Теодор Златанов / Ted Zlatanov

@tzz@infosec.exchange
72 Followers
196 Following
948 Posts
Теодор Златанов / Ted Zlatanov17h ago
No es entonces simplemente un mercado?
Теодор Златанов / Ted Zlatanov17h ago
Missing The Point22h ago
Mr. Bezos, remember that you have a 30-day window for returns and exchanges.
Теодор Златанов / Ted Zlatanov1d ago
evacide1d ago

Website/device age verification is a privacy and security nightmare and everyone who tells you that this is a solved problem is lying to you.

https://gizmodo.com/supreme-court-says-age-verification-laws-for-porn-sites-are-constitutional-2000621265

Supreme Court Says Age Verification Laws for Porn Sites Are Constitutional

Nineteen states have age verification laws.

Gizmodo
Теодор Златанов / Ted Zlatanov1d ago
Adam Shostack  1d ago

New identity databases are being funded today, with godawful security for the collections of Id photographs and deepfakes images they’ll contain.

I bet it’s no more than a month before someone finds the first open s3 bucket. https://mastodon.social/@arstechnica/114756735522393561

Теодор Златанов / Ted Zlatanov1d ago
Robert Roskam2d ago

The stories about 10x engineers never include:
• Adding meaningful test coverage
• Updating outdated README sections
• Mentoring junior engineers
• Listening to burned-out coworkers
• Improving on-call runbooks

No glory in these things, but those that do them are the ones you desperately want to keep.

They plant trees they don't expect to sit under.

Теодор Златанов / Ted Zlatanov4d ago
jnpn5d ago

https://coredumped.dev/2025/06/18/making-tramp-go-brrrr./

#emacs #tramp #magit

Making TRAMP go Brrrr….

I recently changed jobs and found myself in a position where I would need to do a lot of work on remote machines. Since I am Emacs user, the most common way to do this is using TRAMP (Transparent Remote access, Multiple Protcol). TRAMP is an Emacs package that let’s you treat a remote host like a local system, similar to VSCode Remote Development Extension. I had used TRAMP before and it tended to be slow.

Теодор Златанов / Ted Zlatanov4d ago
John Carlos Baez5d ago

The more cash you need, the more you want to borrow. In the short term this reduces your need for cash, but after a while it increases it. A vicious cycle.

The same pattern shows up all over the place, where a short-term fix makes the problem worse in the long run. This pattern is an example of a 'system archetype', and we can draw it as a diagram. Different instances of this archetype will give diagrams with different words - but the archetype is the pattern of edges with plus signs, minus signs and delays.

I've been working on the math of this stuff. I'm fascinated by how a general problem that haunts my life - I like to put off solving problems, and wind up making them worse - can be summarized as a simple diagram.

(1/n)

Теодор Златанов / Ted Zlatanov6d ago
Bodil6d ago

It would be appallingly petty of me to suggest that if you didn't want the megacorps breathing down your neck 24/7 demanding your free labour, maybe you shouldn't have slapped the MIT Free Labour Licence on your software when you could have just as well gone for something the megacorps scurry away from like cockroaches exposed to sunlight such as the "viral" GNU Glorious People's Licence, so of course I wouldn't dream of suggesting it.

https://social.wildeboer.net/users/jwildeboer/statuses/114726269598973831
Теодор Златанов / Ted Zlatanov6d ago
Harry Sintonen6d ago

Insecure defaults can lead to surprises. When creating FIFO sockets with systemd, be sure to note that SocketMode defaults to 0666 - that is world readable and writable. That is: any local user can communicate with the FIFO. If your FIFO is used to perform privileged operations you must ensure that either the FIFO file itself is located in secured location or set SocketMode to stricter value.

I spotted one such insecure use in cloud-init: the hotplug FIFO was world writable. This is CVE-2024-11584 and fixed in cloud-init 25.1.3.

The commit fixing this is in https://github.com/canonical/cloud-init/pull/6265

#CVE_2024_11584 #ubuntu #systemd #infosec #cybersecurity

Sync security by blackboxsw · Pull Request #6265 · canonical/cloud-init

Sync security patches for release.

GitHub
Теодор Златанов / Ted ZlatanovJun 21
Show threadnot ch1cJun 18

@Fledglingnerd I can’t see the @pluralistic post you’re replying to but.. if we’re piling on libertarians.. has anyone mentioned the bears?

https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project

The Town That Went Feral

When a group of libertarians set about scrapping their local government, chaos descended. And then the bears moved in.

The New Republic
×
John Carlos Baez5d ago

The more cash you need, the more you want to borrow. In the short term this reduces your need for cash, but after a while it increases it. A vicious cycle.

The same pattern shows up all over the place, where a short-term fix makes the problem worse in the long run. This pattern is an example of a 'system archetype', and we can draw it as a diagram. Different instances of this archetype will give diagrams with different words - but the archetype is the pattern of edges with plus signs, minus signs and delays.

I've been working on the math of this stuff. I'm fascinated by how a general problem that haunts my life - I like to put off solving problems, and wind up making them worse - can be summarized as a simple diagram.

(1/n)

Show threadJohn Carlos Baez5d ago

Here's another system archetype. There are two ways to solve a problem: a fundamental solution that takes a while to have any effect, and a quicker symptomatic solution... which unfortunately has a side-effect that makes the problem worse!

Like scratching a rash.

(2/n)

Show threadJohn Carlos Baez5d ago

You can read about seven system archetypes here:

• Daniel H. Kim and Virginia Anderson, Systems Archetype Basics: From Story to Structure, https://thesystemsthinker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Systems-Archetypes-Basics-WB002E.pdf

It's worth a look; if you get the idea you can just look at the pictures and get the insights pretty fast. For example, the archetype here shows the essence of an arms race.

