What is Hackers' Pub?

New blog post: GeoIP-Aware Firewalling with PF on FreeBSD

Running a mail server means constant brute-force attempts. My solution: geographic filtering. SMTP stays open for global mail delivery, but client ports (IMAP, Submission, webmail) are restricted to Central European IP ranges only.

Result: ~90% reduction in attack logs, cleaner signal-to-noise ratio, smaller attack surface.

Using MaxMind GeoLite2 + PF tables with ~273k CIDR blocks.

https://blog.hofstede.it/geoip-aware-firewalling-with-pf-on-freebsd/

#FreeBSD #InfoSec #SysAdmin #pf #DevOps

One hour left!

https://lgbtqia.space/@alice/115849647371571357

@geekysteven

and don't forget:

All Cats Are Beautiful

이탈리아어에서는 ultimo(마지막), penultimo(2번째), terzultimo(3번째), quartultimo(4번째), quintultimo(5번째), sestultimo(6번째) 이렇게 나름 깔끔하던데 영어는 그게 안 되어서 저렇게 접두사 범벅이라니, 영어가 영어한 듯 합니다 출처는 bos-sozial.musin.de/Service/Intr...

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ppk763j7o2wkinvzuqx4orrb/post/3mcczdqdvmc2m

I numerali

#FF14 #BruteBomber #ブルートボンバー 🐱

Il y a 14 ans, déjà…

https://ploum.net/le-platerrisme/index.html

#retroploum

이탈리아어에서는 ultimo(마지막), penultimo(2번째), terzultimo(3번째), quartultimo(4번째), quintultimo(5번째), sestultimo(6번째) 이렇게 나름 깔끔하던데 영어는 그게 안 되어서 저렇게 접두사 범벅이라니, 영어가 영어한 듯 합니다 출처는 bos-sozial.musin.de/Service/Intr...

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ppk763j7o2wkinvzuqx4orrb/post/3mcczdqdvmc2m

I numerali

don't read into this

윤석열 전 대통령의 내란우두머리 사건 선고 공판이 2월19일 이뤄질 예정입니다. 이날 조은석 특별검사팀은 윤 전 대통령에게 사형을 구형했습니다.

[속보] 윤석열 내란우두머리 사건 선고 2일19일 나온...

#特に意味をなさない猫の計測 #ふふ子 #cat

윤석열 전 대통령의 내란우두머리 사건 선고 공판이 2월19일 이뤄질 예정입니다. 이날 조은석 특별검사팀은 윤 전 대통령에게 사형을 구형했습니다. www.hani.co.kr/arti/society...

[속보] 윤석열 내란우두머리 사건 선고 2일19일 나온...

oh uhuh mhm is that right

RE: https://theforkiverse.com/@pj/115888532620954856

I am quite excited about what #TheForkiverse is doing and to see how it goes.

It seems to be going very well.

This is exactly what fedi was built for and what can make fedi stronger: an independent instance created and run for a specific community, pulling people in.

If you're as confused as I initially was: The Forkiverse is a fedi instance set up by hosts of two podcasts (Search Engine and Hard Fork), the name references the latter:
https://www.searchengine.show/the-fediverse-experiment/

decent growth rate on the forkiverse this week. if it continues at this rate (i think it almost certainly will) we should be at 213 million users by next year. although obviously this is an estimate, and it's possible that the growth rate increases.

🗑️ I've been working on a read later app over the last few years and it's getting closer to launch.

It archives every page you save so you never lose anything, and renders the original site beautifully. There's also a clean reader mode when you just want the content. Nested tags, auto-tagging, and shortcuts support for the automation nerds.

Sign up to be notified when it launches, I'll also be adding some people to the beta.

https://shelf-links.app/

I'm internet

way to tell me you're a bleepbloop without saying "I'm a bleepbloop" smh

Like all the best Americans, I'm Canadian, and while I have lived abroad for most of this century, I still hew faithfully to our folkways, which is why I'd like to start this essay by apologizing.

I'm sorry.

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/13/not-sorry/#mere-billions

1/

I did some volunteering at a local school to help gather supplies for families who are staying home from school because of the invasion.

In the school office, a parent was checking in with one of the school staff whose family member was recently abducted. He was able to call once. He thinks he’s in Texas, but he’s not sure. She hasn’t heard from him for over a day. Then she turned back to coordinating volunteers, running the school office.

I did my work getting the supplies assembled and distributed. Then on the way out, I passed I room full of 1st / 2nd / 3rd graders, with the mellow happy buzz of kids at work, kids of every race and ancestry, just having a normal one, and

I just

…

Been on a mission, boy, they call me catch-and-kill I'm stealin' diamonds, make them chase me for the thrill #mynoise

I worked at Microsoft in the 1990s. One of our customers was Pacific Bell, the local telephone company. Dilbert author Scott Adams still worked at PacBell at the time, although he was rarely there. His mostly unused cubicle was in the same area that my contacts there worked, and it was a big ritual to bring newcomers to see his desk.

New blog post time!

This week's game is Spark World, a Bomberman-like where the characters are sentient vehicles and the bombs are batteries. Its aggressive take on the formula and breakneck pace make it an appealing multiplayer option, but its choices make driving solo kind of a huge pain:

https://ephemeralenigmascom.wordpress.com/2026/01/13/spark-world/

#blog #gaming #superfamicom #videogames #retrogaming #writing

Neighbourhood watch. #CatsOfMastodon #RipleyAndJonesy

As hyped as Claude Code + Obsidian is, I have no desire to upload my personal unencrypted vault data to Anthropic or anyone else.

