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invented by openbsd

The primary product of the OpenBSD project is the OpenBSD operating system, but sometimes other artifacts are produced as byproducts. Avant-garde web site design, funny email threads. Also, reusable code that can be beneficial to other developers, outside the strict confines of OpenBSD.

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Posted 10 Mar 2015 07:03 by tedu Updated: 17 Mar 2015 02:43
Tagged: openbsd rants software

now or never exec

Some early followup from efforts to improve browser security with more details about possible refinements to W^X.

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Posted 10 Mar 2015 04:07 by tedu Updated: 10 Sep 2015 20:17
Tagged: openbsd security

no, i'm not running git

WTF is this? No, this is not a git mirror. Not here, not there, not anywhere.

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Posted 07 Mar 2015 03:42 by tedu Updated: 07 Mar 2015 03:42
Tagged: bugs rants web

zero size objects

What’s the difference between the following length and pointer pairs?

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Posted 15 Feb 2015 10:26 by tedu Updated: 16 Aug 2016 02:04
Tagged: c programming

the wiki box is out of control

I’m guessing only a few wikipedia editors view articles about smartphones using a smartphone.

wiki box

At least now I know the iPhone 6 has a slate form factor.

Posted 15 Feb 2015 10:25 by tedu Updated: 15 Feb 2015 10:25
Tagged: rants

another subtle string function

Recently was reminded of an old string handling function I used for programming interviews.

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Posted 10 Feb 2015 23:31 by tedu Updated: 10 Feb 2015 23:40
Tagged: c programming

US Firefox dictionary for OpenBSD

The OpenBSD Firefox package includes the en-GB dictionary. This results in lots of red squiggly lines. There are additional en language packs localized for AU, CA, GB, and ZA, but no US package. There is also a firefox-i18n-en-US package but it doesn’t do anything except print a message that you can change the useragent locale from its default of... en-US.

If you want an Americanized spelling dictionary, you’re out of luck. Debian to the rescue! Start with the hunspell source package page and download the big orig.tar.gz file. Extract it and copy the two en_US files to /usr/local/share/mozilla-dicts/. Restart Firefox and right click in a text area to change language.

Save a step! This is apparently just a bug in Firefox because it should also be looking in /usr/local/lib/firefox-*/dictionaries which includes US dictionary files. These files are a little different (smaller), but they too could simply be copied or symlinked into the above location.

Posted 10 Feb 2015 06:13 by tedu Updated: 10 Feb 2015 09:40
Tagged: openbsd software

the stack overflow that wasn't

There was a recent bug in OpenBSD install kernels. At random times during the install, messages like the following would appear:

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Posted 08 Feb 2015 23:54 by tedu Updated: 09 Feb 2015 12:16
Tagged: openbsd

heartbleed in rust

More ghostly followup. There was a thread on Hacker News wherein it was claimed that using rust would have prevented Heartbleed. Specifically, it would not have even compiled. That sounds like a challenge!

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Posted 02 Feb 2015 06:37 by tedu Updated: 19 Jun 2019 22:56
Tagged: c programming rust security

twitter spam problem

It’s still fashionable to explain why (random internet company) is going downhill, right? Here’s why Twitter sucks. They have a spam problem and they’re not doing anything about it.

I occasionally search twitter for OpenBSD. Unfortunately, it’s been taken over by ad bots. Is it necessary to do the realtime search? Often times, yes. Otherwise Twitter tends to keep showing me the same set of tweets from last week over and over.

Exhibit 1:

twitter spam

How can Twitter not detect bullshit accounts like this? You can try reporting them, which I have, but obviously that has had no effect.

For more giggles, exhibit 2:

more twitter spam

When the name of the account even includes the word spam, surely that must be a hint?

Update

Twitter does have a spam filter! After posting this tweet I was notified I was posting too much spam and my account was locked.

Hi Ted Unangst,

Your account appears to have exhibited automated behavior that violates the Twitter Rules.

Nothing to worry about. Twitter’s spam team is on the ball.

Posted 01 Feb 2015 02:44 by tedu Updated: 11 Feb 2015 00:48
Tagged: rants web