Archive for the ‘Python’ Category
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/03/04
Dit is net zo nalatig als de Odildo hack waar alle klantgegevens mee op straat kwamen te liggen: [Wayback/Archive] Odido-router verzamelt analytics van je huishouden
Bevindingen in het kort
- De Odido-router haalt bij een nieuwe WAN-verbinding een bash-script op over een onversleutelde HTTP-verbinding.
- Je kan dit script manipuleren om een root shell op je router te krijgen.
- Als je TLS-verkeer mitm’t zie je analytics-data over de lijn gaan; de scripters hebben TLS-validatie uitgezet (`curl -k`) dus je kan dit ‘versleutelde’ analytics-verkeer inzien.
- Je router stuurt namen en MAC-adressen van devices in je huis door naar Lifemote. Verder deelt het ding de SSID’s en MAC-adressen van WiFi-netwerken in de buurt. En wat analytics-stats over je dataverbruik. Lifemote adverteert met “AI-Powered Home Wi-Fi Solutions for ISPs”. Het voelt wat vies dat zij AI’s gaan trainen met data uit mijn huishouden. Daar vind ik wat van.
--jeroen
Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, bash, bash, Development, ISP, Odido (ex Dutch T-Mobile), Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/03/03
A few years back I tweeted [Wayback/Archive] Jeroen Wiert Pluimers @wiert@mastodon.social on Twitter: “@b0rk @jilles_com Acids vs bases.”
It was a kind of tongue-in-cheek reaction (with a way better picture below) to a very valuable post by b0rk (Julia Evans) on both Twitter and Mastodon [Wayback/Archive] Julia Evans on Twitter: “bases” / [Wayback/Archive] Julia Evans: “bases title: bases # we usually…” – Mastodon for two reasons:
- There are various interpretations of bases
- Octal is very important to educate as errors introduced by its support are hard to spot even if you do know about octal.
Back to Julia’s post:
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Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, 68k, 8086, Assembly Language, bash, bash, C, C++, Chemistry, Conference Topics, Conferences, Development, EPS/PostScript, Event, Haskell, History, Java, Java Platform, JavaScript/ECMAScript, Jon Skeet, LifeHacker, Mathematics, PDP-11, Perl, PHP, Power User, Python, science, Scripting, Software Development, x86 | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/25
Often I need to generate passwords or uuids (on some systems called guids). I usually try to do that in a relatively platform agnostic way as I use MacOS, Windows and Linux in various mixes for many reasons (for instance that I have had developed quite hefty RSI in the early 1990s of the and the best keyboard/pointing-device combination for is the MacBook built in keyboard/touchpad combination so basically MacBooks are my window to all other operating systems).
Generating randomly with a good random number generator them makes sense as for most usage, it is important that both passwords and uuids are hard to guess which means having an entropy that is as high as possible.
A cool thing about OpenSSL is that:
- most of not all systems have it installed (it was no coincidence I published Installing OpenSSL on Windows a few days ago)
- it has a very good pseudo-random number generator and as of [Wayback/Archive] OpenSSL version 1.1.1 first released in 2018 has solved the problem around [Wayback/Archive] Random fork-safety – OpenSSLWiki, see [Wayback/Archive] Our Review of the OpenSSL 1.1.1 Random Number Generation Update – OSTIF.org.
- it supports various useful output formats
hex (hexadecimal) and base64 (next to the default of octet – or by today’s naming convention byte – output)
The easiest to generate are passwords. Yes I know that password managers can do this too, but there are some systems I cannot use them on or sync between them (don’t you love the corporate world) so my aim is to use a random password generator in a platform agnostic way which usage is easy to remember. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in *nix, *nix-tools, Apple, base64, bash, bash, Batch-Files, Conference Topics, Conferences, Development, Encoding, Event, HEX encoding, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, MacBook, OpenSSL, Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development, Windows | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/24
LLM eat a lot of energy and are their hallucination are bad: [Wayback/Archive] LLM-generated passwords ‘fundamentally weak,’ experts say • The Register
Your AI-generated password isn’t random, it just looks that way
…
AI security company Irregular looked at Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini, and found all three GenAI tools put forward seemingly strong passwords that were, in fact, easily guessable.
…
Basically they are almost as good as the 2007 XKCD “four” number generator, the 2013 XKCD “I’m So Random” or the 2001 Dilbert “nine” number generator further below (don’t read the latter if you dislike Scott Adams)
Is it a coincidence or are these two using two small squared numbers?
