Zap to Zero Day 12
What is the difference between humans and other animals? The ability to write, the ability to plan far into the future and the ability to fuck up the whole planet.
— anonymous
Do you agree with this quote? Or are other features more distinct between humans and other animals?
Emphasis on other since we're also just animals.
Or put in other words:
We are incredible social creatures, as much as we like to deny it.
— somewhere in this video that is about:
[...] happiness, self-confidence, how I motivate myself, changes, etc.Other topics include staying positive, the importance of having self-discipline, and recognizing that it's highly likely that you won't remember the problems you have right now in just a few months or years.Be kind to yourself, be kind to others, and spread the love!! All the positive feelings you have for your friends, the people you look up to ... don't be afraid to treat yourself with that same love.
— video description
Satistics
| Date | Spent | Stacked (Rewards) | Posts | Comments | Rewarded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-12-28 | 13k | 8808 (n/a) | 2 | 35 | n/a |
| 2023-12-29 | 16.1k | 15.6k (5222) | 3 | 52 | ⚡ |
| 2023-12-30 | 10.8k | 9752 (7026) | 1 | 41 | ✍️ |
| 2023-12-31 | 20.5k | 17.9k (4379) | 5 | 61 | ⚡ |
| 2024-01-01 | 12.5k | 10.7k (7684) | 3 | 47 | ✍️ |
| 2024-01-02 | 16k | 19.5k (9353) | 6 | 36 | ✍️ |
| 2024-01-03 | 15.9k | 15.6k (6729) | 2 | 46 | ⚡ |
| 2024-01-04 | 11.4k | 11.4k ( | 3 | 38 | ✍️ |
| 2024-01-05 | 11.3k | 11.4k ( | 1 | 41 | ? |
| 2024-01-06 | 6691 | 6282 ( | 0 | 38 | ✍️ |
| 2024-01-07 | 8053 | 8503 ( | 3 | 20 | ✍️ |
| 2024-01-08 | 8873 | 9164 (1219) | 2 | 12 | ⚡ |
| 2024-01-09 | TBD | TBD (4649) | TBD | TBD | ✍️ |
The special that I mentioned yesterday:
It shows my sat balance. I poll it every 5 seconds (like our frontend does) and save it in a file with a timestamp next to it. This can also be used as a "proof" that I indeed hit zero before I went to bed [0]. It's slightly uncomfortable to essentially reveal how much (or less) I sleep and when but I think it's more interesting to show than uncomfortable. You can deduce my time zone by looking at my SN activity and I didn't really keep my time zone a secret on SN anyway.
This is also a very good example how easy you can find information about an individual online using OSINT to make educated guesses about their location.
OSINT stands for open-source intelligence. That is, the collection and analysis of data obtained from publicly accessible information channels. Such sources can basically be anything: newspapers and magazines, television and radio, data published by official organizations, scientific research, conference reports, etc.Nowadays, of course, such intelligence is primarily based on information scraped from the internet. Over the past 10–15 years, online public communication platforms have become especially valuable as OSINT-gathering tools: chats, forums, social networks, and messengers.The range of people using OSINT is quite diverse: journalists, scientists, civil activists, government and business analysts, as well as intelligence officers themselves. In a nutshell, OSINT is an important and effective tool for collecting data. But perhaps the more significant question is how such information gets put to use.
For example, this information (that might have not been protected enough due to backups that are not encrypted by default) might have been used for airstrikes in Ukraine:
All British Army personnel, including senior officers, will now face disciplinary action if they're caught using WhatsApp over fears that Russia is using phone data to choose airstrike targets
I continued reading Art of Deception from Kevin D. Mitnick ("world's most celebrated hacker" according to the back cover) in bed. I am at page 23 from 338 now. I also recommended this book to @Fabs yesterday.
Some quotes as highlights:
ABUSE OF TRUST In most cases, successful social engineers have strong people skills. They're charming, polite and easy to like — social traits needed for establishing rapid rapport and trust. An experienced social engineer is able to gain access to virtually any targeted information by using strategies and tactics of his craft.Savvy technologists have painstakingly developed information-security solutions to minimize the risks connected with the use of computers, yet left unaddressed the most significant vulnerability, the human factor.Despite our intellect, we humans — you, me, and everyone else — remain the most severe threat to each other's security.
— Kevin D. Mitnick & William L. Simon (2022), Art of Deception, Chapter 1, page 8
Ok, that was only one quote. I'll save some quotes for future posts. Or just read the book yourself!
#just.iOS.things
I also did setup my new iPhone SE 3rd Gen yesterday. My experience with setting it up (which includes creating an Apple ID) is a story for another day. The great thing is that I was finally able to debug broken push notifications on iOS:
Do you have an iOS device to test with yet? I know for a while you didn’t.Not yet, @k00b and me are currently discussing exactly this in Slack, lol Quote from me:I can't believe Apple is making me buy an Apple device so I can debug their shit lolI'll try to get my hands on a used 6s next week
-- @WeAreAllSatoshi and me, #372791
If anyone is interested, here is my analysis inside a Github comment.
Recent Superzaps
1. Don't Say I Can't. Say How Can I?
This post from @kepford is one of these posts that I immediately zapped without reading them first. The title already told me that this is going to be a good one. It hit close to home.
