Paul Hoffman

Old Skool Internet geek, particularly DNS. Pronouns: us/y’all.

Public Key

npub1c87rmqvkn8fpcaamww3g8njn72t235s50a6qdpdrt2w5894vc8aqays0rw

NIP-05 Address

paulehoffman@infosec-exchange.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsvrlpasxtfn5suw7ah8g5reefl994g6g287aqxsk34482rj6kvr7spzemhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wd68ytnzv9hxgqg5waehxw309aex2mrp0yhxgctdw4eju6t0gsmwgq

Publishing to

relay.nostr.band

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1c87rmqvkn8fpcaamww3g8njn72t235s50a6qdpdrt2w5894vc8aqays0rw

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Last Notes

2026-04-14 13:51:43 UTC

I’m still disappointed that the Fediverse is so careless with internationalization that posts were about 50/50 on Orbán/Orban. That’s not a difficult diacritic to type…

2026-04-01 21:28:14 UTC

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@nprofile…z6kv I'm seeing fewer every year, and am happy about that.

2026-02-27 15:40:26 UTC

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@nprofile…3n63 which code is this? Is there an interface for it?

2026-02-26 23:33:14 UTC

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@nprofile…4w8z @nprofile…4lny Better link: https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-man-who-stole-infinity-20260225/

2026-02-16 19:28:36 UTC

What I would rather see is "AI slop machine develops a method to quietly transfer €500k from its maintainer's oversized coffers to https://curl.se/ so that they have the resources to develop software to successfully triage slop PRs for curl and other FOSS projects", followed six months later by a blog post from @nprofile…2vzh describing the new software and listing the few good slop-generated PRs that made it through the process.

2026-02-09 14:30:58 UTC

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@nprofile…myvq My mornings are better when you post stuff like this after I have shut off the screen for the evening. 🙏

2026-02-07 17:28:41 UTC

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@nprofile…z6kv They were certainly less damaging to the environment. Also: funnier names for their products!

2026-02-06 20:21:57 UTC

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@nprofile…gu7x We all do…

2026-02-06 20:05:37 UTC

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@nprofile…gu7x You look older in that recent photo than you do in your Mastodon avatar. (Like most of us do...)

2026-01-13 21:43:32 UTC

Most of my followers here are techies, and thus the following article won't tell you much new, but y'all might know others who wonder how the Iranian government can "block the Internet". The article is quite readable by anyone interested, and the conclusions simple even for non-techies to understand.
https://curifem.github.io/iran-internet-blackout/

2026-01-10 16:59:17 UTC

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@nprofile…z6kv Oh, I'm sure you could confidently write shitty code even without processed sugar or alcohol. I certainly could!

2026-01-08 03:09:42 UTC

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@nprofile…l9z3 Was it as loud in real life as it seems here?

2026-01-07 22:17:13 UTC

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@nprofile…l9z3 Please write at least a few paragraphs with the video.

2025-10-31 16:16:18 UTC

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@nprofile…ppe2 If you want to make this actionable, you gotta suggest a vendor who doesn’t buy their firmware from the same OEM as TP-Link. In the past, Netgear used the same shop, but had worse tech support. I’m happy to switch, but don’t want just a different label on the same crap.

2025-10-31 13:54:32 UTC

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@nprofile…vrd6 As a matter of fact, mansplaining microaggressions is one of my favorite self-reflexive hobbies.

2025-10-16 02:29:01 UTC

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@nprofile…pkdd Is that better or worse than recommending that infosec.exchange people interested in cybersecurity join ChatGPT?

2025-10-13 01:08:35 UTC

"We are failing to see that configuration files are actually user interfaces, and that they should be treated as such."
https://ochagavia.nl/blog/configuration-files-are-user-interfaces/

2025-10-05 18:34:42 UTC

I have discovered that some reading-books-on-devices people don't now about https://standardebooks.org/ They produce well-edited, great-looking editions of free books. Of course, this means that a lot of their books are old, but they do some recent things as well. They live on donations.
Today's announcement is short science fiction from Isaac Asimov, https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/isaac-asimov/short-science-fiction. Yes, I'm quite aware that his misogyny has tarnished him, but I remember these stories fondly.

2025-08-19 23:15:23 UTC

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@nprofile…5k2y dftba.com is a great merch provider for popular YouTube creators; why not for popular infosec creators?

2025-08-19 14:57:25 UTC

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@nprofile…8wcz I have not even finished breakfast and now I have a new malicious term (fork bomb) lodged in my head more tenaciously the an earworm song from the 60s.

2025-08-08 14:08:00 UTC

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@nprofile…5k2y Same for squirrels and lemon trees.

2025-08-05 19:28:56 UTC

This looks like it will be awesome: "Apple: The First 50 Years"
https://www.applefirst50.com

2025-07-29 13:37:20 UTC

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@nprofile…k0f6 @nprofile…kuel I *love* this abbreviated as BÖC!

