mark_round (u/mark_round)

mark_round commented on Running Your Own AS: BGP on FreeBSD with FRR, GRE Tunnels, and Policy Routing blog.hofstede.it/running-... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

mark_round · 7 days ago

If you'd like to experiment with running your own AS in private address space, connecting to a friendly network of geeks over wireguard tunnels, check out DN42 https://dn42.dev/Home.

It's a great way to explore routing technologies and safely experiment with your own AS, running the same protocols as the "real" Internet, just in private space.

If you do get set up, give me a shout (https://markround.com/dn42), I'd be happy to peer with you if you want to expand beyond the big "autopeer" networks :)

mark_round commented on Stop Breaking TLS markround.com/blog/2025/1... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

acer4666 · 2 months ago

You should make it about CT logs. I believe you need to compromise at least three of them.

mark_round · 2 months ago

That was what I was thinking of (but worded it badly in the middle of my rant!)

If I wanted to intercept all your traffic to any external endpoint without detection I would have to compromise the exact CA that signed your certificates each time, because it would be a clear sign of concern if e.g. Comodo started issuing certificates for Google. Although of course as long as a CA is in my trust bundle then the traffic could be intercepted, it's just that the CT logs would make it very clear that something bad had happened.

mark_round commented on Stop Breaking TLS markround.com/blog/2025/1... · Posted by u/todsacerdoti

account42 · 2 months ago

> Consider this - what is the likelihood of every certificate authority on the Internet having their private keys compromised simultaneously? I’d wager that’s almost at the whatever is the statistics equivalent of the Planck length level of probability.

It doesn't matter if every certificate authority is compromised or just one. One is all that is needed to sign certificates for all websites.

mark_round · 2 months ago

Author here, hi! Was just venting last night, but that's a very good point, I'll update it later with your correction :)

mark_round commented on Old Computer Challenge – Modern Web for the ZX Spectrum 0x00.cl/blog/2025/occ-202... · Posted by u/0x00cl

mark_round · 4 months ago

There is also Spectranet[1] and clones for the Sinclair Spectrum, which allows for a much richer Internet-connected experience. It can load and boot remote programs from a server which allows you to get quite creative and produce sites like my TNFS server[2]. You can also try it out from an emulated Spectrum in a web browser at https://jsspeccy.markround.com if you don't have the original hardware lying around to see the sort of stuff you can build!

There's also Telnet clients so you can access old-school BBSes, and a variety of interesting "bridges" that grant access to Gopher or even parse websites. Quite amazing to access the modern Internet on an 8-bit machine from the early 80s that originally loaded games from cassette tape :)

[1]=https://www.bytedelight.com/?page_id=3515

[2]=https://tnfs.markround.com

mark_round commented on Dual Kickstart ROM Replacement for Amiga github.com/cdhooper/kicks... · Posted by u/doener

Daviey · 10 months ago

As someone that thanks Amiga for introducing me to my passion for technology (specifically the 500), I am really impressed that active development is happening on a 35 year old platform.. But somewhat surprised.

mark_round · 10 months ago

It's a lot of fun, still! I touched on it in my "Amiga Systems Programming in 2023" post[1] which had some discussion here[2]. In the few years since then there's been lots of development still across the whole scene. OS4 is largely stagnating (although I still fire up my X5000 whenever I have a chance) but the classic 68k scene is positively thriving.

Lots of great software & homebrew games, and the hardware options now are just amazing. There's FPGA, emulation, PiStorm accelerators, Vampire, re-amiga... and only this month, Hyperion released an updated OS3.2[3].

It was (and is) such a versatile, forward-thinking platform and I still very much enjoy seeing how far the community can take it.

[1]=https://www.markround.com/blog/2023/08/30/amiga-systems-prog...

[2]=https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37389376

[3]=https://www.hyperion-entertainment.com

mark_round commented on The legacy of NeXT lives on in OS X (2012) arstechnica.com/gadgets/2... · Posted by u/Bondi_Blue

mark_round · a year ago

A tangent I know, but looking at those old screenshots really made me miss that era of OS X. The first versions of Aqua with pinstripes were a bit busy for my liking, but by the Mountain Lion time frame it was just lovely. Actual buttons! Soft gradients! Icons that had colour!

mark_round commented on Ascending Mount FujiNet leadedsolder.com/2024/12/... · Posted by u/zdw

stevekemp · a year ago

Your writeup was awesome, and couple probably be resubmitted since it has been a few years.

