What is Hackers' Pub?

Hackers' Pub is a place for software engineers to share their knowledge and experience with each other. It's also an ActivityPub-enabled social network, so you can follow your favorite hackers in the fediverse and get their latest posts in your feed.

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arnold schwarzenegger is on another press junket and every time i see interviews with him i’m reminded how fast politics have degraded. he is conservative, he is a republican, there are probably many things we would disagree on but he’s also … sane and not trying to deceive people? we have the same thing happening in germany if you look at merkel for example. i’m not saying their policies were great or defendable, but the difference is insane.

i recently saw some interviews with george w. bush (who is a racist war criminal, don’t get me wrong) and i remember how he was a laughing stock and famously an idiot. in todays climate he’d be considered civil and a man you could reason with. it only took two decades for right wing politicians to institute a shift towards facism and it’s incredible if you compare it to politicians who i fundamentally disagree with but who believe in institutions and democracy.

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What the actual...

We all know the tricks with the "serving suggestion" photos on packaging, right? Same ingredients, but prepared by a professional chef - and then often coated in something to make 'em shiny, cotton pad dipped in boiling water for steam, the old glue instead of milk trick...

But this, from Mars' Ben's Original brand? Not only is that nothing like the contents of the pack, it doesn't actually exist. It's generated.

This Food Does Not Exist.

How is this legal?

A photograph of a package of Ben's Original Street Food Spicy Indonesian Style noodles, sold in the UK. The package is dominated by a picture of a bowl of noodles, with vegetable-looking things in them. A tiny, tiny note to the bottom-right reads "Serving suggestion. Image generated with AI."A close-up of the note reading "Serving Suggestion. Image generated with AI."
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New study on the effects of LLM use (in this case on essay writing):

arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872

Quote:

"LLM users also struggled to accurately quote their own work. While LLMs offer immediate convenience, our findings highlight potential cognitive costs. Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels. These results raise concerns about the long-term educational implications of LLM reliance and underscore the need for deeper inquiry into AI's role in learning."

The interesting thing is: People who used search engines (to find sources etc) did not show similar issues. This is an important antidote against the belief that LLM-based tools are just like search engines. Which they are not. They are massively degrading their users' mental abilities and development. Which is why these systems have absolutely no place even _near_ any school or university.

hails.org/@hailey/114691651497

arXiv logo

Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task

This study explores the neural and behavioral consequences of LLM-assisted essay writing. Participants were divided into three groups: LLM, Search Engine, and Brain-only (no tools). Each completed three sessions under the same condition. In a fourth session, LLM users were reassigned to Brain-only group (LLM-to-Brain), and Brain-only users were reassigned to LLM condition (Brain-to-LLM). A total of 54 participants took part in Sessions 1-3, with 18 completing session 4. We used electroencephalography (EEG) to assess cognitive load during essay writing, and analyzed essays using NLP, as well as scoring essays with the help from human teachers and an AI judge. Across groups, NERs, n-gram patterns, and topic ontology showed within-group homogeneity. EEG revealed significant differences in brain connectivity: Brain-only participants exhibited the strongest, most distributed networks; Search Engine users showed moderate engagement; and LLM users displayed the weakest connectivity. Cognitive activity scaled down in relation to external tool use. In session 4, LLM-to-Brain participants showed reduced alpha and beta connectivity, indicating under-engagement. Brain-to-LLM users exhibited higher memory recall and activation of occipito-parietal and prefrontal areas, similar to Search Engine users. Self-reported ownership of essays was the lowest in the LLM group and the highest in the Brain-only group. LLM users also struggled to accurately quote their own work. While LLMs offer immediate convenience, our findings highlight potential cognitive costs. Over four months, LLM users consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels. These results raise concerns about the long-term educational implications of LLM reliance and underscore the need for deeper inquiry into AI's role in learning.

arxiv.org · arXiv.org

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Ab Z is a former media industry hair stylist who suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2023 which has left her in agonizing pain and unable to focus.

After a long struggle with the US healthcare system and multiple dismissive doctors who would not treat her, she has determined that there are a series of surgeries she can undergo that can restore some of her functionality and get rid of her pain.

Unfortunately, her health insurance will not cover the procedures, and they cost a whopping $70,000 combined!

Ab Z has had quite a battle to get ri this point, and is requesting to help raise the remaining funds. Any little bit you can give helps.

helphopelive.org/campaign/2571

Also, if you are aware of any organizations or information that might help her, please @ me and I’ll send it her way.

@mutualaidmutualaid group

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Hackers' Pub에 로그인한 상태에서의 타임라인 구성을 조금 바꿔봤습니다. 기존의 “연합우주” 탭을 “피드”라고 수정했고, “연합우주” 탭과 “Hackers' Pub” 탭은 기본적으로 로그아웃했을 때의 “연합우주” 및 “Hackers' Pub” 탭과 동일한 타임라인이 표시되게 했습니다. 아직 팔로를 많이 하지 않은 분들에게는 “연합우주” 및 “Hackers' Pub” 타입라인이 새로운 콘텐츠를 발견하기 좋은 공간이 될 겁니다.

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Update 3: You can find my PostMortem here: infosec.exchange/@masek/114721

Update 2: As far as I can tell, the servers that caused the leak belonged to the DOJ in Montana. We reached them in two ways:

  • Through this post we got contact to the vendor of the software. With the Serial# (in the extraction reports) they could identify whom to call.
  • A friend had a contact in one of the affected police department and they reached out to the DOJ.

Thanks to this community I was also able to get a contact within the FBI. Furthermore some media contacted me and a lot of Mastodon users provided me with additional contacts.

Event though I contacted the AG in Monatana and one PD, no one has reached out to me from the DOJ side.

Update 1: Leak is closed. Will write more tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who helped.

Phone forensics

Usually law enforcement is very secretive about them analyzing the phones of suspects.

But a forensic lab in is extremely transparent about it. They put the dump of every phone on a public share. Everyone with Internet access can access those dumps.

While I am usually a proponent of government transparency, this takes it a bit too far even for my taste.

Every phone dump is one directory and some case names can be easily connected to crime & death headline news in the U.S.

So for one case I am pretty sure, that I can even say which Sheriff is responsible for that one of the investigations.

I sent that Sheriff an email, i sent him a text message and I even spoke on his voicebox. I even sent him the extraction report from Graykey.

It is really frustrating that I get no response at all. The leak is still open.

The security researcher that found the leak also tried some contacts but had as little success as I do.

I personally believe that this leaks even constitutes a federal crime. Some cases have names ending on CSAM. The security researcher stayed away from any of those and I did not access the files on that server at all.

So does anybody know someone within the that would give a shit about that. I am getting very tired.

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