Spike 

@spike@infosec.exchange
450 Followers
593 Following
2.8K Posts

I am a meat popsicle.

This is Andrew Brandt's non-work profile, where I may discuss information security topics as well as non-infosec things that are on my mind.

I'm a malware researcher and writer about security topics for an infosec vendor, and a volunteer docent at the Media Archaeology Lab retrocomputing lab (@mediaarchaeologylab) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. I hack old stuff and also, occasionally, fix it. Drinker of beer, player of videogames, and nerdcore enthusiast.

Earlier in my career I was a journalist, but always a technologist. I worked for PC World and MacUser magazines as an editor. I was also a staff writer for the UC Berkeley student-run newspaper, the Daily Californian. In the mid-90s I worked for KRON-TV in San Francisco on a tech magazine show called Next Step that was syndicated internationally on Discovery networks.

For purely malware- and security-related toots, please follow @threatresearch

Meat popsicle?YES!
State of residenceColorado
State of my officedisarray
Petsnone
Favorite form of archaeologymedia

Hey my #retrocomputer and #retrogaming fam. The Media Archaeology Lab @mediaarchaeologylab is doing its spring T-shirt order.

You can get this rad exploded diagram of...a sort of Lovecraftian retro-mutant hardware Frankenstein, but only if you put in your request by February 28.

Don't delay! This is a one-and-done shirt and you don't want the FOMO.

https://forms.gle/viNjaM1qY3SiFPbr8

#shirt #MAL #MALwear #MALpals #retro #retrotechnology

T-shirt pre-order form!

This form will walk you through the process of donating to the MAL to pre-order a t-shirt - thank you so much for donating to the MAL! Shipping costs are included in the donation. We are currently only able to process shipment to the U.S., sorry about that. If you are located overseas, please contact us via email and we will see if we can coordinate something. If you have questions, please contact mediaarchaeology@colorado.edu - and make sure to hit submit when you complete this form so we know what to send & where to send it!

Google Docs

Preparation for #Marchintosh nbd just a #SteamDeck booting Mac System 7 on the #Basilisk #emulator. Works pretty sprightly, despite my fumbling with mouse controls.

#retromac #retrocomputing

Earlier today, a group visit at the @mediaarchaeologylab #retrocomputing #retrodeer
Apparently the set designer/prop manager for the TV show #Pennyworth has a tendency to tease the audience with some real zinger #retrocomputer devices, like this #Commodore PET on Prime Minister Aziz's desk.

This could be us but you playin'

#retrocomputers #disasterarea #homelab

Possibly the greatest tease in the history of email marketing.

But at least I finally know Wheatley's entire name.

Harlen.

Figures.

A media archaeologist a couple of years back stumbled upon an older Macintosh running a prototype operating system that never saw commercial release: System 7.7 was subsumed by MacOS 8 a few months later. But the early-alpha version of 7.7 still exists, and thank goodness someone with the appropriate skill set found and archived this precious and rare slice of computing history.

I love that the Special menu was renamed "Speedy" but in all other ways, this feels very much like one of the older Mac System 7 setups...with a few interesting internal testing tools and some unexpected hints about who was using the device in the artefacts left behind on the drive image.

I plan to install this on real Mac hardware soon, but it does work great right now using SheepShaver, the emulator.

http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/macos-77-pre-release

#MediaArchaeology #MediaArchaeologyLab #Mac #ClassicMac #RetroMac #RetroComputing

Today to honor Steve #Wozniak, who gave the commencement address to undergraduates at #CUBoulder, at @mediaarchaeologylab I pulled out an old app that is part of the Whacked #Mac Archives, curated by the #L0pht.

The app's sole purpose is to pull a series of fuzzy, heavily dithered PICT format bitmap images out of the ROM of a #Macintosh SE (and no other model). This was an easter egg of epic proportions - photos of the early people who worked at #Apple Computer, burned into the silicon that powers the computer. Seeing these images was a bit like what I imagine an alien species would feel when they play the golden record on Voyager for the first time.

Sorry for the weird bars on some of these photos. I'll try to get clearer ones next week.

#RetroMac #RetroComputing

I was forced to see that this game exists, so I am sharing it with you. Happy April fool's day. I appreciate that it is in the "Psychological Horror" genre.