(3/n)

Show threadJohn Carlos Baez5d ago

There's a general theory of these diagrams, which were called 'causal loop diagrams' by Sterman in his book Business Dynamics.

But similar diagrams are used in biology, where they are called 'pathways' or 'regulatory networks' or sometimes 'gene regulatory networks'. Here's part of the pathway for COVID. You can see the whole thing, and many more, here:

https://www.kegg.jp/pathway/map05171

(4/n)

Show threadJohn Carlos Baez5d ago

I've been working with @Adittya on modeling systems in this simple way, as graphs with edges labeled by signs {+,-} or element of more general monoids. Our paper is out now:

• John Baez and Adittya Chaudhuri, Graphs with polarities, http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/polarities.pdf

Abstract. In fields ranging from business to systems biology, directed graphs with edges labeled by signs are used to model systems in a simple way: the nodes represent entities of some sort, and an edge indicates that one entity directly affects another either positively or negatively. Multiplying the signs along a directed path of edges lets us determine indirect positive or negative effects, and if the path is a loop we call this a positive or negative feedback loop. Here we generalize this to graphs with edges labeled by a monoid, whose elements represent ‘polarities’ possibly more general than simply ‘positive’ or ‘negative’. We study three notions of morphism between graphs with labeled edges, each with its own distinctive application: to refine a simple graph into a complicated one, to transform a complicated graph into a simple one, and to find recurring patterns called ‘motifs’. We construct three corresponding symmetric monoidal double categories of ‘open’ graphs. We study feedback loops using a generalization of the homology of a graph to homology with coefficients in a commutative monoid. In particular, we describe the emergence of new feedback loops when we compose open graphs using a variant of the Mayer–Vietoris exact sequence for homology with coefficients in a commutative monoid.

(5/n)

Show threadpalha5d ago

@johncarlosbaez

Yes, causal loop diagrams are great for getting a quick, strategic overview of how systems behave. They’re especially handy for clearly explaining complex interactions to decision-makers like managers or politicians in a way they actually get and don't flood them with too many details.

But if you need practical, actionable insights—like making detailed plans, justifying investments, or backing up big decisions—you’ll want to combine them with quantitative tools like Markov chains, Petri nets, or discrete-event simulations. These methods give you precise modeling, solid validation, and clear proof of what your decisions (especially investments!) will really do.

In the end, it's simple: If I put resource X into solving problem Y, what's gonna happen, and what else could that affect?

@Adittya

Show threadMoritz Negwer5d ago
@johncarlosbaez @Adittya Fascinating! I have nothing useful to add except a lame joke: I suggest that if this turns into a fully fledged subfield, it be called "procrastimetetrics" and this type of diagram be called a "procrastinogram"
Show threadAdittya Chaudhuri5d ago

@moritz_negwer @johncarlosbaez

Thank you!!

"procrastimetetrics": Interesting!! 😂

Show threadVassil Nikolov5d ago

Needless to say, this is interesting and valuable.

I wonder how this approach could be applied to Richard Gabriel's famous "worse is better".

I can't summarize it properly here, but in a sentence,
this is a thesis that
a partial solution that is available now and that can be improved later
often wins
over a complete solution that takes a long time to be produced.

#DoingTheRightThing
#WorseIsBetter

@johncarlosbaez @Adittya

Show threadAdittya Chaudhuri5d ago
@johncarlosbaez Your work and vision have inspired me in countless ways over the years. I’m deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to work with you and learn from you so closely. These last few months have been an incredibly exciting journey — I’ve learned so much, not just about research, but also from your guidance, insights, and advice. Thank you truly for everything!
Show threadJencel Panic5d ago
@johncarlosbaez Is this connected to Game theory?
Show threadJohn Carlos Baez5d ago
@abuseofnotation - one could certainly try to connect it to game theory, but I haven't looked into that.
Show threadLevel 98 🇺🇦5d ago

@johncarlosbaez "I like to put off solving problems, and wind up making them worse"

Me too. And that is sometimes the outcome. But I have also found the problem can go away (e.g. because someone else has solved it), which is surprisingly unhelpful, because it is not conducive to changing my behaviour!

Show threadVassil Nikolov5d ago

> the problem can go away (e.g. because someone else has solved it)

Right.
Or the problem may turn out to be unimportant.
Etc.

Recognizing those cases is an art...

@level98 @johncarlosbaez

Show threadNoFishLikeIan5d ago
@johncarlosbaez A nice example of this comes up in optimal stopping problems (maybe Chow, Robbins & Siegmund, 1971). Suppose you find yourself on the first floor of an infinitely tall building. There is a fire on the ground floor that is spreading up. You can either jump from the window or move up one floor. The "marginalist" keeps climbing up, as the damage of jumping down is discontinuously large and becomes larger as one climbs; the "optimal" strategy would be to just jump down immediately.
Show threadVassil Nikolov5d ago

> the "optimal" strategy would be to just jump down immediately

I think you need to stipulate
whether firefighters may be coming
and
whether the fire may burn out before the whole building burns.
Probably a few other things as well.

@nofishlikeian @johncarlosbaez

Show threadRowena Ball5d ago
@johncarlosbaez
Never mind. The Gaussian fluctuations in your need for cash will lead to a non-Gaussian distribution of fluctuations in your borrowed amounts, a result that is inevitable but not obvious. It means that you will either decay in genteel poverty and disarray or charge ahead getting richer and more structured.