm not sure which is worse, someone abandoning a Wii, or someone abandoning radioactive sources
Show threadGregApr 21

@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever That's a new (to me) Wii exploit! One I like a lot is "str2hax" that doesn't require anything but an Internet connection - you set the Wii to use a (bogus) DNS server, it redirects the Wii to a hosted webserver that serves a malformed buffer-overflowing string to the Wii where it'd display some EULA terms and conditions, and then it goes about installing HBC and other goodies

https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Str2hax

str2hax - WiiBrew

Show threadsb arms & legsApr 21
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever
Awesome! It's VERY snappy from east canada!
Show threadAlex HaydockApr 21
@sb I'm honestly impressed at how well it's holding on. There's been a fairly consistent load on it for a while now and it's handling it extremely well.
Show threadJared McNeillApr 21
@sb greetings from NB :)
Show threadsb arms & legsApr 21
@jmcwhatever
Hey from SJ!
Show thread⛧⛧⛧J.d.B.⛧⛧⛧Apr 21
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever just read about this on Lobsters. Installing a modern OS to weird hardware never gets old.
Show threadChumchum TumtumApr 21
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever that's so fucking cool!
Show thread🍪 ~EDOX~ 🍪Apr 21
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever Very cool. I have an extra Wii sitting around so gonna bookmark this for later. Love finding cool stuff like this.
Show threadDerek Caelin is writing a bookApr 22
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever great read.
Show threadAnthony SoraceApr 22
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever @me_ Nice. For like two years, these kept showing up one or two at a time at the local goodwill, in a weirdly steady stream. That stream dried up about a year before the NetBSD port was announced. Sure wish I’d picked one (or a few) up.
Show threadMichael HorneApr 22
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever The whimsy on display here is real :-D. Fab write up! Silly experiment, but hey, it works! Nice one!
Show threadMᴀʀᴋ VᴀɴᴅᴇWᴇᴛᴛᴇʀɪɴɢApr 22
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever As I am thinking of shifting my blog to an entirely static site, I find this notion to be oddly alluring.
Show threadCursed SiliconApr 22

@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever Small correction to that delightful blog post. You *can* run current NetBSD on the Dreamcast, too!

And (in theory) the Linux kernel still has "dreamcast_defconfig" defined. Though I'm unclear if the bootloader (A fork of RedBoot from the 90's) can handle newer, larger kernels

Show threadAlex HaydockApr 22
@CursedSilicon Sounds like I need to find myself a Dreamcast next then… 
Show threadCursed SiliconApr 22

@alexhaydock The hard part is finding a LAN adapter

Last one I found like, 15~ years ago was $350 AUD

Show threadThe SecretbatcaveApr 22
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever @recantha excellent write up!
Show threadnikomoApr 22
Wow, electricity pricing in the UK is highway robbery. For that price, you can almost get an ARM instance from Netcup, and you'll get 6 vcores with 8GB RAM.
Show threadJoachim ZiebsApr 22

@alexhaydock @cmarqu @jmcwhatever Interesting read!

I need to have a look if this would work on a WiiU, too.

Show threadRemiberryApr 22
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever I think you can load up a binary for automatic booting in Priiloader so you don't have to worry about your sensor bar, etc. :)
Show threadBillyApr 22
@retr0.id new target for milipds? PDS on a Wii is an interesting concept for the shitpost
David Buchanan (@retr0.id)

reverse engineering, cryptography, exploits, hardware, file formats, and generally giving computers a hard time Fedi: @retr0id@retr0.id Macroblog: https://www.da.vidbuchanan.co.uk/blog/

Bluesky Social
Show threadSkotchYApr 22
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever so the .onion service (or tor service, idk what it is called) does not run on the wii directly, right? But on the caddy thing? #onion #tor #selfhosting #selfhosted
Show threadAlex HaydockApr 22

@YetiSkotch ~~Actually (for now) the onion service still runs on the VPS I was previously using, so that doesn’t involve the Wii at all currently.~~

**Update:** I have now moved the Tor .onion to also be served by the Wii

http://infected2ffce6vfaeuah77ooambvlj7ne7roujuvpqvb54ha5wbjnad.onion/status/

(though the actual Tor process runs on the same LXC as Caddy. I don't think the Wii's limited resources could handle running Tor directly).

Show threadSkotchYApr 22

@alexhaydock So the wii is essentialy just hosting http server, answering GET requests. And com between caddy and the wii is plain-text to my understanding?