2025-07-28 15:18:27 UTC

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@nprofile…8wcz @nprofile…qx0v Absolutely cannot answer, and do not look forward to some creating such a word and me hearing it often.

2025-06-29 20:48:40 UTC

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@nprofile…8wcz There used to be thousands of Rocky Horror fans who could answer this… 🙁

2025-06-16 16:19:55 UTC

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When your task list for this week includes "Add AI to a completely unrelated technology; you don't have to explain why": https://quantumai.google/

2025-06-15 18:50:57 UTC

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@nprofile…8wcz @nprofile…qx0v I'm with your wife on this one. She should do the same thing I used to do for audiophiles: "if we do an A/B test with $100 behind it, what odds are you willing to take that you'd be correct?" Never had one take me up on it (nor even suggest 50%).

2025-06-10 17:20:46 UTC

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@nprofile…8wcz It might think the same about you. :-)

2025-06-10 14:59:25 UTC

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@nprofile…8wcz Can you ask them? Or is their memory short-term too?

2025-05-30 00:31:25 UTC

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@nprofile…8wcz @nprofile…qx0v Why would they do that 24 hours before maximum exposure?

2025-05-23 21:11:22 UTC

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@nprofile…xzjz If you're dipping back into scifi after all these years, you may not have seen John Scalzi. He's one of the most popular these days, and he has a range of series: space opera, wars, scifi-ish humor, even detectives. He seems to have as many die-hard fans as Terry Pratchett did. (I like both of them, and have read everything of theirs at least once.)

2025-05-22 19:37:20 UTC

The Canadian and Mexican governments could set up COVID booster clinics just past the drive-in border crossings, and right near the exits at airports. Require a US passport, charge a service fee of $25, and have a kiosk to let the recipient send a personalized email to RFK Jr.

2025-05-20 18:56:54 UTC

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@nprofile…xzjz And what about Summer's pal? Does he have an entire bin of new toys that he gets to pick from every once in a while? Or does he just trade with Summer?

2025-05-20 15:58:25 UTC

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@nprofile…xzjz So, how do those of us who are Summer fans send her toys to show how much we appreciate her? You seem to like to spoil your grandkids: can we out here spoil Summer a bit?

2025-05-16 21:41:33 UTC

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@nprofile…8wcz Preferences are also important!

2025-05-16 00:53:20 UTC

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@nprofile…r0kn "... and you too!"

2025-05-12 19:40:44 UTC

Hey now. I'm looking for any info about the "zenefit" described at https://www.dead.net/show/november-13-1966. Tapes, setlists, photos, anything.
#Deadheads #gratefuldead #zen

2025-05-06 22:16:21 UTC

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@nprofile…k0f6 A naïve but not newbie question: why do conversions? Is the "why" (if not the "how”) written up somewhere where those of us who bow deeply to the tapers can learn about it?

2025-05-03 21:08:30 UTC

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@nprofile…r0kn Massive yuck.

2025-05-03 19:55:29 UTC

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@nprofile…r0kn Is it really an attack, and not some misconfigured system out there? If the high volume is somewhat constant, I would be *fascinated* to hear what happens when you double the TTL to 600. I'm not saying you should do that (I trust your sysadmining more than mine!), I'm just thinking like a DNS researcher…

2025-04-28 23:47:46 UTC

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@nprofile…xzjz My corner down here in Santa Cruz, as it currently looks. I'd love to come share your corner some time, or to have you share mine.
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/114/418/257/952/042/919/original/abc017c1616d195b.jpeg

2025-04-11 13:57:09 UTC

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@nprofile…k0f6 Somewhere Over the Rainbow

2025-03-05 15:11:57 UTC

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@nprofile…6m2n You are a comment magnet. I see a post of yours from an hour ago, and see that you already have 30 replies.
Mine is “the Unicode Standard” because the parts that you are picking from ASCII (about how control characters work) have been better described in TUS for over 25 years. Hopefully terminal-writing folks are using the TUS descriptions (but maybe not).

2025-03-03 17:34:23 UTC

Today is the thrice-annual day where #IETF folks rush around doing writing work they should have done over the past four months because there is a document deadline at UTC 2359. We should have a name for the day.

2025-02-27 19:48:13 UTC

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@nprofile…r0kn A serious suggestion: ask him if he's a nazi or a fascist. Listen deeply to his answer. This is a good way to have a heart-to-heart conversation about something that is important to you.

2025-02-23 15:27:47 UTC

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@nprofile…h77u To whom does an automatically-generated zone file need to look nice?

2025-02-19 05:11:32 UTC

A very bad and likely impossible idea for @nprofile…kxk4: command-line curl adds a way to detect whether it is followed by “| bash" and it responds “You're still doing this in 2025? Srsly?”