switknee (u/switknee)

switknee commented on Colorectal cancer is now the top cause of cancer death in younger people wsj.com/health/healthcare... · Posted by u/bmau5

helph67 · 22 days ago

Perhaps too much red meat and not enough fiber? "But foods with fiber can have other good effects as well. They can help you stay at a healthy weight and lower the risk of diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer" https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-h...

switknee · 21 days ago

Fiber is the cause of many of intestinal issues, making constipation and crohn's disease worse.

Red meat also helps people stay at a healthy weight, lower the risk of heart disease (caused by glucose) and some types of cancer (which feed on glucose). What do fiber and red meat have in common? They are not sugar. You could replace fiber with other indigestible material such as sand, the effect would not be much different.

switknee commented on The state of Schleswig-Holstein is consistently relying on open source heise.de/en/news/Goodbye-... · Posted by u/doener

mapontosevenths · 2 months ago

I've never used it. Does this actually replace AD and group policy effectively? Does it manage updates properly? Can it handle compliance tasks?

I've used other things that claimed to in the past and none came anywhere close in practice. They all turned out just to be LDAP with some NT4 style policies for windows and very little at all for the Linux clients. It was like traveling back in time to the Windows 2000 era of management.

switknee · 2 months ago

There never will be a 1 for 1 replacement because the two systems have different approaches. Why would you want a direct replacement when you could have something better?

GPOs are a windows thing and don't apply to other systems. The generic equivalent is configuration management, for which there are many solutions. Linux updates are much easier than windows updates, and many linux systems now use immutable and atomic updates by default, which further reduces risk.

For directory, openLDAP just does LDAP. DNS is done with Kea or Unbound.

Fundamentally the issue is a lack of familiarity. The only way to become familiar with a system is... to use it.

switknee commented on The state of Schleswig-Holstein is consistently relying on open source heise.de/en/news/Goodbye-... · Posted by u/doener

mapontosevenths · 2 months ago

> If you think your OS doesn't give you the correct answer to a read, than you need to run a second OS side-by-side and compare.

I mean, that's mostly right. IF the OS is already rootkit infected then installing an EDR won't fix it, as it mostly won't be able to tell that the answers it gets from the OS are incorrect. That's why you'll sometimes see bootable EDR tools used on machines that are suspected of already being compromised. It's a second OS to verify the first, exactly as you describe.

In practice that's not typically required because the EDR is usually loaded shortly after the OS is installed, and they're typically built with anti-tamper measures now. So we can mostly just assume that the EDR will be running when the malware is loaded. That allows us to do things like Kernel‑level monitoring for driver loads, module loads, and security‑relevant events (e.g., LSM/eBPF hooks on Linux, kernel callbacks/ETW on Windows).

By then layering on some behavioral analysis we can typically prevent the rootkit from installing at all, or at the very least get some logs and alerts sent before it can disable the EDR. It's also one reason these things don't just run in userland as you suggested above. They need kernel mode access to detect kernel mode malware, and they need low level IO access to independently verify that the OS is doing what it says it is when we call an API.

Your suggestion reminds me of the old 'chkrootkit' command on Linux. It's a great tool, if you don't already have a rootkit. In that case it just doesn't work. A modern EDR would have prevented the rootkit from installing an API hook in the first place (ideally).

> Only having some layer independently will help you in that case.

Sometimes it's more about detection, and sometimes it's more about prevention, but both are valuable. I would one day love to see a REAL solution, but for now I think EDR's are the least worst answer we have.

A better answer would be a modern OS built to avoid the weaknesses that make these bolt on afterthought solutions necessary, but neither Windows or Linux come anywhere close to being that. They both have too much history and have to preserve compatibility.

switknee · 2 months ago

Chrootkit is the sort of thing you run on your affected drive from a system you believe isn't affected.

EDR is pretty much just logging and remote access. The rest is fluff. Yes, you need a "host agent" for operational and regulatory reasons, but there's more flexibility than you think in what you can deploy for that. And none of the vendors use the best technical solution.