Further thoughts (you don't need to answer these):
I am interested in hosting my own static website on some old hardware. What are your thoughts on "busybox httpd" to host my static *.html file directory (no cgi-scripts)? Is that insecure, I cant imagine why it would be? That is my greatest hurdle to participate in the indie web.

Show threadAlex HaydockApr 22

@YetiSkotch That’s right yeah  

Just my two cents, but I’d probably only opt for busybox httpd if I was extremely resource constrained or I had some other reason to be wanting the single-binary footprint.

The codebase for something like Nginx will likely see a lot more attention than busybox’s, which would probably drive my decision slightly.

That said, for serving only static files with no dynamic content I imagine the attack surface is going to be relatively slim regardless of what you choose.

Show threadHeyItsRobinApr 22
@alexhaydock okay I’ve definitely missed the point here but I was reading the alt text and just wanted to say that’s almost certainly a Chinese money plant, or a Pilea peperomioides! Literally doesn’t matter but I couldn’t help myself, sorry :P 💖
Show threadAlex HaydockApr 22

@HeyItsRobin Ha - good eye!

I wrote the caption without zooming in, but now that I actually look you’re totally right. 

Show threadGoz 🕹Apr 23
@alexhaydock Just thought I'd mention that you can use VLC to view your video capture device on the Mac, although I do admire working right to left 🤣
Show thread⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️Apr 23
@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever nice. Don't I remember the Wii having WiFi though? If it does, did you try it?
Show threadAlex HaydockApr 23

@falken @jmcwhatever It does, though I remembered the WiFi being fairly poor (when using it as an actual console so that might be down to Nintendo’s network stack) so I went straight for the Ethernet option.

But there’s some folk here on Mastodon who seem to have tried the WiFi successfully 

https://merveilles.town/@alderwick/113974775276793703

Andy Alderwick (@alderwick@merveilles.town)

Amazing that I can run #NetBSD on the #Wii and log in via the internal Wi-Fi over SSH: Last login: Sun Feb 9 15:37:06 2025 NetBSD 10.99.12 (WII) #0: Sat Feb 8 10:49:45 UTC 2025 Welcome to NetBSD! This is a development snapshot of NetBSD for testing -- user beware! Bug reports: https://www.NetBSD.org/support/send-pr.html Donations to the NetBSD Foundation: https://www.NetBSD.org/donations/ We recommend that you create a non-root account and use su(1) for root access. wii# uname -a NetBSD wii 10.99.12 NetBSD 10.99.12 (WII) #0: Sat Feb 8 10:49:45 UTC 2025 mkrepro@mkrepro.NetBSD.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/evbppc/compile/WII evbpp (The internal Wi-Fi seems to drop a lot of packets so getting a USB wired/wireless adapter seems the best plan.)

Merveilles
Show threadJared McNeillApr 23
@alexhaydock @falken the NetBSD impl doesn’t use the Wii network stack at all, so should perform better. Not great by modern standards but it’s certainly useable.
Show threadJared McNeillApr 23
@falken @alexhaydock it has wifi, and it works on NetBSD provided you install the necessary firmware files
Show thread­Apr 23
@alexhaydock The most important question though: did you get a lawsuit from Nintendo already?
Show threadPietervdvn Apr 24
@alexhaydock You found it in the EMF swap? Make sure it ain't radioactive then...
Show threadKiyo {she/fae} 🏳️‍⚧️ 🛜🐈‍☕Apr 25
@alexhaydock ooo very nice! i did something similar but with a wii u running debian instead, blog post is making me consider writing what i've done with it thus far
Show threadleo vriska Apr 25
@alexhaydock "The Wii doesn’t support SDXC or newer cards, which means we’re limited to 32GB." this isn't true, fwiw, but older versions of nintendo (and homebrew?) SDKs don't support SDHC cards. i'm not actually sure on official SDK support for SDXC, but all modern homebrew supports it afaik
Show threadSebastian4d ago

@alexhaydock @jmcwhatever

"Rebooting NetBSD reboots the whole console, and not just the NetBSD ‘app’, so you’ll find yourself back at the Wii Menu after any kernel patch or system upgrade"

Using Priiloader, you can install the NetBSD 'app', and select 'Installed File' on the Autoboot option, so when NetBSD reboots, it will automatically start the app that runs NetBSD rather than the System Menu.