I'm surprised to learn there was a Starstrike 2, I just remember the original "3D Starstrike", but looking at the videos online there's definite family resemblance! My history started with the spectrum too, like so many others:

https://blog.steve.fi/how_i_started_programming

mark_round · a year ago

Thanks! It was a lot of fun to put together, and the site has expanded in scope considerably since I wrote those articles. Whenever I get a few moments, it's one of my favourite projects to work on, there's just something very "zen" about going back to Sinclair BASIC and all the limitations which enforce some creative hacks. I was particularly pleased with the user preferences system[1] and articles code which mimics some of the early disk/tape magazines I remember from my early teens.

So many of us of a certain age started with those early 8-bit computers, I guess "booting" straight into a BASIC prompt encouraged that exploration and experimenting which is a little harder to get at these days.

I never played the original Starstrike, but Starstrike II is still one of my favourites - impressive to see a 3D engine running on an 8-bit micro with 48Kb of memory and makes you wonder what we're spending all those cycles on now!

[1]=https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=11776...

mark_round commented on Ascending Mount FujiNet leadedsolder.com/2024/12/... · Posted by u/zdw

mark_round · a year ago

The TNFS protocol used by FujiNet has also been used in other network cards for old 8-bit computers. My own ZX Spectrum is fitted with a Spectranet card which enables the same kind of connectivity and creativity. I wrote about it in my "DevOps For The Sinclair Spectrum" article[1] which featured here, and my TNFS site is now available through a JS emulator on a web page[2] if you want to see the kind of thing you can create. It's sort of like an old-school BBS, except the code is downloaded and run directly on your computer, which opens up a world of possibilities like multi-player games and even bridges to protocols like Gopher, Gemini and IRC which make communicating with the "modern" Internet possible even on an ancient tape-loading 8-bit micro from the 80s. Really fun stuff!

[1]=https://www.markround.com/blog/2021/12/21/devops-for-the-sin...

[2]=https://jsspeccy.markround.com

mark_round commented on ZX Spectrum Documentary 'The Rubber Keyed Wonder' Gets London Premiere timeextension.com/news/20... · Posted by u/rcarmo

mark_round · a year ago

Still got mine. Still write code on it, too[1] although it's now connected to the Internet with a Spectranet card. My 9-year old self would have been astonished that there's still a lively scene surrounding the Spectrum and some quality games still being released for it today. Or that I'd still be writing Speccy BASIC code projects[2] in the 21st century!

It's remarkably fun to tinker with still, and I don't think it's purely nostalgia for me. Although there's certainly an element of that at play, I think it's more the "zen" like simplicity that's appealing these days of hugely elaborate cloud-native stacks and hardware so complex there's no way anyone can hold it all in their heads. The Spectrum and other 80s home computers in contrast were so accessible and people did (and still do) astonishing things within those limits. The Speccy no doubt launched hundreds of thousands of careers, mine included.

Plus, with those limitations, games simply had to be playable to be successful as they couldn't on gimmicks! I honestly prefer a good game of Manic Miner over any modern title. The Spectrum & Amiga years were the glory days of old-school gaming for sure!

[1]=https://www.markround.com/blog/2021/12/21/devops-for-the-sin... - If you've ever wondered how to do CICD and client/server for an 8-bit computer from the '80s :P

[2]=https://jsspeccy.markround.com

mark_round commented on Roguecraft Devs on Developing for Amiga in 2024 timeextension.com/feature... · Posted by u/ibobev

khazhoux · 2 years ago

It's been a couple of years since my last deep-dive on Amiga development inside MacOS. I never did find smooth dev workflow: compile inside the emulated environment, or cross-compile from macos? Edit inside the emulated environment, or edit inside VS Studio? etc.

Has anyone found a slick and effective dev flow?

mark_round · 2 years ago

I wrote an article about the very subject : https://www.markround.com/blog/2023/08/30/amiga-systems-prog...

Which also featured on HN at the time, with some very insightful comments and discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37389376

TL;DR is I cross-compile using VSCode & Docker from Mac/Win/Linux mainly, but if I want to develop in the Amiga environment (e.g. on native) I use VBCC on 68k.