It's true the desktop security model sucks, but there's progress in improving it. Wayland, containerization, immutability.

switknee commented on The state of Schleswig-Holstein is consistently relying on open source heise.de/en/news/Goodbye-... · Posted by u/doener

GnarfGnarf · 2 months ago

I'm a Windows/macOS developer, but I strongly feel that all national governments need to convert to Linux, for strategic sovereignty. I'm sure Microsoft, under orders from the U.S. government, could disable all computers in any country or organization, at the flick of a switch.

Imagine how Open Source Software could improve if a consortium of nations put their money and resources into commissioning bug fixes and enhancements, which would be of collective benefit.

Apart from a few niche cases, the needs of most government bureaucracies would be well served by currently available OSS word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and graphics software.

switknee · 2 months ago

Flicking that switch would be pretty much a one time deal. Not likely.

What would happen instead, and has happened in the past, is Microsoft (or juniper, etc) leaving a remote vulnerability unpatched while certain groups use that exploit. It's much more deniable. So deniable, that it's impossible to say for certain that it was intentional.

It's more practical to audit FOSS systems for bugs than a Microsoft solution, and the tools for doing so are open source and getting even better every day. Like you said, sharing the burden helps with cost: It also helps with the trust issue. Going one step further, formally verified software solutions are possible (and exist!). Good luck getting that from Microsoft, they ship a calculator that needs updates and internet access to run.

switknee commented on We Induced Smells With Ultrasound writetobrain.com/olfactor... · Posted by u/exr0n

jasonjmcghee · 3 months ago

This is absolutely my question as well - curious if it's legal to do this, I'm guessing yes as it's an existing ultrasound device? But is there possibility of permanent damage?

It's objectively cool, but very curious about the safety as well.

switknee · 3 months ago

What would make it illegal to do this? Generally anything which hasn't been invented yet is legal, it's rare (but not impossible) for something to be banned before it exists.

switknee commented on NTSB report: Decryption of images from the Titan submersible camera [pdf] (2024) data.ntsb.gov/Docket/Docu... · Posted by u/bmurray7jhu

quamserena · 3 months ago

I have seen engineers slap Teensies on a PCB and call it a day, so it’s definitely normal. It’s faster than having to route your MCU, USB, debugger, etc. manually, so there isn’t really a drawback as long as it physically fits there.

switknee · 3 months ago

Yup, if it works in your testing, why bother changing it?

switknee commented on Homeschooling hits record numbers reason.com/2025/11/19/hom... · Posted by u/bilsbie

WalterBright · 3 months ago

> that's such a weird policy

Yup. I've taken adult lessons in things, and I don't continue to buy lessons if the coach is unable to teach me. But in the public schools, watch what happens if you suggest merit pay. Shields up, Mr Sulu!

Instead, teacher pay is based on years of service and how many credentials you have.

switknee · 3 months ago

Part of the issue with merit pay is if it's tied to simple metrics like grades, those metrics will get inflated without raising the things those metrics were meant to measure.

switknee commented on Kodak ran a nuclear device in its basement for decades popularmechanics.com/scie... · Posted by u/cainxinth

api · 3 months ago

Conspiracists and media brainwashed people will react this way no matter what. Doesn’t matter whether it’s secretive or not. It’s not about you or the subject matter but their need to feel important or in possession of some truth THEY don’t want you to know.

switknee · 3 months ago

Isn't a conspiracist someone who colludes with others to commit a crime, often in secret?

switknee commented on A Startup's Bid to Dim the Sun newyorker.com/news/the-le... · Posted by u/mitchbob

switknee · 3 months ago

Snowpiercer was pretty good.

switknee commented on Self-hosting a NAT Gateway awsistoohard.com/blog/sel... · Posted by u/veryrealsid

switknee · 3 months ago

Am I the only one who read this and thought, "doesn't everyone self host a NAT gateway?"

Mine's in the living room, it says TP Link.

More seriously, NAT is fun and all but it can introduce unexpected behaviors that wouldn't exist in a firewall that doesn't do translation. Less is more.