There are few things more frustrating to me than hearing someone defeating themselves. Saying they can't do something when they can. We live in a time where it is almost a virtue to be a victim. To blame others for why you are in your current state. Now, part of this is true. We are all products of our time, our families, our culture, and our economies. Many of us have been abused or persecuted for various reasons. Many have enemies, people that hate them, and what us to fail. This has always been true and will likely remain to be true. So what.[...]There will always be people smarter than me. There will always be someone born with more advantages than me. There will always be someone or something pushing against me. But I can move forward. I can press on. I have agency over my mind and body if I will take it. I can make my life better and the lives of others. In my experience people hold themselves back far more than others. Many here hate the state. I do as well. Its evil but many do not take their freedom back where they can. They don't do things they can do to make themselves more free. Freedom begins in the mind. Stop saying "I can't". Instead start saying, "How can I?"How can I __?
I also didn't reply (I didn't even read the post until now) but I wonder if that post has seen less engagement in terms of zaps and replies because it's in ~culture, we released territory mutes 10 days ago and ~culture isn't one of the OG territories.
Btw, relevant song:
I used to be as innocent as you My excuses ran out, ran out of things to complain about Fear will always find a way to show Right throughYou want to be more hurt than me You want to say you're more the victim You wanna complain and pass the blame You want to say you're more the victim
2. A request for non-correlated inputs
A while ago (which means 1.5 weeks in SN terms), @elvismercury mentioned that he thinks he's bad at what he's good at:
Despite feeling strongly about this, I don't think I'm very good at it, which is bad.Based on the variety of links and discussions you share alone, you're exceptional at this actually.
It's about information monocultures and how they are security holes (even though this was posted in ~mostly_harmless and not in ~security [1]):
A fact I try to keep front-of-mind is that your outputs are a function of your inputs. An implication is that if you consume the same info as everyone else, you will think the same thoughts as everyone else. You will have the same "insights" and be vulnerable to the same exploits. In the same way that trusted third parties are security holes, an information monoculture is a security hole. Worse, it's a hole you may not even know you're in, because the people around you are in it too.
I am mentioning this here since I think this is a timeless piece. I revisited it yesterday since @k00b linked to it here in the post where @kr asked if the trend of global urbanization will reverse.
I also had to laugh because of this comment from @SimpleStacker in there btw:
It will reverse when the bombs drop
still occasionally laughing, probably because it's true
3. I'm not the brightest bulb out there, help me change it.
A very humble stacker that does not want to be mentioned here posted this yesterday. It seems very related to the post from @elvismercury above since I think they are also asking for non-correlated inputs; they just are not bright enough yet too humble to know it and are asking specifically for books as inputs:
I'm not that knowledgeable about anything, really... Naturally, that makes me a pretty boring partner in terms of socializing and conversations.The only topics I can have a conversation about is Outdoor-gear and Bitcoin, which would be fine, if only the other side would be interested or knowledgeable about these two topics...In order to change this, I'd like to start reading a healthy amount of books, in no specific order, but on a multitude of different topics.
I took the opportunity to shill the book about social engineering that I am currently reading and they seemed to like it:
Oh! Social engineering, interesting indeed! I'll have a look at that genre, too.
Another social engineer was made aware that we're all social engineers; most of us just don't know it; don't don't apply our unconscious knowledge of social engineering or are too ashamed [2] to do it. For example, parents are the "grand experts of all time in social engineering":
My task is made more difficult by a simple truth: Every reader will have been manipulated by the grand experts of all time in social engineering — their parents. They found ways to get you — "for your own good" — to do what they thought best. Parents become great storytellers in the same way that social engineers skillfully develop very plausible stories, reasons, and justifications for achieving their goals
This is related to this comment from @cryotosensei in yesterday's saloon where @Natalia and @Undisciplined joined in.
4. Where will you NEVER visit again?
@birdeye21 used his bird view again to see exactly what question stackers will be interested in and zap him to the top with not much else to say:
Respectfully…What are some countries cities states islands etc. that gave you nothing but red flags, or were otherwise not what you were hoping for?Why won’t you be returning??
I also found it interesting how some replies in there were related to the post from @kr that I mentioned above. For example:
Going to predict a lot of big cities appear in responses here. What a lot of people haven't worked out is that unless you're rich (i.e. your local purchasing power is multiples the destination you're travelling to), most cities are pretty miserable to experience as a tourist. They're designed for living in and for locals.
Challenge of the Day
Feel inspired by @orthwyrm and do one push-up.
btw, just realized my browser wants to correct "orthwyrm" to "earthworm":
Song of the Day
Like a fiction based life form, call me cartoon Like escaping colors from a box, filling dark rooms Like illuminating sky patterns, breaking up Like a dream with your lover, don't wake me up Like a solar eclipse when the sun parts with the moon Like the summer being over but it came too soon Like the moment that your essence became crystal clear Like the flowers in the spring, show your face once a yearAll good things come to an end, that's just the way it's always been It might not seem that fair to you but it is the start of something new All good things come to an end that's just the way it's always been It might not seem that fair to you but it is the start of something
Every end is a new beginning.
[0] I am a big 'Don't trust me'-fan. I tend to trust people who keep telling me that I shouldn't trust them.
[1] Oh, just realized that ~mostly_harmless is a territory that was founded by @elvismercury! It has unfortunately only seen 3 posts so far. I wonder if the name originates from the "1992 novel by Douglas Adams [which is] the fifth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series." (source). The territory description at least also indicates that to be true:
Trying to understand our place in the galaxy while being excellent to each other.
[2] This is somewhat related to the Map of Consciousness by David R. Hawkins. At least I had to think about it when I wrote this.
stackedandspentaren't fully overlapping.