Mastodawn

René Mayrhofer

🇺🇦 🇹🇼26m ago

SwiftOnSecurity 10h ago

Imagine the shitshow we'd be in right now if ICANN hadn't been spun off from the US government

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René Mayrhofer

🇺🇦 🇹🇼17h ago

I declare partial success with much more aggressive connection, request, and transfer rate throttling in the embedded #nginx instance that serves my static page (plus the dynamic link maze that caught the stupid "AI" scraper bots...) behind #traefik (causing the TLS termination part to be overloaded and blocking authenticated users from legitimate access).

https://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/post/defenses-against-abusive-ai-scrapers/nginx-default.conf is the current rate limiting config, https://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/post/defenses-against-abusive-ai-scrapers has the explanations.

Something like https://blog.lrvt.de/configuring-crowdsec-with-traefik/ will probably have to be the next level of escalation to deal with the issue on a global level.

Yay! Debian has enabled UBSAN_BOUNDS for array bounds checking in their kernel.
https://salsa.debian.org/kernel-team/linux/-/commit/f0e7aac02bc7ed179637a6c676b2ab4afe4c5db7
Anyone wanting to enforce the checking, don't forget to set the warn_limit sysctl too.

Merge branch 'latest/ubsan' into 'debian/latest' (f0e7aac0) · Commits · Debian kernel team / linux · GitLab

Enable UBSAN_BOUNDS and UBSAN_SHIFT See merge request kernel-team/linux!1458

GitLab

René Mayrhofer

🇺🇦 🇹🇼1d ago

I have been trying for hours to debug what I thought was a #Treafik regression causing massive CPU usage to the point that my own (very small) dockerized services I host for my family are getting slow and hard to reach.

But no, my meager virtual server is just being DDoSed by stupid #AI bots downloading pieces of my webpage over and over and over again. It looks like the steps described in https://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/post/defenses-against-abusive-ai-scrapers/ are no longer working, and I need to start looking into actual IP blocking. However, as AI fraudsters are resorting to using massive client pools for downloading, that will also become difficult.

This is new. The AI scraper bots amounting to over 90% of all traffic until a couple of weeks ago were annoying, but my services still worked. Now it has reached the level of active denial of service.

René Mayrhofer

🇺🇦 🇹🇼1d ago

#Trump, #Musk, #Putin, #Netanjahu, #Erdoğan, #Orban, #LePenn, and #Kickl are #populist #fascists. There, I said it publicly.

Many more western politicians have clear fascist, illiberal tendencies, including previous #FPÖVP chancellors and current governors (Austrian #federalism does not work any more and needs to be severely limited to get back to a functioning government).

[https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000021253/was-kickl-als-volkskanzler-bedeuten-wuerde is a good summary of some reasonable criteria for spotting #fascism, and https://www.diepresse.com/19301692/haben-wir-es-den-faschisten-zu-leicht-gemacht gives more insight into the Austrian variant. https://www.aaup.org/news/professors-are-not-enemy-fascists-are%C2%A0 gives links to the current US government fight against academia.]

The result of this toot is probably that I _really_ shouldn't be traveling to the #US, #Israel, or #Turkey with their current governments. Luckily, I still dare write such statements publicly in Austria and the wider EU. If I really have to get into political trouble, then let it be because I denounce fascism and oppose the abuse of technology to build surveillance states driven by fear. I will not fight with violence, but I can and will fight it with words.

Die FPÖ und der ewige Faschismus

Eine politische Analyse der von der Partei geschürten Ängste, ihrer Fremdenfeindlichkeit und Wortwahl mithilfe von Umberto Ecos Werk

DER STANDARD

TikTok: Look! I discovered hot water melts frozen food faster!

Twitter: Look at this TikTok video showing how to defrost your food faster!

Yahoo news: Millions of Twitter users view TikTok video showing new life hack for melting frozen food!

Mastodon: Please read my academic white paper describing the impacts of public school system underfunding

René Mayrhofer

🇺🇦 🇹🇼2d ago

Paul Wouters 2d ago

Listen to Kasparov- he has the experience ….
https://mastodon.social/@Some_Emo_Chick/114354070997689780

René Mayrhofer

🇺🇦 🇹🇼2d ago

mattjay 4d ago

🧵 THREAD: A federal whistleblower just dropped one of the most disturbing cybersecurity disclosures I’ve ever read.

He's saying DOGE came in, data went out, and Russians started attempting logins with new valid DOGE passwords

Media's coverage wasn't detailed enough so I dug into his testimony:

René Mayrhofer

🇺🇦 🇹🇼3d ago

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Kevin Beaumont 3d ago

Recall still scoops up WhatsApp and Signal chats, haven't tried others yet. Fully searchable and stored as text in the local Recall database. My blur on screenshot.

René Mayrhofer

🇺🇦 🇹🇼4d ago

CosmicRami 5d ago

You may have seen headlines today - such as in The New York Times - suggesting the possible detection of a biosignature on an exoplanet. It’s an exciting prospect, no doubt. But it’s also an extraordinary claim, and as the saying goes, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" (Carl Sagan).

While the molecule in question is associated with biological processes, it’s important to note that non-biological (abiotic) pathways for its formation exist as well (see: Reed et al. 2024 ApJL; Sanz-Novo et al. 2025 ApJL). These results are interesting, but far from conclusive.

Scientists work within a robust framework to test such claims. This includes:

- Peer review and replication
- Community feedback and critique
- Cross-validation through multiple instruments and techniques
- Avoiding sensationalism in science communication
- Building consensus through sustained investigation

I am looking forward to hearing more from the exoplanet and astrobiology communities on these findings before drawing conclusions.

In the meantime, the ripple effect of bold headlines - like "Possible Signs of Extraterrestrial Life" - has already begun. A friend at the dentist this morning spotted a very misleading headline about this on Channel 9 News!

This is where science communication becomes critical: managing public interest and excitement without compromising scientific accuracy.

We should use moments like these to show the process - how scientific ideas are proposed, tested, debated, and refined - to broader audiences. Whether we’re talking about space, climate change, or pandemics, this transparency is essential to building trust in science.

Aliens make for a great headline, but the real story is in how we do the science.

#JWST #Astronomy #Astrobiology #Astrodon #Science #ScienceCommunication

Homepage	https://www.mayrhofer.eu.org
University	https://jku.at/ins