_05: blocks
today was a day.
it began with a guy, in a soothingly (??) monotone voice explaining to me some of the lower-level details of how an OS works. i felt bad because he was on a channel called "LECTURES FOR SLEEP & STUDY", which doesn't speak wonders about how "engaging" the content is, but honestly? i'm glad. i don't want to be attracted by flashing lights and sounds - i want to choose my content. intentionally. at least, sometimes, wherever i can do so.
how HDDs are constructed of layered spinning platters, each with a motor moving a head back and forth across each one, needing to account for both seek time & rotational delay when travelling to the desired data's location. how that informed multiple algorithms (First-come First Served, Elevator, Completely Fair Queuing - timeslices for each process - etc.) in order to optimise speed and minimise unnecessary mechanical movement when reading/writing data from circular, spinning HDDs.
then, how these HDD-optimised queueing algorithms become less relevant for SSD flash storage, where electrons are injected/removed from flash cells/gates to toggle them between a state of 1 (EMPTY, "erased") and 0 (containing an electron/data). this may seem like it's flipped around (shouldn't 1 store a value, and 0 no value?) but when you consider that an electron - which itself has a negative charge - is what's "occupying" the cell, reversing the logic makes more sense. its explained a lot better here.
then there was means of provisioning space on such disks, or partition types. these are agreed-upon standards for how to segment disk space in order to make a disk bootable & store persistent data on it. There are two main types:
- Master Boot Record (MBR) - stores the code required to load the rest of the system in the
first 512 bytes, which is accessed & executed by theBIOS. the default for a long time, but only supports up to 4 partitions of2TBeach. - Guid Partition Table (GPT) - larger partition table size (
8ZiBin size, aka extreme data hoarding levels of space), with a dummy MBR maintained to enable compatibility with older partitioning systems (preventing them from seeing the disk as empty)
i met my new psychologist today. we talked for almost 2 hours. it was incredibly draining, but also, incredibly freeing. upon leaving the session, i felt a glimmer of hope within my core. i couldn't place as to whether i'd seen her before - she just felt so familiar to me. i think i'm getting better at opening up and admitting that i'm sometimes not okay.
work was a bit of a blur, and also a trudge. not a great mindset or headspace, imposter syndrome bubbling within me with every tap of a key, but i got through it. and it will get easier with time. just because i have off days, it doesn't mean i have an off brain (in a "way-past-the-best-before-date" kind of off). it means my brain is opening up to and soaking in how complex and endless the world around me is, and how i will never know everything about it. but each time i reckon with this feeling, it means my mind is expanding a it realises the scope of all is does know, as well as the possibilities writhe within how much it Does Not Yet Know.
i'll end on a quote from Louis Rossmann, from a video on the virtues (and necessity) of adblocking - because what slaps a company in the face more than getting negative impressions on their ads? getting none at all.
"if you pay for what it is you consume only after you've chosen that it's valuable, we're going to see a giant shift in the type of content that's created, versus somebody getting paid before you've decided that it's valuable." - Louis Rossmann
in other words, using ad/sponsor-blockers to filter out the noise and create an ecosystem where creators are rewarded for creating meaningful content. to support this - intentionally pick, curate, what you consume. and only support creators (in both watch time and financial support, if able) based on the entirety of the content itself. not the promise, or allure of it.
and also - a link to his most recent video at the time of writing, about offering short, simple solutions to other people's everyday annoyances caused by ads/tracking/privacy-invading services. talking to them in a non-elitist way, presenting the solution as a simple "oh, but I don't see ads here? ahh, wait, do you have ublock origin installed? do you use adguard DNS servers? here, it's simple, let me show you!"
we can't preach to the choir about "why you need to switch to so and so and rework your entire life in order to be an ethical human being because xyzhhvsbhjs...". it only drives people away. instead, approach them on a level playing field; show them how easy it can be to fix what seems like endlessly irritating issues. a helping hand, kind words, and action are much better teachers; sharing the important and necessity of such services & principles through mutual understanding and gratefulness for a quieter, less monetised world.
links for 14/2/25:
- Build Your Own Offensive Security Lab A Step-by-Step Guide with Ludus - future project!
- Regcool - a more powerful registry editor
- Why I support adblockers & why YOU should too!
- The best way to get back privacy
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