technology, ethics, FLOSS, and digital culture
Last night, I made the terrible mistake of liking a post. Nothing dramatic. Just a random post about how miserable it is to be young in 2026. You know the genre: “We were supposed to change the world. Instead, we’re just trying to survive.” A few minutes later, I saw another one. It was about how, now that we’re adults, we can finally afford to build the ridiculously powerful PC we dreamed about…
From a Locked Room to Open Worlds: How I Found Freedom Online I grew up in Iran under rules that felt like invisible walls closing in from every side. As a trans woman, I learned early that simply being myself could bring danger. In the Islamic Republic, expressing who I was felt impossible in real life. That hunger for freedom stayed with me every single day. Yet my story is not only about what I…
the mossad story
X Might Finally Go Open Source, And Honestly, I'm Too Tired to Get Excited Look, I saw the headline and let out one of those half-laugh, half-sigh sounds that only the chronically online can truly master. Elon Musk just announced that, once they finish poking around for security holes, they're going to open-source the entire X codebase. No exceptions. And get this—they're even inviting third-party…
Remember when people thought AI would destroy humanity? Turns out humanity looked at AI and said, "Can you think for me? I'm busy." We don't use AI because we can't do things anymore. We use it because doing things ourselves sounds exhausting. Need an email? AI. Need homework? AI. Need a birthday message for your mom? AI. Need to apologize to your girlfriend? AI. Need AI to apologize for the…
🚩 picoCTF 2021 | Challenge: Nice netcat... Another beginner challenge from picoCTF. This one was less "breaking into systems" and more "convincing numbers to become letters." The challenge gives us a simple mission: There is a nice program that you can talk to using nc, but it doesn't speak English... Alright, let's talk to it. nc wily-courier.picoctf.net 49625 The server responds with a…
Next challenge from picoCTF: Warmed Up. The challenge asked: What is 0x3D (base 16) in decimal (base 10)? Because apparently regular numbers were too easy, computers decided to add letters into the mix. Nothing says "simple" like looking at a number and wondering: "Wait... why is there a D in my math homework?" 🤨 Welcome to hexadecimal. The "magic" conversion Hexadecimal uses base 16: 0 1 2 3 4 5…
My CTF journey continued with another "dangerous" hacking challenge from picoCTF 2019 called 2warm. The mission? Convert: 42 (base 10) to: binary (base 2) Yes, after years of using computers, I finally had to sit down and politely explain to a computer that humans don't naturally count like machines. Apparently, using numbers like 42 is not enough. The computer wants its beloved 0s and 1s. 🙃 The…
picoCTF Let's Warm UP WriteUP NO.1 Category: General Skills Difficulty: Easy Author: Sanjay C / Danny Tunitis Challenge Description The challenge says: If I told you a word started with 0x70 in hexadecimal, what would it start with in ASCII? A scary-looking hexadecimal number? In the first challenge? Obviously the CTF gods wanted to make sure we know how to read numbers before letting us touch the…
Remember when downloading an npm package only meant arguing with dependency hell? Those were simpler times. Now you also have to wonder whether your new dependency is quietly working for North Korea. Researchers have uncovered 108 malicious packages and browser extensions spread across npm, Packagist, Go modules, and even the Chrome Web Store. Because apparently one package registry wasn't enough.…
There was a time when ransomware operators had to work for their money. They wrote malware, encrypted networks, built decryptors, and some even had customer support. Now, apparently, none of that is necessary. A U.S. government entity reportedly paid $1 million to the Kairos extortion group after its data was stolen. The catch? Nothing was encrypted. No flashy ransomware note, no locked computers,…