I hope that the ideas of private inference and confidential computing that Moxie described take off. It's how all LLMs should work.

I was today years old when I saw this gag in the @FreeCAD brand guidance documentation! #freecad

Does anyone happen to own an ATM that they’re willing to sell? Preferably NCR or Wincor/Diebold Nixdorf. I‘m based in Hamburg and the ATM is mainly intended for #40C3. Will also take only parts or broken or ancient ATMs as well. Very long shot but worth a try :)

#39C3

RE: https://theforkiverse.com/@pj/115888532620954856

this makes this the 29th biggest server on the fediverse which I guess just highlights how centralized and small the whole fediverse operation is.

https://fedidb.com/servers

がんばって​​ます​​​​
​​​​

meow

live life to the fullest. write code that will make others go "well that shit (derogatory) couldn't have been written by an LLM".

Palestinian students accepted into Canadian universities remain ‘trapped’ in Gaza by visa delays
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/palestinian-student-accepted-to-canadian-university-stuck-in-gaza-9.7042613?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

⏰ Reminder! Fact-checking with Wikidata workshop

📆 20 January 2026 | 🕟 16:30–18:00 (UTC+1)

Philippe Saadé (Wikimedia Germany) and @DataTalks.Club host a hands-on workshop using the Wikidata Model Context Protocol (MCP) for fact-checking beyond generative AI.

✔ Wikidata intro
✔ Fact-checking with MCP, Large Language Models (LLM) & semantic search
✔ Build a small fact-checking pipeline

👉 Register now: https://luma.com/7fs5v7os

#Wikidata #FactChecking #OpenKnowledge #LLM #GenAI #Workshop

One hour left!

https://lgbtqia.space/@alice/115849647371571357

🌗 網紅與 OnlyFans 模特兒正主導 O-1 簽證申請：「這就是現在的美國夢」
➤ 從演算法到綠卡：解析網紅如何憑藉社羣影響力獲取「傑出人才」簽證
✤ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/11/onlyfans-influencers-us-o-1-visa
過去曾被視為專屬於好萊塢巨星、頂尖運動員或科學家的美國 O-1「傑出人才」簽證，如今正迎來一批全新的申請主力：社羣媒體網紅、電競選手與內容創作者。隨著數位經濟崛起，美國政府在 2014 至 2024 年間核發的 O-1 簽證數量激增了 50%。這些申請者正巧妙地將龐大的粉絲追蹤數、可觀的訂閱收入以及數位平臺的市場影響力，轉化為符合法規要求的「傑出能力」證明。律師與創作者均指出，這不僅反映了美國移民政策正逐步適應演算法時代，更重新定義了當代取得美國永久居留權的門檻與途徑。
+ 「沒想到 100 萬粉絲現在能跟奧運獎牌發揮同樣的移民效力，時代真的變了。」
+ 「這對於有才華但非傳統領域的人來說是好事，但也讓人思考『傑出』的定義是否過於商業化。」
#美國移民與數位經濟

Watching them all fall in line to brazenly lie to protect their new secret police/terror squads from accountability for shooting a scared mom in the face 3 times, is a reminder (in case we still needed one) that it’s no where near enough to just replace Trump. It’s the entire immoral & corrupt GOP.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:4llrhdclvdlmmynkwsmg5tdc/post/3mccvowro4s2b

Postal Arbitrage

Link: https://walzr.com/postal-arbitrage
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46591708

나는 흑마도사 고수가 될꺼야!!!

30분째 앱스토어 빌드 처리 안되어서 퇴근 못하고 있다 ㅅㅂ

Only the most refined and sophisticated books make it to my coffee table 🧐

2時過ぎちゃったー寝る寝る！
​​ ​​

That weird thing where parents think people care about pictures of their children.

Bandcamp has posted to Reddit that they are prohibiting music that is created wholly or with subtantial use of AI on their platform. Full post with guidelines and how to report AI music.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BandCamp/comments/1qbw8ba/ai_generated_music_on_bandcamp/

#Bandcamp #Music

Hi, I’m José. Just moved over from Twitter.

I’m a software engineer based in the UK. At work I build distributed systems in Rust; outside work I experiment with languages and systems programming, and I read a lot (classics, sci-fi, history). My blog is linked in my profile (recently migrated from GitHub to Codeberg).

I love talking about low-level code, performance, and distributed systems, and anything book related.

Feel free to say hi, and I’m always happy to receive book recommendations.

#introduction

Mozilla's open source AI strategy

Link: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/mozilla/mozilla-open-source-ai-strategy/
Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46599897

I made a TypeScript to native code compiler via CLR and NativeAOT https://lobste.rs/s/njh5jz #programming
https://github.com/tsoniclang/tsonic

⏰ Reminder! Fact-checking with Wikidata workshop

📆 20 January 2026 | 🕟 16:30–18:00 (UTC+1)

Philippe Saadé (Wikimedia Germany) and @DataTalks.Club host a hands-on workshop using the Wikidata Model Context Protocol (MCP) for fact-checking beyond generative AI.

✔ Wikidata intro
✔ Fact-checking with MCP, Large Language Models (LLM) & semantic search
✔ Build a small fact-checking pipeline

👉 Register now: https://luma.com/7fs5v7os

#Wikidata #FactChecking #OpenKnowledge #LLM #GenAI #Workshop

They changed my headline; I said Barbie was always autistic and they made it into a question. But here you go! If Autistic Barbie isn't you, good news - another Barbie might be:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/neurodiversity-affirming-therapy/202601/was-barbie-always-autistic

Thank you Psychology Today!