Anyway: avoid LLM whenever possible, as most often they do more bad than good.
And for passwords, better use the blog post that was already scheduled for tomorrow: Generating random strings for passwords and uuids/guids on both Windows and Linux using base64 and hex encoding, plus: “Hive Systems: Are Your Passwords in the Green?”
Via [Wayback/Archive] Eloy.: “LLMs are centrist randomness: not useful for anything that requires truth but neither for password generation” – HSNL Social
Below this post, there are some great responses as well.
Comics
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Posted in AI and ML; Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, C++, Conference Topics, Conferences, Development, Event, Internet, InternetArchive, LLM, Pingback, Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development, Stackoverflow, WayBack machine | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/17
Yesterday, an important question appeared at almost the same time on Tweakers.net and Security.nl. It is about 2D barcodes on some packages delivered by PostNL. Some of these – I call them Data Matrix, as that is what they are – seem to include the e-mail address of the recipient.
The posts caused some uproar, and in order for myself to understand what is going on and what questions should be asked to PostNL, I wrote this blog post.
In any case: always remove parcel labels before disposing of the parcels, then destroy the labels. This has always been good privacy practice and will stay that way forever.
Regrettably, Tweakers.net blocks both the Wayback Machine and Archive Today, which makes their information ephemeral. Therefore I archived some of the Tweakers.net information in the gist [Wayback/Archive] “E-mailadres van ontvanger kan in PostNL barcode staan” archived from https://gathering.tweakers.net/forum/list_messages/2327530/0 · GitHub
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Posted in base64, Development, Encoding, Font, KIX Font PostNL, Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/02/16
The easiest way to get rid of DRM from PDF files is to use the Calibre plugin DeDRM with the instructions at [Wayback/Archive] Exactly how to remove DRM · apprenticeharper/DeDRM_tools Wiki
The reason that I promote this tool is that the user experience of is that the user experience of Adobe Digital Editions is mediocre at best: keyboard navigation usually does not work, viewing 2 pages next to each other is impossible and almost none of the Acrobat Reader functionality is available.
[Wayback/Archive] How to view 2 pages, side-by-side in PDF within Ad… – Adobe Support Community – 10666132
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Posted in Development, PDF, Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/13
The summary of [Wayback/Archive] Is Fortran better than Python for teaching the basics of numerical linear algebra? – Dr. Jean-Christophe Loiseau is:
- 1-based indexing prevents off-by-1 errors
- structure is key, especially these foundations:
- clear begin/end constructs instead of visual clues
- strong typing
- verbose programming languages are easier to learn than non-verbose ones
Modern Fortran helps a lot here and shows that after the initial 13 year gaps between FORTRAN 77 and Fortran 90, and between Fortran 90 and Fortran 2003 (the ANSI Standard Fortran and Fortran 95 in between versions were just minor updates), Modern Fortran has come a very long way and now as a thriving community and an extensive list of Fortran software and tools.
Other typed languages and tool sets like C# and Delphi come to mind here as well though you need libraries with 1-based data structures to solve the first point.
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Posted in Development, Fortran, Learning/Teaching, LifeHacker, Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2026/01/01
Posted in Development, ffmpeg, Media, Media Streaming, Power User, Python, Scripting, SocialMedia, Software Development, Spotify, YouTube, youtube-dl | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/12/31
From 12ft – Wikipedia:
On July 17, 2025, the News Media Alliance reported that it had taken down the website.
It’s impossible to enjoy the content of online media by paying (for instance because payment systems are not compatible, but also because those media often have region blocks), so this is to longer ladders (and understanding how ladders work):
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Posted in archive.is / archive.today, Cloud, Containers, Development, Docker, HTML, HTML5, Infrastructure, Internet, InternetArchive, JavaScript/ECMAScript, LifeHacker, Power User, Python, Scripting, Software Development, WayBack machine, Web Development | Leave a Comment »
Posted by jpluimers on 2025/12/11
A cool LED display that is programmable through Python (see [Wayback/Archive] Action led paneel – Boekenwuurm’s blog) made me realise how big Action has grown:
About EUR 20 or CHF 24 in the order of the below query:
There is also a square one, but that one does not remember it’s content during a power off/on cycle.
The above blog mentions this library which sees regular updates: [Wayback/Archive] GitHub – lucagoc/pypixelcolor: A Python library to control iPixel Color devices.
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Posted in Development, Hardware Interfacing, Python, Scripting, Software Development | Leave a Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 